Loretta Lynn's Nice, Clean Dress, and Other Miscellany

Her mother told The New York Times- "She walked out of the store so normal, like nothing happened. Her response was like, 'I only hit a mailbox and it was green.'"

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/style/target-girl-mom-interview.html

October 4, 2024

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On no, Loretta Lynn left us today. 

What a life. Four kids by nineteen and a grandmother in her early thirties, imagine! On Saturday nights, families would gather at the one house in the hollow that had a radio and they'd all listen to the Grand Ole Opry. I love this obituary excerpt:

Ms. Lynn wrote and recorded “Honky Tonk Girl” in 1960, then traveled around the country with her husband, pitching the record to disc jockeys and endearing herself to listeners with her unvarnished charm.

During one interview, Dallas disc jockey Bill Mack complimented her on a dress she was wearing.

“Thank you,” Ms. Lynn said. “I just washed it.”

“Oh, really, where did you find a laundry around here?” Mack asked.

“I didn’t find no laundry, I washed it in the back of the car,” Ms. Lynn replied, referring to a basin of water in the car. Mack pressed her further on how she got the dress dried.

“I blowed it dry out the window,” Ms. Lynn said.

October 4, 2022

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I read an essay years ago (maybe by Chuck Palahniuk or David Foster Wallace) about a scientific study of teeth brushing habits of people who would see pictures of teeth in various stages of rot. People who saw perfect teeth were motivated to brush. People who saw pictures of teeth with normal problems were motivated to brush. People who saw pictures of the worst cases of rotten teeth lost all hope and motivation to brush, and leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy of their own teeth.

Our country is at what stage of rot?

Are the polls good, or are the polls bad, and does it matter? They give us a window into the future, that's for sure, even if the windows are sometimes a bit opaque.

Nate Silver's model runs tens of thousands of simulations based on the most current polling, and finds that Biden is currently winning the Electoral College in 81% of those simulations. 

From Meet the Press today- among voters over 65, in 2016 Trump was up 8 percentage points over Clinton, but now Biden is up 27 percentage points over Trump. They cite covid and civility as the reasons..

Biden is up 14 points in a new national poll taken right after the "debate." 

That poll doesn't include Trump's covid diagnosis, so how will that affect it? And more importantly how will it affect things once he's over it? 

A new poll, since the diagnosis, shows that support for his handling of the pandemic is down to 25%. Very strange, since you'd imagine that we're talking about the 25% of the hardest core Trump supporters, and it's pretty easy to imagine Trump himself these days among the other 75%.

I take no solace in the polls. Maybe exit polls will show Biden up 14% in actual votes, but the Electoral College could come down to PA where a leaked Republican strategy seems to revolve around Republican state reps appointing Republican electors, based on their best estimate of who won, against the backdrop of their massive litigation intended to create confusion. (Hint, if the will of the voters is behind Biden, somehow I think the confusion alone will equal the reps thinking Trump won.)

Absurd, right? Maybe so. I hope so! One key thing though that bugs me... Trump mentioned in a speech recently how many state legislatures Republicans control in relation to litigating the election. Why would he have that in mind? If it works- the Republican Party is dead, long live the Banana Republican Party.

The key takeaway... it doesn't matter what stage of rot we're in. We would be served best by ignoring everything that we're seeing and to just keep brushing.

October 4, 2020

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What an insane week! Only 6 days ago (not 6 years ago) we found out that Trump businesses lose hundreds of millions of dollars, and at the same time he owes hundreds of million dollars, which is due soon, to some foreign entity.

With everything else that happened, forgotten is the fact that the president's own well-respected former National Security Advisor accused him of "aiding and abetting Putin's efforts." That is a historic accusation, but was in the news for about eight and a half minutes.

Pick a president and imagine the same thing. If Taft's National Security Advisor said he was aiding and abetting a hostile country, we'd remember two things about Taft- that, and that he was fat.

If I was planning to vote for Obama in 2012, and his own recent National Security Advisor said anything close to that, my cognitive dissonance would be off the charts.

October 4, 2020

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Dan Rather- "The pace of developments, the seriousness of them and their potential consequences, shake the republic to its core. It can feel like Alice in Wonderland meets the Sopranos meets the Marx Brothers, a narrative that is at the same time worrisome and dizzying."

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Aldi's Le Gruyere cheese is great, don't get me wrong, but it somehow also tastes like dog food.

October 4, 2019

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My nose has hurt like crazy since Zuzu head-butted it last night, but on the positive side she thought it was hilarious.

October 4, 2019

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Dan Rather- "I want to be clear that when I say sides, I do not see merely partisan battle lines. We can and should have disagreements on policy. Such is the function of democracy. But we shouldn't have disagreements on decency and truth. Over the course of my life, I have seen the fever of the moment break and our national direction reset. This will happen again. I am sure of it. And who will be there energized and ready to lead us into a better future?"

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How is Pence simultaneously the absolute worst and a hundred times better than Trump?

October 4, 2016

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If Trump was a Democrat he might say Pence has a "KKK face."

October 4, 2016

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I just saw a cat up for adoption at the pet store, poor little thing. And it's worse than you think... it's name is Isis.

October 4, 2014

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If everybody's different then it's different to be the same, as everybody who's different.

October 4, 2011

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From Chinatown: Ida Sessions- "Are you alone?" Jake Gittes- "Isn't everybody?" Yes, it's true, but it will be less true tomorrow when Emma comes home.

October 4, 2011

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Made frozen custard the last 2 nights- heirloom tomato, and pear with cinnamon. Tonight will be my masterpiece- pumpkin pie (made with butternut squash.)

October 4, 2011

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Sputnik 1 became the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth on this day, flying over all those brand new '57 Chevys.

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On this day in 1986, while walking along Park Avenue to his apartment, Dan Rather was attacked and punched from behind by a man who demanded to know "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" A second assailant chased and beat him. As they pummeled and kicked Rather, they kept repeating the question. R.E.M. wrote a song about it.

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Beverly hills 90210 premiered on this day in 1990, when I was in 11th grade. I remember talking about it in algebra class, how it wasn't truly representative the high schoolers at the time, haha.

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Buster Keaton was born on this day in 1895. He said when he'd write a movie, he'd do the beginning and end and figure the middle would work itself out, haha. From an interview with Studs Terkel:

Charlie Chaplin and I would have a friendly contest: "Who could do the feature film with the least subtitles?"

A stunt for all time: https://youtu.be/mN0I7R_NCe4

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Susan Sarandon in Rocky Horror- I'll take that performance over 99% of all others. She was born on this day in 1946.

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Nineties icon, Alicia Silverstone, was born on this day in 1976. She blew me away in Clueless, a film that had no right to be so good. You know what else she was good in? The recent Valley Girl sequel. 

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Among those who left us on this day- Rembrandt in 1669, and Janis Joplin 301 years later.

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Monty Python's Graham Chapman left us on this day too, in 1989, setting up the greatest prank, and greatest eulogy, in the history of pranks and eulogies. 

The prank- https://youtu.be/Ox9bcx_LZMs

The eulogy- https://youtu.be/Bm2XPkqENaw

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Norm MacDonald blows the top off the Breaking Bad ending. Or did he pull the rug out from under it? Or was it just prattle? The revelation about the song El Paso gave me goosebumps. And yes, the ending was just a little too perfect, wasn't it?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.huffpost.com/entry/breaking-bad-walter-white-fantasy-theory_n_4037297/amp

October 4, 2013

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Fire Lieutenant Les McBurney

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MSNBC- Ben Carson asks, 'Gravity, where did it come from?'

Insane Carson Posse-

"Fucking gravity, how does it work?

And I don't wanna talk to a scientist

Y'all motherfuckers lying, and getting me pissed."

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/ben-carson-asks-gravity-where-did-it-come

October 4, 2015

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Researchers make artificial cells that replicate themselves??? That makes them the God of those cells?

October 4, 2015

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CNN- Bob Corker just told the world what he really thinks of Donald Trump

Unbelievable criticism continues to mount from prominent Republicans, presumably unswayed by so-called fake news, people with ringside seats to reality.

Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker (who has already questioned the president's "stability" and "competence"): "I think Sec. Tillerson, Sec. Mattis and Chief of Staff Kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos."

Trump = chaos? What's he waiting for, Batman to show up? Get rid of the guy!

http://cnn.it/2fTIMX3

October 4, 2017

Postscript: Seemed like a wave, but then all of those ridiculous Republican senators just dropped out one by one. You might say that they flaked.

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This perfect Monty Python cartoon will make me laugh until the end of my days.

https://youtu.be/qL6pyjR8PtE

October 4, 2018

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The Independent- Trump mocked for signing apparently blank paper in ‘staged’ photos at Walter Reed

Ahhh, a refreshing MINOR scandal. Of course it was staged... but I didn't think it would be so easily proven! Lesson, don't lie... and then you don't need to make sure you cover your tracks, or remember what you lied about.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/trump-coronavirus-photo-op-staged-walter-reed-b778464.html

October 4, 2020

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Ogden Nash- "Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else."

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H.L. Mencken- "I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don't want to meet them."

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D.H. Lawrence- "They never live. They are like the sheep in the fields, that have their noses to the ground, and anticipate only the thrill of increase."

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Joan Didion- “We tell ourselves stories in order to live...We look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.”

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Richard Feynman- “If you ever hear yourself saying, ‘I think I understand this,’ that means you don’t.'"

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Virgil- "They can because they think they can."

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Woody Guthrie:

I love a good man outside the law, 

just as much as I hate a bad man 

inside the law.

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Stephen King, Carrie- "People don't get better, they just get smarter. When you get smarter you don't stop pulling the wings off flies, you just think of better reasons for doing it."

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Michel de Montaigne- "It is a disaster that wisdom forbids you to be satisfied with yourself and always sends you away dissatisfied and fearful, whereas stubbornness and foolhardiness fill their hosts with joy and assurance."

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Miguel de Unamuno- "That which the fascists hate, above all else, is intelligence."

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Freud- "One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful.”

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Graham Greene- "People who like quotes love meaningless generalizations."

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Gore Vidal- "The most interesting thing about writing is the way that it obliterates time. Three hours seem like three minutes. Then there is the business of surprise. I never know what is coming next. The phrase that sounds in the head changes when it appears on the page. Then I start probing it with a pen, finding new meanings. Sometimes I burst out laughing at what is happening as I twist and turn sentences. Strange business, all in all. One never gets to the end of it. That’s why I go on, I suppose. To see what the next sentences I write will be."

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Confucius- "Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation, there is sure to be failure."

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Groucho Marx- "Women should be obscene and not heard."

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The most adorable, and apparently terrifying, Halloween costume.