Personal Musings category archive
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
Methinks Steve M. has a point when he says:
(His complete article is at the link.)
Afterthought:
We look forward to two years of a House of Representatives ruled by persons (at least profess to) believe that Fox News speaks truth.
I am not sanguine.
“What It Was, Was Football”* 0
In aftermath of Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest on the field (happily he seems to be recovering), Randall Balmer wonders what Americans find so enticing about so dangerous a sport. A snippet:
Which brings us back to the question about whether there is something about American society that draws us – myself included, by the way – to the carnage of football.
Aside:
I used to be a football fan. I looked forward to watching all the bowl games on New Year’s Day and a number that were not on New Year’s Day; I rooted for several NFL teams over the years. Now, though, I’ve lost all interest in football. The games have gotten far too long, the NFL owners are a mostly a bunch of jerks, and the NCAA is only in it for the money. (Indeed, the only sporting organization of which I have a lower opinion than of the NCAA is FIFA.)
My weekends are much more peaceful, relaxing, and productive now.
________________________
*With apologies to Andy Griffith.
Stray Thought 0
I near as I can tell, the most significant (and harmful) effect of “social” media has been to turn us into a society of exhibitionists, all jumping up and down screaming, “Look at me!“
Momento Mori 0
For some fool reason (as my mother used to say), I find myself these past few weeks missing my old internet friend Shaun Mullen, maybe because it was three years ago this month that he passed.
We emailed regularly, but we met only once, a meeting I will always remember, dining together in Newark, Delaware, as I was on my way to visit one of my kids in Philadelphia and he happened to be in Newark for some reason of his own.
I am a better person for having known him.
Stray Thought 0
I must admit that it’s a bit disconcerting to read the report of a famous person’s passing after a full life and realize the person named is younger than you.
Stray Question, Misnomer Dept. 0
How the heck did Herschel Walker pass the entrance exam to get into “Brainy Quote”?
Vaccine Nation 0
An anti-VAXX twit tweets his or her* way into a bit of mess with his employer.
Aside:
I really don’t get these fools who claim vaccines don’t work. I can’t decide whether they are willfully blind or just plain stupid. Or maybe just plain willfully stupid.
They deny four centuries of history because what happened conflicts with what they want to believe.
________________
*Based on the description of the tweets, I’d give two to one on “his.”
Stray Question 0
Who would have thought that, if you conspire to overthrow the government, you could be found guilty in court of conspiring to overthrow the government?
Some Musings 0
I’ve been amused and I’ve been bemused.
I’ve certainly been demused. Most of the news these days is demusing.
I’ve even been emused by ejokes.
Why can’t I be cmused?
I’ll have to muse on that.
Stray Thought 0
It’s the persons who don’t vote who should sport stickers.
Devolution 0
I like to listen to Old Time Radio (OTR for short).
“Old Time” is really not an accurate label, as it actually refers to a very short period in the 1940s and 1950s, when radio shows were syndicated on vinyl “syndication” disks or, later, on tape and, fortunately, were not copyrighted, as they were considered ephemeral (a few shows from the 1930s survive–a very few). (Maybe I’m showing my age, but when I hear “old time,” I think “centuries ago.”)
Fortunately, there are folks who have worked to make OTR available to us today. You can see my favorite OTR sites over there —-> on the sidebar.
Right now, I’m listening to a dramatization of Penrod by Booth Tarkington, a novel that I read several times when I was a young ‘un, back in the olden days, from the NBC University of the Air at The Old Time Radio Theatre.
And it led me to realize that there was a time when commercial AM radio actually contributed positively to the discourse, a time when it was not merely a vehicle for right-wing haters and 24-hour sports talkers.
And Now for a Musical Interlude 0
This is a relatively new genre of music called “lofi” (or maybe “Lo-Fi” or “Lofi”).
We first encountered it this week when we visited a local coffee shop for the first time; it was playing as background music, and we found it quite appealing. The proprietor told me, when I asked him what the music he was playing was called, that you can find lots of it on Youtube, so I did. When I searched for it, many of the links also referred to “hip-hop,” but it seems to me much more related to smooth jazz than to hip-hop.
I have been a jazz fan for many years, since I first stumbled upon Cannonball Adderley (and also a fan of jazz’s distant cousin, swing, as my two or three regular readers already know), though of course I was already aware of jazz, because how could you grow up in the Disunited States and not be? But Adderley made me a fan.
I can’t say that I’m knowledgeable about jazz. All I can say is that I like it, especially smooth jazz and blues.
Oh. And we also liked the coffee shop and will likely visit it again.
Stray Thought 0
I suspect that, meny times, when persons complain about “cancel culture,” what they are actually complaining about is consequences.
(I doubt that I’m the first person who’s thought this, because, in retrospect, it’s pretty honking obvious.)
Stray Thought 0
Reading BS posts from randos on “social” media is in no way research.
Game Changed 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, sociology professor Thomas Henricks explores why football has for all practical purposes supplanted baseball as America’s “national pastime.” It’s interesting and, in some ways, rather depressing read.
Me, I’ve pretty much lost interest in both: football because of the moral bankruptcy of the NCAA ruling body and and the odious behavior of too many of the NFL owners; baseball because the games have gotten just too darned long to be worth my time.
(But I still read Bob Molinaro’s column every week, because he is fine writer with a wicked sense of humor.)
Stray Thought 0
I did not know that Cardinal Richelieu invented the table knife.
When the Stream Becomes a Flood 0
Thanks to the internet, we now have a vaster wasteland.
Non-Sequitur 0
I’ve been watching a British show called Boon from the closing years of the last century. (It’s a off-beat situation comedy/drama/oddball mystery show that’s quite amusing.)
The lead character rides a BSA motorcycle. BSA’s were popular in the States back when I was a young ‘un. On a whim, I went looking to find out what BSA stands for. The answer was mildly surprising.
The “BSA” acronym has nothing whatsoever to do with motorized transport.
All the News that Gives Us Fits 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Polly Campbell suggests that excessive news consumption is–er–less than desirable.
A snippet (emphasis added):
I think she is onto something.
I gave up on broadcast news years ago. I find it superficial, sensational, and simplistic. Heck, I can read more in 10 minutes than a news announcer can read to me in 30.
And, when broadcasters have the choice, they will opt for sensational over sensible and superficial over solid, because these days it’s all about keeping eyeballs glued to the screen.
So I read.
Newspapers, newspaper websites, magazines, some blogs I have found reliable, sometimes even books–material for persons who read.
Also, in the “twenty-four hour news cycle,” there is not twenty-four hours worth of news, so broadcast news fills the gap with drivel talking heads spouting opinions. Opinions may or may not be valid, but they are not news.
(Of course, I fill this blog with my opinions, but I don’t pretend that they are anything more than opinions. Always right and never wrong, of course, but, still, just my opinions.)
