Clarissa's Blog

I don’t know if people are aware of this but outside of the few large cities, much of Spain has been abandoned. The country has very low birthrates, and as a result, there is an extraordinary number of either completely or mostly dead villages and towns. My drive has lasted a little over an hour so far and already I’ve seen more abandoned buildings than in the 10 years previously.

This is a huge problem in Spain that’s constantly discussed to no avail. It’s pretty weird because Spain has a ready-made source of new population with the same language and culture in Latin America. It’s been argued forever that Latin Americans should be allowed to immigrate to the madre patria easily. Why this isn’t being done in view of the pretty scary depopulation is unknown.

We are driving through Spanish countryside, with its clusters of abandoned, broken down, windowless buildings of all sizes that look bombed out.

After two nights with little sleep and finally being in Europe, I can’t say this isn’t messing with my head.

Harold L Daniels is an author of psychological thrillers from the 1950s. I don’t even remember how I ended up with a copy of The Accused but it’s really great, my friends. I highly recommend. The novel is structured somewhat like a courtroom drama but that is simply a plot device.

Beautifully and simply written in an uncluttered style that lacks pretentiousness, The Accused tells a story of Alvin Morlock, a 35-year-old man who has just enough culture and sophistication to hold a modest job as an English instructor at a third-rate college but not enough to know how to enjoy life. In a bout of lonely desperation, Alvin meets Louisa, a woman of absolutely no culture and the coarseness of a shoe scraper. All Louisa wants out of life is chug beer, play shuffleboard at her local, and randomly bet on horses. She deeply detests Alvin for being more evolved than she and he despises her for being so primitive.

What, then, are they doing getting married?

I read the book in a couple of hours, and it’s been a profound pleasure. Remember that there’s no better military maneuver in our ongoing battle for focus than reading a novel.

The same people who rightfully complain about everybody suddenly becoming “open Nazis” based on absolutely nothing cannot resist the lure of engaging in the exact same name-calling:

“You are a white supremacist!” “No, you are!” “No, you are!” “No… Mommy! Billy said a bad word!”

The next step is to start censoring Roald Dahl to make sure we get our turn.

Truly, this screeching of “rayceeesm!” whenever you disagree with somebody should stop. People should be able to express their opinions openly. Public figures aren’t made of sugar and won’t melt because somebody criticized them strongly.

A fresh joke from Ukraine:

In a brave counterpoint to Biden’s visit to Kyiv, Putin visited the other end of his long desk.

Biden is in Kyiv! We knew he was coming but it’s still huge news.

Remember that a year ago Biden thought Kyiv would fall. And now he’s celebrating Ukraine’s strength in Mikhailiv Square.

I don’t have the right to be proud of being Ukrainian but I sure am proud of being American.

God bless these United States.

P.S. It’s 4:15 am, I’m on an Uber going to the airport, trying not to cry (too loudly) to avoid freaking out the driver.

P.P.S. As the news dropped, regular, peace-loving Russians are exploding on social media, demanding a nuclear strike on Kyiv.

P.P.P.S. The official Russian media are trying to suppress the news, keeping it out of the TV coverage. Putin must be very upset because it was always his biggest dream to be loved and embraced by the Western leadership. His biggest achievement in life that he never got over was being complimented by George W Bush. Thank God in heaven that Biden is not Dubya. Or Obama without whom we wouldn’t be in this situation at all.

Reading books is all about leisure and focus, both of which are high-luxury items.

Cue the peaceniks who will now tell China and Russia to stop escalating:

Ha ha, obviously, it’s a joke. China and Russia are always poor innocent victims for our peace-loving anti-escalationists.

The problem with the movie To Leslie is its investment into magical mentality. If you are a raging alcoholic who abandoned your small child because of your addiction, steals from relatives, prostitutes yourself, and ended up in the streets, do you know what you need to do? Just quit! Easy-peasy! Gosh, I wonder why all homeless addicts don’t do it. Maybe nobody told them it’s as easy as that.

If you are a falling-down, slobbering drunk, don’t worry! A good man is bound to fall in love with you and solve all your problems.

If you drank away all your money and became homeless, it’s fine. You’ll be offered a job with room and board. And don’t worry about being too much of a mess to show up to work. The job will still be there waiting for you as you barf your guts out during hangover.

If you are a minimum-wage motel maid, that’s not a big deal. Just save money and open your own business. It will only take a few months to save up to open your own diner.

The smug, clueless entitlement of the people who make such movies really gets to me.

I heard about this movie because the lead actress is apparently getting cancelled for being too white or something. I can’t be bothered to unravel the Byzantine complexities of this particular offense to the inflamed sensibilities of the martyrs to social justice but I went ahead and watched the movie.

To Leslie could have been great. The female star portrays a degraded, miserable alcoholic very well. The first half of the movie is exactly the kind of film I like. We see a messy, often sad, sometimes heartbreaking, occasionally ridiculous life. Everything is real, everything is just like it is. I started feeling hopeful it would actually be a good movie.

But then, of course, the ridiculous Hollywood obsession with massaging everything into an implausible happy ending swept in and turned the movie into a joke. To accommodate the silly contortion of the plot, the actors turn into plastic figurines, and everything falls apart.

The concept of an obligatory happy ending is one of the many gifts given to us by Christianity. I often hope, however, that this would be the gift we sometimes denied. This way we could enjoy something beyond the exact same saccharine story where everything always ends well in the exact same soporific manner.

The movie is a waste of time, in short.