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Flattening three things

 Leftovers & Links #39
Click any image to engorge.

I mostly grew up, mostly, in Seattle, where the ‘Denny regrade’ is a neighborhood. What that means is, it had once been Denny Hill, but the hill had been carried away to make the city flatter. It was certainly some impressive destruction.

And why did they do the enormous work of carrying away the city's hills? They thought it would be good for commerce. Money rules the world, same then as a century later.

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Opened the microwave to zap some frozen vegetables, and found vegetables I’d zapped and forgotten. Usually I eat whatever's found in the microwave, but it had been a few days so it was moldy, and I don’t eat moldy, at least not on purpose.

I could hear myself scolding myself, though … Hey, fatboy. If you zap it to eat it but forget it’s even there, maybe you’re eating when you’re not really hungry.

See, once upon a time, I was fat. Actually, almost always I’ve been fat, until a few years back, when I dedicated myself to not being fat, ate smart instead of stupid for months and months and months, and got all the way down to just being chubby. I was proud of me, and my doctor was impressed and a little worried.

Then came COVID, and all those extra worries... and working from home, where 24/7 the refrigerator is a dozen steps away. I stopped eating smart, started eating yummy, and now there’s fifty pounds more of me.

I’m an old man who’d like to get older, so it’s time to return to sensible eating — more salads, less breads, and no ice cream (not even diet ice cream like Halo Top).

I’m announcing my new menu here, because putting it in writing makes it official, and makes it harder to cheat.

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I don’t know what this thing is called. It’s where the latch clicks when the door is closed — except I live alone so the door is never closed, and that thing sticks out so far I’ve caught my front pocket on it a hundred times. All my pants have rips in the front pockets because of this thing, so today when it snagged me and I heard that familiar sound of fabric ripping, I grabbed a hammer and flattened whatever that thing is that sticks out so far.

My question is not What is that thing?, or even Why does it stick out so far?. My question is, What the hell is wrong with me, that I’ve lived here almost twenty years, but only today it occurred to me to flatten it? Why do we put up with little annoyances like this?

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I’ve looked and looked through the comments but can’t find it: Someone posted in a comment that they’d written a comment but it got eaten by this site's comment processor.

What I wanted to say was sorry, and it’s happened to me too.

I've added a comment box in the sidebar (“Ask me anything”). If you say something there, I’ll receive it as an email, and make sure it gets posted on the page.

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Betcha didn't know that the recently deceased actor Peter Scolari (Bosom Buddies, Newhart, Girls) got his start in a porno movie.

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I’ve added The Toilet to the blogroll, because pooping is an important part of everyone’s life, and should be discussed more often.

Mine this morning was the texture of moist meatloaf. How was yours?

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I’d buy a jumbo adult-sized motor wheel. It looks too dangerous for kids, but no riskier for an adult than a motorcycle, so why not?

Seriously, if I can’t have my molecular teleporter or a hoverboard or a phaser set to stun for self-defense, I want my jumbo adult-sized motor wheel.

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There has never been an openly gay, or for that matter lesbian player in Major League Baseball. This is true of no other major sport.

Inside the article, I was moderately intrigued by this claim: 

There is a strong current of fundamentalist Christianity within baseball, which could make life uncomfortable for openly gay players. One study of Bible verses in pro athlete’s Twitter bios concluded that major league baseball players were “far and away the most overtly religious group of athletes of the four major sporting leagues.”

There’s some slight research behind it, but I’ll remain skeptical, because the methodology includes:

I am going to say clearly: this is not the perfect way to collect this data. But, honestly, I wasn’t willing to put in much work for this.

Mostly, I just hope it’s not true, because even though I don’t know whether the World Series has been played yet nor what teams are involved, baseball remains my favorite sport.

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

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EXTRA SPECIAL THANKS to:
• Becky Jo
• Dave S.
• Name Withheld

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Sincere tip 'o the hat to:
BoingBoing
Captain Hampockets
Follow Me Here
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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My pledge to you: On this website you'll never find links to Fox News, Breitbart, The Blaze, Daily Caller, Newsmax, or any of a thousand other mysteriously well-funded right-wing bullshit ‘news’ sources. 

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 10/30/2021

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7 comments:

  1. >I’ve looked and looked through the comments but can’t find it: Someone posted in a comment that they’d written a comment but it got eaten by this site's comment processor.

    This was me, or at least, I have mentioned it. I notice that it happens exclusively when I happen to catch a post soon after it's been published.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blogger is not as polished and perfect as you'd expect for a Google product, sorry.

      Delete
    2. I'm furious, and I want my money back.

      Delete
  2. >I don’t know what this thing is called.

    Strike plate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. >Betcha didn't know that the recently deceased actor Peter Scolari (Bosom Buddies, Newhart, Girls) got his start in a porno movie.

    I didn't know he died. Mild sadness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The gent had a long and successful career, but I don't think I saw anything he did after Bosom Buddies 40 years ago.

      Delete

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