Another episode of worse or better.

"Worse? or Better?" is the game I play almost every day. Not about my life. I try to only play "Worse? or Better?" about my life every week or so. But regarding ordinary life, the things going on around me--for that, the opportunity presents itself almost every day, to examine and to measure: are things getting worse, or are they getting better?

spalding gray, rip.

A couple of days ago as I was preparing to teach my class, I was watching the Steven Soderbergh documentary And Everything is Going Fine (streaming on Netflix!) about Spalding Gray, the monologist. I was thinking I would show a little clip. This led inexorably into YouTube, aka The Rabbit Hole, where there are Spalding Gray clips galore, from many, many of his best monologues. And this brought back to mind the time years ago when I first wanted to teach monologue, and I thought I would try to show students clips of Gray, and there were none to be found, almost literally none. Well, now they abound. So: Better.

cheesebread DOH.

However, recently when I went to order my favorite sandwich at the sandwich shop at school, things were not so rosy. As you may recall, what was possibly the best sandwich in the universe was a 4" on multigrain bread, bacon plus veggies, toasted, with pesto mayo. Apparently, these days, you can't get a 4" sandwich anymore--you have to get a 6" or a footlong. The bread choices are an unimaginative white on the one hand, or on the other hand wheat, and there is no more pesto mayo. The mayo that made me reconsider mayo! C'est disparu! Among the available condiments there is not even Dijon mustard--just regular yellow and honey mustard, which is an abomination before the Lord. A terrible state of affairs, I think we can all agree. Also, today, they only had cheese bread. No white, no wheat: cheese. I ask you.

Worse. Inarguably.

some snow.

sugar doughnut, queen of doughnuts.

However. Oatmeal at Starbucks? They still have it. (if not better, at least not worse.) Lovely snow falling at five? Just fine. Sugar doughnut? better! A comprehensive list of what I have to do? better, because now I know, which is better than being menaced by the floating dread of flickering obligations.

In the game of worse or better, should I keep a running tally? or is the worse/better dilemma best assessed in an ongoing pulse-taking? Well, I haven't been keeping score, so at this moment: short walk with a recovering Bruiser, good dinner, new book looks promising, my feet hurt and so does my hip, but it's almost time for bed, there is a gorgeous potted hydrangea on my kitchen counter, and tomorrow is another day. I say: better.

gratuitous, possibly manipulative flower shot (in lieu of adequate conclusion? you be the judge.)