CELEBRATING TWO TEENAGERS, THE BECHDEL TEST—AND MAYBE A NEW PARLOR GAME PART 2
YESTERDAY, TWO TEENAGE GIRLS ENCOURAGED their Illinois state legislators to include climate change in public education. Today in Part 2, Good Energy applies a test devised by cartoonist/memoirist Alison Bechdel … Continue reading
CELEBRATING TWO TEENAGERS, THE BECHDEL TEST—AND MAYBE A NEW PARLOR GAME PART 1
THE GOODGOODGOOD WEBSITE POSTS TWO FASCINATING ITEMS: Kamrin Baker’s “A New Law Requires Illinois High Schoolers to Learn About Climate Change. It Was Written by Two Local Teens,” and Meghan … Continue reading
LIGHTING OPERA
GIVEN THAT IT WAS A TEENAGE AMBITION OF MINE, I read with interest Anthony Freud’s “Illuminating the Stage,” Opera With Opera News, February 2026. In this article, he speaks with … Continue reading
THE KNOW NOTHING PARTY PART 2
HERE IN PART 2, WE CONTINUE WITH Wikipedia’s most informative history of this 19th-century political aberration. Or is it only of the 19th century? An 1855 Ohio Know Nothing Party … Continue reading
THE KNOW NOTHING PARTY PART 1
NO, PERHAPS NOT WHAT YOU THINK. This is an historical essay, not a collection of today’s headlines. Sorta and mainly, even as it expands into Parts 1 and 2 today … Continue reading
CNUT REDUX
BACK NEAR THE CLOSE OF TRUMP 1.0, SimanaitisSays recounted “King Cnut’s Bad Rap,” September 11, 2020. As noted back then, Wikipedia recounts, “He is popularly invoked in the context of … Continue reading
BELIEVING WHOM?
THERE WAS A TIME, DEAR READER, when we believed our government. We—and it—were exceptional in this regard, we thought. Alas, not anymore. The Bullshitter-in-Chief TACO and his cohorts have taught … Continue reading
THE NGA VERSUS A QUEENS MOBSTER
AS WIKIPEDIA DESCRIBES, “THE NATIONAL GOVERNORS’ ASSOCIATION is an American political organization founded in 1908. The association’s members are the governors of the 50 states, territories and commonwealths. Members come … Continue reading
女武者 AND SNAP ELECTIONS PART 2
YESTERDAY WE DISCUSSED JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER SANAE TAKAICHI and her samurai snap election. Today in Part 2, we ponder whether we can snap out of the Trump era. Our Nearest … Continue reading
女武者 AND SNAP ELECTIONS PART 1
女武者 (“ONNA-MUSHA”) IS JAPANESE FOR “FEMALE WARRIOR,” i.e., a lady samurai. To some (e.g., Pete Hegseth, the secretary of whatever), this may seem oxymoronic. But as described in Wikipedia, the … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 