2019 status updates

2019 status updates

In reverse chronological order

Dec 9, 2019

Green Horizontal Ruler

Nov 23, 2019

Green Horizontal Ruler

Nov 13, 2019, 4:15 PM

Today, I downloaded a medicine reminder app to help me remember all the things I’m taking and DAMN, does that make me feel 💀💀OLD💀💀

Green Horizontal Ruler

Oct 5, 2019, 4:56 PM

We said goodbye today to Kitty,” our backyard cat for the last 13 years. Too feral to let you touch her but would rub around your ankles. She returned your meows and blinky eyes. She was a sweetheart in her own way. I will truly miss her.

Green Horizontal Ruler

Sep 28, 2019, 3:27 PM

Billy Joel’s We Didn’t Start The Fire” came out 30 years ago today. 59 people are namechecked in it, and today only 5 are still alive:

  • Queen Elizabeth II (currently 93)
  • Brigitte Bardot (85)
  • Chubby Checker (77)
  • Bob Dylan (78)
  • and Bernhard Goetz (72)

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2019-09-26/billy-joel-we-didnt-start-the-fire-30th-anniversary

Sep 9, 2019, 3:25 PM

Four weeks ago, on a whim I picked up a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young biography. I just finished my second bio on them because the first one only went up to 1974, and have completed listening or at least sampling all music made by the four members.

Let’s look at how many tracks I added to my keepers” playlist:

  • The Byrds - 37
  • Buffalo Springfield - 9
  • The Hollies - 16
  • CSN - 47
  • CSNY - 13
  • Crosby/Nash - 9
  • Crosby Solo - 7
  • Nash Solo - 5
  • Stills Solo - 29

That is 172 songs for a running time of 10 hours

But wait, there’s more. When I started reading, I was already very familiar with CSN&Y music, and I had 7 Neil Young albums.

Now I have 33 Neil Young albums - and I’m stopping at the year 1999 (there’s been 15 more studio albums since then, but I can’t handle any more!)

Neil Young Solo keepers - 126 songs for a running time of 10 hours

Jul 20, 2019, 1:31 PM

Opinion column published the week of the moon landing, July 1969 by Sydney J. Harris, Chicago Daily News:

Most people who want to change conditions… love it here. They love it so much they cannot stand to see it suffer from its imperfections, and want it to live up to its ideals. It is the people who placidly accept the corruptions and inequities in our society who do not love America; they love their status, security, and special privilege.

We not only have a right, we have a responsibility to make our environment as just and as flourishing as our Founding Fathers declared it must be if it were to live up to its aspiration as the standard of the world.’

If all the settlers who came here with high hopes for a new and finer social order had been compelled to go back where they came from,’ we would have had no United States of America. This country was born out of dissatisfaction with the old scheme of things, and grew on the blood and dedication of men who were not afraid to speak and work for fundamental changes in the whole political and social structure.”

Jul 16, 2019, 4:13 PM

The human race is my team. We’re all one people, sitting on one rock that’s floating in infinity. I wish we would act like it. https://www.nrm.org/2014/02/golden_rule/#post/0

Jul 16, 2019, 2:12 PM

Friday the 13th: both sides

Both the willingness of Jason to chase down teenagers with a knife to murder them and the unfortunate volume teens use while they scream for help presage a particularly bitter and unpleasant camping trip.

While everyone agrees that Jason’s serial killing is disruptive, the teens are doing the public peace no favors by both screaming loudly and then ruining the floorboards by bleeding to death on them. Both sides could do better.

The problem is not with the teens,” a teen spokeswoman said. It’s that Jason keeps murdering them.” When asked if the teens planned to apologize for the disruptive screaming and the stains left from bleeding to death, she refused to comment.

And while serial killing is a controversial move, Jason’s spokeswoman felt it would win out over the teens. Ultimately, voters find teens annoying,” she argued. Their pleas to live and their tendency to trip while running for their lives does them no favors.”

Allies of Jason objected to the word murder” to describe slashing teens to death. The real problem is the teens,” a voter in a nearby diner said. If they want to live, they should spend less time making out with each other and more time singing patriotic songs.”

I wish he methods weren’t so harsh,” piped up the diner’s companion, who was wearing a Hat with a picture of Jason reading, Make Camping Great Again.”

Maybe he could smother them to death instead of slash them? But ultimately, he’s my serial killer and I trust his judgment.”

  • @AmandaMarcotte on twitter

Jul 4, 2019, 4:02 PM

Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes

https://poets.org/poem/let-america-be-america-again

Apr 18, 2019, 1:11 PM

16 years ago today, I first stepped onto a Bourbon Street stage to perform. Green as green could be. Capable of performing maybe 30 songs. Today, my repertoire contains over 2000 songs! Thanks to all who helped me when I felt I was in over my head! : John Autin, Ken Gustafson, Jonno Deily, Steve Monroe

Mar 27, 2019, 6:47 PM

I was already impressed with Mayor Pete Buttigieg after hearing him speak. So thoughtful, intelligent, and natural-sounding. Then I heard him consider which James Joyce novel compares to running for president and I’m like, holy jeepers he’s eloquent and extremely well-read. Then I heard that he learned to read Norwegian just to read a book that had not been translated into English. (He speaks seven languages, in fact.) And just now I learned that he spent six months practicing to perform Rhapsody In Blue” on piano with the South Bend Symphony. I’m now officially a super-fan! Don’t know if he has a chance but hopefully he can elevate the discourse in the election. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/meet-pete-buttigieg-gay-democratic-candidate-president-n961861

Feb 6, 2019, 3:00 PM

The 5 warmest years in 140 years of record-keeping have been the last five, and 18 of the 19 warmest years ever recorded have occurred since 2001.

We’re no longer talking about a situation where global warming is something in the future,” said Gavin A. Schmidt, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the NASA group that conducted the analysis. It’s here. It’s now.”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/06/climate/fourth-hottest-year.html

Green Horizontal Ruler

Feb 6, 2019, 2:09 PM

80-year old Gerty Molzen sings Walk On The Wild Side” on Letterman, 1986. Performance at the 39-minute mark. This is not a Letterman joke/bit. Gerty was a chanteuse in her younger years and then had some novelty singles in the mid-eighties. (For extra fun, turn on the auto-generated closed-captioning and watch it struggle.)

Green Horizontal Ruler

Jan 25, 2019, 2:41 PM

Obama, 8 years in office. Number of indictments: 0

Trump, 2 years in office. Number of indictments: 90, and counting… So far, Trump’s best friend, lawyer, campaign manager, campaign advisor, and national security advisor have ALL been arrested or plead guilty to crimes.

Jan 21, 2019, 2:34 PM

Now playing in our living room: 1977 Preservation Hall LP in Quadrophonic sound. (Decoding multi-channel LPs is Ed’s new obsession.)

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