We stopped at the grocery store on the way home from church. In the cold beer aisle, there were three dark, foreign-looking men in what reminded me of race-driver uniforms, but when I looked more closely, I realized they were cricketeers from the nearby cricket grounds. Their uniforms had a variety of sponsors' logos on them.
Regarding veils, I'm for letting everyone do their own thing. Fashions come and go. However, before one decides to post one's trad-girl glamor-shot on Instagram or TwiX, remember Jesus's warning about widening your phylacteries and lengthening your tassels ... and don't.
Paraphrase, "Don't be looking for an audience for your spirituality and generosity and asceticism. God isn't impressed by poseurs."
It's hard for young people in our social media world to resist making a show of everything, but I think it's important to resist, if you don't want your faith to seem like an act.
Jerry Reed was such a great musician. There are some videos of him and Glen Campbell playing guitar together that are mind-blowing in their virtuosity.
I don't want to sound old and cranky, but it was nice when there was a mass audience for someone singing a song, as opposed to bouncing and banging and electronic bleeping and someone saying one line over and over.
I think of you as neither old nor cranky, BTW. But I look for better written stuff and you might appreciate poking through some of these folks' music. I check in every couple of weeks to see what's cooking.
There still is. I saw Sierra Ferrell 2 weeks ago in a small dance venue. We packed the place with 800+ -- mostly people younger than me. Hipsters and rockabilly wannabes. But still. And so much dancing to neo-trad country and even Kitty Wells covers.
That's encouraging. More of a niche audience than a mass audience, though. I guess niches can be bigger than they used to be, with the changes in music marketing.
Was just out on aerial patrol and recon mission to find out what’s going on in this here ‘hood. I’m beginning to suspect my gimbal needs recalibrated—which isn’t a sneaky lewd comment, I promise!
Oh well. Now I have to go rehang a TV wall mount contraption to accommodate a replacement TV…
"My favorite example of this happened at my son’s school. To sign your kid out each day, you scan a QR code."
When I was a child, you were dismissed from school at the end of the day. Maybe you stayed late for a club. Maybe you would get on a bus to go home. Maybe you would ride a bike or walk. Maybe you would go home with a friend. If your mother picked you up from school, it meant that you had a dentist appointment or something else bad.
Yeah, I can't scan QR codes, no smartphone. But this is not a defect that I'm obliged to correct; it's a personal technology (and sanity) choice that is mine to make. Whoever it is with that expectation, they are going to have to offer me another way (like a flippin' URL I can visit on my freakin' computer, that would do fine) to get that info. It's on them. And I will insist on that until they finally manage to wrap their little heads around it.
I'm fighting the hospital text the same way. I don't want them communicating me with that way. They get breached regularly. And while my medical records aren't particularly interesting, my payment methods might be. I say "no" a lot.
"Don't you have a cell phone?" she asks as if it's darling.
"Yes, and I can probably write code for it. It's access that you don't get."
Right, you've figured out what it is they expect, and you're saying no. Naturally they'll be all "but--but--ya hafta" and you will still say no. They'll be all "well we don't know how to handle that so you are a troublemaker" and you will say "No I'm not. Now tell your boss to figure out how to handle the real possibilities you've chosen to ignore, because I'm still saying no."
It's been a productive morning, although there's little to show for it.
Our youngest came home to play golf (since he has a car on campus, not sure why he came home since the drive here then to golf adds 20 minutes). He was gonna do laundry here, but left it at school.
Katie was so excited she made blueberry pancakes for everyone! 😀 She and our youngest chatted a few minutes, then he got up to go. katie and I then grabbed pickleball rackets, and made a racket in the driveway. She's just learning, so it's more of just hitting it back and forth. I mostly play left handed, although if a shot is wide I'll reach for it right handed. She got hot, so we decided to go to the farmers market, with the a/c set on "freezer" and "full tilt boogie blast". Which means she was still a bit hot and I had icicles on my nose. 🥶We bought tomatoes a green pepper, some corn and then....We saw a new vendor. She had baked goods. Katie suggested the blueberry loaf, then she saw heaven. A strawberry cobbler. I wanted the loaf, she wanted the cobbler. We compromised, and bought both. The vendor doesn't have a web-site, but she does tastings and holiday orders. She took katie's phone number. I suggested buying some pies this year for Thanksgiving, just to "support local businesses". Katie grinned at that (she likes making pies).
We drove home, I weedwacked weeds around the edges, then hit them with the leaf blower. You cannot really tell I did anything, but if I hadn't you'd noticed they needed done, if that makes sense.
So, I have a subscription to The Atlantic. It's political leanings are clear; I'm not troubled by that. If I know, I never am. But this is online today (no idea if it's pay-walled):
RFK Jr. Was My Drug Dealer: Kennedy’s endorsement of Donald Trump raises an awkward question.
Would that story have ever been run in The Atlantic if he had endorsed Harris? If reported anywhere, would it have been dismissed as "cheap fake" news? Is The Atlantic becoming what Uri Berliner said of NPR, "losing America's trust?" It's not like there's any sense of what it's becoming, so should I cancel and move on?
Just thinking while typing. But your input is always valued.
The article's paywalled, so I can't say anything about it specifically (though I know who Andersen is and a bit about his work) or the Atlantic generally (I haven't been a subscriber since it was actually a monthly print magazine) other than if you get sufficient value for your subscription dollar and your time spent reading their product, stay. If you don't, dump 'em.
That's how I judge what I subscribe to, including "free" subscriptions such as this rag. I always find the content here valuable. But if that IncG guy tries to con me out of any more dough than I'm already paying, I'm probably outta' here.
You have a fair point. I generally like the Atlantic—-writers such as McKay Coppins, Derek Thompson, Ron Brownstein, and others are high quality writers. On the other hand, and I say this as a liberal, I was extremely disappointed that Jeff Goldberg, as the editor, caved to the “woke” (I really hate that word) mob and rescinded Kevin Williamson’s hiring. I thought he would add a lot to the magazine.
I really liked the Atlantic back in the day when my subscription showed up in my mailbox monthly as an actual paper magazine. Sort of lost track of it after that, other than the articles I occasionally get to read through gift links or links in newsletters / articles that aren't paywalled, etc. I'm often tempted to subscribe again, but there's only so much stuff I can read, regardless of the medium through which it arrives in front of my eyeballs.
Yeah. Ditto on the materials and books thing. I recently went through my inbox and unsubscribed to a heap of online stuff. But I also realized this week I'm suffering from a lack of "natural" material created by my spending too much time on reading material of any kind (read actual "nature" here).
Went up to Mackinaw City the first of the week to stay until yesterday. My wife and I had gone for a week nearly every year for a couple of decades until the pandemic hit. Then "life" hit and kept hitting. First time back since then.
We always stayed in the same room in the same motel... right above a state park and almost right on the water... best view of the Straits in town, other than from the top of the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse right next door...
And really pretty quiet and peaceful, for a 'tourist trap'. The room we always get has a small private balcony just outside the large picture window overlooking the water, bridge and islands. Since we did all the touristy stuff we wanted to years ago, we mostly went the last few years to do 'nothing', other than walk around town and the shoreline, and to lounge on the balcony with a book or a drink (or both) in our hands, read, and watch the people (and dogs) go by in the park below, along with the ships and small boats out in the Straits. Usually got through at least one book and often started another. Took one along this time as per usual and left the laptop and all the online stuff at home.
Never even cracked the darned thing. Was too occupied with just being outside and enjoying the excellent weather and the spectacular nearly 180* "view" and all that it entailed. And a drink or three along the way. But just didn't have a desire to read or check up on the news at all. Figured if the world ended, somebody would probably mention it when we were out and about.
I would *LOVE* to see her! I was the geezer fan in my office. It's funny. People who dismissed her initially seemed to appreciate her more with time. Very talented.
I get your point about the Bad Romance cover by PMJ. But she's creative and seems to have a sense of humor. I bet she would join right in!
Back from DC. Granted it’s August, but it was amazing how empty the city was, especially the big office buildings for law firms, etc. No traffic. We waked everywhere (well over 7 miles each day) and saw pretty much what we wanted to see. The WWII Memorial,which hadn’t been built when I lived there, was beautiful. I never fail to be amazed at how quiet a place The Vietnam Memorial is, even though it’s hard on Constitution Ave. TheAfrican-American Museum was fantastic—-including its architecture. The Holocaust Museum was….haunting. They have a whole research area away from the main halls in the museum. Sandra was able to show me a video that the Shoah Foundation did of her mother. One of the coolest things since Sandra was there last, in their research area, is that there is now digitized a whole slew of documents that were not accessible previously. Sandra was able to get documents she did not have on both her parents, including their registration for the Displaced Persons Camp, health records, etc. The people in the research area were very accommodating and printed them out for her, as well as giving her the link to get them online. A very moving moment for me, but especially for her. We ate well, at places not in the I-have-an-expense-account category, or the I’m-wearing-a-funny-tourist-hat-so-please-overcharge-me establishments. Found a Mediterranean place the first night, a little hole in the wall in Chinatown the second and a funky Cuban place the third. And the weather was so unlike DC in August when I lived there: Every day was sunny, breezy and temperate.
Sounds like a poignant and wonderful trip. Never been to DC ... yet. But I hope I'm there when I can enjoy it like y'all did.
I went to the Anne Frank House museum and the Museum of Dutch Resistance a few days after going to the Nuremburg court museum earlier this year. Those places are wrenching to me despite the fact that I have no connection to the problems those people faced. For it to be personal might be too much for me to bear, I think.
I was at a writer's workshop where we were given a prompt that had to do with DC museums. I can't remember the details, but one of the other participants wrote about people eating lunch in a restaurant and talking excitedly about going next to the Holocaust museum.
Quickly I wrote about someone who had just been there. The woman sat there, cold, unable to eat even the small meal in front of her, and wondering what, if anything, she should, could say to the enthusiastic tourists.
I have never been and have no close connection, as you say. But I had just read about the display of human hair.
We stopped at the grocery store on the way home from church. In the cold beer aisle, there were three dark, foreign-looking men in what reminded me of race-driver uniforms, but when I looked more closely, I realized they were cricketeers from the nearby cricket grounds. Their uniforms had a variety of sponsors' logos on them.
Cool!
Their uniforms were bright blue and very tight-fitting. Two-piece, though, not one piece like drivers' jumpsuits.
Sounds like you have a pretty good mental picture of them. Did you have a favorite?
Not the one with the beard.
I'll end my questions on that note. 😉
Good morning, all.
This is the earbug this morning. Some of you may recall it as the theme song to the old Bill Dance fishing show. But it's very pleasant.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjrxZCWAIA4
Is the story below paywalled? I can never tell. Anyway, interesting little piece about revivedreligious tradition:
The Young Catholic Women Bringing Back Veils
A new generation of worshippers is longing for a ‘lost type of Catholicism.’
https://substack.com/home/post/p-147976563?source=queue
Regarding veils, I'm for letting everyone do their own thing. Fashions come and go. However, before one decides to post one's trad-girl glamor-shot on Instagram or TwiX, remember Jesus's warning about widening your phylacteries and lengthening your tassels ... and don't.
I missed that Sunday school lesson. (And so many others.) But I think I get it.
Matthew 6: 1-6 and Matthew 23: 7-9
Paraphrase, "Don't be looking for an audience for your spirituality and generosity and asceticism. God isn't impressed by poseurs."
It's hard for young people in our social media world to resist making a show of everything, but I think it's important to resist, if you don't want your faith to seem like an act.
There's been a lot of that for millenia evidently. The audience has just expanded with time.
Yes, people are always the same. Only their circumstances change.
In the horse history book, I read that high-status Scythian women in the Iron Age were covered with tattoos:
https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/stunning-ancient-tattoos-pazyryk-nomads-002267
Princess Ukok's tats look familiar. She may have been at that Sierra Ferrell show.
Jerry Reed was such a great musician. There are some videos of him and Glen Campbell playing guitar together that are mind-blowing in their virtuosity.
And Campbell could play with anybody. Miss him a lot.
I don't want to sound old and cranky, but it was nice when there was a mass audience for someone singing a song, as opposed to bouncing and banging and electronic bleeping and someone saying one line over and over.
I think of you as neither old nor cranky, BTW. But I look for better written stuff and you might appreciate poking through some of these folks' music. I check in every couple of weeks to see what's cooking.
https://americanamusic.org/americana-radio/
There still is. I saw Sierra Ferrell 2 weeks ago in a small dance venue. We packed the place with 800+ -- mostly people younger than me. Hipsters and rockabilly wannabes. But still. And so much dancing to neo-trad country and even Kitty Wells covers.
That's encouraging. More of a niche audience than a mass audience, though. I guess niches can be bigger than they used to be, with the changes in music marketing.
As with a lot of Americana. But she's opened for Zach Bryan quite a bit on this summer tour. And he's a thing, I'm told.
Placido Domingo, everyone. It's just Jake and me this morning. The rest of the family is having a lie-in.
Very placid, indeed.
Was just out on aerial patrol and recon mission to find out what’s going on in this here ‘hood. I’m beginning to suspect my gimbal needs recalibrated—which isn’t a sneaky lewd comment, I promise!
Oh well. Now I have to go rehang a TV wall mount contraption to accommodate a replacement TV…
Good luck with your gimbal. I didn't know you could fly.
It’s the hovering that really impresses.
True. That's harder!
Fun!
“I switched to a flip-phone and dramatically improved my well-being”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/i-switched-to-a-flip-phone-and-dramatically-improved-my-well-being/ar-AA1pmeTK
"My favorite example of this happened at my son’s school. To sign your kid out each day, you scan a QR code."
When I was a child, you were dismissed from school at the end of the day. Maybe you stayed late for a club. Maybe you would get on a bus to go home. Maybe you would ride a bike or walk. Maybe you would go home with a friend. If your mother picked you up from school, it meant that you had a dentist appointment or something else bad.
Yeah, I can't scan QR codes, no smartphone. But this is not a defect that I'm obliged to correct; it's a personal technology (and sanity) choice that is mine to make. Whoever it is with that expectation, they are going to have to offer me another way (like a flippin' URL I can visit on my freakin' computer, that would do fine) to get that info. It's on them. And I will insist on that until they finally manage to wrap their little heads around it.
I admire your determination!
The "everybody is required to do whatever the cool kids do" mentality shall not win.
I'm fighting the hospital text the same way. I don't want them communicating me with that way. They get breached regularly. And while my medical records aren't particularly interesting, my payment methods might be. I say "no" a lot.
"Don't you have a cell phone?" she asks as if it's darling.
"Yes, and I can probably write code for it. It's access that you don't get."
Right, you've figured out what it is they expect, and you're saying no. Naturally they'll be all "but--but--ya hafta" and you will still say no. They'll be all "well we don't know how to handle that so you are a troublemaker" and you will say "No I'm not. Now tell your boss to figure out how to handle the real possibilities you've chosen to ignore, because I'm still saying no."
It's been a productive morning, although there's little to show for it.
Our youngest came home to play golf (since he has a car on campus, not sure why he came home since the drive here then to golf adds 20 minutes). He was gonna do laundry here, but left it at school.
Katie was so excited she made blueberry pancakes for everyone! 😀 She and our youngest chatted a few minutes, then he got up to go. katie and I then grabbed pickleball rackets, and made a racket in the driveway. She's just learning, so it's more of just hitting it back and forth. I mostly play left handed, although if a shot is wide I'll reach for it right handed. She got hot, so we decided to go to the farmers market, with the a/c set on "freezer" and "full tilt boogie blast". Which means she was still a bit hot and I had icicles on my nose. 🥶We bought tomatoes a green pepper, some corn and then....We saw a new vendor. She had baked goods. Katie suggested the blueberry loaf, then she saw heaven. A strawberry cobbler. I wanted the loaf, she wanted the cobbler. We compromised, and bought both. The vendor doesn't have a web-site, but she does tastings and holiday orders. She took katie's phone number. I suggested buying some pies this year for Thanksgiving, just to "support local businesses". Katie grinned at that (she likes making pies).
We drove home, I weedwacked weeds around the edges, then hit them with the leaf blower. You cannot really tell I did anything, but if I hadn't you'd noticed they needed done, if that makes sense.
Off to walk at the Y!
Never had a strawberry cobbler. (We're blackberry cobbler fans generally.) But it couldn't be a bad thang!
So, I have a subscription to The Atlantic. It's political leanings are clear; I'm not troubled by that. If I know, I never am. But this is online today (no idea if it's pay-walled):
RFK Jr. Was My Drug Dealer: Kennedy’s endorsement of Donald Trump raises an awkward question.
By Kurt Andersen
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/08/rfk-jr-endorse-trump-execute-drug-dealers/679597/?utm_campaign=the-wonder-reader&utm_content=20240824&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The+Wonder+Reader
Would that story have ever been run in The Atlantic if he had endorsed Harris? If reported anywhere, would it have been dismissed as "cheap fake" news? Is The Atlantic becoming what Uri Berliner said of NPR, "losing America's trust?" It's not like there's any sense of what it's becoming, so should I cancel and move on?
Just thinking while typing. But your input is always valued.
The article's paywalled, so I can't say anything about it specifically (though I know who Andersen is and a bit about his work) or the Atlantic generally (I haven't been a subscriber since it was actually a monthly print magazine) other than if you get sufficient value for your subscription dollar and your time spent reading their product, stay. If you don't, dump 'em.
That's how I judge what I subscribe to, including "free" subscriptions such as this rag. I always find the content here valuable. But if that IncG guy tries to con me out of any more dough than I'm already paying, I'm probably outta' here.
😆
You have a fair point. I generally like the Atlantic—-writers such as McKay Coppins, Derek Thompson, Ron Brownstein, and others are high quality writers. On the other hand, and I say this as a liberal, I was extremely disappointed that Jeff Goldberg, as the editor, caved to the “woke” (I really hate that word) mob and rescinded Kevin Williamson’s hiring. I thought he would add a lot to the magazine.
I really liked the Atlantic back in the day when my subscription showed up in my mailbox monthly as an actual paper magazine. Sort of lost track of it after that, other than the articles I occasionally get to read through gift links or links in newsletters / articles that aren't paywalled, etc. I'm often tempted to subscribe again, but there's only so much stuff I can read, regardless of the medium through which it arrives in front of my eyeballs.
I'm suffering a materials overload. I'm not reading books like I should. But some of this will subside after the election.
Or Jan. 20. Or Civil War II.
Whatever.
Yeah. Ditto on the materials and books thing. I recently went through my inbox and unsubscribed to a heap of online stuff. But I also realized this week I'm suffering from a lack of "natural" material created by my spending too much time on reading material of any kind (read actual "nature" here).
Went up to Mackinaw City the first of the week to stay until yesterday. My wife and I had gone for a week nearly every year for a couple of decades until the pandemic hit. Then "life" hit and kept hitting. First time back since then.
We always stayed in the same room in the same motel... right above a state park and almost right on the water... best view of the Straits in town, other than from the top of the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse right next door...
https://www.michigan.org/property/old-mackinac-point-lighthouse
And really pretty quiet and peaceful, for a 'tourist trap'. The room we always get has a small private balcony just outside the large picture window overlooking the water, bridge and islands. Since we did all the touristy stuff we wanted to years ago, we mostly went the last few years to do 'nothing', other than walk around town and the shoreline, and to lounge on the balcony with a book or a drink (or both) in our hands, read, and watch the people (and dogs) go by in the park below, along with the ships and small boats out in the Straits. Usually got through at least one book and often started another. Took one along this time as per usual and left the laptop and all the online stuff at home.
Never even cracked the darned thing. Was too occupied with just being outside and enjoying the excellent weather and the spectacular nearly 180* "view" and all that it entailed. And a drink or three along the way. But just didn't have a desire to read or check up on the news at all. Figured if the world ended, somebody would probably mention it when we were out and about.
Time well spent!
And money. And that's a hell of a thing for a cheapskate like me to say!!
Sounds perfect
Not quite. There's almost always *something*. But 98.5%. At least. 😎
Yeah. They blew it on that. It smelt.
Could have been worse... they could've hired these guys to do a few pieces for them...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N3jWkv0UTc
That's beautiful.
That really is a "tradition" in these parts. There's a lot to be said for *tradition*. Not quite sure what to say about this one. 👀
Nobody can do Gaga better than Gaga. (In case you didn’t know, “Bad Romance” is a very famous Lady Gaga song.)
I didn’t. 😅
I’m a Superfan, I have seen her live 4 times. Her concert was the last one I saw before Covid hit. I haven’t been to a concert since.
I would *LOVE* to see her! I was the geezer fan in my office. It's funny. People who dismissed her initially seemed to appreciate her more with time. Very talented.
I get your point about the Bad Romance cover by PMJ. But she's creative and seems to have a sense of humor. I bet she would join right in!
I’d say she endorsed their use of her rights to do the cover and post it on YouTube. They’re pretty responsive to copyright infringement complaints.
She's got a new album coming out, maybe she will tour again (although I want her to get married and have a baby soon, she will be an amazing momma.)
Back from DC. Granted it’s August, but it was amazing how empty the city was, especially the big office buildings for law firms, etc. No traffic. We waked everywhere (well over 7 miles each day) and saw pretty much what we wanted to see. The WWII Memorial,which hadn’t been built when I lived there, was beautiful. I never fail to be amazed at how quiet a place The Vietnam Memorial is, even though it’s hard on Constitution Ave. TheAfrican-American Museum was fantastic—-including its architecture. The Holocaust Museum was….haunting. They have a whole research area away from the main halls in the museum. Sandra was able to show me a video that the Shoah Foundation did of her mother. One of the coolest things since Sandra was there last, in their research area, is that there is now digitized a whole slew of documents that were not accessible previously. Sandra was able to get documents she did not have on both her parents, including their registration for the Displaced Persons Camp, health records, etc. The people in the research area were very accommodating and printed them out for her, as well as giving her the link to get them online. A very moving moment for me, but especially for her. We ate well, at places not in the I-have-an-expense-account category, or the I’m-wearing-a-funny-tourist-hat-so-please-overcharge-me establishments. Found a Mediterranean place the first night, a little hole in the wall in Chinatown the second and a funky Cuban place the third. And the weather was so unlike DC in August when I lived there: Every day was sunny, breezy and temperate.
Really interesting.
That sounds fantastic. Last I was there was the late-80s.
You lucked out with cool weather. I hear it can be brutal in DC in August. Sounds like a great trip!
When I worked there in the House, I made sure to visit the Congressman’s District in Colorado for most of August.
Sounds like a poignant and wonderful trip. Never been to DC ... yet. But I hope I'm there when I can enjoy it like y'all did.
I went to the Anne Frank House museum and the Museum of Dutch Resistance a few days after going to the Nuremburg court museum earlier this year. Those places are wrenching to me despite the fact that I have no connection to the problems those people faced. For it to be personal might be too much for me to bear, I think.
I was at a writer's workshop where we were given a prompt that had to do with DC museums. I can't remember the details, but one of the other participants wrote about people eating lunch in a restaurant and talking excitedly about going next to the Holocaust museum.
Quickly I wrote about someone who had just been there. The woman sat there, cold, unable to eat even the small meal in front of her, and wondering what, if anything, she should, could say to the enthusiastic tourists.
I have never been and have no close connection, as you say. But I had just read about the display of human hair.
The Anne Frank House was very moving, especially when you go up into the hiding place, the audio tour stops and there’s just…….silence.
I noticed that too. It WAS moving. People shut up.