I've finished reading The Hunting of the President.

I came to mildly dislike the book itself (the tone oscillates from bland to partisan, and it repeats a lot when providing background on people that appear in each chapter. I'd rather it had put that in footnotes so I could skip it if the information was still fresh in mind.), but the events contained inside of it were revealing.

Do I feel more warm and fuzzy to the Clintons after reading the book? No. But I have a better understanding of why they act as evasive as they do, and it colors how I see media coverage of Hillary now.

I'm also 'still' (haven't picked it up recently) reading The Communist Manifesto and just started (like, I'm 2% in to) A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. I seem to be able to juggle three books at a time, so I'm not sure what the third will be. I was going to read Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center by Ray Monk, but I'm waffling now.

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My union local is having the pre-Labor Day picnic this Saturday. I'm thinking about going, even if it is out of the way. A representative from the national was outside work today, I donated some money to the "Voter Education" fund. Right to Work fucking blows for us.

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It is starting to sink in that I agreed to make half of my family's Thanksgiving dinner this year. I figure I need to point out that I don't eat meat and show them what all I'll be making so they can plan around that fact. I'm thinking about it now so I can fine tune my recipes and not hear complaints about how it is missing meat.

So far, I'm thinking about:

- Oat flour rolls

- Mashed potatoes with a mushroom gravy

- Corn soup

- Shepard's pie

- Rice (or maybe bread) pudding

- a final dish I haven't figured out yet