The Pope Wears Prada

Two real dumpy old con men.

It's assumed (maybe correctly) that a lot of older people are susceptible to scams and cons. But I'll think that my mom has always been suspicious and a skeptic and my parents have always warned me to be careful of a deal that sounds too good to be true. So I don't worry too much about them being taken advantage of by a scam.

Unfortunately, we don't have much say about the scam called US politics. Except to use our free speech and call out the con artists called politicians for exactly who they are.

Some Christmas recipes from Mom.

Check out her note on page 23's Waldorf Astoria Red Cake : "If the trans fat doesn't kill him the red dye will."

Holiday Homemaker 1967 from Wisconsin Power & Light

Looks like death warmed over and over.

Happy Halloween from Mom!

Attended the Julien Dubuque Film Festival in Dubuque, Iowa with my mom. This is one of her notes from the seminars we attended.

Now seems to be a good time to reassert one's freedom of expression - offensive to some, perhaps, but always to be protected and exercised.

A couple of photos of my mom imagining a very different life from the one she's living. They're from an old photography project.

Included is a recent note of her contemplating the mysteries of the Rosary.

Con Don.

Ma is just as good at making nicknames as Con Don. Even better. She's the best. Come on, Con Don, take Mom on!

A righteously angry Easter envelope of righteously angry notes from Ma. To mom Easter is NOT about forgiving sins.

She's not going to forgive slave holders, circumcisers, book banners, or the Governor of Iowa, Kimmie Reynolds.

A couple of encouraging/supportive envelopes and a holiday card from Ma as I prepare for minor surgery.

"Don't become a victim of medical neglect," says one envelope. Of course, this is hard to prevent while under anesthesia.

A Salman Rushdie quote: "Live on, survive, for the Earth gives forth wonders."

An Erich Fromm quote: "Human passions transform a man from a mere thing into a hero, into a a being that in spite of tremendous handicaps tries to make sense of life."

Never know what Ma is reading or the knowledge she picks up. In the December 1980 issue of Black Belt magazine I found her note on the first page of the article "The Art of Striking."

"When testes are struck correctly."

My mom made me do it.

Halloween card from Ma. You know, because it's about a "zoombie!"

She writes:

Such a horrible way to die. It takes 3 days hanging on the cross to die.