Friday, April 21, 2017

A Visit From the Board of Directors at Spo-Reflections


Okay, Okay, Okay, I have just had a long visit from the Board of Directors at Spo-Reflections  informing me that I have been posting the most boring postings - posting that fail to draw even hate comments - only yawns.  Hence this posting was going to be: 
What Have I Been Reading 8th Edition 
Apparently no one wants to comment about what I have been reading.  I will leave the book review below, and not write about the latest book I finished today (it was funny and about France.)   

So, what is happening in the world.  

Bill O’Reilly is out at Fox News amid sexual harassment claims.  

I have to start with saying that he may have worked on what bills itself as "news" but he was not a news reporter.  He was a partisan political commentator who made his fame by inviting guests onto his talk show and then bullying and belittling them.  He had very little respect or care for the facts, even alternative facts. His style of journalism would make Dan Rather roll over in his grave - if Dan Rather was dead (he isn't - who knew) a simple fact check O'Reilly might well have failed to make.  My father will miss him, Dad believed what this windbag said. 

His fall from grace, was not for his lack of journalistic standards, but a long term habit and pattern of sexual harassment and abuse in the work place.  As someone who was once sexually harassed in work place, I am glad that Fox finally said enough is enough.  I am furious that they have waited this long.  This was nothing new, this was not the first coworker who spoke out. Sexual harassment is not fun, or sexy, or normal, it leaves the object feeling disgusted, powerless, and fearful. Some of his other targets have been paid off to go silent, money can not heal the trauma or restore the self image for his coworkers - I do hope they find peace and realize that HE WAS THE PROBLEM, not them.  No one should be treated the way he treated people.  

I am glad to see him go.  

Who else should go? 

I just finished "Stir: My Broken Brain and The Meals that Brought Me Home" by Jessica Fector.  I mentioned this book on Facebook the other day, how good is it, I was so involved in reading it that I missed a station I needed to change subway trains at. In 8.5 years of riding the metro, that has only happened three times.  I was surprised at how interesting the book was, how well written. 

The author was a 20-something PhD student at Harvard, when she collapsed at a conference in Vermont, with a brain aneurysm. The book is a narrative in which she describes what happened, and the role that cooking and baking played in her two years of recovery. It is an inside look at both the physical and emotional process of serious illness and recovery.  It is not a "cookbook" but because food, baking and cooking play a central role in the narrative, the book is peppered with recipes you will want to try.  For the author, returning the kitchen was returning to normal "healthy" life.  


The story hit a personal note for me.  I am coming up on two years since my little adventure in spinal surgery. I understand the role in returning to normal is in recovery. J will tell you that I was home from the rehab hospital less than an hour, and I was fixing myself lunch and starting a load of laundry (the occupational therapist showed me how to do laundry, how to get things in and out of the refrigerator, how load the dishwasher before I came home - she was really great.)   


So what are you reading? 

11 comments:

  1. man, that BoD is strict! I didn't know they visited other blogs; hope they don't come over to mine! but if they do, I'll kick their scrawny little asses back to PHX!

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    1. I am quite worried by this notion viz. they are going Viking in search of plunder and dangling participles of bloggers on my roster. I would like to be a fly on the wall if they should barge in on yours. On second thought I would rather not be present. Oh the pain.

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    2. there will be blood and guts and red meat and beer thrown all around the room. it might even sound like this:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpVvOWquPT8

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  2. I am fascinated to here this. The Board of Directors There at Spo-reflections paid you a 'long visit"? How long? Or did it just seem long? Normally they make their point as boisterous and as succinct as possible while breaking property and emitting effluvia and get the hell out. Please release the meeting notes some time why don't you.

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  3. I'm waiting to learn how many millions O'Reilly is being paid as part of his separation.

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    1. $25M. too damn much; his ignorant white ass needs to be IN JAIL!

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  4. I'm reading Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets aloud to my eldest. I've just given up on Atlantic. Generally I like Simon Winchester but I hit the wall of boredom. There are to many books to enjoy without slogging through something because you like the author.

    I did recommend your recommendation "rest" to a person in my organisation who is striving for leadership roles. I think they well get the job, but I think they will push people to work past their limits. If she becomes my team leader I will assume work is trying to passively aggressively fire me. (I'm only sort of joking).

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  5. Well this posting drew more comments than my last book review! The BOD left me a couple of messages - blank ones - then showed up to shout at me and empty a bottle of Eagle Rare,https://thewhiskeywash.com/whiskey-styles/bourbon/whiskey-review-eagle-rare-kentucky-straight-bourbon/. They said if I kept that around the house, they might be back - it is a good thing they didn't find the "collection" of good stuff - they might be here for a while.

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  6. I love the photo of the SweetBud bush in bloom. I love those as they remind me of my grandmother's yard as a child out in Troutville VA.
    BTW....I personally preferred the book review. I'm currently reading One on One. A collection of sobriety short stories.

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  7. I wish someone would sexually harass me...:-(

    BUT NOT O'REILLY...eww!!! (Where's my loofah?)

    :-)

    -Andy

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  8. i really likes your blog and You have shared the whole concept really well. and Very beautifully soulful read! thanks for sharing.
    ตารางคะแนน

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