Ed called out to me this morning from another room,”What is our cleaning lady’s last name?” “It begins with ‘M’,” I said. “That does it," he said, "you can’t use her again.” The reason? A letter she wrote to the News-Press was printed and it was a Right Wing muddle of misinformation and inane pronouncements about our debt and what-all.

I told my gtf, Nadine, about it. She has used her too. Nadine said you can’t expect cleaning ladies to be scholars and thinkers. I had earlier said to Ed, did he really mean to punish her for her views? However, she is slow and not perfect in her craft, so I may just get someone else for the rare occasions when I am overwhelmed and need someone to save me from months of neglect.

The woman, white, Jewish-looks-Irish, is Amy, and she has seen my board with photos of Right Wing celebrities all stuck with pins and kept her own counsel, so I guess she has a smattering of smarts. Or her political views are told to her, and she didn't recognize anyone in those photos. In any case, at an hourly rate, I do not want to distract her with political instruction and a baseball bat so she will “get it”.

Nadine said I should give her credit for writing a letter at all as in, “Listen, the dog is trying to say something!”

I am planning to give our little lunch group (four of us – the 5th works and can never make it) vittles and a mini recital on the 9th and was thinking of getting Amy in to clean. My menu is all over the place so I am thinking it will be like a South American style tapas. They keep saying, they don’t want to stress me and will bring their own lunch and I keep saying, and I mean it, that when I lived in New York, life was a lot more complicated and I didn’t entertain for 35 years and it’s a treat for me to have people and do nice things for them when I am up to it.

Will let you know how it all works out.

xx, Teal