One year ago today: November 17, 2024, poor little Sammy.
Five years ago today: November 17, 2020, a supersonic bark.
Nine years ago today: November 17, 2016, stupidity isn’t a right.
Random years ago today: November 17, 2002, when it was still Miami.
Cream of wheat, it’s been a while. And I see I’ve wrecked my skillet on the hotplate. Good morning as the big money continues to dump A.I. stocks. My long-standing protonmail service may soon be a goner, if new Swiss regulations come into place. ID or a phone number may soon be required and the authorities can demand, without explanation, that you turn off encryption. Newbies, be advised that your e-mail is NOT encrypted unless both ends have the service.
The welfare system, that is EBT, is getting a shakeup. People collecting in as many as fie different states, thousands of dead people on the lists, and $500 bags of groceries sold on the street corners for $100 in cash. I told ya, nobody who is getting free food, phone, and shelter is going to get a job that barely pays for those things. They all have to re-apply, but that is hardly a safeguard to the millions Democrat-trained to play the system.
Watch out, I’m back in a comfort zone with the new stove, so things will slow down even more. French toast this morning with both slices made at one, it don’t get no better. And I’ve got a spinach chicken bake planned if I can get downtown for a few ingredients. I’ve plainly won this round except the troubles with the remaining wiring. That doesn’t count because from here it is most cosmetic. Sorry it took years to address that corner of the building and it won’t be long before I want a new kitchen look.
Tampa bay radio says Trump is pouncing on the BBC with a $5 billion lawsuit over fake reporting. The BBC edited video of two Trump statements an hour apart to deliberately make it appear he incited violence in 2020. They have since apologized, but the damage was done and their attitude was they had a right to splice news in this fashion. The BBC CEO, directly responsible, quickly resigned, but I hope this done does not go away.
It was around 16 years ago I looked at writing crossword puzzles for a publishing outfit, but later saw it just wasn’t work the effort. Some say that crosswords are all computer generated these days. Yep, I knew that, but the idea was to have creative clues. That is what makes a good puzzle. But it turned out to be, consumer-wise, not a big sales draw. Same with today, the puzzles are so bland I quit doing them, that, and because they don’t teach you anything anymore. Novel clues were supposed to spark you. I wrote my first crossword puzzle when I was ten years old, a rather later start for me. I sent it to the newspaper office and never heard back. No, I did not dare tell anyone about it.
Oldest known rice fields (China).
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
That was the Reb on the phone. It’s sorted out but will mean I’ll need two trips to Nashville. She’ll be out of town a few weeks so if I time it right, the pooch and I can have the house and yard to ourselves while I get to know a new town. But a burner phone is not a must, everyone should get one after what I’ve pieced together from the new requirements. This afternoon, I’m composing a long letter to JZ, partially over downplaying his recent stroke. Pals are supposed to talk to pals in that situation so they can help each other out.
I get this brilliant idea to bake my spinach chicken, but need a few ingredients. I’m out of paprika, cottage cheese, olive oil, mozzarella, and the chicken. Of course these all won’t get used up in one dish, but the price tag for these basics came to $59. When I retired, that was my budget for the whole month. What the hell, I’m getting my kitchen back into shape. I wrote letters to JZ and Alaine. With pictures of the new stove, of course.
The Prez writes many short stories, around 2/3 of a page, many detailing his experiences in the military. They won’t appear here because they are true stories with real names, but I think it is an unpublished goldmine. I try to read one a day and they are much better material than other similar writers, like that Si author that gets into comparative religion in all his work. Today’s tale was the time he was at “Country Night”, with the crowd “hollerin’ to Hank and Tanya like they were preaching gospel”. A night of cheap drinks, bad decisions, and stories to laugh about “long after the music had stopped”.
ADDENDUM
It has come to light that Blackrock is now buying up half of all small contracting companies in the southern USA. The takeover is silent, buying only the name and image, allowing the owners to continue on as if nothing as changed. But, in addition to cranking up prices, they are getting homeowners to finance the work. And the fine print says in the event of a missed payment, Blackrock gets the house. I believe credit itself spurs inflation.but there is a lot of silence about the topic.
I stumbled across this scary issue [financing] several times pricing out the going rate for my new stove installed if I could not do it myself. The lowest quote I found was $3,200 for the labor. The highest was $3,800. Is this where I get to point out that this blog mentioned this evil trend more than eleven years ago? Naw, that would be too much like bragging, so I won’t say anything.
As I read more of “Paris Echo” I see I was not picking up on some clues. One is the time period. Possibly the author wants the reader to mistake the era. I was beginning to notice bias, such as mentioning only the right-wing riots, never the left. Plus a growing pro-Jewish drift in passages about neighborhoods. Then, on disk 3, there is referral to lack of resources on the Internet in 1996. That blows the cover, this is a propaganda work and you can guess where that is heading.
The book’s attempt at empathy fails on me. I cannot connect with the starving student angle when the student has money to fly to Paris to study history and sleep with her teachers. The book is, I think, headed toward the standard Hollywood crap, just using a long lead-in to set you up. Place the plot at 2005 for now, and Hanna to be more like 30-ish, hardly the student much more. It also explains why the only men who date her are her ex-college profs, all married men “trapped” with their wives. What’s that smell?
Changing the topic slightly, I have a view on the French “Resistance” of WWII. They were hated for causing reprisals. It was 25 civilians shot for every murdered German, but we are told it was the German’s causing the executions. As far as I know there has never been a study of who these resistance people really were. But plainly it was people who were quite willing to let other people die for what they wanted. Does that make any particular group spring to mind?
