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Simeon Salus

Simeon Salus's Journal
Simeon Salus's Journal
February 13, 2025

Love, Abby: UConn Huskies' forever bond with one magical fan

Sam Borden, ESPN, this morning:

"Even though UConn players are royalty in Connecticut -- Bueckers is arguably the most famous athlete in the state -- there was little fanfare. The bat mitzvah girl, Abby Zittoun, ran up to them with happiness and hugs, but also apologetically informed them she had to keep bouncing around so she could spend time with aunts and uncles and cousins and classmates and her other friends who had come that night, too.

"The players nodded enthusiastically. They understood. This wasn't an appearance or community event. There were no coaches present, no administrators from the UConn athletic department. There was no PR person or team photographer telling them they should play with the kids now. They were, like everyone else, simply there to celebrate someone special. They were guests. (Really, really tall guests.)

"So, they played cornhole. They ate tacos. They barraged the photo booth and filled their Instagram stories. They cheered during musical chairs and the scavenger hunt. Azzi Fudd sat at a table with the grandparents and heard old family stories. When the DJ played the "Cha Cha Slide," Bueckers hopped into the middle of a group stomping and kicking and laughing and shrieking. The "Cupid Shuffle" brought even bigger shouts. Abby's mom, Gwen, whirled and spun. Even Caroline Ducharme, famously averse to dancing, joined in. You could hear Abby's giggles in the parking lot.

"No one talked about UConn's brutal loss in the Final Four a week earlier. No one talked about the upcoming season or injury rehabs or pains from the past or challenges that might still be in front of them. For the players, for the Zittouns, for everyone at the party, it was that rarest of gifts: a night of joy, of glee, of bliss. A night when the delight of the moment is so pure that, just for a split second, it covers over everything else that makes life hard.

"We were there," Bueckers says, "for Abby."

https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/43797060/uconn-women-basketball-paige-bueckers-azzi-fudd-caroline-ducharme-friendship-abby-zittoun

November 8, 2024

Looks like there WAS a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy after all

In 1996, Richard Mellon Scaife Scaife paid freelancer Christopher Ruddy to write about the Vince Foster case for the Tribune-Review and other right-leaning media.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mellon_Scaife#Opposition_to_Bill_Clinton

Folks made fun of First Lady Hillary Clinton when she used the phrase on the Today show in 1998.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vast_right-wing_conspiracy

Today, Christopher Ruddy is the CEO of Newsmax.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Ruddy

Mark W. Smith even wrote a joking 2006 book about it: Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_W._Smith

In his book Smith recommended "...conservatives start using "liberal" tactics, identified as judicial activism, rather than stay with the more typical conservative tactics such as judicial restraint, strict construction, or originalism..."

I know those of us who've watched it at work for years are boggled that most Americans don't see it. But now we're faced with the reality. Hillary's words made a great media catchphrase, but she was the first to say it out loud and be made fun of for it.

November 5, 2024

Lewis Black on voting in America

New video featuring an inspirational essay Lewis Black wrote back in 1986 when he was not yet quite so jaded.

?
November 4, 2024

This year GOPs at all levels of government have made it clear they have no interest is solving the country's problems

They are running for election on those problems. They raise money on those problems. In many cases Republicans have caused those exact problems by refusing to legislate.

Repukes don't believe that government is helpful; when they do legislate, they craft bills in such a way as to keep the government from being optimally helpful, usually in favor of profit optimization.

For them all government=bad, all companies=good.

They believe a company can do no wrong and the government can do no right. This is what they've trained to see.

And they have a Supreme Court which will continue to move us that way no matter what the electorate has to say.

November 3, 2024

Trump is "...trying to offend us..." Who are you calling "us", David Brooks?

A brief rant at David Brooks, millionaire columnist at the New York Times:

Over the many years you've been wrong time after time. You're NEVER right. I can set my watch by it.
Clinton, Jethro Bush, the market crash, Obamacare, Romney, you're always wrong.

Then TFG came along.

This year third-generation immigrant Trumpf has used you over and over like a rancid handi-wipe. And you got paid for that use. You got paid to look down your nose at him, your particular function at the Times.

David Brooks (who lives in a fortified garden) makes a commentary today that Americans live in walled garden. What a revelation! This is the sort of writer who actually uses the disparaging phrase "flyover country" in his editorials.

Occasionally, you deign to dip your toes in the waters of flyover land, David, savoring the edible food and always making a big thing about how the people are "authentic".

What did you discover in a christian nationalist church? That members were honestly moved by their sincere religious beliefs?

GOOD CHRIST, MAN! The residents of Salem, Massachusetts colony were honestly moved by their spiritual beliefs. Jim Jones's believers drank poisoned Flavor-aid because of their sincere religious beliefs. The Pharisees and Sadducees were honestly moved by their spiritual beliefs. Where does it F&*KING END?

David Brooks, you should be careful when you include yourself in a group which wouldn't have you.

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