Clarissa's Blog

I’m not going to apply for any conferences in 2022 because I don’t believe they will be conducted in person. I’d rather be wrong and miss a conference than have another experience of 3 days on Zoom.

The whole point of a conference is not to be at home or in the office alone. There’s absolutely no point to it all otherwise. I already spend all day sitting alone and staring at a screen. These virtual conferences are only making me more tired instead of more energetic.

I really like conferences, and their loss is upsetting to me.

Who else on here misses conferences a lot?

Everything that’s happening is our own fault because we aren’t making fun of these people:

Where I come from, these “critics” would face such ridicule that they’d either get over themselves or fail to survive kindergarten.

Like the kid in Home Alone said, “I’m in third grade. A guy can get beat up for something like this.”

I’m not known for my sensitivity. In fact, I often find it hard to understand why people react emotionally to some things. OK, many things. So there haven’t been many books that have made me cry. But there have been a few.

#1 on the list is The Gadfly by Ethel Lilian Voynich. It was very famous in the USSR (also China and Iran), and I read it about 15 times as a teenager. Every time, I would weep hysterically through the last few pages. I wonder if it would have the same effect if I read it today. Anybody here a Voynich fan?

Another book that makes me cry is actually “Horton Hears a Who” by Dr Seuss. I discovered it in my forties but every time I read it to Klara I feel an approach of big, salty, gloopy tears. It’s really a touching story! Those tiny people! They were almost destroyed! The Grinch is also plenty touching. Unfortunately, I never manage to cry it out like I’d wish because I don’t want to freak out Klara. It’s OK to see mommy cry but probably not over a little elephant and his flower.

Rafael Chirbes’s On the Edge had me bawling all over my bed. I was in my first trimester, sure, but I reread it twice for work since then and cried every time.

I forgot to mention that today is Mikhail Gorbachev’s 90th birthday. The measure of gratitude owed to him by me personally and by everybody from my part of the world is incalculable.

Many, many happy returns to a great man.

The local bookstore has two tall shelves of Dr Seuss. But not a single copy of the books that have been banned and I was looking for. Here are the titles:

“On Beyond Zebra!”

“Scrambled Eggs Super!”

“The Cat’s Quizzer”

If anybody has old paper copies they no longer need, I’m accepting donations. Please reach out.

My niece is a great reader. (And a passionate bullet-journaler. She’s a total mini-me, it’s hilarious.) So once I bought a sweet children’s book for her on Amazon. Apparently, there was some similarity in the title, so instead Amazon sent me the most vicious, horrid pornographic novel. Extremely racist, too, from what I saw, although I obviously didn’t peruse the whole volume.

My blood boils when I think of what would have happened if I hadn’t snooped in the gift bag and presented it to the 8-year-old.

I don’t believe this book should be banned. Although Amazon should exercise greater care in processing book titles. I don’t think any book should be banned, period, end of story. But how is it OK to sell this truly disgusting garbage and not Dr Seuss’s wonderful books?

Can you guess what part of this image is getting the book cancelled?

Oh, Americans. Please, please come to your senses soon. The world needs you not to be completely insane.

I thought this was a crazy rumor but no, it’s true. Dr Seuss is being cancelled. Dr Zeus! The ultra-sweet, extremely leftist Dr Seuss.

I’m off to the bookstore. I have 3 of the banned books, so I need to locate the other three. Thank goodness, I have them on paper. Digital copies of banned books are being stolen from people’s devices. It’s a great idea to have a paper copy of any book you want to be able to keep. (And a place to hide it, of course).

No $15 minimum wage, no college loan forgiveness, more “babies in cages,” bombing of Syria but at least he defeated books. Biden voters, I hope you got exactly what you wanted.

P.S. Little House on the Prairie will also be canceled. I will have to haul out half of the bookstore today. Unbelievable garbage. Americans, how could you? You are destroying your entire culture to please a few clearly insane idiots.

I talked to my friend who is a pharmaceutical scientist (long experience in the industry, publications, accolades, etc), and here’s what she says.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are something she’d never take herself. It’s a completely new, untested technology that was rushed through without any attempt at following the usual protocols. Nobody has any idea what the long-term effects will be. Pfizer and Moderna are, of course, protected from being sued if you do have adverse effects.

But there’s good news! The Johnson and Johnson vaccine that was approved a couple of days ago isn’t gene therapy, like the Pfizer and Moderna ones. It’s a traditional flu vaccine like the one many people take every Fall. Another company, I forget the name, is about to come out with this traditional-type vaccine, too.

If things get really dicey and you need proof of vaccination to travel or work, you now have an option. Take the J&J vaccine (or the other one that isn’t mRNA), and you’ll be fine.

This friend is very careful with pharmaceuticals and never took the yearly flu vaccine. But she’d take the J&J if it’s the price to pay to rejoin normal life. Pfizer and Moderna she wouldn’t take under any scenario.

I now feel a lot better because this means that vaccine passports aren’t the end of the world. There’s a way around them.

A Princeton professor of mathematics begs all of us to come to our senses and recognize that there’s absolutely nothing racist in the idea that there are right and wrong answers in math.

That this needs to be said is in itself quite sad.