Music Friday: "Shadows Follow"

Apparently Metallica has a new album coming out this year. 

I heard part of an interview of Lars Ulrich with Conan O'Brien yesterday, and just today as I was listening to the Liquid Metal SiriusXM station, I heard this song. 

Music Friday: "Whip-Smart"

I've been revisiting some albums and artists I enjoyed long ago. 

One of those musical artists is the brilliant and fetching Liz Phair. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I'd like for someone to give me a scientific explanation as to why chili tastes better after you've cooked it, stored it in the refrigerator, and eaten it later.

Here are some interesting stats and factoids from the May Harper's Index:

• Number of weeks the median American head of household had to work to support a middle-class family in 1985: 40
• In 2022: 62
• Percentage increase over the past two decades in the number of Americans over 65 in the labor force: 132
• Percentage increase since 2011 in the number of managers in the U.S. labor force: 32
• Factor by which this is more than the overall increase in U.S. workers: 2.5 

And here are some more the April 3/10 issue of The Nation:

• Amount the United States spent on its military in 2020: 778 billion
• Number of Iraqi citizens killed in direct war-related violence since the 2003 U.S. invasion: 275,000
• Amount the U.S. paid private companies for products and services during the Iraq War between 2003 and 2007: 85 billion
• Estimated number of people killed directly in major U.S. wars since September 11, 2001: 900,000

The Nation had a good reprint of their editorial in that issue about how they came out against the Iraq War. What a waste of lives and resources. We never should have invaded Iraq, a position I shared with the editorial staff of The Nation.

Music Friday: "Flyover Halftime"

I'm late. I had a hectic Friday and just forgot about it. 

I did pick up the new album, The Price of Progress, by The Hold Steady this week. 

After a first listen, I'm digging it, especially the final track on the album. 

Musing of the Moment: April Harper's Index

Here are some interesting stats and factoids from the April "Harper's Index":

• Amount, in hours, by which the top-earning 10 percent of U.S. men worked less last year than in 2019: 77
• By which the bottom-earning 10 percent of men worked more: 37
• Percentage of U.S. workers who have used ChatGPT for work who have not disclosed this: 68
• Portion of K-12 educators who have caught students using ChatGPT to cheat: 1/4
• Portion of parents with children under 18 who are worried about their children's mental health: 3/4
• Who are worried about their children being kidnapped: 3/5
• Being shot: 1/2
• Percentage decrease over the past five years in the number of Americans who believe in God: 6
• Chances that a U.S. adult under 30 believes in astrology: 2 in 5

The rich get richer and work less, and the poor work more. 

Do Chatbots dream of electric sheep?

At risk of sounding like an old fart, when I was a kid, I don't think parents gave much thought about a kid's "mental health" unless the kid showed some kind of severe problems. 

Hell, I was a depressed kid. Heck, I'm in general a depressed individual. But you don't see me going around whining about my "mental health." Some days were good. Other days weren't so good. 

So it goes. 

Considering the number of guns that are out and about in the U.S., I'm more worried about my kids getting shot at school/college or me getting shot.

I'm astounded by how many people believe in astrology. That crap is goofier in believing in a dude who turned water into wine.  

Random Notes from a Crank

I recently unfollowed a so-called friend on Facebook after I read a dumb-ass post of hers about a chem trails conspiracy theory. 

I need fewer nutjobs on my social media. 

The crazy thing is that I casually knew this woman in college and became FB friends a few years ago. She had some silly post about chemtrails, which correlates with the things I heard about how she and her husband believe that Covid is a US government conspiracy. 

You can't reason with stupid. 

I've been thinking of reading some classic pieces of literature that I never got around to reading during my lifetime. 

My first choice is For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway. I've read almost everything written by Hemingway, but I just never got around to reading that novel.

I also never got around to reading Catch-22 by Heller.  

I have a copy of Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner that a colleague gave to me. That's a possibility. I tried starting it once but wasn't in the mood for it for whatever reason. 

I've also been thinking of classics from Russian literature. Way back when I took a World Lit II course, we read part of A Hero of Our Time by Lermontov, which I liked at the time. 

Then other options are The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, War and Peace by Tolstoy, and Doctor Zhivago by Pasternak. 

Then I've thought about Don Quixote by Cervantes. 

Some of these could be very long reads. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I'm such a heathen that on Sunday I had planned to clean out the front flower beds and went to Rural King to get some lawn and leaf bags but had to come back home empty handed since it was Easter. 

So I did all that on Monday. 

And on Easter Sunday I cleaned out both of our vehicles. 

There's a saying that I find pernicious. It's "Happy wife, happy life." I think this saying is a bit problematic since there isn't one for "happy husband." If there were a saying about a happy husband, here is a realistic aphorism: "Happy husband--Wait, why is he happy?" 

You see, the normal heteronormative gaze of American culture doesn't care too much about happy husbands. At least that's the way I feel these days. 

This summer I'm expecting to buy a new vehicle for myself. It'll be the first new vehicle I've ever had because I've either bought used cars and taken over Mrs. Nasty's old car since she got a new one. I'm thinking of something sensible and fuel-efficient. It's not like I need some big SUV or something. Mrs. Nasty already has one of those - a Nissan Pathfinder. 

But I'm intrigued by electric vehicles. A new one is probably out of my price range though. And the Washington Post's article, "Should You Buy an Electric Car? Advice for People on the EV Market," sheds some light on the options. I'm intrigued by the Nisan Ariya, but like I said, it's out of my price range. 

Music Friday: "Fell on Black Days"

This song fits my general mood these days. I haven't been posting much, but I plan to get better. I'm kind of in a blogging mini-slump because of a number of factors. 

Regardless, here's a song from one of my favorite bands.