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My Mother the Juror
My mother served on a petit jury when she was 75 and had the time of her life. It was an excuse to dress up for court; the jurors exchanged pictures of their children or grandchildren and brought in food to share on Fridays. They stayed in touch for years afterwards. One day, she sent a letter to the judge asking for a day off so she could see her oncologist.
App Test
Let’s see if it works.
Initial Thoughts about Trump Indictment
It’s hard not to be dramatic in response to this. First, the indictment proves my point that classified information is radioactive. Lawyers should not accept a clearance in a criminal trial. A Roosevelt moment. Republicans pushed the 22nd Amendment to avoid another Roosevelt. The Amendment ended up prohibiting another Reagan term. The risk to a sitting president is trumped-up criminal liability might be created after he leaves office. The safest move is to stay in office.
With You and I
Mind your Pronouns I heard a native speaker say, “They can come with you and I.” This is incorrect. Here, the word “I,” a subject pronoun, is used instead of the correct “me.” Would you say, “They can come with I?” Of course not. You’d say, “They can come with me. I ascribe this error to an episode of the television show Bonanza where a one-room frontier schoolhouse teacher forced her barely literate charges to always use the pronoun “I.
Patti Smith
Patti is a poet; friend of Robert Mapplethorpe (she wrote about him in Just Kids.) She was part of the 70’s New York Lower East Side Renaissance, born too late for the Beats she nevertheless followed the spirit of Rimbaud and made friends with William Burroughs, he of Junky, Naked Lunch, and his wife’s murderer. She was an accomplished poet, seeing her work published in the zines of the day.
Before the Pandemic
I had just returned to Saudi Arabia. This is the view from my office on the Dammam Highway.
Roast Beef v. Thailand
“Why do you like Thailand so much?” they asked. Lunch in Chicago: six chicken wings, french fries and a roast beef sandwich. $47.80. ’Nuff said.
Roast Beef v. Thailand
“Why do you like Thailand so much?” they asked. Six chicken wings, french fries and a roast beef sandwich. $47.80. ’Nuff said.
Six Hour Delay: BA Held My Passport Hostage in Dubai
My friend left his passport in the aircraft seatback at 0800 March 30 2023. Flt. 105 LHR-DXB. An unfortunate act, to be sure, for which he takes full responsibility. But BA made things worse: he realized that he didn’t have his passport while on the Arrivals train at DXB. Once on the train, it is impossible to return to the gate without setting off alarms. There were no BA personnel available upon exiting the Arrivals train.