I suspect it's very discipline-driven. Looking to go into politics, law, upper-echelon business? Yeah, Harvard or Yale gives you a leg up. But for most people in the sciences, a good state school, especially if they have a good department in your specific field, will be a better choice. And for education or social work or other lower-paying fields, I'd argue a very expensive elite school isn't a wise choice, given the debt it will generate.
then again: I'm a prof at a little-known state regional who went to state schools, so maybe I'm talking out of my butt and justifying my own choices, IDK. (I will say I doubt I'd get into an elite school these days; it's a lot harder now than in the 80s)
I thought he got kicked out of PayPal because he tried the "X" business there first. I could be wrong.
I dunno, this whole situation is an object lesson in "the very rich are different from you and me: they can be hopelessly foolish and still think themselves wise, and usually they retain enough money that it looks to them like they are"
I dunno, I'm starting with the prior that they don't, after I teach the class Monday I'll have to use the posterior information to refine what I think.
I still pay cash a lot of places. I don't like loading my credit cards up with small transactions. So when I go to my favorite bbq place and order at the counter, yeah, I'll throw the loose change they hand me back into the little metal pig they have on the counter. Also the bubble tea place in my mom's town, I'll pay with a five for a large specialty drink, get between 30 and 75 cents back, that goes in their tipjar.
I am much less likely to tip at the counter of a corporate place. I still tip the servers if I get food brought to me and plates taken away (though I find the "monitors" you pay at, where they give "suggested values" for people who don't know how to calculate in their heads, a little offputting).
I fully expect to eventually get asked to tip at the self-check-out at the wal-mart, because the mindset now is "how can we extract maximum money from our customer base?"
it's deadly hot (literally) here today. Fortunately I have my car back (long story short: the AC drain line plugged up, mechanic pooh poohed my 'could something be wrong with the AC based on the 'symptoms' I am seeing?" proceeded to take the car partially apart believing it was the suspension, then four days later found the plugged drain line. I can't complain too much; they found a worn bearing the process, which I will take in for replacement next week when it comes in, it would have been bad had that failed at highway speed)
My main plan this weekend is that there's a small quilt show in town. Not many vendors, sadly; I guess past years' weren't profitable enough for anyone other than the in-town shop and the guy who does scissor and knife sharpening. (I got mine sharpened last year and I'm careful with both scissors and knives so I should be okay on that front).
Today I'm in for part of the day trying to teach myself enough Bayesian inference to kind of explain it to my advanced biostats students....
over french fries....add some cheese curds and you've practically got Poutine.
Don't get me wrong: I heartily approve of the French fries; i was picturing it over boiled potatoes which would be too much mushiness for me. (Same with noodles, I think).
Don't the Chinese versions of this have more of a clear sauce, without the dairy products?
I dunno. It suddenly turned death-hot here. I got the lawn mowed yesterday, during a brief lull yesterday morning when it was below 85 F. Today I have to finish the prep for next Monday's class. But I'm also unmotivated; heat has a way of doing that to me.
I miss having cats around. I have allergies bad enough that I know living with one or two would make me miserable most of the time, and I'm also not home a lot and have a house cram-jammed with stuff they could get lost underneath/behind or that they might destroy in one of several ways. Maybe someday, maybe if I get my act together and really do get rid of half the junk I own as I often threaten to do. But I do miss having another living being around (plants are a live but they don't really count)
Yes, the "special insider knowledge," that's exactly it. The "I'm smarter than everyone else because I've connected these dots!"
I'm in academia and I've seen a little bit of this in people in fields adjacent to mine (I am a botanist/ecologist, I had enough near misses of "I discovered something really cool" that turned out not to be that surprising in grad school that I learned humility fast). But yes, the desire to seem the smartest person in the room is very seductive, but also often offputting to people who might also know a little bit about the area being discussed but who are more aware that they don't know what they don't know.
My main worry in all this is that we're going to see more and more antivaccinationism for things like measles and polio and perhaps even rabies in dogs. We really don't want rabies in dogs becoming common again. I think we're screwed as far as eradicating COVID, but that's not just because of the crankery, it's because of the nature of the virus, but the crankery will make it worse.
Maybe The Medium Place? (I think that's what they called it; it's been a while since I watched). Not bad, not great, a lot of the time kinda boring...a place with box-wine and just the meh sequels in movie series.
I will say the Point System was unsettling though arguably the idea of You Are Never Going To Be Good Enough On Your Own, You Cannot Save Your Own Soul is a major Christian tenet.
Or maybe I just found it really unsettling because of the kind of person I am...
I dunno. I feel the need to Get Out and Do Something after a week of mostly staring at advanced stats and trying to boil it down for students whose last stats class was basic stats in 2018 or so, but I'm not quite sure what. There were massive storms in the region last night (we got the least of it) so I'm wondering what roads might be closed due to downed trees or what locations might have taken damage. (Also it's too hot and humid right now for much hiking). I might try a new-ish antique shop in a town to the east of me, I don't know.
This is one of those times when I wish I didn't live so FAR from all the things I might want to do. It's great lviing here in the school year when I have a five-minute commute to work, but when I actually want to go do fun stuff? A 45 minute or hour drive just to get to the place (at least) feels like a lot
much of my bakeware is either the clear or the cobalt Pyrex. Though it's not as good as it was ages and ages ago - about fifteen years ago I set a hot pie dish in the sink, and cold water ran on it, and it shattered quite spectacularly. I think I have a photo in my files somewhere.
It makes me sad to think that Corningware and Pyrex are either going away, or are going to be encrappified even more with this latest bankruptcy. (Does Corolle live still? My dishes are from them and I periodically think it might be time to replace those, they're over 20 years old and I've broken a few pieces down through the years)
My mom has that blue-cornflower pie dish (as well as other pieces, mostly small lidded containers we used for storing food in the fridge). In fact, that's the dish she makes the pumpkin pie in every Thanksgiving, because it's deeper than the "pyrex" glass pie dishes she has.
I think she also had - and may well still have - the one in that pattern with the various vegetables and something written underneath them (the bottom of the stack in the china-cabinet photo).
I don't even KNOW what all my mom still has stored away. My dad was the real packrat of the family, never wanted to throw anything away, and now my mom is going through things, and periodically when we facetime she'll hold something up and ask if I want it (mostly at this point: photos and stuff like my old report cards. Yes to the photos; no to most of the rest).
And I admit; I occasionally purchase things like this, though I tend more to use them for display because I'm clumsy and tend to break things. My most recent purchase was a pink transferware platter with a design based on a Currier and Ives print of Harper's Ferry, WV. (I have two other similar ones up on the wall - one of Niagara Falls, one of the Grand Canyon). In fact, the day I bought the Harper's Ferry dish I saw a bunch of Corningware and it made me think of you. But here the prices have spiked up because I think the few antique stores still around have bought into the "this is worth a lot" mentality. I don't have the time and energy to hit thrift stores and my friends who do tell me that the "pickers" from Dallas antique stores usually grab up anything good quickly....
This. We should be expending our energies on:
1. Newer and better vaccines against this
2. Ways to protect the medically vulnerable from the next wave
3. Preventing the next one (Bird flu, if it figures out how to do human-to-human transmission, will make SARS CoV2 look like a walk in the park. It has a 50% fatality rate. 50%.
But because folks LOOOOOVE conspiracy theories they're gonna keep beating the drum about "oh someone created/enhanced it in a lab" even though if we knew that for sure, it would literally change nothing and we could do nothing about it? I mean, what would we do? Nuke Wuhan as retribution? Of course not.
No matter how bad a mood I am in, that "We're just normal men" bit NEVER fails to make me laugh.
I have also used the "....face God and walk backward into Hell" line, which yes, is Shakespearean in feel and now I wonder if of all of us, will dril be the one remembered 400 years hence?
My plans are to take tomorrow off, drive to the nicer town a half hour south, go to some of the nice little shops they have and just look around, but also stock up on a few things (cosmetics and household things) I need that aren't available (or as easily available) in my little town. And I also just need a day away from grinding away on advanced biostatistics.
I have a copy of the cookbook (Wolfe fan going back to my college days) and IIRC on this recipe - or maybe a version I saw of it elsewhere - the comment was "after you make the eggs, feed them to someone else, because you'll be too bored to appreciate them"
I don't do 45 minute eggs over a double boiler, but I do cook them lower and slower (and with more butter) than the average American and they ARE better than diner scrambled eggs or even the ones my mother makes (though hers have the virtue of "someone else cooked them for you"). I don't ever do these for breakfast, only for a late supper or perhaps a leisurely lunch, because I am a working stiff and mornings don't lend enough time to work out*, pack a lunch for the day at work**, wash, dress, AND prepare a fancy breakfast
(*Wolfe would be horrified)
(**he would probably be even more horrified)
my mom uses trays. (I have sensitive teeth anyway and mostly CBA at home to make ice). When they got a new fridge back around 2006 or so, it had an ice maker. Things were great for a while. Then the icemaker line sprang a leak that wasn't noticed until water seeped out under the closet door in the entryway adjacent to where the fridge is. She won't have an in-fridge ice maker ever again, had the plumber cap that line.
that said: a tabletop icemaker seems like a better solution, even with the cleaning issues
I wonder if our Shakespeare festival is gonna go this summer. I haven't heard anything about it - a couple years off because of COVID, one of the real leading lights behind it passed away, we live in a state that seems bent on defunding education and the arts.... I hope it's still going, and I hope they put on something I'm willing to sit for a couple hours in a room with strangers to want to see. (The best production I ever saw of a Shakespeare play was at it, about 10 years ago - it was a re-set of Twelfth Night in the Louisiana Bayous circa 1900. It was AWESOME and they even got in a Boudreaux joke.....)
School's almost back in for me. I (perhaps unwisely, but it was needed and no one else seems able to cover it) am teaching a class in general linear models methods for 3 (maybe 2, if her work schedule conflicts?) grad students.
I haven't seen an official contract but if this goes how typical summer teaching for classes of less than 10 goes, I'll be making about $500 a month on it. Most of which will probably be eaten up covering benefits/TIAA deductions.
I've already had MULTIPLE e-mails from the students about logistical problems. I hope I don't regret having offered to do this.
So either today or tomorrow I need to go in and review. I'm tempted to take a day and just go do something for myself, and if I do, it should be today, because tomorrow's supposed to be heavy rain, and our bad drivers are even worse in heavy rain.
I admit I dislike thunderstorms. I grew up in northeast Ohio; a very early memory of mine is hearing about the tornado outbreak in 1974 that basically leveled Xenia. I also remember being rousted out of bed once or twice and having to troop down to the basement. Or, midafternoon, something coming across the radio and my mom yelling "someone grab the cat" and all of us going to the basement. Or tornado drills at school, where I realized pretty early on that being in a kneeling position with your fingers laced over where your brainstem was really wouldn't protect you from flying debris...
And I remember in April 2020 here - right at the worst point of the pandemic - tornadoes here hitting all around me, to the point where I called my mom to say goodbye just in case (I don't have a basement; no one here does. I was huddled in the dry bathtub under a couple of quilts)
This weekend is packing - Sunday I go up to visit my mom for a couple weeks so I need to do laundry and clean the place up a little and wind off some yarn for projects and cram it all in a suitcase.
Gonna be in the 90s here. This, after an extended period in the 50s/60s.
Not a fan of the big temperature jumps.
This weekend is graduation, so pretty much half my Saturday is eaten up. This will be the first "indoor" graduation since the before-times for me. I did go to the spring '21 one, which was outdoors, with the seats widely spaced, and we were all asked to wear masks. Not in love with being in a space with literally a thousand people from all-over in this particular state, but I guess at some point I have to accept that I can't avoid risk forever.
A dear departed friend used to say that politicians were like babies' diapers: they should be changed out regularly, and for the same reasons.
I think about that a lot these days. I live in a state with a shocking level of corruption at the local level, and as far as I can tell, an almost equal amount at the state level. It's disgusting and from everyone on the take, usually embezzlement from local coffers, well, that's why our roads can't get fixed and our bridges are falling apart.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Open Mic for the week of 7/24/2023”
I suspect it's very discipline-driven. Looking to go into politics, law, upper-echelon business? Yeah, Harvard or Yale gives you a leg up. But for most people in the sciences, a good state school, especially if they have a good department in your specific field, will be a better choice. And for education or social work or other lower-paying fields, I'd argue a very expensive elite school isn't a wise choice, given the debt it will generate.
then again: I'm a prof at a little-known state regional who went to state schools, so maybe I'm talking out of my butt and justifying my own choices, IDK. (I will say I doubt I'd get into an elite school these days; it's a lot harder now than in the 80s)
"
I thought he got kicked out of PayPal because he tried the "X" business there first. I could be wrong.
I dunno, this whole situation is an object lesson in "the very rich are different from you and me: they can be hopelessly foolish and still think themselves wise, and usually they retain enough money that it looks to them like they are"
On “Weekend Plans Post: Melting, Melting, Melting”
I dunno, I'm starting with the prior that they don't, after I teach the class Monday I'll have to use the posterior information to refine what I think.
On “Tipping Expands To The Sidewalk”
I still pay cash a lot of places. I don't like loading my credit cards up with small transactions. So when I go to my favorite bbq place and order at the counter, yeah, I'll throw the loose change they hand me back into the little metal pig they have on the counter. Also the bubble tea place in my mom's town, I'll pay with a five for a large specialty drink, get between 30 and 75 cents back, that goes in their tipjar.
I am much less likely to tip at the counter of a corporate place. I still tip the servers if I get food brought to me and plates taken away (though I find the "monitors" you pay at, where they give "suggested values" for people who don't know how to calculate in their heads, a little offputting).
I fully expect to eventually get asked to tip at the self-check-out at the wal-mart, because the mindset now is "how can we extract maximum money from our customer base?"
On “Weekend Plans Post: Melting, Melting, Melting”
it's deadly hot (literally) here today. Fortunately I have my car back (long story short: the AC drain line plugged up, mechanic pooh poohed my 'could something be wrong with the AC based on the 'symptoms' I am seeing?" proceeded to take the car partially apart believing it was the suspension, then four days later found the plugged drain line. I can't complain too much; they found a worn bearing the process, which I will take in for replacement next week when it comes in, it would have been bad had that failed at highway speed)
My main plan this weekend is that there's a small quilt show in town. Not many vendors, sadly; I guess past years' weren't profitable enough for anyone other than the in-town shop and the guy who does scissor and knife sharpening. (I got mine sharpened last year and I'm careful with both scissors and knives so I should be okay on that front).
Today I'm in for part of the day trying to teach myself enough Bayesian inference to kind of explain it to my advanced biostats students....
On “AITA For Not Telling My Girlfriend About My Hobby?”
Oh. It took me a while. Then again because of who I am my brain is not primed for that particular content. (trying v. hard to avoid spoiling....)
On “Stroganov’s Expanded Upon Beef Stroganoff”
over french fries....add some cheese curds and you've practically got Poutine.
Don't get me wrong: I heartily approve of the French fries; i was picturing it over boiled potatoes which would be too much mushiness for me. (Same with noodles, I think).
Don't the Chinese versions of this have more of a clear sauce, without the dairy products?
On “Weekend Plans Post: You say, “Why?” And I say, “I don’t know””
So sorry,man. It's hard to lose them, especially so close together.
"
I dunno. It suddenly turned death-hot here. I got the lawn mowed yesterday, during a brief lull yesterday morning when it was below 85 F. Today I have to finish the prep for next Monday's class. But I'm also unmotivated; heat has a way of doing that to me.
I miss having cats around. I have allergies bad enough that I know living with one or two would make me miserable most of the time, and I'm also not home a lot and have a house cram-jammed with stuff they could get lost underneath/behind or that they might destroy in one of several ways. Maybe someday, maybe if I get my act together and really do get rid of half the junk I own as I often threaten to do. But I do miss having another living being around (plants are a live but they don't really count)
On “Mini-Throughput: Debate Me, Bro Edition”
Yes, the "special insider knowledge," that's exactly it. The "I'm smarter than everyone else because I've connected these dots!"
I'm in academia and I've seen a little bit of this in people in fields adjacent to mine (I am a botanist/ecologist, I had enough near misses of "I discovered something really cool" that turned out not to be that surprising in grad school that I learned humility fast). But yes, the desire to seem the smartest person in the room is very seductive, but also often offputting to people who might also know a little bit about the area being discussed but who are more aware that they don't know what they don't know.
My main worry in all this is that we're going to see more and more antivaccinationism for things like measles and polio and perhaps even rabies in dogs. We really don't want rabies in dogs becoming common again. I think we're screwed as far as eradicating COVID, but that's not just because of the crankery, it's because of the nature of the virus, but the crankery will make it worse.
On “I Do Not Choose To Be Caught”
hahahah yeah a new contender for a "that's bait" image for twitter just arrived.
On “The Good Place, Ethics 101, and Spoilers, Spoilers, Spoilers”
Maybe The Medium Place? (I think that's what they called it; it's been a while since I watched). Not bad, not great, a lot of the time kinda boring...a place with box-wine and just the meh sequels in movie series.
I will say the Point System was unsettling though arguably the idea of You Are Never Going To Be Good Enough On Your Own, You Cannot Save Your Own Soul is a major Christian tenet.
Or maybe I just found it really unsettling because of the kind of person I am...
On “Weekend Plans Post: It’s Cold?”
At least the wildfire smoke apparently didn't trigger a doomsday cult...
(I remember seeing the Hale-Bopp comet, faintly, in the night sky, back when I was in grad school)
"
I dunno. I feel the need to Get Out and Do Something after a week of mostly staring at advanced stats and trying to boil it down for students whose last stats class was basic stats in 2018 or so, but I'm not quite sure what. There were massive storms in the region last night (we got the least of it) so I'm wondering what roads might be closed due to downed trees or what locations might have taken damage. (Also it's too hot and humid right now for much hiking). I might try a new-ish antique shop in a town to the east of me, I don't know.
This is one of those times when I wish I didn't live so FAR from all the things I might want to do. It's great lviing here in the school year when I have a five-minute commute to work, but when I actually want to go do fun stuff? A 45 minute or hour drive just to get to the place (at least) feels like a lot
On “CorningWare: Everything Oldish is Newish Again”
much of my bakeware is either the clear or the cobalt Pyrex. Though it's not as good as it was ages and ages ago - about fifteen years ago I set a hot pie dish in the sink, and cold water ran on it, and it shattered quite spectacularly. I think I have a photo in my files somewhere.
It makes me sad to think that Corningware and Pyrex are either going away, or are going to be encrappified even more with this latest bankruptcy. (Does Corolle live still? My dishes are from them and I periodically think it might be time to replace those, they're over 20 years old and I've broken a few pieces down through the years)
"
Oh, I love this! Enjoyed the piece very much.
My mom has that blue-cornflower pie dish (as well as other pieces, mostly small lidded containers we used for storing food in the fridge). In fact, that's the dish she makes the pumpkin pie in every Thanksgiving, because it's deeper than the "pyrex" glass pie dishes she has.
I think she also had - and may well still have - the one in that pattern with the various vegetables and something written underneath them (the bottom of the stack in the china-cabinet photo).
I don't even KNOW what all my mom still has stored away. My dad was the real packrat of the family, never wanted to throw anything away, and now my mom is going through things, and periodically when we facetime she'll hold something up and ask if I want it (mostly at this point: photos and stuff like my old report cards. Yes to the photos; no to most of the rest).
And I admit; I occasionally purchase things like this, though I tend more to use them for display because I'm clumsy and tend to break things. My most recent purchase was a pink transferware platter with a design based on a Currier and Ives print of Harper's Ferry, WV. (I have two other similar ones up on the wall - one of Niagara Falls, one of the Grand Canyon). In fact, the day I bought the Harper's Ferry dish I saw a bunch of Corningware and it made me think of you. But here the prices have spiked up because I think the few antique stores still around have bought into the "this is worth a lot" mentality. I don't have the time and energy to hit thrift stores and my friends who do tell me that the "pickers" from Dallas antique stores usually grab up anything good quickly....
On “Open Mic for the week of 6/12/2023”
This. We should be expending our energies on:
1. Newer and better vaccines against this
2. Ways to protect the medically vulnerable from the next wave
3. Preventing the next one (Bird flu, if it figures out how to do human-to-human transmission, will make SARS CoV2 look like a walk in the park. It has a 50% fatality rate. 50%.
But because folks LOOOOOVE conspiracy theories they're gonna keep beating the drum about "oh someone created/enhanced it in a lab" even though if we knew that for sure, it would literally change nothing and we could do nothing about it? I mean, what would we do? Nuke Wuhan as retribution? Of course not.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Lines that Go Unexpectedly Hard”
No matter how bad a mood I am in, that "We're just normal men" bit NEVER fails to make me laugh.
I have also used the "....face God and walk backward into Hell" line, which yes, is Shakespearean in feel and now I wonder if of all of us, will dril be the one remembered 400 years hence?
My plans are to take tomorrow off, drive to the nicer town a half hour south, go to some of the nice little shops they have and just look around, but also stock up on a few things (cosmetics and household things) I need that aren't available (or as easily available) in my little town. And I also just need a day away from grinding away on advanced biostatistics.
On “Nero Wolfe’s 45 Minute Scrambled Eggs”
I have a copy of the cookbook (Wolfe fan going back to my college days) and IIRC on this recipe - or maybe a version I saw of it elsewhere - the comment was "after you make the eggs, feed them to someone else, because you'll be too bored to appreciate them"
I don't do 45 minute eggs over a double boiler, but I do cook them lower and slower (and with more butter) than the average American and they ARE better than diner scrambled eggs or even the ones my mother makes (though hers have the virtue of "someone else cooked them for you"). I don't ever do these for breakfast, only for a late supper or perhaps a leisurely lunch, because I am a working stiff and mornings don't lend enough time to work out*, pack a lunch for the day at work**, wash, dress, AND prepare a fancy breakfast
(*Wolfe would be horrified)
(**he would probably be even more horrified)
On “Ice! Ice, Baby!”
my mom uses trays. (I have sensitive teeth anyway and mostly CBA at home to make ice). When they got a new fridge back around 2006 or so, it had an ice maker. Things were great for a while. Then the icemaker line sprang a leak that wasn't noticed until water seeped out under the closet door in the entryway adjacent to where the fridge is. She won't have an in-fridge ice maker ever again, had the plumber cap that line.
that said: a tabletop icemaker seems like a better solution, even with the cleaning issues
On “Weekend Plans Post: School’s Out”
I wonder if our Shakespeare festival is gonna go this summer. I haven't heard anything about it - a couple years off because of COVID, one of the real leading lights behind it passed away, we live in a state that seems bent on defunding education and the arts.... I hope it's still going, and I hope they put on something I'm willing to sit for a couple hours in a room with strangers to want to see. (The best production I ever saw of a Shakespeare play was at it, about 10 years ago - it was a re-set of Twelfth Night in the Louisiana Bayous circa 1900. It was AWESOME and they even got in a Boudreaux joke.....)
"
School's almost back in for me. I (perhaps unwisely, but it was needed and no one else seems able to cover it) am teaching a class in general linear models methods for 3 (maybe 2, if her work schedule conflicts?) grad students.
I haven't seen an official contract but if this goes how typical summer teaching for classes of less than 10 goes, I'll be making about $500 a month on it. Most of which will probably be eaten up covering benefits/TIAA deductions.
I've already had MULTIPLE e-mails from the students about logistical problems. I hope I don't regret having offered to do this.
So either today or tomorrow I need to go in and review. I'm tempted to take a day and just go do something for myself, and if I do, it should be today, because tomorrow's supposed to be heavy rain, and our bad drivers are even worse in heavy rain.
On “Weekend Plans Post: The Thunderstorm”
I admit I dislike thunderstorms. I grew up in northeast Ohio; a very early memory of mine is hearing about the tornado outbreak in 1974 that basically leveled Xenia. I also remember being rousted out of bed once or twice and having to troop down to the basement. Or, midafternoon, something coming across the radio and my mom yelling "someone grab the cat" and all of us going to the basement. Or tornado drills at school, where I realized pretty early on that being in a kneeling position with your fingers laced over where your brainstem was really wouldn't protect you from flying debris...
And I remember in April 2020 here - right at the worst point of the pandemic - tornadoes here hitting all around me, to the point where I called my mom to say goodbye just in case (I don't have a basement; no one here does. I was huddled in the dry bathtub under a couple of quilts)
This weekend is packing - Sunday I go up to visit my mom for a couple weeks so I need to do laundry and clean the place up a little and wind off some yarn for projects and cram it all in a suitcase.
On “Weekend Plans Post: Spring has Sprung”
Gonna be in the 90s here. This, after an extended period in the 50s/60s.
Not a fan of the big temperature jumps.
This weekend is graduation, so pretty much half my Saturday is eaten up. This will be the first "indoor" graduation since the before-times for me. I did go to the spring '21 one, which was outdoors, with the seats widely spaced, and we were all asked to wear masks. Not in love with being in a space with literally a thousand people from all-over in this particular state, but I guess at some point I have to accept that I can't avoid risk forever.
On “Why People Hate Politicians”
A dear departed friend used to say that politicians were like babies' diapers: they should be changed out regularly, and for the same reasons.
I think about that a lot these days. I live in a state with a shocking level of corruption at the local level, and as far as I can tell, an almost equal amount at the state level. It's disgusting and from everyone on the take, usually embezzlement from local coffers, well, that's why our roads can't get fixed and our bridges are falling apart.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.