I’ve been taking a stroll down memory lane with the top-selling albums of the 1970s, a sort of personal farewell tour. But don’t worry, this isn’t one of those “farewell” tours that music acts like The Who or Cher love to milk for decades. No, this is more like revisiting old haunts, savoring the bitter and the sweet, and offering a proper “so long” to the soundtrack of my youth. During the golden years of 1971 to 1980, I went from nine to eighteen—a stretch of time that perfectly bookended my high school era. Naturally, the music of this decade made a massive impression on me. But, like that friend who overstays their welcome, a lot of these songs have been played to death. My old kit bag will carry only a few carefully chosen relics as most of the overexposed hits are being gently but firmly shown the door.
Continue reading “Manipulative Melodies: Investigating Social Engineering in Music”The Christmas letter …
I came upon the following lines from an obscure source, quoting Horace, among the many legends of ancient literature whom I have not read.
“Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.”
The line translates to “Mountains will be in labor, and a ridiculous mouse will be born.” This phrase comes from Horace’s Satires (Book 1, Satire 8) and is often interpreted as a commentary on the disparity between expectations and outcomes. I am plagiarizing that last line starting with “This phrase…”.
Enough of that. It brought to mind a file I used to keep and update that I called “Wit and Wisdom”. I went looking for it, and sure enough it has survived all of the new computers that I have used over the past years. The W&W file is quite voluminous and reflects what I was doing and thinking at any given time. I’ll cite two of scores of quotes:
Facial exercises
Kevin Starr recently suggested a strong facial resemblances between Earl Holliman (who just died a couple of weeks ago at age 96) and Paul Rudd. I thought there was something in Holliman that looked familiar, so I thought I would run him against the Bokonovsky Brats. But first, Holliman/Rudd:
They eyes, nose, ears, hairline, facial shape and chin all align quite well, but not the mouths. Struck out.
Life before and after the 14th Amendment
One of the many atrocities that played out against us during Covid was the trashing of the Bill of Rights. Specifically, the following amendments were jettisoned:
First Amendment: Prohibition of the free exercise of religion. Churches were shut down.
First Amendment: Abridgement of freedom of speech. Facebook, YouTube, and even tiny Websites like NextDoor all forbade any criticism of the CDC or questioning of the existence of the virus.
First Amendment: Abridgement of freedom of the press, but don’t go there. It’s been a dead letter for ages.
First Amendment: The right of the people peaceably to assemble. Sports stadiums were shut down, along with indoor gathering spaces like concert halls and museums. Large gatherings were forbidden, along with even small family gatherings.
Ninth Amendment: Freedom to travel.
On being woke, the Great Awokening
I started out reading a book called We Have Never Been Woke, by Musa Al-Gharbia, and finally, on page 50, I thought “I can’t do this.” I cannot finish the book. It is well-written by a new PhD who is also an intellectual, and I am reminded that I am neither of those things, and that I’ve never been curious about people who claim to be “woke.” I think it is all self-aggrandized posturing, large-scale virtue signaling. It’s made its way on to campuses, but then most campuses have long ceased to serve intelligent function, that is, producing critical thinkers who are hard-working and serious adult humans. Instead (most) colleges offer a new kind of dumbed down.
Worse yet, Climate Alarmists have saturated campuses and schools, so that our graduating classes at all levels don’t know shit about climate and don’t know they don’t know shit. It is large-scale Dunning-Kruger. We’re in a new dark age. It’s quite a predicament.
“Notable Death” Watch – (Earl Holliman)
Earl Holliman, a name every film buff should recognize, was one of those actors who seemed to pop up everywhere—movies, television, you name it. Born on September 11 (yep, even back then, the date existed), Earl’s biological father, William A. Frost, was a farmer. Now, here’s where it gets interesting—or awkward. Earl’s mom, Mary Smith (honestly, could her name sound any more like an alias?), already had six kids under her belt when Farmer Frost strolled into the picture.
But plot twist! Mary wasn’t married, and Frost apparently thought, “You know what this struggling, impoverished woman really needs? More drama!” According to Wikipedia, Mary had no choice but to give baby Earl up for adoption because, well, poverty and solo parenting don’t exactly scream “happily ever after.”
Continue reading ““Notable Death” Watch – (Earl Holliman)”Exploring psyops with Petra
Below is a video featuring our friend Petra Liverani. It is over an hour long, but she kept me interested throughout. She speaks mostly about 9/11, including stuff I did not know or even know to suspect, that the building collapses we saw on television that day were CGI. The reason, she and the host Brendan Murphy speculate, is that controlled demolition would be too easy to spot. (Continued beneath the fold.)
[If the video does not light up your screen, go to this link to view it.]
My “notable death” Dossier (11/21/24)
Source-ery
Reggie Gibson, better known as the rapper Saafir, passed away on November 19. While no official cause of death has been released, it was reported that he had experienced ongoing health challenges since a severe back injury in 1992, sustained during his escape from the hard landing, crash, and subsequent fire of TWA Flight 843.
Details about Saafir’s early life and family are scarce. According to Wikipedia, he reportedly lived with Tupac Shakur during their youth. Given Tupac’s background as an effeminate ballet student at the time, some may speculate about the nature of their relationship, though this remains purely conjecture.
Continue reading “My “notable death” Dossier (11/21/24)”The Olsen twins
This matter was brought up in a comment before now, and I am unable to locate it. It is in regards to Barbara Olsen, who was allegedly killed on 9/11/2001 when the aircraft she was on, American Airlines Flight 77, crashed into the Pentagon. I seem to recall that she was able to carry on a phone conversation until the moment of impact.
I am a no-planer, and so do not believe her story or her ending. She was 45 years old in 2001, and so would be 69 now. I will play with some photographs beneath the fold here, but note that her husband, Ted Olsen, remarried (several times), Barbara his third wife. He married his fourth wife, Lady Booth Olsen, in 2006, he 66 and she 45. I was surprised to find that he died just last week, on 11/13/2024 at the age of 84. Lady Booth Olsen is currently 63.
All very interesting, but the question is, what became of Barbara Olsen? The implication of the post and photos I saw was that she is one and the same person, both as Barbara Olsen, and Lady Booth Olsen. I have examined the photos, and my conclusion is that …
Hugh Jass
Yesterday I had gotten no further than the title of this post when I came upon Kevin Starr’s delightful post on wokism. “I thought I can sit back now, he’s covered an important topic”, being “woke” versus “awake”. Here in the land of the free there is very little awakism going on. That’s always been the case.
Over a decade ago I was a fan of the NPR radio show Car Talk and its hosts Tom and Ray Magliozzi. Tommy sadly died of Alzheimer’s in 2012, and NPR reverted to reruns, and then relegated the show to podcasts only. It is still thriving even as the boys talk about cars of the 90s and before. The reason: Tommy and Ray were nice, honest, and funny. As Doug Berman, the show’s founder noted on Tommy’s death, they were “diamonds in the rough.” I lived in Billings at a time when Yellowstone Public Radio would host quarterly fund-raising drives, and I would contribute, but only tagging my money to Car Talk. Then and now I wanted nothing to do with NPR’s woke news and public affairs broadcasts, smug and humorless.
Piece of Mindful 