Random Notes from a Crank

The American Prospect has an excellent article that pretty much describes how President Adolf has united Canadians because of his threat of a stupid trade war based on tariffs. 

As a result, as "Canada's Conservatives Crash with Onset of Tariff War," the upcoming elections for our ally to the North are set to be tightening. Trudeau is stepping down, but the new leader of the Liberal Party might do well. 

Meanwhile, the Senate has confirmed too many people to important posts, recently Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who will endanger the American people. 

While I find RFK Jr.'s anti-vax sentiments and concern about fluoride in drinking water asinine, I do like his focus on food additives and ultra-processed foods. 

The BBC has an interesting perspective on it all in "Can RFK Jr. Make America's Diet Healthy Again?" The article focuses on food, but the troubling part of his background is his anti-vaccination tendencies and propensity to support assertions with junk science. 

However, with all the hurdles in front of him and under an administration that touts junk food, I don't think he'll change squat. 

I need to find some more outlets--print, video, TV, or streaming service--that will make laugh more often. It's going to be a long four years. 

I rediscovered one, Regular Show, a series my oldest kid got me into. 

Good old Mordecai and Rigby...

That show hits the spot. Yeah!

Another one I've watched off and on recently that is not a comedy but is a sci-fi drama is Battlestar Galactica, a show I didn't watch when it was running on TV.

Of course, I could always watch one of my favorite TV series of all time, Northern Exposure. As I told my daughter, after each episode one leaves with a good feeling. Watching that show can be therapeutic. 

And I've been watching eposes of Seinfeld and The Office, but especially with the former, I've watched it so many times that I might need a break from the "show about nothing."  

Perhaps I need to revisit Parks & Recreation? 

Regardless, I am enjoying the new series St. Denis Medical. 

Random Notes from a Crank

On Valentines Day, YouGov had its three daily questions focus on love and relationships and such. 

The first question was, "Throughout your life, how many people have you been in love with?" Here's how the percentages broke down when I took the survey:

• 0, 4%
• 1, 17%
• 2, 24%
• 3, 19%
• 4, 9%
• 5, 4%
• More than 5, 10%

60% of respondents said either 1, 2, or 3 partners. One factor I think in play is the first person you love and how breaking up with them makes you more rigorous in falling in love after the first person broke your heart. That's why I checked 2. 

As for these "more than 5" people, I think they need to be more rigorous with their loving. 

This week I finished rewatching all six seasons of Northern Exposure, which is now available on Amazon Prime. It's my favorite TV show of all time. At the end of every episode, you have a good feeling at the end--except of course the final episode when I was sad the series was over. 

The show was way ahead of its time. From my knowledge, the series has to be one of the first to have an openly gay couple in it. And the show started questioning Maurice's sexuality from the second episode after he gets mad at Chris for bringing up Walt Whitman's homosexuality. 

One of my favorite episodes is the one in which Maurice has a fancy dinner party for the 25th anniversary of his radio station, the one titled "The Big Feast." Ron, one of the gay men in the series, raises a toast to Maurice by saying, "You're a bigot and a homophobe." 

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. 

Unpopular Opinion: I'm Tired of the Mannings

What do the Mannings and Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" have in common? 

Oversaturation. 

I'm a big fan of Pearl Jam, but back when music videos were a staple of a young person's life, the constant airing of the music video of "Jeremy" ruined the song for me. 

It's a great song. However, Mtv at the time had that video in heavy rotation. It seemed like it played once an hour. 

It was relentless. 

To this day, it's not a song I enjoy much from one of my favorite bands. 

As much as it's clear the both Mannings were hall-of-fame quarterbacks in the NFL and had strong college-football careers [a little overhyped in my opinion, but I'm an Alabama alumnus], I cannot take the constant onslaught of their long faces looking at me from the TV screens. 

Whether it's the various damn commercials in which they're shilling for this and that or whether it's their Monday Night Football watch-along show, I've had enough. 

Oversaturation. 

I thought once their careers were over that they'd get less air time. 

I obviously guessed horribly wrong. 

I've seen enough of them for my lifetime. 

Random Notes from a Crank

I need to work into my lexicon the word booboisie. It's a word coined by H.L. Mencken that is meant to describe stupid people. Mencken was an avowed classist, so he probably meant the term to describe the dregs of a democratic system, the kind of folks who are hoodwinked by people like George Santos and Moscow Don. The kind of people who mistakenly vote against their own best interests...

I need to reread Treatise on the Gods again, a book Mencken thought was one of his best. 

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

• Percentage of eligible Americans who vote: 63
• Of Hungarians: 71
• Of Uruguayans: 95
• Portion of Americans who believe the media prioritizes profits over the public interest: 3/4
• Portion of Americans who watch shows or movies with the subtitles on "most of the time": 1/2
• Of Gen-Z-ers who do: 7/10
• Percentage by which young adults are more likely to smoke cigarettes than adults aged 65 or older: 50
• By which young adults are more likely to smoke only marijuana than to smoke only cigarettes: 270

I wonder what it is about Uruguay that has such a strong voting turnout?

I use subtitles on certain programs in which the characters have strong British accents like Peaky Blinders, which I haven't watch much lately. 

The number of young people smoking weed these days is quite strong. I don't think that habit is going to make many of them go-getters. It's not like Mary Jane is a drug known for motivating folks. 

Perhaps the counterculture generation of the 60s and 70s along with NORML won? At least in certain states so far...

Random Notes from a Crank

How does Jennifer Aniston look hotter than she did when she was on Friends? She has aged gracefully indeed. 

I was thinking the other day about why there's never been a sit-com that is set in an old folks home. I think there are all kinds of comedic storylines to explore along with doses of drama and sober realities. 

Which makes me think about the plot lines that Parks & Recreation never followed, especially ones focused on recreation league baseball, basketball, and flag football. 

I was thinking today of my celebrity crushes. There are as follows:

• Ginger Spice aka Geri Halliwell
• Elizabeth Hurley
• Winona Ryder
• Natalie Portman
• Isla Fisher
• Julianne Moore
• Gillian Anderson
• Nicolle Wallace
• Salma Hayek
• Gail Gadot
• Rachel Weisz

I obviously have a thing for redheads, certain accents, and brunettes.

Musing of the Moment: Why the British Accents?

I've watched a lot of shows and documentaries about Rome and the Greek tales of Homer. Some are good, some are mediocre, and some are quite good. 

One constant, however, is that the actors and actresses playing Greeks or Romans usually have British accents.  

Even in the Netflix series Young Wallander had actors playing Swedes, and many of them had British accents. 

What is up with that?

Random Notes from a Crank

An interesting article in The Washington Post relates that some GOP advisors are worried about losing the Senate: "Republicans Grow Nervous about Losing the Senate Amid Worries of Trump's Handling of the Coronavirus."

I've been watching the polling in Senate races for a while now because I am hopeful of the GOP losing a number of those races. The four most talked about are in North Carolina, Maine, Colorado, and Arizona. I am worried about Jones losing in Alabama because, well, it's Alabama. 

I hadn't heard much about the Kansas race (as the article details a bit), but that factor makes sense since the 2016 flipping of Kansas in a number of elections. As a native Iowan, I would love for Ernst to be booted out of office. And I would be extremely happy if Lindsey Graham and Moscow Mitch have to hit the bricks. But those are long shots.  

I've watched a number of Amazon series during the lockdown. 

The Expanse has been a scary, suspense-filled treat. In a lot of these sci-fi novels and television shows though they depict the world as being run by the United Nations, such as in The Expanse and Altered Carbon, which is a bit odd because in our current reality the UN is fairly ineffectual. Regardless, The Expanse has a number of interesting visual representations of the world after climate change. 

I recently finished Beyond the Loop, which is an eerie yet poignant TV series. 

Here are factoids and stats from May's "Harper's Index," which were compiled as of March 2020:

• Percentage of Americans who operate doors and sinks in public restrooms with paper towels to avoid germs: 65
• Who flush with their feet: 44
• Who hover over the toilet seat: 29
• Number of countries that are carbon-negative: 2
• Estimated number of Americans who spend at least three hours commuting each day: $4,300,000
• Percentage of Democrats who believe that their personal finances will improve over the next year: 60
• Of Republicans who do: 83
• Portion of Trump's 2019 tweets that were live responses to Fox New or Fox Business programs: 1/10
• Factor by which Americans go to the library more often than they go to the movies: 2
• Estimated number of dead-end streets in the world: 17,680,000
• Portion of those dead ends that are in the United States: 1/4

Random Notes from a Crank

How is the saying, "clean as a whistle," even a thing? I've used a whistle as a coach. You got the thing in your mouth all the time, and it splutters out spit when you use it. 

Republicans always say that government doesn't work, and then when they get in charge of it, they prove that claim true. It doesn't work when they are in charge (President and the Senate).  

People blaming the media on Moscow Don's bungling of the coronavirus response is like blaming ESPN for reporting that Mitch Trubisky is not a great quarterback. 

If you're looking for a solid comedy special, check out Netflix's Neal Brennan: 3 Mics. 

If you want to be even more paranoid, start watching the latest season of BOSCH. 

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 hate bottled water. It's such a scam. Most of the plastic bottles don't get recycled, and if they do, there's a problem because China is no longer taking our plastic recycling. 

If you haven't been paying attention, look into what plastic is doing to our waterways and oceans. 

The height of stupidity is what I've witnessed this week. My in-laws bought bottled water. So I went down to the ice machine at our resort and got ice. These people then put ice in a glass and pour bottled water into it. The ice cubes come from the local water supply, and then they pour bottled water with the ice cubes. If you're going to use locally sourced ice cubes, why the hell would you not use the damn tap water? 

Over the vacation I've read two books by Neil Gaiman: Anansi Boys and Neverwhere. Both were outstanding. And I'm wondering if the BBC series Neverwhere is on Netflix or Amazon Prime. 

The next book I'm off to read is White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.

Random Notes from a Crank

The past month has featured one disappointing series finale and a movie as a series finale. 

The much talked about Game of Thrones series finale shows what the last two seasons have been, a foray into HBO fan fiction. I was a bit surprised that Jon offed Danerys, but I don't get the logic of Tyrion's claim that Bran the Broken has the "best story." The best story of all is Jon Snow's. 

All in all, the last season was rushed.

And Martin still hasn't published the last two damn books. 

With much anticipation, I watched the Deadwood movie. I enjoyed it. It didn't end with a neatly wrapped ending, but we can assume that Hearst gets off on the murder of Charlie Udder because based on historical accounts, he did just fine for himself. It was nice seeing the bastard get beat up though. 

Regardless, it was a pleasure to watch those Deadwood characters again. 

Pacific Standard has a great article outlining that trickle-down economics is a scam: "The IMF Confirms That 'Trickle-Down' Economics Is, Indeed, A Joke." 

Music Friday: "Changes"

I was first introduced to the work of Charles Bradley when he was featured as an artist on an episode of Netflix's Luke Cage. 

And then this song was used for the hilarious animated series Big Mouth. 

Enjoy.

Random Notes from a Crank

I'm starting to follow Premier League football, so I'm trying to decide on a team to support. In a recent FB post, I queried people on teams that I might support. Initially I thought about following Arsenal, but I found out that the Rams owner also owns Arsenal, so I ruled out that team. 

I've whittled it down to three teams:

• Tottehnam Hotspur
• Wolverhampton Wanderers
• Liverpool

I'm leaning toward the first two. As superficial as this sounds, I like Tottenham's colors and the bird emblem. But I also really like wolves, which is the nickname of Wolverhampton. 

I've been watching the hell out of Bosch on Amazon prime. I usually like a good cop drama, and Bosch is a solid offering. I like the lead actor, Titus Welliver, who plays Harry Bosch, but I only remember him from his past performance as a minor character on Deadwood. 

There are so many good TV series out there to watch via Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon that my book reading is suffering.

I finally finished Punisher, but I still need to get back to The Umbrella Academy and finish that series. 

I started watching the old series Justified with Timothy Olyphant, a series I half-heartedly watched when it aired. I will say that the Nazi/white supremacist crap in episode 1 turned me off considering the current times and occupant of the White House.

As I was walking the dog the other day, I thought about one of these hypothetical questions that sometimes rambles through my brain. My thought was about the icons of classic rock and which artist I could not do without. 

To me, there are four major classic rock icons from the 60s/early 70s era: 

• The Beatles
• The Rolling Stones 
• The Who
• Jimi Hendrix

Of those four, I was thinking about which artist I could not do without. 

This is probably not the most popular pick, but of those four, my favorite artist is Hendrix. I have just always been drawn to his blues-influenced rock. I like all of those four of course. They are incredibly influential bands. But if I could only have one in my musical rotation, I'm going with Jimi. 

I used to listen the hell out of the Beatles, Stones, and The Who though. When I was younger, I taped Beatles LPs from my siblings' collections and got them on cassette tape. I had a number of number of The Who albums on cassette, and I listened to the Stones Greatest Hits album a ton. 

If you drop a penny one day and know you dropped it but didn't pick it up, and if the next day you pick it up, can you say the rhyme and get good luck? Asking for a friend...

Random Notes from a Crank

After reading so many articles in the paper about Moscow Don's associates, I'm getting weary of the word "pleaded." That past tense in the English language doesn't make any sense to me. I would argue it should be "pled." 

If one considers the past tense of "lead," which is "led," it is not logical that the past tense of "plead" is "pleaded." It just sounds funny. 

In a similar vein, I get that the past tense of "cancel" is acceptable as either "canceled" or "cancelled." Cancelled to me just looks better. It's got two Ls. It is not playing around. It's CANCELLED. I like that extra l for emphasis. 

We finally made the switch from Directv to HULU. I am liking the change for monetary reasons, but I miss watching The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and MLB Network on a regular basis. 

I surely won't miss the weather wreaking havoc with Directv's reception though. 

In the wake of yesterday's testimony, this is an opinion piece that, to me, gets it right: "Michael Cohen Testimony on Donald Trump Was a WWE Body Slam Against Trump. Here's Why It's Credible."  I enjoy the concluding sentence: "Prosecutors have a saying: Conspiracies hatched in hell don't have angels as witnesses."

Random Notes from a Crank

Here's something to look forward to. 

I"m reading ahead of the season in the comic books, so I'm interested in how they adapt the show to the plot lines of the Whisperer War. 

In not a surprising fashion, Moscow Don is back to his racist bullshit: "...You're Straight-Up Racist." 

Random Notes from a Crank

"How Trump Is Ending the American Era" is a sobering article written by a guy who worked under Condoleezza Rice during Dubya's administration. He has a clear-headed analysis of the trouble we're in. 

On our drive to Philadelphia, I got to be in one state I've never been in, West Virginia. The slogan on the billboard as we entered was "Wild and Wonderful." That sounds more like an advertising phrase for some porn rather than a state's marketing slogan. 

The short amount of time we spent in West Virginia was good. The sliver of the state we passed through was quite pretty. Wheeling is an interesting city tucked in a valley alongside a river. 

Going through Wheeling made me think about the great character Chris Stevens from Northern Exposure, one of my favorite TV shows of all time. 

And that led me to a Northern Exposure wiki page about the character. Mash the link above if you're interested. 

Here are some relevant videos.





Mash HERE to watch the famous "piano fling scene." 

Random Notes from a Crank

On Monday Mrs. Nasty had the day off, so we took the family and two of my kids'  friends to the Kickapoo State Recreation Area. We kayaked the the Middle Fork River, which from what I gather is around eight miles. It was a lot of fun. The river was cool, and there is great scenery. We plan on doing that again. 

Heck, if we get that into it, we might consider getting our own kayaks. 

On the Fourth of July, Syfy Channel provided a Twilight Zone marathon, which is fitting because narcissistic, pathological lying, juvenile #MoscowDon is POTUS. 

I taped a bunch of those episodes during the marathon. With all the reviving of old shows like The Gong Show, Love Connection, etc., the show that needs to revived is The Twilight Zone. That would be good television. 

Stay Positive: Parks & Recreation

I finished watching all of the episodes of Parks & Recreation last night. 

It was an outstanding series. I don't know why I didn't watch when it was actually on TV, but Netflix bailed me out. 

Nick Offerman is the man (read his books, btw), and he got the opportunity of a lifetime to play Ron Swanson, who is a character I agree with on some matters (related to manhood) and not many others (government, vegetables, etc.). 

Unfortunately, I suspect there are some folks who literally (as Chris is fond of saying) take the character as he is. Satire is wasted on dumbasses.

And oh, Leslie Knope, as I've stated before, oh how I have a crush on you.