Thurber, White, Angell, and banana cake

Posted on February 17, 2020 by Kim Kishbaugh

Did you know that James Thurber used to throw away his scribbled drawings, and E.B. White rescued and eventually started submitting to the New Yorker? I learned that yesterday, reading a terrific New Yorker interview with Roger Angell.

Angell is 99 years old, and the New Yorker, where he first made his name as a sports writer, is 90. The interview was part of the magazine’s ongoing anniversary celebration, and it put a happy note into my day. I love Angell’s writing and am one of his stepfather E.B. White’s biggest fans, so this piece came to me as a gift.

Church of the Informed Citizen

I wish I could say the same for the news. Church of the Informed Citizen yesterday brought a plethora of for-me unhappy news:

Our health care system is so messed up that Utah is saving money by paying for its employees to fly to Mexico to fill prescriptions.
The Trump administration wants to stop funding Stars and Stripes newspaper, but in Kansas City Sputnik Radio is alive and well and broadcasting Russian propaganda.
And of course the Trump administration also is sending ICE strike-force agents (think SWAT teams) into sanctuary cities through May. This looks to me like a calculated and cynical attempt to suppress the 2020 Census by scaring residents of immigrant-heavy communities to stay behind closed doors.

It all threatened to demoralize me. That’s why the Roger Angell interview was so welcome. It turned the tide on my day and, along with the sun in the sky, probably made the banana cake possible.

Want to know about the banana cake?

Here’s what you do with four overripe bananas and a weekend day: Try a new banana cake recipe and invite friends to help eat it. I’ll happily recommend this recipe, which I happened on at Penzeys.com while looking for spices earlier in the week. It’s dense and moist and delicious and easy.

If you decide to make it (and why not?), it’s worth noting that where the frosting recipe calls for butter softened it might have meant butter melted. I used soft butter and produced frosting paste, to which I had to add more butter and Half and Half to reach spreading consistency. But delicious, absolutely.

What I’m reading

After cake and good company, I was too tired to do anything but sleep, so I saved some reading for today. It’s an older New Yorker essay by Angell, This Old Man, about growing old. He wrote it when he was 93.

Wow.

So this happened…

Posted on July 21, 2019 by Kim Kishbaugh

Not long ago, on Father’s Day, I sat down and wrote a sonnet. A sonnet—my first. I didn’t share it with anyone (though I did mention it here), and I don’t recall if it was any good. And now I might never know, because it turns out that I’ve lost it. Yep, lost it—don’t remember which notebook I scribbled it in, cannot find it in my notes app or my blog drafts, it has just disappeared in the chaos of my daily life.

Meanwhile, I’ve become a published poet. (See how I just tucked that in rather than screaming it aloud, which is what I feel like doing?) My poem Old Dog is included in Escape Into Life’s annual anthology of dog poems to herald the Dog Days of Summer, where I get to share a page with some amazingly talented poets. I’m thrilled, honored, and inspired not just by this success of mine but by the beautiful work of the other poets in the collection. Please read them all; they are sometimes funny, sometimes, sad, sometimes shocking, and all marvelous. It’s hard to believe that I belong in their company. Continue reading →

Whiplash

Posted on January 13, 2018 by Kim Kishbaugh

My day began at 4 a.m., when I decided I was not going to get back to sleep. I took a book to another room and curled up with both it and a dog. I also opened up Facebook and found that one of my friends had been up and sharing at 2:30 a.m. — not a friend who is likely to have been ending a long day at that hour.

By 6 a.m., I was in multiple conversations, all with friends in my own time zone.

It’s Saturday. Why were we all awake?

Why am I having conversations with friends on Facebook at 6am on a Saturday? Are we all having trouble sleeping?

— Kim Kishbaugh (@kkish) 13 January 2018

Continue reading →

Coming into focus

Posted on December 30, 2017 by Kim Kishbaugh

It’s Dec. 30, and I’ve just returned from a year-end ritual: my eye exam. My eyes have been dilated, throwing my vision off a bit and making me extra photosensitive. On top of that, I left my glasses behind to get new lenses placed into them.

The result? I can barely read my computer screen as I type. My world is out of focus and could be so for two weeks, until my glasses are returned to me with their new lenses.

I apologize in advance for any typos that might creep in as a result.

That said, focus seems as good a theme as any for the end of a year and start of a new one. Continue reading →

Relief: Illinois has a state budget

Posted on July 8, 2017 by Kim Kishbaugh

Finally, Illinois has a state budget after more than two years without one. I, for one, am glad, even though it means my taxes will rise (gasp!) … because the truth is, they would have risen a whole lot more down the road if this state had continued to (attempt to) operate without one. Credit rating agencies were threatening to cut Illinois’ bond rating to junk status if no budget emerged by July (we’re still not assured that won’t happen anyway), and that would have caused the problem to spiral further out of control. Continue reading →

Church of the Informed Citizen: Healthcare and some Illinois environmental nastiness

Posted on June 25, 2017 by Kim Kishbaugh

The much-awaited Senate proposal to repeal/replace Obamacare has occupied much of my attention this week. Here are a few articles I think do a good job of outlining and analyzing its provisions and impact.

Before the bill was released, Politifact asked healthcare policy analysts what questions they would ask to assess the proposal’s impact. Here are five key provisions the analysts identified.
NPR provides a chart with side-by-side assessments of how the Senate bill, House proposal and Obamacare affect key populations in “Who Wins, Who Loses with Senate Health Care Bill.”
The New York Times also offers a concise, provision-by-provision analysis: “How Senate Republicans Plan to Dismantle Obamacare.”
It behooves us to remember that our president promised during the election to protect Medicaid from spending cuts. If the Senate bill passes, he definitely will have failed to deliver on that one. “Medicaid Cuts May Force Retirees out of Nursing Homes.” (New York Times)