Clarissa's Blog

Few turns of phrase annoy me more than “amplify voices.” Every time I hear it, I imagine a pinch-lipped, desiccated spinster lecturing people monotonously and obnoxiously.

A friend told me that he’s not given to envy (and it’s true, he’s really not) but he feels intensely envious when I start talking about whatever my new favorite book is. He says it’s as if I had the luxury of falling intensely in love every month without any heartbreak, parting or loss.

Pritzker will be reelected Governor of Illinois. A corrupt billionaire who gives a new meaning to the expression “a fat cat rich guy” will rule us forever. What a shame.

But it serves us right for running an eminently unelectable Darren Bailey against him. I don’t know why a big state like Illinois can’t find anybody who isn’t either a corrupt, obese hypocrite from a family of freaks or a brain-dead moron who’s a step below a chimpanzee on the evolutionary ladder.

Klara is in the “but, Mama!” stage.

“I don’t want to be a butt Mama,” I tell her. “Can I at least be a knee Mama? Or an elbow Mama?”

She thought about it and came up with “head Mama” which makes me feel like I’m the head wife in a polygamous cult. I’m hoping to persuade her to go with ankle Mama.

My sister is an epic hero. Yesterday during a class at a Canadian university that she is attending as a student she said that sex is binary and she refuses to refer to men posing as women as “she.”

I’m not capable of such a feat of bravery but I admire it deeply.

She was 9 when the USSR fell apart but the Soviet censorship affected her so deeply that freedom of speech is the foundational, guiding idea of her entire life.

In a different class at the same Canadian university, she told the professor it’s shameful to spout woke ideology in the classroom and blab about diversity when there’s no diversity of opinion allowed. If this is not admirable, I don’t know what is.

Stacey Abrams is one of the weirdest people in US politics. A couple of weeks ago she floated a conspiracy theory that ultrasound machines are not real. Now she’s saying, “Having children is why you are worried about the price of gas and food.” The idea that people without children or with grown children don’t eat or drive is pretty much out there in the “exceptionally nutty” stratosphere. So is the idea that the best way of stopping the inflation is by suspending procreation.

One thing is clear. She has some kind of psychological trauma around child-bearing that she’s decided to not treat. Does she have any children herself, does anybody know?

Good news! I no longer worry about a nuclear war. I now worry about this shit.

Chirbes says that walking around aimlessly, thinking about how you must write but you don’t know what or how to write is an inescapable part of writing.

By this measure, I’ve done hours and hours of writing this week. By every other measure, I’ve done no writing.

My father was the mildest, gentlest man you can imagine. Never raised his voice. He was also disabled since childhood and couldn’t do any physical things. His fingers didn’t bend enough for him to close his fist. He never talked about it but everybody knew he was fragile. Of course, you have to understand, it’s me who’s saying he was disabled and fragile. My father never used these words and, I’m sure, didn’t see himself this way.

The only time I saw him get violent is when I was a little kid, and a bunch of teenage boys pushed me around on the playground. My father made them crawl on their knees, kiss my feet, and beg for forgiveness. I don’t know how he did it because these weren’t kids. These were young men who were clearly not disabled. But he was in such a rage that they didn’t stand a chance.