Random Notes from a Crank

In a not surprising move, the goons working for President Adolf are removing pictures of slaves' scars from being whipped by their slavemasters: "National Park to Remove Photo of Enslaved Man's Scars." 

it's just another aftermath of white supremacy running wild. 

Robert Ariail's political cartoon is a good summation. 

The Washington Post has an interesting article that talks about tree coverage in cities. It's interactive in that you can put in the city in which you live and see the tree coverage where you live. 

It's "Which Cities Have the Most Trees? See How Yours Stacks Up." 

In the town I live in, the percentage is 29.2%. Below are the previous towns I've lived in. 

Where we lived previously, in St. Louis, it's 32.8%

Tuscaloosa, Alabama comes in at 39.6%

Kansas City, Missouri has tree coverage of 34.1%. 

Kirksville, Missouri is only 20.9%. 

My hometown of Waterloo, Iowa is at 23%. 

The thinking goes, which is somewhat backed by scientific studies, that more trees is better for everyone involved because of shade, oxygen, and better mental health. People tend to be in better moods in a green environment. 

Today when I was driving to work, I saw an older lady walking with a stroller. It had a dog in it.

The absurdity of it all. We recently got a little dog, who is a Cockapoo, and he's taking walks right away. 

Dogs are not babies. 

Musing of the Moment: Resistance Gardens

I'm a gardener, mainly a vegetable gardener. 

I saw a great post on Tik Tok that talked about how during WWII people planted "victory gardens" because of the war effort, and these gardens produced 40% of the vegetables people ate during the war. 

I like the idea so much that I got a Victory Garden t-shirt from Civil Standard a couple of years back except it's in light blue. 

Considering how much of our produce is imported from Mexico, some folks might want to start planting some resistance gardens. 

President Adolf's trade wars are madness. Plant a Resistance Garden. 

Random Notes from a Crank

"The Perfect Boob Throughout History, From Big Ol' Things to Bee Stings" is a fascinating read if you're interested in cultural mores, societal attitudes, groupthink, and, well, boobs. 

Trump went to Mexico to talk with the country's President. Mexico's president clearly stated he told Trump that Mexico will not pay for his stupid wall. Trump lied and said they didn't discuss the matter. You can call Clinton a liar if you like, but this dude is a liar and classic bullshit artist. Just check out the Washington Post's fact check on his immigration speech: "Fact-Checking Trump's Immigration Speech." 

The Clinton ad below is now airing in Arizona. I'd be really surprised if Clinton wins Arizona. That would be a serious kick in the short and curlies for the GOP if it does happen.  



It looks like I'm going to be an assistant coach for my son's flag football team. The first practice is Friday. 

For years, I've calculated my dog's "human age" by the traditional 1-to-7-year ratio. Come to find out that ratio is inaccurate. The first year of a medium dog's life compares to 15 years. The second year compares to 9 years. The years thereafter compare to 4 years. So my dog is not 70. She's 56. Check it out from the AKC: "How to Calculate Dog Years to Human Years." 

Random Notes from a Crank

One of the dangers of having a subscription to The New Yorker is the magazine's "Briefly Noted" feature, which introduces people to recently published books. One issue sucked me into buying The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman, and now I'm considering other books that the feature introduced me to: Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America and Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-first.  

I've been a subscriber to Utne magazine since high school. The spring issue features a number of great articles. Here are three of them:

• "Bee-ware of Neonics" by Nicole Rivard. Considering how our food supply relies on bees and other pollinators, there either needs to be a ban or a multi-year moratorium on these pesticides. 
• "Building with Culture in Mind" by Fernando Pages Ruiz. Home builders are adjusting their plans according to cultural preferences that are not cookie-cutter. 
• "Will Racism Ever End, Will I Ever Stop Being a Nigger?" Just read it.

If you're interested in words that have grammatical versatility, check out "In Which We Get to the Bottom of Some Crazy-Ass Language." 

Random Notes from a Crank

On Monday evening when I picked up my daughter from dance class, I observed a simple conversation between two people who were also there to pick up their daughters. I happened to notice as one speaker asked a question and the other replied and the conversation went on for a bit that they never looked each other in the eyes. They talked to each other as they stared at their iPhones. No eye contact -- just talking while looking at their phones. I don't even think they knew they were doing it, and I'm not sure if they would care if they knew. 

Also on Monday, I had to deal with a tremendous headache. I don't know whether the headache stems from going back to work after the holiday or because I'm somehow mimicking what I've been reading about Thomas Jefferson, who suffered from debilitating migraines. 

And after reading about the various accounts of what Aaron Burr might have been up to after he lost the presidential election and killed Alexander Hamilton, I had to order David O. Stewart's American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America. But I'm also wondering if there's ever been some "what if?" fiction written about Aaron Burr winning the 1800 election or being successful with whatever he intended to do in New Orleans or Texas or Mexico or elsewhere around 1807 and 1808. Someone could write some serious dystopian historical fiction if they wanted to. If you do take this idea and run with it, you owe me. 

Disney Post-Mortem

As is our fashion, when we visit the grandparents in Florida, we usually take in a Disney theme park or two.

Here are some random observations from this trip to Disney:

• What is it with going to Disney that makes college football fans wear all of their gameday gear? I saw scads of LSU fans with their garb on along with Auburn, Tennessee, Florida, and Alabama. There was lots of double- and triple-dorking going on. For example: a guy wearing a Michigan jersey along with a hat; a dude wearing a strange camo-like sweat suit with LSU on the pants, jacket, and hat--all matching; and a fellow decked out in Georgia red and black. Less is more, people.
• I'll say this again: tattoos don't age well.
• I'm not being xenophobic here, but in America we tend to walk on the right side of the street like we drive our cars. Get with it, Europeans.
• We destroy main streets across America, but then we create hokey facsimiles of them in theme parks? Is America, as Bill Bryson relates I'm a Stranger Here Myself, prone to celebrating things it destroys? Is American culture a Faux Culture?