Does anyone understand how Substack works? I am getting the Likes directly to my email, but I’m no longer getting responses to my posts. I’ve looked at the settings, and I can’t find anything there. Maybe I’m just not recognizing it. (I’ll have to come back here to see if anyone has any ideas!)
I don’t understand. I might try to app just to separate it from email. Richard and I share that one because that’s where we get our political news mostly.
I first heard the 1952 Vincent on the 2003 music edition CD from the Oxford American magazine. I should probably still be subscribing. A fine southern publication. Too much to read, not enough time.
Okay, I have a horrible time with music related ear worms, but I LOVE this selection!! Yes, I listened, and I’m sharing with my husband. One of my favorite blue grass performers is Allison Krause. This is the kind of music I can listen to as long as I don’t play it too many times. Thank you!!
Here's a thought. Mr. Chris Stirewalt keeps saying that there aren't any "undecided voters" among the kind of people who read political commentary or listen to political podcasts. I think he's wrong. There may not be many who haven't made up their minds about Donald Trump. (I think there are more than appear in evidence, because they don't want to be accused of being worse than axe murderers or Hamas gang rapists.)
However, I think there are a lot more who have decided they will not vote for Trump, but have not decided that they will vote for Harris. The very fact that so much moral bullying is being directed at anyone who doesn't promise to fill in the circle for Harris suggests to me that the pro-Harris camp is afraid she will lose ... but not afraid enough to expect her to make a direct effort to persuade those voters to vote for her.
Maybe we will. If Liz Cheney tells us more of what she thinks about Vice President Harris, I am 100% ready to believe that her views are intelligent and sincere. However, that is not the same as believing that her views accurately describe, let alone predict the future actions of, Vice President Harris.
My attitude is that the idea that you're going to "get" anything is wishful thinking. Public, specific, and persuasive explanations from the candidate would come the closest to a "probably," but Liz Cheney can't give that.
She can give her opinion or prediction, but if this is based on private conversations, the glaring question is, "Why isn't Harris speaking with you in public for all the voters to hear and evaluate?"
Something along those lines might not be a bad idea. It's unprecedented, but so is all the rest of it.
I'm not so concerned about getting policy statements from her; I'm more interested in a meta-policy statement addressing the idea that we're going to disagree on things and that the constitutional order that channels disagreement into debate and compromise and legislation must be preserved. We've heard this from Liz. Can Kamala say something similar without turning off too many other supporters? Or will it help close the sale with them too?
" ... we're going to disagree on things and that the constitutional order that channels disagreement into debate and compromise and legislation must be preserved."
I'd like something a little more specific. But if Liz Cheney says, "This is what I think, and Kamala Harris agrees with me," I don't consider that meaningful unless Kamala Harris says it herself, with no waffling.
I think that's exactly right, and I have seen (and experienced) that moral bullying on other comment forums. For that matter, that makes up many of the articles on The Bulwark.
The flip side of that attitude is calling Joe Biden a "great President" and "selfless" because he is not running for re-election. Of course, Biden was pressured to step down, both by low poll numbers and by his supporters, after his disaster of a debate against Trump.
I’m one of those voters, as you probably know. And, while I appreciate that there are a lot of people who think this is the most important vote in history, and it’s my duty to vote for Harris, I’m having a hard time getting there.
If you look at the polls, she’s having a hard time keeping a lead, and that’s not to say, that I relish the idea of another four years of Trump.
Unless you vote in a battleground state, you need not vote for Harris if it would make you despise yourself. That's my position as a on-battleground voter.
Illinois. I'll still pull the lever for her. My election year greatest wish is showing a resounding defeat for Trump in both electoral and popular votes.
You don’t have to despise yourself; I certainly don’t despise anyone for voting for Harris. But, I don’t despise people who feel they need to vote for Trump. There’s no way I’ll vote for him; however, I don’t think most of the people voting for him are doing it enthusiastically either.
I didn’t vote for Biden or Trump last election, and maybe I’ll end up voting for Harris, but so far, I’m still undecided.
I didn't say I don't like him. I'm sure all the mopes over at The Mothership are fine people. The problem is the political conversation. These folks need it to get a paycheck. I don't. The "political conversation" is a big part of any component of America that's not working as well as it should.
I guess I am probably reading him more for his “entertainment” value. I don’t get that deep into the weeds on the polling numbers, or predictions. It’s okay with me if not all of the people at TD are deeply intellectual or have a PhD in statistics. In fact, with a lot of the columns, I’m more curious about the responses. Everyone is so upset, and determined to let us know it’s the end of the world. I’m listening to Tom Holland’s book on the rise of Islam, and there’s a surprising amount of Christianity mixed in there. People have been acting like lunatics forever. I’m amazed we’ve managed to do as well as we have.
I have, several times, raised the question as to what is the value of the product "election polls and predictions" to the nation. Nobody seems to have an answer other than "entertainment." A week or so ago, that provoked me into providing two days of Cat Haiku for the Mothership. I was proud of several of them.
Cat Haiku is harmless, though. Polling and predictions generate expectations which, if they conflict with the results of the actual voting, create a lot of turmoil of the "stolen election" sort.
It's Neil Postman IRL. When I read it in the 80's, it was abstract. When I read it now, it's the perfect predictive summation of how we got here.
In the manner of HMO's (remember those?) supposedly going to improve health care and vastly expanded university administrations directing the future of our educational systems....we have Professional Opinion People™ that now function as several layers of barnacles on our leaky ocean liner.
She has the easiest job in presidential history. Don’t answer questions, don’t explain position changes, sit back and wait for your opponent to implode, keep saying “…our democracy…,” smile and use the word ‘joy’ a lot, let your dominant media friends cover for you, etc. It’s amazing to me that she has a very strong possibility of being our next president without much apparent effort. Kinda like Biden in ‘20. “I’m not Trump” was all he had to say. I’d say we deserve better choices, but maybe we don’t.
I was someone who would have voted for a Democrat, but there’s not much about her that I find appealing. I’m not saying that to be mean, but at one point her approval rating was lower than Biden’s, and she’s almost neck and neck with Trump right now.
Maybe both parties do it, but it seems to me that Democrats are often in too big a hurry. They could have cleaned up with a different candidate.
That sounds like polling people talk. I take it they mean “not in sufficient numbers” when they make such assertions, then I don’t find the generalization too extreme. That’s one of the many tiresome bits of the horserace reporting: over-generalizations all over the place, usually based on assumptions more than evidence.
A lot of them will also say “within the margins of error.” Okay, whatever. All I can see is that it’s close, with neither candidate really pulling ahead significantly.
Also based in needing a paycheck. They "make stuff up" to secure the opportunity to keep getting paid for doing it. I don't consider them worthless; no one is worthless. Pointless...definitely.
And maybe there are too many of them. I’m inundated with polling information, and so much depends on who you listen to, although it really is close. I get tired of it, too, and I’ll be glad when this entire mess is over (the election, at least).
Did I ever tell you how there might be a feature in Microsoft Excel as a result of me?
In my doctoral program I used an old Apple laptop. For 2+ years I entered 2,000+ rows of data into excel, including the dates of events for my dissertation. I was given the opportunity to run my analysis using a sophisticated SAS program. Better yet, a faculty (and future co-author) wrote a script for the type of study I was doing. Did I mention SAS is for people who think doing Calculus with Roman numbers is easy? You can just about get a Masters degree in SAS. I saved my data onto a Floppy (BTW, I had multiple backups), and loaded it into a PC. After 2 years of data collection, I hit return. 15 seconds later, the screen began to fill.😀
Annnnnnnd, nothing. 😱 No significance, zero significance to any of my hypotheses. Oh for ten (I had ten hypotheses). My results were inconclusive. I was almost in tears.😢 More numb. The next day I reviewed the debacle, when I noticed 800 events were rejected with a bad date. C’mon, I may make typos, but not that many! 🤦♂️I scanned the data, but couldn’t find a flaw in the data file.
I studied it carefully, then after a few days I noticed it had rejected every single date after a certain year. That puzzled me. Maybe the source data had an error. I asked the finance guru, who looked as if I had accused him of being a serial killer, or a MAGA enthusiast, something heinous like that. He told (and I’m deleting the obscenities), “the error is at your end”.😡
As I studied it more, I noticed none of the earliest 4 years of dates showed up in the data either. So over a 12 pack of Mountain Dew I reviewed over 2,000 entries manually, and noticed the date was off on each. Doing some excel magic I pulled all the dates in from the output and compared them to the input. Each date was off by 1,461 days. For some reason SAS was adding 4 years to each date I inputted into my file. I showed it to the guy who wrote the script…nothing in the script referenced date manipulation. He showed it to the finance guru, who respected him (the guru knew my friend could code in fortran), who assumed I was still a moron, but admitted the error wasn’t on my end, but it wasn’t in his data either. 🧐
I called Microsoft support, and they assured me I had a virus. 🤮I told them I had gotten my flu shot so they were wrong! They suggested I read the help manual. I pored over an excel manual, and looked at date math. It was there I found the error. In Apple’s version of excel, the first day of the century is 1-Jan-1904. In MS-DOS it is Jan-1-1900. What? To save memory MS-DOS assumed there is a 29-Feb-1900 (leap year is skipped that century), while Apple starts 4 years later. I tested something; a data file begun on Apple and moved to Excel changes the date by the difference in the two! By 1,461 days, the same as in my data!
Using a trick I removed the extra days from my data (this took a few tries), and re-ran it in SAS. CA-CHING!!!!!!!! 😀😀😀2,000+ entries were analyzed, with strong statistical significance! My hypotheses were supported, I had a viable dissertation. Yes, I cried, it took two weeks to solve all this. 😀
I called Microsoft back, and explained the 29-February, 1900 issue. They told me they accepted all their calculations being off by a day. So I asked if he had his manual in front of him, turn to page XXX. There it read the first day was 1 Jan 1904; days before that would return an error message. I asked if the manuals had a virus? 🧐 I then pointed out the DOS and Apple manuals disagreed on the first day of the century: which one was correct? They told me I was wrong, I told him to try the date on a DOS and an Apple PC, see if they agreed. He did, they did not. Apparently the org structure was such both OS developed their own versions of Excel, and they disagreed on how to handle February 29th, 1900. My grandmother was born prior then, so Excel will return the wrong answer to how many days old she lived.
So on a mac, the newer versions of Excel have a feature allowing the user to “toggle the date” between the two! I was the first v̴i̴c̴t̴i̴m̴, errr, user to point it out them…🤦♂️
During the Y2K anxiety, there was a little concern that 29 February 2000 would not be accepted as a valid date, as that is an exception to the Gregorian calendar rule that most century years cannot be leap years (unless they are divisible by 400).
Turns out you came across the opposite problem, not taking into account, or avoiding, the Gregorian century year rule.
It's hard for youngsters to understand, but in the old days memory was expensive so they tried to code as tight as possible. Fixing the Gregorian calendar rule took space, and it affected only academic nerds like me! Okay, maybe a few of us...
Aww shucks, no genius, just a student with no fallback plan! We had previously manually analyzed 150 events, so it seemed odd the full sample was basically no significance whatsoever.
I spent the Summer of '76 in Boone, NC, sat next to Doc Watson at Boone Drug, drank coffee, ate donuts. Met Merl too. Blowing Rock hadn't really happened yet, there was a big geodesic dome in the middle of Blowing Rock where the music happened, Grandfather Mountain was just starting to develop, you could still buy a mountain top for $5k, and in general it was still pretty hick. Specifically, I lived in Mabel, near the TN border. There were still families living up in the mountains that wouldn't let their kids got to school, they'd shoot at you (probably warning shots over your head) if you walked on their property, and they'd only go into town once a month for flour and a few other basics. For real hillbillies.
All the musicians, including Merl, called it "deedle eedle" music....as in all picking rhythms were "deedle eedle deedle eedle deedle eedle......". where the deedles and eedles all kind of ran together.
My first husband was into country music, so I was exposed to a lot of the older singers/songwriters. I saw Merl Haggard in concern, as well as (are you ready?), Ray Price! Ray had a wonderful backup orchestra, and came out in a suit and tie. But he also had people walking around, selling his albums to the people sitting in the audience. He had a very famous first act, and I’m completely forgetting his name.
My then husband liked Tammy Wynette, and I couldn’t stand her, but he said, “listen to her voice, she can really sing.” He had a point, but she wasn’t my style. I went through a long period, even after that, that I loved country music.
It was quite beautiful and the last gasp of what seemed to be the "olden days". But, it was relentlessly hick south. One day, there was a baseball game going on in the lot next door, I grabbed my mitt and headed over, they were choosing up sides, and no one would choose me because I was a Yankee. Yes, honest truth, they called me a Yankee. When choosing up sides for baseball! Then, one of them kinda let me in because they needed a shortstop so I took position, fielded the first hit in my direction, lined one to the 1st baseman who let it go by because he apparently wouldn't catch a ball thrown by a Yankee.
John Duffy of the Seldom Scene was like that. He was a big man and played mandolin. The contrast between big men with big hands playing such a small instrument has always fascinated me.
Good morning. Cool morning, forecast sunny and highs in the 80s. No rain, as the remnants of Francine didn’t reach Ohio. My lawn is still brown.
The mothership is reporting on that loony Congressional sport: let’s fight over funding the government before it shuts down. Current funding runs out end of September. One would think they would settle this quickly so they can go home and run for re-election. You would be wrong.
2 months off and they still don't want to do the work they were elected to do. Puppet majority are apparently just extensions of an impulsive miserable narcissist.
It’s very disconcerting. I keep wondering when/if this will change, and hope it’s not too much longer. We need some good people, but instead, we’re getting too many who think it’s only about performing online.
A lot of the corn is starting to turn yellow. But not all of it. Just watch, it will suddenly start raining, and they won’t be able to get it out until December! (I’m always a bit cynical these days.)
We tried a hybrid several years ago and only planted like twelve stalks. The corn was beyond white—the kernels were light pink. The corn was so tender and sweet you could eat it raw straight from the stalk and taste the tender sweetness. The main reason for cooking it was to melt butter, I guess. ETA: Only have a very small plot of a garden.
I can’t find it again. It would have been through one of two specialty/ heirloom seed companies: Johnny’s Seeds or Baker Creek Rare Seeds. I would recommend both.
But I don’t know if it was a trial that didn’t sell well from one of them, or I’m guessing the wrong search terms. “Blush” and “pink” combinations of seed and sweet corn don’t produce anything that looks like it.
Nevertheless, a good sweet white corn can be just as sweet and tender that you can eat it straight from the stalk. Also, if you just grow a small number, you probably should hand-germinate them, which is fairly easy to do as long as you time it right.
I grew up eating corn from farm stands in Maryland and was shocked to find farm stands in NC did not stand up, by a long shot. It was the lack of refrigeration.
With trepidation I now admit to buying our corn from - deep breath (and I am otherwise a fan) - Walmart. The husks may be shriveled and discolored by the kernels themselves are shiny and sweet and almost always picked young. Even my husband - a deeply principled corn snob from Long Island - agrees that supermarket corn is now really good.
"Uncle Pen" is one of those songs that plays on the jukebox "in the corner of my mind." But that particular record always skipped a little. And I couldn't make out what the name of the song or singer was on the label anymore. But I've got it now.
Very nice. Not the biggest bluegrass fan, but I truly admire the musicianship. The Tiny Desk Concerts are great. They have some fantastic musicians of all genres in an intimate setting. Believe it or not, they even had Tower of Power once.
I want to enjoy it more than I do because of the stellar musicianship. You can find good musicianship in rock music too so I gravitate in that direction.
I’m not a big fan of country music in general, but have always liked bluegrass, by and large. The country style I like is in the Western swing/Bob Wills tradition more than other variants.
I find it interesting how much country and bluegrass have an international fandom. The one exception in Europe has always been Germany, where American country music just never gained much traction, for whatever reason. But there used to be many very good Eastern European bluegrass groups, I suspect because of the ad hoc and informal nature of bluegrass, where string pickers come together to jam and sing.
Not sure how accurate the perception is, but I’ve often thought of bluegrass as the country/western counterpart to pop/rock’s folk music. Their modern forms came about in roughly the same mid-century time period, and they kinda/sorta celebrated American cultural folkways, whether real or imagined.
The observation about the relationship between bluegrass and Eastern Europeans is interesting. Both sides of my husband's family are Slovenian and he grew up surrounded by music - parties had a lot in common with jam sessions, except for the presence of polkas. He started on the accordion but fell in love with the banjo upon seeing Douglas Dillard on The Andy Griffith Show.
After years of off and on playing and singing myself, I still find myself amazed at the skill and artistry of gifted musicians who achieve at a professional level solely for personal reasons. The community and comradery are something special.
In a lot of ways it used to be very informal. People were happy, but not obnoxious in the same way they can be at rock concerts, although that’s probably changed. Now, so much of country is mixed with rock. Some of it is good, too, but I still prefer a lot of the older stuff, and I definitely have a thing for bluegrass.
I watched that one a long time ago. Quite good, plus an act I was barely familiar with. There have been a few finds there, but I haven’t been a regular viewer.
They have one of the greatest drummers of all time (not just confined to Funk music): Dave Garibaldi. He's been with them from the beginning, except for the period where he was recovering from being hit by a train.
"On January 12, 2017, David Garibaldi, along with a bass player, Marc Van Wageningen, were hit by a train as they walked across tracks before a performance in Oakland. They both survived the accident. They have both since returned to the active lineup."
Good morning. I read that when Del McCoury toured with Steve Earle, neither of them wanted to let the other do the last song, so the concerts would go on and on. Good, I guess, if the attendees had brought snacks and a pillow.
Does anyone understand how Substack works? I am getting the Likes directly to my email, but I’m no longer getting responses to my posts. I’ve looked at the settings, and I can’t find anything there. Maybe I’m just not recognizing it. (I’ll have to come back here to see if anyone has any ideas!)
Exact same for me: Likes in the email, replies on my phone in the app.
I use the Substack app, so I no longer get emails -- just phone notifications.
I get both in my email.
I don’t understand. I might try to app just to separate it from email. Richard and I share that one because that’s where we get our political news mostly.
I first heard the 1952 Vincent on the 2003 music edition CD from the Oxford American magazine. I should probably still be subscribing. A fine southern publication. Too much to read, not enough time.
https://oxfordamerican.org
Why "Del's Neighbor"?
He’s the fool with 40 acres next door! 😅
Okay, I have a horrible time with music related ear worms, but I LOVE this selection!! Yes, I listened, and I’m sharing with my husband. One of my favorite blue grass performers is Allison Krause. This is the kind of music I can listen to as long as I don’t play it too many times. Thank you!!
It's the birthday of the "Father of Bluegrass," Bill Monroe, born in Rosine, Kentucky (1911)
I'll tell Vlad the Son. Maybe we can have cake.
Here's a thought. Mr. Chris Stirewalt keeps saying that there aren't any "undecided voters" among the kind of people who read political commentary or listen to political podcasts. I think he's wrong. There may not be many who haven't made up their minds about Donald Trump. (I think there are more than appear in evidence, because they don't want to be accused of being worse than axe murderers or Hamas gang rapists.)
However, I think there are a lot more who have decided they will not vote for Trump, but have not decided that they will vote for Harris. The very fact that so much moral bullying is being directed at anyone who doesn't promise to fill in the circle for Harris suggests to me that the pro-Harris camp is afraid she will lose ... but not afraid enough to expect her to make a direct effort to persuade those voters to vote for her.
Maybe we will hear more from Liz Cheney on the subject.
Maybe we will. If Liz Cheney tells us more of what she thinks about Vice President Harris, I am 100% ready to believe that her views are intelligent and sincere. However, that is not the same as believing that her views accurately describe, let alone predict the future actions of, Vice President Harris.
I'm not saying you're wrong about that. My attitude is something like "let's hold out for as much as we can get, then let's take it."
My attitude is that the idea that you're going to "get" anything is wishful thinking. Public, specific, and persuasive explanations from the candidate would come the closest to a "probably," but Liz Cheney can't give that.
She can give her opinion or prediction, but if this is based on private conversations, the glaring question is, "Why isn't Harris speaking with you in public for all the voters to hear and evaluate?"
Something along those lines might not be a bad idea. It's unprecedented, but so is all the rest of it.
I'm not so concerned about getting policy statements from her; I'm more interested in a meta-policy statement addressing the idea that we're going to disagree on things and that the constitutional order that channels disagreement into debate and compromise and legislation must be preserved. We've heard this from Liz. Can Kamala say something similar without turning off too many other supporters? Or will it help close the sale with them too?
" ... we're going to disagree on things and that the constitutional order that channels disagreement into debate and compromise and legislation must be preserved."
I'd like something a little more specific. But if Liz Cheney says, "This is what I think, and Kamala Harris agrees with me," I don't consider that meaningful unless Kamala Harris says it herself, with no waffling.
I think that's exactly right, and I have seen (and experienced) that moral bullying on other comment forums. For that matter, that makes up many of the articles on The Bulwark.
The flip side of that attitude is calling Joe Biden a "great President" and "selfless" because he is not running for re-election. Of course, Biden was pressured to step down, both by low poll numbers and by his supporters, after his disaster of a debate against Trump.
I will most probably vote for Harris. But I deplore the moral bullying.
get over despising myself for voting Harris. We won't get over another Trump term. (I said the same thing to Anne.)
I’m one of those voters, as you probably know. And, while I appreciate that there are a lot of people who think this is the most important vote in history, and it’s my duty to vote for Harris, I’m having a hard time getting there.
If you look at the polls, she’s having a hard time keeping a lead, and that’s not to say, that I relish the idea of another four years of Trump.
I'll get over despising myself for voting Harris. We won't get over another Trump term.
Unless you vote in a battleground state, you need not vote for Harris if it would make you despise yourself. That's my position as a on-battleground voter.
Illinois. I'll still pull the lever for her. My election year greatest wish is showing a resounding defeat for Trump in both electoral and popular votes.
You don’t have to despise yourself; I certainly don’t despise anyone for voting for Harris. But, I don’t despise people who feel they need to vote for Trump. There’s no way I’ll vote for him; however, I don’t think most of the people voting for him are doing it enthusiastically either.
I didn’t vote for Biden or Trump last election, and maybe I’ll end up voting for Harris, but so far, I’m still undecided.
Chris Stirewalt lives in a delusional state....not that he's right or wrong, but that he has dedicated his life to blabbering counterfactuals.
Oh, I like Chris Stirewalt. Probably it’s more his amiable personality, but I also think he contributes a lot to the political conversation.
I didn't say I don't like him. I'm sure all the mopes over at The Mothership are fine people. The problem is the political conversation. These folks need it to get a paycheck. I don't. The "political conversation" is a big part of any component of America that's not working as well as it should.
I find him personable, too, but not very persuasive on a number of issues.
I guess I am probably reading him more for his “entertainment” value. I don’t get that deep into the weeds on the polling numbers, or predictions. It’s okay with me if not all of the people at TD are deeply intellectual or have a PhD in statistics. In fact, with a lot of the columns, I’m more curious about the responses. Everyone is so upset, and determined to let us know it’s the end of the world. I’m listening to Tom Holland’s book on the rise of Islam, and there’s a surprising amount of Christianity mixed in there. People have been acting like lunatics forever. I’m amazed we’ve managed to do as well as we have.
If Stirewalt was a grocery store, his entire stock would be short term perishable commodities.
Lol! Well said.
I have, several times, raised the question as to what is the value of the product "election polls and predictions" to the nation. Nobody seems to have an answer other than "entertainment." A week or so ago, that provoked me into providing two days of Cat Haiku for the Mothership. I was proud of several of them.
Cat Haiku is harmless, though. Polling and predictions generate expectations which, if they conflict with the results of the actual voting, create a lot of turmoil of the "stolen election" sort.
I really liked the cat haiku. Smart, clever, humorous. I was going to comment, but Dipsquat got in the way.
It's Neil Postman IRL. When I read it in the 80's, it was abstract. When I read it now, it's the perfect predictive summation of how we got here.
In the manner of HMO's (remember those?) supposedly going to improve health care and vastly expanded university administrations directing the future of our educational systems....we have Professional Opinion People™ that now function as several layers of barnacles on our leaky ocean liner.
She has the easiest job in presidential history. Don’t answer questions, don’t explain position changes, sit back and wait for your opponent to implode, keep saying “…our democracy…,” smile and use the word ‘joy’ a lot, let your dominant media friends cover for you, etc. It’s amazing to me that she has a very strong possibility of being our next president without much apparent effort. Kinda like Biden in ‘20. “I’m not Trump” was all he had to say. I’d say we deserve better choices, but maybe we don’t.
Deserve's got nuthin' to do with it....William Munny
She's a spokesmodel, with the marketing department calling the shots. Neil Postman IRL.
Sharp dresser, V.P. Harris is.
Somehow she seems to pull of the pantsuits better than Clinton did.
Harris looks less like Chairman Mao in formal wear than did Clinton.
😂
I was someone who would have voted for a Democrat, but there’s not much about her that I find appealing. I’m not saying that to be mean, but at one point her approval rating was lower than Biden’s, and she’s almost neck and neck with Trump right now.
Maybe both parties do it, but it seems to me that Democrats are often in too big a hurry. They could have cleaned up with a different candidate.
Not being Biden or Trump is a huge point in her favor.
That’s mainly it.
That's totally it. We're not presented a choice. We haven't had a decent choice since Obama-Romney when we chose poorly.
Okay, we definitely agree on that!!
That sounds like polling people talk. I take it they mean “not in sufficient numbers” when they make such assertions, then I don’t find the generalization too extreme. That’s one of the many tiresome bits of the horserace reporting: over-generalizations all over the place, usually based on assumptions more than evidence.
A lot of them will also say “within the margins of error.” Okay, whatever. All I can see is that it’s close, with neither candidate really pulling ahead significantly.
Also based in needing a paycheck. They "make stuff up" to secure the opportunity to keep getting paid for doing it. I don't consider them worthless; no one is worthless. Pointless...definitely.
And maybe there are too many of them. I’m inundated with polling information, and so much depends on who you listen to, although it really is close. I get tired of it, too, and I’ll be glad when this entire mess is over (the election, at least).
Did I ever tell you how there might be a feature in Microsoft Excel as a result of me?
In my doctoral program I used an old Apple laptop. For 2+ years I entered 2,000+ rows of data into excel, including the dates of events for my dissertation. I was given the opportunity to run my analysis using a sophisticated SAS program. Better yet, a faculty (and future co-author) wrote a script for the type of study I was doing. Did I mention SAS is for people who think doing Calculus with Roman numbers is easy? You can just about get a Masters degree in SAS. I saved my data onto a Floppy (BTW, I had multiple backups), and loaded it into a PC. After 2 years of data collection, I hit return. 15 seconds later, the screen began to fill.😀
Annnnnnnd, nothing. 😱 No significance, zero significance to any of my hypotheses. Oh for ten (I had ten hypotheses). My results were inconclusive. I was almost in tears.😢 More numb. The next day I reviewed the debacle, when I noticed 800 events were rejected with a bad date. C’mon, I may make typos, but not that many! 🤦♂️I scanned the data, but couldn’t find a flaw in the data file.
I studied it carefully, then after a few days I noticed it had rejected every single date after a certain year. That puzzled me. Maybe the source data had an error. I asked the finance guru, who looked as if I had accused him of being a serial killer, or a MAGA enthusiast, something heinous like that. He told (and I’m deleting the obscenities), “the error is at your end”.😡
As I studied it more, I noticed none of the earliest 4 years of dates showed up in the data either. So over a 12 pack of Mountain Dew I reviewed over 2,000 entries manually, and noticed the date was off on each. Doing some excel magic I pulled all the dates in from the output and compared them to the input. Each date was off by 1,461 days. For some reason SAS was adding 4 years to each date I inputted into my file. I showed it to the guy who wrote the script…nothing in the script referenced date manipulation. He showed it to the finance guru, who respected him (the guru knew my friend could code in fortran), who assumed I was still a moron, but admitted the error wasn’t on my end, but it wasn’t in his data either. 🧐
I called Microsoft support, and they assured me I had a virus. 🤮I told them I had gotten my flu shot so they were wrong! They suggested I read the help manual. I pored over an excel manual, and looked at date math. It was there I found the error. In Apple’s version of excel, the first day of the century is 1-Jan-1904. In MS-DOS it is Jan-1-1900. What? To save memory MS-DOS assumed there is a 29-Feb-1900 (leap year is skipped that century), while Apple starts 4 years later. I tested something; a data file begun on Apple and moved to Excel changes the date by the difference in the two! By 1,461 days, the same as in my data!
Using a trick I removed the extra days from my data (this took a few tries), and re-ran it in SAS. CA-CHING!!!!!!!! 😀😀😀2,000+ entries were analyzed, with strong statistical significance! My hypotheses were supported, I had a viable dissertation. Yes, I cried, it took two weeks to solve all this. 😀
I called Microsoft back, and explained the 29-February, 1900 issue. They told me they accepted all their calculations being off by a day. So I asked if he had his manual in front of him, turn to page XXX. There it read the first day was 1 Jan 1904; days before that would return an error message. I asked if the manuals had a virus? 🧐 I then pointed out the DOS and Apple manuals disagreed on the first day of the century: which one was correct? They told me I was wrong, I told him to try the date on a DOS and an Apple PC, see if they agreed. He did, they did not. Apparently the org structure was such both OS developed their own versions of Excel, and they disagreed on how to handle February 29th, 1900. My grandmother was born prior then, so Excel will return the wrong answer to how many days old she lived.
So on a mac, the newer versions of Excel have a feature allowing the user to “toggle the date” between the two! I was the first v̴i̴c̴t̴i̴m̴, errr, user to point it out them…🤦♂️
I read this with great interest and sympathy. I am not sure what that says about me.
LOL!
Bravo. But your story is missing the scene where Microsoft admits to you that yes, you were right.
During the Y2K anxiety, there was a little concern that 29 February 2000 would not be accepted as a valid date, as that is an exception to the Gregorian calendar rule that most century years cannot be leap years (unless they are divisible by 400).
Turns out you came across the opposite problem, not taking into account, or avoiding, the Gregorian century year rule.
I actually remember that!
It's hard for youngsters to understand, but in the old days memory was expensive so they tried to code as tight as possible. Fixing the Gregorian calendar rule took space, and it affected only academic nerds like me! Okay, maybe a few of us...
Impressive, Jay.
My genius friend!
Aww shucks, no genius, just a student with no fallback plan! We had previously manually analyzed 150 events, so it seemed odd the full sample was basically no significance whatsoever.
You're amazingly persistent.
My oldest son would say it is not persistence, but simply OCD. So I asked him if we should hyphenate obsessive compulsive disorder or not? 🧐
I spent the Summer of '76 in Boone, NC, sat next to Doc Watson at Boone Drug, drank coffee, ate donuts. Met Merl too. Blowing Rock hadn't really happened yet, there was a big geodesic dome in the middle of Blowing Rock where the music happened, Grandfather Mountain was just starting to develop, you could still buy a mountain top for $5k, and in general it was still pretty hick. Specifically, I lived in Mabel, near the TN border. There were still families living up in the mountains that wouldn't let their kids got to school, they'd shoot at you (probably warning shots over your head) if you walked on their property, and they'd only go into town once a month for flour and a few other basics. For real hillbillies.
All the musicians, including Merl, called it "deedle eedle" music....as in all picking rhythms were "deedle eedle deedle eedle deedle eedle......". where the deedles and eedles all kind of ran together.
Deedle eedle music.
My first husband was into country music, so I was exposed to a lot of the older singers/songwriters. I saw Merl Haggard in concern, as well as (are you ready?), Ray Price! Ray had a wonderful backup orchestra, and came out in a suit and tie. But he also had people walking around, selling his albums to the people sitting in the audience. He had a very famous first act, and I’m completely forgetting his name.
My then husband liked Tammy Wynette, and I couldn’t stand her, but he said, “listen to her voice, she can really sing.” He had a point, but she wasn’t my style. I went through a long period, even after that, that I loved country music.
Very interesting. I was in Boone and Blowing Rock with the middle girls a couple of winters ago, when B was home from Okinawa.
It was quite beautiful and the last gasp of what seemed to be the "olden days". But, it was relentlessly hick south. One day, there was a baseball game going on in the lot next door, I grabbed my mitt and headed over, they were choosing up sides, and no one would choose me because I was a Yankee. Yes, honest truth, they called me a Yankee. When choosing up sides for baseball! Then, one of them kinda let me in because they needed a shortstop so I took position, fielded the first hit in my direction, lined one to the 1st baseman who let it go by because he apparently wouldn't catch a ball thrown by a Yankee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qngIMw1kO4w
Steve and Del.
I would not expect that voice to come from that man. He’s a big man, I expected a deeper voice. Deep thoughts by BikerChick.
John Duffy of the Seldom Scene was like that. He was a big man and played mandolin. The contrast between big men with big hands playing such a small instrument has always fascinated me.
I’ve lost track of a lot of things, but don’t you and your husband play bluegrass music?
Yes!
I knew it!!! 🙃
Reminds me: I think Taj Mahal can cover an octave-and-a-half with one hand on the piano keyboard. And he plays every thinkable instrument, iirc.
It’s amazing how many men are tenors. The one that always surprised me was Vince Gill, and what a beautiful voice!
Good morning! Drizzly here. I think we’re getting hit with the leftovers of that hurricane from a couple of days ago.
I drove through to go to Steak n’ Shake last night.
Send some of that weather our way. It’s really, really dry.
Good morning. Cool morning, forecast sunny and highs in the 80s. No rain, as the remnants of Francine didn’t reach Ohio. My lawn is still brown.
The mothership is reporting on that loony Congressional sport: let’s fight over funding the government before it shuts down. Current funding runs out end of September. One would think they would settle this quickly so they can go home and run for re-election. You would be wrong.
2 months off and they still don't want to do the work they were elected to do. Puppet majority are apparently just extensions of an impulsive miserable narcissist.
It’s very disconcerting. I keep wondering when/if this will change, and hope it’s not too much longer. We need some good people, but instead, we’re getting too many who think it’s only about performing online.
My lawn is getting brown now. I saw some combining going on yesterday. It seems too early but maybe it’s time.
A lot of the corn is starting to turn yellow. But not all of it. Just watch, it will suddenly start raining, and they won’t be able to get it out until December! (I’m always a bit cynical these days.)
My lawn in Tucson is always brown!!!
🏜
DOUG....I've never seen you over here. Maybe you've been here but not commented. Nice to see you here.
I’m surprised you have a lawn!
I saw corn being harvested last week. Gave me a chance to lecture on crop residue and waterfowl habitats.
My wife (NJ) and I (WV) have always loved corn. Usually available here in Tucson. Not as much as yesteryears. I'm a 6 for a buck buyer.
Iowa has the best sweet corn, it's delicious.
We tried a hybrid several years ago and only planted like twelve stalks. The corn was beyond white—the kernels were light pink. The corn was so tender and sweet you could eat it raw straight from the stalk and taste the tender sweetness. The main reason for cooking it was to melt butter, I guess. ETA: Only have a very small plot of a garden.
What kind was it? I haven't tried growing corn for a long time.
I can’t find it again. It would have been through one of two specialty/ heirloom seed companies: Johnny’s Seeds or Baker Creek Rare Seeds. I would recommend both.
But I don’t know if it was a trial that didn’t sell well from one of them, or I’m guessing the wrong search terms. “Blush” and “pink” combinations of seed and sweet corn don’t produce anything that looks like it.
Nevertheless, a good sweet white corn can be just as sweet and tender that you can eat it straight from the stalk. Also, if you just grow a small number, you probably should hand-germinate them, which is fairly easy to do as long as you time it right.
Some of those hybrids are really good!
I remember when we used to get 13 ears for a dollar. The corn they're harvesting now is probably going over east for hog feed.
...or just get it out of the garden. It's how I learned that sweet corn loses a lot of its flavor in the first couple hours after picking.
I grew up eating corn from farm stands in Maryland and was shocked to find farm stands in NC did not stand up, by a long shot. It was the lack of refrigeration.
With trepidation I now admit to buying our corn from - deep breath (and I am otherwise a fan) - Walmart. The husks may be shriveled and discolored by the kernels themselves are shiny and sweet and almost always picked young. Even my husband - a deeply principled corn snob from Long Island - agrees that supermarket corn is now really good.
We got so much corn it's beautiful. $6 for a bakers dozen.
We haven’t bought any in several years now. I have no idea what the going price is, although there are signs. I’ll have to look next time!
What a joyous thing!
"Uncle Pen" is one of those songs that plays on the jukebox "in the corner of my mind." But that particular record always skipped a little. And I couldn't make out what the name of the song or singer was on the label anymore. But I've got it now.
(In fairness, it is an old jukebox.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2t7zHEzU7V4
Alabama! I co-opped in Alabama (at TVA in Muscle Shoals, no less) because of Alabama.
I was an early and enthusiastic fan.
I like them quite well, too.
No. Mo to Alabama.
Ricky Skaggs's version is my favorite. He also made a video with Uncle Pen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_QheuTi8Q8
Don't miss all the mullets!
Great voice!
Love it!
Hadn’t seen the official video. The inclusion of Mayor Koch = 😘👌
I had forgotten he was in it.
1985. I was 19.
That's what my jukebox plays!
Very nice. Not the biggest bluegrass fan, but I truly admire the musicianship. The Tiny Desk Concerts are great. They have some fantastic musicians of all genres in an intimate setting. Believe it or not, they even had Tower of Power once.
I want to enjoy it more than I do because of the stellar musicianship. You can find good musicianship in rock music too so I gravitate in that direction.
I’m not a big fan of country music in general, but have always liked bluegrass, by and large. The country style I like is in the Western swing/Bob Wills tradition more than other variants.
I find it interesting how much country and bluegrass have an international fandom. The one exception in Europe has always been Germany, where American country music just never gained much traction, for whatever reason. But there used to be many very good Eastern European bluegrass groups, I suspect because of the ad hoc and informal nature of bluegrass, where string pickers come together to jam and sing.
Not sure how accurate the perception is, but I’ve often thought of bluegrass as the country/western counterpart to pop/rock’s folk music. Their modern forms came about in roughly the same mid-century time period, and they kinda/sorta celebrated American cultural folkways, whether real or imagined.
The observation about the relationship between bluegrass and Eastern Europeans is interesting. Both sides of my husband's family are Slovenian and he grew up surrounded by music - parties had a lot in common with jam sessions, except for the presence of polkas. He started on the accordion but fell in love with the banjo upon seeing Douglas Dillard on The Andy Griffith Show.
After years of off and on playing and singing myself, I still find myself amazed at the skill and artistry of gifted musicians who achieve at a professional level solely for personal reasons. The community and comradery are something special.
In a lot of ways it used to be very informal. People were happy, but not obnoxious in the same way they can be at rock concerts, although that’s probably changed. Now, so much of country is mixed with rock. Some of it is good, too, but I still prefer a lot of the older stuff, and I definitely have a thing for bluegrass.
I only like country music when I’m in Nashville.
I watched that one a long time ago. Quite good, plus an act I was barely familiar with. There have been a few finds there, but I haven’t been a regular viewer.
They have one of the greatest drummers of all time (not just confined to Funk music): Dave Garibaldi. He's been with them from the beginning, except for the period where he was recovering from being hit by a train.
"On January 12, 2017, David Garibaldi, along with a bass player, Marc Van Wageningen, were hit by a train as they walked across tracks before a performance in Oakland. They both survived the accident. They have both since returned to the active lineup."
Wow.
They must have been drinking!
Or just distracted.
Very, very distracted!
Although the style of music may not be your preference, listen to his drumming on the album version of “what is hip”.
https://youtu.be/oAatPPEaZDA?si=6hU9IyYb8Mz83Sse
Good drugs, both pre-and Post crash
Maybe that was it.
In a car?
Nope
I'm not either but occasionally I go down a rabbit hole and watch a bunch of them at a time.
Yep.
Good morning. I read that when Del McCoury toured with Steve Earle, neither of them wanted to let the other do the last song, so the concerts would go on and on. Good, I guess, if the attendees had brought snacks and a pillow.
Morning.
That helped ensure a lot of folks got their money’s worth.
Two giant egos on stage.
And what *did* you think of the debate?
My husband and I watched maybe the first 10 minutes. YAWN.
Vlad said he found Harris to be "thoughtful and eloquent" and Trump to be "garbled and completely nutso." I'm sure she was, compared to Trump.
Yeah, our standards aren’t exactly high these days.
That I'm too old to spend time on stuff like that.