February 10: “I think everyone listening in on the radio should know, Glenn, it actually is a recording of ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo.’ But it’s in gold, solid gold, and is really fine”—announcer Paul Douglas, to Glenn Miller on this day in 1942, presenting the world’s first gold record for selling 1.2 million copies.
Media attention spans are short. As are ours. They can only manufacture outrage for so long before they have to move on to the next one for more viewers. And people keep falling for it. I don’t get it.
Argument is dangerous; it allows for alternate viewpoints to be expressed. Distraction is better; keep manufacturing new outrage to keep people from thinking about options and alternatives.
It kinda just dawned on me that in the stream of affronts coming out of the Trump admin clown car, the talk about Greenland has floated away. I was reminded by TMD bit about NATO exercises in the Arctic.. sounds like we are all friends again. The stunning thing is how these certifiably crises get swept away - by the next one.
I've been wrong so often predicting things related to Trump. But I did predict that the fuss over Greenland would die down when, inevitably, Trump realized that there was pushback (or non-enthusiasm) from the Republicans in Congress, and it did die down.
That's not to say that Greenland stuff won't bubble out of Trump's mouth at some unexpected point in the future. But it's squashed down for now.
In other words, an actual meeting-of-the-minds type of deal. Not the kind of "deal" some people like to talk big about and use as a front for their real intent: taking unfair advantage, if not brazenly ripping little people off.
I think, though, the Danes are legally constrained from “selling” Greenland because of an understanding with the Greenlanders — it might arise to a treaty. It’s the sort of technicality that Trump would assume wouldn’t matter.
One Dane we spoke with in Copenhagen emphasized that the Greenlanders are used to and happy with the benefits of the Danish welfare state — the free healthcare, the free education — and are acutely aware they wouldn’t have that as a territory of the United States.
I need some material for the 4 hour trek to Mayo tomorrow so I’ll check it out. Tyler seems like somewhat of an oddball which is why I like him. My dad is having a procedure Friday and I’m going to surprise him and my mom by coming. My sister is driving them and I want to see her too.
I spent the day as part of the largest human migration in modern times, the annual Spring Festival trek to the family home town, Enshi, Hubei. The sheer volume and density of humanity on the move is indescribable. We drove. Every rest stop was a sea of humanity, cars on the exit ramps waiting in line to get into the parking area. Anticipating this, we were gassed up and chose our rest stops with strategic clarity. Every car was overloaded with humans and gifts to hand out. In this part of China, foreigners are almost nonexistent, especially ones that are driving a car. People stop and look.
Started the usual IL evening watching one of several TV depictions of the Sino-Japanese war, with earnest proletarians fighting off the Japanese and comforting the elderly and small children before trekking onward in service to The People™. 为人民服务
Now, sitting watching the biathlon competition. Cross country and marksmanship; those Anschutz .22LR rifles are something else. Those guys are rock steady, iron sights, <20-30mm groups at 50m after skiing their butts off. Unreal.
Just like our holidays, every family has their own drama to play out, sometimes fun, sometimes ugly, sometimes just the alcoholic uncle touting the lost energy of the Great Helmsman, which makes all the young people leave the room. Ours is fun. Dinner is 30-35 people around a gigantic circular table. There are banquet halls that specialize in Spring Festival dinner. Out in the village, they did the usual pig slaughter; we're going tomorrow for the ceremonial meat distribution. I love Spring Festival. There's a Wind and Rain Bridge in Enshi with festivities every night and the whole town is hung with red lanterns. Everyone in the village has stockpiled enough fireworks to blow a hole in the Great Wall. I bought 2-10,000 firecracker strings, BIL has a bunch of frightening aerial cannons, and between the two of us, it'll be wild. Fireworks are now banned in town, for good reason; the whole town was literally opaque with fireworks smoke. Out in the village, it's open season, free fire zone.
First I have to find it. Prime doesn’t have it. I can testify, though, to the changes in the last 15 years.
Like everything else, it’s complicated. My sense is the reports of China’s general malaise and accompanying imminent collapse are premature.
We’re calling it depression porn…western media tropes addicted to imagined Chinese citizen depression induced torpor. Extreme hardship is the default for most of the population. Perseverance and adaptation are more like it.
Kevin Williamson has a piece up on The Dispatch in which he reports on Minneapolis and how it’s faring after ICE agents killed a couple of protestors. KW is in particularly good form.
Good morning. 24 degrees now, but with a high into the mid 40s! This will be the first time in 3 weeks (other than brief flirtations with the the freezing point) that temperatures have gotten above freezing. The bad news is that it will refreeze tonight, leading to icy conditions. That will be the pattern for the next several days.
The mothership is covering the Redistricting War between the Dems and the GOP and its likely outcome (spoiler alert: maybe a wash). The FP is headline “The Troll Who would be Governor” about James Fishback, a particularly loathsome Right Wing candidate for Florida governor.
looks interesting - I'll keep it to read later, when I have time. This week has been/will be full. Yesterday temps got to 80, down into the 70's for the next few days, then back into the 80's; rain maybe this weekend.
Have been entering hours for the volunteers I normally do, close to 30, who are unable to do so. Then Membership VP gave me a list of a few dozen more to contact 'cause their entries are lacking, either due to negligence or trouble w/ this awful log-in system we use. I'm still waiting to hear back from a few re: their hours, if they're able to do their own or need help. We're supposed to get a new system in the next few months, so I'll be trained in that to help train all the volunteers. There will still be some who will want me to do it for them, but it should cut down on that # considerably.
Yesterday afternoon was Farkel day w/ friends. As usual, I scored in the middle, so didn't win any $, but had some laughs w/ good company.
Today is book club. Plus groceries, getting ready for son & granddaughter coming in from Baton Rouge the end of the week, staying thru next Tues.
I have not heard of this gentleman, but I'll try to pull up the podcast on Spotify. His name implies that he will have a Darling Little Accent.
Meanwhile, I need to get the Wasted Youth moving on the day and start loading all the stuff for Envirothon into the trunk of the Honda. I love my Honda.
He has a very pleasant voice and—as you heard—a nicely erudite persona, with a perfect annunciation in the British RP accent. I particularly like that he uses the correct past tense form of “forbad” in casual speech. ;-)
I love that you love your Honda. I also love my car. A few days ago I was in my car & all of a sudden the navigation screen/map disappeared from my dashboard, as well as my radio was not operational! I thought, ugh, gotta take my loved car in for service. Then about 5 miles out, I realized there was an AWFUL accident about another mile down the road. I had been punching all the buttons for my navigation, which I love, which is really hard to get back to how I like it when it gets messed up. Things still weren't making sense as the long line of backed-up cars made the way thru the accident (a big semi flipped onto a small car, crushing it, from what I heard later. The semi was still there, but a lot had been cleared by the time I was there. I was on my way to the thrift store for an unusual meeting & many people had been late). Anyway, AS SOON as I got thru the intersection of the accident, my navigation screen appeared as I liked it, even after I had punched all kinds of buttons! But my radio still didn't come on, not till after I turned the car off, then back on when I was leaving the shop. Must have been some sort of signal from the police blocking whatever is used by my car.
I used to do expert witness work for a Christian law firm. I’d crack them up by proclaiming “I’m not a Christian, I’m a carpenter.” Christians with a sense of humor are fun.
Some negative Goodreads reviewers found his factual presentation very dense but weren’t pleased by his narrative style, finding it dry in one or the other reviews of his books.
Yet his overall Goodreads reviews were quite positive.
It may get to 70 today. If you listen closely, you might hear the daffodil roots are growing.
I read his solid Cromwell bio some years back. (About the same time I read a Woolsey bio by someone and a couple of books on the English Reformation) But the Cranmer bio is something I would like to read as well. Thanks for sharing! I just ordered his "Christianity."
Interesting, When I looked at Cromwell's Wikipedia entry a bit ago, it said noting about his persecuting Quakers. But it did remark he encouraged Jews (expelled centuries earlier by Edward I) to return to help rebuild England after the English Civil War.
on this day in history:
February 10: “I think everyone listening in on the radio should know, Glenn, it actually is a recording of ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo.’ But it’s in gold, solid gold, and is really fine”—announcer Paul Douglas, to Glenn Miller on this day in 1942, presenting the world’s first gold record for selling 1.2 million copies.
Media attention spans are short. As are ours. They can only manufacture outrage for so long before they have to move on to the next one for more viewers. And people keep falling for it. I don’t get it.
Argument is dangerous; it allows for alternate viewpoints to be expressed. Distraction is better; keep manufacturing new outrage to keep people from thinking about options and alternatives.
DOES NOT! 😡
😆
Look over there! Isn't that the Goodyear Blimp?
🤡
Take extra care to make sure people never ask themselves "can both of these things be true?"
It kinda just dawned on me that in the stream of affronts coming out of the Trump admin clown car, the talk about Greenland has floated away. I was reminded by TMD bit about NATO exercises in the Arctic.. sounds like we are all friends again. The stunning thing is how these certifiably crises get swept away - by the next one.
I've been wrong so often predicting things related to Trump. But I did predict that the fuss over Greenland would die down when, inevitably, Trump realized that there was pushback (or non-enthusiasm) from the Republicans in Congress, and it did die down.
That's not to say that Greenland stuff won't bubble out of Trump's mouth at some unexpected point in the future. But it's squashed down for now.
Capturing Greenland is not a priority for now.
But if Denmark ever runs short on money, then selling it to us could be a win-win scenario.
But the key is a sale, or a friendly transfer, not anything that looks coerced or forced, or bad for Greenlanders.
In other words, an actual meeting-of-the-minds type of deal. Not the kind of "deal" some people like to talk big about and use as a front for their real intent: taking unfair advantage, if not brazenly ripping little people off.
I think, though, the Danes are legally constrained from “selling” Greenland because of an understanding with the Greenlanders — it might arise to a treaty. It’s the sort of technicality that Trump would assume wouldn’t matter.
One Dane we spoke with in Copenhagen emphasized that the Greenlanders are used to and happy with the benefits of the Danish welfare state — the free healthcare, the free education — and are acutely aware they wouldn’t have that as a territory of the United States.
I need some material for the 4 hour trek to Mayo tomorrow so I’ll check it out. Tyler seems like somewhat of an oddball which is why I like him. My dad is having a procedure Friday and I’m going to surprise him and my mom by coming. My sister is driving them and I want to see her too.
I spent the day as part of the largest human migration in modern times, the annual Spring Festival trek to the family home town, Enshi, Hubei. The sheer volume and density of humanity on the move is indescribable. We drove. Every rest stop was a sea of humanity, cars on the exit ramps waiting in line to get into the parking area. Anticipating this, we were gassed up and chose our rest stops with strategic clarity. Every car was overloaded with humans and gifts to hand out. In this part of China, foreigners are almost nonexistent, especially ones that are driving a car. People stop and look.
Started the usual IL evening watching one of several TV depictions of the Sino-Japanese war, with earnest proletarians fighting off the Japanese and comforting the elderly and small children before trekking onward in service to The People™. 为人民服务
Now, sitting watching the biathlon competition. Cross country and marksmanship; those Anschutz .22LR rifles are something else. Those guys are rock steady, iron sights, <20-30mm groups at 50m after skiing their butts off. Unreal.
The Babylon Bee had a headline about stormtroopers coming in last at the Olympic biathlon again! 😢
All joking aside they are excellent shooters.
“Last Train Home” is a 2009 documentary on the migration. The documentary made me sad.
I've never heard of it; I'll look it up.
Just like our holidays, every family has their own drama to play out, sometimes fun, sometimes ugly, sometimes just the alcoholic uncle touting the lost energy of the Great Helmsman, which makes all the young people leave the room. Ours is fun. Dinner is 30-35 people around a gigantic circular table. There are banquet halls that specialize in Spring Festival dinner. Out in the village, they did the usual pig slaughter; we're going tomorrow for the ceremonial meat distribution. I love Spring Festival. There's a Wind and Rain Bridge in Enshi with festivities every night and the whole town is hung with red lanterns. Everyone in the village has stockpiled enough fireworks to blow a hole in the Great Wall. I bought 2-10,000 firecracker strings, BIL has a bunch of frightening aerial cannons, and between the two of us, it'll be wild. Fireworks are now banned in town, for good reason; the whole town was literally opaque with fireworks smoke. Out in the village, it's open season, free fire zone.
I’d love for you to watch it and tell me how life has changed in China since 2009.
First I have to find it. Prime doesn’t have it. I can testify, though, to the changes in the last 15 years.
Like everything else, it’s complicated. My sense is the reports of China’s general malaise and accompanying imminent collapse are premature.
We’re calling it depression porn…western media tropes addicted to imagined Chinese citizen depression induced torpor. Extreme hardship is the default for most of the population. Perseverance and adaptation are more like it.
It’s on Netflix and Apple TV.
I don’t have either one cuz if I did I’d zone out in front of the TV. Actually, I’m just cheap.
Kevin Williamson has a piece up on The Dispatch in which he reports on Minneapolis and how it’s faring after ICE agents killed a couple of protestors. KW is in particularly good form.
I got the teaser; it was excellent. The whole piece is probably excellent too.
Good morning. 24 degrees now, but with a high into the mid 40s! This will be the first time in 3 weeks (other than brief flirtations with the the freezing point) that temperatures have gotten above freezing. The bad news is that it will refreeze tonight, leading to icy conditions. That will be the pattern for the next several days.
The mothership is covering the Redistricting War between the Dems and the GOP and its likely outcome (spoiler alert: maybe a wash). The FP is headline “The Troll Who would be Governor” about James Fishback, a particularly loathsome Right Wing candidate for Florida governor.
I like Ron "I am not an invasive pest" DeSantis as governor. He has been largely successful as a governor.
I suspect Trump did him no favors.
looks interesting - I'll keep it to read later, when I have time. This week has been/will be full. Yesterday temps got to 80, down into the 70's for the next few days, then back into the 80's; rain maybe this weekend.
Have been entering hours for the volunteers I normally do, close to 30, who are unable to do so. Then Membership VP gave me a list of a few dozen more to contact 'cause their entries are lacking, either due to negligence or trouble w/ this awful log-in system we use. I'm still waiting to hear back from a few re: their hours, if they're able to do their own or need help. We're supposed to get a new system in the next few months, so I'll be trained in that to help train all the volunteers. There will still be some who will want me to do it for them, but it should cut down on that # considerably.
Yesterday afternoon was Farkel day w/ friends. As usual, I scored in the middle, so didn't win any $, but had some laughs w/ good company.
Today is book club. Plus groceries, getting ready for son & granddaughter coming in from Baton Rouge the end of the week, staying thru next Tues.
I have not heard of this gentleman, but I'll try to pull up the podcast on Spotify. His name implies that he will have a Darling Little Accent.
Meanwhile, I need to get the Wasted Youth moving on the day and start loading all the stuff for Envirothon into the trunk of the Honda. I love my Honda.
“Darling Little Accent”
Mr W could not be reached for comment. 🙂
He has a very pleasant voice and—as you heard—a nicely erudite persona, with a perfect annunciation in the British RP accent. I particularly like that he uses the correct past tense form of “forbad” in casual speech. ;-)
ONZ, that Little Accent is extremely! Darling!
By any chance do you like Queen's "I'm in love with my car"?
Asking for a motorhead friend, of course.
Good news is as the weather has come up from zero, so has my gas mileage!
I love that you love your Honda. I also love my car. A few days ago I was in my car & all of a sudden the navigation screen/map disappeared from my dashboard, as well as my radio was not operational! I thought, ugh, gotta take my loved car in for service. Then about 5 miles out, I realized there was an AWFUL accident about another mile down the road. I had been punching all the buttons for my navigation, which I love, which is really hard to get back to how I like it when it gets messed up. Things still weren't making sense as the long line of backed-up cars made the way thru the accident (a big semi flipped onto a small car, crushing it, from what I heard later. The semi was still there, but a lot had been cleared by the time I was there. I was on my way to the thrift store for an unusual meeting & many people had been late). Anyway, AS SOON as I got thru the intersection of the accident, my navigation screen appeared as I liked it, even after I had punched all kinds of buttons! But my radio still didn't come on, not till after I turned the car off, then back on when I was leaving the shop. Must have been some sort of signal from the police blocking whatever is used by my car.
I used to do expert witness work for a Christian law firm. I’d crack them up by proclaiming “I’m not a Christian, I’m a carpenter.” Christians with a sense of humor are fun.
I started into his book on the Reformation, but I'm afraid I didn't find it very readable. Still, I know he has many fans, so maybe it's just me.
Some negative Goodreads reviewers found his factual presentation very dense but weren’t pleased by his narrative style, finding it dry in one or the other reviews of his books.
Yet his overall Goodreads reviews were quite positive.
That's what I recall (it's been at least 15 years) -- dense, dry.
It may get to 70 today. If you listen closely, you might hear the daffodil roots are growing.
I read his solid Cromwell bio some years back. (About the same time I read a Woolsey bio by someone and a couple of books on the English Reformation) But the Cranmer bio is something I would like to read as well. Thanks for sharing! I just ordered his "Christianity."
in 2025 my daffodils poked up their little noses by 28 January. I don't expect them before Valentine's day in 2026. But by Memorial day, for sure!
Which Cromwell?
Sorry. Thomas. I was knee-deep in the Henrecian nastiness -- more the religious than the connubial.
So I suspected, but had to ask, rather than assume. You know what happens when you assume. . .
And Thomas and Oliver Cromwell were distant relations.
One of the more ironic names I ever came across among friends was "Oliver Cromwell Beeson".
Yes, the guy who imprisoned Friends, who approved of physical violence of Friends, yes, his name was given to Friend (who later became a pastor).
Either poor in history, or very good at forgiveness.
Interesting, When I looked at Cromwell's Wikipedia entry a bit ago, it said noting about his persecuting Quakers. But it did remark he encouraged Jews (expelled centuries earlier by Edward I) to return to help rebuild England after the English Civil War.