The Adult Delinquents (or Mmm, Barbecue!)
On the anniversary of Norm MacDonald leaving us, the Washington Post published Conan O'Brien's tribute from a private memorial earlier this year. It's a gem. Here are my two favorite segments.
"I’m here because I want, finally, to understand Norm. Norm was the most completely original person I have ever met. He didn’t look like anyone else, talk like anyone else, or follow many of the basic principles of comedy. He lived in his own, strange world populated by hobos, French Canadians, cardsharps, trappers, a pig with a wooden leg, farmers, hooligans, and, for reasons no one will ever understand, Frank Stallone. His patter was an insane mix of folksy, rural phrases — a wandering, genteel yarn-spinner from the backwoods, and all of this masked the fact that he was completely fearless and shockingly blunt. He was Mark Twain, if Mark Twain was obsessed with prison rape and crack whores."
"There would be no sentimentality from Norm, and he wouldn’t want it today. Selfishly, I don’t feel badly for Norm, I feel badly for all of us. They have discontinued my favorite brand of soda and I am eternally pissed. In a world where there is more comedy than at any other time in our civilization, the good is rare and the exceptional is divine. Norm Macdonald, at his best, was a divinely hilarious, brave and absurd anomaly — a backwoods Canadian hick with the phrasing of a poet, a mad bomber and destroyer of worlds who was, simultaneously, a principled and loyal friend. So let’s remember him today, retell his jokes as best we can, and then do it again tomorrow and the next day. We will spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out that demented lump of coal, and I cannot think of a better use of our time."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/09/14/norm-macdonald-conan-obrien/
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Somehow two years since we lost Norm. Or so the Germans would have us believe.
My current favorite joke, paraphrased because I can't find the the source:
"People talk about going back to Germany and killing Hitler. Knowing me, if I went back there I'd probably fall under the spell of his eyes and rhetoric and join the party."
September 14, 2023
Found it:
https://youtu.be/Z7ep7dW0C9A?si=Su1M1Rlzve-wfbRY
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Two of my favorite comedians Andrew Santino and Nikki Glaser, and a perfect story of Andrew pranking Taylor Swift back in 2010.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/KN6p75wRTppGoBLG/
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Trump is good on immigration? Absolute nonsense!
Haitian immigrants were welcomed to the town of Springfield, Ohio and now they are vilified, a fact that rests squarely on Trump's shoulders. Schools in the area are receiving bomb threats since he claimed at the debate, in front of 67 million people, that they are capturing and eating people's pet cats and dogs.
These are legal immigrants who now have to live in fear. Trump is good on immigration?
A Haitian immigrant and Springfield resident, Jims Denis, told USA Today, “I take my kids to the park usually. I cannot do that anymore. You know, I have to just stay home and just don’t go out. We used to just go for a walk in the neighborhood, but we cannot do that anymore.”
Where did this come from? Back in August, JD Vance started talking about "illegals" over-running Springfield in an effort to tie them to inflation. Subsequently several pro-Nazi groups demonstrated there, opposed to their existence in town.
Later in August, someone posted in a private Facebook group that they heard that Haitian immigrants had butchered a neighborhood cat for food. City officials and police denied it, but that didn't stop Trump. He knows a good story when he hears one.
Trump: "In Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there."
Moderators thankfully fact checked him in the moment, but he kept battling them, telling them that he saw it on television.
Many right-wing pundits said that was an overreach, but contrast the moderators fact check with how JD Vance himself now justifies his role in manufacturing the false story: “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do."
You be the judge as to whether he created more suffering with his made-up story.
I will give Trump credit where credit is due though. These Haitian immigrants are indeed more dangerous than another group- the rest of us. We are all more dangerous than undocumented immigrants. Undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens, and documented immigrants.
Let me say that again.
Undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than citizens, and documented immigrants. This is a fact, and once you accept it as a fact, you realize that you would be safer living next to a family of undocumented immigrants than anybody else.
Look it up if you like, but if you don't feel like it (and why would you?), then ask yourself if it passes the smell test. If you were an undocumented immigrant, wouldn't you want to do everything you could to stay off the radar?
So what's the reason for Trump's vilification? Do you think these immigrants' skin color might have something to do with it?
Let's revisit Kamala's rebuttal later in the debate, after the moderators asked Trump about his questioning of her blackness. (They were asking Trump about his own words which had gained a lot of traction, so it's a fair question, and an opportunity for him to set the record straight, if it needed straightened.)
These are important words that we need to hear.
Kamala Harris: "I think it's – I mean honestly, I think it's a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people. You know, I do believe that the vast majority of us know that we have so much more in common than what separates us. And we don't want this kind of approach that is just constantly trying to divide us, and especially by race. And let's remember how Donald Trump started. He was a land, he owned land, he owned buildings, and he was investigated because he refused to rent property to Black families. Let's remember, this is the same individual who took out a full-page ad in The New York Times calling for the execution of five young Black and Latino boys who were innocent, the Central Park Five. Took out a full-page ad calling for their execution. This is the same individual who spread birther lies about the first Black President of the United States. And I think the American people want better than that. Want better than this. Want someone who understands as I do, I travel our country, we see in each other a friend. We see in each other a neighbor. We don't want a leader who is constantly trying to have Americans point their fingers at each other. I meet with people all the time who tell me "Can we please just have discourse about how we're going to invest in the aspirations and the ambitions and the dreams of the American people?" Knowing that regardless of people's color or the language their grandmother speaks we all have the same dreams and aspirations and want a president who invests in those, not in hate and division."
Tell me again who's better on immigration, and who is driven by fear of "the other." Let's forget for a moment that Trump killed the bipartisan bill that would have already instituted widespread positive changes that everybody wanted, and tell me that these Haitian immigrants who escaped unimaginable horror in their own country, only to find a ray of hope in Ohio, deserve this type of Trump-style immigration aggression.
If you think they deserve our help, our respect, and our kindness, then there's only one person you trust on immigration. Its not the guy driven by anger, fear, aggression, hatred, ego, and lies.
September 14, 2024
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The Royal Family... people complain about them costing the tax payers too much, but it's like $2 per person, and apparently they really like them. How about this for a compromise? Half the country can pay $4, and the other half gets them for free.
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I remember feeling panicked when it didn't seem like he was taking this seriously, and as it turns out, he wasn't. He sure won a lot of news cycles though, so good for him I guess.
September, 14, 2021
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Shouldn't have gone to the grocery store on an empty stomach- came home with three half gallons of ice cream, ginger snaps, oatmeal cream pies, Boo-Berry, and candy corn! It took all my will power to resist those colorful Tic-Tacs on the way out. I might drive back and get them.
September 14, 2014
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Concerning miracles, it would be truly miraculous if seemingly miraculous things never happened.
September 14, 2013
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Your Zen koan for the night- what's the sound of half a fart?
September 14, 2013
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I just thought of a name of a movie for someone to make- The Adult Delinquents.
September 14, 2013
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The most repulsive thing I can remember happening in my entire life happened today. I want to tell you what it was, but it's so unbelievably horrid it might give you nightmares. A few of you might even cry. Send me a message if you want to know what it was. (By the way, you don't.)
September 14, 2010
Postscript: I took a quick break at work, going outside to get some fresh air and my mouth started watering. It smelled like somebody was cooking barbecue chicken nearby. Then I saw the plume of smoke rising from the crematory down the road.
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Hahaha, someone posted on a Stanley Kubrick site that Sidney Pollock was not only a great director, he was also a great actor. I commented that I heard he died raking the leaves out of a tree. The guy gave me a 😢. Haha.
I'm a smart ass. Sydney Pollack was a great director and actor, but Sidneyy Pollock sounds like the kind of guy who would die trying to rake leaves out of a tree.
September 14, 2023
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Seneca warriors defeat British forces at the Battle of Devil's Hole on this day in 1763, during Pontiac's War.
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William McKinley died on this day in 1901 after being mortally wounded by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. Theodore Roosevelt became president.
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Teddy Roosevelt- "To be neutral between right and wrong is to serve wrong."
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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded on this day in 1960. And everything has been great ever since.
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Koyaanisqatsi was released on this day in 1983. It translates as, "life out of balance."
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Nobody noteworthy in my book was born today!
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Dante left us on this day in 1321. Gustav Dore's illustrations of The Divine Comedy are themselves otherworldly.
https://www.themarginalian.org/2015/10/02/gustave-dore-dante-inferno/
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Grace Kelly left us on this day and 1982, the victim of a car accident.
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Patrick Swayze left us on this day in 2009. I saw Dirty Dancing in the theater on the 20th anniversary. Never saw anything like it in all of my movie-going days. When he took his shirt off some of the women were cat-calling, and the ones who weren't, wanted to be.
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Other notable deathdays- Aaron Burr (1836), James Fenimore Cooper (1851), Robert Wise (2005)
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Psychology Today's 7 Stages of Gaslighting
Seems important to remember daily the 7 stages of gaslighting. These days, it's a public service.
1. Lie and Exaggerate.
2. Repetition
3. Escalate When Challenged.
4. Wear Out the Victim
5. Form Codependent Relationships.
6. Give False Hope
7. Dominate and Control.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/communication-success/201704/7-stages-gaslighting-in-relationship
September 14, 2017
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The Hill- Woodward audio: Trump focused on stock market as coronavirus surged in August
Do you get the feeling that Trump doesn't know that Bob Woodward help bring down Nixon? Do you get the feeling that Trump doesn't know that Trump was already critical of Woodward since Woodward already wrote a book critical of Trump?
Glad this genius recognizes that coronavirus and the economy are related, "a little bit." Trump as an original source, you can't get better than that as we piece together all this garbage.
http://hill.cm/ft1zwnE
September 14, 2020
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Know what song got stuck in my head today after seeing this picture, "It's Only a People Moon."
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Devastating news, somehow Norm MacDonald died. I'm not even sure that's possible. Hitler's Dog has my vote for the best stand up special of all-time. Of all his jokes, the one that always pops into my mind first is Frog Walks Into a Bank. That joke makes about as much sense as the fact that he's not around anymore.
https://youtu.be/BEzCFbevgoo
September 14, 2021
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Just in case you need to be told what Norm MacDonald would have to say about Norm MacDonald "losing his brave battle with cancer."
“The reason I don’t like it is that in the old days they’d go: ‘Hey, that old man died." Now they say: ‘He lost his battle’. That’s no way to end your life! What a loser that guy was, the last thing he did was lose! He was waging a brave battle, but then at the end I guess he got kind of cowardly. The bowel cancer, it got brave. You’ve got to give it to the bowel cancer!”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/features/norm-macdonald-death-tribute-b1920295.html
September 14, 2021
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Oh my goodness, a perfect joke. I'm going down the rabbit hole. If you listen to one ventriloquism-themed Holocaust joke today, make it this one.
https://youtu.be/EeaH_0NRDZw
September 14, 2021
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That take on Bill Cosby from Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee is perfect.
https://www.avclub.com/norm-macdonald-was-the-best-worst-talk-show-guest-of-al-1847676170
September 14, 2021
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Ralph Waldo Emerson- “Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.”
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Albert Camus- “Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.”
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David Foster Wallace- “Good writing isn’t a science. It’s an art, and the horizon is infinite. You can always get better.”
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Ricky Gervais- "Please stop saying "You can't joke about anything anymore". You can. You can joke about whatever the fuck you like. And some people won't like it and they will tell you they don't like it. And then it's up to you whether you give a fuck or not. And so on. It's a good system."
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More Norm genius on the subject of agreeing to disagree.
https://youtu.be/IH4RkyY3_wE
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Dalai Lama- "If science proves some belief of Buddhism wrong, then Buddhism will have to change."
You don't hear religious leaders say something like that too often!
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William James- "If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system."
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Werner Herzog- "The universe is monstrously indifferent to the presence of man."
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