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Good morning to all our friends and lovers.
Last night I posted and then removed an obituary for Dolly Parton. I thought it was really smart and well-educated on her career and genre, and I thought it appropriately placed her at the very top of American life culturally, personally, artistically. It did though leave out some of her most important attributes, and made her sound ungenerous, which is beyond dumb; generosity is synonymous with her name.
It was bad editing on my part not to send it back to address that lapse; I was too hurried trying to post what I found to be a really deep exploration of her career — and those of you who thought it didn’t venerate her songwriting, voice, and music, I think were wrong. I thought it was excellent in that respect, and I’m really truly sorry it pissed everyone off.
It was my fault and my responsibility. Thank you for listening!
I remember reading an interview with Dolly Parton in college where the interviewer asked her what she would be doing if she weren’t Dolly Parton, Superstar. But she would always be a superstar, she said. If I were a factory worker, she explained, I would be the star of that factory! I remember shooting my television the first (and last) time I ever tried to watch American Idol and Simon Cowell yelled at a woman for daring to take on “the Whitney Houston original” of “I Will Always Love You,” which Dolly didn’t just originate, she wrote it, with her hands and brain and guitar. I remember how much America made fun of her for her giant honkers until it must have been the ‘90s when everyone realized they’d been fucking idiots and the woman was a living (and good time!) saint. Bless bless bless bless bless.
Here’s a Lauren Hough post about her that I read to my mom when it came out a few years ago, and my mom cried and cried. (Badreads)
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Soccer flops and Natalie Harp. (Parker Molloy)
Jake Lang went to Minneapolis to start a riot. He and his Nazi buddies unfurled a banner that said “JAKE LANG LOVES BLACK PEOPLE BUT HATES [n-words].” Spider-Man punched his block off. Jake Lang and his Nazis drove into the sidewalk crowds of counterprotesters and got arrested but will not be prosecuted because Hennepin County DA Mary Moriarty says they coordinated their giant N-WORD banner with the cops, so everything’s really stupid and dumb. (Gift link Star Tribune)
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is asking the DOJ to “investigate” the Dallas and Houston airports for having foot wash stations for Muslim travelers, because letting people wash their feet in NOT THE SINK is oppressing everybody else, who are all also free to use the footwash stations no matter how much Greg Abbott lies about “Muslim-only spaces,” Jesus Christ. (Gift link Houston Chronicle)
Wyden and Garcia are investigating the YOOGE GIANT hundreds-of-millions contract for some law firm that doesn’t do immigration law to represent all the immigrant children. GIT EM. (Senate Oversight Dems)
At first I wasn’t sure if it was a bad Halloween costume, but then I saw the inset photo for comparison, and it is a bad Halloween costume, Target :( (Reuters)
This one’s a real fuckin bummer and I couldn’t read the whole thing. We’re doing bad bad bad bad things to the forests and the oceans and we’re in real fuckin trouble ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Bill McKibben)
Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs saves the wild horses. (AZ Capitol Times)
I thought I had read this absolutely insane story about this geezer and the castle he’s stocked with girls for his “reality show” like a pond with trout, but it turns out there was a jump in there somewhere with another manosphere “influencer” on the flip so now I have to go read that part too :/ (The Guardian)
Of course the billionaires are lying about California’s proposed billionaire tax, did you expect them to do not that? (Popular Info)
San Francisco Field Trip Report!
Thank you to all the Wonkers who joined us for a tribute to our beloved Fukui in San Francisco. He, Cryptofishist, and Kyle started the every third Friday Wonkparty at the Hyatt Regency SF (Embarcadero) (minus the pandemic) eight years ago, and they say they’ll continue to see you every third Friday at 6 p.m. How good to see the beautiful faces. We love you.
When we have our next one, look for us in the little area behind the bar; I know at least one Wonkfriend asked the bartender where we were and they had no idea, even though I told the other bartender to send everyone our way :/
Here are some shots of Tourist San Francisco, because that’s what we are. Shy and I had a beautiful day walking all over the city and up a GIANT MOUNTAIN (my legs are still wobbling) with my sister-in-law Casey and brother Eric, who live across the Bay. They took us to House of Nanking, which was fuckin outstanding. Five minutes later, we ran into Wonker Scott again at City Lights! Hi Scott’s nice family! Hi Scott!
And here are other pictures of a different 10 miles we walked, it was very beautiful, good job SF.
And last, here was a person hiding their face as a human billboard purchased by the AI; SF’s AI billboards are NUTS. The billionaires need some help relieving them of all that extra money. California, you have your orders!
Wonkette parties upcoming: WINDSOR, MASS, Labor Day weekend potluck! Find your own place to camp or AirBnB near but not at Paul and Holly’s: “campfires and food and drink (BYO adult stuff) on Saturday and Sunday from noon(ish) to bedtime. For information shoot Holly an email. hollyturner at live dot com”; Atlanta has been postponed to October. SAN FRANCISCO: Mon., Nov. 30, Regency Hyatt San Francisco, 5 Embarcadero.
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A little owl, getting clean in your hed gif: https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/little-owl-takes-a-sand-bath
Also a meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/d37b0abf-c06a-48dc-b757-17459a5c989d?utm_source=share
Great pics! Hi everyone! *waves*