It’s no fun being right

I’m starting off a little more political than my usual but promise to wind up with food and grandson pics.

After Trump got elected, my two pieces of black humor were: 1) I’m just waiting for planes to start falling out of the sky when everything’s deregulated; 2) I wonder where the Jews are on the deportation lists.

So obviously I was right on number 1, but I don’t feel that great about it, but I’m also not planning on flying anywhere soon as long as I can help it. Although we did fly to Denver at the beginning of February and we didn’t die.

As far as #2, I feel even worse about that one, because I was actually wrong. There’re too many rich, Trump-supporting Jews. The only type of DEI the current administration will tolerate is preventing antisemitism on college campuses, which is just a trick to make it possible to fire or attack anyone who doesn’t support Netanyahu or who does support Palestine. F’ing Josh Hawley, he who sneaked out of the Capitol early on Jan 6th, 2021 because he knew what was coming, has been pushing for it since 2023, and has even gotten legislation passed.

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I started writing this on Monday and it is now Friday Saturday. Back then I thought I had something clear in mind about politics, something related to various things I’ve been hearing, mainly instances of Republicans (or conservatives) criticizing Democrats (or liberals) for their behavior and not being able to control their emotions. There’s definitely plenty of bad behavior on both sides, but the insidious thing, I think, is this not being able to control emotions idea…..so therefore you do not belong in government. The first instance that got me was our Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel accusing the liberals currently on the Wisconsin Court, who all happen to be women, of not being able to control their emotions and therefore unfit for the court. Today there was a report on NPR about Representative Al Green, who got evicted from Trump’s Monday night speech for protesting, being censured by Congress, and in that report the phrase, “make sure our emotions do not take over” came up again, mentioned by Dan Newhouse, R-Washington. Thankfully at least one representative, Jim McGovern, D-Massachusetts, pointed put that the Republicans would have a lot more credibility if they hadn’t heckled Biden. There was also a thing in the NYT, where they interviewed 6 people about Trump’s speech, and only one of them said Trump actually insulted everyone, all the others were generally positive. One longtime Democrat said they were ashamed of the Democrats. One person even said they heard empathy in Trump speech. I totally don’t get that one.

Friday there was a Stand Up For Science March here in Madison. More than 1,000 people marched from campus to the Capitol, protesting the Trump administration’s cuts to research funding. When I walked to campus the Monday before, there were little signs advertising University of Wisconsin’s research prowess. 

Meanwhile, we’ve done a bunch of other stuff, baking & cooking, and celebrating Mardi Gras, and playing with Jasper. We also did a day trip to Chicago last Sunday, had brunch with John and Megan, saw a symphony, and brought home packzi from Firecakes that were probably the best ones we’ve had. 

I think that after this year I have a better understanding of packzi. They’re not filled doughnuts, they’re breadier, and there’s just a little pocket of filling in the middle f the dough. Observe these from Weber’s Bakery in Chicago. I think these are, clockwise from the bottom left, strawberry buttercream, cookies and cream with oreo topping, apricot, and poppy seed.

I practiced more for my class next week.

On Friday I made whole wheat fig-filled scones. It was kind of a grey day, but the sun came out when I took the scones out of the oven. On Wednesday I made quick crust deep dish pizza, one of my own recipes, and Friday I made the scones, another of my own recipes, and both worked just right. Satisfying. Testing pays off. Though the day that I first made the scones must’ve been even darker than Friday – these pics are much sunnier.

When Jasper came on Wednesday we played with lizards in the morning.

We played climbing on stuff and hiding under stuff.

We played with the etch-a-sketch. He was so into it, I ordered him a second one during naptime.

The finally, after naptime, I got him to try on the Max costume we inherited from my friend Susan because it never fit her grandson at the right time. At first he didn’t want to try it on – he kept saying “no Max” and when I took him into the bedroom with the mirror he tossed the costume into the (empty) trash can. But one he got into it, he liked it. And I haven’t even read him Wild Things all that much, but as soon as he got into the suit, he said, “boat”; he knows Max has a boat. So we got into the bathtub for our boat. Then we watched Moana wearing the suit, and he didn’t want to take it off till Dada got there, and put him in his fleece to wear home. The Max suit can be dress up clothes for Oma house.

OK, I’m going to see if tonight’s cooking project is as satisfying as some of these others. It’s spaghetti with creamy tomato sausage sauce, although I haven’t completely decided if I should use cream or cream cheese for the creamy part. A pound of Italian sausage from the Farmers Market purchased this morning, roasted tomato sauce frozen last summer, and half a jar of pepperonata, ditto. I browned the sausage and de-glazed the pan with a bit of corn cob broth. also frozen last summer, that I had kicking around. I’ll let you know if it’s any good.