Diary of a Fat Slob: Surrealist warships

Leftovers & Links #52

The D B Cooper hijacking was 50 years ago Wednesday.

Hijackings were fairly common in that era, but this one was happening right here in Seattle, while I was trying to watch the ‘Dialing for Dollars’ afternoon movie on channel 7 after school. "We interrupt for a news bulletin," and the movie never came back. Fifty years ago. Time flies like D B Cooper hisself.

The link leads to a fresh and quite well-researched article, loaded with trivia on the FBI’s fruitless investigation.

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Republicans are rigging elections for the next decade.

Quote: In Georgia, Republicans passed a new congressional map on Monday giving their party 64 percent of US House seats in a state Joe Biden won with 49.5 percent of the vote.

In Ohio, Republicans passed a new congressional map on November 18 giving their party at least 80 percent of seats in a state Donald Trump won with 53 percent of the vote.

In North Carolina, Republicans passed a new congressional map on November 4 giving their party between 71 to 78 percent of seats in a state Trump won with 49.9 percent of the vote.

In Texas, Republicans passed a new congressional map on October 18 giving their party 65 percent of seats in a state Trump won with 52 percent of the vote.

You get the idea. In state after state under GOP control, Republicans are passing extreme gerrymandered maps that will allow them to pick up enough seats to retake the US House in 2022 and lock-in dominance of state legislatures for the next decade.

Observe the Democrats’ response. Or rather, observe that there’s no response to observe.

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Mobs of looters target Bay Area retailers for third straight day.

This is an innovative strategy, and when they target stores like Louis Vuitton, Lululemon, Macy’s, and Nordstrom, it’s a victimless crime.

Sadly, they’ve also targeted smaller, genuine stores, and employees have been injured, so I’ll reluctantly be aghast like I’m supposed to be.

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Hertz is apparently really sloppy with its recordkeeping, and has accused (at least) 165 paying customers of stealing the cars they'd rented.

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At my doctor’s appointment last week, I got a measles, mumps, and rubella booster, a shingles shot, and a flu shot. You roll up your sleeve, wince for maybe a moment, and it’s over. It might ache the next day, they told me, but it didn’t.

My COVID booster is scheduled for next month, and the vaccine has been available — and free — for almost a year. Can you imagine how fucking over it America could be, if we didn’t have so many millions of cowards and imbeciles afraid of a shot?

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During World War I, bizarre designs were painted onto warships and merchant vessels, to make torpedo targeting trickier. It’s not quite clear whether this was a successful defense strategy, but it looks cool and I’d say what’s the harm?

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I found some old but still valid Burger King gift cards, so for the first time in a couple of years I’ve been eating fast food. The Whoppers are still good but they’ve changed and ruined the fish sandwiches. And sadly I guess I’ve gotten used to eating healthier, because the hamburgers just sit in my belly and make me feel like a meat- and breadball all day.

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Vice, partially funded by Saudi Arabia, has curiously little to report about the atrocities of Saudi Arabia, though there’s a smorgasboard to choose from.

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I'm stuck working in the office this week instead of from home, so all humor and creativity has been sucked out of me and replaced with anguish and ennui and hatred for humanity. Also, posting may be just once daily instead of twice.

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David Zucker thinks we’re in “a comedy emergency” because the studios are worried about jokes that might offend people on Twitter. “Comedy is not dead,” he says. “It’s scared.”

Zucker, if you've forgotten or you're unsure, is one of the trifecta that wrote Airplane!

Hadn't noticed the comedy emergency, but now that he mentions it, I haven't seen any truly funny movies or TV shows made in the past (at least) several years.

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

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Sing along with Doug:
Who’da Thunk It , by Greg Brown