Coverville Archives - Page 9 of 30

June rambling: a blow to the head

How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax.

Future-proofing the presidency. How to thwart the next American tyrant.

Trump’s Next Coup.

Chicago’s predictive policing program told a man he would be involved with a shooting.

Far-Right Gang Killed Cop In Plot To Blame 2020 Protest Violence On ‘Leftists’.

Hatred lives in a Nashville millinery shop.

NEJM: Dilemmas of Double Consciousness — On Being Black in Medicine.

John Oliver: Asian Americans.

The Mogul and the Monster. Jeffrey Epstein’s longstanding business ties with his most prominent client, billionaire retail magnate Leslie Wexner. hold the key.

What happens if the U.S. can’t reach herd immunity.

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”
– Anne Lamott

Solidarity

Even though most establishments no longer require mask wearing for the fully vaccinated – and I am – I’ve opted to wear a mask indoors for the nonce. This is in support of the store workers, most of whom are still required to mask up.

Signs Of a Toxic Work Culture—And How To Correct Them.

Remote Workers Could Quit When Asked to Return to the Office.

Best Websites to Help Kids Learn From Home in 2021.

Amy Biancolli: lessons from a blow to the head.

7 VA Loan Tips for Veterans, Service Members, and Military Spouses.

Homeless Oaklanders were tired of the housing crisis. So they built a ‘miracle’ village.

How to Be Sustainable in College: 18 Green Tips for Students.

Eric Carle didn’t want his hungry caterpillar to get a stomach ache.

When I heard that F. Lee Bailey, the “high-flying defense attorney” had died, the first person I told was Paul Rapp. Seriously.

Larry Gelman, R.I.P.

Jack Parker White (1931-2021). He was the husband of my wife’s cousin Diane, who I’d see almost every year at the Olin family reunion near Binghamton. He, my late FIL Richard, and I would test each other over baseball statistics.

Speaking of baseball, Ken Levine on how he’d fix MLB. I agree with most of these, especially getting rid of the abomination of “the stupid extra-inning rule where a runner starts at second base.” But the shift, and fouling off ideas I wouldn’t change.

How ‘One Hundred and One Dalmatians’ Saved Disney.

Sister Cindy Is a TikTok Star. “Some of those who turn out to see her [said] they question whether her internet celebrity status is deserved.” Is “internet celebrity status” deserved?

Johnny Carson as Reagan, a “Who’s On First” spoof.

15 Clichés To Avoid With a Ten-Foot Pole.

Now I Know: The Buses That Make a Bee Line and The Tribe With the DIY Spies and Evolution, Eyebrows, and the Pets We Love and The Kids Are All Right and Why The NYC Police Darkened Their Blues and Refrigerators that Ribbit?

MUSIC

Nite Ride and Sunrise by Jean Sibelius.

You Really Got Me – MonaLisa Twins.

The Last of England by Nikolas Labrinakos.

In Her Family – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade.

Black Dog – Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.

Coverville 1359: The Bob Dylan Cover Story VIII and 1360: Cover Stories for Psychedelic Furs, Keane and the Four Tops.

Tiny Dancer – Elton John.

May rambling: food and death

100 years since Tulsa, and one since George Floyd

vaccinated_2x — From https://xkcd.com/2460/

I’ve been thinking a lot about food and death. NOT death caused by food poisoning.

At my FIL’s funeral this month, someone told a story about how my parents-in-law met. They were both students at what is now UAlbany. She was a food server, he made deliveries of supplies. He came into the dining area, just as she was about to eat her fried egg sandwich. Instead, she offered it to him.

The next week, they went to the movies together. They lived happily for many years. It is a sweet story, but the telling was incomplete. The kicker is that he HATED fried egg sandwiches, but he ate it anyway.

My wife has discovered there were foods that were always in her parents’ house. One staple was spaghetti and meatballs. As it turns out, she HATES spaghetti and meatballs, but he liked them, so she served them. Now my wife has stopped buying them for her.

Arthur tells of taste obsessions and his late husband Nigel.

Some links

Generally, I have no energy for the Big Lie believers or the January 6 deniers who say those insurrectionists were tourists, blocking an investigation. But if Chuck wants to rant about Marjorie Taylor Greene – she’s beyond reprehensible.

Why Liz Cheney Matters.

We’ll Never Stop Trying to Cut Taxes for the Rich, Republicans Warn.

John Oliver: Stand Your Ground gun laws “exalt a white person’s fear over a black person’s life.” Also, sponsored product on the local news broadcasts.

I, too, rage America.

Avoiding Overtaxing Minorities When We Need Them Most.

100 Years: Remembering the Tulsa Race Massacre, which I wrote about here.

What to make of Israel/Palestine?

Wage theft is a huge problem that requires a creative solution.

Restaurant Workers Say They Won’t Return to Work Without a Living Wage.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.
– Jack Kornfield

And more

Working 55 hours a week can be deadly.

The Problem With Bitcoin.

Comics writer and journalist David Anthony Kraft passed away.

In honor of Ms. Ruby Hughes.

Adam Ragusea on converting recipes in liters and milliliters to pounds and ounces, and Vidalia Onions.

It’s going to rain. Can you smell it?

How to Conduct an Address Search to Access Data for your Location. Census Reporter is an option to find your block group, state and Congressional districts, and more.

Why you need to have your ancestor’s New York death certificate.

The filing cabinet was critical to the information infrastructure of the 20th-century.

Are you getting robocalls purportedly – and clearly not – from the Social Security Administration saying your number has been compromised? I’ve gotten a few dozen on my landline and my cell this year, from several area codes, mostly the 30-second version. Annoying, but also really pathetic.

Now I Know: The Forest Man of India and How Elephants Communicate From Miles Away and The Circle of Life and The Secret Ingredient is Curiosity and The Reason Florida Disavowed Space Oranges.

Music

Spring Ain’t Here – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade.

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – Afro Fiesta feat. Twanguero and I-Taweh.

Main themes from Laputa: Castle in the Sky – Joe Hisaishi.

Coverville 1358: Cover Stories for Dave Mason, Donovan, and Graham Gouldman.

Danse slav from the opera The Reluctant King by Emmanuel Chabrier.

We Love the Drums – Peter Sprague, featuring Duncan Moore.

I Fought the Law – Bobby Fuller Four.

The Hamilton Polka – “Weird Al” Yankovic.

May rambling: Goblet of Empathy

Digital divide, and the home appraisal gap

vaccine_guidance — From https://xkcd.com/2434/

“Police are investigating a threat of violence directed at a local cocktail lounge after its owner announced that he will require proof of coronavirus vaccination before admitting patrons when the bar reopens next weekend. Matt Baumgartner said that in less than four hours Thursday afternoon he received more than 100 messages via phone, email, and social media, nearly all sharply critical of the stance. Some threatened boycotts, others vandalism, and one threatened violence. ”

I’d be MORE inclined to go there myself. Boycott if they want, but why are some people threatening his right to run his business as he pleases?

Mitch McConnell admits he is fully committed to blocking everything. He said the same thing in 2010.

Biden’s Great Economic Rebalancing.

The Reagan Era is Finally Over.

Anti-Black Police Violence Constitutes Crimes Against Humanity and They Were Sons.

11 Moments From Asian American History That You Should Know.

Gallup: Does Capitalism Need a Soul Transplant?

Red States Crack Down on Protests.

Tucker Carlson Is Emblematic of Today’s Republican Party.

The Baby Bump That Wasn’t.

Marital Histories Differ Between Native-Born and Foreign-Born Adults.

You Won’t Need a Real ID Until 2023.

Why Going to the Doctor Sucks.

I’m good with an Excelsior Wallet, proof of having been vaccinated against COVID-19.

Chart from the CDC: Choosing Safer Activities.

What is the digital divide?

How the home appraisal gap makes homeownership more difficult and costly for Black families.

Aaron Mair: The Problem With Climate Havens.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.
-Henry David Thoreau

Disney Must Pay!

Living With the Sackler Name.

Hair: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

‘Street Gang’ Director Marilyn Agrelo On All The Secrets She Learned About Sesame Street.

Olympia Dukakis, Academy Award-winning actress, dies at 89.

How My Ex-Husband Became One of My Best Friends.

And more

Beavers Wipe Out Town’s Internet.

Did This Man Have the Longest Name of the 20th Century?

LEGOLAND NY prepares to open.

Belgian farmer accidentally moves French border.

Not me: “They (People in low vaccinated areas) felt they were being overlooked and neglected,” said Roger Green Sr., the pastor at Mt. Zion. “What we have done is brought it to their front door.”.

Not me: Kent tokens dropped by traders fleeing the Great Fire of London could fetch thousands. Roger Green, who is originally from Kent, spent 35 years collecting the tokens along the muddy banks of the River Thames.

Now I Know: The Trees That Rock and When Foxes Flew (Against Their Will) and Four Weddings and Divorce or Three and The Road Repair That Broke Science and Harvard Versus Hard Knocks and The Other Side of Midnight and More Accurately, He Was The Hamburglar and There’s No Such Thing As a Lot of Free Pennies and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Empathy.

Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like ‘struggle.’
Fred Rogers

MUSIC

Take a minute to listen to Prelude No. 16 in B-flat minor, opus 28, for solo piano by Chopin.

Clang, Clang, Clang Went Josh Hawley! – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody.

Iko Iko – Song Around the World.

It’s For You – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade.

We Need To Get Past Covid – Shelly Goldstein.

Rob Roy Overture by Hector Berlioz.

LOUBOUTINS 2.0 – Aubrey Logan.

R.I.P., Jim Steinman.

It’s All Coming Back To Me Now – Celine Dion.

So This Is Love – Peter Sprague, featuring Sinne Eeg.

I Love NY medley.

Our Town suite by Aaron Copland.

For Good – Chenowith, and Menzel.

Coverville 1357: Cover Stories for Lesley Gore and Robert Johnson.

Both Sides Now – the MonaLisa Twins.

Willie Nelson.

Jeepers Creepers – Julian Neel.

Many more Flintstones versions

The women of jazz fought racism and sexism to open doors for their sisters.

Roberta Flack – her musical gift to us has spanned more than 5 decades.

Songs that use augmented chords.

April rambling: the automatic runner

Mandela’s Blues

Bonhoeffer musing on Who am I?

Bankruptcy: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

The Unbelievable Story of Europe’s Runaway Nazi.

Planned Parenthood: We’re Done Making Excuses for Our Founder.

“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”
– James Baldwin, “Letter From a Region in My Mind” essay

The anti-trans distraction.

American Library Association: books with antiracist messages climbed the list of most challenged or banned titles in 2020.

These inventors don’t get the credit they deserve.

Weekends In Space.

Best history podcasts: 14 shows that tell you forgotten stories.

Remembering Walter Mondale.

Gender reveal party death toll mounts, people ask Why?

Prince Philip’s Fascinating Family: A Russian Tsarina, A Greek Orthodox Nun, a Banished King, and More.

Make To Don’t Lists.

New JEOPARDY guest hosts announced! LeVar Burton, George Stephanopoulos, Robin Roberts, David Faber, and Joe Buck.

Theology in the DCU and MU.

Now I Know: The Picture of Abraham Lincoln’s Fake Ghost and The Birthday Problem and When Stalin’s Grapes Went
Sour and The First Boycott and Mussels and When Baseball Went to Pot.

Not me: Four Mustangs caught going more than double the speed limit in Surrey. “High-risk driving behaviour… is one of the leading causes of collisions in BC,” said Sergeant Roger Green of the service’s Community Response Unit.

Not me: Immigrants in Greece who can’t book Covid jabs. Roger Green, a British writer who has lived on the island since the early ’90s, says some are afraid to leave their homes.

SPORTS

MLB’s extra-innings rule is back in 2021; here’s why baseball should use
ties instead. “Each half-inning beyond the ninth — i.e., extra innings — in Major League Baseball now begins with a runner on second base and no outs.” The automatic runner rule is dreadful, a baseball abomination,IMO.

Why Home Runs Are Bad for Baseball.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) in Kansas City is a “privately funded, not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African-American baseball and its profound impact on the social advancement of America.”

Pitcher Hope Trautwein Throws A Perfect Game Of All Strikeouts

Mulligan? Golfers consult rule book after ball lands on alligator’s back

MUSIC

Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect Peace by S.S. Wesley (Isaiah 26:3).

Mandela’s Blues -Kinky Friedman.

Wichita Lineman – Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade.

Solfeggio by Arvo Part, San Diego Master Chorale.

A Rainbow in Curved Air – Terry Riley.

I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo – Glenn Miller band with Tex Beneke and the dancing of the Nicholas Brothers (1942 movie “Orchestra Wives”).

Music for Percussion Quartet – David Crowell, plus Music for Pieces of Wood, by Steve Reich.

Coverville 1355 : The Roy Orbison Cover Story III and 1356: Tribute to Jim Steinman and 50th Anniversary of The Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers.

The Swan of Tuonela by Sibelius.

Flintstones theme: Jazz Ambassadors, Barney Kessel and Herb Ellis, Hungarian Border Guard Orchestra, FMU Jazz Ensemble, Bjørn Jørgensen
and his Big Band, Jacob Collier, Postmodern Jukebox, The CompanY, and Vinheteiro.

Robert Schumann’s Traumerai. You KNOW this tune!

April rambling: agathokakological

Don’t laminate your vaccine card.

Tax day moved to May 17. Procrastinators, rejoice!

All That We’ve Lost.

Here are a couple of articles from Slate and Afar about vaccination cards – don’t laminate them because you may need to record a booster shot. But if you already did, don’t sweat it. And the vaccine passport in the United States is a definite maybe kind of thing.

COVID vaccine in New Zealand.

Calling Chauvin a “Bad Apple” Denies Systemic Nature of Racist Police Violence.

Cartoon: God-Man trumpets his response to mass shootings!

‘Is This Patriot Enough?’: Asian American Official Shows Military Scars, Condemns Racist Violence.

Matt Gaetz, Now Under DOJ Investigation, Was Lone Vote Against Human Trafficking Bill in 2017

Doctor Fentanyl.

Tucker Carlson and national debt: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

The Science of Loneliness.

Exhausted Workers Want More Flexibility.

French police are investigating an international Lego crime ring.

Countdown to the 1950 Census release.

Administrative Records and the 2020 Census.

NYC surgeons successfully performed the first windpipe transplant in the world.

7% of Americans don’t use the Internet. Who are they?

Dear WordPress: Really? REALLY?

John Burnside · Poem: ‘The Night Ferry’

Joye Murcison Kelly, R.I.P. Early, uncredited Wonder Woman scribe.

Triple stumper question on JEOPARDY!

Agatha

My paternal grandmother was named Agatha. The definition of agathokakological is “Made up of both good and evil.” I thought she was pretty good, myself. The word is from the Greek agathos (good) + kakos (bad), which proves my point.

How breakfast cereal was invented.

A stone and wood Dutch colonial is said to be the oldest house in New York.

Can Frasier afford his apartment?

Now I Know: The Loophole With Two Wheels and Supercalifragilisticexpialilawsuit and The Wild Deuce and Alaska’s Super Hero Dogs and Save Your Bread When Going on Vacation.

The Beatles: Get Back – A Sneak Peek from Peter Jackson.

Conversation between Adam Guettel and Stephen Sondheim.

MUSIC

Music for the Soul: An Evening with Rebecca Jade, February 23, 2021.

Ted and Lindsey – Randy Rainbow.

The Observatory – Caroline Shaw.

Piano Quintet in G minor – Bruch. Novacek/Yoo/Haas/Banaszek/deMaine | Festival Mozaic 2018.

Flintstone themes: first one and the second one.

The Cider House Rules – Rachel Portman.

Road Runner Show theme.

Six Japanese Gardens, for mixed percussion and electronics, written by Finnish composer Kaija Saarioho.

Sunshine Superman – MonaLisa Twins.

Overture 1812 – Tchaikovsky.

Coverville 1352: Lady Gaga Cover Story and 1353: The Ronnie Lane Cover Story II and 1354: The Al Green Cover Story II – Also, Thumbs!

Creation du Monde – Vangelis.

The Rubberband Man (album version) -The Spinners.

Ain’t No Sunshine – Canen.

Prejudice – Tim Minchin.