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An abortion by mail

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A 20-year-old Oklahoma woman suffered a miscarriage, for which she’s been sentenced to four years in prison

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That reminds me: You can get an abortion by mail.

The cost is $110-$150, depending on your location. If even that price is impossible, they're willing to charge less or nothing. 

It's AidAccess, and I've added them to the sidebar, because abortion is increasingly dangerous and illegal in Republican America. That’s cruel, stupid, and un-American, like everything the right-wing says and does. 

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I always thought Doan’s backache pills were a scam, because the only medicinal ingredient is a pain reliever. Might as well take two more aspirin, right?

A couple of years ago, though, in a what-the-hell moment when my back had been hurting all day, I bought a box of Doan’s. They’re cheap, so why not? And they do seem to help. 

This is not a paid endorsement, unless someone at Doan’s wants to send me some pills: I'm a fat old fart, and my back goes outta whack if I bend over wrong. On Thursday I bent over wrong, and all day Thursday and Friday was a festival of ouch. Bought a box of Doan’s at 2:00 this morning, and by sunrise the pain was gone and forgotten. 

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Also on the shelf in the same store — Dr Bronner’s, the world’s best bath soap in my humble opinion, now makes chocolate. You don’t bathe with it, you eat it. Not me, though. I don’t need more calories in my life.

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There was a Rolling Stones free concert that went better than Altamont.

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Stranger Things, we’re told, was somewhat inspired by spooky and secretive military experiments conducted at "Camp Hero" near Montauk Point, New York.

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A new James Bond movie is now playing, No Time to Die, and the consensus is that it’s pretty good. I haven’t seen it and won’t, because I know it’ll be overblown and BIG, with exaggerated spy antics, lookable locations, a few wisecracks, and some moments of tension, though of course there’s never any doubt that Bond will walk away AOK in the end.

This is the 27th Bond movie, and I’ve seen most of them, through the 2006 remake of Casino Royale. The word on that one was “outstanding,” but to me it was the same as almost every entry in the eternal series. It had a few less quips, as I recall, which made it less fun, but my review of that Bond flick, of every Bond flick, is: “Never quite boring, but not as good as I’d hoped.” 

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Another movie I won’t be seeing is The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos. Has the world forgotten that The Sopranos kinda sucked by the end? 

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More optimistically, Peter Jackson’s new Beatles documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, threatens to be worth six hours of my time. I’m looking forward to stealing it from Disney.

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In this fairly thorough stroll through the Hollywood age gap, Woody Allen's name keeps popping up.

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Simone wanted to be able to work on a jigsaw puzzle, without losing the use of a table for weeks, so she chose the most difficult solution. I love her dedication to doing it no matter what — stubborn people can change the world.

I would’ve cut a piece of cardboard to roughly the size of the tabletop, and laid it over the puzzle pieces, with nothing holding it in place except gravity. Then I would've relaxed in my recliner all afternoon, because that's more fun than jigsaw puzzles.

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Drugs you can’t legally buy, sell, or use — marijuana, amphetamines, and LSD — were given instead to spiders, just to see how it affected their webs.

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Does anyone sane think armed military robot dogs are a good idea?  

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 Mystery links  — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:

—①—
     —②—
          —③— 

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Sincere tip 'o the hat to:

• Becky Jo
• Dave S.
BoingBoing
Captain Hampockets
Hyperallergic
Messy Nessy Chick
National Zero
Ran Prieur
Voenix Rising
• and One of the Butt Sisters but definitely not the other.

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You’re invited to add anything below,
about anything at all. Seriously.

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 10/16/2021

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23 comments:

  1. At some point in the last decade or so, I read an article about how "they" have made a system that allows machines to absorb energy from decomposing organic matter. Extrapolated to the end, this means robots that eat organic matter. Skynet is coming, and they will eat our flesh for nutrients.

    No, I'm not joking.

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  2. Im strongly oposed to your casual endorsement of abortion, which is child murder and Im done with this website.

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  3. I'm with you completely in making sure that all women have access to safe, affordable abortions. Every sane adult knows that women of means will always have access to their needs while the poor always pay the price for political grandstanding and some people's needs to control others.

    I love that Doan's Pills actually work. They've long been a punchline for me whenever someone mentions concerns over getting 'hooked' on some over the counter medication. I've never actually tried them but I always enjoyed telling people that "I used to hit the Doan's Pills pretty hard." That and how saddened I was when my subscription to GRIT came to an end. There's something about those omnipresent ads for items few ever saw in real life that fascinate me. Just like how Boxcar Willie and Slim Whitman were always billed as selling more records than Elvis and the Beatles combined.

    As your resident Rolling Stones nut, I can say that while the Hyde Park show in the UK was a peaceful gathering, the Stones' performance was pretty rough, as new guitarist Mick Taylor had just joined the group. By some miraculous infusion of modern day electronics, the DVD now available of the concert features a band that is now in tune and on the mark. It sounds quite good. But I assure you, it sounds nothing like the bootleg tapes of the show that circulated on tape and LP and CD for decades.

    Cheers!

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    Replies
    1. Love the background on the Stones's miraculously improved performance.

      I've never seen GRIT nor knowingly heard Boxcar Willie, but I bought (and loved and frequently played) that "as seen on TV" album of Slim Whitman's greatest hits. It's not "Jumping Jack Flash," but this one's still on my playlist.

      And of course, arguments equating abortion to murder are similar to claims that Trump won the 2020 election or that the COVID vaccine carries microchips. Fools who ignore facts can be very easily programmed.

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  4. It's a minor shame you weren't a reader of CREEM magazine in the '80s. You should've written for them but you're likely just a smidge too young to have done so. (The real mag -- and not the various remakes -- died in 1989.) But they even ran a classic review of a Roger Whitaker album where they created a fake interview with him that was quite terrific. It discussed the dearth of whistling in rock music and the great generosity of record labels of that era that capped many country and easy listening albums at nine songs lest an album get too long at over half an hour and lose the listener's interest. I've never seen GRIT either, but I sure saw it advertised in odd places.

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    1. Guess I missed out on Creem — I've heard of it, but I thought it was just another music mag. Sounds like it was something different and better.

      Was it a full-fledged magazine, or a more of a zine?

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    2. It was definitely a magazine. I saw it on newsstands.

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    3. It was founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1969 by a guy who ran a headshop. Arguably the most 'famous' rock critic, Lester Bangs (whose writings I genuinely loved for being honest, funny and with a strong bs detector), moved from southern CA to Detroit to be one of the editors, though the mag in those early years never listed titles.

      The execrable Dave Marsh, who's written several unreadable books on Bruce Springsteen, brought tedious politics to the mag (half-assed would be a compliment) and eventually went to Rolling Stone where he belonged.

      Bangs left in 1976 but the mag soldiered on, being the first rock mag to have a 3-woman editorial staff, which the women involved never exploited but rather proudly did an excellent job, continuing the mag's excellence and greatly expanded its readership. It's insane to me that there are female music writers today who weren't born when these pros were doing their job who now tout themselves as the "first." Revisionary shit always sucks. (Yes, I have issues with the 'performative' culture we now live in. Quick, someone grab my phone!)

      The '80s brought new struggled for publishing. It's said that People Magazine began the awful decision to put "capsule" (short) music reviews in mainstream non-music mags. But CREEM got funnier and crazier. It was like Mad Magazine for music. It was highly irreverent, often pissing off the bands themselves. It was a terrific mag for writers. Editors used a light touch and encouraged every writer to find their own voice. No one became commercially viable. But much like a 'zine, there was a strong cult following.

      I could go on and on and namecheck writers but there's no point. If music isn't your primary interest, it's a hard sell, even though the essays on TV/movies/books were brilliant. I've likely gone on too long.

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    4. Please never apologize for enthusiasm. I *love* good writing, even good writing about music writing, like your reply.

      You made me curious enough to google and find a very abbreviated page of Creem's archives, and I've just read Lester Bangs' interview with Lou Reed. Always liked Reed, and I've heard of Bangs mostly from the movie Almost Famous. The interview is very good.

      I plan to slowly explore Creem's good old days. Also added to the sidebar. A major find, I think — thank you!

      Delete
    5. Chi — I don't remember ever even seeing it. Maybe I thought it was another magazine full of Donny Osmond.

      Linden — Found a much deeper archive than Creem's own, at this site.

      Delete
    6. Never mind. After one article, rocksbackpages.com won't let me see a second one. Fuck 'em. I'll keep looking for Creem elsewhere.

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  5. Oh, be sure to read John Kordosh's piece on RUSH. Rush fans hate it. But Kordosh was a brilliant guy. He was a scientist who held patents on various polymer/paint/glue treatments (way over my head) and played in various punk bands in Michigan and Cali. He spent several years working as an editor at CREEM.

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    1. Punk rocker, writer, and scientist!

      I shall read that article next...

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    2. Here's a link

      http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/19810600creem.htm

      It's interesting. I am a big fan of Rush. I do think that Neil Peart is one of the gretest drummers we've had. But damn, what an ass. I am not at all surprised that him and Geddy Lee are humorless twats.

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    3. Damn, I wrote an extensive reply (too long, really) that disappeared when I hit publish. No energy to recreate it now. But let's just say that CREEM did not suffer fools. If you had a sense of humor like say, David Lee Roth, they'd welcome you to call and offer quotes on anything that amused them, but if you took an arrogant stance, it was open season.

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    4. That was a terrific read, and I am becoming a big fat fan of Creem. Usually I lose interest in an article about music, because the words run out before the music ever does, but this is great stuff. Assign a reporter who doesn't like the band — brilliant.

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    5. PS. Also amusing that Chi Charone's link is to a Rush fan site that reprinted the Creem article.

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  6. Nice to see that the band girl from the American Pie movies has done well for herself making YouTube videos about making jigsaw puzzle tables.

    Seriously though, she did a great job on that table. Definitely more talented than I am, with much more conviction to finishing a project.

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    Replies
    1. I admire her attitude. "I'm gonna do this, damn it." I've known a few people like that, worked for one once and he was a great boss. But it ain't me.

      Delete

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