Random Notes from a Crank

I strained and tried the oxymel recipe I talked about in a Random Notes post on January 26. I did the one for cold and flu season. It's not harsh or anything. It initially hits the pallet with honey and has a subtle tang of vinegar on the finish. 

Can you tell I've been watching bourbon videos on YouTube? 

I'm subscribed to Bourbon Junkies, TheRow, and Brewzle. Even though it appears the guy from Brewzle is an Auburn fan, I like his videos in which he goes bourbon hunting in certain towns. He has way more expensive taste than I have though. 

And I like my bourbon more on the spicy and oaky side. 

President Adolf's plan for Gaza is insane. I think it's just a wild political proposal to distract the American people and journalists from all the damage he's doing to our republic and creating a federal government full of his flunkies. 

Or Dictator Donald is just a madman. 

The ultra-right Israelites love the plan because it destroys the dream of a Palestinian state. 

Here's a reaction from Informed Comment: "Ethnic Cleansing for 'Gaza's Riviera'?"

There's ultra-right reasoning behind what is proposed because of leaked documents in Israel. Kushner might be behind all of this. 

A house a couple of blocks down from our home is displaying an inverted flag. 

The traditional meaning of flying an inverted flag is used to show "a signal of distress in instance of extreme danger" or as a sign of protest, as noted by The Free Speech Center's "Flying Flag Upside Down." 

I'll assume that the residents of the home are displaying it because of President Adolf's unconstitutional actions. 

I hope it's not a symbol supporting this autocratic goon. 

Random Notes from a Crank

Watching Northern Exposure with all its Red Hook beer advertising reminds me of one of my favorite breweries. I drank my fair share of Red Hook ESBs and Long Hammer IPAs. Strangely enough, I drank lots of Red Hook, a beer made in Seattle, when I lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I've never seen it around these parts, unfortunately. And now they have all kinds of interesting IPAs that I can't get my hands on.

I searched for it on Binny's website, and all I got was squat.

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed that show, Northern Exposure. It has to be my favorite TV series of all time. I'm so glad Amazon made it available on Prime.

Because of a possible "wintry mix," the schools around here did not have have classes. All it did was rain. The silliness of people who aren't used to snow...

I've seen a trend recently of mid-size cities or larger cities making people their area's poet laureate. When did this move of laureating poets in places like Mobile and Mufreesboro start to happen? 

I'm not against it or anything. In fact, I like it because it supports the artistic community, but I'm just wondering when this trend started. 

Who started the laureating fire? And where else will it spread to? 

NPR has an interesting article out about the "Nones," who are apparently the largest group in the US in regard to religion. I fit into that group because I'm a highly skeptical agnostic.

The article is "Religious 'Nones' Are Now the Largest Single Group in the U.S." 

The good news to me is that this group is growing and they are likely to be liberal.  In addition, apparently Evangelicals is a group that's shrinking. More good news. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I doubt I'm the only person in the U.S. who does this, but when I change from one pair of shoes to another pair of shoes, I often have the Mister Rogers song in my head. 

"Won't you be my neighbor?"

Since Moscow Don is likely not immune to being sued for his critical part in the Jan. 6 insurrection as related by NPR ("Appeals Court Says Trump Isn't Immune for Jan. 6 Riot Lawsuits"), I wonder how may class-action lawsuits can be lodged against that fascist wannabe goon. 

I hope that white-supremacist grievance merchant is buried in even more lawsuits. The more the better. He's a serious threat to our country. 

And the people who support him are delusional morons. 

Even worse are the people who will vote for him who know he's a fascist-in-the-making, but they vote for him because of whatever issues he supposedly supports. In reality, he's a Republican in name only, a RINO. 

He's not really conservative except for the far-right social-issue dog whistling he does on a regular basis. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I was naughty this past week and didn't provide a Music Friday post. Bad blogger...

Jennier Rubin has a good op-ed piece in The Washington Post that should be read to figure out what extreme right-wingers and FauxNews is up to: "The GOP Is No Longer a Party. It's a Movement to Impose White Christian Nationalism." 

Here's a significant ¶ to read: "In a real sense, the MAGA response is an effort to conserve power and to counteract the sense of a shared fate with Americans who historically have been marginalized. The right now defines itself not with policies but with its angry tone, its malicious labeling and insults (e.g., "groomer," "woke"), and its targeting of LGBTQ youths and dehumanization of immigrants. Right-wingers' attempt to cast their opponents as sick, dangerous and -- above all -- not "real Americans" is as critical to securing power as voter suppression."

Who the hell is using the term "groomer." That's sick. 

The rhetorical dark arts that the right wing uses reminds of one of the better books I've in the past couple of years: America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee. 

Check Your Head by the Beastie Boys turned 30 this year. I would argue that it is the group's best album. 

NPR has a feature on the album: "Why Beastie Boys' Check Your Head Album Still Matters 30 Years Later." 

Random Notes from a Crank

After the horrible slayings in Orlando, the gun control/assault rifle debate is back again. And yet again under the influence of the NRA, no new legislation was passed. A person on a terrorist no-fly list is able to buy a gun. 

For a Canadian's take on the United States' gun problem, check out "The #1 Factor Experts Say Accounts for High Number of Mass Shootings in US."   

Then again, here is an article that provides good news for gun-control advocates. 

As a well-known introvert, I have to share these comics that help explain us: "10 Comics Explain What It's Really Like To Be an Introvert." My favorite is the shirt that asks, "Why are you still talking?" 

The work of one climate-change denier didn't go so well. 

DuPont is not a company I'm fond of because of its environmental pollution record, but they are working hard at trying to transform corncobs into fuel. I hope their research and innovation works. 

A Different Map of the US

Via a NPR FB post, I learned about different maps of our great country. 

In "A 'Whom Do You Hang With' Map of America," the author provides one map that uses the circulation of currency to show population mobility. The article is a fascinating read because the maps show us the parochialism of our movements. 

Here are my observations on the blue-border bill-circulatin' map:

• The eastern dark blue border of the Missouri region, which includes southwestern Illinois, puts where I live right on the edge of psychologically siding with St. Louis or Chicago. This also can be seen by what baseball teams people root for. Where I live in East Central Illinois, Cardinals fans generally outnumber Cubs and White Sox fans (among the "locals"). 
• Indiana is all kinds of cut up by borders.
• I found it interesting that there is such a strong blue border down the middle of Wisconsin. Don't know what to think about that. 
• There's a strong dividing line between Oklahoma and Texas. I've heard of this divide. 
• In some respects, the blue borders among the original thirteen colonies indicate the traditional demarcations of the New England states, the Mid-Atlantic states, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. 

The second map shows viewers what cell phone data has to say about who we hang with. Interestingly enough, the call data confirms much of what the dollar data lays out for us: that Oklahoma vs. Texas thing, the Missouri region, and the colonial parochial hangover. The cell phone data provides finer detail about the Deep South, however. Mississippi and Louisiana get aligned, and so do Alabama and Georgia. That makes sense to me. I've always considered Alabama more like Georgia than Mississippi. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I've read a lot of literature over the years. One lesson I've learned from various stories written by American authors from the 20th century is that if there's a married man and woman who have kids, it's not a good idea for the husband to take the babysitter home. I talking about you, John Cheever, Robert Coover, and John Updike. 

Another lesson I learned was "White folks crazy."

NPR had a story up recently about bias within a survey about young adult novels: "When A Popular List of 100 'Best-Ever' Teen Books Is the 'Whitest Ever.'" 

Sherman Alexie has some things to say in "Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood." 

Recently I rediscovered a poem I really like, so I'm sharing it:

The Loon on Forrester's Pond
By Hayden Carruth

Summer wilderness, a blue light
twinkling in the trees and water, but even
wilderness is deprived now. "What's that?
What is that sound?" Then it came to me, 
this insane song, wavering music
like the cry of the genie inside the lamp,
it came from inside the long wilderness
of my life, a loon's song, and there he was
swimming on the pond, guarding
his mate's nest by the shore,
diving and staying under
unbelievable minutes and coming up
where no one was looking. My friend
told how once in his boyhood
he had seen a loon swimming beneath his boat,
a shape dark and powerful
down in that silent mysterious world, and how
it had ejected a plume of white excrement
curving behind. "It was beautiful,"
he said.

The loon
broke the stillness over the water
again and again,
broke the wilderness
with his song, truly
a vestige, the laugh that transcends
first all mirth
and then all sorrow
and finally all knowledge, dying
into the gentlest quavering timeless
woe. It seemed
the only real and only sanity to me.