Stacy Horn

I’ve made this joke many times, that I’ve wanted to title my books We Will Never Learn and I Have Proof, but I’ve never wanted to more than with this one. I’m giving my book a final read before sending it to my editor, where it will go on to copy editing. It’s a chance to step back, and reflect on what the book says as a whole.

This book covers so many areas: criminal justice, mental health, poverty, health care, and I’ve had the opportunity to learn how we, as a society, have handled very difficult problems in these fields for the past 150 years or so.

But what I’ve learned, as so many historians learn over and over, is that we keep doing the same terrible things over and over. It’s most striking in the area of criminal justice, where I read about the same appalling practices that John Oliver covers in his show Last Week Tonight.

I’ve probably posted these sentiments before, I’m sure I’ve written posts with this title before, but I’m just really feeling it now. I’m going over what I’ve written about prisons full of teenagers and poor people, and the bail system, and it’s just appalling. What upsets me most is, I don’t know how to turn it around. I have no suggestions. Well, no realistic suggestions, but I’ll post about that when my book comes out.

I’ve certainly made my book sound appealing, haven’t I??

Tomorrow is my birthday, and this is a present from a friend!

I wrote about swimming for Senior Planet. It has some research about the science of swimming and aging, and bottomline, you really should consider swimming.

Of course, since I’ve taken the job where the cute little fluff ball kittens are kicking my ass I’ve been swimming exactly twice. But that’s because I’ve needed my evenings and days off to edit and fact-check my Blackwell’s Island book. Once that’s done I can swim again, but twice a week, instead of three to five times a week as I did before. (I need some time to do nothing!)

A picture from the party New York City Parks and Recreation throws at the end of the summer for the people who participate in the lap swim contest.

Big day at the Nursery! We were told Bebe Neuwirth was coming for a tour. They picked a section and a person to take her to, to show bottle feeding, and it wasn’t my section, alas. I was disappointed. I’m a big fan and I especially love her as Nadine Tolliver (the chief of staff) in Madame Secretary. You win some, you lose some, I thought.

But they had to walk by my section on the way to the other one, and I was bottle feeding a very, very cute kitten at the time, so they stopped and watched for a few minutes and took pictures!! It was great. Bebe Neuwirth is well known for her support for animal rescue, and finding homes for shelter animals.

I hope I get to see the pictures they took while she was here!

Bleeck, looking for a spot on my lap beside Finn.

I took a quick, test shot with my iphone yesterday (I have the 5C.) It isn’t awful. A picture of Finney didn’t come out as well. The iphone doesn’t perform as satisfactorily with movement, it seems. But I’ll try a bunch of shots today when I go out. If I get out. I still have a lot of facts to check. A massive amount really.

It would be so great if there was an Academy Awards for books, with categories like “Best Research,” and “Most Research.” I’d be in the running for Most! I have to check a fact, and often more than one, in practically every sentence. Sob. The research was so much fun to do at the time. I haven’t had to change much, but every once in a while I come across a cool bit of information and I can’t find my note on the source. That just kills me. I can’t use it if I can’t back if up. I must have made thousands of notes, so it’s not surprising if some are missing (or misplaced, or accidentally deleted) but, damnit!

First my tv broke, then I broke my computer, and yesterday I dropped and broke my beloved camera! Canon no longer services it and doesn’t make parts for it. All of these things were very old, but still. My iphone doesn’t take pictures half as great as my Canon did. It’s a sad day, except it’s my day off and I have a cat on me.

Speaking of. One of the last pictures I took with my G9. A cat pile. Something that happens a little more often now that I am home a lot less these days, due to my wonderful ASPCA job.