People who are throwing fits over Colleen McCullough ‘ s sexist obituary have probably never read her extraordinarily sexist books. McCullough made a brand out of her hatred of women.

It is only fitting that, in death, she would be remembered through the lens of the worldview she dedicated her life to promoting.

I read Thornbirds at the age of 11 and will never forgive McCullough for making me wonder whether being a woman was really as horrifying and disgusting as she was making it out to be.

We are now placing bets on whether Ukrainians or Americans will be the first to be blamed by Russians for burning down the library.

Of course, there are always Germans, and it might well be their turn.

The library of the Russian Academy of Science has burned to the ground. 14 million volumes perished in the fire.

“This must have been arson!” N exclaims.

“Oh no,” I say. “Let’s not be so optimistic. What are the chances that somebody in Russia decided to do something, did it,  and actually succeeded? I’m sure the barbarians were trying to read but, as always happens with them, fucked it all up.”

There will be a traditional root vegetable stew next week. I’ve been waiting for winter to come to make it but it’s become obvious that no winter is forthcoming.

And this is a funny tag from a frame I bought:

If you don’t find it finny, that means you don’t speak Russian.

I came to campus without makeup on my day off to make theater reservations (we are going to dinner theater!), pick up books, do some organizational stuff, etc and have already had to repeat “I’m not a student, I’m a faculty member” four times. I’m taking that as a good sign.

Russians are killing Ukrainians by the thousand in the name of anti-fascism. They have been in a grip of an anti-fascist hysteria for quite a while. Anybody they dislike is declared a fascist and placed outside the realm of creatures who deserve to be considered human.

This is not an isolated phenomenon that only touches a few unhinged fanatics. This is a nation of 140 million that overwhelmingly believes in killing Ukrainians in the name of anti-fascism. And there’s no evidence they are planning to stop at Ukrainians. Anti-fascism offers them the perfect excuse to murder just anybody they hate.

Of course, this obviously means that there is something deeply wrong with anti-fascism. Don’t tell me that the Russians somehow misunderstood it and are not practising the right kind of anti-fascism. If they say they are anti-fascist, why should we disbelieve them?

And the argument that there are crowds of people who are anti-fascist and are not killing anybody is just silly. They are complicit with the atrocities done in their name by radicalized Russian anti-fascists.

It’s absolutely shocking to see how scared everybody is of denouncing radical anti-fascism. Obama is wriggling like he’s on a hot frying pan to avoid uttering the phrase “radical anti-fascism.”

In the meantime, the corpses of the people killed in the name of anti-fascism are piling up. When will we finally find the courage to accept that anti-fascism is wrong and dangerous?

British readers, please help. I’m reading a new book by Sophie Hannah, and there is something I’m not getting.

Is it true that there are red rubber bands lying everywhere in the streets in your country? If so, why? Where do they come from and what do they mean?

I can’t concentrate on the mystery because I keep wondering about these rubber bands. Are they a metaphor of some sort that I’m not getting?

It seems like a mainstream movie based on 50 Shades of Grey is coming out. I always thought that the idiots who watched porn patiently until the end to see if there was a wedding were imaginary characters from comedy routines. And then I discussed the trilogy on my blog and discovered they were very real. The movie will make them very happy because all the sex has been culled out, and the infantile viewers can now ecstatically concentrate on “relationships.”

So I went to fetch a huge coffee before my 5 pm 3-hour lecture. 

“It’s free,” told me the barista at the campus Starbucks.

“Why is it free?” I asked.

“Why not?” the barista retorted. 

I had no answer, so I just took the coffee.

Now I’m wondering, though. My morning class is quite large and I don’t know all of the students in it. Might this barista be one of my students in that course and did I just accept a bribe in the form of free coffee?