Friday Ephemera (654)
Pulse of note. || Interspecies duet. || The Commodordion, an 8-bit accordion. || How to climb a tree. || Are you “living your best life” thanks to your smart ring? || The thrill of mechanical watches. || When A.I. generates an episode of Top Gear. || When you want it both ways. || Bubble simulator. || Hers is bigger than yours. || Because it can be done, apparently. || Today’s word is boundaries. || Satire, but only just. || She hopes this clears things up. || The ghost village of Craco. (h/t, Things) || Slow Roads, a driving game. || On the properties of hair. || A project for the weekend (h/t, Elephants Gerald). || The Volkswagen office chair. || The Sunday Format. || For when you need instant fabulousness. || The future is now. || And finally, we’ve been having one or two issues with the chocolate fountain.
Yes, 654. Or around 13,000 links. Since you ask.
A harsh customer review
The awesome superiority of the white liberal mind.
The thrill of mechanical watches.
Fun fact – the part that engage either the intermediate wheel (to set the time) or winding pinion (to wind the mainspring) is called the clutch, and is moved by the stem and held in position by the yoke also known, oddly enough as the clutch lever.
Having a clutch explains, of course, why millennials and Gen Y types cannot operate real watches or tell time other than by looking at a phone.
From crop circles to sheep circles.
Many years ago, there was a book called Blue Eyeshadow Should Be Illegal.
it’s time for a sequel on the subject of blue lipstick. I’d never ever seen it except during October, and was happy in my ignorance.
Re the white liberal mind—with one exception, every black person I know is in possession of a driver’s license. The one exception has a non/driver ID like Sonkitten’s. Both the driver and non-driver ID’s are good as ID anywhere.
U.S. citizens of all races are now starting to run into the problem of “enhanced” IDs, to get one of which you have to document your life back to your first breath. I anticipate a brisk traffic in enhanced forgeries.
When you want it both ways.
If Colin Wright identified as a woman wouldn’t that make it fair?
Morning, all.
Our deep-thinking betters.
She’s “winning gender,” you know.
Hey kids, come play.
we’ve been having one or two issues with the chocolate fountain.
Still would.
The Sunday Format
Thanks for that.:-)
Is the flautist single?
Thanks for that.:-)
I first heard it years ago, accidentally, in the car, halfway through an episode. So, for a few seconds it was a little baffling. Not every gag works, but it does capture the flavour of British broadsheets and their Sunday supplements.
In a similar vein, Posh Nosh.
chocolate fountain
Yes. Yes, I would still eat that. It’s chocolate!
Nice new digs, by the way!
[ Straightens coasters. ]
Hers is bigger than yours. || Because it can be done, apparently.
ISWYDT
It was never the healthiest relationship.
“Transwomen are women”, you can tell by all the feminine things they do. (Caution, as if you hadn’t guessed)
It was never the healthiest relationship.
Superman has a thing for crazy earth women.
In the second clip – from a screen test, I think – it’s the fact that Lois shoots Clark, supposedly to prove that he’s Superman, then looks surprised when he’s unharmed. As if she wasn’t actually sure and just shot him anyway.
Meanwhile in Scotland, we mustn’t offend the “trans” people.
“Good news
ma’am, er, sir, I guess, your PSA is totally normal.”crazy earth women
Band name.
When A.I. generates an episode of Top Gear.
Seems more like “When the Top Gear crew do A.I.”. How hard can it be?
Because it can be done, apparently.
Oh, those sophisticated French. First le Pétomaine, now this. They’re obsessed.
Slow Roads, a driving game.
Keyboard controls are a pain, but, y’know, as a fan of these things, I’ve definitely paid for worse.
[ Tinkers with blogroll. ]
Finally, someone has done something about all the young Canadian girls who have been maimed, or psychologically damaged.
I think I went down a Twitter rabbit hole, possibly on that Top Gear AI link, and ran across this which I found amazing. The reaction of this chimpanzee…Story is the baby was born by c-section so this is the first time she has seen her own baby. She (apparently) instinctively makes the connection.
https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1593500738986049538
Choc fountain: at a party (family type) a young man (son of the host fortunately) leaned on the table with the choc fountain and it tipped over. Holy crap what a mess.
I love the AI art, it is like acid trips (don’t ask how I know).
NHS sign: yes, harder and harder to do satire these days.
The Brownies were named after a story about helpful elves, so I’m not sure why girls should be rendered distraught by the name. In all the years I’ve been vaguely aware of the organisation – a schoolfriend belonged to it, I think – no racial connotations came to mind, or so far as I can see, were ever intended. And I would guess that any harm to young minds is more likely to be done by them being surrounded by the kind of neurotics who imagine racial oppression in the rustling of leaves and the alignment of chairs.
|| The Commodordion, an 8-bit accordion. || The thrill of mechanical watches. ||
Thank you for those! I found the watch article utterly fascinating. The Commordion is awesome in its own way too – I love when people (usually guys) geek out on something and build amazing stuff.
Bubble simulator – hours of harmless fun avoiding useful activity.
Funny, one former first lady, savaged by media almost daily, has never spent one minute complaining about anything, let alone her hair.
It was never the healthiest relationship.
I remember when that movie came out I was one of the few who didn’t care for it but I did think that Margot Kidder was absolutely hot. As she made more talk show and other appearances it became increasingly undeniable that the woman was freaking nuts. Whenever I run across scenes like that from that movie it gives me an odd dodged-a-bullet-there feeling. Weird.
Tiresome narcissist is tiresome narcissist.
Instant fabulousness purchased (via link naturally) for Xmas day frivolity.
Also housewarming ping.
The first film still has its moments – or at least it reminds me of how much I enjoyed seeing it in the cinema as a wee seedling. The sequels, however, went downhill rapidly.
I’m not exactly steeped in the celebrity gossip of decades past, but didn’t she have some kind of breakdown and was discovered lurking in bushes minus her teeth?
Bless you, sir. May you know the satisfaction of a new, and very sharp, kitchen knife.
Scotland: decoupling health care from “gender” (ie sex). Oh, yeah, perfect. Half of health markers make no sense without reference to sex. Tell women to get a mammogram or men to test their PSA? Right out. Is that pain due to an ectopic pregnancy? Sorry, we can’t ask that question. Many medications need different doses in M vs F or have different risks. Heart attack symptoms differ M vs F. Normal body fat differs. People will die.
I think the chimp discovering her baby could answer “what is a woman” better than a certain supreme court justice..just sayin.
Hers is bigger than yours.
I’m guessing some subset of Japanese porn.
I think the chimp discovering her baby could answer “what is a woman” better than a certain supreme court justice..
First the obligatory “That’s RAAAAACISSSSS!”. Because never mind all humans are apes regardless of skin color, as are chimpanzees (which inconveniently have pink skin under their hair). Biology is apparently one of the sciences that we don’t Believe In. /eyeroll
Second, I think all mammals in the animal kingdom know what a woman is, certainly they know what a female mammal is. Even hyenas and their strange genital biology know what a female hyena is. Confused animals who can’t clone themselves fail to reproduce and die off, unless artificially procreated by humans. It’s pretty simple out in Nature. Or you know, Reality.
I’m not exactly steeped in the celebrity gossip of decades past, but didn’t she have some kind of breakdown and was discovered lurking in bushes minus her teeth?
You were probably too young/far away over there to have seen her appearances on late night comedy shows like Johnny Carson or David Letterman, and I specifically remember her on one of the popular stand-up-in-front-of-a-brick-wall-and-be-funny shows of the late 80’s/early 90’s. I believe it was Evening At The Improv that I’m thinking of . It may have been syndicated over yonder as they had occasional British performers. I do recall the bushes thing, the teeth could be true as well. Odd that. Not sure how well this relates but being of that specific age, the way she looked at SM/KK to be followed by that kind of crazy. It would amaze me that anyone who cared about here didn’t get her the serious help that she needed. It was bloody obvious that she was nuts. Additionally there was plenty of young talent that would have made much better use of that exposure time. It was crazy…
Though speaking of crazy and Evening At The Improv…they occasionally would have a music act on as well. I don’t know if anyone else here watched that show and recalls seeing the Boomtown Rats when Bob Geldof did some weird crazy dance, something to do with his suspenders? It was bizarre.
On a minor blog format note, I know there are other things you’re working on and I don’t think anyone has mentioned this but the Previous/Next post thing seems to be reversed, at least from a time-based perspective. Right now I’m seeing the “Pejoratives Were Deployed” post as being the “Next Post”.
I suppose the layout idea is that you’re reading posts from the top down, catching up on what you may have missed. Thing is, if I swapped them, assuming I can, then the ‘Next Post’ button would take you back to the post you’d just read. Which seems no less likely to confuse.
But never the right ones.
prev/next: across the internet, it seems to me that no standard has been set. Next/prev and left/right arrows both refer to the previous post from current.
Previous/Next:
I suppose the layout idea is that you’re reading posts from the top down, catching up on what you may have missed. Thing is, if I swapped them, assuming I can, then the ‘Next Post’ button would take you back to the post you’d just read. Which seems no less likely to confuse.
I get confused if “next” does not take me to a more recent post.
If you cannot swap the positions of the buttons, could you change their captions? Maybe to “earlier/later” or “older/newer”?
The Althouse blog has “newer post” on the left and “older post” on the right.
I’ve decided to find it charming.
I’ve decided to find it charming.
It’s the little differences. I dig it the most.
I get confused if “next” does not take me to a more recent post.
I got in the habit, back at the old place, of using the browser’s back button menu to go back to the main page after reaching the end of the comments of the post I was reading. Top down was how I got used to reading the blog, and I find it easier on my brain than the previous/next arrows.
It would amaze me that anyone who cared about here didn’t get her the serious help that she needed. It was bloody obvious that she was nuts.
She was diagnosed bipolar (at the time it was called manic depression) but wouldn’t accept the diagnosis until eight years later when she was rescued from living rough. She lost her teeth caps when she was raped while living rough.
As for caring and getting help, it is very difficult if not impossible to help someone who doesn’t want to be helped. Since the sixties we’ve pushed mental health into the streets and made it more and more difficult to help people who won’t accept it. It explains a big part of the current homeless situation. I’m sure there were many who tried to help Margot. In the end she killed herself.
Agree. I believe One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is still praised in such circles. I don’t remember the context but I do recall my AP history teacher in high school praising the “good work” the movie and book did for the mentally ill. I believe that movie did tremendous damage to the mentally ill and our society in general. But back to MK, putting her out there, her agents, the people running the shows, etc. were not doing her or even themselves any favors. She was well beyond the usual celebrity eccentricities. And there were other people who could have made much greater use of that time and those resources.
putting her out there, her agents, the people running the shows, etc. were not doing her or even themselves any favors.
One of the reasons she ended up on the street is because she wasn’t working and was in financial hardship. Denying someone a living isn’t helpful either. Hangers-on will put people out there as long as there’s money to be made. They couldn’t help her until she asked for help. She went through a fairly extended period of time after living rough where here mental health was under control. It wasn’t until she got on the green protesting bandwagon later in life that things started going sideways again.
The first film still has its moments – or at least it reminds me of how much I enjoyed seeing it in the cinema as a wee seedling. The sequels, however, went downhill rapidly.
The story of the Superman movies is almost as interesting as the movies themselves.
Re: Margot Kidder – yes, sadly, she was never the most stable of individuals and her performance in the film is…not good. Oddly, if you have the Special Edition of the series that includes the screen tests, she is far, far and away better on screen than any of the other actresses in the screen tests. Given that she was up against Stockard Channing and Ann Archer, I’m not sure what happened there.
The original script was essentially Superman in the vein of the 1966 Batman TV series, which made a huge amount of money for Warner. Thankfully they brought Mario Puzo (yes, that one) in to script doctor, and he added all of the Christ allegory and the Superman-Jor-El scenes. Oh, and if Superman is Jesus the Christ, then his paramour is Mary Magdalene, who was generally believed to be a repentant prostitute. That’s why Kidder was playing Lane as, to use Roger Ebert’s phrase, “a reformed hooker”.
The second film suffers from Donner getting yanked in the middle and replaced with Schumacher, and less script doctoring such that it’s hard to take the Kryptonian villains seriously. There’s an un-post-processed Donner cut of Superman II that’s worth it for what the two movies – which were shot together – could have been. Even if it’s mostly Christopher Reeve standing in front of giant teal bedsheets.
There’s no super-logo powers, though. So there’s that.
Mentally ill: it is an impossible situation. Past institutions tended to ignore the rights of patients but on their own the ill lack the ability to seek care and take their meds. Drugs (the illegal kind) of course make it worse.
Mentally ill: it is an impossible situation. Past institutions tended to ignore the rights of patients but on their own the ill lack the ability to seek care and take their meds.
Even exemplary institutions can decline:
Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy: “In any bureaucracy, the people devoted to the benefit of the bureaucracy itself always get in control and those dedicated to the goals that the bureaucracy is supposed to accomplish have less and less influence, and sometimes are eliminated entirely.”
Clever sheepdog
https://twitter.com/LovePower_page/status/1593654150587330560
I never heard of Z-Library until I saw this tweet.
But that reminds me: Remember the science fiction writer who endorsed book piracy? “Information wants to be free”, he said. And he said authors should instead earn a living from live readings and other sorts of performances?
Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe, disguised as “how to make meth”.
Is that a comment on how to what is needed to avoid takedown demands from KFC? Or on the addictivness of KFC chicken?
Tight quarters.
Just an observation on the new joint; the links to next and previous post seem back to front to me…
Ah, I see I’m not he first to observe this. mea culpa.
In recompense, if Top Gear branched out of cars.
Because “gender fluid” and “bigender” employees should have “multiple pass-cards with different forms of gender expression or linked email accounts/intranet accounts with different names and photos.”
Previously and very much related.
Tight quarters.
Well at least most of those people have their masks on, so they’re safe. The trains at the beginning remind me of the row house my grandmother lived in that had just a sidewalk and the back…or was it front?…porch between it and the freight train tracks. As a wee lad I found it exciting seeing, and feeling, the trains going by. Usually two in the short couple of hours of my father and my visits. How people could live with that 24×7 seems rather quaint today.
Clever sheepdog,
I love dogs and I especially love seeing them do what they were bred to do. It makes for a happy dogs, like these.
It’s a clown world because we tolerate it. And especially because we tolerate the clowns’ intolerance of us.
♪♫Gaudeamus igitur,
juvenes dum sumus,♪♫
This world class level of academic rigor is why dolts who can only get into cow colleges are jealous the top tier intellectual powerhouses that are the Ivies.
Courses like this – 70,000 frogskins a year – a bargain at half the price.
It’s a clown world because we tolerate it. And especially because we tolerate the clowns’ intolerance of us.
Indeed. I know self-described libertarians who even insist on being maximally tolerant of individuals who give material support to actual terrorist thugs. So where would they draw the line? When someone comes to burn down their houses? Destroy their livelihoods? Kill or cripple their families?
trains: in college my wife and I lived in married student housing apartments about 30ft from tracks (US). We only got about 1 train per night and learned to sleep through it (ah, the benefits of being young!). When my dad came to visit, he was asleep on the guest room bunk bed (a low bed that another bed on wheels was under and could be rolled out). The bottom bed was out for my brother to sleep on. When the train came by, which we neglected to mention to him, he startled which made the mattress and frame fall through, with him riding it down. Not as hilarious in real life as on TV.
Multiple email addresses/names/identities: Oh FFS. Us normal people are sorry you are a confused person but our lives are already so complicated that we can barely get by. Adding land mines like this to our jobs is not appreciated. As I’ve mentioned before, back when life was more physically demanding, no one had time for this crap.
Mine didn’t come with a manual.
Mine didn’t come with a manual.
So She’s Automatic?
One way to understand left-wing politics is as personal unhappiness abstracted and projected onto society: “I hate my family, therefore families must be destroyed.”
https://twitter.com/realchrisrufo/status/1593677032256413697
One way to understand left-wing politics is as personal unhappiness abstracted and projected onto society: “I hate my family, therefore families must be destroyed.”
Another example: “I am insecure about my sexuality, therefore society must affirm and celebrate me”
and “I am not successful–it must be racism”
“I hate my family, therefore families must be destroyed.” and “I am insecure about my sexuality, therefore society must affirm and celebrate me” and “I am not successful–it must be racism”
There are myriad ways that messed-up people can blame their failings on “society”.
[ Looks out the window. Sees snow. Grumpiness increases. ]
[ Sees that Buffalo New York has about 5 feet of snow. Stops feeling sorry for self. ]
I hate my family, therefore families must be destroyed
“I HATE YOU DAAAAD/PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEEE”.
At some point, we’re going to realize that allowing the dissolution of the traditional family is what got us into this mess.
These things are so often only explicable in terms of personal issues.
I hate my family, therefore families must be destroyed
And then there are all the people who find adulthood just too difficult and stressful:
“I need a Big Brother State to take care of all my needs, relieve me of the need to think and make choices and decisions.”
It is completely unclear what could explain the mastectomy disparity.
… Superman movies … the Special Edition of the series… includes the screen tests … Stockard Channing … Ann Archer ….
How [smacking forehead] did I never even consider looking into the Special Edition! No big fan me of the Supe’s, but the first one was almost thoroughly entertaining, and a lot of real talent was sunk into the whole series. Those screen tests and other extras are calling me now.
One change the initial lockdowns in 2019 wrought in me, I started listening to director’s-commentary tracks on DVDs as I never did before. A few of them are interesting. Peter Berg’s are always good; best when he’s in conversation as with Duane Johnson on some South American rescue-adventure – title escapes me. And John Dahl on The Great Raid is superbly informative; fine movie too, and too-little known.
The great rare thing is a director’s commentary that goes far beyond inside-baseball and is worth the price of a ticket in its own right. One of the best is the Nelms brothers on Small Town Crime (also one of the best little movies of the decade). They’re joined by John Hawkes, star of the film, and Octavia Spencer who takes a small role and Executive-Produced. Conversation is lively, not just about filmmaking, and often funny.
My favorite, I think, is the Criterion release of Charade, with Stanley Donen and Peter Stone, director and screenwriter, whose doubles-act sounds perfectly spontaneous, and might even be.
[Tinkers with blogroll]
Tinker away. I’m bouncing with anticipation.
I like the new more prominent categories list — scrolling past and seeing the toes, giant vaginas, tree licking, and seemingly countless “problematic” matters, it’s a dose of instant nostalgia. Nostalgia for the present.
Tiresome narcissist is tiresome narcissist.
But when it’s so profitable, is it still narcissism? Conundrum.
I started listening to director’s-commentary tracks on DVDs as I never did before
One of the most interesting examples of this is, of all things, the commentary by Al Yankovic and the director and producer on the DVDs of his short-lived children’s TV show. It’s possibly the only place you’ll ever see (well, hear) Al Yankovich, as opposed to the “Weird Al” persona. And it’s full of fascinating stories about the bizarre hoops they had to jump through with CBS to get a children’s show on the air.
[ Tinkers with blogroll. ]
DOH! I was so used to the list of links that I completely missed the Blogroll link there on the side.
Thank you for that!! (I’d been sneaking off to the old site to peruse the links from there).
Wonder why Small Dead Animals is showing bad link – last I knew she was back up.
Wonder why Small Dead Animals is showing bad link – last I knew she was back up.
Just tried it. Works for me. I have experienced the odd “can’t connect to database” message, but it usually clears up fairly quickly.
Good to see you at your new home.
Feels wrong somehow, like being cheated on.
Eugenides, good Lord. How are you? Have a free bag of crisps.
Time warp. At the end of the comments the Previous link is shown as https://thompsonblog.co.uk/2022/11/and-who-are-we-today-2.html with a comment that has the date stamp November 20, 2022 10:04 am. It is listed in recent posts and recent posts but does not appear on the main page – yet – even after several page refreshes.
.
Feels wrong somehow, like being cheated on.
Sings: “If loving links is wrong, I don’t want to be right.”
But seriously, I don’t make use of the blogroll all that often, but I am very glad it is there.
Octavia Spencer
I was trying to remember where’d I’d first seen her and IMDB resolved it; she was in The Chronicle, a little-known, 22-episode comedy/SciFi show from 2001 that nobody seems to remember.
Good to see you at your new home.
Eugenides, good Lord. How are you? Have a free bag of crisps
And a drink! Or two! I used to visit your blog regularly, back in the day.
I think we should coax Eugenides back on the horse.
I think we should coax Eugenides back on the horse.
With special bar snacks?
Supplies are limited.
If that won’t bring him back for regular contributions, nothing will.
Stargazing…
<img src=”
“>(published Saturday <a href=”https://bookhaven.stanford.edu/“>here</a></img>
Stargazing…
I’d forgotten what music was on the Golden Record, although it was easy to assume that Bach and Mozart would be represented.
It’s vaguely troubling to think about how many years ago Voyager 1 was launched.