This and that

[nightdog_barks]

1) Was up until 3 in the morning because I HAD to finish Hideo Yokoyama's Six Four. You guys, I loved this book. Like I said before, it takes a while to get going, but once it did, I was hooked. This is a book about cops and missing kids, how to be a parent and how to conduct yourself with honor, the role of a free press in a modern society and what to do when nothing is as it seems. Potential readers beware that this is a LONG novel -- my hardback copy is something like 566 pages. A LOT happens, and A LOT doesn't happen, and you're in the POV of one character the whole time, and sometimes, you know what? HE'S confused as to WTF IS GOING ON. All this led to a twist ending that I genuinely never saw coming and which was the sort of surprise that actually made me think "Oh my god WHAT?" This was just such a great read for me; I can't recommend it enough.

2) Made (another) donation to the ACLU this morning. :-P

3) There was a woman on our local Next Door site who called CNN "the Communist News Network." She wasn't joking. And this was before the woman who said her husband was a Vietnam War vet who respected the flag so much that he'd "corrected" people he saw who were flying Old Glory upside-down, and the guy over the weekend who would not accept that "G-d" was a spelling some folks adhered to. There are some scary folks out there, chiclets. :-(

Comments

[srsly_yes]

Speaking of scary, may I add what I witnessed yesterday? I was about to cross the middle of a small two lane street to get to a movie theater, a common practice in that location, when I spotted a car coming. I waited. On the opposite side two young women strolled across, ignoring the car, making the driver halt. He finally proceeded forward but stopped again, sticking his head out of the window and shouting about their jaywalking and rude behavior. One of the women pivoted around with the ugliest expression on her face, assumed a crouching position with her camera as if it were a gun, and yelled that she was taking a picture of him and his license plate, and posting it online. What the hell is happening to people?

[nightdog_barks]

They feel emboldened to act like assholes because of all the assholes at the top whom they see EVERY DAY acting like assholes.

At least, that's one take on it. :D

But ... I mean, seriously. I think some people act terribly because the Terrible People are in charge and look, nothing's happened to them. Sigh.

[srsly_yes]

Agreed.

[silverjackal]

Your point 3) makes me very uncomfortable and I don't have to live there. :( I'm glad your book was engrossing, though. How did it mesh with your understanding of Japanese culture?

[nightdog_barks]

Heh, to be fair, I think the vast majority of people on our local Next Door are sane folks. It's just that sometimes, in the middle of an otherwise perfectly innocuous post, SOMEONE will pop up who is all BLABBLE GLABBLE WHARRGARBLE GOD FLAG JESUS, and it is ... striking. O_o

The book meshed very well, in that it reminded me with complete and full force how utterly foreign it felt to move to Japan in 2002. *g* I thought the author, Hideo Yokoyama, did a great job of simply presenting the life, and you as the reader either go with it or you bounce off it (and most likely don't finish the book). I went with it, because it makes me feel good to ... see outside my own skin, as it were. It's good to know that one's way isn't the only way. I wish more people (especially Americans) understood that.

[silverjackal]

Some cultures are also very divergent in their viewpoints. I'm fairly cognisant of that, having grown up in a couple of countries, and amidst a diversity of ethnicities and religions, and yet still it does not hurt to be reminded. It is amusing, but the general Finnish world view is one I have trouble understanding. I think I have told this tale before, but it is my best example: when I was hiking the Inca trail I the group I was with was overwhelmingly British except for myself and a Finnish couple. I had no trouble understanding the British, or they me. Everyone understood when something was a joke, or implied, etc. The Finns? Not so. They thought we were joking when we were serious, and the other way about. They were nice people, and yet there was no sympatico, as it were. They must have felt as if they'd been flung among aliens themselves -- assuming they reflected on it, which they might not have. I am not sure. I could more readily make out the intentions of a older gentleman I encountered once who only spoke an East Asian language* than I could follow the thought processes of that couple. We had to speak to each other very clearly, and make no assumptions, in order to ensure that communication really occurred, for all their English (and their German) was excellent so we were completely mutually intelligible.

*I bitterly regretted not being able to understand the man better. It happened here. I was walking Cyrus in the green, and it was in his early days when he still had Very Decided Opinions about anyone coming near, particularly a) a strange man and b) a person who was not white. By that you can take it that he was attempting to lunge (I held him in a stand against my side), and giving a full bore "KEEP AWAY" GSD reactive roar. Anyone would be well advised to avoid a dog acting in such a fashion, because while I was confident he would not actually bite, that was because I knew the dog intimately. He came off as dangerously aggressive. What did this man do? Far from avoiding us, he came right up to me, smiling, while I apologised for the dog's antics. He pointed to the dog, completely unphased by Cyrus' continued bellowing, and proceeded to speak to me very earnestly, laughing and smiling and periodically gesturing to the dog before he nodded to me respectfully (which I returned) and took his leave. I tried every language I posses, and some bits that I have which are only fragmentary (Arabic) and we had no common tongue. And yet, and yet. I understood that at some point he served in the military and had direct experience with working (line) GSDs. He thought Cyrus was very fine (in spite of the fact that the dog was acting like an aggressive loon), and may even have been commenting on his eastern European breeding. He was glad to see us, because seeing such a dog gave him joy. (He looked back, smiling fondly at the dog as he departed.) All this I can infer, though we couldn't speak to each other (which I rue greatly, because I would have loved to learn more about his experiences as a dog handler). There is no way he wasn't a professional handler of some type, and likely one who did helper work (i.e. the person in the bite suit or sleeve who the dogs attack in training), because only someone with experience has such sang froid in the face of an animal who is threatening very loudly to dismember them. <-This, and yet I would mistake a serious comment from one of the Finnish couple as a jest, though they spoke in a language that we are both virtually fluent in. :D

[blackmare]

I am thinking I need to read this book.

And man, people.

We had a customer show up a couple weeks ago sporting a t-shirt which read, “I PROUDLY KNEEL FOR THE CROSS AND STAND FOR THE FLAG.”

I didn’t say anything, because professional. But I kept thinking, “Thanks for letting us all know you’re an ignorant racist, dude!”

Edited to add that this sort of shit is why I have negative interest in getting onto NextDoor.

[nightdog_barks]

People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.

AS A WISE MAN ONCE SAID. :D

See my reply to Jackal, though. Next Door can be an awesome site for people helping each other out and locating lost puppers and kitties and answering questions like hey what is this snake I found in my garage, but SOMETIMES ... the guy who habitually wears a colander on his head and thinks fluoridation is a Communist plot and chemtrails are real shows up. I don't know if there are really more of them or I'm just noticing them more. And there are folks who try and steer them straight on occasion, but honestly, there are people out there that you just Do Not Want to engage.

I think you (and Corgigirl!) would like this book! It is a Deep Dive, though, and one of those stories you have to consciously decide to stick with. And like I've been saying, omg it is long.