12.30.2021
My mission…
…is to try to find some little spot of color in this otherwise desperately drab December.
12.29.2021
12.28.2021
Foodless in New York
Vax rules for kids to dine at NYC restaurants about to get more strict
"Even people from Union City in New Jersey were confused.”
12.26.2021
12.25.2021
The answer is [SPOILER ALERT], you're on your own
This is about the most unhelpful explanation of anything I've ever encountered.
5 things to know about COVID-19 tests in the age of Omicron
Good luck.
One of the many fault lines in our society exposed by this pandemic…
…and here I'm talking specifically about the U.S.…is the glaring fact that workers we call "essential" are often also the ones we treat the worst and pay the least. I'm talking about the shelf-stockers and cashiers, the bus drivers and burger flippers, the crop harvesters and baggers and all the many others who work hard at often part-time (or as we like to say, flexibly scheduled) jobs, some of them even on this Christmas Day.
In the words of New York Governor Kathy Hochul, "Positive cases don't mean you're too sick [to work] and require hospitalization.…We want to make sure our critical workforce ... can get back."
God bless them, every one. They will need it.
(And pay them more.)
12.24.2021
12.23.2021
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
US delays intelligence center targeting foreign influence
The intelligence community and Congress remain divided over the center’s mission, budget and size, according to current and former officials. While separate efforts to counter interference continue, a person identified this year as a potential director has since been assigned elsewhere and the center likely will not open anytime soon.
12.22.2021
Starting from scratch
When strange bedfellows fly
Biden's COVID home test plan faces supply chain hurdles
On the other hand, Swann said it’ll be easier to distribute rapid tests than COVID vaccines, which have to be held at low temperatures.
That means the Biden administration has more options to deliver tests, Swann added. “As examples, they could use the National Guard, they could partner with Amazon and Target and CVS.”
[Emphasis mine]
Available from Apple News https://apple.news/AU_mVRcMLS3OJuIA3j_UyEw
Go ahead, tell us how you really feel
Mark Zuckerberg Is TNR’s 2021 Scoundrel of the Year
The nitwit founder of Facebook has created the worst, most damaging website in the world. And we’re just supposed to accept it.
12.21.2021
I read somewhere…
…the practice of displaying lights at this time of year traces back to an ancient civilization that, noticing the sun seemed to be going away, believed building bonfires would help lure it back.
I don't know if that's true <misinformation alert> but if it is, these neighbors are doing their best to pitch in.
Today is the shortest day of the year (9 hours and 3 minutes of sun at this latitude). So now, more light each day and Spring right around the corner.
Stole a what? Where?
Police: Stolen Ohio bridge found, man facing theft charge
AKRON, Ohio (AP) — A 58-foot-long (18-meter) pedestrian bridge stolen from an Ohio city last month has been found and a man is facing charges, police said.
Ohio. Round on both ends and hi in the middle. Sort of like…oh, never mind.
12.19.2021
12.17.2021
Just shut up and eat that box
Pentagon looks to microbes to feed troops with air, water, maybe even trash turned to protein
“There is more energy in the packaging of an MRE than in the MRE itself,” ReSource program manager Dr. Blake Bextine said in a statement, using an acronym for Meals, Ready to Eat.
In days of old the field rations we got included a canned "entree," one each, of which there were four or five varieties, each one of which featured noodles, as I recall. We would get a big pot of water boiling and then all throw our canned entrees into the water to heat them up. This had the added advantage of soaking all the labels off, so we could entertain ourselves by guessing what it was we were eating.
Each packaged ration also included a small pack of toilet paper, half a pack of cigarettes (this was before cancer was invented), and a hot chocolate tablet. The tablet, about the size and consistency of a hockey puck, when soaked long enough in a canteen cup of hot water would soften enough to be gnawed and chewed. It tasted like…a hockey puck. But chocolatey.
Maybe our mistake was not eating the labels.
Cleanliness is next to…but not exactly…but maybe…
Has COVID made us too clean?
For more than two years…cleanliness has been dispensed in squirts, wipes, and sprays, and is often seen as an unalloyed good.
12.16.2021
And welcome to another day
‘Large, pink & elusive:’ S. Carolina police seek ruinous pig
Officers warned people not to try to approach the hefty hog, writing that “its size alone is of concern.”
12.15.2021
Seriously?
Record-high 5,674 guns seized at TSA checkpoints in 2021
Eighty-five percent of the firearms that were confiscated were loaded with ammunition – and the airports with the most seizures were Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, CBS News reported.
A quick review
There is a 2010 movie called The Debt available for streaming on Amazon Prime that's definitely (according to our correspondent, who shall remain anonymous) worth watching, if for no other reason that Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain both, and also a terrific story with an ending we will not reveal here.
[ALERT] There is a little kissing in this movie, but it does not get too out of hand.
It might be a bit cynical…
…to suggest that Time magazine's Person of the Year might be more aptly named Person Most Likely to Sell a Lot of Magazines in December. But the magazine itself points out the designation does not necessarily mean most laudible or even most popular—but something more like most influential.
Time magazine points out that controversial figures such as Adolf Hitler (1938), Joseph Stalin (1939 and 1942), Nikita Khrushchev (1957) and Ayatollah Khomeini (1979) have also been granted the title for their impact on events. [Wikipedia]
The Person of the Year in 2006, in fact, was…wait for it…you.
Wasn't that fun?
Still, it's difficult to see Elon Musk fitting comfortably into any of those categories.
Maybe more like Person Least Likely to Get Us Into Too Much Trouble This Year.
The thing about Wednesday mornings
Every week. I lug the garbage out to the curb, come back in, take off my jacket (hey, it's December)…and peel a banana. You see where this is going, right?
And yes, I've tried peeling the banana first, but it didn't help all that much. Because then something else was first, and it didn't take much time.
And don't even get me started on laundry.
Bah. Humbug.
Well, one other country, at least
A retro feel to Biden’s plan for covering OTC virus testing
Estimated prices for at-homes [sic] tests in the U.S. now range from about $15 to $30, compared with about $1 in Germany.
It might be nice to have a little more information there, AP. (In the UK, they're free.)
Nonetheless, it's way past time to do something about providing more equitable health care in the US. Medicare For All doesn't seem to be going anywhere (I've always thought VA For All would have been a better approach, but that's just me).
Now, it's time to bite the bullet, call it National Health Care, and get it done.
12.13.2021
A note in passing
"Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do"
— Jean-Paul Sartre
12.11.2021
File under More Stuff About Our Minimum-Wage Economy
Shortage of snowplow drivers hampers states as storms arrive
States from Washington to Pennsylvania, including Montana and Wyoming in the Rocky Mountains, are having trouble finding enough people willing to take the comparatively low-paying jobs that require a Commercial Driver’s License and often entail working at odd hours in dangerous conditions.
Maybe it's contagious—or maybe something in the water there
Delaware highway exit sign misspells the state’s name
Delaware’s transportation department and its contractor, Kiewit Infrastructure Company, say the sign was always meant to be temporary and has been replaced.
Newly added to our Work Avoidance Hall of Fame
Poweroutage.us
Keep track of where you might not want to be driving your shiny new EV today.
12.10.2021
I get it not (or maybe I do)
In context: Joe Biden’s ‘fair share’ comments on gas prices
"Two weeks ago, I announced the largest-ever release of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to increase the supply of oil to help bring down prices. And I met with our friends around the world. Other countries joined us.
Isn't this exactly the wrong thing to do if you're trying to get people to burn less fossil fuel (e.g. petroleum)?
Silly question, right?
US commander: Al-Qaida numbers in Afghanistan up ‘slightly’
“We’re probably at about 1 or 2% of the capabilities we once had to look into Afghanistan,” he said, adding that this makes it “very hard, not impossible” to ensure that neither al-Qaida nor the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate can pose a threat to the United States.
12.09.2021
In the eye of the beholder…
Dozens of camels barred from Saudi beauty contest over Botox
Saudi Arabia’s popular King Abdulaziz Camel Festival, which kicked off earlier this month, invites the breeders of the most beautiful camels to compete for some $66 million in prize money.
12.08.2021
I had a dream…
…about a scrambled egg sandwich covered with ketchup.
Clearly I need more ketchup in my life.
Remind me to mention that to Siri.
12.07.2021
12.05.2021
File under Stuff I'd Like to Know
" Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, President Biden assured that 'for the vast majority of the country' store shelves will not be empty…"
First, how vast is "vast"?Second, is that majority of the people (the majority of people live in urban areas and does not include me) or majority of the area (me)?
Not that it matters terribly much in this instance, but in general I imagine if we could learn to speak about our common problems more accurately it might go a long way toward solving them.
No need to make it worse than it is
"Will Sunday be a new rock bottom for the Bears? Who will play quarterback? Will Kyler Murray light them up? Team Sun-Times answers those, among other, depressing questions."
Refreshing, the thought…
US drugstores squeezed by vaccine demand, staff shortages
Pharmacists say demand for COVID-19 vaccines started picking up over the summer as the delta variant spread rapidly. Booster shots and the expansion of vaccine eligibility to include children have since stoked it.…of pharmacies being "squeezed," not emergency rooms.
On the other hand (or arm)…
Italian dentist presents fake arm for vaccine to get pass
12.04.2021
I wonder if they have a snow plow there
Rare blizzard warning in Hawaii, up to 12 inches of snow expected
The National Weather Service issued an “urgent” warning Friday ahead of a huge storm hitting the state, which generally has a tropical climate.
Downhill surfboarding, maybe?
12.03.2021
Our downtown at Christmas has all the personality of a wet cat
12.02.2021
There are "progressives" and then there are regressives, I'm thinking
Biden Administration to Restart Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico' Policy
Just about everything Biden does or says winds up being reversed or "walked back," doesn't it?
I'm beginning to get an itchy ambition to someday write a book entitled, Biden Backwards.
Laudible, but…
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…well…being called an offensive rookie is a little ambiguous, isn't it?
This is scandalously…strange?
Drink Like It’s 1972 in the Watergate Hotel’s New “Scandal Igloos”
The vintage orbs are outfitted with cozy blankets and Playboy-esque velvet chairs, working Victrola record players, nonworking typewriters, books about the Watergate, and other scandal-era accents. Food and drink also hearken back to 1972—think Singapore Slings, lamb chops with mint jelly, chocolate cigars, and the aforementioned fondue.
12.01.2021
Sort of like rock, paper, scissors
But in this case it's fruit, lettuce, whipped cream.
According to a certain person of my acquaintance, if you put your fruit on lettuce that makes it a salad, but you can't put whipped cream on a salad.
Decisions, decisions.
But maybe welcome news if you were a tree, yourself
Oh! Christmas tree? Cardboard display is the talk of a town
“Because the boardwalk is a focal point for Asbury Park’s thriving arts and music community, and because we have a long-standing and very strong relationship with top-name local artists, when presented with the concept for the sculpture, we passionately embraced the idea,” Leopold said.
Ahhh, passion. Pretty much the excuse for everything.
Scurrilous
Congress 'Asleep at the Switch' as Biden Continues Trump-Era Ploy to Privatize Medicare
Here's one of the nastiest scams I've heard about for a long, long time. Agree to "Medicare for All," then privatize Medicare. In an exceedingly ugly way, it's genius.
So why aren't the Medicare for All folks screaming about this? (For starters looking at you, Bernie.)
11.30.2021
Let's all freak out about this because of course
How the omicron variant unsettled the world in just one week: A visual timeline
By the time governments imposed restrictions, it was already clear the variant was in many countries: Cases were detected in Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong, Israel and other nations.
The fact it was first detected in South Africa, apparently the only county that tested for it, of course no way means that's where it started but, hey, you gotta start somewhere.
Not much else is evident, so far. "Preliminary" is the key word in every report. Nobody seems to know exactly what it is, but everybody's sure it is.
Why not buy somebody a banned book for Christmas?
As Calls to Ban Books Intensify, Digital Librarians Offer Perspective
Since Christmas itself was once banned by our Puritan countrymen it would seem fitting in some obscure way.
11.29.2021
File under Stuff You Absolutely Need to Know Right Now
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This disgraceful story keeps getting worse
What happened to the Afghanistan evacuation?
“We need some help, we really do,” Scott Mann, founder of Task Force Pineapple, which aims to connect people in Afghanistan with flights out of the country. “This is a problem of scale and it is outpacing us quickly.”
11.26.2021
11.24.2021
Out of sight, out of mind (or at least, maybe, out of the news)
California ship pileup still piling up — but out of sight, over horizon
“The overall flow of container ships and big-picture backup has not changed,” acknowledged Marine Exchange of Southern California Executive Director Kip Louttit.
Chapter II and counting
About those NYPD cops who DeSantis praised for coming to Florida: There are issues
Some of them included intriguing details about their past work or lives.…
[H/T Lawyers. Guns & Money]
11.23.2021
Notes from “1984” by George Orwell
1984
Chapter 7
If there is hope,' wrote Winston, 'it lies in the proles.' If there was hope, it MUST lie in the proles, because only there in those swarming disregarded masses, 85 per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within.
Excerpt From
Orwell, George. "1984." Sanctus Books, 2021-08-15. Apple Books.
This material may be protected by copyright.
11.21.2021
One more reason…
How Facebook and Google fund global misinformation
An MIT Technology Review investigation, based on expert interviews, data analyses, and documents that were not included in the Facebook Papers, has found that Facebook and Google are paying millions of ad dollars to bankroll clickbait actors, fueling the deterioration of information ecosystems around the world.
…to be…what?…concerned?
Worse?
11.20.2021
China what?
Blinken lays out US policy toward Africa and deliberately avoids mentioning China
The approach is a significant shift from Trump whose top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, often railed against Chinese-led infrastructure projects as “debt traps” during his three-country trip to Africa in 2020 and criticized telecom projects in Africa by the Chinese firm Huaweii.
11.19.2021
11.18.2021
Poolside diplomacy?
Biden muzzled: WH scraps presser with Canada, Mexico leaders amid prez blunders
“He’s going to be holding [meetings] with both of the leaders tomorrow. There will be pool sprays at the top of each of those. And then the North American Leaders Summit, where we’ll have a pool spray at the top of that,” White House spokesman Chris Meagher told reporters on Air Force One.
What's going on here with the pool sprays? I need an interpreter just to read the news.
11.17.2021
The Unburdening
The second-biggest program in the Democrats’ spending plan gives billions to the rich
The tax cut would partially reverse a tax hike from President Donald Trump’s signature 2017 tax bill that was particularly burdensome to high-income, high-tax states.
A Frosty Morning, or Trash Day in November
There won't be any question about the jacket in a few more weeks. Or about boots.
Also, next time I'm buying the bags with drawstrings at the top—and I mean it, too.
11.16.2021
High fives (or maybe tens) for the Cubs
New 10,000-square-foot pot dispensary opens within 400 feet of Wrigley Field
Sunnyside Wrigleyville opened less than 400 feet from the Friendly Confines Monday with the hopes of serving weed-inclined fans, concert-goers and other North Siders.
11.15.2021
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