December rambling: hiatus

an “alcoholic’s personality”

The Daily Show is on hiatus until Monday, January 5, 2026. But here are its hosts (minus Jon Stewart) discussing the year gone by…
Silence, as if by Sharp Little Pencil

Happy Public Domain Day 2026!

Democracy’s Library and 1 Trillion Web Pages Archived

The Oscars Will Be Streamed on YouTube Starting in 2029

Kars4Kids and Oorah Face New Class-Action Lawsuit Alleging Donor Deception

What brought Sears down? 10 mistakes from giant companies

Dear Santa: A Genealogist’s Christmas Wish List (Including That One Elusive Death Certificate We’ve Been Hunting for Three Years)

Best Television and Books of 2025 (J. Eric Smith)

A small fraction of U.S. history (old paper money)

‘Jeopardy!’: Four-Time Champion Eric Berman Dies at 60

Is this the Gumby & Pokey / Davey & Goliath crossover episode?

The Opposite of the Drive-Thru Window? You’re in your car. You get your burger without leaving your car. So maybe it’s the same, but… not? and The Accidental Igloo That Saved a Life and A Planely Bad Way to Quit

Orange

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles: he has an “alcoholic’s personality,” drawing a comparison to her father, legendary NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall, who struggled with alcoholism before getting sober.

Three days in the life of a pathetic man.

Wait, some of the redacted Epstein files can be UNREDACTED??

He’s still obsessed with Greenland.

In March 2023, reporter Hugo Lowell revealed exclusively in the Guardian that a federal criminal investigation was examining TMedia – the company that owns the his social media platform, Truth Social – in connection with its acceptance of $8m in loans with suspected Russian ties. Those loans helped keep the company afloat long enough for him to take it public last year, when he netted an additional paper fortune of about $4.6bn. TM sued the Guardian for defamation and $250m in damages. In late November, the judge threw out the case, pointing out that the plaintiff was required to show that “the [Guardian] either knew the statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for its truth” – but he found no such evidence. This was a victory not only for the Guardian but for journalists everywhere.

Reflections of a Census Bureau Employee: MAGA Callers Share a Common Delusion.

3600 Seconds

CBS News’ new editor in chief, Bari Weiss, abruptly postponed a segment of “60 Minutes” about Venezuelan men who the regime deported to the notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo prison, known as CECOT, in El Salvador.

Several veteran correspondents questioned Weiss’ decision. In an email to her colleagues, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said the team “requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story,” she said.

Was Weiss’ decision by design? Or was she merely derelict in her job? CBS News’ censorship spectacularly backfires. Terry Moran: She skipped five different screenings of the 60 Minutes story as it was being written and cut…. Finally, on Thursday, Weiss watched a video of the segment and offered a few suggestions, which were integrated into the script.

Postponing the segment did not prevent it from trickling into public view. Internet sleuths discovered that a Canadian network had briefly published the segment, and a bootleg version of the video began circulating on social media.

Someone thought that, for cBS, the c is now silent.

MUSIC

Randy Rainbow’s new parody: It’s beginning to look a lot like f**k this

Obituaries: Remembering The Mavericks Frontman Raul MaloO What A ThrillDance The Night Away

Singer Chris Rea Dies at 74; Steel RiverLet’s Dance

Jerry Kasenetz, a King of Bubblegum Pop Music, Dies at 82. With his producing partner, Jeffry Katz, he made lightweight ditties that soared up the charts in the late 1960s by the 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Ohio Express, and others. (Music links within.)

Go Gentle: Max Eider, R.I.P.

The Musicians We Lost in 2025

Message of Love – Pretenders

Arthur’s Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 27 – The Finale

Coverville 1562 and 1563: The 2025 Coverville Countdown, Parts 1 and 2

Best Albums of 2025 (J. Eric Smith)

10 Songs That Explain My Year from the NYT Amplifier

Time In A Bottle – MonaLisa Twins

Air New Zealand commercial featuring the traditional song “Pōkarekare Ana.”

The Girl With The Flaxen Hair by Claude Debussy

Say You, Say Me – Lionel Richie

Rick Beato’s Top 10 of 2025

Primrose Hill  – James McCartney

Mr. Tambourine Man – The Byrds

Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder

Extended interview: Sean Ono Lennon on CBS Sunday Morning. Film: WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko – The Academy Award® winning Animated Short

Genealogy: RootsTech 2025 is free online!

Census

The RootsTech 2025 schedule is live, and the three-day online schedule is free. Whether you have genealogical questions or are curious about lineage, you should check out the schedule of over 150 online sessions from Thursday to Saturday, March 6 to 8. 

My interests are twofold. I’m trying to find the parents of my great-grandfather, Samuel Walker. I know he was born in Orange County, VA, in 1873 and died in Binghamton, NY, in 1963, but I’m stuck beyond that. I hope Renate Yarborough Sanders’s workshop Til Death or Distance Do We Part: Documenting Marriages of Enslaved and Emancipated Persons will help. 

I’m also working on my wife’s family line in a project called the John Olin Origin Project. I’ve written about John Olin before. Assuming he came over on a British ship in the latter part of the 17th century, what was his origin? Was he English, French, Welsh, Irish, or something else? Some of his male descendants have done some DNA testing, but the question has not been answered sufficiently. Perhaps one of the more general sessions at RootsTech will help.

My wife is on the John>Joseph>Joseph>Reuben>John>Earl>Orva>George line. I will check out Tell Your Story Like a True Reporter by Rachel Trotter at Roots Tech because I find the topic fascinating. I wish to share my enthusiasm with others. 

Worry

I’m concerned about the future of the Census and the critical data it collects for future genealogists. “Director Robert Santos, the renowned data expert who has led the Bureau for years, abruptly announced his resignation.” This paves the way for a partisan hack replacement.

“Next, the bureau’s website started going dark for periods of time. The New York Times reported that ‘more than 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau, the vast majority of which are articles filed under research and methodology, were affected. Other missing pages include data stewardship policies and documentation for several data sets and surveys.'” It’s another breach of competency to address.  

Here’s a factoid: 1890 Census Substitutes: “In January of 1921, a fire broke out in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington D.C., where the 1890 U.S. Census records were being stored…”

April rambling: when democracies fall

Sporadic Acts of Journalism

History shows there are no “one-day” dictatorships. When democracies fall, they typically fall completely.

A Different Take on Retro Conservative Fantasy

Mike Johnson Is No Hero

Anita Hill on Harvey Weinstein Reversal: “Our Movement Will Persist”

John Oliver Confesses to “Sporadic Acts of Journalism.” Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Medicaid and UFOs and Executions

Republicans Scramble to Contain Their Abortion Disaster.  William Claude Jones (c. 1815 – March 3, 1884) was an American politician, poet, fabulist, and “pursuer of nubile females,” who authored the 1864 Arizona abortion bill.

The Manhattan case against djt is strong but The Supreme Court is breaking America’s faith in the law

Census Bureau: Wealth by Race of Householder

The endless quest to replace alcohol

On the Romance of Old Maps

The Cloud under the Sea (Internet Cables)

Williams-Sonoma Will Pay Record $3.17 Million Civil Penalty for Violating FTC Made in USA Order

The Average Body Temperature Is Not 98.6 Degrees

Linear, streaming, AVOD, and beyond: What do common TV terms mean?

Updated charity ratings from Charity Watch

fillyjonk and the brick

16 Fascinating Historical Artifacts Stored In The Library of Congress

Step into the chilling world of CBS Radio Mystery Theater—with nearly 1400 episodes from 1974 to 1982, guaranteed to give you goosebumps, hosted by the commanding voices of E.G. Marshall and Tammy Grimes

Fantastic Trina Robbins remembrance by Andrew Farago
Kelly does a quiz
Now I Know: The Wife, Husband, and Ex-Husband Nuclear Family and The Environmental Intervention That Backfired
MUSIC

Spiegel im spiegel (Mirror in the mirror) by Arvo Pärt and how he tintinnabulates

Better Oblivion Community Center – Dylan Thomas

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Fairport Convention

St. Vincent – Broken Man

Coverville 1484: The Soul Asylum Cover Story and 1485: The Cure Cover Story V

Deep Field by Eric Whitacre

Margo Guryan: Moon Ride (1956)

Peter Sprague Plays You Won’t See Me and Serrado, each featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!

Against All Odds – Phil Collins

The Analogues – The Beatles tribute – Salle Pleyel – ARTE Concert

Arthur’s Law and Taylor Swift

I can say my jeans are long, but I can’t say …

June rambling: quoting Hitler?

100 years of the Albany Public Library

Moms for Liberty’s Hamilton County (IN) chapter apologizes for quoting Hitler in newsletter

Southern Baptists say no to women pastors

Terrible news about the submersible. Still, but Behan Communications noted “the disparity in how the news covered that search vs. the attention given to the sinking of a packed migrant boat that one European official said may be ‘the worst tragedy ever’ in the Mediterranean.”

Sam Alito: yet another corrupt conservative justice

Global network of sadistic monkey torture exposed by BBC

The Story We’ve Been Told About Juneteenth Is Wrong. The real history is much messier—and more inspiring

SCOTUS Rejects Theory That Would Have Transformed American Elections. The 6-3 majority dismissed the “independent state legislature” theory, which would have given state lawmakers nearly unchecked power over federal elections.

Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower, dies at 92

Broadway lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who wrote ‘Fiddler on the Roof,’ dies at 99

Glenda Jackson: Oscar-winning actress and former Member of Parliament dies aged 87

The Federal Trade Commission filed a friend-of-the-court (amicus) brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit challenging a district court ruling that invalidated a key anti-discrimination rule in the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).

A montage of clips from The Dick Van Dyke Show

Kelly does a quiz and closes tabs

Now I Know: A Tree* Grows* in Brooklyn* and The Invisible Eyelash Bugs That Can Trace Family Histories and The Language Designed to Protect the Nuts and The Norwegian With The Magical Beer Tap? and The Digital Version of Throwing Out the Baby with the Bathwater?

Albany Public Library

Join the Friends and Foundation of APL in celebrating 100 years of the Albany Public Library at the Centennial Celebration, which will take place on Saturday, October 21, 2023.” Honorary Committee Tickets can be purchased here. Regular Tickets can be purchased here

Tuesday book talks at noon at the Washington Avenue branch:
July 11 | Book Review | Black, Blind, & In Charge: A Story of Visionary Leadership and Overcoming Adversity by David Paterson.  Reviewer:  Hon. Corey L. Ellis, president, Albany Common Council.
 
July 18 | Book Review | Engaging Students With Poverty in Mind by Eric Jensen.  Reviewer:  Carol Green, MS-TESOL, retired teacher of English as a new language, and program director, The Wizard’s Wardrobe.
 
July 25 | Book Review | Hickstown from the Heart: A Family Memoir edited by Antoinette Joyner.  Reviewer:  Reverend Antonio Booth, MATS, co-pastor, Riverview Baptist Church, Coeymans and member, UHLS board.
Getting geeky

The U.S. Census Bureau: Data from the Business Trends and Outlook Survey (BTOS), a survey that measures business conditions on an ongoing basis. Also, the United States’ median age increased by 0.2 years to 38.9 years between 2021 and 2022, according to Vintage 2022 Population Estimates. Median age is the age at which half of the population is older and half of the population is younger.

NYS population is declining, down by 2% from 2020 to 2022. The percent of the population age 65 or over increased from 16.9% in 2020 to 18.1% in 2022, and the median age increased from 39.2 in 2020 to 39.9 in 2022.

Math and reading test scores among US 13-year-olds declined significantly since 2019, according to figures released from the National Assessment of Education Progress, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” Observers claim pandemic school closures likely accelerated what was already a decade-long downward trend in basic academic benchmarks.

The Global Liveability Index 2023. The Top 10 metros: Vienna, Austria;  Copenhagen, Denmark;  Melbourne and Sydney, Australia;  Vancouver, BC, Canada;  Zurich, Switzerland; Calgary, AB, Canada; Geneva, Switzerland; Toronto, ON, Canada; Osaka, Japan; Auckland, New Zealand

Citizen Archivist Missions. Click on a topic that interests you, and it will bring you right to those historical records in our Catalog.

djt

When I read the guy is screwed, I am wary. Sure, as indictments pile up,  Senate GOP skeptics multiply as the man blows a gasket, even complaing that FOX News is “prejudiced” against him.  Check out the YouTube channel MeidasTouch

But he still could win the Republican nomination and even the election. Half as Many Republicans Call Jan. 6 an ‘Insurrection’ Compared to 2021. Garland’s Inaction on January 6 Gave Him Breathing Room. The RNC is stipulating that any one candidate who wants to be on the debate stage this summer must vow to support the eventual 2024 nominee—which could mean backing a convicted felon.

Moreover, 12 million Americans believe violence is justified to restore him to power (The Guardian), with folks such as as Kari Lake leading the charge. Stefanik and MTG want to  expunge his impeachments as though they never happened.

Andrew Coyne of the Toronto Globe and Mail, indicating that djt can’t win the federal case against him, worries that it makes him more dangerous. djt’s “response is not to cop a plea… It is to bring the whole U.S. justice system down around him… It is the reaction not of a criminal but of a revolutionary nihilist, someone who is not interested merely in breaking the law but dismantling it.”

seriously?

Some folks running for President believe that djt deserves a pardon in order to “heal the country”. Since I expect that he will never acknowledge even a modicum of responsibility for his crimes, that’s a non-starter with me.

Matt Gaetz accused John Durham of being “part of the cover-up” when Durham’s 300-page final report that he submitted to the House Judiciary Committee acknowledged that Russian election interference in 2016 was real. Durham failed to validate the conspiracy theories exonerating djt or to “prove” the absurd fantasies of a Deep State conspiracy against 45. The facts just don’t matter.

Ultimately, what hit me is a video that Plastic Mancunian posted. It was James O’Brien’s evisceration of Boris Johnson; you don’t need to know the particulars of British government. Compare it with how djt not only survives but thrives, with the mainstream media’s inability to respond effectively to the lies of either bdj or djt.

Music

Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? by composer John Adams

Randy Rainbow for President; Donald In The John with Boxes – Randy Rainbow

Do You Love Me? from  Fiddler on the Roof 

Coverville 1446: The Todd Rundgren Cover Story II

Hey Bulldog – Fanny

Green Tambourine– the Lemon Pipers

Ladies of the Canyon – Annie Lennox

Faninitza by Franz von Suppe

Wheels of a Dream – Audra McDonald and Brian Stokes Mitchell from Ragtime

 FlyDrew Holcomb and the Neighbors 

Note: the photo is one I took in Paris in May 2023 on my cellphone, sticking my arm between an iron gate, and fearful that the device would slip from my hand.

May rambling: the future

Rock ’n’ roll is a spirit

From https://readtheplaque.com/plaque/the-toronto-recursive-history-project

Clarence Thomas has been bought by the worst people. Harlan Crow is Thomas’ minder. Keep track here.

The Great Simplification: What HS Leaders Need to Know About the Future of Energy with Nate Hagens

Does the US have a spending problem? And Members of Congress, legal scholars, and even the union representing federal workers are calling on the White House to answer the GOP’s economic hostage-taking with unilateral action to prevent a default, citing the 14th Amendment.

Laboratories of Autocracy

Tucker Carlson’s Text That Alarmed Fox Leaders: ‘It’s Not How White Men Fight’

January 6 was an insurrection.

Male supremacy is at the core of the hard right’s agenda

Iowa lawmakers pass legislation to roll back child labor protections

The already poor health care outcomes in the United States and how maternal mortality rates have been made worse by abortion bans. SCOTUS’s abortion ruling disproportionately affects Black people with low incomes in the Deep South

Hospitals Close While Execs Made Millions

Biden & The Border and Cryptocurrencies II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Guns. For the love of guns

Florida GOP legislators agree to shield DeSantis travel records

djt wrecks himself in the E. Jean Carroll video deposition – this helps explain the verdict

More Stories

2022 Voting and Registration Data from the US Census

The Crash of College Student Populations

What Writers Can Work on During the Strike (It’s Not Much). Also, a useful video

Illinois set to become the first state to end book bans

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month: May 2023

Black men killed in infamous Colfax Massacre commemorated on new monument

Climate Trouble Brewing for Coffee Drinkers

The Search for the Lost ‘Jeopardy!’ Tapes Is Over. The Mystery Behind Them Endures.

An Oral History of MTV News

Newton Minnow, Public TV Advocate and Former FCC Chief, Dies at 97

Bill Saluga, “You Can Call Me Ray” Comedian, Dies at 85

Eileen Saki, Rosie the Bar Owner on ‘MAS*H,’ Dies at 79

Now I Know: The Problem With Sudoku and The Customers You Wish You Didn’t Have, and The Canada/Philippines Garbage War of 2019 and The Uprising That Helped Create Washington D.C. and Neil And Buzz Almost Got Stuck and Google… Sheep View?

The Clearing of the Tabs

MUSIC

From the New York Times, something I truly believe about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees: “Purists can debate whether or not any of these artists can be classified as ‘rock,’ but I prefer the more exciting definition Ice Cube put forth in his speech when he was inducted with the rap group N.W.A. in 2016. ‘Rock ’n’ roll is not an instrument; rock ’n’ roll is not even a style of music,’ he said. ‘Rock ’n’ roll is a spirit. Rock ’n’ roll is not conforming to the people who came before you, but creating your own path in music and in life.’”

Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor.

Gordon Lightfoot, the troubadour of Canada, is gone.

Coverville 1441: Tributes to Harry Belafonte and Gordon Lightfoot

Behind Harry Belafonte’s Artistry and Activism Was a Lonely Kid Longing for Connection

Variations on a Theme of Chopin by Rachmaninoff

4 Chord Song  – Axis Of Aweesome and the Ed Sheeran verdictt

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, conducted by George Szell.

Rachmaninoff: the many lives of Vocalise

Warsaw Concerto by Richard Addinsell

The May 7 Sunday Stealing of Songs has a lot of eclectic choices by the dozen participants.

May the 4th

Greedy (1994) kid doing Jimmy Durante

Hobbit Drinking Song – Peter Hollens featuring Hank Green

Never Gonna Fall In Love Again – Eric Carmen

Ramblin' with Roger
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