Version 2.119

 It is Sunday evening and I am already yearning for Friday, as next weekend is Labor Day weekend, so no work on Monday. I made quite a bit of progress on my "Mating in Captivity" book and it is quite easy to read. Some information is counter-intuitive, like the reference to how women elicit social change in relationships. I had seen that before, but it is never enough to remind ourselves that the way we choose to live our life does not have to be like other people did in the past. The Forty Rules of Love were kind of put in the back burner, as there is only so much love that I can handle in a sitting, but I'll get around and maybe I'll even finish it next weekend. 

A person was shot last night in Portland, OR, as pro-Trump supporters clashed with anti-Trump demonstrators, but I think this is just the beginning. It will get more violent as we head into the election. Portland as seen its share of violence these year, but I hope they can overcome it. Of course, it does not help the fact that Portland is the whitest city in the U.S. and it has a long history of racism and white supremacy. Maybe all this violence serves the purpose of forcing the city to cut ties with its past.

Other than that, there is not much else going on in the Trump Presidency. He has no plan and there are very few new faces around him. Plus, Republicans have been relatively quiet. When Americans start to act quiet, you know that something is up. These people were bred to have an opinion and not be afraid of saying it. But one cannot be too confident. On the eve of the last presidential election, Hillary Clinton had something like 87% probability of winning. But it never materialized...  

Body language

 “Bodies Speak, Too

If one consequence of the supremacy of talk is that it leaves men at a disadvantage, another is that it leaves women trapped in repressed sexuality. It denies the expressive capacity of the female body, and this idea troubles me. Favoring speech as the primary pathway to intimacy reinforces the notion that women’s sexual desire is legitimate only when it is embedded in relatedness—only through love can female carnality be redeemed.

Historically, women’s sexuality and intellect have never been integrated. Women’s bodies were controlled, and their sexuality was contained, in order to avert their corrupting impact on men’s virtue. Femininity, associated with purity, sacrifice, and frailty, was a characteristic of the morally successful woman. Her evil twin, the succubus (whore, slut, concubine, witch) was the earthy, sensual, and frankly lusty woman who had traded respectability for sexual exuberance. Vigorous sexuality was the exclusive domain of men. Women have continuously sought to disentangle themselves from the patriarchal split between virtue and lust, and are still fighting this injustice. When we privilege speech and underplay the body, we collude in keeping women confined.”

Excerpt From

Mating in Captivity

Esther Perel

https://books.apple.com/us/book/mating-in-captivity/id360607021

This material may be protected by copyright.

Version 2.118

Were it not for the masks and the nearly empty cafés and restaurants, you'd think we were back to normal, granted that a normal without sporting events is a bit abnormal. Nearly everyone is wearing a mask when out and people act as if everything is business as usual. There are still those who do not realize the mask is supposed to cover the nose or those who occasionally remove it, but these are getting rarer. 

In Memphis there is a local ordinance requiring masks indoors at certain businesses for people older than 2-years old. The office of the mayor routinely posts data on how many complaints have been received for non-compliance, how many businesses have been investigated, how many received warnings, summons, etc.

Julian spent a few hours at puppy day camp at PetSmart and I am happy that the service is up again, as it opened a week ago. The staff was the same and they acted very matter-of-factely, so I assume that the employees managed to get by on the unemployment insurance and the CARES Act money ($600/week). Since the extra money got reduced to $200/week, it makes sense that more businesses have started to resume activity. 

This week I ordered some UberEats and the driver had just joined in August. He seemed like a driven young man, sent me regular updates on the progress of my order, and even thanked me for the tip. He was on the ball, so that's good. 

Hopefully, with fall and allergy season upon us, people will continue to be defensive in their behavior. I fear the worse, if we do not manage our behavior.

Version 2.117

I am stressed out again and I feel my back muscles so tight that they compress my skeleton. Of course, massages are not advisable during a pandemic, so I just scheduled a hair appointment for tomorrow. And I researched hotels by the beach that allow pets. The one I really would like to book only allows service animals and, I suppose, I could cheat and claim that Julian is for emotional support, considering how anxious I get when I'm not around him, but I am not that kind of person. Plus, it appears that the PetSmart hotel is open and Julian really likes staying there.

My first batch of books arrived today. I call it the first because I ordered the same books twice. On July 4, I placed an order with Bertrand online for two books: "O Resto do que Ficou" by Hugo Santos and the correspondence of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen and Jorge de Sena. Since the books did not arrive within a month and CTT could not locate them, I went to Wook and bought them again. I know that it sounds insane to buy the same thing twice, but I was doing and experiment and you can only be confident in your results through repetition. 

The Bertrand order made it across the ocean in five weeks, although the normal amount of time is supposed to be 10 days. Funny enough, the tracking number indicates that it arrived at JFK airport on August 26, so it crossed the U.S. in less than 48 hours. I surmise that my package was vacationing in Lisbon from July 17 (the books had to be ordered from the publisher, which took over a week) to August 26.

I don't know if that's because Portugal was isolated, so very few flights were happening or if CTT workers just did not give priority to this package. But that's why I bought it twice: so that I could have two outcomes to compare. Plus LA-C also sent me the Alexandra Abranches book, so I have another one to add to my experiment.

After work today, I read Hugo Santos' whole book. It is short, an inner dialogue between the author and his alter ego, which is, in essence, a transcription of his thoughts. It's easy to relate to, since I also have a running inner dialogue. 

-- Os dias...
-- Uma eternidade.
-- O tempo é elástico. Tanto mais elástico quanto mais se detesta a vida.
-- Elástico, elástico...
-- É rápido quando a amamos.

~ "O Resto do que Ficou" de Hugo Santos

It feels good to alternate long and shorter books. Just yesterday I was watching Paulo Roberto Farias' Instagram stories and he had a video of a Brazilian author saying how much he loved short books, the kind with which you can lock yourself in a bedroom and finish it in one sitting. The kind that will knock yourself out in the end. 

Version 2.116

Today was mostly cloudy and, late afternoon, we received rainfall from the outer bands of Laura. If we get more rain, it will likely be during the night. We are under a tornado watch until 11 PM, but I don't think that is very likely. Flash floods make sense, I suppose. The storm moved very quickly inland, but its massive size means that Louisiana is still getting rainfall as it rotates.

I spent my day as usual, walking Julian and working. On our morning walk I was pleasantly surprised to see my favorite trash man. He is always in such a great mood, greets me, and always finds the time to have a short conversation. He and I both have French bulldogs, so we always talk about that. The last time we spoke, I recommended the limited ingredient diet food that Julian eats and, today, he let me know that he was very pleased with how his Frenchie had responded to the food.

The last time I had seen the trash guys out, he had not been working, so I had assumed the worse, that maybe he was ill or had been laid off. I was very happy to see him out today. The funny thing is that we always talk like we're old friends, but we don't even know each other's name. I never remember to introduce myself or ask his name, maybe because that is not something one would do to a friend. I need to make a mental note to do it.

Maybe I need to get out more and make some friends, although this is not the most appropriate time to do it, but our trash man is the one black person with whom I speak more regularly, as in having a conversation about a common interest, in this case our dogs. I have quite a few black neighbors and Memphis itself if two-thirds black, but I don't have any real black friends here outside of work. The neighbors keep a lot to themselves. Of course, now with the pandemic and working from home, I don't speak with as many coworkers as I did when I worked in the office.

Truthfully, I must say that I am probably at that stage in life where I try to avoid making new friends, just because I know so many people already and it's hard to keep up with everyone. Plus, now with social media, one gets to spend more time with friends online and hardly feels the need to go out and find new real flesh and blood friends.

Version 2.115

Hurricane Laura will make landfall in a few hours, along the coast of Texas and Louisiana. It is 7 mph away of becoming a category 5, but that small difference hardly matters. Hopefully, it will move quickly and not drop too much rain, but the storm is so massive that the weather service has warned that the surge can go inland for up to 30 or 40 miles. There will be quite a bit of flooding on that account alone. 

The usual official death toll for a Trump storm is about 60-70 people, so that is what I am expecting, but it will be a while until we know the truth. Regardless, the President is not at blame for anything that might happen. Plus, the pandemic has caused upwards of 180,000 deaths in the U.S. and nothing sticks to the man.

About the same is going on in my other country. The Prime Minister is aware that retirement homes do not have adequate medical assistance, but it's not his fault that that is going on. It's not like most doctors work for the public health system and are paid with tax dollars. Of course, one could also question the role of Portuguese media, unless they are trying to tell us that there is censorship in the carnation democracy. 

It's bad enough that folks died in a retirement home that had gone to hell in a hand basket, but now another piece of news showed up to corroborate the point of view of the Prime Minister. The purpose of the media is not to ask the government why medical care is being denied or why the directors of these facilities do not file complaints as soon as it happens and find a way of ensuring that people are properly cared for. 

No, it appears that the role of the media is to say that yes, the Prime Minister knows about the problems that his constituents face, but that is all that is asked of him.  It is of no consequence that he feels no responsibility to govern in a way that mitigates said problems. Nor does he, as the person in charge of the executive, feel responsible for anything that happens under his watch. 

What exactly is António Costa good for besides eating bolas de Berlim? 

Version 2.114

The Museum of Modern Art in NYC re-opens tomorrow, August 27. That's where my favorite painting lives usually, but every once in a while it is on loan, like it was shortly after I moved to Houston and I was able to see it several times. In hindsight, I should have visited it more often. 

On the last day it was in Houston, in 2014, I stood before it to ask when and if we would meet again. Maybe I am silly, but it did not occur to me to see where its permanent home was. I am sure I read it in the description at some point, but it was hard to pay attention to other things, so I did not retain that information.

But in 2018, I walked into a gallery at the MoMA and there it was. Everyone was standing in front of Starry Night, but no-one was standing in front of my painting. The other patrons only gathered around it after I stood in front of it crying, so for a little bit it was just the two of us, like it had been in Houston. Except we were saying hello again, like two old lovers, rather than having to wave goodbye. 

Version 2.113

The best news today was that Jerry Falwell, Jr., the son of the evangelical preacher and Trump supporter, used to watch his wife have sex with a man about half her age. Obviously, this is really positive for women because the usual arrangement is that a man cheats and then his wife gets to make the public appearance to rehabilitate his image. 

At least with this scandal, the husband is the one trying to explain that his wife and the young man had an affair and the young man was trying to blackmail them. Falwell, a.k.a. the husband, does not admit to watching the other two have sex, but we cannot have it all,  can we? Plus the only thing we should care about is that the wife got laid and presumably had orgasms. I bet she moaned like a hot kettle on the stove, so that the husband could get off on it. It's absolutely delightful!

By coincidence, yesterday, I watched an interview with Esther Perel on YouTube--I actually ended up buying her book "Mating in Captivity," as it seemed a quite appropriate title for our times. Plus, I can read current affairs a lot faster than fiction, so it's good for my ego. 

Anyway, in the video, she theorized that we went from absolute monogamy in which we mated with a single person for life, to serial monogamy in which we have relationships with several people over our lifetime, but one at a time; the next frontier, it seems, is knocking down monogamy and just finding a different arrangement with multiple partners simultaneously.

Change is inevitable. 

Version 2.112

Marco is a hurricane. Houston is getting ready, I have been receiving notifications from local authorities, since I am still on their mailing list. Yesterday, on my weekly conversation with my Houston girlfriends, I asked them if they were ready for the storms. One of them, who had stayed with me during Harvey, said that she couldn't even escape to my house, since I had moved. I told her that she could, she just needed to drive to Memphis ahead of the storm. But maybe things will be OK, since Marco's landfall has supposedly moved further east, so Houston would get the dryer side. Then, they'll get Laura, so hopefully that storm will not be too bad.

I am concerned with the smaller towns, which may not have the resources to take care of everyone. I don't think the Federal government is working too well by now. FEMA is probably falling apart, but we've had enough storms for people to know that things are not working well. Plus, in the U.S. most people do not expect that the government will take care of them, especially now. I certainly don't. Most Americans take risk seriously because there are so many natural disasters.

Perhaps it is because of that that I feel safe here. I know that bad things will happen, but there is enough information for me to manage my risk, plus I try to be conservative with how I manage my money. I understand that the reason why I pay less in taxes is because more of the responsibility of managing some of the bad things has fallen on me -- that is the underlying social contract in the United States, but not everyone is like me. I also believe that there is a luck factor. Perhaps nothing bad enough has happened to me to knock me out, but that does not mean that it will not happen. 

When I think about Portugal, I have no idea how to manage risk. Jobs don't pay well and taxes are high, so you are limited as far as how much you can save for a rainy day. Plus, the assumption is that you don't really need to save as much, since taxes are higher because more of the burden of managing risk falls on public institutions. But when you see people dying in retirement facilities of preventable causes and nobody gets fired or new processes get implemented to prevent similar situations from repeating themselves, then how can you trust the system? At least in America, you know that there will be a lawsuit and some people will lose their jobs.

This week, I received an email on behalf of the Portuguese authorities incentivizing emigrants to invest in Portugal. The current state of affairs is not conducive to sinking money in a corrupt country: if the authorities do not feel the need to protect the life of the most vulnerable, then what assurance do I have that they will look after my investment interests? I cannot afford to make mistakes. I have no family to look after me when I am old, so I will need to save and invest adequately to ensure that I can pay someone to look after me, preferably someone who remembers that I need to drink water.

 

Version 2.111

I spent most of the day making bone broth and reading. A while back I purchased "The Forty Rules of Love" on impulse. I am very interested in Middle Eastern culture and this sounded promising because, even though it is fiction, it talks about Rumi and Sufism. Plus, the author, Elif Shafak, is a Turkish woman, which intrigued me. It turns out that this book made the BBC list of the 100 novels that shaped our world. I am one-third into the book and so far it had been easy to read.

Too often, when we think of the Middle East, we think of the dark clothes and lack of color, however, there is so much color in how the different cultures prepare food, decorate homes and in public buildings. The same thing happens with the Portuguese dictatorship period: in my mind it always seems dark, probably because of the black and white photos and film, and the black dress code adopted by women after their husbands passed. But of course it wasn't so, that's what I think every time I see the summer photos my Portuguese friends post on Instagram and Facebook: things are so colorful, the blue of the sky and sea, the light yellow of beach sand, the lush vegetation.

At the end of the day, I saw a video of a rescue in California: two firefighters were surrounded by flames and a helicopter went out to get them. It is remarkable how calm everyone was and in the end, as they are flying away, one of them says "Thank you for coming." As California burns, we are expecting two storms on the East Coast: Marco could become a hurricane by Monday and it will make landfall on Tuesday; Laura is expected to reach hurricane status on Tuesday and make landfall the following day. The effects of the two storms will overlap in some areas. We're supposed to have the most active hurricane season since 2005, thus we will be going into the election with hurricanes and tropical storms everywhere.

The rest of the year is going to be very bad...

 

Version 2.110

A week before I left Houston, I met a Russian woman, while going out with friends. I don't know why Eastern Europeans like me, but I seem to get along well with them. I take that back, I seem to get along with all sorts of people for no apparent reason, although I have been told that it is easy for others to be themselves around me, which I presume that says I am a rather passive person -- still, I am very opinionated and stubborn. Anyway, so I met this woman and she likes art very much, which is where her Venn diagram and mine intersect. 

We met one day to visit museums and, at her insistence, we went the Byzantine Fresco Chapel, which I don't recall knowing before that.  I have no idea how I did not know about it, since I visited the Menil so often, but when one speaks of chapel in Houston, it is usually in reference to the Rothko Chapel. It could be that I had read about it, but overlooked it. I am also quite strange about things. I don't like to pursue everything; instead, I prefer to leave it to serendipity and let the opportunities present themselves.

At the time, the Fabiola Project was at the Byzantine Fresco Chapel. It is a collection of paintings, crafts, and other objects all with almost the same image based on a lost 19th century painting by Jean-Jacques Henner, which depicts Saint Fabiola, a 4th century Roman saint. Each piece was done individually by people all over the world and at different times. 

The collection belongs to the artist Francis Alÿs, who started it almost 30 years ago, while living in Mexico. As his friends learned about it, they started to help him find other pieces, so by now it is over 450 objects large.

It is such a great pleasure to stand in front of it that I wanted to start my own Fabiola collection. Then, I thought it was silly, as it was not an original idea. It wasn't really me; it was just me trying to be someone else. Still, I did search Etsy for images, but purchased nothing. 

I am not a serious art collector. I only buy things with which I can create an emotional connection. I know this now because on my trip to Art Basel Miami, I met a gallerist who asked me if I was a collector or if I was interested in collecting. The question kind of took me by surprise, as I consider myself mostly curious about art, but not a serious connoisseur. 

Then, as I am also an economist, these types of issues force me to think of art objects through that lens: do I view an art object as a private good, such that I would derive pleasure from owning it and preventing others from doing so or do I view it as a public good, that should be accessible to others and that requires me to have an experience that is also a shared by others? I think the latter is closer to my heart; if fact, after that, I started to contribute monthly to the Brooks Museum, even though I was already a member. I also maintain memberships in several museums in the country.

So that was that. Then this week I realized that I had kind of inadvertently started an art collection of female nudes. The first one was given to me in 1998. It is a poster that a friend of mine brought from Belgium. He used to have it in his place and he and his roommate would give the wildest parties. When he left, he gave it to me and I recently had it framed. 

The second one was a small mixed media on paper that has drawings on both sides. One of the sides really pleases me and I thought it so unique that I bought it. Then came a drawing by Batya Dagan that I found online, followed by another drawing, this one by Jan Gosnell, that I bought on my last trip to Fayetteville, AR. And about two weeks ago, I found an unsigned female nude done in needlework that I bought completely on impulse. A while back, I also got a print of a nude by Teil Duncan.

Now, here's how subversive I am: I want to hang my collection of naked women in the dinning room. I can already hear my real estate agent asking me to take it down, if I ever sell this house. That prospect makes me so happy, even though I really don't want to move again.

  

Version 2.109

Today Joe Biden becomes the official Democratic Party candidate. I don’t think people are that excited about him, but the overall spirit is that President Trump has to go. Even the GOP members do not defend President Trump in public as much as they did before. There is a lot of water to flow under the bridge, still, however, this election will likely end up in court, much like the 2000 election did. It will be hard, but we shall prevail, seems the be the spirit.

Steve Bannon got arrested today, as NYC charged him with fraud. I may be mistaken, but my impression is that a lot of Trump associates will be dragged to court and even the Trump family will not escape. They gave Bush a pass, but they will not be this generous with Trump. Republicans cannot complain, though, as they did the same to Bill Clinton.

My neighbor who was in New Jersey working as a COVID nurse has returned. I have not had much of a chance to speak to her. I had thought about getting some balloons or something to celebrate her return, but I still have not gotten anything. I might do it over the weekend. She seemed happy to be back and I asked her if she had been OK and she said that it was mostly a miracle that she did not get infected — they were tested every week.

How Democracies Die

 “How do elected authoritarians shatter the democratic institutions that are supposed to constrain them? Some do it in one fell swoop. But more often the assault on democracy begins slowly. For many citizens, it may, at first, be imperceptible. After all, elections continue to be held. Opposition politicians still sit in congress. Independent newspapers still circulate. The erosion of democracy takes place piecemeal, often in baby steps. Each individual step seems minor—none appears to truly threaten democracy. Indeed, government moves to subvert democracy frequently enjoy a veneer of legality: They are approved by parliament or ruled constitutional by the supreme court. Many of them are adopted under the guise of pursuing some legitimate—even laudable—public objective, such as combating corruption, “cleaning up” elections, improving the quality of democracy, or enhancing national security.”

Excerpt From

How Democracies Die

Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt

Version 2.108

 I must be one of the most stubborn people on the face of the earth. I know it's not a very appreciated quality, but I just cannot help it, which is to say that I think my faults are the best thing about me--it's not arrogance, it is the truth. Anyway, I bought those darn Portuguese books again. This time I went with the Wook store, so we'll see how that goes. I think that if I had stayed in Portugal, I would have found a way of becoming a dictator because I am that obsessive. I would hope the Portuguese people would resist my authority, although they'd probably resist it because I'm a woman; men don't seem to have any problems getting away with authoritarian behavior.

This week my espresso machine broke, which was most unfortunate or maybe not. I had thought about replacing it a few months ago, but I figured it was bound to break. Nevertheless, my prior research leads me to a Breville with a burr mill included. The $700 model should be fine, but I read some reviews and not all was positive. So today I bought a dress instead, which cost almost half of the budget of the espresso machine. Perhaps I should just stick with tea and the occasional French press.

The S&P reached all time highs today. I confess that I was not expecting for such a quick rebound from the crash, but I suppose the fact that the U.S. has a crazy President kind of convinced the other branches of government and the Federal Reserve that acting swiftly was of the essence. The problem, of course, is that we will unlikely return to the way things were, so Main St. is bound to get pissed that it was left behind once again. They were upset last time and Wall St. took forever to recover.    

Version 2.107

The saddest thing about the Trump Presidency is the fact that people have become secondary -- and this assessment is flattery on my part. A few days ago, 100 miles per hour winds hit the middle of the country over a path of 700 miles, stronger than a category one hurricane, and leaving thousands of people without electricity and hardly anyone noticed. Yes, it was on the WashPost, but nobody paid attention because everyone is so freaked out with the prospect of four more years that all that is talked about is politics for the sake of politics.

Even hurricanes proper, people don't seem to notice: the deaths of hurricane Maria were logged at less than 70 for about a year and then, low and behold, we learned that over 3000 people had perished--how do you miss the death of 3000 people? Then the following year, the M hurricane struck again. I have not seen a final tally on hurricane Michael, but I suspect that once we switch administrations we may find the truth is a lot worse. But who cares if people die a few months or a few years before their time? Everyone has to die. It feels like the last 120 years have been so successful at keeping people alive that we don't value it anymore.

Anyway, on to a less morbid topic, but not totally chipper 'cause I've been told I ain't that kind of person: today I learned that CTT lost my two books, which I had purchased on Bertrand online -- the tracking had them stuck in Lisbon for over a month, so I sent a second email inquiring on their whereabouts to Bertrand and, to be on the safe side, an email to CTT also. Bertrand asked me again to wait longer -- they need to hire someone from Amazon to teach them how to work; CTT told me they could not locate the package, so they'd just issue a refund. It's like Frank Smith, the CEO of FedEx, said two years ago: the post office is going to disappear. 

What I don't get is why now. More tasks are automated, packages are tracked with computers, people are stuck at home with limited access to stores, there's online shopping, so I'd think regular mail would be able to take advantage of this crisis to show what a great service they could provide. Alas, people don't care about the quality of the service now. What if it had been something essential, like medicine or a medical device? Let's all just die already, it's only a matter of time. Might as well be good at something.