• 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 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.

   
• Terrific! You knew it was coming... but it was finally announced that a series starring Mr. Terrific is indeed happening. Which is fantastic given how memorable he was in Superman...

Cannot wait to see it!

   
• Congrats! And so Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce got married in a massive ceremony at Madison Square Garden. It took quite a lot of people by surprise because they had over 1000 guests. It didn't take me by surprise, because I remember what she said to Graham Norton...

People are saying that they should have had their nuptials at Trump's Freedom 250 America's State Fair because they'd have loads of privacy given that this event has practically nobody showing up. Given how this joyous event has inexplicably pissed off a lot of people, I hope that Tay and Trav are very happy and stay together for the rest of their lives.

   
• Yes, Ma'am! "Babe, take off my underwear..."

Bwah ha ha haaaaaaa!

   
• Shadoe! Are you a Gen-Xer like me? Do you remember Shadoe Stevens? Then here's a TikTok for you, which is a darn cool distraction from the horrors of the day...
UPDATE: Why is TikTok such garbage water? Here's a direct link if the video below is wrong.

I love stuff like this.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Vatican excommunicates conservative SSPX followers — In all honesty, I'm surprised that it took this long. Vatican II ended the year before I was born. The simple truth is that the Catholic Church had to do something to modernize or else they would lose future generations of Catholics who felt that the Holy Church was too far removed from reality for them to stay parishioners. What is even more surprising is that there are still people in this day and age who feel compelled to cling to old doctrine... despite the fact that it was adopted by the Papacy, which cannot in any way be ignored WITHOUT excommunication. Anybody who thinks otherwise really, really doesn't understand the Catholic Church and the powers of the Supreme Pontiff.

   
• Time Damage, Eye Damage! ZOMG! They shut CERN's Large Hadron Collider down on June 29th. DO YOU KNOW WHAT DAY MY RETINA GOT TORN? Okay... it was June 24th... but I had the surgery on June 29th. COINCIDENCE?? I THINK NOT! Clearly the time-altering shenanigans of these "scientists" are responsible for my misfortune. Who can I sue?

   
• Baggage! Domestic carry-on size is 22 x 14 x 9 inches. If your carry-on is 18.9 x 13.0 x 8.3, YOU FAIL because you're not providing maximum space allowed. If your carry-on is 20.5 × 15.5 × 10, YOU FAIL because you're exceeding the maximum dimension in two directions while undersized in another (WTF, Nobl?). It's absolute insanity that luggage companies will call an oversized bag "carry-on" when it's not, and you are taking a huge risk every time you book a flight. Just make your damn domestic carry-on luggage 22 x 14 x 9 and be done with it.

   
Now I'm going back to whining about my eye.

   
• Don't Fuck with the Babysitter! I had no idea that Disney re-made Adventures in Babysitting! I was scrolling though the Disney+ app and there it was... ten years ago...

I cannot fathom it being even remotely as good as the original. And, to be honest, I have no desire to find out. The first go-around was lightning in a bottle.

   
• IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! I had to Google "Glitter Dumpling Reveal" because I had no fucking clue what that meant. Now I wish I still didn't know. Lord.

I mean, this kind of thing has been around forever. For me it was Baseball Cards and Magic The Gathering Cards. It's the reactions which feel as though they've changed. Kids see performative "reveals" on social media and feel the need to act the same way. Like their life depends on them getting the "right" toy or card or whatever.

   
• Happy Gay Month! This is pretty great...

I'm not a coffee drinker, so I don't know what "gay iced coffee" is, but this still seems a nice thing to do.

   
• Umbrella! Am I the only one who cannot hear Rihanna's Umbrella without thinking of one of the most amazing lip-sync performances of all time?

Not hard to see why Zendaya fell in love with him after that! She got beat in a lip-sync battle because he went all-in. If he's even half as dedicated to a relationship, he's gold.

   
• Authentication Method! This is darn clever, and it surprises me that I never heard of it before...

I love interesting stuff like this.

   
• Dick! A video looking back at the Warren Beatty Dick Tracy movie hit my YouTube feed, and I was bored enough that I watched it. I actually went to the movie on opening night back in 1990 (and got a free premiere T-shirt that had a big movie ticket for the film printed on it). I remembered nothing about the story. All I remember about it is that it starred Charlie Korsmo, Glenne Headly, Al Pacino, and Madonna... and that it was one of the most visually striking films I'd ever seen...

After the video, I grabbed my copy of the DVD and re-watched the movie. Which was kinda funny, because I bought it from a bargain bin ages ago for $5 and it was still in the wrapper because I never watched it. And now I remember why I remembered nothing about the story and why I never watched the DVD... it's kinda boring. Fantastic cinematography, phenomenal makeup, but the story was weak. And Warren Beatty was too old at 55 for the part. Because they didn't have advanced CGI back then, the movie was hugely expensive to produce. They could probably make it cheaper now (adjusted for inflation) but I don't know that it would carry the weight of having shot everything without computer graphics. Probably not.

   
• Super! I tell you what... I will probably end up going to the theater for the first time in years because Supergirl just looks too good to not to. The final trailer and clips look fantastic...

It doesn't hurt that the screenplay is based on one of my favorite comic book stories.

   
See you at the WWDC live-stream tomorrow! Unless, unlike myself, you have a life.

Odds are, this entry isn't for you. It's being written for a friend who asked where I shop for groceries. But you're welcome to read if you want.

I have a "FreshPass" membership for free grocery delivery from Safeway. For a while there, they were the only delivery option for my small city because all the grocery chains are in nearby cities. Eventually Walmart and InstaCart started offering delivery, but I stuck with Safeway because a lot of what I liked could be purchased from there.

I mean, sure their shoppers are told to shop for your produce like they're you're worst enemy... and they must also be told to not worry about selecting products with an expiry date that hits in three days... but most of the time it's all acceptable enough that the convenience outweighs the bad points.

At least it did until the cost of groceries continued to explode thanks to tariffs... and now the price of fuel thanks to some dumbass starting a war in Iran. When a small bag of salad was $1.49 and I couldn't eat it all before it was sludgy, I could mentally get past it. But now that it's $2.29? And that's one of the cheap items! Having to try and finish a $6.50 loaf of bread when it's already on its way to being stale? No thanks.

So I started shopping for produce and items with low expiration dates locally. They cost more, initially, but the savings over not having to throw out stuff three days after I get it makes it cheaper in the long run.

A month ago I was in The Big City to pick up some things at Costco. Just down the street is Fred Meyer, so I thought I'd stop. I always find interesting vegan and vegetarian finds there. It was during that trip I discovered Beyond Stack Burgers, one of my most favorite foods I've ever had.

It was also where I picked up some frozen Tucson Tamales...

But I hadn't actually cooked one of them until earlier this week.

And they're incredible. Incredible!

Which is why on Saturday I made a pick-up order at Fred Meyer to get more burgers and tamales since the tamales were on sale for $3 each! Along with other things I needed, which made for a staggering grocery bill. $200 for something that feels like it would have cost around $120 just two years ago!

And so... now to shop for groceries, I have to go to five different stores...

• Safeway. PROS: While I have FreshPass membership, delivery is free. Special offers can be quite good on many items. Vegetarian offerings are reliable. CONS: Variety of vegetarian options is monotonous and rarely adventurous and new. Delivery produce is absolutely awful. Anything perishable will likely be close to expiration.
• Fred Meyer. PROS: A 25-minute drive to get there. Many times they have new and interesting vegan and vegetarian foods to explore... and the number of items in those categories is larger than Safeway. Their special offers are fantastic for single people. Instead of making you buy a large number of the same item to get a sale price, they give you a large pool of many wildly different items and let you save money on each of them. CONS: No delivery in my area. Their bagged salads are always in poor condition.
• Costco. PROS: Crazy-good prices on popular items. A wonderful company I'm happy to support. CONS: A 25-minute drive to get there. Having to buy in such large quantities is tough for single people, so I can only really buy non-perishables. Rarely enough checkouts open.
• Walmart. PROS: Sometimes I see stuff on sale here for such a low price that it's unmatched anywhere else. They have some unique products I love (Jack's Pizza Sticks are delicious). A more reasonable 15-minute drive from my home. CONS: Never enough checkouts open. The foods I buy most often are not available here... or if they are available, they're not always from a brand I care for.
• Local IGA. PROS: Six minutes from my house, so it's easy to pick up produce and perishables that aren't bottom-of-the-barrel. They sometimes have surprisingly unexpected vegetarian options... like these phenomenal Deep Indian Kitchen Kati Street Wraps that I haven't seen anywhere else. CONS: Expensive. Sometimes ungodly so.

Sometimes I shop at Albertsons, which has my favorite layout of any store in the valley. But they own Safeway where my delivery comes from, so I don't have reason to go there unless I'm nearby. Which is rare.

And there you have it. How I shop for groceries.

When I got back from my weekend over the mountains, I was too tired to do much of anything. It was a long drive after a packed weekend, and there was nothing I wanted to do more than eat dinner and go to bed.

So I did that. But the next morning I remembered that I hadn't checked my mail since before I left, walked out to the mailbox and was greeted by a package. And when I opened it? There was this very cool mug featuring the spine of Depeche Mode cassette tapes from over the years...

I'm guessing that this is a birthday gift, but there was no note inside and the label didn't have a name I recognized.

So thank you, kind person... whomever you are! I love it! It makes me want to look up to see if there's a version for other 80's bands I love (like Pet Shop Boys!).

And for anybody not knowing much about Depeche Mode, I ran across this video a few weeks ago...

I have more favorite tracks from the band than I can count, but Mercy in You is probably at the top of my list. Mostly because of the live version, which cemented them as one of my favorite live acts on the planet...

Their earliest tracks hold up shockingly well. Which is probably why they are still belting them out at their shows. I think the song Everything Counts has been in the setlist of every concert I've ever been to...

The band occasionally gets heat from Conservative Christians over an early track called Blasphemous Rumours, which is actually a fascinating track that has a lot to say...

The song most people know them for is either Personal Jesus or People are People, with the latter being the song that got me hooked on the band once I heard it...

Their entire catalog remains some of my most-played and most-loved music.

And now that I'm appreciating it all over again, I'll be playing it on repeat for a while.

On New Year's Day I did something a little crazy. I ordered all the movies I own by their release date, then started watching them in order from oldest to newest.

It's quite an enjoyable way to be entertained. I started with the oldest movie in my collection, The Thin Man (1934), then moved on through The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), North by Northwest (1959), and a slew of James Bond movies (plus 2001: A Space Odyssey). From there the 70's came along, which included a slew of classics (like Star Wars, Grease, Foul Play, Death on the Nile, Superman: The Movie, Alien, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Airplane)...

...and then the 80's hit with The Empire Strikes Back and then Xanadu (1980)...

I am not a fan of musicals. But I loved A) Olivia Newton John, B) Electric Light Orchestra, and C) Greek mythology... so I saw it in the theater with friends when I was in high school. While not a great movie, it was an entertaining spectacle with phenomenal music.

And beautiful Olivia Newton John in that amazing dress she wore, of course.

Every night since I saw the film 46 years ago, I've said a little prayer to Zeus that these dresses come back into fashion. Because, damn...

No joke. The muses wouldn't be sexier if they were naked. Yeah, the wardrobe is very 80's... but I think that's why I'm so into it. It's retro-chic-sexy in a way that we never quite got back to. Even animated...

And of course I fell down a rabbit hole...

The movie actually plays better in 2026 than it did when it was released somehow.

For the life of me, I cannot wrap my head around the Bad Bunny hate that's ongoing.

I've been a fan of his music since I first heard Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana (YHLQMDLG), which was the album of 2020 during the pandemic. But I've been a fan of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio since his appearance in Bullet Train where he was fantastic. They wrote his character a good backstory and gave him an awesome fight scene.

He appeared on Carpool Karaaoke which was fun. Just look at James Cordon having a blast here...

And he hosted SNL twice where he was charming and funny from beginning to end...

His Jeopardy sketch was so good...

But I think my favorite sketch of his was this one...

Or maybe this one...

But when it comes to the Superb Owl halftime show... what more could you fucking want? He's from Puerto Rico, which makes him all-American. He's a multi-platinum artist whose music is popular around the world. He's a phenomenally talented performer, in any language. And he has good videos for his songs...

I thought his halftime set was amazing. He put on a fantastic show. And it was nice to have something different. On top of all that, if anybody would take two minutes to Google it, he told a story which is special to him.

But he sings in Spanish, so everybody unloads, like this xenophobic racist piece of shit...

And, as usual, it's Jon Stewart who had the perfect perspective on it all...

The United States of America is a MELTING POT. We are a mix of cultures and faiths and backgrounds and beliefs and languages which make us stronger together. Bad Bunny's show was an opportunity to let loose and have fun with a guy giving it his all to entertain us. You didn't need to understand the lyrics, everybody could just enjoy the vibe. Join in and celebrate what was handed to us. But oh no. If it's not somebody singing about beer, pickup trucks, and shooting guns, it's "UnAmerican."

How fucking sad.

Could somebody refresh my memory... was there this kind of faux-outrage when the Macarena by Los Del Río was topping the music charts? This has to be the stupidest manufactured outrage I've ever seen. There's serious shit going on, but let's all be distracted by the music at a fucking football game. Okay.

Jesus.

Fortunately the voice of reason came from fucking Elmo, of all people... errr... Muppets...

Amen to that, little monster.

I don't know that I'm necessarily a "Swiftie," but I do like some of Taylor Swift's music. But where my appreciation really lives is her tour movies and her videos.

She really knows how to present her music in entertaining ways.

And here's me... in that moment half-way through the brand new video for Taylor's Opalite where I figured out exactly what's going on. And it's so good.

And if you watch to the very end, they tell you what's going on if you hadn't figured it out. In order to watch it, you have to see it on iTunes or Spotify. It will end up on YouTube this Sunday, but you can see a tiny piece of it on Taylor's YouTube video shorts right now UPDATE: And here you go...

It's pretty amazing how Tay-Tay's videos have become so brilliant after she started writing and directing them. And this one is no exception. Not necessarily for what's in it... but for the reason why what's in it is actually in it.

What blows my mind is how business-savvy she is about it all.

She's waited a very long time after releasing the first video from the album The Life of a Showgirl for the lead single Life of Ophelia. And it's because that video had such legs to it. There was no point putting out the second video until the first one started winding down. And I honestly don't know that it has, because people are still doing the "Ophelia Dance" on TikTok and the song is still on the charts. Though some people are coming up with their own dance...

But time marches on and she probably wants to get these videos out before her next album drops, which is likely just months away given how frequently she releases them. For heaven's sake, she made The Life of a Showgirl in the middle of her Eras Tour!

I used to pride myself on keeping up with current events around the world. But lately I just don't have the mental fortitude to see what new horrific shit is going on. It seems to get worse by the day, and the added anxiety would probably push me over the edge.

I slept horribly last night. Tossed and turned and didn't fall asleep until well after midnight. Jenny woke me up a little after 6:00am, and I ended up petting her until it was her breakfast time at 7:00am. After that I went back to bed so I could read some documentation for work and... somehow dropped off to sleep again, and didn't wake up until nearly 10:00am?? That's something that just doesn't happen to me. When I wake up, that's it. I'm awake for the duration. But not this morning...

Nearly eight hours sleep? That's very rare. Any more I feel lucky if I can get five or six!

Then I somehow ended up falling down a rabbit hole of shelter dog adoption videos. Like this one...

And this one...

And this one...

And then I listened to Martin Luther King Jr. speak, amazed as always how his words are more relevant than ever, then got back to work while listening to a podcast called Why this song? which talks to the artists behind popular songs. It started with Hold Me Now by the Thompson Twins, which is one of my favorite tracks of all time. Good stuff.