tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90419326291258163902024-02-20T08:09:22.936-08:00godlesswasatchUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger151125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-37149304566876928992022-02-18T01:34:00.001-08:002022-02-18T01:34:05.564-08:00Live Sex Videos godlesswasatch<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="und" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/oubEKXHCuI">https://t.co/oubEKXHCuI</a></p>— cecilia sternberger (@ceciliasternbe1) <a href="https://twitter.com/ceciliasternbe1/status/1492736282459787266?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 13, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<a data-flickr-embed="true" data-header="true" data-footer="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/194995522@N03/51875873138/in/dateposted-public/" title="🔸Private Room Live🔞💟👇👇👇"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51875873138_47c460803c_z.jpg" width="562" height="640" alt="🔸Private Room Live🔞💟👇👇👇"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" data-header="true" data-footer="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/194995522@N03/51874833152/in/dateposted-public/" title="🔸Private Room Live🔞💟👇👇👇"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51874833152_96b53d4851_z.jpg" width="524" height="640" alt="🔸Private Room Live🔞💟👇👇👇"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-64042568089024086682022-01-23T16:11:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:55.407-08:00At the Snowfall Café...<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/althouse/51839215743/in/dateposted/" title="IMG_9015D"><img alt="IMG_9015D" height="375" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51839215743_f970d879f1.jpg" width="500" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script><p>... you can write about whatever you want. </p><p><a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/althouse/51839099871/in/photostream/" title="IMG_9016D"><img alt="IMG_9016D" height="375" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51839099871_80bbabc788.jpg" width="500" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-35457865536439971572022-01-23T06:09:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:55.749-08:00"What's Up With The Ignorant Tattoo Style?"I learned a lot from this fascinating video:<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s8M0UDDt1Dg" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe> </p><p>I became aware of this phenomenon yesterday, when I saw <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/shittytattoos/comments/sa4gig/this_is_done_on_purpose_ignorant_style_is/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3">this</a> and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/shittytattoos/comments/sa4go5/this_is_done_on_purpose_ignorant_style_is/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3">this</a> at the subreddit r/shittytattoos.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTaNTn2ei8M">Here</a>'s video of the "[c]reator of the famed Ignorant Style tattoo style, Fuzi... a street art legend."</p><p>And <a href="https://www.instagram.com/ignorantstyletattoo/?hl=en">here</a>'s an Instagram collection of Ignorant Style tattoos.</p><p>I'm pretty amused by the concept and, especially, the name — though I think most examples of this sort of thing are a mistake. Many years ago, probably in the 1990s, I saw a young woman on campus that had a tattoo of a bathtub on her neck. Just a dark line drawing of an old-time claw-footed bathtub with the pipe extending upward for the shower head. I felt so bad about it. And I love bathtubs. But now I can see that it was an early example of the Ignorant Style!</p><p>ADDED: Back in 2009, I blogged about a tattoo artist that did things that he might characterize as Ignorant Style. It's at least adjacent to Ignorant Style. I said <a href="https://althouse.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-love-these-scribbly-tattoos.html">"I love these scribbly tattoos!"</a> You can see a lot of his things at Instagram, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/yannblacktattoo/?hl=en">here</a>.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-48436803258576251152022-01-23T05:21:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:55.956-08:00"Could we have had a more unsuitable man in charge? Sloppy, lusty, blind to details..."<p>"... just look at the piteous footage of Boris Johnson as he apologised to the Queen last week, nearly weeping, entirely out of self-pity. Nobody, he moaned, told him the massive party he had personally attended was 'against the rules.' If it wasn’t a 'work event,' he said, he couldn’t 'imagine why on earth it would have gone ahead.' I can tell him why: it went ahead because no one at Downing Street ever gave a toss about the rules. Not a single one of the scores of entitled, cashmere-hoodie-toting Tinder-swiping gin-in-a-tin-chugging junior staffers who flocked to the basement disco gimpfest the night before Prince Philip’s funeral gave a second thought about what was happening in the rest of the country. It says everything that even when Johnson came out of hospital, one of the earliest things he did wasn’t to tell Carrie to tone down the fire-pit heart-to-hearts; he went to what one MP described as a 'welcome back' party in his garden. He ignored Covid and nearly died from it but came back and still ignored it and licked everything. Who does that?"</p><p>From <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/keeping-up-with-the-johnsons-is-exhausting-life-is-lived-at-10-000-miles-a-minute-h77ztnk66">"Keeping up with the Johnsons is exhausting — life is lived at 10,000 miles a minute"</a> by Camilla Long (London Times).</p><p>I do enjoy reading The London Times. The writing is different from what we get here in America. Apparently, in the U.K., a classy paper will print the word "gimpfest." And every other sentence makes me want to diagram.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-26095744370244999462022-01-23T04:24:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:56.211-08:00"To celebrate his birthday, he had also brought along his mandolin, foie gras and champagne...."<p>From <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/23/french-adventurer-75-attempting-to-row-across-the-atlantic-found-dead">"French adventurer, 75, dies in attempt to row across the Atlantic/Jean-Jacques Savin, a former paratrooper, wanted ‘to laugh at old age’ but got into difficulties off the Azores"</a> (The Guardian).</p><p>I don't much celebrate birthdays — do you? — but I don't think I'd even consider celebrating my birthday while alone, and if I did, I might come up with the idea of champagne and some special food, but not of picking up a musical instrument and serenading myself. </p><p>It's so charming — don't you think? — that mandolin, foie gras, and champagne. I look to see — when was his birthday? Did he get to that birthday before the deathday popped up in the timeline of fate? Yes, he did. His birthday was January 14th. He died on the 21st.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-17478454240893270322022-01-23T03:58:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:56.419-08:00"Some senators get so whacky in the national spotlight that they can’t function without it."<p>"Trump had that effect on Republicans. Before Trump, Lindsey Graham was almost a normal human being. Then Trump directed a huge amp of national attention Graham’s way, transmogrifying the senator into a bizarro creature who’d say anything Trump wanted to keep the attention coming. Not all senators are egomaniacs, of course. Most lie on an ego spectrum ranging from mildly inflated to pathological. Manchin and Sinema are near the extreme. Once they got a taste of the national spotlight, they couldn’t let go. They must have figured that the only way they could keep the spotlight focused on themselves was by threatening to do what they finally did last week: shafting American democracy." </p><p>Writes Robert Reich in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/22/where-egos-dare-manchin-sinema-senate-voting-rights-filibuster">"Where egos dare: Manchin and Sinema show how Senate spotlight corrupts"</a> (The Guardian). </p><p>Is it "whacky" or "wacky"? <a href="https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/19/whacky-wacky/">The author of "Common Errors in English Usage" says</a>: <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><blockquote>Although the original spelling of this word meaning “crazy” was “whacky,” the current dominant spelling is “wacky.” If you use the older form, some readers will think you’ve made a spelling error.</blockquote><p>But the OED has the oldest example as "wacky," in 1935, though "whacky" also appears early on, in 1938. "Wacky" looks predominant, but "whacky" is also good. Still, a "whack" is a hard hit, so you might think about whether you want that image infecting the meaning which is just "Crazy, mad; odd, peculiar." </p><p>The OED tips me off that "wackier" appears in John Irving's "World According to Garp." I'm printing it here because to me it's much more interesting than Reich's going on about the mental aberrations of Sinema and Manchin:</p><blockquote><p>There was also a bad but very popular novel that followed [spoiler deleted] by about two months. It took three weeks to write and five weeks to publish. It was called <i>Confessions of an Ellen Jamesian </i>and it did much to drive the Ellen Jamesians even wackier or simply away. The novel was written by a man, of course. His previous novel had been called <i>Confessions of a Porn King</i>, and the one before that had been called <i>Confessions of a Child Slave Trader</i>. And so forth. He was a sly, evil man who became something different about every six months. </p></blockquote><p>I like the phrase "drive [them] even wackier or simply away." There must be a Greek word for that structure, the intentional and surprising lack of parallelism ("wackier" being an adjective and "away" an adverb).<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-84629037734669030012022-01-23T02:46:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:56.625-08:00"Curriculum transparency bills are just thinly veiled attempts at chilling teachers and students from learning and talking about race and gender in schools."<p>The ACLU tweets, quoted in <a href="https://www.inquiremore.com/p/the-aclu-suddenly-reverses-its-support">"The ACLU Suddenly Reverses Its Support For Transparency/The long-time civil liberties organization continues its partisan transformation"</a> (Inquire).</p><p>The ACLU tweet links to this NBC News article, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/critical-race-theory-curriculum-transparency-rcna12809">"They fought critical race theory. Now they’re focusing on ‘curriculum transparency.' Conservative activists want schools to post lesson plans online, but free speech advocates warn such policies could lead to more censorship in K-12 schools."</a> From that article: <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><blockquote><p>[T]eachers, their unions and free speech advocates say the proposals would excessively scrutinize daily classwork and would lead teachers to pre-emptively pull potentially contentious materials to avoid drawing criticism.... <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p>“It’s important we call this out,” said Jon Friedman, the director of free expression and education at PEN America, a nonprofit group that promotes free speech. “It’s a shift toward more neutral-sounding language, but it’s something that is potentially just as censorious.”</p></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-38570737060728629142022-01-23T02:25:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:56.832-08:00"But his themes are part of the inheritance of modernity, ones that he merely adapted with a peculiar, self-pitying edge and then took to their nightmarish conclusion..."<p>"... the glory of war over peace; disgust with the messy bargaining and limited successes of reformist, parliamentary democracy and, with that disgust, contempt for the political class as permanently compromised; the certainty that all military setbacks are the results of civilian sabotage and a lack of will; the faith in a strong man; the love of the exceptional character of one nation above all others; the selection of a helpless group to be hated, who can be blamed for feelings of national humiliation. He didn’t invent these arguments. He adapted them, and then later showed where in the real world they led, if taken to their logical outcome by someone possessed, for a time, of absolute power. Resisting those arguments is still our struggle, and so they are, however unsettling, still worth reading, even in their creepiest form."</p><p>From <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/does-mein-kampf-remain-a-dangerous-book">"Does 'Mein Kampf' Remain a Dangerous Book?"</a> by Adam Gopnik (The New Yorker).</p><p> In this short article, Gopnik uses variations on the word "creepy" 5 times: "not so much diabolical or sinister as <i>creepy</i>.... The creepiness extends toward his fanatical fear of impurity.... Creepy and miserable and uninspiring as the book seems to readers now.... Putting aside the book’s singularly creepy tone.... it contains little argumentation that wasn’t already commonplace still worth reading, even in their creepiest form."</p><p>That suggests that, if we readi the book, we will feel an instinctive revulsion against the writer, even as the writer was endeavoring to inspire revulsion against designated others. Is it good to rely on this instinct to deliver us from evil? <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-27876358983304095352022-01-23T01:49:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:57.039-08:00"The indictment [for seditious conspiracy] describes some Oath Keepers’ belief that 'the federal government has been coopted by a cabal of elites actively trying to strip American citizens of their rights.'"<p>"That [Stewart Rhodes, the leader and founder of the Oath Keepers], the leading defendant, graduated from one of the country’s most élite law schools, Yale, is more than just a fun fact. He developed his views on the Constitution as a law student eighteen years ago, and won a school prize for the best paper on the Bill of Rights. His paper argued that the Bush Administration’s treatment of 'enemy-combatants' in the war on terror was unconstitutional. Rhodes wrote that 'terrorism is a vague concept,' and that 'we need to follow our Constitution’s narrow definition of war and the enemy.' The argument would have found much support in liberal legal-élite and civil-liberties circles.... [I]n order to convict the defendants of seditious conspiracy, the government will have to prove that they planned their storming of the Capitol with the purpose of opposing the lawful transfer of Presidential power.... Rhodes’s seeming belief that his plan for January 6th was resistance to an unconstitutional process may seem wholly unreasonable.... But, if the case goes to trial... [s]ome jurors may find it difficult to convict Rhodes and others of seditious conspiracy if they find that sincere views about reality informed the defendants’ purpose.... Such an outcome might have the effect of adding legal legitimacy to the big lie.... Now that talk of potential 'civil war' occurs not only among extremist groups but in the mainstream press, a public trial of alleged seditionists will showcase the central fissure that could lead us there." <br /></p><p>Writes Jeannie Suk Gersen in <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-case-against-the-oath-keepers">"The Case Against the Oath Keepers/Members of the group face seditious-conspiracy charges for their roles in the January 6th insurrection. Can a sincere belief that the election was stolen protect them?"</a> (The New Yorker).</p><p>Gersen highlights the risk the government is taking, forcing public attention onto the seditious conspiracy charge: Americans will put effort into understanding the defendants' arguments, some unknown segment of us will agree with them, and many more will think the government has overreached because it cannot prove that they were <i>insincere</i>.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-81120459667268266862022-01-23T01:10:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:57.247-08:00Why Ayn Rand is trending on Twitter under the heading "Sports."<p>I thought this was odd:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhmPvINyfAA4llm3hT-kBSrCvLUV1gMpiEhvgL68kAQWjgcSS_U0jVKeQUbC0TkWfIGF02LG1hkzNzUTIIPZZjTE1ycFr1s3U5YpgCk4yQ5sIVTt6DAixUIY1aP8dCh6liKR9gPWel9_q_BJMBcW0cMsJuQZENEb5UIDfsUQNZ9b1xQpxtXbQ=s768" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="740" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhmPvINyfAA4llm3hT-kBSrCvLUV1gMpiEhvgL68kAQWjgcSS_U0jVKeQUbC0TkWfIGF02LG1hkzNzUTIIPZZjTE1ycFr1s3U5YpgCk4yQ5sIVTt6DAixUIY1aP8dCh6liKR9gPWel9_q_BJMBcW0cMsJuQZENEb5UIDfsUQNZ9b1xQpxtXbQ" /></a></div><p style="clear: both;"></p><p style="clear: both;"></p><p> </p><p>But I <a href="https://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=%22Ayn%20Rand%22&src=trend_click&vertical=trends">clicked through</a> and saw that it was no mistake:<br /></p> <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxigXZ3nVLN1nkdlfapjutgN47s1QkXwtVwW8fKrKyH8oprPee81yYZSVtKcTQFbvvYYdgmpi8PvddbwXyB3GU4IyFVkiOcDEMDHXzBOWdtsN0t322bqJOWxjY4LxNHB6NrkEBpN3WYhmo4MfzNylk90QowPFIpYw0D3D7TKPqBjFabEyxHA=s1186" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1182" data-original-width="1186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgxigXZ3nVLN1nkdlfapjutgN47s1QkXwtVwW8fKrKyH8oprPee81yYZSVtKcTQFbvvYYdgmpi8PvddbwXyB3GU4IyFVkiOcDEMDHXzBOWdtsN0t322bqJOWxjY4LxNHB6NrkEBpN3WYhmo4MfzNylk90QowPFIpYw0D3D7TKPqBjFabEyxHA" width="400" /></a></div><p style="clear: both;"></p><p style="clear: both;">Yes, I <a href="https://althouse.blogspot.com/2022/01/aaron-rodgers-explains-everything.html">blogged Aaron's bookshelf gesturing</a> — back on January 4th... in happier days....<br /><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Aaron Rodgers points out his copy of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand to Eli and Peyton Manning during Monday Night Football. <a href="https://t.co/2qSOcSSb3m">pic.twitter.com/2qSOcSSb3m</a></p>— The Recount (@therecount) <a href="https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1478358803469029386?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 4, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-15969878468599241942022-01-22T15:13:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:57.455-08:00Here's a place...<p> ... where you can write about whatever you want.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-81681657145492692482022-01-22T07:05:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:57.662-08:00"[S]ince around 1980, English speakers have been more given to writing about feelings than writing from a more scientific perspective."<p>"From around 1850 on, [researchers] found, the frequency of words such as 'technology,' 'result,' 'assuming,' 'pressure,' 'math,' 'medicine,' 'percent,' 'unit' and 'fact' has gone down while the frequency of words such as 'spirit,' 'imagine,' 'hunch,' 'smell,' 'soul,' 'believe,' 'feel,' 'fear' and 'sense' has gone up. The authors associate their observations with what Daniel Kahneman has labeled the intuition-reliant 'thinking fast' as opposed to the more deliberative 'thinking slow.' In a parallel development, the authors show that the use of plural pronouns such as 'we' and 'they' has dropped somewhat since 1980 while the use of singular pronouns has gone up. They see this as evidence that more of us are about ourselves and how we feel as individuals — the subjective — than having the more collective orientation that earlier English seemed to reflect."</p><p>Writes John McWhorter, in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/opinion/google-neoliberal.html?smid=url-share">"Don’t, Like, Overanalyze Language"</a> (NYT), discussing a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that purported to detect a "surge of post-truth political argumentation" and a "historical rearrangement of the balance between collectivism and individualism and — inextricably linked — between the rational and the emotional.” <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>McWhorter thinks the authors of the study are overdoing it, because, he says, often "the process by which language changes is that something starts out being about objective observation and drifts into being, as it were, all about me." He focuses on the question: "Why would this have happened to such an unusual extent since 1980?" </p><p>And he guesses that it's a matter of increasing informality, which naturally entails being "more open about the self, less withholding about the personal, more inclined to the intimate." In that light, it's hard to believe the researchers think they've shown a move from individualism to collectivism. </p><p>Something McWhorter doesn't talk about is that some people adopt a rationalistic tone for rhetorical purposes. They're not actually more rational, just trying persuade other people by posing as reasonable and unemotional. Ironically, that's an emotional move, and it can work if we respect the speaker's sincerity and good will, but it can stimulate wariness and irritation if we mistrust the speaker. And it's entirely rational to mistrust all speakers in the American political discourse that's developed in the last 40 years. In that light, it's not surprising that speakers have been abandoning the less effective rhetorical strategy.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-21078625409485102632022-01-22T06:12:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:57.869-08:00"One of the first killer jokes in the stand-up act of Louie Anderson was about the meanness of older brothers."<p>"Imitating one of his own in an intimidating voice, he warned that there was a monster in a swamp nearby. With childlike fear in his eyes, Anderson reported that he avoided that area 'until I got a little older and a little smarter and a little brother.' Pivoting to the future in an instant, he adopted the older brother voice, pointing to the swamp and telling his sibling: 'That’s where your real parents live.'"</p><p>From <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/arts/television/louie-anderson-bob-saget.html?smid=url-share">"Louie Anderson and the Compassion of America’s Eternal Kid/He displayed an empathetic humanity that he shared offstage with his friend Bob Saget. The loss of both comics represents the end of an era</a>" by Jason Zinoman (NYT).<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><blockquote><p>When you think of the 1980s comedy boom, the first artist that comes to mind for many is Jerry Seinfeld and his clinically observational brand of humor. For others, it might be the rock-star flamboyance of Eddie Murphy or Andrew Dice Clay. But in the days of three major networks, the culture incentivized a warmly inclusive, rigorously relatable comedy that could appeal to a broad mainstream and, at its best and most resonant, had an empathetic humanity. <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p>The outpouring of love for Bob Saget... was in part... because of a vast audience that saw him as the friendly paternal face on “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”... Anderson fit seamlessly into an equally idealized role as our culture’s eternal kid. There was a boyish innocence and sweetness to Anderson that never left him, even when he was playing a mother on “Baskets,” a remarkable and sincere performance....</p></blockquote><p>I haven't kept up with network sitcoms, so "Baskets" was news to me. I enjoyed this, showing clips from the show, him getting made up as Christine Baskets, and his very sweet account of how he's bringing his own mother back to life:<br /></p><p></p><p></p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8Wz5S41tcZs" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p><p> And <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/louie-anderson-bob-discuss-therapeutic-nature-comedy/id1504319251?i=1000523621859">here</a> are Saget and Anderson in a podcast conversation (recorded last May). </p><p>ADDED:</p><p></p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2bRe1CeGe7g" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-58945787773524690522022-01-22T05:01:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:58.075-08:00What is the controversy about this magazine cover at British Vogue? Consider the question for yourself before reading the criticisms. <div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwhYs_yKZ5hlsSHVFUXWBeS7nUvF4zDVff_wD_yrKkDs30bnhAzwPZOzfSpdXB1j3cMNvTslhRRwlH6KghHWtFkw_Jgsvg8u-UL6cNuKaJHut7_di71MSvpK74jk65niQvQbHOxYzdtSaT7MJT1oL3dWOG_dtNU3ye-lZLlhV7jukKrzgqnA=s2084" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="2084" data-original-width="1668" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwhYs_yKZ5hlsSHVFUXWBeS7nUvF4zDVff_wD_yrKkDs30bnhAzwPZOzfSpdXB1j3cMNvTslhRRwlH6KghHWtFkw_Jgsvg8u-UL6cNuKaJHut7_di71MSvpK74jk65niQvQbHOxYzdtSaT7MJT1oL3dWOG_dtNU3ye-lZLlhV7jukKrzgqnA" /></a></div><p style="clear: both;"></p><p style="clear: both;"> <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CYraLtTsSg4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">At Instagram</a>, British Vogue says: "The nine models gracing the cover are representative of an ongoing seismic shift that became more pronounced on the SS22 runways; awash with dark-skinned models whose African heritage stretched from Senegal to Rwanda to South Sudan to Nigeria to Ethiopia. For an industry long criticized for its lack of diversity, as well as for perpetuating beauty standards seen through a Eurocentric lens, this change is momentous."</p><p style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/british-vogue-february-cover-african-models-lgs-intl/index.html">At CNN</a>, a writer based in Nigeria says: <span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><blockquote><p>Why are the models depicted in a dark and ominous tableau, the lighting so obscure to the point they are almost indistinguishable on a cover meant to celebrate their individuality? Why were they dressed all in black, giving a funereal air, and an almost ghoulish, otherworldly appearance? <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="clear: both;">Why were they sporting strangely-coiffed wigs? Many of these women wear their natural hair normally and it would have been great to see that reflected on a cover celebrating African beauty. Additionally, on the cover, the models' skin color appeared to be several shades darker than their normal skin tone.</p>The photographs were taken by Afro-Brazilian photographer Rafael Pavarotti, and the images -- published in numerous glossy magazines over the years -- are consistent with his visual style of presenting Black skin in an ultra-dark manner....</blockquote><blockquote>But the lighting, styling, and makeup, which purposefully exaggerated the models' already dark skin tones, reduced their distinguishing features and presented a homogenized look. Was this the best way to celebrate Black beauty?... </blockquote><p>Should we ask what's the best way to celebrate black beauty or what's the vision of the artist/photographer? Pavarotti is black, so to push him back and say he's doing it wrong is to reject a black vision, to put him in a lower position that all the photographers whose visions are respected. And yet, the artist and model relationship has long been a matter of critique, and Pavorotti shouldn't get special immunity from criticism. <br /></p><blockquote>Many online critics felt the images were fetishized and pandering to a White gaze, ironic, considering the editorial team behind them consisted almost entirely of people of African descent. </blockquote><blockquote>Ghanaian writer Natasha Akua wrote in a private message on Instagram: "When I saw it I immediately was shocked ... I feel like I know what statement he was trying to make visually but turning these black models into this strange tableau straight out of a horror movie just felt instinctively wrong." </blockquote><blockquote>"Why darken their skin beyond recognition?" she asked. "To make some statement about being unapologetically black? Unapologetically black means being who you are and does not require this manner of hyperbole." </blockquote><blockquote>"I find the lighting and tones beautiful," Daniel Emuna wrote. "But my personal complaint is that publications and brands are constantly communicating that the deepest darkest hue in complexion represents the truest essence of Blackness or even Africanness. This is clearly a mark of the white gaze." </blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-29704399711627909342022-01-22T04:27:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:58.284-08:00"[State voting] laws — like that recently passed in Georgia — are far from the nightmares that Dems have described, and contain some expansion of access to voting."<p>"Georgians, and Americans in general, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/04/08/voter-id-laws-and-racism-democrats-just-muddling-debate-column/7113493002/">overwhelmingly support</a> voter ID laws, for example. Such laws poll strongly even among allegedly disenfranchised African-Americans — whose <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/12/black-voter-turnout-fell-in-2016-even-as-a-record-number-of-americans-cast-ballots/">turnout in 2012</a>, following a wave of ID laws, actually exceeded whites’ in the re-election of a black president. In fact, the normalization of ID in everyday life has only increased during the past year of vax-card requirements — a policy pushed by Democrats. And Biden did something truly dumb this week: he <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/01/20/jen-psaki-goes-on-fox-news-to-clean-up-after-joe-biden-presser/">cast doubt</a> on the legitimacy of the election in November now that his proposal for a federal overhaul has failed: 'I’m not going to say it’s going to be legit.' No sitting president should do this, ever. But when one party is still insisting that the entire election system was rigged last time in a massive conspiracy to overturn a landslide victory for Trump, the other party absolutely needs to draw a sharp line. Biden fatefully blurred that distinction, and took the public focus off the real danger: not voter suppression but election subversion, of the kind we are now discovering Trump, Giuliani and many others plotted during the transition period.... And why have they wildly inflated the threat to election security and engaged in the disgusting demagoguery of calling this 'Jim Crow 2.0'? The WSJ this week tracked down various unsavory GOP bills to suppress or subvert voting in three states — three states Obama singled out for criticism — and found that they had <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-election-subversion-myth-joe-biden-state-legislatures-11642199302">already died in committee</a>. To argue as Biden did last week in Georgia that the goal of Republicans is 'to turn the will of the voters into a mere suggestion — something states can respect or ignore,' is to add hyperbole to distortion...."<br /><br />Writes Andrew Sullivan, in <a href="https://andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/how-biden-lost-the-plot-312">"How Biden Lost The Plot/Listening to interest groups and activists is no way to get re-elected"</a> (Substack).</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-46628023110978967952022-01-21T16:04:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:58.541-08:00At the Friday Night Café...<p> ... you can write about anything you want. <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-58614819948930592482022-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:58.747-08:00"I’m an African-American man, so I speak plainly. It was a Black theater. You yelled at the screen, and folks would talk."<p>"A major component of Black existence is forced comportment in white spaces. There is a comfort derived from taking off the disguise, if just for a few minutes in the cinema." </p><p>Said Cyrus McQueen, a stand-up comedian, quoted in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/21/nyregion/brooklyn-court-street-regal-cinema-closes.html?smid=url-share">"The ‘Shouting Back’ Theater Abruptly Closes, and Brooklyn Mourns/A rowdy movie house suddenly goes dark, inspiring an outpouring of dismay and reminiscences"</a> (NYT).</p><blockquote><p>The theater closed last Sunday, taking regulars by surprise.... Dean Fleischer-Camp, a filmmaker, said that his favorite movie experience ever involved people “screaming, laughing, singing” and “throwing popcorn” during a 6 p.m. screening of “Drag Me to Hell.” Lincoln Restler, the newly elected councilman whose district includes Downtown Brooklyn, shared a picture of a moving van parked outside. “For the shouting-back-at-action-movie experience,” he wrote, “there was no place better!”</p></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-65198736693313222582022-01-21T07:03:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:58.954-08:00"How can the Washington Post say the court decisions on his vaccine or testing mandates were 'out of his control'?"<p>"Biden and his legal team are supposed to figure out a way to implement his policies that *won’t* get blocked by courts! Those court decisions didn’t happen at random; they happened because judges looked at what the administration did and decided that it didn’t comply with the law."</p><p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jaltcoh/posts/10107730545596455">Writes my son John</a>, at Facebook, commenting on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/01/18/biden-covid-response-assessment/?fbclid=IwAR3vRzyfKTBGePrQevod4m-PPQUbkEubED-qO51j15kGlAPWKa4tKWAO3nk">"A year ago, Biden unveiled a 200-page plan to defeat covid. He has struggled to deliver on some key promises"</a> (WaPo).</p><p>"Biden and his legal team are supposed to figure out a way to implement his policies that *won’t* get blocked by courts!" — We are all expected to pursue our goals and desires within the limits of the law. But we still can complain about the law that stands in our way and excuse our failure to achieve by pointing at this pesky law.</p><p>Sometimes you push the limits of the law and hope to convince judges. With a slightly different configuration of the Supreme Court, the vaccine mandate would have succeeded. Blaming the Court is worth doing to set up judicial appointments as a campaign issue.</p><p>And would the implementation of the vaccine mandate have served Biden's interests? Isn't he better off with it failing? He can point to it and say that he tried so hard and not be burdened with the realities of driving so many people out of employment, leaving businesses inadequately staffed, and imposing on the intimate personal bodily autonomy that his Party ordinarily celebrates. </p><p>By the way: <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/20/1074227400/activists-abortion-anniversary-roevwade">"Activists look ahead to what could be the 'last anniversary' for Roe"</a> (NPR).</p><p>Speaking of the pending abortion case... did the Texas legislators "figure out a way to implement [their] policies that won’t get blocked by courts"? I'd say they deliberately overreached well-known law because they wanted to convince the Court to change it and, failing that, they wanted political credit for trying.<br /></p> <iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x1I_4VXM5pg?start=15&end=25" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-85940167991667831682022-01-21T06:15:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:59.211-08:00"Hello, I’m Tom Hanks. The US government has lost its credibility, so it’s borrowing some of mine."<p> Said Tom Hanks in "The Simpsons Movie" (in 2007), quoted in <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-simpsons-did-it-first-tom-hankss-video-for-biden-likened-to-cameo-xj3zmm57x">"‘The Simpsons did it first’: Tom Hanks’s video for Biden likened to cameo"</a> (London Times).</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3xYQ1lgkxac" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe><br /></p><p>From the London Times article:</p><p></p><blockquote>In a two-minute video released by the Biden Inaugural Committee yesterday, the Oscar-winning actor narrates the accomplishments of the Biden administration in its inaugural year — pointing to the distribution of vaccines and that “shops and businesses are buzzing again all over the country.” </blockquote><p></p><p>Here's the new video, which I clicked off — muttering "Oh, jeez" — at the 3-second mark: </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zRbpNEqI6Dc" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe> </p><p>I'm going to try again to watch it, for the sake of this post, but I'm going to publish first, because I don't know how many on-and-off clickings it will take for me to reach the end. </p><p>ADDED: Okay. I've finished. It was long, but it mainly said we're dealing with Covid and the economy is coming back. It would have worked just as well as a Trump ad. Maybe the Democrats realize they need to squirrel away the divisive issues.<br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-87275409896513105132022-01-21T05:51:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:59.417-08:00"'Bat Out of Hell' was rejected by dozens of record companies before the album was finally released by Cleveland International, a small label.... It received tepid, even hostile reviews at first."<p>"But through relentless touring and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBWLcZhjn0o">a 1978 appearance</a> on NBC’s 'Saturday Night Live,' Meat Loaf found an audience, making 'Bat Out of Hell' an enormous, if unexpected hit.... Its signature tune, 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light'... was an ornate melodrama about a teenage make-out session... more than eight minutes long and [it] even contained a long segment narrated by Hall of Fame baseball player and broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, describing a batter rounding the bases and sliding into home. (Rizzuto said he didn’t realize his description was meant to be an elaborate sexual metaphor.) His musical secret, Meat Loaf said, was that he approached every song like an actor preparing for a role. 'I can’t sing unless there’s a character... Because I don’t sing. It’s almost like being schizophrenic — I don’t sing, the character sings.' Early in his career, the long-haired, 300-pound Meat Loaf was openly mocked by critics — and even by [his collaborator Jim] Steinman, who once called him 'a grotesque, bloated creature, who stalked the stage like an animal but acted as if he were a prince.'" <br /></p><p>From WaPo's very lengthy obituary, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/singer-and-actor-meat-loaf-dies-at-74-family-says/2022/01/21/31f7bdc4-7a91-11ec-bf97-6eac6f77fba2_story.html">"Meat Loaf, whose operatic rock anthems made him an unlikely pop star, dies at 74."</a></p><p>This wasn't my kind of music, but I can admire his work from afar. People loved him in "The Rocky Horror Show,” and he had a very interesting role in "Fight Club." </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7ooDX1NOzEM" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe> </p><p>And he's got a great Donald Trump connection — "Meat Loaf, should I run for President?" </p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_7NHdRrvIEg" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe> </p><p>Later, "You look in my eyes: I am the last person in the fucking world you EVER want to fuck with":</p><p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fG-tCfqUrL0" title="YouTube video player" width="500"></iframe></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-29462022810891256322022-01-21T05:13:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:59.623-08:00"In his first press conference for 78 days, the President was perhaps seeking to demonstrate his command of detail, ultimately speaking for almost two hours."<p>"But the moment he finished White House officials desperately scrambled to 'clean up' the remarks on Ukraine. They said what Mr Biden had been talking about was the divisions in Nato over how to respond to Russian aggression. It was also suggested that by 'minor incursion' he had meant Russian cyber attacks, rather than a small military invasion.... For Mr Biden it was the latest gaffe on foreign policy. In October, his officials had to calm the waters after he suggested the US would come to Taiwan's defence in the event of an attack by China, appearing to shift Washington’s delicate longtime policy of 'strategic ambiguity.' On Wednesday... Mr Biden then embarked on a lengthy analysis of what he thinks is going on inside Mr Putin's head - a notoriously difficult thing to predict. He went into great depth speculating on what Mr Putin might believe about a variety of subjects, including fires on the Russian tundra and nuclear war. If he was watching - it was the middle of the night in Moscow - Mr Putin must have been rather puzzled by it all." </p><p>From <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/01/20/white-house-scrambles-clean-joe-biden-gaffe-ukraine/">"Joe Biden's gaffe may have inadvertently revealed the truth about his Ukraine policy/The President appeared to suggest that a 'minor incursion' by Russia wouldn't result in harsh sanctions"</a> (Telegraph).</p><p>It's "notoriously difficult" to know what's going on in Putin's head, the article-writer says... before asserting that "Mr Putin must have been rather puzzled." <i>Must</i> have? I'd imagine Putin to be something other than <i>puzzled</i>. Isn't he an evil genius playing 3D chess? <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-71866463549131603762022-01-21T04:40:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:33:59.830-08:00"The green M&M, previously seen in ads posing seductively and strutting her stuff in white go-go boots, will now sport a pair of sneakers."<p>"A description for the green candy on the M&M’s website says she enjoys 'being a hypewoman for my friends.' 'I think we all win when we see more women in leading roles, so I’m happy to take on the part of supportive friend when they succeed,' the green M&M said on the promotional site." </p><p>From <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/590560-mms-characters-to-become-more-inclusive">"M&Ms characters to become more inclusive"</a> (The Hill).</p><p>I didn't know that M&Ms had become color-based characters. If you're green, you're one thing, red, another...? Is that a good lesson for the kids?</p><p>I feel so old, only able to remember an M&Ms advertisement that's half a century old — you know, the one where the peanut M&M and the regular M&M are sunning by a pool. The emphasis back then was that kids made a mess out of chocolate that's not "candy-coated." They did add arms, legs, and faces to the M&M, so they were, essentially, characters, but I don't think we expected them to have individualized personalities. Or was the peanut M&M a bit "nutty"?<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>What is the history of adding arms and legs to food items for advertising? Was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kool-Aid_Man">Kool-Aid Man</a> first — in 1954? Oh, no, wait! <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Peanut">Mr. Peanut</a> has him beaten. 1916. And Mr. Peanut always had a lot of personality: He was high-class and cheerful. And what about the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_California_Raisins">California raisins</a>? You don't see them around anymore. Their time came and went — 1986 to 1994.</p><p>But back to the green M&M, which I've never seen in action. It's hard to believe the ad makers styled it as some sort of "seductive" go-go dancer, but if that happened, improvement was needed. It's funny that they went for the most flat-footed feminist concept. If you're such an achiever, Green, why are you eating candy?!</p><p>Finally, let me say that I have never before seen the word "hypewoman." I read that as "hyperwoman" first, and that sounded candy-appropriate. But "hypewoman" — that looks like it should mean huckster or con artist. Urban Dictionary tells me it's the female version of <a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hypeman">"hypeman"</a> — someone who comes out on stage to hype up the audience before a performer comes out and may "work the side of the stage... yelling classic lines like 'Throw ya hands in the air!' 'All the ugly people be quiet!' 'When I say_________, y’all say _________!'"</p><p>And that undoes my impression that they just made Green a feminist cliché. She's actually a bit of a <i>sexist</i> stereotype, taking the role of supporting others. Re-experience that Françoise Gilot quote that begins <a href="https://althouse.blogspot.com/2022/01/as-young-women-we-were-taught-to-keep.html">the previous post</a>:</p><blockquote><p>"As young women... were taught early that taking second place is easier than first. You tell yourself that’s all right, but it’s not all right. It is important that we learn to express ourselves, to say what it is that we like, that we want."</p></blockquote><p>The new green M&M is <i>not all right</i>. Whenever they change something that's wrong, they just change it to something else that's wrong. Wrong in a new way. <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-10294741794404594862022-01-21T03:29:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:34:00.076-08:00"As young women, we were taught to keep silent. We were taught early that taking second place is easier than first."<p>"You tell yourself that’s all right, but it’s not all right. It is important that we learn to express ourselves, to say what it is that we like, that we want."</p><p>Said Françoise Gilot, quoted in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/19/style/francoise-gilot-it-girl.html?smid=url-share">"Françoise Gilot: ‘It Girl’ at 100 The painter, writer and the only woman with the spunk and self-determination to leave Picasso has a few things to say about success, personal style and the nature of intimacy" </a>(NYT).</p><blockquote><p>She has not always been above using her looks to further her aims. Soon after they met, she writes, she took up Picasso’s invitation to teach her engraving. “I arrived on time wearing a black velvet dress with a high white lace collar, my dark red hair done up in a coiffure I had taken from a painting of the Infanta by Velázquez.” <br /></p></blockquote><blockquote><p>When he remarked that her turnout was ill-suited for engraving, she informed him that she knew he had no intention of teaching that day. “I was simply trying to look beautiful,” she told him. <br /></p></blockquote><p>"She has not always been above using her looks to further her aims" — Is that sarcastic understatement? </p><p>Speaking of herself now, at the age of 100, she says: “Maybe I rather like the way I look... A sense of style is important... It’s like a pane of glass that makes you seem transparent but at the same time is a barrier.... You should not make yourself known that much to other people and keep your most intimate thoughts to yourself... People tell you to be natural. But what is natural, I would like to know?"</p><p>I read her book "Life with Picasso" half a century ago. Highly recommended.<br /></p><p>How are you picturing that Infanta hairdo? <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait_of_the_Infanta_Maria_Theresa_of_Spain">This</a> seems rather implausible:<br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEnz19YT2Cc65uHCMbC2Z2zqfdgsXdFr8nW8UV2CgBVWjexxgQ0fIwGIjeNFxgizJR_T78SGoWxk3qqMDS8L7StvMz32FfccYLIWV1k6nBZxN01wP7aLCr2lB-z0v_A4eHqe3M5MgQb-xzUstG0rGD4TPbXP11t3VJ0yhrDiSEJz4kFwN0bQ=s1311" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1311" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiEnz19YT2Cc65uHCMbC2Z2zqfdgsXdFr8nW8UV2CgBVWjexxgQ0fIwGIjeNFxgizJR_T78SGoWxk3qqMDS8L7StvMz32FfccYLIWV1k6nBZxN01wP7aLCr2lB-z0v_A4eHqe3M5MgQb-xzUstG0rGD4TPbXP11t3VJ0yhrDiSEJz4kFwN0bQ" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-28588682026726117602022-01-20T17:05:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:34:00.283-08:00Another Coldness Café.<p>No photos of this too-cold day. I only took a half step outside the door to pick up a package — that toaster I ordered yesterday. It's the third day in a row that I have not left the house, I'm sorry to say. It's cold! I have my indoor things — eating toast, etc. — so I'm quite all right. Only one more day of this intense cold, I think.</p><p>Meanwhile, please use the comments section to talk about whatever you like. <br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9041932629125816390.post-39560614954528523352022-01-20T16:59:00.000-08:002022-01-23T23:34:00.540-08:00"Trump gives Biden the best advice."<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@austinnasso/video/7054796704930893103" data-video-id="7054796704930893103" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@austinnasso" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@austinnasso">@austinnasso</a> Trump has advice <a title="donaldtrump" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/donaldtrump">#donaldtrump</a> <a title="trump" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/trump">#trump</a> <a title="impression" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/impression">#impression</a> <a title="fyp" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/fyp">#fyp</a> <a title="usa" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/usa">#usa</a> <a title="america" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/america">#america</a> <a title="biden" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/biden">#biden</a> <a title="bidenimpression" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/bidenimpression">#bidenimpression</a> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - Austin Nasso" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7054796663797435183">♬ original sound - Austin Nasso</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script> ADDED: It looks much nicer as a TikTok embed, so I've replaced the YouTube version. I'll put it below the fold if people say this doesn't work on their browser. By the way, the last line is so clipped you could miss it, but it's excellent.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0