Hello! We live in Southeast Ohio on 13 acres in the woods. We’re in our mid 60’s. I’m retired professional musician who made a career change to advocate for folks with disabilities. I am now fully retired.
My husband is a retired experimental psychologist who taught evidence-based medicine. We have 2 cats, Billie Holiday and Pearl Bailey.
I'm 72. Married 52 years. Which is ridiculous. Done a lot of things. A well-spent time here on the rock. In my salad years I helped start a huge hippie commune, played a lot of blues in Kansas City nightclubs, ran a manufacturing concern, ended up studying Gifted Education and teaching History of Science, Psychology, Conceptual Physics and World History at a yeshiva high school on Mercer Island near Seattle. Now we live in the Hollywood Hills near Griffith Park and I take a lot of photographs, mostly flowers. https://nuthouse.myportfolio.com/
I live in northeastern PA, am an old hippie, and despair over what's happened to the 1/3 of the population that apparently has gone mad. I need humor to counter the despair, so thanks very much for your posts on social media ... and for your new publication!
I'm turning 58 years old this summer, I wish I'd been old enough to vote for Jimmy Carter. :) He's the only President I've ever seen in the flesh, when he visited my hometown during the 1980 campaign.
I too voted Republican one time--for Bob Dole, in 1996. I'm a lesbian and I resented Bill Clinton using the gay community to get elected in '92 and paying us back with DOMA and DADT.
I voted for Nader in 2000 and so it's my fault we got 8 years of Gee Dubya. Sorry everybody. :(
I have no children. I'm a crotchety feminist who lives with four cats and spends way too much time on social media. haha I've spent almost 40 years as an office drone, and I'm a very dedicated and active abortion rights advocate who participates in clinic defense every weekend at my local Planned Parenthood.
I've been reading this blog from the beginning and am proud to be a subscriber. Your voice speaks to my heart. Thank you.
81 years old here, a lifelong Democrat and sculptor. 50 years married after being widowed young. Great grandchildren in school already and inside I’m still 18 years old. Funny how time works.
I’ve lived in North Carolina since 1960. I was deeply depressed about America during the entire Reagan administration. I became politically aware in the 1950s when our grammar school teacher explained the electoral college. She also told us (during a period of raging communist propaganda) that America used propaganda too. She blew our little minds. I expect she’d be fired today but I’m grateful for the wonderful Miss Rittenhouse.
"more informed and entertaining than the ones on social media."
That's what we call "faint praise."
I wish you'd spend more time on here and less on Twitter. I can't stand Twitter anymore.
I turned 69 a few days ago, I am in an interracial same-sex marriage, I live in Vietnam (Palin was the last straw, I left two years after her ugly little speech), and I write software and do technical writing. I play classical guitar, flutes, and analog synthesizers.
I am misanthropic as fuck, I like animals a lot more than people.
I am sick and fucking tired of this "trans" and "nonbinary" shit, because I've known real transgender people and they were friends I cared about. Trendies and attention freaks of all kinds piss me off.
I speak four languages and can read about a dozen more. Tôi có thể đọc và nói tiếng Việt.
I hate Trump, Boebert, Greene, Lake, and Paul.
I love physics, dark music genres, and my musical heroes are dying like flies. I read a lot and I am as far off the grid as I can manage.
I voted for one Republican in my life: Gov. John Spellman in WA state. He had a pretty good environmental record and his Democratic opponent came from the logging industry. My first presidential vote was for McGovern.
Edit: four cats, one microdog, two parrots. Cats are tortoiseshells and a pair of Vietnamese tabby littermates.
I’m 67, grew up on Long Island, was a punk and a biker, worked as a union printer in NYC for a long time, was a female foreman, which was a novelty then, spent some time on the streets because of drug addiction, got clean, moved to Portsmouth NH in 1989, no helmet law, married my husband in 1995, and my 24 y o daughter is starting graduate school this year. We live in an old farmhouse we renovated, that we could never afford now. I grew up a Democrat, and in the last 10 years I have become a poll worker and a community activist. Don’t crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers, is so great and I can recite the Nick Danger intro from memory.
NOT in my memory: what I did yesterday, where I left the TV remote and directions to anywhere. But I CAN recite the dialogue in Snatch, even Brad Pitt’s unintelligible Irish *gypsy* language. My daughter can quote most of Moonstruck. Nothing I know is significant enough to be a Jeopardy question, but I’d be good at a trivia match at a party. However, since I have no friends IRL, I don’t get invited to many parties, which is fine because I hate people.
Addendum: At the last party I attended, a young woman I’d been chatting with TURNED HER CHAIR AROUND so she didn’t have to talk to me. Ergo, I don’t go to parties.
Despite all my flaws, my 4 dogs think I’m perfect and who am I to disagree? They all hate Trump , NEVER voted Republican and when Cupcake and Lulu stop shitting all over the house, life would be pretty perfect.
Addendum to the addendum: It’s no fun being a name dropper when nobody knows the names I’m dropping. “I worked for Alan King for years.” *Who’s Alan King?* Very famous comedian, he made more appearances on Ed Sullivan than anyone else.” *Who’s Ed Sullivan?*
Alan King did a movie called King of comedy? it was partially filmed in a building in NYC that I worked in so I got to watch him being filmed walking out of the building. he was a great comedian.
Yes, he was in King of Comedy and several other films. He starred in a Sidney Lumet movie, Just Tell Me What You Want with Ali McGraw and Myrna Loy (playing ME!) I also ran his annual tennis tournament at Caesar’s Palace.
I could tell you a million things about him but I won’t speak ill of the dead.
thank you. no need. we always want to believe the best of the people- stars, politicians, sports figures, and others who we watch or admire for their achievements, but we need to remember no one is perfect and most of us less than. we are after all, just bozos on this bus.
I'm a 65 year old college professor and researcher with strong democratic values. Woke AF, in other words. I live in the fascist state of Texas and believe most of the people in power here (Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, Ted Cruz) are racist power hungry fucks. I have never voted for a republican, and, like you, Jimmy Carter (a truly wonderful human being) was the first person I voted for in 1976. I have two cats (including one therapy cat) and two dogs who all live in "relative" harmony. I love Firesign Theatre (especially Nick Danger, Third Eye and We're All Bozos on This Bus) and subscribe to too many streaming services. I play keyboards and stringed instruments, but mostly piano and guitar.
I’m a 73yo retired HC Exec licensed RN living by the Atlantic w decidedly younger and gainfully employed husband, 12lb watchdog, no kids and an attitude. I am a confessed news junkie, doom scroller and the night TFG was elected I cried for hours. I’m mystified that there is so much stupidity, assholery and general fuckery going on in the country. Let’s DeSantisfy us all and keep ‘Murica stupid. Jesus Mary and Jonathan Seagull. I love your work.
I'm a 58-year-old white male. Married with an adult son. I consider myself a child of the 1970s. I grew up thinking that world would get progressively better. Facing no future in the Midwest, I joined the Army directly out of high school. I spent 20 years, most of the time, in the Army Special Forces. Because everyone else around me did, I voted Republican until Bush/Gore. I thought Gore was a better person, and with my exposure to different cultures through my Army travels, I realized that the world could be a better place. My wife is German and saw how much better their social system was than ours. I've voted Democrat since. Retired from the Army and moved to IT management. I've grown progressively liberal as I've grown older. I've lost most of my Army acquaintances because they went total MAGA. That's okay.
You hit on something that I can relate to. I grew up a military brat and loved moving around. My mother was German and I had the great fortune of having a wonderful family support system over there. My sister ended up working/living there. That is how I got to know about their healthcare system when she got Pancreatic cancer at a young age. It was miraculous what kind of care she got and it cost her nothing. Other family members have also benefited from total comprehensive care over there. If Americans could experience that system and not listen to the fear mongers they would see how much we need something like it. And Germany is still an economic stable country despite having National Health Care for decades.
Married for 26 years. We have two adult children who work in flim and television. During the pandemic we adopted two cats. I've never owned a cat in my life. Always been a dog person. Cats are okay. I am an urban gardener and teach organic gardening to elementary school kids. I am California born and raised. I was raised in a cult that I left in my 20s. I don't like traveling because I suck at organizing and I'm really good at panic attacks. I like arriving at new places and exploring without schedules or time lines. I collect bourbons and drink them. I'm currently binge watching Your Honor with Brian Cranston. I mean staring Brian Cranston, not cuddled on the couch with the cats and Brian Cranston.
73 years old in a few days. Grew up in SF, daughter of a State assemblyman, democrat. Walked from my family home to the Haight in the mid-60s. College at Cal in Berkeley. Saw some crazy times and joined protests on a regular basis.
Retired and moved to Costa Rica 15 years ago. I read a lot and follow the news, but haven't seen a movie or TV program since I've been in Costa Rica. I doubt that I'll ever return to the US even for a visit. It's more toxic by the hour. I'll continue to vote, etc, and hope you all survive.
I used to be the youngest one in the group for a long, long time so I'll embarce my 79 years and divulge that I was a Republican for way too many years and also was a heavy smoker. I didn't stop them both at the same time but remind you that often, a reformed smoker is the meannest convert. I'll extend that to reformed Republican as well. I was a court reporter for 30 years, then a sculptor for ten after burning out, and then and then. I live in New Orleans, born in Alabama so I'm surrounded by the people who offend me most.. except in New Orleans. And every time I see you in my inbox, I know it's going to be potty mouthed fun. Oh, I was also one of the potty-mouthed girls who moved to a larger town at ten for a school that went through 12th. Subscribing to you is one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time.
One of the ways I knew Rita Hurault and I were gonna be together was that she knew the answer to the Firesign Theatre's question, "What's all this brouhaha?" She also had Klipsch speakers, which told me she was serious about music. We will celebrate our 29th anniversary in September.
I am 69 years old, and fortunate to have been doing music-related work for a living since 1976. I grew up in a household of Kennedy Democrats and have never forgotten that we're all in this together.
I've been a friend of Tiedrich for several decades via our mutual love of the Grateful Dead, and I have been a fan of his online political posts since he started making them.
I'm seventy years old. I'm an avid cyclist, retired pharmacist who grew up in the right-wing-ultra christian hick center of the universe (Bakersfield, California). I now live in Southern Oregon. I was a rabid Viet Nam war protester ... ready to emigrate to Canada if drafted (I wasn't). I was still in California when Reagan was elected governor. I couldn't believe it. THEN... when he was elected Prez I said "fuck this... this country has a serious problem" and set off to ride a bicycle around the world. That was in '79 when one couldn't actually cycle around the world because the Soviets were killing Afghanis and Iran had 51 American hostages and the borders were closed. Soooo... I headed south and went through Africa instead. 60 countries and 12 years later I headed back to the US with my new wife whom I stole from British Airways. Now we have 2 adult genius kids and are looking to get out of this has-been country.
as is usual for these open chats, this one's for the subscribers only. I won't be sharing it social media.
Hello! We live in Southeast Ohio on 13 acres in the woods. We’re in our mid 60’s. I’m retired professional musician who made a career change to advocate for folks with disabilities. I am now fully retired.
My husband is a retired experimental psychologist who taught evidence-based medicine. We have 2 cats, Billie Holiday and Pearl Bailey.
Hugs to all and fuck the GOP!
Tina
I assume Billie and Pearl are good singers.
I'm 72. Married 52 years. Which is ridiculous. Done a lot of things. A well-spent time here on the rock. In my salad years I helped start a huge hippie commune, played a lot of blues in Kansas City nightclubs, ran a manufacturing concern, ended up studying Gifted Education and teaching History of Science, Psychology, Conceptual Physics and World History at a yeshiva high school on Mercer Island near Seattle. Now we live in the Hollywood Hills near Griffith Park and I take a lot of photographs, mostly flowers. https://nuthouse.myportfolio.com/
I know things.
Thank you for the incredible pics!
Beautiful photos!
Gorgeous photography and very interesting background you have!! Thanks for sharing.
Lovely photos. We need more beauty in the world to counter the ugly.
great pix!
Adore the flowers. They are stunning.
Thank you.
I am a big fan.
I live in northeastern PA, am an old hippie, and despair over what's happened to the 1/3 of the population that apparently has gone mad. I need humor to counter the despair, so thanks very much for your posts on social media ... and for your new publication!
I'm turning 58 years old this summer, I wish I'd been old enough to vote for Jimmy Carter. :) He's the only President I've ever seen in the flesh, when he visited my hometown during the 1980 campaign.
I too voted Republican one time--for Bob Dole, in 1996. I'm a lesbian and I resented Bill Clinton using the gay community to get elected in '92 and paying us back with DOMA and DADT.
I voted for Nader in 2000 and so it's my fault we got 8 years of Gee Dubya. Sorry everybody. :(
I have no children. I'm a crotchety feminist who lives with four cats and spends way too much time on social media. haha I've spent almost 40 years as an office drone, and I'm a very dedicated and active abortion rights advocate who participates in clinic defense every weekend at my local Planned Parenthood.
I've been reading this blog from the beginning and am proud to be a subscriber. Your voice speaks to my heart. Thank you.
81 years old here, a lifelong Democrat and sculptor. 50 years married after being widowed young. Great grandchildren in school already and inside I’m still 18 years old. Funny how time works.
I’ve lived in North Carolina since 1960. I was deeply depressed about America during the entire Reagan administration. I became politically aware in the 1950s when our grammar school teacher explained the electoral college. She also told us (during a period of raging communist propaganda) that America used propaganda too. She blew our little minds. I expect she’d be fired today but I’m grateful for the wonderful Miss Rittenhouse.
Probably a good thing she didn't live to see her name soiled.
"more informed and entertaining than the ones on social media."
That's what we call "faint praise."
I wish you'd spend more time on here and less on Twitter. I can't stand Twitter anymore.
I turned 69 a few days ago, I am in an interracial same-sex marriage, I live in Vietnam (Palin was the last straw, I left two years after her ugly little speech), and I write software and do technical writing. I play classical guitar, flutes, and analog synthesizers.
I am misanthropic as fuck, I like animals a lot more than people.
I am sick and fucking tired of this "trans" and "nonbinary" shit, because I've known real transgender people and they were friends I cared about. Trendies and attention freaks of all kinds piss me off.
I speak four languages and can read about a dozen more. Tôi có thể đọc và nói tiếng Việt.
I hate Trump, Boebert, Greene, Lake, and Paul.
I love physics, dark music genres, and my musical heroes are dying like flies. I read a lot and I am as far off the grid as I can manage.
I voted for one Republican in my life: Gov. John Spellman in WA state. He had a pretty good environmental record and his Democratic opponent came from the logging industry. My first presidential vote was for McGovern.
Edit: four cats, one microdog, two parrots. Cats are tortoiseshells and a pair of Vietnamese tabby littermates.
Where in VN? I'd like to look you up in May. Julie@opencardnow.com
That would be absolutely wonderful. I now llive in Châu Phú. I'll write your email.
I’m 67, grew up on Long Island, was a punk and a biker, worked as a union printer in NYC for a long time, was a female foreman, which was a novelty then, spent some time on the streets because of drug addiction, got clean, moved to Portsmouth NH in 1989, no helmet law, married my husband in 1995, and my 24 y o daughter is starting graduate school this year. We live in an old farmhouse we renovated, that we could never afford now. I grew up a Democrat, and in the last 10 years I have become a poll worker and a community activist. Don’t crush that dwarf, hand me the pliers, is so great and I can recite the Nick Danger intro from memory.
NOT in my memory: what I did yesterday, where I left the TV remote and directions to anywhere. But I CAN recite the dialogue in Snatch, even Brad Pitt’s unintelligible Irish *gypsy* language. My daughter can quote most of Moonstruck. Nothing I know is significant enough to be a Jeopardy question, but I’d be good at a trivia match at a party. However, since I have no friends IRL, I don’t get invited to many parties, which is fine because I hate people.
Addendum: At the last party I attended, a young woman I’d been chatting with TURNED HER CHAIR AROUND so she didn’t have to talk to me. Ergo, I don’t go to parties.
Despite all my flaws, my 4 dogs think I’m perfect and who am I to disagree? They all hate Trump , NEVER voted Republican and when Cupcake and Lulu stop shitting all over the house, life would be pretty perfect.
Addendum to the addendum: It’s no fun being a name dropper when nobody knows the names I’m dropping. “I worked for Alan King for years.” *Who’s Alan King?* Very famous comedian, he made more appearances on Ed Sullivan than anyone else.” *Who’s Ed Sullivan?*
(Sigh)
Meanwhile back at the ranch...
You have been funny in other replies so you never know you may still find a friend
Alan King did a movie called King of comedy? it was partially filmed in a building in NYC that I worked in so I got to watch him being filmed walking out of the building. he was a great comedian.
Yes, he was in King of Comedy and several other films. He starred in a Sidney Lumet movie, Just Tell Me What You Want with Ali McGraw and Myrna Loy (playing ME!) I also ran his annual tennis tournament at Caesar’s Palace.
I could tell you a million things about him but I won’t speak ill of the dead.
thank you. no need. we always want to believe the best of the people- stars, politicians, sports figures, and others who we watch or admire for their achievements, but we need to remember no one is perfect and most of us less than. we are after all, just bozos on this bus.
LOL!
Moonstruck is wonderful.
I can recite Clockwork Orange even though I haven't seen it in decades.
Love Nick Danger!! But "Waiting for the Electrician, or Someone Like Him" is my personal favorite 😍
I'm a 65 year old college professor and researcher with strong democratic values. Woke AF, in other words. I live in the fascist state of Texas and believe most of the people in power here (Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, Ted Cruz) are racist power hungry fucks. I have never voted for a republican, and, like you, Jimmy Carter (a truly wonderful human being) was the first person I voted for in 1976. I have two cats (including one therapy cat) and two dogs who all live in "relative" harmony. I love Firesign Theatre (especially Nick Danger, Third Eye and We're All Bozos on This Bus) and subscribe to too many streaming services. I play keyboards and stringed instruments, but mostly piano and guitar.
"Y'gotta start young if you're gonna stick it out"
I’m a 73yo retired HC Exec licensed RN living by the Atlantic w decidedly younger and gainfully employed husband, 12lb watchdog, no kids and an attitude. I am a confessed news junkie, doom scroller and the night TFG was elected I cried for hours. I’m mystified that there is so much stupidity, assholery and general fuckery going on in the country. Let’s DeSantisfy us all and keep ‘Murica stupid. Jesus Mary and Jonathan Seagull. I love your work.
I couldn’t stop crying and have probably cried ever since that buffoon was elected 😭
I cried for a week! I have been distraught ever since!
Well, I don’t “heart” this I’m offering support ♥️
I love what you wrote -- best to you and your family -- thanks for all the fun that comes with your wisdom.
I'm a 58-year-old white male. Married with an adult son. I consider myself a child of the 1970s. I grew up thinking that world would get progressively better. Facing no future in the Midwest, I joined the Army directly out of high school. I spent 20 years, most of the time, in the Army Special Forces. Because everyone else around me did, I voted Republican until Bush/Gore. I thought Gore was a better person, and with my exposure to different cultures through my Army travels, I realized that the world could be a better place. My wife is German and saw how much better their social system was than ours. I've voted Democrat since. Retired from the Army and moved to IT management. I've grown progressively liberal as I've grown older. I've lost most of my Army acquaintances because they went total MAGA. That's okay.
You hit on something that I can relate to. I grew up a military brat and loved moving around. My mother was German and I had the great fortune of having a wonderful family support system over there. My sister ended up working/living there. That is how I got to know about their healthcare system when she got Pancreatic cancer at a young age. It was miraculous what kind of care she got and it cost her nothing. Other family members have also benefited from total comprehensive care over there. If Americans could experience that system and not listen to the fear mongers they would see how much we need something like it. And Germany is still an economic stable country despite having National Health Care for decades.
Michael, I thought the world would get better too. My mistake.
I'm 55
Married for 26 years. We have two adult children who work in flim and television. During the pandemic we adopted two cats. I've never owned a cat in my life. Always been a dog person. Cats are okay. I am an urban gardener and teach organic gardening to elementary school kids. I am California born and raised. I was raised in a cult that I left in my 20s. I don't like traveling because I suck at organizing and I'm really good at panic attacks. I like arriving at new places and exploring without schedules or time lines. I collect bourbons and drink them. I'm currently binge watching Your Honor with Brian Cranston. I mean staring Brian Cranston, not cuddled on the couch with the cats and Brian Cranston.
We have watched Your Honor also. Good show.
72, living in Wisconsin after 14 years in hellish AZ. May have voted for a Repub once.
Trying to rail against the machine in my little corner.
Hoping for a good outcome with Judge Janet as our Supreme court judge. The negative ads are unreal aren't they?
They are! .My home state that GOP & $$ really F-ed up the Progressive history!
73 years old in a few days. Grew up in SF, daughter of a State assemblyman, democrat. Walked from my family home to the Haight in the mid-60s. College at Cal in Berkeley. Saw some crazy times and joined protests on a regular basis.
Retired and moved to Costa Rica 15 years ago. I read a lot and follow the news, but haven't seen a movie or TV program since I've been in Costa Rica. I doubt that I'll ever return to the US even for a visit. It's more toxic by the hour. I'll continue to vote, etc, and hope you all survive.
I used to be the youngest one in the group for a long, long time so I'll embarce my 79 years and divulge that I was a Republican for way too many years and also was a heavy smoker. I didn't stop them both at the same time but remind you that often, a reformed smoker is the meannest convert. I'll extend that to reformed Republican as well. I was a court reporter for 30 years, then a sculptor for ten after burning out, and then and then. I live in New Orleans, born in Alabama so I'm surrounded by the people who offend me most.. except in New Orleans. And every time I see you in my inbox, I know it's going to be potty mouthed fun. Oh, I was also one of the potty-mouthed girls who moved to a larger town at ten for a school that went through 12th. Subscribing to you is one of the best things I've done for myself in a long time.
One of the ways I knew Rita Hurault and I were gonna be together was that she knew the answer to the Firesign Theatre's question, "What's all this brouhaha?" She also had Klipsch speakers, which told me she was serious about music. We will celebrate our 29th anniversary in September.
I am 69 years old, and fortunate to have been doing music-related work for a living since 1976. I grew up in a household of Kennedy Democrats and have never forgotten that we're all in this together.
I've been a friend of Tiedrich for several decades via our mutual love of the Grateful Dead, and I have been a fan of his online political posts since he started making them.
"brouhaha? ha ha ha!"
it's been years. did I remember it correctly?
Yep!
... fellow Dead fans! You and Gans... getting better and better!!
Brouhaha! Ha ha ha! Oh rats, Jeff already posted it!
That startling back door knocking was genius.
I'm seventy years old. I'm an avid cyclist, retired pharmacist who grew up in the right-wing-ultra christian hick center of the universe (Bakersfield, California). I now live in Southern Oregon. I was a rabid Viet Nam war protester ... ready to emigrate to Canada if drafted (I wasn't). I was still in California when Reagan was elected governor. I couldn't believe it. THEN... when he was elected Prez I said "fuck this... this country has a serious problem" and set off to ride a bicycle around the world. That was in '79 when one couldn't actually cycle around the world because the Soviets were killing Afghanis and Iran had 51 American hostages and the borders were closed. Soooo... I headed south and went through Africa instead. 60 countries and 12 years later I headed back to the US with my new wife whom I stole from British Airways. Now we have 2 adult genius kids and are looking to get out of this has-been country.