Happy Birthday, George!

“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”

American general and politician, 1st President of the United States, George Washington, was born on this day in 1732 (d. 1799).

Yes, I know President’s Day was yesterday. Today is Washington’s actual birthday.

My Aunt used to say that she believed our family line was descended from George Washington because an uncle “looked just like him.”

Unfortunately, while George Washington may have been the Father of His Country, he was not, as far as we know, the father of any children. He and wife Martha together raised her children from a prior marriage.

I am, on a different side of the family connected to the Lee family of Westmoreland. So, they at least would have known the Washingtons.

I’ll take what I can get.

If George happened to show up today, I wonder what he would think? No, I don’t mean what he’d think about

The Write Side Shop

the development and technology.

But if he looked at what is happening to free speech in this country and around the world, what would he think?

“Umm…guys….?”

That’s just a gentle reminder that free speech does not just apply to speech you like or that makes you comfortable.

It’s Tuesday and it feels deceptively springish out there.

But this is Virginia and we’re probably not done with winter just yet.

I’m ready to move the houseplants back outside, but I like them well enough to think that I’ll keep them in here until at least April.

Projects continue, maybe not at the pace I’d like, but they continue.

How about you? We’re sailing to the end of our second month of 2022. What have you accomplished?

Or like me, what have you started?

Or talked about?

Whatever that might be, now is not the time to give up.

Just keep going.

George would want you to.

American singer and actress, Ellen Greene, was born on this day in 1951.


 

THINGS YOU SHOULD READ

Early Marks From CNU Wason Show Youngkin Approval At 41%
Shaun Kenney at The Republican Standard
With the Virginia General Assembly at the crossover, the bureaucracy is picking winners and losers quickly. Read More.

Sen. Cruz Says Durham Report ‘Is A Lot Bigger Than Watergate’
The Daily Caller
“If what Special Counsel Durham is alleging is true, what Donald Trump said is absolutely right and to the extent that Hillary Clinton is completely complicit with this, her campaign is complicit with it, her lawyers are complicit with it, Big Tech is complicit with it. If this is true, it’s a lot bigger than Watergate,” Read More.

Team USA track star pens blistering essay about biological men competing in women’s sports: Something needs to be done before ‘women’s sports is erased’
Blaze Media
“How can you win as a female when you’re lined up next to a male body whose strength, heart and lung capacity, and pace are all greater than your own no matter what the ‘treatment’?” Read More.

I Believe Children Shouldn’t Be Exposed to Sexual Content and Now I’m a HOMOPHOBIC RACIST? HA HA HA!
Angela at Writers Weekly
Yep, I can’t make this stuff up! Nowhere in my article did I mention homosexuality, transgenderism, racism, or any of the “sensitive” topics in the news these days. My article simply mentioned SEXUAL CONTENT and I noted two specific examples – books describing sex between teenagers in graphic detail. One of those books (though long, long ago) was in an elementary school library (Kindergarten through 4th Grade). My child was six years old when he brought that book home. Read More.

NBC’s Beijing Olympic ratings called a ‘disaster’ for network: ‘I’m stunned … There is karma in the world’
FOXNews
The media adjectives pouring in to describe the legacy of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics aren’t pretty: “Disaster.” “Joyless.” And NBC’s $7.75 billion investment in 2014 that gave it exclusive American media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032 is under question after a second consecutive ratings dud. Read More.

AGT Star Nightbirde Dead at 31 After Cancer Battle: ‘We Love You,’ Says Terry Crews
People
The Zanesville, Ohio native, whose real name is Jane Marczewski, died on Sunday, according to TMZ. Read More.

ALSO BORN ON THIS DAY

1907 – Sheldon Leonard, American actor, director, and producer (d. 1997)
1907 – Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)
1918 – Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer (d. 2014)
1930 – Marni Nixon, American soprano and actress (d. 2016)
1932 – Ted Kennedy, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (d. 2009)
1938 – Ishmael Reed, American poet, novelist, essayist
1950 – Julie Walters, English actress and author
1962 – Steve Irwin, Australian zoologist and television host (d. 2006)
1971 – Lea Salonga, Filipino actress and singer

WHAT I’M READING


 

BENEDICTION

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21

 

Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 2, 1911 – June 5, 2004

RECAFFEINATED MONDAYS – These are the Things We Do

Angel’s Rest Mountain, Pearisburg, Virginia
I grew up in the shadow of this mountain never understanding how blessed I was. My fathers now rest in the shadow of this mountain. This is home.

“It’s a human need to be told stories. The more we’re governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from, and what might be possible.”

English actor and director, Alan Rickman, was born on this day in 1946 (died 2016).

Monday.  President’s Day.

I could tell you that I’m writing this from an undisclosed location, but reality is I’m in my small hometown in Southwest Virginia taking care of family business.

I mentioned that my Mother fell just before New Years.  She’s been in a rehab facility since the surgery to repair her broken leg.

My brother, cousins, and I are tag teaming the care, the plans, the future.

Since, thanks to George and Abe, I have a three-day weekend, this is my turn. I’ll be heading back to

Available from The Write Side Shop
(click the pic)

Richmond later today to take care of the livestock…and also the family.

Truth is, I’m really writing this on Saturday morning before I prepare to leave. I’ll probably make edits before this actually posts.

Truth also is that I have a whole backpack full of projects that I intend to work on when I’m not otherwise visiting or occupied.  I mean, that worked out so well for the five days I was there in January.

But, I’m serious this time.

Truth is, that while I had the best of intentions when the year began, I came to the New Year having worked seven days a week for the months of November and December.  After Last Summer’s Great Unpleasantness (TM), that was, to say the least, challenging.  Then just after Christmas my show was closed due to cast members contracting COVID, half of my household got COVID (I did not), my Mother fell, I messed up my shoulder again, and, well, it was winter.

So yeah, neighbors, there are still leaves in my yard.  And no, I have finished neither the first full draft of the novel, or the short story project.

I’m not whining.  Well, maybe a little because I’m tired.

But I’m still going.

And I’m going to get those things taken care of.

So, as I write this, I am telling myself that I need to take this weekend to be observant.  Bask in the memories.

Those are, by the way, the subject of the short story project.

There are stories I need to tell.

The Rickman quote above is perfect for today.

We’re coming up on two years of fifteen days to slow the spread.  In fact, a work email this past week indicated that yes, we’ll hit a full two years before I have to return to the office.

Not to go off on a tangent, but so much of our last two years has been governance by idiots, or by those who seek to gain and retain their power over us.  That’s a whole ‘nother post and one I don’t think I’m going to write.

So, what I am writing is stories.  That’s my job, well one of them.

In the meantime, I’m tending to things that need tending.

I’m taking care of family. I’m attempting to regain control of my health. I’m doing the day job.

And, I’m writing for you lovely people.

Thanks for reading.

Story time is coming.

Of course, there’s also the greatest story ever told.


 

BORN ON THIS DAY

1907 – W. H. Auden, English-American poet, playwright, and composer (d. 1973)
1927 – Erma Bombeck, American journalist and author (d. 1996)
1934 – Rue McClanahan, American actress (d. 2010)
1936 – Barbara Jordan, American lawyer and politician (d. 1996)
1940 – John Lewis, American activist and politician (d. 2020)
1946 – Tyne Daly, American actress and singer
1946 – Alan Rickman, English actor and director (d. 2016)
1953 – Christine Ebersole, American actress and singer
1955 – Kelsey Grammer, American actor, singer, and producer

WHAT I’M READING


 

BENEDICTION

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

Ephesians 3:20–21

 

Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 2, 1911 – June 5, 2004