2021 archive
The Graffiti Artist 0
Afterthought:
It’s an uncomfortable thought, but it must be voiced.
The Republican Party has become the party of sedition.
Fly the Fiendly Skies 0
He got what he wanted. A snippet:
Video taken aboard the plane shows the zip-tied and shoeless man surrounded by passengers and crew members as he repeats over and over again: “Stop this plane!” He finally was picked up and hauled to the back of the plane, which was diverted to Albuquerque International Sunport.
They stopped the plane, just for him.
Facebook Frolics, Blurred Lines Dept. 0
Drawing the line in the sand.
The Climates They Are a-Changing, Dam Nation Dept. 0
Lake Mead, the source of water for many cities and farms in the American west, is wasting away from what scientists have dubbed a “mega-drought.” Here’s a bit from Timothy Egan’s report:
But it’s here now, and a reservoir built to hold enough water to flood all of New York state 1 foot deep appears to be inexorably drying up.
The other day, I walked the floor of Lake Mead, a cracked and sun-baked Martian-scape that was once more than 100 feet underwater. On the horizon, the eerie geologic formations that freaked out early white explorers displayed the latest bathtub rings in the rock.
I find this somewhat disquieting.
Misdirection Play, the Art of the Con Dept. 0
The writer of a letter to the editor of the Las Vegas Sun reveals the deal.
Being While Black 0
In more news of the vile, a black business owner was assaulted for being:
“Black b-word, n-word, talked about my hair, ‘You black women with your weaves,’ ” she said.
And it got worse from there.
Critical of Critical Critics 0
At The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia’s 2017 Teacher of the Year is taken aback at the movement to forbid the teaching of “critical race theory” in public schools (where, as a matter of fact, it generally is not taught, being largely a topic in academia). Here’s tiny bit from her article (emphasis added):
I commend the entire piece to your attention.
Recommended Listening 0
R. Holmes and Company by John Kendrick Bangs.
If you are a Sherlock Holmes devotee, as am I, you will get a big kick out of this pastiche. Raffles Holmes is the son of the marriage of Sherlock Holmes and the daughter of the legendary thief and cracksman, Raffles.* His Raffles side and his Holmes side continually struggle (though the Holmes side usually wins). The adventures are marvelously tongue-in-cheek and quite good fun.
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*This, of course, is absolute bosh.
Thanks to William S. Barring-Gould’s biography of Nero Wolfe, we all know that, while wandering in Asia after the affair at Reichenbach Falls, Holmes came across Irene Adler, whom Holmes always referred to as “The Woman,” and the result of their meeting was Nero Wolfe. There is no question that Irene Adler was the only woman in Holmes’s life.
The Unwelcoming 0
At the Kansas City Star, Toriano Porter tells the story of the behavior that greeted a black family when they moved into a new town seeking better schools.
Spoiler Alert: It’s not pretty.
The Pity Party 0
(Warning: Short commercial at the end.)
