Clarissa's Blog

Speaking about traditions, my favorite one is that in summer we go to the farmer’s market on Saturday, and then I make a large salad with everything we buy plus avocados and smoky olive oil. The oil is expensive like a bastard, so right now I don’t have any.

Then I boil young potatoes to go with the salad. And there’s usually bacon or kielbasa. That’s our big Saturday brunch.

And afterwards I pickle cucumbers for the week.

Folks, did you know there are apps where you can photograph a page in a book and the app converts it to text that you can copy-paste into a .doc file? Or an email? Or anything?

I’m in paradise.

Euthanasia is the logical and inevitable response of modern man, when he discovers that his efforts to control his destiny failed, when he finds that science has not freed him from suffering and, instead, has left him more stranded than a dog, without authority and without tradition, without God and without community. Euthanasia, in short, is the final destination of a human being whom liberalism tried to turn into a god.

Juan Manuel de Prada, Una enmienda a la totalidad

I deeply dislike Nikki Haley but I support this strategy. “Disavow white supremacy” and “condemn Trump” are rhetorical tricks that liberals use to keep conservatives on the defensive. And those on the defensive always lose.

The denunciations, condemnations and explanations never work. We’ll still be accused of racism-sexism-somethingphobia. The game is rigged, so let’s stop playing it. Nobody on our side is interested in Trump indictments, insurrections, white supremacies and structural grievances. It’s all a distraction maneuver. Let’s simply not participate.

To those who do care about this stuff, I’m very sorry this happened to you. Stay off screens, go for walks, drink a lot of water, and you’ll be fine eventually.

Is there anybody who wouldn’t choose blue?

It’s a cruel, cruel fantasy.

The guy just completely invented a text and then posted a document showing that nothing of the kind was ever said.

Is he posting for people who can’t read cursive?

I have no love for Joe Biden, obviously, but I do take exception to careless readings of texts.

Behind the desire to treat animals as if they were people lies a wish to treat people as if they were animals.

Juan Manuel de Prada

Is anybody else as freaked by “furry babies” and “pet parents” as I am? Besides Juan Manuel de Prada, that is.

Jennifer Egan is one of the most talented writers in the US today. A great, great talent. Her books are invariably enjoyable to read because she writes beautifully.

But I forget every page the moment I finish it. It’s the weirdest thing. It’s enough for me to interrupt the reading to visit the bathroom to lose all memory of what I was reading before I paused.

Egan is talented but she doesn’t have much to write about. It’s the third book by her that I’m reading, and I can’t tell you what they are about to save my life. I do know that I’m massively enjoying the process, that’s all.

Apparently, the prosecutors don’t think it’s a crime, either. They didn’t charge Trump with attempted murder or inciting murder. They charged him with civil rights violations. Nobody charges civil rights violations if they have real charges to bring.

Imagine that conversation. “Dude, we’ve got the bastard on attempted murder! We got the evidence, everything. Let’s put him away!”

“Nah, forget about all that. Let’s do him up on civil rights violations instead. That’s a really serious charge, not like that silly murder crap nobody cares about.”

Again, it’s the same with the Biden allegations.

“But what do you think Biden was saying on those phone calls?” people keep repeating.

Well, thankfully, your thoughts (also known as your imaginary life) are of no consequence to anything. “But isn’t it just common sense that it’s what he did” is a phrase particularly beloved by clinical morons. As much as they want to believe that being disliked by them is a chargeable offense, it’s not.

Of course, these are all problems of a country with no serious problems, so let’s rejoice that life is good and people have the leisure to entertain themselves with these inflated scandals.

And by the way, I would like to get some recognition for my dogged avoidance of cheap popularity with any partisan crowd. It would be so easy to delete the part either about Trump or about Biden and have a bunch of people like me. But no, I condemn myself to being liked by noone.