Diary (June 10, 2020): Difference between revisions

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* [https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/psychology-of-a-killer/173403/22 Comment] @ Boing Boing
* [https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/psychology-of-a-killer/173403/22 Comment] @ Boing Boing
=== The Punisher is a criminal ===
[[File:Punisher skull - web search results - June 9, 2020.jpg|thumb|Web search results for "Punisher skull" (June 9, 2020).]]Police in the US Have Embraced the Punisher Skull as an Unofficial Logo. Now the Character’s Creator Is Asking Artists of Color to Reclaim It
Gerry Conway doesn't want the Punisher skull to become a symbol of law enforcement.
* https://news.artnet.com/art-world/punisher-black-lives-matter-1883013
=== Junior Johnson ===
Boing Boing: "NASCAR is an activity in which humans sit in wheeled, self-propelled boxes and hold contests to see who can roll the fastest."
Racing is not my thing to defend, but I am a huge fan of Tom Wolfe’s work, and I have to say that his “The Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson. Yes! 3” (1965) is “must” reading (I re-read at least once a year, in the The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby collection, which is excellent in its entirety and among my most beloved books).
* [https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/nascar-banned-the-confederate-flag-prompting-calls-for-a-boycott/173432/17 Comment] @ Boing Boing
=== Cooking moonshine in automobile radiators ===
Tom Wolfe: "Moonshining was illegal, however, that was also the unvarnished truth."
User brainspore wrote: "Well of course it was “unvarnished,” that stuff is basically paint thinner."
Automobile radiators are cheap and available (talking prohibition and depression era, here) and readily adapted for use as ethanol distillation boilers, and it’s my understanding that this is a true "hillbilly liquor makes you go blind" trope.
If you are a diligent engineer, you wash the radiator really well before cooking. But I have to wonder how possible it is to clean a radiator under low-budget field conditions. And I assume some cooks don’t clean their boilers because they don’t know or don’t care.
UPDATE (and tip of the hat):
User Purplecat observes: "Washing them out would get rid of the traces of anti-freeze, but the main problem with using radiators in a moonshine still was the lead solder which would gradually leach into the product. Also, the product would inevitably be a bit sulphurous, if you’re using less copper in the set-up."
* [https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/nascar-banned-the-confederate-flag-prompting-calls-for-a-boycott/173432/19 Comment] @ Boing Boing


== In the News ==
== In the News ==
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[[Category:Karl Jones (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:Karl Jones (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:Diaries of Karl Jones (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:Diaries of Karl Jones (nonfiction)]]
[[Category:Tom Wolfe (nonfiction)]]

Latest revision as of 15:36, 22 August 2021

Online diary of Karl Jones for Wednesday June 10, 2020.

Previous: Diary (June 9, 2020) - Next: Diary (June 11, 2020)

Diary

The ambiguity of oracles

The Oracle always replies Yes ⁠— and No!

The Punisher is a criminal

Web search results for "Punisher skull" (June 9, 2020).

Police in the US Have Embraced the Punisher Skull as an Unofficial Logo. Now the Character’s Creator Is Asking Artists of Color to Reclaim It

Gerry Conway doesn't want the Punisher skull to become a symbol of law enforcement.

Junior Johnson

Boing Boing: "NASCAR is an activity in which humans sit in wheeled, self-propelled boxes and hold contests to see who can roll the fastest."

Racing is not my thing to defend, but I am a huge fan of Tom Wolfe’s work, and I have to say that his “The Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson. Yes! 3” (1965) is “must” reading (I re-read at least once a year, in the The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby collection, which is excellent in its entirety and among my most beloved books).

Cooking moonshine in automobile radiators

Tom Wolfe: "Moonshining was illegal, however, that was also the unvarnished truth."

User brainspore wrote: "Well of course it was “unvarnished,” that stuff is basically paint thinner."

Automobile radiators are cheap and available (talking prohibition and depression era, here) and readily adapted for use as ethanol distillation boilers, and it’s my understanding that this is a true "hillbilly liquor makes you go blind" trope.

If you are a diligent engineer, you wash the radiator really well before cooking. But I have to wonder how possible it is to clean a radiator under low-budget field conditions. And I assume some cooks don’t clean their boilers because they don’t know or don’t care.

UPDATE (and tip of the hat):

User Purplecat observes: "Washing them out would get rid of the traces of anti-freeze, but the main problem with using radiators in a moonshine still was the lead solder which would gradually leach into the product. Also, the product would inevitably be a bit sulphurous, if you’re using less copper in the set-up."

In the News

Fiction cross-reference

Nonfiction cross-reference

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