Jude's Skeptic Tank

schlembesserung an improvement that makes things worse 

 TRYING--no, not trying!     DOING! Here I am again, on this prose journey, although that does remind me. I have an idea for a poem. Shall I...

I saw the most beautiful braid. It was on on adorable young woman. She was tiny, kind of round, with a sweet face. But the Braid!!!! It was ...

 I have a very cute very red sports car. Its a convertible. I try to only own convertibles, starting with a $25 blue vw that was held togete...

  SOMEONE SENT ME THREE JARS OF DELICIOUS SALSA. You know how Amazon is, no identifying paperwok comes in the box. I contacted the usual sus...

My friend Lori and I had fun imagining some aspects of what a matriarchy would be like. Only women having guns, for example, or abortion as ...

 I WATCHED IN DISMAY as Brexit became a reality. This, even before I learned of the huge role Russia played in putting out the falsehoods an...

  DEMOCRACY—WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? The thing about democracy is, it isn’t a thing.  And we can never really have it. The very wonders that a...

 I AM SO thankful. Various current problems and reverses notwithstanding, there is a lot of good in my life. Also, I know that gratitude is ...

 Dottie Dodgion dies at 90. Famous jazz drummer I never heard of. She didn't like to do solos! Have you ever heard of a drummer who didn...

 AM I CRAZY OR have you noticed that there is a lot less attention paid to #MeToo these days. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking tha...

  I am sure that among the many legacies of Stephen Colbert, a decent amount of attention will be paid to  TRUTHINESS, a brilliant coinage t...

Someone commented on my good reflexes the other day. And you know what? It's true. I have great reflexes, better than ever, and they see...

WHAT DO WOMEN WANT Ah Freud. You have a lot to answer for. Some of your stuff is so silly, yet it has taken hold. People who would die befor...

 FOR A WRITER, little is scarier than losing one's writing. I have 2 screenplays and a novel, all brilliant, naturally, that have disapp...

 WHEW!  A thousand pounds has been lifted from my shoulders, that I didn't even know was there. Our fabulous son-in-law hugged his paren...

Hunter College, CUNY, was not then, or possibly ever, a hotbed of anything.  If we wanted to see the real deal "revolution"aries, ...

I have a very beautiful friend whom I met when we were both at Hunter  College in the late 60s. Hunter, an all women's college, had a ve...

 IF THERE ARE QUESTIONS ABOUT A RIGGED ELECTION SHOULDNT WE BE QUESTIONING THE 2016 ONE WHERE TRUMP LOST THE ACTUAL VOTE BUT WON BECAUSE OF ...

One of my dearest friend's mother was a skin specialist and cosmetician. When her daughter visited, the mother ran around after her, dab...

EARLY SEASON'S GREETINGS! My lovely, talented friend was hired to Deck the Halls of a fancy resi dential compound across the street from...

HOW CAN I READ PROUST IF I DON'T LIKE MADELEINES?

OKAY OKAY OKAY Now I've gone back to some exercise, since we are allowed to do classes outdoors with masks on, I love PURE BARRE, and so...

These last few weeks have been so momentous, so fraught, so bursting with implications, that it scared me, stunned me away from my blog. The...

Crispr--spelled just like that, is the gene editing technology that allows us, or rather scientists who do that sort of thing, to edit genes...