An NBC affiliate, WGRZ-TV Buffalo, posted a story which appaeared on MSN.com The first paragraph read:
![The New York State Park Police said just before 4 p.m. they were called to Whirlpool State Park, on the Gorge Rim Trail on a report of a 14-year-old male who had fell [sic] into the gorge.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7tT07z5lExgo6NAVH9A3j1Mn5EmIQPjRsI0uWoTQZHjuZavGPbLCAklcB1CPu9qg6rpWTAMwkuAxL0e0yCQKM8RZtomSdSHcbkxWxa4Dzps0xfOvWp2-WASDqg7uYci0OfGT4c0uGg9rmX7UGY9zzXlu0AEgpzXdQxdoCV7UepnHTYySiIQ=w879-h80 "The New York State Park Police said just before 4 p.m. they were called to Whirlpool State Park, on the Gorge Rim Trail on a report of a 14-year-old male who had fell [sic] into the gorge.")
This is ostensibly a mental health story, but I was drawn to the grammatical error. It should have been "who had fallen into the gorge" or "who fell into the gorge".
The deterioration of learning started well before the COVID lockdown.American exceptionalism at its worst:
10 days after 10 people were killed in a racist inspired shooting May 14th at Topps Friendly Markets in Buffalo 19 kids and 2 teachers killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Maybe I missed it, but i didn't hear the classic, now-is-not-the-time-thoughts-n'-prayers from supporters of the NRA. Why has the playbook changed?
Is it that nobody is fooled? Nobody cares? Or, maybe, it's the futility of action in the face of blind acceptance of mundane days becoming nightmares.
There are are a number of news stories about right wing, anti-vaccine, COVID deniers claiming that their illness after attending maskless, anti-vaccine mandate rallies was due not to contacting the virus, but instead was due to a deep state bio-attack. (Sample story: https://www.thedailybeast.com/far-right-stars-joe-oltmann-jovan-pulitzer-fantasize-theyve-been-attacked-with-anthrax)
Some time ago I found a Sherpa blanket blanket on freecycle.org. We exchanged a few emails trying to decide when I should pick it up because the weather looked iffy. We eventually decided on the weekend. On the morning I was going to get the blanket someone offered a Kryptonite lock. Surprise!! It was the same guy. He'd stick the lock in the same bag.
What could go wrong? How about a spell which transformed the parkway into a parking lot? So it was after a detour that allowed me to spot a used book shop and the cheapest gasoline in a 15 mile radius that I finally arrived at Beechwood Street.
I parked in front of the house, but seeing the house number across the street I figured I'd walk a little way, getting a little aerobic exercise and saving a smidgen of gas by parking in the first available space.
Beechwood street is numbered randomly, not the way normal suburban streets are numbered with odd numbers on one side, even numbers on the other with numbers increasing or decreasing in a regular pattern, I thought my mind was failing because the numbers didn't make sense. Fortunately, a lady who had just pulled out of her driveway, told me that I was probably looking for a house that way as she pointed in the direction where I had parked.
It turned out that I had parked right in front of the correct house but I'd been fooled by the sign number of the house on the other side of the street.
On the way back I stopped into the book shop. I'd been there browsing around for a few minutes when the owner was surprised that I was there. After the usual what type of book are you looking for I browsed around for quite a while.
I told the owner that there were some books in the wrong sections. He didn't care. The only thing which really appealed to me was a boxed set of John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy. Usually prices are negotiable. In this case he checked on line and raised the price from the price in the books. I passed.
I'd said something early on about looking for engineering drawings for a class. He mentioned that when he increased the price. It was his right. I passed.
The full quote from By Molly Young's article, "Better Living Through Stoicism, From Seneca to Modern Interpreters" (www.nytimes.com/2021/12/28/books/stoicism-books.html) :
Got a God intolerance? Try Epictetus!
The article was primarily concerned Mangling her sentences, Young wrote that for a meaningful secular existence, Stoicism might be "swapped in for religion like Lactaid for regular milk. (Got a God intolerance? Try Epictetus!)"
Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. (*I had to look it up.) It seems that the Stoics had their own version of Winston Churchill's “Never let a good crisis go to waste”.
One of the premises of Stoicism is that it will help you assimilate horrible events with equanimity. The proper way to respond to catastrophe, the Stoics will tell you, is to perceive it as a training exercise. Or, as Seneca put it: “Disaster is virtue’s opportunity.”
It brings to mind a Garrison Keillor script where the narrator describes not being bothered by his wife ran off to Paris with some guy and his daughter dropped out of medical school to pursue a career in dry cleaning. No, because by being a writer, it's all material.
A good deal of my philosophy derives from bumper stickers, T-shirts, and coffee mugs. Sherry Ross, an old acquaintance had a mug with the slogan, "Grin and ignore it." Sometimes I act that way. I know it infuriated a much despised former boss that I relayed bad news with a grin.
Two stories confirming my belief in humanity:
From the Orange County Register (https://www.ocregister.com/2021/12/01/man-accused-of-killing-4-in-orange-committed-to-state-hospital/):
Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez, who was struck by a bullet in the head during a shootout with police, will begin receiving treatment for injuries that have left him incapable of understanding the murder charges he was facing.
“Every medical expert who has evaluated the defendant has concluded that he is not competent to assist his lawyers in his defense as a result of deficits he suffered from a gunshot wound by the responding police who stopped his massacre,” according to a statement by Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney’s office. (https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-11-05/accused-o-c-mass-shooter-found-unable-to-stand-trial-case-on-hold-indefinitely)
Gonzalez will now be evaluated by medical professionals who will help the court determine his future placement and develop a treatment plan “in an effort to restore his competency,” Edds said. “He will continued to be housed in a lockdown facility,” she said. “His lawyers will return to court on Dec. 1 to discuss the report with the prosecution and judge.”In other, unrelated news, from The Mercury News:
(https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/08/17/addiction-rehab-ceo-indicted-on-federal-conspiracy-charges-dead-at-51/) we have news that Tarek Greiss, a former anesthesiologist before addiction cost him his medical license died with fentanyl in his system.
What makes this story especially interesting is that Greiss (quoting his bio): "entered the world of addiction recovery through the front door, as a client ... He is a recovered impaired professional who navigated the very difficult road to durable recovery through an intense trial and error period.” At Elite Care, he developed an “Impaired Professionals Program” to help professionals struggling with addiction to keep or regain their professional stature, his bio says." (Image from https://www.facebook.com/BeginningsTreatment/videos/947437509045581/?t=30)
Sounds good, but there's always more to the story: he ran afoul of the Eliminating Kickbacks in Recovery Act of 2018 which makes giving or receiving money in exchange for addiction treatment referrals a federal crime. The charging document described a prospective patient being picked up at an airport, given Xanax, injected in the neck with methamphetamine, and was in detox for seven days before transferring to one of his rehab centers.
John Littrell, his attorney, said, “His legacy will not be tarnished by the government’s misguided prosecution of him. Tarek will be remembered as one of the good guys.” I'd like to put it to a vote.
It's not often that I get a message with a highlighted typographical error. This was from deliverdemocracy.org. Think about it. Someone wrote this and other people overlooked the error. Maybe this is really a subtle way of underscoring the need for a better educational system.
Former President George W. Bush will deliver a speech later Saturday at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA. President Biden will visit all three sites on Saturday: Lower Manhattan, the Shanksville memorial, and the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
Former President Jimmy Carter will mark the anniversary in private.
Former President Donald Trump will do color commentary for a boxing match Saturday night.
(Image: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/07/29/us/EU-US-vaccination-promo-1627593309433/EU-US-vaccination-promo-1627593309433-threeByTwoMediumAt2X.png)
"Life, GarcÃa Márquez once wrote, is not what one lived but how one remembers it." From the NY Times review of A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son’s Memoir of Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez and Mercedes Barcha by their son, Rodrigo Garcia (7/25/2021)
The death of Bob Moses, the civil rights organizer, he rejected the term leader, was announced today (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/25/us/bob-moses-dead.html). I remember the Algebra Project because it seemed clear that the way to improvement required an understanding of math and measurement.
CNN reporitng on a Barr article in the Atlantic (https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/27/politics/william-barr-trump-election-claims-break/index.html):
"For his part, Barr took aim at the legal strategy Trump was efforting at the time with the help his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, telling the president that any election-related legal challenges "would have taken a crackerjack team with a really coherent and disciplined strategy."
Efforting? Who the bleep uses that term? Devan Cole (https://www.cnn.com/profiles/devan-cole). I thought of mocking up a wanted for abusing the English language graphic but decided the effort wasn't worth it. I just sent feedback to CNN telling them that if they listened closely in the still of the night they'd be able to hear composition instructors weeping.
I went through some clickbait recently about what people over 40 still do which is uncool. (I'm intrigued by the idea that people over forty feel a need to be cool.) One of the uncool things was briefcases.
For years now I've been hauling my stuff in backpacks because 1) backpacks hold more than a briefcase and 2) It would be presumptuous. On the other hand, a briefcase with metal protecting the corners is probably a better weapon, but I digress.
This came to mind when I saw the REUTERS photo of the lawyers for Elizabeth Holmes going to court lugging backpacks.
When high-priced lawyers (I'm assuming that Holmes is well represented) eschew briefcases does this indicate a problem for briefcase manufacturers? Should I be stocking up on put options?
A quick web search showed there were "briefcase backpacks". (Lululemon was out of stock.) It probably means that those who cater to the former briefcase wielding crowd have already responded to demand and I am once again in the social derrière guard.
Tonight, I listened to Wild Horses - The Rolling Stones 1995 on YouTube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhVLiHPUOIM) while following the lyrics.
So I was surprised to see Mick changing two words. The lyrics read:
Let's do some living after we die
but Mick sang:
Let's do some living after love dies
As a teenage and in college along with so many others I tried to apply lyrics to my life or seek guidance in words cobbled together to rhyme. It was something which seemed so vital when I was so much younger. And now it's just something to note.
It made me think of a story about Carl Perkins and one of the Beatles, (George Harrison?). The Carl Perkins version of "Blue Suede Shoes" differs from Elvis Presley's by a single beat. In practice for the "Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session" with a slew of British rock luminaries the Beatle was upset that Carl Perkins who wrote the song was playing it with Elvis's extra beat.
The spin was that the Beatle was playing with one of his heroes and his hero wasn't playing the song correctly.
Years ago I bought a cheap cassette with a depressing image with no idea of who the singer was.
I had bought the tape afor 88¢ at The Wiz. The cover showed a sad looking girl in a shower clutching a towel to her body, her hair still wet. I had no idea what the album was about, but from the image I suspected it would be a a litany of sad songs from a woman who'd been wronged by men.
Boy was I wrong. I just loved the songs! Most were upbeat and they gave me the energy I needed to keep at it when the code decided to show me what an idiot I was. The tape is surely buried in a box from one of my many office moves.
The Sunday May 02, 2021 Dilbert strip noted that many people meet their spouses at work. With many office workers working from home ... well, have a goodbye party for your genes.
In a few months we'll be able to see the statistics about weddings. There is also the divorce phenomenon from the oil embargo: couples forced to be together demonstrated the truth of the old adage: familiarity breeds contempt. Maybe the divorce statistics will increase.
Idaho Republican state Representative Aaron von Ehlinger" was accused of raping a 19-year-old intern.
"Representative Wendy Horman rejected [Ehlinger's] argument that because there was no written rule against dating staffers, there was nothing wrong with the behavior.
"There is no House rule against poisoning another person, yet his behavior has poisoned all of us," Horman said. "Conduct unbecoming is an undefined term for a reason per our rules."
https://apnews.com/article/idaho-government-and-politics-52fcc76661c09b6e9e960fcb6195c5ff
So I'm reading along on MSN and suddenly there's a bizarre bit of text like the one below. (I know there are no copy editors, so its not their fault.)
Listening to "Dust My Broom" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcIFqnlLoQA) from the Blues, Rags and Hollers reissue (yup no Oxford comma in the title) I thought I heard and understood a lyric for the first time even though I couldn't make out the first part of stanza. It turned out that the song was actually on their first self-issued album, but cut from the original Elektra release I bought over a half century ago.
What you learn from a woman /who can't tell yes from no
What you learn from a letter/when she can't tell gee from haw
My head snapped up when I heard "gee from haw". I knew the terms from driving an amateur sled dog team. A web search will show you that the terms were used to command draft animals.
Nice to listen to hear Koerner Ray, and Glover again.
