All the social media sites want you to sign up and log in. They want it real bad, but I am sign-up resistant and log-in hesitant.

I understand how signing up and logging in helps Facebook and Tumblr and Twitter and the rest — it leaves better breadcrumbs as they're tracking me all over the internet, gives me targeted ads, and allows inter-corporate algorithms of all my interests.

What I don't understand is how any of that helps me in any way, so I never signed up and don't log in.

A few social media sites, like Instagram, make it very difficult, virtually impossible to read anything published there unless you're signed up and logged in, so I've given up and simply never visit those sites.

That was my response to Ysidra, a seemingly very nice person who asked me to check out her blog on Instagram. Sorry, Ysidra. I'm sure your blog is swell, but Instagram is literally not for me. My kind isn't welcome there.

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Speaking of creepy technology, here's the beginning of a long form letter from Google:

Dear Doug,
Location History is paused for your account and you haven’t added any new locations to your Timeline in more than 2 years. Any existing Location History data you have in your Google Account will be deleted on September 1, 2022.

Well, congrats to me for pausing "Location History" at least two years ago. You can delete it now, Googs — no need to wait until September.

Question: What's the value, to users, of having Big Tech collect an automated "timeline" of my "Location History"?

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Have I mentioned that packing is an enormous chore and pain in the ass?

My wife & I thought we'd die here in Madison, and someone else could deal with the mess in our apartment, but she died first so it became a booby trap and now I'm the schmuck clearing everything away from all those years.

70% goes to Goodwill, and 30% goes to Sanford & Son (and I have to pay them to haul it away). Which adds up to 100%, because all I'm bringing with me will be the rounding errors. Whatever fits in the car, westward ho.

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Here's a shoebox, red, taped up tight, a bit heavier than you'd expect, and in my late wife's handwriting it says "Pitchers" on the outside. Stephanie knew how to spell, but she also enjoyed a bad pun, so I was pretty sure it was full of photos. I put it aside for a few days, waiting until my headpsace was right for so many pictures, probably of her, when she was younger than we'd met.

Feeling appropriately wistful after a day of digging and sweeping through our storage in the basement, I sat down last night with the red box and an exacto-knife, cut through the tape, opened the box, and what was waiting inside? Pitchers. Nine miniature pitchers, all wrapped in spongy paper for safekeeping. Like, pitchers for milk, not baseball pitchers.

In 22 years together, never once did Stephanie mention or even hint at any interest in household miniatures, so I have simply no concept of what the provenance of these might be. They're too big to be dollhouse remnants, but too small to serve any practical purpose. They're not for dispensing cream into coffee — the cream would be gone after two cups of joe.

As well as Steph and I had each other memorized, knew each other's habits and hobbies and quirks and conundrums, there was still a hell of a lot more to Stephanie than I ever knew.

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As the kids say these days, "OMG."

I'm retyping old Pathetic Life entries from the original, un-stapled and un-assembled pages, so I forgot that there was an illustration — for the first time — on that issue's cover. (Yeah, the zine's first eleven issues were entirely typewritten text — there wasn't even any clip art.)

Belated big thanks to Jay Sheckley, who drew the image of me and Sarah-Katherine on a date in Seattle. It's quite a good likeness of her, and it belongs with the article about her, so I've [added it to that page](../Pathetic Life/PL-12#how-i-spent-my-summer-vacation).

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And now, news and amusements, from my internet history for yesterday…

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Congress approves legislation to return the Postal Service to solvency

This is a very big deal. Now padlock Louis DeJoy out of the postmaster general's office, and let the Post Office deliver the mail.

The Postal Service, arguably one of the most beloved federal agencies, has been on the brink of insolvency for years, largely because of a 2006 law that requires the agency to fund retiree health care benefits for its employees in advance...
The legislation removes the retirement mandate and instead requires retired Postal Service employees to enroll in Medicare when they are eligible, a change that lawmakers and agency officials estimated would save $50 billion over a decade.

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Country music has always been popular among rednecks and 'rebels' and Republicans who like waving Confederate flags, so it's maybe not surprising that Morgan Wallen, the country singer who got in mildly warm water for using the n-word in public last year, won Album of the Year at this year's Academy of Country Music Awards.

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From the info here, it looks like Russia's attack on Ukraine is the world's first war between two nations that both have McDonald's, at least since there's been McDonald's.

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Kentucky teachers’ pension loses $3 million after selling Russian investments

This coverage is from a professional journal for corporate investment officers, yet it doesn't ask what seems to me the most obvious question: Even before Vladimir went obviously insane, how could any alleged investment expert pretend it's prudent to own assets inside an authoritarian state run by oligarchs?

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Bot responds to companies' bogus tweets against gender bias

Good bot.

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What American feminists could learn from Latin America's abortion-rights movement

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Disney has nothing to say about Florida's "Don't Say Gay" legislation

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Some justice for Bill Cosby. Not enough, but some.

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What if Trump were still the President?

Because Donald Trump had the good fortune of avoiding a major foreign-policy crisis during his four years in office, the United States never experienced the worst-case scenario of a Trump presidency.

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"Please DO NOT SPREAD RUMORS AND FAKE NEWS about Kyiv Zoo!"

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Smithsonian will return 39 artworks to Nigeria

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You thought it was pretty much 'settled law', but the US Supreme Court will decide whether military officer must obey orders.

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Israeli child tests positive for polio — first case since 1989

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If you’ve rented a car from Hertz, there could be a warrant out for your arrest.

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"I developed a deep hatred – one shared by many – for Route 40." —Stokely Carmichael

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A must-read book? Go on, make me.

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Instead of eating tea, an 8th century Chinese clown proposed drinking it.

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What strange events have gotten swept under the rug like they didn't even happen?

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Frustrated with humans

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The making of Napoleon Dynamite

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One-word newscast, because it's the same news every time...

• cops

• Fox News

• QAnonsense

• Republicans

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

—①—

—②—

—③—

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♫♬ Sing along with Doug ♫

"It's a Heartache" — Bonnie Tyler

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The End

• Duvall Hecht

• Shirley Hughes

3/9/2022
Tip 'o the hat to All Hat No Cattle, Linden Arden, ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Captain Hampockets, CaptCreate's Log, John the Basket, LiarTownUSA, Meme City, National Zero, Ran Prieur, Voenix Rising, and anyone else whose work I've stolen without saying thanks.
Extra special thanks to Becky Jo, Name Withheld, Dave S., and always Stephanie...
Cranky Old Man