My Cardboard Balcony

Wow. This has been...this has been one Hell of a year, people. Jesus Christ. There was a lot of...bad that happened this year. And not just the celebrity deaths and the tragic and atrocious murders in places like Aleppo and Orlando. There's a lingering bad. A change is happening in the world order, and it is not pretty. We have a populist proto-fascist president-elect who seems to get a hard-on every time Vladimir Putin speaks (hey, I'm typing this now in case it's illegal later). Fake news is rampant. Authoritarianism is on the rise. Holy shit. But! A lot of good happened this year, too. Poverty has decreased worldwide. Endangered animals are returning. The Ebola vaccine is almost always effective, and cancer treatments are being tested. The Chicago Cubs won the World Series after a 108-year dry spell! Leonardo DiCaprio got his first Oscar! More than ever, we are seeing diversity in cinema, art, science, and academia, which is desperately needed. Yes, a lot of bad is h...

да by Belinda Roddie "Deep down," the Great Bear growled, "we are all Russian."

We bought a couple of smoothies at the concession stand and quietly watched the baseball game from the far end of the bleachers, sucking the fruity stuff through enormous straws and hiccuping when the tang hit our throats too hard. I had gone for strawberry, Lynn for peach mango. The crack of the baseball bat sent a howl through the rapt crowd, while I was busy focusing on the sweetness in my mouth.