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JohnF's avatar

On the subject of singing ... This is probably old news to most visitors to this blog, but the Eurovision 2025 competition just wrapped up. It was won by an entry from Austria, which featured a remarkable singer named (unremarkably) "JJ". He is a classically trained countertenor who usually performs operatic roles. Countertenors are male singers who sing in the alto-low soprano range and cover the parts that were originally written for castrati, which no longer exist (for good reason).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onOex2WXjbA

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C C Writer's avatar

I have heard a countertenor in a baroque music concert. It's like a falsetto except it's much more true than false. I'd like to hear one sing some Frankie Valli hits.

PDQ Bach wrote a score including a "bargain-counter tenor." https://www.presser.com/416-41173-iphigenia-in-brooklyn.html

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JohnF's avatar

Many, many years ago I was a music student playing in a production of Benjamin Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream. The role of Oberon is written for a countertenor. In this particular production, the role was sung by a six-foot-three two-hundred and twenty-pound black man. To say that there was a disconnect between the voice and the outward appearance is a massive understatement.

After performances, he'd come to the student bar and regale us with old jazz standards by Aretha Franklin and Sarah Vaughn - in the same pitch and key. It was remarkable.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Video is apparently blocked in these here other United States. 😭😭😭

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JohnF's avatar

There's probably a 25% tariff on it.

Try searching for "JJ Eurovision 25 Wasted Love". That should do the trick.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Here’s a link that works—for now.

https://youtu.be/KVQyfQ9TF8E?si=vqyiqTIlIg5PIdwO

“Metal singer reacts.”

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DougAz's avatar

https://www.scotusblog.com/2025/04/the-future-of-scotusblog/

Old news. The Dispatch bought ScotusBlog back in April.... 🦉

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Jay Janney's avatar

I recall there was a question about the Scotusblog ownership perhaps needing to be friendly to Trump in case a tax pardon was needed.

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DougAz's avatar

🐾🐾🐾🐾🦛🐾🐾🐾🐾🦔

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C C Writer's avatar

Good morning. More piping plover news just out: Imani and Searocket already have one egg on their nest at Montrose Beach; a total of 4 can be expected. These birds don't waste any time!

One news account stated that the two of them laid an egg, then went on in the next paragraph to say Searocket may lay three more. I believe it is correct to say that it is the female who lays the eggs. Laying an egg is only one part of the reproductive process, correct?

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CynthiaW's avatar

As a student of nature, I can confirm that it is the female of oviparous species who actually lays the egg.

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DougAz's avatar

Your latest guide to Russian (including Soviet Union era) nuclear weapons. Time saved for your perusal via breakdowns of air and sea and land launched weapons.

https://thebulletin.org/premium/2025-05/russian-nuclear-weapons-2025

On a cheerier humanitarian nuclear note, obsolete nuclear bombs are taken apart and some important isotopes are harvested. That mostly only come from these little critters.

Radioactive tin isotope for one, is used in medical ophthalmology.

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Kurt's avatar

I was in a fairly obscure area of Wuhan today and there was an elderly Chinese woman sitting in an alley wearing a Ramones T shirt, with a picture of Joey. American pop culture; it's everywhere.

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DougAz's avatar

I have absolutely no idea or heard about a Ramones or Joey.... 😊🫣

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Kurt's avatar

Extreme incongruity is the term I’d associate with the image. I so wanted to take a picture…this dignified yet clearly very poor peasant, sitting in a doorway of a hovel in an alley, in a Ramones T shirt. How does a Ramones T shirt find its way to this situation? It’s everywhere, that’s how.

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DougAz's avatar

Nice.

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R.Rice's avatar

Thanks for sharing the video with Mademoiselle Hardy. I had not heard of her - like most things French, she had "something". I don't know a lot about earlier French music, but we regularly turn to Edith Piaf for pleasant background music when having friends over. I think I prefer Piaf to Hardy.

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IncognitoG's avatar

That’s the way I felt at first. Then she sort of grew on me.

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Wilhelm's avatar

I listened to more of her music. And it some point, this came to mind.

https://youtu.be/yXoILGnHnvM?si=htcBHjy_MWzVMrv7

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R.Rice's avatar

That was fun. I liked the performance!

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BikerChick's avatar

It’s funny how people can be crazily famous in one country and never heard of in another. She had a beautiful voice. The wiki link doesn’t work, fyi. Saturday’s ride included a 4 mile uphill with 6-10% grades. The guides led us to believe it was just a short uphill. There were some frustrated riders as we had shredded our legs the day before with some serious climbs. I think we climbed 2,600’ in 4.5 miles. That’s A LOT! Home now, but our luggage is not. I thought we’d be fine with a 2.5 hr layover in Denver but ended up running to our connection and made it with minutes to spare. Our plane in Grand Junction was broken so United flew an empty 737 to us from Denver. Home sweet home.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Thanks! Fixed.

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R.Rice's avatar

That kind of elevation gain is better suited to training than a vacation! You must be a strong rider - that's not for the average Josephine.

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BikerChick's avatar

I wasn’t a happy camper. My husband was 20 min behind me, the guide kept having ride down to check on him as the elevation makes him breathless. I did walk for about .5 mi up a steep grade but ended up catching and passing the other three riders so I must be strong on the hills 😜.

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Kurt's avatar

You get the polka dot jersey.

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R.Rice's avatar

The guides Western Spirit? I've heard good things. We are big fans of BackRoads for international travel. We have another BackRoads trip planned in Apr 2026 for Japan. We like them because they take care of everything, which can be nice traveling in foreign places. And well, it may be bougie, but super nice lodgings and food are certain. My wife uses the e-bike. I don't but might because, like I said above, it's a vacation.

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BikerChick's avatar

We had a very interesting couple from Salida on this tour who used the clunky ebikes, they brought their own. No way were they going to get those bikes on top of the trailer. We use Lizardhead, they call this one of their easier tours. LIARS! This is our 4th tour and might have been the hardest. The owner is out of Ophir. WOW, Japan.

Coolio. We are trying to steer clear of Backroads for now, more bougie than we care for at this stage. Maybe someday.

https://lizardheadcyclingguides.com/road-mountain-bike-tours/spring-fall-bike-tours/moab-bike-tour/

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BikerChick's avatar

She's a character. So enjoyed her company. Really the best thing about these trips is all the interesting people you meet. And then there's me, just midwest mom biker chick. https://pjbergin.com/about/

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R.Rice's avatar

Salida is a really nice community. Not quite as overrun with too many Texans with too much money. The town seems to have more genuinely kooky (in a good way) people. This lady's art is pretty cool.

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Kurt's avatar

10% is around 6º, which doesn't sound like a lot, but that's enough to blow up the average amateur cyclist, especially if it's for several miles. On stone, it's brutal.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Congratulations on your safe arrival back where you started!

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BikerChick's avatar

I don’t love to fly. It scares me. But then I think to myself I rode a bicycle on a highway for 200+ miles which is much more dangerous than getting in an airplane. Chill out about flying!

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CynthiaW's avatar

There are the things we worry about, and then there are the things that are statistically much more likely to be a problem.

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Citizen60's avatar

Saved Cartoon :

Worry works! 99% of what we worry about never happens.

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Phil H's avatar

Good morning. A chilly 54, rising to the upper 60s this PM.

The mothership is reporting on Trump’s recent visit to Syria. The FP is covering the Biden coverup, as a book from reporters (who probably were complicit) is now hitting the bookstands. Mentioned is that Biden has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostrate cancer.

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Phil H's avatar

Speaking of Biden, the FP article on the coverup says this:

“The Democrats were frozen in panic at the prospect of a second Trump term. They couldn’t do what any sane party would do and move on from Biden when there was still time to do so properly. And that inaction led to exactly the outcome they so feared.”

Pretty much says it all.

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Citizen60's avatar

The Democrats refuse to abandon The Great God of Seniority. Part of it's because valuing the "wisdom of age and experience" is part & parcel of respecting all people is a Democratic Party value. That is admirable, but so is winning elections to be able to express those values in actions. And part of it is because the Tribal Elders are so elder.

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CynthiaW's avatar

An elder worth the name recognizes when it's time to relinquish active leadership to others.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I wish Joe Biden well, but the description of his cancer coupled with the pattern of lying from his family and associates leads me to believe that he has days to live.

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Citizen60's avatar

The fact that the cancer has already metastasized to the bone means they've known about this for a while. Biden supposedly had annual physicals as President.

I wonder if this announcement is to stop the pile-on that's occurring with the new books talking about Biden clinging to power at all costs since the "good will" tour in the media isn't working.

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Jay Janney's avatar

I called my son to share the news. He was driving back from New Jersey (attended a wedding). When he got hired by the federal government, I explained to him that dying presidents meant a day off from work; we called it dead president's day. He's already had one such holiday (Carter), and realistically, if he stays with this career could enjoy another 4-5 pretty easily.

Is it a coverup? Going from a clean bill of health 15 months ago to grade 9 aggressive bone cancer suggests his doctor might have been a DEI hire, or was not forthcoming about his true health.

I suspect the latter.

If the latter, one wonders if the term "Lady McBiden" might be appropriate.

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CynthiaW's avatar

"or was not forthcoming about his true health"

That's my vote. And mysteriously, respect for medical experts is in decline.

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Kurt's avatar

They're all bogus. No way is the American public going to be given a true report on a President's health.

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Phil H's avatar

Harsh, but likely deserved.

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Kurt's avatar

I'm quite comfortable with harsh on this.

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C C Writer's avatar

This might account for the recent and sudden public appearances.

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Kurt's avatar

Knowing what we now know, there isn't any level of lying and deception that would surprise me.

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Phil H's avatar

Neither party is healthy. It’s just that the GOP failings are more spectacular. But the Biden coverup shows that the Dems are just as willing to put power over the good of the country.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I agree. However, on this particular topic of Joe's health, the Biden family and hangers-around have demonstrated spectacular mendacity.

However, maybe this is the one exception, and his cancer can actually be "managed" as they say.

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Kurt's avatar

It's all noise. True, not true...we'll know sooner or later, with sooner being likely.

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Phil H's avatar

I might believe that, were it not for the family history of lying. This is a family that has covered both for Joe and for Hunter.

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IncognitoG's avatar

I mainly blame Joe. His first presidential run featured heavy-handed plagiarism from Neil Kinnock, UK Labour Party leader.

He told voters during a campaign that he was smarter than they were, had been top of his class—all BS.

He’s been mendacious for a very long time. His time on Senate Judiciary in the Reagan administration was where he earned his media adulation for introducing sex scandals into the Thomas confirmation, breaking prior convention. Forever afterwards he selectively denounced it when the partisan calculus ran the other way. He was the one who originally seeded the clouds for the ensuing shitstorm…

He caused all that while on a committee featuring sexcapade fellow D senators like Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd, if memory serves.

As I say, I’ve disliked Biden intensely for a very long time…

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Kurt's avatar

Healthy is too kind. They both have spectacular failings, just in different ways. If someone wants to rank one over the other, I won't argue.

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Phil H's avatar

Biden and the Dems have not tried to overturn an election (just tinker with election laws making them less secure). They have not incited a riot at the Capitol (just downplayed and excused the George Floyd riots elsewhere). They have not attacked the Constitution openly and blatantly (just subtly and incrementally). Both parties offend values I hold dear (just different values).

Good thing I voted in a Red state so I didn’t have to choose and just cast a third party protest vote.

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Kurt's avatar

(no argument)

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R.Rice's avatar

I'm in a muddle of not knowing what to believe. It could be as you say. It also could be news they've known for longer, that they are shining a light on now to take the heat off the Tapper book?

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Kurt's avatar

I get past my moral dilemma by accepting the fact he and his family are scumbags, and move on.

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R.Rice's avatar

The proper thing to do.

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CynthiaW's avatar

So 1960s. It reminded me of the Muppet Show.

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Phil H's avatar

Her stage presence seemed to bear out her shy temperament. Or maybe that was common in the 1960s.

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R.Rice's avatar

A little like Jane Birkin.

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Phil H's avatar

The Wikipedia article stated Hardy was shy all her life, despite her celebrity.

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Kurt's avatar

I've been thinking about Gulliver's Travels and the entities going to war over whether the egg is cut at the skinny or the thick end, and when compromising by cutting it in the middle, it ends up a mess with egg all over everything.

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Kurt's avatar

Those videos are so 60's and it's awful that I remember them. Not those specifically, but ones just like them that all blend into a visceral memory of sitting in front of the grey plastic with lightly soiled white plastic trim B&W TV on a rickety wire stand with clear plastic wheels. I think the screen was about 13" and hazy, so you had to pull in close to see anything while unknowingly being irradiated.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Did we buy that one from you at your yard sale or something?

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CynthiaW's avatar

Good morning. On our perennial theme of "AI is going to take over the world by frustrating us to the point that we all drink ourselves to death," I just got an email from our eye doctor, reminding me that Daughter D has an appointment tomorrow.

"Please confirm your appointment by clicking the button below," it requested, so I, being the kind of person who follows directions, clicked on the soothing sky-blue oval that said "Confirm."

This took me to an otherwise blank screen that reads, "Uh oh! (in bold) It appears that you have already completed this action."

Am I to deduce from the "Uh oh!" that I have done something catastrophically wrong, and that we will arrive at the office tomorrow only to be told that our appointment, and perhaps our very selves, are "not in the system"? Or what?

I hope that programmer steps on a Lego with his right foot and then hops into a fresh cat spew on his left.

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JohnF's avatar

I worked for the company that makes Windows for fifteen years. When I was young and new to the company, I used to tell people that I worked there. I stopped doing that after I took a flight one day and made the mistake of sharing that information with the guy in the seat next to me, which led him into a fifteen minute rant.

His complaint? At that time, the Operating System would respond to a serious issue with an error message telling the user that they had "performed an Illegal Operation". Apparently, this vexed him considerably because he was quite sure that HE had done nothing illegal! He then went on for awhile in that same vein. Thankfully the flight was only an hour.

I don't remember much else about that conversation. Only that it was traumatizing enough that I started just telling people that I "worked in tech" from that point on and got myself a pair of noise -cancelling headphones that I put on right after takeoff whenever I had to fly.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Did you plug the ‘phones directly into the Zune player, prominently clipped to your breast pocket?

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JohnF's avatar

Of course! I was a company man, through and through! First Zunes, then a succession of Windows Phones.

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IncognitoG's avatar

Someday we’ll ask you to tell us how Clippy was to work with as a colleague.

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JohnF's avatar

As I recall, he was always trying to help.

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Citizen60's avatar

Inventive, and enjoyable, curse

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CynthiaW's avatar

Thank you.

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C C Writer's avatar

Supervisors of programmers ought not to let them be the ones composing error messages. They can't get the tone right, not to mention think through the result (or lack thereof). They don't understand what a customer is or even why.

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IncognitoG's avatar

All this was presupposed by Douglas Adams when he invented the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, makers of AIs and robots with humanoid personalities. Every device was to be a smart device. What you could look forward to grumpy, temperatmental coffeemakers, depressed servant robots, offensively insulting elevators…

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C C Writer's avatar

At least in that alternate universe, nobody is fooled into thinking the bots can be trusted.

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DougAz's avatar

You probably forgot to see that this is a virtual Ophthalmic appointment! Just look into your laptop or cell phone camera (selfie side), a flash will illuminated your retina. The AI-DO, will compute the Zernicke polynomials and coefficients that prescribe all optics (spherical correction, coma and astigmatism aberrations..).

Transparency determination by % light reflected, accounting for normal internal reflection absorption, will measure any occlusion (cataracts. Millions get IOLs, fyi).

The AI-DO glaucoma IO pressure test is still in development.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Fascinating. The practice we go to has a machine that takes a picture of your retina. I have difficulty with it, because I blink.

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DougAz's avatar

Today, most optometrist have these wave-front measuring optical instruments. They probably still use the old true is this better or that better little lenses for you to evaluate sharpness against the letter array.

But, my wife for one, has always had some issues with this method. The new automated wave front method gives her a better correction.

The flash for the retina camera is for looking for macular degeneration.

Optical Doug and Polymer Doug, always recommends polycarbonate lenses. Because the only allow 0.001 of bad UV into your eye. “Poly aka an acrylic, lets on 35%. Glass 75 to 90%. Shaded glasses and polarized 45%

Retinal damage by UV is dramatically reduced by polycarbonate. I'm going on 71. Worn my current lenses for 17 years. Polycarbonate for 30.

Because of its UV absorption, I never squint in bright sunlight! Don't need any shades.

Squinting in bright sunlight is your eyes saying..ouch

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Bill Mc's avatar

I find that AI has better manners than most humans (this group being among the exceptions). "Uh-oh" sounds like hard-wired code to me. And yet better than the "oooooh, that's bad" exclamation I received from a doctor during a recent visit . . ..

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C C Writer's avatar

The "uh-oh" part is irritating and offensive in a subtly clunky way. Bots should avoid commentary and state the problem simply, without appearing (as this one does) to deny the very possibility that anyone could be held responsible for a malfunction. Bosses of programmers should explain this to the programmers.

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Phil H's avatar

I doubt that system was intended to cancel an unconfirmed appointment. If that were the case, it (hopefully) would tell you.

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CynthiaW's avatar

No, I don't really think that, if you try to confirm more than once, the way they keep asking you to do by both email and text message, you will eventually double-negative yourself into nonexistence. But why, "Uh-oh!" then, as opposed to, "Actually, you've already confirmed this appointment, thanks."

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LucyTrice's avatar

It should be "Oops! We see you have already confirmed the appointment. Please accept our apologies for bothering you unnecessarily. We will get our IT guy on it immediately. "

Yeah, right.

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C C Writer's avatar

"Oops" would be even worse.

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LucyTrice's avatar

Interesting. I think of oops as something I say when I make a mistake. But: I defer to your experience.

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C C Writer's avatar

I mean "oops" is perfectly fine for *you* to say to yourself or the people around you in those circumstances.

It's inappropriate for a piece of software to say "oops" in an error message to the user, and therefore inappropriate for programmers to program it that way. They should take responsibility and explain the situation in a businesslike way.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Yes, "Oops" would imply that you, the customer, made a mistake by following the directions you got from the merchant.

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LucyTrice's avatar

I think of oops as something I say when I make a mistake, followed by "Sorry!"

I defer to you and C.C.

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C C Writer's avatar

It's also cheeky. Yes, that's a word I should have thought of earlier. Cheeky.

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CynthiaW's avatar

It could say "Your appointment is confirmed," regardless of whether I just confirmed it now or confirmed it on the first request three weeks ago. Who are these people who decide to program "Uh-oh!" as a response to anything that happens? They're probably related to the ones who think I want to see, "Yay! No spam here!" when I delete the spam messages from my Gmail. Why not, "Spam deleted."?

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Phil H's avatar

Error messages to the public are supposed to be “non-judgemental”.

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CynthiaW's avatar

"Spam deleted" and "Your appointment is confirmed" are non-judgmental. "Your order will be shipped soon," is non-judgmental. "Time to get excited!" about the delivery of your underwear judges me to be a person with truly strange enthusiasms.

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LucyTrice's avatar

I agree on both points.

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Kurt's avatar

Barefoot.

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CynthiaW's avatar

Of course.

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Jean-Christophe Jouffrey's avatar

Dear MarqueG68,

The last link that you provide "Comment te dire adieu" is a reworking of "It hurts to say goodbye", sung first by Margaret Whiting https://youtu.be/RpzxNHOeTQc?si=Fd96Wi-wyF7Lt8x5, and then by Vera Lynn https://youtu.be/loKu85lkm2c?si=_VVgn-zj0xQolUhi

I shall leave people to decide which is the most interesting.

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LucyTrice's avatar

Thanks. I thought the melodies sounded familiar. My grandmother liked the "easy listening" station and these took me back to visiting at her apartment.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I think a schmaltzy song sounds better in a foreign language.

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C C Writer's avatar

Allez, venez milord

Vous asseoir a ma table

Il fait si froid dehors

Ici c'est confortable

Laissez vous faire, milord

Et prenez bien vos aises

Vos peines sur mon coeur

Et vos pieds sur une chaise

Je vous connais, milord

Vous ne m'avez jamais vu

Je ne suis q'une fille du port

Une ombre de la rue.

Not sure if it counts as schmaltzy, but I did that one from memory without looking anything up, I remember the tune, and I know what the lyrics mean. Don't remember anything about the singer or the songwriter or the year. Wouldn't sound as good in English. Might have made a few grammatical errors or typos.

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Jean-Christophe Jouffrey's avatar

Dear CynthiaW,

The words in the French version are written by Serge Gainsbourg, and they are far better, including a very interesting effect on a rime in "ex" using a caesura sometimes within a word (accentuated by the beat of the music).

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CynthiaW's avatar

Interesting, thanks.

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Rev Julia's avatar

What a lovely voice! And yes, there is too much wonder and beauty in the world to get spun up in politics.

This morning I went out and walked the dog in the first light of dawn(my knee was sore, and walking feels good.) I said aloud, “Thank you for the morning, Lord”, and the dog stopped and looked at me with the strangest expression. I told her “You’re not God”. She seemed to shrug and walk on, as the sky filled with shades of rose and orange. The beginning of a good day.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I walked the neighbor's dog after the first light of dawn. He tried to chase a rabbit and wound his leash around a tree. He's a very dumb dog. And the gray cat shedded on my pants legs as he tried to persuade me to let him into the house. He's not supposed to go in the house.

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Rev Julia's avatar

You were supposed to give in.

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CynthiaW's avatar

I know. D sometimes "accidentally" lets him in the house, but there's no sandbox, so it's really a bad idea.

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IncognitoG's avatar

She heard her Master’s voice! 🤩

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