Friday Ephemera (655)

Nativity scene: lots of people are confused.

And then there are the people who decorate a tree with Star Trek and Star Wars figurines…

Another variety of derangement.

It’s not derangement if it’s what you can get sufficiently large numbers of people to loudly and proudly proclaim as the truth. For instance, were you to say that George Zimmerman did nothing wrong, that Trump did NOT tell people to drink bleach, that George Floyd died mostly due to the drugs in his system and that it is virtually impossible to kill an otherwise healthy 40 something male by putting you knee on his neck…the back of his neck not his throat, without breaking his neck, well I got news for you sunshine…you’re the one who is deranged. Ask me how I know.

Sadly, there were times in my childhood when Mom served instant mashed potatoes made with powdered milk. At least she finally learned that one had to add the meat to the hamburger helper.

…exasperated German army officer…

The whole joke:

Soviets (often attributed to Zhukov): “One of the serious problems in planning against American doctrine is that the Americans do not read their manuals nor do they feel any obligation to follow their doctrine.”

Nazis: “The reason that the American army does so well in wartime, is that war is chaos and the American army practices chaos on a daily basis.”

Americans: “If we don’t know what we are doing, the enemy certainly can’t anticipate our future actions.”

When I was a young kid, there was a house which always displayed “Bah Humbug” in the windows. But demands for the abolition of Christmas on grounds of “inclusion” were very rare.

And they were a god-send to Mom who sometimes did not have enough time to make everything from scratch.

I don’t hold it against Mom: Time was in short supply. Raising kids was a job in itself, but she was also a part-time artist and she worked a part-time job until we all reached fifth grade. So she experimented now and then with time-saving foods but abandoned anything that didn’t work out satisfactorily.

Speculations about the letter writer…

The telling thing is that, aside from no return address, that it is just addressed to “Neighbor” which means:

a) The writer doesn’t even know zer neighbor’s name;
b) The writer does know fae’s neighbor’s name but using it would give away who per was;
c) It was sent to everyone in the hood with lights;
d) a and c;
e) b and c;
f) all of the above.

the US military practiced total information for its units. Going into D-Day, the entire unit knew the maps, the mission, so if officers were killed they could carry on. The emphasis on the mission instead of the hierarchy meant that flexibility was high. German and Japanese military were very top-down. If officers were killed, often a unit would just stay put.

And yet as I recall the German military was noted for training all troops for greater initiative and flexibility than most other armies. Which tells us something about the prevailing military cultures of the time, I suppose.

There are a number of examples on this blog of institutions which no longer believe in themselves – architects who loathe buildings; historians who dislike history; librarians who hate books. Here’s the latest, a museum which is currently in the process of abolishing itself:

https://twitter.com/ExploreWellcome/status/1596091202381975552

But demands for the abolition of Christmas on grounds of “inclusion” were very rare.

‘Inclusion’ involves an inordinate amount of exclusion.

Speculations about the letter writer’s religion or lack of religion are welcome.

Nice-looking street in an 85% white town in Minnesota. The tone of a white lady enforcer of Current Year morality (“close the taverns” in the 1920’s, “in this house we believe” in the 2020’s). The prose of an earnest high school essay. Tracy Flick type, with a mother/teacher in the background giving moral reinforcement/extra credit.

Nil Nil. As you were.

A good example of why high level soccer has had a hard time catching on here in the colonies. I was flipping channels last night and paused at the England – USA game for a bit. I was unsurprised to see that there was no score at the 50-something minute mark and that the players seemed to be spending more time kicking the ball backwards than toward the opposing goals. Then I flipped to a hockey game that happened to be playing at the same time (Tampa Bay vs. St. Louis). My wife asked, “Why do you like hockey better than soccer? They seem pretty similar to me.” Well, yes and no. They’re both played on a rectangular layout with goals and goaltenders at each end . . . but let’s look at the stats. In the England – USA game there were 18 total shots (both teams) in 90 minutes. That’s an average of one shot — which may or may not have gone anywhere near the goal — every 5 minutes. Total shots on target: 4. One every 22+ minutes. By contrast, there were 54 total shots on goal in the 60-minute hockey game; I don’t think they bother to keep track of shots that are blocked or aren’t aimed at the goal.

So it’s not just all the nil-nil ties that turn me off to soccer; it’s that for most of the time nothing seems to be happening. Of course one hears similar complaints (justified, in my opinion) about games like baseball, but at least MLB makes periodic rule changes to try to do something about it. No so in soccer, so far as I can tell.

Intersectionality & grievances: there is an infinitely long history of races/tribes/groups slaughtering each other. This includes many genocides even in the past 50 yrs (Rwanda, Cambodia killing fields, China under Mao). Encouraging and stirring up racial animus is a very dangerous game. Why white people would encourage hatred of whites escapes me.

Sports: I think the soccer net needs to be larger. A score of 1-0 does not even show who is the better team–it is just chance. Some football games are that low scoring too.

Rome: no material culture? has she not driven around Italy? Even in Israel there are so many roman columns sticking out of the coastal dunes that they don’t even bother excavating them. The byzantines considered themselves part of Rome, the remnants of the empire. Our language is full of Latin–all medical and legal terminology is Latin. Scientific names: Latin. Oh, and because Latin survived, we have detailed history and all of Rome: Cicero, Pliny, biographies, poetry, accounts of wars. What a maroon.

Choose the form of your destructor.

I wonder if she voted for the people who made this mess

Irish Performance Studies??? No question.

The purpose of education.

Ms O’Toole has been mentioned here before:

Oh my God, that thread… Whatever happened to Minnow? 😀

Irish Performance Studies???

Jedward 1.01?