Good morning good morning hello hi howdy happy Cinco De Mayo, which apparently involved Napoleon III? Never really got this whole Napoleon III thing. He is not Napoleon’s grandson? Whatever, man. Tacos.

Just back from the grocery store. There was no icy cold Diet Coke and there was no good ginger. This is the second grocery store I have gone to in two days looking for ginger, and there’s been nothing but sad-ass little dried nubs of ginger. “We are facing a ginger crisis,” I told myself and chuckled, some mix of anti-capitalist Gen-X irony and normie-ass Soccer Mom capitalism brewing around in my gingerless head, me unable to tell how serious I am.

I suddenly thought of the book I’m reading, and the Jews at thew start of WWII, with nowhere to go. Their homes being invaded, the worst people in their countries openly collaborating with invaders to kill them all. Leaving Warsaw to head East as the Germans invade, then realizing the invading Russians are not there to help you. Zionists telling you to get out and go to Palestine, but the English not letting any more Jews into Palestine because of the violence there. Bundists telling you Here Where We Live Is Our Country, that going to Palestine is a fool’s errand, that the Jews will just become the invaders and the tormenters instead of the invaded and the tormented. Zionists collaborating with Nationalists and shaking hands and nodding eagerly when they tell you you should all be deported.

You can die being right like the Bundists or live being wrong like the Zionists, a bargain which is no bargain.

And I’m just pissed about ginger.

Not this shit again.

Of course I’m not just pissed about ginger but how much “I’m pissed off” can you put into one daily newsletter. Well, Luke can fit a lot in, but apparently he’s not responsible for the grocery shopping or something. But yes I am pissed about the Supreme Court and the war and ICE and health care and the preposterous war on trans people and Trump bribing Fetterman and no one cares and Trump casually saying he’s gonna be president for eight more years and no one does anything and by no one I mean Republicans and there is that line in Fight Club about angry about every Panda who wouldn’t f**k to save their species and apply it to every farmer who keeps voting for the guy who is putting them out of business.

Oh and AI of course. I am super pissed about AI. What a fucking nightmare.

Oh and I am pissed about today’s Wordle. Bullshit.

Join the GMHHAY slack! Reply to this email and ask for an invite if you’re a human who likes chatting with other humans about topics such as these within!

I am not pissed about my music choice, though. Some band called Higher Authorities that sounds kinda like a mix between Stereolab and Suicide it is just great I wonder who recommended this to me. The album is called Neptune. Let’s look em up OH RIGHT this is the Clinic spin-off someone in the GMHHAY Slack recommended this. Well they did a great job I like this album even more the second time round.

My blood pressure is fucked. Just shot up again. Disturbingly high, no major changes in my diet. I know I consume too much sodium — my love of Asian food and delicious turkey sticks is deeply problematic. I should eat more beets. And, like, natto or some shit man I cannot deal with natto. I am very sad about this recent development. I will have to change my medications. My wife is worried about me and I am Googling whether Advil or edibles influence blood pressure (both do, but very slightly). I am cursing my permanent neck pain and the state of health care why can’t we have a single fucking doctor for our entire head and neck and shoulders? Why is there one guy in charge of the front of my head and another guy in charge of the back of my head and why can’t I get them to talk it fucking sucks. What is wrong with my blood why is my blood pressure high and my cholesterol so fucked. But, then, my dad was the same way, lived to a ripe old age and when he was done in it wasn’t by his blood, so I guess I probably shouldn’t be too concerned.

Jane has warts on her hand and she didn’t want to use the wart remover because it stings for ten seconds, so I did what my grandmother did for me and I bought her warts from her. Buck-twenty-five per wart, inflation since the 80’s, where my gramma paid me $0.25 per wart. I have, however, forgotten to check this morning whether the warts are disappearing. Nor do I remember exactly how long it took for my warts to disappear, er, be transferred to my grandmother’s account. Jane was very skeptical about this transaction and I explained the whole thing and we debated which was more likely: the only my grandmother was magic, or the magic might work for us too. Did we ruin the entire folk wisdom remedy by peering too deeply into the mechanics? Did my grandmother make this up or has it gone down through the generations, from those self-same Warsaw ghettos (oh god, I am probably descended from those asshole SNs or ONRs or something)? Wait actually I think we are from Krakow. Hrm. Nope. Jasło and Grodzisk Mazowiecki this PDF here says. Grodzisk Mazowiecki is 40km from downtown Warsaw. I stand corrected.

Interestingly there are Poles on both my mom’s and dad’s side of the family. Don’t think I ever grasped that before.

All this dumb geneology as I slowly work on this Canadian passport project that will take years. Not that I want to go to Canada. Shouldn’t have to, man. Here Where We Live Is Our Country.

Olivia Rodrigo presale is today if you have an Amex card, which I still do for some reason, even though I never use it. Will I manage to get a ticket? I doubt it. This tour is light for a girl so huge. Oh man that was a good joke. No Texas date? WTF. There will be more dates, I suspect, but there probably will not be more cities. She didn’t come to Raleigh last time, why would she this time. I guess we could try for DC or Atlanta but those are so far away compared to Charlotte.

Gah.

Jane this morning is wearing a pink sock and an orange sock and informed me that her feet are named Strawberry and Mango. For a while, with every step she took, she said “strawberry” and “mango” back and forth oh my god it was so cute. She also brushed her teeth in a reasonable amount of time which was lovely.

We did “chalk the walk” last night which is a thing where you go to the school and the kids write all over the sidewalk about how much they love their teachers. This is paired with some sort of fund drive where they get us to give money to teachers. I am unclear where this money goes but I dutifully donated. I hope they get booze.

There was pumpin’ rave techno most of the time and I idly thought back to the 90’s when that stuff was “underground” and now normie parents play it for children, which is a funny outcome for Prodigy and whatnot if you ask me.

I am the chalk drawer. Twisted chalk drawer.

Justa mix today, mostly new but some oldies that came on this morning or have otherwise popped into my head. “Live to Tell” top 10 Madonna song. Vision Quest, yo. Oh wait that’s “Crazy For You.” “Live to Tell” was At Close Range. Swell came on this morning in the car and I just love that band so much, such a unique pairing of acoustic and electric guitars but in a way no one else really does except, later, the Breeders. Love the new Ian Sweet. I like this Baula band they are like goth shoegaze. Also very into this TVAM need to see what is up with them.

Have a lovely Tuesday. Eat a taco. Good luck with your Olivia tickets.