We're moving to North Carolina and are tired. Tired. Sore. Aching. Very.
Packing and moving stuff makes you realize that you have become a prisoner to that stuff. You don't own it, it owns you. It extracts your money and your energy, both physical and emotional. Do I keep this piece of useless doodad or do I throw it away? Is it worth paying somebody to ship it 3,000 miles or better to replace it on the other end or, horrors, do without it?
What about all that other stuff in boxes in the garage--the stuff you haven't looked at since you were a young buck in Pakistan? Thoughts turn macabre: When I pass, what will my kids do with my faded high school diploma? With my awards for obscure achievements in the State Department? With my collection of old stock certificates? With my sneakers? Should I just throw the stuff out, or should I hang on to it for some sort of ill-defined psychic/emotional reasons? Sigh . . . . Smithsonian, interested? Let me know . . . cheap.
All of this stuff has distracted me from my usual concerns with other types of stuff, i.e., politics. I've, nevertheless, been following from a distance and intermittently the Harvey Weinstein "scandal." Come on, folks! Is this a surprise? Haven't there been all sorts of books, plays, and even HOLLYWOOD MOVIES about the Hollywood casting couch? When I would visit my father's house in Malibu and hit the bars and restaurants, they were full of hopeful "starlets" from around the world seeking favor from rich, creepy, old guys. It was open season all year, and, unlike other types of hunting, there was an understanding between the predators and the prey, to wit, you get what you want, I get what I want--and, at times, it was hard to tell who was predator and who was prey. It was and is a sick, sick game, and all sides in it are to blame.
The devil can only buy your soul if it's up for sale.
Weinstein is a creep, and, as befits the majority of such creeps, he's a well-respected and much adulated (75 Oscars!) progressive creep who gives lots of money to Democrats. There are lots more where he comes from. Disgusting phony hypocrite--the motto of the progressive. Hillary call your husband, if you can find him, and ask him about it.
The election of President Trump has, I think, overturned a rock that would have stayed firmly in place had he not won. The insanity of Antifa, the Russia craziness, BLM violence, kneeling NFL etc., how much of that would have happened if Hillary had won? The Dems would have called it off real fast.
OK. Back to the other stuff . . . boxes are waiting, a photographer from the realtor's office is here, a handyman wants to be paid . . .
Weinstein the creep. Actually, I'd call him an expletive deleted.
ReplyDeleteHowever, part of me wonders how many of the women now coming forward to accuse him were thinking they were "just paying Hollywood dues" at the time, or thumbing their noses at the "Puritanical" upbringing? Also, why didn't the high-powered female execs and others in the area say or do something?
I'm seriously thinking of just not going to movies or watching most TV, simply because Hollywood, which did so much to undermine American morality, and has shilled for everything unwholesome, now shrieks about its violated virginity over Harvey-the-Schm*ck (in the literal, Ashkenazi Mommaloshen sense). It is about as disgusting as anything this side of a real kudos cable-making [former State people probably understand] atrocity can be.
My sympathies over your aching back, Dip. But, I hope NC proves a good home.
"When I pass, what will my kids do with my faded high school diploma?" Keep it. I'm delighted to have my mother's.
ReplyDeleteYep, stuff does beat the stuffing out of us, one way or another! Lately, I've come to appreciate the Greatest Stuff Destroyer known to man, well at least to this man. Hurricanes! Having endured the brutish arrival of 2 of those monsters over the past year, I can attest to the power of the beast's wind and water works. As well as the impish, if not hellish tricks for ruining the recollections of cherished family memories, especially for the fairer sex... too sad for me to watch a wife and daughter work days and weeks on end, hoping to salvage their ocean soaked, and mold infused photo albums, paperwork, clothes, costume jewelry, and their happy lifetimes in souvenirs and mementos... For me the end of stuff is swift, anything electric, fabric, paper, or wet longer than a week, gets a swift trip curbside and I don't look back, well sometimes late at night...
ReplyDeleteOn Watch~~~
When in doubt, throw it out ...
DeleteConga rats on your choice of new home. I hope you , the diplowife, and your canines enjoy it. I do however wonder that since you are going into an area that snows and snow causes rust, what you are going to do with your classic cars when you get there or are you going to sell them? And while I would love to own one of your cars I very much cannot afford it.
ReplyDeleteOne last observation. Someone commented on your last post that buying a snow shovel would be wise. While I agree, it would be wiser to buy a snowblower cause even a short driveway is a pain in the back to shovel, especially snow that turns to slush immediately. Just a little advice from denizen of New York's Southern Lake Ontario shoreline where snow is the friend that just hangs around until June.
The cars--alas!--have been sold . . .
DeleteIf you're in the Rayleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill (Triangle) area, you don't need no stinkin' snow shovel. But you do need to stay off the roads because nobody knows how to drive when there is a sprinkling of snow on the roads! It's bedlam when that happens.
Delete"The cars--alas!--have been sold . . ."
DeleteAt Californ-i-ay prices, I hope.
For in gay Californ-i-ay
Everything's more tremendous, titanic, stupendous
The climate is better, the ocean is wetter
The mountains are higher
The deserts are drier
The hills have more splendor
The girls have more gender
Californ-i-ay
Nah Henry,
DeleteThe "living-there-all[mostlys]-the-time" know, listen to the weather and do appropriately beforehand.
Then, wait a couple hours, maybe three four then venture out with tow-chains and whatever's the rescue of the hour.
Actually I (kinda) admire the North Carolinian's "neighborliness" as, here in Arkansas - as we generally have more ice than snow - we tend to wait until "the frantic" begins.
North Carolinians, generally speaking, don't do that.
***
Diplomad Sir?
You're tending more in the general area of King's Mountain, points southerly?
Wherever ... you'll find good neighbors.
JK
We have only been in the Triangle 4 years, and needed shovels and chippers at least once each year. Hard to find them locally when needed... the natives seem to use milk and bread instead. Snow plows seem to be against the law... most everything else is FINE, though.
DeleteThat Harvey retaliated against those who refused his advances beyond not choosing them for some particular role is the real evil here.
ReplyDeleteBest of all, this seems to be something that will not be swept under the rug this time. For one, the victims don't have to go through the MSM gatekeepers.
Agreed... but.... the overwhelming majority of those true victims will never be known. The past is a huge convolution, and backing out who was actually passed over because they weren't "playing the game" is just impossible.
DeleteI think we all pretty much knew this with the Roman Polanski scandal and the hideous ways in which celebrities and politicians alike all attempted to intercede upon his behalf. Or the other scandal.. or the other scandal.. or the... heck.. it's just inevitable when an industry accounts for so much money and glamour while typically requiring little or often no actual talent.
- reader #1482
How long before Weinstein claims his lecherousness is a disease, eliciting sympathy and sparking Lech(?) Awareness Marches? What color will the stupid little ribbon be?
ReplyDeleteWould participants in a Lech Awareness March (LEM) be known as lemmings? If so, a brown ribbon would seem appropriate.
DeleteAlready done- he’s checked into the Meadows where all the Dodges used to go back in the 80’s
DeleteWe have lived in our home for 20 years. One of our sons came home and told us it was like an episode of The Hoarders... So we staged a garage sale of just the stuff in the basement and first floor. It was a huge amount of work to do this. Note; we didn't even get to the 2nd floor. It was an interesting lesson in how little people think of your treasures. After the sale I called two charities to pick up the remainder. One of them took a look and walked away! Another took a few things. I've been feeding the stuff out to the garbage ever since.
ReplyDeleteSo no, don't get rid of HS diplomas or things like that but, if you think you might need a life jacket for a 3 year old some where down the line or the ski boots you wore in your 40's? Throw it out.
What I find most appalling with the behavior of Harvey Weinstein, is not the trading of sex for movie roles. That is an old old story. It is the power abuse that I find so vile. Harvey could have women lined up like a rock star if he only was interested in sex. No, he was more interested in domination. He enjoyed to the point of sexual gratification humiliating people, and in particular women. Like the bad guy in a cheap western shooting the ground in front of the hero, and yelling “Dance!”. He used his money to buy political cover, and his fame to ensure silence. A perfect example of what absolute power does.
ReplyDeleteOn another note: A number one benefit of fleeing Kalistan is you’ll be able to purchase a much wider variety of firearms, oh and obtain a carry permit, imagine that.
Not that everything is hunky-dory in NC.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2017/10/unc-avoids-athletic-sanctions-by-arguing-their-african-american-studies-dept-had-staggeringly-low-academic-standards.html#disqus_thread
Hillary was asked if Weinstein's behavior compared to her husbands. She said, "close, but no cigar."
ReplyDelete"These encounters did not constitute sexual relations as I understood that term to be defined at my January 17, 1998, deposition, but they did involve inappropriate intimate contact."
ReplyDeleteWilliam Jefferson Clinton
____
JK
American media have been an abscess, with maybe a scab covering it, and the scab has come off. Seeing, now, what horrible corruption lay inside, now surged forth, we might wonder much less why movies for at least forty years have been so thoroughly anti Christian. There have been so few Christian characters who were not bigots, hate-mongers, self-righteous, downright cruel. People not actively engaged in Christian belief and practice will no longer be familiar with the idea of rejoicing in Heaven over one sinner who repents. The idea that the churches would be thronged by people waiting to go to confession this Saturday afternoon, long Communion lines at Mass on Sunday morning, and Christians weeping tears of joy over the repentance of one or a thousand, no longer mired in sin, would have no place in popular thought, which will see us as smugly clucking tongues. What if Ronan Farrow and his mother made it to Mass tomorrow? He knew the story. He tried to get it published. Will he be sitting in a pew next to James PO'Keefe? I've had a touch of asthma, lately, so, I'm not holding my breath.
ReplyDeletePresident Donald Trump made a comment about the sickness of Hollywood, and his words were eagerly distorted to make him say he had grabbed women by their [PRIVATES]They have tried very hard to bring him down to their level. Could a few dozen entertainment industry people in sack cloth and ashes turn the country around? Let's try it out and see. (And rejoice!)
Not unknown, Michael F Adams
DeleteMight be hard scrounging up a few dozen... maybe start with 2... because I'm only certain there's at least one.
DeleteMFA, I am so glad that Weinstein is unmasked. Maybe it will lead to a healthy discussion about Hollywood and the film industry. I have almost lost my interest for American films, they are never relevant these days. So many burning issues in the society and the world today, the filmmakers never touch any of them. And I am not surprised that the ( too few ) female characters often are so not credible when creeps like Weinstein are dominating the industry.Creeps like him know nothing about true love, love between mother and children, normal life. Flush these people out.
DeleteSwedish lady
Hey there SL. Had not heard from you in some days. Glad to see you are still following the story. This is one of those, "Who would you want in the foxhole next to you?" things, and you are on the short list.
DeleteNo, my Beloved Spousal Unit is not jealous. I've got her to reading your comments, too. She had dismissed the Dip as a boys club, so it was nice to have another 'girl' in here.
MFA, I have been in Salzburg, Austria, one of the sensible countries in Europe nowadays. The Austrians have election today and will most likely go Right. They have already prohibited the Burqa. I can tell you that there were Chinese tourists all over the place.
DeleteBy the way, say hello to your wife from me. I am sure she is delighted about Weinsteins disgrace too.
Swedish lady
two storage units, a two car garage, and a house full of stuff. My daughter has threatened to disown me if I die before I off-load at least the storage units, heh, heh. Good luck on the move.
ReplyDeleteYeah, a garage can be a pest. What shall we do with the beehive that I never got round to repairing?
Delete