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Oh, the frickin' humanities.

There's not much to say today, because I've lost my damned notebook. It's a pocket-size spiral, green cover — have you seen it? 

The notebook is where everything I want to say stays until it's said. Usually it's in my pocket or on the table, but I've spent two hours going through the clutter in my room, looking all the places I might have stupidly put it, and it's vanished into another dimension.

CRANKY
OLD FART

#253

leftovers
& links

 
Thursday,
Dec. 22, 2022

Oh, the frickin' humanities. The brilliant prose I was going to put down in pixels for my literally dozens of readers — Pulitzer-worthy bus rides, conversations with bums, lines overheard at the diner… 

All those moments will be lost in time, like my notebook in this messy room.

  

I'm serious about the new improved diet and getting more exercise and trying to live a little longer, but I'm giving myself some days off from the daily walks, because it is seriously cold in this city. The forecast says 14° overnight, which is about ten degrees colder than anything I remember from growing up here. Cold enough to kill homeless people if they're not well wrapped. Cold enough for me to be sleeping in my pants.

For a hoax, climate change sure seems real.

Wisconsin, where I used to live, gets lots colder than that, but in Wisconsin I lived on a flat street in a flat city. Seattle has hills, and I live near the top of one of them. When it's raining I'll walk, and when it's 95° and I'm sweaty I'll walk, but I am not walking  up and down a hill when there's a layer of ice under the snow.

My Yaktrax  are in one of the many boxes not yet opened after moving here, so there'll be no walking until the sun warms this zip code. You'll find me in my recliner.

Which reminds me — postings might be sparse for the next few days, as I've decided that in addition to fixing up my fat body, I need to finally finish moving in and getting settled in this house. The closet still has boxes stacked four-high.

I've only unpacked the essentials, and left everything else in boxes, first because I wasn't sure I was staying — Dean bugs me — and after I'd decided this is home, everything stayed in boxes just because I'm lazy.

Nine months I've been here, though. It's time to unpack, and generally tidy up the room. Maybe I'll find my notebook in the mess.

News you need,
whether you know it or not

Wells Fargo to pay $3.7 billion for mistreating customers 

Fines, even multi-billion-dollar fines, don't mean much to Wells Fargo. If we wanted to actually punish and prevent such criminal activity, executives would be arrested and the bank would be liquidated, or better yet, nationalized.

That'll never happen, because the people in power don't want to punish and prevent criminal conduct by big banks and big business.

Rob a bank of $500, though, and you're going to prison.

DEA seized enough fentanyl to kill every American in 2022 

Oh, bullshit. Since at least 1909 when opium was banned, the authorities have been lying about drugs. They'll never stop.

ABC News presents "enough fentanyl to kill every American" as fact, but it's only a quote from the person who runs the Drug Enforcement Agency — an entire bureaucracy with a vested interest in keeping Americans frightened.

Schools lose fight for anonymity after censored tours at human rights museum 

Climate change forces KCBX Public Radio to halt FM broadcasting in Santa Barbara 

And it never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, because climate change isn't 'coming', it's underway. It'll kill billions, and we're not doing squat about it.

El Paso officer arrested, accused of video recording in women's police station locker room 

And it never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, because all cops are bastards, or they know who the bastard cops are and do nothing about it, which is the same thing.

Ohio AG sorry 10 year old rape victim wasn’t lying 

And it never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, never stops, because Republicans are the enemy of common sense, common decency, simple truth, and democracy.

Journey bandmates in legal fight over performance for Donald Trump 

Clicks ahoy 

Libraries offer music streaming services that really support local musicians 

Seattle Public Library is a member, and it's basically free streaming music from local bands.

The Oppermanns, a long-forgotten masterpiece published in 1933 and recently reissued with a revised translation by the novelist Joshua Cohen, is a book written in real time, right on the threshold of Nazi Germany. 

• Mystery links... like life itself, there's no knowing where you're going, so click and click and click a third time.

Man who could have been holding gun in diverging timeline shot dead by police 

Bubbles 

♫♬  Mix tape of my mind  ♫

Circles — Billy Preston 

From the Beginning — Emerson Lake & Palmer 

Lost for Words — Pink Floyd 

Science Fiction Double Feature — Rocky Horror 

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised — Gil Scott-Heron 

The End

Eric Allison 

Frances Hesselbein 

Charlotte Mayer 

Curt Simmons 

Robert Toth

12/22/2022   

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...

7 comments:

  1. "literally dozens of readers" - I would've guessed you got a lot more than that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I haven't checked the numbers in months, but they never much change and I don't much give a shit.

      Delete
  2. I also write in a spiral notebook but it's full sized, 8 1/2 by 11, is unlined, and I can only get them in Mexico, so I stocked up last time. Been going through about 100 pages a month both sides recently, but usually not so prolific...Carry on...Eel Paradise

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you also draw, and thus don't want the lines?

      Writing in an unlined notebook would be like eating corn on the cob without teeth.

      Delete
    2. I prefer unlined paper as well, for basically anything.

      Delete
    3. I prefer unlined rolling papers.

      Delete
    4. I think you can only get the lined kind south of the border.

      jtb

      Delete

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