I Got the Lowdown Dirty Vaccine Blues

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.

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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

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Sofia Coppola's Priscilla... couple minutes in, I thought I was going to hate it (another surface level film about bored, rich teenagers), but it turned around quick. There is something about Sophia Coppola films, with people walking down hallways, and the perfect song playing. It lights the top of my head on fire. I either love her films or hate them, it's bizarre. Why would that be? Same with Wes Anderson. 

March 10, 2024

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Ninety million Covid vaccine shots have been given in this country, but people are still worried that some are dying within days of receiving them. That's a concern (overlooking the greater concern of how many people have been saved by them), but have they considered the Law of Large Numbers, or the Fallacy of Large Numbers?

When dealing with 90 million instances of anything, some crazy things are going to happen afterwards. It would be a miracle if they didn't. Maybe there are 10 local lottery winners across the country who hit the jackpot in the week after getting the Covid vaccine. Correlation doesn't imply causation.

You would expect that many people would die within a couple days, even mysteriously... maybe even hundreds. You can expect unlikely things to happen out of 90 million instances... in fact you can expect 90 things to happen, each of which had a one in a million chance of happening.

It might make more sense to ask why so few people are dying not long after vaccine shot, or why ten found their long-lost siblings on the same day. Large numbers... weird things happen when you look closely at large numbers.

March 10, 2021

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Merrick Garland was just confirmed as Attorney General 70-30, so presumably he deserved to be confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice by about the same margin.

March 10, 2021

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Just got my first shot of the Covid vaccine, very fortunate to be eligible. I'll let you know if I drop over dead. 

And I'll never know if I would have caught Covid, and gave it to someone who gave it to someone who gave it to someone who would have died, but that's what been happening hundreds if not thousands of times every day. Those hesitant of the vaccine don't seem to factor that in...

March 10, 2021

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Oh, of course! I just realized why Zuzu came home from preschool the other day bowing to all of us.

March 10, 2020

Postscript- Coronavirus!

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There was a little kid at the Indian grocery store walking around with four open Dum-Dums in his fist, randomly taking licks off each of them. This captured my kids attention! They only spoke about it in hushed tones, with a reverence that most people would reserve for standing in the presence of holy objects, or discussing the terminal sickness of a loved one.

March 10, 2019

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I want to make sure I have this right:

-Trump wants Clinton punished harsher because of the way she handled classified information on a private server.

- Trump pardoned a sailor who used the defense that, "sure, he divulged classified information, but Clinton wasn't punished harshly."

-Trump's staff uses private servers, and half of them don't even have security clearances.

So, X is bad, but he does it, and he forgives it in others, but he wants former opponents punished for it.

March 10, 2018

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Gretel, on Jabba the Hutt: "He makes bad choices but he doesn't know it. And why does he have snot but not wipe with a tissue?"

Like her father before her, learning right and wrong from Star Wars, she is.

March 10, 2018

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Wow- 235k jobs added in February. Nice job Trump. Of course 236k and 237k were added the past two Februarys... but you were probably responsible for them too. If not, better luck next year.

March 10, 2017

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I used to be strangely comforted by the fact that although we will die, and the universe is indifferent, at least all of our molecules, atoms, quarks and whatever would be reunited when the universe collapses back in on itself...but now I hear that the universe will just expand forever. I suppose we'll just have to enjoy each other's company while we're here.

March 10, 2017

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The president said that America used to fight wars to win, and now they don't, a sentiment echoed on the campaign trail. I have a feeling he wants to obliterate some country. I have hope, probably unfounded, that his military leaders will not obey his commands to commit blatant war crimes.

March 10, 2017

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Eric Holtry- "You ever hear the one about the guy who just piddled around on the internet in the tiny chasm between the two unimaginable voids of nonexistence?"

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So few people have common sense these days- it should be called rare sense.

March 10, 2012

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Does the Golden Rule apply to masochists? (Should they do unto others as they would have done unto them?)

March 10, 2012

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Oppressors express they're oppressed expressly by those they expressly oppress.

March 10, 2012

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We lose 10% of our brain cells by the time we're 65. Bummed me out until I realized I have 28 years to learn 10% more stuff. No problem.

March 10, 2011

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The first successful test of a telephone was made on this day in 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell.

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The U.S. firebombed Tokyo on this day in 1945, killing more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians. LeMay knew that if we lost the war, he would have been tried and convicted as a war criminal.

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Asstronomers discovered the rings of Uranus on this day in 1977. 

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Photographer Toni Frissel joined us on this day in 1907.

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Martin Luther King's assassin, James Earl Ray, was born on this day in 1928, and pled guilty the assassination on this day in 1969.

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Jon Hamm turns 54 today. Compare that with Emmanuel Lewis turning 54 yesterday.

March 10, 2025

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Other notable birthdays - Chuck Norris (1940), Osama bin Laden (1957), Sharon Stone (1958)

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Harriet Tubman and Corey Haim left us on this day in 1913 and 2010 respectively. If they were a celebrity couple I would call them Haimiet Tubcore.

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Zombie ants fall victim to mind control fungus.

https://youtu.be/vijGdWn5-h8

So what biological processes are humans subservient to without our knowledge?

March 10, 2011

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Scientific American- Why People "Fly from Facts"

Great article!

"We presented 174 American participants who supported or opposed same-sex marriage with (supposed) scientific facts that supported or disputed their position. When the facts opposed their views, our participants—on both sides of the issue—were more likely to state that same-sex marriage isn’t actually about facts, it’s more a question of moral opinion. But, when the facts were on their side, they more often stated that their opinions were fact-based and much less about morals. In other words, we observed something beyond the denial of particular facts: We observed a denial of the relevance of facts."

"With the disease of bias, then, societal immunity is better achieved when we encourage people to accept ambiguity, engage in critical thinking, and reject strict ideology."

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-people-fly-from-facts/

March 10, 2015

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Newsweek- U.S. Has Spent Six Trillion Dollars on Wars That Killed Half a Million People Since 9/11, Report Says

Holy crap... $12 million for each person killed. Could have that money been used more productively?

https://www.newsweek.com/us-spent-six-trillion-wars-killed-half-million-1215588

March 10, 2019

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Sam Harris, Making Sense- HOW SHOULD WE RESPOND TO CORONAVIRUS?

A Conversation with Nicholas Christakis

A panoply of useful info if you're interested.

How contagious is it? What's the incubation period? How deadly is it, and to whom? Since a lower death rate ensures more people catch it before a carrier dies, can a lower death rate lead to more deaths? What has happened previously with similar pandemics? What responses work the best? Do we close schools once somebody in the school has it? Or when someone in the community has it, do we assume it's going to be in the schools and close them to prevent the inevitable outbreak? Where's the balance between being prepared and hoarding? Should we not worry about it because it only affects old people? Similarly, is it cool when old people die? How many cases can we pretend we don't have in order to protect Trump's ego? Are we all worked up over nothing??? (Answer to the last one is no, but don't go screaming in the streets.)

https://samharris.org/podcasts/190-respond-coronavirus/

March 10, 2020

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My dad had a stroke on Wednesday. Humbling experience. Reminds me of what I think about all day anyway. He's back to normal, or mostly normal. I got off the phone with him tonight and ended by saying, "OK, man." He's never said that before.

March 10, 2024

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I just learned the difference between authoritarianism and totalitarianism. Authoritarianism says what you have to do, totalitarianism yet tells you what to think. One is outward, the other inward.

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Btw, google just had a massive voice-to-text fail. I said "inward" and it thought I said "n word."

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A Japanese curse - "I'll stick a pig's leg up your cunt until your back teeth rattle."

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Euripides- “Who dares not speak his free thought is a slave.”

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Rory Scovel- "Anybody who thinks Jesus is white isn't allowed to have an opinion on gun control."

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Virgil wrote a line a day, Flaubert wrote a paragraph a day. That's a great writing tip.

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Jorge Luis Borges- "Doubt is one of the names of intelligence."

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Arthur Schopenhauer- "The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy."

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Ricky Gervais-"Nobody cares about movies anymore. No one goes to the cinema; no one really watches network TV. Everyone’s watching Netflix. This show should just be me coming out going, “Well done, Netflix. You win - everything.” 

But no, we’ve got to drag it out for three hours. You could binge-watch the entire first season of After Life instead of watching this show. That’s a show about a man who wants to kill himself because his wife dies of cancer, and it’s still more fun than this. Spoiler alert: Season 2 is on the way, so in the end, he obviously didn’t kill himself. Just like Jeffrey Epstein. I know he’s your friend. But I don’t care."

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Bukowski- "Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead."

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Aquinas- "Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine."

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Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow- "Odd as it may seem, I am my remembering self, and the experiencing self, who does my living, is like a stranger to me."

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Mitch Hedberg- "I bought a $7 pen because I always lose pens and I got sick of not caring."

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Addendum:

Hagakure:

Lord Soma's family genealogy, called the Chiken marokashi, was the best in Japan. One year when his mansion suddenly caught fire and was burning to the ground, Lord Soma said, "I feel no regret about the house and all its furnishings, even if they burn to the very last piece, because they are things that can be replaced later on. I only regret that I was unable to take out the genealogy, which is my family's most precious treasure."

There was one samurai among those attending him who said, "I will go in and take it out."

Lord Soma and the others all laughed and said, "The house is already engulfed in flames. How are you going to take it out?"

Now this man had never been loquacious, nor had he been particularly useful, but being a man who did things from beginning to end, he was engaged as an attendant. At this point he said, "I have never been of use to my master because I'm so careless, but I have lived resolved that someday my life should be of use to him. This seems to be that time.'' And he leapt into the flames.

After the fire had been extinguished the master said, ''Look for his remains . What a pity!''

Looking everywhere, they found his burnt corpse in the garden adjacent to the living quarters. When they turned it over, blood flowed out of the stomach. The man had cut open his stomach and placed the genealogy inside and it was not damaged at all. From this time on it was called the "Blood Genealogy.'