Misc. observations on yet another cold, rainy morning:
1. It
hasn’t been a good week for alleged rape victims. First came the collapse of
the UVA/Rolling Stone story. Now comes a retraction from Random House over the
star of Lena Dunham’s memoir, Barry the campus conservative and rapist. It
seems that there really was a “Barry” at Oberlin back in the day and he was the campus conservative. Trouble is,
he has lawyered up and is fighting back by loudly claiming his innocence, so
much so that now Ms. Dunham claims that his name wasn’t really Barry. Here’s a little advice for all of you aggrieved feminists
out there. There are enough real rapes out there. You don’t need
to manufacture fake ones. When you get caught, it damages you and everything
you stand for, not to mention legitimate victims.
2. Over
the weekend Pam and I went to see the Grand Illumination downtown with Gordon
and Leigh Ann Fort. It was fun. While there we took two pictures, one of Gordon
and Leigh Ann and another of the two of us. We would have done a selfie of all
four of us, but couldn’t manage the mechanics. Later we posted both photos on
Facebook. As of this morning the Dunnevant photo has 15 “likes”. The Fort photo
has 75 “likes.” The Dunnevant family self-esteem is at all-time lows as we
consider the appalling state of our popularity.
3. It
has been fascinating to watch the evolving tactics of peaceful protesters around
the country over the Ferguson and Garner incidents. The latest rage seems to be
something called a Die-In, whereby protestors gather at some high profile place
and then lay down on the ground as if dead while photographers snap pictures.
Interesting. I have never taken part in an organized protest in my entire life.
It’s not that I have never been outraged by anything. I get mad as quick as the
next guy. It’s just that it all seems so pointless. In a couple more weeks all
of these protests will be over and cops and black men will still be enemies.
Maybe it does serve the needs of the protestors by giving them a way to demonstrate
their frustration which is fine and good. I just can’t imagine being part of a
crowd of angry tax-paying businessmen marching on the IRS headquarters on April
15th. The very idea of laying on the sidewalk with my pockets inside
out pretending to be dead-broke seems preposterously silly to me. I mean, it
might make me feel better, might even be great fun, but I still owe them the
money.
Lucy is about to lose
whatever sanity dogs come with. It has been cloudy, rainy and disgusting outside
for what seems like forever, robbing her of her favorite activity…destroying my
backyard. She has had only one digging session in the past week and the withdrawal
symptoms are starting to become debilitating. Poor girl has taken to sitting at
doors and windows and letting out long mournful whines. It’s a dog’s life.
