I kept trying to think it was more metaphorical, but no. Literally about talking to your dead loved one.

On the one hand, let's face it, I have a lot of beliefs that make my more skeptical friends shake their heads as me. On the other hand, I am deeply suspicious of anyone making money off of being a medium, including organizing conferences that I assume aren't free. Taking money from grief-stricken people in the name of magic and occultism is sleazy.

(I feel like I should include a #NotAllWitches hashtag.)

So I see this Chuck Grassley quote come up: "I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing, as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it's on booze or women or movies."

Now my first thought is that that's probably not a real quote because it just seems like too much. But, no. It's real. What an asshole.

I might take Grassley's argument more seriously if the estate tax applied to estates of less than $5.6 million ($11.2 million for married couples).

(Added note: That's the exclusion for 2018. 2017's exclusion is probably a little less.)

Fuck Chuck Grassley, and not in the fun way.

On the one hand, let's face it, I have a lot of beliefs that make my more skeptical friends shake their heads as me. On the other hand, I am deeply suspicious of anyone making money off of being a medium, including organizing conferences that I assume aren't free. Taking money from grief-stricken people in the name of magic and occultism is sleazy.

^^All of this. I'm "sensitive" to the presence of whatever-ghosts-really-are, I grew up in a haunted house, it's hard not to believe there's something weird "out there". (It's impossible, actually. I've tried.) But the idea that one can simply sit in a circle and join hands and mumble, Dial-A-Medium and call up spirits from the vasty deep is ridiculous. People who use other people's grief and longing to make money are the worst. This is the one reason I never take money or anything of value in exchange for a reading.

One does not simply walk into a seance and talk to a dead person.

Come on, you guys -- who among us hasn't spent $10 million on booze, women, and movies???

But the idea that one can simply sit in a circle and join hands and mumble, Dial-A-Medium and call up spirits from the vasty deep is ridiculous.

The idea here, I guess, is that you can learn how to be sensitive or something -- that it's a skill, not a talent. Which, maybe, but my mother is not the person to develop that skill.

Yeah, having had a ghostly encounter myself I'm not prepared to pooh-pooh the overall existence of all psychic and spiritual phenomena, but I am deeply skeptical that anyone with gifts in that department is sticking flyers on cars in the Malco parking lot. I'd say if it feels like one of those timeshare seminars it's probably not going to result in any profound metaphysical experiences.

So, now that I'm in management I learn that we're the sort of workplace where the menagers give a gift to their boss. And it's mandatory to contribute. This fucking job, people. Thank god my actual boss (the department head) is not about this bullshit.

PEOPLE SPENDING MONEY ON BOOZE, WOMEN, AND MOVIES ARE GOOD FOR THE ECONOMY!!!

It's a stupid argument. Booze companies and all of movie production from theaters to actors should jump on that quote.

we're the sort of workplace where the menagers give a gift to their boss. And it's mandatory to contribute.

Workplace gifts should never go up the chain. Sheesh!

My mom does not understand the wishlist function on Amazon. She insists that she added items to her wishlist, but there is nothing on it. I even checked the option to show purchased items, in case my brother bought everything on the list. There is nothing at all.

She may have made a totally new list, but I can't find that under her current email.

I asked her to email me the link to her wishlist, and she sent me a link to the Amazon shopping cart. Which was empty.

This is how you get coal, people.