THIS IS NOT A TEST is Joshua Tree, California author and musician Hannah Phillips talking about books, music, movies, art, culture, and truth.
Let’s bid adieu to 2020 with a heartwarming tale of sitting on a small-town jury. Did you know adieu means “to God”? So when we bid adieu to 2020, we’re really saying, “To God with 2020,” when maybe what we really mean to say is “To hell with 2020.” Which would be to bid “en enfer” to 2020. But if we said that no one would know what we were talking about except the French, and who really cares about them? I mean, I like their baguettes and some of their cheeses, but if I’m being honest, I can live without the rest of it. All that Frenchness over there. And if you think about it, the hard outer part of a baguette is pretty rough on the gums and hard palate, so that doesn’t leave much to recommend France or the French. Okay. Rural juror. Here it is. Oh, and near the end I say, “I had to try to laugh,” when what I meant to say was I had to try NOT to laugh. Selah.