Category Archives: General

Tragedy in death…

I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll write about it again:

A number of years ago, perhaps as many as 25+ years ago, I was driving near a friend’s house and on my way, likely, to a mall or bookstore and noticed, on the other lane, two or three parked police cars.

The officers were out of their vehicles and stood over a black gentleman, an older man with white hair and beard, who was slumped against a wire fence.  Beside him was a shopping cart with some junk in it, likely this homeless man’s earthly possessions.

The man didn’t move.  His head was down, as if asleep, and the officers, though standing around him, didn’t disturb him.

Not that they could have.  It was obvious this homeless man had passed away and the officers were waiting for an ambulance to come and take the body away.

I found the whole thing incredibly sad to see.  This homeless man, lying dead on the ground, with only strangers around him and would likely be interred with few, if anyone at all, knowing of him or caring.

Today those same feeling came back to me when I read this article, which someone else posted on reddit.  From allthatsinteresting.com and written by Kara Goldfarb comes this story…

The tragic story of Joyce Vincent – the dead woman who went unnoticed for two years

I know I’m going to spoil the article, but the headline essentially tells the story: Joyce Vincent was a 38 year old woman who died in her apartment sometime around December 2003 (a more specific time of death could not be determined) but her body wasn’t found until January of 2006, when her social housing apartment was about to be repossessed due to unpaid rent.

How does a young woman who had contacts and friends die but no one notices for 3 years, and the only reason for the discovery is because of unpaid rent/repossession?

It’s a tragedy, of course, no less different from that man I spotted all those years before, a lost soul whose ties to society were severed and whose disappearance from this world would mostly go unnoticed.

A tragedy, for sure.

Oh boy…

Beware: POLITICS.

Turn away, turn away…

We live in interesting *ahem* times.

After years of hearing outrage regarding morality -and, to them, the lack thereof- of people within the Democratic Party, we’re at a time when someone like Donald Trump, a man whose own morality is just about as low as it can be, engenders in these same people a bizarre disconnect where they look the other way while applauding actions which, at best, can only be described as abhorrent.

Bill Clinton got a blow job by an intern in the White House, lied about the affair, and the outraged Republicans tried like hell to impeach and throw him out of office.  Yet we have a person in the office today who has at best only the barest grasp of reality who huffs and puffs and pays off porn stars to hide his affairs while his children -and he!- make big money while using the office and there’s compelling evidence to suggest his campaign was in cahoots with the Russians (the RUSSIANS!) to win the election and now is separating children from their parents at the border…

…and the silence is deafening.

I know there are many different types of people in the world and I know there are some very smart people whose politics are diametrically opposite of my own.

But how in the world does one react to something like this?

Corey Lewandowski was one of Donald Trump’s more controversial campaign workers during the election and, to be fair, he supposedly is no longer involved in Trump’s White House.

Yet the blase dismissal/mockery on display here is… staggering.

There was a time not so very long ago when a group of people were portrayed as below human and the government that did this went down a particularly dark road which resulted in the deaths of many millions of people.

It has been said that when one is in an argument and invokes the shadow of Nazi Germany, the argument has clearly gone off the rails and into absurdity.

Yet what is one to make of a Government whose leader views those attempting to come into our country as nothing more than “rapists” or “drug dealers”?  Is that so very different from the Nazi Party’s views of Jews?

Image result for nazi propaganda

Is it a surprise when this same Government then starts to imprison all of them and separate the children, some infants, and feel this is somehow an appropriate measure?

The only thing that gives me a little bit of hope is the fact that there is outrage in this country and finally, finally, people may be seeing Donald Trump and his hench-men and women for what they are.

Perhaps.

UPDATE, and related:

Just found this article by Hayley Miller and over at TheHuffingtonPost.com:

GOP Strategist Steve Schmidt quits “corrupt” party of “feckless cowards”, will vote for Democrats

If you don’t know who Steve Schmidt is, he ran John McCain’s presidential campaign and has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration.  While I believe he does have some responsibility for where we stand in politics today -he was in charge when John McCain brought Sarah Palin in as his VP candidate- his “defection” is the type of thing that brings me hope that things will change, hopefully for the better.

The November elections can’t come quick enough.

This just might be too much…

…or perhaps not enough?

A few days ago IHOP (used to be called International House of Pancakes, but in this ADD era, it was shortened to this) noted it would change its name to…

Image result for ihob

IHOB, they announced, and then asked people to figure out what the “B” stood for.

I, and I’m sure many, many others, figured it would be “Breakfast”.  After all, they are a breakfast oriented and they don’t just serve pancakes, right?

Except…

The “B” turned out to stand for…

Image result for ihob

Burgers?!

What the…

I mean, I’ve been to IHOP… er… IHOB a few times and, yes, I knew they had burgers and all but I can’t ever recall ordering a burger from them, given that the times I have gone to the place it was to get, you know, breakfast.  And burgers just ain’t on my regular breakfast menu.

Anyway, I mention this only to serve as background to this:

Burger King is trolling IHOB by claiming (with tongue firmly in cheek) they are now calling themselves…

Image result for pancake king

They’ve even posted some amusing twitter statements to that effect…

Related image

Some more:

Image result for pancake king

You know, given some of the extremely grim news we’ve gotten today (don’t even get me started on the Trump’s Children Concentration Camps), I enjoyed getting at least one good laugh.

You learn something new every day…

Found this fascinating article by Jon Bordsen and found on CNN.com…

Marceline, Missouri: The tiny town is the site of Disney’s “lost” park

Never knew about this place, which apparently was a source of much of Walt Disney’s nostalgia as the family lived there in the early 20th Century, and wanted to show his appreciation for it by creating a mini-park there.  Ultimately, Mr. Disney’s death signified the death of that particular dream, but it is fascinating to see some of the photographs of that town and realize it was the blueprint to the Disney World Main Street.

Interesting stuff!

What a weekend…

So much happening, so many things to note… or not.

First off, the Trump-G7 summit… blah.  How surprising Mr. Thin-Skin got all huffy with the other leaders when he arrived late and left early.  And all that crap he -and his sycophantic underlings- heaped on Canadian PM Justin Trudeau?  Really?  (Wanna read more?  Here’s an article by Matt Spetalnick for Reuters and presented on HuffingtonPost.com, Trump blasts NATO Allies, EU, and Canadian PM Trudeau).

Then there was the Tonys which featured one truly beautiful moment in the Parkland students singing Seasons of Love

…and Robert DeNiro giving some… uh… rough shout-outs toward Mr. Trump…

Man… I’m really conflicted about the later.  On the one hand, I’ve been shouting the same in private to my television for quite a while now.  On the other hand, I can’t help but feel that this sort of public insulting is exactly the type of crap that feeds Trump and his supporters and makes those who are against him look terrible.

Ah well.  Given the way that the news cycle is running (at about 5 million RPMs), it’ll probably be forgotten very soon.

Finally, Solo: A Star Wars Story continued to underperform though it looks as if it won’t bomb quite as hard as John Carter or The Lone Ranger did.  Ron Dicker at (again) HuffingtonPost.com writes about director Ron Howard’s twitter reaction to the movie’s box office:

Ron Howard tells fan he “feels badly” about Solo’s Box Office

To be more precise, when asked about his feelings about the movie’s box office, Ron Howard wrote:

I’m proud of and the cast & crew worked hard to give fans a fun new addition. As a director I feel badly when people who I believe (& exit polls show) will very likely enjoy a movie… don’t see it on a big screen w/great sound.

I mean, what else would Mr. Howard write?

You fucking fans blew it!  BLEW IT!  Why won’t you go see my film?!  It’s getting good reviews!  YOU CAN STILL  MAKE IT A SUCCESS!!!!  FOR THE LOVE OF GOD GO SEE IT!!!! #AAAARRRRRGGGGHHH!

I kid, of course, but despite his too-polite tweet (the real one, not my phony one) I’m sure Howard must feel considerable frustration.

Yet the reality is the reality: Sometimes you create something that may be good -or, if you search out a variety of reviews, something that is decent or even mediocre-yet-better-than-expected- and despite the fact that it may be at least decent-and-possibly-good, audiences will either come or they won’t.

And its maddening.

How many times has a film come out and it explodes at the box-office… despite the fact that it is at best mediocre?  How many times does a film get released with tons of great reviews and it… does ok?  Or perhaps worse?

Audiences are fickle.

There was a time that westerns were box office gold and audiences couldn’t get enough of them.

Then, one day, people no longer cared for westerns and, with few exceptions, they are hardly made today.

Superhero films are incredibly popular nowadays, but who’s to say they will remain so five years from today?  Or next year, for that matter?

Consider the Transformer films.  Despite getting slaughtered by reviewers and many fans, they nonetheless made tons of money, until the last one did only “ok”.

Solo may be a good film.  It might be a typical Ron Howard film, decent but not terribly extraordinary.

Regardless, audiences weren’t terribly interested in seeing it.  Perhaps it was due to the fact that people are tired of Star Wars films.  Perhaps people were so bothered by The Last Jedi -at least those who hated it- that they wanted to punish Disney.  Perhaps it was due to the fact that people were suspicious of a film with all the baggage this one had (previous directors fired, Ron Howard brought in at the last minute, etc.).  Perhaps people simply didn’t feel the need to see a Han Solo “origin” story… with or without Harrison Ford in the role.

Perhaps it was a combination of all those elements.

Ah well.

Shocking news…

A few days ago came the shocking news that Kate Spade, the woman whose fashion empire was named after her (and whom my wife and daughters love her products) had committed suicide.

Mrs. Spade was 56 years old and the news was incredibly shocking for many reasons.  First and foremost: Her fashion line and Kate Spade stores were popular and I’m certain she was, at least financially, comfortable, yet soon after this shocking news her husband noted she had dealt with both depression and anxiety.

Today I wake up to the equally shocking news that Anthony Bourdain, noted chef and host of a popular travel/food show Parts Unknown, was found dead from suicide in France.  (You can read the CNN article concerning this news here)

Though I never watched a single episode of Mr. Bourdain’s show, I was familiar with him and his sometimes unvarnished comments regarding, among other things, Harvey Weinstein.  Mr. Bourdain, at least the last time I read, was the boyfriend of Asia Argento, one of the women who claimed Mr. Weinstein raped her.

Clearly, Mr. Bourdain had his demons just as Mrs. Spade and the fact that they took their own lives speaks to one of the great tragedies regarding suicide: Depression, anxiety, etc. can strike anyone, young and old, successful or poor.

I’ve faced it and, frankly, was once very much in danger because of it.  In my case, it involved a physical condition that didn’t allow me to sleep full nights.  Basically, in my mid 30’s or so I had a very strong nasal infection that, once it was over, I found that when I lay down to sleep I could only sleep for 3-4 hours before an incredible pressure would build in my right nostril to the point where the pain and inability to breathe would wake me up.

The pressure was so bad I was forced to get out of bed and walk around until the pressure went away, usually an hour later, then and only then could I get back to bed and, again, I would sleep only 3-4 hours before it would again hit me.  Mind you, this wasn’t something that happened once in a while.  This happened each and EVERY night.

Worse, I developed an incredible sensitivity to dust and cigarette smoke.  Frequently I’d feel such a terrible pressure in my sinus that it would give me terrible migraine headaches.  Headaches that would have me on the floor in the bathroom throwing up into the toilet or lying in bed completely unable to do anything.

I went to an Ear/Nose/Throat Specialist and he told me I had a deviated septum.  I had that operated on and, once healed, I was good but only for a few months.  Then, the symptoms came back just as before.

I returned to the Specialist and he re-examined me and said maybe I was suffering from an allergy.  For one year I then went to an allergist getting injections but…nothing resulted from them.

After five or so years of suffering and, quite literally, not having a single comfortable full night of sleep, I went to another Ear/Nose/Throat specialist and that individual (I’m trying hard to be polite) said that “This happens when you get older”.  He nonetheless said if I cauterize some veins in the nose I might get a bit of relief.

Desperate, I went through the second operation.  Like the first, there was relief after I recovered for a few months but then everything came back as before.

Five or so more years passed, now I endured some 10 years of living without being able to sleep a full night and enduring incredibly debilitating migraines.

I was constantly tired, depressed, and increasingly weak.

One day I went to my regular doctor and talked to him about my situation and he said: “Did any of the Doctors you saw before about this mentioned your turbinate?”

None had.

He recommended another doctor and I went to him and this doctor, whom I didn’t mention anything but my symptoms to, looked in my nose and said: “Your right turbinate is eight times larger than it should be.”

Essentially, I had something in my nose that was eight times the size it should be and, when irritated, would inflame to even larger size and this pressure, like a baseball inside my head and under my eye, was the cause of 10 years of suffering.

I got a third operation and this one ended my ten years of suffering.

Each time I went to a Doctor, I was desperate.  Yet two of the Doctors, supposed specialists in their fields, clearly didn’t see what they should have.

And ten years or so of my life were spent suffering when I didn’t have to and, yes, even considering suicide.  The pain and discomfort were that freaking bad.

Don’t let things get this bad for you.  If you or a family member is dealing with depression or anxiety, you NEED to call or have them call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.

The number is: 1-800-273-TALK, ie 1-800-273-8255.

Do so.

Not creepy at all…

Sometimes you go around this newfangled interweb and discover stuff you never heard of and… well… sometimes that stuff is downright weird.

Or, as I point out in the headline, creepy.

Here then is a link to an article by Priscilla Frank and found over at that durn liberal website Huffingtonpost.com concerning…

The creepy tale of an artist who ordered, then decapitated, a doll made to look like his ex

This is the tale of one Oskar Kokoschka (as I said, I’d never heard of him or his story before) and his ex-lover/muse -and prolific composer- Alma Mahler.

Seems that Ms. Mahler tired of Mr. Kokoschka and she ran off with another guy and the boy didn’t like that (sounds like the lyrics to a Paul McCartney/Beatles song).

Instead of rushing into the local saloon and confronting the man who would wed his ex and/or trying to somehow profess his love and win back the love of his life, our Mr. Kokoschka instead commissioned a doll in Ms. Mahler’s likeness and… well… how freaking strange is that?

Strange enough that he grew tired of the doll, decapitated it, and placed it on his front lawn which eventually got the attention of people and the police, who naturally were worried this was a real person on his lawn.

Oh, and this all happened back in 1919.

I can’t imagine what he would have done had this happened in the age of the internet.

Probably like many men, I’ve had my share of heartbreak.  There have been women I’ve fallen for who either never returned the affection or dropped me for whatever reasons they had to do so (most likely because I was an idiot, but that’s neither here nor there!).

But this… well, I could never imagine myself going this far to… I don’t know… self-flagellate?  Torture yourself?

Just… weird.

What is wrong with these people…?

Over at HuffingtonPost.com there’s a report by Mary Papenfuss regarding…

Florida Cop in trouble after wishing car accident on gun violence protest

Essentially, a Florida policeman decided it would be clever to slam school shooting survivor David Hogg, who was behind a “die in” event at the Publix groceries due to the fact that the company was giving money to a pro-gun candidate (they have since stopped) and posted the following:

I hope some old lady loses control of her car in that lot. Jus sayin …

First: David Hogg has become something of a boogeyman to the NRA.  Why?  Because he has them scared.  He -and a few others- are the face of a movement that may be hard to slow, that of young people who are fed up with the many school shootings and idiotic (at best) “responses” from the politician regarding these tragedies.  They demand legislation to rein in the too-many and too-powerful weapons out there and the noise they’ve made is being heard.

Second: Even if you are a rabid 2nd Amendment type, this is the essence of free speech and, yes, democracy: You protest peacefully and you make yourself heard.  You do this because you strive for change.  In the case of Mr. Hogg and others like him, you do this because you don’t want to see any more young people like him die senselessly in another school shooting tragedy.

Let me repeat this: He doesn’t want there to be more school shootings.  He doesn’t want there to be more senseless deaths.  And what he’s doing, whether you like it or not, is not resulting in anyone getting hurt.  Indeed, the only thing that seems to be hurt are some people’s egos.

Such as, I suppose the policeman who posted that tweet.

 

Oh… Elon…

Found this article by Seth Fiegerman and presented on CNN.com:

Elon Musk wants to rate journalists.  He’d call his site Pravda

I like the things Mr. Musk has done.  I’d like to think if I had his money -and genius!- I’d want to do something like what he’s done.  Push for the abolition of combustion engines by creating very good electric cars.  Work on batteries/battery packs that, in conjunction with solar panels -which he’s also working on!- may one day replace the need for power plants.  Work hard on creating economical ways of exploring space.  Heck, even his Boring Company’s work on creating efficient, high speed underground subway systems is something worth pursuing!

All worthy goals and, while there are certainly setbacks here and there, one has to admire the man’s scope and drive.

But, come on Mr. Musk -and if I could be so bold as to offer this advice- don’t have such a thin skin about journalists.

Given the very high profile you have in the world, there will be people who second guess and, yes, outright talk negatively about the things you’re doing.

The way to shut them up is not by showing yourself to be thin skinned -and create this silly “Pravda” crap- but by constantly improving your product until everyone benefits from them.

Take a moment to relax and let that stuff go, then prove them wrong with your new and better releases.

About that Tesla Model 3…

After considerable delays in production, it appears the Tesla Model 3, the “affordable” electric vehicle (starting price is $35,000), is off to a rather rocky start.

Over at Slate.com, Will Oremus outlines some of the problems critics, including Consumer Reports, have found in the vehicle:

Tesla’s Model 3 fails to get Consumer Reports recommendation, may not be perfect, affordable electric car after all

I know I’m about to step all over the article here, but the gist of the Consumer Reports negative findings for the most part involve the car’s braking distance from a speed of 60 mph.  The car’s braking, to be blunt, is inconsistent and tends to require more distance than most cars of its size.

They found other problems, such as difficulty in using the vehicle’s central screen, which makes the driver too often look away from the road to work on the various do-dadds the screen covers, which is most everything.  Finally, they stated the car was noisy when driving along the highway.

Interesting.

The author further notes that though Consumer Reports could not recommend the vehicle, they did give it generally good reviews for all other elements.

Here’s the thing: I’m not all that surprised.

This is the first Model 3 released.  Like computers, like cell phones, like laptops, one should always be leery of the first generation of any technological release.

As much as my mouth waters at the prospect of getting a Tesla vehicle -or look forward to the day when all vehicles eschew the combustion engine- I kinda/sorta knew there would be bumps in the road.

Don’t get me wrong: the inconsistent braking in the Model 3 is worrisome.  In fact, I’d say it’s very worrisome.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that if a car’s braking is inconsistent, there is a certainly a danger one might slam into someone/something due to the fact that one cannot figure out the distance involved in safe braking.

Having said that, this is a correctable problem, one that the author notes may be resolved through software updates.  It would not shock me at all if Tesla does resolve this issue rather quickly.

But, again: As more and more models are made and provided to the public, improvements will be made.

I may not get the first generation affordable electric vehicle, but perhaps in a few years we’ll have a better one.