Susie Duncan Sexton's Blog, page 8

Retrospection can hurt like hell sometimes.

Wondering WHY during all of these jamborees of politicians flooding our TV screens...and jabberjawing media chatterbugs interrupting one another...that NOBODY mentions the importance of the animal kingdom. That is when true peace would start. That is when all violence could end. All LIFE matters. Humans are just another species...a species who should know better than to enslave and victimize animals for profit and pleasure and pomposity that knows no end.

Here I live in Mike Pence's Indiana. We are not very good with animal welfare here. We reproduce farm animals like crazy and ship them off to be slaughtered and ingested...and then get ourselves to churches on time exiting SUVS dotting our crowded parking lots. Wonder if we shall be forgiven? (Signed: a Hoosier)



My hippie contemporaries in, say, 1968 were not only on something...more importantly they were ONTO something. Wish I had not been fearful of them in the sixties and had joined up with that probably very important movement. Peace...love...and flower power!

1968. That is the year I graduated from college...knowing nothing! That is the year I married...knowing nothing! That is the year I was still conforming to rules and regulations...what a schmuck I was...ha!



Retrospection can hurt like hell sometimes. I just wish I had known then what I know now - when I had no wrinkles and would have looked really great in a flowing caftan and with flowers in my un-grey hair!

Yet, HOPEFULNESS can be wonderful - a baby step and then another and another, leading to...heaven...ON EARTH!



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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't

Prayerful Attacks: A Lesson in Current Events

First a moment of prayer and then the prayerful male attacks Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Shame on the committee. Hypocrisy run wild. Hard to watch.

Unbelievable. At least the Democrats on the committee are using their 5 minutes to discuss actual pressing issues...rather than insulting or pontificating rudely in Loretta's direction. Sad to watch good and brilliant and talented people grilled like this with our tax dollars. This country's demise will be at the hands of this endless, small-minded, petty group-think. I know I just mixed my metaphors, and I feel like having a cathartic weep-fest. Ha!

I do not even want to eat out these days. Cannot stand to listen to replays of Fox News from passers by? Misguided Facebook posts bashing Hillary are bad enough. Wondering when the hatred on so many fronts will end...what will it take? Heart-breaking and exhausting and ludicrous not to appreciate this Administration and the many forward thinking individuals serving our nation. Sick unto death of it.

Where is Arthur Miller to write this stuff up? So SALEM...so Nathaniel Hawthorne...

Now on to an endorsement from Bernie...keeping my fingers crossed. Hillary deserves a nice moment...long overdue!

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E.B. White



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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't

Why, politicians, why?

My questions to politicians!

The answer to worldwide peace and inclusion of all lives as precious? Attention paid to all species great and small...animal welfare never addressed by office-seekers...why?

So many of us care about reverence for and acceptance of the animal kingdom...no more factory farming, vegetarianism encouraged, domestic pets spayed/neutered, cessation of animal breeding to satisfy carnivorous consumption, the non-necessity for hunting, and on and on. Why do politicians never address this most important topic?

Unbelievable...



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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't

Phantom Runs

My cat Issie had one of those phantom runs around the house like cats do now and then? One night she knocked my ashy-tray to kingdom come, but, the next night, I was watching Alfred Hitchcock at a crazy hour (of course) and she landed for a second on my remote control? And the show became the size of a postage stamp all up in the corner of the screen?

And PARENTAL CONTROL blocking step-by-step instructions popped up endlessly and I could not get out of what the screen was suggesting to me? Almost picked something on the menu just to resume watching the show? Finally...I got out some way or other? Is that wild?



And how can talcum powder cause ovarian cancer? I swear these ads I sit through for Hillary and The Donald are freaking me out? WTF would that particular ad mean...and you can "class action suit" about it...talcum powder? But not everybody has ovaries. Which sounds like a new sitcom starring Ray Romano and Madame Bovary.

I am becoming a couch potato hypochondriac...and this election has turned my mind to cauliflower. Maybe Issie was trying to tell me something, and I should have continued down that PARENTAL CONTROL path ...



Postscript ... Progress! I just weeded out expired creams and salves and ointments ranging from hemorrhoidal cures to silky skin balms? May have achieved a record? One was an antique--"use by 1994"! The tube of whatever was the same age as a college graduate whose tuition Bernie Sanders would love to promise away during his heavily populated rallies of campaign 2016!

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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't

Please don't criticize someone's eyebrows.

I just answered this college alumni questionnaire. I hope they appreciate my joie de vivre!

my passion? the welfare of animals of all persuasions, from ants to elephants!

scary experience? childbirth…but my son is a gift to the world…the best individual on the planet! ask me about his accomplishments!

job market? have tried my best to avoid such a place…unless fruits and vegetables and shoes are sold there…my kind of market!



biggest fear? that hillary will NOT be elected to the presidency which she so deserves…and that humans will never wise up to the wonders of all sentient beings of every species.



most valuable college experience? learning to love literature…and escaping my sorority by heading to the theatre department!

doing college over? no thanks…once was enough…just right…but three years would have been better than four…wanted to go back home after three years!

lessons from the honors college …that dr. strother was the perfect mentor and adviser for my thesis featuring HENRIK IBSEN! loved him! (dean lawhead criticized my eyebrows…so I never warmed up to him?)


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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't

Guilty pleasures during this presidential election year of living dangerously

My latest column - "GUILTY PLEASURES During This Presidential Election Year of Living Dangerously": http://talkofthetownwc.com/oldtypewri...

The piece details my thoughts on this roller coaster election cycle and my longstanding fascination with presidential politics. And, as always, you'll see hyperlinks sprinkled throughout the piece for some additional audiovisual commentary!

Excerpt: "Nightly, I devour with rapt attention MSNBC's Chris Matthews' and Rachel Maddow's and Lawrence O'Donnell's and Chris Hayes' and even FOX's Judge Jeanine's and Bill O'Reilly's and even Megyn Kelly's and CNN's Wolf Blitzer's and Anderson Cooper's and Don Lemon's blow by blow accounts and analyses and predictions of just who said what and where the frenetic major players are heading to next and what the polls may mean (if anything) and which candidates lead in acquisitions of lava-lampish fickle delegates and super delegates."



Read the rest here: http://talkofthetownwc.com/oldtypewri...

BONUS: Enjoy this ode to compassion for all creatures - land, sea, air - from wonderfully talented friend Patty Hunter: http://fresh-eyepromotions.com/2015/P...



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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't

Old Type Writer: Wait! Prior to tossing me into a weathered hatbox...read me first?

Latest column from yours truly! Titled “Wait! Prior to tossing me into a weathered hatbox...read me first?,” this installment of Old Type Writer is a cheeky (and loving) look at genealogy, family, animal friends, journalism, politics, and tolerance.

As Talk of the Town editor Jennifer Zartman Romano observes, “Columnist Susie Duncan Sexton shares stories of late night conversations with distant cousins -- and a revelation that she may be the illegitimate great great great great granddaughter of George Washington in her latest installment of Old Type Writer.” Here’s an excerpt from the piece …



“I can barely handle the present, so delving into the past eludes me these days. My newest tee-shirt reads: ‘Past, Present, Future...I AM SO Tense’! And of course, should I perform an archae-ILLOGICAL dig, I fear that I might confirm that Ida May may have been correct that I am indeed the bastard progeny of an unhitched General Washington. Miss May once specialized in organizing summertime family reunions of all manner of kin -- joyously convened inside a variety of gazebos dotting an endless series of pastoral grassy lawns all about North Carolina-- for the express purpose of seeking ‘buried roots’--I forgot to ever inquire exactly HOW she happened upon our aforementioned relationship to the father of our country. I'd often researched that George fired...blanks? What a thrill to converse with free-thinker Ida who seemed to me a kind of template for the type of human being whom we should elect as president one day …”

Read the rest here: http://talkofthetownwc.com/oldtypewri... (and be sure to click the hyperlinked words in “blue” sprinkled throughout for various audio-visual surprises!)

Enjoy!



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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't

Soldier on, folks! Soldier on! #Indiana's "Canned Hunting" Bill

From Marian Patience Harvey: "FENCED HUNTING PASSED INDIANA SENATE (Senate Bill 109). Please call Governor Pence at 317-232-4567, and ask him to VETO this Bill! Includes Deer, Sheep and Goats. Ask for an ENFORCED BAN!!! Just heard that it passed Senate on NPR.....please call.....once these facilities are legalized, Deer become livestock...and Big Ag wins again."

While too many people -- for profit or "gamesmanship" -- murder animals, many of us work everyday to save lives. Thanks for being a respecter of life for all sentient beings.

We shall overcome someday, by speaking up and by becoming actively involved in working with animals and with the good people who care and with the humans who really need some instruction in the sanctity of all life!

Soldier on, folks! Soldier on!



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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't

I do cross party lines. We all should. That's very American.

I would love to be a political COMMENTARIAN - a new word .... but I do not have the good fortune nor the luxury to abide in a region where my services are needed as I well know by now! LOL...

Any truthful viewer...and I am one...must admit that Wednesday evening (January 27) television should not have been missed!

Rachel Maddow, intelligent saint, visited Flint and discussed the unnecessary sadness and horror staring its citizens in the face; Michael Moore spoke with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC: infrastructure concerns, climate change ramifications, economic disparities, passing the buck, self-aggrandizing vacuous politicians, absent governors and presidents all so painfully ... obvious.



Good people up against it, faces etched with resigned desperation and weariness and disillusionment ...

And Donald Trump choosing to leave the ridiculous debate sessions in the lurch. Wishing he would raise funds tonight (Thursday, January 28) for the Flint community and for all of those communities which sorely need his construction expertise across our nation, as two veteran groups are shunning his offers of donations to their cause. They seem to be "John Kerrying" (a sad verb from another nutty election) the Donald. The candidate would redeem himself and then some.



And Hillary, the only qualified debater, when one views these debacles, is so marvelous and is suffering such undignified and undeserved and outrageous misogyny.

Grow up, America ... let's all make America great again by appreciating those who truly seem to be offering their talents to us at this very moment. That group includes Flint's citizens and mayor and pediatrician, Mr. Moore, Ms. Maddow, Hillary Clinton and that inventive renegade rogue Mr. Trump.

I do cross party lines. We all should. That's very American.



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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't

when we start only hearing the sounds of our own voices...the animals lose again

''Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work.''~ Carl Sandburg



To be sure, it is fabulous to attempt to be a voice for other species who do not speak the rather strange language of our human species ...

However, when we start only hearing the sounds of our own voices...the animals lose again...and that is heartbreaking and tragic.

Is Wisdom a Lot of Language? by Carl Sandburg

Apes, may I speak to you a moment?
Chimpanzees, come hither for words.
Orangoutangs, let's get into a huddle. ...
Baboons, lemme whisper in your ears.
Gorillas, do yuh hear me hollerin' to yuh?
And monkeys! monkeys! get this chatter--




For a long time men have plucked letters
Out of the air and shaped syllables.
And out of the syllables came words
And from the words came phrases, clauses.
Sentences were born--and languages.
(The Tower of Babel didn't work out--
it came down quicker than it went up.)
Misunderstandings followed the languages,
Arguments, epithets, maledictions, curses,
Gossip, backbiting, the buzz of the kazoo,
Chit chat, blah blah, talk just to be talking,
Monologues of members telling other members
How good they are now and were yesterday,
Conversations missing the point,
Dialogues seldom as beautiful as soliloquies,
Seldom as fine as a man alone, a woman by herself
Telling a clock, "I'm a plain damn fool."
Read the dictionary from A to Izzard today.
Get a vocabulary. Brush up on your diction.
See whether wisdom is just a lot of language.

Carl Sandburg, 1953

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Read about movies and nostalgia, animal issues and sociopolitical concerns all discussed in my book Secrets of an Old Typewriter and its follow-up Misunderstood Gargoyles and Overrated Angels - print and ebook versions of both are available on Amazon (click the title).

The books are also carried by these fine retailers: Ann Arbor's Bookbound and Common Language; Columbia City's North Side Grille and Whitley County Historical Museum; and Fort Wayne's The Bookmark.

And you can download from iTunes.

Meet other like-minded souls at my facebook fan page

Visit my author website at www.susieduncansexton.com

Join a great group of animal advocates Squawk Back: Helping animals when others can't ... Or Won't