Cranky Old Man #69

Pope prays for end to pandemic in Christmas address

Is the Pope just beginning to pray about Covid now? Or has he been praying for an end to the pandemic for almost two years... to no avail?

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News from November, which I'd somehow missed:

Two men framed by the feds for the murder of Malcolm X more than fifty years ago have been exonerated. One of them is 83 years old. The other died in prison, fifteen years ago.

Near as I can ascertain, the government offered nothing to say ‘sorry’, not even a handshake for the survivor, but he's suing for compensation.

No payment could be enough, of course. Evidence was knowingly withheld, but it's unlikely that anyone will be punished for the obvious prosecutorial misconduct.

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I've read this article about log4j, apparently the most serious computer security breach ever, and decided not to worry about it.

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In San Francisco, the Tenderloin district has been a hellhole for decades, and the city's mayor has a plan — more cops. That's usually the wrong solution, and it's certainly wrong in the Tenderloin.

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One-word newscast:

• Cops

• Cops

• Covid

• Covid

• Trump

Dead:

• Jean-Marc Vallée

• Sarah Weddington

• Edward O Wilson

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I love brassy musicals with catchy tunes and everybody dancing. My favorite is The Music Man, where, as you may recall, 76 trombones led the big parade.

There’s a child in the show who speaks with a lisp (7-year-old Ron Howard lovably played him in the movie) but in playwright Meredith Wilson's rough drafts, the character was disabled, and Wilson had a relatively advanced (for his era) message he wanted to convey.

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Five years ago, kerbloom, the spillways at one of America’s largest dams collapsed, and needed to be repaired lickety-split, before the winter flood season. This necessitated quick competence from engineering and construction firms, and from government — something you sometimes don’t see.

Here’s an interesting video about it, from the Practical Engineering guy, Grady Hillhouse, who is just a skosh smarter than me.

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Factcheck.org is one of those sites that claims to debunk myths and falsehoods, while sometimes spreading them. I do not respect their work and never have; they tend to say Republicans lie (The election was stolen! Covid is a hoax!) but Democrats lie too (because some Dem said the unemployment rate is 4.9%, when actually it’s 4.4%), so "both sides do it!"

Here’s some Factcheckery that’s almost factual: Five people died during the January 6 riots, and four cops killed themselves shortly thereafter, so is it reasonable to say that 9 is the death toll? They answer the question reasonably reasonably, but they also say that what happened on January 6 was a 'rally'. They speak of "rally participants" and "rallygoers".

Was January 6 a 'rally'? Really? I’ve been to lots and lots of rallies, but never one like January 6. Who factchecks Factcheck.org?

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If there's a symbol you want to type but it's not on your keyboard, you can Google or scroll through long lists of altcode and ASCII and HTML characters, or you can use this nifty new tool: ShapeCatcher. Simply draw the symbol you're thinking of, and the software will (try to) give you the necessary info.

I tested it by drawing the long-lost simple happy-face (left). Almost any text-processing software would convert :) to a simple smiley-face, until about two years ago, when virtually all software started converting :) to the golden, rosy-cheeked smiley-face (right) instead. I dislike the change — the old symbol was clean, the new symbol is gaudy — but I've been unable to change it back or overrule it.

Well, ShapeCatcher taught me that I can still create the old smiley-face. It's hexadecimal 0x263A, HTML ☺ or ☺ or alt/236A. This makes my face smiley.

When I drew a picture of a penis and balls at ShareCatcher, though, it suggested the Unicode hexadecimal for a paper clip.

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Here's how much I know about current movie stars: Just now, I figured out that Timothée Chalamet isn't black. I'm guessing it's his oddly-spelled first name that fooled me. That, plus I haven't seen any of his movies, or any pictures of him. And I might've still been confused even if I had.

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The View is looking for a sane Republican (and they've been looking for months).

"They will not consider a Republican who is a denier of the 2020 election results, embraced the January 6 riots, or is seen as flirting too heavily with fringe conspiracy theories or the MAGA wing of the GOP. But at the same time, the host must have credibility with mainstream Republicans, many of whom still support Donald Trump." So yeah, good luck with that.

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"I’ve stopped wearing makeup, and my perception of beauty has drastically changed."

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Hey The North Face! When you said sending us a bogus trademark threat was a mistake, we believed you; so why did you do it again?

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It's 1966 — do you know where your Life magazine is?

Amid throbbing lights, dizzying designs, swirling smells, swelling sounds, the world of art is "turning on." It is getting hooked on psychedelic art, the latest, liveliest movement to seethe up from the underground.

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Mystery links — Like life itself, there’s no knowing where you’re going:

—①—

—②—

—③—

Sing along with Doug:
Wish You Were Here, by Alpha Blondy
Sincere tip 'o the hat:
Linden Arden • BoingBoing
Captain Hampockets • Follow Me Here
The Honest Courtesan • John the Basket
LiarTownUSA • Messy Nessy Chick
National Zero • Ran Prieur
Vintage Everyday • Voenix Rising
Extra special thanks:
Becky Jo • Name Withheld • Dave S.
12/28/2021
Cranky Old Man