Your leaking thatched hut during the restoration of a pre-Enlightenment state.

 

Hello, my name is Judas Gutenberg and this is my blaag (pronounced as you would the vomit noise "hyroop-bleuach").



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Friday, October 23 2015
A cold front came through during the night, bringing sun and somewhat cooler temperatures. This meant that when I brought back today's haul of salvaged firewood, I didn't have to do it shirtless. (As I worked, I listened on my headphones to the audio portion of Rachæl Maddow's coverage last night of yesterday's Benghazi-Committee grilling of Hillary Clinton, now widely acknowledged to have been a disaster for the Republicans.) Today's firewood tally was 58.2 pounds of firewood for the inside and 38.5 pounds for the outside. It was so sunny that I didn't have to start a fire in the stove until about 3:30pm.
This evening I drove down to Ray & Nancy's house in Old Hurley and rode with Nancy to the Alebrijes Mexican restaurant in Uptown Kingston to celebrate Susan's birthday. Three or four people showed up for that whom I didn't know, though otherwise it was the usuals of our social group (minus, for some reason, the likes of Michæl and Carrie and Deborah, with whom Gretchen is still not on speaking terms). I sat across from Maressa, Mark, and Eva on the end of the table where the people I don't know were not sitting.
Mark had an interesting story from the village of New Paltz (where he still occasionally "lives," though he's been technically homeless since selling his house in downtown New Paltz last year). It seems local vegan chocolatier Lagusta (and occasional party guest) serves on New Paltz's planning board, and all was well until someone with a touch of tea party tried to convince the planning board to open their proceedings with the Pledge of Allegiance. Lagusta was outspoken against it, saying the Pledge was "third grade" and a "McCarthyite loyalty oath." Normally one would expect such an observation to be uncontroversial in a place as liberal as New Paltz, but evidently there is a small cadre of crazytown right wingers who are raising a huge stink about Lagusta's comment, especially the "third grade" part of it (and, of course, they're using her veganism as part of their attack). Now, according to Mark, there is some concern that there might even be some shitbag gun nut/white supremacist interest in the issue from outside the area (the irony being, of course, that white supremacists don't actually have any allegiance to this country as presently constituted). People can screech about Muslim terorists all they want, but the larger danger in this country is from our homegrown gun-obsessed white Christian crazies, who manage to burn black churches, seize and hold public land, and bomb women's health centers without even getting labeled terrorist.
The food came out as a family-style prix-fixe, though it was was presented somewhat differently (and, I thought, better). Most of the food came out as a single plate with different globs: Mexican polenta, black beans, broccoli, and rice. David had brought two enormous bottles of wine, and I hit the red pretty hard.
At some point in the meal, I regaled everyone at my end of the table with tales of the times I've done "the Monkey Dance," when people have acted negatively towards my dogs. Evidently I am so protective of my my "kiyads" that it actually makes me go crazy.


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