¡Basta ya! I embarked on a news diet yesterday. As in “fasting.”
Throughout the long Fourth I consumed exactly zero news, save for checking the weather to see if it was suitable for the healthy outdoor exercise.
And really, I could’ve just stepped outside for that.
But still. Shit.
The media had been keening without letup at a pitch that made an Irish wake look like sitting zazen. The Internet is said to be bottomless, the way a cup of joe used to be, but they came perilously close to filling the fucker up.
The fans in my 10-year-old MacBook Pro were approaching a Boeing level of failure. Every hot take a platter of steaming horseshit, smack in the gob. In my Father’s Bistro there are Many Dishes, I mused blasphemously. I sure as hell don’t have to eat this shit.
So I pulled a Level One Roberto Duran: “No más, no más.”
As mentioned in the previous post, yesterday I took my coffee on the couch, not at the desk. After breakfast Herself and I went for a short trail run. I followed that up with a 90-minute ride.
Then I set a loaf of bread to baking, poured the fixings for Sarah DiGregorio’s chipotle-honey chicken tacos into the Crock-Pot, argued with the Voices in my head about which of our many subscriptions we should cancel, entertained Miss Mia Sopaipilla, and served up the grub.
The three of us dined in front of the TV, streaming a couple episodes of “The Bear,” season three. (Spoiler alert: There was less hollering, even when Sugar was in labor.)
Afterward we joined the neighbors for their annual fireworks extravaganza in the cul-de-sac. No flyers or boomers, just ground-level sparklers and sizzlers. But an enjoyable tradition nonetheless.
One of the grandkids was leaping and cavorting throughout, trying to grab a handful of smoke, as grandpa performed his pyrotechnical wizardry. I caught my share of the exhaust while sitting down, in my clothing, eyes, and windpipe, and both Herself and I had to hit the showers afterward to hose off the residue of whatever those wily foreign devils put in their whizbangs.
The Republic I left to its own devices. I expect there was no shortage of counsel, and plenty of fireworks, too.
• Meanwhile, a housekeeping note: If any of you have tried and failed to post a comment recently, and you are using an Apple device, the problem may reside with the Safari browser. Herself was able to comment from an M1 Mac Mini using Firefox. I’ve pinged the WordPress people and will get back to you with whatever they have to say. But in the meantime, you might try using another browser to make your voices heard.
Mad Blog Media 
I’m still commenting using Firefox on a ghastly excuse for an old PC. Seems to work. I do have to log in every time with name, rank, and serial number, but that’s not a big deal.
Yeah, the state of the nation is such that I would rather spend time with my dog and cat. As far as the Democratic Party figuring all this out between now and the convention, the best I can do is light a candle to cooler heads prevailing. And I’ve been a Dem, a union shop steward, and on a union board of directors, and all the usual bona fides. So take anything I say with a pound of salt and a large spray can of bullshit repellent.
Makes the People’s Front of Judea look like a well-oiled machine, no?
Someone writing that script must have worked at LANL.
The “Splitters!” scene in the Colosseum was spot on. When I was a young commie the Maoists, Trotskyites, and Marxist-Leninist revisionists were forever pissing on each others’ sandals.
Yep, that’s one of my favorites when organizations that should be working to a common goal end up as The Bickersons.
I too have been on a news fast, at least as much as possible, for several days. Just cant take the non-stop crisis mode. Will watch you for a queue as to when its safe to engage the news feeds again. Happy trails….
I used to enjoy this sort of thing. Breaking news, deadlines, what’s next, etc. Thrilling it was. But the news biz has changed and so have I. Maybe you can only take so many rides on the roller-coaster before you start barfing.
I’ve also lost interest in the news. Closed my nytimes all access. Been following Tour De France on Guardian and baseball on various platforms. Per John Prine:
And all the news just repeats itself
Like some forgotten dream that we’ve both seen
Mac user here, Comment didn’t work in Safari or DuckDuckGo browser. Appears to be working in Firefix. I did leave a comment several days ago (Kinky Friedman) in Safari so this is a recent f-up.
Thanks, Randolph. No wisdom from WordPress yet, but based on what I’ve heard so far the comments problem mos def seems Safari-adjacent. And DuckDuckGo? Never tried their browser; just their search. More as I hear it.
The Guardian ain’t too shabby on the TdF. I check in with their live update now and then.
I think I’m gonna drop our Washington Post subscription. They were ticking along like a Swiss watch there for a while but now? I have no interest in watching an absent Bezos and some Fleet Street jagoffs flush the op’ down the loo.