February rambling: Black Present

Sojourner Truth; Kyiv; Colorado isn’t a rectangle

Cosmic Perspective

Walking the World: Kyiv. In a beautiful no man’s land between Russia and the US

Tennessee Pastor Hosts Massive Book-Burning At His Church and McMinn County’s Maus Problem

Trump Makes It Clear He’d Be an Out and Out Dictator If Reelected in 2024

When the Dying COVID Patient Is 23

The New Orleans funeral reminds us that grief is a burden that can be shared

It’s Coming! The 1950 United States Federal Census. Share with family and friends and help ensure their family’s records are accurate and complete.

A Quarter of Children in US Lived With At Least One Foreign-Born Parent

What Kind of Writer Accuses Libraries of Stealing? A wrangle on the topic of Controlled Digital Lending.

Global Ranking of Free Wifi Hot Spots in 2022

Colorado is a rectangle? Think again.

Cartoon: candy polyamory

The secret MVP of sports? The port-a-potty

Mary Tyler Moore Show Reunion – Oprah 2008

Black History

The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) Black History Matters 2022 program

Building Albany’s Free Black Community in the Early 1800s

State Archives find historic court case of Sojourner Truth; Documents concerning Truth’s 1828 fight for her son

Tom Cotton Says Slavery Not About White Supremacy But Was A Necessary Evil

Reconstruction: Why Students Need to Learn and Teach the Truth

Rightwing Anti-CRT Network

Black Present

How Racism, Segregation, and Redlining Has Widened the Homeownership Gap

The possibility of first Black woman SCOTUS nominee prompts misogynoirist pushback

Black Health and Wellness

Understanding mental health issues among Black Teens

Cross-country exploration of Black history

Racism in the NFL

Breaking Boundaries in Black Tennis

Minor League Baseball adds to inclusion efforts with The Nine

Whoopi was Wrong and Wronged

Now I Know

A Different Type of Presidential Mudslinging and The Loch Ness Moose-ster? and The Very Long Novel That Saved a Man’s Sanity and The Green Vines Grow All Around

Music
control_group_2x
From https://xkcd.com/2576/ This is absolutely why I never learned the Macarena.

Mingus Ah Um album – Charles Mingus, plus a nice Howard Hesseman story

Music honoring and celebrating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Free Man In Paris – Peter Sprague with Pam Pendrell on vocals

Bylina by Vasily Kalinnikov

The Tango: Vaccine – Randy Rainbow

Mozart: Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola, and chamber orchestra, K. 364.

Bone Music: Forbidden Soviet Records Made From Used X-Ray Films

Meat Loaf – Coverville 1389: Tribute Mini-Episode and a Keef cartoon 

Nachtschwaermer by Carl Michael Ziehrer

K-Chuck Radio: Three songs with hidden curse words (that still get played on the radio)

How John Stamos Came to Record ‘Alone’ Before Heart Did

January rambling: Room at the Table

Writing While Black

sunshield_2x
From https://xkcd.com/2564/

The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer

Why the Tonga Eruption Was So Violent

A cold case team believes it has solved the mystery of who may have betrayed Anne Frank

One Year Later (Jan 6)

Writing While Black Under Scrutiny

Peter M. Pryor, the trailblazing Black civil rights lawyer, dies at 95

Hockey jersey is retired, 64 years after Willie O’Ree broke the NHL color barrier

Rachel Balkovec latest in a line of women shattering baseball’s barriers

Why Turkey Is Now Türkiye

How do you pronounce Kyiv, anyway? 

Service Providers: Are you Making This Big Sales Tax Mistake?

How Early Should You Get to the Airport, Really?

Can You Actually Work on Amtrak’s Free Wi-Fi?

54 years ago, a computer programmer fixed a massive bug — and created an existential crisis

A review of Pieced Together, the current exhibition at the Pine Hills Branch of the Albany Public Library,

Kelly’s Hawaiian adventures

Woody Allen’s ‘A Rainy Day In New York’ Secures Surprise Theatrical Release in China

Daniel Radcliffe to Play “Weird Al” Yankovic in Biopic

The 40th anniversary of Destroyer Duck, which I bought at the time

How Wordle Became The Internet’s Omicron Pastime

2021 Domain Insights and Trends

Flashlights 

Now I Know:  The Origins of the Football Huddle and When Fake Burps Have Real Consequences and  The Crime Tip from a Non-Tip at the Tip of the Nation and But The Cat Came Back and The “You Should Retire” Law of 1882

RIP

Louie Anderson, RIP. His first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 

Ralph Emery, Country Music Broadcaster, Dies at 88

Dwayne Hickman, Star of ‘The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis,’ Dies at 87

Howard Hesseman, Dr. Johnny Fever on ‘WKRP in Cincinnati,’ Dies at 81

Kay Olin Johnson, who has been actively involved with the Olin Family Society (my MIL’s lineage) forever, passed away 1/22, just a week after attending the latest OFS council meeting, which I attended. I was extremely fond of her. She was a remarkable lady who will be sorely missed. She was mentioned at least once in this blog, here

Betty White -This is Your Life (1987)

NY Governor Kathy Hochul announced flags on state buildings would be flown at half-staff in honor of fallen New York Police Officers Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora. Flags were to be lowered to half-staff at sunrise on Jan. 28, the day of Officer Rivera’s funeral service, and returned to full-staff at sunset on Feb. 2, following Officer Mora’s funeral service.

Virtual DC Feb 7 2022

COVID

Seriously, Upgrade Your Face Mask

The Biden admin has launched a phone line for Americans to order four free COVID  tests per household, expanding availability to Americans who may not have internet access: 1-800-232-0233.

Fear of COVID Is Keeping the Vaxxed Out of the Workforce

It is killing Trump supporters by the hundreds each day

MUSIC

Room at the Table – Carrie Newcomer 

Tonight You Belong To Me – MonaLisa Twins

Theatrical Rock and Meat Loaf

Dragons – Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors

The Family Madrigal – Stephanie Beatriz, Olga Merediz from Encanto 

Academic Festival Overture by Brahms

You Can Call Me Al – Peter Sprague

Coverville 1387: Cover Stories for Kings of Leon and Prefab Sprout and a Tribute to Ronnie Spector and 1388: The 30th Anniversary Tribute to Nevermind at #1

Take On Me – a-ha (MTV Unplugged, 2017)

Bad Wolves – Rebecca Jade featuring Jason Mraz, Miki Vale, and Veronica May was Song Of The Year at the San Diego Music Awards

Sedition – Randy Rainbow (2021)

Abhor-Rent: 525,600 Minutes Since The Insurrection from
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Death Don’t Have No Mercy – Grateful Dead

Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon – Audiobook by Malcolm Gladwell (Chapter 1 – The Mystery)

January rambling: The lips move, but not much else

Put Down the Duckie

climbing-helmets-486644_1280Agreeing with Karl Rove

Rep. Jamie Raskin On Surviving A Double Blow of Tragedy and Finding the Strength to Lead

The “Gaslighting” of Jan. 6: TV News Grapples With Capitol Riot a Year Later

Examining mental health issues among black men – A Guide To Freedom

Letting Go: Wisdom From Our Grief

The quits rate, the percentage of resignations relative to total employment is the highest on record

How to help you stop being so late (or at least make you more honest about it)

Lowell, MA Mayor Sokhary Chau is the first Cambodian American mayor in the nation

Groundbreaking of the Maternal Center of Excellence in Kono, Sierra Leone

Should We Ban Jingle Bells?

MCU’s Hawkeye and a Theology of Disability

Dick Cavett interviewing Mel Brooks. The Bill Cullen story

The NYS Thruway, c 1951

How to Rescue Your  Photos From an Old Computer

Synchro-Vox: The lips move, but not much else. (Think of Clutch Cargo)

Now I Know:  How to Lick a Killer Serve and Profit That’s Easy as Pie and  Frosty, The Snowman Reaction and Mr. Bubble, Pink Super Hero and
 The Stinging Feeling of Expertise e

Obits

John Madden Honored Across the NFL on First Sunday After His Death. I really knew that the player/coach/broadcaster with 16 Emmys/video game consultant was significant when my wife, who does not follow football, wanted to watch the special about Madden, which first aired only three days before his unexpected death.

Peter Bogdanovich, Oscar-Nominated Director, Dies at 82 (The Last Picture Show, What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon)

Trailblazing feminist author, critic, and activist bell hooks has died at 69

Harry Reid remembered as a fighter, skilled Senate dealmaker

Remembering Franklin Thomas, the first Black foundation president in America

The US’s oldest surviving WWII Vet, Lawrence Brooks, has died at 112

Dwayne Hickman, Star of ‘The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,’ Dies at 87

Bob Saget Dies at 65. I didn’t watch Full House or AFV, but I’m taken how well-respected he was by other performers.

Ronnie Spector of the Ronettes died at age 78

Laura Curtis, the MIL of my eldest niece, died. I have only one memory of her, which is here 

Virtual DC Feb 7 2022

Language

From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words

Graminovore – An animal that feeds on grass
Granivore – An animal that feeds on grain and seeds

Ecdysiast is a fancy word for stripper

Either or neither of three?

Inspired by Roger Owen Green

Ask Arthur Anything: To blog, or not to blog and Biblical endings and me and NZ seriousness, me, and fun

To love the Three Stooges is to love America.

MUSIC

Move On – Bernadette Peters from Sunday in the Park With George.

Sondheim medley in a roadside diner – Carol Burnett, Tony Roberts, and Bernadette Peters

The 2021 (reduced) mashups 

Coverville: 1384 and 1385: The 2021 Coverville countdown. 1386: The David Bowie 75th Birthday Cover Story

Put Down The Duckie – Sesame Street

The Trolley Song – Voctave

Franklin Shepard Inc. from Merrily We Roll Along, London 2013

I Liked Me Better -Lauv

Catch Us If You Can – The Jalopy Five

At This Performance – Christine Pedi as Liza Minelli

Musicians who passed in 2021, Part One and Part Two

Nov. rambling: down the rabbit hole

ancient board games

too-on-point
From https://wronghands1.com/2021/11/12/too-on-point/

Does the red pill have an antidote? Why do previously reasonable people go down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories, and what can be done to bring them back?

The vaccine tore her family apart. Could a death bring them back together?

Pharmaceutical messianism and the COVID-19 pandemic

Why WHO skipped ‘nu,’ ‘xi’ for the new COVID variant, omicron

Trump believed his press secretary when she told him he’d win ‘because’ of COVID

Nations Fiddle While the Earth Burns (and Floods)

Time’s Up– IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD, AND WE KNOW IT

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver – Union Busting and The Power Grid 

 Wealthy Americans get paid leave. Shouldn’t the rest?

The scary rise of private intelligence companies 

What your smart devices know (and share) about you

 Public-Private Partnerships Are Quietly Hollowing Out Our Public Libraries 

Parents are scrambling after schools suddenly cancel class over staffing and burnout. (It’s happened at least twice in Albany this fall.)

To Catch a Turtle Thief: Blowing the Lid Off an International Smuggling Operation

An Extraordinary 500-Year-Old Shipwreck Is Rewriting the History of the Age of Discovery

Land Back and The Third Reconstruction: A Truth Commission with the Shinnecock Nation 

Can a Doughnut Heal Our World?

Culture

etymologyAn Indigenous chef is putting her heritage on the menu with landmark restaurant 

French dictionary adds non-binary pronoun

Sesame Street debuts Asian-American muppet

Lee Elder, first Black golfer to play in Masters, dies at age 87

How to wake up early, even if you’re not a morning person

The link to Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library book talks 

Some People Can Literally See Time 

Your 2 Step Guide To Creating Mindfulness Gratitude Practice

Ancient Board Games, even more ancient than I am

Ken Levine’s 250th podcast: For Those Who Love Lucy

David Brickman and Stanley Tucci are not the same person

RIP, laugh track 

The Love Boat video shows every single guest in alphabetical order.

Now I Know:  What Does the Fox Spray? and How Ben Franklin Killed the Competition and The Boy Who Shared His Wish and  The Somewhat-Fake Sausage That Saved Lives

Heart-pulling Christmas commercials

MUSIC

How Great Thou Art, performed by Carla Fisk

A Pile Of Dust – Voces8

Fanny Mendelssohn 

Peter Sprague Plays Miles Davis

Romanian Rhapsody #2 by Georges Enescu

Come A Little Bit Closer – Jay and the Americans

Barnyard Boogie – From Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie: Starring Indigo Blume

Overture to Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin

Future Past (Visualizer) – Duran Duran

Symphony No. 3 by Aram Khachaturian

J. Eric Smith: Be Thankful for What You’ve Got

Latke Recipe – the Maccabeats

Coverville 1379: Cover Stories for Lorde and Taylor (Swift) and 1380: Covering the 2021 Inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft – Carpenters

Nov. rambling: systemic oppression

Rebecca Jade touring with Dave Koz!

 

Big Bird immunization 1976
July 1976

Scientific American: People Who Jump to Conclusions Show Other Kinds of Thinking Errors; Belief in conspiracy theories and overconfidence are two tendencies linked to hasty thinking

Homelessness: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Data Debunks Insidious Myths About Immigration

Freedom Isn’t What It Used To Be

In Re-Analysis, Ivermectin Benefits Disappeared as Trial Quality Increased; Andrew Hill, Ph.D., received death threats

Fox News host who told the audience to get COVID vaccine reads hate mail on the air

Ted Cruz Criticizes Big Bird for Getting Vaccinated and Satire from The Borowitz Report: Oscar the Grouch Cuts Ties with Ted Cruz

The high cost of living in a disabling world

A Brief Overview Of Systemic Oppression – Lynae Vanee

Ahmaud Arbery suspects’ trial defense taps a racist legal legacy

Ed Gainey, who will be Pittsburgh’s first Black mayor and Aftab Purevale, picked as Cincinnati’s first Asian mayor, and Michelle Wu, Boston’s first woman and first person of color elected mayor

Requirements for travel into the U.S.

The Greatest Unsolved Heist in Irish History

A spite fence in Virginia Beach

Walking America part 5: Breezewood

Balance

Self-compassion can help build a more balanced, healthy perspective

Mispronunciation: why you should stop correcting people’s mistakes

How To Get Rid of Lots of Old Books

Now I Know: The Luggage Loophole That Isn’t and How to Brew an Economy and  The Swampy Loophole in the Georgia Constitution and The Costume That Was a Trick and The Odd Depths of Preserving Plutonium

Hiker lost for 24 hours ignored calls from rescuers because of an unknown number

Why Avocados Still Exist

Forbidden love.  A new comic strip, about corn. Sort of.

We fed the hungry with ONLY 7-Eleven Rewards points.

R.I.P.

Aaron Feuerstein, known for paying Malden Mills workers even after the factory burned down, has died at 95

The Rise and Fall of Mort Sahl, the Comedian Who Revolutionized Stand-Up

Former VA administrator and US Senator (D-GA) Max Cleland died at home. A savage political attack suggesting that he was “soft on the war on terror” caused him to lose his Senate seat in 2002. A  live grenade dropped by a fellow soldier in Vietnam had robbed him of three limbs.

I neglected to acknowledge the death of Diane Westwell, one of our loyal ABC Wednesday contributors, on 20 September 2021. She was a very sweet person.

Greg Hatcher, a founder of Atomic Junk Shop and Brianna’s Nerd-Dad has  died

The Weirdest Way The Earth Can Kill You

MUSIC

Nightbirde Sings Psalm 88

Music from The Lord Of The Rings, arranged for solo piano by Leiki Ueda

Coverville 1377: The Beastie Boys and Beasties Episode and 1378: Led Zeppelin IV: 50th Anniversary Album Cover to Cover

The Mighty Rio Grande – This Will Destroy You from the movie Moneyball.

The Ghost Rejoins The Living – Freezepop

 Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead

Sara Lee – Liza Minelli

While You Wait For The Others – Grizzly Bear

I’m Looking Through You – MonaLisa Twins

When “Man of 10,000 Sound Effects” Blew The Audience Away With His Voice Guitar

Mozart Doesn’t Make You Smarter

Paul McCartney re: You Gave Me The Answer – ‘The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present’

Dave Koz and Friends Christmas Tour 2021 with Richard Elliot, Rick Braun, Jonathan Butler, and Rebecca Jade!

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