Clarissa's Blog

This is me in first grade:

We had to wear these white collars to school every day. Imagine keeping them clean and starched in Soviet conditions. In the photo, I’m wearing a festive day school uniform but the white collars had to be worn daily.

This man complains that his daughter stays in her room all day and doesn’t enjoy talking to him and his wife. Whenever she does come down for food or water, he’s always reminding her that when she turns 18 either she can move out or pay rent.

I never understood why people do… pic.twitter.com/9pCPYIn8sD

— SonnyBoy🇺🇸 (@gotrice2024) March 10, 2026

People should quit the vulgar habit of mocking their family members by posting videos of them for clicks. It’s low, distasteful and shows up the whole family as a collection of smug, clueless losers.

Also, the idea that adult children should pay rent for remaining in the family home is equally vulgar. Strong, happy families are our greatest civilizational advance. That’s why there are so many efforts to dilute our family bonds and some people buy into this brainwashing.

Remember our neoliberal administrator? The one who “doesn’t believe” in the concept of a department secretary? The one who refused to sign the janitors’ contract and the janitors left? The one who believes that physics is as outdated as typewriters?

Yes, that fellow.

This year, for the first time ever, he received brilliant evaluations from faculty members. Before, the evaluations were terrible. People hated him. But now, the year when physics was eliminated and secretaries and janitors left, suddenly the anonymous evaluations are mostly very positive.

Why?

Say thanks to Trump. One evaluation after another commends the administrator for continuing the DEI policies in spite of the pressure from the Trump administration.

Lemmings.

People who use the word multipolar in the context of politics are as stupid as those who use the word gender-fluid.

I read a lot of police procedural mysteries for fun. This is the golden era for readers because there is an abundance of excellent self-published books on Kindle Unlimited. It’s great for authors, too, because they don’t need to depend on agents or publishers.

One thing I observe in the police procedural genre, be it written by an establishment or an indie author, is that the female protagonist is always the same person. She is a promiscuous, physically aggressive, socially inept, spartan slob. I’ve been reading these novels for decades, and they are all great but identical in this one respect.

This is not the authors’ fault. They have to write for a female audience because that’s 99% of the readership. This means they can’t have a male cop protagonising the series because you either make him a total eunuch or female readers will not accept him and won’t read. My favorite author in the genre, Sophie Hannah, found the perfect formula to keep female readers content. Her male protagonist is incapable of having sex because of childhood trauma. Her female heroine is extremely promiscuous but only because she’s in love with the male character who can’t have sex.

Of course, this was fated to end with us taking in crowds of additional “refugees.”

It’s extraordinary that absolutely no matter what we vote for, the result is always more refugees. Who will hate us forever and spend the rest of their lives vituperating us for existing.

So I took a week off work, right? Wanted to rest, get recharged, not have anything to do with work. But one can’t stop being oneself, you know? The moment I stopped being the perfect academic, I became the perfect housewife. Cleaning like a maniac, organizing healthy, educational activities, doing endless loads of laundry, cooking something new for each meal, scaring the cat by cleaning the litter obsessively. By nightfall on Sunday I was exhausted and wondering how to turn off the high-achieving nutter persona and just exist normally for a bit.

I’m giving it a fresh try today. Wish me luck in breaking out of this robot mode.

N has recreated the experience of a Soviet komandirovochny in a Daytona Beach Hilton. This is the lunch he made himself:

He brought the plates, the frying pan and the hot plate with him from home.

How are we even in love, we are the exact opposite. This is too funny.

We should make ourselves do things. Fight entropy, stay active, resist the natural tendency to do nothing.

Example. My mother is undergoing immunotherapy for cancer. It’s working. The cancer markers are down from 970 to 35. But the side effects are bad. She has no energy, her muscles are sore, and the quality of life is such that she doesn’t know what the point even is. Thank God in heaven she speaks no English and never heard of the Canadian euthanasia program.

My mother’s sisters decided to throw a party for the International Women’s Day. They cooked up a storm, dressed up, did their hair, and created fun activities for the guests. My mother resisted the idea of the party like a Soviet guerrilla fighter at a Gestapo interrogation. She ranted, raved, and denounced the party as a conspiracy to murder her.

Uncharacteristically, her sisters refused to cancel the celebration. It took place yesterday. Today, my mother is telling me about the success of the party in a completely normal, fully energetic voice that I haven’t heard from her since before the diagnosis a year ago.

If it’s between giving in to passivity and doing something you don’t necessarily even want to do, just do it.

My husband said he doesn’t want a birthday gift of a trip to Italy, France or Spain. Instead, he wants a trip to Florida, to our usual place. And he’ll pay for it himself.

“Then what do you want as a birthday gift?” I asked.

“Love,” he said.