Local News
Sweet songs: Barbershop chorus welcomes weary travelers
Macksburg man sentenced to 45 days
18 months for man selling LSD
Community input on Cytec needed
City again asking for bids from oil, gas interestsTop Headlines Poll: What is your favorite Robin Williams movie?
I’ve always disliked the whole have a nice day meme because of the passivity of the phrase. Several years ago I began to use my own version: make it a good one, which is my verbal short-hand for the real sentiment: make today a good day or, as I’ve begun to use recently, make today a better day.
Ana Marie Cox, following yet another extension of The Gulf War—I was there for Part I, The Iranian Hostages Affair in 1979—offers five actions in response to what she calls Iraq War 3.
American culture is stuck in perpetual rewind: the Clintons, the Ninja Turtles, Buzzfeed. Now comes a much more serious affair – Iraq War 3: Revenge of the Jihadi. Like all horror-movie sequels, this one has a new cast but the same basic plot line, plus the threat of an even bloodier ending at the hands of a new masked enemy.
Audiences can shout the obvious at the protagonists – “Don’t go in the house!” – but in the forever conflict that is the Middle East and North Africa in the 21st century, former anti-war candidates and generals don’t hear us like they did in the 20th. There is no turning off a war that has no end. Not that we shouldn’t try – it’s just that we can’t act as if we know exactly how to do it.
Ana Marie Cox writing in 5 things the US can actually do instead of complaining about the new Iraq war for The Guardian.
So, what can we—you, me and the people we know, not United States, not the Free World, but We The People—do?
What will you do?
The Bright Idea USB Lightbulb is a good concept, but the execution falls flat. After less than 10 hours of use, the bulb suffers from an intermittent open that causes the light to blink erratically. I thought the problem might be in my computer’s USB ports—the design does put some stress on the connection—but I got the same performance on all three of my ports and on the ports of another laptop. I would have left a comment on the website, but that wasn’t an option that I could see.
I could return the defection garbage, but, according to the company:
If in the unlikely event that you are not entirely satisfied with your purchase you may return it to us within 14 days of receipt for an exchange or refund. All goods returned must be as new and the responsibility for the return delivery costs lie with the customer. Upon return the goods will be inspected and a refund made within 14 days. Please contact info@justmustard.com to arrange a return.
So, I’ve already paid $11.99 plus shipping and now, to get another piece of junk–or my $11.99 back–I have to invest my time and pay a second postage. I figure that the double postage plus the value of my time exceeds $11.99.
The corporation wins again.
Just another piece of cheap plastic crap made in China.
Roldo Bartimole asks:
Have you watched the news lately?
Did you see the Plain Dealer front page Saturday with LeBron James, arms extended, face raised, eyes-closed in seeming ecstasy? Jesus-like?
Do you check the front page of the Pee Dee daily, or its web site Cleveland.com?
Do you think you live in a world of only SPORTS?
Who would blame you?
What is happening?
Concentrate. On sports. 24-7. All the time. Nonstop. That’s the message.
News = Entertainment. Giggles. Laughs. Funsy for the camera.
Reporters stand outside Progressive Field, inside the sports bars. Made for easy, lazy reporting. Overworked reporters take the simple way to satisfy dumbed-down editors. Can we get more with less? Isn’t that the plan?
The news presentations are evasion. Not lies. Just not truth. More like simplistic pandering.
Is that what we are teaching these days? (And they blame school teachers for what kids don’t know). Don’t they know they are part Continue Reading »
I turn 59 next month. My dad emailed me a series of photos and captions purported to be from 1955. I haven’t verified any of the quotes, but they’re fun nonetheless.
From my dad, of course…
This is my exercise in shoveling out the blogpile…
Rule No. 41 – Milk Is a Food, Not a Beverage.
From Food Rules, an eater’s manual by Michael Pollan
Found in my electronic chapbook. See also Eating Mindfully by Jan Chozen Bey.
Local News
‘War Birds’ arrive: Trained volunteers give tours of aircraft
Not your average plane ride
New round of renovations at public library
Bill would give more protection to landlords in fair housing lawsuits
Adoption celebrationTop Headlines Poll: Have you considered adopting a child?
I turn 59 next month. My dad emailed me a series of photos and captions purported to be from 1955. I haven’t verified any of the quotes, but they’re fun nonetheless.
From my dad, of course…
This is my exercise in shoveling out the blogpile…Blogpile, Going Up From Egypt
Rule No. 40 – Make Water Your Beverage of Choice.
From Food Rules, an eater’s manual by Michael Pollan
Found in my electronic chapbook. See also Eating Mindfully by Jan Chozen Bey.
Local News
River Regatta: Kayaks, rafts race on ‘Mighty Muskingum’
Path to graduation changing
Dawes Day at The Castle
Cleaning out the closet
Around 200 backpacks given away at church partyTop Headlines Poll: Will you go see the three World War II planes at the regional airport this week?
The Iraqi soldier died attempting to pull himself up over the dashboard of his truck. The flames engulfed his vehicle and incinerated his body, turning him to dusty ash and blackened bone. In a photograph taken soon afterward, the soldier’s hand reaches out of the shattered windshield, which frames his face and chest. The colors and textures of his hand and shoulders look like those of the scorched and rusted metal around him. Fire has destroyed most of his features, leaving behind a skeletal face, fixed in a final rictus. He stares without eyes.
On February 28, 1991, Kenneth Jarecke stood in front of the charred man, parked amid the carbonized bodies of his fellow soldiers, and photographed him. At one point, before he died this dramatic mid-retreat death, the soldier had had a name. He’d fought in Saddam Hussein’s army and had a rank and an assignment and a unit. He might have been devoted to the dictator who sent him to occupy Kuwait and fight the Americans. Or he might have been an unlucky young man with no prospects, recruited off the streets of Baghdad.
Jarecke took the picture just before a ceasefire officially ended Operation Desert Storm—the U.S.-led military action that drove Saddam Hussein and his troops out of Kuwait, which they had annexed and occupied the previous August. The image and its anonymous subject might have come to symbolize the Gulf War. Instead, it went unpublished in the United States, not because of military obstruction but because of editorial choices.
Torie Rose DeGhett writing in The War Photo No One Would Publish for The Atlantic.
I turn 59 next month. My dad emailed me a series of photos and captions purported to be from 1955. I haven’t verified any of the quotes, but they’re fun nonetheless.
From my dad, of course…
Rule No. 10: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.”
John Cage’s 10 Rules For Students And Teachers.
HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything — it might come in handy later.
This is my exercise in shoveling out the blogpile…
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