November rambling: Unmade beds

The Wonder of Stevie

Unmade beds and overdue books: Photographing the rooms of kids killed in school shootings

Preserving Culture Before It’s Lost Forever

Wildfires come for the Northeast.

TikTok Ban: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

A promising new treatment for PTSD

Remembering Ted Olson, a titan of the law

Civil War Toll Much Worse in Confederate States, New Estimates Show. An analysis of newly released 19th-century census records offers more insight into the conflict’s costs.

Census Bureau Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Updates to the Census Bureau’s Race/Ethnicity Code List

Genealogy: 8 Census Records That Hide Extra Information in Plain Sight

Share of U.S. Coupled Households With Children Declined in 2023

U.S. Volunteerism Rebounding After COVID-19 Pandemic

100 Notable Books of 2024

The New York State Education Department has released data showing outcomes from New York’s 2024 state assessment tests, taken by students in grades 3 to 8 last spring.

Psalms 3:16: The Photo

What Kind of Crier Are You?

Follow These Do’s and Don’ts of the Apostrophe

Spring Training Countdown

A series about Western Publishing and Gold Key Comics

What Happened to the Celebrity Telethon?

Jim Abrahams, ‘Airplane!,’ ‘Naked Gun’ and ‘Hot Shots!’ Master of Mirth, Dies at 80

Chuck Woolery, Host of ‘Wheel of Fortune’ and ‘Love Connection,’ Dies at 83

If your dead wife tells you to give all your property to a medium, perhaps get a second opinion.
Now I Know: Grace and Typos (I TOTALLY relate!) and The Farmer Strikes Back and The Great Geraint Woolford Coincidence and The Mystery of the Third Shaker and The Historic Connection Between TV Dinners and Diarrhea?
Kolosocracy

Kakistocracy and Kolosocracy

Expert agencies and elected legislatures. Legislatures are entitled to their own (political) opinions but not their own facts.

Top djt picks have ties to Project 2025

What to Know About Jay Bhattacharya, djt’s Potential NIH Pick— Stanford professor is most closely associated with the Great Barrington Declaration

What to know about AG pick Pam Bondi

Caligula’s Horse and Other Controversial Appointments (RIP, the Matt Gaetz choice)

Harris lost the war of “ambient information.”

The Congressional Penis Crisis

The far right grows through “disaster fantasies”

Populism, Media Revolutions, and Our Terrible Moment

How to Block djt From All Your Screens: A Guide

How to Delete an X (Formerly Twitter) Account Permanently

Four-Year Cruise Offered to Unhappy Voters Who Want to ‘Escape’

Babel

“The story of Babel is the best metaphor I have found for what happened to America in the 2010s, and for the fractured country we now inhabit,” writes social psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his 2022 essay for The Atlantic. [paywall] “Trump did not destroy the tower; he merely exploited its fall. He was the first politician to master the new dynamics of the post-Babel era, in which outrage is the key to virality, stage performance crushes competence, Twitter can overpower all the newspapers in the country, and stories cannot be shared (or at least trusted) across more than a few adjacent fragments—so truth cannot achieve widespread adherence.”

Haidt explains how social media, once widely viewed as a boon for democracy, devolved to a force that has exacerbated the dysfunction of American politics—and suggests three reforms that can help democracy remain viable in the digital age.

MUSIC

 

Young Lion – Sade Adu

Dance With Everybody – Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors

Coverville 1511: The Tim Rice Cover Story and 1512: The Bruce Hornsby Cover Story

Naturally Stoned – The Avant-Garde, written by group member Chuck Woolery, #40 pop in 1968

Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 in C Major, K. 551, sometimes called the “Jupiter”.

Graucha Max– DARKSIDE

K-Chuck Radio: Someone’s Covering the Will-O-Bees

Vocalise by Rachmaninoff

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Joy Division, New Order and Killdozer

Fist City– Loretta Lynn

Time After Time – Hiroshi Yoshimura 

Gemini – Haley Heynderickx

Bethlehem (Glimpse) – Laraaji

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go – Wham!

Open Flair Gänsekapelle

The Wonder of Stevie is a new limited podcast series.

October rambling: tax billionaires

everythingistb.com

State Street in ALB between Lark and Willett, 20 Oct 2024

Of course, we can tax billionaires. They disguise their demands (“don’t tax billionaires”) as observations (“it is technically impossible to tax billionaires”).

Find Out Who Funds Political Action Committees

Six Lies Elon Musk Believed (in a 24-hour period)

‘Serious Risk’ of Vital Ocean Current Collapse by 2100, Warn Scientists

One in three tree species at risk of extinction: report

Mifepristone, round 2

Order Your 4 Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests: Every U.S. household is eligible to order 4 free at-home tests.

Traffic Stops: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Will Arthur’s ballot be counted?

Democracy Succumbs in Silence

The Trouble With Tradwives. TikTok’s old-school housewives paint a rosy picture of their lives. Ex-tradwives and Influencer moms tell a vastly different story.

The US Copyright Office Frees the McFlurry

City On Fire: The night during the Civil War that violent anti-government conspirators sowed chaos in the heart of Manhattan.

The game
Wordle 1,214 was the third-hardest ever and the hardest for two years, and people are angry—here’s why. (I got a 6.)
Why Not Shake Up the Olympics?

Field of Dreams: Sometimes Myth and Reality Coincide

Obituary: pitcher Luis Tiant (1940-2024)

Trailblazing pitcher Fernando Valenzuela passes away at 63

Teri Garr died at 79. I saw her in Tootsie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Oh God! and many TV appearances. Oh, and Young Frankenstein (1974) – Put the candle back!

Singer Jack Jones, RIP

Ron Ely, RIP

Tim Urban: Why I Brought My Toddler to Watch SpaceX’s Flying Skyscraper. I can’t shield my daughter from negativity. But I can continually redirect her attention to the rocket—showing her all the ways our species is incredible.

John Green’s new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, is coming out March 18, 2025

What Really Happens When We Unfriend Someone On Facebook?

The language we speak can change our perception of time.

Mark Evanier’s links to several full-length movies such as Naked Gun, American Graffiti, and Hannah and Her Sisters

Bob and Ray in “The Hobby Hut”

Kelly’s a little stealing on Sunday

Now I Know: The Identity Theft That Went Backward and Is It Illegal To Not Wish Someone Farewell? and Where Everybody Knows Your 6E 61 6D 65 and The Fish That Glow… As a Warning?

Security Updates for the Internet Archive

Starting earlier this month, the Internet Archive faced a DDoS attack. After temporarily taking the site offline to enhance security, they have resumed services to Archive.orgOpen LibraryWayback Machine and Archive-It. For ongoing updates, please follow their blog and official social media channels on X/TwitterBluesky, and Mastodon.

FAST COMPANY: The Internet Archive is even more essential than I realized

WASHINGTON POST: The world’s largest internet archive is under siege — and fighting back

WORDPRESS FOUNDATION: WordPress Foundation Donates $100,000 to Internet Archive

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW: The organization that safeguards the internet’s history is under attack

SF GATE: The random Bay Area warehouse that houses one of humanity’s greatest archives

MUSIC

Mitzi Gaynor sings I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair from South Pacific; she died at the age of 93

Vale Alan Mansfield of the band Dragon died

Dancing In The Street – Dick Carpenter Trio

Suite from Camelot, original music by Frederick Loewe, and arranged by Robert Russell Bennett

I’m Yours and  Puttin’ On The Ritz – Herb Alpert

The Kairn of Koridwen by Charles Tomlinson Griffes

Airport Codes (Big Band Version) – Aubrey Logan

The Pink Panther theme song and the James Bond theme song go well together

The welcome arrival of rain by Dame Judith Weir.

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: The (English) Beat and The Replacements

Coverville 1506: Cover Stories for Natalie Maines and David Lee Roth and 1507: The Katy Perry Cover Story III

Triumphal March from Aida by Giuseppe Verdi

Convection Oven – Peter Sprague

Wichita Lineman – Colin Hay

Inch Worm – Road Work Ahead

The theme from Exodus · Ernest Gold

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean performed at the World Figure Skating Competition with a routine set to the Entr’acte of the original Broadway production of Mack and Mabel.

Spies – Randy Newman

Sesame Street Cast Crashes The Late Late Show with James Corden

I Just Called To Say I Love You – Stevie Wonder

K-Chuck Radio: Another 10 classic pop songs you barely remember (actually, one I recall quite well)

Sunday Stealing: blueberry muffins

Bonnie, Neil, Diana, and Mac

  1. Here’s another installment of Sunday Stealing, which is reason enough to have a picture of blueberry muffins. The first question is, What’s your guilty pleasure?  

I’ll list foods I should not eat but crave for this exercise. These tend to involve pastry with fruit, such as banana bread, blueberry muffins, and apple pastry. 

Which meal is your favorite: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?

Dinner, because it tends to be the most varied. Breakfast is almost always oatmeal. Lunch is whatever leftovers might be kicking around. Dinner tends to be the most interesting.

What do you do when you want to chill out after a long day?

It tends to be watching television, specifically the Evening News, which we record and fast-forward through the commercials. So, I’ve managed to miss the bulk of the political ads running. Then, my wife and I play the New York Times Connections together.

How would you spend your ideal weekend?

On Saturday, we usually attend some event: a concert, play, musical, movie, or social gathering. Sunday involves going to church and then talking to my sisters on Zoom.

MUSIC, of course 

Do you listen to podcasts, or mostly just music? What’s your favorite podcast?

I listen to a lot of music, usually seven CDs per day. Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Dr. John, and Neil Young are currently heavily in the rotation. But not many podcasts because I can’t multitask. I have to listen intently. It’s the same reason I can’t listen to audiobooks and do something else, as some people, notably my wife, can. I am utterly incapable. I have to concentrate on the item. So, besides Arthur’s occasional AmeriNZ item, the only podcast I listen to regularly is Coverville, which is mostly music.

Brian Ibbott usually picks covers of artists whose birthdays are divisible by five. So in November, he might select Chris Difford (Squeeze), 70, on the 4th; Bryan Adams, 65, on the 5th; Corey Glover (Living Colour), 60, on the 6th; Rickkie Lee Jones, 70, on the 7th; Bonnie Raitt, 75 on the 7th, etc.
Do you prefer to go to the movies or watch movies at home?

Cinema, always. I saw many movies at home during COVID-19, but it wasn’t the same. I remember going to the Spectrum Theatre when the vaccine was available, but social distancing and masks were the norm, and it was such a treat to see the films on the big screen.

TeeVee

What was your favorite TV show growing up?

The Dick Van Dyke Show. Mark Evanier has linked to his ten favorite episodes. (His #2 may be my #1)

What’s your favorite TV show now?

CBS Sunday Morning, a magazine on the air since 1979.

How would you spend your birthday if money was no object? 

I’d rather throw a surprise party for Kelly with a few dozen of his closest friends and family in Washington, DC.

What’s your favorite season? What do you love most about it?

Spring. It could have snow or 86°F/30°C, but ultimately, it will have new life.

Do you prefer camping or going to the beach? 

I don’t like either. If I had to choose, I’d say go to the beach, but I’d need a huge umbrella to protect me from the sun.

Which phone app do you think you use the most?

I probably use Noom because it can track all my food consumption. After that, I’ll probably use Venmo to send money to my daughter and the CDTA navigator so I can get around on the bus in Albany.

Steppin’ Out

Would you instead cook, order delivery, or go out to eat? 

I would eat out almost every meal, every day. There’s something about other people preparing your food for you and then cleaning up afterward. It’d be different restaurants with a variety of levels of fanciness.

How do you drink your coffee?

I don’t drink coffee. I know it’s unAmerican.

If you could have any animal as a pet, what would you choose? 

I don’t want another pet. We had two cats this year; one of them died. It’s much easier to go away when you don’t have a creature depending on you. I liked having them and love our remaining cat, but I reckon we won’t have another one.

October rambling: Sudden Genius

The Mystery of Sudden Genius. The phenomenon of acquired savant syndrome reveals what happens when brain damage unleashes brilliance. I know Diana, who is profiled in the piece.

Federal Courts: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and The Interview:  John Oliver Is Still Working Through the Rage:

One year after October 7

Junk Science Put Me on Death Row. I Shouldn’t Die.

A Woman Was Accused of Murder After Losing Her Pregnancy. Now She Tells Her Story

Twitter is not Elon’s

To Understand Trump vs. Harris, You Must Know These American Myths

‘Trump Bible’ is one of few that meet the criteria for Oklahoma classrooms. “According to the bid documents, vendors must meet certain specifications: Bibles must be the King James Version; must contain the Old and New Testaments; must include copies of the Pledge of Allegiance, Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights; and must be bound in leather or leather-like material.”

The Republican Ethic of Lies

Jill Stein: The Grifter Who May Hand djt the White House Again

1950s TV episode featured a con man named “Trump” who wanted to build a wall

Also

John Amos, ‘Good Times’ Dad, Dies at 84. I saw him perform at Capital Rep in Albany in the August Wilson play Fences as the father several years ago, and he was very good.

I knew the plantation before I knew the college.

U.S. Divorce Rates Down, Marriage Rates Stagnant From 2012-2022

2023 New Zealand Census data

Wrecked rain gauges. Whistleblowers. Million-dollar payouts and manhunts. Then a Colorado crop fraud got really crazy.  “The sordid story of two ranchers who conspired to falsify drought numbers by tampering with rain gauges on the plains of Colorado and Kansas, resulting in millions in false insurance claims.”

History of the Famous “Daisy” Attack Ad from the 1964 Presidential Election

A history of Western art (in less than 7 minutes)

Horse-Riding Librarians Were the Great Depression’s Bookmobiles.

Cookbooks and the war of the sexes

Zoom Sex

Drake Hogestyn, a ‘Days of Our Lives’ Veteran, dies at 70. I only watched DOOL for a couple of years, but I remember him well.

Now I Know: Another Brick in the Wall of Prohibition, and He Complained — and Proved Himself Wrong, and You Could Say Their Commute Goes Swimmingly and Why Late 16th Century British Workers Had to Wear Hats

Word of the Day: Zhuzh– Make something more stylish, lively, or attractive. This would be a brutal Wordle word.

MUSIC

For sister Leslie: He that that a pleasant face by John L. Hatton

When I Go Away – Levon Helm

Nocturne in E min by Fryderyk (Frédéric) Chopin; Grazyna Auguscik

Avinu Malkeinu – Barbra Streisand

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: The Cure

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones Live at The Egg, Hart Theater on 2016-06-08

When Somebody Loved MeSarah McLachlan from Toy Story 2

Our Time – Jim Walton, who originated the role of Franklin Shepard in the musical Merrily We Roll Along

I Am What I Am – Voctave and the The Swingles

Matrix III by John Whitney Sr.

Bus Stop (The Hollies) and Taxman (The Beatles) – MonaLisa Twins

Death Of Suzzy Roche-The Roches (live) 

An Oscar-Nominated Short Film of John Lennon’s Ramblings

Professor of Rock interviews Weird Al

The last of the DNC 2024 roll call and playlist

South Carolina — Get Up – James Brown, who grew up in rural southwestern South Carolina

South Dakota — What I Like About You – the Romantics

Tennessee — 9 to 5 – the Tennessee singer, artist and activist Dolly Parton

Texas — Texas Hold ‘Em – Beyoncé, a Texas native.

Utah — Animal -Neon Trees, from just outside Salt Lake City.

Vermont — Stick Season – Noah Kahan, who hails from Vermont, mentions “I Love Vermont” in the song.

U.S. Virgin Islands — VI to the Bone – Mic Love, about the Virgin Islands.

Virginia — The Way I Are – Timbaland, born and raised in Norfolk, Va.

Washington — “Can’t Hold Us,” by the Seattle-based hip-hop duo Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

West Virginia — “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” by John Denver, a song so core to West Virginia that it is considered an official state anthem.

Wisconsin — “Jump Around.” Though written by California’s House of Pain, this song is played at University of Wisconsin football games.

Wyoming — “I Gotta Feeling,” by the Black Eyed Peas.

August rambling: Sanewashing

PsychoPAC

From School Librarian to Activist: ‘The Hate Level and the Vitriol Is Unreal.’ Amid a surge in book bans nationwide, the librarian Amanda Jones was targeted by vicious threats. So she decided to fight back.
Healthy Black women with low risk factors were far more likely to get C-sections than white women with similar medical histories, a large new study found.

New FTC Data Shows Massive Increase in Losses to Bitcoin ATM Scams

Ed Kranepool, longest-tenured Met and 1969 WS champ, dies at 79

What Happens If You’re Not “Disabled Enough” For the Paralympics?

How Costco hacked the American shopping psyche

The right to disconnect has started, allowing Australians to stop responding to emails and calls after hours.

Turf War: For 148 years, the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club was an ivy-covered bastion of civility with a roster of like-minded, blue-blooded members. Then, an old-money-versus-new-money clash erupted.

Trolley, the online journal of the NYS Writers Institute. Issue 7: Summer Camp

Now I Know: The Art Teacher With No Class and Ohio’s Admission Problem and A Shark and a Murder, But Not the Way You Think
Orange

The Word Of The Week: Sanewashing. “If Biden made a flub, that became the headline. It eclipsed whatever else he had been trying to say. Why isn’t Trump being covered the same way? When Trump says something insane or incoherent, that should be the news. It’s not just smoke that a reporter needs to blow away to reveal some underlying policy point that may or may not actually exist. The nominee of a major party regularly says things that are insane or incoherent. That’s what’s significant. That — and not whatever policy a reporter can interpret from his ravings — is the news in these Trump events.”

See, for instance: ‘Can’t Even Find a Complete Sentence’: Trump’s ‘Gobbledygook’ Childcare ‘Solution’ Slammed.
Thumbs Up: The Story of No-Context Trump. Is he a ghoul or a sociopath?
Or, in the words of George Conway’s PsychoPAC – “Voters have forgotten one important fact: Trump is f**king nuts.”

A Week in His Declining Spiral

The debate

This is precisely the debate analogy I thought of: Kamala Harris Floats Like a Butterfly, Stings Like a Bee. 

Kimberly Atkins-Stohr writes in the Boston Globe: “His bar was on the floor. All he had to do was not look crazy. He failed. I didn’t think it could get worse than Trump lobbing lies like Democrats supporting post-birth abortions or immigrants eating house pets in the Heartland. But I was wrong. Trump said that on Jan. 6, 2021, after he sicced an armed mob on the US Capitol: ‘Nobody on the other side was killed.’ Elected officials carrying out their constitutional duties are not ‘the other side.’ He proved himself unfit in less than an hour.”

Per Vanity Fair: “Ever since he flirted with running for president in 1988, Trump has relied on his mentor Roy Cohn’s three rules of winning: attack, attack, attack; admit nothing, deny everything; and always claim victory. ‘I thought that was my best Debate, EVER,’ Trump posted on Truth Social about 20 minutes after leaving the stage.”

FactChecking the Harris-Trump Debate

Harris-Walz Campaign Responds to Trump’s “I Hate Taylor Swift” Comments With Singer’s Song Lyrics

 

Also: 

I believe the delay in sentencing djt in the hush-money case deprives him of another chance to play the victim before the election.

RedState asks the Biggest Traitors to the Conservative Cause – the McCain Family or the Cheney Family? (No, I’m not linking to that.) My answer is the Congressional MAGA enablers (Stefanik, Jordan, Cotton, Cruz, Graham, et  al.)

Speaking of enabling: Evangelical leader Lance Wallnau pitches djt to followers as divinely chosen for the presidency.

MUSIC

Pale September – Fiona Apple

Sérgio Mendes obituary: Brazilian musician who popularised bossa nova worldwide. Fool On The Hill – Sérgio Mendes & Brasil ’66

Will Jennings, Oscar Winner for “My Heart Will Go On” and “Tears of Heaven, Dies at 80. I remember him mostly for his work with Steve Winwood, such as Valerie.

James Darren, ‘Gidget’ Surfer and Cop on ‘T.J. Hooker,’ Dies at 88. He sang, too. Her Royal Majesty – James Darren

Music Television Is (Way)Back!

New Chautauqua – Peter Sprague

Symphonic Suite from On The Waterfront by Leonard Bernstein

Hangover Game – MJ Lenderman

Phil Donohue Show (1990) -the original cast of A Chorus Line, just before the show would close

Anacreon overture by Luigi Cherubini

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists (Series Three) #21: Robyn Hitchcock

Dream A Little Dream Of Me – MonaLisa Twins

Coverville 1501: Nina Persson Cover Story and Greg Kihn Tribute and  1502: Cover Stories for P!nk and Jack Black

Anthem – Leonard Cohen

Save It For Later – Harvey Danger

Can’t Find My Way Back Home – Peter Sprague featuring Leonard Patton

Darker Than Death  – Indigo De Souza

The opening number from the 1994 Tony Awards

What’s Love Got To Do With It – Tina Turner

You Can’t Stop The Beat – Ambassadors of Harmony

K-Chuck Radio: The Surgeon General won’t like this…

Bishop’s Countdown from Aliens by James Horner

Green Day: Wake Me Up When September Ends

Roll call

Florida — I Won’t Back Down –  Florida’s own Tom Petty, and used by Florida politicians for decades, including, most recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Guam — Espresso – Sabrina Carpenter.

Hawaii — “24k Magic” by Hawaii’s most successful pop artist, Bruno Mars.

Idaho — Private Idaho – the B-52’s, who are not from Idaho.

Illinois — Sirius – the Alan Parsons Project, which played while the Chicago Bulls were introduced during the Michael Jordan era of the 1990s.

Indiana — Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough – Indiana’s own Michael Jackson. [It’s on Off The Wall, MJ’s best album.]

Iowa — Celebration – Kool & the Gang.

Kansas — Carry On Wayward Son by, um, Kansas. I LOVE this song.

Maine — Shut Up And Dance – Walk the Moon.

Maryland — Respect – Aretha Franklin.

Massachusetts — I’m Shipping Up To Boston – Dropkick Murphys, a loud-and-proud Massachusetts punk band that regularly wears Boston sports jerseys while playing.

Minnesota — 1999 -Prince, Minnesota’s own, well, prince.

Mississippi — Twistin’ the Night Away – Sam Cooke, the “King of Soul,” who helped expand the genre in Mississippi.

Missouri — Good Luck, Babe – Missouri’s Chappell Roan.

Montana — American Woman – Lenny Kravitz (originally by Guess Who, a Canadian band).

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