Oh, hello Sunday. I was just thinking, in one of those weirdly linked slide shows that happen in our brains, the following:
The Spanky and Our Gang song, “Sunday Will Never be the Same,” 52 years old this year. When it was released in 1967, a 50-year-old song was…Googling…“Over There,” which tells you something. “Sunday Will Never be the Same” was licensed for a commercial in the mid-’80s, for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I remember seeing it at the time, when I was visiting a friend there. It was beautifully shot, promoting the new and improved Sunday edition, showing Clevelanders waking up, starting the coffee, retrieving the big fat paper from the porch, enjoying it with their pancakes and eggs. When I got back to Fort Wayne, I saw that my paper, too, had a new commercial. It used a public-domain recording of “The Blue Danube Waltz” and bargain-basement production – a series of overhead shots of anonymous hands tearing coupons, articles, etc., out of the paper, scored to the dat-dat, doot-doot rhythms of the music. The tagline: “Worth tearing into.” How wonderful to be one of those Clevelanders, able to smile and relax and find enjoyable things in the paper, instead of opening it to read about human shitstain Alex Jones, and how he fueled the paranoid fantasies of a Sandy Hook truther, who fixated in particular on Avielle Richman, one of the dead students. Avielle’s father committed suicide recently, of course. The truther is named Wolfgang Halbig, and dig this, peeps:
Another parent, Leonard Pozner, whose son Noah died in the same classroom as Ana, reported the abuse, and after six years of appeals, Twitter suspended Mr. Halbig’s account last month. Mr. Pozner founded the HONR Network, a nonprofit combating online hate, after Noah was targeted by the conspiracy theorists.
The boldface is mine, of course. It only took six years of a certified lunatic clamoring for autopsy photos and receipts for crime-scene cleanup for Twitter, that temple of free speech, to do something about it. How honorable. Meanwhile, Twitter’s CEO, Jack Dorsey, came to Detroit last week for something-or-other, and either he or his staff posted a couple pix of themselves, one in front of the Motown Museum, and every single person in the pictures is white. Give ’em six more years, and maybe they can find some staffers of color.
Anyway, I guess what I’m thinking is: Sunday will never be the same. I used to like Sunday. Brunch! Friends! Sunday Funday! Now, too often, it’s just another work day, starting with the morning paper.
Oh well. Truth be told, there were some great reads this weekend:
This Frank Bruni column is getting a lot of shares, for good reason. It’s about why we are less enamored of trendy restaurants as we age:
I was once under 50. I’m now over that mark. And it’s not just sex and sleep that change as you age. It’s supper.
I’d advance a side argument: It’s restaurants, and what they’ve become, too. I’m an adventurous eater, and never mind trying something new. But I hate many new restaurants, not for the food, but the atmosphere, mainly the noise. If this is a sign of aging, so be it, but man — the cacophony in many of these places is simply off the charts. You can Google up a dozen stories about why that is, but I find it really off-putting to have to lean in and yell at your tablemates, which only makes the problem worse.
And while we’re on the subject of restaurants, you might enjoy this column from the Detroit News, about a century-old columnist for the Jewish News here in Detroit. Danny Raskin wears an obvious toupee, and has so much joie de vivre, you understand why he’s still kicking at 100. Even if centenarians don’t interest you, read until you get to the Purple Gang story.
Finally, many thanks to LA Mary for finding this. I let my New Yorker subscription expire, so I’m stingy with my clicks, and this one is worth it, about the strange story of Shen Yun. If you live in a city of any size, you’ve likely seen the Shen Yun billboards, which are utterly ubiquitous in Detroit, or were, before the Chinese dance troupe performed here earlier this month. I didn’t know what it was other than “something Chinese and dance-y,” and neither did the New Yorker writer. But it’s something…more.
With that, it’s on to cleaning up what I didn’t get done last week and compiling an unreasonable to-do list for next week. Sunday Funday!
alex said on March 31, 2019 at 12:11 pm
Thanks for warning me off Shen Yun. Not that I ever planned to go.
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beb said on March 31, 2019 at 12:42 pm
I think the only way to fix Twitter, Facebook and YouTube is to declare them publishers and not neutral carriers. Make them responsible for everything that gets posted there. That would force them to ban a lot of stuff that posted now and be quicker to response to complaints about hate messages and threatening content.
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Sherri said on March 31, 2019 at 3:01 pm
Maybe we’ll learn from the EU how much regulation can fix Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube (which is really Google, or Alphabet.) The entire business model of Facebook and Google depends on things not changing.
I don’t even understand Twitter’s business model, I just think Jack Dorsey is sympathetic to Nazis.
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anna arnheim said on March 31, 2019 at 3:06 pm
I won’t go to Shen Yun on principle–the constant, constant advertising on tv, billboards,email, plus the ecstatic raves from “real people” is really a turn off. I’m beginning to feel that way about Elizabeth Warren. At least 3-4 emails a day from her or her people.
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Sherri said on March 31, 2019 at 3:43 pm
I’m not a campaign professional, but I have worked on campaigns, and I’ve done community work in diverse communities. Simply translating your materials into another language is not the best way to do outreach effectively, but not translating, or translating badly, is the worst.
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2019/2020-democrats-spanish-translation/
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Nancy said on March 31, 2019 at 3:53 pm
A friend of mine once went to a trendy new restaurant and politely asked her server if the music could be turned down a tad, so my friend could hear what her companion was saying. The server curled his lip and replied, “It’s our BRAND.”
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Deborah said on March 31, 2019 at 4:42 pm
I simply do not understand how people can be so cruel to the Sandy Hook parents who lost children in that massacre. What is wrong with those people who do that? They are monsters.
There used to be a Starbucks on Rush, next to an also now defunct Gino’s pizza (on the corner of Walton and Rush). The Gino’s closed because of rats, the Starbucks closed because some chi chi retail moved in and the Starbucks moved a block north on Rush. That Starbucks used to pipe in the loudest music ever, at 7am. I complained a lot about it and they always said it was company policy to keep the customers moving on. Every surface in the place was hard so the sound just bounced around and around. I learned quickly to get my order to go. I don’t go to Starbucks anymore at all if I can help it, there are so many places with better coffee in Chicago now. Mostly I make my own coffee, I buy bags of beans in Santa Fe and pack them in my luggage to take back. A bag lasts me about a week, and I usually try to pack 6 or 8 bags so about the time I run out in Chicago, it’s time to go back to NM. It’s a pinon hazlenut blend, and yes it’s decaf.
We’re having a resurgence of winter in NM today, cold, windy and snowy, after days of lovely, sunny spring weather it’s hard to take. April is the cruelest month in NM, and it usually snows in May. Don’t plant anything before mother’s day or you’ll be sorry, we learned the hard way. We’re back in Santa Fe for a few days, Weds my husband goes back to Chicago for almost a week.I hate driving him to the airport in Albuquerque but now we know there’s an excellent place to stop along the way for breakfast so it’s not so bad.
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Julie Robinson said on March 31, 2019 at 4:42 pm
Even when I was under 50, trendy restaurants just seemed overpriced to me. We are more comfortable now but I still have trouble spending big bucks on a meal. It’s just food.
But I’m cranky today. I’m on day 10 of the cold from hell. All winter I’ve been so smug about not catching a cold, and it finally got me. Plus, it snowed last night and it still hasn’t all melted. It’s 31-damn-degrees.
Someone save me a New Yorker click and tell me about Shen Yun.
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alex said on March 31, 2019 at 5:20 pm
Shen Yun is a propaganda front for Falun Gong, which is a cult.
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brian stouder said on March 31, 2019 at 5:26 pm
We grabbed lunch yesterday at a place on Fairfield called Bravas; our 14 year-old especially likes their Patatas (basically French fries, only better)
http://bravasfood.com/
and the atmosphere is a very nice balance between burger joint/sit-down eatery. Not pricey, and not McDonalds/Wendys (et al), so genuinely pleasant
Over the past week or two, I’ve been sorta ‘down-in-the-Trumps’, with our ongoing executive branch debacle. A few folks I really like at work are “all in” with Trump, and all snarly against anyone who questions our president’s fitness for the office he holds.
Didja ever watch the movie Little Big Man? One thing from that movie which struck me the first time I saw it, and remains with me, is how the main character/narrator (Dustin Hoffman) falls between Native American and traditional white guy civilizations, and refers to various folks as “human beings”
Maybe the Donald could learn a thing or two, if – the next time he wants to sit around and do nothing (!!) he skips Twitter and watches that movie.
At the end of the day (and indeed, at the beginning, too!) – we’re all human beings. He doesn’t seem to get that
PS – and, having read Nancy’s link, let me agree with Alex’s comment at #9
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Suzanne said on March 31, 2019 at 7:09 pm
Loved the article about dining out. I like a nice relaxing dinner with good conversation and good wine. Why the loud music? Same with some retail places. Best Buy used to give me a headache with loud music blaring. I don’t know if they still do as it’s been years since I have been in one.
I also dislike the “family seating” idea where a restaurant has picnic tables or something. No. I don’t want to sit by strangers.
Brian, I too am “down-in-the-trumps.” It never ends; there is no bottom.
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Julie Robinson said on March 31, 2019 at 7:31 pm
Thanks, Alex. I guess since China banned Falun Gong they had to find sneakier ways to grow.
Bravas started as a hot dog truck, by friends of our son. It’s pretty decent food, but unless it’s changed recently, would not meet Suzanne’s seating standards.
I am totally stealing down-in-the-Trumps.
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David C. said on March 31, 2019 at 8:44 pm
I don’t go to trendy restaurants because we don’t do trendy around here. I have gone to noisy restaurants. It seems like the noisiest lack ceilings of any sort. They’re just open so you can see all the ductwork. I think that they think that we think that it gives the place the look of a converted industrial space. But, of course, they do it to save money. I lost 70% of the hearing in one ear when I was a child and have had tinnitus ever since. So noisy anything is hell for me, but restaurants are particularly bad.
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LAMary said on March 31, 2019 at 11:32 pm
I’ve had tinnitus for years and in noisy places it’s hard for me to understand what people are saying. I can hear them but it’s fuzzy.
On three occasions I’ve fainted from noise. I asked a neurologist friend about it and he said it was vasovagal(sp?) meaning my brain wanted me to get away from the noise but I didn’t comply so my body shut me down. One time it was in a disco in Rotterdam, another time it was at an anti war demonstration in DC and the most recent time was in line at a noisy restaurant.
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Dave said on April 1, 2019 at 7:36 am
Just this past Wednesday, we met some old friends for lunch, folks we had not seen in a very long time. We told them to pick the place and they did. It was so noisy, we could barely hear one another. They later said they didn’t realize how noisy it would be, they’d never been in there at a peak lunch hour time.
Neither of us hear well, a disturbing development of old age. We both have tinnitus, my wife has had it for many years since sometime in her forties and mine developed after retirement, one day, I kept thinking those crickets are never going to quiet down before I realized that it wasn’t crickets and they really aren’t going to ever quiet down.
Put me in the Down-in-the-Trumps crowd. I hope it’s a crowd.
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ROGirl said on April 1, 2019 at 7:42 am
Loud music in stores and restaurants is an abomination. I was travelling for work once and went into a Fridays (small town midwest). Sat for a long time at a table, no menu or waitperson. Very loud music and people shouting over it. I finally got up and left, for a nearby Applebees.
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Heather said on April 1, 2019 at 8:28 am
This is an interesting article explaining how restaurants got so loud–it’s those darned hard easy-to-clean and minimalist surfaces! (Also people drink more in loud eateries.)
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/11/how-restaurants-got-so-loud/576715/
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Lou Gravity said on April 1, 2019 at 9:04 am
I hoped you saved one of your New Yorker clicks for “The Day the Dinosaurs Died.”
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JodiP said on April 1, 2019 at 9:55 am
We have friends with hearing loss, and when we do go out, the noise level is the first bar the restaurant has to clear.
Is anyone listening to the podcast Codeswitch? I’ve listened to several (there is a four-year-backlog!) and am loving it. It’s all about culture through a racial lens. The first one I listened to was about the student strike at SF State University over African-American studies and admissions policies. Today, “We are What We Eat” all about how we deal with food based on our upbringing. Fascinating stuff. I learned about the Pickles and Tea blog–will have to spend some time there for sure.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 1, 2019 at 10:42 am
In his deposition, Alex Jones claimed that his outrageous claims were the result of “a psychosis” brought on because “the mainstream media” was “lying so much.” I’m not a lawyer, but that doesn’t sound like much of a legal defense to me.
I hope that fuckstick has to sell his last microphone and jar of vitamins to pay off the judgment from that lawsuit.
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Deborah said on April 1, 2019 at 11:10 am
There’s a video out there lately of Alex Jones being heckled at a fried chicken restaurant in Austin. While it did my heart good to see him being laughed at, he’ll no doubt use it to his advantage. Using humor and laughing at those guys is about all you can do to keep from crying. My husband read a headline from Politico this morning, an opinion piece by McConnell, saying that they must stop the Democrats from the constant obstruction, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
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basset said on April 1, 2019 at 11:11 am
Reddit had some video recently of Alex Jones yelling at a table full of people in a restaurant, don’t know what he was on about but he was holding his phone up as if recording it all would both protect him and prove his point… what a piece of shit, I haven’t punched anyone in years but if he pulled that on me and Mrs. B I would make an exception.
On a happier note, here’s a good reason to visit Fort Wayne and I just might:
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2019/04/01/fort-wayne-to-open-its-arms-to-internationals-once-again-for-harvester-homecoming/?refer=news
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LAMary said on April 1, 2019 at 11:35 am
I first noticed my tinnitus when I thought the dishwasher was filling endlessly. My tinnitus has that hissing hose sound.
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Jakash said on April 1, 2019 at 11:46 am
Bitter Scribe @ 20,
If “a psychosis” can be brought on by too much lying, perhaps that explains the delusional state evidenced by so many members of Cult 45…
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Jenine said on April 1, 2019 at 11:51 am
@ Deborah – I’m curious about the breakfast joint you like on your way from Abiquiu to ABQ. I visit ABQ regularly as my mother is there. I don’t get up north very often but I miss it. We lived in White Rock and Los Alamos while I was growing up.
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Deborah said on April 1, 2019 at 12:55 pm
Jenine, The place is Los Poblanos, on Rio Grande Boulevard. The food is amazing. It opens for breakfast at 7:30am. They grow a lot of their own chilis etc, make their own sausage. It’s not cheap but worth every penny. It’s a working lavender farm, so interesting to walk around, they have a shop where the sell the lotions and potions they make with the lavender, among other things. They’re not open for lunch, dinner starts at 5pm, they have a nice bar. While the dinner is good there, it’s not as spectacular as the breakfast, plus dinner is really pricey there.
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Sherri said on April 1, 2019 at 1:43 pm
Nothing but rot in this administration and among the Republicans in Congress who carry water for it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/white-house-whistleblower-says-security-clearance-denials-were-reversed-during-trump-administration/2019/04/01/9f28334e-542c-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html
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beb said on April 1, 2019 at 5:14 pm
I’ve been reading the headlines where Alex Jones claims he was under the influence of a psychosis. Never read any of the articles because “psychosis” is so much bologna. And has he taken any treatment for his condition? When did he realize he had this condition? And has he ever apologized to anyone for lying about them under the influence of his disease? In any case claiming to have a mental illness isn’t much of a defense for someone pushing lies and conspiracy theories on the internet for years.
I have tinnitus, too. Woke up from a bad dream today and realized I could hear my pulse over and above the general buzz. Made me think it was maybe it was time to make a will.
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Deborah said on April 1, 2019 at 5:32 pm
Today was seed planting and repotting day in Santa Fe. After doing some research I found out what I thought were cacti that I brought back from uncle J’s place in Arizona are actually succulents that originally came from Africa called Euphorbia Trigona . They can get as tall as 6 to 8 ft, right now they’re about 3 ft. I bunched them together and planted in a large ornamental pot that I brought back also.
We planted flower seeds that we got from various places in newspaper pots that you can easily make with a wooden contraption that I bought LB when I was in London, at the garden museum. The little newspaper pots that we made, we’ll plop directly into bigger terra cotta pots when they’re ready to plant outside. No need to dig the delicate seedlings out, saves them from getting damaged in the replanting phase. This is a first try at this process, hope it works as well as described. For you Gardners out there here’s a link for the contraption that you use to make the little paper pots https://www.netherwalloptrading.uk.
We’re doing container growing flowers because whenever we’ve tried to plant flowers in the bad dirt around here we’ve not had success.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 1, 2019 at 6:03 pm
I notice that Jones’ so-called “psychosis” hasn’t stopped him from waving guns around at a Beto rally.
Question: Why is a self-described psycho allowed access to firearms?
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David C. said on April 1, 2019 at 6:03 pm
I feel bad for anybody who develops tinnitus later in life. I’ve had it since I was five years old. At least I think that when it started. My pre-K hearing test was fine. My kindergarten hearing test was wonky. I had chicken pox in between. I don’t remember not having it so I’m used to my tinnitus. I didn’t really know until later that everybody’s ears didn’t ring. My brother in law developed it after he lost hearing in one ear from having an acoustic neuroma removed. It just about drove him mad. He couldn’t concentrate at work and he couldn’t sleep because of the noise. It took him a good year before he adjusted to it.
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MarkH said on April 1, 2019 at 6:56 pm
basset – I just saw the Hemmings International Harvester story, too; I knew you’d beat me to the post. Scouts – bulletproof gas hogs. For a brief time years ago I had an 800 Scout short cab with the small pickup bed. As uncomfortable as it was stout and rugged, stand up to anything but rust. This display would be well worth a trip to Fort Wayne.
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alex said on April 1, 2019 at 9:38 pm
I think the Scout show in Fort Wayne will be awesome. And I hope they’ll have the prototypes of the never-built next-generation scouts on display. They were luxo-SUVs thirty years before it became a thing. Too bad IH went to shit or they could have owned the market the way Chrysler has the corner on minivans.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 1, 2019 at 11:43 pm
Wendy’s, two Jr. Bacon Cheeseburgers, a large hot coffee, and a shady corner of the parking lot with a book and Symphony Hall on my car’s Sirius XM. That’s about as trendy a restaurant as I can handle most days.
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Connie said on April 2, 2019 at 8:42 am
We rarely go out to eat any more. As my retired husband says: “I would have to put my pants on.”
He has pants on, they are gym shorts or beat up sweats.
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alex said on April 2, 2019 at 9:15 am
We go out to eat too much, although we’re creatures of habit and seldom try out any of the new trendoid places. But after hearing enthusiastic reviews of an Asian fusion place called Nawa, we made a date there with friends recently. It was, of course, loud. And after a lengthy wait they brought out our appetizers with the main course all at once, a royal fuckup that left barely enough room on the table top for us to be able to dine comfortably. And the food was okay but not all that special. The only thing for which I give them high marks is their decor, and that’s despite the shrill acoustics.
My fave meal is Alaskan king crab legs at Captain’s Cabin on Crooked Lake. And it’s never noisy there no matter how crowded.
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Mouse said on April 2, 2019 at 11:22 am
Alex,my wife worked there for many years when Jim Rivera owned the place.Just a really fun place back then.You could get a surf and Turf back then for $19.95,8 oz. South African tail and a
6oz. filet—so good!!She used to bring the leftover crab legs home,a lot of people didn’t eat the big knuckles at end of the leg,too much work.I always thought it was the best part of the crab!
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alex said on April 2, 2019 at 12:28 pm
Well, Mouse, it’s not $19.95 anymore, although I don’t ever remember it being as excessive as what we paid last weekend at Lake of the Woods. (It’s called Woods Too these days since the old one burned.) We hadn’t been there in quite some time. Blew $160 including cocktails and before tip on two surf and turfs, and it was memorable only for the lobster being so full of water that my steak was nearly submerged by the time my plate arrived at the table. I took the lobster off the plate and held it away while it peed until the server brought me the bowl for my shells.
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Mouse said on April 2, 2019 at 1:00 pm
Prefered the old Lake of The Wood to the new–food not as good ,service sucked.Go back to the Cabin for the Bull and Tail,pricey but good.Been hearing good things about the Hatchery also,might give them a try when I get back from Florida,
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Deborah said on April 2, 2019 at 1:12 pm
We have a Braun coffee grinder in Chicago that we’ve had for 30 years and my husband had it before that, before we got together. It is the best coffee grinder ever, I use it just about every single morning. We’ve had some other brands in Santa Fe, 2 in the last 6 years, the first one broke. So now that we have solar power in our cabin in Abiquiu I decided to get the same Braun coffee grinder for there. The one I want is black but on Amazon they want $159 for it, which I’m sorry, that’s ridiculous, especially since they are much less in white. So I bought a black one on eBay for $23 slightly used but in good working order. Why would a black one cost so much on Amazon?
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Deborah said on April 2, 2019 at 1:16 pm
Today is election day in Chicago, my husband and I voted absentee a couple of days ago for Preckwinkle. I did some research about Lightfoot but I read some things that made me think she would not be my preferred candidate. The cool thing is that no matter which one wins, Chicago will have a black woman for mayor.
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alex said on April 2, 2019 at 1:52 pm
The Hatchery is another one of our faves, Mouse.
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Dorothy said on April 2, 2019 at 3:26 pm
I can’t believe I have a Shen Yun story. In December we were having a big lunch to thank our student workers and we were in the conference room. No one was sitting at the front desk because of the party. Well these two Chinese women came in and I jumped up telling the students to take it easy, I’ll cover this, etc. It was ‘their’ party after all! Well these ladies asked if we could pass out and post their posters about Shen Yun. “You music so you understand!” they said enthusiastically. I said I’d be happy to and next thing you know, they’re giving me small postcards in addition to 20 posters and they’re thanking me and talking and talking and thanking. And finally I said “I need to get back to our party! Thanks for stopping by!” They left and i showed the group in the conference room what they had given me.
Well one girl is Chinese and she happens to live locally. She was adopted and her last name is actually an Irish one. She asked me “Oooh what did they look like? Maybe I know them from Chinese school!” and before I could answer she said “Oh never mind, they all look alike.” “EMMA!” I yelled. “That’s not nice!” She replied “I’m Chinese so I’m allowed to say that.”
We all laughed and laughed, and then Emma schooled us in the cult that is Shen Yun.
I hate noisy restaurants. I avoid them like the plague.
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basset said on April 2, 2019 at 3:36 pm
Elections… and one more reason that I am now officially a boring old retired guy, I just applied to be a poll worker this August. Have to get up early, just like old folks.
Been reading Tom Ewing’s biography of Bill Monroe, got it from the library but it’s so good that I’m going to buy one.
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Jakash said on April 2, 2019 at 5:09 pm
“The cool thing is that no matter which one wins, Chicago will have a black woman for mayor.”
Another cool thing is that this election is essentially being decided by who voters are convinced is *more* progressive. I’ve been fascinated to see the backlash against Lightfoot from various quarters, but I voted for her today, as I did in the first round. The attacks seem to be from folks who don’t think she’s progressive *enough.* There have certainly been progressives running, and even elected, before. But if, before today, there have been *2* progressives facing off, with one guaranteed to be the winner, I’m not aware of it. Today, despite Preckwinkle’s powerful positions, both of them are running as progressives and, if Lightfoot wins, I’ll consider her as mayor and Preckwinkle continuing as the County Board president a win-win.
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alex said on April 2, 2019 at 6:20 pm
Oh sweet schadenfreude…
No wonder old lemony-face Kevin Leininger’s columns seem different lately. He hasn’t been able to crib from his favorite muse:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/inside-the-spectacular-fall-of-the-granddaddy-of-right-wing-conspiracy-sites/2019/04/02/6ac53122-3ba6-11e9-a06c-3ec8ed509d15_story.html
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susan said on April 2, 2019 at 10:56 pm
Jakash & Deborah – Lightfoot won.
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