2022
Posted on: December 31, 2021
Hi Widdershins,
Once again WordPress locked the comments and I see no way to reopen them. Or rather, they ARE opened in the settings, but not in actuality. I’m too tired to figure out why and how to fix it.
It’ll be 2022 shortly (in some places of the globe very shortly). We can all only cross our fingers, toes, and anything else that crosses and hope for the best. (I’m hoping for an asteroid, but your mileage will vary!)
Also, our beloved Beata said she will be logging off the web in the New Year and Beata, I just hope you know how much you have meant to us all these years. Maybe some people think online only connections aren’t important, but they are. We are often transformed by them, and you have been a wonderful light for us all at Widdershins. Your kindness and wisdom and humor will always be with us, whether you are online or not.
56 Responses to "2022"
December 31, 2021 at 8:30 am
I’m sure everyone is ready to move on to 2022 (an asteroid, yes!), but I just have to say this…
I was thinking about how Maxwell chose her victims so carefully. Like priests did – preying (no pun) on the most vulnerable. But boy did she end up getting that wrong!!
After that horrific injustice done by total sleazebag Acosta, Epstein eventually got the death penalty. Whether it was by his own hand or someone else’s, it was for the wrong reasons and I know his victims felt cheated (rightfully so). But still… that POS is dead and off the face of the earth and that’s a good thing. And Maxwell (hopefully) is going to spend a long, long time in prison; kicking herself for not picking better victims.
December 31, 2021 at 8:47 am
@DYB, You’ve written a lovely tribute to Beata. She will be sorely missed here as well as at other blogs where she has regularly posted.
@Beata, I will think of you often and wish you peace.
Roz in NJ/NYC
December 31, 2021 at 9:17 am
Morning Shinners! Happy almost New Year, and thank you for the tribute to Beata.
D, I have a New Year’s post I was about to publish this morning. I guess I missed the window because of the weird auto-close setting. I’ll put it up in a few days! Meanwhile I’ll try to figure out what happened.
December 31, 2021 at 9:21 am
I think I fixed the setting…I dimly recall that at one point we were in favor of auto-closing, so I switched it to auto-close comments after 9 days. I turned the setting off, so that should no longer happen.
December 31, 2021 at 1:04 pm
Betty White has died at the age of 99. What an amazing life she had.
December 31, 2021 at 1:46 pm
Oh, Beata! You will be greatly missed! I always enjoyed your thoughtful commentary. Take good care of yourself and your kitty.
December 31, 2021 at 2:39 pm
I loved Betty White! I thought she was so funny in The Golden Girls. Actually, I thought she was funny in everything she did. Even the Snickers commercial killed me.
Yes, what an amazing life she had!
December 31, 2021 at 4:25 pm
This is a great moment from “The Golden Girls” that showcases the genius of Betty White. She begins to improvise the story – and Bea Arthur and Rue McClanahan break character and start laughing. White knew they broke character, but kept going… The scene stayed in the show.
December 31, 2021 at 7:24 pm
Oh my god. The Herring Wars. 😆 😆 😆
Trying to catch my breath.
I mean, I knew she was funny, but I never had a tv and missed a lot of what she did. This? This is Buster Keaton caliber. Utterly brilliant.
December 31, 2021 at 8:08 pm
Happy New Year to all Widdershinners! Wishing 2022 to have fewer MAGAts, DINOs, viruses, and guns.
One can always wish.
December 31, 2021 at 8:38 pm
Yesterday, I tried to post a loving comment to Beata but the thread was closed.
Beata, I too will really miss you and your wonderful comments. Sending you a big hug.
December 31, 2021 at 8:41 pm
Happy New Year, 2022. (Pouring down good will and sparkles.)
Let it be a year ending Covid, less loss and sorrow. Let it be the year that Big Dump takes a hike and his followers get freakin’ vaccinated!
December 31, 2021 at 8:59 pm
Sad to lose Betty White, she was looking forward to her 100th birthday this January. RIP Betty and thanks for all your great humor.
January 1, 2022 at 8:06 am
@14 quixote, you missed “The Golden Girls?!?!” OMG!
Here’s a compilation of some great Betty White/Rose Nyland moments.
A few fun facts about the show: Bea Arthur was older in real life than Estelle Getty, who played her mother. And originally Betty White was cast to play Blanche, and Rue MacClanahan to play Rose. But they switched because they both thought those characters were too similar to parts they’d already played. And the rest is sitcom history.
January 1, 2022 at 10:03 pm
Thanks for the new thread and the comments about Beata. I hope she is happy and as well as can be.
January 1, 2022 at 10:58 pm
Thanks for the clips, DYB! I’m really enjoying them.
Yes, growing up without a television meant I was inoculated against FOMO before I left high school. When I was a kid, I didn’t fear missing out. I knew I was missing out and hated it. But eventually I figured out I wasn’t missing much (with some glaring exceptions like Betty White), so I stopped caring, which has served me especially well in the digital age 😆
January 2, 2022 at 2:12 am
@ 26, Q, What? You grew up without TV too? (shock) Growing up we lived (basically) off grid, and my parents turned the TV on only rarely and only for a very few shows on PBS. Don’t recall this mattering to me until high school, when I thought I was deprived since I didn’t know what the other kids were talking about. A few years more and then I was old enough to be grateful to my parents for sparing me the inanity of TV. I’ve still never owned a television. I don’t have enough free time to watch it! I spent the extra time reading or outside. Errrr, but the last 15-20 yrs the internet has addicted me to spending too much time online, but at least it’s not in front of the TV. Yes, there are things worth watching on it, but speaking only for myself, I’m better off without it.
January 2, 2022 at 10:58 am
“I didn’t know what the other kids were talking about”
Lordy, yes. Bonanza was an endless topic of conversation during, I guess?, middle school. I gathered it was about a cowboy on a horse … 😆
January 2, 2022 at 1:45 pm
Westerns? Ugh! I’m a hardcore TV/Movie addict, but ever since I was a kid, if there was a Western on, I would leave the room – or change the channel if possible.
It’s funny that I don’t remember discussing TV shows at school. Except for “Dallas” in high school. That was BIG. There were cowboy hats, but it was no Western.
January 3, 2022 at 9:31 am
Happy 2022, all! I had company for the last few days celebrating the new year. Love all the Betty White clips. What a genius! I had never seen the one with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. 🤣
As a kid, I had TV, but when I went to college and grad school, I mostly didn’t. Too busy studying and socializing! Now with COVID I spend a lot of time watching, unfortunately. Although much less MSNBC than in the Drumpf era. Shadow, I loved your wish for 2022!
January 3, 2022 at 12:49 pm
Here’s a great quote I just found from Ray Bradbury – it seems apropos for this year and the peaceful actions we’re going to need to take to keep this country from falling into fascism.
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/ray_bradbury_400604
January 4, 2022 at 8:07 am
Am I the only one having trouble with the comment section? Not complaining! It’s probably my computer.
January 4, 2022 at 9:43 am
I’ve been checked out for a while, so not sure. What’s it doing on your computer? (And we’ll see how this one goes.)
January 4, 2022 at 11:18 am
The text section is squished. I can’t really see what I’m typing. If you didn’t notice it when you commented, it’s probably my computer.
January 4, 2022 at 2:14 pm
I’ve had that squished text section in comments since forever. (I have an addon that allows me to alter a web page’s style, which I used to enlarge the box so I can see what I’m writing.) So the only solution I’ve found is a total kludge. WordPress can be super-funky.
Probably need to mention: I run a non-standard OS (Debian Linux) and browser (Pale Moon) so heaps of pages are funky for me.
January 4, 2022 at 8:18 pm
PJ this problem might be with WP or your browser. Try closing your current browser and opening up a different browser, like Firefox or Chrome, log on to WP and see if that fixes things.
If not, try turning off your computer for a few minutes and turn back on.Try logging on to WP with your second option of browser. (Your computer might save your settings in you old browser and will keep the problem.)
Trying different options, closing down browsers and opening new, signing on in WP is one way to try and get rid of the bug in your browsers…if this doesn’t work, it probably is a problem with funky WP.
Good luck.
January 5, 2022 at 11:37 am
My SO came home last night to say his business partner (the two co-own a clinic) told him that her husband tested positive for Covid. He’d had symptoms for a day or so. Damn. She, however, didn’t get tested after he got that positive result. Grrr. Apparently she’s getting tested today. So my SO is trying to get tested which is frustratingly and stupidly hard to do. Many places only take reservations, and they’re backed out until Thursday or Fri, or even into next week. Some places have home self-administered tests but only first-come, first serve, and he drove down to find out there were done for the day. When he told his PCP at Pacific Medical (large hospital with multi-site medical clinics) about the connection with a positive case they did not (!) suggest he get tested. They said if he wanted to get tested he should go somewhere else because they weren’t testing.
Of course, it’s all Biden’s fault there aren’t enough tests (sarcastic voice). After all, there was the company which destroyed millions of tests in summer because they thought the tests would never be needed. And did so without communicating with the White House and anyone connected with thepandemic response in the Biden administration. That last gem of a factoid was buried several paragraphs down in a WaPo story a couple of weeks ago.
January 5, 2022 at 6:48 pm
Destroyed millions of tests??! I guess it was cheaper at the time than storing them for a little while. Capitalist incentives so totally Do Not Work in anything medical.
By the way, DYB, I noticed your question on your twitter feed about the LATimes article re infection with flu and covid. Yes, it could just be two separate infections in the same person at the same time. But RNA viruses, like covid and some flu viruses mutate like crazy. If they were both in the same host for, say, weeks, they could quite likely form some weird hybrid strand of RNA. The change would most likely be lethal to the virus. But there’s a tiny chance it would combine the worst features of both *and* survive well. That’s the outcome virologists are terrified of and why they get in a flap about reports of “double” infection.
January 5, 2022 at 6:50 pm
@42, Q, hybrid RNA viruses …. Eeeeyikes. Don’t wanna go there.
January 5, 2022 at 6:58 pm
Today still same problem of no tests until next week or wait in line for hours and maybe you’ll get tested. Wife of person with positive test still hasn’t been able to get tested. She was 4th in line when a place closed down yesterday. It’s 5 days out since my SO had contact with person in close contact with positive, and so he’s gone back to seeing patients. Not sure I’d do that but fortunately I’m solely teleheath. Probably OK if it’s omnicrom, not OK if it’s delta which has an incubation period of about 7 days. Of course, that’s the mean, so it could be a couple of days either way. (angry face) The stupidity of it all! This could have been prevented if TPTB had a modicum of sense *and* listened to medical scientists with 2 modicums (modica?) of sense.
January 5, 2022 at 7:37 pm
Luna I hope you and your SO don’t get covid and the quest to get tested here in the Bay Area is just as bad.
My son and his girlfriend went over to her sisters house on New Years and didn’t stay lone. The brother in law and some other family members thought a bad cold was going around. One of the original people that got sick said they tested negative and then a week later, others tested positive. So my son was able to get tested by Kaiser with ‘cold’ symptoms and breathing problems and is compromised, the test came back today and he is pcr negative.
I spent hours yesterday trying to get tested…I’m old, and have a lot of sneezing and a dry cough going on, but the soonest I could get a test would have been Jan 14th. I stayed home on New Years and haven’t been been with him in 9 days, so now that he’s clear I won’t get tested. I haven’t been around anyone since Christmas.
This frickin’ damn pandemic sucks…all the idiots that refuse to get vaccinated because of the GOP & Dump should be put in jail and forced to stay there unless they allow themselves to be vaccinated.
January 5, 2022 at 8:58 pm
What nightmares, Luna and Shadow! So much carelessness. I mean, husband tests positive, she runs a clinic, but it apparently never occurs to her to AT LEAST stay home and let everyone know??
I recently had a dental appointment, and in the course of casual chitchat afterward it turned out that this otherwise highly competent dentist is an antivaxxer! !!! Mind blown. And doesn’t think to at least let people know ahead of time that he’s not vaccinated! Completely gaga. (Looking for a new dentist, needless to say.)
January 5, 2022 at 11:47 pm
Q, amazing that someone that spends 40 hours a week in different people’s mouths is himself a person that contributes to Covid’s longevity and close to a million deaths in the US.
i am glad you found out his MO and am looking for a new dentist.
January 6, 2022 at 7:39 am
Luna, I hope you and your SO are okay! Quixote, that is mind boggling about your dentist. I hear that a surprising percentage of health care workers are anti-vaxxers. Just can’t understand it. Shadow, I agree with your recommendation for sending them to jail!!
Everyone at work is coming back from the holidays sick. For most people it’s COVID but others have colds. One of my colleagues got COVID, then got strep throat on top of it. Fun times 😡
January 6, 2022 at 12:51 pm
Late yesterday got the news that my partner’s clinic partner (2 different definitions of ‘partner’ there, lol) was finally able to get tested and is negative. Whew! Oh, I forgot to say that after her husband tested positive she did cancel her patients until she tested negative. Still, she should have demanded a test when her husband was tested.
January 6, 2022 at 1:06 pm
@46, Q, WTH? A dentist who’s not vaxxed, and to compound his callous stupidity, doesn’t tell his patients? (Probably because he’d lose most of them if they knew ahead of time.) He was wearing good PPE, I hope. I’ve held off getting dental work because of infection concerns, but it’s time to go in again. I’m certainly going to find out if everyone in the office is vaxxed first!
Can not understand healthcare workers not wanting to be vaccinated. They’ve had to be vaxxed against Hep B and a few other disease for their schooling, and for work too (at least every place I’ve worked). And yearly fluvax.
January 6, 2022 at 1:27 pm
The Pope think 7+ billion people isn’t enough for our Earth and is asking people to procreate more.
The pope … said people who do not have children “are lacking something, something fundamental, something important.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/01/06/pope-francis-pet-children-selfish/
Speak for yourself, Mr. Pope, you who are forbidden to have children! I am lacking only the burden of adding to our world’s population problem. Not having kids is unselfish — doesn’t add to the energy demand or pollution problems, and balances out for those who have lots of kids. My genes aren’t special. Pets are not a substitute for children — they are much less expensive, are continent when a few weeks old, won’t wreck the car, and if treated well won’t turn on you. Plus there are still too many unloved animals who need a loving home.
Widdershinners with kids, I know you’re doing a great job as parents and are not being selfish. Not everyone is as good as responsible, though.
January 6, 2022 at 5:29 pm
@52 – I see this Pope is hewing to typical Catholic orthodoxy…which,
coincidentally of course, results in the creation of more Catholics.
Sadly, it’s hard for me to think of the Catholic Church as anything other than a business organization, and a corrupt one at that. After we found out about all the priests who were meeting children, I saw very clearly how it operates. Interesting how this current Pope can talk about children without irony, given that context.
January 6, 2022 at 7:07 pm
Or maybe he thinks women should get back in the kitchen and be pregnant.
Comments are closed.
The Widdershins 
December 31, 2021 at 7:56 am
Jewish space lasers? Italian satellites? (*now* I know the story with them!). Gremlins?
What is it? What is it? Goddammit, what is it? (h/t Honey Bunny, Pulp Fiction)
Just having a little fun…
DYB, thank you for your wonderful words about Beata. So true!