Random Notes from a Crank

I've heard of French bread, and I've heard of Italian bread. But this is the first time I've had French Italian bread. 

What manner of culinary mash-up of this? They didn't even have the grammatical acumen to use an hyphen. 

I'm sure I've said this before on this blog, or maybe I just have thought it many times. I don't go to Walmart often, but when I do, I feel much better about myself. 

If you want to feel better about your body image or your sense of style, go to Walmart. You'll feel like a healthy and well dressed person. 

The New York Times did an interesting analysis. Apparently the retaliatory tariffs from other countries are going to hurt areas that widely voted for President Adolf: "Trade War Retaliation Will Hit Trump Voters Hardest." 

I think it's pretty clear we are headed to a showdown about the Constitution and about what the Executive Branch can and cannot do. I don't feel good about with the makeup of the Supreme Court. 

Perhaps this trend has always been the case, but based on my history of watching Reels, my trinity of jokesters is Norm Macdonald, Bill Burr, and Seinfeld (the TV series). 

I started watching Krapopolis on Netflix. Episode 11 that uses the Hydra to signify social media was a brilliant move. 

Musing of the Moment: Tottenham's Away Kit

Tottenham's away kit got released recently. You can see it below and read about it on Footy Headlines. 

I dig the new away kit. I like the mixture of three different blues and how the cockerel atop the ball is in the middle of the shirt. 

My only question is why Nike went with the kind of strange-looking v-neck. Why not just do a regular v-neck? I don't understand. 

If I were to get a Tottenham jersey, I think this would be the one I would get. However, the damn thing costs $95. That figure is astounding. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I recently resubscribed to Mother Jones after not having a subscription for a couple of years. In the first issue I received this year, there's an excellent recount about how the GOP, from a historical perspective, has aided and abetted extremism and white supremacy for decades. 

It didn't start with Moscow Don. The Republican Party has been pandering to racists and nativists and angry white people for decades in order to get votes. 

The article is by David Corn and is titled "The Elephant in the Room" in the physical magazine but has a much longer title on the website: "It Didn't Start with Trump: The Decades-Long Saga of How the GOP Went Crazy." 

The article appears to be a précis of Corn's book American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy. I'm thinking of buying it, but I'm concerned it will just make me more angry than I already am. 

Regardless, as Corn relates in the next to last ¶ of his article, "But since at least the 1950s, the party has consistently boosted extremism, prejudice, paranoia, and rage. Sometimes this has led to the GOP prevailing in political battles. In other instances, voters have beaten back the cynical gambit." 

As someone who has strong opinions about football uniforms since I watch a lot of American football, I have to say that the orange helmets and uniforms that the Chicago Bears wore last week were terrible. 

Those helmets made me call the Bears team the "Great Pumpkins." And like the Great Pumpkin of Peanuts fame, they didn't show up at the end of the game in that snooze-fest that saw the Commanders beat the Pumpkins 12 to 7. 

I am rewatching the HBO series Deadwood, and I got to episode 7 of season 2 and was reminded of this great scene, which has Swearengen giving advice to Merrick about stopping moping around and feeling bad for himself.

I deal with so many people who make excuses when times get rough. They need to listen to Al. 

Here are some interesting factoids and stats from this month's "Harper's Index""

• Percentage change since 2019 in the portion of Americans who believe environmental laws are worth the cost: -23
• Percentage of U.S. voters who view climate change as the most important problem facing the country: 1
• Of U.S. voters under thirty who do: 3
• Portion of American young adults who have considered enlisting in the military: 1/10
• Portion of those who are ineligible to enlist: 3/4
• Percentage increase since 2019 in the number of independent bookstores in the United States: 34
• Percentage of undergraduates who say they encounter at least moderate difficulty with online learning: 94
• Percentage of Democrats that Republicans believe are atheist or agnostic: 36
• Percentage that are: 9

I guess I'm part of that 9 percent. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I'm in the midst of reading Range: Why Generalist Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein, and in Chapter 4: "Learning, Fast and Slow," he relates a lot of educational research that I already knew about spacing learning, generating educated guesses even if they're wrong, and self-testing. 

Another concept is interleaving, which is in contrast to blocked practice, which is when one practices the same thing or procedure over and over and over. In contrast, is varied or mixed practice, which researchers call "interleaving." With mixed practice, you vary the practice, so your mind can revisit the points, procedures, or moves. 

I came to one passage in the chapter that applies directly to my son. One of the sports he plays is competitive basketball. He's a strong ball handler and shooter, but he needs to do better at free throws. 

Here's the passage that stands is this one: "The 'desirable difficulty' coiner himself, Robert Bjork, once commented on Shaquille O'Neal's perpetual free-throw woes to say that instead of continuing to practice from the free-throw line, O'Neal should practice from a foot in front of and behind it to learn the motor modulation he needed." 

It's a technique to try. 

A few years ago I watched The Twilight Zone from the start, season 1 episode 1, to the end, which is season 5 episode 36. Seems like the appropriate time to rewatch all those fine episodes again. 

I could used to this working from home gig. I can't remember the last time I wore pants or jeans. I wear athletic shorts in the house, and then I change into shorts or athletic pants when I walk the dog or venture to a store. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I found a typeface I will now be using more of: Charter. It's easier on my eyes when I look at documents on a screen. 

For this blog I've been using Trebuchet for years. It's a sans serif font that has some serif-like style with its pointedness. 

And this all reminds me of the character Brick from The Middle who is also fascinated with typefaces. 

I started watching that show a few months ago. It's hilarious. Of course, with my timing, I didn't actually watch the sit-com when it was off the air. 

HBO has a new series I'm interested in: Watchmen. I enjoyed the graphic novel and its adaptation to the big screen. On the latter opus, I guess I"m a minority if one goes by all the vitriol on the InterWebs. I don't know what the series will be like, but I was surprised by Don Johnson being in the show. I haven't seen him in years. 

His Dark Materials looks very interesting too. I'm intrigued. I'm considering reading the novel trilogy that is the series' basis. 

Who are the morons who started the idiotic trend of wearing socks with Birkenstocks?

Random Notes from a Crank

I heard something the other day that flannel shirts are coming back in style. Finally after toting around those shirts from Kirksville, MO to Tuscaloosa, AL to St. Louis, MO and finally to Charleston, IL I'm ready to unleash them on the fashion scene. 

Well, to be truthful, I've been wearing them from time to time all these years. I just didn't really care what people think. 

My daughter went up to watch the Purdue-Illinois game on Saturday. Since she's been indoctrinated correctly, she cheered against the Illini. Of the Big Ten teams out there, that would be probably the last team I'd root for. 

When I go to a store of some sort, when I ask for something, and the clerk/worker calls me "boss" it bothers me. If I go to one of local grocery stores and ask for something from meat counter, the clerk might call me "boss." I don't like it. The guy (usually a guy) says something like "Sure thing, boss" or "Right away, boss." I don't get the reasoning behind calling me "boss." All I am asking for is some meat from you. I don't need you bringing up a word choice that denotes some kind of out-of-whack power differential. 

It kind of reminds me of Marcie calling Peppermint Patty "sir" in the Peanuts comic strip. 

Random Notes from a Crank

My paranoia about electronic voting machines appears to be well founded. As the article "Homeland Security Offical: Russian Government Actors Tried to Hack Election Systems in 21 States" relates, an FBI counterintelligence official said that "Russia’s goal was to 'sow discord' in the United States and to 'denigrate' Clinton and help Trump." 

As I've said before, I talk about the 45th president as "MoscowDon." So should many other people. 

I just worry about anyone, let alone Russian hackers, being able to screw around with electronic voting machines and alter election results. I want to go back to old fashioned ballots. 

Men's Health magazine provides advice in "11 Things Men Shouldn't Wear This Summer." I'm good with all of those recommendations except for one. I wear cargo shorts on a regular basis. 

The guy who founded Cook's Illustrated has left the magazine and started his own cooking mag. It's called Christopher Kimball's Milk Street magazine. I signed up for the charter issue. It's free.

Random Notes from a Crank

We spent a week in Orlando for a national dance competition my daughter's squad was competing in. One we went to Typhoon Lagoon. One phenomenon I noticed there and at the local swimming pool this summer is that some men wear underwear under their swim trunks. I don't understand. Men's swim trunks have liners in them. What's the point? Are some guys ball sacs so sensitive that they have to wear underwear to swim? 

On a positive note, going to a massive waterpark like that one can make a person feel better about their body image. 

The GOP Convention starts today. I expect it to be ridiculous. 

Speaking of ridiculous, this short article, "Republican Platform Declares Coal is Clean," should have been put out by The Onion, not Grist. You could accuse the RNC of plagiarism. 

My family and friends of our family have recently gotten into geocaching. I enjoy it. It gets me outside and walking and exploring places. 

Random Notes from a Crank

In the November election in Illinois, there are a number of ballot initiatives. The Millionaire Tax Increase for Education has a certain degree of appeal. You could argue that it's a flat-out voter turnout generator in response to Rauner running for Governor (and probably winning since Quinn and the Democratic Party of IL are so inept). Then again, maybe there's something more to it if you've read "Right vs. Left in the Midwest" from political science professor Lawrence R. Jacobs. 

Here's how US Uncut described the situation on its FB page:

Today The Onion provided a fine article from its archives. Check out "18-Year-Old Miraculously Finds Soulmate in Hometown." 

I'm thinking about buying some dark brown, old-school wingtips. I've always liked wingtips.They look good with dress slacks, and they look good with jeans. Yes, I just used the word "slacks." If you like wingtips, that old-fashioned term is appropriate. 

If you're not watching Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, you should. Grist has a short intro to his report about sugar. Here's "John Oliver's Takedown of the Sugar Industry is Pretty Sweet."  

I don't know if I buy the pseudo-Rogerian argument that leads to a delayed thesis in this article, but "Why Comics Are More Important Than Ever" made me think about my reading practices and some of the reasons I like comics/graphic novels. 

Speaking of comics, in the mail today I got Brian Wood's final installment of his four-volume storyline of Star Wars after the Rebels destroyed the first Death Star and are looking for a base of operations. 

May the Force be with you.

Random Notes from a Crank

If you're aware of Sherry Turkle's work or know about her through her appearances on various talk shows, you might find "The Eavesdropper" by Megan Garber worthy of a quick read. Turkle is working on a follow-up book after Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. The new book is tentatively titled Reclaiming Conversation. As she says at the end of Garber's article, "Everybody's talking. And nobody's talking about anything except what's on the machines." "The Flight from Conversation" is a good read too, one that appears to be a preview of her new book. 

One of the books I'm currently reading is The Art of the Commonplace, which is a collection of essays from Wendell Berry. It'll be good to revisit a bunch of essays I read years ago, some of them probably been a decade or so. 

If you like good defense, the Super Bowl was fun to watch if you were rooting for the Seahawks. The Nasty family backed the Ospreys because Seattle has two former Tide players (James Carpenter and Jesse Williams) on its squad. Also, Mrs. Nasty loves those uniforms. 

As newfangled uniforms go, I'd have to agree with her. But it's hard to beat the college uniforms of Alabama (home and away), Penn State (home), USC (home), LSU, Iowa, Ole Miss, and Michigan (home). 

As for the NFL teams, I've always been fond of the uniforms of the Vikings, Packers, Colts (classic look), and the old-school Jets.  

Random Notes from a Crank

I rarely get into casual conversations about politics, but when I do, if the person I'm talking with says he is worried about "entitlement programs," that's usually a tell that person grew up with the benefit of financial assistance from his parent/s once he screwed up and needed a sweet influx of cash. Rich people like to worry about "entitlement programs" because they've been entitled to stable financial backing. Poor people worry about getting through the week. 

I finally got around to reading my spring issue of The American Scholar. The feature article is "Color Lines: How DNA Ancestry Testing Can Turn Our Notions of Race and Ethnicity Upside Down" by W. Ralph Eubanks. It's worth  a good read. Ponder this passage if the title intrigues you: "What we see when we look at a person may or may not correlate to his or her ancestral and ethnic background. DNA results confirmed for me that identity cannot be constructed based on a “percentage” of African ancestry, and that our society’s generally accepted racial categories cannot begin to address the complexity and nuance of our heritage. I soon began to think about race only in terms of culture and biology together. And as race became an abstract rather than a concrete concept, the categorical ways in which I had thought about race in the past were quickly broken down. Once we see how small the differences are that bring about the characteristics we think of as racial—hair, skin color, eyes, facial features—in relation to the entire human genome, it’s hard to make a fuss about them. Our differences are astonishingly slight."

During the summer I interact with incoming college students and their parents on a regular basis. In yet another sign I'm getting old, one recycled fashion trend I've noticed is the resurgence of boat shoes. I didn't care for them in the 80s, and I still don't like them. Regardless, happy boating everyone! 

Random Notes from a Crank

The kids and I have gone sledding for two days in a row. That doesn't happen very often around these parts. 

A while ago we got a catalog from Mental Floss. They produce a magazine along with witty t-shirts. Even though I won't buy any because I think $24.99 is too expensive for a stinkin' t-shirt, I like a lot of them. Here are some of my favorites:

• Hokey Pokey Anonymous: A place to turn yourself around
• Hyperbole is the BEST thing ever!
• I avoid cliches like the plague
• Homonyms are a reel waist of thyme
• I'm no rocket surgeon
• Gravity it's time to get down
• Kinetic Energy pass it on
• Spork the other white utensil
• Lady Macbeth Hand Soap

If I'm going to buy an expensive t-shirt, I'd get something from RetroPresident, a website that is not functioning properly, unfortunately. I'd get the shirt that features Teddy Roosevelt running for President as a member of the Progressive, aka Bull Moose, Party. 

Shallow Thoughts on Fashion

As part of my gig this summer, I man an informational table for a sliver of the afternoon on most weekdays during a "fair" for incoming first-year students.

When I'm not talking to folks, the fair is a good venue for people watching. Often, I witness the behavior of helicopter parents, get to see how these young adults get along pretty well with their parental units, and observe how the child takes after or doesn't take after certain parents in physical appearance, gait, and personality.

But I thought I'd post my shallow thoughts on the fashion I see around me, fashion of both the parents and the new students.

Neon shoestrings seem to be in vogue with some of the kids these days. I wonder if they come with complimentary Cyndi Lauper cassettes. I haven't seen that stuff since the 80s. The future's so bright I gotta wear shades.

I'm surprised that people still wear boat shoes. I tried some on once a long time ago. They were uncomfortable and ugly.

Last year I noticed lots of tattoos on young adults, especially those foot tattoos with fancy script on 'em. The ubiquitous ankle tattoos seemed to have fallen out of favor and been overtaken by those scripty deals. Not so many tattoos this year so far though. I guess the youngins will wait until they're in college to get all inked up. Or not? Are tattoos falling out of fashion, or is this data set an aberration?

Maybe this is some kind of metrosexual moment for me here, but how do khaki shorts and grey shirts match? That's bland on bland. Gentlemen, you can do better than that. Get in the game.

I need to create a clothing company that has massive factories where t-shirts cost wholesale about two bucks. I'll slap some kind of brand name on them, something like Richley & Co. or Bascombe & Tilly or Love Nasty (Get it? A spoof on "Love Pink"), mark 'em at $30-45 a shirt or shorts or whatever, and make a killing. It's not about the quality of the merchandise--it's the image, the brand they have to have. I shouldn't throw stones too hard though. I wore Ocean Pacific shirts in junior high school. Hollister is the new Ocean Pacific and Hobie just with better marketing and infrastructure.

Those tight t-shirts have to be uncomfortable. I mean how does a guy lift his arms in those things?

Flashbacks of Junior High

I was reading a post on Roxane Gay's blog the other day, and she makes a funny crack about how the members of her writing group should all get Members Only jackets.

The image of Members Only Jackets created flashbacks to junior high school, the fashion thereof, and other desires.

I admit I had a Members Only jacket back then in sixth and seventh grade. I got compliments from girls, which naturally made me nervous and self-conscious. Well, for full disclosure here, I doubt it was a true Members Only jacket but a knockoff of some sort that my mom picked up at the Waterloo K-Mart after strategic whining from yours truly. So a K-Members Only jacket. It wasn't in an elite membership -- let's just say that. My parents, two people who lived their early childhoods during the Great Depression, were/are the practical sort, so the jacket although goofy in obvious ways wasn't too dissimilar from regular jackets. And at K-Mart prices, there's no problem there.

The other fashion staple of the early 80s were pants that were the rage in my corner of northeastern Iowa at the time, probably a year or two after they were the in-garment on the coasts. You might have guessed what I'm talking about here: parachute pants.

Yes, parachute pants. I'm still waiting for them to make a comeback simply because I want to laugh at people for wearing the stupid garment. I will not lie though. I wanted a pair. At least one pair to be like the cool kids would suffice. But Virg and Deloras saw right through that fashion silliness. Add the strangeness of somewhat skintight garments with multiple zippers and pockets to the fact that they were expensive, that's not a good equation for this guy. No parachute pants for this fellow. No way.

Oh but I did appreciate them. I did a lot of appreciating since as we know junior high is when puberty hits. And young ladies at that time, well, they wore parachute pants. The noise the pants made as girls walked down the halls of West Junior was erotic to me. Like others, I had sensitive antennae to such things, which leads me to the accidental foresight my parents had when I get to thinking about it.

I mean, how do you hide a boner in parachute pants?

As you might have predicted, there are stores on the Internet who will gladly truck in economic nostalgia for those of us who desire, who desperately need, parachute pants. Click HERE for one such store. I wonder if I can talk Mrs. Nasty into buying a pair.

Sucker for a Cheap T-Shirt

As you can see from the photo above, Captain America approves of this shirt. Or should he?

Since I'm a sucker for cheap, cheesy t-shirts and I'm also a fan of Rural King, there was little doubt I would purchase this for $3 from the clearance rack.

Even though I got this shirt and a couple of others at bargain basement prices last week, there's some dark humor going on here. This shirt, with the flag blazoned across it, was made in Haiti, easily one of the poorest countries in the world.

It's a simple example of globalization, of course, but by "serving our customers," who also is being "served"? A simple anecdote of affluenza or capitalism as it should be?

Dressing Up for Games

This afternoon after a morning of writing and yard work and then more writing in the early afternoon, I turned on the TV to one of my favorite channels, the MLB Network. And MLB was broadcasting the fourth game of the 1969 World Series that pitted the Mets vs. the Orioles, of which I caught the last 15 minutes.

In the past, I've stumbled upon old pictures of baseball games and broadcasts of old games. And I've always been fascinated by how people used to dress up for sporting events. In the past, I had usually thought of that practice being firmly entrenched in our culture until the 60s came about.

So I was surprised when a Met hit a foul ball to the right field and I saw some shots of the stands, and there in '69 most of the men were in sport coats and ties, and the women were in dresses and some had fancy hats, at least in the lower echelons of the stands, the good seats. I didn't get to see the upper decks since I only caught the last part of the game.

Unlike games in the 40s and 50s, I didn't notice any men wearing hats, but in the late 60s, people were still dressing up for games. When did this practice of dressing up for game die out I wonder? When was the tipping point?

Nowadays at least, you have all kinds of people dressing for comfort, especially on college campuses where some students seem to revel in dressing like flippin' slobs. And when I've gone to pro baseball games in the past, fans are dressing "up" in their team's gear, not in coats and ties and fancy dresses.

The exception I can think of, however, is college football in the South ~ how people in Greek organizations dress up in formal attire for football games. It's a big deal. You'll see shaggy headed frat boys in sport coats and ties sweating away during games as sorority girls show off fashionable sundresses and outfits.

My one disclaimer is that I don't know if this is predominant across all of the South. I've just seen it first-hand at Bryant-Denny (Alabama) and Vaught-Hemingway (Ole Miss), and I've seen such attire being worn in the stands when I've watched games on TV played in Starkville, Athens, Auburn, Columbia, and Baton Rouge. I'm not clear on whether this Greek formal attire phenomena also happens at Kentucky, Vandy, Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

The Chuck Norris of Shirts

A friend of mine passed on this link from Amazon.com about the benefits and joy that the "Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt" provides to its wearers.

Click HERE to view the shirt and pick from reading the 860 customer reviews. Funny stuff people.

Question: How Do You Tell When a Bowden is Lying?....

Answer: His mouth is moving.

Tommy Bowden, head coach of Clemson (pronounced "Clempsin" in the South), has started the poor-mouthing early for his squad's neutral site game vs. Alabama. Click HERE for his comments.

With a stellar QB, two outstanding running backs, a solid set of WRs, and a strong secondary, Bowden cites his question marks at the o-line and linebackers.

Since Alabama's front seven is young, untested, and lacks significant depth, I see a tough task ahead of the defense when the Crimson Tide meets the Tigers for the first game of the season in the Georgia Dome. 

Regardless, and in honor of my hankering for college football to start, I bought this wonderfully cheesy shirt (see below) that references the crazy power of the Alabama tailgating subculture, a subculture that Warren St. John artfully describes in his bestseller Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer (LINK to that book's site).

For those into politics and looking for interesting t-shirts...

You gotta check out this website. RetroPresident.com has t-shirts and sweatshirts with old campaign slogans/emblems on them.

Personally, I'm thinking about buying TR's 1912 campaign when he ran under the Progressive "Bull Moose" party. Or maybe FDR.

Link: http://www.retropresident.com/