Tag: Now I Know

August rambling: Corporate Bullsh*t

Alice Green

Cory Doctorow reviews Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power, and Wealth in America, Nick Hanauer, Joan Walsh, and Donald Cohen’s 2023 book on the history of corporate apologetics. “The authors’ thesis is that the business world has a well-worn playbook that they roll out whenever anything that might cause industry to behave even slightly less destructively is proposed. What’s more, we keep falling for it.” Oh, the last stage in their playbook is ‘this is socialism.'” Or communism.

‘A different level than 2020’: djt’s plan to steal the 2024 election is taking shape

djt made $300k from selling Bibles – but owes $100m

Republican group cites notorious Dred Scott ruling as reason Kamala Harris can’t be president

The Convention That Ate Republicans’ Lunch

Harris, djt, and Our Broken News Media

I Put Him on Death Row. He Shouldn’t Die.

Hospice: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Hollywood’s 20 Best Political Movies, Ranked

Very demure is very trendy.

Why Schools Are Racing to Ban Student Phones

How to Escape From the Russian Army

Everyone Is Judging AI by These Tests. But Experts Say They’re Close to Meaningless

Pew (2023): 32% of Americans have a tattoo, including 22% who have more than one

Everything You Need To Know About Saturday Night Live, season by season

My favorite Progressive ad is the first 30 seconds-“Practicing gratitude, manifesting abundance.”

The Flagstones and The Flintstones

Tulsa dog starts house fire after chewing on lithium-ion battery

Kellogg’s Corn Flakes ad (Huck and Yogi)

Duff, another meaning

Mark Evanier: My Ten Favorite Cartoon Show Openings From My Youth and Ten More

How to Mug Yourself?

OBITS

Local civil rights activist Alice Green would describe a formative episode from her teenage years when she and a white friend were hired to work at a small summer resort. I heard her tell this story in one of her books, We Who Believe In Freedom. She was a 2018 FFAPL literary Legend. Some of her work shone a light on the struggles of Black Adirondackers. 

Phil Donahue, Who Died at 88, Transformed Daytime Television

Peter Marshall, Host of ‘The Hollywood Squares,’ Dies at 98

Wally Amos, R.I.P. He was “Famous”

Alain Delon, Seductive Star of European Cinema, Dies at 88

MUSIC

How Will I Know – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade

Yo Me Estreso – The Linda Lindas, feat. “Weird Al” Yankovic

Look Through My Window – The Mamas & The Papas

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: The Black Angels

Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture

Coverville 1498: The Counting Crows Cover Story III and  1499: The Phoebe Bridgers Cover Story

Die With A Smile – Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars

The Cedar and the Palm by Vasily Kalinnikov

Ghostbusters – Ray Parker, Jr.

Kellogg’s Rice Krispies ad – I LOVED this song as a kid

Million Dollar Baby – Tommy Richman.  “It holds the record for most weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s new TikTok Top 50 chart.” I did not know that existed.

The main theme for Once Upon A Time In The West by Ennio Morricone

The Love You Save – Jackson Five

Big Man On Mulberry Street – Billy Joel;  Bruce Willis in Moonlighting, Maddie´s Dream episode.

I Had Some Help – Post Malone featuring Morgan Wallen

Badge – Peter Sprague featuring Leonard Patton

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart– Taylor Swift

Apple – Charli xcx. I understand my iPhone cover is BRAT; Bill Maher is confused by the term.

Stay – Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs; Maurice recently died at 86

Greg Kihn, Pop Star Who Had a Big Hit With “Jeopardy,” Dies at 75 (the song and the parody included)

A Mel-dey — a medley of songs from all the musicals written by Mel Brooks — both of them…

MUSIC (political section)

KAMALA!– A Randy Rainbow Song Parody (2020)

The Lawyer or the Conman and JD, JD… . (Married Lady) – Randy Rainbow Song Parodies (2024)

Childless Cat Ladies – Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer

DNC 2024 roll call and playlist, including:

Arizona — Edge of Seventeen by Stevie Nicks, a native of Phoenix.

Arkansas — Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac, the 1992 campaign song for Bill Clinton, the former governor of Arkansas. (I remember that well.)

Colorado — September by Earth, Wind & Fire. Philip Bailey, one of the band’s two lead singers, hails from Denver.

Connecticut — Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours by Stevie Wonder. Connecticut is known as the Constitution State.

Democrats Abroad — Love Train by the O’Jays. (“People around the world, join hands,” the lyrics say.)

Delaware — Higher Love by Kygo and Whitney Houston. President Biden, Delaware’s favorite son, has played this song regularly at his events, including after his acceptance speech in 2020.

(I’ll probably do this again. This is fun!)

What Kamala Harris and djt’s Music Choices Reveal About Each Campaign

Used by Kamala: All American – Mickey Guyton; Something More Than Free – Jason Isbell

The songs below were among those used by the djt campaign, to the disdain, and sometimes threat of legal action, by the artist and/or songwriter family:

Freedom – Beyoncé

Hold On, I’m Coming – Sam & Dave

My Heart Will Go On -Celine Dion

August rambling: maximum happiness

Unplugged

Our joyless quest for maximum happiness

The Unfathomable Mystery of Biracial Americans

Not All Racial and Ethnic Groups Are Aging At National Pace

AmStat article on Risks to Federal Statistical Data and a related speech by Adriana Kugler, a governor of the Federal Reserve

The West Bank: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Utah ban of 13 books in schools and libraries; out-bloody-rageous

Inside the Texas Crime Lab That’s Cracked Hundreds of Cold Cases

Teaching the Bible in Public Schools: Biblical and History Response

He Took His 68-Year-Old Secret to Court and Finally Confronted His Ghost

San Diego Comic-Con 2024: download a PDF copy of the free souvenir book.

Aaron Sorkin Says If He Made ‘The West Wing’ Today, People Wouldn’t Recognize “Reasonable” Republican Party

162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact-checks djt

‘Especially a Woman!’: Fox Host Furious Kamala Harris Loves to Cook

Scott Meyer, one of the founders of the Spectrum Theatre in Albany and the Third Street Cinema in Rensselaer before that, dies at 73

Gena Rowlands, a luminous leading lady of independent film, dies at 94

Baseball trailblazer Billy Bean, who dedicated his life to inclusion, dies at 60

Chi Chi Rodriguez, Hall of Fame golfer, dies at 88

Mitzi McCall, Comedian, Actress and Sitcom Writer, Dies at 93

Is English just badly pronounced French?

A Bisectional Rainbow at the SUNY Admin Building, where I used to work

A Simple Tech Issue, and Unplugged, which links to ME.

COVID

As I mentioned, COVID is not dead yet. From August 12, 2024, LA Times (paywall likely): “California’s strongest summer COVID wave in two years is still surging, fueled in part by the rise of a particularly hyperinfectious FLiRT subvariant known as KP.3.1.1.

“There are a number of possible culprits, experts say. Heat waves kept many Californians indoors, most adults are well removed from their last brush with the coronavirus, or their last vaccine dose, and changes in the virus have also widened the scope of the surge.”

There was COVID among the athletes at the Paris Olympics. 

From the New York Times: “Doctors say that many people may want to wait for the updated vaccines, which have been retooled to better protect against the current dominant strains of the virus…

“An upcoming vaccine from the biotechnology company Novavax will target JN.1, a coronavirus variant that accounted for the bulk of cases in the United States this winter. The Pfizer and Moderna shots coming this fall will target KP.2, a newer offshoot of JN.1 that’s been circulating this summer. The variants responsible for the largest share of cases in the United States right now, KP.3 and KP.3.1.1, are closely related to KP.2 and JN.1.

“Health officials are expected to issue guidance on how long someone should wait between vaccines when the new shots become available…  Because the variants spreading this summer are closely related to one another, a recent Covid infection will likely offer substantial protection against the most common strains circulating now.”

ITEM: A federal court finds an upstate New York eye doctor and his practice illegally fired an employee who reported a lack of COVID protections to state health officials.

Now I Know

The Weird Snack Chip Trick That May Get You Fired and A Spiteful (But Funny) Way to Deal With Telemarketers and Please Be Quiet, We Can’t Hear the Martians and What Cheaters Should Watch Out For and The eBay Fact I Can’t Verify and Why We Wake Up With Crusty Eyes and These Shoes Are Made for Talking and The Great Minnesota Goose Scandal of 2017 and There Is No “Eye” in “Art”

MUSIC

Hymne à l’amour -Edith Piaf

The Lawyer or the Conman – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Jungle Love  – The Time

How Bizarre – OMC

Shepherds of the Nation – The Kinks

Suite from Close Encounters of the Third Kind by John Williams, with Zubin Mehta conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic

The American Ruse – MC5

Coverville 1497: The Supertramp Cover Story II

Good Vibrations – Peter Sprague featuring Leonard Patton

Untitled – R.E.M.

Monkey Gone To Heaven – Pixies

Escapade -Janet Jackson:

Cuba – Gibson Brothers

Blue – The Jayhawks

Destination Sunrise – MonaLisa Twins

Out Here On My Own – Irene Cara

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Clutch

Ichi – Ptychka

Rainbow Perfection– A parody tribute to Randy Rainbow by Jonathan Jensen

July rambling: Dr. SCOTUS

Gleichschaltung

Dr. SCOTUS Will Now See Your Next Patient – Ron Harman King fears our healthcare lies with those in black robes, not white coats.

Cory Doctorow: Unpersoned about romance writer K Renee and others locked out of their Google docs

CrowdStrike blames test software for taking down 8.5 million Windows machines.

Teaching the Bible in Public Schools

Disputing Errors on Your Tenant Background Check Report

Succeeding in the Post-Wayfair Landscape: Top 3 Trends in Sales Tax Six Years On (yes, this is interesting to a geeky business librarian)

The Nation’s Data at Risk: Meeting America’s Information Needs for the 21st Century

Why Paper Checks Refuse To Die

A neurological disorder stole her voice. Jennifer Wexton takes it back on the House floor.

Quieting Your Inner Critic – Self-Compassion and Other Methods

Navy exonerates Black sailors unjustly punished in 1944 after a deadly California port explosion.

Bob Newhart Was an Everyman With a Comic Voice Like No Other.  The 25 best TV series finales ever. Newhart is #22 and should be much higher. I watched him on Ed Sullivan and his three CBS shows

Whitney Rybeck, ‘Friday the 13th’ Actor and Crash Test Dummy in Seat Belt Ads, Dies at 79

The Worm Charmers: A Florida family coaxes earthworms from the forest floor

Homicide: Life on the Street Finally Gets Streaming Home at Peacock. This was one of my favorite programs.

Oscars: What To Do When You Lose

Now I Know: The Dirty Lyric Snuck Onto The Radio and The Pencil That Told Kids To Do Something They Shouldn’t and A Mountainous Problem With Instant Noodles

Kelly and Sunday Stealing

SSA

“Soon, you will no longer be able to sign in to your online Social Security account using your Social Security username and password. To access Social Security online services, including my Social Security, you will need to create a Login.gov or ID.me account.”

This is a real thing, reported on AARP and CBS Mornings.

“The change affects about 46 million of the roughly 86 million people who have My Social Security accounts, according to an SSA spokesperson.”

POLLYTICKS

How Joe Biden launched his career by beating two unbeatable Republicans

Thank You, President Biden

Weekly Sift: Resolutions and The Two Kinds of Unity, in which I was introduced to the word Gleichschaltung. “It’s an old German engineering term for when you wire a bunch of electrical circuits together under a common master switch. It got applied to German politics in 1933, for reasons that you may recall from history books.” Also, the Kamala surge and Couches, Cat Ladies, and J. D. Vance.

djt Returns to Bad Form — and Gives the Democrats Hope

Immigration, Crime, Politics, and lies and Fact-checking djt’s lies during his RNC acceptance speech

RNC & “Migrant Crime”: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Demagoguery repeats itself

djt Sells Sneakers, Coins, and Trading Cards Imprinted with his Bloody Face

How Kamala’s name is pronounced; even a child can do it

From way back on July 15: ‘Terrified’ – Americans in NZ react to Trump shooting, Biden uncertainty

Borowitz Reports repeats: New Conspiracy Theory Links Wide Availability of Guns to People Getting Shot

MUSIC

Anything Goes –  Peter Sprague featuring Rebecca Jade

Look At Me, I’m MTG!– A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

John Mayall, British Blues-Rock Legend and 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Dies at 90. Room To Move

Flivver Ten Million  by Frederick Converse, performance is by the Buffalo Philharmonic,

Coverville 1495: Cover Stories for Marc Cohn and Simple Minds and  1496: The Trevor Horn Cover Story II

The Great Curve – Talking Heads

K-Chuck Radio: Gaze into the crystal ball …

Coast -Kim Deal

You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away–  Peter Sprague, featuring Allison Adams Tucker.

Patterns – Laura Marling

Several versions of Sit Down, You’re Rocking The Boat here and here and here and here (1992 Tonys – Nicely-Nicely (Walter Bobbie) plus Nathan Lane and J.K. Simmons) and here  and here (current London revival) and probably more here

Knee Deep Blues – Caleb Caudle:

Breath Out – Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn –

This LOST 1986 Song Went Viral…But for Years-NOBODY Knew WHO Sang it—UNTIL Today!–Professor of Rock

July rambling: A history of “wokeness”

Oh really? No, O’Malley!

A history of “wokeness”: Stay woke: How a Black activist watchword got co-opted in the culture war.
The American Elevator Explains Why Housing Costs Have Skyrocketed

U.K. Elections: Labour Claims Historic Landslide Victory

The penultimate week of SCOTUS decisions for 2023-24 session, and 
The Supreme Court Destroyed The Government While You Weren’t Looking

James Inhofe, the senator (R-OK) who vociferously denied climate change, dies at 89. He led the Environment Committee.

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO): ‘I’m Advocating Christian Nationalism,’ which I abhor

Texas abortion ban linked to 13% increase in infant and newborn deaths. “This might foreshadow what is happening in other states,” said Johns Hopkins public health researcher Alison Gemmill. “Texas is basically a year ahead.”

Students Target Teachers in Group TikTok Attack, Shaking Their School.  Seventh and eighth graders in Malvern, Pa., impersonating their teachers, posted disparaging, lewd, racist, and homophobic videos in the first known mass attack of its kind in the U.S.

How to keep AI from killing us all (Berkeley News) and How to spot AI-generated text (MIT Technology Review)

Which Blockbuster Movies Pass the Climate Test?

A Visual History of the Harlem Renaissance

Fudgetown, USA

For the first time in six months. Chuck’s shoes match.

Now I Know: The Longest Marriage Proposal? and How Four Dollars Can Unlock American History and The People Who Stuck Out Their Necks for Giraffes and The Stupid Future-y Shoes That People Actually Love
Obits
Ruth Westheimer, Expert on Everything About Sex, Dies at 96

James B. Sikking, Actor on Hill Street Blues and Doogie Howser, dies at 90. I watched both shows regularly.

Shelley Duvall, Robert Altman Protege and Tormented Wife in ‘The Shining,’ Dies at 75

Richard Simmons, Celebrity Fitness Guru, Dies at 76

Shannen Doherty, “Beverly Hills, 90210” star, dies at 53

Producer Jon Landau, James Cameron’s Right-Hand Man for ‘Titanic’ and the ‘Avatar’ Films, Dies at 63

MUSIC
This Time I’ll Be Sweeter – Angela Bofill, who died at age 70

Joe Bonsall, Mainstay of Country Music’s Oak Ridge Boys for 50 Years, Dies at 76. Here are a pair of songs.

Fantasia symphonica by Franz von Suppe

Time and Tide -Basia

Touch The Hem Of His Garment – Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers

Independently Owned – Alex Newell; Shucked (Original Broadway Cast Recording)

Sunshine Of Your Love – Peter Sprague featuring Leonard Patton

Coverville 1494: The Kinks Cover Story V

Maybe – Alison Krauss & Union Station

Independence Day -Elliott Smith

Pineapple Poll by Gilbert and Sullivan

You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory – Ronnie Spector with Joey Ramone

Burial Ground – The Decemberists

Role Model –  Fatboy Slim

Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland

The Reflex – Duran Duran

D-O-D-G-E-R-S (Oh really? No, O’Malley!)-Danny Kaye, a “hit-by-hit account of an exciting game which took place during the Los Angeles Dodgers 1962 pennant chase, or did it?” Here are the lyrics. The first player from the archrival San Francisco Giants mentioned was Orlando Cepeda., the Hall of Famer who passed away at 86

99 – Barbara Feldon

The Real Reason Why Music Is Getting Worse, according to Rick Beato. There’s at least one response video to this on YouTube

June rambling: Schedule F

Donald Sutherland

 

Washington Park on Willett Street between Lancaster and Streets, Albany, NY, Friday, June 21, 2024, after the storm the day before (ROG)

djt’s Second Term: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and his Schedule F plan, explained

The Limits of Originalism (SCOTUS)

Deep-Sea Mining and UK Elections: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Europe is Healthier than the US: But it’s not about the physical (although it makes the stage more dramatic), it’s about the work/life balance. About third spaces that encourage being around people, in a way that’s deeper than a brutal transactionalism.

The US is about the individual, to a hyper degree. Everyone is so focused on being emancipated from everything, freed from any “outdated” obligations, that they end up in an empty loneliness.

The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

Why Physical Media is Having a Comeback

Bill Cobbs, Actor in ‘Night at the Museum’ and many others Dies at 90. He was one of those character actors I learned to recognize in film and episodic television. 

Martin Mull, Funnyman and ‘Fernwood 2 Night’ Star, Dies at 80

The Real (Weird) Way We See Numbers

Now I Know: How Bad Film Captured an Explosion and The Nobel Prize Winner Who Bet Against Himself and The Dead Parrot Society and The Case of the Mousey Soup

Kelly’s Sunday Stealing. He is the greatest cheerleader for Pie I’ve ever known.

Alex Trebek Forever stamps

Donald Sutherland 1935 – 2024 

The obituary and Hollywood tributes

I saw him in LOTS of movies: The Dirty Dozen (1967) – as a “crazed/dazed Pvt.” at the drive-in with my parents and sisters.

MAS*H (1970) – the original anti-establishment Army medic Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce;  I saw it again on TV when WXXA, Channel 23, first broadcast in Albany in 1982. The station showed it on the first Sunday morning it broadcast at 8 a.m.; I thought it was a strange choice

 Klute (1971) -” a private eye who falls for a prostitute (his then real-life romantic partner Jane Fonda)”

National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978) – the pot-smoking professor

Ordinary People (1980) – a friend of mine describes this movie as like his growing up with a controlling mother (the Mary Tyler Moore character) and ineffectual father (Sutherland)

Backdraft (1991) – pyromaniac; JFK (1991) – conspiracy theorist 

Undoubtedly many others.

What struck me in a 2017 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper was this exchange:

If there’s a slight sadness about Sutherland it may be because his childhood in Canada wasn’t easy. He survived polio as a toddler and spent all of fourth grade at home with rheumatic fever. He was an awkward kid. Tall with big ears, at school they called him Dumbo. When he was 16, he had a question for his mother.

Donald Sutherland: And I went to her and I said: “Mother, am I good looking?” And my mother looked at me and went. “Your face has character, Donald.” And I went and hid in my room for at least a day.

Anderson Cooper: Did what she say stay with you?

Donald Sutherland: Not really. Just– just for– 65, 66 years.

Donald Sutherland: It’s not easy, Anderson. It’s not easy to know that you’re an ugly man, in the business like I’m in.

Anderson Cooper: Do you think of yourself as an ugly man?

Donald Sutherland: Unattractive is a gentler way of putting it.

Ouch! I never thought that.

Kelly posted some music.

Alerts!

I’m constantly reminded that technology is fine until it’s not. When the Massachusetts 911 system went down on Tuesday, June 18, I received an alert to that effect. I do not know why. A program intended to secure the state’s system caused the firewall to stop calls from reaching dispatch centers. Or something like that.

About 15 minutes later, while I was at a book review at the library, almost everyone’s phone started buzzing. It was rather startling and worrisome. It was the New York State 911 system letting us know that OUR state’s system was NOT down.

MUSIC

I Have Nothing – Peter Sprague featuring Rebecca Jade

Licks Off Of Records – Martin Mull

Mandela’s Blues – Kinky Friedman

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Grateful Dead, which reminded me of the time I saw the Jerry Garcia Band in New Paltz on November 29, 1977

 Coverville 1492: The John Wetton Cover Story and 1493: Purple Rain 40th Anniversary

Had To Cry Today – Peter Sprague featuring Leonard Patton

March Of The Belgian Paratroopers by Pierre Leemans.

Star 69 – R.E.M.

Let’s Go Fly A Kite – Dick Van Dyke and Jason Alexander

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