We had a nice Thanksgiving. My daughter Elizabeth, son-in-law Jeremy, and granddaughter Alex came to our house for a Thanksgiving meal. I had a chance to spend some time with each of them. I read to Alex, chatted with Elizabeth, and talked books with Jeremy.

I think everyone enjoyed our time together. We did have a couple of mishaps. We had Jeremy so close to the window in the guest bedroom that when he thrashed around he accidentally broke the outside window. No harm done to his foot, but we will have to have the window pane replaced. Also, when Eileen and Jeremy were moving the mattress and box springs from upstairs to the basement by throwing them off the upstairs balcony, they accidentally hit the Subaru and smashed the left rear lights. This will have to be taken care of soon.

Another mishap that occurred was that Eileen’s credit card got hacked and used. The credit card shut itself down due to suspicious activity. Eileen had to make a trip to the bank yesterday to get the replacement card started in process.

Jeremy moved Eileen’s new loom all by himself, taking it from the downstairs dining room up to her loom room. That’s where she is right now. She’s very happy to get going on her new loom.

Jeremy, Elizabeth, and Eileen cleared out the upstairs music room entirely. Now it is ready for the harpsichord and marimba. I texted the Buildings and Ground manager at church that I wanted to move them soon and asked if he knew of anyone I could hire to do so. I’ll get moving on some of these tasks next week.

We chatted with Sarah on Zoom today. Their lives are pretty crazy right now. Lucy my granddaughter has been to the doctor four time in the last week. She, Alice, and Sarah are all suffering from congestion and coughs. They have tested themselves for Covid so it’s probably not that. Lucy also has had some hearing loss in one ear. Sarah seems to feel the worst of the three. Matthew doesn’t have any symptoms but he is sleeping with Lucy and she is keeping him awake at night so he’s not up to snuff either.

While we chatted I cooked.

I heated up the oven and roasted several veggies. I used sesame seeds and sesame oil on the aspargus. I dumped cheese on them before it was done. Mmmm. I had some for lunch in a salad.

I halved the Brussels sprouts and tossed them in olive oil before roasting.

I also roasted the oyster mushrooms that came from the Market Wagon on Tuesday.

I have been falling in love with these Harpsichord concertos by C. P. E. Bach. This is the recording of one I have been listening to on Spotify. Great stuff!

And I found a new rock and roll band.

Low Cut Connie was recently read the explainer of a current topic on the Talking Feds podcast. I had never head of him or his band but checked it out and like the energy.

How Your Family Tree Could Catch a Killer | The New Yorker

I think this is a fascinating article. Ce Ce Moore is a genealogist who uses genetics to solve mysteries. Wow.

The War Inside H. G. Wells | The New Yorker

In the same issue (Nov 22, 2021) Adam Gopnik has this interesting take on Wells.

How the Week Organizes and Tyrannizes Our Lives | The New Yorker

And Jill Lepore has another great article, also in the Nov 22 issue.

The Historic Russian Recipe That Turns Apples Into Marshmallows – Gastro Obscura

They’re called pastila and take a whole lot of work and time to prepare. But the ingredients are simple: apples, sugar, egg whites, and powdered sugar. They look cool. I bet they taste good as well. No plans to make soon but maybe someday.

Happy Is an Elephant. Is She Also a Person? – The Atlantic

And Jill Lepore also has this article I took off of the Atlantic website. Woo hoo! I haven’t read it yet, but I do like her writing.

Working with the Whitney’s Replication Committee | The New Yorker

In 2016, Lerner wrote this article. Here’s a link to him talking with Carol Mancusi-Ungaro (2018?) who is mentioned in the article about the same subject. I haven’t read the article but I have listened to the talk. I think it’s very interesting to consider the need for upkeep and restoration of contemporary art. Very cool.

It’s Wednesday afternoon and the pumpkin pie is in the oven. Eileen and I went to the dermatologist today for my two week check. He seemed please with my progress so far. I was relieved that he didn’t tell me to quit using the salve he prescribed. My rash is immensely better but not exactly back to where it was at its lowest ebb. So I’m to monitor my own progress and cut back from 2 applications a day to one and eventually to use as needed.

We stopped at Meijer on the way home and picked up a few last minute things for Thanksgiving. I’m a bit beat but Eileen is madly cleaning. I made the pie crust for the pie which was my original agreement. But Eileen asked me if I could go ahead and mix up the filling. This is very easy so I did.

I’m out of practice on pie crusts. I got pretty good at it at one time but haven’t made one in a while. Eileen hates store-bought crust so I learned to make a decent homemade one. We’ll see if I still have the knack.

I’m over half way through Adam Serwer’s The Cruelty is the Point: The past, present, and future of Trump’s America. It is excellent. Serwer is as clear and eloquent as anyone I have read about Trump and the current racist state of our country. Each short introduction to each chapter has the word “cruelty” in the its title. So the first introduction is entitled “The cruelty of backlash,” and the chapter is entitled “Is This the Second Redemption?” Redemption here refers to the undoing of the Reconstruction after the Civil War.

In the ninth chapter (Introduction: “The cruelty of exclusion,” Chapter title: “What We Do Now Will Define Us Forever,” Serwer makes an excellent critique of the Democrat’s inability to step up to the plate in this time of need. Writing in July of 2019 he observes that Democrats have “slow-walked investigations, retreated from court battles, and unilaterally surrendered the sword of impeachment… This foot-dragging will leave them with little time to actually look into presidential abuses before campaign season begins, effectively forfeiting a massive political advantage, to say nothing of abdicating their constitutional duties.”

He goes on “Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered the gibberish analysis that the president (Trump) was ‘self-impeaching,’ so no actual impeachment was necessary. When confronted with yet another woman accusing the president (Trump) of sexual assault, Pelosi said, ‘I haven’t paid much attention to it.’ When the politically connected financier Jeffrey Epstein was indicted again on charges of sex-trafficking minors, and Pelosi was asked what she would do about now-ousted labor secretary Alex Acosta, who negotiated a previous sweetheart deal with Epstein, she said, ‘It’s up to the president. It’s his Cabinet,’ a position indistinguishable from that of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell.”

A few pages later he asks “What, exactly, would be enough to rouse Democrats to action? … If congressional Democrats cannot or will not defend the principle that America belongs to all of its citizens, regardless of race, creed, color, or religion, their oaths to defend the Constitution are meaningless.”

And these are the good guys these days. Whew.