In the New Yorker...

[serious crayons]

My late uncle Sam had a large cattle ranch in Iowa and sold cattle to LBJ.

"Folks came out of the cemeteries to vote the day he got elected!" Sam used to roar, laughing, implying of course fraudulent election practices.

Sam was kind of a character. Also, I believe, a Republican.

[Front-Ranger]

My late uncle Sam had a large cattle ranch in Iowa and sold cattle to LBJ.

"Folks came out of the cemeteries to vote the day he got elected!" Sam used to roar, laughing, implying of course fraudulent election practices.

Sam was kind of a character. Also, I believe, a Republican.

An Iowan sells cattle to a Texan? Seems like it would be the other way 'round! I'm just now learning about some of my ancestors in Iowa and there may be a trip in my future to that place.

[serious crayons]

An Iowan sells cattle to a Texan? Seems like it would be the other way 'round! I'm just now learning about some of my ancestors in Iowa and there may be a trip in my future to that place.

I'll meet you there! My folks was Iowan, along with many other ancestors.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Anybody want to try Nashville hot chicken (Feb. 4)?

[Front-Ranger]

Anybody want to try Nashville hot chicken (Feb. 4)?

Just reading about it was painful! My boyfriend R. loves hot chicken and waffles, even worse than just hot chicken, because you slather the waffles with butter, top with the hot chicken, and pour maple syrup over everything!!

I also read the article about the young Dutch man, Boyan Slat, who is proposing to clean up the ocean's plastic with a plastic horseshoe-shaped boom named Wilson. He's getting a lot of criticism but methinks the criticism is mostly jealousy from those with more reasonable ideas and more experience who haven't been able to draw the interest and funding that Slat has. I myself felt a growing resentment/sigh of resignation as I read his many quotable sayings that echoed those of Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. Why do people listen so intently to what comes out of a 22-year-old's mouth and so quickly dismiss what a 82-year-old says? Still, I wish him well and am cheering for him as so many people are.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Just reading about it was painful! My boyfriend R. loves hot chicken and waffles, even worse than just hot chicken, because you slather the waffles with butter, top with the hot chicken, and pour maple syrup over everything!!

Chicken and waffles is a kind of Pennsylvania Dutch thing, too, but never like that, with butter and syrup. Around here it was something you did with leftover chicken and chicken gravy. You put the chicken and gravy over the waffles and ate it that way. This wasn't a breakfast food. It was something you ate for Sunday "supper."

[serious crayons]

My boyfriend R. loves hot chicken and waffles, even worse than just hot chicken, because you slather the waffles with butter, top with the hot chicken, and pour maple syrup over everything!!

In the South, it's fried chicken in a biscuit. That's not usually something I'd crave for breakfast, but I ate it once while waiting for a plane in Atlanta. It was pretty good, of course. Still, not quite breakfast-y in my book.

At least it didn't have maple syrup, though! 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I am finding "Unreliable Narrator" (Feb. 11) to be a ripping good read. It reads like a fine mystery story.

[Front-Ranger]

I am finding "Unreliable Narrator" (Feb. 11) to be a ripping good read. It reads like a fine mystery story.

Yes, that was a good read. One wonders if the author has some kind of vendetta against his subject. But, on looking at his biography, I see that he specializes in profiles of complicated people.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I've been meaning to write that I read Jeffrey Toobin's piece in the Feb. 18 & 25 on Roger Stone and Jerome Corsi, and it left me feeling profoundly hopeless.

As an American I am feeling profoundly hopeless because if Corsi's Alt-right political pornographies are best sellers, then there really is no hope for this nation.