February | 2026 | Marilyn's Room

And I can guarantee you, gang, I am really, really TIRED of this fucking snow.

Of course, it’s not just snow, it was truckloads of snow dumped on us, and now temperatures still hovering around zero degrees Fahrenheit every day, so nothing is melting. It makes every shift I go to, that much more difficult.

And of course I stress out about all the animals and birds that need to be fed, etc., etc. ( I currently have 3 additional cats in the house, including Kon Tiki, who wishes to be outside. If you’re doing the math, that equals 796 cats currently indoors and happy as clams except for one…)

But anyway.

Today, I go back to see the retired Minister and his lovely wife and cat, however, the shift got moved to the afternoon, so this means I’m gonna be home from there by 6PM this evening and then my 8-DAY stay-at-home-and-write VACATION begins!!!

However….

The plumber called yesterday and wants to try to come Monday and do his part of the home improvement work. Which, normally, would be great.

But since I’ve had a 6-shift week this week, I have had no time to vacuum up cat hair and cat litter yet, and you know how that makes me crazy…

We’ll see how it goes. I might be able to vacuum before I leave for today’s shift, even though I’m already fucking exhausted…

I still think he’s going to have a lot of trouble getting his truck up over the curb in front of my house because the snow is really deep. But it’s his choice.

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Okay.

Well, yesterday, I discovered I am immortalized in the Grokipedia.

It was absolutely staggering. I certainly appreciate whoever it was who decided I should be in there. But it is overwhelming, the amount of info the AI gathered on my life and my career.

But I have to say, gang, that it is 99% accurate. And the inaccuracies are very, very minor. They involve some incidental details, but everything else just made my jaw drop.

I guess I can die now, though, so that’s a relief. Between Wikipedia, Grokipedia, the Internet Archive, and my music demos on YouTube — everyone who is interested will know, for unending millennia to come, that I did in fact live.

So, yay.

Me, when I was alive — and looked a lot like a guy, and there was no snow.

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All right.

I thought this was very cool, but you have to sign up for this newsletter, so I won’t quote too much of it.

Today is St. Brigid’s Day in Ireland. If you are interested in the history of all things “Irish Ancestors” you can visit & sign up for:

A Letter From Ireland

Today, he went into great detail about the Irish name “Brigid” and he said, in part:

“The name comes from the Old Irish “Brighid”, meaning “the exalted one” or “the high one.” Long before Christianity reached Ireland, Brigid (the more usual spelling here in Ireland) was the name of a powerful pre-Christian goddess – associated with poetry, healing, fertility, and smith-craft, and said to be a daughter of King Dagda.” [full article here]

As you probably know by now, one of my great-great-grandfathers came over from Ireland. (And he became a trapper and married a woman from the Black Foot tribal nation.)

And my best friend in the world, Valerie from Brooklyn, is totally Irish, on all sides.

And we recently discovered that our distant ancestors all came from County Cork! Which probably explains SO MUCH! We’ve likely been “getting our Irish up” together for hundreds & hundreds of years!

Back in the days when she and I weren’t really old and didn’t live 500 miles apart, we got up to absolutely no good at all times and we had a fucking blast!

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Since I had to skip yesterday’s post, I have a ton of “here’s this’s” for today! So, in no particular order —

Here’s this!

Another great new publicity photo posted by Sandra on Instagram (If you’re new to the blog, Sandra is my partner in all writing-projects-theatrical):

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And here’s this!

Tom Petty was such a fighter! I loved him so much (and as you might know, he WON that case against his record label in 1979):

And here’s this, while we’re at it! Proof that he WON that battle! His huge hit, now a classic, “Refugee” from Damn the Torpedoes:

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And here’s this!

Keith with a white guitar in Boston in 1988!! (Not smoking, but smiling anyway!)

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As far as I know, these are the first photos from Tim Burton’s upcoming version of “A Christmas Carol” starring the always glamorous Johnny Depp!

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Okay.

A bunch of Nick Cave stuff!

The other day, Nick Cave sent out a Red Hand File explaining why they finally let a lowly GIRL into the Bad Seeds!! He explained, in part:

“…Carly is, as you have pointed out, Michael, astonishingly talented. She walked into The Bad Seeds, this grizzled snake pit of unreconstructed masculinity, and blew everyone away, changing the very weather of the band almost overnight. She brought with her not just her immense ability, but also a kind of joy, a loveliness of manner, all laughter and delight, along with a long-overdue dose of female energy. We love her….”

You can read it in full here.

Nick onstage with Carly Paradis, photo by Andrew Trute

And it truly looks like the Melbourne shows were off the charts. Not just for the audiences, but for the band members, as well. (Melbourne is essentially Nick’s hometown.)

So here’s a big bunch of photos:

I’m guessing the crowd went particularly crazy for “Shivers” and “O Wow O Wow” in the encore, since both songs have deep Melbourne connections:

And there are still tickets available (for everyone except Paul) in New Zealand for the upcoming Wellington Shows!! February 5th and 6th. Buy tickets HERE.

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And I leave you with that!

By the time you see me here again, I will be on vacation, baby!!

Enjoy your Sunday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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I really leave you with this.

On Friday, my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man gave me a beautiful gift.

It was a small, zippered nylon carrying case, filled with the CDs he used to play back in the days when he could still drive a car.

Can you believe that??!! He knows I love all kinds of music, so he wanted me to have it. I was so touched.

It’s mostly classical music CDS, but also Julio Iglesias, a bunch of “Fabulous Fifties” CDs, and also THIS!!!!