I guess the deal is that they are owned by the Chinese Gov't and there is the possibility of data mining etc. Never been on Tik-Tok, Facebook or Instagram (I avoid things that require a password-like yesterday I tried for 5 hours to log in the patient portal at the local clinic. I'll just drive over and talk to a real person). All gov't is authoritarian in one way or the other. Here in Idaho they have banned abortion and want to arrest librarians..but they have relented and passed a bill for Open Carry of knives, figuring it would be nice for those that don't have AR-15s. Another Bill provides for concealed carry among grade school teachers (presumably even for knives?) Yonkers havd any weird laws?
I get it that it ostensibly has to do with the Chinese government but many people feel that the real reason is there's too much free speech on TikTok and government can't control the narrative as much. Others surmise that maybe TikTok leans heavily towards the Palestinian side in the ongoing Israel/Hamas war and the Israeli lobby (can we say that?) is very strong in Congress. Whatever it's a bad precedent imo.
Don't know all the Yonkers laws but Code Enforcement keeps coming around in their little white vehicles. I was recently warned to keep my sidewalk and curb free of various debris. It's not like I sit on my porch all day watching for flying gum wrappers.
I would say instead of debating TikTok the Congress can do something useful like ending Daylight Savings Time. Shouldn't be pitch black at 4:30 on a December afternoon.
On another note sometimes you can't find something in the supermarket but they always sell something like ping pong balls.
Z-man! Let's strike up the band. So glad to see you're still kicking. Saty too. I knew BB was still around but you two worried me.
Now as for Tik Tok... This is a tough subject. We limit the access by minors to tobacco, alcohol and more because we know these items are dangerous to young unformed minds and bodies. We now know the same about social media, where Tik Tok sits.
So I think government can have a role to play.
Sadly though, I don't govt is addressing this because of potential affects to kids, rather it's their worry that "Americans can be spied on."
So I don't know. If I had a kid right now, I'd restrict his or her access til later in life.
I'm not getting the Chinese connection myself. So some average person looks at some stupid video on TikTok and so what is the Chinese government mining for? They're making this whole thing into some "Hawaii Five-O" episode with Wo-Fat.
Where is Soapie when we need him? I guess if the US and numerous corporations can mine our data, why not the Chinese? On the other hand, as a retired scientist, i think its just another pile of misinformed crap and egos. But I will mine it for actual factual content if you like.
BB... this data issue seems to be a bigger deal with older folks. I don't hear young people saying they've got to use the Duck Duck Goose browser for privacy issues. But older conspiracy minded folks? Yep, they're the ones that seem to worry more about all this.
Soapie! There's a blast from the past.
And I agree... End DST. Why do we need it? It's a bad habit.
According to NPR: The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a bipartisan bill that would require ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to sell the social media app or face a ban on all U.S. devices. The vote was 352-65. It sounds like they would rather the parent company divest and keep it going. Of course the Senate will get involved. At worst it will end up like that old x and o game, Tik Tok Go.
Quite odd: Congress can't agree on ANY thing, but in this case the Dems voted 155/50 and the GOP voted 197/15 for and against the ban. Where's George Santos when you need him?
All I got is a land line, so as the Krauts say Macht Nichts, or as WWII GIs say, Mox Nix. But would think the technological difficulties of keeping Tik Tok out of US circulation might be daunting?
Have an older Samsung Galaxy tablet going over ten years now. No system update in years. Others on forums have complained about this. The tablet is barely semi-functional. When I first got it it was a beautiful thing to use. It once updated to KitKat which is now obsolete apparently. Bought a newer tablet in the meantime. My thing is what am I supposed to do just throw it out? It's like you're at the mercy of a techno Mafia out there. George Carlin once said people should get what they want at least once in a while. A little software update?
Exactly the problem with computer technology. Everywhere I go, workers complain about the 'New and better' system that management bought. Stores, clinics, gov't agencies - all struggling with the constant 'updates'. Clinic had their waiting rooms over flowing last year, practically an e-riot when I was there. I knew of a couple people that got so frustrated with the new software every other year that they quit their jobs. A good shovel never gives you hard time.
Recently Chase Bank updated their entire system. For two or three days people couldn't do any banking. I had my first property tax rebate I took with me to the bank. Nice check. Had to wait a couple days then they got the kinks out. Now Elon Musk wants brain/computer interfaces or something. What could go wrong? Hello zombie apocalypse.
I blame Bill Gates. My windows 7 was only a little worse than the previous, Windows 10 is patently cruddy and Windows11 is preposterous. We should have seen it coming when he bought MS-DOS from some clueless genius who wanted to keep it free. Jobs was another business tycoon who couldn't code his way out of the restroom. Business strategy: can't make money off an established system, so quit support and sell something worse. It seems to work.
I don't know who or what is mining my personal data, but lately I have been getting a lot of ads to join the Border Patrol, the Harley-Davidson motorcycle group and a cozy trips by ocean liner to Antarctica. Have they got me mixed up with Sandra Bullock?
Technology - Went to an ATM in my bank lobby few months back. Withdrew $300 and it spit out 3 hundred dollar bills. Some bank official walking around inside trying to be helpful to people. Told him about my 3 hundreds and said what if I want to stop at a hot dog wagon.
Got an ad in my G-Mail that was what I took to be Chinese. Didn't dare click on it, but had Google translate it. Some motel in Taiwan wanted me to stay at a great price. WTF?
Downloaded TikTok on my tablet last night. Tablet immediately started to act weird so much so I had to uninstall it. I think the video clips on TikTok are stupider than the ones on YouTube if that's possible.
Remember Saty? She lives in the country side north of Raleigh. Last I heard, she had hit three deer with her car (totaling her car the last time) Says she has turned in her Hindu Saris etc. and returned the being a devout Catholic. Where did the Karma go?
I was senior acolyte at an Episcopal Cathedral, got 100 in confirmation class and got to pick the hymns for Sundays. Now, I'm about as religious as an earthworm. Go figure.
Internet Commerce: The only stuff I ever order is pipe tobacco and model train stuff. I got a reply today that my order for two tins of Prince Albert was back-ordered. I can put off emergency heart surgery, a relative's funeral and income taxes, but pipe tobacco? OMG. I told them to cancel and ordered from a competitor. BTW these guys aren't as slick as Amazon or the PIllow Guy. Heck, when I was a kid there was a grocery store on almost every corner. Cigarettes, Lutefisk, postage stamps, candy section, the whole food pyramid and free bicycle parking. Sort of miss the old days.
Ya ever treat your adult beverage supply as having the same importance as say milk. OMG the Christian Brothers is really low how did I forget I gotta throw on some clothes and go out again.
When I was growing up, my cousin Dougie lived a block away. His middle name was Trouble. My middle name was Sucker. So no surprise that one Summer day we had The Great Eddy Barney Fiasco. Eddy was a mouthy squirt. He had 6 older Irish brothers (all in 6th grade). Eddy was on the other side of Franklin St. and yelled 'Youse guys are poopheads'. Being 4th graders, we were of course highly offended and Dougie said 'Lets go beat him up'. Eddy ran away with further enraging grade school taunts - 'Dougie's sister dated a gorilla' Bobby gets lost in grocery stores' etc. We chased him right up tree. Just a young sapling. He was up at the top continuing his spiel 'You guys are pathetic...couldn't even catch a one legged turtle. Naturally we were livid at these insults and Dougie said, "let's shake him out of the tree. So the tree was going wildly from side to side and still raining insults. THEN, Eddy lost his grip, came head over heels bouncing of branches. Landed on his finger. Which was broke because it pointed away from the rest when he tried to flip us off, all the well screaming that we were walking dead when he ran off to tell his big brothers, the Barney Enforcement Mafia. I remained house bound for two weeks, faking Scarlet Fever. Found out later that Dougie survived death as well. My grand daughter's favorite Grandpa story. She lies on the floor laughing really hard. Clearly, the story gets updated with different grade school insults, while the main characters become ever more pathetic. You're a movie critic: can I write a screen play, or do I have to change the title? Which performers would you recommend for the parts?
Couple anecdotes. Worked at a fence company years ago and whenever somebody farted the older Albanian guy would go God bless you. My first deli job the cheese clerk and deli manager were working on something. Putting in an order or a code. Cheese clerk says to me go to Freddy and ask him if he wants to tap it in. Went to Freddy and said Kim wants to know if you can tap it in. Whole kitchen busted out laughing.
As I recall, your Dad was an old Navy guy. Did he tell you how they entertained themselves when a newbie seaman showed up? Chief says "Quick run over to supplies and get me a fallopian tube" Kid dashes to supplies, "I need a fallopian tube!" Old quartermaster chief says "What size?"
Quantum Computers: a number of experts have concluded they are impossible, given the 10 raised to 300 possibilities a large cubic array poses. Chaos 1, quantum guys 0. I'm sticking with my sliderule which is less complex than an abacus. Says to the Mrs. this morning, "Hey look, the paper got all the handyman ads in upside down" Mrs. says "No YOU got the paper upside down. Sh*t happens when you're in the John with the paper mutli-tasking.
True. Most court cases involve an expert for each side. Like 'this is definitely a gun'. 'No, that is a fly swatter' If ya gotta pick an expert, go with what the majority of experts say. ex-spurts used to be rare types buried in thick boring books. Now everyone on the net is one. I'm gonna go with the guy that predicted the eclipse.
There are times I've even disagreed with cat expert Jackson Galaxy. Majority of cat experts seem to say leave the ferals alone. All my life we've adopted strays off the street never went to the shelter or a pet shop. You make an appointment with the vet and they become official pets. Never had a problem. Majority of experts.
I have on rare occasions encountered a cat that I would probably call feral but I think the term is over-applied. It's almost like a psy-op to leave those cats alone and steer people to adopt from shelters and help empty the shelters. Go with the over-domesticated cat that sleeps on the bookshelf all day and occasionally knocks over a knickknack.
A few days back, wife hollered at me: downstairs in a far corner I heard “Hey! There's a squad of child gurneys in the cemetery” Startled, I ran to the base of the steps, What? “There's a bunch of wild turkeys in the cemetery – I'll try to get a picture " She got one: 10 turkeys, either free-range or feral, take your pick.
Ben Franklin thought the Turkey should be the National Bird. Personally, I find the Bald Eagle more noble. But given the way things are going, a Turkey might be more applicable.
PBS is running a series on Raptors, Even my wife was rapt about it. Usually she is a house-flipping show junkie. "Knock out the walls - paint everything white - sell to a sucker" stuff. When I took young Mikey The Cat up to WA state U for eye uveitis where after several trips they removed his right eye, the vet students (invariably young girls) would be walking around with all sorts of raptors on their wrists. golden eagles, goshawks, bald eagles. Scared the crap out of Mikey.
Kind of a cat thing. Maul and kill something, then bring it back to the owner to show off. Probably where "look what the cat dragged in" came from. My Mom said that when my HS sister came home on the back of a Harley driven by some guy with chains on his neck.
We fed the area squirrels all Winter. Over 6 lbs of peanuts. Little pan by the deck window. Now, they come up the deck steps and send a delegate to the bottom of the glass sliding door. He or she stand up and peer in with huge hungry eyes. I'm kind of a pushover for stuff like that but my wife says we should cut them. It's Spring and the furry rodents should return to their wild food source. Where are they going to find peanuts in the Idaho semi-wilderness?
We used shelled peanuts. There's restaurant chain out west called Whiskey Jacks. Their come-on is wooden floors covered with peanut shells from shelled peanuts thrown around by whiskey affected customers. Wife hates the place. Great steaks. Kind of crunches when you go the restroom, ya know?
Mrs. says I should have been a history teacher. "You make a dull subject so interesting." Dunno is - "The Earl of Oxford, who bowed deeply to the first Queen Elizabeth accidentally farted in his tights.. Overcome with shame he vanished from court and spent seven years travelling. On his hesitant return, the queen greeted him with: "My Lord, I had forgot the Fart." OK Kids, time for recess.
12i5 at Runnymeade between King John (think Robin Hood here) and the barons. Annulled by Pope (not so) Innocent III. Later kings accepted the concept and it became more or less famous. The Brits are serious about their history. Every year on veteran's day there is post remembering Harold, who lost the battle of Hastings in 1066. Not sure, but I think the Earl of Oxford took Pepto-Bismol and retired to Glouchester. You didn't mess around with Elisabeth 1 - she executed dozens, including Mary, Queen of Scots. Where was Prince Harry wheb you needed him?
Google - I've always felt it's too invasive of privacy. One day not that long ago you looked up "hemorrhoid" (or something worse) and couple days later you delete that item from your search history only it shows up again. Then Google has this thing called predictive spelling I think it is and so you finally sanitized hemorrhoids from your history and you're typing another word that starts with "hem" and "hemorrhoid" shows up again above your keyboard and one day you're proudly showing somebody your new 5G phone and they want to handle it and for some reason "hemorrhoid" pops up again out of nowhere so you grab your phone back.
T'was a problem prior to Google. Hosted a lab tour for the CEO, his entourage and a TV crew. Stationed chemists and techs at all the fancy instruments. Each would come on with some sort of graph, or chart of parts per million this and that. I was last at the nickel ion-capture gas chromatograph. Turned it on and 'Solitaire' popped up. Director yells "CUT!" Been a bit camera shy since.
Bought one of those cheap Craig tablets at Rite-Aid once. Went to the library and settled down in my chair and connected to wifi. Page after page of hard-core porn came up. Public place. Mothers walking around with their kids. I think the cheap tablet was pre-owned. Probably caused a family argument. If you're going to return it at least perform a factory reset.
Grammarly, Grammarly - $140 a year to make our writing more perfect. I'm not rich, been looking for a cheaper model. Like Grampraly. Iffy spelling, strange syntax, illegible polysyllables and lacking colons. Can't pass that up at $1.25 a year. Already got a colon.(:)
Once a year, we managers had to cover sexual harassment in our monthly department meeting. Mixed sex audience -skeptical, giggling, etc. Did the whole script and asked if there were any questions? Guy in back - "Could you do Elevator Eyes again?" Kind of like stand up, ya know? Probably shouldn't have flipped him off - sure wouldn't go over these days.
Every year we have to do a harassment module on Axonify which is the newest online training thing. My own view on the subject is subjectivism makes for bad law but that ain't one of the correct answers.
Saw a documentary the other day on Big Food. It seems the average food worker, be it picking, packing, cooking or serving, makes in one year what it takes the CEO a half hour to make. Capitalism on steroids.
Did you ever read "The Peter Principle"? The basic principle - Everyone rises to the level of his own incompetence. My mother one time was having trouble with a fence company and said in a general way it's hard living.
I would add it should also be a fair workplace and people help you out if you need help. Not seeing that right now. Guy is a taskmaster then goes off and does paperwork. Got bills to pay so you go in every day. There's a form of gaslighting that goes on in some places. You're not overworked you're not working hard enough. Thing is you're always looking for something else.
Back to Tik Tok. The Trump administration tried to ban it (and several states did) a few years ago) based on the private information going into Chin-Intel vaults. Now, Biden is pushing it and most of congress is as well. Meanwhile, the Club for Growth, a big Trump donor, has convinced him to forget Tik tok and concentrate on banning Facebook. Does this sound like Tik, Tok , Dough $? Since I don't use any of that stuff, am I off the hook here? What would Marlon Brando do?
I guess. Chinese Intel= Hey there's a guy on Yonkers, cat expert renowned chef and father in Navy WWII. Let' send agent Wx14 z(Jackson Galaxy) and agent ZZZ123 (Jennifer Lawrence) over there and dig up some dirt on Chevy Chase! Be prepared.
I guess the deal is that they are owned by the Chinese Gov't and there is the possibility of data mining etc. Never been on Tik-Tok, Facebook or Instagram (I avoid things that require a password-like yesterday I tried for 5 hours to log in the patient portal at the local clinic. I'll just drive over and talk to a real person). All gov't is authoritarian in one way or the other. Here in Idaho they have banned abortion and want to arrest librarians..but they have relented and passed a bill for Open
ReplyDeleteCarry of knives, figuring it would be nice for those that don't have AR-15s. Another Bill provides for concealed carry among grade school teachers (presumably even for knives?) Yonkers havd any weird laws?
I get it that it ostensibly has to do with the Chinese government but many people feel that the real reason is there's too much free speech on TikTok and government can't control the narrative as much. Others surmise that maybe TikTok leans heavily towards the Palestinian side in the ongoing Israel/Hamas war and the Israeli lobby (can we say that?) is very strong in Congress. Whatever it's a bad precedent imo.
ReplyDeleteDon't know all the Yonkers laws but Code Enforcement keeps coming around in their little white vehicles. I was recently warned to keep my sidewalk and curb free of various debris. It's not like I sit on my porch all day watching for flying gum wrappers.
I would say instead of debating TikTok the Congress can do something useful like ending Daylight Savings Time. Shouldn't be pitch black at 4:30 on a December afternoon.
ReplyDeleteOn another note sometimes you can't find something in the supermarket but they always sell something like ping pong balls.
Ending Daylight Savings Time: Amen!
ReplyDeleteWell hi there! Have you missed me and my scintillating repartee?
ReplyDelete& the mystical discussions. The whole karma thing. We joke at work we must have done something bad in a past life.
DeleteZ-man! Let's strike up the band. So glad to see you're still kicking. Saty too. I knew BB was still around but you two worried me.
ReplyDeleteNow as for Tik Tok... This is a tough subject. We limit the access by minors to tobacco, alcohol and more because we know these items are dangerous to young unformed minds and bodies. We now know the same about social media, where Tik Tok sits.
So I think government can have a role to play.
Sadly though, I don't govt is addressing this because of potential affects to kids, rather it's their worry that "Americans can be spied on."
So I don't know. If I had a kid right now, I'd restrict his or her access til later in life.
I'm not getting the Chinese connection myself. So some average person looks at some stupid video on TikTok and so what is the Chinese government mining for? They're making this whole thing into some "Hawaii Five-O" episode with Wo-Fat.
DeleteWhere is Soapie when we need him? I guess if the US and numerous corporations can mine our data, why not the Chinese? On the other hand, as a retired scientist, i think its just another pile of misinformed crap and egos. But I will mine it for actual factual content if you like.
ReplyDeleteBB... this data issue seems to be a bigger deal with older folks. I don't hear young people saying they've got to use the Duck Duck Goose browser for privacy issues. But older conspiracy minded folks? Yep, they're the ones that seem to worry more about all this.
ReplyDeleteSoapie! There's a blast from the past.
And I agree... End DST. Why do we need it? It's a bad habit.
Apparently you guys are winding up in my Spam folder. Dunno Dave I'm less worried about TikTok. Google already knows everything about me.
DeleteAccording to NPR: The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a bipartisan bill that would require ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to sell the social media app or face a ban on all U.S. devices. The vote was 352-65. It sounds like they would rather the parent company divest and keep it going. Of course the Senate will get involved. At worst it will end up like that old x and o game, Tik Tok Go.
ReplyDeleteThuganomics.
ReplyDeleteQuite odd: Congress can't agree on ANY thing, but in this case the Dems voted 155/50 and the GOP voted 197/15 for and against the ban. Where's George Santos when you need him?
ReplyDeleteAll over an app. So what happens if they do pass the ban and millions of folk still have it on their phones?
DeleteAll I got is a land line, so as the Krauts say Macht Nichts, or as WWII GIs say, Mox Nix. But would think the technological difficulties of keeping Tik Tok out of US circulation might be daunting?
ReplyDeleteYou'll always have a black market version. It's like technological prohibition in a way.
DeleteGot a message from my Norton. 260 entities are monitoring my computer. They must be bored.
ReplyDeleteI can't even get Blogger to work right.
DeleteHave an older Samsung Galaxy tablet going over ten years now. No system update in years. Others on forums have complained about this. The tablet is barely semi-functional. When I first got it it was a beautiful thing to use. It once updated to KitKat which is now obsolete apparently. Bought a newer tablet in the meantime. My thing is what am I supposed to do just throw it out? It's like you're at the mercy of a techno Mafia out there. George Carlin once said people should get what they want at least once in a while. A little software update?
ReplyDeleteExactly the problem with computer technology. Everywhere I go, workers complain about the 'New and better' system that management bought. Stores, clinics, gov't agencies - all struggling with the constant 'updates'. Clinic had their waiting rooms over flowing last year, practically an e-riot when I was there. I knew of a couple people that got so frustrated with the new software every other year that they quit their jobs. A good shovel never gives you hard time.
ReplyDeleteRecently Chase Bank updated their entire system. For two or three days people couldn't do any banking. I had my first property tax rebate I took with me to the bank. Nice check. Had to wait a couple days then they got the kinks out. Now Elon Musk wants brain/computer interfaces or something. What could go wrong? Hello zombie apocalypse.
DeleteI blame Bill Gates. My windows 7 was only a little worse than the previous, Windows 10 is patently cruddy and Windows11 is preposterous. We should have seen it coming when he bought MS-DOS from some clueless genius who wanted to keep it free. Jobs was another business tycoon who couldn't code his way out of the restroom. Business strategy: can't make money off an established
ReplyDeletesystem, so quit support and sell something worse. It seems to work.
I don't know who or what is mining my personal data, but lately I have been getting a lot of ads to join the Border Patrol, the Harley-Davidson
ReplyDeletemotorcycle group and a cozy trips by ocean liner to Antarctica. Have they got me mixed up with Sandra Bullock?
I use YouTube Music a lot but just because you like one Finger Eleven song doesn't mean you want the whole concert.
ReplyDeleteTechnology - Went to an ATM in my bank lobby few months back. Withdrew $300 and it spit out 3 hundred dollar bills. Some bank official walking around inside trying to be helpful to people. Told him about my 3 hundreds and said what if I want to stop at a hot dog wagon.
ReplyDeleteWe out in Hickville always thought NYC hotdogs cost around $100.
ReplyDeleteGot an ad in my G-Mail that was what I took to be Chinese. Didn't dare click on it, but had Google translate it. Some motel in Taiwan wanted me to stay at a great price. WTF?
ReplyDeleteDownloaded TikTok on my tablet last night. Tablet immediately started to act weird so much so I had to uninstall it. I think the video clips on TikTok are stupider than the ones on YouTube if that's possible.
ReplyDeleteIf you are interested in High Culture, Sha Na Na has some nice vids on You tube. of course I'm not interested in High Culture.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to quantum computing? Sounded like organized chaos to me.
ReplyDeleteWeren't we supposed to have quantum smartphones by now?
ReplyDeleteRemember Saty? She lives in the country side north of Raleigh. Last I
ReplyDeleteheard, she had hit three deer with her car (totaling her car the last time)
Says she has turned in her Hindu Saris etc. and returned the being a
devout Catholic. Where did the Karma go?
Soapster too. Traditional Catholic. I was only gone for 3 or so years. I'm still me.
DeleteI was senior acolyte at an Episcopal Cathedral, got 100 in confirmation class and got to pick the hymns for Sundays. Now, I'm about as religious as an earthworm. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was Lista who said you're about as spiritual as a codfish.
DeleteNoticed that things keep falling off passenger jets. What are they constructed with? Duct Tape?
ReplyDeleteWell the guy on TV hawking Flex Seal acts like you can patch up the Hoover Dam with it.
DeleteInternet Commerce: The only stuff I ever order is pipe tobacco and model train stuff. I got a reply today that my order for two tins of Prince Albert was back-ordered. I can put off emergency heart surgery, a relative's funeral and income taxes, but pipe tobacco? OMG. I told them to cancel and ordered from a competitor. BTW these guys aren't as slick as Amazon or the PIllow Guy. Heck, when I was a kid
ReplyDeletethere was a grocery store on almost every corner. Cigarettes, Lutefisk, postage stamps, candy section, the whole food pyramid and free bicycle parking. Sort of miss the old days.
Ya ever treat your adult beverage supply as having the same importance as say milk. OMG the Christian Brothers is really low how did I forget I gotta throw on some clothes and go out again.
DeleteNo. Milk is further down the list than Christian Brothers. Gotta keep my priorities straight.
ReplyDelete(1) Coffee
ReplyDelete(2) Alcohol (80 proof minimum)
(3) Tobacco (in some form)
(4) Donuts (or some other dessert in the house)
Don't tell the doctor.
The Food Pyramid is a personal thing. Eclairs trump brocolli.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up Mom was "eat an orange". Dad was like here's a Devil Dog. Dads rock!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up, my cousin Dougie lived a block away. His middle name was Trouble. My middle name was Sucker. So no surprise that one Summer day we had The Great Eddy Barney Fiasco. Eddy was a mouthy squirt. He had 6 older Irish brothers (all in 6th grade). Eddy was on the other side of Franklin St. and yelled 'Youse guys are poopheads'. Being 4th graders, we were of course highly offended and Dougie said 'Lets go beat him up'. Eddy ran away with
ReplyDeletefurther enraging grade school taunts - 'Dougie's sister dated a gorilla'
Bobby gets lost in grocery stores' etc. We chased him right up tree.
Just a young sapling. He was up at the top continuing his spiel
'You guys are pathetic...couldn't even catch a one legged turtle.
Naturally we were livid at these insults and Dougie said, "let's shake him out of the tree. So the tree was going wildly from side to side
and still raining insults. THEN, Eddy lost his grip, came head over heels bouncing of branches. Landed on his finger. Which was broke
because it pointed away from the rest when he tried to flip us off,
all the well screaming that we were walking dead when he ran off to tell his big brothers, the Barney Enforcement Mafia. I remained house bound for two weeks, faking Scarlet Fever. Found out later that Dougie survived death as well. My grand daughter's favorite Grandpa
story. She lies on the floor laughing really hard. Clearly, the story gets
updated with different grade school insults, while the main characters
become ever more pathetic. You're a movie critic: can I write a screen play, or do I have to change the title? Which performers would you recommend for the parts?
Steve Buscemi seems good as the mouthy squirt. What would Tarantino do with this?
DeleteI heard that Eddie grew up to be Don Rickles.
ReplyDeleteMr. Warmth.
DeleteCouple anecdotes. Worked at a fence company years ago and whenever somebody farted the older Albanian guy would go God bless you. My first deli job the cheese clerk and deli manager were working on something. Putting in an order or a code. Cheese clerk says to me go to Freddy and ask him if he wants to tap it in. Went to Freddy and said Kim wants to know if you can tap it in. Whole kitchen busted out laughing.
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, your Dad was an old Navy guy. Did he tell you how they
ReplyDeleteentertained themselves when a newbie seaman showed up? Chief says "Quick run over to supplies and get me a fallopian tube" Kid dashes to supplies, "I need a fallopian tube!" Old quartermaster chief says "What size?"
Countless war stories. Don't know if he saw Last Tango In Paris.
DeleteQuantum Computers: a number of experts have concluded they are impossible, given the 10 raised to 300 possibilities a large cubic array poses. Chaos 1, quantum guys 0. I'm sticking with my sliderule which is less complex than an abacus. Says to the Mrs. this morning, "Hey look, the paper got all the handyman ads in upside down" Mrs. says "No YOU got the paper upside down. Sh*t happens when you're in the John with the paper mutli-tasking.
ReplyDeleteYou can always find an expert or experts to support your POV.
DeleteTrue. Most court cases involve an expert for each side. Like 'this is definitely a gun'. 'No, that is a fly swatter' If ya gotta pick an expert,
ReplyDeletego with what the majority of experts say. ex-spurts used to be rare types buried in thick boring books. Now everyone on the net is one. I'm gonna go with the guy that predicted the eclipse.
There are times I've even disagreed with cat expert Jackson Galaxy. Majority of cat experts seem to say leave the ferals alone. All my life we've adopted strays off the street never went to the shelter or a pet shop. You make an appointment with the vet and they become official pets. Never had a problem. Majority of experts.
ReplyDeleteOk. You are a feral cat expert IMO. It's a gift.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I never heard anyone use the phrase feral cat. Somebody might go there's a stray.
ReplyDeleteThere's a kid up the street that is both stray and feral.
ReplyDeleteI know the type. Got in a fight once with a neighborhood kid and instead of using his fists he bit me on the chest. Maybe part werewolf.
ReplyDeleteI have on rare occasions encountered a cat that I would probably call feral but I think the term is over-applied. It's almost like a psy-op to leave those cats alone and steer people to adopt from shelters and help empty the shelters. Go with the over-domesticated cat that sleeps on the bookshelf all day and occasionally knocks over a knickknack.
ReplyDeleteFeral life can be good. Got a few around here that look more like show cats that my house cat. Does a dead mouse beat I AMs ?
ReplyDeleteThey're also more orientated to the environment. It's always the housecats who get lost.
ReplyDeleteLast Fall, I saw a huge cat come down out of the Maple tree. It turned and looked at me. It was a racoon. Undoubtably feral.
ReplyDeleteWe got raccoons, 'possum and the occasional skunk and this is Yonkers.
ReplyDeleteHaven't heard much about Tik-Tok lately. Dead issue?
ReplyDeleteThe subject has been eclipsed.
ReplyDeleteEven we small towns have homeless people under the bridge. Feral?
ReplyDeleteIs there a strong odor of urine?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. And sort of funny sweet smoke wafting around. I think the guys from the landfill come a couple times a month and house clean.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely feral.
ReplyDeleteA few days back, wife hollered at me: downstairs in a far corner I heard “Hey! There's a squad of child gurneys in the cemetery” Startled, I ran to the base of the steps, What? “There's a bunch of wild turkeys in the cemetery – I'll try to get a picture " She got one: 10 turkeys, either free-range or feral, take your pick.
ReplyDeleteTurkeys seem to like cemeteries. During the service for my Dad couldn't help noticing a turkey family walking in the background.
ReplyDeleteSelective hearing. One day at work someone was talking about pre-sliced cold cuts at work and the chef goes free slice?
Ben Franklin thought the Turkey should be the National Bird. Personally, I find the Bald Eagle more noble. But given the way things are going,
ReplyDeletea Turkey might be more applicable.
I concur.
ReplyDeleteHow about the extinct Dodo bird?
ReplyDeleteI was actually thinking about that.
ReplyDeleteThen, there is the Cuckoo bird.
ReplyDeleteI always liked the red-tailed hawk.
ReplyDeletePBS is running a series on Raptors, Even my wife was rapt about it.
ReplyDeleteUsually she is a house-flipping show junkie. "Knock out the walls -
paint everything white - sell to a sucker" stuff. When I took young
Mikey The Cat up to WA state U for eye uveitis where after several trips they removed his right eye, the vet students (invariably young girls) would be walking around with all sorts of raptors on their wrists. golden eagles, goshawks, bald eagles. Scared the crap out of Mikey.
PBS - Bob Vila can come over my house anytime. Lots of little issues.
ReplyDeleteIs Bob allergic to feral cats?
ReplyDeleteOne just killed a rat. Chewed the tail off. They bring it back like some kind of trophy then I have to bag it. Union job.
ReplyDeleteKind of a cat thing. Maul and kill something, then bring it back to the owner to show off. Probably where "look what the cat dragged in" came from. My Mom said that when my HS sister came home on the back of a Harley driven by some guy with chains on his neck.
ReplyDeleteBefore a cat kills a mouse they play with it for ten minutes. You actually start feeling bad for the mouse.
ReplyDeleteIndeed. Buzzards are kinder - live on roadkill.
ReplyDeleteNature's sanitation department.
ReplyDeleteWe fed the area squirrels all Winter. Over 6 lbs of peanuts. Little pan by the deck window. Now, they come up the deck steps and send a delegate to the bottom of the glass sliding door. He or she stand up and peer in with huge hungry eyes. I'm kind of a pushover for stuff like that but my wife says we should cut them. It's Spring and the furry rodents should return to their wild food source. Where are they going to find peanuts in the Idaho semi-wilderness?
ReplyDeleteI used to feed the squirrels a lot then I started doing yardwork and empty peanut shells everywhere. No more. Go find an acorn tree.
ReplyDeleteWe used shelled peanuts. There's restaurant chain out west called
ReplyDeleteWhiskey Jacks. Their come-on is wooden floors covered with peanut shells from shelled peanuts thrown around by whiskey affected customers. Wife hates the place. Great steaks. Kind of crunches when you go the restroom, ya know?
Any squirrels into pistachios?
ReplyDeleteBlue Jays love the peanuts too.
ReplyDeleteMrs. says I should have been a history teacher. "You make a dull subject so interesting." Dunno is - "The Earl of Oxford, who bowed deeply to the first Queen Elizabeth accidentally farted in his tights.. Overcome with shame he vanished from court and spent seven years travelling. On his hesitant return, the queen greeted him with: "My Lord, I had forgot the Fart." OK Kids, time for recess.
ReplyDeleteBetter than memorizing the date of the Magna Carta.
ReplyDelete12i5 at Runnymeade between King John (think Robin Hood here) and the barons. Annulled by Pope (not so) Innocent III. Later kings accepted the concept and it became more or less famous. The Brits are serious about their history. Every year on veteran's day there is post remembering Harold, who lost the battle of Hastings in 1066.
ReplyDeleteNot sure, but I think the Earl of Oxford took Pepto-Bismol and retired
to Glouchester. You didn't mess around with Elisabeth 1 - she executed dozens, including Mary, Queen of Scots. Where was Prince Harry wheb you needed him?
Google - I've always felt it's too invasive of privacy. One day not that long ago you looked up "hemorrhoid" (or something worse) and couple days later you delete that item from your search history only it shows up again. Then Google has this thing called predictive spelling I think it is and so you finally sanitized hemorrhoids from your history and you're typing another word that starts with "hem" and "hemorrhoid" shows up again above your keyboard and one day you're proudly showing somebody your new 5G phone and they want to handle it and for some reason "hemorrhoid" pops up again out of nowhere so you grab your phone back.
ReplyDeleteT'was a problem prior to Google. Hosted a lab tour for the CEO, his entourage and a TV crew. Stationed chemists and techs at all the fancy instruments. Each would come on with some sort of graph, or chart of parts per million this and that. I was last at the nickel ion-capture gas chromatograph. Turned it on and 'Solitaire' popped up. Director yells "CUT!" Been a bit camera shy since.
ReplyDeleteBought one of those cheap Craig tablets at Rite-Aid once. Went to the library and settled down in my chair and connected to wifi. Page after page of hard-core porn came up. Public place. Mothers walking around with their kids. I think the cheap tablet was pre-owned. Probably caused a family argument. If you're going to return it at least perform a factory reset.
ReplyDeleteOMG, Wonder if the expensive ones are even more salacious?
ReplyDeleteGrammarly, Grammarly - $140 a year to make our writing more perfect.
ReplyDeleteI'm not rich, been looking for a cheaper model. Like Grampraly. Iffy spelling, strange syntax, illegible polysyllables and lacking colons.
Can't pass that up at $1.25 a year. Already got a colon.(:)
OR try Babbel and you'll be having conversations in Spanish in three weeks. Might have a senior discount.
ReplyDeleteOnce a year, we managers had to cover sexual harassment in our monthly department meeting. Mixed sex audience -skeptical, giggling, etc. Did the whole script and asked if there were any questions? Guy in back - "Could you do Elevator Eyes again?" Kind of like stand up, ya know? Probably shouldn't have flipped him off - sure wouldn't go over these days.
ReplyDeleteEvery year we have to do a harassment module on Axonify which is the newest online training thing. My own view on the subject is subjectivism makes for bad law but that ain't one of the correct answers.
ReplyDeleteThe hardest part of middle management is making the latest stupid
ReplyDeletecorporate idea look good.
Just following orders. Then the company goes under.
ReplyDeleteGolden Parachute vs left in the Landfill.
ReplyDeleteSaw a documentary the other day on Big Food. It seems the average
ReplyDeletefood worker, be it picking, packing, cooking or serving, makes in one year what it takes the CEO a half hour to make. Capitalism on steroids.
Did you ever read "The Peter Principle"? The basic principle - Everyone rises to the level of his own incompetence. My mother one time was having trouble with a fence company and said in a general way it's hard living.
ReplyDeleteNorton the sewer guy was at the top of his game.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts are people do best if they like the job. You may not get rich, but you don't go to sleep pissed.
ReplyDeleteI would add it should also be a fair workplace and people help you out if you need help. Not seeing that right now. Guy is a taskmaster then goes off and does paperwork. Got bills to pay so you go in every day. There's a form of gaslighting that goes on in some places. You're not overworked you're not working hard enough. Thing is you're always looking for something else.
ReplyDeleteTeam building - week one - everyone pull together.
ReplyDeleteWeek 2. Good, now let's all try pulling in the same direction.
Nobody on the same page. That's the first problem. Also 15 minute breaks become half hours or is that just my imagination?
ReplyDeleteBack to Tik Tok. The Trump administration tried to ban it (and several states did) a few years ago) based on the private information going into Chin-Intel vaults. Now, Biden is pushing it and most of congress is as well. Meanwhile, the Club for Growth, a big Trump donor, has convinced him to forget Tik tok and concentrate on banning Facebook. Does this sound like Tik, Tok , Dough $? Since
ReplyDeleteI don't use any of that stuff, am I off the hook here? What would Marlon Brando do?
Aren't a lot of news organizations on TikTok now? The whole thing makes no sense. So the Chinese mine my boring life. Okay.
ReplyDeleteI guess. Chinese Intel= Hey there's a guy on Yonkers, cat expert renowned chef and father in Navy WWII. Let' send agent Wx14 z(Jackson Galaxy) and agent ZZZ123 (Jennifer Lawrence) over there and dig up some dirt on Chevy Chase! Be prepared.
ReplyDelete