Fifty Words, gardening, History, Media, Nature, Science, Uncategorized

Bad News Bears

33 Comments

Well, the news from the Supreme court is discouraging.  #45 rallied yesterday in Fargo.  The weeds in my garden are horrendous.  On the other hand, there was a gorgeous, huge moon last night. My cats are charming, and I am a part of several communities that are supportive and comforting.  To cap it all off, in 1820, on this date, the tomato was proven to be non poisonous by a Colonel Robert Gibbon, who ate a tomato on steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey.

How do you keep going in trying times?  How has scientific experimentation (a la Colonel Gibbon) improved your life?

33 thoughts on “Bad News Bears”

  1. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    I am soothed to see the post this morning. Thanks Renee. Yesterday I had a Terrible Day. Nothing in particular occurred. BUt as the day wore on, I seemed unable to manage my feelings of doom and judgment. I rarely experience such moods. Bewildered by it and the flight of my usual optimism, I pulled a few weeds in the garden, ate supper, then went to bed to watch stupid TV.

    I have found a new (to me) Netflix show that is distracting. It is a British real estate show called “Escape to the Continent” about British people leaving England and moving to properties in Europe. I am considering joining them. There is a place in France where you can purchase a small castle for about $900K.

    And I am not listening to the news this morning. Radio Heartland it is. And music is probably far more accessible that moving to a small castle in the Alps.

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    1. I know you all are probably sick of listening to me whine about my job right now. 6 more days till the client is in the air. But I can’t even do Radio Heartland right now; I’ve been listening to Enya for days now. Over and over and over.

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      2. reminds me of the guy who recorded george winston on a cassette tape back in the day of cassettes and didnt realize until the end of his summer vacation that the tape was the same on both sides. there is nothing to grab ahold of
        enya does the same thing for me

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  2. As happy as I am that Colonel Gibbon proved the tomato wasn’t poisonous, I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to do that. In the face of prevailing wisdom, I am not inclined to use my body as a testing block. For anything.

    In terms of how do I keep going in trying times, I tend to put my head down and slog through. I will admit the last couple years I’ve had my head down a lot.

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    1. I can’t really think of a way science helps me cope much. The fact that #45 meets the criteria of anti-social Personlity Disorder in the DSMV, really just scares me more, rather than soothing me. But this blog, my artist potluck group, and jelly bellies help a lot.

      However, 2 weeks ago Time Magazine put out a special edition of Great Scientists that have changed our world. The woman, Dr. Marsha Linehan, who founded the type of therapy I do was listed there, in the company of Stephen Hawking, Sigmund Freud, and Margaret Mead. That was encouraging.

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  3. It is days like this when I so miss TLGMS—a good laugh would do me a world of good, and it always seemed like Dale and Jim Ed would produce a rib-tickler when the world was too much.

    I do have the CD of the old show cuts. Maybe I will get that out and listen.

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  4. I came out of yesterday with even more dread and gloom than I’ve been feeling since the election. Prediction: the next several months of politics will make us nostalgic for the recent period of relative civility and mutual respect. Tighten your seat belts, friends, ’cause we’re headed for a rough patch.

    On top of all that, I had two hours last night on the phone with customer service agents trying to figure out why my Washington Post subscription was cancelled. Three different agents. First one had such a thick accent I couldn’t understand a thing she said. Second one went to check on some facts and never returned to his phone. God bless the third one, Summer, who stuck with me for an hour and got things fixed. Anyone who knows me knows that dealing with issues like this makes me miserable. And yet I know there are folks with far more difficult issues.

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        1. I stopped watching TV news years ago–it is just too hyperbolic and upsetting. I will now put myself on news restriction from NPR news. Because they offer it in podcast form, it is easy to get the news that is factual while not going into overload.

          Meet the Press with Chuck Todd has an interesting podcast too. Recently I listened to one in which Chuck Todd interviewed Jake Tapper, both newsmen I like and respect. Their conversation took this weird turn in which suddenly they were discussing airplane travel and people passing gas and how mad they makes them. A lack of civility in their eyes. The whole conversation made me laugh.

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  8. The discovery in the 1950’s of medication to treat Bipolar disorder and psychosis has been life changing for clients and therapists. I can’t imagine how heartbreaking it would have been to suffer with those disorders, or to see the suffering and not be able to do anything about it.

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  9. OT: this is just to point out that there is a new word that all the cool communicators can’t stop using: pivot. If you are listening for it, you’ll hear “pivot” used to explain everything from football to Supreme Court justices.

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    1. YES!!!! It took care of my tick-borne disease a couple years ago and I am profoundly grateful.

      Also, when I had a double ear infection 2 1/2 years ago…

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  11. Had 30 shots in my back to numb nerves for 8 hours to test if ablating the nerves would work. I failed the test. Not sure what options are left other than PT with a flaky new age therapist. Thinking about the American Hitler is more than I can handle. Sandy came out of today. She beat the lupus and UC for the moment.

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  14. I’m suffering from outrage fatigue. Every day, a new scandal; every day abhorrent behavior; every day more signs of fascism. I’ve trapped myself into being the highest profile progressive on the Strib opinion board, and feel an obligation to be the voice of reason. And FACTS. I’ve no doubt that this won’t change one single alt right mind, but delude myself into thinking that my very well-informed posts may fan the fire in decent people’s bellies and – if you will – scare them. Fear got Trump elected. Legitimate fear of what’s happening to our country may well motivate the apathetic to vote. Because that’s the only way to save our democracy.

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