I almost put down "Czech", but then it occurred to me that they were asking about my origin, not my ancestry, so I put down "American". I was reminded of the time I went to Europe with my parents and a bunch of other people back in the 60s. We flew to London, and then traveled by train from there. The flight attendant, who spoke with a British accent, asked us to fill out these cards on the flight so as to expedite our passage through customs when we arrived. One question was "nationality", and I almost wrote "Czech", but then I got to thinking that we were Americans from the British point of view. After discussing this with my parents and sister, we put down our nationality as "American". Turned out we were the only people in the group who did it right, and everybody else had to do their cards over.
Now that I think of it, women couldn't vote back in 1790, but the census counted them anyway. I can see the reasoning behind counting everybody who is a permanent resident, but I don't think they should count people on temporary visas, and certainly not the illegals. I suppose the reason is so they know where to send the federal money, but the census determines our congressional representation and I don't think that it should include visitors, especially illegal visitors. Many of the houses around Cheboygan are second homes, which are taxed more than primary residences. It could be argued that, since these people pay property tax here, they should be able to vote here, but then they would be voting twice, once in their home precinct and once here, and they would have two different congressmen representing them at once.
I had to think about it, but Beaglesonia must be about the same elevation as the northern part of the City of Cheboygan, which isn't much higher than the Straits of Mackinaw. The road we live on doesn't go through, so we have to jog a half mile or so to the south before turning west to the city. There is a steep grade, called the Butler Hill, on this southern jog. Now that I think of it, it's at the top of this grade that I notice the difference in temperature. There is a dam and lock on the Cheboygan River, with about a 20 foot drop, which approximately lines up with the Butler Hill. I have heard the southern part of Cheboygan called "the heights", although there is no noticeable change in elevation as you drive south on Main Street. Be that as it may, our small airport west of town should be about the same elevation as the northern part of the city. This might be where they get the officially reported temperature, although they used to get it at the wastewater treatment plant before the airport was built, and maybe they still do. That's right on the waterfront, while we are about a mile back from it, but I don't think there's much of an elevation difference.
Has it occurred to anybody to question whether this corona lock down is doing any good? It seems like the numbers in Michigan have been rising faster since the lockdown was imposed. Of course that doesn't prove cause and effect, but it kind of makes me wonder.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
those press conferences
As a kid I was an avid reader of the comic page, especially fascinating to me are those strips like The Boarding House that seemed old even then and that wacky precursor of underground comic strips Smokey Stover. We got the Tribune every morning, My grandfather used to read a rag called The Herald American which even at an early age seemed lowbrow to me. I was aware of the Daily News, it seemed kind of racy and alluring but I didn't read it much. My favorite newspaper, when I came of age to buy my own, was the Sun-Times, primarily because of its tabloid format.
It's hard to read that poem by Taupin without hearing the music of the song. I don't see how it could ever stand alone, but you can kind of tell that it was meant to be the words of a song. I think Bernie must have had some kind of ur-music in his head when he wrote it, waiting on Elton's refining it.
I got my census form and filled it out on the computer using that 12 digit code. I thought it was passing strange that they wanted more than White of my ethnicity, you know where my people came from in Europe. I wrote in Czech because I am more that than anything else and it has a clearer definition than Bohemian, but I have to wonder what difference did that make. How is the government going to do something differently with that information than they would do if I had put down Italian? And then yesterday I got another thing in the mail with a 12 digit code. Well maybe for some reason it hadn't taken. I entered the 12 digit code but then it told me it couldn't use that code and I am thinking probably because I had already used it, but then there was an option to go on without the code and I took that to see where it went and it seems like it went through with the same name, address, etc. So maybe I am registered twice. Well more power to the great state of Illinois.
It seems logical that the swamp lies in some depression from the surrounding land. Surveying the world from outside his front door, does Beagles get any impression that he is living in a bowl?
The southern states wanted their slaves to be counted for their representation, but taxes those days were levied by that state rather than individually so they didn't want slaves to be counted as a factor in how much taxes the state had to pay the feds. It was 3/5 not 2/5.
Trump would like you to think he is running this corona thing, but he is not. He has no power to put shelter in place on the states, and there is no reason to believe that the states, acting in accord to the health of their constituents rather than Trump's stock market numbers, would relinquish shelter before its time regardless of presidential bluster. Fauci and that woman who always dresses to the nines are the only brains in the task force and they had to tell Trump that Easter was a stupid idea. Surprisingly he listened to them. But he never listens to anybody for long and I expect him to blow up about it somewhere down the line. But even the most lickspittle of his toadies have enough sense to see that unsheltering early would lead to more deaths, perhaps even their own.
I've watched almost all of those press conferences (I know, I'm sick) and Pence is the well-dressed polite maitre de, the toadies are the clowns tripping over their oversized shoes to praise Trump more than the guys next to them, Fauci and Ms Fashion Plate are the brains and Trump is one of those balloon guys you see outside gas stations when they are having big sales, some say the biggest sale there has ever been in the world.
It's hard to read that poem by Taupin without hearing the music of the song. I don't see how it could ever stand alone, but you can kind of tell that it was meant to be the words of a song. I think Bernie must have had some kind of ur-music in his head when he wrote it, waiting on Elton's refining it.
I got my census form and filled it out on the computer using that 12 digit code. I thought it was passing strange that they wanted more than White of my ethnicity, you know where my people came from in Europe. I wrote in Czech because I am more that than anything else and it has a clearer definition than Bohemian, but I have to wonder what difference did that make. How is the government going to do something differently with that information than they would do if I had put down Italian? And then yesterday I got another thing in the mail with a 12 digit code. Well maybe for some reason it hadn't taken. I entered the 12 digit code but then it told me it couldn't use that code and I am thinking probably because I had already used it, but then there was an option to go on without the code and I took that to see where it went and it seems like it went through with the same name, address, etc. So maybe I am registered twice. Well more power to the great state of Illinois.
It seems logical that the swamp lies in some depression from the surrounding land. Surveying the world from outside his front door, does Beagles get any impression that he is living in a bowl?
The southern states wanted their slaves to be counted for their representation, but taxes those days were levied by that state rather than individually so they didn't want slaves to be counted as a factor in how much taxes the state had to pay the feds. It was 3/5 not 2/5.
Trump would like you to think he is running this corona thing, but he is not. He has no power to put shelter in place on the states, and there is no reason to believe that the states, acting in accord to the health of their constituents rather than Trump's stock market numbers, would relinquish shelter before its time regardless of presidential bluster. Fauci and that woman who always dresses to the nines are the only brains in the task force and they had to tell Trump that Easter was a stupid idea. Surprisingly he listened to them. But he never listens to anybody for long and I expect him to blow up about it somewhere down the line. But even the most lickspittle of his toadies have enough sense to see that unsheltering early would lead to more deaths, perhaps even their own.
I've watched almost all of those press conferences (I know, I'm sick) and Pence is the well-dressed polite maitre de, the toadies are the clowns tripping over their oversized shoes to praise Trump more than the guys next to them, Fauci and Ms Fashion Plate are the brains and Trump is one of those balloon guys you see outside gas stations when they are having big sales, some say the biggest sale there has ever been in the world.
Monday, March 30, 2020
Mostly Warmer in the Swamp
We generally run about five degrees warmer than the officially reported temperature for Cheboygan, except on a clear calm night when we might run about five degrees cooler and have frost in the morning when the city does not. My new truck has a thermometer that measures the outside temperature, and I have noticed it drop several degrees right before my eyes as I drive towards town. Funny thing, though, it takes longer for our snow to melt and for our trees to leaf out in the spring. The only reason I can think of is that our soil freezes harder because it's so wet.
We got our census form in the mail a week or two ago, and I filled it out and mailed it right back to them. It occurred to me that they count everybody who is living in the US, citizen or not, and that determines how many congressmen each state gets. It seems, then, that a state with a high immigrant population might get congressional representation that is out of proportion to their eligible voting population. I don't know if that's what the founders had in mind, but they might have, because they counted 2/5 of the slaves even though the slaves couldn't vote. This gave the southern states more political clout than they should have had, but not as much as they would have had if all the slaves were counted, which is what the South wanted.
Speaking of politics, I heard that Trump, who had promised that the virus thing would be over with by Easter, is now saying that it might last till the end of April. Bummer!
We got our census form in the mail a week or two ago, and I filled it out and mailed it right back to them. It occurred to me that they count everybody who is living in the US, citizen or not, and that determines how many congressmen each state gets. It seems, then, that a state with a high immigrant population might get congressional representation that is out of proportion to their eligible voting population. I don't know if that's what the founders had in mind, but they might have, because they counted 2/5 of the slaves even though the slaves couldn't vote. This gave the southern states more political clout than they should have had, but not as much as they would have had if all the slaves were counted, which is what the South wanted.
Speaking of politics, I heard that Trump, who had promised that the virus thing would be over with by Easter, is now saying that it might last till the end of April. Bummer!
Another Monday
Uncle Ken and I must have read the same funny papers since we both remembered the comic There Oughta Be a Law! As soon as I read the post by Mr. Beagles I did an image search and found a nice example and was going to post it, despite the late hour. I decided to wait and see if Uncle Ken had anything to say, and sure enough, he did. I'm glad I waited and didn't end up stealing his thunder. And as a bonus for Uncle Ken, I found the original handwritten lyrics to Rocket Man by Bernie Taupin. It's interesting how Elton John tweaked the words to fit his music; compare and contrast!
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As long as I was digging into the lyrics of Bernie Taupin, I wound up on YouTube
viewing the many live performances of Elton John over the decades. He's been singing Rocket Man since the early 70s and you can tell he loves performing for a crowd. The guy's a consummate entertainer and his costumes are beyond outrageous. Check out his live versions of Bennie and the Jets; they're my favorites.
Watching those videos I couldn't help but think that Elton John is the Baby Boomer version of that son of West Allis, Wisconsin, Liberace. And talk about flamboyant costumes, Yikes! I remember when he had his TV show for a while and how my mother used to love to watch him, but I thought there was something strange about him but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. But I was a kid and completely unaware of the variations of adult behavior, and what was considered "normal." One of my mother's country cousins used to describe fellows such as Liberace as being artistic, which is as fine a euphemism as any.
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Have either of you guys gotten your census forms yet? I got mine last week and now you answer the questions online; they'll send you a paper questionnaire if you don't have internet access, I guess. I got a Nielsen TV survey, too. They include a dollar bill, and if you return the form they send you a fiver. Easy money!
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No sense in yapping about the state of the world, is there? I think we just have to hold on and ride this thing out; we don't have a whole lot of control over what's happening but the effectiveness of our federal government is a tragedy.
There's been a new phrase making the rounds the past few months by a writer of post-apocalyptical novels, G. Michael Hopf. He wrote: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
Makes sense to me.
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As long as I was digging into the lyrics of Bernie Taupin, I wound up on YouTube
viewing the many live performances of Elton John over the decades. He's been singing Rocket Man since the early 70s and you can tell he loves performing for a crowd. The guy's a consummate entertainer and his costumes are beyond outrageous. Check out his live versions of Bennie and the Jets; they're my favorites.
Watching those videos I couldn't help but think that Elton John is the Baby Boomer version of that son of West Allis, Wisconsin, Liberace. And talk about flamboyant costumes, Yikes! I remember when he had his TV show for a while and how my mother used to love to watch him, but I thought there was something strange about him but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. But I was a kid and completely unaware of the variations of adult behavior, and what was considered "normal." One of my mother's country cousins used to describe fellows such as Liberace as being artistic, which is as fine a euphemism as any.
-----
Have either of you guys gotten your census forms yet? I got mine last week and now you answer the questions online; they'll send you a paper questionnaire if you don't have internet access, I guess. I got a Nielsen TV survey, too. They include a dollar bill, and if you return the form they send you a fiver. Easy money!
-----
No sense in yapping about the state of the world, is there? I think we just have to hold on and ride this thing out; we don't have a whole lot of control over what's happening but the effectiveness of our federal government is a tragedy.
There's been a new phrase making the rounds the past few months by a writer of post-apocalyptical novels, G. Michael Hopf. He wrote: “Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.”
Makes sense to me.
cooler by the lake
Cooler by the lake, I remember hearing that all the time. Right as the weatherman was wrapping up his prognostication he would add, like an unnecessary afterthought, cooler by the lake. Didn't mean much to me growing up in Gage Park seven miles west of the lake, and actually sounded like kind of a benefit when I moved into my tower with the splendid lake view. I love air conditioning when like on a sweaty day I burst into the Walgreens and it is like diving into an arctic pool, but I don't like it at home because then I have to shut my door and I can no longer feel the breezes wafting in my front room and out my bedroom. So it was nice living by the lake where it is cooler in the summer and sometimes I go the whole year without having to turn the air conditioning on.
But while it's not so hot, in a good way, in the summer; it is also not so hot in a bad way come spring when prevailing weather patterns bring the winds from the north and the northeast, from the lake, that long finger of winter, slow to warm, as is the way with water, and the already cool winds that caress the swamp get cooler as they travel three hundred miles over cool, cool water, and spring, that fair, slim maiden in the green gold gown is held hostage by that troll Old Man Winter, as he slowly, ever so slowly retreats to the north.
So for about a month when further inland daffodils are tossing their tow-headed heads in balmy breezes and the air rings with the laughter of little kids at play, the lakeside days are cold, windy, wet, raw. We are still allowed, as long as we don't go near any park, and do not travel in packs, to walk the streets of the city. I was looking forward to this at least, when the weather warmed just to walk downtown, admire the architecture, feel the fresh breeze on my face, get out of the fucking house Man. If it was merely cold I could weather it, but the rain, the wind, I just can't hit my stride with that.
And it's strange out there. Though not as many as before, there are still cars, and busses, so many busses, those big flex busses that go on and on, and nobody is in them. I should get on one, just to ride and look out the window. I should just pick one at random, not even look at that little sign above the driver's window just to see where it takes me, At the end of the line I could just get on one coming back. Plenty of time to kill, kind of an adventure, any kind of adventure is welcome in my housebound existence, but I am strangely afraid, just because nobody else is getting on them.
It doesn't make any sense but there it is,. and here it is cooler by the lake, and will be for weeks.
But while it's not so hot, in a good way, in the summer; it is also not so hot in a bad way come spring when prevailing weather patterns bring the winds from the north and the northeast, from the lake, that long finger of winter, slow to warm, as is the way with water, and the already cool winds that caress the swamp get cooler as they travel three hundred miles over cool, cool water, and spring, that fair, slim maiden in the green gold gown is held hostage by that troll Old Man Winter, as he slowly, ever so slowly retreats to the north.
So for about a month when further inland daffodils are tossing their tow-headed heads in balmy breezes and the air rings with the laughter of little kids at play, the lakeside days are cold, windy, wet, raw. We are still allowed, as long as we don't go near any park, and do not travel in packs, to walk the streets of the city. I was looking forward to this at least, when the weather warmed just to walk downtown, admire the architecture, feel the fresh breeze on my face, get out of the fucking house Man. If it was merely cold I could weather it, but the rain, the wind, I just can't hit my stride with that.
And it's strange out there. Though not as many as before, there are still cars, and busses, so many busses, those big flex busses that go on and on, and nobody is in them. I should get on one, just to ride and look out the window. I should just pick one at random, not even look at that little sign above the driver's window just to see where it takes me, At the end of the line I could just get on one coming back. Plenty of time to kill, kind of an adventure, any kind of adventure is welcome in my housebound existence, but I am strangely afraid, just because nobody else is getting on them.
It doesn't make any sense but there it is,. and here it is cooler by the lake, and will be for weeks.
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Update From Up North
I had forgotten about those two comic strips but, when I looked at them, they looked familiar.
Slackers are a problem with any system, and different cultures have dealt with them in different ways. Generally, a culture will tolerate slackers until times get tough, and then the culture gets tough on the slackers.
Cheboygan County has reported its first case of coronavirus. It was only a matter of time, since counties on three sides of us have it, if you count Mackinaw County across the straits. The count for the whole state is somewhere in the thousands and is rising as we speak, with 134 deaths so far. I haven't heard anything about Illinois, but several urban centers including Detroit are hotspots, so I suppose Chicago will be too, if it isn't already.
Shopping conditions in Cheboygan have improved since last weekend. There is more product on the shelves, and I even found some toilet paper in a gas station convenience store. It was 2 ply and they didn't have much of it, so I left it for somebody who might need it more than we do. We are good for a couple of weeks yet, and then we've got to get serious about finding some. None of the stores are accepting deposit bottle and can returns by order of our governor, I suppose to minimize anything that might be contaminated coming into the stores. Checkout clerks are wearing gloves now, but not masks. I still have not seen anybody wearing a mask except on TV. The six foot rule is starting to be enforced, at least in the checkout lines, which are marked off with tape on the floors.
My recliner chair, which is where I sleep at night, is broken, but I will have to make do with it for awhile, since I doubt that furniture stores are on the "essentials" list. I tried to fix it myself with no success. There is a pivot point connector broken off, and I couldn't drift or drill the hole out to put a bolt in it. It looks like they put it together with some kind of press and then built the chair around it. The good news is that it has lasted almost 20 years, so the next one should be the last recliner I ever have to buy.
Slackers are a problem with any system, and different cultures have dealt with them in different ways. Generally, a culture will tolerate slackers until times get tough, and then the culture gets tough on the slackers.
Cheboygan County has reported its first case of coronavirus. It was only a matter of time, since counties on three sides of us have it, if you count Mackinaw County across the straits. The count for the whole state is somewhere in the thousands and is rising as we speak, with 134 deaths so far. I haven't heard anything about Illinois, but several urban centers including Detroit are hotspots, so I suppose Chicago will be too, if it isn't already.
Shopping conditions in Cheboygan have improved since last weekend. There is more product on the shelves, and I even found some toilet paper in a gas station convenience store. It was 2 ply and they didn't have much of it, so I left it for somebody who might need it more than we do. We are good for a couple of weeks yet, and then we've got to get serious about finding some. None of the stores are accepting deposit bottle and can returns by order of our governor, I suppose to minimize anything that might be contaminated coming into the stores. Checkout clerks are wearing gloves now, but not masks. I still have not seen anybody wearing a mask except on TV. The six foot rule is starting to be enforced, at least in the checkout lines, which are marked off with tape on the floors.
My recliner chair, which is where I sleep at night, is broken, but I will have to make do with it for awhile, since I doubt that furniture stores are on the "essentials" list. I tried to fix it myself with no success. There is a pivot point connector broken off, and I couldn't drift or drill the hole out to put a bolt in it. It looks like they put it together with some kind of press and then built the chair around it. The good news is that it has lasted almost 20 years, so the next one should be the last recliner I ever have to buy.
Friday, March 27, 2020
the problem with communism
If you care to stroll down memory lane:
There Oughta Be a Law!, or TOBAL!, was a single-panel newspaper comic strip, created by Harry Shorten and Al Fagaly, which was syndicated for four decades from 1944 to 1985.[1] The gags illustrated minor absurdities, frustrations, hypocrisies, ironies and misfortunes of everyday life, displayed in a single-panel or two-panel format. There Oughta Be a Law! was highly derivative of Jimmy Hatlo's They'll Do It Every Time[2] which had a long run over eight decades, from 1929 to 2008.
I remember it well. To see some of the original toons you can go here:
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk03lfpNy9CkJRTjHBRZiKmL4hzVAyQ:1585306383698&q=there+ought+to+be+a+law+cartoon&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjI5vC-vrroAhVUkHIEHQXoCSIQsAR6BAgLEAE&biw=757&bih=716
I used to ponder revenge, from an evolutionary standpoint. What function did it serve? People have been known to go to great lengths and expend wealth and time just to get revenge, and whether they succeed or fail they are almost always worse off for the effort. And you can feel it inside yourself. Somebody does you some kind of wrong and you have to get even. Often you will daydream elaborate scenarios of revenge, and for most of us, us sensible people, that is enough. Revenge is a dish best served cold some say, but even better is not served at all. Let it go, you will be better off for it. Evolutionary biology maintains that if we examine our makeup everything about us can be explained as something that helps us survive, or else it would have been dropped long ago.
Altruism is a thing that has aided man greatly in conquering the world. Sure we fight a lot, but we also cooperate a lot, do onto others as you would have others do onto you. When Timmy falls into a well, we will almost always go to great lengths to get him out even if he is a complete stranger. Maybe some apes and some dolphins might do something similar, but not too much and not very often.
From each according to their ability, to each according to their need, who could argue with that? The great hunter and his party bring back the mastodon and everybody feasts, and oh my look at Harry, he is certainly putting it away, which he does all the time and that's why he is so fat, why one can barely conceive of him crawling through the weeds on his belly to sneak up on the mastodon, and come to think of it, when is the last time anybody in the tribe can remember him doing that? Never, Never sounds about right.
Harry has figured something out. Those mastodon hunts can get pretty dicey. You could get killed, you could get maimed, you could at least get scarred. Handsome Harry would not be so handsome with a big slash from his eye to his mouth and likely would not have been able to win the heart of Debbie with her grand child-bearing hips, which have borne many mouths to feed and many of them emulating their daddy so that every generation the hunting party gets smaller. How much longer will this tribe survive?
And then along comes Al, and maybe it's a mutation or more likely a refinement of already existing genes.but he carries the gene for revenge. While none of the other tribesmen are particularly piqued by Harry's behavior, it pisses Al off. He calls Harry out, likely gives him a couple sharp blows to the head, and Harry either mends his ways or slinks off to starve. What a man, everybody acclaims Angry Al, including Debbie of the broad hips. The tribe prospers.
And that is a very simplified version of why communism looks good on paper, but in practice, not so hot.
There Oughta Be a Law!, or TOBAL!, was a single-panel newspaper comic strip, created by Harry Shorten and Al Fagaly, which was syndicated for four decades from 1944 to 1985.[1] The gags illustrated minor absurdities, frustrations, hypocrisies, ironies and misfortunes of everyday life, displayed in a single-panel or two-panel format. There Oughta Be a Law! was highly derivative of Jimmy Hatlo's They'll Do It Every Time[2] which had a long run over eight decades, from 1929 to 2008.
I remember it well. To see some of the original toons you can go here:
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk03lfpNy9CkJRTjHBRZiKmL4hzVAyQ:1585306383698&q=there+ought+to+be+a+law+cartoon&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjI5vC-vrroAhVUkHIEHQXoCSIQsAR6BAgLEAE&biw=757&bih=716
I used to ponder revenge, from an evolutionary standpoint. What function did it serve? People have been known to go to great lengths and expend wealth and time just to get revenge, and whether they succeed or fail they are almost always worse off for the effort. And you can feel it inside yourself. Somebody does you some kind of wrong and you have to get even. Often you will daydream elaborate scenarios of revenge, and for most of us, us sensible people, that is enough. Revenge is a dish best served cold some say, but even better is not served at all. Let it go, you will be better off for it. Evolutionary biology maintains that if we examine our makeup everything about us can be explained as something that helps us survive, or else it would have been dropped long ago.
Altruism is a thing that has aided man greatly in conquering the world. Sure we fight a lot, but we also cooperate a lot, do onto others as you would have others do onto you. When Timmy falls into a well, we will almost always go to great lengths to get him out even if he is a complete stranger. Maybe some apes and some dolphins might do something similar, but not too much and not very often.
From each according to their ability, to each according to their need, who could argue with that? The great hunter and his party bring back the mastodon and everybody feasts, and oh my look at Harry, he is certainly putting it away, which he does all the time and that's why he is so fat, why one can barely conceive of him crawling through the weeds on his belly to sneak up on the mastodon, and come to think of it, when is the last time anybody in the tribe can remember him doing that? Never, Never sounds about right.
Harry has figured something out. Those mastodon hunts can get pretty dicey. You could get killed, you could get maimed, you could at least get scarred. Handsome Harry would not be so handsome with a big slash from his eye to his mouth and likely would not have been able to win the heart of Debbie with her grand child-bearing hips, which have borne many mouths to feed and many of them emulating their daddy so that every generation the hunting party gets smaller. How much longer will this tribe survive?
And then along comes Al, and maybe it's a mutation or more likely a refinement of already existing genes.but he carries the gene for revenge. While none of the other tribesmen are particularly piqued by Harry's behavior, it pisses Al off. He calls Harry out, likely gives him a couple sharp blows to the head, and Harry either mends his ways or slinks off to starve. What a man, everybody acclaims Angry Al, including Debbie of the broad hips. The tribe prospers.
And that is a very simplified version of why communism looks good on paper, but in practice, not so hot.
Thursday, March 26, 2020
There Oughta Be a Law
I have read "The Communist Manifesto", but not "Das Capital". I don't remember the Manifesto saying much about communism, it mostly talked about what was wrong with capitalism. Maybe "Das Capital" is the one that explains how communism was supposed to work. From what I've picked up from other sources over the years, I think that communism would work if people did it right, but the same could be said about most any system. It seems logical that, if people like a system, they will make it work, and that, if they don't like a system, they will make I fail, but I don't think that's always the case. Many, perhaps most, people don't care about ideology, all they care about is what works out best for themselves and their friends. They will work with, against, or outside of any system to get what they want. That doesn't mean they don't pay lip service to whatever system they have been conditioned to accept, it just means that "There's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip." - Shakespeare?
I think, if you want to start a new system or modify or even overthrow an existing system, you need to come up with a catchy name or phrase that hasn't been used before, at least not in recent memory. If you call it anything that ends with "ism", half the people will reject it and the other half will make a nuisance of themselves extoling its virtues. Do you remember how, when we were kids, the grown ups used to say, "There oughta be a law....." a lot? It wasn't always about politics or legal matters, it was often about stuff that's not within the domain of any legal system like, "There oughta be a law against rain on the weekends." I can't remember the last time I heard anybody use that phrase, I suppose it died out with our parents' generation and would be new to most people alive today. I don't know how we would incorporate it into our organizational title, "The There Oughta Be a Law Party" seems kind of cumbersome, but we could work out details like that later. Meanwhile, try this out for size:
There oughta be a law against building luxury apartments instead of decent affordable housing.
There oughta be a law against insurance companies running up the cost of health care.
There oughta be a law against advertising and packaging that adds nothing to a product but cost.
Here's one of mine: There oughta be a law against sports programs pre-empting my TV shows.
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Meanwhile the virus marches on. Last I heard, Michigan has almost 3000 cases and 60 deaths. None in Cheboygan County so far, but the single case in Otsego County has grown to eight.
I think, if you want to start a new system or modify or even overthrow an existing system, you need to come up with a catchy name or phrase that hasn't been used before, at least not in recent memory. If you call it anything that ends with "ism", half the people will reject it and the other half will make a nuisance of themselves extoling its virtues. Do you remember how, when we were kids, the grown ups used to say, "There oughta be a law....." a lot? It wasn't always about politics or legal matters, it was often about stuff that's not within the domain of any legal system like, "There oughta be a law against rain on the weekends." I can't remember the last time I heard anybody use that phrase, I suppose it died out with our parents' generation and would be new to most people alive today. I don't know how we would incorporate it into our organizational title, "The There Oughta Be a Law Party" seems kind of cumbersome, but we could work out details like that later. Meanwhile, try this out for size:
There oughta be a law against building luxury apartments instead of decent affordable housing.
There oughta be a law against insurance companies running up the cost of health care.
There oughta be a law against advertising and packaging that adds nothing to a product but cost.
Here's one of mine: There oughta be a law against sports programs pre-empting my TV shows.
******************************************************************************
Meanwhile the virus marches on. Last I heard, Michigan has almost 3000 cases and 60 deaths. None in Cheboygan County so far, but the single case in Otsego County has grown to eight.
the commie in me
Most of them are luxury apartments for the very rich who have like one in New York, one in Tokyo, one in London, etc so they are rarely here in Chicago and their apartments sit empty while poor folk can't even find room in an SRO and have to sleep in the street. Brings out the commie in me.
If I do say so myself, and I do. When I say commie I am not referring to the grim, humorless, decidedly illiberal institute of the communist party. I have not read Das Kapital, and all this stuff about dialectical materialism, I'm not sure what that means. I just mean kind of a grass roots, Joe Sixpack kind of thing where this just doesn't seem right, and maybe we should do something about it. I am going to list three examples,
The first is those luxury apartments. Like I said they are popping up all over in Chicago, meanwhile there is a shortage of affordable housing. The contrast I made in my initial comment was with the homeless ,but let's take that up a notch to the folks that Beagles and I grew up with in the great bungalow belt. Modest people of modest means, nowadays they might be called lower middle class or blue collar, these are the people who can afford what is called affordable housing, of which there is a shortage, so you would think they would be building more of that instead of luxury apartments.
These luxury apartments are huge, they contain easily enough square footage to contain four apartments the size of mine, and you could charge four people a fourth apiece of the rent they are getting from the richy rich. I am not sure if that would bring it down to the affordable level, but it would certainly be a step in the right direction, so why doesn't anybody do that? I did a very brief internet search on the subject and the answer that came back resoundingly was market forces, that's why. Well maybe something should be done to change those market forces.
The second example is medical insurance. There is talk of socialized medicine, single payer, medicare for all etc. and I don't understand the intricacies of them, but one thing stands out. The insurance companies are huge, they build tall buildings they fill the airwaves with commercials of grinning bumpkins displaying their cards because now they can have all kinds of healthcare because the insurance companies will give it to them. But of course the insurance companies do not actually deliver any health care. All they do is give themselves a big cut of any transaction between you and your provider, some of it comes out of your pocket and some of it comes out of the potential earnings of the provider, none of which goes directly to your healthcare, Cut out the insurance companies and your healthcare does not suffer at all, and there is all this money left over for you and your provider.
The third is focus groups. Let's use the example of aspirins. When you go to the drugstore there is a dizzying array of aspirins in all kinds of packaging,but they are all the same damn thing and anybody who buys anything but the generic is a damn fool. I've taken part in some focus groups and I don't recall exactly what they were peddling but it was something like aspirin. They get seven or eight people who get around a hundred bucks each and they bring them into some room in a fancy office building that surely costs a pretty penny and some salaried people conduct it, and in one group it was packaging, which package would make you more likely to buy Anacin than Bayer, and in another it was commercials, which commercial would make you more likely to buy Bayer than Anacin.
There are damn fools that buy either brand rather than the generic and the extra money they spend for it funds those focus groups which have no real function as far as eliminating your headache. One of the supposed virtues of capitalism is that you have all these companies competing with each other and the ones that make the best products win out and therefore the consumer gets the best products. But they are not spending much money on making a better product, they are spending most of their money on advertising which has nothing to do with how good the product is/
And that's the commie in me.
If I do say so myself, and I do. When I say commie I am not referring to the grim, humorless, decidedly illiberal institute of the communist party. I have not read Das Kapital, and all this stuff about dialectical materialism, I'm not sure what that means. I just mean kind of a grass roots, Joe Sixpack kind of thing where this just doesn't seem right, and maybe we should do something about it. I am going to list three examples,
The first is those luxury apartments. Like I said they are popping up all over in Chicago, meanwhile there is a shortage of affordable housing. The contrast I made in my initial comment was with the homeless ,but let's take that up a notch to the folks that Beagles and I grew up with in the great bungalow belt. Modest people of modest means, nowadays they might be called lower middle class or blue collar, these are the people who can afford what is called affordable housing, of which there is a shortage, so you would think they would be building more of that instead of luxury apartments.
These luxury apartments are huge, they contain easily enough square footage to contain four apartments the size of mine, and you could charge four people a fourth apiece of the rent they are getting from the richy rich. I am not sure if that would bring it down to the affordable level, but it would certainly be a step in the right direction, so why doesn't anybody do that? I did a very brief internet search on the subject and the answer that came back resoundingly was market forces, that's why. Well maybe something should be done to change those market forces.
The second example is medical insurance. There is talk of socialized medicine, single payer, medicare for all etc. and I don't understand the intricacies of them, but one thing stands out. The insurance companies are huge, they build tall buildings they fill the airwaves with commercials of grinning bumpkins displaying their cards because now they can have all kinds of healthcare because the insurance companies will give it to them. But of course the insurance companies do not actually deliver any health care. All they do is give themselves a big cut of any transaction between you and your provider, some of it comes out of your pocket and some of it comes out of the potential earnings of the provider, none of which goes directly to your healthcare, Cut out the insurance companies and your healthcare does not suffer at all, and there is all this money left over for you and your provider.
The third is focus groups. Let's use the example of aspirins. When you go to the drugstore there is a dizzying array of aspirins in all kinds of packaging,but they are all the same damn thing and anybody who buys anything but the generic is a damn fool. I've taken part in some focus groups and I don't recall exactly what they were peddling but it was something like aspirin. They get seven or eight people who get around a hundred bucks each and they bring them into some room in a fancy office building that surely costs a pretty penny and some salaried people conduct it, and in one group it was packaging, which package would make you more likely to buy Anacin than Bayer, and in another it was commercials, which commercial would make you more likely to buy Bayer than Anacin.
There are damn fools that buy either brand rather than the generic and the extra money they spend for it funds those focus groups which have no real function as far as eliminating your headache. One of the supposed virtues of capitalism is that you have all these companies competing with each other and the ones that make the best products win out and therefore the consumer gets the best products. But they are not spending much money on making a better product, they are spending most of their money on advertising which has nothing to do with how good the product is/
And that's the commie in me.
Wednesday, March 25, 2020
Pulling the Plug
Way back in the 80s when I was first learning about computers at work, we hourly types were spooked by them, but the young managers assured us that a computer could always be put back in its place by simply pulling the plug. I used to do that periodically with my first PC until somebody told me that I could get the same effect with less risk of damaging my machine by simultaneously pressing Ctrl, Alt, and Delete. I've only had to do that with my present machine a few times, but I seem to remember there was one time that didn't work and I resorted to plug pulling, which did work.
Presidents and governors can temporarily suspend civil liberties by declaring a state of emergency. I'm not sure if it's in the Constitution, it might be something left over from English Common Law. I think there is a time limit to it, maybe 30 days, and then they have to ask the legislature for an extension. I seem to remember that Trump once declared a state of emergency and Congress voted to pull the plug on it, but Trump vetoed the bill and Congress couldn't muster the necessary 2/3 majority to over ride the veto. I think the courts got involved but, before they could do anything, the state of emergency timed out. I think most of the current corona restrictions have been imposed at the state level.
I haven't heard anything about the Tea Party Movement, which was founded in reaction to Obama's election, since Trump was elected. I think they just declared victory and went home. I understand that some people in Europe are defying their governments and holding corona parties. Then there were those spring breakers down in Florida, but I think they've been shut down since the governor closed all the beaches.
Cheboygan County still has not reported one corona case, and neither has Presque Isle County, our neighbor to the east. Last I heard, Emmet County to the west and Otsego County to the south were still reporting one case each. Other parts of the state are not faring so well, I think the numbers doubled in the last day or two. I haven't heard yet if the toilet paper sale at Great Lakes Tissue was held today as scheduled. "Essential" businesses are exempt from our governor's "Stay home and stay safe" order. I would think that toilet paper would be on the "essential" list, but I don't know that for a fact.
Presidents and governors can temporarily suspend civil liberties by declaring a state of emergency. I'm not sure if it's in the Constitution, it might be something left over from English Common Law. I think there is a time limit to it, maybe 30 days, and then they have to ask the legislature for an extension. I seem to remember that Trump once declared a state of emergency and Congress voted to pull the plug on it, but Trump vetoed the bill and Congress couldn't muster the necessary 2/3 majority to over ride the veto. I think the courts got involved but, before they could do anything, the state of emergency timed out. I think most of the current corona restrictions have been imposed at the state level.
I haven't heard anything about the Tea Party Movement, which was founded in reaction to Obama's election, since Trump was elected. I think they just declared victory and went home. I understand that some people in Europe are defying their governments and holding corona parties. Then there were those spring breakers down in Florida, but I think they've been shut down since the governor closed all the beaches.
Cheboygan County still has not reported one corona case, and neither has Presque Isle County, our neighbor to the east. Last I heard, Emmet County to the west and Otsego County to the south were still reporting one case each. Other parts of the state are not faring so well, I think the numbers doubled in the last day or two. I haven't heard yet if the toilet paper sale at Great Lakes Tissue was held today as scheduled. "Essential" businesses are exempt from our governor's "Stay home and stay safe" order. I would think that toilet paper would be on the "essential" list, but I don't know that for a fact.
shutting down the shutdown
Did a little more research (wiki) on this guy Bernie Taupin who wrote the words to Elton's songs. They were not as distant from each other as I had thought. And I guess it's not rare. I remember hearing about famous Broadway lyricists and composer partnerships, I think Rogers and Hammerstien were some such partners. I still don't understand how it works. Well I don't really understand music. I like it well enough, it has its power over me, but I don't understand the mechanics at all.
I've had a similar problem with my computer. Originally I had Kaspersky, but now I have, well shit I am not sure. Once a year I get a notice to renew it and I pay that to Best Buy where I bought the computer and everything seems to be working okay. But Kaspersky never seems to have gone away. Every now and then I used to get popups telling me to renew my Kaspersky, and when I asked the guy at Best Buy what to do about it, he said don't worry about it. Its popups keep popping up though it no longer asks me to renew.
Actually I'm not sure if the ghost of Kaspersky is responsible but I have had a problem with pages taking forever to load and then there is this thing where I am typing a letter and the letters stop showing up on the page, but if I keep on typing they will eventually appear. There was a point a few months ago when it was getting really bad, and I have had the machine for over five years so I was thinking of buying a new one, but then there was some kind of crisis with it that involved shutting it down and since then it has run more smoothly. I don't understand it anymore than I understand how those lyricists composer pairs work.
You know I wondered about those tea party types who would rail about paying taxes and say that gummint could have their gun when they pry it from their cold dead hands and just generally hate gummint and defy it, and then one day the gummint (state and local) closes down all the bars and restaurants and those guys meekly say, "Yes sir."
There;s more to this closing down of bars and restaurants than Uncle Ken not being able to socialize with his sister, and hang out with his beer-drinking buddies. There are all those people losing their jobs and companies going bankrupt. And there is the cost of bailing out all those folks, and where is that money coming from? What of the economy? It is like we are taking a two (or more) month vacation (and not one that is any fun) from business as usual. Can we just do that? What kind of world will we wake up to when it is over? Some Mad Max kind of world?
Dems are pretty solidly for the shutdown, well we are gummint types. On the Trump side it seems right now that most of them are for it, but there is an increasingly vocal segment who are all like fuck it, most people will survive corona, why don't we just go on as usual and not wreck our economy to save them? A prominent Foxie, Bret Hume, has just said that the grandparents should lay down their lives so that their grandkids can have a booming stock market.
Trump never did like the shutdown because it made it obvious that he fucked up and let corona get a good foothold, and now he is testing the waters with his idea of ending the shutdown by Easter and then filling the churches one and all because as we all know, he is like the greatest Christian that has ever been.
It's all kind of incoherent now, but I see a big fight on all this coming down the pike.
I've had a similar problem with my computer. Originally I had Kaspersky, but now I have, well shit I am not sure. Once a year I get a notice to renew it and I pay that to Best Buy where I bought the computer and everything seems to be working okay. But Kaspersky never seems to have gone away. Every now and then I used to get popups telling me to renew my Kaspersky, and when I asked the guy at Best Buy what to do about it, he said don't worry about it. Its popups keep popping up though it no longer asks me to renew.
Actually I'm not sure if the ghost of Kaspersky is responsible but I have had a problem with pages taking forever to load and then there is this thing where I am typing a letter and the letters stop showing up on the page, but if I keep on typing they will eventually appear. There was a point a few months ago when it was getting really bad, and I have had the machine for over five years so I was thinking of buying a new one, but then there was some kind of crisis with it that involved shutting it down and since then it has run more smoothly. I don't understand it anymore than I understand how those lyricists composer pairs work.
You know I wondered about those tea party types who would rail about paying taxes and say that gummint could have their gun when they pry it from their cold dead hands and just generally hate gummint and defy it, and then one day the gummint (state and local) closes down all the bars and restaurants and those guys meekly say, "Yes sir."
There;s more to this closing down of bars and restaurants than Uncle Ken not being able to socialize with his sister, and hang out with his beer-drinking buddies. There are all those people losing their jobs and companies going bankrupt. And there is the cost of bailing out all those folks, and where is that money coming from? What of the economy? It is like we are taking a two (or more) month vacation (and not one that is any fun) from business as usual. Can we just do that? What kind of world will we wake up to when it is over? Some Mad Max kind of world?
Dems are pretty solidly for the shutdown, well we are gummint types. On the Trump side it seems right now that most of them are for it, but there is an increasingly vocal segment who are all like fuck it, most people will survive corona, why don't we just go on as usual and not wreck our economy to save them? A prominent Foxie, Bret Hume, has just said that the grandparents should lay down their lives so that their grandkids can have a booming stock market.
Trump never did like the shutdown because it made it obvious that he fucked up and let corona get a good foothold, and now he is testing the waters with his idea of ending the shutdown by Easter and then filling the churches one and all because as we all know, he is like the greatest Christian that has ever been.
It's all kind of incoherent now, but I see a big fight on all this coming down the pike.
Tuesday, March 24, 2020
What Happened Here?
"1500 confirmed cases of the virus with 15 deaths does not come out to a 1 percent fatality rate. Many of those 1500 confirmed cases will end up dying, they just haven't yet." - Uncle Ken
I hadn't thought of it that way, but of course Uncle Ken is right. I'm just trying to put this thing into some kind of prospective. The Spanish flu of 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people while, last I heard, there weren't even a million confirmed cases of the coronavirus world wide, at least not yet. Fifty million would represent one percent of today's global population, but the global population was much smaller in 1918, so it must have been more like two or three percent. Without looking it up, I seem to remember that the Black Death took out half the population of Europe back in the 13th Century, but at least the remaining half didn't have to worry about running out of toilet paper.
******************************************************************************
My computer has been loading kind of slow lately, and I haven't been able to make videos work for three weeks. I've had the problem with the videos before and it always went away by itself within a day or two, so I blamed You Tube. This time, however, I tried to play some videos on Face Book and my news app, and none of them would work for me either. I was on Face Book Saturday night, and it was glitching all over the place. Then my screen locked up, so I shut it down by pressing Crtl, Alt, and Delete simultaneously. Then I started it back up, and there was no more glitching that night. My computer seems to be loading a little faster since then, and I was able to play videos both on You Tube and my news app last night. Do my esteemed colleagues know what happened here?
I hadn't thought of it that way, but of course Uncle Ken is right. I'm just trying to put this thing into some kind of prospective. The Spanish flu of 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people while, last I heard, there weren't even a million confirmed cases of the coronavirus world wide, at least not yet. Fifty million would represent one percent of today's global population, but the global population was much smaller in 1918, so it must have been more like two or three percent. Without looking it up, I seem to remember that the Black Death took out half the population of Europe back in the 13th Century, but at least the remaining half didn't have to worry about running out of toilet paper.
******************************************************************************
My computer has been loading kind of slow lately, and I haven't been able to make videos work for three weeks. I've had the problem with the videos before and it always went away by itself within a day or two, so I blamed You Tube. This time, however, I tried to play some videos on Face Book and my news app, and none of them would work for me either. I was on Face Book Saturday night, and it was glitching all over the place. Then my screen locked up, so I shut it down by pressing Crtl, Alt, and Delete simultaneously. Then I started it back up, and there was no more glitching that night. My computer seems to be loading a little faster since then, and I was able to play videos both on You Tube and my news app last night. Do my esteemed colleagues know what happened here?
rocket man
If it's any comfort to Old Dog I have done penance for carelessly and grievously misquoting him by listening to Frank Sinatra (ringading) and some guy named Tibbet (very stentorian) singing The Road to Mandalay, Certainly neither of them toe tappers. well Frank's version maybe if you care for his kind of music, blaring horns and crashing drums. Recessional was by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and not surprisingly sounds like one of those hymns we blasted out at Elsdon Methodist Church. I could google who wrote the tunes but haven't I suffered enough?
Maybe I should further my penance by watching Rocket Man, it did get fair reviews, Does it explain the process of how Bernie wrote those words without music? Perhaps he had the shadow of a tune and Elton greatly expanded it? I just can't get my mind.around it
Who writes that kind of thing without music? Being familiar with the song it's impossible for me to read the words without Elton singing them. It's just my opinion, but without music there is not much there at all. That thing about Taupin being not that good a friend was something I thought I'd read in a review, but it sounds like I was mistaken there too.
The Marina City complex contains the towers, the office building, now a hotel to the north, the theater, now the House of Blue, to the west, the towers, and the low-slung building from which they rise. The towers above the twenty story parking garage are a separate entity. At the time they were built the idea was that it was a crying shame, all this space downtown and nobody there after five or on weekends. Sometimes Marina City is portrayed as the vanguard of people living downtown, but it is more of an outlier, since it stood alone for thirty-five years until people started moving into downtown. Nowadays it is surrounded by towers and I would guess that a third of them are residential, more office buildings to the south and more residential buildings to the north.
And almost all those old art deco towers downtown, not open-planned enough for the contemporary office have become residential, hotels, condos, and apartments. Apartments are the new trend. When I moved in all the towers going up to the north were condos, now they are mostly apartments,. Most of them are luxury apartments for the very rich who have like one in New York, one in Tokyo, one in London, etc so they are rarely here in Chicago and their apartments sit empty while poor folk can't even find room in an SRO and have to sleep in the street. Brings out the commie in me.
In fact apartments have become so popular that condos are being deconverted. Moneybags buy up condos, take over the condo board, vote to deconvert and you are given some cash but you have to move out or stay at a greatly increased rent. That is what happened to River Cit, Bernard Goldberg's other creation down the river. I worry about that happening to us, but our apartments are small and not easily converted to luxury apartments.
I had tropical fish as a teen, but I have never been a fisherman. It's like golf, if you want to take a walk in the greensward, why bother to take a bag of clubs with you? If you want to stare blankly ahead and contemplate god's wonders, why do you need a fishing pole in your hands? But strolling down the river walk one does come across people with a hook in the water. Now here comes Sweetie walking down the table towards me and wondering why don't I cast out from the balcony and flip a silvery fish out of the river for her delectation. I hope you are happy for making trouble.
1500 confirmed cases of the virus with 15 deaths does not come out to a 1 percent fatality rate. Many of those 1500 confirmed cases will end up dying, they just haven't yet.
Maybe I should further my penance by watching Rocket Man, it did get fair reviews, Does it explain the process of how Bernie wrote those words without music? Perhaps he had the shadow of a tune and Elton greatly expanded it? I just can't get my mind.around it
She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine AM
And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
Zero hour nine AM
And I'm gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It's lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
And I think it's gonna be a long long time
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
'Till touch down brings me round again to find
I'm not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I'm a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man
In fact it's cold as hell
And there's no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don't understand
It's just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man
Who writes that kind of thing without music? Being familiar with the song it's impossible for me to read the words without Elton singing them. It's just my opinion, but without music there is not much there at all. That thing about Taupin being not that good a friend was something I thought I'd read in a review, but it sounds like I was mistaken there too.
The Marina City complex contains the towers, the office building, now a hotel to the north, the theater, now the House of Blue, to the west, the towers, and the low-slung building from which they rise. The towers above the twenty story parking garage are a separate entity. At the time they were built the idea was that it was a crying shame, all this space downtown and nobody there after five or on weekends. Sometimes Marina City is portrayed as the vanguard of people living downtown, but it is more of an outlier, since it stood alone for thirty-five years until people started moving into downtown. Nowadays it is surrounded by towers and I would guess that a third of them are residential, more office buildings to the south and more residential buildings to the north.
And almost all those old art deco towers downtown, not open-planned enough for the contemporary office have become residential, hotels, condos, and apartments. Apartments are the new trend. When I moved in all the towers going up to the north were condos, now they are mostly apartments,. Most of them are luxury apartments for the very rich who have like one in New York, one in Tokyo, one in London, etc so they are rarely here in Chicago and their apartments sit empty while poor folk can't even find room in an SRO and have to sleep in the street. Brings out the commie in me.
In fact apartments have become so popular that condos are being deconverted. Moneybags buy up condos, take over the condo board, vote to deconvert and you are given some cash but you have to move out or stay at a greatly increased rent. That is what happened to River Cit, Bernard Goldberg's other creation down the river. I worry about that happening to us, but our apartments are small and not easily converted to luxury apartments.
I had tropical fish as a teen, but I have never been a fisherman. It's like golf, if you want to take a walk in the greensward, why bother to take a bag of clubs with you? If you want to stare blankly ahead and contemplate god's wonders, why do you need a fishing pole in your hands? But strolling down the river walk one does come across people with a hook in the water. Now here comes Sweetie walking down the table towards me and wondering why don't I cast out from the balcony and flip a silvery fish out of the river for her delectation. I hope you are happy for making trouble.
1500 confirmed cases of the virus with 15 deaths does not come out to a 1 percent fatality rate. Many of those 1500 confirmed cases will end up dying, they just haven't yet.
Monday, March 23, 2020
Kipling to Music
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+road+to+mandalay+song
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=recessional+by+rudyard+kipling
They sure don't make songs like that anymore. Top 40 you say? Bah, modern teenage hoodlum music I say! I don't know the origin of the tunes used with the Kipling poems, but an astute Googler might be able to find something about them.
It has been a mild winter in Beaglesonia. Of course it ain't over yet, but anything that hits us now would be easy to take because it can't last more than a month or so. I didn't exactly run out of firewood this year, but I got down to some stuff I cut last October and it's too green to burn efficiently. It will burn with some coaxing, but it doesn't put out a lot of heat and it will burn much better next winter. With a relatively warm rain in the weather forecast, I put the rain cap on the chimney and put the wood furnace to bed for the season on March 18. We've had some cold weather since then, but the gas furnace is keeping up nicely.
It boggles my mind to contemplate making a roll of toilet paper last for 56 days. We go through about a roll a day between the two of us. We've got enough on hand to last three weeks or more, but I don't plan to cut it that close. I talked to my daughter in Charlevoix today, and she says it's the same in her neighborhood. If you see some in the store, you'd better buy a package or two because you don't know when you'll see it again. I suppose, if you could find out when a shipment was coming in, you could make sure to be there when it does, if the store people even know themselves when to expect a truck to come in. I doubt that the people who lined up for the sale at Great Lakes Tissue were desperately low on the stuff. They probably just want to stock up so they would have one less thing to worry about in these troubled times.
Michigan has reported about 1500 confirmed cases of the virus, with 15 deaths, so far. It seems then that only about one percent of the victims are dying from this thing. Of course that's still to many but, put into perspective, it's no worse than a lot of other causes of death. I think what's got everybody spooked is how fast this thing is spreading, with the potential to overwhelm the system. I seem to remember saying the same thing about the illegal immigration crisis last summer. It's not that they're bad people, there's just too many of them, and they're coming at us too fast.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=recessional+by+rudyard+kipling
They sure don't make songs like that anymore. Top 40 you say? Bah, modern teenage hoodlum music I say! I don't know the origin of the tunes used with the Kipling poems, but an astute Googler might be able to find something about them.
It has been a mild winter in Beaglesonia. Of course it ain't over yet, but anything that hits us now would be easy to take because it can't last more than a month or so. I didn't exactly run out of firewood this year, but I got down to some stuff I cut last October and it's too green to burn efficiently. It will burn with some coaxing, but it doesn't put out a lot of heat and it will burn much better next winter. With a relatively warm rain in the weather forecast, I put the rain cap on the chimney and put the wood furnace to bed for the season on March 18. We've had some cold weather since then, but the gas furnace is keeping up nicely.
It boggles my mind to contemplate making a roll of toilet paper last for 56 days. We go through about a roll a day between the two of us. We've got enough on hand to last three weeks or more, but I don't plan to cut it that close. I talked to my daughter in Charlevoix today, and she says it's the same in her neighborhood. If you see some in the store, you'd better buy a package or two because you don't know when you'll see it again. I suppose, if you could find out when a shipment was coming in, you could make sure to be there when it does, if the store people even know themselves when to expect a truck to come in. I doubt that the people who lined up for the sale at Great Lakes Tissue were desperately low on the stuff. They probably just want to stock up so they would have one less thing to worry about in these troubled times.
Michigan has reported about 1500 confirmed cases of the virus, with 15 deaths, so far. It seems then that only about one percent of the victims are dying from this thing. Of course that's still to many but, put into perspective, it's no worse than a lot of other causes of death. I think what's got everybody spooked is how fast this thing is spreading, with the potential to overwhelm the system. I seem to remember saying the same thing about the illegal immigration crisis last summer. It's not that they're bad people, there's just too many of them, and they're coming at us too fast.
Checking in
I think we don't hear near enough from Old Dog and I like to encourage his participation.
Well, Uncle Ken, you can be a big pain in the ass and I get the impression you like to troll and start arguments. And then I wonder how you can totally misunderstand what has been written.
For instance, you wrote:
Old Dog had written of Elton John and how he wrote the music then sent it off to somebody else, who wasn't even that close a friend.
But what I wrote was:
In his case, the words came first, courtesy of Bernie Taupin. He'd crank out the lyrics and Elton would put them to music.
And the statement "...who wasn't even that close a friend."; where did that come from? Is this something new that was pulled out of thin air? I don't get it.
-----
Spring has indeed sprung and I was wondering what kind of winter weather the good folks of Beaglesonia had to endure. Did you run out of firewood, or did I already ask that question? This past winter seemed awfully mild to me, with no prolonged periods of bitter cold or excessive snowfall.
-----
I don't understand the need to drive eighty miles for toilet paper unless it was a small store owner looking to score a bulk purchase. Last summer we discussed toilet paper usage, something about how many rolls per week the average American uses and I thought a roll lasted me a couple of weeks or so. I was way off the mark; I've been tracking usage since then and I found out that a one thousand sheet roll of the cheap single-ply Scott tissue lasts me 53 days, on average. That is crazy, since the package states that it will last one week and it lasts me more than seven. I can't explain it but twenty sheets a day doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
-----
This self-quarantine business hasn't caused me any hardship yet. There are minimal shortages at the two supermarkets within walking distance and I have a couple of carry-out restaurants nearby open for business. The local Kwik-E-Mart/Liquor store is very well stocked but I think they've raised their prices a little. The streets are very quiet, which is nice, with fewer cars and trucks on the road.
Uncle Ken, is Marina City all by itself as a residential building in your neighborhood or do other buildings nearby provide housing? And, living on the river as you do, have you ever done any catch-and-release fishing? Seems like a nice way to pass the time, having a baited hook in the water while you paint or draw.
Well, Uncle Ken, you can be a big pain in the ass and I get the impression you like to troll and start arguments. And then I wonder how you can totally misunderstand what has been written.
For instance, you wrote:
Old Dog had written of Elton John and how he wrote the music then sent it off to somebody else, who wasn't even that close a friend.
But what I wrote was:
In his case, the words came first, courtesy of Bernie Taupin. He'd crank out the lyrics and Elton would put them to music.
And the statement "...who wasn't even that close a friend."; where did that come from? Is this something new that was pulled out of thin air? I don't get it.
-----
Spring has indeed sprung and I was wondering what kind of winter weather the good folks of Beaglesonia had to endure. Did you run out of firewood, or did I already ask that question? This past winter seemed awfully mild to me, with no prolonged periods of bitter cold or excessive snowfall.
-----
I don't understand the need to drive eighty miles for toilet paper unless it was a small store owner looking to score a bulk purchase. Last summer we discussed toilet paper usage, something about how many rolls per week the average American uses and I thought a roll lasted me a couple of weeks or so. I was way off the mark; I've been tracking usage since then and I found out that a one thousand sheet roll of the cheap single-ply Scott tissue lasts me 53 days, on average. That is crazy, since the package states that it will last one week and it lasts me more than seven. I can't explain it but twenty sheets a day doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
-----
This self-quarantine business hasn't caused me any hardship yet. There are minimal shortages at the two supermarkets within walking distance and I have a couple of carry-out restaurants nearby open for business. The local Kwik-E-Mart/Liquor store is very well stocked but I think they've raised their prices a little. The streets are very quiet, which is nice, with fewer cars and trucks on the road.
Uncle Ken, is Marina City all by itself as a residential building in your neighborhood or do other buildings nearby provide housing? And, living on the river as you do, have you ever done any catch-and-release fishing? Seems like a nice way to pass the time, having a baited hook in the water while you paint or draw.
The Daily Briefings
Those Trump briefings have become a daily staple. Used to be that Pence, as the hypothetical head of the anti-corona forces did them. Pence is a dimwit, and somewhat of an opportunist, but compared to Trump he is an outstanding statesman. And I guess, having gotten used to routine lying and bragging and very unpleasant manners, that if a guy just talks calmly and politely, he seems like a sage.
Pence is as loyal as the day is long, until he isn't. That last part is maybe my mind working overtime, he seems so loyal, so stand up and true to his master, that I cannot help but see the dagger concealed in his toga. Possibly Trump does also, or more likely he just hates seeing anybody get credit for anything, so now he has inserted himself into the briefings.
He assembles about five of his toadies, he changes the assembly each time adding a guy or taking a guy out so that nobody appears all the time, except Trump of course. He gives a little speech, mostly about how everything is going tip top and there are no shortages of equipment, then he calls his toadies forth and they give shorter speeches about how they are achieving great things, always inserting, under the perfect leadership of Chairman Trump, and the whole thing is kind of silly like an assembly of sixth graders, but then comes the time when Trump asks for questions.
Trump can no longer stage his monster truck rallies, which is really a bummer for him, so now he makes do with the questions and answers at the briefings. Typically the reporters ask him something like Mr President, isn't it true that everything you are saying he is a lie? Which typically it is, mainly about supplies and the prez sitting on his hands while corona was creeping into our lives, and you can almost hear the satisfied sigh as Trump launches into an attack on the press and the democrats, and nothing is his fault and everything he has done is perfect with a perfection never seen in the world before, many people have said so. And so it goes until he is sated and he slinks off to watch tv until the next day when he can again tread the boards.
There is this guy Fauci who was not onstage last night,whose star is rising. I'm not sure what his official position is, but all positions are the same under Trump, but I think he is an actual doctor and somebody who really knows something and astonishingly does not repeat lies and actually stands up to Trump, particularly on the issue of a couple drugs which Trump is convinced are miracle drugs, but Fauci just politely says that there is no evidence of that.
He does it very politely, almost meekly, and in this tone like he is adding something to what Trump said, but what he is actually saying is Trump is full of shit. It's a remarkable thing that he has not been fired. Is it possible that Trump realizes this is some serious shit, and that he is going to have to allow people who actually know something to fight corona? Oh probably not.
A couple of Kipling poems have been set to music? I can't say I have ever heard either of them sung, not exactly top 40 material. Was it original music or just some tune they found that they could fit the words into?
Pence is as loyal as the day is long, until he isn't. That last part is maybe my mind working overtime, he seems so loyal, so stand up and true to his master, that I cannot help but see the dagger concealed in his toga. Possibly Trump does also, or more likely he just hates seeing anybody get credit for anything, so now he has inserted himself into the briefings.
He assembles about five of his toadies, he changes the assembly each time adding a guy or taking a guy out so that nobody appears all the time, except Trump of course. He gives a little speech, mostly about how everything is going tip top and there are no shortages of equipment, then he calls his toadies forth and they give shorter speeches about how they are achieving great things, always inserting, under the perfect leadership of Chairman Trump, and the whole thing is kind of silly like an assembly of sixth graders, but then comes the time when Trump asks for questions.
Trump can no longer stage his monster truck rallies, which is really a bummer for him, so now he makes do with the questions and answers at the briefings. Typically the reporters ask him something like Mr President, isn't it true that everything you are saying he is a lie? Which typically it is, mainly about supplies and the prez sitting on his hands while corona was creeping into our lives, and you can almost hear the satisfied sigh as Trump launches into an attack on the press and the democrats, and nothing is his fault and everything he has done is perfect with a perfection never seen in the world before, many people have said so. And so it goes until he is sated and he slinks off to watch tv until the next day when he can again tread the boards.
There is this guy Fauci who was not onstage last night,whose star is rising. I'm not sure what his official position is, but all positions are the same under Trump, but I think he is an actual doctor and somebody who really knows something and astonishingly does not repeat lies and actually stands up to Trump, particularly on the issue of a couple drugs which Trump is convinced are miracle drugs, but Fauci just politely says that there is no evidence of that.
He does it very politely, almost meekly, and in this tone like he is adding something to what Trump said, but what he is actually saying is Trump is full of shit. It's a remarkable thing that he has not been fired. Is it possible that Trump realizes this is some serious shit, and that he is going to have to allow people who actually know something to fight corona? Oh probably not.
A couple of Kipling poems have been set to music? I can't say I have ever heard either of them sung, not exactly top 40 material. Was it original music or just some tune they found that they could fit the words into?
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Where's the Beef?
"You never hear of people taking a poem already written and putting it to music." - Uncle Ken
Sorry, I forgot to answer this in my last post. I don't know how common it is, but it is certainly not unheard of. Two poems by Rudyard Kipling immediately come to mind: "Recessional" and "The Road to Mandalay".
******************************************************************************
The toilet paper sale held by Great Lakes Tissue on Wednesday was well attended. People came from as far as 80 miles away and lined up on the street four hours before the sale was to begin. Local police reported that the crowd was generally well behaved, in spite of the fact that they ran out of product towards the end and some people left empty handed. Another sale is scheduled for next Wednesday.
My wife went to Walmart on Friday and was able to find everything on her list in one store, although she had to settle for some brands and sizes that we don't normally buy. We didn't need any, but she noticed that Walmart was out of toilet paper again, or still. People didn't seem to be observing the six feet rule, and only one person, a checkout clerk, was seen wearing a mask. I have yet to see anyone wearing a mask in real life, just on TV.
I made a supplemental run to Save-a-Lot on Saturday, which is one of those discount stores where you have to bring your own bags. Save-a-Lot is cheaper but smaller than Walmart, and they don't have everything. I run out there periodically to stock up on meat and a few other odds and ends. I got some potatoes this time, and noticed in passing that their produce section was well stocked. The fresh meat section, however was positively emaciated. I was able to find some chicken and hamburger, but nothing that would make a decent beef roast. Pork was scarce as well, but we still had some of that in the freezer. An everyday specialty of theirs is T-bone steak at $3.99 a pound, which also works as a roast, and is usually cheaper, but there was none of that to be found.
They were unloading a truck while I was there, mostly canned goods, and taking the product directly out to the shelves. Looking back on it, that's probably what was happening with paper products at Walmart last week. It seems you can find anything in this town if you're lucky enough to be there when a truckload comes in. I read in the paper the other day that there is no shortage of product anywhere in the region, it's just that they can't keep it on the shelves. Some stores have taken to shutting down for an hour or two each day just to stock shelves and clean the place up.
I heard on the TV news yesterday that a confirmed case of Coronavirus has been found in neighboring Emmet County. This guy said that he hadn't done any traveling lately. There was one reported the other day down by Cadillac, which is almost 200 miles from here. Our local TV news this evening was pre-empted by Trump, so there may be more cases that I haven't heard about. Last I heard the statewide death toll was five. Reported new cases in Michigan have been increasing by over 200 a day, but some of that may be because they are testing more people all the time.
Sorry, I forgot to answer this in my last post. I don't know how common it is, but it is certainly not unheard of. Two poems by Rudyard Kipling immediately come to mind: "Recessional" and "The Road to Mandalay".
******************************************************************************
The toilet paper sale held by Great Lakes Tissue on Wednesday was well attended. People came from as far as 80 miles away and lined up on the street four hours before the sale was to begin. Local police reported that the crowd was generally well behaved, in spite of the fact that they ran out of product towards the end and some people left empty handed. Another sale is scheduled for next Wednesday.
My wife went to Walmart on Friday and was able to find everything on her list in one store, although she had to settle for some brands and sizes that we don't normally buy. We didn't need any, but she noticed that Walmart was out of toilet paper again, or still. People didn't seem to be observing the six feet rule, and only one person, a checkout clerk, was seen wearing a mask. I have yet to see anyone wearing a mask in real life, just on TV.
I made a supplemental run to Save-a-Lot on Saturday, which is one of those discount stores where you have to bring your own bags. Save-a-Lot is cheaper but smaller than Walmart, and they don't have everything. I run out there periodically to stock up on meat and a few other odds and ends. I got some potatoes this time, and noticed in passing that their produce section was well stocked. The fresh meat section, however was positively emaciated. I was able to find some chicken and hamburger, but nothing that would make a decent beef roast. Pork was scarce as well, but we still had some of that in the freezer. An everyday specialty of theirs is T-bone steak at $3.99 a pound, which also works as a roast, and is usually cheaper, but there was none of that to be found.
They were unloading a truck while I was there, mostly canned goods, and taking the product directly out to the shelves. Looking back on it, that's probably what was happening with paper products at Walmart last week. It seems you can find anything in this town if you're lucky enough to be there when a truckload comes in. I read in the paper the other day that there is no shortage of product anywhere in the region, it's just that they can't keep it on the shelves. Some stores have taken to shutting down for an hour or two each day just to stock shelves and clean the place up.
I heard on the TV news yesterday that a confirmed case of Coronavirus has been found in neighboring Emmet County. This guy said that he hadn't done any traveling lately. There was one reported the other day down by Cadillac, which is almost 200 miles from here. Our local TV news this evening was pre-empted by Trump, so there may be more cases that I haven't heard about. Last I heard the statewide death toll was five. Reported new cases in Michigan have been increasing by over 200 a day, but some of that may be because they are testing more people all the time.
Friday, March 20, 2020
the first day of spring
Apparently among the activities that have been curtailed because they involve large numbers of people getting together are blood drives and as a result there is a worrying lack of blood.
Back when I worked for the state there was a big blood bank organization called Lifesource in the building. Seems like they were having blood drives all the time because they were situated in a building dedicated to state workers. State workers, by their very nature, being public servants and all, were more eager to bare their arms and bleed for their fellow man than the average bear. I was among them. Actually I was just glad to get out of the office for awhile and make some pleasant chit chat with the nurses and pig out on orange juice and chips and cookies.
So I took myself out again into the rain yesterday afternoon. While state workers continue to serve the people of the state the building is closed to the rest of the public. When I told security that I was there to donate blood they allowed me through. They stuck me and took my temp and pressure and had me answer all those questions on the computer. My favorite question is still there: Has anybody paid you to have sex with them? Well they tried to but they couldn't afford me would be a nice write-in answer, but there is no place for that so I just answered no.
They told me that business had been brisk but there were only a couple other people on the chaise lounges when I took my place. The nurses weren't chatty, but I had a magazine so that was fine, and the snack was adequate, and I pocketed some Oreos and some Goldfish on the way out.
I had to pick up a couple prescriptions at Walgreens and when I walked into the main door this greeted my eyes:
No need to even ask a clerk.
There was a line of about six to fill prescriptions, and without anybody telling us we lined up about six feet from each other,
On the way out I picked up a couple four packs of Goose Island IPA tall boys and took them home. It was a rather exciting day. And hey, it was the first day of spring.
Back when I worked for the state there was a big blood bank organization called Lifesource in the building. Seems like they were having blood drives all the time because they were situated in a building dedicated to state workers. State workers, by their very nature, being public servants and all, were more eager to bare their arms and bleed for their fellow man than the average bear. I was among them. Actually I was just glad to get out of the office for awhile and make some pleasant chit chat with the nurses and pig out on orange juice and chips and cookies.
So I took myself out again into the rain yesterday afternoon. While state workers continue to serve the people of the state the building is closed to the rest of the public. When I told security that I was there to donate blood they allowed me through. They stuck me and took my temp and pressure and had me answer all those questions on the computer. My favorite question is still there: Has anybody paid you to have sex with them? Well they tried to but they couldn't afford me would be a nice write-in answer, but there is no place for that so I just answered no.
They told me that business had been brisk but there were only a couple other people on the chaise lounges when I took my place. The nurses weren't chatty, but I had a magazine so that was fine, and the snack was adequate, and I pocketed some Oreos and some Goldfish on the way out.
I had to pick up a couple prescriptions at Walgreens and when I walked into the main door this greeted my eyes:
No need to even ask a clerk.
There was a line of about six to fill prescriptions, and without anybody telling us we lined up about six feet from each other,
On the way out I picked up a couple four packs of Goose Island IPA tall boys and took them home. It was a rather exciting day. And hey, it was the first day of spring.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
No Sports!
Just because I don't like sports doesn't mean other people shouldn't be allowed to see them, but I wish they kept them on their own channel. Actually they could have as many sports channels as they want, but they shouldn't be allowed to pre-empt the scheduled shows on the regular channels. "Young Sheldon", which is about the only show we watch anymore other than news and weather, was supposed to be pre-empted by basketball tonight, but the basketball was cancelled and we got to see two "Young Sheldons" back to back. They were both re-runs from earlier this season, but we had only seen them once before and were happy to see them again.
They interviewed that guy from Otsego county by Skype on the news this evening. He had been doing some missionary work in Africa, but he doesn't think he caught it there. He thinks that he picked it up on the flight home, somewhere between Germany and Chicago. His symptoms were mild, and they sent him home to self quarantine. He is already feeling better and expects to be given a clean bill of health in the next day or two. His family members who live with him are not quarantined, but he is supposed to avoid contact with them, so he has been mostly staying in his "man cave" in the basement.
Michigan reported 110 confirmed cases yesterday, but the number tripled in the last 24 hours. So far only one death from the virus has been reported. All of the cases are in the southern half of the Lower Peninsula except that guy in Otsego and one in Grand Traverse County, which is three or four counties away from Cheboygan. I seem to remember that one is female, but that's all I know about her.
They interviewed that guy from Otsego county by Skype on the news this evening. He had been doing some missionary work in Africa, but he doesn't think he caught it there. He thinks that he picked it up on the flight home, somewhere between Germany and Chicago. His symptoms were mild, and they sent him home to self quarantine. He is already feeling better and expects to be given a clean bill of health in the next day or two. His family members who live with him are not quarantined, but he is supposed to avoid contact with them, so he has been mostly staying in his "man cave" in the basement.
Michigan reported 110 confirmed cases yesterday, but the number tripled in the last 24 hours. So far only one death from the virus has been reported. All of the cases are in the southern half of the Lower Peninsula except that guy in Otsego and one in Grand Traverse County, which is three or four counties away from Cheboygan. I seem to remember that one is female, but that's all I know about her.
the hippo's ears
Before this corona thing really hit for me - I think it was when I learned that the Ten Cat would be closed, and then I realized that all the restaurants would be closed too. My regular Friday lunch with my sister was gone and my every other week lunch with a pal of mine, and the possibility of meeting up with the friends I wouldn't be seeing in my classes was gone - I was thinking of taking up the subject of music and language.
Old Dog had written of Elton John and how he wrote the music then sent it off to somebody else, who wasn't even that close a friend, who wrote the words. I am not a big fan of Elton John, but from what I recall the songs are toe tappers. The words are, well now that I think back on it, I hardly recall the words, just a phrase here and there, kind of lyrical but not any sense of a strong story that hangs together, Elton sings the songs that the other guy writes, and I think he has a distinctive phrasing, odd that he doesn't write the words. Maybe the music is everything, and the words are just fillers, like scat. Maybe that is always the case, the music has to come first. You never hear of people taking a poem already written and putting it to music.
But I think it is different with people who write both the music and the words. Oh often the words are crap, I love you Baby, you're so beautiful, blah, blah, blah. But other times, when the words are complex the two seem intricately woven into each other. Or so I think, but I don't really understand music and I don't know anybody who writes the words and the music.
Ok, that was to break up the monotony of corona and give Old Dog's posting some mention. I think we don't hear near enough from Old Dog and I like to encourage his participation.
I still listen to CNN most of the afternoon. Politics was not only something I was passionate about on my side, but it was also like a sport to me. I have never been a true sports fan, if it wasn't about the Cubs then I wasn't much interested. But a true sports fan, even if it's not his team playing, even if it is a sport in which he has no team, he can watch a game with interest (Speaking of which, have you looked at the sports pages lately? Nothing going on. The sportswriters are writing stories with white knuckles),
But now there is almost no politics on CNN, it is all corona. I just heard somebody on the radio speaking of it as the hippo's ears, as in you can see the hippo's ears, but you don't know how big a hippo is under that muddy water.
Some guy in Otsego county. What does that mean? Did he pick it up from somewhere far away, if not from who locally? And where has he been since then and where are the people he's been around in those places now? You can go to a raucous party with food and drink and dancing and high fives and fisticuffs, and come home perfectly fine. Or you can just amble down to the Seven Eleven and pick up a candy bar, that somebody happened to sneeze on five minutes before you came in and, well you know the rest.
Old Dog had written of Elton John and how he wrote the music then sent it off to somebody else, who wasn't even that close a friend, who wrote the words. I am not a big fan of Elton John, but from what I recall the songs are toe tappers. The words are, well now that I think back on it, I hardly recall the words, just a phrase here and there, kind of lyrical but not any sense of a strong story that hangs together, Elton sings the songs that the other guy writes, and I think he has a distinctive phrasing, odd that he doesn't write the words. Maybe the music is everything, and the words are just fillers, like scat. Maybe that is always the case, the music has to come first. You never hear of people taking a poem already written and putting it to music.
But I think it is different with people who write both the music and the words. Oh often the words are crap, I love you Baby, you're so beautiful, blah, blah, blah. But other times, when the words are complex the two seem intricately woven into each other. Or so I think, but I don't really understand music and I don't know anybody who writes the words and the music.
Ok, that was to break up the monotony of corona and give Old Dog's posting some mention. I think we don't hear near enough from Old Dog and I like to encourage his participation.
I still listen to CNN most of the afternoon. Politics was not only something I was passionate about on my side, but it was also like a sport to me. I have never been a true sports fan, if it wasn't about the Cubs then I wasn't much interested. But a true sports fan, even if it's not his team playing, even if it is a sport in which he has no team, he can watch a game with interest (Speaking of which, have you looked at the sports pages lately? Nothing going on. The sportswriters are writing stories with white knuckles),
But now there is almost no politics on CNN, it is all corona. I just heard somebody on the radio speaking of it as the hippo's ears, as in you can see the hippo's ears, but you don't know how big a hippo is under that muddy water.
Some guy in Otsego county. What does that mean? Did he pick it up from somewhere far away, if not from who locally? And where has he been since then and where are the people he's been around in those places now? You can go to a raucous party with food and drink and dancing and high fives and fisticuffs, and come home perfectly fine. Or you can just amble down to the Seven Eleven and pick up a candy bar, that somebody happened to sneeze on five minutes before you came in and, well you know the rest.
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
One County Away
Uncle Ken is right, I didn't understand but, thanks to his last post, I think I do now. I seem to remember feeling that way about people in my younger days, but it was a long time ago, and I have since transitioned out of it. It wasn't any one incident, just that, over time, I began noticing that I was having more negative experiences than positive ones, and I found myself having less energy to wade through the negative to get to the positive.
This Corona thing is getting to be uncomfortably huge. It seems like only yesterday there were no cases in Michigan, then there were a few cases down by Detroit, and now there is a case in neighboring Otsego County. The good news is that most victims tend to recover and survive. The bad news is that most of them who don't are old folks like us. I'm trying not to worry too much about it since there's not much I can do about it. It's kind of like the nuclear holocaust we were anticipating when we were kids, either it will get you or it won't. No need to be reckless about it, but you've got to get on with your life as best you can. You can't just crawl into a hole, bend over, and kiss your ass goodbye.
I find it hard to believe that people are still panic buying toilet paper but, last I heard, they still were. Our local paper mill, which now specializes in toilet paper, was getting requests to sell it directly to the public, which they have never done before. They finally agreed to hold a public sale today for four hours. There was a thing in the paper telling people what streets to line up on so as to minimize disruption of the traffic flow on Main Street. There was going to be a police presence to insure law, order, and public safety. Purchases would be limited to five cases per customer. Why in the world would anybody want five cases of the stuff? We always buy the large economy size and, when it's about half gone, we buy another one. We haven't even opened the package I bought on Saturday, probably won't for several days yet, and don't plan on buying any more till that one is half gone. We do that with most of our non-perishables because it's cheaper and more convenient in the long run.
As Red Green used to say, "Remember, I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together."
This Corona thing is getting to be uncomfortably huge. It seems like only yesterday there were no cases in Michigan, then there were a few cases down by Detroit, and now there is a case in neighboring Otsego County. The good news is that most victims tend to recover and survive. The bad news is that most of them who don't are old folks like us. I'm trying not to worry too much about it since there's not much I can do about it. It's kind of like the nuclear holocaust we were anticipating when we were kids, either it will get you or it won't. No need to be reckless about it, but you've got to get on with your life as best you can. You can't just crawl into a hole, bend over, and kiss your ass goodbye.
I find it hard to believe that people are still panic buying toilet paper but, last I heard, they still were. Our local paper mill, which now specializes in toilet paper, was getting requests to sell it directly to the public, which they have never done before. They finally agreed to hold a public sale today for four hours. There was a thing in the paper telling people what streets to line up on so as to minimize disruption of the traffic flow on Main Street. There was going to be a police presence to insure law, order, and public safety. Purchases would be limited to five cases per customer. Why in the world would anybody want five cases of the stuff? We always buy the large economy size and, when it's about half gone, we buy another one. We haven't even opened the package I bought on Saturday, probably won't for several days yet, and don't plan on buying any more till that one is half gone. We do that with most of our non-perishables because it's cheaper and more convenient in the long run.
As Red Green used to say, "Remember, I'm pulling for you, we're all in this together."
you never know
I don't think that Beagles understands the main reason for bars. Sure they are for drinking beers with your pals which could be accomplished by filling my fridge with beer and inviting over a few friends, but then you are missing two of the most important factors of a bar. The first is that you never know who is going to walk in the door, It could be just one of the regulars, it could be somebody who hasn't been around in awhile. It could be somebody you like, it could be some loud mouth asshole. It could be a perfect stranger who has a couple drinks, doesn't talk to anybody else, and walks out the door never to be seen again. It could be somebody who has a story, has been some place, done some thing, has put a lot of thought into some subject, and wants to talk about that, or about something he has done or place he has been. His story might be fascinating or it might be a huge bore. You never know and that is the point. You never know who is going to come in the door.
Speaking of the door, you can walk out of it anytime you want to. I suppose any of my guests at my hypothetical beer party could do that, but with so few people they would kind of have to make some excuse, tell some story, not a big deal, but not as easy as just walking out the door, And if I were hosting the party I would not have that option at all.
A bar is kind of like The Street. I have always loved The Street. Anybody can amble down the sidewalk anytime they choose, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief., they all have equal rights to the sidewalk. Nobody has exclusive use of the finest part of the pavement, nobody gets to block it without being told to move on. And the best part is that you never know who you are going to run into. The Store is a lot like The Street. It's why I almost never buy anything online, I prefer the adventure of The Store, you can look over the merchandise, you can ask pertinent questions, you can crack a joke, you never have to prove that you are not a robot, people take you at your face. And The Restaurant. Oh you can get something to go and take it home and wolf it down while watching some crappy tv show, but how much better to have a little interaction with the server, observe the people at the other tables, and of course, you never know who is going to walk in the door.
Many years ago I had occasion to go into the burbs (the end of the train line, a long ride on a suburban bus) for some computer crapola. It was in what they call an industrial park, a broad street with huge lawns on either side (never have liked those huge groomed lawns, big waste of space if you ask me), and on the far side of those lawns low slung buildings, this company, that company. They did not have a front door. The only access was down a driveway and I assume they had a parking lot behind the building. I guess you parked there and then went to your office where you spent your whole day except for lunch in the company cafeteria. A guy could have been working in the building next door for as long as you worked in your building and you would never know they existed.
Downtown you see people all the time, you see them on your way to work and from the window in your office and there are all those wonderful restaurants downtown crammed with all sorts of people and you never know who is going to walk in the door. It was my theory that this was why the burbs were more conservative than the city, the only people they ever saw were other white middle class people. They always knew who would come in the door.
Speaking of the door, you can walk out of it anytime you want to. I suppose any of my guests at my hypothetical beer party could do that, but with so few people they would kind of have to make some excuse, tell some story, not a big deal, but not as easy as just walking out the door, And if I were hosting the party I would not have that option at all.
A bar is kind of like The Street. I have always loved The Street. Anybody can amble down the sidewalk anytime they choose, rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief., they all have equal rights to the sidewalk. Nobody has exclusive use of the finest part of the pavement, nobody gets to block it without being told to move on. And the best part is that you never know who you are going to run into. The Store is a lot like The Street. It's why I almost never buy anything online, I prefer the adventure of The Store, you can look over the merchandise, you can ask pertinent questions, you can crack a joke, you never have to prove that you are not a robot, people take you at your face. And The Restaurant. Oh you can get something to go and take it home and wolf it down while watching some crappy tv show, but how much better to have a little interaction with the server, observe the people at the other tables, and of course, you never know who is going to walk in the door.
Many years ago I had occasion to go into the burbs (the end of the train line, a long ride on a suburban bus) for some computer crapola. It was in what they call an industrial park, a broad street with huge lawns on either side (never have liked those huge groomed lawns, big waste of space if you ask me), and on the far side of those lawns low slung buildings, this company, that company. They did not have a front door. The only access was down a driveway and I assume they had a parking lot behind the building. I guess you parked there and then went to your office where you spent your whole day except for lunch in the company cafeteria. A guy could have been working in the building next door for as long as you worked in your building and you would never know they existed.
Downtown you see people all the time, you see them on your way to work and from the window in your office and there are all those wonderful restaurants downtown crammed with all sorts of people and you never know who is going to walk in the door. It was my theory that this was why the burbs were more conservative than the city, the only people they ever saw were other white middle class people. They always knew who would come in the door.
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Social Distancing
I don't know about Illinois, but Michigan is allowing restaurants to stay open and sell stuff to go. Even those that don't normally offer a to go menu are planning to start doing it. At first they were saying you could call in your order, describe your vehicle to them, and they would meet you at the door. Now they are allowing up to five people at a time to enter the building and pick up their orders inside as long as they stay at least six feet away from each other. Actually, everybody has been advised to stay six feet away from each other all the time, they are calling it "social distancing". Large gatherings are prohibited, I believe it's more than 50 people so, as long as you keep it below that number, you could have a party, either indoors or outdoors. Who wants to be at a party with more than 50 people anyway? Any more than that, there is always the risk of mass hysteria. And who needs to get closer than six feet to anyone, except for sex? I haven't heard if they've made an exemption for that but, since it's usually done in private, how are they going to know about it? So, Uncle Ken, just go to the supermarket and pick up a 30-pack of your favorite brew and invite a few of your friends over. It's cheaper that way anyway.
Funny, but of all the things that supermarkets are running out of, I've not heard that beer is one of them. Shhh! Don't say anything about that. If word gets out, some fool will put it on TV and it will become a self fulfilling prophesy. I seem to remember, when Nixon put price and wage controls on everything to curb inflation, there was talk of shortages all over the place. Somebody on late night TV, I believe it was Johnny Carson, said in jest that the next thing that would run short would be toilet paper, and lo, the next day it came true. It didn't last long, though, because Carson soon announced that he had just been kidding.
Funny, but of all the things that supermarkets are running out of, I've not heard that beer is one of them. Shhh! Don't say anything about that. If word gets out, some fool will put it on TV and it will become a self fulfilling prophesy. I seem to remember, when Nixon put price and wage controls on everything to curb inflation, there was talk of shortages all over the place. Somebody on late night TV, I believe it was Johnny Carson, said in jest that the next thing that would run short would be toilet paper, and lo, the next day it came true. It didn't last long, though, because Carson soon announced that he had just been kidding.
Fifty-five Fifty-sixths (55/56)m to go.
Four nights ago I was seated at the bar, surrounded by the usual gang of idiots as Mad Magazine still likes to call them. There was the usual merriment that hits around eight o'clock. Everybody is witty and the laughs just keep on coming, and gemutlichkeit is so thick that you could cut it with a knife. A bester bunch of buds, a sweller bunch of swells would be hard to imagine. But it passed through my mind just briefly, just an echo of what I had heard earlier in the day, Ohio, I think it was Ohio that was closing all its restaurants and bars, crazy idea, but could it happen here?
But I was well into my fifth beer, just at the point where the trip home would be a bit of an adventure, but not dangerous in any way, and it slipped through my mind, as I finished that fifth beer and sloppily said good bye to all my wonderful pals, and I slipped off into the night. Never to return again until who knows when.
I think it was the very next day that all the bars and restaurants were closed down for two weeks. Well at the end of two weeks it will be reevaluated and everything I hear indicates they will continue to be closed down for oh, eight weeks. But they weren't to be closed until after Monday, and I got to thinking that I would like to have one little last hurrah, just a couple, maybe three brewskis in a bar, just to hold me over for those long eight weeks and maybe more. I texted a Ten Cat buddy, and I was to meet him at 5:30 at the Old Town Ale house.
But in the morning I had a doctor's appointment. Just a routine checkup that I had scheduled two or three weeks earlier when we were still making jokes about Corona beer. At the beginning I told her let's do the usual stuff and then let's do the corona stuff. The usual stuff went fine, except for the smoking and the drinking. The smoking isn't that bad because it's only a pack every other week, but those six beers on Fridays and Saturdays, she really doesn't like that, just because I am old.
The corona stuff. The really bad part about it is that we don't know how bad it is. Trump got rid of a program that would have jump started action on the case six weeks ago, and then he dragged his feet on manufacturing tests so that we still don't have enough, and we are fast past the point where we could have nipped it in the bud and now it is shot through the populace, clean through.
A lot of people are going to come down with corona (COVID 19), maybe 80% will suffer through it, but the other 20% will need to be hospitalized, and there is not room enough in the hospitals and the ones that don't get in (and some that do). will die. But how about me, healthy-eating, exercising, longevity-in-my-family me? How would I stand up to the corona? Not very well she thought, Well I don't know. I feel fit as a fiddle, and docs, you know, they are always pessimistic, they like to scare you just for your own good.
I went to the Whole Foods afterwards to get that yogurt that my cat Buddy likes but they were all out of it. I stopped by the Jewel and it was packed and some shelves were empty, The people were not panicked but they were all moving fast, I stopped in at a bar near my house to have a last Italian beef until god knows when, thought I might wash it down with a brewski, but then I ended up getting it to go. When I got home I texted my Ten Cat buddy, I wouldn't be making it to the ale house, the doctor had scared me fucking straight.
Kennedy being shot didn't mean all that much to me at the time. You could make a case that it put LBJ into office and his escalation of the war in Vietnam certainly effected my life, but who knows what Kennedy would have done that was different. 911 cut short a temp job I had. And then it led the way to the crazy Iraq war which doubtless led to everything being worse than it would have been without it, but I can't say it effected my life all that much. This house arrest thing, it's driving me crazy.
There is science to what is going on, it will certainly cause us fewer fatalities than if we did nothing, but at this point we can's say how many fewer. I am surprised how meekly everybody is going along with this Pleasantly I guess because I think it is the right thing to do, but I wonder how long it will last. It's not surprising that the people of kumbaya are almost all for it, but the people of soreheadedness is only like fifty percent on board. Could be trouble down the road.
We are now six hours into the first two weeks that the bars have been closed, one fifty-sixth of the way through. So far so good.
But I was well into my fifth beer, just at the point where the trip home would be a bit of an adventure, but not dangerous in any way, and it slipped through my mind, as I finished that fifth beer and sloppily said good bye to all my wonderful pals, and I slipped off into the night. Never to return again until who knows when.
I think it was the very next day that all the bars and restaurants were closed down for two weeks. Well at the end of two weeks it will be reevaluated and everything I hear indicates they will continue to be closed down for oh, eight weeks. But they weren't to be closed until after Monday, and I got to thinking that I would like to have one little last hurrah, just a couple, maybe three brewskis in a bar, just to hold me over for those long eight weeks and maybe more. I texted a Ten Cat buddy, and I was to meet him at 5:30 at the Old Town Ale house.
But in the morning I had a doctor's appointment. Just a routine checkup that I had scheduled two or three weeks earlier when we were still making jokes about Corona beer. At the beginning I told her let's do the usual stuff and then let's do the corona stuff. The usual stuff went fine, except for the smoking and the drinking. The smoking isn't that bad because it's only a pack every other week, but those six beers on Fridays and Saturdays, she really doesn't like that, just because I am old.
The corona stuff. The really bad part about it is that we don't know how bad it is. Trump got rid of a program that would have jump started action on the case six weeks ago, and then he dragged his feet on manufacturing tests so that we still don't have enough, and we are fast past the point where we could have nipped it in the bud and now it is shot through the populace, clean through.
A lot of people are going to come down with corona (COVID 19), maybe 80% will suffer through it, but the other 20% will need to be hospitalized, and there is not room enough in the hospitals and the ones that don't get in (and some that do). will die. But how about me, healthy-eating, exercising, longevity-in-my-family me? How would I stand up to the corona? Not very well she thought, Well I don't know. I feel fit as a fiddle, and docs, you know, they are always pessimistic, they like to scare you just for your own good.
I went to the Whole Foods afterwards to get that yogurt that my cat Buddy likes but they were all out of it. I stopped by the Jewel and it was packed and some shelves were empty, The people were not panicked but they were all moving fast, I stopped in at a bar near my house to have a last Italian beef until god knows when, thought I might wash it down with a brewski, but then I ended up getting it to go. When I got home I texted my Ten Cat buddy, I wouldn't be making it to the ale house, the doctor had scared me fucking straight.
Kennedy being shot didn't mean all that much to me at the time. You could make a case that it put LBJ into office and his escalation of the war in Vietnam certainly effected my life, but who knows what Kennedy would have done that was different. 911 cut short a temp job I had. And then it led the way to the crazy Iraq war which doubtless led to everything being worse than it would have been without it, but I can't say it effected my life all that much. This house arrest thing, it's driving me crazy.
There is science to what is going on, it will certainly cause us fewer fatalities than if we did nothing, but at this point we can's say how many fewer. I am surprised how meekly everybody is going along with this Pleasantly I guess because I think it is the right thing to do, but I wonder how long it will last. It's not surprising that the people of kumbaya are almost all for it, but the people of soreheadedness is only like fifty percent on board. Could be trouble down the road.
We are now six hours into the first two weeks that the bars have been closed, one fifty-sixth of the way through. So far so good.
Monday, March 16, 2020
Curiouser and Curiouser
I really don't know what to make of this Corona thing. In my younger days I would have labeled it a Communist plot, but those were simpler times. True, it did come out of Red China, but lots of things come out of Red China, and Red China isn't as red as it used to be. Red China, Italy, and Donald Trump have been accused of doing too little too late, so it's possible that all these draconian measures are just attempts to prove that somebody is doing something, even if they don't know what they're doing. I have not heard of any science that guarantees these programs will be effective but, to be fair, they are breaking new ground here. Historically, the closest thing to this was that Spanish flu thing at the end of World War I. I'm not sure if anybody did anything about it, I think it just ran its course, but the tools and tactics of today were not available back then.
Our governor has closed the public schools for three weeks, although one of those weeks was already budgeted in as spring break. It was announced today that she has ordered the bars and restaurants to close, but I think it's only till the end of the month. Come next month she will probably re-evaluate the situation and go from there. How long people will tolerate this remains to be seen. The panic buying certainly can't go on forever. Eventually, everybody's houses will be so full of toilet paper and other goods that there won't be room in there for the residents.
Our governor has closed the public schools for three weeks, although one of those weeks was already budgeted in as spring break. It was announced today that she has ordered the bars and restaurants to close, but I think it's only till the end of the month. Come next month she will probably re-evaluate the situation and go from there. How long people will tolerate this remains to be seen. The panic buying certainly can't go on forever. Eventually, everybody's houses will be so full of toilet paper and other goods that there won't be room in there for the residents.
Third time's the charm
There's nothing like a global pandemic to take the spotlight off the presidential election, is there? If I didn't know any better I'd say that this virus was designed to take baby boomers off the playing field. But that's just crazy talk; we don't need any more.
This is the third time that something happened that caused a big shift in my reality. The first was November 22, 1963; presidents are not supposed to get shot. The second was September 11, 2001; skyscrapers are not supposed to collapse, under any circumstances. And now this global craziness but I can't pin it down to an exact date. Remember how nice everything was back in 2019? Good times.
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As Uncle Ken observed, I've become something of a homebody so I'm not really going through any hardship. Except for bread and some paper goods my local supermarkets are well stocked and the customers are well behaved. I saw one person with a face mask on the bus today but nobody else was wearing any. The strange thing is that her nose wasn't covered, which I think defeats the purpose of the mask. Oh, well. It's going to be a long summer and our previous way of life will fade into memory.
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Regarding the topic of music and songwriting, have either of you folks seen the film Rocketman? It's a somewhat fictionalized account of the life of Elton John, and I enjoyed it, much more than I expected. In his case, the words came first, courtesy of Bernie Taupin. He'd crank out the lyrics and Elton would put them to music. I'm surprised at how well that system worked out for them; some of the songs are really good, in my opinion. Elton John is much more of a musical prodigy than I was aware of and he knows how to punch out a snappy tune.
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And in the words of Philip Freemason Esterhaus, "Let's be careful out there."
This is the third time that something happened that caused a big shift in my reality. The first was November 22, 1963; presidents are not supposed to get shot. The second was September 11, 2001; skyscrapers are not supposed to collapse, under any circumstances. And now this global craziness but I can't pin it down to an exact date. Remember how nice everything was back in 2019? Good times.
-----
As Uncle Ken observed, I've become something of a homebody so I'm not really going through any hardship. Except for bread and some paper goods my local supermarkets are well stocked and the customers are well behaved. I saw one person with a face mask on the bus today but nobody else was wearing any. The strange thing is that her nose wasn't covered, which I think defeats the purpose of the mask. Oh, well. It's going to be a long summer and our previous way of life will fade into memory.
-----
Regarding the topic of music and songwriting, have either of you folks seen the film Rocketman? It's a somewhat fictionalized account of the life of Elton John, and I enjoyed it, much more than I expected. In his case, the words came first, courtesy of Bernie Taupin. He'd crank out the lyrics and Elton would put them to music. I'm surprised at how well that system worked out for them; some of the songs are really good, in my opinion. Elton John is much more of a musical prodigy than I was aware of and he knows how to punch out a snappy tune.
-----
And in the words of Philip Freemason Esterhaus, "Let's be careful out there."
Corona corona
Went to the Art Institute last week, and I'm glad that I did because a couple days later it was shut down, had lunch with some friends on the north side a few days later and now all the restaurants are closed. Was st the Ten Cat Friday and this friend of mine there has a job with this company that does web sales for companies that don't want to bother and they are doing gangbusters because, like Beagles's neighbors they can't get items at their local stores. And we were talking about this and that, and that is the last time we will be there for at least eight weeks.
Saturday I had my last meal in a restaurant, bbq pork fried rice, and coming back I thought I'd drop by Walgreens because I was a little low and I had heard all the news. Well the shelves were sparse but I was able to pick up six rolls for ten bucks, seems to me earlier I could have gotten it for a few bucks less, but I was not complaining. On the couple blocks back I got a lot of comments, but what are you going to do, your ass is not going to wipe itself.
Eight weeks! Criminentally, Are people going to put up with this shit? I remember when they put in the smoking ban. It was to start at midnight on New Year's Eve but the clock stuck twelve and everybody was still smoking up a storm, and I was thinking hah, they'll never get away with this. But the next day there were no ashtrays and it was like there never had been. Actually it wasn't bad at all because it was nice to go out for a smoke break with all your cool cig smoking buddies.
They used to call it self-quarantining and it used to be voluntary, now it is house arrest. I understand that Italy has a curfew, is that still coming for us? Eight weeks! Likely longer! Will the people put up with it. Well sure everybody is now, but how about as the weeks grow longer? But what can they do? I expect there will be makeshift speakeasies. But the folks who attend them will likely not be the sort who washes their hands every half hour or sits six feet away from each other, so you will not only be risking arrest, you will also be risking The Corona, and the disapproval of your neighbors, because not only do you risk your life but there's also a chance that you could infect them..
My social life was more my classes, two watercolor, one ceramics, and one improv, but now they are all shut down. About this time of year I visit a suburban friend of mine to experience the coming of spring at the Arboretum, but the big draw for me about the day is a nice restaurant meal with a few brewskis and now that's gone. And I wonder if the Arboretum will even stay open.
People are pretty law-abiding about this so far, and so am I, because after all, who wants to die? We wouldn't be in these desperate straits if Trump hadn't eliminated agencies that watch for this shit, or sat on his hands for a month or two when we could have been testing, but I see from the polls that he has taken no big hit from this. All he has to do is deny and his followers will ignore anything that is said against him. Almost all dems believe this is some serious shit. Only about half of reps think the same. I wonder how long Trump will go along with the program?
I guess I am not going to get to music today, but I wanted to say that I was able to find Beagles's cassette in my archives. I see now that those words to the Dvorak song are somebody else's and not Beagles. Beagle's song is to the point of pora pottys. Maybe too close in the details.
Today the is the bars last day./ I think I will venture out for a cold one and report on it tomorrow,
Saturday I had my last meal in a restaurant, bbq pork fried rice, and coming back I thought I'd drop by Walgreens because I was a little low and I had heard all the news. Well the shelves were sparse but I was able to pick up six rolls for ten bucks, seems to me earlier I could have gotten it for a few bucks less, but I was not complaining. On the couple blocks back I got a lot of comments, but what are you going to do, your ass is not going to wipe itself.
Eight weeks! Criminentally, Are people going to put up with this shit? I remember when they put in the smoking ban. It was to start at midnight on New Year's Eve but the clock stuck twelve and everybody was still smoking up a storm, and I was thinking hah, they'll never get away with this. But the next day there were no ashtrays and it was like there never had been. Actually it wasn't bad at all because it was nice to go out for a smoke break with all your cool cig smoking buddies.
They used to call it self-quarantining and it used to be voluntary, now it is house arrest. I understand that Italy has a curfew, is that still coming for us? Eight weeks! Likely longer! Will the people put up with it. Well sure everybody is now, but how about as the weeks grow longer? But what can they do? I expect there will be makeshift speakeasies. But the folks who attend them will likely not be the sort who washes their hands every half hour or sits six feet away from each other, so you will not only be risking arrest, you will also be risking The Corona, and the disapproval of your neighbors, because not only do you risk your life but there's also a chance that you could infect them..
My social life was more my classes, two watercolor, one ceramics, and one improv, but now they are all shut down. About this time of year I visit a suburban friend of mine to experience the coming of spring at the Arboretum, but the big draw for me about the day is a nice restaurant meal with a few brewskis and now that's gone. And I wonder if the Arboretum will even stay open.
People are pretty law-abiding about this so far, and so am I, because after all, who wants to die? We wouldn't be in these desperate straits if Trump hadn't eliminated agencies that watch for this shit, or sat on his hands for a month or two when we could have been testing, but I see from the polls that he has taken no big hit from this. All he has to do is deny and his followers will ignore anything that is said against him. Almost all dems believe this is some serious shit. Only about half of reps think the same. I wonder how long Trump will go along with the program?
I guess I am not going to get to music today, but I wanted to say that I was able to find Beagles's cassette in my archives. I see now that those words to the Dvorak song are somebody else's and not Beagles. Beagle's song is to the point of pora pottys. Maybe too close in the details.
Today the is the bars last day./ I think I will venture out for a cold one and report on it tomorrow,
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Corona Madness
Okay, this Corona thing has gone way too far. It's one thing to see this stuff on TV and quite another to experience it in real life, or what passes for real life these days. I went to our local Walmart yesterday and they were out of toilet paper and paper towels. I mean dead out, right to the bare wall. I knew there was a wall behind that shelving, but I never saw it completely bare like that, and it was kind of spooky.
Now our local Walmart has been experiencing empty shelf syndrome since long before that Corona thing was invented, but nothing of this magnitude. It seems that some of their temporary employees didn't return from one of the periodic layoffs that Walmart conducts to prevent their temporary employees from becoming permanent and, in today's job market, they are having trouble replacing them, so product might sit in the warehouse awhile before it gets put on the shelves. What this means to the customer is that you can't always find a particular item and have to buy it in the Family Fare store, which is two parking lots away and more expensive.
As I was contemplating doing just that, along came a guy with a whole pallet of mixed paper products, and then another guy, and then another guy. Some of the guys went to stocking shelves, and one of them pointed to the first pallet and said, "If you see something that you want, just take it." I was reading the box labels looking for the two items that I needed without much luck when this nice lady came and started breaking open boxes and passing stuff to the customers gathered round. "Who needs this?' she asked as she held up a package of paper towels in the brand and size that I was looking for. When I accepted that package, she asked if there was anything else, and I told her about the toilet paper. "Charmin Essentials, or the generic equivalent thereof, but it's got to be one ply because I have a septic tank." She gave me something that said "Septic Tank Safe", but I wasn't so sure about that because it was two ply. Then I heard somebody in the next isle asking the stocking clerk if he had anything in two ply because all he could find was this package of one ply. I quickly negotiated a trade, making everybody happy including the clerk, who no doubt had other things to do. To their credit, all the customers and staff remained calm and courteous through this whole ordeal, exhibiting a "we're all in this together" attitude.
Things kind of went downhill from there, but I suppose it could have been worse. I had to go to Family Fare for eight of the remaining 24 items on my list, including eggs and flour. Eggs and flour for Pete's sake! I had to settle for some politically correct eggs, which were more expensive, and some generic flour that was actually cheaper than what I usually buy but, like I said, it could have been worse. Both stores were more crowded than usual for this time of year, and it took me three hours to accomplish a 90 minute job, leaving me exhausted at the end of the day. I am no spring chicken anymore you know. At one point I ran into a lady I knew who is no spring chicken herself. I said, "What's wrong with people? They see something on TV and they think it's real." Yeah", she said, "And then they make it real."
Now our local Walmart has been experiencing empty shelf syndrome since long before that Corona thing was invented, but nothing of this magnitude. It seems that some of their temporary employees didn't return from one of the periodic layoffs that Walmart conducts to prevent their temporary employees from becoming permanent and, in today's job market, they are having trouble replacing them, so product might sit in the warehouse awhile before it gets put on the shelves. What this means to the customer is that you can't always find a particular item and have to buy it in the Family Fare store, which is two parking lots away and more expensive.
As I was contemplating doing just that, along came a guy with a whole pallet of mixed paper products, and then another guy, and then another guy. Some of the guys went to stocking shelves, and one of them pointed to the first pallet and said, "If you see something that you want, just take it." I was reading the box labels looking for the two items that I needed without much luck when this nice lady came and started breaking open boxes and passing stuff to the customers gathered round. "Who needs this?' she asked as she held up a package of paper towels in the brand and size that I was looking for. When I accepted that package, she asked if there was anything else, and I told her about the toilet paper. "Charmin Essentials, or the generic equivalent thereof, but it's got to be one ply because I have a septic tank." She gave me something that said "Septic Tank Safe", but I wasn't so sure about that because it was two ply. Then I heard somebody in the next isle asking the stocking clerk if he had anything in two ply because all he could find was this package of one ply. I quickly negotiated a trade, making everybody happy including the clerk, who no doubt had other things to do. To their credit, all the customers and staff remained calm and courteous through this whole ordeal, exhibiting a "we're all in this together" attitude.
Things kind of went downhill from there, but I suppose it could have been worse. I had to go to Family Fare for eight of the remaining 24 items on my list, including eggs and flour. Eggs and flour for Pete's sake! I had to settle for some politically correct eggs, which were more expensive, and some generic flour that was actually cheaper than what I usually buy but, like I said, it could have been worse. Both stores were more crowded than usual for this time of year, and it took me three hours to accomplish a 90 minute job, leaving me exhausted at the end of the day. I am no spring chicken anymore you know. At one point I ran into a lady I knew who is no spring chicken herself. I said, "What's wrong with people? They see something on TV and they think it's real." Yeah", she said, "And then they make it real."
Friday, March 13, 2020
Going on a Train
All music is folk music because it all comes from folks, not horses. We say that birds sing, but that is anthropomorphism. From the bird's point of view, he is just declaring that he will kick the ass of any other male bird who infringes on his territory or puts the moves on his lady bird.
I think the lyrics to "Humoresque" were not part of the original piece by Dvorak, they were likely added later as a joke which, in musical jargon is called a "parody", a song that makes fun of another song, and my version was a parody of that parody. The connecting theme is that they are both about toilets. You must remember how the toilets on trains used to consist of nothing more than a hole in the floor with a seat over it. Although certainly not environmentally sound by today's standards, it was not considered a problem at the time except when the train was standing in the station. The few times I rode trains in those days, the conductor solved it by locking the bathroom door. I'm not sure if train conductors ever did intone the chant "Passengers will please refrain...….". Perhaps they did, but maybe it's just fanciful nostalgia for a real or imagined time when people were more formal and polite about such things. The "I love you part" is, of course, incongruous with the rest of the song, which is what makes it funny.
A song is nothing but a poem set to music. When I had to write a poem in school, I used to imagine a familiar song and write different words to it, which I found to be easier than learning all that stuff about rhyme and meter. My original delivery about porta-potty etiquette was neither poetic nor musical, but the fan who approached me later thought that it should be, I suppose because the message was so compelling. When he suggested the tune, it was easy for me to fill in the words just like I used to do in school. I doubt that the creative process is the same for all songwriters as it was not even the same for all the songs I composed over the years. This was just one example of how it might work for some people in some instances.
I think the lyrics to "Humoresque" were not part of the original piece by Dvorak, they were likely added later as a joke which, in musical jargon is called a "parody", a song that makes fun of another song, and my version was a parody of that parody. The connecting theme is that they are both about toilets. You must remember how the toilets on trains used to consist of nothing more than a hole in the floor with a seat over it. Although certainly not environmentally sound by today's standards, it was not considered a problem at the time except when the train was standing in the station. The few times I rode trains in those days, the conductor solved it by locking the bathroom door. I'm not sure if train conductors ever did intone the chant "Passengers will please refrain...….". Perhaps they did, but maybe it's just fanciful nostalgia for a real or imagined time when people were more formal and polite about such things. The "I love you part" is, of course, incongruous with the rest of the song, which is what makes it funny.
A song is nothing but a poem set to music. When I had to write a poem in school, I used to imagine a familiar song and write different words to it, which I found to be easier than learning all that stuff about rhyme and meter. My original delivery about porta-potty etiquette was neither poetic nor musical, but the fan who approached me later thought that it should be, I suppose because the message was so compelling. When he suggested the tune, it was easy for me to fill in the words just like I used to do in school. I doubt that the creative process is the same for all songwriters as it was not even the same for all the songs I composed over the years. This was just one example of how it might work for some people in some instances.
porta potty blues
I don't get the horse singing thing, The only thing I can come up with is something like only humans sing, but then there are a ton of things that humans do that other animals don't do. And now that I think of it, don't birds sing? I shall wait for further clarification.
I have Beagles's cassette and an actual cassette player buried deep in my archives but I know, or I think I know, the approximate location, but you never know how a dig into the archives will end up, so I will put that on hold for the nonce. But I did go to the youtube and found Humouresque and there is like an opening movement, rather spritely, which repeats itself in the course of the song and I can see where Porta-Potty Etiquette folds nicely into that. By the way, why porta-potty when the song is about a train?
It sounds like when this friend suggested Humouresque you already had all the words, so then I guess it was a simple matter like putting on a shoe that fits. I was hoping to hear about something more dreamy, like a theme on one hand and a snatch of song on the other like two clouds, and then a few words emerging and then that causing a small change in the song and that small change in turn causing an addition and maybe a change to the words which in turn makes changes to the song and so on,
But I like the words, the rhyme, the meter (does passengers will please refrain come from City of New Orleans?), it has a driven beat,. a chug chug chug not unlike a train. I don't understand the I love you and makes me think of you interjections, but I like them, after all, aren't all songs really about love?
I've never liked talking on the phone. Well it's okay for a short talk to like set up a meeting at a time and place and for a long talk when I'm sauced to somebody who lives in another town. Actually for the former I have discovered that texting is much superior. You don't have the problem of your respondent talking your ear off, and even yourself, you feel obliged to go through some boring pleasantries just to be polite, but with text you can just type out: Bill's Burgers 7:30pm and be done with it.
For longer conversations you have the problem of hanging up. At some point you are ready to be done with it, but then something occurs to the person on the other end of the line and then you are off on that, and then maybe you are off on something but don't notice the other person drumming their fingers on the table because you are being so eloquent, and so on and so on. In person there are distractions and reasons why you have to be somewhere else and it is easier to break it off.
And the internet I don't know, a pale shadow of being in person.
The whole corona thing is depressing me. Where shall I find my joy?
I have Beagles's cassette and an actual cassette player buried deep in my archives but I know, or I think I know, the approximate location, but you never know how a dig into the archives will end up, so I will put that on hold for the nonce. But I did go to the youtube and found Humouresque and there is like an opening movement, rather spritely, which repeats itself in the course of the song and I can see where Porta-Potty Etiquette folds nicely into that. By the way, why porta-potty when the song is about a train?
It sounds like when this friend suggested Humouresque you already had all the words, so then I guess it was a simple matter like putting on a shoe that fits. I was hoping to hear about something more dreamy, like a theme on one hand and a snatch of song on the other like two clouds, and then a few words emerging and then that causing a small change in the song and that small change in turn causing an addition and maybe a change to the words which in turn makes changes to the song and so on,
But I like the words, the rhyme, the meter (does passengers will please refrain come from City of New Orleans?), it has a driven beat,. a chug chug chug not unlike a train. I don't understand the I love you and makes me think of you interjections, but I like them, after all, aren't all songs really about love?
I've never liked talking on the phone. Well it's okay for a short talk to like set up a meeting at a time and place and for a long talk when I'm sauced to somebody who lives in another town. Actually for the former I have discovered that texting is much superior. You don't have the problem of your respondent talking your ear off, and even yourself, you feel obliged to go through some boring pleasantries just to be polite, but with text you can just type out: Bill's Burgers 7:30pm and be done with it.
For longer conversations you have the problem of hanging up. At some point you are ready to be done with it, but then something occurs to the person on the other end of the line and then you are off on that, and then maybe you are off on something but don't notice the other person drumming their fingers on the table because you are being so eloquent, and so on and so on. In person there are distractions and reasons why you have to be somewhere else and it is easier to break it off.
And the internet I don't know, a pale shadow of being in person.
The whole corona thing is depressing me. Where shall I find my joy?
Thursday, March 12, 2020
"All Music is Folk Music....
Did you ever hear a horse sing?" - I got that one from a performer at the Wheatland Music Festival back in 1986, but of course I have forgotten his name. Truth be known, it was not uncommon for classical composers to take a simple folk melody and elaborate on it, and that's also what progressive jazz is all about.
Some song writers start with a tune that seems to come to them out of the clear blue and then they add words to it, while others do it the other way around. I was mostly a word man back in the day, and I often borrowed the tune from another song because it seemed to fit better than anything I could come up with. Bob Dylan did a lot of that in his early days you know. It's not considered plagiarism if the original author is either dead or unknown, although it's good form to give credit where credit is due. Many folk singers introduce their songs with such background information and, occasionally, the introduction is longer than the song itself.
The most popular song I ever composed, although certainly not the one of which I am most proud, is "Porta-Potty Etiquette", which is on that tape I sent you some time ago. The saga began when I complained to the executive director of the Bliss Fest about the condition of the porta-potties on the festival grounds, whereupon he immediately appointed me the porta-potty coordinator for next year's festival. (Let that be a lesson to you!) While working with the contractor who provided this service, I asked him what we could do to make his job easier. I subsequently got up on the stage during the festival and relayed this information to the audience which, for some reason, found it amusing. Somebody came up to me later and suggested that I put it to music. I told him that I might have difficulty coming up with an appropriate tune, he suggested "Humoresque", and a song was born.
"Humoresque" is generally attributed to classical Czech composer Anton Dvorak, but it wouldn't surprise me if he borrowed the theme from a simple flute playing shepherd in the mountains of Bohemia. I don't know if Dvorak wrote any words to it, but other people certainly have over the years. The version with which I am most familiar goes something like this:
"Passengers will please refrain from using toilets while the train
Is standing in the station, I love you.
We encourage constipation while the train is in the station,
Hearing music makes me think of you.
If the ladies' room is taken, never feel a bit forsaken,
Never breathe a sigh of sad defeat.
Use the men's across the hall and, if some man is in the stall,
He'll courteously relinquish you his seat."
**********************************************************************************
That Corona thing is really getting to be a pain in the ass, isn't it. I could say that it's just fake news that they are publishing to distract us from something else they're cooking up in those smoke filled rooms, but that would be just paranoid. I was already doing what they recommend for us senior citizens, avoiding crowds and staying home as much as possible. That's fine for a country mouse, but I understand how a city mouse might find it burdensome. The only thing I can suggest is to spend more time on the phone and the internet. Many young people have been doing that for years, and it seems to work for them.
Some song writers start with a tune that seems to come to them out of the clear blue and then they add words to it, while others do it the other way around. I was mostly a word man back in the day, and I often borrowed the tune from another song because it seemed to fit better than anything I could come up with. Bob Dylan did a lot of that in his early days you know. It's not considered plagiarism if the original author is either dead or unknown, although it's good form to give credit where credit is due. Many folk singers introduce their songs with such background information and, occasionally, the introduction is longer than the song itself.
The most popular song I ever composed, although certainly not the one of which I am most proud, is "Porta-Potty Etiquette", which is on that tape I sent you some time ago. The saga began when I complained to the executive director of the Bliss Fest about the condition of the porta-potties on the festival grounds, whereupon he immediately appointed me the porta-potty coordinator for next year's festival. (Let that be a lesson to you!) While working with the contractor who provided this service, I asked him what we could do to make his job easier. I subsequently got up on the stage during the festival and relayed this information to the audience which, for some reason, found it amusing. Somebody came up to me later and suggested that I put it to music. I told him that I might have difficulty coming up with an appropriate tune, he suggested "Humoresque", and a song was born.
"Humoresque" is generally attributed to classical Czech composer Anton Dvorak, but it wouldn't surprise me if he borrowed the theme from a simple flute playing shepherd in the mountains of Bohemia. I don't know if Dvorak wrote any words to it, but other people certainly have over the years. The version with which I am most familiar goes something like this:
"Passengers will please refrain from using toilets while the train
Is standing in the station, I love you.
We encourage constipation while the train is in the station,
Hearing music makes me think of you.
If the ladies' room is taken, never feel a bit forsaken,
Never breathe a sigh of sad defeat.
Use the men's across the hall and, if some man is in the stall,
He'll courteously relinquish you his seat."
**********************************************************************************
That Corona thing is really getting to be a pain in the ass, isn't it. I could say that it's just fake news that they are publishing to distract us from something else they're cooking up in those smoke filled rooms, but that would be just paranoid. I was already doing what they recommend for us senior citizens, avoiding crowds and staying home as much as possible. That's fine for a country mouse, but I understand how a city mouse might find it burdensome. The only thing I can suggest is to spend more time on the phone and the internet. Many young people have been doing that for years, and it seems to work for them.
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