Magpie Murders

I just deleted the audiobook version of it, on loan from my local public library, after Part Six of a 7 part, 14+ hour production. It was a much longer investment than the one I made with Gone Girl, but pretty much the same ultimate reaction. I stopped liking the characters and the premise. In this case I actually felt I had been played as a reader and lover of mysteries.
Was it just moi?

Was the toxification of the term "democratic" by Republicans

actually about much more than disrespect for the opposing party? By poisoning the word did they, by intention or default, act to negate the legitimacy of our nation’s founding principle?

Shouldn't all competitive sports events in all forms be canceled

if we are unable as a society to accept the rules for something as fundamental as free and fair elections?

iPhone 6s battery issue

My phone usually only briefly holds a charge after disconnecting from the charger and often crashes after disconnecting and showing only a 10% charge when reconnected. Then, after rebooting, which is becoming increasingly more difficult, it will be fully charged.

In Settings it shows a maximum battery capacity of 88%. It is also now crashing less with auto-lock disabled.

Any advice other than getting a new phone? I’m hoping to baby this one along for another few weeks, but worry about having a dead phone in case of an emergency.

The new reality of dating over 65: Men want to live together; women don't

Antonio D’Alfonso, 66, is a believer in marriage: He wed three times and was hoping for a fourth go.

For more than a decade, D’Alfonso, a Montreal writer, has been dating a Toronto widow. The two see each other every couple of months. D’Alfonso wanted more: He proposed five times, only to be rebuffed with every try. The older woman refused to live with him, D’Alfonso said, because she wanted to travel and be free. “I have to ask, and I always ask, so what do you want from me?” he said.

The pair took a two-year hiatus, during which D’Alfonso tried dating other senior-age women only to find that they, too, were reluctant to share a home – this even as D’Alfonso said he cooks and keeps a tidy house.

“I really believe that women no longer need men, whatsoever,” D’Alfonso said. “I’m totally irrelevant.”

D’Alfonso’s push-and-pull with his partners reflects a rift emerging between single women older than 65 and the men they date. Increasingly, these men are encountering resistance from older women who want their own lives, not a full-time relationship. While many in this generation of heterosexual, divorced or widowed women want male companionship, they don’t necessarily relish the thought of moving in with a man. Today, say researchers studying this cohort, more older women are rejecting the downsides of the live-in relationship: the co-dependence, the daily tension within close quarters and the sacrifices made keeping a home, caregiving and doing the emotional legwork to keep their unions humming. Some of these women completely forego dating while others opt for “living apart together” (LAT) arrangements, in which partners in committed relationships choose to keep separate residences.

About Trump's summoning of those Michigan Republicans,

A character in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, says, "I can call forth spirits from the vasty deep!" Another replies, "So can I, so can any man. But will they come?"

I say that a country that has survived 4 years of Russian occupation

at the highest levels of government, and still managed to revamp its election systems in all, if not most, of its 50 states on very short notice in the middle of a deadly pandemic and go on to conduct the most secure election in its history and support record breaking voter turnout, CAN DAMN WELL DO ANYTHING after the inevitable transfer of power to President Joseph R. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on January 20, 2021.

This Morning on Morning Joe

“As goes Scottsdale, so goes Beijing.”

Meanwhile, in the Anarchist Jurisdiction of Portland...

MultCo Democratic HQs vandalized; 3 arrested

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — The results of the 2020 presidential election did little to calm unrest in Portland.

A small group of people marched from Laurelhurst Park in Southeast Portland to the Multnomah County Democrats headquarters in the 3500 block of NE Sandy. The building was tagged with graffiti and broke “several of the building’s windows,” Portland police said in a release.

They then fled the scene toward Laurelhurst Park, but police “made targeted arrests” of some of the group.

Multnomah County Democrats Vice Chair Rachelle Dixon inspected the dozen broken windows, spray-painted graffiti of the anarchy symbol and “No good presidents.”

While the now-deleted social media posts originally promoting this event claimed to have been “anonymously organized” and “in solidarity with BLM,” Dixon said that’s a red flag.


“This sort of thing does not help us, so we know it’s people working against us with propaganda,” Dixon told KOIN 6 News. “And I want people to know that Black Lives Matter doesn’t work that way.”

https://www.koin.com/news/protests/multco-democratic-hqs-vandalized-3-arrested/

Let's wear a mask.

Let’s go to work!

President-elect Joe Biden.