1/ Just finished Allen v. Farrow, which was as gut-wrenching—especially to sexual assault victims, like me—as I knew it would be. As someone who’s followed this case over my lifetime, I’m ~same age as Soon-Yi, I have thoughts.
2/ I’ve already displayed my bias. But it is not bias. It is knowledge. But you don’t need a personal history of sexual assault to see what Allen himself put in his films all along.
3/ I think he’s a genius (or was) on some levels. But geniuses can be monsters. We know this, but we struggle with it. But I knew, the first time I saw Manhattan, as a teen, that something was deeply deeply off. And that young women were being gaslit as Mariel was in the film.
What are the things your parents/schools left you totally unprepared to do?
Me: basic home repair (idgaf about cars, but that too), financial planning
As a math-impaired Quaker journalist, I suck at financial planning on a Vulcan chess level. I'm fearful, guilty AND suspicious.
I finally set up a living trust. Not everything is in it, but... And my long-suffering friend is walking me through consolidating rando bits into some index funds.
Have a great CPA who does my taxes. Worth every dime.
I hate every iota of it all. Elevated heart rate hate.
1/ the horrific murder of #SarahEverard by a cop, the national reckoning about women's safety and the brutal response of the Met makes me want to share a story of a run-in I had with British men and cops when I was studying in Oxford the summer of 1988.
2/ So first: a lot of town/gown, and UK vs US factors also apply to this story, those I didn't fully understand at the time and will not get into.
Suffice it to say, I was studying there with a bunch of Americans, most British students were on holiday.
3/ A few of us, including my friend John who was travelling around, went to a pub, then after lined up for a "disco" (basically a bar that stays open after pubs). Some local guys on a stag, pushed their way to the front of the line.
"For the people who know Hammer’s family—peppered with Russian communists and American oil tycoons—the allegations are an unsurprising development to a long and sordid history with drugs, sex, dysfunction, and betrayal."
I would like to thank Biden for acknowledging that those of us who lost loved ones in the past year to something other than COVID could also not be with them at the end and celebrate their lives in the ways that we would have. motherjones.com/politics/2020/…
Since I couldn't give a eulogy to my dad, this is what I could do. It'll be a year in six days: legacy.com/obituaries/sta…
I'd also like to thank @PaulSalopek—who worked with my dad when he was young—for sending me this Merwin poem when my dad passed, which I put in his obit. My dad was so proud of him and his work.