CRANKY OLD FART'S
NEWS & LINKS
#353 [archive]
• Archdiocese of San Francisco likely to file bankruptcy following hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits
The Catholic Church is one of the richest entities on this planet, but we'll let them pretend their San Francisco branch is a separate entity, file bankruptcy so they never have to pay, and the church can get away with centuries of kiddie-diddling and continue kiddie-diddling until the Rapture.
• US utilities oppose Biden efforts to make gas power plants cleaner
End of discussion, right there. If the Edison Electric Institute opposes the clean-up regs, then there will be no clean-up. It's just another snapshot of the world's rich and powerful, destroying the world. Smile pretty for the camera...
• "Glacial outburst" flooding destroys at least 2 buildings, prompts evacuations in Alaskan capital of Juneau
Climate change isn't even mentioned in the coverage, though it's clearly a major contributing factor: "Such floods, known as glacial outburst floods, happen when glaciers melt and pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes."
• New investigation exposes the stomach-churning practice that goes into making your bacon
• Financier for Sound of Freedom, the wingnut anti-trafficking film, arrested for child kidnapping
And big surprise — the fans of the film, all frenzied over child kidnappings, do not care a whit.
• Republican candidates sow suspicion and distrust of government institutions
• All cops continue being bastards
🖯 MY BROWSER HISTORY 🖯
• Dude says he didn't kill his wife:
An oral history of The Fugitive (movie)
• North American English dialects, based on pronunciation patterns
• Who's the world's largest 'landowner'?
• A chat with William Friedkin
♫♬ AUDIO ♫
• Keep Banging On Your Drum — Craig Ferguson
• Me and Bobby McGee — Janis Joplin
📸 IMAGES 📸
❔ MYSTERY LINKS ❔
• Click
• Click
• Click
• Click
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👁 VIDEO 👁
• The Shoplifter
"A convicted shoplifter displays stealing methods under actual conditions and explains how employees could have prevented the thefts."
• To Hear Your Banjo Play (1947, narrated by Pete Seeger)
⚰️ OBITUARIES ⚰️
8/8/2023
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 the AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Cogent Coquette, Depsidase, Kottke,org, Looking for My Perfect Sandwich, MetaFilter, Miss Miriam's Mirror, RanPrieur.com, Voenix Rising, and anywhere else I've stolen links, illustrations, or inspiration.
Special thanks to Linden Arden, Becky Jo, Wynn Bruce, Joey Jo Jo, John the Basket, Dave S, Name Withheld, and always extra special thanks to my lovely late Stephanie, who gave me 21 years and proved that the world isn't always shitty.
I assumed William Friedkin had been dead for decades.
ReplyDeleteYour music section is particularly good today. Four of five are favorites of mine, the outlier being "Keep Banging on your Drum," which is good, but I had never heard before today.
Wish Ferguson had hit the notes better, but I love the vibe on that one.
DeleteMr Ferguson was the drummer in a number of punk bands including The Bastards from Hell. Any time you get a punk drummer to open his mouth, much less sing, you've performed a miracle. The rest is gravy. I think he hit all the important ones.
DeleteJohn
I tracked down the original version of the song, and believe Fergy's to be superior. I'm not an impartial listener, though; I love me some Craig Ferguson.
DeleteAlso - it's crude and crass, but I like to share Howard Stern and Janis Ian (The real, actual Janis Ian) performing "Seinfeld's Girl is 17):
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZVWzD1YtBg
Pretty great stuff. Saw his movie and liked it, but never listened to his show. Who writes Stern's material?
DeleteJanis seems to be having a good time too, and damn she has a great voice.
At the time of that recording, Stern's head writer was Jackie Martling. He is not a good comedian - racist and sexist. But man, he knew how to write for Howard. He was assisted by Syern himself, Producer Fred Norris, and secondary voice / writer Billy West, who is most famous (probably) as Fry in Futurama.
DeleteI have very, very complicated feelings about Howard Stern.
DeleteDo you still listen?
DeleteNo. I haven't heard one syllable from him in 15 years. I bowed out when he became stale. It's hard to explain unless you were a listener, but the bits became repetitive.
DeleteI appreciate that he became self aware. He stopped being as misogynistic. He stopped being as racial. Although I did not listen at the time, he was and is a major critic of Trump, despite having had him on decades ago and kind of being friendly with him.
He matured with age, IMO. But he got boring. I still go on YouTube and listen to his best bits, though.
My feelings about Stern have never been complicated.
Deletejtb
Fair enough. I assume you hate him, and I think we've even commented "together" about him. It's 100% understandable. I just disagree.
DeleteI'll cheerfully pop in with an utterly un-informed opinion, as a guy who's never listened to Howard Stern's show. His schtick is being outrageous, right? He's one of those "everyone's thinking this, but I'll be the one who's brave enough to say it" guys, like Joe Rogan or Mort Downey Jr (two other shows I've never paid attention to).
DeleteRogan and Downey are/were big flaming butt-holes; this I know because their stupid statements reached my eyes and ears. But clips from Stern's show have sometimes made me laugh, and it's been maybe 30 years since anything especially stupid or mean from Stern has tracked me down and smacked me in the face.
Pending further information, I declare him not a menace to American sanity, like Rogan and Downey.
Stern was originally - before I listened - simply "outrageous." Lesbians this, Mexicans that, etc. The racial shit toned way down, and FWIW, I do believe he has learned, and is not a racist person. I believe he is sexist at his core, but TRIES to not be. He has NEVER been a Republican as far as I know, so that's like nine points in his favor. Even when he was friends with Trump, TRUMP WAS A FUCKING DEMOCRAT! And he was just on because he was a HUGE NYC personality.
DeleteLike I said, I haven't listened in a loooong time. I sometimes feel dirty defending him, as he has said some shitty stuff. but man, when the show was clicking, in the mid to late 90s, it was funny, funny stuff. It was never TRULY mean-spirited like the disgusting Greaseman or Opie and Anthony. They are true fucking garbage.
Never heard of Greaseman. Googled it, and his Wikipedia page is so oring and PR-written I couldn't read far enough to be offended.
DeleteMan, when I was a kid the DJs on the radio were funny.