It didn’t seem all that long ago that people were talking about how badly the fast food restaurant chain McDonald’s was doing. In fact, I recall people were even noting the chain may be starting to slip away, eclipsed by newer, better hamburger chains.
I don’t know if one can completely point to the All-Day Breakfast as being the turning point in McDonald’s fortunes (in the article, the CEO of McDonald’s notes it was this and the mild weather across the country that helped), but it is intriguing that a company not all that long ago considered spiraling downhill and potentially being labeled a has-been suddenly finds its fortunes so changed.
Me? I try to avoid McDonald’s and most other chain restaurants as much as possible. To me, these foods are at best passable and at worst terrible.
However, let’s call a spade a spade: There have been plenty of times I’ve found myself hungry and need to grab something quick and cheap and am unwilling/unable to do some cooking. In those occasions, it sure is nice to have a places like this one available.
A pair of interesting legal issues were resolved (one, granted, for the time being) over the past day or so and the results are, to say the least, fascinating.
As I’ve stated many times before, I’m loathe to get into politics on this blog but the ironies involved in this case are too damn interesting not to. A few months back, anti-choice activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt surreptitiously filmed Planned Parenthood staff while posing as part of a company interested in buying fetal tissue for research. According to most neutral observers, the video they subsequently released showing the conversations between them and the Planned Parenthood staff were heavily edited to make it appear the people they were talking to from the organization were cavalierly willing to sell and profit from fetal tissue.
This created an incredible bruhaha…but in the end mostly among the right wing anti-choice crowds, including Republican Presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, who bizarrely stated in the Presidential Debates she saw things in these videos which just weren’t there.
Regardless, the controversy was enough to get many states whose politicians have a thing against Planned Parenthood to initiate investigations of the organization. These investigations have led to nothing so far and, in the case above, even less than nothing.
In this case, as the CNN article notes, not only was Planned Parenthood cleared, but the accusers were indicted and now face the possibility of up to 20 years in jail.
A fascinating result, to say the least, but even that isn’t enough to stop the politicians of Texas (a state that is seemingly run by hard right anti-choice pro-gun folks) from continuing their “investigations” into Planned Parenthood. And so it goes…
Being from Florida, it was hard not to somewhat follow Jameis Winston’s career since he was a star quarterback in Florida State University (FSU). Now the starting quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, during his days at FSU Mr. Winston sure found himself in many odd and sometimes very troubling situations, as can be read here:
While these incidents run the gamut between trivial and very serious, clearly the most disturbing of the incidents involves the allegations Mr. Winston raped fellow FSU student Erica Kinsman. She brought suit against Mr. Winston and FSU and now the school and Ms. Kinsman have settled the lawsuit for nearly one million dollars.
Given the amount of incidents involving Mr. Winston, one can’t help but wonder why FSU didn’t take stronger action against him, up to and including before and after the rape allegations. It makes one realize the power of the purse college football has on a University, even one as large as FSU.
The fact is that Mr. Winston, despite his repeated behaviors, was an incredibly gifted college level quarterback and has proven, in his first year as the quarterback of Tampa Bay, a very good professional one as well and that makes officials who should know better willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt.
To be fair, since going pro I haven’t heard of any off-field issues regarding Mr. Winston so one hopes that perhaps he’s finally matured and/or the Tampa Bay team has him covered and controlled far better than FSU ever did.
Following the announcement of the settlement between Ms. Kinsman and FSU, the school of course continued to deny any wrongdoing and claimed the settlement was reached to avoid further legal expenses. I’m absolutely certain this is indeed the case and, further, I suspect most of the settlement payment was issued by the school’s insurance company.
As for whether they would win in court, given Mr. Winston’s history I wonder. Perhaps a settlement was in the best interests of the University after all.
A while back I wrote about the intriguing discovery astronomers made involving star KIC 8462852.
While you can read the entire post here, the essence of the story was this: Something mysterious is blocking the star’s light, something which astronomers at that point could not explain.
One astronomer brought out the stunning idea that perhaps the blocked light could be the result of aliens building a Dyson Sphere. A Dyson Sphere is a massive artificial structure built around a star and whose purpose it is to collect all energy flowing from said star…
This concept is pure science fiction and, even in the original article, scientists were extremely hesitant to give credence to that idea.
The best natural theory put forth to explain the star’s loss of light became the idea of a passing comet storm. A large group of comets therefore block the star’s light.
Alas, that theory is now gone as well, as mentioned in this article found on i09, The Case of the So-Called Alien Megastructure just got weirder. The gist of the article is found in this paragraph:
…astronomer Bradley Schaefer of Louisiana State University decided to look at photographic plates of the sky dating back to the late 19th century. To his amazement, he learned that over the last hundred years, KIC 8462852’s light output has steadily faded by about 19%, something that’s “completely unprecedented for any F-type main sequence star.”
The steady fading through all those years hurts the theory of a comet swarm cause and leaves scientist once again wondering exactly what is causing the strange dimming of that star’s light.
I’ve mentioned before I don’t like to get into politics on this blog. Especially nowadays when whatever you say becomes “fightin’ words” to those who are on the other side.
Having said that (you’ve been warned), there is no way I’d spend any of my limited free time in watching the Republican debates. Based on the high level of crazy talk just about all the candidates have made, there is little point: I will not vote for any of the Republicans. Not in a million years.
Sadly, there was a time not all that long ago when elections came up and I was interested in hearing from each candidate. I would even give them proper consideration.
No longer.
The fact is that the strongest voices of the “right” wing have moved politics so far toward their direction that they’ve dragged almost every other candidate/politician with more moderate views their way. I’ve mentioned this before and it bears repeating: In another time, Bill Clinton and (yes) Barack Obama would be considered moderate Republican politicians ala Dwight D. Eisenhower or Richard Nixon (minus the paranoia).
My great hope is this election finally knocks some sense into the public and the hateful, paranoid, backward politics get rebuked. It happened before in the 1950’s and I’m hoping (praying!) history repeats itself.
Seriously, I absolutely never gamble or pick up lottery tickets. But I’ll be damned if this particular drawing and its enormous jackpot didn’t tempt me enough to give in and give it a try. Not a big try, mind you.
I spent a grand total of $10 on a five chance ticket (ie, you get five sets of numbers on one ticket). I let the computer randomly select the numbers because I have no favorites, not being much of a lottery person.
On the news were people camped out in various establishments spending at times several hundred dollars on tickets. One guy spent every last penny he had on him at the moment, showing off his empty pockets afterwards. I felt bad for him. I hope he hadn’t spend every bit of money he had, period!
Well, I got a grand total of two numbers, one of which was the “Powerball” number -though the numbers were on different lines- and therefore won zilch.
The article presented below is not snark. It is not fiction. It actually offers you a genuine, very real, sure-fire way to win this week’s Powerball, which stands at a staggering 1.4 billion dollars.
So, how can this be? What is the secret? Read on, dear friends, as author David Goldman for CNN explains how…
I don’t want to spoil the article (go on, read it!), but I will offer a little hint: It involves spending $584 million dollars. Then again, if you guarantee yourself winning over a billion, its a good investment, no?
That is, unless another person/persons win as well!
Waking up this morning, the very last thing I expected to find on the various newsfeeds I look in on was the news that, a mere couple of days after his 69th birthday and the release of Blackstar, his latest album, David Bowie had passed away.
If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time or even casually know me, then you know that David Bowie is my all time favorite musician. I discovered David Bowie’s music back in 1983 and while in High School with the release of his biggest selling album, Let’s Dance. There was something about that music, suave and sexy and danceable yet also mysterious, that immediately gripped me.
So intrigued I was with Let’s Dance that I started looking backwards and buying up his catalog of past albums. To my surprise, there were a great many songs he wrote which I was familiar with but had never put artist and art together. You see, unlike many others I never really got into music -and music purchasing- until I got into David Bowie.
While I was familiar with and loved the works of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and (remember the times!) the Bee Gees, but up until I discovered David Bowie I never really considered music -and albums- as something to purchase and collect.
With David Bowie front and center and his previous albums available, I realized I was familiar with many of his songs but hadn’t connected them with him. The usual popular songs were there, Suffragette City, Lady Stardust, Space Oddity, Changes, Rebel Rebel, The Jean Genie, Young Americans, Heroes, etc. etc. They all popped up on the radio from time to time and it was both a surprise and delight to find the man responsible for Let’s Dance had produced so much other really, really good stuff.
But what turned me from fan to David Bowie fanatic was the discovery of the album The Man Who Sold The World.
You have to put yourself in my shoes back in the mid-1980’s and understand that at that time this album was a rarity and could barely be found in the record stores (this was way before the advent of the internet and MP3 songs). To me, The Man Who Sold The World -album and song- was and is David Bowie’s first true masterpiece and I played the hell out of it back in the day. Even today, I considered the title track my all time favorite David Bowie composition…
And when Nirvana famously covered the song some years later and it had a popularity rebirth (or, one could argue, it was finally getting the recognition it deserved), I couldn’t help but nod and smile.
After the extreme success of Let’s Dance, however, David Bowie appeared artistically lost. The mega-success he achieved (the album and song competed head on with Michael Jackson’s Thriller. I believe the song displaced Beat It from its #1 position for a week or so) left him in a strange state and his follow up album, Tonight, while featuring some very good songs felt like a lesser effort.
He would follow that album up with what many, including Mr. Bowie himself, felt was his very worst album, the ironically titled Never Let Me Down. Again, there were some good songs in the album but the overall work was terribly unsatisfying. Perhaps sensing doldrums, Mr. Bowie moved into other directions, becoming part of a hard rock/heavy metal band Tin Machine for two albums. Once again, there was good material to be found here, but critics were very harsh. When Tin Machine folded, Mr. Bowie returned with Black Tie White Noise, a soulful/jazzy album that received plenty of good reviews but was essentially ignored by the public at large. It was at about this point that whatever magic David Bowie conjured for each new musical release was gone and audiences in general seemed not as interested in him anymore.
Which is really too bad because Mr. Bowie was about to begin the last third of his career in grand style. Starting with 1993’s Buddha of Suburbia, Mr. Bowie found his groove and from that moment on he released one album after another, until Blackstar (his eighth and last album since Buddha) which were all of very high quality.
Sure, some albums were better than others but David Bowie’s later output could never be accused of being half-cocked or indifferent. Unlike Tonight and Never Let Me Down, it appeared Mr. Bowie was trying mightily to release works that lived up to his talent and reputation.
After the release of 2003 album Reality, Mr. Bowie would go on a tour (captured excellently on the 2010 release A Reality Tour CD and Video) and, sadly, it would turn out to be the very last major tour Mr. Bowie would ever do. In June of 2004 and while touring, he experienced what he thought was a pinched nerve in his shoulder. It turned out he had an acutely blocked coronary artery and underwent emergency surgery to repair the blockage.
For ten years after this Mr. Bowie kept a low profile. Many thought him gravely ill. Morbid rumors spread that he didn’t have long to live.
Yet in 2013 and on the date of his 66th birthday, he surprised the world with the release of The Next Day, his first album in 10 years. The album was critically well received and I enjoyed it tremendously, but not nearly as much as the next one.
His last one.
Blackstar, in retrospect, was meant not to be so much another step in Mr. Bowie’s “return” but rather a self-made tribute, one last major work he wanted to gift his audiences before he left the stage. Suddenly the sadness in many of the songs, in particular Lazarus, take on new poignancy.
When Mr. Bowie stopped touring, I suspected he wasn’t doing well. And when a year passed, then another, and then another with no new music, I feared the worst. But when he released The Next Day and looked good on the videos made for the songs, I hoped he had recovered and was about to come back strong.
But when the videos for Blackstar and Lazarus showed up, I couldn’t help but notice Mr. Bowie looked so very old in them and now, with the news of his passing, it sadly makes sense.
I noted in my review of the album Blackstar (you can read it here) that the song Blackstar reminded me of a mix between the early Bowie song Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud and Loving the Alien, perhaps the best song on the album Tonight.
I stand by that statement and further point out that in an interview Mr. Bowie stated he considered Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud to be the first song which pointed in the direction he would eventually go…
In this song, the focus is on the soon to be executed “wild eyed boy”. In Blackstar, we turn our attention from the one who dies to the town itself. I can’t help but feel that Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud and Blackstar, are meant to be bookmarks on the career that David Bowie had, one song circling into the other, with so many beautiful songs in between.
Rest in peace, Mr. Bowie. Words cannot express the amount of joy you’ve given me.
