Thanks for checking in, so to speak (…er, write). I am taking moiself on holiday. From this Friday and through June, I will be posting blogs from the same time period of eight years ago (late May-June, 2014). New posts will return in early-mid July.
Until then, I hope y’all enjoy these reruns (or at least gain a modicum of petty amusement from making fun of them, and/or noting how NOT perspicacious my 2014 blatherings observations turned out to be). Perhaps they may spark some sense of déjà vu in you, or cause you to contemplate what you were doing and thinking in those pre-pandemic, pre-idiocy epidemic times (i.e., before the debacle that was #45).
Moiself apologizes for the fact that visuals (pictures; video clips) in the original posts may or may not be included.
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Remember to call your billiards shots
White cat in the side pocket.
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The Offfspring of Duh Meets the Progeny of You Can’t Make Up This Stuff
Dateline: May 21, a New York Times article, Bryan College is Torn; Can Darwin and Eden Co-exist?, about an Christian college which is being sued by two long-time faculty members as part of a controversy over the college’s stance on the origin of humans.
In a nutshell – an appropriate container, as you’ll see – the lawsuit revolves around the college’s “statement of belief,” which professors have to sign in order to be employed at Bryan College. The original statement of belief, quite retro re the school’s views on creation and evolution,[1] is apparently not backward and Neanderthal strong enough for the college’s administration and governing board. Fearing “a marked erosion of Christian values and beliefs across the country,” college officials recently added new language to the SOB [2] – language they refer to as a “clarification” – that would have faculty members professing that Adam and Eve “are historical persons created by God in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life-forms.”
Some Bryan College students as well as professors are objecting to the SOB’s addition, claiming that it “…amounts to an assault on personal religious views” and that “it makes (Bryan College) a more narrow place.”
Gee, ya think?
Bryan College president Stephen D. Livesay defends the SOB’s clarification:
“…this is something that’s important to us. It’s in our DNA. It’s who we are.”
Oh. My. Mr. Livesay. Whatever possessed you to use that term?
There’s no such thing as DNA. Because if there was, you’d be able to trace human ancestry back to previously existing life forms….ooooh….never mind.
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Speaking of (or implying) dinos, Wednesday’s Google Doodle tagged Mary Anning, a British palaeontologist.
And I’m using the British spelling intentionally and respectfully, not just to be colourful , so take a hike, spellchecker.
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Animal Enrichment
We have a pair of Juncos nesting in the bird house we so inconveniently located (well, for the birds) above the jungle-gym/climbing tree of our outdoor cat, a Bengal named B.B. We put the birdhouse up for more decorative than functional reasons, as an object d’yard art, thinking that no sane bird would choose to homestead in such close proximity to a feline. But, alas, a pair of Juncos seems to be feeding chicks housed within. Fledging time should prove to be interesting.
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Department of Random
Last week, watching the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, I got to thinking [3] about the ironies (or should I say insincerities?) behind one of the Country-Western genre’s staple themes, when guest Dolly Parton performed a song called Home.
There are a plethora of CW songs that pay tender tribute to and ostensibly yearn for the good ole folks and good ole, simpler times back home (“we wuz dirt poor but we wuz luuuved”) — songs written and performed by multimillionaires who did everything in their power to escape that life, that locale, and those people. If life back then ‘n there was so good, why did you want out? Why were you so ambitious, in some cases even desperate, to leave it all behind and go for something more?
Just wondering. Excuse me, wonderin’.
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I Request a Moment of Respectful Silence
Please join me in honoring the passing of a national treasure, TOWIAWNCHH. [4] Yes, The Only Women in America Who’s Never Colored Her Hair has thrown in the towel.
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Department of Mixed Experiences
“We are never, ever coming back.”
Last week MH traveled to Pasadena to attended Nerdfest 2014 his Caltech Class of 1984 reunion. He hemmed and hawed over attending, as he holds no special fondness for his alma mater and was not interested in the reunion activities. He decided at the last minute to go because he wanted to see a group of friends who’d planned on attending. One of these friends from Caltech days, who has continued to be a real life buddy [5], had this to say on his FB page about the reunion:
“As usual much bigger participation by younger and older classes. Energetic young woman working for the (Caltech) Alum Assoc introduced herself and explained her job was partly to improve relations with 1980’s classes. I asked what her theory was and she said their best guess was alums from that era had “mixed experiences” and many “did not enjoy returning to campus”.
I think all Caltech classes should hold their reunions on grounds of the previously-mentioned Bryan College. Caltech alums could schlep in some previously existing life forms, planting them strategically around the campus grounds….
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My Wicked Fantasies ©
Chapter One in a (hopefully, very short) series
I will consume a cabbage, beans, Brussels sprouts, garlic and broccoli smoothie three hours before my next scheduled airplane flight. When going through the security checkpoint, I will refuse to enter the TSA scanner machine and ask for the security pat down instead.
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May all of your security pat-downs reveal no previously existing life forms, and may the hijinks ensue.
Thanks for stopping by. Au Vendredi!
[1] It includes statements such as, “The origin of man was by fiat of God.”
[2] Praise Jaysuuuus for the opportunity to use that acronym.
[3] Fortunately, this train of thought lasted for, at most, five minutes.
[4] Her slave name is Robyn Parnell.
[5] And who is a favorite dude of mine as well. Even if he is a dwarf scientist. Which I’d more fully explain, but then this footnote would need a footnote, and that’s just not right.
