A Sixties Spring

Posted on May 28, 2025 | Leave a comment

New things this year. As we take this brief sojourn from normal life in the city, it’s been quite the experience. This Spring I got to help plant the garden and add some of my favorite things. Usually, an apartment gal, I settle for a few potted herbs indoors or out on a 4’X8′ balcony. The past few years I’ve branched out into tomatoes with just a bit of luck. Perhaps a tomato or two a day for several weeks.

I’m normally a Northerner as well, so there’s a very brief growing season, starting mid-May. In Texas some things were started, like potatoes, in January. Mid-March for many more but we had a highly unusual deep freeze in late March that killed a lot of stuff so we re-planted some.

That said the first to be ready to eat was asparagus. Then snap peas which are all but done. Green and yellow beans are mid-way done. Lettuces, beets and kale are abundant, and I even added my favorite Tuscan kale (cavolo nero, dinosaur kale) which is coming up nicely. Chard and peppers. New potatoes, one and only crop is up and nearly gone.

Cherry tomatoes are ripening, larger tomatoes and tomatillos to come. Onions are being picked daily and dried in the shade. Later crops like cantaloupe and watermelon will take a while yet.

It’s such a pleasure to cook with fresh herbs and greens. I can roll out of bed in the morning, walk the dog(s) and start picking lettuce and peas, and enough basil to make a quick pesto. Tried making gnocchi yesterday for the first time and it was somewhat successful and very tasty. Thinking about what’s for lunch and having it picked, created and ready in a half hour is terrific.

I resurrected Mom’s recipe for Boursin (2 pkg. cream cheese, 3T softened butter, seasoning) and the other day felt like singing Simon and Garfunkel so grabbed a handful of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme and threw together Boursin.

I’ve made chimichurri sauce with cilantro (instead of parsley), which is trying to bolt now so I’m using it for marinades and salads. Snap peas cut on the diagonal, steamed and served crisp-tender with a spicy sesame vinaigrette.

Yesterday I blanched some chard and kale leaves. I’ll make a filling with ground beef, onion, garlic and tomato and cook it in a homemade tomato sauce for dinner tomorrow.

It’s a joy to see nature’s bounty, all from teeny tiny seeds. There’s no such thing as being in a cooking rut with all these good things around.

Plus, the little rescue dog is improving daily. It’s been nearly five months since her mauling and I’m letting her out of her full leg brace for at least part of the day to be out and about with just a sock and vet wrap to protect her right hind paw because when she’s tired she “knuckles” and scrapes the top of her paw raw. The past couple of days she’s started jumping a bit on her hind legs, and to see this 1.5 year-old pup be able to do “zoomies” again is heart-warming.

Aside from politically (anyone care to define habeas corpus?) and the state of the tech economy, all is fine. Cheers! Volunteer this summer, with your kids if possible! Dee

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Dee-Platformed

Posted on May 27, 2025 | Leave a comment

My Facebook introduction was inauspicious. About 15 years ago my husband had been sent across the country by the national bank he worked for to effect a software merger with a local company. I went with him for a couple of months. He started a Facebook account for me to keep in touch with home.

Right away, a gal at his work had just gotten Facebook too, and she sent notifications of everything she did from the moment she awakened ’til bedtime. I was not impressed. It was annoying and there’s no way I would use it in that fashion. A few years later a couple of college, even high school friends, had found me and sent vacation, family and pet photos. My Canadian family sent event photos occasionally.

I gave it up for years until the Navy Captain who married us died and the only way I could reach his son was by private Facebook message. Years later, about two years ago, I think, I was in touch with him privately again, after his mom died.

Now, I’m temporarily in a small town in Texas keeping busy doing some volunteer work. The town recently lost its only print news, and only gets national news through either Dallas or Oklahoma. One brave soul started a Facebook page to keep residents apprised of local events such as the Saturday Farmers’ Market being cancelled last weekend due to potential rainstorms.

I forgot my sign-on (yahoo or my current one?) and tried a couple of passwords, finally signing on thru Apple ID. They asked me some really strange stuff, like demanding a selfie. Then they said they’d review what I’d sent at their request.

Next thing I get an email saying that my account is permanently disabled because I didn’t follow community standards, moreover I’m not allowed to request “another” review. Huh?

I’m no hacker, just an old lady who likes an old-fashioned blog to share cooking tips and promote democracy through subversive means such as promoting access to voting. And in my volunteer work, my next effort is jump-starting reading with kindergarteners and first graders at the local elementary school, and in my spare time I’ve been caring for a rescue dog for the past several months. On facebook, nothing controversial, ever. More dog photos than anything else, as I recall.

What’s up with Meta? I’m preparing to go through their review procedure, but it requires me to send the offending text with an explanation and apology. What? I couldn’t even get online to read the local news! the only words I wrote were my email address and password. Any ideas? It’s not exactly that I’ve Mark Zuckerberg’s number in my Rolodex, folks. Any ideas would be welcomed. Cheers! Dee

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Just Plane Grift

Posted on May 12, 2025 | Leave a comment

I think we’re overloading our courts these days with much unconstitutional stream of consciousness from the White House disguised as executive “laws.” Normally there is an office of ethics attached to the Oval Office and an inspector general in most departments, if not all. They try to keep things on an even keel, but no, in this administration they’ve all been conveniently fired.

Accepting a $400 million plane from a foreign country for the president’s exclusive use, then GIVING it to him as a “golden parachute” to use for the rest of his life, with probably another couple hundred million upgrades tacked on for DOD/Secret Service must-haves, is just ludicrous. Illegal as hell, and criminally stupid.

Is this why Trump campaigned on “no tax on tips?” Four hundred million is a heck of a tip, Mr. President.

There are other reasons not to accept this bribe from Qatar, mainly involving national security. I’m sure Mr. Trump has never been a devotee of ancient myth or even Aesop’s fables, lest he take the morals of the stories to heart. You see, there was something called a Trojan horse. It was given as a beautiful gift, only to have the enemy’s army spill out from it’s insides and seize the day surreptitiously.

America decides how its president will get from place to place and with what security precautions, because safe leaders make for a safer country. I don’t know what security measures are on Air Force One, because I’m not supposed to know. ‘Nuff said. We don’t allow foreign nationals, royal families, to provide us with secure transportation for our president. That’s our job.

Acceptance of this gift would pose a severe ethical problem. I disagree with SCOTUS in its decision to allow and encourage dark money in elections as I believe all donors should be open and above board in public elections for publicly held office. That’s the reason we have FOIA and Open Meetings laws. What’s necessary now is for Congress to beef up transparency of money in politics, adding to the law provisions for self-funded presidential transition operations, inaugural committees and presidential libraries.

Why is the cabinet stuffed with billionaires who know nothing about the subject matter of their agencies? Grift, access to power and rolling back regulations on their individual industries. Look what Elon Musk’s several months slashing and burning government agencies has gotten him in terms of preferential treatment, his businesses are taking government contracts and easing regulations. His initial Trumpian investment of $200 million for the 2024 general election will be repaid in spades.

Forget about draining the swamp. The White House and this particular administration is the swampiest ever, with “mistakes” of having ethical people on board for Trump I conspicuously absent for the constant grift present in Trump II.

As to Qatar, thanks for the offer, but should be just a plane “no” from the White House. Oh, and Congressional leadership, you’d better wake up and start doing your job soon, or you won’t have one to come back to. Just a thought. Register to vote, and sign up everyone you know. Sanity and ethics must prevail. Dee

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TO: Pope Leo XIV

Posted on May 9, 2025 | Leave a comment

FROM: Donald J Trump

I guess congratulations are in order, even though the cardinals wanted a bleeding-heart liberal, socialist, marxist as pope. At least you’re partly American, less all the time you spent in a third world country as that is really suspect. There are brown people down there, did you even know that?

Since I auditioned for your job (see White House post with me in papal robes) you are probably awed by me even though the cardinals only picked you because they thought two jobs might be a stretch for me. I told them it wouldn’t be, because when I’m not being cruel to women, LGBTQ+, and ethnic minorities or rigging the 2026-28 elections I spend most of my time on the golf course. But you’re probably not secure enough in your masculinity, because of all your empathy and all, to meet me in person. I get that. Well, I don’t really because I’m proud of never having thoughts of shame or inadequacy in my entire life.

I guess you and your brothers didn’t get the message the other day. I hear MAGA sent each of you an expensive bottle of wine and a promise that conservative Catholics in the USA would raise a billion dollars for the church if you voted for my choice for il pepe or whatever you CATHOLIC DO-GOODERS call the top gig. But no, you made the wrong choice… AGAIN.

So here are my terms. Vatican City will have a tariff rate of 1,000 percent unless you promise to undo all DEI activities in ithe Church, stop feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, healing the sick and protecting the environment. All Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and Priests must refuse to celebrate Mass for women, gays and illegal immigrants (which includes green cards).

Everyone in your employ must send Elon Musk a detailed inventory of everything they do each week, including content of all confessions with full name and contact info. Or I WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE AWAY YOUR CHARITABLE STATUS AND SEIZE ALL CHURCH PROPERTY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Again, congratulations and as long as you abide by my rules, in six months we may be able to talk about a potential tariff reduction. IF you only speak ENGLISH from now on, no more Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or especially Latin.

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!! DJT

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Weeds

Posted on May 1, 2025 | 1 comment

When I was eight years old, we moved from a starter home in town to my Dad’s dream home, of course a fixer-upper, on 25 acres of hilly land.

On one of my first forays I made Mom a bouquet of all the beautiful flowers I saw on my way down to the creek. Upon presentation, she said simply “they’re weeds!” and tossed them in the garbage. But they’re so pretty!

Now at my advanced age I’m becoming a connoisseur of pretty weeds, mixing them in with bearded irises from the garden. I pick Queen Anne’s lace, Indian paintbrush, Texas bluebonnets, red clover and my latest, lupine. I’ve had so much fun designing arrangements around weeds and fresh rye grass.

It’s all about beauty being in the eye of the beholder. There’s one yellow flower out in the cow pastures that I’ve been advised not to pick because it smells bad. OK, then, otherwise the sky’s the limit!

Winter is too long to not be dazzled by spring color, no matter the source. Enjoy! Dee

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Hope on Pope

Posted on April 24, 2025 | 3 comments

I’ve a checkered history with the Roman Catholic Church. Of course Dad signed off his parental rights as a Lutheran before my parents got married as Mom promised to raise us four kids Catholic. The first two she did, white gloves and hats and all, plus weekly CCD. But there was hope. She actually checked out the public and Catholic schools in our small village and thought that public school would provide me a better foundational education, coupled with religious ed after school every Wednesday taught by the nuns at St. Joe’s. Then she had the guts to go on the pill (I found them and asked) and her, and our, road to a Catholic heaven was tarnished forever.

I was destined for H*** anyway. The nuns hammered home that in distinguishing venial from mortal sin, taking an extra cookie from the jar vs. murdering my neighbor, I got that. Then they told me that missing Mass even once was a mortal sin from which one could never recover, no passing Go or collecting $200. Ever. Mom got the flu one week and we missed Mass. Dad the Lutheran spent Sunday mornings awaiting our return by making pancake breakfast so he was no help taking us to Mass. Seven years old and I was doomed.

Still, the Catholic church loomed large. Every Good Friday Mom read aloud the Passion. We went to Easter Mass and celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. After we moved to the big city of Washington, D.C. we attended mass less often, but my soul had a solid grounding in morality and shame due to Mass, catechism and parental teachings. Plus, I found out that Lutherans could actually sing on key and knew all the hymnal verses, not just the first two and the refrain, like us.

I chose a liberal arts school that was run by O.F.M., the Franciscans and still respect the lessons of St. Francis. I was very pleased that in the latest conclave the cardinals chose their first Latin American and Jesuit priest to be Pope. While he did not cement much new doctrine on the faith, I appreciate Pope Francis for identifying with the Common Man (and woman, and gay celebrant), dealing with the church’s shameful past in terms of child sexual abuse, and returning to Jesus’ most basic philosophies of tending to the world’s neediest in terms of food, health and housing.

In an age of glorification of personal wealth, extreme selfishness and cruelty to anyone deemed “other” for any reason, Pope Francis was a breath of fresh air. His death is a great loss felt around the world by the HRC church’s 1.3 billion adherents.

It is my fervent hope that the upcoming conclave will not succumb to the rightward shift our world politics (led by the USA) has taken, bringing us back to Medieval times by ultra-conservative priests and their acolytes, strengthened by “born-again Catholics” like JD Vance.

In college, I attended Mass seldom but, having gone through Vatican II in the sixties, I enjoyed the one Latin Mass in our small college city. I have retained respect for the priests and brothers, especially my Advisor, who spent summers with the Hopi and was best known for his killer Sociology lesson on Barbie. But I soured on the Catholic church mainly because of its attitudes towards women (and lack of meaningful power in the Church), marriage and sexuality.

I’ve actually found a Catholic church and a Mass this weekend in the tiny Trumpian town In which my husband and I are temporarily located, and will attend in honor and memory of the first Internet Pope, Francis as he is laid to rest outside St. Peter’s Basilica. A fitting honor to a pope of the people. And hope for the future of the world’s Catholics and all other living beings.

For the “christian” zealots who show only cruelty to the poor, sick, elderly, homeless and “others” the rule is not “do unto others before they can stick it to you” but “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31. Try to remember that and tell it to the Heritage Foundation, and Leonard Leo please.

As the small town priest will say when he dismisses us on Sunday morning, go in peace to love and serve the Lord. May peace be with you all. Dee

P.S. Sorry to be AWOL for a while. Part of the reason I’m temporarily relocated to TX is to help my m-i-l recover from hip replacement surgery (done and four weeks convalescence to go) and I’m now on my second bout of walking pneumonia which has really taken the get-up-and-go out of me. Much to do! d

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My Social Security

Posted on March 24, 2025 | Leave a comment

I’d just turned eleven when my youngest sister was born. Has nothing to do with anything but I used it to do more than just (unpaid) weekly chores from the Job Jar. I convinced my parents to hire me, as we were living ten miles outside of town, as their babysitter when they had to go to campus events. Fifty cents an hour to take care of my three year-old bro and the baby. Not bad as I was only getting fifty cents allowance per week!

At sixteen I got my working papers so I could get a real job during summers. Weeknights and weekends I was the neighborhood’s pre-eminent babysitter (having so many years valuable experience) and the price was now $1/hr. Now I was ready for big stuff, like teaching gymnastics and doing work for the college admissions office part-time. There was one part of my check receipt I didn’t understand. It was explained to me that by paying into this fund, when I was old I could get something called Social Security.

Fast forward to two years ago and there were serious decisions to be made, as serious as where to go to college and whom to marry. Infinite choices involving Medicare, and luckily we had a referral to a great broker who saw us through the decision-making process. Then when to take Social Security and I decided on my 65th birthday, and it actually started a couple of months later.

Interestingly, when I was indeed eligible, I got to sign into a portal called My Social Security. How quaint. Finally being able to see what I’d been paying for all these years. Then Donald Trump was elected. He still said he wouldn’t touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, but I didn’t believe anything he said his first term (or as early as the 1980’s when I was in NYC’s real estate industry).

Now Elon Musk is taking his chainsaw to the federal government and calls Social Security a Ponzi scheme. The acting director of the Social Security Administration says if Musk’s Minions can’t get access to my work, salary and healthcare history and other personal data he’ll lock SSA employees out of the computer systems and checks will stop going out. And billionaire Commerce secretary Lutnick says if anyone who doesn’t get a check in the mail calls to ask whey, they’re a fraudster.

But I’ve only been on it for a little over a year! After I’m done with automatic deductions for Medicare parts A, B and D there are only a few hundred dollars that usually goes for dog food and care (even the new rescue) and some bills. Yes, I would miss the payments if they were not received, and no, I am not a criminal, just a long-term payer into MY Social Security.

Congress, stop sitting on your thumbs and do something! Trump won with 75 million votes. At least 72.5 million Americans are on Social Security. Get it? We vote.

Telling us we can’t arrange for Social Security benefits without coming into an office is fine. Just don’t shut down the offices and turn off the phones. Is that really too much to ask? You should be more concerned about fraudsters using SSA info to scam seniors out of their checks than internal fraud. And how about the Musk Minions let loose around our sensitive information at the SSA? They’re not vetted or trained. And they care not a whit about our privacy.

Today, it was reported that our VP, the heads of military and intelligence agencies conducted a clandestine attack and planned it not over secure government means, but on a private system that included a reporter! Battle plans and all from DOD’s Pete Hegseth. There’s an arrogance and ignorance here that is heart-stopping. National security, privacy and public records laws broken willy nilly. This entire charade must stop. Dee

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Audiences of One

Posted on March 1, 2025 | Leave a comment

They’re a dangerous thing. Remember in Trump I, let’s say a lawmaker introduced a bill to name a bridge or holiday after our Dear Leader. That was pandering to an Audience of One. Alternatively, when Trump I chose to be needlessly cruel to [insert minority group name here] he was just “pandering to his base.”

Yesterday a new monster arrived on scene in Trump II. VP “Divan” Vance began a cruel attack on an ally trying to save his people with our and many nations’ assistance from a dictator who illegally attacked it three years ago. It was a calculated smear, and being Trump, of course filmed in its entirety in the Oval Office. Beneath our Prez and VP? Perish the thought!

The attack on Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Ukraine was designed for a new Audience of One, Russia’s top spy Vladimir Putin, who is vaingloriously attempting to reunite the USSR as his legacy.

There are 330 million of us in the United States of America. We’ve chosen someone to lead our country who has just made a 180 degree turn in our decades-long foreign policy in order to cozy up to dictators instead of stand steadfast with our democratic allies. On television, for all to see.

What to make of it? Is it all a ploy in “the art of the deal?” I think not. It is not a peaceful maneuver in any way, shape or form. I see dollar signs where Russia’s currently held Ukraine territory contains more rare earth minerals than the parts of Ukraine that Ukraine still possesses and believe that these these sharks smell both blood and money in the water, or land as it may be.

When the president of the United States floats an AI vision of Trump’s Gaza resort with a gold statue of Trump, Elon Musk eating (?), and Trump and Putin on lounge chairs in the sun, we’re seeing a pretty rosy retirement for Messrs. Trump and Putin.

Add billions more in the U.S. from the working poor and disabled currently utilizing Medicaid and the rich will get even richer. Why not go whole hog and decimate Social Security and Medicare as well to get your tax cut for billionaires? As it is, elected Republicans are getting their feelings hurt so are being advised not to hold town halls in their districts that feature the general unease, incredulity and sometimes genuine horror of their gerrymandered voters.

Presidents are supposed to represent we, the people, not foreign dictators. Until now, that wasn’t too much to ask of our highest elected official. Suing to get our country back is not enough. As one of we the people, I’m fed up. Dee

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MAGA Glee

Posted on February 28, 2025 | Leave a comment

OK, I understand celebration of a successful election. I get it, having worked on a few myself, mainly the un-sexy parts of addressing mailers, doing neighborhood “lit drops” and doing door-to-door canvassing the last few weeks of a campaign.

This has gone too far. The willy-nilly purging of the federal administration as a “cover” for a multi-trillion dollar tax cut for the rich is not only illegal, it’s downright ugly. In order to demonstrate the evil-ness of federal workers and undocumented foreigners, the Trump administration has to liken them to Satan-worshippers or pet-eaters. And document everything in ICE reality shows with Kristi Noem or Phil Donahue. How about a gauntlet for fired employees at the exit of the federal building where they worked fifteen minutes ago, with whips and chains and video cameras to document everything?

Being fired is horrible. Being purposely made “other” by the purported Trump “waste-cutters” is outright wrong. Belittling federal workers as absent, do-nothings who don’t deserve a paycheck is mean. Imagine that you’re fired from your job. Do you want people on the streets and in print and video saying you deserved it for trying to cure Alzheimers, predicting what types of flu need to be protected against in next year’s vaccine, or how the weather might conspire to create massive hurricanes, droughts or wildfires in the future?

Imagine if it were cancer, instead of losing one’s job. Would you and your friends gather round and cheer that Jerry has cancer! Yea! He deserved it. Why? He borrowed one of my rakes fifteen years ago and when he brought it back it was bent. So he doesn’t deserve to live. Who cares about his wife and kids?

I don’t know many federal employees, but the ones I interact with most frequently are postal workers, at the main or satellite offices, or more often in the neighborhood delivering mail. Over the years they’ve all been very kind to me, even though I was nearly always walking a dog at the time of our encounters. And if I didn’t trust my own judgment of them, I do trust that of a dog. Dogs just know. My dogs have always loved our mail carriers, and have even sought them out on the street away from our home just to say hello.

[On a related note I believe it essential to have a dog to suss out your kid’s friends, and especially first dates as a teen, because they know who can be trusted and who cannot! Well, my last dog had one flaw in that regard. We were living 1/4 mile from downtown Houston with a great view of the skyline so there were always groups of foreign tourists milling around taking photos. She didn’t like people who walked with no immediate sense of purpose, amblers. Nope. But other than that, she was spot-on!]

Cheering the misfortune of fired federal workers is un-American. So please stop. They’re just regular people going about their jobs, which they deserve to get paid to perform. There is no “deep state” but there are laws that must be followed in order to fire certain workers and this politicized scattershot effort is not it, sending out form letters telling every probationary employee that their work is sub-par, sometimes not even addressed by name. Even after receiving awards and stellar reviews, probationary employees have all received the same form letter criticizing their performance and making it nearly impossible for them to gain future employment anywhere.

That’s not US, the United States. We don’t do that to people who take lower salaries in order to serve the public. You won the election. The time for gloating is over, and for blaming Joe Biden for everything that happens between sunup and sundown every day forward. The hard work of governing begins now (I’m talking about YOU, Congress, with the power of the purse that you’re not even pretending to defend). With great power comes great responsibility. Only if the Republicans are in the minority can they just say a big fat “NO” to every potential solution to America’s problems, like reducing the price of eggs. Get to work, and address the real needs of the American people, not just being fawning members of the Musk/Trump Retribution Tour’s Official Fan Club. Dee

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What Did I Do Last Week?

Posted on February 24, 2025 | 1 comment

Published regarding what really matters and all the things the Trump administration is doing wrong

Wrote to the city clerk where we married to make sure that if the Republicans pass new voter registration laws I’ll still be able to vote because my birth certificate has a different name than my passport and drivers license

Wrote my senators and congressman urging continued support of RSVP, the Seniors portion of AmeriCorps

Researched grant opportunities, analyzed organizational materials for RSVP

Participated in an “all hands on deck” activity at the ranch, actively helping save the life of a baby calf.

# # #

Let’s see. Most of those tasks were related to the federal government. I don’t work for the federal government! As a matter of fact, I don’t work for anyone! I’m retired.

I’m exhausted just trying to make sure that we don’t get killed in mid-air collisions, die of typhoid or scarlet fever, wake up to our military in our streets arresting us for exercising our first amendment rights, and assuring the continued right of married women who use their husband’s name, to vote.

I didn’t used to have to think about that stuff while booking a flight, exposing myself unwittingly to germs and unvaccinated people, crossing the town square to meet a friend or go to my regular polling place. We shouldn’t HAVE to think about that stuff every day, because that’s why we pay taxes!

I never wanted Donald Trump to occupy every facet of American life yet again, and I certainly didn’t invite Elon Musk to threaten my social security, medicare and overall privacy. Enough is enough!

Oh, Elon, I got in the assignment before midnight tonight, even though I didn’t know where to send it because I’m my own boss!!! Does that mean I get to live another day to face yet another federal crisis? Makes me wish mom and dad were still alive, so I could whine “is it four years yet?” Dee

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