existentialautotrip ezine: March 19, 2023
# 1598

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COVER:
Elizabeth Warren
Fighter for ‘Working America’ making a point
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Commentary
Champions of working America understand that raising the lending rate to combat inflation is shifting the burden onto working Americans. At a recent Senate meeting with the Chair of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, the debate heated up when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) emphasized that even a 4.6% jobless rate would imply another 2 million Americans were out of work. "Putting 2 million people out of work is just part of the cost, and they just have to bear it?" she asked, incredulously. Warren added that history has no real examples of unemployment rising only slightly outside of a recession; when unemployment rises, it tends to overshoot anything the Fed now forecasts.
Effective severe-to-confiscatory taxation of billionaires would be a far fairer way to cool the economy.

Aha!
Just after I penned the above paragraph, this came over the wire:

President Biden today will propose a series of tax increases for wealthy Americans and large corporations, Bloomberg reported and Axios confirmed.

The budget, which he's releasing this afternoon in Philadelphia, includes a 25% minimum tax on the richest 0.01% of Americans.

The budget would close a loophole that allows some wealthy investors with "passthrough businesses" to avoid paying tax on their investments, Axios' Sareen Habeshian and Hans Nichols report.

It also would increase the top tax rate for Americans making $400,000 a year to 39.6% from 37%, reversing a Trump-era tax bill.

The budget sets the corporate tax rate at 28% — still well below the 35% rate that prevailed prior to the 2017 tax law, a White House official said.

God, in her heaven, sent J Biden to Washington to bring us closer to equality. Yippee!!!

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Kat’s Gen Z Corner   

More than most, my dad has been many things. Lawyer, restaurant-owner, entrepreneur, husband, cookbook, ezine and blog author. Not one, however, has he taken more meaning from than being a father.

For most of my childhood, my dad and I lived in a one bedroom apartment in Somerville, where he raised me off the money he earned from serving at Limoncello’s, an Italian restaurant in the North End. Perhaps because he was accustomed to struggle, the limitations of being a working class single father never stopped my dad from curating a beautiful life for me. 

Every night, without fail, he took to the kitchen to cook us an elaborate meal. I never once ate frozen or, god forbid, fast food. Every night, he would select a movie or television show, occasionally pausing the program to walk me through the subtleties of the plot. He would read books out loud to me until I fell asleep, and we would parse through what happened in the morning. Looking back on this now, I don’t remember him once looking fatigued or complaining about exhaustion. 

The little spending money we had only went to my development. He put everything in front of me. Theater and writing classes, classes at the MFA, piano and Italian lessons, ice skating. The little free time he had also only went to me. For years, he endured over an hour of Boston traffic just to watch me play middle school basketball in my mom’s suburb of North Andover on Thursdays, take me back to Somerville for a night, and return me to school the next morning. He never missed a game. 

My dad operated effortlessly in the grind, what he was long used to, but his heart always belonged to the finer things of life, which never lessened even during times of financial downturn. Together, we explored every new exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. We spoke at length about the way Audrey Hepburn carried herself at the end of My Fair Lady. And once a year, he saved enough money for us to eat at Arrows, where he taught me how to order and eat properly at a high end restaurant. At age 9, it was important that I knew what an “amuse-bouche” was. 

There were so many special moments and traditions that molded me into someone who invests in their life. This is the greatest gift any parent can bestow on their child, and that's what my dad gave me.

Suffice it to say, life was also terribly difficult during these years. I still have flashbacks of family court, of an exhausted dad picking me up at Grandma Nonna’s past midnight after a shift at the restaurant, of wearing winter gear to bed to avoid getting bitten by bed bugs, (Ed. Note: Writer is omitting the regular appearance of rats in the apartment, the near murder of a man found stabbed and bleeding on our doorstep one morning when we stepped out to get to school, and the daily drug deals in our building. But the apartment was affordable.) of repeatedly screaming “I want to go to my mom’s!” 

Not an easy time. 

But the genius of my father was his patience and tenacity. He never gave up. Do you want to go to the cafe with me? No. Do you want to go for a walk? No. Do you want to keep learning the piano, ice skating, theater? No, no, no. 

Then, one day: do you want to uproot your life at near 13-years-old to come live in the city with me? 

Yes.
(Ed. One afternoon Kat was with her mother and I and Kat was extolling living with me in Boston. In a pique, her mother said, “Well you can always go live with your father.” And then the little near-13-year-old stunned both parents, “Alright.” And that ended custody fights and began six brilliant years of single-parent, single-fatherhood.)

Today, I am my father’s daughter. I love walking in the city, taking refuge in a cafe with a good novel, and even birding once in a while in Central Park, like we used to in Plum Island. My dad’s influence and my brothers’ love, in many ways, saved my life. But I think the years of raising me also helped save my father’s. 

My dad has wrestled with demons that most of us could not comprehend. Growing up in the terribly backwards neighborhood of the 1950s North End, my dad came to fatherhood with a lot of heaviness. I do not share the stories of my brothers and their dad who threw steaks across the room in anger. We had different mothers, and, in many respects, different fathers. But despite our divergent upbringings, we all came into adulthood with an amazing curiosity of life and a genuine kindness for others that is impossibly rare. And our common denominator is my father.

Shedding off layers of anger and shame is a battle of a lifetime for us all, and it’s one to which my dad has courageously dedicated his life. Few people have as successfully opened their heart and emerged from poverty as decent and giving of a person as my father. I’d like to think he worked at himself for himself, but I know the driving force behind his growth was his children.

Today is my dad’s 81st birthday. Today he is one of the healthiest and most energetic people I know. And I think that’s because he’s largely won his battle. With age, my dad has softened into a man willing to compromise, a man willing to be vulnerable and listen with a bit more tenderness in his heart. And for that, I am so proud.

I hope one day I will be as selfless and devoted to my children as you were to me. 

Happy Birthday, Dad. I love you.

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Naia’s Corner
An arm, an eye, and a cigarette. Is it the arm that holds the weapon or the eye that foresees its demise? This is a question of ignorance or negligence, the lesser of two evils.

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Tucker’s Corner

With its second season looming at the tail end of March I thought I’d spend some time writing about a truly incredible series on Showtime that slipped off most folks’ radars and really shouldn’t be missed.

A teenage girl runs through the snowy forest in the low light of dawn. She’s wearing pajamas and she’s barefoot. As she runs, she passes crude carvings of eyes on the trees around her, and makeshift effigies made of twigs and hair. Drawing ever closer are animalistic noises that sound as much like forest creatures as they do the sounds of humans who’ve lost touch with civilization. The running girl stops, overcome by fear, and begins to cry. The sounds draw closer, so she runs again this time only making it a few feet before falling into a pit full of sharpened sapling trunks. The camera moves in close to reveal that she’s been impaled in six different places. A figure wearing animal pelts to fend off the winter cold approaches the trap and looks down at its prey. The figure wears pink Converse All-Stars.  

So begins Showtime’s Yellowjackets, a series that came out of absolutely nowhere in November of 2021 and bowled me over with its storytelling, its incredibly rendered characters, and its performances across its large cast. Now with the 2nd season of this dramatic horror/mystery series about to hit at the end of March I thought I would write a bit about the show’s first season in the hope that I can get a few more Yellowjackets fans excited at the prospect of having an excellent week to week series to watch!  

The title of the series refers to the name of many of the main character's high school soccer team in 1996. The premiere, expertly directed by Karyn Kusama (The Invitation), introduces us to the major players on the Yellowjackets while also cutting back and forth in time between their teen years and today. Through well designed flashbacks we learn that that opening sequence I described takes place at some point during 1996. The hunted girl was a member of the Yellowjackets. The hunter, one of her teammates. 

On their way to a national competition, the Yellowjackets get in a horrible plane crash. Stranded in the middle of nowhere, they struggle to survive, and we watch as a hierarchy develops between the survivors a la Lord of the Flies. Yellowjackets primarily alternates between the weeks after the crash and a series of events that unfold 25 years later, threatening to expose the truth of what happened in the Canadian wilderness. Some of the girls made it home, but they have been receiving postcards about the secrets they’ve kept about how exactly they survived their ordeal. Is someone blackmailing them? Why? And what exactly do they know? 

One of the strengths of the writing here is how distinctly the writers and performers sketch the characters, both as teenagers and adults. If there’s a lead, it’s probably Melanie Lynskey/Sophie Nélisse as Shauna Sheridan, who seems like the quiet girl on the team but takes a big secret into the crash with her. As the adult Shauna, the always reliable Lynskey perfectly captures a kind of reckless trauma, the way that survivors of the unimaginable often take greater risks and look at the world a little differently—and Nélisse deftly echoes the adult Shauna without ever feeling like she’s impersonating Lynskey. Her best friend Jackie (Ella Purnell) never came home, and Shauna knows some things about why she will never be able to confess. 

If Shauna’s trauma has turned into recklessness, Natalie’s has become white-hot rage. Passionately played by Juliette Lewis as an adult and Sophie Thatcher, also great, as a teen, Natalie is ready to close some of the loops on what happened a quarter-century ago. She reconnects with Misty (Christina Ricci/Sammi Hanratty), the girl who seemed the most harmless on the plane but one who may in actuality be a sociopath, then and especially now. Ricci nails the kind of unsettling smile that hides a deeply disturbed mind. Finally, there’s the truly troubled Taissa (Tawny Cypress/Jasmin Savoy Brown), who seems to have it all—a wife, son, and even a campaign for State Senate—but is deeply haunted by what happened to her, even if she's spent much of her life trying to bury it. 

There’s a fascinating tonal balance in Yellowjackets in that the wilderness scenes play out like a slow-motion car crash. Because of what is revealed in the premiere, we know things are going to get very bad. So, seeing the girls talk about rescue, hunt for food, and even have moments of happiness have the air of a slow-burn horror movie. At the same time, the writing develops the characters in present day with depth, even playing out like a traditional drama at times such as when Shauna meets a man who tempts her with potential infidelity or Taissa struggles with raising her son. The writing very smartly doesn’t draw direct lines from the teen years to the adult ones—there’s a much worse version of this show that does that very bluntly—and yet we come to see the characters both teen and middle aged as one.  

The cohesive nature of Yellowjackets wouldn’t exist without a truly great ensemble, and what I admire most about the show is how much there’s not a single weak link here and plenty of standouts—every time I thought one performer like Lynskey, Lewis, or Thatcher would start to steal it, I was impressed by another actress. It’s also a wickedly funny show, both literally such as when a girl laments that a dead teammate won't get to hear Oasis’ "Wonderwall" again and in production choices. I laughed out loud when they played Jane’s Addiction’s “Mountain Song” over a flashback of the plane crashing into, well, a mountain. 

Teen dramas are typically about those years in which we figure out who we are. Yellowjackets is a show where that phase of life takes place in the most extreme conditions imaginable. What kind of adults emerge from that crucible? There are clear influences on display from Lord of the Flies to LOST, but I found the way it shapes its many genres into something resonant refreshing. Kusama expertly sets the stage with the vicious premiere and then every episode after that builds on it with none of the bloat or wheel-spinning so common to prestige TV. I can’t wait for the second season to begin!  

Chris’ Corner

On my final fishing day, I went for the high risk, high reward option by choosing to fish a lake with very large trout, but fewer fish overall. The forecast called for less wind today so we thought it would be a great option. Alas, we were skunked until 15 minutes before the end of the day when I caught one nice brown as a final goodbye gift from the Patagonia gods.

A few people have asked for examples of flies we’re using so I’m attaching a picture of the streamer that I used for a lot of the day. When it’s cold and windy (like today), and you don’t see any fish rising to the surface of the water to eat flies, it’s a good idea to try something below the surface until the fish get more active. This streamer is meant to look like a little fish. There are also streamers that are meant to look like mice or frogs that can entice really big fish who go for that big meal in one gulp. You cast the streamer onto the water, wait a few seconds for it to sink down, and then you give the line little strips with a slight pause between each strip to pull the streamer towards you. This tug causes that streamer to sort of jump through the water as it if was a fish (or frog) propelling itself forward. It’s fun to see the streamer coming toward your rod and see a trout chasing it. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen much at all today, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Another angler from our group also fished the same lake today (Lake Junco or the lake of reeds) and he caught an absolute monster so I’m including a not-so-great picture that still gives you a sense for its size and weight. The guide from that boat estimated it was 25 inches long, but you can also see how tanky this one is.

It's amazing to me that I can enjoy catching (almost) no fish after 8 hours of working a streamer in cold and windy weather on these lakes. Trout live in beautiful places and it’s special to spend time in these surroundings regardless of the fish count.

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Writing
Last year I failed to find an agent to represent my manuscript to publishers. I applied to 66 agents, 7 showed interest then walked away. It was a blow.
I thought about it and concluded that I was caught in a bind. As a new writer, publishers will not accept manuscripts greater than 100,000 words, most not taking more than 80,000 words. My original manuscript was 150,000 words. For me to get in the door, I had to split the manuscript into two and present the first half as a finished novel.
The book wasn’t designed that way and the ending was thin.

For five months the manuscript lay gathering dust.  I have returned to it and I am presently editing the second half with the intent to find an agent or publisher who will turn the 150,000 words into a book.
The editing will take about three months. I still have an ezine to which I must tend.

Wish me luck.

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Recipe
Here’s a recipe I developed:

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE

Ingredients:
3-4 pounds corned beef brisket
1 ½ lbs small red potatoes
1 onion, sliced
1 ½ lbs carrots, washed and cut into chunks
1 head of cabbage, chopped into small wedges

8 cups of water
1 bottle of dark beer (optional)
1 tablespoon of mustard
1 tablespoon of coriander
1 tablespoon of black peppercorns
4-6 bay leaves
1TB cloves
1TB juniper berries

Instructions:
Rinse the corned beef brisket and place it in a large pot. Add water, beer (if using), mustard seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, and bay leaves
Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cover the pot and let the corned beef cook for about 3-4 hours or until it is tender.
Add the potatoes, onion, and carrots to the pot and let them cook for about 30 minutes.
Finally, add the chopped cabbage to the pot and let it cook for another 15-20 minutes or until the cabbage is tender.

Remove the corned beef and vegetables from the pot and place them on a platter. Slice the corned beef against the grain and serve it with the vegetables.

Suggestions:
Horseradish/Tobasco/Japanese pickles/Mustard/Cherry Sauce/Soy and Wasabi

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Chuckles and Thoughts
The Octopus: Ogden Nash

“Tell me, O Octopus, I begs,
Is those things arms, or is they legs?
I marvel at thee, Octopus;
If I were thou, I’d call me us.”

We asked ChatGPT what makes this poem work and it answered:

Ogden Nash's poem "The Octopus" works because of its clever use of language and humor to convey a serious message about the dangers of monopolies.

The poem uses a light and whimsical tone to describe the tentacled sea creature, the octopus, which represents the monopolistic power of large corporations. Nash uses playful and imaginative descriptions of the octopus, such as "his eight great arms a-hugging" and "his whiskers mat the waters," to illustrate the insidious nature of monopolies.

However, beneath the humor, Nash is making a serious point about the dangers of monopolies and their ability to stifle competition, exploit workers, and harm society. By using humor and satire to convey this message, Nash is able to engage his audience and make his point in an entertaining and memorable way.

Overall, the poem's successful combination of humor and social commentary make it a memorable and effective piece of writing.

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Understanding Ageing
I’m eighty-one. Can you imagine?
I hum through my days feeling fine then one day, for either all or half the day, I feel like I can’t get out of my easy chair. So tired. No other symptoms. Just tired. A few hours later I feel fine.

That is old age. I’ll bet there is no cure for that so I won’t bother my medical care people.

I did ask ChatGPT and it responded predictably.
Get sleep, eat well, exercise, plant food, call doctor.
What a surprise.

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Social Life
After a couple of weeks of relative quiet, my social life exploded at the turn of March. until March 20 I have all the activities I need.
It’s nice.

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Mail and other Conversation
We love getting mail, email, or texts, including links.

Send comments to domcapossela@hotmail.com
or text to 617.852.7192

This from a dear friend:

Dom,
Kat's tribute to you is beautiful. What a love! 
Blog meister responds: As a parent you feel how moving such a piece is.

And from another friend:

And Kat’s post made me tear up as well 😘
And another,
Sweet and complete.
Blog meister responds: Thank you, my dears. Love.

And this from dear friend Sally C who publishes a great blog for writers @ brasscastlearts@gmail.com

Dear Dom,

Ogden Nash’s “cow” couplet reminded me of this old favorite from my childhood:

The Purple Cow
by Gelett Burgess

I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one,
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!

And this one, from a beat-up little book of rhymes that had long lost its cover when my mother found it at a yard sale in the 1950s (I have no clue who penned this ditty):

The buffalo, the buffalo,
He had a horrid snuffalo.
And not a single Indian chief
Would lend the beast a handkerchief.

Enjoy!
Sally

Blog meister responds: Love the 1950s.

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Short Essay*
Why does Elizabeth Warren support Joe Biden?

Since taking office in January 2021, President Joe Biden has made helping the poor a top priority. He has taken several measures to provide direct relief to struggling families, expand access to social programs, and address the root causes of poverty.

One of President Biden's most significant actions was the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion relief bill signed into law in March 2021. This legislation provided direct payments of up to $1,400 per person, expanded unemployment benefits, and increased the child tax credit. These measures have provided much-needed support to low-income families who have been hit hard by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to the American Rescue Plan, President Biden has taken steps to expand access to food assistance programs. He increased the amount of money that families receive from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and expanded eligibility for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. These measures have helped ensure that families have enough to eat and can afford healthy, nutritious food.

The president has also taken action to address the housing crisis, which disproportionately affects low-income families. He extended the nationwide moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, providing relief to millions of Americans struggling to pay their rent or mortgage. President Biden has also proposed investing billions of dollars in affordable housing, including the construction of new units and the rehabilitation of existing ones.

In addition to these direct relief measures, President Biden has proposed policies aimed at reducing economic inequality and increasing wages. He has called for a $15 federal minimum wage and has taken steps to strengthen worker protections and support collective bargaining. He has also proposed increasing taxes on the wealthy and investing in education and workforce development programs to help low-income workers access higher-paying jobs.

Overall, President Biden has taken a multifaceted approach to helping the poor, providing direct relief, expanding social programs, and addressing the root causes of poverty. While there is still much work to be done, these measures represent a significant step forward in the fight against economic inequality in the United States.

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People
Elizabeth Warren is an American politician, scholar, and author who was born on June 22, 1949, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She is known for her progressive views and her work as a consumer advocate and expert in bankruptcy law.

Warren graduated from the University of Houston in 1970 with a degree in speech pathology and audiology. She went on to earn a law degree from Rutgers Law School and later a Master of Laws from the University of Houston Law Center.

In the early 2000s, Warren gained national recognition for her work as a consumer advocate and expert in bankruptcy law. She became a leading voice in the fight against predatory lending practices and played a key role in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was established in 2011.

Warren entered politics in 2012 when she ran for the United States Senate in Massachusetts. She won the election and has since become a leading progressive voice in Congress. She has advocated for policies to reduce income inequality, strengthen the social safety net, and protect consumers from abusive practices by financial institutions.

Throughout her career, Warren has authored numerous books, including "The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke," and "A Fighting Chance." She has also been a professor of law at Harvard Law School and has received numerous awards and honors for her work as a scholar and public servant.

*The Blog Meister selects the topics for the Lead Picture and the Short Essay and then leans heavily on Wikipedia and ChatGPT  to provide the content. The Blog Meister usually edits the entries.

**Community Pictures with Captions are sent in by our followers. Feel free to send in yours to domcapossela@hotmail.com

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