It popped up on my feed with a bit about Lego and Marie Curie being Polish and never using that form of her name. According to the article, she went by Maria Sklodowska-Curie. (In the recent Beetlejuice movie Tim Burton stated she was French. )
Good Sunday morning. in the 30s right now, may get to 40, the warmest in a week. Maybe clear skies for the planetary show (although anything beyond Venus, Jupiter and Mars is problematic).
Yesterday we heard that Pope Francis was in "critical condition" but also that he was awake and sitting up.
Mercury if you have a flat view to the west right at sunset. Tricky to see
Saturn - Hard but possible in the west
Venus - bright
Jupiter easy above
Mars - makes the apex of a triangle with the twin Gemini, Castor and Pollux. While there are the Constellations, patterns are called asterisms. Squares, triangles. Big and little Dipper.
The crescent moon in the morning is lovely.
The Seven Sisters, aka the Pleiades, a tiny Dipper is visible as is the lovely Orion Constellation and the Nebula in the swords belt.
All eyes on Germany. Results will be coming in early afternoon Eastern time.
Safe guess: another parliamentary muddle. No matter how much people try to be loud, the German constitutional system produces regular muddles that don’t really seem to settle much of anything. But the post-WWII design *has* achieved the goal of preventing populism from getting very far. Yet, I should probably add.
I’d be surprised if the polls are far off, which implies another “grand coalition” of the two main parties: CDU and SPD. It will probably have Friedrich Merz as the chancellor. The coalition agreement will amount to a check (in the chess-playing sense) on any meaningful reforms—certainly nothing flashy that could work as a future electoral advantage for either party.
Hard and decisive reforms will be put on a to-do list with a deadline of “some day before the dying sun eventually expands to eat the earth.”
Which is the outcome I have in mind by the term “muddled”.
Doubtful. The last changes to naturalization laws were long in the making. A CDU-SPD coalition would suggest stasis on that front. There might be a greater effort at infiltrating and deporting criminal gangs and terrorist groups, just as a matter of bowing to public pressure.
That said, I haven’t done much to keep up with what’s been going on lately. I know AfD is popular in the east for being xenophobic. But the east doesn’t have all that much political heft due to low and aging population, albeit substantially infiltrated by Russian influence agents.
Morning here, too! Happy day of the week before Monday and following Saturday, observed by Christians as a day of rest and religious worship and (together with Saturday) forming part of the weekend.
According to Oxford Languages, anyway.
Daylight here. Outlook for darkening skies towards evening.
Nope. Latest update just says, "darkness 'til tomorrow morning sometime." Nothing about the weight of any zephyrs either. Used to get much more detailed reports than this from those guys.
Looks like maybe Elon stopped by in the dead of night and took a light saber (someone told him chainsaws are too noisy and low tech) to their payroll and budget.
They haven't gotten to mine yet. One of them writes:
On Monday night, a robust jet streak will push across the Mississippi River and across northern Illinois. An attendant low-amplitude (but nonetheless sharp/potent) shortwave will shift overhead through the evening. While large scale forcing looks impressive, with robust DCVA and 500 mb height falls on the order of 60 to 100 m/12 hours, tropospheric moisture looks a bit more scant, with PWATs around or under a half inch. As such, it remains a bit unclear just how widespread precipitation will be as this feature rolls through. That said, cold 500 mb temperatures will support a plume of fairly steep mid-level lapse rates, nearing 7-8 C/km. Should sufficient saturation occur, envision that some "streaky" convective elements could develop, enough to justify 30-40 percent PoPs for scattered showery activity.
Good afternoon. Spent the day at a Catholic men's conference in Columbus. In the teens this morning, right at 32 currently.
Interesting article about the Duke of Buckingham. The Stuart kings of England were -- interesting. Where James I was discreet in his sexual preferences, Charles I was a bit more open regarding his Catholic leanings, in an England made throughly Protestant by the Tudors, especially Elizabeth I. The result was of course, the English Civil War. When the monarchy was restored after Cromwell, Charles's son Charles II was perhaps a bit more discreet (there is an account that be became a Catholic on his deathbed), but his brother James II who succeeded him, openly Catholic, sparked the "Glorious Revolution," ousting him from the throne and confirming England as Protestant. That event both defined the limits of the modern British Crown, and eventually provided an inspiration for the American Revolution.
I find I’ve gained more from good book reviews at times than from the actual books. They certainly help me cover more ground than I could otherwise hope to, since I can hardly read all the titles I add to my to-read pile.
Haven't read Churchill, per se, but have read a few things about him. Among the more interesting is one that's a bit off the beaten path as far as works *about* Churchill go:
"Churchill & Orwell"; sub-titled "The Fight for Freedom", by Thomas E. Ricks
If interested, skip the Goodreads review, since it's more a recap of the two men themselves than the book. A review in The Diplomat covers the book much better. It's summary:
>It is Orwell’s and Churchill’s quest for facts and the truth that makes them especially relevant for today’s world. This enlightened quest is only possible in a free and open society that allows dissenters and idiosyncratic thinkers (Churchill and Orwell famously both broke with their social and ideological peers at various stages in their lives) to voice their opinions “and the right to tell people what they do not want to hear,” as Orwell put it.
Ricks’ thesis in that regard is cogently summarized in the book’s afterword. “The struggle to see things as they are is perhaps the fundamental driver of Western civilization. There is a long but direct line from Aristotle and Archimedes to Locke, Hume, Mill and Darwin, and from there through Orwell and Churchill to [Martin Luther King’s] ‘Letter from Birmingham City Jail’. It is the agreement that objective reality exists, that people of goodwill can perceive it, and that other people will change their views when presented with the facts of the matter.”<
Two of the greatest leaders of the last 175 years, in my opinion are Grant and Churchill.
The littlest known but maybe a top 3 attribute that made them great, was their lifelong ability to absorb and see and learn, reflecting that into their own personal world view, and changing their views. They stand uniquely above most greats.
I would add Abraham Lincoln to that list. With formal schooling maybe amounting to no more than a year, Lincoln taught himself the law, had a successful legal career, and with no political experience beyond a single term in Congress, gained national attention running for Senate in 1858 with his perceptive analysis of the crisis around slavery and secession. When he became President, he taught himself military history in order to lead the Union armies as Civil War commander-in-chief. It was Lincoln who ultimately elevated Grant to command the Union armies and bring about an end to the Civil War.
I was going to add Abe. Compared to Grant, Lincoln is held in the highest earned esteem. Sadly the rotten South, lost Cause, Lee, created false mythology about Grant. After reading Chernows superb biography, I hold that Grant should be on Rushmore. Even recarving Teddy Roosevelt out to place him there.
Grant's gonna' have to get in line. I have it on good authority that an Executive Order will soon be forthcoming giving good ol' You Know Who first dibs on that.
I read at least one volume of "History of the English Speaking Peoples" in high school. I also have some of Churchill's early war writing, "The River War" and "The Malakand Expedition" and the one about South Africa.
RE: Buckingham would be murdered by a disabled survivor of one of his military adventures, a gloomy Calvinist of a social levelling bent. Charles I, completely missing the message, would be deposed and executed by Parliament in 1649.
"What can we at CSLF learn from all of this?" A more pertinent question might be what can an American *king* learn from this? But since The Donald is reputed to read little and likely less than zero about history, I'm wondering if The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham will be available in picture book format any time soon?
As to our 21st century Buckingham avatar, he was definitely all in on cosplaying his part a couple of days ago at the Carnival Political Action Committee conference in Maryland...
But lest I give The Duke of Dark MAGA credit (or blame) which he is not in fact due, in all fairness, this particular little stunt was not really his idea. Javier, his D&D coach (Drama $ Demagoguery, not that other D&D game) from south of the border - well, south of a handful of borders, actually - had more than a hand in it. Maybe a number of hands... and a few other things, for all we know...
I called Sam Altman to ask him if that's true. But for some strange reason he hung up on me when I mentioned Cynthia by name. Seems a bit suspicious to me.
Sometimes I got paid. Other times, I was just being helpful. My college roommate was pre-med and wanted to maximize her time studying organic chemistry. If she had to write a paper for a non-science class, she would do the research and give me the source material, and I would write the paper.
Her papers were always on medical topics, like "Depictions of Anatomy in Art" for art history class or "Analysis of African Herbal Medicines" for anthropology. I learned a lot. Some African herbal medicines worked because chemistry, while others were "drink some harmless tea and call on the spirits."
What did you study in college, if you don't mind me asking? You may have mentioned it along the way somewhere, but I can't recall.
As to organic chemistry, I know nothing of it since I had no college level chemistry classes. But I've read quite a few comments over time from people who took it in college that it's a very difficult subject, definitely requiring some "maximizing" of time and effort to get through with a decent grade.
Nice change of pace. I was fascinated by the Stuarts when I was much, much younger and had time to escape into historical fiction. The Lost Cause of the Stuarts was intertwined with the Lost Cause of the South. The University of Virginia teams are the Cavaliers, after all.
I read something in the past year that explained the role the English Civil Wars played in shaping the US Constitution. It was far more sophisticated - and sobering - than "Taxation without representation is tyranny."
The English Civil War, and the whole transition from absolute monarchy (James I and Charles I) to the constitutionally restrained monarchy of William III ("and Mary") was, in effect, "political science" in the English-speaking world for a couple of centuries.
England never had an absolut monarchy. Even Henry VIII and Elizabeth I had to go, hat in hand, to Parliament for money and any major changes they needed.
“A Complete Unknown” returned to the theater this week so we finally carved out some time to see it. I’m not a Dylan fan but I found it very entertaining and Timothee Chalamet absolutely killed it. He’d better win Best Actor.
Listen to the Byrds version of My Back Pages or even better the YouTube of the song at the 30th Dylan concert at MSG. Lotta great singers on that stage; a few of them gone too soon. You know what? Here it is: https://youtu.be/rGEIMCWob3U?feature=shared
My wife grew up with them, went to some of their concerts.
Me, should have grown up with them in the 60s. Alas, in West Virginia, all these pop and rock stars, ie Beatles - et al. Were banned from Radio. The only radio allowed was Big Bands, Old Country - ie Hank Williams, some Louis Armstrong and Dave Brubeck, Flatt and Scruggs.
I had to go to radical Boston in 72 to hear these! :) :( love this - ty O
Whoa, lots of talent on that stage. When I looked at the video, an ad popped up showing Dylan was going to be at Alpine Valley in Sept. He's still touring at almost 84? Amazing. Who was the blonde guitar player with his hair parted in the middle? He looks so familiar.
You're a guitar player?? My husband is as well and also Mr. CynthiaW plays if I recall correctly. My husband's next (and only 2025 gig) is the city jazz band concert and he agreed to play "Classical Gas." Guess how he spent his week off?
Yes. Only acoustic just play for myself these days. Have pared down from 7 instruments to 4. I’ve owned some spectacular guitars and got good prices when I sold them. The ones I own still are special to me, including one that a vermont luthier made for me in the 90s.
Thanks for the history lesson. I prefer this synopsis over reading a 680 page book. I’m not too upset about Musk shaking things up. It’s long overdue. As for his “unelected” status, big whoop as there are oodles of unelected bureaucrats in government.
If that's all he was doing, sure, fine, that's all good. But there are ways to do it that are less cruel, and more legal, not to mention constitutional. This method is "shock-and-awe" and disrespects the people who held those jobs. It's a reflection of the belief that some people are more deserving, "more equal" than others. I grew up being taught that such ideas were un-American. Guess not everyone learned that. It's the gateway to tyranny, which is unAmerican.
Sure. But companies have steps to follow before letting people go. If for cause, there are steps they have to go through documenting the steps the company took. I've seen it in practice (not to me, but...) If a complete location is shut, they have to give 60 days notice. But nobody will enforce that anymore if these actions stand.
Due process is so last regime. Who needs that anymore? Let's get rid of the whole bill of rights while we're at it. It's so inconvenient.
I’m not too upset either. I don’t like seeing people lose jobs, but there’s not much doubt in my mind that many layers of fat have grown, and we can’t afford the govt we now have or expect. $35T in debt is all the proof I need to be convinced. I’d love to see a thoughtful, well-planned process to addressing all of this, but sometimes breaking stuff and putting it back together can work too.
"Originally known as Buckingham House, the building at the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham and Normanby in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House." (Wikipedia)
The title died out for the second time when George Villiers's sons died without legitimate male issue. It was revived again in 1703 for John Sheffield and died out again after two generations, then came back again in 1822, and died out for the last time (so far) in 1889.
When it comes to dukes living or dead, I'll take this one all day every day and twice on Sunday. I have no problem at all with this kind of American royalty...
Is anyone familiar with this publication?
https://worldcrunch.com/st/about-us
It popped up on my feed with a bit about Lego and Marie Curie being Polish and never using that form of her name. According to the article, she went by Maria Sklodowska-Curie. (In the recent Beetlejuice movie Tim Burton stated she was French. )
It looks interesting.
Don’t know. Seems innocuous, maybe a little bland.
I thought their purpose seemed worthwhile - translating substantive reporting from around the world into English.
But I didn't dig farther than Maria Sklodowska-Curie and Lego.
Good Sunday morning. in the 30s right now, may get to 40, the warmest in a week. Maybe clear skies for the planetary show (although anything beyond Venus, Jupiter and Mars is problematic).
Yesterday we heard that Pope Francis was in "critical condition" but also that he was awake and sitting up.
Maybe when they say "critical" they mean "gripy and disagreeable."
I hope Pope Francis recovers from what currently ails him.
In your skies this evening.
Mercury if you have a flat view to the west right at sunset. Tricky to see
Saturn - Hard but possible in the west
Venus - bright
Jupiter easy above
Mars - makes the apex of a triangle with the twin Gemini, Castor and Pollux. While there are the Constellations, patterns are called asterisms. Squares, triangles. Big and little Dipper.
The crescent moon in the morning is lovely.
The Seven Sisters, aka the Pleiades, a tiny Dipper is visible as is the lovely Orion Constellation and the Nebula in the swords belt.
🪐🌠🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌
🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌🌌 ☄️
Thanks for the descriptions!
All eyes on Germany. Results will be coming in early afternoon Eastern time.
Safe guess: another parliamentary muddle. No matter how much people try to be loud, the German constitutional system produces regular muddles that don’t really seem to settle much of anything. But the post-WWII design *has* achieved the goal of preventing populism from getting very far. Yet, I should probably add.
I’d be surprised if the polls are far off, which implies another “grand coalition” of the two main parties: CDU and SPD. It will probably have Friedrich Merz as the chancellor. The coalition agreement will amount to a check (in the chess-playing sense) on any meaningful reforms—certainly nothing flashy that could work as a future electoral advantage for either party.
Hard and decisive reforms will be put on a to-do list with a deadline of “some day before the dying sun eventually expands to eat the earth.”
Which is the outcome I have in mind by the term “muddled”.
Is a change in Germany's relatively liberal jimmigration policy likely?
Doubtful. The last changes to naturalization laws were long in the making. A CDU-SPD coalition would suggest stasis on that front. There might be a greater effort at infiltrating and deporting criminal gangs and terrorist groups, just as a matter of bowing to public pressure.
That said, I haven’t done much to keep up with what’s been going on lately. I know AfD is popular in the east for being xenophobic. But the east doesn’t have all that much political heft due to low and aging population, albeit substantially infiltrated by Russian influence agents.
** Hard and decisive reforms will be put on a to-do list with a deadline of “some day before the dying sun eventually expands to eat the earth.” **
There's a lot of that going around.
Placido Domingo, everyone. 32Fs with a foreguessed high of 54.
Morning! Happy Sunday. Fifteen here; outlook for 40º.
Morning here, too! Happy day of the week before Monday and following Saturday, observed by Christians as a day of rest and religious worship and (together with Saturday) forming part of the weekend.
According to Oxford Languages, anyway.
Daylight here. Outlook for darkening skies towards evening.
Dark skies guaranteed in the evening!
Probably with a dash of dark humor in these parts.
Waning crescent moon? Moonrise just before sunrise on the east-southeastern horizon? Light zephyrs?
Hang on... checking with NWS now...
Nope. Latest update just says, "darkness 'til tomorrow morning sometime." Nothing about the weight of any zephyrs either. Used to get much more detailed reports than this from those guys.
Looks like maybe Elon stopped by in the dead of night and took a light saber (someone told him chainsaws are too noisy and low tech) to their payroll and budget.
They haven't gotten to mine yet. One of them writes:
On Monday night, a robust jet streak will push across the Mississippi River and across northern Illinois. An attendant low-amplitude (but nonetheless sharp/potent) shortwave will shift overhead through the evening. While large scale forcing looks impressive, with robust DCVA and 500 mb height falls on the order of 60 to 100 m/12 hours, tropospheric moisture looks a bit more scant, with PWATs around or under a half inch. As such, it remains a bit unclear just how widespread precipitation will be as this feature rolls through. That said, cold 500 mb temperatures will support a plume of fairly steep mid-level lapse rates, nearing 7-8 C/km. Should sufficient saturation occur, envision that some "streaky" convective elements could develop, enough to justify 30-40 percent PoPs for scattered showery activity.
Holy Doppler Radar, C C !!!
Maybe someone should open the door there and invite Elon in after all! :-)
Good afternoon. Spent the day at a Catholic men's conference in Columbus. In the teens this morning, right at 32 currently.
Interesting article about the Duke of Buckingham. The Stuart kings of England were -- interesting. Where James I was discreet in his sexual preferences, Charles I was a bit more open regarding his Catholic leanings, in an England made throughly Protestant by the Tudors, especially Elizabeth I. The result was of course, the English Civil War. When the monarchy was restored after Cromwell, Charles's son Charles II was perhaps a bit more discreet (there is an account that be became a Catholic on his deathbed), but his brother James II who succeeded him, openly Catholic, sparked the "Glorious Revolution," ousting him from the throne and confirming England as Protestant. That event both defined the limits of the modern British Crown, and eventually provided an inspiration for the American Revolution.
I hope you had a good time at the conference. The Charlotte Diocese has a men's conference, but none of the men in my family has attended.
I see my remarks about the Stuarts were repeats of remarks posted by others this morning.
Excellent! Really good book synopsis, thanks so much Cynthia!
You're welcome. Try your local library!
Oh, I do! I love my library, but it's nice to have a good overview to help figure out what to read next.
I find I’ve gained more from good book reviews at times than from the actual books. They certainly help me cover more ground than I could otherwise hope to, since I can hardly read all the titles I add to my to-read pile.
Ditto on the good book reviews here. I read more of them these days than I do books themselves.
But a question: If you can hardly read a book's title, how do you expect to ever get through a whole book?
Hmm. Maybe I should try something other than the family tradition of standing them with their spines to the wall…
They have spines? Can you maybe run a few of 'em for Congress?
I like the short synopsis!!
Me, wondering if anyone has read these Winston Churchill works:
A History of the English Speaking People
Marlborough, His Life and Times. His ancestor.
The 2nd World War. Read several times have some 1st editions.
Andrew Roberts biography of Churchill - superb
It's said Winston wrote 8 to 10 million words!
Haven't read Churchill, per se, but have read a few things about him. Among the more interesting is one that's a bit off the beaten path as far as works *about* Churchill go:
"Churchill & Orwell"; sub-titled "The Fight for Freedom", by Thomas E. Ricks
Penguin Press, 2017 - 352 pgs in hardcover
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32301946-churchill-and-orwell
If interested, skip the Goodreads review, since it's more a recap of the two men themselves than the book. A review in The Diplomat covers the book much better. It's summary:
>It is Orwell’s and Churchill’s quest for facts and the truth that makes them especially relevant for today’s world. This enlightened quest is only possible in a free and open society that allows dissenters and idiosyncratic thinkers (Churchill and Orwell famously both broke with their social and ideological peers at various stages in their lives) to voice their opinions “and the right to tell people what they do not want to hear,” as Orwell put it.
Ricks’ thesis in that regard is cogently summarized in the book’s afterword. “The struggle to see things as they are is perhaps the fundamental driver of Western civilization. There is a long but direct line from Aristotle and Archimedes to Locke, Hume, Mill and Darwin, and from there through Orwell and Churchill to [Martin Luther King’s] ‘Letter from Birmingham City Jail’. It is the agreement that objective reality exists, that people of goodwill can perceive it, and that other people will change their views when presented with the facts of the matter.”<
https://thediplomat.com/2017/06/churchill-and-orwell-why-they-fought/
Edit: While written less than a decade ago, that last sentence sounds positively quaint these days.
Two of the greatest leaders of the last 175 years, in my opinion are Grant and Churchill.
The littlest known but maybe a top 3 attribute that made them great, was their lifelong ability to absorb and see and learn, reflecting that into their own personal world view, and changing their views. They stand uniquely above most greats.
I would add Abraham Lincoln to that list. With formal schooling maybe amounting to no more than a year, Lincoln taught himself the law, had a successful legal career, and with no political experience beyond a single term in Congress, gained national attention running for Senate in 1858 with his perceptive analysis of the crisis around slavery and secession. When he became President, he taught himself military history in order to lead the Union armies as Civil War commander-in-chief. It was Lincoln who ultimately elevated Grant to command the Union armies and bring about an end to the Civil War.
I was going to add Abe. Compared to Grant, Lincoln is held in the highest earned esteem. Sadly the rotten South, lost Cause, Lee, created false mythology about Grant. After reading Chernows superb biography, I hold that Grant should be on Rushmore. Even recarving Teddy Roosevelt out to place him there.
Grant's gonna' have to get in line. I have it on good authority that an Executive Order will soon be forthcoming giving good ol' You Know Who first dibs on that.
The new Mt. Rushmore!! Ideas!!
Trump - Musk - McConnell- Alito
🤣🤣🤣🫣🤔🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🐾🐾🐾🐪🐓
I read at least one volume of "History of the English Speaking Peoples" in high school. I also have some of Churchill's early war writing, "The River War" and "The Malakand Expedition" and the one about South Africa.
RE: Buckingham would be murdered by a disabled survivor of one of his military adventures, a gloomy Calvinist of a social levelling bent. Charles I, completely missing the message, would be deposed and executed by Parliament in 1649.
"What can we at CSLF learn from all of this?" A more pertinent question might be what can an American *king* learn from this? But since The Donald is reputed to read little and likely less than zero about history, I'm wondering if The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham will be available in picture book format any time soon?
As to our 21st century Buckingham avatar, he was definitely all in on cosplaying his part a couple of days ago at the Carnival Political Action Committee conference in Maryland...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/musk-waves-a-chainsaw-and-charms-conservatives-talking-up-trumps-cost-cutting-efforts/ar-AA1ztMTm?ocid=BingNewsSerp
I've found no reporting available on Elon's reading habits, but it would appear that he probably watches old horror movies...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxRigGcXrrI
But lest I give The Duke of Dark MAGA credit (or blame) which he is not in fact due, in all fairness, this particular little stunt was not really his idea. Javier, his D&D coach (Drama $ Demagoguery, not that other D&D game) from south of the border - well, south of a handful of borders, actually - had more than a hand in it. Maybe a number of hands... and a few other things, for all we know...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/chainsaw-wielding-elon-musk-makes-dark-maga-appearance-with-javier-milei-at-cpac/ar-AA1ztHwZ?ocid=BingNewsSerp
Nice book report, Cynthia. Where were you when I needed you in high school English class?
"Where were you when I needed you in high school English class?"
Maybe not born, but I was writing papers for others in high school and college in the 1980s.
So you were the original ChatGPT?
I called Sam Altman to ask him if that's true. But for some strange reason he hung up on me when I mentioned Cynthia by name. Seems a bit suspicious to me.
Huh. Did you get paid for that? Or were you some sort of literary Good Samaritan?
You really are a very good writer.
Sometimes I got paid. Other times, I was just being helpful. My college roommate was pre-med and wanted to maximize her time studying organic chemistry. If she had to write a paper for a non-science class, she would do the research and give me the source material, and I would write the paper.
Her papers were always on medical topics, like "Depictions of Anatomy in Art" for art history class or "Analysis of African Herbal Medicines" for anthropology. I learned a lot. Some African herbal medicines worked because chemistry, while others were "drink some harmless tea and call on the spirits."
What did you study in college, if you don't mind me asking? You may have mentioned it along the way somewhere, but I can't recall.
As to organic chemistry, I know nothing of it since I had no college level chemistry classes. But I've read quite a few comments over time from people who took it in college that it's a very difficult subject, definitely requiring some "maximizing" of time and effort to get through with a decent grade.
Business. And yes, organic chemistry seems to require a great deal of work to succeed.
That's pretty good.
Thanks, Kurt. I was going for "pretty good." 😉🙄
Glad you liked it.
I just felt ya'll needed to there was such a place:
https://wipingworld.com/products/heavy-duty-cotton-rags-25-lb-box?srsltid=AfmBOoplWiA6M-fw3KPTMsyyVveIUBjdv2HqhsehUCh0-5AieHqz6k_V
It made me grin.
Fascinating. I feel that way about the Sea Slug Forum.
http://www.seaslugforum.net/
Nice change of pace. I was fascinated by the Stuarts when I was much, much younger and had time to escape into historical fiction. The Lost Cause of the Stuarts was intertwined with the Lost Cause of the South. The University of Virginia teams are the Cavaliers, after all.
I read something in the past year that explained the role the English Civil Wars played in shaping the US Constitution. It was far more sophisticated - and sobering - than "Taxation without representation is tyranny."
The English Civil War, and the whole transition from absolute monarchy (James I and Charles I) to the constitutionally restrained monarchy of William III ("and Mary") was, in effect, "political science" in the English-speaking world for a couple of centuries.
England never had an absolut monarchy. Even Henry VIII and Elizabeth I had to go, hat in hand, to Parliament for money and any major changes they needed.
“A Complete Unknown” returned to the theater this week so we finally carved out some time to see it. I’m not a Dylan fan but I found it very entertaining and Timothee Chalamet absolutely killed it. He’d better win Best Actor.
I'm glad you had a good time. We have not, yet, felt moved to see it, but you never know.
I was ambivalent about seeing it but found it entertaining. I do think it's much better seen on the big screen.
RE: A Complete Unknown
Donald Rumsfeld could not be reached for comment.
Not a Dylan fan? Even My Back Pages?
I don’t know what that is? I’m
an 80s BC, he was a tad before my time.
Listen to the Byrds version of My Back Pages or even better the YouTube of the song at the 30th Dylan concert at MSG. Lotta great singers on that stage; a few of them gone too soon. You know what? Here it is: https://youtu.be/rGEIMCWob3U?feature=shared
Thanks ! loved that.
My wife grew up with them, went to some of their concerts.
Me, should have grown up with them in the 60s. Alas, in West Virginia, all these pop and rock stars, ie Beatles - et al. Were banned from Radio. The only radio allowed was Big Bands, Old Country - ie Hank Williams, some Louis Armstrong and Dave Brubeck, Flatt and Scruggs.
I had to go to radical Boston in 72 to hear these! :) :( love this - ty O
🙏
Whoa, lots of talent on that stage. When I looked at the video, an ad popped up showing Dylan was going to be at Alpine Valley in Sept. He's still touring at almost 84? Amazing. Who was the blonde guitar player with his hair parted in the middle? He looks so familiar.
I didn't see the ad when I watched it, but I suspect it must have been in error. From last November...
https://sportlands.co.uk/2024/11/11/breaking-news-rock-legend-bob-dylan-withdraws-from-public-eye-amid-health-challenges/
Tom petty? Oh you mean GE Smith. He led the original Saturday night live band and is the go to conductor for these types of occasions.
I asked the hubs, G.E. Smith from SNL.
I think I've seen that before, and I definitely want to see it again. Probably going to buy the DVD.
That's the song with the refrain "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
Saw the movie on Christmas Day. It was good.
Yes. So many good versions. I fingerpick it acoustically. I love that song. Check out the video I posted in my response to BC.
You're a guitar player?? My husband is as well and also Mr. CynthiaW plays if I recall correctly. My husband's next (and only 2025 gig) is the city jazz band concert and he agreed to play "Classical Gas." Guess how he spent his week off?
Yes. Only acoustic just play for myself these days. Have pared down from 7 instruments to 4. I’ve owned some spectacular guitars and got good prices when I sold them. The ones I own still are special to me, including one that a vermont luthier made for me in the 90s.
My husband played "Classical Gas" at a church fundraiser years ago.
Thanks for the history lesson. I prefer this synopsis over reading a 680 page book. I’m not too upset about Musk shaking things up. It’s long overdue. As for his “unelected” status, big whoop as there are oodles of unelected bureaucrats in government.
If that's all he was doing, sure, fine, that's all good. But there are ways to do it that are less cruel, and more legal, not to mention constitutional. This method is "shock-and-awe" and disrespects the people who held those jobs. It's a reflection of the belief that some people are more deserving, "more equal" than others. I grew up being taught that such ideas were un-American. Guess not everyone learned that. It's the gateway to tyranny, which is unAmerican.
Of course I don't like when people lose jobs but this is not much unlike what happens in the private sector all the time.
Sure. But companies have steps to follow before letting people go. If for cause, there are steps they have to go through documenting the steps the company took. I've seen it in practice (not to me, but...) If a complete location is shut, they have to give 60 days notice. But nobody will enforce that anymore if these actions stand.
Due process is so last regime. Who needs that anymore? Let's get rid of the whole bill of rights while we're at it. It's so inconvenient.
That's not true....my husband works for a clinic/hospital and when they sold to another ministry, many people were walked out with no notice.
OK. Maybe it's not universal. But I saw it in corporate life and academia.
I'm not "upset," because I bought all the Extra-Strength Fatalism back in 2019, but I agree that the situation is kind of going from bad to worse.
I’m not too upset either. I don’t like seeing people lose jobs, but there’s not much doubt in my mind that many layers of fat have grown, and we can’t afford the govt we now have or expect. $35T in debt is all the proof I need to be convinced. I’d love to see a thoughtful, well-planned process to addressing all of this, but sometimes breaking stuff and putting it back together can work too.
This was an enjoyable Saturday morning read. You have a good way with words. Thanks.
Thank you, John M.
Very interesting. I find a teeny bit of hope in how England recovered from such bad leadership.
I think England recovered a good half dozen times from bad leaders. It's cycles!!
Cycles, yes. That's the China public reaction to political stuff, they've seen it all before and studied a couple thousand years of it in K-12.
Minus one this morning, but officially +11º, due to thermometer placement and local geography.
Looking forward for the first day above freezing in about a week. Winter has grown old.
My first thought about the history was of Buckingham Palace, but that’s clearly not a structure that hails from the same period as Villiers.
So, it's 10* semi-officially. Musk isn't the only one who knows how to fudge numbers.
Mmm…fudge! So many sweet goodies I’ve had to give up… 😭😭😭
Finally! What the heck took you so long?! 🤔🙄😆
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well, at least you're not fudging your answer.
"Originally known as Buckingham House, the building at the core of today's palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham and Normanby in 1703 on a site that had been in private ownership for at least 150 years. It was acquired by George III in 1761 as a private residence for Queen Charlotte and became known as The Queen's House." (Wikipedia)
The title died out for the second time when George Villiers's sons died without legitimate male issue. It was revived again in 1703 for John Sheffield and died out again after two generations, then came back again in 1822, and died out for the last time (so far) in 1889.
When it comes to dukes living or dead, I'll take this one all day every day and twice on Sunday. I have no problem at all with this kind of American royalty...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2w2m1JmCY