Reading Resolutions

I'm taking a vacation from my political rants for the day.  You're welcome.  

After discussing what current books we are reading, my youngest daughter reminded me to sign up for our local library's winter reading challenge.  It entails reading 5 books between mid January and mid March.  Given the slow rate I was reading last year, I'm going to have to step up my game - a worthy endeavor.  Below is my list of books completed during 2017. 

My favorite fiction book last year was "The Light Between Oceans" by M.L. Steadman.  Fiction is my preferred type of book.  It's my escape from reality.  Sometimes I re-read books that are particular favorites.  This list includes "All Creatures Great and Small" which is always such a delight to re-visit even though I'm never sure if it falls into the fiction or non-fiction camp.  The other 3 non-fiction titles were "Dark Money", "Hillybilly Elegy" (both of which I have previously discussed in earlier posts) and "The Bookseller of Kabul".    

1.    Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
2.    Under the Harrow by Flynn Berry
3.    Hillybilly Elegy by J. D. Vance
4.    Dark Money by Jane Mayer
5.    The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
6.    All Over the Place by Geraldine DeRuiter
7.    Mississippi Blood by Greg Iles
8.    The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood
9.    The Whistler by John Grisham
10.  The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Steadman
11.  Two Good Dogs by Susan Wilson
12.  The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
13.  All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
14.  The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
15.  The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
16.  The Lying Game by Ruth Ware


I always keep a list of books that I want to read on my phone.  And yes, I'm nerdy enough to have my library card number memorized.  Most of my reading material comes from my local library.  All of that free knowledge and reading pleasure is just waiting to be consumed.  They offer so much more that just books now: audio books, e-books, data bases that include magazines and newspapers, speciality programs and services.  

Some of my favorite memories of childhood include hours spent in the library.  I was so fortunate to have parents that emphasized the pleasures of reading.  My father turned me on to Robert Ludlum novels and my mother and I usually discuss our latest books we are reading even today.  I tried to impart this to my children and am so looking forward to many happy hours reading to our new granddaughter.  

A good resolution for all of us would be to use our local library more and random sites on the internet less.

Happy Reading friends!

Excrement Thoughts

Dear President Trump,

I'm once again writing to thank you for the humor you have provided to our family this week.  The enjoyment you provided was not in your twitter feed (which is a fertile ground for laughs) but was from the "shithole" comment controversy.  

I of course have no way of verifying if you actually made the comment questioning why America has to take immigrants from "shithole" countries.  But given your past history with colorful comments, aka "grab-em-by-the-pussy-gate", I find it hard to believe that you did not utter this phrase.  

This adjective, while completely beneath the dignity of your office and certainly not representative of the opinions of the people that I know, does however show your lack of understanding about the value of shit.    

Mr. President, we here in the Midwest come from rural backgrounds of cattle, horses, pigs and other animals and we know a thing or two about shit.  We have scooped shit into piles and holes, plowed shit into fields, waded through shit to deal with animals needing care, and bathed animals that needed shit removed.  Many of our ancestors burned shit as fuel when building this country and at times, shit provides fertilizer for the food you find on your table.

So Mr. President, we laughed about your comment which just showed your ignorance about the hard working people that have built this country.  Apparently only reality TV stars have no idea about the shit that makes this country great.  Here in the flyover states those of us from shithole countries or descendents of immigrants from shithole countries know that shit is pretty freaking awesome! 

Thanks for the laugh and the reminder about the value of the hard dirty work that we everyday citizens do to help make yours and all of our  lives possible.  We will continue to do our jobs with dignity and wish you would do the same.

Sincerely,
Midwest Moderate



  

Thanks Mr. President

Dear Mr. President,

I'm writing to thank you for the absolute delight you have brought this week to our lives.  In the dark dreary days of January you made my husband and I laugh this morning to the point of nearly choking on our morning coffee and tea.  

What did you do to provide this enjoyment for us?  We have decided that your twitter account is now a source for us to award the POTUS MIT awards.  The POTUS Most Immature Tweet of the week (or hourly or daily or whatever time).  

The winning tweet was decided by taking 3 tweets from this week and trying to imagine what those would sound like from a prior President.  For this first round, the prior President is Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  FDR was chosen because on this day in 1941 he gave his famous Four Freedoms Speech where he said that ALL people are entitled to Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Want and Freedom from Fear.  The speech is an excellent read Mr. President if you have the time between golf games and tweeting. 

Below are three of your tweets from this week that we thought would be interesting to think of being uttered by FDR.

Choice#1 (actually 2 tweets together)
"Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.  Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and as everyone knows, went down in flames.  I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star..."  "...to President of the United States (on my first try).  I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius...and a very stable genius at that!"

Choice#2
"I will be announcing THE MOST DISHONEST & CORRUPT MEDIA AWARDS OF THE YEAR on Monday at 5:00 o'clock.  Subjects will cover Dishonesty & Bad Reporting in various categories from the Fake News Media.  Stay Tuned!"

Choice#3
"North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the "Nuclear Button in on his desk at all times".  Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is much bigger & more powerful one than his and my Button works!"


These are all excellent contenders for the Most Immature Tweets by a President.   We then compared your flippant tweet about Nuclear War versus the measured discussion in the speech about the freedom from fear where FDR states,  "The fourth is freedom from fear-which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor-anywhere in the world.  That is no vision of a distant millennium.  It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation.  That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators see to create with the crash of a bomb."

After reviewing FDR's speech and your tweets, we choose option #3 as the Most Immature Tweet.  While option #1 made us laugh at the phrase "my two greatest assets are mental stability and being, like really smart", option #3 was the most irresponsible and therefore the winner.  

We will look forward to more immature tweets from you in the future.  Thanks President Trump. 

Sincerely,
Midwest Moderate & Spouse