Clarissa's Blog

We went to an art fair today. I bought this piece:

Loved it at first sight.

Klara chose these little plants made out of Japanese clay:

The funny thing is that the artists who made these very different products turned out to be husband and wife.

After all the bluster and unpleasantness, somebody persuaded Trump to meet with Zelensky and make nice. Trump had the perfect reason not to that even I would respect. But the meeting still took place.

I’ve noticed a long time ago that there’s somebody very pro-Ukrainian close to Trump and that person has influence. I’m fascinated to know who that is and what his endgame and reach might be. We know the name of Trump’s pro-Israel pressure point but who is the engineer of the pro-Ukraine bent?

I’m also glad that Zelensky chose not to reveal the real war plan to the Biden administration. It’s useless, as we’ve seen many times, and often counterproductive. Also, we are all seeing how Israel, the developed country that is holding on to the nation-state model more strongly than any other, is achieving massive victories. It’s way too early to hold the funeral for the nation-state.

After 17 years of a very intense relationship, I discovered that N shares my love for creamy coleslaw. Why this never came up until now is a mystery. I’m off to the store to buy a tub.

No matter your politics, these new numbers are shocking. Of the 7 million migrants that ICE released while their cases are being processed, 663,000 have criminal histories, 13,000 were convicted of homicide, 16,000 of sexual assault, and 1,845 face homicide charges. 😬 pic.twitter.com/R20ShfPpFq

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) September 27, 2024

“Released” means “released into our country.” This is the inevitable consequence of processing immigration cases of illegal migrants on the territory of the US. There is simply no money and space to keep all border crossers locked up while their applications get processed. So they are allowed to roam around freely while they wait in line for their case to be heard.

We hear about immigration a lot these days but one thing we never hear is that this problem could be solved cheaply and immediately by simply not processing any of these immigration applications inside the country. Let’s take a break from the joys of political partisanship that are costing us everything and ask, “why does nobody even mention this possibility?”

The election is a month away. If there is ever a time for us to get something we want is now. But we’ll get nothing whatsoever besides the feeling of being part of a team. These teams are an utter and complete fiction used as a pacifier to keep us on mute while we are being dispossessed. But we embrace the lie, so whose fault is it? The politicians simply pursue their rational self-interest. We are the ones who don’t.

There’s an actor called Robert Glenister. I’ve never seen him in anything but he narrates the audio versions of all the Cormoran Strike novels by JK Rowling. He’s incredibly talented. These novels are 1,000-page doorstoppers with a large cast of characters each. Glenister makes every character sound distinct. He makes women sound female. JK Rowling loves regional accents, and he does every one. He switches between all the voices so easily and integrates all of the “side Irene with a scoff” or “Matt sighed” into how the characters speak.

An unbelievably talented actor. I’ve listened to a few audiobooks where a talentless actress murdered the story, and JK Rowling books are much more complicated. They’d be easy to mess up. Glenister, though, really brings them to life.

It’s very enjoyable to see people who are excellent at what they do.

Everybody is different, of course, but I have a friend who just turned 75, and it’s still going strong for her. It’s kind of getting tedious, to be honest, because we can barely settle down at a restaurant before she starts hitting on everything that moves. I feel like an exasperated mother of a flirty teenager around her. 

This is not the same 75-year-old friend who’s gotten romantic with a 26-year-old handyman. These are different people. Sexuality isn’t tied to fertility, as I said before. One of these women has 5 grown children. The other never had any.

Yes, I love hanging out with friends in their seventies. They are fun.

So, I guess, once it switches on, it doesn’t need to go off.

Here’s a question for those who are reading Un amor.

Why does Nat fall in love with Andreas? What makes her so attached to him?

Not only did I have a public appearance in Ukraine on Tuesday (37,000 views so far, yay!) but I was also invited to give a conference talk today. I was certain that I was expected to speak in Ukrainian, and I had written out my whole talk, quotes, bibliography, everything.

Twenty minutes before the talk I discovered that they wanted me to speak in Spanish. It’s easier for me to speak off-the-cuff in Spanish than in Ukrainian at this point but I had prepared! My tendency to be rigid is experiencing sore trials, indeed.

In Sara Mesa’s novel Un amor, Nat escapes the complications of her professional life in a big city by moving to a small, remote village. Except for a few elderly people, everybody in the village is from somewhere else. “It’s a village where no children are born any longer,” people say.

Nat is living the neoliberal dream, moving around with complete freedom, changing careers at whim. She’s completely unburdened by family, relationships, friends. No ties bind her, no societal structure oppresses her, she very freely chooses what to do with her body and nobody gives a toss – it’s gotta be great, right?

But no, it’s not great at all. Young women are supposed to be the greatest beneficiaries of neoliberalism but as Un amor shows us, reality is different.