My Dad Passed Away This Morning

 

With my dad in 1969

Ian Christopher Mayow Short passed away this morning at the age of 89.
He was born in Seaford, Sussex, England, in 1936 to Mayow Earl deCoucey Short and Margaret Helen (Campbell) Short.

Ian was a multimedia artist, printmaker, and educator known for his work in photography, printmaking, and for integrating art with education.  He was a co-founder of the Artists Image Resource (AIR) in Pittsburgh and taught for many years at Kent State University in Ohio and Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where he was chairman of the Art Department from 1993-96.

Ian grew up in River Forest, Illinois. And was educated at Illinois Wesleyan University (1958).  He received his MFA from the University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1961. 

Ian leaves behind three daughters, Frances, Marion, and Helen, and five grandchildren.  All of us loved him like crazy. 

Here I am telling a funny story about my dad in 2008.  

   

After I posted this video, Dad (who was 72 at the time) left me a Skype voicemail and said it's not a laserjet, it's an inkjet printer, and I should be sure to plug some computer thingy called "Adobe Photoshop."  So I did.  :) 

My sisters and I agree that if there's a heaven, he's up there setting up his studio.  He's also lighting up a cigarette and drinking a Manhattan.  Probably playing darts and bragging about his grandkids.  He'll go say hi to mom after he's had a drink. 

 My family is tremendously grateful to Ian's hospice care workers, and also fuck cancer. 

PS You can see some of Dad's artwork here and here.  

The Trump Administration: A Zero On Rotten Tomatoes

"Trump Administration: The Movie" aspires to answer the question: What would happen if...

...a greedy, white-nationalist, sex-creep version of Dumbledore, 

....but with frontal dementia and mini-strokes, 

...found himself riding an All Terrain Armored Transport to Venezuela 

...in a desperate (yet possibly successful) attempt to escape the judgment of the Epstein Ring?  

 

The answer is: you don't care. Because by the time you make it to the end of this gaping sore of unending corruption, you'll begrudge George Lucas and J.K. Rowling and JRR Tolkien just for conceiving of worlds that could be so poorly re-imagined by the douches at Fox News and Newsmax.  (Also, CBS.)   And you won't thank the narrators, Jesse Watters, Stephen Miller, Laura Ingraham, and the rest of the prostitutes in this hellscape, for pouring their weak sauce over the whole shit sandwich.

You'll have run out of the theater before the final credits, so here's the fifty-cent tour:  

In a bizarre and failed attempt to bring in "comedy" revenue, Marco Rubio is cast as "the smart one."  And all the female leads look exactly the same. 

This is one mess of a story that really begs the question: why film it? Why watch it? Why? Stay away . . . and if you still decide to buy the ticket because, hey, freedom of expression and it's your country, too?  Fuck you, Bozo, your Fandango points go to Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Eli Lilly, and Meta!  

Fair warning, this movie is definitely not for kids. Unless you let your kids listen to you read explicit stories about pedophiles and enjoy extreme close-ups of lips damaged by gender-affirming injections. In which case, this is the movie for you . . . sicko!

h/t my archives

Could The New Yorker please put its entire letters section at the Thanksgiving table with Leslie Jones?

 

Returning to old skool blogging with as little fanfare as possible...

The holiday mail malaise meant that I received a copy of The New Yorker, one per day, every day last week.  

And one particular Letters Section ("The Mail," December 15, 2025) has me asking, 'Were the interns in charge of choosing these?'

______

Dylan M. of Brooklyn notes that yes, it's terrible that Trump has demolished Roosevelt's East Wing...

BUT...

The "original structure was built in part by enslaved people." 

SO...

______

Karin S-R of Santa Rosa, CA writes as "a feminist, a therapist, and a mother of twin teen-age boys" and notes that yes, there may be a "so-called crisis facing men..." 

BUT...

"if feminism does not expand its concern to include the well-being of men..."

"feminism cannot depend on the erasure of male identity." [?]

"if [emphasis mine] WE don't help to articulate new, healthier visions of masculinity..." 

[Karin, that sounds like more uncompensated work AND your boys are lucky to have you for a mom.] 

______

George of San Leandro, CA, notes that "nowadays, commentators frequently introduce Trump by describing him as a 'felon' or a 'convicted criminal.'"  

BUT...

"[T]here are about twenty-four million people who have been convicted of felony offenses. Not all of their convictions were the result of fair processes."

[You just KNOW where George is going with this...]

"Words like 'felon' and 'convict' are often used, as in reference to Trump, to signal that someone has inherently low moral worth.  This can contribute to the punishing of people who have already been subject to injustices..."

______

Could The New Yorker please put its entire letters section at the Thanksgiving table with Leslie Jones?

It's the Corruption, Stupid

 

'Shopped by me with assist from Bing AI. Click for larger. 

Affirmations for the Serious Knitter

 

As read on my knitting podcast for this week (at the 13:48 mark).

AFFIRMATIONS FOR THE SERIOUS KNITTER. 

1. No housework until I have knit for fifteen minutes. 

2.  I want to knit.  Worrying, complaining, computerizing, rushing, shopping, people-pleasing, (fill in the blank) is NOT knitting.

3.  "I should do this, I should do that."  I will stop "should-ing" all over myself, cast on, and knit. 

4.  I am an artist. (Repeat three thousand times daily, preferably while knitting.)

5.  As an artist, I won a palette of textures and colors, also known as a stash.  No one ever told Van Gogh he had too many colors of paint. I appreciate, treasure, deserve, and utilize every skein of yarn I own, even if it is just for inspiration. 

6.  In addition, I show gratitude for my abundance of yarn by finding another knitter to knit the yarn I know I will never use. 

7.  I am proud of my creativity. (see number 4) 

8.  My ability to create and complete knitting projects is a great gift.  I show my gratitude for this gift by completing projects, wearing them, and saying to all admirers, "I knit it myself!" And when I do, the angels rejoice, and knit with me. 

BingAI can't get knitting needles right yet.

9.  I want to knit sweaters (socks, baby things, afghans etc.) and I remind myself regularly how important knitting is to me.

10.  I'm gonna knit it, I'm gonna finish it, I'm gonna wear it -- with a smile! 

Where to find the podcasts

via GIPHY

I am no longer posting the podcasts here. 

Our podcast host, Buzzsprout, has created a website for us that is just lovely and does the job. Feel free to bookmark it! https://proleft.buzzsprout.com 

Or you can Chromecast our podcasts via our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessionalLeft 

You can watch my knitting podcasts on my YouTube Podcast Channel. 

Thanks!

Driftglass has a cold.

When Did Trump Decide to Become Orange?

And here is my latest knitting podcast as well!

ProLeft Podcast 823: Predicting The Stories The Media Will Tell #BothSidesDont

We KNOW what the media is going to do this election cycle. It's our job to halt them. Both sides don't!!! More at proleftpod.com LINKS for this episode: Kurt Vonnegut, The Shape of Stories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOGru_4z1Vc 2081, The Film, Based on "Harrison Bergeron," by Kurt Vonnegut https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEgOuZzjI8o Scott Doty Explains "The Procrustean Bed" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbLB2H-ASwo Cook County Jail Plays Chess https://www.joeycofone.com/eureka-newsletter/leisure-theory https://www.cookcountysheriffil.gov/cook-county-jail-chess-team-places-second-in-international-chess-tournament/ Blue Gal's knitting podcast! https://www.youtube.com/@flangum Our podcast YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessionalLeft Support the show: PayPal | https://paypal.me/proleftpodcast Patreon | https://patreon.com/proleftpod

ProLeft Podcast 822: Dems In Array for Kamala Harris!