UNSAVORY TOPICS I

Two days ago, I was enjoying the holiday Herd Gathering with best
friends Bob Ingersoll, Roger Price and Thom Zahler.  You know their
names because yea, verily, all of them are inscribed in the annals
of heroes and legend that inspire mankind to this day.  Sharing a
meal and good fellowship with them is, in itself, a honor only the
chosen few have known.  To translate into terms more recognizable
to my younger readers...it rocked.

Yesterday, my daughter Kelly spent a fun morning doing all manner
of pre-Christmas errands and then had a terrific lunch with Sainted
Wife Barb.  It also rocked.

The last thing in the universe I want to do in today’s bloggy thing
is discuss that which is neither fun nor heroic.  But I also don’t
want these unsavory topics to linger on my “write about this” list.
Please bear with me.

******************************

Most days, on my Facebook page, I post links to a few articles from
The Maddow Blog.  I like the adult, even-handed manner in which the
site reports on the follies of politicians and pundits.  It’s true
the majority of the follies are from the right, but that’s because
facts and morality both have a liberal bias.  Of course, my saying
stuff like that makes some people sad and even angry.

On December 17, I posted this:

If you've noticed the absence on my Facebook page of links to
stories about Republicans saying stupid stuff and doing terrible
things, it's not because they've stopped saying stupid stuff or
doing terrible things. I'm just busy right now. Rest assured, they
are still as horrible as ever.

That same day, I received a private message from someone I’ll call
“Peggy Noonan” because the tone of the message reminded me of that
passive-aggressive Republican pundit.  If you’ve ever heard Noonan
comment on anything, she’s always seems disappointed that liberals
won’t accept the correctness of Republican talking points and are
determined to hurt our country, by which she means the Republican
notion of the country.  I’d feel terrible about letting her down so
often if I didn’t enjoy her suffering so much.

Anyway, my “pen pal” said she much preferred when I wrote about the
comic books and the movies and other pop culture stuff and didn’t
upset her with my political and social views which were so removed
from our country’s values as she saw them.  The truth is I prefer
writing about comics and movies and pop culture stuff.  But that’s
only part of who I am and I think my connection to and commentary
on the stuff she doesn’t want me to write about informs everything
else I write, be it fiction or non-fiction. 

If you aren’t able to accept the entire magnificent package that is
Tony Isabella, then you should probably go elsewhere for your pop
culture fixes.  I might take brief breaks from the political/social stuff,
but it’s always going be here.  Writing about it is how I figure it
out for myself...and how I get it out of my system before I develop
what I can only assume is the chronic sour stomach of Peggy Noonan.

Sidebar.  As I said, I like the adult, even-handed manner in which
the Maddow Blog reports on the follies of politicians and pundits.
But I would be less than honest if I didn’t admit I also enjoy the
raucous, sarcastic offerings of Wonkette. Maddow is who I aspire to
be when I grow up. Wonkette is who I am now.

Color me Grinch-green because, in the self-centered interest of not
having to write a novel-length bloggy thing, I’ve decided to write
four much shorter bloggy things.  I’ll opine about unsavory things
over the next three days and then I can get back to writing about
subjects I find much more enjoyable.

I fully expect that, on Christmas Eve, I will be visited by three
ghosts and then awake on Christmas morning with a desperate
need to buy a giant turkey for Tiny Tim and his family. 

© 2013 Tony Isabella