McCullough, Colleen. Caesar’s Women: A Novel. NY: Avon Books, 1997. passage found on page 566.
June 1: Colleen McCullough
If Only You Could Have Seen the Bumper Stickers on the Back of a Ford Taurus
I’ve seen cars like this, too.
It took my breath away and was a window into evangelical culture and the culture wars. And it was in a parking lot in the Strasburg, Pennsylvania area where I saw it. An evangelical went overkill on a Ford Taurus with religious bumper stickers, and I was stunned by what I witnessed. Apparently it is also an effort to evangelize. I will just say this, evangelicals I just do not understand you.
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The new imitation game
I hate capitalism, part infinity
In the early days of this blog (which is eight years old this month) I wrote about Ashley Madison, an online service for people seeking opportunities to cheat on their partners. It turned out to be a scam, taking money from men to put them in touch with women who, for the most part, did not exist: they were invented by employees and then impersonated by an army of bots. Linguistically the bots were pretty basic, and some men became suspicious when they received identical “sexy” messages from multiple different “women”. Most, however, seem not to have suspected anything.
I thought of this when I read a recent piece in the Washington Postabout a California startup called Forever Voices. Its founder John Meyer predicts that by the end of this decade,
most Americans will have an AI companion in their pocket…whether it’s an ultra-flirty AI that you’re…
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Is SCOTUS About to Screw US?
The bad guys won.
As I write this, it’s May 23, with perhaps a month less in the Supreme Court’s season.
The court has taken no interest in the massive corruption scandal brewing around it, but, worse, a HUGE number of cases remain unresolved. 26 cases have been resolved, but 36 cases remain. We have never seen anything like this.
And given SCOTUS’ penchant for destroying the fabric of American society, this has to be troubling.
May 25: SCOTUS Guts clean water protections.
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Daily wisdom from Julia Cameron, 25th of May
I don’t know who Julia Cameron is but I really like this.
One day it was revealed to me that everything is pure spirit.
Ramakrishna
Body and Soul are One.
There is no separation between body and soul. One essence, one unity, runs through all of life. This essence, the Godforce is completely pure, completely perfect. I claim for myself the perfection of this divine force. My body is beautiful, sacred, and beloved. Spirit infuses my body with radiant goodness. I experience vitality, enthusiasm, energy, and power. My physical nature and spiritual nature are one and the same. My body’s needs and urges are divine in origin. As I listen to my inner guidance, I move to mote and more perfect health, more and more abundant energy, more and more positive thoughts, feelings, and actions. My physical body is a conduit for my spiritual health to flow through into the world.
Julia Cameron, Heart Steps
The Best Chocolate Cake Known to Man
In the comments section of my birthday post the other day, there was a discussion about favorite cakes. I said that the chocolate cake I had made was “the best chocolate cake known to man” & the recipe was requested. I pulled the page out of my recipe notebook & scanned it.
My recipe notebook. I have two other folders, stuffed with recipes, that need to be put in the notebook, but as you can see, there’s no room! I need to do some seriously weeding &/or get another notebook!
I found this recipe on the side of a Hershey’s Cocoa can in 1971. I was eleven years old & already loved to cook. Baking has always been my thing. I have a killer sweet tooth. I rarely have anything sweet nowadays but that craving is always with me. I’m an addict at heart. I admit it. I can get addicted to almost anything at all.
The cake is called Black Magic Cake & it is magical. I’ve seen this recipe many other places with many other names. If you shop at Wegmans, this is their “signature” chocolate cake. It’s a very simple recipe.
I typed this up many years ago on an IBM Selectric at one of my many office jobs. As you can see by the cocoa stains on the page, it’s been well used! The pen notations on the right side of the recipe is if you want to cut it in half. This is what I did the other day, since I knew I couldn’t eat a whole cake & I didn’t have enough people to share it with.
Half a cake. Depending on how you cut the squares, you can share this with 6-8 people, many even 10-12, if the pieces are small. This cake is wicked rich, so small pieces are advised! However, it’s also wicked addicting, so even if you have a small piece, you might be going back for a second small piece … & a third … ya know, it’s that evil frosting … LOL
I can’t have stuff like this in the house.
Happy Birthday to Me
It’s not a birthday without cake IMHO. & the best cake is chocolate, amirite? So yesterday I baked myself a small chocolate cake. This morning, I had a small piece with my coffee. I thought I had birthday candles in the house, but I couldn’t find them (you know they’ll turn up when I don’t need them). I did have a bag of tea candles, so I put one of them on top of my piece of cake & then sang to myself & made a wish & blew out the flame.
Yeah, I know ~ silly. But hey, I’m a crone now. I can be silly if I want to be. I can be whatever I want. Nobody cares about old women. We’re invisible. That’s our superpower.
I couldn’t eat more than a bite of that cake. It was luscious but since I quit sugar & sugary treats last August (& lost more than 30 pounds in the process), my tolerance for anything sweet has diminished. If I had eaten that entire piece of cake, I would have gotten sick.
I’m giving away most of the cake, in fact. I have a chiropractor’s appointment this morning & I’m taking pieces of cake to my doctor & the receptionist in the office & then I’m meeting friends for lunch & they’re all getting pieces of the cake. So I don’t have to worry about eating cake that I love but can’t tolerate anymore or having to throw it out & waste it.
Anyway ~ Happy Birthday to me! I’m 63!
Fuck Substack
Aunt Polly is bitching about having to subscribe to blogs that used to be free.
& Medium too, while I’m at it.
OK, I know that dealing with WordPress can be frustrating at times but WTF life is frustrating, amirite? The best thing about WordPress is that I can read dozens, nay hundreds of blogs for free & never have to pay a fee.
(I know there are other blogging platforms that allow you to read their content for free. But this is another issue).
Many former WordPress writers have migrated to Medium & many more of them have gone to Substack. Hey, go where you want, I’m not bitching about that. What I’m bitching about is this ~
I can’t read your writing anymore. Oh, I’ve subscribed to your blog. Well ~ I’ve subscribed to the “free” version of your blog. But I can’t afford to pay any money. I’m a disabled senior on a very restricted income & I just can‘t…
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freedom of thought
TRUTH
The moment you say that any idea system is sacred, whether it’s a religious belief system or a secular ideology, the moment you declare a set of ideas to be immune from criticism, satire, derision, or contempt, freedom of thought becomes impossible – Salman Rushdie
The creator of gender
Aunt Polly is back!
The name of this man is not new to me. Nor his crimes, although I didn’t really know the extent of them. I honestly shouldn’t be surprised, since history is filled with movements based on the ideas of men who are absolute fucking monsters.
The Trans Movement & trans-ideology is based on the ideas & work of this monster.
This is not a new article; it’s a Reduxx article from 2022 by Anna Slatz. But the facts haven’t changed. & they need to be spread widely, so that everyone knows the truth –
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GENDER IDENTITY.
link here ~~~> https://reduxx.info/john-money-the-pervert-who-invented-gender/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
silverapplequeen 