NO CAN DO

Published May 29, 2026 by Nan Mykel

tHIS WAS THE BEGINNING OF MY LAST, FINAL BLOG BUT GOING THROUGH MY FILES i CAME ACROSS AN OLD JOLLY cHRISTMAS LETTER i THOUGHT i’D SHARE FIRST:

“i LET MY PSYCHOLOGY LICENSE LAPSE OVER A YEAR AGO AND PROBABLY A GOOD THING, TOO, BECAUSE I’ve become somewhat sharp-tongued, judging from those who run (away) when they see me. (JUST JOKING, you dumbass!) Fortunately I’m only sending this card to friends and, I hope, Democrats!

Due to the state of the economy, my no longer being a psychologist and my disintegrating personality, I don’t want to spend more money on color photographs for this newsletter. Besides, I have so many children and grandchildren that I can’t display one without all the others…But there’s just one me, and i CAN BE IN BLACK AND WHITE! iN FACT, the effect is better that way, for me on the ventilator…

O it’s always “me, me, me!” I want to dialogue with you, you, you! We communicate (most) Christmases, and then it’s a year before a response comes or goes. I have to say that my own sporadic search for “the meaning of it all” is just that, sporadic. I now carry a martyred cow’s valve in my aorta, and for awhile there I was going to become the person I was “meant to be” before reality rubbed my nose in its face–or its nose in my face. (Closing with a cartoon I still don’t recall how to copy but of which I write was stolen from this week’s New Yorker pretty well describes my continuing dilemma as a backsliding religious atheist…)

I want to leave a little space for a personal salutation, so I’ll sign off for this year, still riding the joyous wave of Obama’s win. Happy holidays.*

*You really aren’t a dumb ass. I WAS joking. You’re a wonderful friend whom I love.

Not proofread

_______________

Better Than the Firing Squad

Published May 22, 2026 by Nan Mykel

I’m against murder, but the story in the ny times yesterday brought a laugh:

Breaking news: Tennessee calls off execution after staff can’t find prisoner’s vein

Whither the Blog

Published May 15, 2026 by Nan Mykel

Alright, I’ll tell you what happened…On September 15, 2025 I turned 90, and on February 23, 2026, my daughter found me in bed with no signs of life. When 911 arrived from a nearby hospital, they asked if I had any “do not resusitate instructions. They paused at the nearby hospital, where a friend said, “Hi, Nan,” to which I opened my eyers and said “Hi. Elaine.” So they took me on to Columbus for the next three and a half days. I do recall being aware that I might throw up, and thinking that this may be what dying feels like… I did lose some energy and got backaches, plus some short term memory loss, and got flummoxed by the Microsoft changes and have even more reluctance to salt my soul with politics.

While searching for material to share I stumbled across my Diary from Saturday, February 28, 1948: “I got the “pip!” I didn’t tell Mother until lunch, and she asked why I didn’t tell her right away. [I must have been a sassy kid because I said it was because she hadn’t asked me]. She told me to remember this day and I went and wrote it in this diary…

In another entry–On February 7th, a Saturday, I wrote in my diary “I wore stockings today for the first time! I also got a new pair of shoes–Robin Hoods. I walked all over [the Charlotte square], pulling the stockings up. (I didn’t have a garter belt)… Oh, I just remembered this was also the year that I turned myself in for chewing gum while on safety patrol duty. I received my just demerit…

A tad…from the past?

A Baby Died

He or she?  I want to know more.

Breast fed?  Hugged enough?

Oh oh oh, this was the world, for you.

Hello, goodbye.  Come again.

Nan

Here goes

Published April 9, 2026 by Nan Mykel

MAYBE…

I cannot watch starving dogs on tv nor bomb hits on small unsuspecting boats, nor the NEWS, which covers a lot. A chicken, I settle for No Kings demonstrations and sooth myself with memories…LIKE…Dagwood and Blondie; Mr. Dithers; Stella Dallas; Little Orphan Annie; The Shadow Knows; Lets Pretend; My Gal Sunday; Arthur Godfrey; The Lone Ranger; Dick Tracy; Kookla Fran and Ollie; Mr. Rogers; Captain Kangaroo; Daddy Warbucks; Young Doctor Malone; Tonto; Little Lulu; Peanuts; Mickey Mouse; Howdy Doody; Pollyanna; Don the Duck….

EXCEPTION: I took the advice of Keith’s musings of an old fart to read President Clinton;s speech on Concerns Over Defense. Please go to Keith’s site for directions (I keep getting lost). Highly recommended!

HELPING, NOT HURTING

Published January 12, 2026 by Nan Mykel
Tree, giving nutrients and life to “trunkless tree. They can share nutrients directly like this, but Usually it’s done through mycelium networks under the ground
byu/squarepusher6 inDamnthatsinteresting

MIX AND MATCH

Published December 24, 2025 by Nan Mykel

Oh poo. I thought folks would welcome a little escape from reality, but since Ben didn’t give the answers to me, I’ll do a quick guess and move on.: So as not to repeat myself and use up AI’s valuable time, I’ll just list my guesses here, and ignore formal titles.

  1. Oh come, all ye faithful
  2. Angels we have heard on high
  3. Silent Night
  4. Joy to the World
  5. Deck the Halls
  6. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
  7. It came upon the midnight clear
  8. The first noel
  9. Oh little town of Bethlehem
  10. Little drummer boy
  11. God rest you merry gentlemen
  12. Silent Night
  13. Frosty the Snowman
  14. Here comes Santa Claus
  15. White Christmas
  16. I hear the bells of Christmas Day
  17. Away in a manger
  18. We three kings of orient are
  19. Jingle Bells
  20. Away in a manger
  21. Go tell it on the mountain
  22. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year

________________

POEMETTE

SO MUCH TO LEARN
And to unlearn too.
Whatever at 90
can an old person do??
I wasted one life
and never was me.
A race against time
is waitimg for me.




.

  1. Go tell it on the mountain
  2. We wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year

If anyone catchess me in an error, or an additional answer, let me know, and Merry Christmas to you!

HOLIDAY PUZZLER

Published December 21, 2025 by Nan Mykel

I was still trying to thin out my fat files while feeling chastened by another of my errors on Gutenberg last week. (In responding to a comment, I didn’t know who the “author” referred to was, since all of us were authors–all three of us for that matter (authors)….Dr. John Persico Jr, Ned Hamson, and moi.___ At any rate, today’s column has but one major entry, a puzzle, and the answers will be shared tomorrow or the next day. I discovered it in my old files from years ago by another prison staff member, Ben Braden of the Education Department, at Hocking Correctional Facility in Nelsonville, Ohio, now deceased. CONFESSION:: BEN DID NOT GIVE ME THE ANSWERS SO WE BOTH NEED TO GUESS…

  1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their beliefs________________________
  2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds_______________________________________
  3. Nocturnal timespan of unbroken quietness__________________________________________________________

4. An emotion excited by the acquisition of expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere_______

5. Embellish the interior passageways__________________________________________________________________

6. Exalted celestial beings to whom harkened___________________________________________________________

7. Twelve o’clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival_______________________________________________

8. The Christmas preceding all others_____________________________________________________________________

9. Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem______________________________________________________

10. Diminutive masculine master of skin covered percussionistic cylinders__________________________________

11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males________________________

12. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere____________________________________________________________________

13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystal.____________________________

14. Expectation of arrival of populated area by mythical masculine perennial gift giver____________

15. Natal celebration devoid of color________________________________________________________________

16. In awe of nocturnal timespan characterized by religiosity________________________________________

17. Geographic state of fantasy during season of mother nature’s dormancy__________________

18. The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of far eastern heads of state._______________

19. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted metallic, resonant cups.________________

20. In a different location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children’s slumber furniture____________________________________________________________________________________________

21. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation_________________________

22. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular of plural by us________________________

Answers surely before Christmas

_____________

BURMA SHAVE

Did your toes ever ache
With a-wanting to kick
But no one’s there but you?

NH

Do Conservatives…

Published December 17, 2025 by Nan Mykel

Write poetry? Give me some examples please…(Oh no I think my comma’s bit the dust…) Oh no another idea: Does Grandfather God speak to us in Classic or Gutenberg? I’m talking about the Father of them all; Catholics Unitarians Quakers,,,,,,, Agnostics Israelites (told you my comma was dead didn’t I ?)… Even Muslims and those who believe in stoning miscreants. Or mass killings in the name of a whim.

If I tried to write a poem as a conservative I might be afraid of criticizing the Chief and therefore speak through the mouth of…the War Departmenr. (No truth no need for excuses). …Yay for my brilliant daughter who rescued my sunken comma key by punching it harder.

FOLLOW OH FOLLOW…
Time in your flight. Bring back
my reputation if
just for one night.
Rudeness is a habit
that I cannot eschew
but stop by the back door
I’ve got a bargain for you.
_____________

SEPARATE SUBJECT
Who whitewashed the Epstein files?

Ho hum. Enough for yesterday at 11:12 a.m.

.


Neutering

Published December 17, 2025 by Nan Mykel

I could have called this CASTRATION, but that sounds a little more provocative, doesn’t it? And I’m trying to at least calm myself. No, I’m not going to talk about either one today, [OOPS] but to reflect on how I can build my readership. I don’t believe I’ve availed myself of the platform’s methods, and that’s a pattern with me. (I did nothing to publicize my book). Since I’m forced to use Gutenberg and my helper has given up on me, I’m sitting here again, wishing I could invite my handful of “likers” to a party. The only blogger that told me to get lost and never darken her persona again was because I mentioned her anger. Whereupon she denied she was angry, and to get me hence and never darken her blog again… (I know when I’m not welcomed)…

I’ve started on fish oil capsules to help maintain my vocabulary (though I do cling to those old-timey phrases). My friend in South Africa suggested I join with the dVerse poetry group online, and I did for awhile and even got a poem in their yearbook, but then they changed their entry procedure, and possibly added a charge, either of which might have caused me a problem.

I think it would be nice if all bloggers wrote some kind of obituary of themselves, for use when they “go to their own reward.” It could be serious or comical….whichever you’re in the mood for. (TIP: Leave it in trust to someone who knows how to blog with few memory problems.) REMEMBER: Gutenberg only….Tho I need to remember that not everyone likes things “nice.” Well off the top of my head I have 2 readers from Cincinatti (who never met each other)–0ne in Malta, either 2 in Canada or who both like that country’s emblem one from Charlotte, N.C. (my hometown that was savaged recently by ICE). Maybe a coupla family somewhere. Oh I did mention Charlie the cat’s mistress in Johannesberg. I’m,,,,not going to look, up that spelling–I looked up Cincinnatti recently and Google listed 2 different spellings without mentioning that they were not the same. That’s enough for a 11 p.m. post.
BUT– As I’ve been both watching the tellie and reading the ny times I’ve been amazed that I’ve not seen or heard anyone mention why we’re picking on Venezuela until today. Their oil! If this is the way political science is supposed to work then I’m thankful I stayed clear of it in college. And no one mentioned it until today out loud.
I want to stay a little bit positive so will sign off for today/night.


:

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