Whirlwind Brain

Kindness and Lysistrata

Seriously, Atomic Shakespeare is the best Shrew adaptation ever. Watch how things change from the play 30 minutes in, as Petruchio gets nice and Katerina asks for respect and offers sex and you're all "awwwww!" 

"I saw me in thee." 

THEN HE AGREES WITH HER RE: THE SUN/MOON AND I LOVE IT. 'I was wrong and hath learned it from a woman." Then he publicly renounces the dowry/bet. "Kate never needed to be tamed, she merely needed to be loved." Then she dips him. 

This one supposedly had the worst ratings ever, which makes me sad.

I loved this

Washington Post: If Trump has nuclear documents at home, I’m sure it’s for good reason

The guy with the nuclear football insisted on loyally following Trump home, even though Trump repeatedly told him to “Go on, now. Git!” while blinking back tears.

Trump was tired and distracted at the end of a big day at work and suddenly remembered he needed to purchase a card for his son’s birthday. An aide rushed out to get one. When an aide next came in, Trump grabbed the paper that was put down before him and hastily signed it with birthday wishes, seized it and put it into his pocket. Well, just the other day, the Biden administration opened a very secure briefcase and found an unsigned birthday card, and they figured out pretty quickly what must have happened!

Trump was busy flushing a big pile of documents and did not notice that he had gotten some classified materials stuck to his shoe. Unfortunately, the material was too classified to even be described, so nobody could tell him it was there, and he dragged it to Florida without even realizing he was doing it.

Trump was holding the nuclear documents and also a Coke and an umbrella, and when somebody gave him one more thing to hold, he put it under his arm and forgot about it for two years.

Trump decided he would take the documents and cat with him and wait for a better time, but the cat has hissed at him every time he has tried to get the documents out from under it. This situation has continued for two years.

He ain't worth it

Washington Post: The horror of people willing to die for Donald Trump

The number of people who have died seemingly in service of an idol as unworthy as Donald Trump is tragic.

Ashli Babbitt was looking for meaning because her military career had stalled out, and her pool company was failing. The QAnon conspiracy theory — which presents Trump as a bulwark against a secret cabal of powerful pedophiles — gave Rosanne Boyland purpose and a framework for understanding the world as she struggled with addiction.

The absurdity and maliciousness of the cause for which these people have died only compounds the horror of their deaths. How is it that no one, no institution, could offer something more substantive than the manifest hollowness of Trump and Trumpism?

 

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH

NYT: "Did you find it exhausting playing such a lying, emotional manipulator who has to have cybersex with his own son?"

 

More splooting!

Slate: Who Sploots?

 

Blame it on being hungry

The Neuroscience Behind Bad Decisions Irrationality may be a consequence of the brain’s ravenous energy needs.

Splooting!

Washington Post: What does ‘splooting’ mean? And why are New York’s squirrels doing it?

“If you see a squirrel lying down like this, don’t worry; it’s just fine.” It added that “on hot days, squirrels keep cool by splooting (stretching out) on cool surfaces to reduce body heat. It is sometimes referred to as heat dumping.”

When your correspondent, sitting comfortably in an air-conditioned office, looked up splooting online in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the response yielded no results: “The word you’ve entered isn’t in the dictionary.”

The U.S. National Park Service also said the hot weather has given rise to “Sploot Season,” and it encouraged its four-legged inhabitants this summer, “Sploot like nobody’s watching.”

Water polo at 80+

NYT: It’s Never Too Late to Take Up Water Polo Mark Braly, 86, has spent the last decade playing a particularly challenging team sport. Is he good? No — but that’s not the point

Growing up, I wanted to be athletic and wasn’t. Water polo gives me a feeling that I can do sports even though I’m not good at them. And I’ve made wonderful friends. It makes me feel appreciated and supported, two things I didn’t receive in my previous jobs.

Aw, this is rather sweet

Washington Post: Ask Amy: He’s much younger but I fantasize about being with him

Amy is all for this:

Fifteen years ago, I called a guy I went to high school with to renovate my house. He renovated my life, instead.

My point is that it is possible to meet “Mr. Right” — or “Mr. Right Now” — in your own living room.

If you truly don't want to become involved with this man, then you should limit your time spent with him, get him to finish up the contracted work, pay him, send him on his way and continue to live your life — as is.

However, life is short. Hot sex is great.

Understand that there are qualifications about being and staying safe. Do what you can to find out about this man beyond his Yelp reviews, and if you decide to go for it, use a condom.

No change in your circumstances is guaranteed to be seamless, happy or easy.

Any involvement with him would bring on questions, uncertainty, and quite possibly an uncomfortable upheaval for you. But — I repeat — a sexual reawakening is life affirming and lovely.

Even the emotional pain that might accompany the possible outcome of the “friends with benefits” scenario can be worth it, because reconnecting with your sensual side will remind you to love yourself, to live fully in your own body, and that it’s okay to be daring and occasionally wild.

The Emma Thompson film “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” (currently streaming on Hulu) might inspire you.

This is adorable

The snuggly, adorable love story of a kitty and a bird. (Disclaimer: mention of the  death of another pet does happen.)