Last night was the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights. I saw a Washington Post article yesterday that talked about the “dark side of Hanukkah” but, just as Thanksgiving has a darker side, can’t we just focus on the positive for a minute?
When I was a kid, I learned about the holiday in school and immediately wanted to convert to Judaism. I mean, Christmas is one day. Hanukkah lasts eight nights! Eight nights of presents! What kid wouldn’t want that? I have since learned that it is hard to convert and I don’t have that kind of energy. A neighbor converted and she had to do a lot. Plus, I used to love bacon and still love shellfish. That’s kind of superficial but I am lazy and not at all religious. I used to go to s secular Buddhist temple in DC.
One thing I have noticed is how committed so many Jewish people are to helping others, preventing genocide and other mass atrocities and oppression. Jewish World Watch is very active in this space working to raise awareness of the plight of the Uyghurs and the Rohingya, among other projects. I think a lot of people only view how Muslims and Jews interact through the prism of Israel and the Arabs in the Middle East but it is more complicated than that. On World Holocaust Day, Jewish leaders in the UK took to the streets to protest China’s treatment of the Uyghurs. Wherever I look, it seems there are Jewish leaders speaking out for people who are being pressed or worse.
Maybe I am being simplistic but I heard a Jewish leader in New York City talk about how Hanukkah should be for everyone. That we should all be the light for each other. After so much darkness from the pandemic and all the hate that has reemerged in the world, can’t we use it now?
I never thought I would want cat foam on my coffee but now I can think of little else
Cat foam cappuccino, who knew such a thing existed? I didn’t but I am glad I learned about it because it kicked what I had been obsessed with out of my brain, if only for a few minutes. Last week, I learned about another product. Someone created a vibrator with Pete Davidson on it. It turns on when he is on TV, like when he is in a sketch on Saturday Night Live. When the iPhone was invented, no one knew they needed it but then no one could live without it. I have to wonder if one day we will say that about the Pete Davidson vibrator. I can’t see you but I can sense you are skeptical. Time will tell.
Now I am a Pete Davidson fan. The parody of Walking in Memphis — Walking in Staten is amazing. I keep trying to watch the King of Staten Island but I am working up to it.
Karma and travel
I have an Airbnb in my house and, for the most part, the people have been great. I just had a couple stay for five days and I think they had a good time in the place. They told me they liked it and asked for some things that I was able to get for them. Over the past 18 months, I have hosted people from all over the world. I have been thinking lately that when someone complains about my space or my house, it may be karma from when I was traveling all the time and may not have been the nicest person.
Why I hate Annie
Truth be told, I am not sure why I have always hated the musical Annie. Maybe because the original girl was a redhead and I am a redhead and was compared to her a lot as a child. I have no real reason but the story is kind of annoying. A rich guy, who may or may not have made his money as a war monger (Daddy “Warbucks?”), goes to an orphanage and is like, “Hey, I need an orphan for the holiday, which one can I have?” And they’re all, “Sure, take one!” That’s how orphanages work? It’s harder to adopt a cat.
NBC is showing Annie Live in a few days with Harry Connick, Jr. as the character, Oliver Warbucks (his real name, it’s an homage to Oliver Twist, which is the one part of the play that doesn’t make me want to rip out my own eyes). I am a fan of the singer/actor but with a bald cap on, he looks like a pedophile, which means he really shouldn’t be able to borrow an orphan.
PS. When Warbucks learns Annie has never visited Manhattan, he takes her there but they walk 45 blocks. WTF?
This cat knows what’s what. http://www.alysonchadwick.com/pussycats-know-whats-what/
I drink too much Diet Coke. I have had friends tell me that it is bad for me to drink it at all but the chances of me giving it up hover around “never gonna happen” and “when monkeys fly out of my butt.” I am cutting down because I think it is causing panic attacks.
Of course, they also could be caused by other stresses. Like the rest of my life.
Stop selling #GenocideGems
In less than two weeks I have a protest scheduled in New York City. (New York City! Where Pace salsa is made!) Working with No Business with Genocide, the International Campaign for the Rohingya and the Campaign for a New Myanmar, I hope to meet up with activists in front of the US Mission to the UN and march to Harry Winston’s HQ and flagship store where I will present them with the petitions we have collected telling them to stop selling #GenocideGems that fund the brutal Myanmar military. The Associated Press contacted me and they want to come and get some good video visuals to include in a piece they are doing on oil and gas sanctions on Burma. So now I have to make sure there are some decent visuals for them to get. Now, truth be told, a group of people with the signs I am having made up with the UN as a backdrop would be a pretty sweet visual but I need there to be those people to hold the signs.
No, I am not nervous at all. That’s why when after a night where I got a whole 41 minutes of sleep, I took a nap and woke up to Ari Melber on TV and thought Fuck, Ari Melber is on TV. We are all going to die. Never mind that I have nothing against Melber, I actually like him, but that made my heart rate climb to some speed approaching that of light and I thought I was going to die. Eventually, I changed the channel and did some breathing exercises and no one died (at least not at Chateau Squirrel).
I am still working to #FreePaulRusesabagina
That’s not my only event. On January 11, 2022, I am hosting (along with Two Joke Minimum and the New York Comedy Club, No Business with Genocide and the Paul Rusesabagina Hotel Rwanda Foundation) another comedy fundraiser for Paul. I desperately want this to go well. My stress level here is high because I just feel like I need to do more for him and his family and don’t think I am doing enough. Not nearly enough.
To make matters on that front more stressful, I fell asleep watching the King of Queens and woke up to Hotel Rwanda. At first, I thought I was having some kind of auditory hallucination as I think about Rwanda a lot. I thought is this so much in my head that the movie just plays randomly in my brain? Then I turned over and it was on the TV and I was relieved that I had preserved at least a tiny amount of sanity.
I am going to start taking some of my more personal posts over to Medium. Wil Wheaton inspired me to do that. I just read this piece. He talks about his childhood and some of the gaslighting he was subjected to. When I read this, I thought Wow! I can totally relate to that.
So, I am going to put some new stuff up today and tomorrow. I may even post images of my two pussycats.
But, I have some news for this place. I have A LOT of comedy coming up. If you want to see me, you can check out the calendar but here are some of the places I will be:
October 17, 8:00 PM: Contest at Paradise Studios. 20 Broadway, Massapeaqua
October 20, 8:00 PM: Broadway Comedy Club, 318 W. 53rd, NYC
October 22, 8:00 PM: Suffolk’s Best Comic FINALS, Clyde’s (was Barton’s Place), 25A Mt. Sinai
November 6, 8:00 PM: St. Marks Comedy Club, 12 St. Marks Place, NYC
I am also adding videos to my YouTube channel. Have you subscribed yet? Please do!
Non-pussycat news to share
Ok, I have to admit that I have recently allowed myself to be pulled into a black hole on Twitter. I wrote about this. It started when someone I know told me their parents were not vaccinated but would use #ivermectin if they got Covid. Not knowing anything about it, I was all, “Ok.”
The next day, I heard it mentioned on TV and asked, “Is ivermectin the drug you were talking about?” It was and I still didn’t have an opinion but they sent me a link to a Joe Rogan podcast and I thought, Right, I am going to take medical advice from the guy who makes people eat sheep uteruses. Not gonna happen.
The narrative this person pushes is that ivermectin is safe (it is) and effective at treating Covid (it isn’t). The reason the FDA, CDC, NIH, and WHO aren’t on board is that big pharma can’t make money off of it and are pressuring those organizations to suppress anything that counters their current stance. While I think there needs to be more transparency — especially at the FDA as they regulate pharma and receive at least 45% of their funding from the industry — in all of these organizations and I also think big pharma is evil — I don’t know if that means they are suppressing data that a cheap drug can be used here. Moreover, I know some doctors are raking in the $$$ by charging patients for consultations for the drug and not billing insurance.
Pussycats don’t tweet about ivermectin
So, I have been critical on Twitter. I have also seen a lot of misinformation. Because I need to get this out of my system before I puke, this is what I have seen and what my responses are:
The Indian province of Uttar Pradesh has eradicated Covid with ivermectin. No. Just NO. If this was true, the Indian government would not have removed it fron their Covid protocol.
Hundreds of members of Congress and theis staff and families have taken ivermectin. (This also has been reported as all of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House.) This was something Dr. Pierre Kory wrote about but he cited no sources. Given how rabid the GOP is, I can assure you, if they took this, they would be shouting it from the rooftops. President Biden has received all three vaccine shots on camera. None of the people I know in government have taken ivermectin.
InfoWars, Breitbart, Project Veritas, and Judicial Watch are credible news sources. NO THEY ARE NOT!!! I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. I have worked for organizations targeted by Breitbart/Project Veritas. InfoWars founder just lost a suit from the parents of the Sandy Hook victime. Alex Jones had been waging a campaign that the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut was a “false flag” and he has been harassing them for years. Is this the person you want to trust for health information (I know Joe Rogan likes him but Rogan told the BBC, “”I’m not a doctor. I’m not a respected source of information, even for me.”). When Andrew Breitbart started his website, he wanted it to be a “Huffington Post for the right.” Now, I see a lot of pro-ivermectin peeps complain about propaganda and them spew their own. Why is right-wing propaganda trustworthy when what you think is official propaganda?
#FollowTheMoney. The people who think this is a wonder drug often use this hashtag. See, big pharma won’t make money from ivermectin but they rake it in from vaccines! #followthemoney. I wish they would #followthemoney. Then they might see how doctors, in the U.S. anyway are making a small fortune off this medication.
This video is from a protest in France against vaccine mandates. I saw a tweet about a video that was supposed to be from October 2021 but was really from 2018. I have no doubt that the French would be willing to protest mandates, they protest just about anything. You can see my response here. What I don’t get is these complain about misinformation from people who don’t trust ivermectin for covid but then post their own. How does this made them MORE credible?
Regulatory agencies like the FDA and the CDC are funded by big pharma and are biased as a result. First, the CDC is “NOT a regulatory agency.” The lion’s share of its funding from the federal government and the gifts they receive are pubished. This is the report from 2020. It is true that the FDA gets too much funding from outside sources but there is a difference between corralation and causation. This is one area where the #IVMworks peeps have a point but it isn’t as simple as they like to think.
This pussycat won’t take ivermectin but it isn’t all horse paste
One thing, I am guilty of this because I make jokes about it in my act, that people who are skeptical of the antiparasitic medication get wrong is that it is NOT only for animals. In 2015, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was split. One half went to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura “for their discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused by roundworm parasites.” This was for their formulation of ivermectin for humans. It is TRUE that this is a safe medication that has been used to treat millions (if not billions) of people worldwide. I have never said it isn’t safe, I am not convinced it works against covid.
There’s a song I used to listen to a lot and that I related to differently than I relate to it today. It’s Billy Joel’s, Angry Young Man. In those days, I related to this part:
There’s a place in the world for the angry young man With his working-class ties and his radical plans He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl He’s always at home with his back to the wall And he’s proud of his scars and the battles he’s lost And he struggles and bleeds as he hangs on the cross And he likes to be known as the angry young man
After decades of working in politics, a lot of my views have changed. I remain the same (or close to it) ideologically as I was back then but I have softened in a lot of ways. I have never had a political litmus test for friends but I have learned (the hard way) that some of my friends do.
Today, these lyrics resonate more:
I believe I’ve passed the age of consciousness and righteous rage I found that just surviving was a noble fight I once believed in causes too I had my pointless point of view And life went on no matter who was wrong or right
I still work and fight for the causes I care about (genocide prevention, voting rights, healthcare reform, gun control, …) but I also see the value of having friends who both share my views and hearing from people who disagree with me. I don’t want to live in an echo chamber.
You don’t have to be angry to make a difference. Even if it is a small difference.
To recap my career, I have spent most of it working on campaigns, for the government, nonprofits, or the United Nations. When I could make a difference, I took the opportunity. A great example is my proudest moment.
In 2007, I worked for Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA) and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was up for reauthorization. I opposed that. The Legislative Director in the office thought our boss should vote for it because it would look bad politically. As he was a former Admiral in the Navy, I thought he could do the right thing and not have an issue. I texted him the Benjamin Franklin quote (or a version of it), “Those who would give up liberty for security deserve neither.” When he said it on the House floor, I felt like I made a difference. He voted no but it still passed. When I left work that day, after 18 hours, I felt I had fought the good fight.
Example two: When I was an intern in the White House in 1993, I was in the correspondence department and they were sending out letters from Hillary Rodham Clinton from “Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton.” I was horrified. I was actually assigned to the Media Affairs Office but was down there because there were more computers.
The person who got me into the Media Affairs Office told me to “keep quiet.” I didn’t listen. I asked if the First Lady’s Office had been notified and it hadn’t been. That’s just the way they always did things. I cannot say for sure that this is why this policy changed but I never saw that again. This may not seem like a life changing difference I may have made but I think it means the way women are thought of at the White House is a little different because of me.
These aren’t monumental changes that I caused. Nor will they win me any prizes or awards. They are just examples of when I stood up when I was told to sit down.
I am proud of the work I did as an advance person. The letters and cards I got after events I helped put on thanking me for my hard work make me think that maybe people stayed active in politics after I left. The people with whom I remain friends after I left the housing nonprofit make me think that I made their lives a little better.
Today, I support President Joe Biden and am grateful he beat Trump. As a progressive, my patience is not endless but he did say he needed a year to fulfil his promises. I will give him that. I am heartened by the Squad members who are fighting the centrists to get that $3.5 trillion bill passed. If they back down or Biden does not come through with most of his promises by January 20, 2022, I will have a different view. Nothing happens in Washington quickly.
Recently, a friend whom I have known decades has stopped talking to me over politics. This person and I are actually on the same side of a lot off issues but they think I am a shill for the establishment. That makes me sad because I hope I am not that. It also makes me sad because we had reconnected a few years ago and have very similar senses of humor. I can also relate to the anger this person feels at the government right now. I was in that boat back in the 90s. That’s when I wrote this. It’s all about how disappointed I was in the Clinton Administration and Congress for doing nothing in Bosnia and health care reform failed (and we had a bigger majority on both sides of Capitol Hill). Back then I was desperately hoping the Democrats would “grow a pair.”
I am still waiting for that to happen but I refuse to let the “perfect be the enemy of the good.”
The title of this post is a play on the title of a movie about Gloria Vandebilt’s childhood. It was called, “Little Gloria, happy at last.”
Come See Me Make People Laugh at Room 52!
Come see me perform comedy at a legendary jazz club above a Chinese restaurant! What could be more fun than that? Nothing!
212 East 52nd Street, NYC!
The full lineup:
Jon Alvarez
Emmy Buttrick
Reggie The Germ
Alexx Starr
Daniel May
Sunshine Jones
Alyson Chadwick
Shauntae Anderson
Doors open at 6:30 pm; Show at 7:00 pm. Tickets $20. No food/drink minimum.
Get your tickets here. Please put my name in the comments!
