Tag: Kelly Sedinger

June rambling: Tony Stark and Elon Musk

250 to 250 Project videos (Heather Cox Richardson)

An essay on A. R. Moxon’s blog, The Reframe, connects how our system works to the stories we tell in our mass media. Make a hero out of Tony Stark, he claims, and you’ll wind up with an Elon Musk.

Spying on kids to save kids from spying is very, very stupid

In Gaza, Fathers Can’t Promise Their Children Food, Safety, or Even Survival

Medicare Advantage Organizations Overturned Nearly All Appealed Prior Authorization Denials for Skilled Nursing Facility Admission, Raising Concerns About Initial Denials

JD Vance says Nixon’s Watergate scandal would be ‘12-hour news story’ today

Feral Hogs: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

American Zoo – a frightening documentary on the Catskill Game Farm

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine calls on lawmakers to get rid of the state’s death penalty

Tell Publishers: Don’t Block the Wayback Machine!

Videos from the 250 to 250 Project that Heather Cox Richardson and others are producing to honor the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. “We designed the videos to emphasize the agency of Americans—mostly everyday Americans—to change the country. Each falls into a category that defines what it means to be an American, including community, democracy, innovation, mobility, civil rights, education, conservation, and creativity.”

The Knicks Just Gave Us a Teaching Moment. Let’s Not Waste It

Amer

Amer Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil: NYC, July 3, 1981

Cheers creator James Burrows dies at 85. He also directed episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi, and Frasier, all of which I watched religiously,  plus Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Will and Grace, Rhoda, Phyllis, and Laverne & Shirley, which I saw occasionally.

Archaeologists Unearth Hundreds of Artifacts at Fort Ticonderoga, the Site of America’s First Offensive Victory of the Revolutionary War

Alan Greenspan, Fed Chairman Through Prosperity and Crisis, Dies at 100: The pre-eminent economic policymaker of his time and a skilled political operator, he favored market-friendly stances that would later come to be associated with destructive financial forces.
Where does punctuation come from?!
Why Is a Basketball Team Named After Pants, and Why Cops Stereotypically Eat Donuts, and A Random Quack of Kindness, and The Island the U.S. and Canada Both Want
Older, not better

Disenfranchisement machine is besieging the courts; he demands control of state elections—or else; Steve Bannon calls for ICE and others to be at “every precinct” for the midterms: “If you’re armed or not, that depends upon what your state laws are.” These 19 election deniers and vote suppressors are on the ballot in the midterms.

Court allows regime to end removal protections for Syrian and Haitian nationals. Know that, per the Kagan dissent, the decision was racially motivated based on comments such as suggestions that Haitians in Ohio were “eating the dogs . . . [and] cats.” Yes, immigration is about race.

Overruling Wary Intel Officials Who Withheld Kushner’s Top Secret Clearance

Seeking to Use “Domestic Terrorism” to Target Nonprofits and Activists

Moving forward with a State Department plan to strip the CDC of its oversight on global health programs.

American emergency podcast: The movement to kill FEMA

Raving about vandalism even though he’s responsible for the pool’s issues.

Did we finally learn something about his health

MUSIC

Blackbird -New York Vocal Collective

Ode to Birds and Rainbow by Takashi Yoshimatsu

Mother Nature – Angélique Kidjo

Beginnings – Chicago

Rebel – Songs in the Key Of Resistance

Whiter Shade of Pale – Johnny Blue Skies & The Dark Clouds

Human Mind – Mavis Staples

Resurrection – Robbie Robertson

Coverville 1583: The Alison Moyet/Yaz/Yazoo Cover Story

Sweet Dreams – Eurythmics

The Pines of Rome by Ottorino Respighi

The Royal Scam – Steely Dan 

Criminal — Fiona Apple

Vertigo – Billy Eckstine

Peter Sprague Plays Valse Warm  and Hanalei Town

Let’s Stay Together – Al Green

Marnie – Nat King Cole

Rubberband Man – Spinners

I’m A Man – Chicago

Mississippi Queen – Mountain

Bohemian Rhapsody – The Muppets

On My Own – Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald

Old Lady Grey: Dee Palmer (1937-2026)

TED Recommends for Black Music Month: How Black girls can reclaim their voice in music by Kyra Gaunt

Clive Davis, Hitmaking Titan of the Music Industry, Dies at 94

Feeling pain for blogger Kelly

ForgottenStars.net

I’ve been feeling severe emotional pain on behalf of my fellow upstate New Yorker, blogger Kelly Sedinger, the overalls guy.  And I’ll admit that it’s not just empathy, but a profound understanding of what he’s been going through.

He’s been posting as Forgotten Stars for about five years, and at Byzantium Shores for nearly two decades before that.

Then, inexplicably, all of his posts after April 21, 2026 disappeared. Apparently, during an earlier outage, something else went wonky. As of Sunday evening, he can post, BUT the pieces he wrote in the past month and a half are still MIA. And the formatting has been stripped.

At least the individual post links now load. And the comments now work;  I LOVE comments, making them and receiving them.

Kelly wrote: “I’m not going to lie, folks, all of this has really sucked out a lot of my enthusiasm for this notion of doing content creation…and it also has me questioning my whole strategy on that score, anyway.” It’s almost impossible for me to focus on writing when my site is down. I could technically write on a backup site, but it’s not the same.

Joy

There are those of us, like Kelly, who write for the joy of the sharing. And we spend some moolah keeping our junkie habit, I mean, our love of the written word alive. Friend Chuck Miller recently wrote, “I can tell you that, from personal experience, blog hosting does not operate for free. At least not GOOD blog hosting.”

I’ve been spending more than a few dinero on this enterprise, changing providers along the way.

Kelly has been spending his money too.  “I still have some back-end functionality stuff that is still not right, and I will be contacting my hosting service in the next couple of days to politely request that they give me a refund or discount since a malfunction on their end resulted in loss of functionality and a loss of actual data, which is not acceptable to me. “

I have some alleged redundancy/backup to this blog, if I understand what the heck all of those plugins are supposed to do. (Nope, I really don’t fully comprehend, and people explaining in tech-speak does NOT help.) My last problem was one plugin that was screwing up another plugin with a very similar name!

My blog was down for 23 minutes on both Saturday and Sunday nights, my Jetpack informed me. But it came back up on its own, or by magic.

So keep a good thought for Kelly Sedinger, who, if he’s anything like me, is emotionally exhausted by all of this.

May rambling: the Great Society

No one wants a permanent gerontocracy

LibrariansHeather Cox Richardson: “On May 22, 1964, in a graduation speech at the University of Michigan, President Lyndon Johnson put a name to a new vision for the United States. He called it ‘the Great Society’ and laid out the vision of a country that did not confine itself to making money, but rather used its post–World War II prosperity to ‘enrich and elevate our national life.’ That Great Society would demand an end to poverty and racial injustice.”

Pope Leo Warns of Risks From A.I. in 42,300-Word Encyclical

Structured Settlements & Factoring Companies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

FOTUS claims Congress said yes to his big dumb arch—102 years ago

No one wants a permanent gerontocracy

Newark’s Mayor Arrested at Protest Outside ICE Detention Center; Gov. Sherrill denied access to facility; migrant jail detainees launch hunger, labor strike over conditions behind bars

Elon Musk is mad that mythological movie characters aren’t white

Tennessee Man Jailed for Sharing Charlie Kirk Meme Receives $835K Settlement. Larry Bushart missed the birth of his granddaughter and lost his job as a result of his 37 days in jail.

Anderson Cooper’s emotional farewell to 60 Minutes after 20 years

Veteran 60 Minutes Journalist Sharyn Alfonsi Says ‘Wall Has Come Down Between Editorial Independence and Corporate Interests’

Mark Evanier’s Trip Back East, mostly to see Jack Kirby’s name on a street sign, and a story about his  Uncle Nathan

Kobe Bryant + Kyle Busch =/= Abraham Lincoln + John F. Kennedy

“He Breathes, He Writes”: The Voluminous Memory and Deep Empathy of Ironweed Author William Kennedy

Is Kingston The New ART CAPITAL of Upstate NY?

Only In Monroe with Stephen Colbert

The Most Valuable Background Actor in History? and Don’t Let the Moose Lick Your Car and The Day America Locked Canada Out of Its Garages

I’ve been away

I’ll likely write about it in dribs and drabs. But this was oddly relevant.

Wordle 1,800 3/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩AROSE 94

🟨⬜🟨⬜🟩CLIME 4

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩NIECE

Wordle 1,801 3/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜AROSE 97

🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜TULIP 1

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 VISIT

MUSIC

Paul McCartney’s Joyous Performance in the Finale of ‘The Late Show’

Orion and Pleiades by Toru Takemitsu

Laurie Anderson: Tiny Desk Concert, May 22, 2026

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Four) #4: This Heat (And Related Artists) and #5: Jonathan Richman

Top Of The World – Greenvines Duo

I Can’t Stand The Rain  – Ann Peebles (1974)

Coverville 1581: The Janet Jackson Cover Story and 1582: The Bob Dylan Cover Story IX

Come On – The Rolling Stones

West End Girls – Pet Shop Boys

K-Chuck Radio: S-S-S-S-S-Saigon…

Nik Durga: New Zealand Music Month and the songs I didn’t grow up with

Greatest Love Of All – Whitney Houston

WHERE THE HELL IS OUR CONGRESS? | A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

May rambling: Not Wisdom

RJ wins another SDMA

What I Can’t Show You (John Green visits Koidu Government Hospital and sees the Maternal Center of Excellence for the first time), and Despair is Not Wisdom (Hank Green).

The FDA withdrew studies showing that the Covid and shingles vaccines were safe.

Gas Station Drugs:  a world of questionable supplements and boner pills, and The Hadow Docket: a shortcut to the Supreme Court – Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

I Was Told I Had 6 Months to Live. That Was 20 Years Ago. — Here’s what two brain surgeries taught me about public health and care access.

I caught myself thinking: “Some of these research papers are awfully good for what might be a student’s first effort.”

Some white nationalists swoop in after natural disasters, trying to soften their image while offering help (Lesley Stahl/60 Minutes)

8647

Demand destruction vs fuel-superseding infrastructure: Will FOTUS Hormuz us into the full Gretacene?
AI

Silicon Valley Is Bracing for a Permanent Underclass. AI is pushing millions of employees to the edge of a cliff as most sectors are racing to replace jobs with AI. As a wise friend of mine noted, “We need programs and plans to ensure everyone is active, connected, engaged with society when millions have no work. Some countries will get this right, while others will slide into a dystopian abyss of depression, isolation, and anger toward technology that will not bode well for a peaceful, productive humanity.”

I got punished for paying off my car loan two years early

A rare archaeological site in the Sonoran Desert was bulldozed by a DHS contractor involved in building the latest sections of the border wall.

Free Phone Calls Saved Incarcerated People and Their Loved Ones $622.5 Million

Young Boy Finds the First Ancient Greek Artifact Discovered in Berlin

New Musicals ‘Schmigadoon!’ and ‘Lost Boys’ Lead List of Tony Nominees

The Song That Puts You to Sleep (On Purpose) and The Cartoon That Shut Down Boston and Operation Mincemeat and The Part of Canada That Doesn’t Want You

MUSIC

Not Me No Way – Rebecca Jade, who won Best R&B, Funk or Soul Song  at the 35th Annual San Diego Music Awards

This Is How We Walk on the Moon – Arthur Russell

Rounds by Jessie Montgomery, for piano and strings, inspired by poet TS Eliot

Moonage Daydream –  David Bowie

Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words) – Bobby Womack

Peg – Steely Dan

 

At The Ballet – Audra McDonald, Megan Hilty & Kelli O’Hara

All You Need Is Love – Peter Sprague,  featuring Rebecca Jade

 

Suffolk Suite by Doreen Carwithen

If You Don’t Know Me by Now -Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes
Man On The Moon – R.E.M.

Coverville 1579: Cover Stories for Lesley Gore and Christopher Cross

Horses and Divorces – Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert

This Year – the Mountain Goats

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Four) #2: The Bonzo Dog Band and #3: Midnight Oil and

Bastards of Young – the Replacements

Moonshadow – Yusef/ Cat Stevens
Dream Walkin’ Mashup – Peter Sprague and Leonard Patton

Theme from The Love Boat – WDR Funkhausorchester

Everyone’s Gone to the Moon – Nina Simone

Common – Maren Morris featuring Brandi Carlile

Time – Tom Waits

I Wish I Was the Moon –  Neko Case

Addicted To Love – Robert Palmer

Man On The Moon – Megan Moroney

Aloha Bossa Nova – Peter Sprague, featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Eclipse – Pink Floyd

The state of the blog

The `xmlrpc.php` file (?!)

FantaCo. Photo by Tom Skulan.

Kelly, the Buffalo-area guy, posted about going to the moon. And then nothing for a couple of weeks. I thought that Ralph Kramden had assaulted him.

As it turned out, his blog was full. Specifically, “I have been unable to access my site on the back end for over a week, because the database was full. I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I think it’s that after over 24 years of blogging, I finally filled up the space I’ve been paying for here. (Well, I was on BlogSpot for years and years, but I ported all of that content over here.)” I assumed he was physically all right; he had posted on Facebook.

This, of course, got me to start wondering about the state of the blog at rogerogreen.com. Lessse, what IS the name of my provider? (It really DID take me a minute to remember.)

No threats from viruses – yay! I had an entity fix a hack attack in 2024 and spent $30/year to maintain it.

“This certificate is valid and currently in use; it will automatically renew.”

My storage is at 30%; that’s comforting, given that I have imported not only MY Blogspot blog from 2005 to 2010, but also my Times Union blog from 2008 to 2021, though I didn’t blog there daily.

My CPU is only 4%.  But my RAM is at 90%. I had this problem six months ago, and it was fixed. Also, I bought extra RAM. Do I understand what was done? Do you understand the grown-ups in a Charlie Brown cartoon?   I’ll have to keep monitoring it and ask for help again.

Bill coming due

Ooo, I switched to this hosting plan in March 2017 based on a recommendation by the late Dustbury. I spent a bit of change back then. It expires in March 2027. Can I renew for another decade? I cannot. The longest available option is 36 months. Of course, the three years will cost 70% of what the ten years have run me.

I suppose it’s the cost of therapy.

One other thing: I have the Jetpack plugin. But it’s not responding as it did before, when it would tell me each morning whether my blog had been posted or had gone down. After “talking” with Jetpack’s bot, I wrote to my provider:

Hello, Support – I am experiencing an issue with Jetpack on my WordPress site, and it seems that XML–RPC access is being blocked. Here are the details: – The xmlrpc.php file returns no response at all. – Jetpack backups require XML–RPC to be enabled. – A “200” error is indicated in Jetpack‘s connection test, suggesting XML-RPC is blocked at the server level. Could you please check your firewall/security settings for any XML-RPC blocks? It would be appreciated if you could whitelist XML-RPC access for my site or adjust the security settings to allow it. Thank you for your assistance.

I barely know what I just wrote, but it was in my provider’s queue. Long answer (involving six emails and a few hours), after disconnecting Blackhole for Bad Bots, Really Simple SSL, and, surprisingly, Jetpack Protect, my Jetpack is finally working, which made me happy.