{"id":18321,"date":"2016-03-01T12:08:32","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T19:08:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=18321"},"modified":"2016-03-01T12:08:32","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T19:08:32","slug":"return-of-the-half-mummy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=18321","title":{"rendered":"Return of the Half-Mummy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_0025\"<\/a>Another day, another skin cancer. This’ll make six, and they’ve all been on my face. Some have left visible scars, some haven’t. I’m hoping this one won’t be too bad, but it’s out of my control\u00a0and I’m not going to lose sleep over it.<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago the dermatologist found what he thought might be a basal cell carcinoma on my forehead. The biopsy came back positive, and this morning he cut it out. Here I am two hours\u00a0ago,\u00a0fresh from the surgery, waiting for a hillbilly heroin prescription at the local CVS. I’m home now, taking it easy as directed.<\/p>\n

I return\u00a0tomorrow morning to have the big wrap removed, then\u00a0again next Tuesday to have the stitches taken out. The following Wednesday I’ll be back at the air museum.<\/p>\n

Yes, I wear hats. Yes, I use sunblock. In case you were going to suggest, etc. I’m sure the damage was done by the time I was in my mid-40s; the price is being exacted now. I visit the dermatologist every four to six months, and about once every other year he finds and removes another small skin cancer. No biggie, as long as we\u00a0stay ahead of it. Donna’s had a couple and\u00a0she’s on the same schedule, though with a different doctor. Our\u00a0son was worried about a spot last time we\u00a0saw him; he’ll be 50 next week so he’s right on schedule. Our daughter? Her time will doubtless come. Our ancestors should have stayed in England and Europe, if they were so worried about damaging their pasty white complexions.<\/p>\n

They tell me it’s Super Tuesday. Arizona’s primary isn’t until the 22nd of March, but I voted by mail last week. Up until this year I was listed as an independent\u00a0and only voted in general elections. This time around the primary seemed\u00a0important, so I changed my registration\u00a0to Democrat in order to participate. Will I watch the news tonight? Maybe for ten minutes or so … I can’t stand much more than that. When it comes to cable channels like CNN and MSNBC, I can’t stand even ten minutes.<\/p>\n

I only ever watched Melissa Harris-Perry when she subbed for Rachel Maddow, but I liked her and am\u00a0sorry MSNBC let her go. Apparently MSNBC cut away to a Trump rally in the middle of her weekend show and she walked out\u00a0over losing editorial control.\u00a0MSNBC called her bluff and fired her. Except I don’t think she was bluffing\u00a0… she must have known\u00a0she’d lose her show if she took a stand, and took it\u00a0anyway. Bully for her, and fuck MSNBC for treating\u00a0every public appearance of Donald Trump as if it was\u00a0a moon landing.<\/p>\n

I’ve long thought my favorite MSNBC commentators, Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow, were losing editorial control over their shows. Now I’m convinced they have, because virtually all they talk about any more is the presidential horse race\u00a0and\u00a0Trump’s moment-to-moment status with polls and delegates. I think Hayes would rather be talking about nuts and bolts\u00a0issues … climate change, race relations, infrastructure, energy …\u00a0but I don’t see him taking a stand \u00e0 la\u00a0MHP. He’s at the top of his game, he’s got a family to support, and MSNBC is his only job (MHP never gave up her university professorship and had\u00a0that to fall back upon). Sadly, I don’t think Rachel would even think of walking. She clearly\u00a0revels in wall-to-wall political coverage\u00a0and is an enthusiastic supporter\u00a0of MSNBC’s all-Trump-all-the-time philosophy. No, I don’t mean by that I think she’d vote for the guy … what I mean is I think she likes talking about Trump\u00a0(and has no idea how alienating that is to her fans). Either that or she’s suffering from Stockholm syndrome.<\/p>\n

Cable news has lost me and I don’t know that I’ll come back, even after the elections. These days I get my news from Google, and it’s not a bad way to get it. About once a week I compare Google News\u00a0coverage\u00a0to online\u00a0New York Times and BBC coverage, and they’re all reporting pretty much the same stories in\u00a0world\u00a0and\u00a0national news, business, tech, science, and health. The good part is you can deselect entertainment and sports if you don’t give a shit about either. And I don’t. Now where’s my damn rental car?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another day, another skin cancer. This’ll make six, and they’ve all been on my face. Some have left visible scars, some haven’t. I’m hoping this one won’t be too bad, but it’s out of my control\u00a0and I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Two weeks ago the dermatologist found what he thought might be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,16,2,8,6],"tags":[1953,2062,296,140],"class_list":["post-18321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-media","category-personal","category-politics","category-a-series-of-tubes","tag-chris-hayes","tag-mellissa-harris-perry","tag-msnbc","tag-rachel-maddow"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18321"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18327,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18321\/revisions\/18327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}