Album Cover Art Wednesday: First Base
Rock on, Babe. Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: First Base
Month: October 2021
The Carson Youth?
No, not Johnny Carson, Dr. Ben Carson former Trump HUD Secretary and idiot savant surgeon.
Back when Dr. Ben Carson was running for president, I had a lot of fun mocking him. Here’s how I described him in 2015:
We all know people who are brilliant in one aspect of life and absolute ninnies in others. They thrive if they stay in their lane, and crash when they don’t. I’ve met some surgeons who were brilliant with a scalpel and hopeless with people, the fictional Dr. House is just an extreme example. They should stick to the operating theatre as they say in Woody Olde England. It’s increasingly obvious that Dr. Ben Carson fits the bill and should stick to what he knows best: cutting people open and helping them instead of putting his foot in his mouth. I think the Doc needs a footectomy or some such shit.
That continued to be true in his tenure as HUD secretary, which was distinguished only by the expensive office furniture he purchased.
Dr. Ben’s latest scam project is a youth group, Little Patriots. The group’s philosophy, such as it is, reflects Dr. Ben’s own right-wing religiosity and nostalgia for the American Revolution. Why a black dude from Baltimore would be nostalgic for 1776 is beyond me. Maybe he thinks he’s Crispus Attucks reincarnated. Beats the hell outta me.
When I first heard about the Carson Youth, I was mildly alarmed. Is he Baldur von Schirach reincarnated instead of Crispus Attucks? Schirach was the Nuremberg defendant who headed up the Hitler Youth. Like Ben Carson, Schirach was a mediocre politician who did the bidding of his master. That landed him in Spandau Prison for 20 years. Carson stayed away on Dipshit Insurrection Day so the analogy collapses. One thing they have in common is that they both worked for Baldur-faced liars…
The Little Patriots web page focuses on education, Ben Carson-style. The home page sounds the alarm much like the Paul Revere of historical myth:
Education Is On a Concerning Path
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Kids are being taught opinions, not facts.
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Decrease in civic pride.
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Pledge altered to exclude God.
- Parents cannot afford or access alternative education options
Dr. Ben’s American Cornerstone Institute rides to the rescue with a simplistic and cartoony civics lesson. I was gobsmacked to learn that it was free. I assumed it was like Trump University. The moneymaking aspect comes in later.
The Little Patriots educational program rests on four platitudes, I mean cornerstones just like the Institute’s name. We’ll review them after the break. Go ahead and jump.
For The Rain It Raineth
The rainclouds are gathering and the word on the wire is to batten down the hatches and prepare for four days of deluge.
Here in NorCal, we couldn’t be happier.
I know in many areas of the country a warning of four days of rain will bring reactions ranging from ho-hum what else is new to not again make it stop. But here it only elicits smiles, happiness, and even a little dancing in the streets.
You always welcome that which you haven’t seen in so long.
And we haven’t seen significant rain for several years now. In the midst of pandemic, social upheaval, elections and claims of election fraud, through the Trump years and into the Biden years, the one constant has been that we have not had rain. Reservoirs are at lows never seen before. Lake Tahoe’s water level is so low boats are marooned in mud while algae rots their hulls. Trees are dying at such a rapid rate they can’t be chopped down fast enough to prevent them from becoming fuel for this week’s wildfire.
In fact wildfires have become so common now we’ve taken to naming them just like hurricanes. If only the hurricanes and the wildfires were just baseball team names. On a recent wine tour, the bus driver and I got into an argument over which fire caused the damage we were driving our group through. So many of them we can’t tell the players without a scorecard.
One of the big promises of this weather system is that there will be enough rain to put out all fires on the west coast. Now that’s the kind of rain I can get behind. We’re even ready for the probability of mudslides. During the drought California has been diligently shoring up problematic landscapes, especially the ones alongside our major highways. What can I say, we think ahead. Not all of the projects have been finished, but enough so that it appears (hopefully) when the rains come this week we will not have traded one problem for another.
So we have rain coming and the possibility that all wildfires will be put out. All is rosy once again in the Golden State.
Eh, no.
You see, we here in the land of baseball playoff games beginning in twilight like to be proactive about problems. We try to face them head on instead of running and hiding and hoping someone, anyone, else will fix them. That’s why we elect Democrats to leadership roles both in the state and in Congress. We also believe in science and in the scientists who actually do the science. Had we not the death rate from COVID would have been in the millions. At last check we were holding at 7 deaths per 100,000. Compare that with Louisiana where the rate is 17 per 100,000 or West Virginia where it’s 42 per 100,000.
And it’s that belief in science, in that refusal to allow politicians and media outlets to “but on the other hand” us that gives rise to our current concern over climate change. We understand that one state can’t stop climate change. The weather doesn’t recognize political boundaries, only people do.
And lately people have been disappointing us left and right.
How Much Is That Senator In The Window?
The Twitter Machine blew up last night with news from Axios that House Boat Owning Senator Joe Manchin threw another bomb into the Biden Legacy: NEW: Sen. Manchin has told the White House the child tax credit must include a firm work requirement and family income cap in the $60k range, Axios has learned. These demands would dramatically weaken one of Biden's signature programs. https://t.co/ZL5PHUfpBY — Axios (@axios) October 17, 2021 Manchin is having a moment. He also dropped this: Manchin is specifically demanding to eliminate the single most effective climate policy in the bill. https://t.co/B2E9o4gGvI — David Roberts (@drvolts) … Continue reading How Much Is That Senator In The Window?
A Sisterhood Of Lies: Showtime’s Buried
I grew up in a planned suburban community south of San Francisco. Foster City was the brainchild of real estate developer T Jack Foster. The idea was to build a community from scratch. My family were among the pioneers. Foster wanted to be the William Levitt of the West Coast and he succeeded to some extent.
Like the Talking Heads song, Heaven, Foster City was a “place where nothing happens.” Cue early musical interlude:
That changed in 1969 when an 8-year-old girl named Susan Nason went missing. Her body was eventually discovered near the Crystal Springs Reservoir some 11 odd miles from Foster City. After an initial flurry of activity, the case went cold for 20 years. Enter Eileen Franklin Lipsker who accused her firefighter father George of kidnapping and murdering her childhood bestie.
That’s the story behind the new Showtime true crime docuseries Buried in a nutshell. It hit close to home for me both literally and figuratively. I recall my father joining the search for the missing child and my mother taking food to the Nason home. My mom knew everyone in Foster City at that point: she founded the local Newcomers club and was later a successful realtor.
I was acquainted with George Franklin Jr. He was a shy kid, so I didn’t know him well but occasionally he’d turn up at the park for our pickup baseball games. I don’t think he was very good. Neither was I. I was the klutzy son of an athletic father but made up for it with enthusiasm. George Jr. was quiet and subdued. I know why now.
Looking back, I’m proud of my parents. They didn’t panic or stop me from roaming our community. We were all free-range children back then. Besides, the Nason kidnapping was an anomaly, the town returned to being a sleepy suburban burg shortly thereafter.
The Franklins were a large and wildly dysfunctional family. Buried presents credible allegations of George Sr being a violent drunk who beat his wife and children. There are also allegations of sexual abuse that are tangled up in the lies told by Eileen and Janice Franklin. Both sisters lied so often about so many subjects that it’s hard to know what to believe. Suffice it to say that George Franklin was a bad guy.
We’re not supposed to try defendants just for being bad people. We try them for specific offenses. That’s why the Franklin case eventually collapsed under the weight of what could be called a sisterhood of lies.
Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – sub-penis edition
Well, well – look at this :
Bannon ‘not required to respond’ to subpoena in Jan. 6 probe, lawyer says
NY Post ^ | 10/14/2021 | Bruce GoldingPosted on 10/14/2021, 1:51:14 PM by ChicagoConservative27
Steve Bannon is “not required to respond” to a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol because former President Donald Trump says their communications are protected by executive privilege, his lawyer claimed in a letter Wednesday.
Trump’s lawyer told Bannon that the ex-president “is exercising his executive privilege” and instructed him “not to produce documents or testify until the issue of executive privilege is resolved,” lawyer Robert Costello wrote.
“That is is an issue between the Committee and President Trump’s counsel and Mr. Bannon is not required to respond at this time,”
Costello wrote in the letter, posted on Twitter by an ABC News producer.
Very first comment :
To: ChicagoConservative27Let’s see if Pelosi and gang forcibly have Bannon arrested (no-knock entry, etc.). They probably figure the American public would just shrug if it happened, and I suspect they would be right.
The hell with shrugging – I’m stocking up on popcorn.
To: ChicagoConservative27Bannon is the real deal and will go down with theshipshit…
FIFY.
But not so Patel and Meadows, as I’m led to understand, they are in the process of flipping big time. We’ll just have to see
5 posted on 10/14/2021, 2:00:25 PM by AmericanInTokyo (Green Bay Packers. Yeah. + Ohtani-san, you better not move on from Angels to NY!)
To: Col Frank SladeI don’t remember a D ever responding to a subpoena.7 posted on 10/14/2021, 2:08:12 PM by allwrong57
.
To: ChicagoConservative27
I’m sure the Commission will let Bannon off with a warning…
January 6 panel moves to hold Steve Bannon in criminal contempt CNN ^ Posted on 10/14/2021, 12:59:32 PM by janetjanet998
CNN)The committee investigating the January 6 Capitol Hill riot announced Thursday it is moving forward to hold Trump ally Steve Bannon in criminal contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena, as his game of chicken with the House panel now enters a new and critical phase.
“Mr. Bannon has declined to cooperate with the Select Committee and is instead hiding behind the former President’s insufficient, blanket, and vague statements regarding privileges he has purported to invoke,” Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson, who chairs the committee, said in a statement on Thursday. Bannon was scheduled for a deposition in front of the committee on Thursday, and Bannon’s lawyer wrote in a letter the day before to the panel saying that his client will not provide testimony or documents until the committee reaches an agreement with former President Donald Trump over executive privilege or a court weighs in on the matter.
Oops.
.
More below el folderino :
Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – sub-penis edition”
Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with Random Ruminations – Hot Mix in the Summertime edition
One more dip into Wacoville, I think Before I left for Dallas, my day job (for the City Of Waco Street Department) was driving/operating 20-ton dump trucks, asphalt rollers, and front-end loaders so big I had to climb a 10-rung ladder to get into them. Obviously I had my commercial license, and my usual job was to hook up the asphalt roller behind the dump truck, load three workers into the cab, and go to the asphalt plant, where the truck would be filled with hot mix (asphalt). After that, I’d drive to the designated location, let the panels on … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with Random Ruminations – Hot Mix in the Summertime edition
SMV: The Smithereens Live In Pleasantville
Longtime readers know that I’m a fanatical Smithereens fan. I thought I’d seen every Reens set available on the YouTube. I was wrong. Lead singer Pat DiNizio had just a year to live in 2016. He looks terrible but sounds great. He does not, however, play rhythm guitar. Jim Babjak makes up for that with a bravura performance. The most interesting thing about this set is the presence of keyboard player Andy Burton. The Reens rarely had a keyboard player in concert. Burton is good and kills it on the rarely performed song Indigo Blues. And yes, Pleasantville, NY looks … Continue reading SMV: The Smithereens Live In Pleasantville
Saturday Odds & Sods: Art For Art’s Sake
There are rumors of a cold front later this morning. It’s really a cool front but cold front is the technical term and I’m a stickler for something or other. I’m just looking forward to not running the air-conditioner.
We’ve been talking Carnival in New Orleans. We all want it to happen but it’s unclear when it will be safe to cavort in the streets with strangers. Perhaps we should consult with Laurence Olivier’s character in Marathon Man:
Beats the hell outta me, Larry.
The City is allowing the annual Halloween parade for tourists to roll. It’s called the Krewe of Boo and this year it’s going to serve as an experiment into public gatherings. Contact tracing will be involved. If things go well, the chances of Carnival 2022 happening increase. If not, stay tuned.
This week’s theme song was written by Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart for 10cc’s 1975 album, How Dare You. That’s what Dustin Hoffman should have said to Olivier.
Here’s Art For Art’s Sake, money for God’s sake:
Graham Gouldman trivia time. He also wrote this wildly successful Hollies hit:
Let’s pick up our umbrellas and jump to the break.
Cheek To Cheek
This week, one of the best loved tunes in the great American songbook. Cheek To Cheek was written by Irving Berlin in 1935 for the Astaire-Rogers movie, Top Hat.
This week’s artists could be called a hit parade of usual suspects. I guess that’s a mixed metaphor, but what’s a mixed metaphor among friends?
We begin with Fred Astaire and Oscar Peterson:
I get a kick out of people arguing about what the first concept album was. Frank Sinatra was at it in the 1950’s. This swinging version of Cheek To Cheek comes from his 1959 concept album Come Dance With Me,
Stirring The Potpourri
The week in dumbassery. Continue reading Stirring The Potpourri
Wanna Bet On It?
If you’ve been watching the baseball playoffs you’ve been inundated with ads for gambling websites. Oh, sorry, I mean gaming websites that allow casual fans to compete for pots of money based on correctly predicting who would win, by how much, how many total points would be scored, and many other aspects of the game.
But according to them that’s not gambling.
I’m not going to name the sites since I prefer they at least spend some of their profits on paying for advertising and they ain’t giving me any of it. And they do pay a lot. Watch an hour of a playoff game and you will likely see three ads for one particular site, plus there will be some banter (no doubt paid for) between the announcers about said site or the bets you the viewer can place. And make no mistake, you can place bets on just about anything that happens in a game; whether the next pitch is a curve ball or the next batter will hit a line drive or the batter after him will hit a fly ball to the right side that is caught by the shortstop who is playing over by second base because of a shift and will the team in the field continue to employ a shift for the next batter.
All from the comfort and ease of your living room through the miracle of cell phone technology. What hath Steve Jobs wrought?
And if you thought “wait a minute, I thought sports betting was illegal everywhere but Nevada” you haven’t been paying attention to the Supreme Court. Three years ago the court in a pretty near unanimous ruling said the federal government had no place in preventing states from allowing sports betting. If Iowa wants to let their farmers bet on Hawkeye football who are the feds to tell them no? Interstate commerce and all that.
Once that ruling was announced the floodgates opened. All parties wanted their piece of what everyone knew would be a huge pie. The sports leagues, the statistics companies, the cell phone companies, the television networks, and of course the gambling sites. Sports leagues, which for years ran away from anything that even suggested there was gambling going on involving their games, suddenly were partnering with betting sites to make sure they got their cut. ESPN, having already purchased Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight website a few years earlier, poised themselves to be the premier statistician for the new age of gambling. And of course all the networks became even more invested in sports programming. After all, having a money interest in the outcome of every play is a powerful incentive for the viewer to continue watching even during the commercials.
But it is the leagues, and through them the players, who have the greatest interest in fans putting a few bucks down on The Bucks. The cut from the gambling sites will more than offset any drop off in attendance or even, heaven forbid, a drop in their rights fees from television or radio. And the players see revenue from gambling as a piece of the pie they have a right to. This coming winter’s negotiations between Major League Baseball and the players over The Basic Agreement (the rules all clubs and players must have in their contracts) might very well come down to how much of a cut the players get from the gambling sites. After all, it’s their actual performances that are being bet on. Which brings up the issue of whether those performances or even the statistics that accrue from those performances are the intellectual property of the individual players or of the teams they play for or of the league as a whole.
So everyone is gonna make money, what’s the downside?
Friday Catblogging: Suitcasing The Joint
Supremely Anti-Democratic
Back in September, U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Former Workplace Creeper Clarence Thomas gave a speech at the University of Notre Dame. In it, he chastised judges for becoming too political. “The court was thought to be the least dangerous branch and we may have become the most dangerous,” he said. Then a huge Vortex of Irony formed over Justice Thomas, and pulled him and all attendees into a void, never to be seen again. Not really, but such criticisms are rich coming from the Federalists Society’s 2016 keynote speaker. The Deeply Hurt Feelings of the Supreme Court’s Conservatives theme … Continue reading Supremely Anti-Democratic
All The Children Cringe
Suffer the little children who come unto Dan Crenshaw. Continue reading All The Children Cringe
Pulp Fiction Thursday: Mrs. Candy and Saturday Night
Robert Tallant is best known for his non-fiction books about New Orleans. With this book, he tried his hand at fiction. I wonder where John was when Mrs. Candy was out on the town. I hope everyone remembers John Candy. That joke was in his honor. Continue reading Pulp Fiction Thursday: Mrs. Candy and Saturday Night
Jon Gruden’s Macaca Moment
Oakland/Los Angeles/Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders coach sacked. Continue reading Jon Gruden’s Macaca Moment
I want it all and I want it now
I’m really out of sorts and anxious these days, and I’m kind of angry about it, to be honest. We just spent 4 years being terrified of what TFG and Mitch McConnell would do and although I’m not as fearful as I was then, I am still pretty fucking anxious. I know that big legislation takes time and negotiation and posturing, and that politics is the art of the possible. But watching the Democrats put Joe Manchin’s and Kisten Sinema’s faces on milk cartons so they can start talking is making me anxious. There’s a year left before the election … Continue reading I want it all and I want it now
Album Cover Art Wednesday: Picnic Suite
Jazz-Classical crossovers were the rage in the 1980’s. This album features jazz pianist/composer Claude Bolling and classical flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal and guitarist Alexandre Lagoya. The three players had something in common: they were all French. Perhaps that explains the weird … Continue reading Album Cover Art Wednesday: Picnic Suite
Ashli Babbittry Revisited
I’m sick of writing about Donald Trump. I had a lot of fun mocking him for 5 years, but much of the fun went out of it with the 1/6 Dipshit Insurrection. He was always a menace but the threat … Continue reading Ashli Babbittry Revisited
What Country Friends Is This?
Shortages of, well, everything. Fuel, groceries, hope. The party in charge of the government shucking and jiving at it’s party conference, on the one hand singing karaoke and on the other blaming everyone but themselves for the country’s problems. Citizens incensed that even after election year promises not to raise taxes, taxes will indeed be raised. All as inflation rages, a pandemic endures, and no end is in sight for the misery.
Some third world s***hole nation?
No, this is England.
More specifically this is Boris Johnson’s England. The England of Brexit, the England of “You can’t tell us what to do Brussels”, the England that reveres it’s monarchy as the monarchy becomes more soap-operay and less relevant every day. This is the England that said “21st Century? Nah, thanks mate, we’ll stick with the 20th. Course it’d be better if it were the 19th”.
Rue Britannia.
A recent article in the no longer failing New York Times points out the disconnect the English public is experiencing with their Tory government. While the Tories spent a weekend partying at the party conference in ever so manly Manchester, the public was attempting to find food at the grocery stores and fuel for their cars. A shortage of lorry drivers (that’s truck drivers for all us US of A types) has the supply chain for many items ground to a halt. Why the shortage? Lots of them were older men who took the pandemic as a sign to retire. Meanwhile newer younger drivers were prevented from getting the proper licenses because the licensing offices were closed because of the pandemic.
Ah you say, so it’s all about COVID. Well, it’s a contributing factor, but a bigger reason is that 20% of the nearly 100,000 drivers needed to keep the English economy moving left the country when it voted to leave the European Union. Why? Because they were the so-called “wave of immigrants” who were keeping the English working man from having a good paying job according to the Brexiters. Hence those immigrant workers took the attitude that it was better to jump than be pushed and went over to the Continent for a surer paycheck, oops I meant pay cheque, and the better employment standards they were used to under the EU, standards that the English were proudly declaring they were going to do away with.
All products ultimately make it to your shelves via a motor vehicle. It’s the basic number one fact of the consumer society. And if there is no one to drive the motor vehicle, despite the best intentions of Waymo or their competitors, the shelves don’t get stocked. Same for the gasoline that your dino-mobile runs on. It doesn’t get to the pump without someone bringing it there first.
Thus England has lines down the block for petrol (gas) stations. Headlines in newspapers scream about “lines lasting days”. That fabled English stiff upper lip gets more and more difficult to maintain when sitting in a queue just to get some petrol. Keep in mind also that just as petrol stations can’t get the black gold, Texas tea, neither can the public buses that ferry so much of the population. And when a modern country’s population can’t move about freely the economy of said nation starts to grind to a halt.
And what does the Prime Minister, the head of government, say to all of this?
These Dogs Are Not Dogged By Stereotypes
The kids of Reservation Dogs plot their next move in a quest for California. My Native blood comes from my father’s side of the family. His education about Native ways was supplemented by visits to my grandmother a few times a year. She married a white man who was a terrible, abusive alcoholic, and in many ways, I feel like this was the entire relationship between Natives and non-Natives in America in microcosm. She loved him despite his many faults (although I would argue my grandfather had pretty much no redeeming qualities, unlike America – we have pretty good food, … Continue reading These Dogs Are Not Dogged By Stereotypes
The Big Lie: The View From The Gret Stet Of Louisiana
Of puffed-up chumps and lying sacks of shit. Continue reading The Big Lie: The View From The Gret Stet Of Louisiana
Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – shart subject edition
All right, people, no more than two posts per thread, aaaaand….scene!
Trump urged GOP senators to vote against McConnell debt deal
The Hill ^ | 10/07/21 08:33 PM EDT | BY OLAFIMIHAN OSHINPosted on 10/7/2021, 7:58:41 PM by RandFan
Former President Trump is urging GOP senators to vote against a deal that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck with his Democratic colleagues in the upper chamber to raise the debt ceiling.
“Republican Senators, do not vote for this terrible deal being pushed by folding Mitch McConnell. Stand strong for our Country,” Trump said in an emailed statement Thursday. “The American people are with you!”
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Thursday morning that he had reached an agreement with McConnell to raise the debt ceiling into the beginning of December.
The agreement would increase the debt limit by $480 billion. Aides expect that will make the next deadline Dec. 3, the same day government funding will expire.
McConnell confirmed the deal with Democrats during a floor speech on Thursday, saying: “The Senate is moving toward the plan I laid out last night to spare the American people from an unprecedented crisis.”
“The pathway our Democratic colleagues have accepted will spare the American people any near-term crisis,” McConnell added.
Personally, I think “RandFan” should change his name to “RandFanDancer”, but that’s just me.
To: RandFanWe see who runs the GOP and it’s not Trump. Trump is a fool. I’ve said it since 1/7 and I’m proven right every day, Trump needs to renounce the GOP and form the Workers MAGA Party. As long as Trump stays with these hacks he will continue to be rolled, played and destroyed.
To: hardspunnedI don’t know why people here on FR insist that Trump has a core base of support of 80 million voters.He doesn’t.
He probably has 25-30 million dedicated supporters. The rest of the 80 million who voted for him are really just GOP partisans who voted the party line and probably would have preferred another candidate if that option was available.
16 posted on 10/7/2021, 8:47:11 PM by Alberta’s Child (“All lies and jest, ‘til a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”)
Next up – I see the Qberts are still posting threads about someone else who abandoned them almost a year ago –
Q ~ Trust Trump’s Plan ~ 10/07/21 Vol.374, Q Day 1441
qalerts.net ^ | 10/7/2021 | FReeQs, FReepers, and vanity
Posted on 10/7/2021, 7:22:13 PM by ransomnote
To: ransomnoteHey Q: is Trump back in office yet?
Read more at the “read more”…..
Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with the Freeperati – shart subject edition”
Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with Random Ruminations – “Missed opportunities” edition
After I moved from Waco to Dallas, I still returned from time to time to see my family. And I always made a stop at Ray Hennig’s Heart Of Texas Music. Before Ray moved to Austin and got famous for selling Stevie Ray Vaughn his famous Stratocaster, he was famous in Waco for his ingenious sales technique. At any other music shop in Waco, if you asked to try something out, you got the stinkeye, an unspoken question of “Are you going to buy this?”, and a grudging “ok”, followed by an admonition to not play it so loud. At … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession with Random Ruminations – “Missed opportunities” edition
Biography: Vincent Price
There’s no such thing as too much Vincent Price. His life story is every bit as interesting as his movies. Continue reading Biography: Vincent Price
Saturday Odds & Sods: People Are Strange
Things are slowly returning to normal in post-Ida New Orleans. The trash problem seems to have abated somewhat, but there’s still a lot of tree and construction debris about. It’s time to take the debris out of Debrisville.
I usually only have a Spring allergy problem, but that’s no longer true. I suspect it has something to do with the dust in the air after the storm. Whatever it is, I wish it would relent. Achoo.
I’m getting my Pfizer booster shot at noon today. Unlike Gary Cooper in High Noon, I won’t beg for help. I can take a jab with the best of them.
This week’s theme song was written by Jim Morrison and Robbie Krieger for the Doors’ 1967 album Strange Days. It was originally credited to the whole band. That’s what hippies did; not that Morrison was a hippie. He was one of the original goths.
We have two versions of People Are Strange for your listening pleasure: the Doors original and a cover by Echo & the Bunnymen from the 1987 movie, The Lost Boys.
That was almost as strange as the Diane Arbus featured image. Those twins have always given me the heebie jeebies.
Now that I’ve creeped you out, let’s join arms and jump to the break.
You’re The Top
As you can tell from the featured image, Cole Porter was the cat’s pajamas. Make that a cat in pajamas: the critters involved are equine in nature. Oh well, what the hell.
Porter wrote You’re The Top in 1934 for the smash hit musical Anything Goes. It’s the listiest list song ever written. Who among us can forget the lines about the Taj Mahal or the Great Durante’s nose?
We begin with a clip from the 1956 film version of Anything Goes with Bing Crosby, Mitzi Gaynor, Donald O’Connor, and Zizi Jeanmarie.
Ella Fitzgerald’s take on You’re The Top is one of the best and most beloved of the bunch. That’s a lotta Bs, baby.
Malaka Of The Week: Chuck Grassley
Iowa Stubborn. Continue reading Malaka Of The Week: Chuck Grassley
Some Assembly Required
Once upon a time you could buy a home and have it shipped to you.
Some assembly required.
Sears Roebuck and Company, the Amazon of it’s time, sold everything. At first they sold everything via their catalog, everything shipped via the US Mail and the Wells Fargo Wagon. Later they opened those stores so many of us will forever associate with the smell of fresh popcorn, an aroma artfully aimed to draw in passersby who might otherwise wander into the Montgomery Wards.
They didn’t call Richard Sears a marketing genius for nothing.
After years of selling all the stuff to stuff into a house, Sears decided well why not just sell them the house as well? At the height of their popularity, Sears offered almost 400 different styles of homes all ready to assemble. All you had to do was select the model, send in the money, then wait for the railcar to appear down by the train depot and start hauling out the precut, fully numbered, ready to assemble components along with the building instructions. With no skills at all you could have your new home ready to occupy in as little as 90 days.
And you complain about putting a bookcase from Ikea together. Wimp.
In one of the first of the 75 pages or so of the instruction manual was a warning to follow the directions given to the letter. Don’t succumb to the professional carpenter who happens to wander past your home site and sniff “That ain’t the way I’d do it”. No, why should you listen to a professional who has spent his entire life building homes when you have an instruction manual that details how to build THIS house.
And you were wondering where all of this was headed.
This notion that anyone can do anything a professional can do and obtain the same, if not better, results has been around since the dawn of time. But the internet has made it even more pervasive. It’s moved beyond putting your own house together to being your own information gatherer, transportation specialist, accommodations guru, and even research scientist and/or medical professional. I mean why should you employ a travel agent who spends her day researching all options for your only two weeks of vacation in the year when you can spend all day trying to navigate Kayak just to find the worst hotel in all of Hilo (“but it’s such a bargain!”). And by the way, you don’t pay the travel agent, the best hotel at the best price in Hilo would pay her.
Travel is the least of the problem.
The worst of the problem isn’t even the yahoos who spend a couple of hours reading online forum posts about how “COVID isn’t real” or “Trump won the 2020 election” or “Biden was secretly replaced with a lizard alien shape shifter” and then yell and scream about it so much that you, me, all of us have to spend time shouting him down. I got news for you, COVID is real, Trump lost, and Biden was replaced with Jim Carrey not a lizard alien. OK, that last one isn’t true. Maybe.