Clarissa's Blog

I’m blessed because Klara is a very good-natured baby. I can take her to lunch with the ladies, a Japanese restaurant, campus, AT&T store, and she stays calm, doesn’t cry, and looks at everything seriously and curiously. When she is hungry, she quietly points to her mouth in a very dignified way. When she is sleepy, she makes squirrel fists. She only ever cries if she absolutely has to. 

She also finds it hilarious when I pronounce “baby” as “beeey-beee.” She collapses with laughter. And when she saw me speak Spanish on campus last week, she found that fascinating. Watching me speak to people is one of her favorite pastimes. 

I had yet another problem with AT&T and was forced to trudge to the store once again. The young men working here were all pouty, tantrumy, and unwilling to do any work. All they wanted to do was stand by the door and bitch loudly and obnoxiously about their girlfriends. I’m old hat, though, and I know how the modern workplace functions. I asked to speak to a female employee. She made some calls, pressed some buttons, and the problem that her male peers insisted was not solvable was resolved.

This is young men under the age of 25, of course. If they were even slightly older, things would be different. But this is the generation that took the erosion of gender roles way too seriously, and here is the result.

Here’s a test. Imagine Warren delivering a speech in favor of market deregulation and in favor of a complete ban on abortion and contraception. Would you still find her charismatic? Or are you confusing charisma and ideological affinity?

Charisma is what Fidel Castro used to have 20 years ago. I’d know that everything he was saying was a lie but when he spoke, I really really wanted to believe him. That’s charisma. And it’s dangerous precisely because it switches off reason and logic. 

I want as many Hispanic immigrants around as possible, I live for Hispanic culture, my Spanish is phenomenal. However, I don’t condemn people who are freaked out by the scope of Hispanic immigration to this country. When I traveled to Spanish-speaking countries the first 5 times, the experience was very traumatic. I wanted to be there, I spoke the language beautifully, and I’m from a very sexist country where daily disrespect towards women is the norm. And still it was very harsh. So I understand the folks who balk at having this culture arrive at their doorstep when they don’t know the language and haven’t chosen to have this experience. 

One can screech “racism” until one is blue in the face but cultural incompatibility is real and overcoming it is hard. I should know. I left my own country because I felt completely culturally incompatible with everybody else. No useful goal will be achieved by trying to trick Leavers in the UK out of this very real discomfort by telling them they are actually bothered by the cruelty done to Greece and that they are racist anyway so who cares.

Have to go again, sorry.

What I find truly contemptible is that even after the Brexit debacle some people can’t bring themselves to utter the reason why Brexit won at the polls. Some people have gone to the insane extreme of saying that Britons voted Leave because they were so overpowered with compassion for Greece. I mean, you’ve got to be a lying weirdo of the first order to come up with that idiotic explanation. 

The real reason is, of course, immigration. There, I said it, and nobody died. Britons freaked out because of immigration. And the ruling classes are still not ready to acknowledge that and start doing something. It’s as if they were waiting for actual pogroms.

I have to run now but I will continue. 

I didn’t think that Elizabeth Warren would be a good choice for Hillary’s veep but it’s become clear that she really REALLY wants the job. And she’s the kind of person who will move mountains when she wants something. She’s not rigid, she always evolves, and that matches Hillary’s own greatest strength. 

Imagine how much better she could be as a running mate than some boring fellow named John or Jack that nobody ever heard about. 

I’m reading Vargas Llosa’s autobiography, and the part where he describes his presidential campaign platform from back in 1990 is absolutely fascinating. I mean, it’s a failed presidential bid from a quarter of a century ago in Peru, who can possibly care? 😪 💤💤💤 But Vargas Llosa is so damn talented that it reads like a mystery novel.

He is the kind of writer that I don’t even care what he says and on what subject because the writing itself is so good. I’ve been out of active Spanish usage for a year (I read but there’s nobody to talk to) and Vargas Llosa helps me stay emotionally attached to the language.

A truly great writer. 😍😍😍

I’m terrified of jinxing it but the current nanny seems to be happy here. And that makes me very happy, too. 

The penultimate nanny I interviewed almost caused me to seek narcotic oblivion. I wanted her to come over for an interview on Friday (I pay people for the time they spend on coming out for interviews, by the way, because I don’t want to be exploitative) but she insisted on interviewing on Sunday. I really didn’t want to do that because Sundays are my family time but the nanny insisted and I agreed.

Of course, she never showed up. And two days later she called me on the phone.

“I waited for you on Sunday,” I said.

“I was at church!” the nanny exclaimed.

“But you were the one who wanted to interview on Sunday,” I reminded.

“I WAS AT CHURCH!!!” the nanny repeated loudly and aggressively. I felt like a heathen who was getting in the path of the truly righteous and ended the conversation. 

The lady I finally did hire seems suspiciously normal. And that is freaking me out.

To answer reader Cliff Arroyo’s question, Spain tried once again to elect a government and once again was not fully successful. Conservatives got more votes than the first time around but not enough to just go ahead and form the flapping government already. The new left-wing party Podemos failed to keep its promise and become the most important leftist party of Spain. To the contrary, it managed to disappoint many of its original supporters by unending bickering over trivial issues.

For now, everybody’s hope is that yet another re-vote can be avoided because voting in the same election many times around is getting boring. This whole situation is a warning to those who believe that the two-party system here in the US sucks. Spaniards were bored with their two-party system*, too, so they introduced more parties to the mix and now haven’t been able to form a government since 2015.

*There are several smallish parties in Spain but they never offered any serious challenge to the two major players, Conservatives and Socialists. Until 2015, when serious challengers to the two-party model arose for the first time.