And…justlikethat, the weekend slips away. It’ll do that when you’re concentrated on stuff like taxes, laundry and watching “Licorice Pizza,” i.e., the same sort of weekend I’ve been having for maybe two years.
Taxes were the big bummer. We’re going to owe a lot, thanks to a Roth conversion we did last year. But that money will grow (theoretically) and be tax-free when we spend it as liver-spotted old people, so: Good thing, I guess. But there are worse fates, and it was balanced by good news: Apparently my brain MRA turned out fine, so I don’t have carotid blockages causing my vertigo. Taxes are a cakewalk next to that. Still: Ouch.
As we tend to say at this stage of life: Consider the alternative.
Have you considered the alternative? As I’ve said before: I have a letter in my estate folder, bequeathing my online presence to J.C. He is instructed to kill my social-media accounts and do as he pleases with the archive of this blog. (Estimated retail value: $12.98.) Let this be another declaration of intent.
And speaking of the alternative, Clarence Thomas has been hospitalized with “an infection.” Thoughts and prayers.
Sorry I didn’t update Friday. I went out on St. Patrick’s Day, had a beer and a half and got another little spinning bout. It was 10 percent of the one the week before, but enough that I asked Alan to pick me up at the bar. (I’d ridden my bike there, as a celebration of the first 70-degree day of the year; talk about luck of the Irish.) The day ended with takeout pizza, not corned beef and cabbage, but I know which one I prefer.
Is anyone else watching “Winning Time,” the HBO dramatization of the rise of the L.A. Lakers? You know me — no sports fan — but I’m enjoying the hell out of it. It’s funny, weird, fourth-wall-breaking and simply a hoot to watch. I have no opinion, or knowledge, of its historical accuracy, but it’s well-cast (Gaby Hoffman! John C. Reilly!) and so much fun. A lot of the early episodes are spending a great deal of time on Magic Johnson, and the most recent delves into his sexual profligacy, particularly with prostitutes. I’m a little puzzled by this because I assume all pro athletes are like this, but then, Magic lives with HIV and I expect this is laying the groundwork for the eventual revelation. However. Didn’t I read sometime around then that there had been rumors in L.A. for years about him being bisexual? I feel like I did. Whatever. This week introduced Adrien Brody as Pat Riley, and I’m absolutely there for it. (I have an irrational attachment to Brody’s nose. I can’t explain it.)
So, the week ahead yawns, and at least it’s a nice day here. Since this is short and boring, a photo from my St. Patrick’s Day. Don’t see a lot of these outside Greenfield Village, but it’s a real Model T and it starts with a hand crank. Fun thing to bring to the bar on a beautiful day, I’d say.
basset said on March 21, 2022 at 10:05 am
You can get Model T driving lessons at the Gilmore car museum outside Grand Rapids. Two-speed transmission and you shift with the pedals, that’s all I know.
And, being old and out of touch, I have to ask… what does that hand sign mean?
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jcburns said on March 21, 2022 at 10:11 am
$12.98!? Woo-hoo!
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LAMary said on March 21, 2022 at 11:27 am
People here in LA were all sorts of freaked out when Magic announced he had HIV. There was a bulletin on television interrupting programming to announce it. People I knew called me to tell me turn on the television! There’s something big being announced! On the other hand a neighbor who had some interaction with professional basketball said Magic was a big fan of Superfreak hookers solo or in groups.
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FDChief said on March 21, 2022 at 11:32 am
Thoughts that whatever is attacking ol’ Long Dong doesn’t half-ass it like it did with Tubby. You got one job, virus, whoever you are; rid us of this meddlesome jurist who is shoving us on the roller coaster to the Gilded Age. Bad cess to him.
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Jeff Borden said on March 21, 2022 at 11:43 am
Clarence Thomas has always been loathsome, but the reportage a couple of weeks ago about him and his wingnutty wife really drove home to me what a terrible justice he is. I’d love to see him join Scalia in the nether reaches of the Underworld, but are we really that lucky? Then, Biden could jam another liberal onto the court and tell Moscow Mitch McConnell to STFU when he declared the “American people” needed to weight in. After Amy Coney Handmaiden, there are not rules of decorum any more.
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Mssr. Coffee said on March 21, 2022 at 1:40 pm
Ah, the hate, it is strong with these.
Still feeling tip-top, by the way.
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tajalli said on March 21, 2022 at 2:26 pm
Cool car. I’d have liked to see the occupants dressed for the era, though. A flowing, green scarf would have filled the bill for the day. And goggles, needs goggles.
Basset, my guess is the hand sign is a rather clueless version of the Hawaiian “shaka,” which is made with only the thumb and pinkie. It means “hi there, bro, looking good”.
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alex said on March 21, 2022 at 2:38 pm
Magic Johnson had quite a magic johnson from what I’ve heard. He would make whirligigs of the women riding on it and refer to them as “spinners.”
As for Long Dong Silver, I doubt even Ginni has ever seen it, and if she has, perhaps those are her grounds for calling Anita Hill a liar.
Wonder if Uncle Thomas ever “recuses” himself at the last minute when he’s with hookers young enough to conceive.
Feeling absolutely giddy after Coffee today.
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Sherri said on March 21, 2022 at 2:44 pm
Winning Time is a hoot, but it’s historical accuracy, not so much. I would describe it as taking the real people in the story and creating exaggerated cartoons of them. I understand a lot of people around the NBA were unhappy with how Jerry West is portrayed, for example. West is played as an incredibly intense asshole, while around the NBA, West is an incredibly intense beloved figure.
Winning Time is less than fair to Jack Cooke, but since he really was a racist asshole, and dead, there’s less angst about him.
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Deborah said on March 21, 2022 at 3:38 pm
Here’s an interesting article in The Atlantic about what to do with obnoxious trolls https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/03/how-to-manage-cyberbullying-internet-trolls/627084/. There’s a paywall, sorry, but you get a few free clicks.
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Scout said on March 21, 2022 at 3:56 pm
Great article, Deborah! In case some have hit the paywall, I’ve copied and pasted the crux of the biscuit. Bottom line, trolls HATE to be ignored, therefore depriving them of oxygen is the best known method to be rid of them.
‘Without even realizing it, many internet users mistakenly assume that cyberattackers follow conventional rules of behavior. People try to reason with trolls or appeal to their better nature. These responses are similar to how you might approach a friend who’s inadvertently insulted you, or a family member who disagrees with you about something important. But trolls are not like your loved ones, and research shows that these strategies are ineffective because they misapprehend a troll’s true motives, which are usually to attract attention, exercise control, and manipulate others.’
~
‘Responding to a bully on the internet or in real life—remember, they are typically the same people—is proof that they are worth your time and notice. It gives them a twisted kind of status. While a healthy person gets status from admiration for meritorious behavior, research on playground bullies finds that they seek status by showing dominance through aggression. Don’t feed this monster, in person or online. When possible, meet aggression with deafening silence.’
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Sherri said on March 21, 2022 at 5:20 pm
That advice is fine with one off trolls like our caffeinated one. It doesn’t work when trolls show up in packs, because then they feed off each other’s attention, and they can quickly take over a space. It took way too long for Twitter to recognize this and provide some tools to handle mobs descending on a tweet, egged on by some high follower count troll. Even so, Twitter’s tools are insufficient to cope.
Ignoring trolls is insufficient when they are flooding all your channels with garbage at such a rate as to make them unusable. Or when they’re swatting* you.
*Calling the police to report that someone with a gun is threatening people at your house, prompting a SWAT response and endangering your life.
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LAMary said on March 21, 2022 at 5:37 pm
I think the suggestion that Magic Johnson was bisexual came to my attention when the HIV was announced. Lots of people figured he must have had sex with a guy to catch it. If the rumor was around earlier I missed it.
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Sherri said on March 21, 2022 at 6:29 pm
Consider how the advice from that Atlantic piece would work with the situation in this Twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/ericbybee/status/1505954460400455682
“Don’t feed the trolls” was insufficient simplistic advice for dealing with online abuse 30 years ago, and only worked to a point. Today, it’s willfully ignorant of the realities of online abuse.
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Jeff Borden said on March 21, 2022 at 6:50 pm
My favorite way to deal with trolls is to ignore them. They’re sad, lonely, whiny little wallflowers looking to get closer to the glow of others they both loathe and envy.
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Sherri said on March 21, 2022 at 7:26 pm
Jonathan Choe was, until today, a reporter for Sinclair-owned KOMO in Seattle, who made his beat selling a “Seattle is Dying” narrative about crime, homelessness, and fear-mongering. Who could have guessed that he was also a neo-Nazi?
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/03/21/68783953/komo-journalist-blasts-out-proud-boy-propaganda
The big surprise is that it was too much for Sinclair.
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Deborah said on March 21, 2022 at 7:30 pm
When I try to use my Apple laptop it just keeps coming up with a question mark and I can’t get beyond that. I can use my iPhone ok, haven’t tried my iPad yet.
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Deborah said on March 21, 2022 at 7:56 pm
OK, I restarted my laptop and now it seems to be working just fine. Sorry for the comment above but after reading about possible cyber shenanigans by the Russians with Apple…
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beb said on March 21, 2022 at 8:26 pm
My ‘thoughts and prayers’ for the hospitalized Justice Thomas are neither Christian nor charitable.
Sorry to hear that Nancy had another dizzy episode.
The hand sign in the photo looks to me to either be the “Hook ’em horns” gesture or the sign ward off the evil eye. The only hand sign for driving that I remember involved the middle finger.
And right now I’m sitting down to left-over corned beef and cabbage. Didn’t realize it was St. Patrick’s day when we got the beef, I love it any time of the year.
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Dorothy said on March 21, 2022 at 8:34 pm
I am very glad to hear your news about the brain scan, Nancy. Good results after medical tests are a special gift.
For those of you who are not my pals on Facebook, I can happily share that my grandson arrived safely and sweetly on St. Patrick’s Day, just before 8 PM. I was in the room when he was born, just as I was five years before when his sister was born. It’s been an exhilarating four days and we are all supremely happy, joyful, giddy and down right grateful that he is here! After the losses they experienced since 2018 there was lots of worry (not spoken about but felt just the same), so that’s why there is such relief and joy that he is healthy and hale.
Switching gears – we closed on our previous house last week; it’s 9 weeks today since we closed on this new one. We had nine offers on the other house within 48 hours of listing it. It sold for $50K over the asking price. Is it any wonder we feel like we hit the lottery twice in the last eight weeks?! I’m adjusting to being retired. At first I felt almost guilty for not going out and being productive from 8 AM to 4 PM. But I’m in the groove now. I’m sewing a piece that is going to be the shower curtain in our basement bathroom. And my grandma game gets better every day. Nestle really loves me being home 24/7, too. She’s my constant companion and if I could change anything at all I have to say there would be nothing TO change. How often can you say that?!
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alex said on March 21, 2022 at 9:23 pm
It’s widely assumed that only anal receptors are susceptible to HIV but the cooties also can penetrate the mucosa of the foreskin of the uncircumcised. So Magic could have fucked a heroin addict and gotten it that way. There’s no telling.
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LAMary said on March 21, 2022 at 9:33 pm
I knew a woman who caught aids from her husband. While he was sick and dying and she didn’t know she had caught it, she hooked up with the friend who was helping care for the dying husband. She died about six months after the husband and the helpful friend died after that. This was around 1985ish when we still didn’t know much about how many ways it could spread.
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Deborah said on March 21, 2022 at 9:35 pm
Dorothy, congrats on the new grandson and being happily retired. I love being retired too.
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basset said on March 21, 2022 at 10:42 pm
Congrats from us too, Dorothy, on both events.
Googled that hand sign, if I read correctly it means “I love you.” That’s nice.
Been tuning up the cameras tonight, getting ready for an oral history recording with Mrs. B’s dad, who is 96.
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jcburns said on March 21, 2022 at 10:53 pm
Deborah, when you get a question mark, it means “I can’t find a hard drive with the operating system on it.” Usually this is just an intermittent thing. But it can be issues like a loose cable inside your machine between the drive and the motherboard.
Restarting is a good idea.
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Dexter Friend said on March 22, 2022 at 2:29 am
Magic and Cookie were married just a month when the HIV story broke; people were confused until Magic admitted he contracted it from women, so he was cheating on Cookie from the start, and they were a couple long before the HIV was dx’d. I never heard even a whisper about Magic on the down-low, but what do I know? I hated the Lakers and the Jordan Bulls, so I am not watching either miniseries. I am watching “The Andy Warhol Diaries” and it is truly mind blowing.
The car is nice; I used to get questions about my VW Microbuses, especially by college kids in Ann Arbor when I’d drive one of them to football games. By the late 1990s, the buses were rare, now hardly ever seen.
Bill from work was driving his Model T on I-69 when cruel fate overtook him, as his wife was killed when a truck rammed them. I guess Bill thought it was worth the risk to drive a car from another age on a high speed freeway. A bit later, Bill’s son died from AIDS, then Bill died. Geez, a quick progression there.
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diane said on March 22, 2022 at 5:17 am
Congratulations Dorothy! That is all wonderful!
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alex said on March 22, 2022 at 7:03 am
So, Indiana’s gutless governor just signed into law a ridiculous bill abolishing gun permits, as if things weren’t lax enough already. He also vetoed a bill banning transgender athletes in schools but is likely to be overridden. So here in the haystacks it’s the Law of the Jungle.
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Jeff Borden said on March 22, 2022 at 1:48 pm
Watching some chunks of coverage over the SCOTUS hearings on Judge Jackson reminds me what jagoffs our QOP senators are. . .especially Lindsey Graham, Marsha Blackburn and Josh Hawley. They give the lie to the claim our Senate is the “world’s greatest deliberative body.”
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Dexter said on March 22, 2022 at 2:03 pm
I tried to watch, saw Lady G and that fucking Ted Cruz blabbering about old Long Dong and Bush41, and decided I do not need the aggravation.
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Julie Robinson said on March 22, 2022 at 2:50 pm
Additional aggravation not needed here, getting plenty from what I read. Other aggravation being provided by our landscaper cutting through our water line. Repair time unknown at present. He was redoing our front yard after it being ruined by contractor last fall.
Dorothy, your retirement experience seems to be just like my husband’s. It seems like he’s busier than ever and boy is he happy.
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alex said on March 22, 2022 at 3:45 pm
Congrats Dorothy. Wish I could do the same right now. If I can get on my partner’s health insurance plan I’ll be out of that office like a bat outta hell.
Calling Brian Stouder: Monica Lewinsky tickets are on sale as of noon today for the Omnibus Lecture Series; be sure and snag yours ASAP as they’re sure to sell out fast.
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David C said on March 22, 2022 at 5:08 pm
Wonder what else states should be able to do if they want to?
Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) just said the Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage in Loving v. Virginia in 1967 and that states should be allowed to ban interracial marriage if they want to.
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JodiP said on March 22, 2022 at 5:09 pm
Congrats on all fronts Dorothy!
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Sherri said on March 22, 2022 at 5:25 pm
I’m going to again recommend Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, by Elie Mystal, especially in audiobook form. This righteous rant should be heard.
That’s my answer to your question, David C.
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David C said on March 22, 2022 at 6:07 pm
I have my name on the hold list at the library for Elie Mystal’s book. I fall asleep to audio books although I find it hard to believe I’d fall asleep with Elie reading it.
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David C said on March 22, 2022 at 6:29 pm
Watch the highlights of Senator Hirono cutting Cruz, Hawley, and Graham into little Senator ribbons.
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alex said on March 22, 2022 at 7:26 pm
David C, in ordinary times Mike Braun would have just committed the political equivalent of stepping on a land mine. In the post-Trump era, he’s just being a Republican whose party has his back no matter what he does. Insane.
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David C said on March 22, 2022 at 7:59 pm
Oh yeah. Todd Aiken could uncork his legitimate rape comment and nobody in that party would bat an eye.
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