Friday night

Mom has spent a lot of time talking about how people don't know, don't understand history.

Dad was talking about false cognates. I mentioned (in Russian) how they were a common pitfall in the Czech Republic. Mom corrected me.

Mom: In Czechoslovakia.
Dad: No.
A.: Um, no.
Mom: No?
Dad: They separated.
Mom: Slovakia spit off?
Dad: Yeah.
A.: Like, 20 years ago.

***
They were also taunting me, inadvertently, with talk of their solar panels.

A.: Yeah, not as affordable in Virginia. The policies don't favor them. Largely because the coal lobby is powerful and the heads of the state government don't believe in global warming.
Dad: What do you mean?
A.: I mean, the last Pope already pardoned Galileo for suggesting that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around, but there are people in this country who still aren't there, and one of them is VA's attorney general.
Dad: Unemployment would be even worse in Virginia if it weren't for coal.
A.: It's ironic that the two people who have offered that argument or a variation on it are the ones who rail against socialism. How is it capitalistic to keep an industry afloat as an employment program?
Dad: That's a fair point.