An Attempt to Talk Sense to Republican Legislators in Pennsylvania

The Republican leadership of the Pennsylvania legislature is trying to turn Pennsylvania into the next Arizona vis a vis election security. My state rep & state senator are both Republicans. Here's what I sent to them today: 

I am opposed to the Pennsylvania legislature wasting the taxpayers' money on yet another audit of the 2020 election. It's ironic that the legislators are convinced that the 2020 election was completely accurate when it elected them, but completely wrong when it elected President Biden. Sad that you don't see anything wrong with that. 

I worked for Allegheny County as an election worker for several elections, including the 2016 election. Election workers I worked with only cared about running an accurate election and ensuring that every registered voter could vote. We were members of both major political parties and there were likely Independents working as well. We never discussed or argued politics - our job was only to enable a fair election. I'm sorry that I'm no longer able to work on elections because I care about fair elections and I would stand up against anyone trying to intimidate voters. It's sad that Republican Pennsylvania legislators no longer care about free and fair elections.

The Importance of Evelyn Gold...and a Rant

I've been helping Mark Olson and Leah Zeldes with research on Fancyclopedia, an online encyclopedia about fandom, conventions, writers, artists and fans. We were stuck on Evelyn Gold for a bit, H. L. Gold's wife and the associate editor of Galaxy during the '50s. In many ways, she was the main public representative of the magazine since HL had agoraphobia and didn't like to leave their apartment.

Anyway, she disappeared from all public records in 1957, about the time that she and HL divorced. I've been using ancestry.com to research people, and there were only maybe four records that were about Evelyn Stein Gold, which seemed like way too few. I also wondered if she just might have died after her divorce.

ancestry.com seems to display some records almost randomly. I took another look yesterday and found a family tree that connected her to the Spencer family. Huh. Family tree data is sometimes not reliable, but I poked around a bit more and found some official records. Evelyn Gold had married Paul Donner Spencer in 1961. She later called herself Eve Paige Spencer and became an artist.

Leah Zeldes then found more about her later life, including a short YouTube video and more.

Eve had a really fascinating life. But when I found her obituary, here's all it said:

Ms. Spencer, 88, of Rancho Santa Fe, passed away May 11. Services to be held at a later date.

To plant trees in memory, please visit our Sympathy Store.

Published by Rancho Santa Fe Record (Online) from

May 19 to Jun. 18, 2009.

I poked around more to see if there was a real obituary for her anywhere. Nothing.

And so, my rant: Write your own obituary or get a friend to write one for you. My mother was a professional obituary writer for a college magazine for about 40 years. It's not that hard. A factual obituary can help prevent you from completely disappearing from the record after you die (and we all will die one day).

Though I need to remember to update mine. I wrote my own obituary as part of a college class on death, dying & eschatology. I've done a few things since then...

Evelyn Gold/Eve Paige Spencer's Fancyclopedia entry.

Never Forget the Senators Who Voted Against the Capitol Insurrection Commission

I am still angry over the #SeditionCaucus.  I'm angrier over the Senators who voted down a Congressional Commision to investigate the 1/6 Capitol Insurrection.  Never forget that these people did not believe we should have a formal investigation over a group of Trumpists whose behavior led to the deaths of multiple people on the grounds of the Capitol & caused millions of dollars in damage to the building:

NAYs ---35

Barrasso (R-WY)
Boozman (R-AR)
Capito (R-WV)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Cramer (R-ND)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hagerty (R-TN)
Hawley (R-MO)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Hyde-Smith (R-MS)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kennedy (R-LA)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
Lummis (R-WY)
Marshall (R-KS)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Paul (R-KY)
Rubio (R-FL)
Scott (R-FL)
Scott (R-SC)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Tuberville (R-AL)
Wicker (R-MS)
Young (R-IN)

Not Voting - 11

Blackburn (R-TN)
Blunt (R-MO)
Braun (R-IN)
Burr (R-NC)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Murray (D-WA)
Risch (R-ID)
Rounds (R-SD)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sinema (D-AZ)
Toomey (R-PA)

As awful as the people who voted against the comission are, the people who were too cowardly to show up and vote were even worse. I have never seen a vote where 11 senators did not show up in recent times. And for people like Sinema and Toomey to say "I couldn't be there but I would have voted yes." is way beyond hypocritical.

Letter to Senator Toomey Regarding the COVID-19 Relief Bill

Dear Senator Toomey

I appreciate that three times this year, you have voted your conscience rather than follow Republican dogma. Please do something to help the average Pennsylvanian more than your support of the Trump "detax-the-rich" tax bill did in 2017 - vote FOR the COVID-19 relief bill. The stimulus payments are very important to the unemployed and the under-employed. Any stimulus we get will go to our local food bank and other charities because we know how much the money is needed by so many.

There have been many complaints about the move to have the over-indebted college graduates' college loan debt forgiven or reduced. A $15 minimum wage would help graduates with loans and minimum jobs to pay off more of their loans. It would lift millions of families out of poverty the way that Reganomics never did.

It's your choice. Can you vote your conscience one more time?

Laurie Mann
Pittsburgh, PA