Sorry I've been absent for... ummm... two weeks?

In case you haven't been keeping up with the news, the fires here in Eastern Washington State have been seriously scary. Spokane, in particular, has been catching fire. The city had evacuations of around 65,000 people at one point. 900 structures burned down.

Spokane is three hours to the East of me. But there are fires to the North as well. The combination of which has filled the skies in my region with smoke...

And, as you may know, I have severe smoke allergies.

In order for my lungs to endure it, I am taking medication which tears up my stomach. So I try not to take it except when needed to be able to work. The rest of the time my eyes water, my nose runs, and my lungs... itch. And that's the worst part. Itching from the inside and not being able to do anything about it.

And so...

I hunker down at home with my air purifiers and try to do nothing so I don't have to be medicated.

Including blogging.

But then today things were a little better. No idea if it's going to stay that way for a while.

I plan on enjoying it while it lasts.

And so... digital price tags have finally arrived in my region of Redneckistan.

Needless to say, I positively hate them. Mostly because the idea of "dynamic pricing" is shit. Stores raising prices at certain times of the day or to test the maximum people will pay or whatever else shitty things are coming out of it are needlessly consumer-hostile.

But the bigger reason? THEY ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO READ!

They are dim, low-contrast, and have a weird look to small type which makes them hard to see. Given that my eyes are not the best, my only option to actually read the fucking things when they are not at direct eye-level is to take a photo with my iPhone and zoom in to read them that way...

Assuming I can get past the fucking glare. I had to take THREE PHOTOS before I could get an angle where a photo could even help...

There are some laughs to be had, however. Take for instance these tomatoes that were on sale for 00¢ off regular price...

More than a couple signs were malfunctioning, making an already hard-to-read price even harder for visually-challenged people like me. Or anybody, really...

This is at Safeway, which used to truly be my most favorite place to shop. But then they started making it so you can only get discounts if you sign up for marketing. Then they made it so that some discounts were only available if you clipped a digital coupon. Then they made it so you got points but never really know exactly how to apply them. Then they made it so you only got the best savings if you bought them on subscribe-and-save. It's just been a slow decent into madness. And half the time something goes wrong... my coupons don't register so I get charged extra. Or a discount on the shelf doesn't register at the register. Or whatever. It's all such frickin' bullshit. JUST GIVE ME THE BEST PRICE WITHOUT HAVING TO JUMP THROUGH ALL THESE STUPID FUCKING HOOPS!

And, of course, like all grocery stores now-a-days, you are chained to their stupid app. Which also never works right. I wanted some diced potatoes, but the location in the store was obscured. So I clicked on the location icon and it brings up six pages of crap to scroll through, BUT NO FUCKING LOCATION!

Does anybody who develops these apps actually test them? Or use them... AT ALL?!?

I swear, most of the time I get to the point that I never want to shop at Safeway again. But switching to another store is kinda senseless because they're all getting to be the same.

I don't mean to sound like a whiny luddite, but how the fuck did we get here?

The smoke has been clearing quite a lot, making the air quality bad instead of outright toxic. This is not expected to last, however, and the forecast says that the doom smoke will return this evening. Thought I have no clue how they actually forecast any of this. Probably something to do with wind conditions, I'd imagine.

I am attempting to enjoy the respite from constant headache, itchy lungs, watery eyes, and a running nose while I can but, in all honesty, the problem never goes away completely. It's just a matter of degrees. This morning, for example, my headache was still there... it just wasn't so bad that I felt like slamming my head into a wall.

At least not because of wildfire smoke.

There's still plenty of other reasons to slam my head into a wall.

Happy Gravity Reversal Day, everybody!

Since 40-60 million casualties are projected worldwide, I considered canceling my doctor's appointment and reading a book. But it's just my luck I'd be one of the people who actually survives this heinous gravity abnormality, and then I'd end up getting charged for a doctor's appointment that I didn't show up for. And so I hopped in the car and off I went.

The sun was looking very, very angry this morning, thanks to the wildfire smoke returning with a vengeance...

Speaking of angry, my eyeball isn't in the best shape. Some of my blood vessels in there are encased and not filled with blood like they should be (which you can see when my surgeon zoomed in on the right-hand side here...

And so I get to come back in December to have some dye injected so he can get a better picture of what's going on with the vessels in there. Sounds like fun!

The good news is that my optic nerve looks to be in great shape and the laser surgeries to contain my retina falling apart seem to have done the job...

And then... after all that fun... I went to get my 11th COVID shot! Which is to say I've had one COVID shot plus ten boosters, I suppose. My doctor suggested that somebody with my lung problems should get doped up every six months, so I follow the advice of my doctor and scientists who actually study this stuff so I don't end up on a ventilator or something equally terrible. LIKE DEAD! Though if you ask all the wacky conspiracy nuts, I'll be dying from the COVID vaccinations any minute now. Something I've been hearing since my very first vaccination years ago. And yet here I am.

And... oh... would you look at that.

Gravity didn't reverse itself after all!

Yet another thing that scientists said wouldn't happen. But we live in the stupidest timeline where people actually believe the stupid shit they read on the internet, which is why I've been seeing an escalation of idiotic crap like this...

What amazes me is that no matter how many times we hear about the end of the world or anti-science idiocy like gravity reversing or CERN ripping open a hole in space-time or whatever... people continue to believe the dumbasses who just move on to even more asinine predictions when their current prediction fails. There's people lining up to believe some of the stupidest shit imaginable for reasons I can't even begin to guess.

Maybe conspiracies are so much fun to believe that it doesn't matter if they're right or wrong?

Which would explain a lot.

Just checking in to let everybody know that I'm still alive during my 11th COVID vaccination and the 7.3-second full gravity reversal that happened yesterday! Sure I woke up with a bit of a sore arm, but I'm totally not dead. At least not yet.

OR AM I ?!?

For all you know I could totally be dead and typing this from beyond the grave.

Given that the air was new levels of toxic thanks to the wildfire smoke everywhere, I certainly feel like I'm dead...

You can just make out the nearby hills on the left-hand side there. Which is to say it's not a good day to have smoke allergies like me. I end up taking all kinds of pills and inhaler shots to keep my lungs from itching and driving me insane... and aspirin to help push through the headaches.

There ain't enough medicine on earth to take care of the watery eyes and runny nose though. Those I just have to live with.

OR DIE WITH, if you're paying attention.

Though it's entirely possible that I've been AI all this time. Which would be cool because it means the trillions of dollars spent on the crap was worthwhile for something.

I woke up in a coughing fit. At first I thought I was dying because I had my 11th COVID vaccination, but it turns out I had just spent too much time outside yesterday.

The coughing was bad enough, but it turned out I disturbed my cats, which got me death stares. They may sleep for 20 hours a day, but losing even the five minutes they were awakened before they fall asleep again is infuriating to them.

Oh well. They don't have to sleep on my bed. They choose to.

I have an industrial washer and dryer that was left by the previous owner. To save water I've been waiting until I completely run out of something before I was a load. Because the size of my appliances means I can. For example, I don't wash T-shirts until I've worn all my T-shirts. Today I just put on my last pair of clean underwear. Which means I have to wash underwear when I get home from work.

Any bets on whether or not I'll forget?

Nothing makes my cats want to go outside in the catio more than when I don't let them go outside in the catio because there's too much smoke in the air for little kitty lungs.

Seriously. Jake acts like he's being tortured. Jenny walks around the house meowing at full volume to let her frustration be known. And it doesn't end there. They are both constantly hanging around me. The minute I head to bed, they are there. And they stay there until morning.

Most times they just want to lay there...

Other times they demand belly rubs...

But sometimes they manage to entertain themselves without my involvement...

At least until something like this happens. At which time I will say "JAKE! COME BACK HERE AND FIX YOUR SISTER'S EAR!" Except he won't, so I have to get involved...

I really hope that the smoke dies down enough that I can open up the catio again.

   
• D23! The most unexpected news was that the Yeti Audio-Animatronic Coming Back to Life Inside Expedition Everest...

When the ride debuted, the yeti took a swipe at you when you went by. It was kinda terrifying. But then it turned out the animatronic was so heavy that it was cracking the support structure. So they turned it off and added a strobe light... leaving us with "disco yeti" that was more annoying than scary. And it sounded like it was going to stay that way forever because genius imagineer (and notorious earring abuser) Joe Rhode said they'd have to rip open the mountain to fix the structure. So I guess they found a way to fix the structure and lighten the animatronic with servos or something so they don't have to dismantle the mountain to fix it. Very cool indeed, because the ride wasn't the same once they turned him off.

   
• A Vision in White! The first trailer from the new Visionquest series was released...

I'm in the minority that I didn't much care for Vision & Scarlet Witch and Agatha All Along, but I'm hopeful that the final entry into the trilogy goes back to being a comic book movie. I will say that I am thrilled that James Spader is returning as Ultron. He's one of my favorite actors, and I like what they're doing here.

   
• DON'T PULL THE LEVER, KRONK! There was a very strong rumor that the new Villains Land in Walt Disney World had been completely retooled after the artwork that was released. Primary of which was that the Maleficent coaster had been toned down to become a Yzma and Kronk coaster. Which, to be honest, is genius. It's such an epic scene from The Emperor's New Groove that was more funny than scary. It made sense because Magic Kingdom is more of a family-friendly affair than the other lands. But then it was confirmed at D23 that this wasn't the case at all. Still very much a Maleficent coaster that's looking scary indeed...

I really hope that it's a more intense coaster for adult guests. There's loads of rides for kids at Magic Kingdom, so it would be nice to have something more grown up. Like the very popular Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind coaster from Epcot. Here's hoping. And, oh yeah, they also showed this from the Magic Mirror dark ride they're building...

Looks like Pirates of the Caribbean but with villains instead of pirates. I hope that they at least pack it with plenty of animatronics instead of skimping like they did in the Splash Mountain re-theme.

   
• Branding! Branding! Branding! I was so impressed with the gorgeous logo they made for Villains Land that it deserves it's own bullet. Because look at this!

Love it. Somebody at Disney really knew what they were doing when they designed that!

   
• Tomorrow! Another big piece of news to come out of D23 was that they are reimagining Tomorrowland at Disneyland. Apparently they are bringing it back to be something closer to what Walt Disney intended for it. The problem with Tomorrowland has always been that no matter what you do to update it, the area is always outdated. Tomorrow is just a day away, after all. Which is why I far, far prefer how they approached Tomorrowland in Disneyland Paris. Instead of trying to imagine what the future will be like, they ran with what people from yesteryear thought the future would be like. For example, their Space Mountain was a Jules Verne From Earth to the Moon kind of affair where you get shot out of a cannon and get blasted to the moon. It was a genius idea...

And now they've announced that they're going back to this idea and restoring the Paris Space Mountain to what it originally was. Which makes me very, very happy. I wish they'd use that aesthetic for Disneyland California as well.

   
• Monstrous! The new Monsters Land at Disney World will be opening next year in 2027. Except the brilliant "Door Coaster" won't open with it. That comes later. Apparently the only attraction set for opening day is the re-theme of MuppetVision 3D. Which, fine... but the coaster is what everybody is actually wanting to experience. Though the 3D movie does look interesting...

And would probably be even more interesting if they didn't already re-theme the 3D theater in Animal Kingdom from It's Tough to Be a Bug to Zootopia.

   
• New Splash! As a massive, massive fan of The Princess and the Frog, I was cautiously optimistic about the re-theming of Splash Mountain in Disneyland and Walt Disney World to become Tiana's Bayou Adventure. But it ended up being a massive disappointment. The ride is sparse and breaks down all the time. But now they're building a new "splash mountain" ride from scratch in Paris, this time based on The Lion King...

And I am once again cautiously optimistic. I hope that they learned their lesson from the Tiana fiasco. I hope they pack it with animatronics and make them more reliable. I hope they come up with a ride story that actually makes sense. I hope they put some actual thought into how it should work. But who knows? We have two very good examples of Disney dropping the ball on this.

   
And that's a wrap for your Disney-based bullets.

The problem with having smoke allergies during wildfire season is that you're sick all the time. It never stops. All the classic allergy symptoms plus a constant headache plague your every waking moment. And while you'd like nothing better than to sequester yourself in a room with multiple air purifiers, it doesn't work like that because life must go on.

You dope up with antihistamines and Advil and go to work.

Or you try to.

This morning I left the house without my backpack containing my weekend work and my laptop. Turned around and went back for it. Then I got all the way to work and realized that I left my MagSafe wallet at home. Turned around and went back for it. And then I walked into my office and remembered I wanted to bring some toast with me. At which point I said "screw it" and found some stale crackers in my filing cabinet that were close enough.

And the week is just starting.

I finally got around to watching Lanterns (HBO)... for the second time. Something I wanted to do ten seconds after the first time. The show is that good.

Despite the fact that it's got Kyle Chandler in it, I held my expectations in check. I pretty much had to, because it was made very clear that this was more of a slow-burn mystery series instead of an action-based show with super-hero battle after super-hero battle. All the previews show the characters mostly in plain clothes, not costumes...

From the above teaser, it looks like some cosmic action is forthcoming. I can't wait to see it.

I've stated repeatedly that mRNA vaccines are a gift from God via science.

It's a stunning technology which gives your body instructions on how to do something... like fight off COVID more efficiently.

And now, apparently, fight off cancer.

Moderna and Merck created a personalized mRNA treatment which can prevent skin cancer from recurring or spreading, as proven by a late-stage clinical trial.

The current method of fighting off cancer involves trying to kill off all the cancer cells without killing too many other cells... or the patient. Whether by radiation or chemotherapy, it's a seriously invasive and destructive way to cure somebody. But now, thanks to mRNA technology, they are able to create a specific instruction set to teach your body how to attack the mutated cancer cells directly and specifically.

They're working on all kinds of mRNA cancer treatments, but this one happens to be skin cancer. Treating melanomas which kill between 8,000 and 9,000 people a year is a small start, but a good one. And means the world to the people it helps.

I'm hoping that soon they can design mRNA to help fight heinous diseases like Ebola, which is exploding again.

It may be the only thing that can.

At least it sure seems that way given the miracles that mRNA are performing.

   
Welp.

I am mostly dead today. Sitting in my living room with air purifiers on full blast trying not to die from having been out in an Air Quality Index of 258.

In other news... the surprise fourth season of Ted Lasso has been airing. And it's got a real meta thing going on.

This series is about Ted coaching women's football. Which, as you can imagine, has many fans of the show outraged because it's a different take on Ted Lasso than the show they fell in love with. Which proves the entire point of the new season. And the show-runners drove that home by having a shareholder's meeting. After the Greyhounds were discussed (or rather, not discussed, thanks to Roy Kent being Roy Kent) and the conversation switched to the Lady Greyhounds, most of the room got up to leave.

But, hey, to me even the worst season of Ted Lasso is better than most of the other crap on television...

And now? I need to pack a suitcase...

Going on vacation is incredibly stressful when I'm having to leave my cats behind. Sure there are robots for food, water, and litter box... and my home is fully automated... and there's a dozen people I could call to run over if something went wrong... but it's still tough to leave knowing that they'll be looking for me as the week goes on.

This was my last view of them before I walked out the door...

Yeah, hard to not feel guilty about it all.

   
• I Love L.A.! But L.A. is not loving me, because it's absurdly hot with not a cloud in the sky. That's kinda rare this time of year... but record-setting heat is getting less and less rare every year. This is our normal.

   
• Paradoxical! I've noticed this, but never actually thought enough about questioning how it works...

So now you know. And so do I.

   
• Naturalized American! I'm a huge Kraft Deli Deluxe American Cheese fan (the stuff that's not wrapped in the plastic it tastes like). But I finally stopped buying it because the cost is prohibitive. How can it be 4 times more expensive than sliced cheddar? So a big thanks to Safeway for carrying Sargento American Cheese, which often goes on sale to become affordable!

Great taste, and they put waxed paper between the slices for easy access! I don't eat nearly as much dairy as I used to, so when I crave a grilled cheese, I make sure I have a dreamy, meltable cheese to make it with.

   
• The Truth is Out There! I love LEGO. I love The X-Files. And I am in love with Gillian Anderson. Which is to say that this is really great...

I want it. Even though I have no idea where I'd put it.

   
• Where have you been all my life? Dorielotes... a combination of "Doritos" and "elote" (Mexican Street Corn)... is something I will absolutely have to try before I die (even if it's the cause of my death)...

Looks like it's got Nacho Cheese Doritos, corn, butter, sour cream, mayo, salt, lime, more salt, chili powder, Oaxaca cheese, nacho cheese sauce, and more corn on top. Amazing. But probably not healthy.

   
• Religious Bigotry is Still Bigotry! The amount of time I spend telling random bigots off TikTok to go fuck themselves has me thinking I’d be better off not looking at TikTok...

I have no idea when common courtesy became an opportunity to be such a fucking asshole about everything, but what in the hell do people care what other people want to be called? Who gives a shit? People dying to be persecuted for their beliefs, that's who. Pathetic.

   
And now back to my regularly scheduled vacation.

The reason I'm in L.A. is a quick diversion to see the 25th Anniversary of Haunted Mansion Holiday at Disneyland. I saw it the second year that they had it, then never made it back. Given my love of The Nightmare Before Christmas, in general (and Zero, specifically) I was interested in seeing how it had changed over the decades.

Turns out it's much the same, but there's also some things which are very different. Like they've been slowly upgrading it year over year. Ultimately it's a lot of fun, even though there are people who are pissed off it gets changed at all...

Halloween is probably my favorite holiday of the year, and Disneyland does a darn good job decorating up the place. Especially for nighttime spookiness...

Doesn't matter that it's two months until All Hallow's Eve, it's a good time to be in the Happiest Place on Earth.

Because it would be a shame to fly all the way to Los Angeles for one day, I hung around to visit the Oogie Boogie Bash Halloween celebration at Disney's California Adventure.

Even though Disney has done a lot to improve the place since they dropped a steaming, cheap-ass turd across from Disneyland, it's still not exactly the height of theme park design. Maybe once Coco Land and Avatar Land open up, there will be something more than one great ride (Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout) and one very good one (Toy Story: Midway Mania).

That being said, Cars Land has the best decorations in the park...

The event has a lot of rare and semi-rare characters making appearances. Some of them you can take photos with, but none of them are signing autographs, which is kinda shitty for an event which ain't cheap.

Here's Pain and Panic from Hercules...

And their boss, Hades, who is the most hilarious thing I've seen in a minute. Whomever they got to play him made a flawless casting choice...

Hercules wasn't there, but his girlfriend Megara was...

Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit...

And, look, it's Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb...

Texture mapping is getting seriously good...

One of my all-time favorites, Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove...

Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty who is not rare, but very cool...

And the Evil Queen from Snow White...

Good night, Mr. Oogie Boogie...

And good night to California Adventure...

So long and thanks for all the candy!

I was gutted to learn that Dolly Parton has died.

In many ways, she was the epitome of the good that can come out of this country... which is an important thing to cling to given how utterly depressing it is to see the bad stuff come out of this country. She came from humble beginnings, became one of the most famous musicians in the world, but remained down-to-earth and humble to the end.

She donated so much to so many. And her Imagination Library provided millions of books to kids, enriching their lives.

But it was her stellar personality which made her such a treat...

The best person to break down her career is Dolly herself...

Sadly, she doesn't bring up her surprising appearance on The Orville, which was such a great use of her status as a legend...

I thought of Dolly all day today, but mostly tonight while I was at Trader Sam's tiki bar. She was a longtime supporter of the LGBTQ community, and incredibly inclusive of everybody in everything she did. And when I went to use the restroom at Trader Sam's...

I saw this...

And remembered seeing this stupid-ass MAGA politician displaying his ignorance for the entire world to see...

Because anybody can use it, the piece of shit thinks it's a "trans bathroom." Which means he likely has a "trans bathroom" at his home and uses a "trans bathroom" on a plane or whatever. Stop the fucking insanity indeed.

By seeing people as people and treating everybody with respect and kindness, Dolly was a better example for society than most of us could ever think of being. Especially these garbage assholes who mock trans persons that are just playing the cards they were dealt the best they can... like all of us are.

Rest in Peace, Dolly. You most definitely left this world better than you found it.

First Dolly, then Tim Curry? Truly we are living in a doomed timeline. Reality is collapsing around us.

Of course I was introduced to Mr. Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The movie was released in 1975, but I didn't see it until over a decade later in 1986 when it was already established as a cult classic. I did one of the famous midnight showings at the Neptune Theater in the U-District of Seattle. It was a fantastic experience, largely due to Tim's performance as the sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania, Dr. Frank-N-Furter...

Then came Legend, destined to be yet another cult classic. He played Darkness, but I had no idea until years after I saw the movie in theater on VHS. He completely disappeared in the role, and to this day I have no idea how he was considered for it. Something I really do need to research one of these days...

The same year as Legend came Clue, giving Tim the ultimate cult classic trifecta...

After a strange detour in The Hunt for Red October Mr. Curry landed his most iconic role, the deadly clown Pennywise in It...

After loads of voice work, we were treated to his take on Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island, a role which proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that Tim Curry was a singular acting talent... because who else could hold their own against The Muppets?!?

The amount of voice work in his oeuvre is really impressive...

As always, the best person to discuss his career is Time Curry...

Rest in Peace, sir. Your work brought a lot of happiness to a lot of people.

The flight home was uneventful. And not just because there wasn't an annoying asshole screaming about Jesus or anything like that. It probably had more to do with the fact that I was in First Class. To be fair though, for all I know there actually was an asshole screaming about Jesus in the back. I was having a drink while listening to a movie so I wouldn't know.

On a related note... it's people screaming about Jesus on airplanes which has me thinking that being allowed to bring a loaded weapon onboard might be a good idea after all. Sure you risk a gun going off mid-flight and depressurizing the cabin and killing everybody... but, well... assholes screaming about Jesus.

If anything, you'd think that God would approve of gun violence against assholes screaming about Jesus given Matthew 6:5-6 and all that.

And, to be honest, the people who should most approve of gun violence against assholes screaming about Jesus would be the assholes screaming about Jesus themselves. Absolutely nobody wants to be persecuted more than some asshole who is screaming about Jesus. It's practically their entire identity. Probably because they refuse to follow His teachings, so this is the only way they can be Christ-like.

But please don't think that this post is in any way an endorsement of gun violence against assholes screaming about Jesus. I don't advocate gun violence against anyone.

A nice slap across the face would be fine.

I returned home yesterday to find that both cats were waiting for me. Not just Jake, but Jenny as well. That almost never happens. Jenny prefers to wait and see if Jake doesn't get murdered after he bounds down the stairs to greet whomever is opening the door.

As expected, the cats are all over me all the time... perhaps afraid I'm going to disappear again...

It's nice to be home. It's nicer to be missed.

   
• Dolly Redux! I have spent a lot of time thinking about the legacy that Dolly Parton left behind. What's most amazing is that she seems to have somehow transcended politics, despite the fact that she was fairly apolitical. Of all the interviews and videos I've watched over the past several days, I think this one is where Dolly's legacy should lay...

And you know what? I don't think Dolly would mind one bit.

   
• Slop! Something I think Dolly would mind very much? The death of shitty fucking AI songs eulogizing her. It started when I happened across a song by Enya on YouTube which was a tribute to Dolly Parton. I started listening to it and realized it didn't sound like Enya. Then I saw a shit-ton of other AI-generated shit and realized that everybody and their dog were "creating" AI slop tributes by real people who never made them. It's so fucking disgusting. And it pisses me the fuck off that YouTube isn't cracking down on this crap. Because I don't want to hear it. Ever.

   
• Skylines! This looks like it's a glorious LEGO mashup of SimCity and Animal Crossing...

Yeah, can't wait for that. Any time I can spend in a fake world is bound to be better than what we've got going on in this world we've got for reality.

   
• Lanterns! Nothing has me laughing my ass off harder than people claiming that HBO's Lanterns has ruined the character by going "woke." Race was a huge... massively huge... part of the comic book series. This small exchange is but a drop in the bucket...

The introduction of John Stewart was specifically made to add perspective to Black persons in the situations which were normally occupied by white people...

I wasn't reading comics in 1971, as I was five years old, but I very much remember reading the stories as back issues later in life. I was a massive fan of Green Lantern (his comic, along with The Flash, were the first I had ever bought) and I read through many back-issues where these foundations were made. The fact that the characters are being dusted off and revised for modern audiences is not an accident. It's what the foundation of the book has always been. I think Lanterns is honoring the source material very well. I just wish there was more action going on. I'm trying to be patient, but we're running through the series quickly without it.

   
• Dantzig! I never tire of hearing this story, which popped up today. I've copied it from his Wikipedia article...

During his study in 1939, Dantzig solved two unsolved problems in statistics due to a misunderstanding. Near the beginning of a class, Professor Neyman wrote two problems on the blackboard. Dantzig arrived late and assumed that they were a homework assignment. According to Dantzig, they "seemed to be a little harder than usual", but a few days later he handed in completed solutions for both problems, still believing that they were an assignment that was overdue. Six weeks later, an excited Neyman eagerly told him that the problems he had solved were two of the most famous unsolved problems in statistics. He had prepared one of Dantzig's solutions for publication in a mathematical journal. This story spread and was used as a motivational lesson demonstrating the power of positive thinking. Over time, some facts were altered, but the basic story persisted in the form of an urban legend and as an introductory scene in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting.

   
• Recall! Recall! Recall! Can anybody keep up with all the foods being recalled? I sure can't. Which means I'm probably going to die any day now. Which is strange given that everybody said I was going to die from all the COVID vaccines I've had (11 and counting!). If only there was some kind of government agency responsible for keeping our food safe. That wasn't dismantled. By assholes who keep cutting necessary government agencies so their billionaire owners can get even more tax cuts.

   
And now back to my post-vacation nonsense, already in progress.

I was surprised when I searched my blog and couldn't find where I had posted any videos by Philip Mershon. He does short-form videos about historical curiosities called Mid-Century Vault.

Surprised, because I always find his topics to be entertaining.

Here he is talking about Highlights magazine, a staple of waiting rooms when I was a kid...

And SPAM!!!

The origin of Shrinky Dinks...

And a scandal I had never heard of before...

If you like to bathe in nostalgia, I highly recommend his channel.