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'L'

I haven't mentioned my fourth flatmate L much, because I haven't seen him much. I'm a hermit, but compared to him I'm downright sociable.

His room was originally the master bedroom, so he has his own toilet and shower, so we never bump into each other on our way to the john. When I've (rarely) seen him in the kitchen, he's never said hi to me.

We've never really met, and for months I had a hard time remembering his name. It starts with L, so I just thought of him as L. In conversation with the other flatmates, his name eventually sunk in, but to me he'll always be L.

CRANKY
OLD FART

#227

leftovers
& links

 
Thursday,
Nov. 10, 2022

He works at a grocery store, and commutes by bus. I need a job but don't work yet, but I take the bus everywhere, so several times L and I have stood together at the same stop, down the street from our house.

So I smile at him, and the first few times I said hi, but he ignored me. A few days ago, as I got onto the bus, he said, "Have a good day," which was weird but also by far the most effort he's ever put into acknowledging my existence. 

Dude has a temper, too. I rarely see him at all, but twice I've seen him furious.

Once he came home on a hot summer day and ranted to me and Robert that the front and back doors should've been left open, to cool the house.

Another time he was simply washing his dishes at the kitchen sink, but slamming them down and muttering profanities under his breath.

 
So I don't know L well, but that's OK. We'll never be buddies, and that's OK, too.

I don't dislike him. Hell, no. Almost everyone in the world is screwed up in the head, one way or another. Me, I'm the guy who wants to be left alone, and now I have competition, but I can't hold his hermitage against him.

He's better than Dean, my flatmate who never shuts up, and says the same things over and over and, "Have I told you about unsalted butter?" 

Our house is split into two levels, which aren't connected, so I don't even barely know the people living downstairs. One of them, though, rents everyone his internet access for twenty dollar a month. That's way less than buying internet access from an ISP, so six of the eight flatmates use his password. The other two aren't digital people.

One of the six, though, hasn't been paying, and Chris, the guy who has the internet, is pissed off about it. And it's L. Chris says L hasn't paid in almost a year. He's promised a few times to pay, says, "just a few more weeks," etc, but that's not the same as paying.

So yesterday, Chris from downstairs knocked on our upstairs door, and handed Robert and I a handwritten sheet with a new password. We slipped a third copy of the password under Dean's door, because he was at work cooking up unsalted-buttery masterpieces for lunch. "Don't give the password to L," Chris said, and you're damned right I won't.

Renting us his internet is a good deal. Sure, Chris comes out ahead, probably way ahead. If everyone pays, he gets $160 p/month, and that's more than the internet costs, but it also costs more than twenty bucks, so we're all making out fine. 

L wants free internet access? Fuck him.

This morning he came out of his room yelling profanities, but he didn't ask for the password. He simply left, on his way to work, presumably. Profanities aren't out of the ordinary as he leaves, so I'm not sure he's even noticed he's locked out yet. When he does, it'll be hilarious.

If you can figure out a way to steal internet access from Xfinity or AT&T or Charter or any of those rat bastard outfits, you're a hero and I'm on your side. It's not possible, morally, to steal from an entity so huge and rich and evil.

If you're stealing the internet from a human being like Chris, then you're an asshole, I'm not on your side, and I'm not gonna tell you that the new password is Nowfly22.

I wonder if women who have OnlyFans pages feel an economic pinch during "No Nut November"?

And now, the news you need,
whether you know it or not

Biden says midterm vote was a 'good day for democracy' 

Mr President, pucker up and kiss my ass. We're supposed to be happy that Republicans barely squeaked by, but didn't run up the predicted landslide of victories?

Republicans are monsters. They are opposed to reality, and to everything that makes America better than Bangladesh. It is not a good day for democracy when so many millions of ordinary Americans are willing to even consider electing Republicans.  

All-terrain wheelchairs arrive at U.S. parks: "This is life-changing" 

This will be fabulous.

My wife really missed nature when she became disabled. We once drove hundreds of miles to a Wisconsin State Park that listed itself online as wheelchair-accessible. Most aren't.

What 'accessible' meant, in a park sprawling several square miles, was a single half-mile of paved trail. And thanks for that, seriously, but the rest of the park, with its magnificent views of the Mississippi River gorge, was impossible for her. All she got was the view from our car window, or from the parking lots, or from a few bouncy dirt trails we shouldn't have gone on, and that brief stretch of paved access.

Use of these all-terrain wheelchairs in the parks should be free for anyone who shows up in a wheelchair.

80% of my students want to be social media influencers when they grow up 

We are so damned doomed.

Mastodon: A decentralized social network hailed as a Twitter alternative 

Awarding Qatar the World Cup tournament was a mistake, says astoundingly corrupt leader of astoundingly corrupt sport 

Sometime soon, Twitter will crash badly. Here's why. 

AirBNB says it'll stop lying to customers 

If bumblebees can play, does it mean they have feelings? This study suggests yes. 

Billionaires emit a million times more greenhouse gases than the average person: Oxfam 

And it never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops...

Florida deputies arrest blind man for carrying cane 

And it never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops...

Under pressure from GOP lawsuit, Philadelphia takes step that will slow vote count 

And it never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops... 

Other links I liked

The disastrous backstory behind the invention of LEGO bricks 

This is a bland article that paints the founder of LEGO as a brilliant man, and hides the real surprise pretty deep — that he swiped the idea for LEGOs from a British company called Kiddicraft.

I prefer Diet Dr Pepper myself, and dang me it's good. 

Using sound to model the world 

Maple syrup urine disease 

Old person smell

Mystery links
"Like life itself, there's
no knowing where you're going"

click 

click 

♦ ♦ ♦

♫♬  Mix tape of my mind  ♫

• "For What It's Worth" by Topher Wright

• "Loved and Lost" by Pogo

♦ ♦ ♦

The End

George Booth 

Rodney Graham 

Ian Jack 

Romano Mazzoli

11/10/2022   

Cranky Old Fart is annoyed and complains and very occasionally offers a kindness, along with anything off the internet that's made me smile or snarl. All opinions fresh from my ass. Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Comments & conversations invited.
 
Tip 'o the hat to Linden Arden, ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Captain Hampockets, CaptCreate's Log, John the Basket, LiarTownUSA, Meme City, National Zero, Ran Prieur, Voenix Rising, and anyone else whose work I've stolen without saying thanks.
 
Extra special thanks to Becky Jo, Name Withheld, Dave S, Wynn Bruce, and always Stephanie...

Cranky Old Fart
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2 comments:

  1. >I prefer Diet Dr Pepper myself, and dang me it's good.

    I always take Diet Dr Pepper. I MIGHT prefer regular, but with ALL diet sodas, the sugar is not enough added value to go non-diet. And I say this as a man who is probably 75 pounds fatter than you.

    ReplyDelete

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