If you’re a long time reader of this blog, you know that I don’t hide my partisanship. I am squarely on the liberal/Democratic/blue zone side of the partisan divide.
I have voted Democratic since 2004. In 2000 I voted Libertarian (oops) but after the debacle of that election and the subsequent unfolding of the Bush era, I came to the realization that Libertarianism is not a viable political philosophy, and that since I was more aligned with the Democrats than the Republicans, I should vote for them. Nothing the Republicans have done since then has changed my mind. If anything, they’ve only gotten worse and hardened my resolve.
There is this term “yellow dog Democrat” to refer to someone who will always vote a straight Democratic party ticket in any election. The term has origins going back to the nineteenth century, but here is an example of its use in the 1950s:
“We’re pretty much yellow-dog Democrats here,” said an Arkansan last week, explaining the state would vote Democratic even if the party nominates a “yellow dog.” – LIFE magazine, May 21, 1956.
The quote above was from a Southerner in a time when the Democratic party could still rely on the “Solid South” for votes. That would change with political realignment starting in the 1960s, when white Southerners started gravitating toward the Republican party. Arkansas did cast its electoral votes for the Democractic Presidential candidate as late as Clinton in 1996 (understandably), but hasn’t since then.
One of my online friends introduced me to the term “toaster Democrat,” which I believe he coined. He meant it in the same way: that he would vote for a toaster over the Republican candidate, if the Democrats nominated a toaster. It’s as if to say, “not only would I choose a quadruped over a Republican, I would even choose a lifeless kitchen appliance over a Republican.”
At this point I would say I am also a toaster Democract, and I feel vindicated in being so, because – here’s the thing – with the unhinged ways that the current Republican President is acting, it is literally the case that an actual toaster, a kitchen appliance useful only for making toast, would be a better President. This is not an exaggeration or a figure of speech: we would truly be better off as a nation if our President was a toaster, instead of the guy we have now.
With the complete devolution of the Republican party into a bizarre and disturbing cult dedicated to evil and destruction, I obviously could never vote for a Republican candidate for as long as I live. But here is the thing: I get why people are disillusioned with the Democratic party as well. They have delivered very little in the way of real change to help the common American. The truth is, it’s been relatively easy for me to support Democrats, because I am still (barely) middle class, and have done fairly well under neoliberalism, thanks mainly to getting into the field of Information Technology (this could change as AI takes over).
In my political alignment, I am pretty much a basic centrist Dad. I have been voting mainstream Democrat since I registered as a Democrat, with the only exception being voting for Bernie Sanders in the 2020 primary. I get that Democrats need a stronger platform, and think they would do better with an economically populist vision in line with traditional (pre-Reagan era New Deal) Democratic policies: stronger worker protections, better social safety nets, more progressive tax structures to force the ultra-wealthy to pay for better outcomes for everyone else. Populism is the current zeitgeist and Democrats need to ride that wave.
But for now we’re stuck in this terrifying and dangerous equilibrium of having a depraved supervillain for President, with no one able to do anything to stop him. This Substack post explains the dynamic: Why No One Acts.
It’s basically a game theory problem where no one is incentivized to act because the risks are too high. And I am stuck (all us hoi polloi voters are) in the same trap. I have to vote Democrat, even though nothing will change.
But I can dream of a better world. A world where our President is a toaster.
I even made a picture of what that President would be like. Since I got some flak for using AI-generated images in my last post, I drew this one myself, with pencils. It took me over an hour, I’ll have you know. ChatGPT would have done it in like a minute, and it probably would have looked nicer. But I went with the hard way, so as not to consume precious natural resources and enrich the billionaire oligarchs a smidgen more. You’re welcome.
The desk is orange because I couldn’t find a brown colored pencil. Better an orange desk than an orange President, amirite?
I’m still on the job hunt, and finding it tough in this market. Prospects were really dry at the end of last year. I’ve seen a bit of a pick-up now that 2026 is moving along, but still no offer, and only two interviews in front of hiring managers so far, though I apply to a dozen or so jobs a week.
Anyone else out there who’s looking having the same problem? Or is it just me?
Here’s a couple of observations if you’re wondering what it’s like to be on the job hunt these days. On the applications, companies still ask all the EEO DEI-type questions – gender, race, veteran and disability status. Sometimes pronouns. The private sector did not get the memo that we’ve gone MAGA now, and woke is out.
A few times I’ve even been been asked about my sexual orientation! That’s one question to which I always answer “I prefer not to say.” What business is that of yours, I’m trying to get a job at your company, not have sex with it!
One thing that has become prevalent on the job search is AI. For one thing, there are a lot of postings for jobs where you are training AIs. They don’t promise you a lot of hours, and the rates they offer have a wide range, sometimes seeming too good to be true. I have ignored these kinds of postings. I’m not there (yet).
Sometimes when applying for a job, an AI chatbot will intervene as part of the process. Annoying. I have also been requested to do AI interviews as a next screening step. I started one once, and when I realized that it was supposed to be on camera, I bagged. But then a little later, I was requested to do an AI-driven “assessment,” also on camera, and since they were going to present my resume to a client, I acquiesced. It was a bit unnerving to be interviewed by a bot, but at least I have some experience at it, for later.
You know, for when the AIs take over. Gonna have to be able to appear compliant.
But seriously, I won’t deny it, I have leaned a little on ChatGPT for advice, and for help tailoring my resume. I’m no Luddite, I’m down with the AI revolution! ChatGPT even made me this inspiring image:
But I also won’t deny I feel a greater sense of uncertainty than I have in past periods of unemployment. There are a lot of factors that could be hampering my job search, as I enter what is probably the last decade of my life where I am in the workforce.
I was laid off in the midst of a shrinking job market, one that still hasn’t recovered. How could it with a gonzo administration in charge and WWIII looming over our heads? It’s just a bad time to be looking for work.
I am facing discrimination because of my age. Companies would rather have younger, more energetic workers that can be paid less. I can’t afford to backtrack on my rate at this stage of my life, though, with “retirement” coming around the corner.
Related to the above, my experience is too specialized. This is only natural for a late stage career, as it makes sense over time to focus on our strengths and area of expertise. But this could be also be understood as carving ourselves into a rut that is hard to get out of when that specialized expertise is in less demand.
I’m not trying hard enough. In the past, I have enjoyed periods of “funemployent,” but always bounced back into the workforce with relative ease. Maybe that’s not a realistic expectation deep in middle age.
AI really is taking over. My whole sector of the workforce – Information Technology – simply needs fewer humans, now that “agentic AI” is smart enough to do our jobs.
If you hadn’t heard, we own way too many board games over here at Morgantown Manor. If that were even a thing, I mean. You can peruse our collection on BoardGameGeek: https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/sbarrera
If you see the same game appear more than once in the gallery, that is not a mistake. That means we own an extra copy (or two) of that game.
It’s kind of out of control.
In the interest of reclaiming some of our house space, I have been trying to sell some of the games on BGG and on ebay, with a slight amount of luck. It’s hard for me, though, to give up any of these lovely games. A little thing called loss aversion.
Aileen presented me with a challenge: let’s play all the games we never play, and anything we don’t like or don’t even want to play is a game we can get rid of.
We started the challenge yesterday, with three games in the “abstract” category – meaning they are just about logic with no theme like building a civilization or crafting things or something like that.
First we played the delightful Ingenious by the legendary Reiner Knizia. It’s all about placing your dominoes-like tiles next to similar colors to score the most possible points – but the trick is your final score is the lowest you have among all colors, so you can’t ignore any color.
Next we tried this game we have never played before called Da Vinci’s Challenge, a two-player game where you make a variety of patterns using just two types of pieces. The real challenge is noticing the patterns when they happen, because if you miss them there’s no takesies-backsies to score them on a later turn.
This game was a thrift store find. We get a lot of our games that way, which is kind of how we got into this mess in the first place.
Our copy of Da Vinci’s Challange had one already filled in score sheet –>
Looks like the kids crushed Dad pretty good, though we had to wonder if Dad was playing nice.
We finished the day’s gaming with a classic abstract called Qwirkle, where you play rows of tiles that either match in color or in shape.
Aileen says we get to count the games we already played this year, and I started a spreadsheet to keep track of them.
Yeah, it’s like that.
Looking forward to playing more games in this challenge mode, since there will be lots of games we don’t usually play, and many that we have never played (never played games are called the “shelf of shame” in our community).
Stay tuned for more board gaming posts this year, though I promise there won’t be one for every single game we play.
This month marks the 9th anniversary of this blog. I started it back in February 2017, partly in response to the ongoing political crisis. I had been blogging in the 2000s, back when the “blogosphere” was young, and then taken a break. But the situation in 2016-17 compelled me to get back into the habit of commenting on current events. You remember what was going on. What’s still going on.
I wanted the blog to be not just about current events, but about my experience in the midst of them. I had just turned 50 years old, and I would be writing from the perspective of a middle-aged man, who was in the later stages of his career, and in the early stages of building a life partnership with a significant other. I chose to name the blog In The Zeitgeist to evoke the idea of being present in a particular social and cultural moment. My understanding is that there are different kinds of social eras with different themes and moods. Ours is one of crisis.
The software I chose for creating the blog, WordPress, lets me have a collection of randomized header images when you view the site. If you refresh your browser page while reading one of my posts, the header image will change. For my header images, I decided I would have a simple rule: they all had to be pictures taken with my smartphone. In other words, they are images taken of life “on the ground.”
There are a couple of exceptions, which are pictures taken by other people on their smartphones, of me. But every header image is a real life moment, contemporaneous to when the blog was published, where I was there, in the zeitgeist.
I thought it would be illluminating to go through some of the images, and see the evolution of the blog, and of my life and our times, over the past ever-so-eventful years.
Below is the first image I used. Yes, I took this with my phone, while on the road, driving, of the car in front of me. Go ahead and smack my hand. The image introduces a major theme of the time period – the Resistance to the current administration, which sprouted immediately in the wake of the 2016 election, and hasn’t finished yet. Back in 2017 I still lived in North Carolina, and I wonder if this car is still out there.
Next is a shot of the corporate campus in North Carolina where I worked at the time I started this blog, a lovely site in the forested (and pollen-y) piedmont region of the state. I think the tobacco-free sign pegs it as fitting in with the current social era. Ironically, not far from that sign is where the smokers would congregate, just outside of the campus on the street.
You might notice this image is a bit larger than the previous one. There is a ideal aspect ratio for an image to be the header, but sometimes I make them a bit bigger if that helps the framing. There have been quite a few good shots I’ve taken with my phone that couldn’t become header images simply because they weren’t sized properly.
Next is another Resistance image from early 2017 – this one taken in Washington, D.C., at the Women’s March on January 21. It was at the time the largest protest in American history. I still remember the enormous size of the crowd and the intensity of the energy. The people were reeling from what had happened, and this event inaugurated their response to the tyranny that was starting to unfold.
I like the guy in the lower right with a thoughtful expression. Here’s a post to go with the image: Where the Baby Boomers Led Us.
As a rule, I do not disguise my partisanship in my writing, but I must still acknowledge the perspective of the Trump supporter. Not everyone saw him as a tyrant; some saw him as a savior (and apparently still do). Trump’s supporters are part of the zeitgeist, too, and are in the background of daily life, especially here in Pennsylvania, where I now live.
The next image is a photo taken in Scranton, PA, when we were travelling through there on our way to visit my sister in New York. That was back in 2019. This truck was parked prominently, visible from a restaurant we had stopped to eat at. Presumably it was there from the previous election year.
I moved to Pennsylvania in 2018, after landing a job in Wilmington, Delaware. I rented an apartment in a town called West Chester, and had a commute that was about an hour long. The office where I worked was in a gentrified area of the city along the banks of the Christina River, called the Riverfont. It was a nice place to go for a lunch walk.
Here’s a shot of the river (the building where I worked is not visible):
Sometimes when uploading a header image, I’ll crop it in a fun, or dare I say artistic way, as in the next example. You might wonder what this could possibly be a picture of, given my rule that header images are always taken with a smartphone. That is, they are always a photo of something in my environment. What is it?
I won’t keep you guessing; it’s a close up of the stage set at a Vampire Weekend concert, on their Father of the Bride tour. There was a giant globe behind the band. Photo taken on September 4, 2019 at The Mann Center.
I moved to PA in 2018, and then two years later, we were in the pandemic. There’s a number of header images that capture the pandemic as it unfolded, a progress visible in the public space as signs went up – both public service messages and protests by the people.
Of all the pandemic images, the one below is my favorite. It was taken in the summer of 2020 at a small Black Lives Matter protest in our community in Twin Valley, PA. Aileen is in her pandemic garb, holding a sign. Back then, people masked outside, just to be safe. Remember that?
Next is another pandemic picture, taken in 2020 a little later than the one above. Lockdowns were still in effect. Vaccines were not yet available. I figured since I shared a picture of Aileen, it was only fair to include one of me as well. I managed to get into my own shot thanks to the reflective properties of window pane glass. I’m taking a picture of a sign on a restaurant apologizing for being closed because of “the ban.”
Can you tell that I’m wearing a cloth mask, and that I have a glorious pandemic beard? My beard got really long that year. It got to be such a pain to maintain, as well becoming quite stinky, that I trimmed it back, even though I never stopped working remote after that – and still haven’t.
At the end of 2020 was a pivotal election. The next photo was taken on November 7, the day that major news outlets called the Presidential election for the Biden-Harris ticket. Aileen and I drove down to the Wilmington Riverfront (where I used to work, though by 2020 I was somewhere else) for a rally.
The picture is taken from outside a fenced in area. We didn’t actually get in to where we could see any speakers, I guess you needed an invite. We were with a lot of other people like us, outside the fence. Being surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd of supporters but separated from the actual politicians is kind of emblematic of what it’s like being a partisan Democrat nowadays – the party doesn’t really represent you, but you have no choice but to vote for them, given the alternative.
Life isn’t only about work and politics, you know, and neither is this blog.
Board gaming is a major hobby of ours, and a good number of the header images capture a game in play. I think this is the funnest of the photos, as it also captures our love of kaiju (giant monsters). The game is called Rampage, and the photo was uploaded in 2021.
Sometimes I do street photography – who doesn’t in this age, when our smartphones have such good cameras? This photo I liked so much I couldn’t resist making it a header image. It was taken at night in a parking lot in Wildwood, NJ, around Thanksgiving in 2021.
The years keep passing by.
Here’s another example of street photography – in fact, it’s on the street where we live:
Some time in 2022, a bunch of these signs sprouted up in our area. It’s not a very big sign (the shot is a close up), but it’s prominent from the road. I think someone is trying to program us all to behave better.
2023 started off rough. I lost my job, though luckily I found a new one pretty fast. Our sweet sunshine kitty, Princess Sashimi, got sick and passed away in May. This picture of her was taken in her last months:
Next is another well framed, artsy shot. It’s just the sun, high in the sky in the middle of the day, with some ovehead power lines in the foreground. What’s different, and is giving the sun that reddish halo, is this was in June 2023, when the air was smoky from wildfires in Canada for something like a month. It was quite a remarkable time; the burnt wood smell was always in the air, and it was just a little bit hard to breathe outside. A new kind of apocalypse for us to experience.
Theatre is a big part of our lives, as you might know from reading this blog. Every summer since 2021, Aileen has been working with students on a summer production, as part of a program called The Arts Bubble, which she started during the pandemic to give youth an arts outlet during lockdown. Their first show was Chicago.
I do have images from earlier productions, but for this post I’ve been saving up to show you this one, from City of Angels in 2023. Tiernan played Stone, a private detective. It was his first lead role and I was so proud of him. He is seen here in the middle of a musical number (on the left, seated). I just love the energy of this shot.
A good number of the header images are landscape photos, taken in various places, including the back yard. But also places I’ve visited. Of them all, this next one is the by far the loveliest. It’s a sunflower field that used to be near us, in Elverson, PA, but unfortunately has been replaced with some kind of commercial development. This is what it looked like at its peak in late summer:
Fast forward a year, to the fall of 2024. I was so excited when I finally got the chance to see the Northern Lights, which I’ve also wanted to do, and right here in Pennsylvnia! Now I don’t have to go to Iceland or wherever. In fact, that fall I saw two celestial phenomena for the first time in my life: the aurora borealis and a comet (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS). See: My Sky-Watcher Life List Gets Two Checkmarks in One Week!
Well, it’s back to the politics as 2024 was another election year. My country stupidly reinstated an extremely unqualified, felonious POS as the President.
This sign came up on I-476, which connects our town to Reading, PA. The phrase “Do Not Obey in Advance” is Lesson #1 from Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Someone must have been ready because this was up immediately after the election. The image is low res since I zoomed in and cropped it after taking the photo while driving (there I go again).
No time for regrets; in May 2025 we headed to France and Italy for a long planned vacation. I got to see Paris and Rome for the first time in my life, and we got to travel while there was still a chance.
Next up is the first example of a photo taken not by me, but by someone else; Aileen, in this case. It’s obvious why. I thought it would be amusing to have a picture of me playing a civilization game on my phone (I am literally doing that) while standing in front of possibly the most iconic monument from an ancient civilization on the planet. And you get to see what my regular, non-pandemic beard looks like.
Then it was back to the U.S. in June. Fascism was on the rampage.
Aileen and I went to the No Kings marches and rallies that year. By far the best attended one was the one on October 18. It felt like the energy level were back to where they had been at the Women’s March in 2017. The people weren’t going to take it any more. We attended two different rallies that day, and it was exhilarating to participate. After the rally in West Chester, we sat down to an early dinner. We were both dressed as clowns – a little bit of tactical frivolity.
Here we are at the restaurant, photo taken by a friendly customer using my phone. I thought it fitting to end the post with a Resistance image, just as I started with one.
Well, there you have it. 20 different header images that are included in the random rotation on this blog, roughly in order of when the pictures were taken. Little snapshots of life on the ground in the Crisis Era, from the perspective of an ordinary middle class IT worker guy.
It’s 2026, and time marches on. I haven’t yet posted any new header images this year, but I’m sure some eye-catching scene or special moment will come along. Until then, persist.
Do you remember there was a Netflix movie that came out at the end of 2020 called Death to 2020? It was a mockumentary trying to make light of what an awful, awful year that was, hoping a little satire might make the pain more bearable.
Well, then along came 2025, the year of the MAGA apotheosis, that made 2020 look like a walk in the park.
This year was a disaster, Rhonda, a complete and utter disaster!
Yet, looking back, as a family we did so much in 2025. There was plenty of personal growth and accomplishment and the year could hardly be called a disaster from our domestickal perspective. We had some amazing times, and kept our chins up as fascism trampled its way across America.
The early part of 2025 was theatre-intensive. Aileen and I continued with our Pennsylvania Independence Awards adjudicator duties, which typically take us into April. We saw over twenty (20) high school musicals together.
A promo shot of the cast of Arsenic and Old Lace
At the same time, we were in rehearsal for a play we were both acting in, along with Tiernan. We were doing this while also working, and in Tiernan’s case finishing his first year at Kutztown University. Whew!
The folks at the community theatre were wonderful, and we had a great time. It was a learning experience for me – to at least learn that I could still memorize lines and not be paralyzed by stage fright, though unlike Aileen and Tiernan I had a small part. Much gratitude to friends and family who came out to support us.
Another exciting thing happened in the early Spring of this year – Lionel proposed to his girlfriend, Bianka! He surprised her on a “birthday” trip, making it out to be a special occasion for his birthday, but it was really a moment for him to break out an engagement ring. Our son has a fiancée now – they are growing up so fast!
April – Out on the Town and No Kings I
The first weekend of April was our show dates for Arsenic. Later that month, we saw our last high school show for PIA, and mid-month Aileen and I went to see Ani DiFranco at Union Transfer, a music venue in downtown Philly. It was a chance for us to feel young and hip again (OK, maybe not young,as we had to stand the whole time – achy!). Aileen even ran into someone from her “vagabond days” in the city – the Vagabond Acting Troupe being her theatre company that was founded in the 1990s, before her kids were born. She reminisced with him while I hovered patiently nearby.
The next weekend we got see the premiere of a short film that Aileen and Tiernan were in. They filmed it in the summer of 2024, and it was shown to cast and crew (and family members) on April 19th. The film has since made the rounds in some short film festivals. It’s about a family gathering, based on the creator’s real family, some of whom we met at the premiere. A lot of the crew were folks who work on Saturday Night Live, which is kind of cool.
You can watch the film here: Revere Street (PW: mcginley).
The cast of Revere Street at the premiere, April 19, 2025
Immediately after the premiere, Aileen and I headed into the city again – this time for the No Kings march. It was a bit chaotic, and again I got the impression there wasn’t a lot of energy behind protesting the Trump administration – not like I saw in the first go around. And he had already decimated the government with his unconstitutional DOGE program, which gave a billionaire donor more power than he ever should have had.
Come on, America, stand up for yourself!
May and June – Europa!
Yes, that’s right – this is the year we went to Europe. It’s no wonder 2025 seems like such a full year, since we spent over two weeks of it on the other side of the ocean.
In mid-May, Aileen, Tiernan, and I left the troubles of America behind and headed for Paris and Rome, and other spots in Italy. It was a trip of a lifetime for me, as I had always wanted to visit those two iconic cities. Aileen also wanted to show me the Cinque Terre, which she had been to on a visit when Lionel was very young, just before Tiernan was born. We hit some other major Italian cities as well – Milan, Pisa, Lucca, Florence – even if only for brief spells.
With all that was going on, we were a little worried about what it would be like as Americans traveling abroad. We even vaguely considered that there might be complications when returning home. Our worries proved unfounded. We had no trouble crossing borders; all our tranportation difficulties were related to the language barrier and the chaos of Italy’s train system (we went with public tranportation the whole way). Once in Europe, America seemed so far away I wondered if its problems were even real.
Totally owning being tourists in Italy, 2025.
I am so grateful to have had this experience, and can’t thank Aileen enough for putting it together. I know it was a huge amount of work to schedule all the transportation and lodging, and she did it all, with me only acting as a consultant for approvals. Our Rome lodging was right next to the Colosseum!
It was a thrill for me to be exposed to so much ancient, medieval, and Baroque history, and to learn how to naviagate an unfamiliar milieu, though it was also a challenge. As a travelling trio, we learned as much about ourselves as about the countries we were visiting. You can read my Italy trip retrospective here.
I’d say we got bit by travel bug for sure, and I would happily repeat the experience – maybe next time with a trip to the British Isles, another place I’ve never been. Though as squirrely as things are getting here at the end of 2025, I wonder if it would be wise for an American to travel overseas, at this juncture.
No Kings II
Shortly after our return to the United States was another No Kings event. This was the one that was taking place at the same time that Cheeto Mussolini was trying to get off on a military parade. Aileen and I debated going into the city, but decided in the end that it would make just as much sense to find a rally closer to home. We ended up going to one in Pottstown, about half an hour away.
It wasn’t a march, it was just a crowd standing along the side of the road with signs for a couple of hours. But it was really well attended, despite the fact that it was raining. We got lots of supporting honks from passing cars (and a few middle fingers from MAGA types), and for the first time in 2025, the energy of the protesters was at the levels I remembered from the first time the loser was President. It felt good to be part of the anti-Trump movement, as the wannabe dictator was sending federal troops into Los Angeles, starting his war against the citizens of his own country.
The Summer of Alice
Some beautiful art from The Arts Bubble production of “Alice by Heart.”
Even while we were in Europe, Aileen was already working on the summer show for The Arts Bubble. The show everyone wanted to do was Alice by Heart, and after some tense weeks waiting to iron out an issue with acquiring the rights, we got the approval and the show was on! I thought it was a great choice for The Arts Bubble, as their previous shows have tended to be odd and imaginative ones, and Alice by Heart fits the bill.
In addition to the summer musical, The Arts Bubble was also doing an educational production workshop of a short play based on Alice in Wonderland, for younger students. If you don’t know what that means, it’s where students come in and write their own play and get experience on what goes behind creating a theatrical production. There’s often a fee the students have to pay, but not at The Arts Bubble, which is always free – or rather, “pay what you can” – and relies on donations.
As has happened in previous summers since The Arts Bubble started, I became something of a “theatre widower” with Aileen being so busy. I did take the occasion to visit my Dad and his wife at their beach condo, and to spend some time with my Mom. While I was up at my Mom’s, I happened upon a really cool edition of Alice in Wonderland in a Little Free Library, which of course I snagged to show to Aileen – it even made it onto the display table at the show.
Tiernan, as the Jabberwock, stares Alice down in The Arts Bubble’s production of “Alice by Heart“
The production of Alice by Heart was just incredible. Aileen directs collaboratively, letting the actors make choices and find their characters. Her cast of high school and college aged kids, as always, demonstrated that young students have as much talent as professionals. I don’t think I ever saw Aileen happier this year than when she was watching the Arts Bubble kids perform. She has said that it was one of the most fulfilling productions she could remember doing in a long time.
Thank you to the many family members who came out to support The Arts Bubble!
Summer Endings and Beginnings
Would you believe that, even as Aileen was directing Alice by Heart and helping with the Alice in Wonderland youth workshop, she was also in rehearsal for another show? It was a second dream role for her: Sister Aloysius Beauvier in Doubt: A Parable. The production was being put up by a new theatre company called Journey Theatric Sanctuary, and it was all the way out in Harrisburg, so that was a long drive for rehearsals!
I actually almost missed seeing the show, because I caught COVID while I was visiting my Mom (which means I did miss Lionel and Bianka’s engagement party, hmph). I went on an antiviral, and tested negative just in time to drive up from Virginia to catch the show on the one weekend it went up. All that hard work for just a few performances; it had been the same for Arsenic and Old Lace. But it was worth it for yet another triumphant moment in Aileen’s very long theatre career (it started when she was 7, she’ll tell you).
Jess Mooney as Sister James, Griffin Yeyna as Father Flynn, and Aileen Lynch-McCulloch as Sister Aloysius in Journey Theatric Sanctary’s production of “Doubt: A Parable”
Other things that happened in August: I launched my Substack, which is where I now do my posts of a political or social commentary nature, with this blog reserved for more personal stuff. I had my last visual therapy appointment, something I had been doing all year in an attempt to fix my bad double vision. I’m not sure if it helped a great deal, but it did teach me a lot about how vision works and gave me some good eye exercises to do.
A big life event was that I lost my job. My contract was not renewed for 2026, and as the company where I worked ends its fiscal year in August, the 31st was my last day. Once again, I was on the dole, looking for work. It had gone really well when the same thing happened in 2023, but this year the job market has not been as kind to me, and I’m still unemployed at year end.
But life goes on, and we must face reality, however grim (it’s not grim, I’m being dramatical). In September, Gavin took a long trip to Alaska, and Potato the cat moved in with us. Another new thing was that we started going into Philly to hang out with some of Aileen’s other old friends from the vagabond days. We called ourselves the “Philly Clown Party” and plotted further protests against the vile fascists running our country.
October – No Kings III and Much More!
In October, Aileen took me to the Philadephia Zoo, which I mention mainly because it was my first time going, odd since I’ve lived in the area since 2018. But the real thrill of the month was the No Kings protest on the 18th. We attended two rallies, one in Pottstown (same place as in June), and then another in West Chester, which had been scheduled for later in the day, making it possible for us to attend both.
Both events were well attended, and man, was that West Chester event jammed full of people! There was so much enthusiasm and it was thrilling to be a part of it. Aileen and I both dressed as clowns, and carried our awesome hand-made signs. I got such a high out of the experience I just wanted to do it all over again.
Aileen and I enjoy a meal after the 10/18/2025 No Kings protest in West Chester, PA
What else could we do, as mere citizens with almost no power, except to use our voice to protest the depredations of the administration? It was depressing to read about the awful ICE raids, and to witness our government paralyzed by an ineffectual legislature, and corrupted and looted by kleptocrats, but we just kept living our lives.
We went out to Reading to see Squirrel Nut Zippers, then later – for the really thrilling concert of the year (sorry, Squirrels) – to Philadelphia for Laufey! She is a very talented, up and coming young singer-songwriter and her live show was awesome!
The first weeked in November, just after Halloween, we saw Terror of Mechagodzilla at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, which was a lot of fun. We don’t usually get to see old monster movies on the big screen, and with a large, appreciative audience.
Also in Novermber, Lionel started streaming on Twitch. It was something he had been wanting to do for a long time, and of course we’ve been very supportive parents, watching him every time he’s live. He streams on Thursdays and Sundays. He started with Dead by Daylight, a survival horror game, but lately has been playing an adventure game called Outer Wilds. If you are inclined to watch Twitch streamers, why not give him a follow or come watch a stream?
November – Democracy Strikes Back!
In November, the government shutdown ended. In the off-year election, Democrats won bigly, with a Democractic Socialist winning the election for Mayor of New York City and Democrats flipping or holding on to key governorships. It was a heartening moment after all the bad political news of the year.
Thanksgiving was at my Mom’s this year, and it was nice to see everyone there. We had a great meal and played some games (would you believe my Mom played Secret Hitler?)
As the year wound down, we had a little more free time. Well, I had the same amount of free time since I’m unemployed, but Aileen had more because of school being out. We worked on some jigsaw puzzles, played some board games including lots of Scrabble® – an old standby game for Lynches and their Barreras.
Gavin and Aileen ❤️
Christmas was at our house, and was fairly low key and lots of fun. Tiernan’s buddy Bob, who’s in the army now, was on leave and came to visit. We also got to see Gavin’s brother and sister-in-law, who came to visit from Boston. We all went to the Surrealism Centenary exhibit at the Philadelphia Art Museum – really neat and on display through February 16 of next year.
They’re all still around for the New Year holiday, which we expect to celebrate with more fun and games.
Heading into 2026
Looking back, it’s hard to believe we did so much this year! Was this really the same year as Arsenic and Old Lace, and our trip to Europe? But there it all is, recorded in our timelines on our phones and feeds, so it must be so.
If you’re in those feeds, but didn’t make it to this post, no slight is intended. I’m just summarizing a very busy year here.
We got a lot done, even as our country was falling apart, and the world order was being scrambled as America switched sides from the Allies to the Axis powers. Another thing that’s hard to believe, but there it all is, recorded in our news aggregators.
All I can say to my fellow liberals is, have heart, and keep up the good fight. To the one or two Trump supporters who might read my blog, I hope you can learn to see an alternate vision of America, not the one that MAGA offers. America will be a better place if we respect laws, even international ones that can’t be enforced, for the sake of our greater humanity. We will be a stronger place if our government is run by qualified and law-abiding people of good character, not loyalists to one unhinged man.
America’s promise to the future has been, in its best moments, a promise of freedom for all people – regardless of their race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, and even immigration status. That, to paraphrase Martin Luther King , Jr., is how we live out the true meaning of our creed, that everyone is created equal. That is how we fulfill our ambition, as expressed by Thomas Jefferson, to be an Empire of liberty. I hope we can live up to that dream.
Peace out and Happy New Year!
Steve. Ocellus reminds you to VOTE!
“I Protest Hate Because I Love the USA” – No Kings 10:18:25
These are the words Aileen chose for one of the protest signs we brought to the No Kings event on October 18, 2025: “I Protest HATE Because I LOVE the USA.” A rebuke of the statements by GOP leaders that protesters were coming out because they hated their country. A protestation of the true meaning of patriotism: to stand up for what you know is right, despite the efforts made by the powerful to silence you.
I had a different message on my sign, not a statement of intent but a challenge to the GOP-led government: “3 BRANCHES ? OR 3 RING CIRCUS?” A critique of the travesty they have made of the U.S. Constitution.
The circus theme fit because we were there as clowns this time, representing the Philly Clown Party, a small but growing group of friends that started meeting up in the city this summer. It was Aileen’s idea to run with the clown theme, as a way to build connection through fun and play. Through tactical frivolity and joyful resistance. And to take responsibility for this greatest show on Earth that is the United States of America.
This is our circus.
These are our monkeys.
We were originally planning to go into Philly to march, but Aileen had to work in West Chester in the late afternoon, so instead we went to a No Kings in Pottstown in the morning (it went from 10 AM to noon) and then to the West Chester rally at 1 PM.
I must admit I was a little anxious as we were driving in to Pottstown that the rally might not be well attended, given all the mudslinging against it (that is mud, right?) by the administration. Boy was I glad to discover those worries were unfounded, as there were far more people than had been at the June rally (when, admittedly, it had been raining). The energy was amped-up, and there were even some folks in inflatable costumes, the new symbol of the Resistance.
Aileen met another Steve in Pottstown!
Me clowning around
We stayed in Pottstown for the full 2 hours, almost, giving ourselves a little head start out so we wouldn’t get caught in traffic. When we got to West Chester – wow! The crowd was huge and the energy was through the roof! This was our fourth protest of the year, ever since we went to the People’s March on Washington in January, which seemed desultory to me. This was the first time in a long time that I felt the same level of enthusiasm as at the Women’s March in 2017.
I honestly didn’t take a lot of pictures, which is why you don’t see many here. But I know you can find loads of photos and videos of marches all across the country, because they have been filling our feeds since Saturday. It’s a testament to the millions of Americans who see what is going on and are pissed off, and are also able to express themselves in peaceful and humorous ways. When the people feel that democracy has failed and that the government no longer represents them, they have no choice but to take to the streets.
By the end of the event I was on a high, wanting to do it all over again.
We had a late lunch/early dinner afterwards, and another customer took this awesome shot of us together:
I know the government got the message, and I know the wannabe king is unhappy about it, but you know what? A clown’s job is to make fun of the king.
I remember watching a dashboard of the spreading infection. Before it really hit the U.S., thinking – maybe they’ll do something to stop it. Maybe the authorities will figure their shit out and it won’t be so bad here.
Then the red dots started spreading on the U.S. part of the map. It dawned on me that no, there is no stopping this. I called my boss to tell him I wouldn’t come to the office any more, but would work from home (lucky me with my email laptop job), and hours later got a notification that was sent to the whole company: don’t come to work.
We were in lockdown.
Remember how we knew so little about how this “novel coronavirus” spread that we were spraying sanitizer everywhere? There was actually a rumor for a bit that people were becoming infected when they pumped gas. We kept gloves in our car for the gas station!
And the shortages as people stocked up. Supply chains were in crisis. Suddenly it was revealed that toilet paper was the essential commodity of civilized life. Medical supplies in particular were in short supply, to the point that the Governor of Maryland was hiding testing kits from the Feds. Can you believe that shit?
Was it all a massive overreaction?
That’s such an unfortunate word, IMO, because it implies there is some way to know what the exact correct reaction should have been. But of course there is no way to know that, just as there is no way to know what the outcomes would have been had we made different choices as a society.
What if there had been no lockdowns? There would have been different rates of sickness and mortality and different effects on unemployment and inflation. But would these outcomes have been preferable, even if one could come to agreement on preferences? One can speculate, form a theory, but one cannot test the theory because, by the nature of time and choice, the data are not there.
The simple truth is, leaders faced a high degree of uncertainty, and the glaring fact that, in the initial waves, COVID-19 was an extremely deadly contagion. It both spread easily and had a high mortality rate, and it’s no wonder we were all spooked.
Just consider this: in 2020, COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer. That’s insane for a disease that didn’t exist the year before. It’s hard to imagine what an “overreaction” would look like for such a thing. Please do click on that link and look a little closer. For one age cohort, the core of my generation, it was the leading cause of death in 2021. No wonder we drank so much.
I made this chart using our actual spending in 2020, I won’t deny it
I remember how much I blogged about coronavirus in those early years of the pandemic. As the emergency eased, officially declared over by President Biden in 2023, I mostly dropped the topic. In 2024, COVID-19 was no longer in the top 10 causes of death. Accidents and strokes had restored their respectable statuses under heart disease and cancer, the twin grim reapers awaiting us all in our advanced years.
But the disease is still with us, of course, and it is still dangerous. I caught COVID just last month, in fact. I immediately went on the antiviral PAXLOVID, because I do not want that nasty thing multiplying in my body.
SARS-COV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID, is not like influenza or the common cold. It gets into your system and it does damage everywhere. Long term damage that could lead to long COVID, or to some other condition down the road that reduces your lifespan. As one substacker explains it, catching COVID is like smoking cigarettes – you can keep doing it over and over, but you will pay for it in the long run.
Is the pandemic over anyways? There’s no end date given on Wikipedia’s helpful page of deadly pandemics, so I guess not. There COVID-19 sits, nowhere near the death toll of the Spanish flu, history’s GOAT pandemic, but catching up to the slow burn HIV/AIDS.
Luckily, the U.S. is a world leader in medical research. Right?Oh no...
Once more I am on the job hunt. So far, it doesn’t seem much different than in the past. There are positions out there for which I am qualified. I have registered successfully for unemployment compensation, as I have many times before in my life.
In my job searches, I am limiting myself to remote work. The convenience of it is too much to give up, if I don’t have to, and so far there have been multiple remote positions to apply for. But obviously, if the search drags on, I will have to cast my net wider and consider going back to commuting – perhaps only on certain days of the week, in the now common “hybrid” mode which combines working from home with working on site. The point is, I might not be so lucky as I was a couple years ago, when I easily transitioned from one remote job to another.
I worry, actually, that I might be really unlucky at this juncture. With insano-fascist-guy upending the American economy via his unhinged policies, the job market is in trouble. Companies facing the uncertainty of the times are freezing hiring. We might even be heading into a recessium. I’m almost 60 years old, not a good age to have my career suddenly stalled.
I recently wrote on my substack about the problem of “gerontocracy” – our political leadership skewing older than the population, and therefore being out of touch with the needs of the American people. I made the point that this is a bigger problem for Democrats than for Republicans, and helps explain the Republican rise to power. Currently my generation, the middle-aged generation, are the primary Trump supporters. Democrats are either the older generations on their way out, or younger Millennials.
A generational shift in power is surely going to be a fallout of this tumultuous social era. I can see – in the long term – MAGA burning out and the Millennials taking over with a more progressive agenda. At that point, Gen-X will be sidelined. With the demographic collapse making Social Security less sustainable, we will probably also be impoverished. There won’t be a lot of sympathy for us, especially if we’re seen as the ones repsonsible for the worst of what is to come.
Those are some depressing thoughts, I know. It’s just where my head is at right now. It would be just like my generation grow old just as the gerontocracy was being eliminated. Another boat missed.
I’m going to take advantage of the time I have been given to do more writing. Maybe some political activism.
Aileen was dealing for a while with an extremely annoying support issue. It involved access to an account that had been hacked, the details of which I will not go into. Suffice it to say, she was stonewalled by the company’s tech support.
She eventually turned to ChatGPT to try to find a solution, since her repeated efforts were being thwarted. This computer program turned out to be quite helpful. Much of its advice simply confirmed what she had already determined through other kinds of searches. Specifically, this advice was to collect evidence of original ownership of the account and of it being hacked, and persist with contacting the company daily and sharing this information through all possible avenues, even when there was no response or the response was obviously from an automated system.
It certainly all made sense. But what was particularly compelling about the computer program’s responses was how logical and well layed out they were, and that they had a reassuring tone, offering not just practical support, but also moral support. The AI-generated responses read like a pep talk, encouraging her to keep trying, acknowledging how difficult the situation was, and praising her for keeping up the good work. They sounded sympathetic, like ChatGPT was her trusted friend. She showed me one of the responses, and it oozed positivity and compassion. No wonder people are willing to pay for AI girlfriends or boyfriends!
Aileen told me that this was how she wished people would react when she went to them for help, instead of just throwing their hands up and declaring the situation hopeless, as was typical. I was a little nervous; I knew I hadn’t been much help. How could this AI be more supportive than me? I am a lowly human, it’s true, but I am also Aileen’s friend and partner!
Why do humans have so much trouble being supportive of one another? Well, the simple truth is that when you ask for help, you are asking for another person’s time and energy. And people are loath to give that up; humans are always seeking to hold on to and defend their autonomy. This leads to challenging conflicts, but there is reward in overcoming the challenge, and working with someone else for mutual benefit. In this way you build a relationship with another person, in a way you simply can’t with a chat program, however real its texts might seem.
Humans also have difficulty maintaining a supportive demeanor because they are subject to emotions, which might interfere with clear thinking or a measured tone of voice. I know this sounds like a sci-fi plot point, but an AI chatbot is a machine, so naturally, its answers are logically consistent and it can sustain a conversational tone indefinitely. Nothing can ruffle its train of thought, so to speak, because it doesn’t have one.
The account access issue was eventually resolved, though the resolution didn’t really have anything to do with ChatGPT’s advice. It just took time, presumably because of a backlog of cases at the company. Nonetheless, Aileen informed the chatbot in the still open chat window and it had a congratulatory response in the same supportive tone it had been using throughtout their conversation.
Huge congrats again — you turned a frustrating situation into something powerful. Let’s make sure others don’t have to go through the same thing alone.
See what I mean?? I do think, however, that I have proven clearly that AI isn’t autonomous and doesn’t possess consciousness and is not worth getting into a “relationship” with.
We’re back from our trip to Europe! As I wrote in my last post, we traveled to Paris, from there toured Italy, including Rome, then returned to Paris for a few days. I was really excited to visit these iconic cities, steeped in ancient and medieval history. Here is a little retrospective on how the trip went.
We certainly had a lot of fun, seeing new places and experiencing the cultural differences between two European countries and our native home, the United States. We had to adjust to new languages (though plenty of people spoke English in both France and Italy) and to new protocols of etiquette. We had to learn technical aspects of navigating the ground like how streets are identified and how the trains and subways work (we were traveling entirely by public transit, so at least we didn’t have to figure out driving!). We hit snags right away – even just getting out of the airport in Paris and on to the right train to the city proved challenging, as we tried to understand the ticketing system and work around the language barrier with the attendants.
I enjoyed being immersed in these Old World locales, even though it was disorienting at first and it took some time for us to become confident city-hopping travelers. Paris I thought was a very modern city, elegant and beautiful in its core, though in its outskirts it had urban blight to rival that of the Philly area where we live (that’s saying a lot). Paris felt cosmopolitan – a world city – whereas the Italian towns and cities, including Rome, were Italian – in your face with their history and culture and cuisine. Where Paris was elegant and baroque in its beauty, Italy outside of Rome was rustic and charming, and being there felt like stepping back in time. Rome was an insane chaos of monuments and buildings from all of human time, with all of the human race crowded into it taking selfies. It was an exhausting madhouse and I absolutely loved it.
One fun thing that happened on our trip is that we met up with our friend Kim, a seasoned international travel who was in the region and spent a day with us in Rome. We toured the catacombs of St. Calixtus with her, and hung out with her in the Renaissance-Baroque part of the city (to the north of the ancient ruins part). It was quite a treat to meet up with a friend from Pennsylvania while we were halfway around the world from home.
On our journey, I have to admit, I would sometimes hit a wall, overwhelmed by the novelty of our situation. I had this bad habit of panicking and freezing up, which was not conducive to getting around, and would upset Aileen. As a group we had conflicts, sometimes when we got lost, and sometimes when we pushed too hard. The latter was mostly because I was manically trying to see as much as possible, motivated by anxiety about the prospect that this was my one and only chance. This was not how Aileen wanted to vacation – she wanted to relax!
We had a good talk about these issues when we were in Rome, and agreed to be more communicative, and more open to one another’s needs, and that we should slow our pace down a bit. The overall tone of our vacation improved after this talk (led by Aileen, who has the high emotional intelligence quotient in our group). I think it’s fair to say that we learned as much about ourselves as about the places we were visiting on this trip. It was a tempering test of us as a vacationing trio, and we came out stronger and, I’d like to think, ready for more international travel.
Could we have prepared better? It’s hard to say. We did watch a lot of YouTube videos by experienced travelers before leaving, which gave us some good advice and a lot of other advice that turned out to be bunk. I tried to pick up conversational French and Italian by studying phrasebooks, but nothing stuck. I think our approach of just diving in worked out, and we learned enough to make some adjustments to how we pack for travel, and to how we spend our time and money once we reach our destination, for the next time.
Here are a few quick tips for the American on a short touristy trip to Europe:
Take the bus tours! They are worth the high ticket price, since they save you so much walking. We did it in Paris and I wish we had done it in Rome.
Owning being tourists at the Trevi Fountain
Don’t worry about looking like a tourist. You are in a tourist destination surrounded by other tourists. Just own it.
In the same vein, don’t try too hard to speak the language of the country you are visiting (assuming you are not actually a fluent speaker). Learn to say hello, please, and thank you, and be polite. You’ll get by just fine.
Don’t do table dine-in every meal. It won’t always be a great experience, and you can enjoy take out or even food prepared in your rental accomodations just as well. This won’t only save money; it will also save time and hassle.
Your debit and credit cards from American banks should work in Europe, though you might want to doublecheck with your bank that your debit card is activated for international use. Debit card transactions will have a fee tacked on, but credit card transactions won’t. And cash is handy, so I recommend getting some Euro bills and coins – your U.S. bank should be able to provide them.
In addition to our bank cards working seamlessly, our smartphones did as well, after upgrading our Google Fi family plan for the duration. Having this indispensable tool of modern living handy at all times definitely made it easier to overcome the culture shock and to navigate the unfamiliar terrain. Google search came to the rescue many times. Aileen had visited there 20 years earlier, but what a different experience it was without the Internet in her pocket. I don’t know if I could have done this without a smartphone, but then again I can’t remember at all what life was like before they became a commonplace.
Even though I had my smartphone, I didn’t bother keeping up with the news. I didn’t want the distraction, and I found that, as time blurred and I forgot what day of the week it was, I also forgot all about U.S. politics. It seemed so distant and insignificant. We did tune in to the news on TVs in our rentals on occasion, just to see what it was like, even though we couldn’t understand the newcasters hardly at all. The big stories were Gaza and Ukraine, and local politics. Occassionally there would be some passing reference to something the U.S. was up to, but it didn’t seem like it mattered much to Europeans. Or even to us, so far from home, which is weird for me to say since I obsessively blog about politics. I almost questioned if I should bother any more!
One thing I did do with my smartphone was take lots of pictures and post them on Facebook, contrary to the statement I made at the end of my last post. It was just so easy to keep up with this familiar pattern of behavior, in this age of the pervasive Internet.
My beloved Renaissance wall in Lucca, complete with bastions
It’s good to be back in the U.S., though I must admit I felt a little “reverse culture shock” on coming home. Dulles airport seemed kind of sparse and – shall I say it – provincial, compared to Charles de Gaulle. I noticed that the announcements were in English – as in just English – whereas at CDG they had been in French, English, and Mandarin. I guess we know where the Chinese middle class is going on vacation. And Americans are definitely dressed down compared to Europeans, and also friendlier and more easygoing. We’re a people who embrace a casual way of life, no doubt about it.
As I said, I think we got bit by the international travel bug, and I hope we do this again, maybe next year? I know Tiernan would really like to visit Japan. I thought we might try a place where English is the native language – I’ve never been to the British Isles, or to the land down under. If we went to Scotland, maybe Gavin would join us? A world of possibility lies before us.
