Thursday Morning Coming Down

Posted on by accordingtohoyt

It has dropped!

Like every time I change genre, let alone medium, I was very nervous, and it was probably a mercy I didn’t realize it was coming out yesterday but thought it was another week.

Anyway, the reviews are decent.

https://www.grahamcrackers.com/products/barbarella_1_2021_cover_a.htm

and:

https://comicalopinions.com/barbarella-vol-2-1-review/

I expect there will be the usual, you know “I didn’t read it, but I don’t like her” reviews, but it’s not like I ever cared much about the opinions of the demented.

I find it kishmetic and bitter sweet that this is coming out while Cuba struggles for freedom.

And oh, on demented:

Yesterday we had the house inspection (and then drove back, getting home late, so this morning I feel like I’m coming down with something, but it might just be the air conditioning in the car blowing on me the whole way) and it went very well. So we’ll be moving in a month. Meanwhile I have books to write and edit. And a house to pack and paint and fix.

So?

So — this morning I install and train dragon. Must happen.

Also on more demented:

Yesterday, driving on the highway, there was an American flag on the road. Like lunatics, we went back, stopped with hazards on and yours truly ran out and rescued it. (Like a lunatic, yes.)

We can’t fly it — the experience tore it up a bit — but we’re going to frame it between two pieces of plexigas and it will be THE art on the wall of our living room.

We chose to regard it as a good omen.

Symbols are important, and that’s a powerful symbol for both of us, and leaving it in the dirt of the road, getting run over felt indecent.

So, what else?

Nothing much. I have things to say about centralized rule and such, that I was discussing with husband during drive. But right now? I’m going to put work clothes on and go pack, even if I’ll take it slightly easy, in deference to feeling yucky.

More tomorrow.

154 thoughts on “Thursday Morning Coming Down”

  2. So what are work clothes for a writer? RAH famously wore a bathrobe I believe. I try to keep it simple: Shorts and a T shirt from April to December, Jeans and flannels the remaining months. Sandals when it is dry.

    1. Right now – khaki slacks, Italian tee-shirt with cartoon cats on it and “What’s your mood, kitty?” in Neopolitan Italian. [Como ti senti oggi?] Some days, Victorian dress or skirt and blouse. Because some days and books are like that.

    3. T-shirt. Sometimes it’s a t-shirt with a design or slogan I liked enough to buy, sometimes it’s a free gimmee shirt. Sometimes, it’s my husband’s t-shirt, and sometimes he’ll make sad noises like “Why do you always steal my grey shirts?” Other times he makes happy noises accompanied by a Significant Look and say “I like the way you look in my shirt.”

      Sometimes, there are pants, too.

    4. For writing one of my Wandering Dog Wine Bar T-shirts and shorts or jeans depending on the weather. Of course if it gets really hot…. Aagh TMI!

    5. Governed by whim and circumstance. Like, when I write during lunch on work days, in restaurants, it’s not like evening writing, which is pants-optional

    6. Overalls and flannel, wool socks and boots (in case I have to go out and save the dumbcat from himself again). Comfy, all weather gear. For sitting inside and tapping out worlds that only exist in my head until they’re nailed down in digital format.

  3. God sent you a flag to rescue! Oh my gosh. That is eerie. o_o

    *hopes the move goes smoothly*

    1. My thought exactly!

      Moves are never smooth, but here’s at least hoping there aren’t too many bumps and that they’re not too rough.

  5. Cuban thing (Wouldn’t call it a protest, may be far more that that.) is interesting, it looks like there might be enough momentum there for change.

    Glad you got your house, Sarah, hoping you create great memories and many delightful books there.

    1. Needless to say Democrats are outraged that Cuba’s communists may be forced from power.

    2. The Democrats finally found illegal aliens they don’t like. I wonder WHY? Maybe because Cubans will NEVER vote for Democrats.

    3. Cuban “gov’t” is now jamming HF (40 meter ground wave is good for “local” communication… so guess what? A lot of noise around 7 MHz).

    1. Dragon can get… wonky with accents. At least, it could when I was messing around with it some years back (I expect there have been patches and updates). Southern accent so thick you could use it as stew ingredients? Yeah, Dragon didn’t do well with that…

  8. Sounds like the house and the flag was a nice Buy One Get One Free package.
    Things heating up all over, like Cuba, SA, France, UK, and foolish leaders declaring that this is the NWO.

  9. Congratulations!! You have uccess and overcome all challenges. Plus, although you have talked about various health issues that burden you, you sound like Iron Woman with your ability to carry on and start work immediately.

  10. So are you leaving Colorado? I’m probably headed for Missouri in a couple months!

  11. Posted to Sarah’s Diner at Baen’s Bar as I do with all Schrodinger Path releases.

  12. Speaking of Cuba, surprise surprise! BLM released a statement supporting THE GOVERNMENT.

    Cuba is officially 9% black and 23% mixed. Black Lives Matter cares about actual black lives like Robespierre channeling the Will Of The People cared about actual persons.

    2. Sargon made an interesting point about that last line. It implies that having access to capitalist markets is a human right.

      That there noggin is a’joggin.

    3. Not surprising given that BLM was founded by self-proclaimed “trained Marxists.” Cuba is notorious for oppression of blacks, and Che very vocally hated blacks. All of this is okay though in BLM’s view because Cuba is communist.

      1. As opposed to untrained Marxists? I can’t tell the difference, and don’t really care. They all look the same decorating lamp-posts anyway.

        Somebody found info that there are 75,000 lamp-posts in D.C. They’ll have to double up, at least.

      1. Heh. I’d betcha that nowadays, the lefties consider the Cubans to be non-white. No matter what Cubans themselves might have to say about it. After all, if you are any kind of Latin, you aren’t white. (Though I’d also betcha they inexplicably don’t include Italians in that, even they are, after a manner, the ORIGINAL Latins…)

    5. So, after years of comparing the US to a totalitarian regime they . . . tweet support of an actual totalitarian regime.

      I wish this could still shock me.

    6. Shouldn’t their Perfect Socialist Economy work much better, because we’re not contaminating it? We’re doing them a favor, by refraining from external interference so all Cubans are free to receive all the benefits of Socialism! How can BLM object to that?

      1. Heh. That’s a good point. Even setting aside their conveniently ignoring the fact that medicine (and food, I think?) are NOT INCLUDED in the embargo (ie, humanitarian aid)…are they saying that the socialist paradise can’t make it without outside help from the evil capitalists???? 😀

        1. The only socialist state that ever managed to feed its own people adequately was Nazi Germany. After their defeat, East Germany imported f*cktons of food and people still starved there.

          So the Nazis were the most successful Socialists ever.

  13. Well, I ordered a trailer hitch for the new car; I don’t know why I didn’t take it off the old one, although I did save the ball (and that $10).

    2. Not that I was offering to help you move (sorry); my guess is your undisclosed new location is outside of my operating area when I can’t take a week off.

  15. About 4/5ths of what we own is in boxes in the garage, awaiting the move. It’s starting to get a bit frustrating; it’s like living out of a suitcase, but for everything. For example, we run out of dishes before the dishwasher is full.

    The first renter leaves the new house at the end of July. The second (and last) renter leaves at the end of August. At least we have a month to get moved. We’ve decided on the “free hot tub” moving solution. A semi is $10,000 and up. U-Haul is $1,000 one way. We’re hiring loaders and unloaders and making two U-Haul trips. The savings goes to a hot tub for the new place! Six hours * 2 ways * 2 trips is 24 hours of driving, but won’t that hot tub be nice, afterward? Too bad it will be months afterward (after the electrical upgrade and concrete pour).

    Now, if only the Denver house would sell! I don’t want to drive back to Denver for closing, but I’m moving sometime in August, so I will if I must (and that trip can always be the second U-Haul trip).

    2. There are distance closings– I’ve never actually seen the folks we closed on houses with, and in two cases didn’t meet half the realtors.

      2. We’ve never met the buyers or sellers when closing on a house. That is what Title Insurance companies are for … All three times (two buys, one sell). Both buys, everyone was in the same state and town. The sell we were out of state, but a local affiliate took care of our signatures.

  19. So much great stuff! A new house! Barbarella! But on top of all of that and packing be sure to take the time to train Dragon. I used one of the earliest versions 20 years ago and it was quite useful, although dependent on careful editing. With 20 years of massively increasing computer power and software improvements, it should work much better now.

    1. Yeah, almost 20 years ago it would work on an iMacG3 (400MHz)—the colorful gumdrops; i.e., the 2nd G3s.

      1. If you were trying to use it while working, background noise could be an issue, depending on your microphone’s sensitivity.

      2. It worked fine for me 20 years ago. Since then it’s been mixed. Remember I have the accent. So, we’ll see about the new version. I’m willing to risk the money for a pro version, because we will be so busy it’s the only way I’ll have my publishing ready for April.

        1. Oh. Well, your accent is consistent, right? So, my guess is it’ll work. But, yeah; my familiarity with Dragon is from a customer who would sometimes have problems with it; this gentlemen was getting older and his voice was changing so his Dragon would stop working. He’d bring his system in or I’d go to his house and in either location make it work / demonstrate it was working.

  21. Congrats, on the new release (which I have already ordered), the new home, and the new/old flag.

  22. Some people rescue kittens on the road. Sarah rescues American flags. Why am I not surprised? [rolls eyes]

      1. I have a co-worker that is a lost kitten magnet. If we didn’t already have 6 in the house (five of them belonging to our covid refugee) I’d give homes to more rescues.

      2. Oh, of course. I’d be stunned if you didn’t.

        But speaking of which… Sarah, I’ve been thinking about trying to contact Leslie Fish for you and asking if she has any of her uplift kittens – not sure what else to call them – available to give away. I was going to wait until after you move and get settled in, but it occurs to me that you two are in neighboring states right now and you might be too far away to go get one at that point.

        Are you interested? Should I try?

        1. I thought Leslie was near Prescott AZ? that’s a good 13 hours from Denver, each way. (~750 miles by the crookedy road, a bit more by the better road.) It’s only adjacent on the map.

          I’d love to have some smarter (and larger) cats myself. Over the past few decades we’ve spayed and neutered all the good ones out of the gene pool, and most of what’s left are not near what they used to be.

          1. Yes, but a 2-3 day round trip beats a 2-3 WEEK round trip. Which for all I know might be what it would take after she moves.

          2. Raises hands. I’d take one or two she doesn’t want to breed. Not into breeding.

            We only have 3 (right now).

          3. >> “I’d love to have some smarter (and larger) cats myself.”

            This is intended for Sarah’s benefit, but if I do end up talking to Leslie and she’s got extras to give away there’s no reason I can’t pass on other requests.

            But I don’t want to waste her time with unserious requests, so: who here really would take one and do you have the ability to go and get one from her if she agrees? And as d brings up, do you care about breeding them (or about anything else in particular)?

            1. I’m in Montana and no ability to travel, otherwise I’d do it. Animals can be shipped by air freight, but it’s a nuisance and not cheap (well, not too bad for cat-sized crate). For me the whole point is improving my gene pool, so no point if I couldn’t breed a next-generation (which I can do with my barn cats, but they’re not really satisfactory… good mousers, but on the small side, and not real bright even for cats).

              If I get to pick my cats, I like orange or black, shorthaired, and no white markings. (Temperament and intelligence being somewhat linked to coloration.)

              1. orange. No white markings. But again, no way am I trying to acclimate a baby mid-move. No.
                After, maybe, but I get a feeling one is being warmed up to show up at my back door already.

                1. >> “But again, no way am I trying to acclimate a baby mid-move. No.”

                  Yeah, I wouldn’t even have brought it up if I’d known you’d still be close enough to go get one afterwards. I was just worried it might be a now-or-never thing.

                  >> “After, maybe, but I get a feeling one is being warmed up to show up at my back door already.”

                  We’ll see, I guess.

              2. >> “(Temperament and intelligence being somewhat linked to coloration.)”

                Not familiar with this. How reliable is that?

                [fights urge to make a joke about feline racism…]

                  1. The only cat I’ve ever had that I thought was unusually smart happened to be black. But that’s not enough to convince me.

                    1. Greebo. He was black. So is Valeria. And Pete.
                      OTOH Euclid was paste-eating dumb.
                      A lot of brilliant cats in my periphery have been orange, but Pixel was the smartest cat I’ve ever known, and he was orange.

                    3. Smartest cat I’ve ever met was orange–my cat’s brother Beckham. (Though sadly this also translated to great adventurous-ness, and he went too far from home and met with misfortune.) My cat is also plenty smart, but incredibly lazy. I’m fairly sure he puts his smarts into a vast vocabulary of cat-swears.

                      The new black kitten seems to be shaping up to be very bright indeed. Jury’s still out on her slightly-older grey tabby brother, but he doesn’t seem to be an idiot. (Unlike my first kitty, who was a beautiful swirl-patterened-with-siamese-colors kitty. She was very sweet, but in hindsight very dumb. And sadly, FLV took her at only 18 months, so I have no idea if she’d eventually have gotten smarter. Not much, I think, bless her.)

                      The calico…well, she’s also not stupid at all, although the only other calico of her coloring (white base, big orange and black patches, very beautiful) I knew was dumber than a brick. This one, though. She’s not the problem solver Beckham was, but she is bright enough that she’s got individual sounds for her favorite humans (my mother and her prior preferred human, baby brother, and a sound she uses for my dad and I interchangeably–she loves us, but not as much as Mom and Jake).

                2. It varies from cat to cat, though tortoiseshells are known for having very big personalities to the point where tortie parents even came up with a word for it: tortitude! My two are definitely unique, with the older chunky butt being sociable around my (extremely rare) guest and the younger princess generally keeping to herself but plenty capable of demanding attention, keeping her big sister on her toes, and keeping her two little brothers in line. All my other tortie parent friends note how quirky their kitties are, too!

                    1. DT sounds like the older one, who’s a sweet and sociable girl aside from that last vet trip where she had to be sedated and shaved because of her chunkiness… The new vet I’m going brought tortitude up with that one, though they haven’t met the princess yet. The boys are already well-liked there, and the black smoke helped push me towards sticking with this one on account of him flipping out and peeing the kennel at the old vet but being as calm as could be for this one. It helps that one of the vet techs there knew him from his rescue days before I adopted him, though.

                  2. So far all of our fuzzies over the last decade have suffered from an excess of personality, though not one has been a tortie, heh. But it does depend on the cat. It does seem, though, that in the absence of having to struggle for food/survival every day, and being completely safe, a LOT of cats develop definite big personalities

                    1. My two boys, the black smoke and fluffy seal point, are definitely the most demanding of mine, especially the seal point! I’m not sure if he’s a Ragdoll or Balinese mix, though I’m leaning towards Balinese, and if he’s not demanding I pet him he’s pestering his big brother for attention! He knows to keep it cool around the torties, though, especially the fluffy princess. 😉

                3. Observation over many years of several large ranch colonies; individual cats I’ve owned (a bunch, both house and barn cats, from a variety of gene pools); and more recently, a survey-type study of color vs temperament that reached the same conclusions I did many years before:

                  Orange are smarter, bolder (ie. less wild-animal reactive-spooky shit), more people-oriented, therefore more trainable. Blacks not as smart, but generally loyal and loving. (Oddly, tortoiseshell are often nasty.) Grey tabby, more wild of temperament and lower intelligence and trainability. Genes that restrict pigmentation (eg. dilution, Siamese albinism, white markings) are generally a negative.

                  There are exceptions and fuzzy areas, given that feline color genetics are complex, but that’s how it generally runs: the ideal is full pigmentation (given that pigment and immune/health factors are linked, and good health = good brain function, and v.v.) but as far from the wild type as possible (that is, more selection for being domesticated and easily civilized).

                  1. Greebo was loyal and smart. So is Valeria who is probably his half sister. (Papa Cat was local Mad Feral Tom and unusually smart.)
                    Pete…. very smart, not loyal at all.
                    And btw, I resent your implication that fuzzy white and grey Havelock isn’t smart. Mostly because he isn’t. He’s basically a lint ball on legs.

                    1. My BIG gray tabby I had from age 12 on was the wildest domestic cat I’ve ever seen. He would get peeved and bite me, but when I would throw him off my lap he would get mad and deliberately counterattack. He would stay outside for 24 hours and come home with injuries that looked like he had been fighting with dogs (and he was neutered so he didn’t even have extra uncut tom aggression). Sometimes he would get so violent we would have to shut him in the bathroom. But he was also a huge lovey cuddler.

                      The cleverest cat I had was my orange boy Leo. The dumbest is my ragdoll Otto.

                    2. Poor Havelock, born without a synapse… the smartest cat I’ve ever seen came from a generally-dimwitted feral gene pool, 4th or 5th generation inbred (mother to sons and grandsons and greatgrandsons, there being no other survivors of owls and coyotes, and rarely producing females) and with a lot of SoCal trash Siamese behind it, and a manx/kinktail gene. But I suspect he was either a chimera or something beyond diploid. Started off female, grew male parts (small and deformed) at about 4 months. Caught and neutered shortly thereafter, and eventually became tame and then the ultra-loyal house cat.

                      First clue he was seriously different.. trying to get feral kittens enough used to me to catch the little monsters. So I’m hiding behind a piece of cardboard with a “fishing pole” and the kittens are chasing the “fish” on a string. Except for Dust. He looked at the fish, visibly followed the line up and over the cardboard, deduced where it was coming from, then jumped over the cardboard and grabbed my hand.

                      Dust did all sorts of freakish things I’ve never seen in another cat. Frex, he understood mirrors first time he encountered one, something that in animals is pretty much unknown outside of spotted hyenas. (Sees other cat in mirror, turns and looks over his shoulder at other cat. Other cat, who was fairly bright if with zero impulse control, tries to check out the cats in the mirror.)

                      His half-sister’s son was the one who thought the most fun a cat could have was climbing into a plastic bag and being whirled around my head. (The only completely tailless manx of the lot — whole tail compressed to a tiny lump. He also had a mutation I’ve only seen in SoCal cats — white stripe down the spine, in his case with a full white cross over the shoulders. Aptly named “Skunk”.)

                      Sadly, those were the only two of the lot (now extinct) that had more brains than poor Havelock.

                    3. All my cats but Havey get mirrors. Miranda POSED. well, Euclid also didn’t get mirrors. worse, he thought that Greebo was a doppleganger of himself running free. SIGH.

                    6. >> “All my cats but Havey get mirrors.”

                      Did you ever get around to giving him the test, or are you still assuming?

                  2. Out of those the first black I had was pretty independent and the second was very loyal to me and fairly affectionate despite being a wild kitten, though he didn’t really get super loving until his last few months of life. The black smoke I have now has a one-track mind for snuggles and he’s quite attached to me! Sounds right on all my grey tabbies, with the late long-haired one being the undisputed queen of the house until I had to put her to sleep. The tortie princess still hasn’t come close to matching her presence, though the tabby definitely had some intelligence. I half-jokingly told her to make her needy tabby uncle shut up years ago and she perked up, slipped around the bed, got in his face with an imperious glare, and hissed him off the bed! No wonder the house still feels emptier without her. The torties I talked about above and my long haired seal point also has a one track mind for snuggles, as well as pestering his big brother. Kitties are unique and fun creatures, no doubt about it!

                  3. Oddly, tortoiseshell are often nasty.

                    *checks*

                    Tortoishell=> calico, yes?

                    Of course they’d tend to be nasty in studies. They’re all female. Female cats, even spayed, tend to get along poorly with other female cats as compared to neutered males. They’ll also form strong Ideas on who is Their Kitten, which will come across as nasty to any threats.

                    2. Heh, see, that’s why I try to define what I mean, because our local pet rescue uses “tortie” for EVERYTHING calico.

                    3. No, I mean randomly nasty toward people. And that’s even when their orange mom was doglike-devoted and would rather die than bite you. Seen this multiple times, decided there had to be some temperament conflict in the heterozygote. (Which is not unknown: Cross a flock guardian with a herding dog, and you get stock killers.)

                    4. That would explain the couple of “black calicos” (as we called them) who were just fine, while most were barn cats. (Effective ones.)

                4. It’s actually fairly strong, at least as strong as “Siamese are strong perrrrrsonalities.”*

                  My dad swears by Tuxedos for house cats– acceptable mousers, even if they drool the things to death, tend to be on the quiet side of personality but still affectionate, tend to be of the “roll with it or hide” tactic for conflict/stress.

                  Calicos are much better hunters (kill or fatally maim much more quickly), but will Give You What For if they decide you’ve crossed a line; black calicos tend to try to avoid/hide first, white calicos are more “I dare you.”

                  Solid orange (Garfield) are more active, most of the tiger stripes are, more classically ‘catty’ personality.

                  Adding a white belly makes either the “hide when stressed” or “oh, screw it, I’ll just roll with this, not worth the bother” thing more likely.

                  Longer hair without the snub-nose makes doggy personality much more likely.

                  ALL of these are a *tendency*, not a law– our tuxedo boys are different outside of the way that if they don’t avoid the kids catching them, the kids will not be bitten or scratched unless they’re doing actual harm. (I may be nipped for not stopping them fast enough, but that’s fair, the cats put up with too much and more than once have done the “I totally deserved that for not moving” thing.)

                  * was a typo, I loved it.

                  1. DT was an amazing hunter. She regularly brought us birds she’d bring down while they were trying to land.
                    OTOH she was affectionate and self-effacing to a fault. If it matters, she was bottle raised.

                    2. It does seem like bottle kittens have a strong affectionate streak based on a few I’ve known and heard of through the rescue I volunteer with sporadically (the same one I got the tortie princess and black smoke snugglebug from). In fact, said snugglebug was a bottle baby too and he hit me hard with the snuggles when I first picked him up to play! On top of that his very inexperienced foster bathed him in Palmolive and his fur had only just recently grown back in from that when I adopted him. It’s anecdotal, I know, but there seems to be a correlation at least.

                  2. Wonder if it applies on the fluffy mix side of the Siamese family since few cats demand attention like my youngest. He knows that his colors and floof, especially the tail that’s almost as big around as his whole body when in winter mode, lets him get away with a lot though! Thankfully he’s off pestering his big brother right now so I don’t have to type around him in my lap.

                    1. I haven’t met a Siamese cross that wasn’t a character, both color and build input to that, although someone above mentioned they’d met some inbred enough to be stupid and unamusing.

                      Still- THE FLOOF!

                    2. Our siamese (my first official cat away from grandma’s, and my parents only cat of their own, ever) was a character and a personality, but he never spoke, until he lamented one day.
                      Might be from being a bottle-raised baby.

  23. I love the flag story! You should definitely frame and hang that when you land. I had a similar omen (not a flag, though) happen when we were about to sell our house and launch ourselves and everything we owned halfway across the country with no place to land. It worked out better than…well, to quote Han Solo “I can imagine quite a bit”…but it worked out awfully well.

  26. Grats on the new house! Hope it becomes your new home base.
    I feel for you on the packing and moving. We’re getting new flooring put in next week for the kitchen, dining room, bath and washrooms so between the removing baseboard trim, heating registers, I’ve got a freezer, fridge, washer, dryer AND a toilet to move into the other rooms in the house, leaving us not much room for US!

    1. In 2001 we had some construction done, as well as replace all the windows, all the flooring. Essentially we had to “move 4 times”. Move everything out of construction area, and eventually bedrooms. Once carpet was done there, move everything back … that is 2 moves. Then move everything out of remaining areas, carpet, move everything back … Every room touched, except kitchen (which is very small) and both bathrooms …

      No. Nope. Not happening …

    2. January of 2020 I had to move everything out of my office for the roof reframing. I still haven’t unboxed some of my stuff. But then I have stuff that’s still in boxes from two or three moves ago, back when years still started with 19 — although most of that’s at the storage unit, not in the house.

  27. So are we laying bets on how long it takes for a kitten to show up at her doorstep and expect to be fed?

  30. In the barn I have a ratty flag that was never much to start with (one of those cheap little things on a stick they give out at parades) … also a roadside rescue, but couldn’t leave it lying there… it went into the trailer so followed me from CA to MT, and, well, the barn needed one that wouldn’t mind the dust.

    My good flag was filched from one of those “respectfully dispose of flag here” boxes (and where do they go after that??) Would you “respectfully dispose of” your grandparents??!

    I consider any damage to be war wounds, righteously earned.

    1. Retired flags are properly…cremated, shall we say. The VFW, BSA, and possibly others conduct ceremonies for the purpose. USAians, of course, never retire their pieces.

      1. Apparently I’m a USAian, then… if I could have got away with it, I might have rescued the whole box.

  36. The Puppet just called Cuba a “failed state” and communism a “failed system”. Did one of you guys get a chance to switch out his script or something?

    1. He’s not all there, communists lie, and communists sometimes have really bad understanding of their audience.

  38. Now I’ll probably post twice. Sarah, would you mind repeating your email address?

  39. Glad things are going well so far and that was quite the interesting rescue for sure. Hope it’s a good sign for sure; I think we could all use one right now.

  41. Pope Francis has sent out a motu proprio that all but bans the Latin Mass, EF and OF. Also.plays fast and loose with the powers of bishops and priests, under canon law.

    It used to be saints like mystics and religious founders that got jerked around by weird superiors. Now we all get to experience the purgative way. Yay, progress!

      1. Apparently I underestimated a lot of American bishops.

        The nasty bit where the motu proprio took immediate effect, and no diocesan priest could say the EF Mass without asking and receiving permission from the bishop, so that people would be left high and dry for the feast day today of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, as well as for Sunday? Well, a lot of bishops just snorted, pastorally, and gave ALL their diocesan priests permission.

        And so on, as apparently the document is full of canon law loopholes. And a lot of bishops have canon lawyers on staff.

        Hahahah. I love a nice medieval canon law smackdown.

        1. Also, apparently a lot of bishops just started their summer vacations, after dealing with ordinations and the USCCB conference. So even the bad bishops and the EF-allergic bishops are not too thrilled with the opportunity to stay home and figure out logistics of some weird Vatican directive.

          So we’ll see what happens, but a lot of bishops already came out today with announcements that EF stuff will continue just the same way. (Apparently the pope under canon law can’t tell bishops what to do with their diocesan parishes, and any directives to the contrary can be ignored. Heh heh.)

          1. Supposing I EVER get to travel there again, I’d like to go to the mozarab rite mass in Barcelona, because my ancestors celebrated it that way for some centuries.
            I might be a crazy geek.

        3. Even BISHOP SHULTZ came through!
          (El Paso. He’s… well, if I had to sit down and talk to him, it would probably get heated because he does the kind of “nice” stuff that boils down to actively enabling Very Bad People.)

    3. I am not Catholic (nor even religious, really) but even I can see they might have been better off with a Pope Benzedrine. Even Tim Benzedrine.

      1. >> “Even Tim Benzedrine.”

        Boy, I’ll bet THAT would have made for some interesting papal decrees…

        1. What’s Latin for “ohgodohgodohgod here comes the rushhakdjkzd khadghasfduiyasdfiu iudf ad”?

          1. :Pretty much what I was thinking of, yes.

            And if anyone could answer that question, it probably WOULD be this bunch. 😉

            1. Latin has a broad variety of exclamations and expletives, about which I don’t really know a great deal. But as the late, lamented Fr. Reginald Foster, OCD used to say, “Prostitutes, beggars, and pimps in Rome spoke Latin, and you can speak it too.”

              1. Yeah, that’s not the kind of thing you learn in official Latin class, but you can pick up a goodly number of pop-Latin books on the topic. Or you can find the academic journals that reproduce unexpurgated Latin texts (with translations in some cases) “for scholarly purposes and research use.”

  42. I posted reference & link to it up on three different FB groups where I thought it might be appreciated, one of which posts, about once every six months, a picture of The Bitch From Hell in Barbarella costume, which generally gets them yelled at by multiple people while they try to be defensive about it and regurgitate whatever her current press position on the matter is…

    So hopefully, you’ll get some additional sales from those.

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