Michael gave me THE best Christmas present this morning: a 1950s wooden toy chest filled with (almost all vintage) Muppets! And he didn’t even mix Sesame Street in which would have secretly disappointed me. Nope. I was left speechless and smiling, and feeling completely seen.

Welp, we brought Lucy on our trip to see family, and she seems to have adjusted just fine to being in a somewhat strange environment without full sight or hearing. ♥

🌟 My fondness for Christmas has waned significantly over the years. I try hard to avoid seasonal music until Dec 21, when, by my rule, it becomes appropriate to listen to. Everyone ignores my rule and starts playing that crap in September but whatever. I know I’m right. As it is now Dec 22, I’m starting seasonal listening with the expanded 80-track version of A Charlie Brown Christmas.

😶‍🌫️ Isn’t it funny how “all lives matter” to some people - on their t-shirts, on their bumper stickers, during their family arguments - all the way up until actual genocide is being carried by Israel or Ukraine needs help because Russia is murdering its people? Where are the all lives matter people now? Someone should really take attendance. It’s almost like they were just using that phrase as a subtle form of racism that didn’t mean anything except having the last word.

🥸 One very cool thing about chatGPT data analysis is that it’s correcting its own errors as it goes. Sort of.

I should be winding down but put on this masterpiece. Michael and I were listening to Eurythmics, then This Mortal Coil, then Julee Cruise, and it just kind of led to this.

MOVETOAMEND.ORG | ALSO, HAS THE DEMOCRATIC ESTABLISHMENT SEALED OUR FATE?

I left this comment on a Substack comment. The original poster basically said elections aren’t going to save us. Direct action, general strikes, civil disobedience, and applying real pressure on politicians will. I think he’s right, but I’m skeptical about our ability to successfully pull off any of those things. A site he mentioned, MoveToAmend.org is worth checking out. From me: The Democratic establishment is consistent in several areas. Chief among them: striving and aiming for the middle instead of aiming for the top (and then still missing when they take the shot); propping up and prioritizing mediocrity over progress; refusing to scout for new talent (really, Dems?

NO, TOM JONES, NO! (FEAT. “MOTHERLESS CHILD” WITH PORTISHEAD)

Why am I listening to Tom Jones in earnest? Why do I feel like I have a soft spot for him somehow some way? Why do I respect how much of a great vocalist he is? (Even when he misses the mark commercially, his voice on its own is consistently and completely solid - he hits each note right smack dab in the middle - never even a hair sharp or flat, just right in the middle - and has a set of lungs on him that can carry that voice for measures at a time.

Nothing quite says “Keep the Christ in Christmas” like a plastic, inflatable, life-sized nativity scene in your front yard. Stay classy, babyJesus ⛪️🎄👶🏻🙄

MAGA REPUBLICANS ARE REPUBLICANS

I don’t understand why we’re saying “MAGA Republicans” like they’re distinct and separate from the rest of the Republican Party. We’ve seen over and over again that the GOP are all singing from the same hymnal. A few members may be off-key, but they’re all in the same weird church, sitting on the same oppressive wooden pews, and absolutely all on the same page, singing the same measure, spitting out the same words, whether directly and literally or whether through policy implementation, law making, and minority rule.

MAESTRO: THE MUSIC OF LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Browsing Apple Music for another reason, I stumbled onto a playlist of new music selections from film and television. I stopped scrolling when I saw Maestro: The Music of Leonard Bernstein. The song featured in the playlist is the second movement of The Chichester Psalms, which is the most dramatic of the three movements in the piece. I loved singing it in high school and later as an adult in the Columbus Gay Men’s Chorus with the Columbus Children’s Choir.

🫠 Hey does anyone else remember that one time in the year 2000 on December 13th when that one president-elect named Al Gore conceded after that one Conservative Supreme Court did that one thing where they inexplicably reversed a state court decision to recount Florida’s votes and instead handed the presidency to George W. Bush? Remember that? That time when a stolen presidential election was legitimate and should’ve caused a people’s uprising the likes of which this country hadn’t seen since the American Revolution, but didn’t?

🎵 What timing. The HCR piece is about the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how it came to be. https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/december-10-2023 And just Sunday I discovered a beautiful work by Max Richter in which he set the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to music. It’s called “Voices”. It’s quite stirring, full of hope and disappointment at the same time. Hope, because of its aspiration, disappointment because so many of its promises remain unfulfilled or have been broken altogether.

🎵 Now Playing: Le Pain Perdu by Cibo Matto from the album Viva! La Woman on Music

Michael (Boy Michael) made a tiny townfor Christmas! God knows they’re squinters. #arresteddevelopment #tinytown #GOBBluth #godzilla

I haven’t officially started listening to holiday music yet, but a few of my favorites have been finding their way into my speakers. Here’s one.

🥰 I started my Cultivating Gratitude class last week by asking people to share a childhood memory/possession they’re grateful for. I talked about my Ernie doll and the Ernie poster Mom made for me. Well today one of the participants gave this to me. It made me smile for five solid minutes!

First of all, did you know Katey Sagal is a vocalist? probably not, so I win this round. Did you know she covered this Stevie Wonder song (which I only this morning learned is a Stevie Wonder song) on her 2004 album, Room? Probably not, so I win this round, too.

I cried when I realized what she was singing about, who she was singing for. She follows it up with a reinterpretation of You Don’t Own Me that I can only describe as a defiant dirge. It’s actually a helluva album.

I had NO idea this was an Aretha Franklin song first. I just assumed it belonged to En Vogue. FYI it does NOT belong to En Vogue

Sometimes I want to start a podcast with my friend Andy where we listen to one Tori Amos song and talk about it. We’d listen in sequential order of commercial release but then from time to time we’d choose a b-side from an era of our liking and call it a very special episode.

Ohioans passed an AMENDMENT TO THE STATE CONSTITUTION (all caps because that’s a big deal) and Republicans literally ignore it and do what they want anyway. When is someone going to put them in their place?! Not “hold them accountable.” They wouldn’t know accountability from Nancy Regan’s asshole. But someone to really put them in their place, rip the rug out from under them, knock them on their asses, emphatically tell them NO, and that enough is enough, and to shut the hell up, and to go sit in the corner while the rest of us grown ups go and try to repair all the shit they’ve burned down to the ground.

I’m a recovering HR professional who believed layoffs, while terrible, were sometimes inevitable and necessary. But nope. The only thing they do is make human livelihood expendable so that people with money get more money. Fuck off Spotify. Spotify is laying off 1,500 people, or 17% of its workforce

Got a 9-page IT policy on the “use of artificial intelligence in state solutions.” I think it’s basically saying stop using AI unless you’ve been explicitly granted permission and here are the 50 layers of disincentivizing red tape that will hinder you from ever being explicitly granted permission.

Have I told you lately how I love this beagle?