Hi Betsy. Are you aware that i insisted that everyone watch your squirrel impression in a piece I wrote about squirrels? If not...it is here:https://merrillmarkoe.substack.com/p/and-now-a-few-things-about-skwrrls. I have spent a LOT of quality time with sauirrels since you saw me last.
I was not aware! and so glad you told me. Of course I love that post, and am deeply honored. And I would love to accompany you some time to baby squirrel care, if that is allowed. And if I haven't said so lately, I love your artwork too.
THank you. Today I spent a lot of time watching some of my personal yard squirrels eat and I noticed one possible adjustment to your completely perfect squirrel...they take such tiny little bites. Its like they spent 3 minutes on a small piece of a walnut. THey never stop chewing. But I cant believe what small bites they take.
Merrill? You continue to outdo yourself. This brightens my day. It enlightens me, too, because I didn’t know about all of these various historical people and their writings. You’re my only artist friend who is truly hilarious and also an intellectual. Rare combo.
One question: Where might I get one of those adorable snuggly stuffed crabs? I like little fuzzy lice. Pink ones.
"And now that I think about it, running from an inarticulate guy in a red cap wielding a shot gun is something that has really come into its own in recent years."
Brilliant. And here we find that p***sy grabbing has a long history too!
All terrific, but I wanted to give a shout out to your reference to the King's Physician as an 11th century Ronny Jackson. I'm gonna say that;s a rare reference in the annals of American humor. Ronny lives in my neighborhood in Amarillo. I've never met him, since he spends most of his time in Our Nation's Capitol defending Donald Trump's honor, but when he ran for Congress, a major news publication maintained that his district was the most Republican district in all of America, thus, presumably, the world and probably the universe. I'm just not a city boy, but this sort of thing explains why I feel like I'm in a witness protection program when I walk the dog.
Everything between the coasts is marbled with resentful kooks who want to shut down change of any sort. The coasts are the first to go when the ocean rises. Choices🥸
Here in Albuquerque we'll burn up, not drown, but we're largely blue. We're very land-locked but our resentful kooks tend to be more left-oriented and less resistant to change. Feel free to visit NM!
Thanks! We live New Mexico. Our first road trip was to Taos forty years or so ago when we were just engaged. We go to Albuquerque to get violins and guitars fixed, and at least once to save a doggie. Also Roswell a couple times. Excellent art facilities. On the way to a friend of ours’ ranch a couple of times we’ve gone through a couple towns that had some pretty crazy giant graffiti about Democrats, though.😁
So glad you like them. I am early into Love is Blind. (just started 3 but i eat these up in a hurry.) i thought it was very considerate of Chris Coelen to give us a sociopath right off the bat in episode 1. I didnt see it coming. I thought he was going to be one of those guys in a disasterous relationship...like in the last batch of shows, there was a guy who dressed in American flags and didnt communicate when he was in person with his beloved....but Matthew appears to be straight up sociopath. What did you think?
Obviously the magic of editing gives even more impact, but the way it was presented… good Lord…
One of us said, ‘okay there’s the narcissist,’ and then a few scenes later the other said ‘annnnnnnd now he’s found his empath to emotionally feast on, vampire style.’
The good news is that it SEEMS this season has more couples who have a fighting chance. Zack and Bliss are our all-time favorite couple on the show, so hopefully some quirk develops in a couple of them.
Naïve question: Do you think they flat out put ‘red herrings’ like Matthew in these shows? Like there is a psychologist on the payroll looking for unbalanced/predatory folk to throw into the mix? It feels like playing with fire. Instructing participants to drop their emotional gloves, become Uber-vulnerable only to be given a sucker-punch outta nowhere.
But of course, like any good car-crash, one must peek and be drawn into enthrallment.
I don't really have the answer but I suspect that the guy who produces the show, who I think is absolutely brilliant at making it watchable, probably uses whatever tools he has at his disposal. He and his team probably look at the full slate of possibilities and throw in everyone who looks like they might become a watchable story line. I know that's what I would definitely do.
Again with the painful and smart and funny mixed so perfectly. Made me laugh and cry in other words - and learn. ( I thought I knew about Mary W but damn -this wicked loving widower! was he really Mary Shelly’s father? You should write an opera about them all. )
ouch. Right now iI;m reading the wikipedia article on marriage in ancient greece, and wow. it was even worse if you can imagine. hers a snippet: "she was compelled by law to marry her nearest kinsman, usually a first cousin or an uncle that was capable of fathering children. If either the heiress and/or her potential husband are married they were required to divorce, unless the father had taken the precaution of adopting his daughter's current husband as his heir before his death.[11] Under Solon's reforms couples of this nature were required to have sex a minimum of three times per month in order to conceive a male hei'
We haven't been in awhile. Susan has a law school buddy who lived there, but they moved. The best trip sandwiched a Suzuki violin workshop at Stanford. We went on the boat trip around Alcatraz and discovered that Mark Twain wasn't kidding when he said "The coldest winter I ever spent was one summer in San Francisco." They must sell thousands of those little fuzzy tourist jackets!
I'm mostly kidding. However, Homestead is doomed. It was basically right at sea level in 1958. Several friends and relatives are right on the ocean in Daytona Beach and the Tampa area. I would possibly be tempted by New Orleans because it's so cool, but I would insane to do so. Likewise, San Francisco because it's cool in the summer (huge consideration for me), but it's ridiculously expensive and it has changed a great deal. I live on the "High Plains" (elevation 3,671 ft.), not terribly far south of the geographic center of the United States. If you saw Tom Hanks' CASTAWAY (I only saw the end on TV), he ends up just as cast away as he was on the island, at a crossroads clearly symbolic of "the middle of nowhere." As soon as I saw it, I thought "That's got to be around here." In fact, it is about twenty miles north of Pampa, Texas, a place where Woody Guthrie lived when he was a young man, and where I taught art history at night for a few years. Amarillo is the nearest "big city," and it's *possibly* as big as Orlando was before Disney. Possibly. We have the "world famous Cadillac Ranch" and a few hundred signs all over the place that say things like ROAD DOES NOT END and THIS IS NOT A PIPE, created under the auspices of the same guy who made the Cadillac Ranch possible, even though he didn't think it up. It's hot in the summer, but you can walk the dog without discomfort early in the morning. It doesn't take much to make me happy. Just my wife and my kids (early middle age but nearby) and my dog (just one), art all over the place and a few thousand books. I was very social for a quarter century in the museum business, so I figure I don't have to be anymore. Likewise driving, which I did several hundred miles a week teaching around the Panhandle during my first "retirement." Time to start a diary, which I never thought of doing when I was a boy. I am greatly inspired by WE SAW SCENERY. My wife said, "You really have to read this." She was right. The pictures are perfectly in tune with the text. That's not always the case with "graphic novels." Excelsior!
Once again, Thank you!!! I'd have wanted to be friends with both you and Mary in high school.
Hi Betsy. Are you aware that i insisted that everyone watch your squirrel impression in a piece I wrote about squirrels? If not...it is here:https://merrillmarkoe.substack.com/p/and-now-a-few-things-about-skwrrls. I have spent a LOT of quality time with sauirrels since you saw me last.
I was not aware! and so glad you told me. Of course I love that post, and am deeply honored. And I would love to accompany you some time to baby squirrel care, if that is allowed. And if I haven't said so lately, I love your artwork too.
THank you. Today I spent a lot of time watching some of my personal yard squirrels eat and I noticed one possible adjustment to your completely perfect squirrel...they take such tiny little bites. Its like they spent 3 minutes on a small piece of a walnut. THey never stop chewing. But I cant believe what small bites they take.
Merrill? You continue to outdo yourself. This brightens my day. It enlightens me, too, because I didn’t know about all of these various historical people and their writings. You’re my only artist friend who is truly hilarious and also an intellectual. Rare combo.
One question: Where might I get one of those adorable snuggly stuffed crabs? I like little fuzzy lice. Pink ones.
"Nobody likes a poor girl. She is just a drag." -Helen Gurley Brown
Gee thanks for the advice. I'd better practice flirting while I'm refilling every guy's coffee cup at the Bob's Big Boy counter.
"And now that I think about it, running from an inarticulate guy in a red cap wielding a shot gun is something that has really come into its own in recent years."
Brilliant. And here we find that p***sy grabbing has a long history too!
Merrill, every one of these installments has been an absolute, not to mention filled with wisdom. :)
All terrific, but I wanted to give a shout out to your reference to the King's Physician as an 11th century Ronny Jackson. I'm gonna say that;s a rare reference in the annals of American humor. Ronny lives in my neighborhood in Amarillo. I've never met him, since he spends most of his time in Our Nation's Capitol defending Donald Trump's honor, but when he ran for Congress, a major news publication maintained that his district was the most Republican district in all of America, thus, presumably, the world and probably the universe. I'm just not a city boy, but this sort of thing explains why I feel like I'm in a witness protection program when I walk the dog.
That would definitely make me uncomfortable as well.
Everything between the coasts is marbled with resentful kooks who want to shut down change of any sort. The coasts are the first to go when the ocean rises. Choices🥸
Coast but inland? I am hundreds of feet above sea level. Maybe thousands?
Here in Albuquerque we'll burn up, not drown, but we're largely blue. We're very land-locked but our resentful kooks tend to be more left-oriented and less resistant to change. Feel free to visit NM!
Thanks! We live New Mexico. Our first road trip was to Taos forty years or so ago when we were just engaged. We go to Albuquerque to get violins and guitars fixed, and at least once to save a doggie. Also Roswell a couple times. Excellent art facilities. On the way to a friend of ours’ ranch a couple of times we’ve gone through a couple towns that had some pretty crazy giant graffiti about Democrats, though.😁
Yes, there are those places too!
Many thanks for your entries. Love these SO much. Also, my wife and I want to get your take on the new ‘Love is Blind’
Matthew?!
So glad you like them. I am early into Love is Blind. (just started 3 but i eat these up in a hurry.) i thought it was very considerate of Chris Coelen to give us a sociopath right off the bat in episode 1. I didnt see it coming. I thought he was going to be one of those guys in a disasterous relationship...like in the last batch of shows, there was a guy who dressed in American flags and didnt communicate when he was in person with his beloved....but Matthew appears to be straight up sociopath. What did you think?
We were down a VERY similar path…
Obviously the magic of editing gives even more impact, but the way it was presented… good Lord…
One of us said, ‘okay there’s the narcissist,’ and then a few scenes later the other said ‘annnnnnnd now he’s found his empath to emotionally feast on, vampire style.’
The good news is that it SEEMS this season has more couples who have a fighting chance. Zack and Bliss are our all-time favorite couple on the show, so hopefully some quirk develops in a couple of them.
Naïve question: Do you think they flat out put ‘red herrings’ like Matthew in these shows? Like there is a psychologist on the payroll looking for unbalanced/predatory folk to throw into the mix? It feels like playing with fire. Instructing participants to drop their emotional gloves, become Uber-vulnerable only to be given a sucker-punch outta nowhere.
But of course, like any good car-crash, one must peek and be drawn into enthrallment.
I don't really have the answer but I suspect that the guy who produces the show, who I think is absolutely brilliant at making it watchable, probably uses whatever tools he has at his disposal. He and his team probably look at the full slate of possibilities and throw in everyone who looks like they might become a watchable story line. I know that's what I would definitely do.
100%.
We sit there pretending to be producers sharing the questions we would ask if we were conducting the one on ones.
When you get to the ‘Megan Fox’ part, you can almost feel the delight the producer had in leading the discussion through the screen.
I’d be extremely curious about the kind of romance show you would create if someone gave you the reins to one.
Wonderful! Although now I’m filled with rage for all Godwin’s, past, present and future. A pox on their families.
Again with the painful and smart and funny mixed so perfectly. Made me laugh and cry in other words - and learn. ( I thought I knew about Mary W but damn -this wicked loving widower! was he really Mary Shelly’s father? You should write an opera about them all. )
ouch. Right now iI;m reading the wikipedia article on marriage in ancient greece, and wow. it was even worse if you can imagine. hers a snippet: "she was compelled by law to marry her nearest kinsman, usually a first cousin or an uncle that was capable of fathering children. If either the heiress and/or her potential husband are married they were required to divorce, unless the father had taken the precaution of adopting his daughter's current husband as his heir before his death.[11] Under Solon's reforms couples of this nature were required to have sex a minimum of three times per month in order to conceive a male hei'
For a lot of stuff like this you might enjoy an audio book I did with my friend Megan Koester called The Indignities of Being a Woman. You can get it free here:https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Indignities-of-Being-a-Woman-Audiobook/B07GDPQRPC
Hi, Merrill!
Thanks again for the historical education and the smiles!
“Give me an “M;” give me an “E;”. Give me an “R”. . .way to go, Merrill.
Thanks Bill. And its good you stopped at R or all the fans would have left the stadium by the time you got to the second L.
It is not very improbable that I found this essay hilarious.
Haa. Thank you.
Still appealing but too pricey, and I'm told that bums poop on the sidewalks all day and all night. Ronny Jackson's lawn person told me so.
We haven't been in awhile. Susan has a law school buddy who lived there, but they moved. The best trip sandwiched a Suzuki violin workshop at Stanford. We went on the boat trip around Alcatraz and discovered that Mark Twain wasn't kidding when he said "The coldest winter I ever spent was one summer in San Francisco." They must sell thousands of those little fuzzy tourist jackets!
Yes. Its freezing AND damp there in summer.
I'm mostly kidding. However, Homestead is doomed. It was basically right at sea level in 1958. Several friends and relatives are right on the ocean in Daytona Beach and the Tampa area. I would possibly be tempted by New Orleans because it's so cool, but I would insane to do so. Likewise, San Francisco because it's cool in the summer (huge consideration for me), but it's ridiculously expensive and it has changed a great deal. I live on the "High Plains" (elevation 3,671 ft.), not terribly far south of the geographic center of the United States. If you saw Tom Hanks' CASTAWAY (I only saw the end on TV), he ends up just as cast away as he was on the island, at a crossroads clearly symbolic of "the middle of nowhere." As soon as I saw it, I thought "That's got to be around here." In fact, it is about twenty miles north of Pampa, Texas, a place where Woody Guthrie lived when he was a young man, and where I taught art history at night for a few years. Amarillo is the nearest "big city," and it's *possibly* as big as Orlando was before Disney. Possibly. We have the "world famous Cadillac Ranch" and a few hundred signs all over the place that say things like ROAD DOES NOT END and THIS IS NOT A PIPE, created under the auspices of the same guy who made the Cadillac Ranch possible, even though he didn't think it up. It's hot in the summer, but you can walk the dog without discomfort early in the morning. It doesn't take much to make me happy. Just my wife and my kids (early middle age but nearby) and my dog (just one), art all over the place and a few thousand books. I was very social for a quarter century in the museum business, so I figure I don't have to be anymore. Likewise driving, which I did several hundred miles a week teaching around the Panhandle during my first "retirement." Time to start a diary, which I never thought of doing when I was a boy. I am greatly inspired by WE SAW SCENERY. My wife said, "You really have to read this." She was right. The pictures are perfectly in tune with the text. That's not always the case with "graphic novels." Excelsior!
Thank you very much. SF has been too expensive for a long time. I'd prob still be Bay Area somewhere if that was not the case.