tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37794015401133591432024-03-12T21:04:28.019-07:00What’s on My Mind?What’s on my mind? I’m Nicole Parton, retired columnist and reporter with a Big City newspaper; author and co-author of 10 traditionally published non-fiction books; blogger at Nicole Parton’s Favorite Recipes. To find me there, go to https://nicoleparton.blogspot.com
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Don’t worry ... Your privacy’s paramount. No ads ... No unwanted messages. Even I won’t know your email address. What’s on my mind? Read on.NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.comBlogger216125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-78379159127880551712021-12-12T20:29:00.010-08:002022-08-17T14:37:16.318-07:00The Men in the Yellow Slickers<span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;">What’s on my mind? </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: center;">The Men in the Yellow Slickers. </span></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">Many years ago, during a bad patch in my life, I lost the creativity that had formerly served me well. Grappling for something to kick-start it, I began making scented candles to peddle at Christmas craft fairs. </span><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />I actually have no idea how to make scented candles, so when suspicious customers asked, I had to admit the “scent” was wax. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">I also have no idea (or aptitude, or interest) in making candles, so stuck Walmart’s cheapest into holes I’d drilled into driftwood. Voilà! Easy money. To lure customers to my Christmas craft fair table, I lit a candle, unaware it was (duh!) directly under a smoke detector. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">It wasn’t long before 400 panicked customers and crafters ran for their lives after the WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP! of the smoke alarm sounded and the words “EVACUATE THE BUILDING! EVACUATE THE BUILDING!” blasted over the PA system. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">It also wasn’t long before half-a-dozen men in yellow slickers jogged into the building with axes balanced over their shoulders, presumably to smash the ceiling and beat down the blaze.<br /><br />One fire fighter soon exited, holding a candle high in the air. “Whose candle is this?” he yelled. Thus ended my candle-making career. This is a true story.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">What’s on my mind? The Men in the Yellow Slickers, Part II: A few years ago (not as long ago as the craft fair crisis, but still, more years ago than I have toes), on a cold March day when my late mother-in-law turned 96 (a bigger number than she and I had fingers and toes combined), I bought a massive Safeway cake on which I placed 96 candles.</div></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;">This turned out not to be a very “safe way” to celebrate her big day. Inviting everyone in her retirement home to gather round a large table for a slice of cake, I lit every one of the 96 candles on the cake (You know where this is going).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br />The piercing scream of the smoke alarm sounded seconds later. As the staff pushed and walkered and wheeled the confused patients out the door (one even in his <i>bed!</i>), in (once again) jogged the men in the yellow slickers, axes on their shoulders.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br />While the patients shivered, I remember watching the staff huddle together for warmth, chewing the fat and puffing on their cigarets. <br /><br />One fire fighter emerged to ask: “Who belongs to this birthday cake?” Someone had to take the rap. So naturally, I pinned it on my mother-in-law. This is also a true story.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: large;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: Georgia;">© Nicole Parton, 2021 </i><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;"> </span></span></div>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-50231836481527367012021-11-20T17:14:00.034-08:002021-11-24T20:19:58.417-08:00Keeping the Bird’s Hoo-Hah Moist<p><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;">Thirty-five days to Christmas: Never too soon to plan. Anonymous Mum and Anonymous Stepdad are celebrating at daughter X and son-in-law Y’s place for the first time. X and Y will cook dinner; sister Z will act as sous-chef. Partners V and W will</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #b51700; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;">also be there.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Have X, Y, and Z ever roasted a turkey? Anonymous Mum doubts it. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">V is vegan. Anonymous Mum’s</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #b51700; font-kerning: none;"><b> </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">irrational fear of veganism is vaguely connected to her irrational fear of</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #b51700; font-kerning: none;"><b> </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">gymnasiums. She’s also unsure if preparing gravy with poultry stock is the right or wrong thing to do. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 7:30 am, Nov. 17, after a restless night of worry, Anonymous Mum emails X: “Anonymous Stepdad and I will buy the turkey and stick it in the freezer. There’ll be shortages this year, so we’ll have to move fast …” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">(This will leave Anonymous Mum in a position to shoo everyone from the kitchen, as she’s</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #b51700; font-kerning: none;"><b> </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">always done. Her reasoning? Over decades of cooking, Anonymous Mum has encountered and conquered Freezer Burn! Oven Failure! Over-Cooking! Under-Cooking! Salmonella! Turkeys Dropped On the Floor! Miscellaneous Disasters! She secretly worries X, Y, Z, and T</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #b51700; font-kerning: none;"><b> </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">lack the fortitude to confront such challenges without dissolving into a puddle of tears.) </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 8:19 am, Nov. 17, X emails Anonymous Mum: “Leave it to us to buy the turkey. This will be a low-maintenance, easy meal. If you’d like to bring the stuffing, that would be fine.” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Anonymous Mum’s pork stuffing has always drawn raves. But what if Anonymous Mum were the last to know Y has converted to Judaism? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 12:56 pm, Nov. 17, Anonymous Mum emails back: “$#&@!” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 12:59 pm, Nov. 17, X emails: “Simplicity and ease are how we roll. This is a mellow, chill, easy Christmas dinner. ”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Anonymous Mum feels neither mellow nor chill. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 1:04 pm, Nov. 17, she emails X that: “We can keep the turkey in our portable electric mini-fridge (the “Mobicooler”) on the way to your place. It (the Mobicooler; not the turkey) converts from AC to Car C. We can cook it (the turkey; not the Mobicooler) and the stuffing in your oven, and you can do the rest.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“I’ll bring my turkey pan, turkey lifter, turkey thermometer, carving knife, carving board, big platter, gravy whisker, foil, food storage bags, food recycling bags, and plastic garbage bags. Everything’s under control …”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 2:27 pm Nov. 17, X emails: “We have everything we need, Anonymous Mum. Just bring the stuffing.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Anonymous Mum broods over this.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 4:03 pm Nov. 17, Anonymous Mum emails X: “Tip! If you decide to make mashed potatoes, do them early, put them in a slow cooker on ‘warm,’ and they’ll remain hot for several hours.</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #b51700; font-kerning: none;"><b> </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I can lend you my large or small slow cooker. Personally, I’d use the small one, but I’ll bring both. There’s always a tendency to cook too many potatoes. Don’t overdo it.” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 4:19 pm Nov. 17, X emails Anonymous Mum: “$#&@!” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 4:26 pm Nov. 17, Anonymous Mum whinges to X: “I was only trying to help … Belts and suspenders: We have a counter-sized portable oven and a portable counter-top induction stove element, if you need them. There’s plenty of room in our deep freeze, so think twice about that turkey! Let me know your preferences (organic, free-range, vegan, keto, paleo, gluten-free, glutinous, or a supermarket bird dumb enough to have been born a turkey).</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“We’re totally easy about the meal and are <i>definitely</i> not locked </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">into</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> turkey! You <i>still</i> don’t have a microwave? You’ll be <i>saw-ree!!!</i> </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">Smart thinking:<b style="color: #b51700;"> </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When you and I and Y and Z and V start cooking, let’s keep</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> in touch by texting from kitchen to kitchen!” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">X does not respond to Anonymous Mum’s email.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At 5:07 pm Nov. 17, Anonymous Mum anxiously emails X: “I’ll</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #b51700; font-kerning: none;"><b> </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">be happy to make the stuffing! Happy! Happy! Happy! You probably recall the superb stuffings of your childhood. I <i>do</i> make excellent stuffing!</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“What kind should I make? My outstanding pork stuffing keeps the bird’s hoo-hah moist. I use a never-fail mathematical formula to make stuffing, and eat whatever doesn’t fit inside the bird. Should I make a vegan stuffing for V? What actually <i>is</i> veganism, anyway? Are deep-fried veggies vegan?” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;">X remains silent. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;">V is silent, too.<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Shortly before bed, at 10:07 pm Nov. 17, Anonymous Mum emails X: “This is going to be the <i>best Christmas dinner ever! </i>Simplicity and ease are how we roll.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021 </i> </span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-54763579484205520542021-06-26T08:25:00.002-07:002021-09-05T13:58:27.406-07:00On Sabbatical!<p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I’m on sabbatical</span>. I have no idea if or when I’ll return. Lucky you!</p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">xox</span></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Nicole</span></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-67542260468398402402021-06-24T06:48:00.044-07:002021-06-24T08:13:42.997-07:00Pole Dancing, the Dance of the Single Veil, and the Goose<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">So I had this crackpot idea to hang a piece of blue veil on the back wall of the outside of our house. I bought this piece of blue veil 12 years ago, and all this time, I’ve been wondering what to do with it. Its brushed chrome grommets screamed “curtain,” even if it looked like … <i>So much more</i>. It was a piece of blue veil, full of mystery and intrigue. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Have you <i>any idea</i> how much brushed chrome grommets <i>cost</i>, these days? Nor do I, but I remember thinking they were <i>pret-ty</i> pricey when I bought this particular piece of blue veil. Moreover, I paid something like 75 bucks to have a turquoise header and tie-back professionally made and sewn to it.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The piece of blue veil was turquoise back then, but the sun faded it, its header, and its tie-back to a blah-ish blue over the three weeks the piece of blue veil hung on the back wall of the outside of our house.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Don’t bother asking why I did this, because believe me, you don’t want to hear the (ir)rationale behind my crackpot idea to hang a piece of blue veil on the back wall of the outside of our house.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">On seeing the piece of blue veil on the back wall of the outside of our house, the twice-jabbed Appy People who dropped in for same said: “Why’s a shower curtain hanging on the back wall of your house?” The piece of blue veil is not a <i>shower curtain</i>, thank you very much. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Never apologize, never explain: Not wanting the Appy People to think I’d had the crackpot idea to hang a piece of blue veil on the back wall of the outside of our house, I glared at Himself with a slight sneer and lip-lift. Let the A</span>ppy People draw their own conclusions, I thought. </p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Two weeks later, when Dinner Peoples’ eyes slid like eggs in a skillet at the piece of blue veil hung on the back wall of the outside of our house, they</span> tactfully said nothing. Perhaps word from the Appy People had already leaked out, and the Dinner People knew better than to ask.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Had they asked, I planned to nod at the piece of blue veil hung on the back wall of the outside of our house, claiming I was about to perform a tasteful rendition of the Dance of the Seven Veils (minus six) as the evening’s entertainment. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When we hung the piece of blue veil on the back wall of the outside of our house, I bought a wooden pole Himself painted turquoise to slip through the blue veil’s unaffordable grommets. Maybe I’d say I was also about to perform a tasteful pole dance in addition to a tasteful rendition of the Dance of the Single Veil. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">This afternoon, Himself took down the piece of blue veil on the back wall of the outside of our house, and I bought a metal goose to take its place. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Standing in line at the hardware store, I told Himself: “This goose is a piece of crap.” As God and Himself are my witnesses, the guy immediately behind us in the lineup gave two thumbs up, as if to say: “You got <i>that</i> right, lady!” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When we fetched up at the cash desk, I said: “This goose is a piece of crap. I’m not sure I’ll actually keep it.” <i>Sotto voce</i>, the cashier leaned in over the counter, saying: “This goose is going on clearance in a few days, so why don’t I just give you $10 off now?” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“Goodie! Please! Please!” I said, without the exclamation marks so I wouldn’t seem too eager. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">So I had $10 off without even <i>asking</i>, and before I knew it, the cashier slammed a big, heavy stamp on my receipt. “Huh?” I thought. It read: NO REFUNDS OR RETURNS ON CLEARANCE ITEMS. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When we got home, Himself Gorilla-glued the goose’s wings, because they fell off twice in the car. Standing back to semi-admire the goose on the back wall of the outside of our house, I have to admit it really<i> is</i> a piece of crap - but a semi-okay piece of crap, and a whole lot better than a piece of blue veil on the back wall of the outside of our house.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-50899306886276062032021-06-01T10:08:00.012-07:002021-06-02T09:02:47.544-07:00What I Learned from Quitting Coffee for 30 Days (and why you should try it)<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>I remain on sabbatical as I continue to work on a book. In the meanwhile, I’m excited to present you with another essay by Cecile Popp, whose work I featured April 2: </i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0000ee; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://whatsonnicolepartonsmind.blogspot.com/2021/04/redefining-abundance-expats-journey.html " target="_blank"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>https://whatsonnicolepartonsmind.blogspot.com/2021/04/redefining-abundance-expats-journey.html</i></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: black; font-kerning: none;"><i> </i></span></a></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>If you like clear, direct, fine writing, this most recent piece by Cecile is a great example - Nicole</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The leaves begin to unfurl as soon as the hot water touches them. I watch as the liquid in the glass teapot turns yellow and then, orange. </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: black; font-kerning: none;">Three</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> minutes later, I have a perfectly brewed cup of tea.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Green tea. I’ve always liked the <i>sound</i> of it, but never actually enjoyed drinking it. Until now.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kzQnNC8eQRo/YLbtqKwQ_8I/AAAAAAAAAqQ/XAkI8Gn6MPQyq268fAE52uQxJak-aVAIgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/CECILE%2BPOPP.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1944" data-original-width="2048" height="380" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kzQnNC8eQRo/YLbtqKwQ_8I/AAAAAAAAAqQ/XAkI8Gn6MPQyq268fAE52uQxJak-aVAIgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h380/CECILE%2BPOPP.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A few weeks ago, I would have been on my second or third cup of coffee by this time of the morning. For two decades I’ve been the kind of coffee drinker who goes to bed looking forward to her morning cup. I drink mine black and strong, first thing in the morning, hours before breakfast.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I started drinking coffee in my early 20s. An electric coffee maker on the kitchen counter made me feel more </span>“adult.” It became a necessity a decade later when my babies were young and got me out of bed at 5 am.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">My grandparents had owned a coffee plantation in Tanzania in the 1930s and </span>’40s. Subconsciously, I think I believed drinking coffee somehow connected me to them.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i><b>The Beginning of the End:</b></i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The pandemic has meant added responsibilities, stress, and minimal physical activity. A year in, I was considerably heavier than I’d been when things first shut down. I was tired, but wired. I had aches and pains; brain fog. I was irritable and harried, always working but not productive. I decided to get help and saw a functional medicine practitioner.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">After a lengthy initial consultation and lab work, she told me my stress hormones were out of whack. Formerly benign words suddenly sounded scary coming from her mouth: Cortisol, thyroid, insulin. She put me on a 30-day elimination diet. The first thing to go? Coffee.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I was only mildly anxious about cutting out gluten and dairy, refined sugar and alcohol. But it was the coffee I really worried about.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As I</span>’d expected, the first three days were tough. A headache that wouldn’t subside. Sluggishness. Constant hunger. To say those first three days passed slowly would be an understatement. I drew a calendar in the back of a notebook and began crossing out the days. Thirty seemed a long way away.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i><b>Shifting Perspectives:</b></i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As my body adjusted to no coffee and began to detox, I felt better and started to exercise again. I expected these physical changes.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What I hadn’t expected were the more subtle psychological shifts.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The green tea my doctor had encouraged me to drink had become a delightful ritual - without the frenetic, obsessive, insatiable quality of my coffee ritual. I truly enjoyed my cup of green tea until the end, whereas my coffee ceased to be enjoyable beyond the first two or three sips. I began to wonder whether the reason I had more cups of coffee was to try to recapture the taste of that first sip.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Within the first week, I noticed a growing detachment to my coffee-less mornings. I’d forget to cross off days on the chart, and would check in and discover three more days had passed, just like <i>that!</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">After 30 days, the most surprising take-away had nothing to do with coffee. Rather, the experience turned out to be about “freeing” myself from something; reclaiming my power.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><span>I showed myself I could make changes and stick to them - even difficult changes. This</span><span> </span><span style="color: #292929;">gave me confidence in myself. Now, I’m looking around for “what’s next?”</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i><b>Happily Ever After:</b></i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The best part of all? I’ve rediscovered my love of coffee - almost as if I</span>’d let it go, and it came back to me. A week ago I had my first post-detox coffee - a strong espresso from a local independent roasting company. The bliss stayed with me for two days.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">© Cecile Popp, 2021</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Cecile Popp is </span><span color="rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8)" style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">an e</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: #fafafa;">ducator, writer, lifelong learner, mother of three, Canadian expat living in Turkey. </span><span style="background-color: #fafafa;">Her YouTube channel is <i>From Canada to Adana</i>. Her essays are at </span><a href="http://cecilepopp.com/10things/" style="background-color: transparent;">cecilepopp.com/10things/</a><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://cecilepopp.medium.com/?source=follow_footer-------------------------------------">More from Cecile Popp</a></span></p><p style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #292929; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa;">
</span></p><p style="background-color: #1a8917; color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Follow</span></p><p style="background-color: #fafafa; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-19364414556627228042021-04-02T15:34:00.013-07:002021-04-03T19:00:00.667-07:00Redefining Abundance: An Expat’s Journey<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I’m about to take a sabbatical - a break from writing to do ... well, <i>other writing,</i> which means working on an unfinished book. I always enjoy reading (and occasionally posting) others’ work. This sample of Cecile Popp’s fine </span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 18px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_xBIfENuy6k/YGiIPwucVAI/AAAAAAAAApk/g-wL0Nw-rnobqgZeGUtQMtNk-lR9dFBvQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Cecile_01%2Bedited%2Bby%2BArne.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2048" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_xBIfENuy6k/YGiIPwucVAI/AAAAAAAAApk/g-wL0Nw-rnobqgZeGUtQMtNk-lR9dFBvQCLcBGAsYHQ/w200-h200/Cecile_01%2Bedited%2Bby%2BArne.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">writing more than qualifies: I’m delighted to present it for your reading enjoyment. Cecile’s essay and bio address the </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #050505; font-kerning: none;">“w</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">ho, where, what, and why?</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #050505; font-kerning: none;">”</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> questions. </span></p><div><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;">*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>*</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Cengiz likes to stop at a fruit stand on his way home from work, casually depositing pomegranates, persimmons and quince on the kitchen table when he walks in. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Now I reach for a plump purple fig from the bowl before me. I’ve already eaten more than I’d care to admit, but indulge in another, gently peeling back its skin and biting into its soft flesh. How ordinary a gesture this has become!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">We live in Adana, a city in the south of Turkey. Here, in what is arguably one of the most fertile regions in the world, something is always in season. Of course, I didn’t know this when I met my future husband and moved here. Or rather, I didn’t know how much this abundance would change me. </span></p><div><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qSsxvIa61V8/YGiuQik79cI/AAAAAAAAAps/PTXxl98vVc4ckPlDEeanOE2KAJRJ2wiVQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/IMG_4356.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qSsxvIa61V8/YGiuQik79cI/AAAAAAAAAps/PTXxl98vVc4ckPlDEeanOE2KAJRJ2wiVQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/IMG_4356.jpeg" title="Adana, Turkey" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Adana, Turkey</span></b></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">My thoughts drift to another time and place: Toronto, 15 years ago. There, in a supermarket, fresh figs beckon from nests of tissue paper. At $5 each, they’re too expensive for me. I’m intimidated. How does one even <i>eat</i> a fig?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>*</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When I followed Cengiz to Turkey, I noticed all the things Turkish people didn’t have. Reliable electricity and water; sidewalks; libraries. Houses were often sparsely furnished, their cracked walls and peeling paint left unrepaired. I’d come here from Canada, one of the richest, most developed countries in the world. <i>How lucky Canadians are</i>, I thought. <i>How poor Turkish people are!</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When it came to food, everything changed: Restaurant tables heaped with <i>meze.</i> Grilled fish, kebap, more hot bread arriving just as I thought I couldn’t eat another bite. Attendants hovering nearby, ready to replace my dirty plate with a clean one; ready to sweep sesame seeds from the tablecloth with stiff-bristled brushes. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And the lingering. Dinners lasting hours. A musical troupe winding its way between tables. A reedy clarinet; a dizzying drum; singing. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And later … endless delicate glasses of tea. Syrupy desserts. A fruit platter. Tiny cups of bitter coffee. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>*</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">For years, I was unable to reconcile these opposing aspects of life in Turkey, seeing only what was missing; only what was broken. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">On a December visit to Canada, walking barefoot through my father’s suburban home, I thought how cold our house had been, that first winter in Adana. Despite the temperate winter, our lack of central heating and insulation encouraged the concrete walls to absorb the damp. I’d been chilled through for three months straight.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Another year, in Toronto for the summer, it was the big-box supermarket that seduced me. Pushing a cart up and down the aisles, I savoured the varieties of salty snacks, peanut butters and cereals. I couldn’t find many packaged foods in Adana: I cooked everything from scratch, using fresh vegetables, dried chickpeas, and bulgur. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As long as I continued to compare the two countries, all I could see were Turkey’s shortcomings. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>*<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>*</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Over time, that opinion shifted. I thought less about the things in Canada I missed, and</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #ff2600; font-kerning: none;"> </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">more about the things in Turkey I’d gained. Where else could I find tahini so fresh, it was still warm when I bought it? </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I came to understand financial wealth and abundance are not the same thing. Abundance is a mindset; an attitude; a way of looking at life. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">In the <i>mahalle</i> where Cengiz grew up and where his mother still lives, many households support unemployed family members. Because of this, it’s not uncommon to see three generations under one roof. Somehow, there’s always a hearty meal and a bed available - even if that bed is on a sofa, a balcony, or a rooftop. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Growing beside a cracked driveway or over a cinderblock wall are fig trees. Gnarly and determined and resilient. Their fruit hangs ripe for passersby: A young boy in frayed sandals, an elderly woman in <i>şalvar</i>, and me. If the fruit is ripe and the skin is thin, I’ll pop it into my mouth without peeling.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Cecile Popp, 2019; revised in 2021.</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #551a8b; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://cecilepopp.com/10things/">Cecile Popp</a></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> is a Canadian educator and writer living in southern Turkey. For more than a decade, she taught high school English Language Arts in Tarsus and Istanbul. Now, seeking a quieter life, she has returned to the south to write and work on other projects, most notably a memoir about her Baltic-German grandparents. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">You can read more of Cecile’s writing in the anthology <i>Expat Sofra (Alfa).</i> Her YouTube channel, <i>From Canada to Adana,</i> features visual essays about her life in Turkey. A lecturer in the School of Foreign Languages at Adana’s Science and Technology University, Cecile lives in Adana with her husband and their three sons.</span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-55631228986876738162021-03-30T06:00:00.006-07:002021-03-30T09:42:44.208-07:00Sun, Peeking Through the Clouds<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind? I awoke this morning thinking of the joy and enrichment of having had so many life experiences - of the close and intimate friendships; of the many people I’ve had the good luck to have met over my long and (mostly) happy life; of the many experiences I’ve been fortunate enough to have had (probably the most unusual of which was talking to a convicted murderer in her cell for hours until almost midnight very near to Christmas, and then driving home to write what would be her p. 1 story in the overnight hours); of my beloved children and husband; of the past marriages from which I’ve learned; of the countries I’ve lived ... </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Life is precious. I’m so grateful for mine, and for the lives of the people I know and love, especially that of Himself, my rock, who recently celebrated his 77th birthday. Together we laugh and play and trust without reservation. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Particularly during this COVID crisis, I feel for those who are frustrated, angry, fearful, broke, homeless, friendless, mentally or physically ill, or unable to make good choices. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Life can only improve if you <i>make</i> it improve, listening to voices other than those inside your head. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Life can only improve if you learn to trust the sound judgment of others. Life can only improve if you seek help, as many of us need to do at critical points in our lives. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">For love to cure the world, self-love is an important first step. Know your worth. You can make a difference. Go do it.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-50416954799260022712021-03-29T07:18:00.020-07:002021-03-30T09:44:30.747-07:00Chop-Chop!<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind? Himself celebrated a big birthday this week. I wanted to make the day ”special” - not the easiest thing to do during a pandemic. Our supermarket (the only one in our island village-that-calls-itself-a-town) delivered a birthday cake to the door. I told Himself to close his eyes and turn away while I parked the cake in the second fridge. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">With no idea what I was doing, he probably assumed I was stuck, trying to squeeze into an old bathing suit and didn’t want him to see. He didn’t guess there was a cake. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">(Wait for it. I’ve yet to reach the point.)</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>”Whad-do-I-do-whad-do-I-do-whad-do-I-do-o-o?”</i> for a birthday during COVID.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">By 11:30 that morning, I was desperate - no gift, nothing planned other than to smear Himself’s supermarket birthday cake <i>a-w-w-w-ll over my b-a-w-d-y</i> so he can lick it off. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">IN HIS DREAMS.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">By 11:45, I had a brain wave: Ring our local sushi restaurant, order take-out, and have a picnic at the beach. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>YESSSSS!</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">(Have patience. I still haven’t got to the point.)</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Parts 1 and 2 of my plan went smoothly as he waited in the car. Part 3 was a bit of a problem thanks to a hurricane at the beach. We ate our sushi in the car as suicidal masochists flew by, freezing off their patooties. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Oh happy day! On opening what felt like a <i>very heavy bag</i> of sushi, I saw that <i>someone else’s order</i> had been packed with ours. Staring at it a few seconds, I thought: “Oh, well!” Even though we hadn’t paid for this largesse, there was <i>zero</i> chance the restaurant would take it back, so we stuffed it into our mouths. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Being the uncoordinated type, I have <i>no</i> idea how to use chopsticks, and never will. Himself ripped the paper from his chopsticks but - on seeing the feast before us - reverted to a more efficient method, clawing at it with his fingers.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“MIFF ITH QUIDE A BIRFFDAY THURPITHE!” he said, cheeks puffed like a chipmunk. “YETH!” I said, taking credit for his assumption that I’d blown 50 bucks on his birthday when I’d coughed up only $17.50.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">So here’s the point. <i>Sure,</i> Himself had wasted his chopsticks, ripping past the paper to go ‘Here a poke, there a poke, everywhere a poke-poke’ before his fingers let ’er rip. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>M</i>y chopsticks had never been used. <i>My</i> chopsticks never are. Carrying them home like a trophy, I deposited them in the kitchen drawer, beside a dozen or so never-used pairs.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Ever the efficient planner, I know <i>exactly</i> what I’m going to do with those chopsticks. I’m going to wait until I have 20 - maybe 24 - pairs in the drawer. And then I will remove them - lovingly, carefully - ensuring each pristine pair remains in its paper. And then I will carry them from the drawer, thinking of the many chop-sticked meals for which I’ve used a fork. And then I will chuck them into the trash.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-12223524206061457192021-03-28T10:26:00.019-07:002021-03-28T18:05:32.860-07:00When Harry Met Meghan (Part 6) <p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind? Life is complicated. So are relationships. <i>Who</i> you know is sometimes more important than <i>what</i> you know. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Case in point: <i>Duck! Rabbit!</i> - the best-selling, award-winning, 2009 children’s book illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld and written by the late Amy Krouse Rosenthal (@chroniclekidsbooks and its creators). </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Last May, media mogul Oprah Winfrey gave Archie Mountbatten-Windsor - son of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, and Harry, the Duke of Sussex - a copy of the book for his first birthday.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">You already know much about M&H, who so famously traded the cloistered halls of the royal household for the </span>“privacy” of Los Angeles. Inside the book was a sticker reading <i>Archie’s Book Club</i>. It’s been reported that the sticker’s design is very similar to the <i>Oprah’s Book Club</i> sticker.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Markle read Archie portions of the book as Harry filmed the event - which ended up on YouTube and elsewhere - ostensibly to benefit Save the Children (UK) and #SaveWithStories, though anyone can watch it free, with no obligation to donate. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Although a grumpy, finger-wagging Nicole views this as further commercialization of the threesome’s lives, Markle’s down-to-earth reading (no makeup; greying hair on display) to the lovable Archie charmed me. Harry’s whoops of <i>“Hurray! Bravo!”</i> and Archie’s <i>“Bye, bye, duh-wah!”</i> directly into the camera warmed my cold, cold heart - as did Markle’s whispered translation of “Duck, rabbit,” also spoken to the camera). </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Where did I watch the video? On <i>Oprah Daily</i></span>’s automatic redirection to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_2A6IwBeM-/?utm_source=ig_embed">Instagram</a>. This gave me pause, as did a December 15, 2020 story in <i>The Daily Mail</i>. Last December, Markle invested in Clevr Blends, a woman-led, California-based coffee company that makes powdered oat ‘super lattes.’</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Markle described her “love” for the lattes, praising the company’s “holistic approach to wellness.” Markle then sent Oprah a Christmas gift basket of the product. Oprah, in turn, posted a video on Instagram, calling the lattes “my new drink of choice for the morning and night. Wish I had <a href="https://www.instagram.com/clevrblends/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">@clevrblends</span></a> sooner cause I would’ve added it to my <i>Favorite Things</i> list.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As the Daily Mail reported, “PR experts say Ms. Winfrey’s backing is worth millions in free publicity,” which means Markle’s investment in the product would likely have risen sharply. Two months later, Oprah interviewed the Duke and Duchess for which they were “not paid.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I may be out-of-step with today’s fast-paced society, but I find this bit of transactional friendship unseemly - a potential conflict of interest. I would not have done this - period, full stop. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">* * *</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Is the American public wearying of the Meghan ’n’ Harry Show? Headed <i>Meghan and Harry Suck Up to Those Who Can Give More Exposure,</i> an Aug 29, 2020 story in <a href="http://celebratingthesoaps.com/"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">celebratingthesoaps.com</span></a> begins: “It’s clear that many view Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as grasping wannabes in American society …” The story doesn’t get any better.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Many others, however, are the couple</span>’s flag-waving supporters and fans, from Twitter’s … </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Meghan Markle Daily</i> (self-described as <i>Your #1 source for all things Meghan Markle)</i> to ...</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-usgRSv3EKb4/YGC5qkoH12I/AAAAAAAAApQ/DXNDrLg8r_wvW8Nco0ifnQ8OuuWwdekBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s598/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-26%2Bat%2B2.48.08%2BPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="598" height="255" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-usgRSv3EKb4/YGC5qkoH12I/AAAAAAAAApQ/DXNDrLg8r_wvW8Nco0ifnQ8OuuWwdekBgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h255/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-26%2Bat%2B2.48.08%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Musical genius Sir Elton John: “I highly respect and applaud both Harry and Meghan’s commitment to charity and I’m calling on the press to cease these relentless and untrue assassinations on their character.” to …</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Tennis legend Serena Williams: “(Markle’s<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333;">)</span> words illustrate the pain and cruelty she’s experienced. I know first hand the sexism and racism institutions and the media use to vilify women and people of color to minimize us, to break us down and demonize us.” to … </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">And Markle’s spelling-challenged </span><i style="color: #222222;">Suits</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> costar, Patrick J. Adams, who on March 5, 2021, tweeted:</span> “It’s OBSCENE that the Royal Family, who’s newest member is currently GROWING INSIDE OF HER, is promoting and amplifying accusations of “bullying” against a woman who herself was basically forced to flea the UK in order protect her family and her own mental health.”</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">For any member of the royal family, having overly generous friends can sometimes pose ethical dilemmas in what can become a transactional relation: I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Google reports that: “George Clooney and his wife Amal were two of the 600 guests who attended Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex ... But according to a royal expert, Clooney admitted he did not know the Sussexes when he attended their wedding in May 2018.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Example #1: Aug. 12, 2020, <i>Hello Magazine </i>reported: “(S)hortly after their royal wedding, the Sussexes joined Amal and George at their Italian villa on Lake Como …” The magazine’s source? None other than royal reporter Omid Scobie, co-author of the Markle/Harry book <i>Finding Freedom.</i> According to <i>Hello,</i> George Clooney “personally made sure to get the couple to Italy safely via his private jet.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Example #2: In August, 2019, when Sir Elton John invited the Duke and Duchess to his home in the south of France, he, too, dispatched a private jet for their visit. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Example #3: In February, 2019, Amal Clooney and Serena Williams reportedly co-hosted Markle’s afternoon baby shower in the $75,000-a-night, 10,000 sq. ft. penthouse suite of The Mark Hotel in Manhattan’s upper east side. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Among the guests: TV host Gayle King, bestie to media mogul Winfrey. After Markle and Harry had clarified one point about the interview</span> with Oprah, they (or their representative) sought out King to clarify another.<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> The media may not have granted this privilege to any old Joe and Josephine.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, was “</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">unfortunately </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">unable to attend her (daughter’s) first baby shower</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> due to work commitments …” Ms. Ragland is a yoga instructor in Los Angeles. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Why do costly gifts and gifts-in-kind matter? The royal couple didn’t announce their intention to “step back” from the royal family<i> </i>until January, 2020, formalizing the split a year later. They accepted these costly gestures and gifts while senior royals. Should members of the royal family accept gifts that may compromise them in future?</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The “<a href="https://www.royal.uk/sites/default/files/media-packs/gifts_policy_2003.pdf">gift policy</a>” </span>intended to guide the royal family states: “The fundamental principle governing the acceptance of gifts by Members of The Royal Family is that no gifts, including hospitality or services, should be accepted which would, or might appear to, place the Member of The Royal Family under any obligation to the donor.” You be the judge. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">* * *</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Markle has called the couple’s departure from the royal family “liberating.” In some quarters, it comes as no surprise that Meghan Markle is all about Meghan Markle.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">In 2020, an acerbic Donald Trump said of Markle: “I’m not a fan … I wish a lot of luck to Harry. He's going to need it.”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Will the couple’s marriage survive? Or will it gradually slide into the muck of its own making? I wouldn’t want to speculate. Over time, much will depend on whether the Duchess continues to strut the world stage in starring roles, relegating the pleasant, ginger-haired Duke to cameos and walk-on parts.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">It’s been said that Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, gave his favorite grandson sage advice: “One steps out with actresses; one doesn’t marry them.” But when Harry and Markle “stepped out,” their departure ignited a firestorm. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A series of “Lifetime” movies is franchising and commercializing the couple’s every move even further, detailing their split from the royal family and enhancing the couple’s “brand.” </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: black; font-kerning: none;">Lifetime is jointly owned by the Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Already shown have been 2018’s <i>Harry & Meghan: A Royal Romance</i>, and 2019’s <i>Harry & Meghan: Becoming Royal.</i> Coming this Fall: <i>Harry & Meghan: Escaping the Palace.</i> A network press release says the story “will include details about Meghan’s growing isolation, the couple’s disappointment that those in power were not defending them against the press’ attacks, and Harry’s fear that history would repeat itself and he would not be able to protect his wife and son from the same forces that caused his mother’s untimely death.” </span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The statement also promises to “reveal the private family feuds between Will and Harry, Kate and Meghan, and Harry with Will and Charles, that lead to the ultimate break from the royal ties.”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I don’t know how much Markle and <i>le petit prince</i> stand to make from this, but I can guess how much they stand to lose.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: #fcfcfc; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">For Markle - polished actress, lover of spotlights - the soap opera has never ended. For Harry, it’s just begun.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p></span></div>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-8980475517066630482021-03-25T06:00:00.029-07:002021-03-27T20:45:17.469-07:00When Harry Met Meghan (Part 5)<p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419;">What’s on my mind? </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">There’s a lot to be said for chats at the kitchen table and meals made with love. There’s a lot to be said for beer slugged from the bottle, ’n’ cheese ’n’ beans ’n’ <i>whoops!</i> There’s a lot to be said for belly laughs, and a lot to be said for an untroubled life of simplicity - say what you mean; mean what you say. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Harry, the Duke of Sussex, is a decent - but troubled - man. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Both Harry and brother William, who’s second-in-line to the throne, have been dogged by mental health problems linked to the loss of their mother. Harry was 12 and William,15, when Diana died in a car crash, 24 years ago. Each son has been open about seeking help, and has encouraged others to do the same. It takes courage to expose vulnerability - particularly as a senior member of the royal family. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Which is why a casual comment from Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, struck me as poignant and even cruel. During the couple’s recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, as a seemingly withdrawn Harry sat staring at the rescued chickens in son Archie’s “Chick Inn” pen, Markle told Oprah: “I love rescuing.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Markle didn’t say: “It was important to us to save these chickens” or “Rescuing these chickens was the right thing to do.” What she said was: “I love rescuing.” I work with words: I recognize the power of shaded meanings. I believe the brevity and choice of these particular words was not accidental. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As Markle aired the perceived miseries of her privileged life within the royal family, she agreed with Oprah’s suggestion that she felt “trapped.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Harry, too, told Oprah he was “trapped, but I didn’t know I was trapped …” Asked if he would have stepped back from his royal role were it not for Markle, he said he wouldn’t have.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">During the interview, Markle denied “manipulating” Harry, instead suggesting she’d sacrificed a lucrative acting career for the royal family. How noble and brave to sacrifice herself so! </span>The interview’s old news: Forgive me for dwelling on it (this is the last time I will), but the couple’s comments were revealing. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who’s driving this bus? Just as Harry didn’t know he was trapped, he may not recognize the perception in some quarters that he’s been occupying in the passenger seat. After Harry expressed his desire to move to Canada, the bus stopped there briefly before trundling to Los Angeles, city of angels and ambitions, which just happens to be Markle’s birthplace. Her mother is there; her friends are there; her Hollywood contacts are there; and now, she and Harry are there. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">If clocks could be rewound, I’d be surprised if HRH Prince Harry envisioned moving to LA three years ago. But with his and her HRH honorifics stripped away, the couple now lives in Montecito, 90 minutes north of Los Angeles. Theirs is a nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom, US $14.65 million house bought last June. As any financially responsible couple might do, they’re working hard to address the US $9.5 million mortgage they’re carrying. Very hard.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Show Me the Money, Honey:</i></b> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Through his private estate, Prince Charles had at one point paid 95 percent of the couple’s personal and professional expenses. As working royals, Markle and Harry also received an income through the Sovereign Grant British taxpayers fund. When they “stepped back,” announcing they would no longer shake all those hands and embark on all those goodwill tours as working Royals, the Grant - and Charles’ financial support - stopped.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Which came first? Harry’s squeaky indignation that the royal family had “literally cut me off financially” or the couple’s claim of seeking financial independence? As Harry admitted, without the money his mother left him, “we wouldn’t have been able to do this.” Diana left Harry an estimated £6 million - slightly more than US $8 million. Other estimates suggest US $10 million.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And so the ostentatious Duke and Duchess went to work, as most blokes do. Except that their income, employment, and staff weren’t quite the same as most blokes’. Some might say their networking and multi-million dollar business deals have landed them in the category of “nouveau riche” - an unfortunate status, unworthy of Harry’s lineage.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">By January, 2020, with the couple still ensconced in the royal family, it was already rumored (and later confirmed) the limelight-loving Duchess had signed a deal with <i>Disney+</i> two months before the announcing their decision to “step back” as senior working royals. </span>In a nice bit of charitable public relations, Markle’s agreement to do a voice-over for a documentary about elephants specified her fee be channeled to an elephant conservation fund, rather than into her pocket. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">But then things changed. Not long after their arrival in the US, the couple inked a deal with the world’s top speaker’s agency at a rumored $1 million per talk. While Oprah made clear the couple wasn’t paid to bare their souls in the early March interview, their heightened profile from the interview didn’t hurt their chances in the working world.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">This week, it was announced that </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: black; font-kerning: none;">Harry would become “chief impact officer” of BetterUp, a Silicon Valley start-up promoting</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> mental health and proactive coaching. In an email announcing his new role, he wrote: “I intend to help create impact in people’s lives.” </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">The nebulous statement attributed to Harry is not unlike those the couple has issued on signing a </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">maelstrom</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;"> of multi-million dollar deals. </span>Whether Harry will or won’t draw a one-time payment, a salary, shares in the company, or mere recognition is unknown, but the exposure is certain to help BetterUp.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Netflix:</i></b> In a multi-year deal, <i>Netflix </i>will pay the couple’s <b><i>Archewell Productions</i></b> to make documentaries, docu-series, feature films, scripted shows, and children’s programming. Another report refers to “documentaries, docu-series, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming.” To my knowledge, no word when. Says a statement on behalf of the royal couple: “Our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope … impactful content that unlocks action.” Fuzzy, fine-sounding words. An unsubstantiated article in <i>Marie Claire</i> magazine reports the deal to be worth $100 million-plus.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Spotify podcasts:</i></b> In December, </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: black; font-kerning: none;"><i>The Guardian</i> reported: </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: black; font-kerning: none;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/meghan-duchess-of-sussex"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></a></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">have announced a multi-year partnership with <i>Spotify</i> to produce and host podcasts that highlight and elevate diverse perspectives and voices … The specifics were vague: “Programming that uplifts and entertains audiences around the world.” The deal promises“different perspectives” and interviews with “amazing people.” Spotify aired their first podcast, a holiday special in December. The world has anxiously awaited the next. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Apple TV+:</i></b> In April, 2019, Before relinquishing their Royal Highness titles, the Duke and Duchess entered into an agreement to produce an <i>Oprah Winfrey/Apple TV+</i> project involving mental health.</span></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #333333; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Note:</i></b> </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Archewell Productions</i></b><i> </i>is not to be confused with the<i> </i><b><i>Archewell Foundation,</i></b><i> </i>through which the Duke and Duchess’ “core purpose is to uplift and unite communities - local and global, online and offline - one act of compassion at a time.” Well intended, to be sure, but more undefined fuzzification. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Then there’s sweet, innocent Archie, the wunderkind who will be two in May. Is the boy named after the brand, or is the brand named after the boy?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Coming up in a couple of days: My final post in this series … A close look at the delightfully named <i>Duck! Rabbit!</i>; a rah-rah from Markle’s supporters; and a few words from the ever-unpleasant, ever-brash, ever-vulgar Donald Trump. </span></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-62822396104832223762021-03-21T13:18:00.027-07:002021-03-30T09:50:26.160-07:00When Harry Met Meghan (Part 4)<p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind? </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>“From what I understand, she (was) on a little TV show </i></span><i>here </i><i>in the US, and </i><i>she’s saying </i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>she sacrificed this tiny celebrity </i></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>show status to go be a princess and </i></span><i>that’s a </i><i>tremendous sacrifice.” </i></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: right;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>- </i>Behavioral analyst </span>Chase Hughes<i> </i></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: right;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind? Polls are for dogs. Ain’t it the truth? Among Americans, Meghan Markle’s positive polling stands at 45%, well above the 36% positive rating for the Queen’s corgis. In the UK, only 31% of respondents like her; I can only surmise how many fancy the corgis.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://morningconsult.com/2021/03/04/royal-family-favorability-harry-meghan-oprah/">https://morningconsult.com/2021/03/04/royal-family-favorability-harry-meghan-oprah/</a></span></i></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Polls can mislead, depending which polls ask which questions to which subjects. In other words, GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Polls rise and fall on the fickle whims of the day, so Markle needn’t dab away tears that not everyone’s a fan. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Foremost among those who</span>’ve suggested Markle’s pants are on fire is <i>Good Morning Britain</i> host Piers Morgan who, after watching the March 6/7 Oprah Winfrey interview, said: “I don’t believe a word she says … I wouldn’t believe it if she read me a weather report.” Morgan became the program’s <i>former</i> host after more than 41,000 complaints flooded into the ITV network. Included among those was a formal complaint from Markle and another sent sent the country’s broadcast regulator.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Words offer a smorgasbord of choices from formal to relaxed. As a former interviewer, I’m interested in why people pick one word over another, particularly when the choice of word seems jarring. It’s a small thing, but shortly after the Oprah interview started, I felt uneasy when Markle stated that “in and of itself,” it was a “miracle” to have slept through the night before her wedding day. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I hope I’m not being unfair to the Duchess, but “in and of itself” is a phrase one doesn’t normally hear in everyday conversation. One might hear it in a boardroom, or a lawyer’s office, but it</span>’s an odd turn of phrase with reference to one’s wedding day. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“This woman wants to impress upon people that she’s ‘smart’,” I thought. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Which Markle most certainly is. She</span>’s also articulate, attractive, genuinely concerned about social issues, superficially charming, and a beaming mother to son Archie, now 22 months old. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The reason I raise this picky point about language is that I heard a markedly sharp contrast between Markle’s use of this formal phrase and the vague, stream-of-conscious sentence fragments she spun when it suited her</span> in the Oprah interview. I found Markle adept at blurring her words with what I’ve concluded to be intentional ambiguity, as she did while claiming the palace failed to “protect” her.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As an experienced interviewer, I found few (if any) substantiations for Markle’s veiled, shadowy insinuations.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Markle holds a position of considerable power. Any serious public allegations she makes should be substantiated with a clearly stated “who, what, where, and when.” When Markle’s mostly unverifiable allegations met blow-back, Markle - or her representative - went to Oprah’s best friend, TV host Gayle King, to say Markle had “proof” of everything she’d said. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">This woman needs to develop a thicker skin and get on with it, rather than issuing lawsuits, threats, and complaints while trying to curry favor from key corners of the media. Markle</span>’s<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> whining about “unfair treatment</span>” is frankly becoming tedious. I say that not to be nasty, but in kindness, as a retired columnist and reporter. If Markle wants the media to stop commenting about her, she should lower her profile, assume an aura of demure elegance, and zip her lip. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The queen’s response to Markle</span>’s complaints was pointed and direct: “Some recollections may vary.” Markle’s issues will be addressed within the royal family. The queen is astute, experienced, and wise. She would never trade insult-for-insult.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At the interview’s conclusion, actress Markle was clearly eager to leave viewers with a few well-rehearsed words worthy of her alter-ego, TV paralegal Rachel Zane: “Life is about storytelling - about the stories we tell ourselves, the stories we are told, and the stories we buy into.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Reread and consider those words. Coming from a woman whose “truths” to Oprah didn’t always ring true, I find those words curious. In my view, they were the truest words to fall from Markle’s mouth during the entire interview.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">* * * </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Why do some people feel Meghan Markle’s saccharine sweetness isn’t the real deal?</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Among those questioning Markle’s sincerity are internationally recognized body language and behavior analysts Chase Hughes, Greg Hartley, Scott Rouse, and Mark Bowden. In a two-hour panel discussion, the experts gave their opinions of Markle’s (and Harry’s) demeanor and language. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Panelist Rouse’s introduction of what was to come was more than interesting: “All we’re doing is telling you the body language we see … (not) whether anybody’s innocent, guilty, or anything like that … We’re Switzerland. We don’t care. We’re just telling you what we see …”</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Hartley:</i> “She starts with kind of a curt, smirked lip, and then when she says ‘I did <i>not</i> …’ (Google Harry or the royal family) Look, none of us believe(s) that. None of us. If you were going to date a prince tomorrow, you’d look him up.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">One panelist referred to the patterns of Markle’s shoulder shrugs (“.. a classic sign of deception”), eye flutters, blinking, requests for approval, and more. “It’s a subtle pattern, but it’s there. It’s a thread that runs through this.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Said another: “I think it’s really notable that she’s using the word “Meg” in the third person. The only time she does it is when there’s something negative: ‘That’s ‘somebody else.’ So she’s dissociating herself from the negative activities that are happening …” For the full discussion, see:</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYyEx20DiKU"><i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYyEx20DiKU</span></i></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Interesting people tend to have many interests: Markle writes in calligraphy, a precise, fancy script that requires more time and attention than users would normally apply to cursive writing in Romance languages. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Forensic handwriting examiner Sheila Lowe addressed Markle’s writing style in the May, 2019 online issue of SheKnows magazine:</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/2044773/meghan-markles-handwriting-analysis/">https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/2044773/meghan-markles-handwriting-analysis/</a></span></i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“Calligraphy is by its nature stylized and is all about </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-907Pa4iFMbE/YFe7B__Wm2I/AAAAAAAAApI/A4g3HPT_RSMnIPj9cfdxYotdsIQWNU1VwCLcBGAsYHQ/s291/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-21%2Bat%2B12.41.51%2BPM.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="173" data-original-width="291" height="238" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-907Pa4iFMbE/YFe7B__Wm2I/AAAAAAAAApI/A4g3HPT_RSMnIPj9cfdxYotdsIQWNU1VwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h238/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-21%2Bat%2B12.41.51%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></span></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">appearances. Someone who chooses a calligraphy form of writing ... cares about how they come across … Meghan’s beautiful writing has many flourishes that on one hand draw attention to her, but on the other, there is a formality that also keeps a distance. What this tells us is, Meghan wants to project an image of beauty, perfection and uniqueness which serve to hide some insecurity … The degree of control seen in this handwriting reveals a woman of strong emotion who works to hold back the tide and only show what she wants others to see.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Next:</i> The Duke and Duchess’ “brand.” Does money buy happiness?</p><div><br /></div><i style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;">© Nicole Parton, 2021</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;"> </span>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-6803237929144204712021-03-20T06:00:00.036-07:002021-03-29T11:55:06.034-07:00When Harry Met Meghan (Part 3)<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;">What’s on my mind?</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-family: georgia;"> </span>Once upon a time, a handsome young Prince roamed the world looking for his mother. </span><span style="color: #202124;">Prince Henry Charles Albert David (known as Harry)</span><b style="color: #202124;"> </b><span style="color: #202124;">was only 12 when his mother died in 1997.</span><span style="color: #202124;"> </span> </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Mother! Mother!”</i> called the Prince, but heard only the echo of his own voice. <i>“Mo-ther!” </i>The young Prince didn’t know it, but his mother was always by his side, watching over him. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The young Prince’s older brother also missed his mother, who died when he was 15. Second in the line-of-succession to the throne, the older Prince married commoner Kate Middleton, who grew up in the village of Chapel Row, in the English county of Berkshire. Meeting in university, the couple had known one another nine years before their 2011 marriage and initial move to what has been described as a “modest beachside farmhouse.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Kate performed the domestic duties without household help while William served as an Air Ambulance search-and-rescue pilot before turning to his royal duties. Now the mother of three, Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, appears content to be beta to William’s alpha. Kate is 39; William will be 39 in June.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Harry, the young prince, also served his country, rising to Captain in the British Army over 10 years and two tours in Afghanistan. In 2011, the young prince assumed his royal duties before meeting American actress Meghan Markle in July, 2016. Commoner Markle grew up in Los Angeles. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Everyone loves a love story: Endings are tinged with sadness. Until she met Harry, Markle was in a relationship with celebrity chef Cory Vitiello from 2014 until July 2016. Markle had formerly been in an 11-year relationship with American actor and producer Trevor Engelson. Married in Jamaica in 2011, the couple cited “irreconcilable differences” on their 2013 divorce. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the Nov. 30, 2017 edition of <i style="background-color: transparent;">The Grazia Gazette</i>, Markle friend Abby Wathen said the divorce “empowered” Markle. Engelson’s net worth is an estimated $12 million. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Harry and Meghan’s May, 2019 wedding drew a worldwide TV audience of more than 29 million. The couple now has a son, Archie, and - post-Megxit - expect a daughter this summer. They live in a nine-bedroom, 16-bathroom mansion in Los Angeles on which they</span>’re reported to hold a $10 million US mortgage.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Numbers, numbers ... Meghan and Harry<span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 22, 22); color: #161616;">’s lives always seem to come down to numbers. </span>More about money issues in a few days.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #161616; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As originally reported in <i>The Sun’s Fabulous Magazine</i>, when British TV presenter Lizzie Cundy heard the news of the royal romance, she immediately texted Markle: “What a catch!” Markle’s reply: “Yeah, I know!” But then, who <i>wouldn’t</i> be delighted to date a prince?</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Has the young prince found his mother figure? Markle will be 40 in August - some than three years older than Diana, on her death. Harry will be 37 in September. Some might say Markle is the alpha to Harry’s beta, whose role within the royal family appears to have diminished and whose voice has weakened since Megxit and this month’s tittle-tattle Oprah interview criticizing the Crown. </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #161616; font-kerning: none;">More about Markle’s charges - and others’ rebuttals - later this week.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">* * *</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">It’s often said history repeats itself. The story of Wallis Simpson, the divorced American socialite who became a duchess, is well known.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> In 1936, after less than a year on the throne, the weak-willed King Edward VIII abdicated to marry to his mistress, Wallis Simpson. The lengthy affair had been an open secret, beginning when he was a prince and she, a <i>femme fatale</i>. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The headlines were brutal (as they</span>’ve been for Meghan Markle ... Sexist and racist headlines she doesn’t deserve). On leaving the throne to marry Simpson, Edward became Prince Edward, the Duke of Windsor. When commoner Simpson married Edward, she became Wallis, the Duchess of Windsor. On Edward’s scandalous departure and moves to the Bahamas and to Paris, the vapid partying began.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">From something bad, something good can emerge: Edward’s abdication led to the coronation of his younger brother, King George VI. George</span>’s premature death in 1952 led to the coronation of a truly magnificent queen. Sixty-nine years later, Elizabeth II continues to hold the throne.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When Harry met Meghan, 80 years after Edward’s abdication, a similar version of history would soon repeat itself when a prince and newly minted princess spurned the Crown. Each would </span>lose their titles of Your Royal Highness, becoming simply Harry, the Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">In an astonishing twist of history, the Rolls-Royce that bore American socialite and divorcée Wallis Simpson to bury a King, is the very same Rolls that carried American actress and divorcée Meghan Markle to marry a Prince.</span><span style="color: #1d2129;"> </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Before this event, in the Autumn of 2018, Queen Elizabeth presented Harry and Meghan with the 10-bedroom Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Estate. The couple</span>’s extensive, $3 million US renovations to Frogmore delayed the move into the historic home. Slightly more than a year after moving in, and Markle’s complaints to Harry of feeling “unprotected,” the couple left Britain for a new life in Canada. When Markle felt “unprotected” there, too, they moved to Markle’s familiar stomping grounds in L.A.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">It’s been reported that Markle was “deeply unhappy” in Frogmore, feeling “isolated” and “convinced there was a conspiracy against her ... This wasn’t the life she was used to and she wanted out.” </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0000ee; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><i>https://www.womanandhome.com/us/life/royal-news/the-mystery-behind-prince-harry-and-meghan-markles-frogmore-cottage/</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Whether Markle knew it or not, Wallis Simpson, who died in 1986, was interred in the Royal Burial Ground on the Frogmore Estate. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">* * *</span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Markle took care in selecting her “look” for the Oprah interview: With her hair up and parted at the center, she wore a </span>diamond bracelet that had belonged to Harry’s mother, Diana, as well as other jewelry rich in symbolism. </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">It was Markle’s dress </span>- an eye-catching Armani design adorned with white lotus flowers signifying rebirth - <span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">that drew murmurs of surprise. After watching the couple’s blockbusting interview, world-renowned behavior analyst Mark Bowden said Markle’s body language “just begs belief … This is an actress.” Among his comments, Bowden called Markle’s dress a “costume.” </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #0000ee; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><i>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYyEx20DiKU</i></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Indeed: A well-known, iconic photo of Wallis Simpson shows Markle</span>’s “look” similar to Simpson’s.</p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-slKxQRtG6Z4/YFYfZaKEL-I/AAAAAAAAApA/CnumPoantLIKaXuDLor_yg4diGaTOHX5ACLcBGAsYHQ/s650/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-18%2Bat%2B12.40.46%2BPM%2Bcopy.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="650" height="366" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-slKxQRtG6Z4/YFYfZaKEL-I/AAAAAAAAApA/CnumPoantLIKaXuDLor_yg4diGaTOHX5ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h366/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-18%2Bat%2B12.40.46%2BPM%2Bcopy.png" width="400" /></span></a></div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">There appears to be a concerted effort among Markle-boosters to compare her much publicized unhappiness in the royal household to Diana’s - a distraction that minimizes the similarities to Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. I find the Meghan/Diana comparison off-putting. Markle may wear Diana’s jewelry, but will never generate the love and respect accorded </span>“the people’s princess.” </p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Tomorrow:</i> Four body-language experts, a handwriting analyst, and Meghan Markle. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i> </span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-46040456226876662272021-03-19T06:00:00.099-07:002021-03-20T07:01:53.324-07:00When Harry Met Meghan (Part 2)<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-size: 18px;">What’s on my mind?</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18px;">Who is Meghan Markle? Does anyone really know? </span><i style="font-size: 18px;">Does she?</i><span style="font-size: 18px;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">This, we know for sure: As a second-tier actress on what has been described as a TV soap opera, Markle married “up.” While still in her role as “Rachel Zane,” Markle caught the eye of the late Princess Diana’s younger son, Prince Harry, whose brother William is second-in-line to the throne. On her May 19, 2018 wedding to Prince Harry, Meghan Markle became “Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Sussex,” a princess of the United Kingdom, Countess of Dumbarton, and Baroness Kilkeel.</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Unfortunately, the life of a newly minted senior member of the royal family was not to the Duchess’ liking: The couple had been married less than two years when in January, 2020, they announced their decision to “step back” from the monarchy.</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Earlier this month, in a two-hour interview with media superstar Oprah Winfrey, Oprah asked: “Everybody knows that you weren’t just marrying a family. You were marrying a 1,200-year-old institution. You were marrying the monarchy. <i>What did you think it was going to be like?”</i> </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">And then they were off, with Markle whinging: “I didn’t grow up knowing much about the royal family. It wasn’t part of the conversation at home.” Saying she did no research into the royal family, Markle added: “I’ve never looked up my husband online … I didn’t fully understand what the job was ... What does it mean to be a working royal?” </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">This is like returning a jar of peanut butter to the supermarket, complaining: “I didn’t know it contained peanuts.” </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Is Meghan Markle a victim or a villain? A shape-shifter or a shifty-eyed opportunist? Digging into her past and present over many days has confirmed an uneasy feeling I</span>’ve had for months: Meghan Markle is giving a performance on the world’s stage. She’s uncomfortable in her own skin. She’s insecure. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Harry and Meghan’s interview with Oprah cemented that feeling: Several of the answers Markle gave Oprah didn’t ring true. More about that in an upcoming post.</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Will Harry and Meghan’s disaffection with the monarchy erode that institution? Or will it be Britons’ disaffection with this troubled couple that brings the monarchy</span> down? </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Maclean’s magazine called Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah “the crisis of the century.” I hardly think so. </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Wouldn’t Princess Diana’s tell-all TV interview (“There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded …”) have qualified as a more serious crisis for the Crown?</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Wasn’t the Queen’s slowness to lower the Palace flag after Diana’s death - a flashpoint for Britons arguing the monarchy should be abolished - a greater crisis? </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Didn’t Charles’ wire-tapped whisperings to Camilla (<i>aka</i> 1993’s Tampongate) trigger a crisis of confidence in the Crown, and a crisis of monumental proportions in the morality of a future king?</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Is one woman and her besotted spouse’s laundry list of complaints about their privileged lives an argument for toppling the monarchy? It is not. The history, traditions, and “glamor”of the institution bring considerably more income into the country than the Crown takes out. Just as the monarchy needs Britain, Britain needs the monarchy.</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Queen Elizabeth II has steered the royal ship of state through oft-troubled waters for 69 years. Her grace, intelligence, grit, understanding of history, and keen political instincts have earned her the respect that is her due. God save the Queen.</span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">If Markle and Harry intentionally threw a hand grenade at that ship, they won’t sink it. Editorials will be written; voices will be raised; changes will be proposed w</span>hen the Queen dies, <span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">but the monarchy will survive. </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It will survive a divorced American actress just as it survived the far greater crisis a divorced American socialite posed, 80 years ago. Tomorrow, more about the jaw-dropping parallels between Meghan Markle and Wallis Simpson. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i style="font-size: 18px;">© Nicole Parton, 2021</i> </span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-73454479182967628832021-03-15T06:00:00.015-07:002021-03-19T13:28:10.590-07:00When Harry Met Meghan (Part 1)<p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419;">What’s on my mind?</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419;"> </span>Watching and listening to Meghan Markle is like entering the Hall of Mirrors. The many Markles before you - short, tall, wide, small - do not necessarily represent reality. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">In reading about Markle, as I’ve been doing for several days, I’ve encountered numerous contradictions. It’s been a week since Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, and I’m starting to understand the rabid frothing at the mouth that goes with expressing even the slightest criticism of her. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Racist!”</i> That’s how I was demonized on Twitter, many, many times in a single day. But oddly, one day later, all that unrestrained fury vanished, as though it had never happened. Which perhaps, it never had. That’s the disruptive, obsessive behavior of social media trolls: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll</span></a></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Two days later, when someone on Twitter referred me to a new YouTube posting about Markle, an onscreen message flashed and disappeared in roughly one second. In all caps, it read: BARB: WE NOW HAVE TWO OF THEM! I immediately cut the connection.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">There’s a whole lot of “Markle-as-Saint” goin’ on, as well as a whole lot of “royal family demonization.” Finding the “truth” is like picking through a minefield, but I <i>will</i> say I disagree with <i>Philadelphia Inquirer</i> columnist Elizabeth Wellington, who on March 8 wrote: </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">“It becomes clear in <i>[the Oprah/Markle]</i> interview that Harry was effectively cut off because his wife is Black. If that’s not racist, I don’t know what else is. What else do you call being stripped of royal security and your family no longer taking your calls? But this is the kicker: Even before a child was born, the palace discussed removing the honorifics Prince and Princess from the couple’s future children.”</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16183a; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">WHOA! Wellington’s summary comes directly from Markle, who haltingly told Oprah: “The idea that the first member of color in the family not being titled in the same way that the other grandchildren would be … It’s not their right to take it away, to change the convention for Archie. Why?”</span></p><p style="color: #16183a; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="color: #16183a; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Wellington writes of Markle’s “incredulous” tone, “as if she still didn’t believe it.” Well, I don’t believe it, either, with plenty having emerged to debunk it. More about that, later.</span></p><p style="color: #16183a; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Buckingham Palace’s politely restrained post-interview statement was as enlightening for what it <i>didn’t</i> say as what it did: </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 24, 58); color: #16183a;">“</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan.” </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">(<i>“Saddened”? “Enraged” is probably more accurate. “Challenging”? “Willful and selfish” works for me.)</i></span></p><p style="color: #16183a; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The statement continues: “The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning.” <i>(Of course - but Markle’s vague claim remains unproven.)</i></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> </span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">“</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">While some recollections may vary <i>(a tactful and deliberately ambiguous phrase)</i>, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately <i>(Message to Markle: Stifle.)</i>.</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members.” <i>(Harry’s in the dog house; Archie’s guileless; and Meghan …)</i> </span></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">I defend her right to say it, but disagree with <i>Inquirer</i> columnist Elizabeth Wellington’s view that Markle and son Archie are the victims of racism. I’ve never met Markle, and don’t give a fig about the color of her skin.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">Having watched the Oprah interview and the following day’s out-takes; having read numerous articles, current and historic; and having carefully considered on which side of the Markle v. monarchy controversy I stand, my opinion is that many of Markle’s self-serving comments to Oprah Winfrey were disingenuous. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 24, 58); color: #16183a; font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(22, 24, 58); color: #16183a;">“</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">S</span>ome recollections may vary ...<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(32, 33, 36); color: #202124;">” as the Palace stated. But after days of digging into this</span>, I’d say <i>many</i> recollections differ from Meghan Markle’s. </span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">In forming that opinion, I’ve taken the published comments of father Thomas Markle and half-sister Samantha with a very large pinch of salt. I’ve also done my best to disregard the reporting from extremist and malicious sources.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;">So into the Hall of Mirrors, to reflect on Meghan Markle, in a couple of days.</span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: georgia; font-kerning: none;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419;">© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-82601288067342359812021-03-13T11:23:00.015-08:002021-03-14T06:55:54.230-07:00Space Odyssey<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;">What’s on my mind? An online friend recently expressed a twinge of discomfort about the organization of his kitchen. I know plenty about kitchens, mainly that ours is too small.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;"> </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;">If your kitchen is also on the small side, this post may help. I’m very good at giving advice, even if not so hot at taking it. I want to <i>visit</i> my kitchen - not <i>live</i> there. Having a well-organized kitchen helps Himself and I do exactly that. So here are some tips, take ’em or leave ’em. Top tips, first:</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RuGsI1N2pb4/YE2DAGCsBcI/AAAAAAAAAos/JxycNq0fS4AygUJFPySmwVUatgFk-FQVwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/COOKING%2BTOOLS.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RuGsI1N2pb4/YE2DAGCsBcI/AAAAAAAAAos/JxycNq0fS4AygUJFPySmwVUatgFk-FQVwCLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/COOKING%2BTOOLS.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;">When I’m not using it for stock, this stock pot sits on my kitchen counter as an ideal storage for kitchen tools. Group tools in large and small jars inside the pot. Raise the jars on small blocks of wood. The jars will be hidden, but your tools will be at exactly the right height for you to find and use.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our kitchen has minimal cupboard space for canned goods. To solve this problem without spending a lot of money, I bought a custom-made bench for a covered area of the patio. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7oIyrcBmUAI/YE0WZhwqwNI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/13crqOmacP0HX2yEh4txFSYnL-Bf867kgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1024/20210313_083030.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7oIyrcBmUAI/YE0WZhwqwNI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/13crqOmacP0HX2yEh4txFSYnL-Bf867kgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/20210313_083030.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The seat of the bench flips up, revealing a handy storage space for two and three layers of dozens and dozens of cans. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ITs3otoHiYU/YE0XIvSECWI/AAAAAAAAAnY/5EOn3hHahW8J1jMXLo6DvWyVOSOBFK0xwCLcBGAsYHQ/s768/20210313_083741.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="576" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ITs3otoHiYU/YE0XIvSECWI/AAAAAAAAAnY/5EOn3hHahW8J1jMXLo6DvWyVOSOBFK0xwCLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/20210313_083741.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Essential to our efficient, bug-proof storage of canned goods, the ample space in the bench lets us take advantage of on-sale case-lot goods. Decorated with cushions, a storage bench such as this will work in almost any room of a house or apartment.</p><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Cupboards are a major component of efficient kitchen storage. Well-organized kitchen cupboards need washable, durable, tightly closable, similar-sized containers (preferably opaque, preferably matching for the <i>wow!</i> factor, and preferably unbreakable). I organize mine by food-type, grouping sugars together and doing the same with cereals, flours, etc.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6aMjkiBwc88/YE0YI83gVtI/AAAAAAAAAng/ttN6_ZAJZTo4Zs6APpuTv-6uDwLPVE2cwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20210312_220109.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6aMjkiBwc88/YE0YI83gVtI/AAAAAAAAAng/ttN6_ZAJZTo4Zs6APpuTv-6uDwLPVE2cwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/20210312_220109.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hjB0XDX8UNo/YE0YJo0Gu3I/AAAAAAAAAnk/jYLEcclq8_gp4qthMvI0Ld1Sbi-MRdGngCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20210312_220127.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hjB0XDX8UNo/YE0YJo0Gu3I/AAAAAAAAAnk/jYLEcclq8_gp4qthMvI0Ld1Sbi-MRdGngCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/20210312_220127.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3oGMoUa5DGk/YE0Yc15qiDI/AAAAAAAAAnw/ftKGPnKGlX4daU3EL5OgbMIrNLQqVM7MQCLcBGAsYHQ/s768/20210312_220139.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="576" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3oGMoUa5DGk/YE0Yc15qiDI/AAAAAAAAAnw/ftKGPnKGlX4daU3EL5OgbMIrNLQqVM7MQCLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/20210312_220139.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--ohCvLr6Jxo/YE0Yc-zwpNI/AAAAAAAAAn0/Z1dpdJl11iwvZStfu2KjNJHoivrjZcHCACLcBGAsYHQ/s768/20210312_220149.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="576" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--ohCvLr6Jxo/YE0Yc-zwpNI/AAAAAAAAAn0/Z1dpdJl11iwvZStfu2KjNJHoivrjZcHCACLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/20210312_220149.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">No matter how large or small, a deep freeze provides efficient storage, saving time, money, and waste. Examples? I packaged this chili for a larger meal, but also in smaller containers for a handy lunch.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T9TKkoT3CHs/YE0Y-AN3TrI/AAAAAAAAAn8/mypG6DTJk3I45Jsn9G0kv5a67JCn7Te1ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20210312_220047.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T9TKkoT3CHs/YE0Y-AN3TrI/AAAAAAAAAn8/mypG6DTJk3I45Jsn9G0kv5a67JCn7Te1ACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/20210312_220047.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I routinely buy fresh mushrooms in bulk and on sale, cutting them with an egg slicer (faster to clean than a food processor; faster to use than a knife). I sauté, cool, package, and freeze them in 1/2-c. portions for later use in recipes … A space-saver; a time-saver; a money-saver.</span></p><div><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Ob2ifAoCA4/YE0ZUU5_GSI/AAAAAAAAAoE/dgZWAnAT35kJuRNXkWDXgQ9LCN19XlGoACLcBGAsYHQ/s690/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-13%2Bat%2B10.16.31%2BAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="436" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2Ob2ifAoCA4/YE0ZUU5_GSI/AAAAAAAAAoE/dgZWAnAT35kJuRNXkWDXgQ9LCN19XlGoACLcBGAsYHQ/w253-h400/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-13%2Bat%2B10.16.31%2BAM.png" width="253" /></a></div><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">With writing my priority, Himself does much of the cooking. A well-organized kitchen is especially important when more than one person<span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">’</span>s cooking. While many of my older recipes are on file cards, I share my very favorites with the readers of my second blog, <i>Nicole Parton</i></span><i><span style="caret-color: rgb(15, 20, 25); color: #0f1419;">’</span><span style="color: #0f1419;">s Favorite Recipes</span></i><span style="color: #0f1419;"><i>:</i> </span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><u>http://nicoleparton.blogspot.com</u></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><div><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bs7ViS4PV6s/YE0aFkN0VDI/AAAAAAAAAoM/gRBgS666t1U_QaI_GOROQqxf-hS82ZqaQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20210312_220338.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bs7ViS4PV6s/YE0aFkN0VDI/AAAAAAAAAoM/gRBgS666t1U_QaI_GOROQqxf-hS82ZqaQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/20210312_220338.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Anyone can organize recipes this way: Blogs can be public or private - for your eyes only. No need to write out recipes: Screen shots work well for private blogs. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Himself also added vertical and horizontal shelves to the hall cupboard, adjacent to the water heater. I store baking pans there. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l_8A9oTU9GE/YE0baleyx6I/AAAAAAAAAoU/PLy4uqNZaFE30NjAKcNJD8I_v4QICIRkgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_20210313_103322.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l_8A9oTU9GE/YE0baleyx6I/AAAAAAAAAoU/PLy4uqNZaFE30NjAKcNJD8I_v4QICIRkgCLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/IMG_20210313_103322.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3VEmrhZHbRg/YE0bsU_tRFI/AAAAAAAAAoc/EvtKzd-fURMG1xPBlBbW-rCkgBiT7gX7wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_20210313_103356.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3VEmrhZHbRg/YE0bsU_tRFI/AAAAAAAAAoc/EvtKzd-fURMG1xPBlBbW-rCkgBiT7gX7wCLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/IMG_20210313_103356.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">There’s more, of course, all of it revolving around space and efficiency. I wrote about kitchen organization years ago. While these books aren</span>’t easy to find, Amazon may be able to find gently used copies.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L9EGiRavy1c/YE0cRnSD_FI/AAAAAAAAAok/nu2f2Fnsn3cfaMrxsJ-YKyFPYjZHP6MygCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20210312_220415.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L9EGiRavy1c/YE0cRnSD_FI/AAAAAAAAAok/nu2f2Fnsn3cfaMrxsJ-YKyFPYjZHP6MygCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h300/20210312_220415.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p></span></div></span></div></span><p></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-53394709009847989292021-03-04T10:56:00.010-08:002021-03-04T19:44:07.884-08:00Dances with Geese<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">What’s on my mind? Himself and I live on an island. Recent pre-COVID summers saw the arrival of 10 times more camera-totin’ tourists than we have residents. By the end of August, when most visitors vanish, we still hear the familiar </span><i style="color: #050505;">honk, honk, honk!</i><span style="color: #050505;"> - not of tourist traffic, but of </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-kerning: none;">Canada geese, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">honking like party horns. Canada geese have claimed this island as their own - with yucky consequences. Swooping in like dive-bombers, they favor our parks and waterways, ready to drop ... </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">E-w-w-w!</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505;"> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">One neighbor got so frustrated he shot a goose, which was awful. Literally “winged,” she wintered alone - unable to fly, </span>dodging traps. Which was how I came to write <i>Dances with Geese</i>. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Neighbors got song sheets, with some forming a well-rehearsed chorus line. As most of us sang, the dancers stepped and high-kicked. At the song’s last line, they turned, bent over, and wiggled their bums. Everyone screamed with laughter, releasing a lot of the anger some harbored toward the geese. So now, allow me to present ...</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><b>Dances with Geese</b></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">In our part of town, we have a new dance</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">You don’t have to jive, you don’t have to prance</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">You <i>do</i> need to watch where your feet are at</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Or risk a fall right on your prat!</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>We Do the Goose Step! The Canada Goose Step!</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The goose is a bird that swoops and glides</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">In goes the food, and out it slides</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The goose enjoys its diet of grass</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">In one end, and out its ass.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>We Do the Goose Step! The Canada Goose Step!</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">We do the dance without a word</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Step left! Step right! Avoid that turd! </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Eyes down! Guard up! Watch the path! </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Make one slip and you’ll take a bath. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>We Do the Goose Step! The Canada Goose Step!</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The goose enjoys each snack and meal</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And celebrates with joyous zeal </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Up in the air, loop-de-loop</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Down on the ground, poop-de-poop.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>We Do the Goose Step! The Canada Goose Step!</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Those of us who’ve learned to cope</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Do the dance with every hope</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">That big steps taken will prevent</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A nasty dip in excrement.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>We Do the Goose Step! The Canada Goose Step!</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The geese, they poop most everywhere</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">So all of us, we must take care</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">On lawns and walkways, driveways, too</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Wherever they leave the old doo-doo.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>We Do the Goose Step! The Canada Goose Step!</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">There’s no point in simply whining</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Consider now this silver lining.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Smile! Be glad! Act like a fool!</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The geese don’t use your swimming pool!</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>We Do the Goose Step! The Canada Goose Step! </i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i> © Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-82558492613339173892021-03-01T06:49:00.026-08:002021-03-02T07:35:07.732-08:00Green as a Shamrock<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind? We were in <i>“Wel-l-l-come, Costco shoppers!”</i> No megaphone-totin’ maniac would ever <i>dare</i> get in the way of Costco shoppers with a mindless little message like <i>that</i>. S/he’d be flattened by the stampede heading into Aisle 59, where a large sign cautions: TOILET PAPER IS NOT A RETURNABLE ITEM.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;">(If ever there <i>were</i> such a suicidal numbskull, 45 seconds after the trampling, some managerial type would be screaming over the PA: “CODE RED! CODE RED! CLEANUP IN AISLE 59! STAT!”) Although Costco’s the Wild West of grocery stores, none of that happened. This did. <span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The only way we can shop at Costco and feel safe during the COVID pandemic is to head the line, double-masked, when the doors open at 8 am (I’d feel safer in a hazmat suit, but you can’t have everything).</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">With fewer people in the aisles and a stick-to-the-list mindset, we’re in and outta there in 15 minutes - 20, tops. Chicken was on the list, so we raced to the chicken aisle, loading up on breasts, legs, and thighs. By the time we were done, even our fellow shoppers wanted a cigaret. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">But what was this? Duck wasn’t on our grocery list, but there it was, sittin’ pretty at truly extraordinary prices. I and 5.3 million other Costco shoppers instantly deduced these limbo-style (how <i>lo-o-w</i> can you go?) prices followed the traditional Chinese New Year’s celebrations (online, rather than <i>en masse</i>) at which duck is usually served. Thus, the bargains.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Himself tried to bag a duck. Literally. You know those green compostable bags in the meat department you can never open? Himself ripped one of those bags from the roll above Costco</span>’s chilled chickens. </p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Tearing off the bag was child’s play. Opening it required a PhD in Bag Sciences. Himself’s advanced education had skipped that particular degree. Himself is an expert in the “finger-snap” bag-opening technique, and in the “licked finger technique,” but - concerned that the “licked finger technique” might precede an unfortunate “touch produce” incident - he didn’t dare use the tried-and-true </span>“lick”method. The result: Himself couldn’t open the #@!% bag to put the #@!% leaky bird inside. </p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">It was then that a helpful Costco employee sauntered by.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“Rip it!” she said. “Give the bag a little tear and it’ll open like magic.” So Himself did and it did. He stashed the duck in the bag and we raced from Costco to our car.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Himself’s a little deaf (Let me whisper so he can’t hear: HIMSELF IS A LOT DEAF). </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">So when, buzzing home up the freeway, I saw the ripped- off square of a green compostable bag dangling from the stubble on Himself’s chin, I said nothing. Better to do that than yell: “Himself! THERE’S A MMM-FFF HANGING FROM YOUR MMM-FFF!”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“WHAD-YA-SAY? WHAD?”</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“THERE’S A MMM-FFF DANGLING FROM …” Too risky, in traffic. I’d wait until we were home.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">But then I forgot and Himself opened the door to our friend Mrs. H, who offered a socially distanced hello, so I stifled. And then I forgot again, perhaps assuming the bit o’ bag would fall into his lunch or dinner. I forgot even as the sliver of compostable <i>je ne sais quoi</i> flapped like a flag in our nightly hot tub. And then I suddenly remembered what it was. After all, the $#@! thing was green as a shamrock.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“Himself …” I began. </span>“There’s a mmm-fff dangling from your mmm-fff …” That, without a doubt, is what he heard.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“WHAD-YA-SAY? WHAD?”</p><div data-block="true" data-editor="1pqe8" data-offset-key="8grh2-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;"><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Upon which the steam of the hot tub loosened the green-as-a-shamrock bit o’ bag that immediately floated off and down the tub’s filter. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="8grh2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; position: relative; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; white-space: normal;">“WHAD? WHAD?”</span></div></div><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I rolled my eyes. I love this man. I truly do. Best to say nothing. My mind drifted to Costco: “CODE GREEN! CODE GREEN! CLEANUP IN AISLE HOT TUB. STAT!”</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-49072016936791974322021-02-23T12:50:00.003-08:002021-02-23T12:53:15.425-08:00The Incredible Hunk<p><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;">What’s on my mind?</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;">I’ll call him Baby X. I have a hunch he wouldn’t want me to use his name. I’ve known and loved him since the day he was born. He’s seven weeks older than Roger, my son. Here he is in the photo below, dressed as a chicken. Don’t ask: I haven’t got a clue.</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Somewhere, I have a black and white photo of him and Roger, each noodling on the keyboard of a toy piano. They were two years old, at the time. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I remember him as blond-haired Toddler X, running </span>starkers in six different directions, insistent that “I want a tun tan!” </p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I remember the Incredible Hunk X at 35, with the movie-star looks he still has at 50. His mother and I have been best buds nearly 60 years. She’s unwell. She will not recover. It hurts to lose someone you love.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Hunk X works in the movies, but where and doing what, I won’t say. I won’t say because I was desperately disappointed in him this week, as in “How could you <i>do</i> such a thing???” </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And now he’s dressed head-to-toe as a chicken, his Hunk X movie-star looks disguised, and I’m laughing and all is forgiven. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What happened? Several years ago, Hunk X adopted a rescue dog - a beautiful animal who became his best pal and traveling companion. She had a weak heart, and died far too soon, her short life a joy to him and to her. He didn’t replace her with another dog - I’m guessing because it hurts to lose someone you love. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">And so, on his 50th birthday, he asked for just one thing: Donations to a dog rescue society via the PayPal Giving Fund. His friends stepped up, and so did I, but now it’s tax time. When I noticed my tax receipt hadn’t arrived, I chased after it - first casually, and then with a slavering vigor even I will admit was out-of-proportion to my modest donation.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AGyJoG_fJPg/YDVpsF1Bh4I/AAAAAAAAAm8/AzgcegxXewkDUtZ4G7Y0vmdWL16fKAVCwCLcBGAsYHQ/s686/ROBERT%2BBOURGEAULT%2B2021%253A02.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="686" height="309" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AGyJoG_fJPg/YDVpsF1Bh4I/AAAAAAAAAm8/AzgcegxXewkDUtZ4G7Y0vmdWL16fKAVCwCLcBGAsYHQ/w266-h309/ROBERT%2BBOURGEAULT%2B2021%253A02.png" width="266" /></a></div><p></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As it turned out, the PayPal Giving Fund directed my tax receipt to an email address I’d had before the Romans built the Colosseum. I hope it arrives today. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">In navigating the maze of PayPal Giving’s online documents, I came across a sentence that left me in shock: It said Hunk X would be receiving partial proceeds from my donation - and, I assumed, from everyone else’s. That’s when I thought Hunk X must be desperate to wear that chicken costume, especially because my donation was chicken feed. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">It was only when I read the phrase for the 100th time that I realized I’d misinterpreted the words: “The amount you donated will be shared with Hunk X.” An ambiguous sentence if ever there was one. The sentence didn’t mean Hunk X would be snaffling some of my donation … It meant Hunk X would know how much I’d sent the dog rescue society. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">If his mother were well, we might have shared a good laugh about that. As it is, we won’t. It hurts to lose someone you love.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-73245726380528532622021-02-14T11:02:00.006-08:002021-03-01T13:39:56.953-08:00Happy Valentine’s Day!<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind?</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I said no. <i>“No!”</i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Never: <i>“Never!”</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">No, again: <i>“Am-scray!”</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Go: <i>“Get lost!” </i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I said maybe: <i>“Maybe …”</i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">One date: <i>“No more!”</i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Two: <i>“What the hell …”</i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Three: <i>“Why not?”</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">He said he loved me: <i>“Not interested.”</i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">He said it again: <i>“Sheesh!”</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And again: <i>“You do ..?”</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And again: <i>“You’re so sweet …”</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">He brought me flowers: <i>“My favorite!”</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And chocolates: <i>“Your favorite!”</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And gifts: <i>“How did you know?”</i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">He said he loved me: <i>“I love you, too …”</i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">He said he already knew that: <i>“What a fool I’ve been!”</i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">We’ve been married 11 years. I love him like azy-cray.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-31082598397614727242021-02-10T16:21:00.019-08:002021-03-01T13:42:09.443-08:00The COVID Blues<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind? The COVID Blues.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">First came the spending: “Another package from Wayfair? What <i>now,</i> Nicole?” <i>“Stuff …” “What</i> stuff?” <i>“Stuff-stuff!”</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And the snacking: “What are you eating, Nicole?” <i>“Muffink!” (Munch, munch, munch)</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And the boredom: “Another computer game? You’ve been on that thing for <i>two hours!”</i> <i>“Three … So what?”</i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And the sloth: “Let’s play Scrabble, Nicole!” <i>“I’m tired! Leave me alone!” </i></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And the crabbiness: C’mon, Nicole … We need to get out for a walk!” <i>“I don’ wanna walk! I don’ wanna!” </i> </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">This virus can’t end soon enough. Cross my heart and hope not to die.</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-29682379082684486632021-01-29T07:18:00.003-08:002021-02-10T17:18:38.935-08:00How Are You Making Out?<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">What’s on my mind? “In a world where you can be anything, be kind.” Great advice! And if you encounter Mr. or Ms. Nasty? Turn the other cheek - and I don’t mean your backside, Baby.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">This is a time of unprecedented challenges and heartaches. Some people’s emotions are at or near the breaking point.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">On opening yesterday’s email, I found an intriguing chicken recipe from my friend Judy. I wrote about Judy a few days ago: She’s been calling friends to ask how they’ve been making out (not the best choice of words, but oh, well) during COVID. By chance, I’ve been doing the same thing for a couple of months (I’m not talking about “making out” - that’s a given, ha-ha).</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Judy’s kindness was an unexpected ray of sunshine. It made me think about how fortunate we are. That got me thinking about helping others boost their spirits.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The fact is, many of us are getting bored and frustrated with the day-to-day humdrum of our lives. So here are a few suggestions, starting with … S-E-X!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">I’ve spelled it out so any young children trying to make out (not the best choice of words, but oh, well) this page won’t understand the word. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">It’s a little embarrassing to raise (sorry about that!) S-E-X on Facebook, and not everyone’s interested, so strike S-E-X from your activities list if you aren’t. But if S-E-X interests you, HOLEY MOLEY, go for it!</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Good grief, I said HOLEY MOLEY! That wasn’t some sly, coded reference to body parts. It would be in poor taste to pubicly declare that I like S-E-X and I aspire to being a good-taste kinda gal. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">The bottom (oh, dear) line is that my innocent reference to “good taste” doesn’t mean I’ve got S-E-X on the brain. So I’ll add S-E-X to my activity list, and if you want S-E-X on yours, do the nasty in private. What-e-ver! Your secret’s safe with me.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">My suggestions for staying fulfilled (a slip of the pen, BFFs) include firing up your Kindle (whoo-hoo!); pursuing a hobby in something you’ve always wanted to do (not THAT!); and reaching out to touch someone (I’m not touching THAT one, either). </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Don’t forget to thank essential workers (no comment) and seek a Higher Power (preferably, not salacious).</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Share what you have (I’m starting to sweat); ask if you need help (ditto); and never lose hope (or faith … or charity).</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;">Those in your bubble may enjoy such games as Twister (self-explanatory) or tic-tac-toe sucking (whoo-hoo!) … There’s plenty to keep you busy. Some people like crosswords ... Not I! No one wants S-E-X with a grump.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-family: inherit; font-kerning: none; font-size: large;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-26537960653827906572021-01-16T11:09:00.024-08:002021-02-10T17:22:51.159-08:00The Danger of Me-First Thinking<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind? The day-to-day tedium of COVID-19: The social distancing; the home confinement; the wearing of masks in public places; the inability to visit friends one-on-one. </span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Live with it, Baby Doll: Dying from COVID would be significantly harder.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What if your choices were different? What if you said: “I choose not to get sucked into the negativity and vortex of fear”? In other words, ignore the pandemic. I know someone who</span>’s done exactly that. Sounds pretty good, right? An anti-vaxxer, her recent birthday party featured a DJ and a newly installed dance floor. </p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">She’s posted Facebook pix of herself at a bar. She</span>’s<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> currently staying at a luxury resort and spa. Good? Uh-uh. Bad. Very, very bad - precisely the selfish behavior that perpetuates the spread of a deadly virus. Maturity and critical thinking skills </span>will get us through this crisis. Me-first thinking will not.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Me-first thinking is irresponsible. So is COVID denial and the inability to grasp reality. Suggesting COVID is a hoax is wilful ignorance that puts lives at risk - your own, your family’s, and the lives of those around you. Suck it up, buttercup.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">COVID is depressing on many escalating levels. You’re bored? You won’t be if you’re fighting for your life. You’re depressed? Get over it. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> Himself and I sometimes get depressed. And then we poke our noses out the window to inhale the fresh air; we go for a walk; we play cards; we phone or send emails to those who need a lift; we donate what we can to those in desperate need. </p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Helping others makes us feel better. </span>A recent psychological study found that helping another person offers a three-way benefit: The person helped feels better; you feel better; anyone observing the good deed feels better. In other words, think less about <i>you</i> and more about <i>others</i>.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">This morning, I saw a TV ad for a luxury Alfa Romeo sedan. The attractive blond behind the wheel was on her way to a social event. I found the ad</span>’s elitist message (and timing, during a global pandemic) offensive. </p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The number of unemployed is increasing. So is the number of homeless. Some of those still hanging on need to choose between paying the rent and buying food. Essential workers are exhausted. Many hospitals and morgues have reached their capacity. Extremists are rioting. Government bail-outs are becoming stretched. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Alfa Romeo’s ad highlights the divide between the haves and have-nots. The ad isn’t meant to offend, but I have to wonder if the subtle message to the rich is that lifting the boredom, depression, and fear of COVID is as simple as buying a new toy - the infinitely costlier version of a DJ and a newly installed dance floor.</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I</span>’m cranky, I suppose, but <span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">(as much as I love animals) </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> the tear-jerking TV ads for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (ASPCA) </span>also offend me. There’s plenty online about these ads: Read it. My guess is that the ASPCA is highly sensitive about such searches, because the overwhelming number of sites I looked at were critical of how much money actually goes to animals in need. </p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I</span>’ve wondered the same, so w<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">ithin seconds of my Googling the question, th</span>e site I checked linked directly to a lawyer’s office. Shortly after, a representative of that very office was online for a “chat.” I immediately disconnected from the site.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">To the best of my knowledge, the ASPCA has not published an annual report since the end of 2018, when it claimed $283 million in assets. At the time, its CEO was paid $712,397 and $57,129 in benefits, for a total compensation of $769,526. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">I have no way of knowing if the site from which I got this information is or is not true, but I do know several things: 1/ </span>The best way to protect animals is through strengthened local, state, and provincial laws as well as tough federal legislation. 2/ Although animal abuse and neglect are tragic, people should take priority over animals during this desperate time of COVID. 3/ Charities able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on sad-sounding TV ads are not the kind of charities I want to support.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As people around the world suffer, others spend money recklessly. Let’s hope the ultimate cost of a DJ and a dance floor doesn’t deliver any nasty surprises.</p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(29, 33, 41); color: #1d2129;">© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-55914766903127405802021-01-09T05:57:00.006-08:002021-02-10T17:22:18.571-08:00How to Destroy a Burger Joint in One Easy Lesson<p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><i>Note from me to you: I should probably be commenting on President Donald J. Trump’s call to far-right extremists and terrorists to rise up against democracy. Despite all evidence, Trump continues to believe he won the election “in a landslide.” Wrong-o: President-elect Joe Biden won, weeks ago. As </i><i>Trump continued to insist the election be overturned, and </i><i>Wednesday</i><i>’</i><i>s riot ripped through Washington</i><i style="background-color: transparent;">’s</i><i> Capitol Building, five people died in the insurrection he encouraged. </i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Although a truculent, deranged, dangerous Trump will be leaving office Jan. 20th, the Democrats are fast-tracking Monday</i></span><i style="background-color: transparent;">’s</i><i> vote to begin impeachment proceedings against him. May they succeed in that endeavor. </i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>I should - and want - to comment about that, but haven’t the heart. I’m sickened by the wackos and conspiracy theorists who still believe Joe Biden </i></span><i style="background-color: transparent;">“</i><i>stole</i><i>”</i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i> the presidential election </i></span><i>from Trump. I’m sickened by Trump</i><i>’</i><i>s dog whistles to terrorists he calls “patriots.” </i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>I’m sickened that the President’s enablers continue to support his cheating, lying, malignant narcissism, racism, self-dealing, income tax evasion, adultery, and lack of any moral compass. </i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>No, I won’t be commenting on Donald Trump. Better and smarter minds can do that. Those closer to the scene can do that. Those who know Trump well can do that. If this commentary were about Donald Trump, it would be titled How to Destroy a Country in One Easy Lesson. </i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>Instead, this is a story about How to Destroy a Burger Joint in One Easy Lesson. Although it</i></span><i style="background-color: transparent;">’s an awful story, </i><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>it</i></span><i style="background-color: transparent;">’s a true one, as all my posts are.</i><i> I hope it will make you smile. God only knows, we all need a smile, these days - Nicole</i></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Canadian photographer John Denniston, with whom I used to work, recently reminded me that I once single-handedly destroyed a burger joint.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">In an unfortunate episode of Dorkism, I decided to ferret out Vancouver’s Best Hamburger, the plan being to write a newspaper column about my search as John photographed happy diners with full mouths and tummies. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">The story had everything to do with driving a whole lot of miles, asking a whole lot of questions, and chowing down a whole lot of <i>(burp!)</i> burgers. Advertisers? I didn’t give a fig, and nor did the newspaper, in those innocent days. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When a little burger joint beat its big-time competitors, 20-person lineups formed outside the restaurant’s door. Disaster ensued.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When the regulars couldn’t get in, they stopped coming. Run off their feet with the increase in business, the staff started quitting - sometimes in the middle of a shift. With fewer staff and longer lineups, first-time customers gave up trying to get in. It didn’t take long for the place to slide into receivership. I hang my head in shame.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-90979365005532757872021-01-03T10:16:00.020-08:002021-01-03T11:01:46.778-08:00Revenge is Best Eaten Cold<p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What’s on my mind? My brother René, connoiseur of <a href="https://nicoleparton.blogspot.com/2013/12/glorified-butter-tarts.html">butter tarts</a>, (<a href="NICOLE PARTON IS IN PATAGONIA">NICOLE PARTON IS IN PATAGONIA</a>) knows how to give as well as he gets. A few years ago, when René and wife Leslie were visiting New York, he was checking out an art show when he saw Sir Paul McCartney. Which was what he told gullible Moi at the time. </span></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">From the moment I swallowed that bit of fiction, he began spinning a story so wild I believed it <i>had</i> to be true. So this was what he told me: Not wanting to look like the wild-eyed, Beatle-crazed maniac he is, René played it cool, nonchalantly sidling over to Sir Paul, who was bent over a painting called </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #0000ee; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_V6y1ZCg_8">Norwegian Wood</a></i></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">. (Beatle lovers will recognize those words as the title of a</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #0000ee; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"> </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">popular 1965 Beatles’ song.)</span></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">His Pinocchio nose growing longer by the second, René claimed he sidled over to McCartney, commenting: “Isn’t it good?” His story unfurling, René told me his sly use of the song’s refrain sent Sir Paul a subtle signal René was an “okay guy.” </span></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">As René blathered on, Sir Paul allegedly turned from the painting to shake René</span>’s hand and greet him as he might an old friend. </p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">(At that point, I couldn’t restrain myself, saying something like: <i>“Wowwwww!!!”</i> and quizzing René if he’d asked Sir Paul for his autograph. I assumed René had but <i>no-o-o-o</i> ... <i>He</i> was playing it <i>cool</i>. </span></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Hanging on René’s ever word, I pressed: “So what did you do?” Said René: “I asked Sir Paul: ‘What about a photo?’ He said ‘Yes.’ ” </span></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">By this time, I was twitching with excitement. “I WANNA SEE IT! LEMME SEE IT!” René told me to stifle. </span></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“What happened next?” I asked. René continued: “I handed him the camera, Leslie and I posed, and he took our picture.” </span></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>“Wh-a-a-at???</i> <i>You idiot!</i>” I screamed. <i>“You</i> should have taken a picture of <i>him!”</i> René's tut-tut grin told me I’d been had. Literally for years, I’ve been quietly waiting </span>to out-fox him, as I did in yesterday’s post.</p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">René’s love of butter tarts and my promise to</span> send him some tart pans had blinded him to the illogic of my visiting Patagonia for 16 long months. Hell, I don't even drive to the <i>post office</i> without asking Himself to come along in what we seniors consider an “outing.”</p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What’s the old saying about revenge? That it’s best eaten cold. To which I might add: Like a butter tart.</span></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"><i>© Nicole Parton, 2021</i></span></p>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779401540113359143.post-86541075184482356532021-01-01T13:29:00.013-08:002021-02-10T17:21:05.318-08:00NICOLE PARTON IS IN PATAGONIA<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">What</span>’s on my mind? Mischief!</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Don’t ask why (dunno), but it’s not even April Fool’s Day and I’m already torturing my brother, René, who believes every word that falls from his big sister’s face. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">When René wrote that the Christmas tart pans I sent him arrived in the wrong size (What sane person understands $%#@ metric???), I was too weary to sort it out, so Himself did.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Yesterday, without a word of explanation and with Himself in on the joke, I sent René a phoney “AUTOREPLY<span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">”</span> that </span>“NICOLE PARTON IS IN PATAGONIA UNTIL APRIL, 2022. SHE WILL ANSWER WHEN SHE IS ABLE.<span style="background-color: transparent;">”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Himself answered René’s email, telling him how to return the tart pans we’d bought via Amazon and saying Himself would order them in the correct size. Himself is some sort of metric genius. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">Again, with no explanation of the reason for my trip, Himself wrote René: “Hi René! Labels have been emailed to you from Amazon. Please print and follow instructions to send back. Nicole says hi from Patagonia. She reports she is very hot there. (Ohhh, YES!!!) Happy New Year!”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">At the close of his thank you to Himself, René wrote: “Cheers, beers and happier new year(s) to you both.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">René</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">PS: Patagonia!?”</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">A few hours later, I wrote René: “Hi from Patagonia, Chile, where I expect to be researching for 16 months. There was a problem with the tart pans …? I don’t know what, but Himself has apparently fixed it. It’s already Jan. 1 here. I’ve had trouble sleeping (jet lag) and must hit the hay again. My email reception is sporadic, so I’ll wave bye-bye for now! xox Nicole </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">PS: Himself, if you’re dealing with the Amazon, I may have had a better shot at it from here, though I’ve been told we have no post office - just a mail boat every 10 days.” </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">This morning, when my ever-trusting brother wrote again, I</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505;">’d already fixed </span>the header on my email to read: “Re: Tart Pans! Re: Re: Re: AUTOMATIC REPLY”</p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">“Hi, Nicole ... and happy new year to you. I was sure surprised by news of your current whereabouts, and now I look forward to hearing about the nature of your research. (I'm assuming you’d already considered just doing a Google search.) Hope you get your internal clock / circadian rhythms back to normal soon.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">xoxo</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">René </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-kerning: none;">After waiting an appropriate length of time, I answered:</span></p>
<p><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; font-size: 18px;">“I guess I can cancel my auto-reply. </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 18px;">It’s very humid here. I’ll be living in a tent in </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #202122; font-size: 18px;">Maquinchao </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 18px;">for the next few months before moving on to </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; color: #202124; font-size: 18px;">El Bolson. </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 18px;">The other researchers are extremely wary of pumas, but I’m not in the least afr</span></span></p><p><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 54px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">y3ch weCREe jegeacsh A64JZL>?*””LKJ HY4</span></p><p style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G0G5V2E8ni4/X--Swk2h3VI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/Gmz2xzu8c4URhVaZJ7W8Ui5mE1wugtuJACLcBGAsYHQ/s285/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-01-01%2Bat%2B12.09.30%2BPM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="285" height="253" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G0G5V2E8ni4/X--Swk2h3VI/AAAAAAAAAmQ/Gmz2xzu8c4URhVaZJ7W8Ui5mE1wugtuJACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h253/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-01-01%2Bat%2B12.09.30%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; background-color: white; font-size: 54px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><i style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;">© Nicole Parton, 2021</i><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); color: #050505; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px;"> </span></span>NICOLE PARTONhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05461465100128215745noreply@blogger.com0