Lydster: Learning from my daughter

television

Maxwell Frost
Maxwell Frost

There are always things I’m learning from my daughter.

She has been following online Maxwell Frost, the newly-elected member of Congress from Florida. I knew who he was because I had been getting contribution requests from his campaign.

He was supposed to be sworn in on January 3. So he wrote about that the day before. But as the drama over selecting a Speaker of the House of Representatives dragged on, no one could be sworn in. So Frost reposted  that January 2 post, followed by the word “SIKE!”

Quickly, he was scolded by some folks who thought a Member of Congress should know how to spell Psych! But, as my daughter noted, people of her generation have been spelling it as SIKE forever.

Did I mention that Frost is the first  Gen Z Congressperson? “At 25, [he] will be the youngest member of Congress. He’s also in debt after maxing out credit cards to win Florida’s 10th Congressional District seat.”

Influencer

My daughter told me that Andrew Tate was arrested. I said, “Who’s that?” “He’s a former kickboxer and TikTok influencer.” I muttered, “I don’t care about some social media influencer.”

But a couple of days later, after I read about him on Reuters and other mainstream sources,  I knew WAY more about him than I wanted. He is a brutal misogynist. The  Romanian anti-organized crime agency DIICOT alleges he created with his brother and others “an organized crime group in early 2021 ‘with the purpose of recruiting, housing, and exploiting women by forcing them to create pornographic content meant to be seen on specialized websites for a cost.'”

His feud with Greta Thunberg revealed that he was in Romania when a box from Jerry’s Pizza, a Romanian chain, was in his video response to her, which facilitated his arrest.

So my daughter, once again, was ahead of my curve.

Dick Wolf

During her winter break, my daughter watched a bit of television. Two shows were in the Dick Wolf franchise, Chicago Fire and FBI International. She seems to like to watch and dissect them.

In the one episode I watched, Chicago Fire had characters lying for no good reason. For instance, one firefighter tells a pregnant woman married to another firefighter that she’s “fine” seconds before she is rushed to the hospital. In another scene, the woman in a couple avoids telling her Significant Other she’s buying a door with another firefighter, which becomes obvious two scenes later.

The FBI scene involves the officers coming up to a suspect and saying, from ten feet away, “FBI.” The suspect runs away and eludes capture. Now I know what “hate-watching” is because my daughter does it.

I love learning how my daughter’s mind works.

2019 in review, too

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Greta Thunberg
Greta Thunberg at the EU
More 2019 in review

Where did most of your money go?

The house, specifically the new refrigerator

What did you get really excited about?

Finding quite a bit on my family tree

Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?

Marginally happier

Thinner or fatter?

Marginally thinner, and need to do much more.

Richer or poorer?

I feel poorer, but our financial planner says that in retirement, over time, we’ll be richer

What do you wish you’d done more of?

Reading

What do you wish you’d done less of?

Dealing with the retirement paperwork

How did you spend Christmas?

Christmas Eve means singing at church, so that. Eventually, we go to the in-laws

Did you fall in love in 2019?

Sure

How many one-night stands?

Jaquandor always says: “Now, that’s not the kind of question a gentleman answers!”

What was your favorite TV program?

CBS Sunday Morning, JEOPARDY!, Grey’s Anatomy, CBS This Morning Saturday

The hate question

Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Hate is such a tricky word. I don’t want to give them that much power. Enraged with, perhaps. But, oh yeah, I certainly loathe the behavior of a whole lot of people. I noted some of them yesterday

What was the best book you read?

The Twilight Man, a graphic novel about Rod Serling by Koren Shadmi

What was your greatest musical discovery?

Rhiannon Giddens of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. She was on the Country Music series that Ken Burns did for PBS.

What did you want and get?

The new Hess truck – what a shock!

What did you want and not get?

The luxury of more time that I thought I’d have

What were your favorite films of this year?

Cold War
The Farewell
Toy Story 4
Jojo Rabbit
Blinded by the Light

What did you do on your birthday?

Actually, I wrote about that!

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2019?

There was SOME new trend in men’s apparel I noticed some months ago. I thought was SO stupid, I was sure I’d write about it at the end of the year. Then, because it’s fashion, and I don’t really care about it, I’ve managed to totally block it from my mind. Which is fine.

What kept you sane?

Once again, I continue to argue the premise of the question.

The fame question

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I’m hard-pressed to answer this, because celebrity, for the most part, does not interest me. I saw this in the New York Post in November: “Bristol Palin and boyfriend Janson Moore are Instagram official.”

Everything in that sentence bugs me. The idea that Bristol Palin is enough of a celebrity to merit the coverage. The notion that “Instagram official” is a thing. Bleech.

That said, Greta Thunberg, because there are people who like to bash her.

What political issue stirred you the most?

If we haven’t screwed up the planet ecologically, we’ve hosed it politically.

Who was the best new person you met?

Some new church members

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2019

“The trouble with normal is it always gets worse” (Same as last year, and the year before)

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year

White Man’s World by Jason Isbell

Lyrics:

There’s no such thing as someone else’s war
Your creature comforts aren’t the only things worth fighting for
If you’re still breathing, it’s not too late
We’re all carrying one big burden, sharing one fate

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