What is a Hand Basket?

and other definitions

I awoke this morning with the phrase of going to hell etc. roiling around in my brain. So of course I had to look it up. Well, aside from some rather salacious newer meanings from Urban Dictionary, the old-fashioned term purportedly derives from the French Revolution when the unfortunate sinners who were beheaded by the guillotine were neatly disposed of by catching the severed head in a hand basket. The sinners being destined for the Netherworld of course. So the term “going to Hell in a hand basket” was born. And with that, I leave you to decide whether it’s an apt description of our modern dilemma.

Meanwhile, one other slight hiccup of a financial nature. First of all, I didn’t know that Musk was a founder of PayPal along with his buddy Thiel et al., and now I have a concrete reason not to use the service anymore. I suspect it is my digital ignorance which brought me this annoyance, but honestly, I’m trying. Throughout the election we were all inundated with requests for money, and I had to say no most of the time because literally every penny is accounted for. But when I had an extra assignment or two, I felt better about contributing, especially when the ask was only a few dollars. So I have been sending $3 or even $1 contributions to my favorite candidates or causes. I used PayPal because I felt it kept my financial information hidden. To cut to the chase, it came to light that these amounts had been provided through PayPal Credit and I had not been making the payments. So all of a sudden I was late and owed $28! As the kids would say, OMG. I’ve been a stickler for financial solvency ever since my now-dead husband left me with a credit card mess that took me five years of $35-a-week payments to clear up. That is finally completed and I await the Satisfaction of Judgment to be filed in Court. But now I have a credit ding from this minuscule debt which I honestly thought had been coming out of my checking account as all PayPal uses are programmed to do. Long story short, I was able on the telephone to talk with a real live person and get the stupid $28 bill taken care of, which she confirmed came directly to her from my checking. Now I want to pursue PayPal and get the late payment referral to my credit score removed. But should I bother? Doesn’t it all seem to be too much these days?

And finally on to the lovely things. Someone here on Substack used the famous Hudson River School artist Frederic Church’s painting of Niagara Falls as the header for their entry, and it took me down memory lane with Mummy and her husband Jack, an artist. We used to visit Olana in Hudson, New York, the castle high above the Hudson River which was the home of Frederic Church. Jack and my sister shared an artistic sense while Mum and I were more literary, but we all enjoyed that visit and the breathtaking views from the grounds. As I admired the painting earlier this week, I had to refresh my knowledge of the artist. In doing so, I discovered that Olana very recently celebrated the opening of a large exhibit facility on the lower acreage of the grounds. Jack would have been thrilled to visit and contemplate all the amazing artworks and history available, while Mum and I would probably get restless and hang about outdoors or in a coffee shop or gift store (I didn’t get all the details of what’s available but I’d love to make a visit to see for myself). But the reason I’m excited this morning is to tell you about the one feature which seems particularly relevant with the latest tempest in a teacup—GENDER NEUTRAL RESTROOMS! TA DA . . .

RESIST ALWAYS

TTFN