Friday Ephemeraren’t
Due to events beyond my influence, you’ll have to throw together your own pile of links and oddities in the comments. I’ll set the ball rolling with some niche entertainment; a pet shop promotion of note; an excess of ears; a lady who wants some fries; and a lady who wants a kebab.
Oh, and a plot twist.
I hope everything’s OK?
For the last week we have been getting at least 2 robocalls a day on the house phone telling us “our” Ipod account has been compromised. The house phone is in my father’s name (Verizon made it so difficult to change we just left it that way) and he didn’t even know what an ipod was. How does British law deal with these calls? Our Congress is actually trying to deal with this but given that our Congress is incompetent no one expects much.
If you’ve got nothing else to do, call them back and find interesting ways to waste their time.
a lady who wants some fries
About half way through the video she tells the off camera person that she “works with people who are challenged, every day.”
I’m willing to bet that most of those people are in her head and in the mirror.
“For the last week we have been getting at least 2 robocalls a day on the house phone telling us “our” Ipod account has been compromised.”
I fear that not much can be done about this: Telco companies can be instructed/authorized to block robo-callers, but the scammers cannot be shut down because they are nearly all overseas. It was easier when I was a child because the callers had to have a physical phone line, which could be traced. Now calls can be placed over the internet from anywhere in the world, and the caller ID can be spoofed.
some niche entertainment;
Is it just me? When I watch this I hear the Sabre Dance, in my head.
Sidebars of History: D-Day as It Happened:
https://ricochet.com/257408/archives/sidebars-of-history-d-day-as-it-happened/
a pet shop promotion of note
That’s . . . . some sushi shop . . . !
a lady who wants some fries
A baseball classic: If you had just one more eye, you’d be a cyclops!!!
a lady who wants some fries; and a lady who wants a kebab.
A literal “Sir, this is a Wendy’s” moment.
If you’ve got nothing else to do, call them back and find interesting ways to waste their time.
One of the developers I work with has a little side project – when he gets those overseas scam robocalls, he fires up a few dozen AWS-hosted robodialers he coded up and has them DDoS the number for a while.
Whenever I get a call from say Saginaw, Michigan or Wilmington, Delaware or any other place where I don’t know anyone, I like to pretend I’m Larry King by saying the name of the originating city, telling them that they’re on the air, and then repeatedly asking them to turn their radio down.
Ummmm …. that’s a no.
People who don’t realise they are full of…
From HuffPo, naturally!
Oh, and a plot twist.
So violence *is* the way to solve problems.
It worked on D-Day. 😊
Morning, all.
A literal “Sir, this is a Wendy’s” moment.
She works with people who are challenged, you know. Every day. But she doesn’t have problems in her life.
Re the kebab-craving lady, the first thing I wondered was does she have children?
The Protein Wisdom blog is back.
Where’d it go?😊
Is everything OK over there across the Big Puddle?
Is everything OK over there across the Big Puddle?
Hereabouts is okay. I can’t speak for the rest of the country, mind.
That’s OK, as long as OUR supply of hump fat doesn’t run out, the rest of the country will have to look after itself.
Ummmm …. that’s a no.
I just took a look…ummmm… how do you get into it?*
*I know it’s an architectural model but I don’t see a ladder or platform just the edge of the pool. *shudder*
They had one of those in “The Devil’s Advocate” with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves.
People who don’t realise they are full of…
From HuffPo, naturally!
“Ummmm …. that’s a no.” With a large side order of GFY.
Woke reviewer Carlos Aguilar watches animated film intended for children, gets terribly upset.
Today in Racism, Vol. 23874:
The Decolonising Contraception Collective organizes a sex festival for people of color. Personally, as a patriarchial colonial yte I only use “Queen Victoria, Empress of India” brand condoms, but I digress.
Of course, but so are hangnails and dandruff, but they are not as glamorous or titillating.
Aside from the mystery of what the hell “how pleasure is constructed” is supposed to mean, told by whom ? Parents ? Roving bands of nuns or The Rozzer Pleasure Squad demanding to see hyphenated ID ? Are British-Ugandans told these things ? Enquiring minds want to know, damnit.
Mighty non-people-of-color of them to include ytes in the back of the bus sort of way.
Meanwhile, in the US and A, we all find a reason to identify as a black female.
Woke reviewer Carlos Aguilar watches animated film intended for children, gets terribly upset.
When you’re so woke you don’t get that you’re the joke. Honk!
When you’re so woke you don’t get that you’re the joke.
When you are woke, nothing not previously approved by the Woke Central Committee is permitted to be a joke.
When you’re so woke you don’t get that you’re the joke. Honk!
When the reviewer of a children’s cartoon is whining at length about the lack of discernibly gay pet-owning couples and the oppressive “heteronormativity” of a character choosing to get married and have a child – which is “conservative” and therefore bad, apparently – the problem isn’t the film.
David, this may be your, and your hamster’s, big chance to break into show biz. Sounds like you’re exactly what’s needed. At least in woke show biz. For real show biz, you’d have to be able to act, or sing, or dance or something, and who needs all that work when you can just be woke?
the oppressive “heteronormativity” of a character choosing to get married and have a child – which is “conservative” and therefore bad, apparently
Reproduction is ‘conservative’. Normality is a ‘trope’. Sounds like someone’s been severely educated…
Reproduction is ‘conservative’. Normality is a ‘trope’. Sounds like someone’s been severely educated…
Such that Mr Aguilar, a 30-year-old man, is seeking validation of his own niche sexual politics in a mainstream children’s cartoon.
Here’s a good article on Bosch for those who are fans (I watched the series a couple weeks ago based on David’s recommendation):
https://www.broadcastbeat.com/the-look-and-sound-of-bosch-article-1-of-3/
I watched the series a couple weeks ago based on David’s recommendation
[ Resumes pacing up and down hallway, waiting for season six. ]
Mr Aguilar, a 30-year-old man
Oh, I thought it was worse than that…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Aguilar_(writer)
I feel so much better now. No, really.
Meanwhile in Canada, our Prime Minister has publicly stated that there exists in Canada, right now – an ongoing genocide. As the leader of a country he admits is CURRENTLY committing a genocide, I await his arrest.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-mmiwg-genocide-1.5161681
This is based on the recommendations of an inquiry into the deaths of Native women. Not surprisingly, the ultra-woke took over the inquiry, and as such – much of it revolves around gender issues, not the murder of women. Here’s a link. You have to click on it to learn what 2SLGBQQIA means.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/mmiwg-inquiry-report-1.5158385
“[Aguilar] made his professional debut in 1982…”
Coincidentally, that’s the year I joined the Navy, though I was born eight years later than Carlos. Was I privileged or what?
the problem isn’t the film
I enjoy pointing out that the villain in Disney’s Frozen is actually Anna.
in 1979 started to write fanzines, among them one about fantasy cinema, Morpho
The older I get, the harder it is to avoid the conclusion that fandom geeks taken as a group probably derve their ostracism.
Rooster is the embodiment of phrases like “Men don’t cry,” and “Rub some dirt on it.” This alpha dog rejects vulnerability by preaching about how sissified city dogs are. The character is disturbing in his unapologetic validation of behavior society as a whole is trying to eradicate. He equates courage with arrogance and other outdated perceptions of manliness.
Two things pop out at this disinterested observer:
1) The assertion that “society as a whole” is trying to eradicate traditional masculinity.
2) The horror that an animated children’s film is not enthusiastically working to assist in this popular effort.
Last year, I was on a wilderness canoe trip when my brother had a seizure, flopped out of his canoe and nearly drowned. Rescuing my brother from the cold water, and getting his lungs clear, and going back to fetch my 70-year-old father and his capsized canoe before hypothermia got the better of him, and then jury-rigging a temporary camp with the equipment we hadn’t lost, and then paddling off to civilization to find help — let’s just say that “being in touch with my feelings” wasn’t anywhere near the top of the list of helpful traits and skills that came into play that afternoon.
I’m virtually certain that this movie reviewer was tormented as a kid, and as such he will forever confuse traditional masculinity with the bullying he experienced. I just wish that he and his fellow travelers could put their vaunted powers of nuance and empathy to work just one single time and realize how deeply insulting it is to have one’s masculinity constantly characterized as “toxic,” something to be ashamed of, to be driven out of oneself, or to be atoned for.
You’d think that somebody who has spent his life insisting that queerness is nothing to be ashamed of would be a little more circumspect about insisting that everything non-queer is. You’d also think that people who can’t kill a spider on their own would be more circumspect about calling for the eradication of a hundred million men who are handy with axes and guns and power tools and machinery. But then, as our gracious host has observed so many times, self-awareness isn’t usually a strong suit for people like this.
and a lady who wants a kebab.
They made the mistake of trying to restrain her, when they should have punched her in the head until she became unable to get up.
“I only use “Queen Victoria, Empress of India” brand condoms”
Hand-made out of the finest catgut from the jungles of Ceylon*, I’m told.
“how pleasure is constructed”
Obviously there will have to be Workshops.
“Reproduction is ‘conservative’.”
Remind me again why Rand was a crank when she said socialism is anti-human…
“outdated perceptions of manliness.”
I noticed many years ago that Lefties have a strange fondness for simply declaring things to be “outdated”, presumably in the hope that if they do it often enough it’ll come true.
*Although it’s probably a cattery in Bolton.
Hi Governor Squid,
I’m glad you were able to handle the problem and that everyone was OK!
Since Alexander the Great had a boyfriend, does he get a toxic-masculinity pass for all those conquests and for his skill with knots?
Hey, if I ever get my book out on Amazon (where I will, of course, tell everyone to buy it thru David, piddly-foo), should I dedicate the rip-roaring sword fight to Mr. Aguilar? 😈
I am assuming that a rip-roaring sword fight is automatically toxic even if each participant sincerely believes he is in the right.
We just got another Ipod call. I’d like to take a sword, or better yet, David’s flamethrower, to that stupid computer.
What’s more ephemeral than bubbles?
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2019/06/performative-rubber-garments/?mc_cid=2a0c23ee0c&mc_eid=d63b7b651c
(When I think of “ performative rubber products,” though, this is not what first comes to mind.)
let’s just say that “being in touch with my feelings” wasn’t anywhere near the top of the list of helpful traits and skills that came into play that afternoon.
https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2016/04/hes-being-rugged-and-we-cant-have-that.html
Be careful of who you try to destroy (and how you try to destroy them):
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/06/verdict-jury-awards-gibsons-bakery-11-million-against-oberlin-college/
I think a person would have to be crazy to object to competence.
Re the Governor’s account, given the now-vanished world in which I was raised, schooled and worked, had I ever considered some sort of generalized whine about that society’s “toxicity”, what would have shamed me into eternal silence were my outdoor experiences, especially but not exclusively, with wilderness canoe trips. There were often other females along and just about all I got on well with, but the unfailingly reliable contingent was the men. Their behavior was unforced and seemingly bred in the bone and my trust in them was instinctive and never misplaced. This is a sort of belated paean to all of them, sorry to gush.
I think a person would have to be crazy to object to competence.
It happens all the time in businesses small and large. A Senior Somebody’s ego or position is threatened by the ability/influence of a junior employee, and they fire/sabotage/undermine/transfer that employee to protect themselves, at the expense of their own department’s success. You can argue that this is rational self-protection if the damage to the organization isn’t transferred to the Senior Somebody, but I’ve seen such Somebodies sink their whole organization doing this, at the expense of their own livelihoods.
It may be crazy, but sadly it isn’t all that uncommon.
Be careful of who you try to destroy
That is wonderful news! I look forward to the punitive damages phase.
Yes, especially the shoplifters themselves insisted there was nothing racial about it!
I guess the fiber community is also ephemeral:
https://quillette.com/2019/06/07/instagrams-diversity-wars-revisited/
When it comes to novel methods of spycraft, you Brits always seem to have things well in hand. (File under Things You Won’t Believe, and possibly NSFW)
Oh yes. The story of Captain Cumming, Officer Stagg, and Major Dick Holme. I almost forgot about that one. Richard Cranium, call your office.
I’m at the office at the moment; no need to call.
The story of Captain Cumming…
That is Captain Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming KCMG, CB, to you, thank you very many.
The incredible humorlessness of the left –
Guy who runs The Federalist, given the flap about the idiots at Vox trying to start a union, makes a joke tweet:
Managing editor of The Federalist replies (clearly knowing that the joke is a joke):
This clot files a complaint against him with the NLRB as the rest of left wing twitter dogpiles on him.
Incredible.
Once is a tragedy, twice is creepy.
”I guess the fiber community is also ephemeral”
I’ll never eat celery again.
Hi TimT,
It was actually about women who knit, who are now “the fiber community.”
Women who knit…
Yeah, I followed that story on Quillette. Amusing in a completely horrifying way.
As it happens, the woman who used to be one of a few Lead Engineers on the SR-71 Blackbird program at Edwards AFB, and who is know to me for saying “Perfect safety is for those who don’t have the balls to live in the real world”, retired. And started a knitting business. Might be fun to hear her NSFW comments on all this.
Guy who runs The Federalist…makes a joke tweet
To be fair, if The Federalist lived up to its name instead of tabloiding every little low-level leftist tic, maybe it wouldn’t attract the crowd it does.
who are now “the fiber community.”
I’m having trouble generating sympathy for any group of people who unironically call themselves “the fiber community”.
As Kate over at SDA is fond of saying, we need a famine.
Hi Fred the 4th,
Yes, I’d like to hear her comments.
The incredible humorlessness of the left
In this case, humourlessness or simply ill will.
Women who knit
Previously in the world of intersectional knitting. Again, humourless, or spiteful?
“It was actually about women who knit, who are now “the fiber community.””
Ta Pogo, I’ve been following the Woke Knitting story with morbid interest, but when the opportunity for a silly pun presents itself, I’m afraid I can’t help myself…
In this case, humourlessness or simply ill will.
Embrace the power of “and”.
Graffiti of note:
https://twitter.com/PhilosophyMttrs/status/1137411477420335104
What’s more ephemeral than bubbles?
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2019/06/performative-rubber-garments/?mc_cid=2a0c23ee0c&mc_eid=d63b7b651c
(When I think of “ performative rubber products,” though, this is not what first comes to mind.)
===========
What an insanely over-wealthy society the West is such that people can make a
living from this kind of idiocy
In this case, humourlessness or simply ill will.
Embrace the power of “and”.
About halfway through that, it seemed to me clear that there were some personal scores being settled, plus a chance to knock out someone else’s business model.
Deplorable.