Diary (May 15, 2020)

Online diary of Karl Jones for Friday May 15, 2020.

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Diary

Scale

Local versus Centralized ... this is the dynamic at every level ... State v. Fed ... City v. State ... Neighborhood v. City ... Block v. Neighborhood ... Home v. Block ...

And so on, down to the individual person in relation to their environment, and then down to the component atoms, and so on.

Thinking in the other direction: Earth v. Solar System ... but that may be taking things too too far, and I'm a once-too-far man.

• Comment @ Facebook

Making common cause with Republicans

We progressive liberals desperately need to make common cause with Republicans Appalled By Trump.

Crack the evil spell holding the Republicans in thrall, and the Good Ship Trump will promptly sink.

• Comment @ Facebook

Urban Prepper's Lonely Carts Cub Land

Urban Prepper's Lonely Carts Cub Land.

I look for two lonely stranded carts at the far edges of the parking lot, and bring them together, so they can mate.

Urban Prepper's Lonely Carts Cub Land.

• [ Comment] @ Facebook

Song of the Day for Howard Kranz

Eleventh in a series of songs for Howard and me to cover, or be inspired by, or something.

Free Man in Paris

"Free Man in Paris" by Joni Mitchell

The way I see it, he said
You just can't win it
Everybody's in it for their own gain
You can't please 'em all
There's always somebody calling you down

I do my best
And I do good business
There's a lot of people asking for my time
They're trying to get ahead
They're trying to be a good friend of mine

I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
There was nobody calling me up for favors
And no one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star-maker machinery
Behind the popular song

I deal in dreamers
And telephone screamers
Lately I wonder what I do it for
If l had my way
I'd just walk out those doors
And wander
Down the Champs Elysees
Going cafe to cabaret
Thinking how I'll feel when I find
That very good friend of mine

I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
Nobody was calling me up for favors
No one's future to decide

You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star maker machinery
Behind the popular song

• Free Man in Paris (live) @ YouTube
• Free Man in Paris @ Wikipedia

Play that fiddle like a meat hook

"I tell you, he plays that fiddle like a meat hook."

Overheard in my imagination while listening to classical music on Minnesota Public Radio. Nothing sounded like meat hooks, but something the announcer prompted me to imagine a punk violinist making crazy jabbing sounds, Paganini and then some, a real ouch-maker in the ears ... "he plays that violin like a meat hook, son."

• Meat hook @ Wikipedia
• Niccolò Paganini

Someone Saved the Net Tonight

Someone Saved the Net Tonight

Putin Bear

You almost had your Bots in me

• [ Comment] @ Boing Boing

Trusting Biden

I started soaking a half-pound of dry Baby Limas not an hour ago.

Baby Limas: the veal of Lima beans.

De gustibus non disputandum est, baby.

See Pariah bean.

Trusting Biden

As to Biden: can he be trusted?

This is a world where people who know too much about Trump are taken to state-of-the-art suicide-prevention detention centers where they are apparently staged as suicides under pretense of multiple video camera failure.

Is it excessively suspicious to assume that Biden – and everyone else – is vulnerable to the Wolves?

• Comment @ Boing Boing

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Karl Jones (nonfiction)