Mon. Apr. 11, 2022 – let’s go bran… flakes. Get ready for ‘meatless Monday’…

Windy and clear, not particularly cool.   Yesterday was nice until the evening when there was some misty drizzle.   Never got too hot, and the sun stayed behind clouds.

That was perfect weather to wash the truck.   I figured if it was time for an oil change, it was probably time to wash it too.  I’m really not interested in washing vehicles, but it occurred to me that for what I paid, I should take better care of it.   I’ll try to be better, I  swear.

I actually got a bunch of stuff done, and some stuff just had a bit of progress made, but even baby steps are steps, right?

Having someone over (our buddy the electrician) made me realize how far I’ve let some things go.   I still have the boxes of  Christmas lights sitting on the patio, because I didn’t put them right back in the garage attic where they belong.   So I did a bit of tidying.  Also got some plumbing supplies together for the BOL, and washed the truck.   Checked the oil and fluids in all the vehicles, and added wiper fluid to all of them.  When I bought the gallon of 1:50 concentrated windshield washing fluid, I thought it would be about a lifetime supply.  I’m down to the last inch and a half in the gallon bottle though.

As a side note, all three vehicles need DIFFERENT weights of motor oil.   What the what?  Honda’s is one I’ve never heard of and never even noticed in the store- 0W-20.   I guess I’ll get at least one oil change for the Honda, although my wife has been having a mechanic shop do the changes for her.  Oil changes for my trucks make sense to stock, as I’ve actually done a change on the Ranger, and on my old Expy.  I can do it again if I have to, but I don’t like to mess with it.

It does all sorta circle back to the idea of “timeliness”.   Changing oil, checking fluids, they are about catching or preventing problems.   Putting stuff away as soon as you are done using it helps keep it in good condition, and keeps it where it can be easily found later.  Acting once you’ve come to a conclusion about a course of action keeps the action timely too.  Wait too long and the conditions might have changed.   It’s not a new or profound concept, there are aphorisms and ‘rules of thumb’ galore that address it, from “A stitch in time…” to “for want of a nail” to “make hay while the sun shines…” and “strike while the iron is hot” among countless others.

I’m guessing I’m not the first guy to dither, or procrastinate, judging by the number and pervasiveness of the culture hacking aphorisms.  I’ll share with you that I feel like time is getting short and the ability to act in a timely manner is becoming more important than ever.   In Taoism, it’s the idea the you maintain yourself in a ‘centered’ state, equally ready to move in any direction.  Whatever tradition you come from, being awake, alert, and ready to move in any direction as needed (literally and figuratively) will be very important for your well being during the next couple of years.

If you’re not there yet, start practicing the mindset, and gathering the resources.

Don’t delay, stack something today.

 

nick

74 Comments and discussion on "Mon. Apr. 11, 2022 – let’s go bran… flakes. Get ready for ‘meatless Monday’…"

  1. nick flandrey says:

    70F and 94%RH.   National forecast has us on the edge of a rain system.   That usually means we don’t get it.   Humidity is pretty high though.

    n

  2. Greg Norton says:

    As a side note, all three vehicles need DIFFERENT weights of motor oil.   What the what?  Honda’s is one I’ve never heard of and never even noticed in the store- 0W-20.   I guess I’ll get at least one oil change for the Honda, although my wife has been having a mechanic shop do the changes for her.  Oil changes for my trucks make sense to stock, as I’ve actually done a change on the Ranger, and on my old Expy.  I can do it again if I have to, but I don’t like to mess with it.

    Newer cars with more complex engines need the lower viscosity oil to work its way into  smaller spaces.

    With some exceptions, Hondas will last a long time just with the usual oil change and attention to the fluids, but you ***MUST*** use what the manual specifies, including where it states Honda brand as required. Do not skimp there.

    ***MUST*** 

    And for God’s sake, don’t futz with Stop Leak or similar products with a Honda. After much research, I get away with Stop Leak in my older Toyota’s power steering to keep a small leak in the hose assembly under control, but, in a Honda, you would either replace the part or refill the fluid as needed.

  3. Ray Thompson says:

    Off to the sleep doctor today. With the new CPAP machine I have to be verified that I am using the machine so Medicare will pay for the machine. It’s actually a rental for 11 months after which I own the machine. But for those 11 months I have to be verified, each month, as to compliance. Even if I am compliant for 10 months, but miss the 11th month, Medicare will make me pay the full cost of the machine by reimbursing Medicare’s payments.

    Of course Medicare is paying $1900.00 over the course of 11 months for a machine I can buy online for $900.00. The DME is making a killing on this stuff charging over double what is available on the open market.

    The machine also reports over the cellular network the number of hours used each night, mask fit, mask on/off, and events each night. Reported to some central server which the sleep doctor, and I can access. Although I suspect the sleep doctor gets more information than I.

  4. nick flandrey says:

    A Pennsylvania man fed up with rising gas prices was arrested after he put stickers on fuel pumps featuring a finger-pointing Joe Biden that say ‘I did that!’  in a protest gaining traction around the country. 

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10706131/Pennsylvania-man-arrested-placing-did-Biden-stickers-gas-pumps-protest-prices.html 

    The ‘I did that!’ sticker has popped up across the country over the last few weeks as gas prices soar, similar to the ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ chants that swept through many red states as people showed their displeasure with the Democratic president.

    One Alabama gas station employee told WAAY-TV last month that he regularly peels off the stickers from fuel pumps.

    ‘I take off five or six a day from our different pumps,’ Perry Cagle, assistant manager of an Exxon station near Athens, told the outlet. 

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  5. nick flandrey says:

    Well, the rain started just as I sent the kids off.    Thunder and lightning too. 

    Not much of either, but enough to wet everything.

    n

  6. nick flandrey says:

    Dang, 503 service unavailable error.   reload got the page though.

    SOMETHING is going on with these recent errors.

    Maybe we’re taking flak.

    n

  7. Greg Norton says:

    The ‘I did that!’ sticker has popped up across the country over the last few weeks as gas prices soar, similar to the ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ chants that swept through many red states as people showed their displeasure with the Democratic president.

    Stickers probably marked Hecho en China if they sell on Amazon in bulk packs.

  8. Greg Norton says:

    @Nick – If you have a vehicle made in the last 5-10 years, also make sure you have a couple of cabin air filters stashed and change them per the owners manual. It seems trivial, but the AC systems are increasingly sensitive to that filter either being dirty or missing, especially on Japanese makes.

    My guess is that Tonymobiles and other EVs are even more dependent on that filter being clean.

  9. MrAtoz says:

    Palette cleanser for Mr. Greg:

    Sure, Work Makes Us Want to Swear. But Should You?

    And, The Bill O’Reilly Rap (Fcuk It):

    F*cu It! S*ck It!

  10. nick flandrey says:

    Yeah, I can’t go back to a corporate job.  

    n

  11. Greg Norton says:

    Palette cleanser for Mr. Greg:

    Sure, Work Makes Us Want to Swear. But Should You?

    My problems at the previous previous job started during the interview process. The two f-bombs were just a convenient excuse to attempt to fire me without paying unemployment, which they never had grounds to do under Texas law.

    I never should have accepted the job in retrospect, however. Management seethed with disgust at having to hire me from Day One, viewing me as a necessary evil to get work done.

    And their attempt to avoid unemployment failed. I was cleared of wrongdoing and sent all of what I was due late last year.

    In general, no, you can’t say certain words on the job anymore, even if, like me, you did not do it in front of customers. Most companies as of late have implemented “respect” policies which include blanket statements about profanity, and get fired for a violation of written/acknowledged policy in most states means no unemployment, sometimes for life.

  12. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    Nearly every shop skimps on the oil filter. If you do your own, install a NAPA Gold or Platinum (bought on sale) and use that to compare with what was put on last time. 

  13. dkreck says:

    Back in my teens and twenties (fifty years ago) I’d spend my summers fighting wildfires. Work, eat and sleep with those guys (yeah no womwnz back then) at a fire station and you couldn’t have chow without ‘Pass the fvking salt’. I always had to fight to break the habit afterwards. 

    Nowadays is rarely more that a damn but get my wife or daughter mad and watch out!

  14. Greg Norton says:

    Yeah, I can’t go back to a corporate job.  

    A sizable HR department goes looking for problems. OTOH, I can’t imagine the freak show management from the previous previous job getting away with what they did at, say, CGI.

    As I’ve noted before, within a few months of my exit interview, my direct CGI management was stocking shelves at Buc-ee’s in Temple. Granted, reactionary and not preemptive, but HR eventually took action once they established that there was a pattern. Race, age, and veteran status also protected the manager … for a while.

  15. JimB says:

    Rick, HELP!! A couple days ago (I was busy all day yesterday,) I composed a post on my phone (Note 20 Ultra 5G with Android 12, everything up to date.) About five words typed, and they disappeared. Tried again twice, because I am insane, same results, although at different number of words. Tried typing other words, and same result: after about five to twenty words, everything just disappeared. Poof! Ironically, I was about to praise the new editor, because it seemed to work fine on my phone. Thought you would like to add this to your list.

    BTW, the editor continues to work fine when using my desktop computer, although I almost always compose in Word and then paste into the editor, not much of a test. One thing I did find was that if I formatted text in italics in Word, when pasting that format carried through in the editor, very nice. Can’t say whether this worked with the old editor, because I used to paste, then format. Is Word brilliant or what?!

    Seriously, I have used Word since 1986 or so, and am just used to how it works. The newest version may have the menus messed up (ribbon,) but I mostly use keyboard shortcuts, and they have worked mostly the same over all these years. Along the way, I also used a bunch of other word processors, and some were better in some respects than Word, but good ol’ Word just keeps going on, and getting better in some ways. I may have tapped only about 10% of its ability… no, make that 5%.

  16. Greg Norton says:

    A sizable HR department goes looking for problems. OTOH, I can’t imagine the freak show management from the previous previous job getting away with what they did at, say, CGI.

    And freak show management wouldn’t last a day where I currently work. I just got off a call with management regarding what I thought about our volunteer activity and group lunch on Friday.

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  17. Nightraker says:

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  18. Rick H says:

    Rick, HELP!!

    When you get the comment box, the server is essentially ‘idle’ for you. I believe there is  no interaction between your system and this site’s server while you are composing/typing in the comment box. The site server only does something when you hit the ‘submit’ button. While you are typing, the site server is not receiving or sending information to your system.

    All other interaction with what you are typing (spelling checks, etc) are being done by your local browser and your device. 

    So your problem would seem to be in the device you are using.  The ‘500’ errors are something wrong at the server end. But text disappearing while you are typing is not a site server problem. It’s a local problem.

  19. lynn says:

    “Has it been extra windy in Houston this spring?”

         https://spacecityweather.com/has-it-been-extra-windy-in-houston-this-spring/

    Yes.

    “Now let’s look at the current year. In February, this year, the average wind speed was 8.7 mph, so a little bit above normal; in March it was 9.3 mph, a little bit more above normal; and so far in April, the average wind speed has been 9.7 mph, nearly 10 percent faster than normal. So by the most basic metric, yes, this spring has been windier than normal. And since spring is already typically the windiest season in Houston—when we often see sharp gradients between the warmer Gulf and colder plains—your perception that it’s quite blowy outside is justified.”

    And he agrees.

  20. lynn says:

    “ACC: EPA Proposal Threatens Drinking Water, Supply Chain” 

        https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/industrynews/2022/acc-epa-proposal-threatens-drinking-water-supply-chain/

    “The American Chemistry Council (ACC) expresses disapproval of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chrysotile Asbestos Risk Management proposal, according to the organization. EPA’s proposed guidelines would eliminate all use of chrysotile asbestos in chlor-alkali manufacturing and cause substantial harm to America’s drinking water supply, and unwarranted alarm for products in the marketplace which are essential to ongoing climate, sustainability and infrastructure projects, says the ACC.”

    “If enacted, EPA’s proposed rule would ban the manufacture of nearly one-third of chlorine and sodium hydroxide chemicals and have significant adverse effects on the supply of the nation’s drinking water, according to the organization. Additionally, says the ACC, EPA’s risk evaluation overestimates potential asbestos exposures, leading to an unjustified risk management proposal.”

    Just great.  Now we will have to import water cleaning chlorine from China too.

    Do you ever get the feeling that the people in the EPA are just blindly striking out at anything and everything ?

  21. nick flandrey says:

    But text disappearing while you are typing is not a site server problem. It’s a local problem.

    @rick, was this always true?  I sometimes see visible lag between hitting a key and the character appearing, as if there was some travel time.

    n

  22. Greg Norton says:

    Nearly every shop skimps on the oil filter. If you do your own, install a NAPA Gold or Platinum (bought on sale) and use that to compare with what was put on last time. 

    If you suspect a dealship is doing that or, better, have proof, turn them in to the manufacturer. Call the dealer HQ if you’re dealing with a large entity like the Group 1 scam artists.

    And find a new place to get service. If it is Group 1, I will try to refrain from asking you what you were thinking to begin with, but I digress.

    Go back 20 years, and not changing the filter was dishonest but not immediately fatal as long as the vehicle wasn’t a turbo.

    These days, due to CAFE, nearly everything is a turbo or, at a minimum, Direct Injection, which raises the potential for oil dilution. Honda is already in trouble over dilution, and a class action is in the works due to 4 cylinder EcoBoost problems at Ford.

  23. Rick H says:

    @rick, was this always true?  I sometimes see visible lag between hitting a key and the character appearing, as if there was some travel time.

    When you fill out any form on any site, there is no interaction with the server. The server only ‘builds’ the html code and sends it to your browser. Your browser interprets that HMTL code and renders the page.

    There may be some local things happening in your local browser, like some JS stuff that might change something. An example would be a button that when clicked changes the color of the text to another color. Another example, used here, is the font adjust button that uses some JS to change the CSS of an HTML element (tag). That button sets the base font size to a new value. But done with JS code locally; there is no data resent to the page by the server.

    It may be that some Ajax stuff is going on in the background when the page is loaded by your browser. An example of this would be my BKLNK site, which will load a page, then send an AJAX request to the server for some more data, and then displays that received additional information in your browser. That allows me to display a ‘spinner’ in the browser showing that the server is working on something. Once the server sends back data as requested by the AJAX request, the AJAX code on inside the browser displays that information. On the BKLNK site, that spinner is then replaced with the requested data. It might be a whole new page, or just inserting a hunk of data into a portion of the existing page.

    Advantage of the AJAX request is reducing the page code that needs to be sent by the server, and received and processed by the browser. The AJAX response may only be part of the page, and may not require getting the whole page of HTML data.

    If there is a lag between you hitting a key and it appearing on the page, then that delay is on your local system. Maybe the processor is doing something else at the time. But you typing a character in a form is not sending that character to the server and the server returning the character to the browser. Character processing is the function of the local computer and the browser. (Maybe even just the local computer.)

    Data is not sent back to the server by any form until you hit the form’s ‘submit’ button, it is ‘held’ locally by the browser. Hitting the submit key results in a POST request to the server – essentially here is some data from a form, with individual POST items being each form’s input field data. That sending (POSTing) is done by your browser. The data is sent to the server, and the server page processing code determines what is done to the data POSTed to it by the browser.

    Even the spelling check is done locally by the browser. A misspelled word is not received by the server – the browser recognizes the misspelled word, and the browser provides the suggestions (when you right-click the wavy word). 

  24. Ray Thompson says:

    I sometimes see visible lag between hitting a key and the character appearing, as if there was some travel time.

    I believe that would be the delay in the spell chucker attempting to validate a word. There may be some Javascript code that is running that hammers some server somewhere with parts of words in an attempt to validate the word. Such validation should only occur when a word is completed, a space, comma, period, etc. It may be that the JS code is trying to more, such as word completion. Not all browsers spell check equally and on a portable device that may be left to the server, not the brower on the device so that space can be saved.

  25. Rick H says:

    The browser uses it’s own internal (local) dictionary to check words as you type. There is no outside data involved. 

    From Firefox support pages (and done similarly with other browsers, who use their own internal dictionary); emphasis added:

    Firefox automatically checks the spelling of words that you enter in text boxes containing more than one line. As soon as you finish typing a word, it is checked against the words in the installed dictionary. If the word is not found in the dictionary, it will be underlined in red,

    So, spell checking is local. No data is accessed on the server.  Otherwise, every server would need it’s on dictionaries. For each language.

    The browser also gets the key-press from the OS, and internally displays it in the browser. Also without processing by the web server. And delay in the appearance of the letter on the screen after pressing it on the keyboard is the function of the local processor sending the letter to the browser. And of the browser receiving the letter from the processor and displaying it on the screen.

  26. Alan says:

    >> Well, the rain started just as I sent the kids off.    Thunder and lightning too. 

    Not much of either, but enough to wet everything.

    Inevitably caused by you washing your truck.

  27. nick flandrey says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10708225/The-states-FAILED-protect-people-COVID.html

    How blue states FAILED to protect Americans from COVID: NY and California had huge deaths rates, ruined kids education and destroyed business with lockdowns, new research shows

    • New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois were panned for their pandemic performance in the new study
    • Democrat Governors’ policies ’caused huge death rates, ruined children’s studies and destroyed businesses’
    • Meanwhile states that allowed residents more freedom as coronavirus swept across the country faired better
    • Utah, Nebraska, Vermont, Montana and South Dakota were praised by analysts for their pandemic response

    Democrat areas generally brought in tighter restrictions meaning their citizens had fewer freedoms and were often locked up at home.

    Meanwhile Republican states were mostly looser rules on traveling, social distancing and going to school for children.

    The report concluded: ‘The study verifies other studies which have found that locking down businesses, stores, churches, schools, and restaurants had almost no impact on health outcomes across states.

    …The report said: ‘School closures may ultimately prove to be the most costly policy decision of the pandemic era in both economic and mortality terms.’ Pictured: Open schools and health by state

    n

  28. MrAtoz says:

    Do you ever get the feeling that the people in the EPA are just blindly striking out at anything and everything ?

    Again, a Federal agency with too much power. Where is Congress? These agencies are writing de facto laws. They need to be reigned in.

  29. Ray Thompson says:

    the browser uses it’s own internal (local) dictionary to check words as you type. There is no outside data involved. 

    Is that also true on mobile devices? My impression on IOS is that there is some interaction with some server somewhere when using Safari. Most of that impression comes from the delay in sometimes typing a word and suggestions of words. And if not true, learned something today.

  30. Alan says:

    >> The browser uses it’s own internal (local) dictionary to check words as you type. There is no outside data involved. 

    @Rick, I thought CKEditor used a spell check service on a third-party service? Or maybe that was just in earlier versions?

  31. nick flandrey says:

    Inevitably caused by you washing your truck.

    of course I considered that when I did it…  bwaaahhhhaaahhhhaaahhhhaaaa!

  32. Alan says:

    >> Where is Congress?

    Either campaigning for 2022 or fund-raising for 2024.

  33. nick flandrey says:

    I’m not the only one who noticed how cr@p children’s books have gotten…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10708007/Where-picture-books-gone.html 

    Which is why my kids grew up on classics, and vintage, with very few new books.  

    n

  34. Rick H says:

    Is that also true on mobile devices? My impression on IOS is that there is some interaction with some server somewhere when using Safari. Most of that impression comes from the delay in sometimes typing a word and suggestions of words.

    According to this site :

    The native dictionaries in iOS, which have been around since 2011, let you define words on your iPhone on the fly in Safari, News, Notes, and other apps. But if you read or write in more than just English, you won’t be able to see accurate definitions unless you add those other languages to your list of dictionaries manually.

    So, there are internal dictionaries stored locally on mobile devices, and you can add additional dictionaries to your local device. These dictionaries are not external. They live in your mobile device, and they are accessed by your local browser (which may also have it’s own dictionary for use in the browser).

    I thought CKEditor used a spell check service on a third-party service? Or maybe that was just in earlier versions?

    I believe that the native spellchecker in CKEditor5 is internal, but not sure. There are add-ins (plugins) that can enhance the CKEditor5’s spellchecker – for instance, a grammar add-in – but those are not enabled in the default CKEditor5, which is used here. There are no plugins installed here for CKEditor5.

  35. lynn says:

    Do you ever get the feeling that the people in the EPA are just blindly striking out at anything and everything ?

    Again, a Federal agency with too much power. Where is Congress? These agencies are writing de facto laws. They need to be reigned in.

    SOCTUS has a sample case on this but with a prior decision.  Hopefully SCOTUS will reverse itself.

       https://www.scotusblog.com/2022/02/greenhouse-gases-and-major-questions-justices-to-hear-argument-on-epas-power-to-tackle-climate-change/

  36. JimB says:

    Thanks, Rick. I am typing this on my phone using Chrome. So far, so good. I usually use Brave.

    I will do some Googling when I have time.

  37. lynn says:

    I have been bingeing “Dead Like Me” all weekend.  Very dark comedy.  Too bad it only went two seasons.

        https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348913/

    Dead Like Me, too bad the movie used different actors.   The chemistry just wasn’t there.

    n

    Yup.  I am about halfway through the straight to DVD movie on Roku streaming.  They did have Ellen Muth (George), Callum Blue (English reaper), Roxy (policewoman reaper), and George’s mom.  But, Mandy Patinkin was probably working on “Homeland” by then and that lost the synergy.

    I did not realize that Mandy Patinkin was Iñigo Montoya on “The Princess Bride”.  Cool.

  38. lynn says:

    “Energy Blog: A Call for Dirigibles”

       https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/energy-blog-a-call-for-dirigibles

    There are several reasons why we ditched dirigibles.  They are slow, helium is scarce and expensive, and did I mention they are slow ?

  39. SteveF says:

    There are also periodic calls for construction of large sailships for cargo transport.

    Really and truly, greentards, if it made economic sense then there’s a good chance some company would be making them. Maersk’s engineers and accountants know more about the business of building and running commercial ships than you do, no matter how many times you’ve read Earth in the Balance.

  40. lynn says:

    “California injects $40M into heat pump water heater effort amid broader push to decarbonize buildings”

        https://www.utilitydive.com/news/california-injects-40m-into-heat-pump-water-heater-effort-amid-broader-pus/621869/

    Uh, doesn’t California have a electricity shortage problem ?

  41. lpdbw says:

    Many times over the years magazines like Popular Science have touted the strengths of dirigibles or hybrids (gasbags with attached helicopters) for various construction applications.  It seems plausible that a passive lift aircraft would be suitable for things like lifting towers or rooftop air conditioners, etc.  Helicopters are expensive to hover; gasbags do it for the cost of maneuvering fuel.

    But, as SteveF pointed out,  if they were practical, the big construction companies or their subs would be using them.

    As human long-distance transportation, it would be strictly a niche for people with money who don’t mind spending a lot of time.  Since there are very few transatlantic ships any more, it might be a good substitute. 

  42. Alan says:

    >> I did not realize that Mandy Patinkin was Iñigo Montoya on “The Princess Bride”.  Cool.

    Great actor. He also did the Benjamin Franklin voiceovers in the Ken Burns film of the same name.

  43. lynn says:

    “DNV: Ukraine war accelerating Europe’s energy transition”

         https://www.ogj.com/energy-transition/article/14270661/dnv-ukraine-war-accelerating-europes-energy-transition

    “Europe’s energy transition will be accelerated—with less fossil fuels in the energy mix and lower greenhouse gas emissions—because of its pivot away from Russian gas, according to new analysis from DNV’s Energy Transition Research. DNV now forecasts 34% of the energy mix in Europe will come from non-fossil fuels in 2024, two percentage points more than its pre-war assessment.”

    I have to admit, throwing some solar panels on the garage and putting in an inverter and a battery system could be identified as a prepping system.  I would not have thought that when I was evaluating my $25K natural gas whole house generator versus the $65K triple Powerwall system and solar panels.  It was an easy decision for me to go with the cheaper more conventional system.

  44. Greg Norton says:

    I did not realize that Mandy Patinkin was Iñigo Montoya on “The Princess Bride”.  Cool.

    “The Princess Bride” was the actor’s big break away from Broadway.

    Yes, he was in “Yentl” but who really sat and watched that? IIRC, the rating was PG since I remember it playing endlessly on HBO in the afternoons in the 80s, most likely the bulk of the film’s revenue over the last 40 years.

    My friends had “Showtime” with “Star Trek” movies. We had HBO with endless “Ghostbusters” and “Tootsie” reruns along with whatever else Columbia and Warner cranked out during the era. As I’ve posted before, it all came down to what your father was into that determined your house’s movie channel subscription.

    HBO – George Carlin and Clint Eastwood movies
    Showtime – Uncensored “Bizarre” and “Star Trek”
    Cinemax – Soft pr0n late at night. The urban legend is that “Party at Kitty and Studs” aired on the channel, but I have my doubts about that
    TMC – God only knows. You really felt sorry for that kid.

  45. Greg Norton says:

    Showtime – Uncensored “Bizarre” and “Star Trek”

    BTW, for those unfamiliar, “Bizarre” was home of Super Dave Osborne.

    The censored version aired in syndication in the US and on network TV in Canada, but Showtime was where you could see the actresses topless at least once per episode thanks to a fourth camera strategically placed in sketches.

    The kids whose dad was into “Bizarre” would always claim Dad watched to see Super Dave so Mom would let it slide. Everyone knew the truth.

  46. Pecancorner says:

    Yes, he was in “Yentl” but who really sat and watched that? IIRC, the rating was PG since I remember it playing endlessly on HBO in the afternoons in the 80s, most likely the bulk of the film’s revenue over the last 40 years.

    My friends had “Showtime” with “Star Trek” movies. We had HBO with endless “Ghostbusters” and “Tootsie” reruns along with whatever else Columbia and Warner cranked out during the era. As I’ve posted before, it all came down to what your father was into that determined your house’s movie channel subscription.

    HBO – George Carlin and Clint Eastwood movies
    Showtime – Uncensored “Bizarre” and “Star Trek”
    Cinemax – Soft pr0n late at night. The urban legend is that “Party at Kitty and Studs” aired on the channel, but I have my doubts about that
    TMC – God only knows. You really felt sorry for that kid.

    We didn’t have any of those.  My kids didn’t watch tv much, they were outside all the time or working on projects.  In their early teens, after they had outgrown the kid VHS tapes we owned,  we bought a DVD player for our ONE television set. They had only one movie for it for months: Beverly Hills Cop. LOL   “A movie to do homework by”! 😀 

    Then my sk8er kid came home with Gleaming the Cube, followed by Pump Up The Volume, and Kuffs,  and it was Christian Slater on a loop for the next year or two.  

  47. Greg Norton says:

    @Jenny – Your Memorial Day weekend flick.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hldGGWN9HcI

    Alamo Drafthouse ran the trailer in front of “Everything Everywhere All At Once”.

    I’m not sure whether I can recommend the Michelle Yeoh flick. Alamo ran 30 minutes of interviews and Yeoh career retrospective before the main feature, and I saw clips from at least three of her best films that I would have rather watched than the new movie.

  48. lynn says:

    “Hertz says it will purchase 65,000 electric vehicles from Polestar”

        https://www.theverge.com/2022/4/4/23009781/hertz-polestar-ev-purchase-car-rental-deal

    “The deal follows a similar announcement to buy 100,000 Tesla vehicles”

    I guess the Teslas just are not available for Hertz to buy more of.

  49. nick flandrey says:

    Christian Slater on a loop for the next year or two.  

    the death of a thousand cuts.

    @greg, you are forgetting Blue Thunder and Terminator.   I must have seen Terminator a hundred times completely and in parts numbering in the several hundreds.   I still love it.

    Blue Thunder – “He checks his sanity with his watch you know!”  –“How do you check yours?”

    We didn’t watch much tv when we were kids, mom didn’t allow us to watch any of the nighttime shows except Wild Kingdom.  Dallas was  mystery to me, even when all anyone talked about was “Who shot JR?”  Watched a lot of Brady Bunch and the afternoon kids shows.

    We eventually got a VCR with a wired remote, top loading…   and later joined a video rental store.  13″ color tv.  Push buttons, no remote.

    First time I saw a laser disc on a big screen projection tv was in a guy’s dorm room in college and I was blown away.   You could see the weave in the fabric of the actor’s tweed jacket.  You could see hairs floating around their faces.   S-video resolution.

    Digital projection of the Star Wars movie in THEATERS was only 1280×760… and it looked outstanding, even on the big screen.   Our eyes were not as sophisticated then.

    n

  50. nick flandrey says:

    This from the CDC today.

    COVID-19 Vaccines for Children and Teens

    COVID-19 can make children and teens of any age very sick and sometimes requires treatment in a hospital.

    Help protect children ages 5 years and older, especially from severe disease, hospitalization, or death by getting them vaccinated against COVID-19. Getting eligible children and teens vaccinated against COVID-19 can help keep them:

    • From getting really sick if they do get COVID-19
    • In school or daycare
    • Safely participating in sports, playdates, and other group activities

    There is no way to tell in advance how children or teens will be affected by COVID-19. However, those with underlying medical conditions or who have a weakened immune system are more likely to get severely ill from COVID-19.

    Those without underlying medical conditions can also experience severe illness. Almost half of children younger than 18 years old hospitalized with COVID-19 have no underlying conditions.

    “almost half” of HOW MANY?  “death” of HOW MANY?

    Fewer than drown in a normal year, I’d bet.

    n

  51. Greg Norton says:

    Christian Slater on a loop for the next year or two.  

    the death of a thousand cuts.

    If “Heathers” isn’t in there somewhere, you’re not getting the full Christian Slater career highlights experience. “Star Trek VI” too if you are a real fan.

  52. Greg Norton says:

    We didn’t watch much tv when we were kids, mom didn’t allow us to watch any of the nighttime shows except Wild Kingdom.  Dallas was  mystery to me, even when all anyone talked about was “Who shot JR?”  Watched a lot of Brady Bunch and the afternoon kids shows.

    “Dallas” ran after “The Incredible Hulk” on Fridays. JR was a bada** – he had Ginger from “Gilligan’s Island” as a secretary for the first season.

    The “Dallas” house is a trip back to the 70s more than a TV nostalgia experience. The only footage shot inside was the shower of the 80s and the scene of JR’s demise in an episode of the reboot, with the real main staircase doubling for the lobby of a seedy Mexican hotel.

  53. Greg Norton says:

    @greg, you are forgetting Blue Thunder and Terminator.   I must have seen Terminator a hundred times completely and in parts numbering in the several hundreds.   I still love it.

    “Blue Thunder” and “Terminator” were rated ‘R’ so they didn’t air until after 8 PM EST, when most of the parents were home.

    Hopefully, you got to see the T2:3D at one of the Universal parks during the show’s run. The junkyard chase was mostly practical effects, requiring Cameron to build an iMAX 3D camera as well as the pulley system to propell the cubic yard of equipment smoothly over the terrain.

    I was still awed when we last saw it in 2015. My kids were bored.

    The video presentation in the “T2:3D” queue *on tube TVs* looked dated, but the iMAX 3D was as crisp as the day we first saw the show in previews nearly 25 years earlier.

  54. ITGuy1998 says:

    Dallas” ran after “The Incredible Hulk” on Fridays.
     

    Heh – I remember watching the Hulk back then, but then it was off to bed for me. My only memory of Dallas is the theme song playing as I headed off to bed.

  55. Greg Norton says:

    Ethanol free unleaded in Round Rock, about an hour ago: $4.06/gallon

    My 21 year old Solara (Camry) loves ethanol free gas.

    My 2018 Camry used to run better with ethanol free, but a recall repair for the fuel pump greatly improved the car’s acceleration regardless of gas. Gas mileage is still better, but only a few MPG.

  56. Greg Norton says:

    Six inches of snow in Vantucky … in April?!?

    Portland got about an inch. The Columbia has its own “lake effect” under the right conditions so SW WA State got a lot more snow despite being only a few hundred yards across the river.

    https://www.kptv.com/2022/04/11/record-setting-april-snowfall-leads-school-closures-delays/

    I don’t miss Vantucky.

  57. lynn says:

    “Elon Musk’s possible Twitter plans explained: Will he launch hostile takeover of world’s wokest and most influential social – and how much will it cost?”

       https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10708505/Elon-Musks-possible-Twitter-plans-explained-possible-hostile-takeover-fun-distraction.html

    Gentlemen, place your bets !  Place your bets now. Will he or won’t he ?

    Hat tip to:
    https://www.drudgereport.com/

  58. lynn says:

    “Twitter Staff ‘Super Stressed’ Over Musk Board Chaos on Day Off”

        https://finance.yahoo.com/news/twitter-staff-super-stressed-over-225754264.html

    Poor wokesters !

  59. drwilliams says:

    @Rick

    I can still post from my phone after the last update, but if I try to delete characters I can do two and then the editor freezes.

  60. Rick H says:

    I can still post from my phone after the last update, but if I try to delete characters I can do two and then the editor freezes.

    I don’t think that’s the CKEditor doing that freeze thing. Although not entirely sure.  It’s all a bunch of JavaScript code. I don’t think it ‘talks’ to the server until you hit the Submit button.

  61. Greg Norton says:

    The inmates are running the asylum…and they’re getting anxious.

    Passing $3 Trillion worth of new spending will pretty much guarantee Speaker Trump in January.

    2
    1
  62. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    Lynn sez: “There are several reasons why we ditched dirigibles.  They are slow, helium is scarce and expensive, and did I mention they are slow?” 

    And fragile in anything more than light breezes. I have a poster on my wall of the USS Macon, a flying aircraft carrier. That ship and her sister ship USS Akron, both crashed in thunderstorms; the Akron in the Midwest, and the Macon just off of Monterrey, CA. 

    That sequence in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, when Indy and his father exit an airship by dropping a fighter plane out the belly of the airship?  Yeah, that really happened. Akron and Macon both carried FIVE biplane parasite fighters/observation aircraft, which could be recovered in-flight by catching a trapeze bar with a hook on the upper wing. 

  63. lynn says:

    I got my new electricity supplier from https://www.energyogre.com/ .  I am jumping from 10.0 cents/kwh to 12.3 cents/kwh with a 12 month contract at the house.  

  64. Greg Norton says:

    I got my new electricity supplier from https://www.energyogre.com/ .  I am jumping from 10.0 cents/kwh to 12.3 cents/kwh with a 12 month contract at the house.  

    I’m paying 12 cents/kwh on a standard contract-free TXU bill. They sent a gift card “rebate” at the beginning of the year which is in my stack of paper slowly getting cleared for taxes. I’ll take another look at the card when it rises to the top of the stack this week.

    The gas bill has gone bonkers, but electric is pretty consistent for the last few years. I’m sure that will change.

  65. drwilliams says:

    Can’t get enough minorities (of the right kind)  into the AP classes?

    Just cancel them:

    https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/04/11/san-diegos-largest-high-school-cut-honors-classes-for-equity-n461691

    Another step toward Vonnegut’s prescient vision of the future.

  66. nick flandrey says:

    which could be recovered in-flight by catching a trapeze bar with a hook on the upper wing. 

    I’m surprised the aviators could get in the air with  clanking brass balls that big.  Jesu.  What a crazy thing that must have been.

    n

  67. lynn says:

    which could be recovered in-flight by catching a trapeze bar with a hook on the upper wing. 

    – I’m surprised the aviators could get in the air with  clanking brass balls that big.  Jesu.  What a crazy thing that must have been.

    n

    There is a picture at 

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Macon_(ZRS-5)#/media/File:F9C-2_Sparrowhawk_fighter.jpg

    From 

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Macon_(ZRS-5)

    I figured the Macon was just 400 foot or maybe even 500 foot.  Nope, 785 foot long.  About the same size as the Hindenburg.  But helium filled.

  68. lynn says:

    Google is evil in many ways.

    Gmail is one of them:

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/04/gmail_is_hiding_emails_from_conservatives.html

    I use a gmail address for my home email.  A lot of my political email gets sent to the spam box where it is deleted after 30 days.  

    My office email is also sitting on gmail but using my main corporate domain (I have my company name trademarked and grabbed all the main domains: .com / .org / .net / .us / etc).  None of my political email gets sent to my spam folder. 

    Weird, only gmail addresses are getting their conservative email sent to spam folder.

  69. nick flandrey says:

    Got an email from one of the septic guys.   Says the soil is all “type IV” or the least permeable.   That means a traditional system is off the table.   

    I’m going up there to meet with the OTHER septic engineer on Thur.  to do basically the same evaluation.  I figured with something that important, I’d get the second opinion.

    It’s only time and money.  Right?

    n

  70. lynn says:

    “A.F. Branco Meme – Joe Biden”

        https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-meme-joe-biden/

    “What happens when the village idiot is somehow elected President and then goes senile? Joe Biden? Political meme by A.F. Branco ©2022.”

  71. lynn says:

    If you have trouble POPping your email down from Gmail into Thunderbird then try this:

       https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/automatic-conversion-google-mail-accounts-oauth20

    This was apparently implemented by Gmail on Monday at noon.

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