Ephemeris of Miscellany

Fresh round of dotorcycling. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid09HrjGgePtywnbAvq4dRQ5RZ4RDgrkWtDV7JpZhQXg4sHVfKyxneGL9Ui22THp4PKl&id=741063511&mibextid=NnVzG8 March 11, 2023 ... Oscar reflections, 2024: -When Jimmy Kimmel read that "online criticism" near the end of the show, and it soon became apparent that it was supposed to be Trump, I thought it was a stupid idea. "George Slopanopouos"? That's just poor writing. The real Trump wouldn't write anything THAT dumb. Then I realized that... no, it couldn't be... yet somehow it was. It was Trump who was doing his worst Idiot Trump impression, but it wasn't even an impression. It was somehow... just himself.  Actually Trump- "Has there EVER been a WORSE HOST than Jimmy Kimmel at The Oscars. His opening was that of a less than average person trying too hard to be something which he is not, and never can be. Get rid of Kimmel and perhaps replace him with another washed up, but c...

Here's a Dr. Pepper advertisement from 1913, calling it "liquid sunshine." Dr. Pepper supposedly combines the flavors of amaretto, almond, blackberry, black licorice, carrot, clove, cherry, caramel, Cola, ginger, juniper, lemon, molasses, nutmeg, orange, prune, plum, pepper, root beer, rum, raspberry, tomato, and vanilla. I realized that I've always wondered, so I finally decided to look it up. ... I had to teach Zuzu about idiotic rules today. I dropped her off at school because it's open early if kids want to eat breakfast. The lady was not going to let her into the school because Zuzu said she was not going to eat, but she was just going to go in. I told her to go in and get something even if she wasn't going to eat it. An important lesson, you can't learn it early enough, sometimes you have to tell little lies to get around the unjust rules. The people who sheltered Anne Frank know what I'm talking about. March 10, 2023 ... Sofia Coppola's Pris...

Zuu just told me that nothing comes after infinity, and zero is nothing, so infinity is both the highest number and right next to zero. Faulty math, but sound logic! She tied my brain in a knot until I figured out what she was saying. March 9, 2022 ... Some people like the extra hour of light in the evening when we switch Daylight Savings Time in the spring. I like the extra hour of darkness in the morning. I'm going to start calling it Darkness Spending Time. March 9, 2024 ... Well my kids are finally terrified of ghosts. I wonder if this has anything to do with my hundreds of paranormal books or my favorite pastime of visiting graveyards with them. I wonder if I should tell them I was also terrified of ghosts, but only until I was about 30. Maybe 35. March 9, 2021 ... Based on my age alone, if I catch Covid I have a 1 in 90 chance to die*. So unless there's evidence that this vaccine I'm getting tomorrow will give me a 1 in 89 chance to die, or worse, I see no reason to b...

One picture says it all. ... It's not a good sign that Russia is closing its McDonald's. Have you ever heard of the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention? It a half tongue-in-cheek principle saying that countries with McDonald's never go to war. It's not universally true, but it's mostly true.  Thomas Friedman put it forth in the mid-90's, saying McDonald's countries are made up of people who like to wait in line for burgers, not fight wars. He added, "countries with middle classes large enough to sustain a McDonald’s have reached a level of prosperity and global integration that makes warmongering risky and unpalatable to its people.”  I don't believe I've eaten at a McDonald's in 25 years, so I guess the rest of you are going to have to pick up my slack maintaining our relative peace. March 8, 2022 ... Putin defenders are all over. If we believe in the conclusion of the Nuremberg Trials, the supreme war crime is aggression. There...

Sir Peter Scott believed in the Loch Ness monster so much that he went so far as to give it a scientific name in 1975- nessiteras rhombopteryx, meaning "Ness monster with diamond-shaped fins." London newspapers pointed out that the scientific name was also an anagram of "Monster Hoax by Sir Peter S." March 7, 2021 ... I was just playing racquetball and tripped midcourt while the point was still in play. I was on my back and my opponent's return went way up in the air toward the back of the court, so all I could do was scramble like that on all fours to try to get it on time. I missed it, but do you know what this means? I'm 51 years old and for the first time in my life I just experienced a practical application of crab-walking. March 7, 2025 . We lost Stanley Kubrick on this day in 1999. I was with my parents, driving through the middle of nowhere in Arizona, and heard the news on the radio. "I’ve never been certain whether the moral of the Icarus stor...

Still Life With Skull- Louis Jules Duboscq-Soleil, c. 1850. ... That State of the Union. Dare I say it was uplifting? Is it true that Biden can really do this again? Someone commented on Mike Johnson's page after he criticized Biden's State of the Union- "Dude, you just winced at affordable child care. Seriously." And Katie Britt's rebuttal, probably the worst one I've ever seen. A mixture of menace and artificial condescending friendliness. A total political lightweight, the worst acting I think I've ever seen. In other words, she's going places. March 6, 2024 ... Jakob Fugger was born on this day in 1459. He was a German merchant, a banker, and a guy with a funny name.  It's estimated that he was worth the equivalent of $400 billion in today's money! That was approximately 2% of the GDP of all of Europe at that time. Imagine what that type of money can do.  Today we're squabbling over $60 billion for Ukraine to squash the Russian army, be...