The picture above was the gorgeousness of yesterday. Today, all rain. And that’s fine. I love a rainy October day. Nothing takes me back ten years or twenty like a late October day - and that’s easier when you’ve lived in the same neighborhood for 30 years, and the same house for 23. It’s also a curse, for a while, because what isn’t is keenly felt. Until it isn’t as bad anymore, and you let it go. But sometimes it does hit a bit harder - at the grocery store, with the pumpkins piled outside, the table inside set up for tomorrow’s little-kid costume party.
And now I’m walking alone as usual without keeping an eye open as Daughter scampers around a corner or picks up something colorful, down the same bright dairy aisle.

There’s something to be said for moving, and there’s a lot to be said for staying put.

I sent her a picture of the backyard at twilight in the rain with the gazebo lights on, and noted how days like this seem familiar in an old and comforting sense. She replied:

CANDY CORN SODA

Yes! Of course. Jones brand. Awful stuff. We bought some and sampled it and winced and its potent, cloying sweetness. We had to. Let’s see if they still make it . . .

		Okay, well. This dumb vulgar world.

I was shopping at Patina the other day, a store that serves the Wine-Mom demographic, many of whom bring their kids.

		Cheap at twice the price!
		Flowery lettering makes it funny
		Give this to your Mom, she'll love it! Because she doesn't have any class either
		Two ways to take that, I suppose. Productive-bitch-scented candles!

I'm not coming at this from a point of prudishness. I'm laughing at the owners of the store who think they're cool because they enjoy being better than the people who do object from prudishness, or social modesty, or just the old civic standards of public discourse. They're so unimaginative. They're so boring.

Perhaps you heard about a protest rally in Minneapolis. They blocked off a street, and a four-wheeler zipped up and down displaying a Hamas flag.

A few people scoffed on Twitter, said no, it’s the Saudi flag! Because that makes total sense.

No.

Well, as the man said, you go to war with the army you have. Minneapolis four-wheeler codicil: If you need some decolonizing done, and all you have are gynophobic baby-raping religious maniacs, then Hamas it is.

An old man drove into the midst, whereupon the crowd began to kick the car and shout he ain’t goin’ nowhere. He was understandable confused, and pulled a U-turn and drove away. Sounds like one shot was fired, but there’s no confirmation.

You may have heard that this happened on a “highway.” No. It’s a broad street that goes past the Walker Art Museum and Loring Park, an area home to three grand old churches. The Walker is devoted to Modern Art, and hence is popular with people who like the “bag of glass smeared with baby oil in a provocative mixed-media presentation that contrasts the jagged danger of life with the balm that soothe the infant’s skin,” or something like that. They do have some nice pieces. They host the annual showing of the British awards for best commercials. It's a great event and afterwards you can have a nice drink at the bar. All very civilized and safe.

The question is whether the patrons of the museum, who are well-off and comfortable, will vote for the City Council candidate who participated in the demonstration, and put up social media posts excoriating the old man. He’s running in one of the toniest wards in the city, where museum-going is akin to church attendance.

Or at least having a membership at the museum.

The City Council candidate responded to the scared-old-man incident by reminding us who’s the real victim: his Insta vid said he got “over 500 hate-filled emails as well as multiple death threats. This is what happens when you stand against injustice and we cannot be scared into hiding. We cannot allow those so filled with hate to scare us from standing for what we know is right.”

"Free Palestine," he concluded, with the upraised fist which is totally a sign of peace y’all and not a threat to break your nose at all.

We cannot allow those so filled with hate

Huh.

Article seven of the Hamas charter:

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).

Damned tricky Jew Trees!

It is entirely possible that the fellows with the Hamas flag were lauded for their dedication but criticized for contributing to bad optics roundly condemned by the protestors and removed from the event, but it is notable that everyone is talking about peace and freedom and liberation for Palestine, not Gaza. It isn’t the West Bank and Gaza they seek to liberate. But you knew that.

The Hamas charter is an explicitly religious doctrine, but that’s fine, ‘cause Islam is cool, for reasons, mostly because the wrong people seem to just fixate on the expression of its tenets in the most literal and non-inclusive fashion. (I.e., killing the infidels, the beheading fetish, the love of death, and so on.) They are motivated by Hate and Fear, and hence it is necessary to defend the object of their objections, because the nature of one’s enemies bestows virtue.

Also, according to reddit, the real problem is Christofascism, and also, according to reddit, lol at your sky dad

I don't know. I thought the Hamas flag flown past the beautiful old church and the modern temple of secular art would be more of a big deal. I mean, it's not a Gadsden flag, but still.

It’s 1975.

The nadir of newspaper design.

Breaking news

Good news, everyone! They’re using the plant mix paving.

The what? Let’s ask the Asphalt Institute.

Plant Mix (Cold): A mixture of emulsified (or cutback) asphalt and unheated mineral aggregate prepared in a central mixing plant and spread and compacted with conventional paving equipment while the mixture is at or near ambient temperature.

As opposed to a hot mix, which I assume, due to the importance of the word plant, is mixed on site, as needed.

		Church news is front page news.

In this case, you may be wondering about Tate-Ball Ground.

Ball Grounds is a small town whose population doubled to 1400 between 2000 and 2010, says Wikipedia.

The town developed near the ball grounds, or fields where the Cherokee people used to play stick ball, a rough game similar to the modern-day game of lacrosse. The large fields and abundance of freshwater streams made Ball Ground attractive for large gatherings of the Cherokee. In 1755, it was the site of the decisive Battle of Taliwa between the Cherokee and Muscogee Creek peoples; the Cherokee won.

The name “Tate” appears in local developments and tourist attractions. As for that battle:

The Battle of Taliwa was fought in Ball Ground, Georgia in 1755. The battle was part of a larger campaign of the Cherokee against the Muscogee Creek people, where an army of 500 Cherokee warriors led by Oconostota (c. 1710–1783) defeated the Muscogee Creek people and pushed them south from their northern Georgia homelands, allowing the Cherokee to begin settling in the region.

Might make land acknowledgement speeches a bit tricky.

Interesting shape:

The collapse of male usefulness can be catastrophic:

Max suggests he get some hobbies.

More Jean Jottings! Her picture looks like something they found in Dresden after the war.

My favorite kind of trees are Existing Trees.

Now we have a church that’s pastored by a fellow who stepped out of a Civil War daguerrotype:

An explanation of the title may be found here. It’s an odd part of the Bible, and the author seems to crack his spine a bit trying to explain it.

Letters to the editor can be different in a small town, eh?

		I love the clip art, which has the slightest indication of a cigarette. Because newspapermen smoked, you know.

		And you get a column! And you get a column! And you! And you!

None of these names come back in Google searches. It’s odd. It’s as if Jasper was a CIA construct, a place built to simulate a small town, for reasons we cannot imagine.

Well? Are you covered?

And here, finally, we get a hit. Sixty-one when he died in 2010.

And if you’re wondering . . . his name was Norman.

		Now two ways to chip in!

That'll do.