... keep the conversation going.
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December 26, 2017
At the Snow Walk Café...
... keep the conversation going.
(And if you've got post-Christmas shopping to do, please think of going to Amazon via The Althouse Portal.)
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That's not the front of your house, is it?
Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general, reached a milestone of sorts recently. By moving to sue the Federal Communications Commission over net neutrality this month, his office took its 100th legal or administrative action against the Trump administration and congressional Republicans. His lawyers have challenged Mr. Trump’s first, second and third travel bans and sued over such diverse matters as a rollback in birth control coverage and a weakening of pollution standards. - New York Times
Good thing there are not any actual problems in New York State!
Meanwhile, the governor of New York is putting political aides to Hillary and Obama on the state Payroll. Doesn’t he know that’s what the Clinton Foundation is for?
@Big Mike, a few blocks over. Same house number though so we regularly get their misdelivered mail. Then we walk it over. If I have Zeus, it makes it a double "business walk."
RIP Keely Smith
So this is right up Althouse's alley. NBC is ordering all employees to snitch on their fellow employees about sexual harassment, even office romances or affairs. If you don't snitch... you get fired.
Apparently they came out with rules about hugging too.
Details at Ace of Spades.
--Vance
Lewandowski accused in Spankgate...
Calendar Square
January snow falls hard on Calendar Square.
It’s thinking February as phoebes sing
At embarrassing distances among
The whitened trees of dusk, reminding March
It’s got its work to do. The buildings cast
Dull blue shadows across white yawning space.
Now that winter’s had its way with time, time
Deletes the solace of annus novus,
While evidence lingers, central conceits
Of presence ravel out the absences
That wrinkle parking lots and alleyways
With tire tracks; that spill the rock salt that’s mixed
In bitter mercy with birdfeed on a stoop;
That winnow storefront windows down and out
To their basics; that make the needful things
Become madly dependent on luxuries
To help restore their meaning. People move
Among their footprints, shadows among shades,
With hungry looks, grinning cold misereres
And scouring the ground before them for some
Reconstructed comfort. No other face
Or posture touches on what’s wanted most –
What’s least at hand. The entire city sounds
An anthology of reveries, morose
In muffled cadence, bruised as ruptured bassoons,
A rich quavering sadness wildly refrained
From deep beneath the river’s strain and flow:
It groans with ice and curves its banks around
The city, lover held by elbow’s crook –
Its daily traffic is measured and cramps
Each fitful instance. After twilight pulled
The stray ribbons and stays of sunlight loose,
The evening’s flowing locks tumbled free
With snow. (The weather’s been asking for it
For days.) Each flake an inculcation of
The equinox, the storm compiles in facts
And whispered dividends; its quiet smoothes
Sepulchral parks into ashen fields; it haunts
The solstice, dreaming phoebes into spring.
In France, Macron (one of about 4 leaders that Inga hilariously labeled as the new leaders of the free world) is attacking immigration in ways that Trump can only dream of!
Gee, I wonder why it would be that the newest lefty "leaders of the free world" would be taking their cues from Trump?
Huh.
Go figure.
Strange that, eh?
Does Zeus have one of THESE?
I love trying to read a book in Kindle — after hours of reading this and that on the web — and arriving at a word — in this case “squunched” — clicking on it and, via Google, escaping back onto the web, going here and there, liberated by “squunched,” defying the order of things once again, not reading a book, unless you call that reading a book. But I will squunch myself back in there, in that Kindle book, just playing at trying to read until I see the sign for the next off ramp.
Enigmas inside riddles inside puzzles
https://disobedientmedia.com/2017/12/fancy-frauds-bogus-bears-malware-mimicry/
I wonder if cold, snowy days cut down on the number of intriguing smells for dogs. Warm, humid days are probably perfect weather for sniffing assholes.
"Assholes are like dog treats, even when they're bad, they're still pretty good." - my dog
Thanks for the share, Vance. Very interesting.
Jeanne Suk Gerson's New Yorker article from last week warned that companies may abdicate due process in sex harassment disputes and expose themselves to liability, much as colleges have done.
Just got back from taking the family to see "Darkest Hour." I cannot reconcile the elderly, overweight person played by Gary Oldman with the thin Sirius Black and James Gordon he played in "Harry Potter" movies and the "Dark Knight" movies. I understand that the movie's scene in the London Underground was invented, but theatrically speaking it works. Wonderful movie. I liked "Darkest Hour," I loved "Wind River," and I enjoyed "Dunkirk" once I got past the non-chronological scene sequencing. I can't recollect anything else this year that we saw that was worth the price of admission.
Althouse said:
I love trying to read a book in Kindle — after hours of reading this and that on the web — and arriving at a word — in this case “squunched” — clicking on it and, via Google, escaping back onto the web, going here and there, liberated by “squunched,” defying the order of things once again, not reading a book, unless you call that reading a book.
I also love my Kindle, especially when I read historical novels and look up (on Wikipedia) something like Marlborough House, which led me to Christopher Wren and then the sculptor Bernini and then . . . maybe back to reading the novel.
BTW, I tried to look up the word "squunched" and got zero hits - and now I want to know what it means.
I might have to see "Darkest Hour," now. Anyone who appreciated "Dunkirk" and "Wind River" has good discernment.
I was at the bar recently, and had a conversation regarding Star Trek with the Retired Black Curmudgeon. Star Trek is one of the things he likes to talk about: he will take off his earphones for a conversation with that one. Sometimes order another glass of wine to settle in.
I enjoyed the original Star Trek; despised The Next Generation, never watched the others. I understand what they did with The Next Generation: they switched the main two characters. Kirk, the Man of Action, was the Leader; Spock, the Man of Reason, was the second-in command. So they switched it around: the Spock character -- Picard -- became the Leader, and the Man of Action became the Second Guy. To further the difference between the two shows they got a guy for the Next Generation's Man of Action who had no charisma.
The original Star Trek also had Bones, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov: Next Generation had a kid, a robot and a blind guy. Bones, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov: they had names because they were characters. The kid, the robot and the blind guy: they had names, too, but I don't remember them, because they were widgets.
The Retired Black Curmudgeon loves the Next Generation; I call it Star Trek: The New Coke. Which only makes sense if you were around for New Coke. We have no need to reestablish these points of view: we agree to disagree.
So I tell him that I have spotted the fatal flaw with Next Generation. He eyes me warily: he knows I am going to be pulling his chain, but he wants to know how, exactly.
(continued in next comment)
I tell him that there is obvious Great Significance in the letter 'K' for Star Trek. He leans forward. It starts from the very name, I say: Star Trek. Not Star Voyage, not Star Expedience, but Trek: with a 'K'. He nods: the 'go on' is implied. Or at least I think it is, because I go on, regardless.
There are Klingons, there is Khan. When big things happened in Star Trek a letter 'K' is typically involved. I would've probably named some arcana to bolster my point, but I only enjoyed the original series, and even that I pretty much just know the basics.
"Yeah, yeah" he says.
Look at the names: the Top Two of each crew have 'K's in their name. Kirk, Spock, Pikard, Riker. Kirk even has two 'K's, and they are at the beginning and the end of the name -- the Alpha and Omega of the man. The letter 'K' must have some significance; this cannot be sloppy coincidence. Because Star Trek is not sloppy: everything means something. To someone. Somewhere. Who thinks about Star Trek too much.
"Ahhhh", say says the Retired Black Curmudgeon: he has spotted the flaw in my thesis. Next Generation's Picard is spelled with a 'c', not a 'k'.
The trap is now sprung. THAT is why Next Generation sucks, I say. The letter 'K' has obvious significance in the founding meaning of the show -- Trek, Kirk, Spock -- and the Next Generation can't even commit to using a 'K' for the 'K' sound in its own lead character's name. It was doomed before it even began.
The Retired Black Curmudgeon gives me That Look: you would know That Look if you were there to see it.
To belabor the point, I continue. Trek, Kirk, Spock: the 'K' is the first or last sound. Significant, obviously. I refrain from using Alpha and Omega again: this is all gilding, no lily to begin with. Anyway, the first or last sound: same with Klingon, Khan. Yes, I bring up those two again, because that is pretty much all I got. With Next Generation they bury the 'K' sound in the middle: Picard, Riker. Again, they can't commit to what is of obvious importance.
The Retired Black Curmudgeon nods: he knows this is bullshit, but he is thinking about it, anyway.
I do point out that the original Star Trek has characters with only a 'K' sound, or 'K' in the middle. The Retired Black Curmudgeon leans in.
Scotty, Chekov.
The Retired Black Curmudgeon nods again.
To which I point out that these are Secondary Characters. Hell, Chekov is probably better described as third-tier. But in Next Generation they make the Secondary Character K Displacement part of the main characters' names. Again: doomed.
The Retired Black Curmudgeon laughs, a short dry snort, really.
I would probably go on about the secondary characters of Next Generation, but I don't know who they are, other than: a kid, a robot and a blind guy.
I then make one final point: you know what would happen if they made William Shatner's character name have only one 'K'? And you put it in the middle?
The Retired Black Curmudgeon leans in again.
Then you have T.J. Hooker.
The Retired Black Curmudgeon shakes his head.
I would've liked to have gone on about how there was another powerful lead character on a TV show from Back In The Day with a K at the beginning and end of the name -- Kojak -- but I realize that would break the spell. But Shatner and Savalas: that was when Men were men, and it took two K's to contain them.
And not kids, robots and blind guys.
- james james
Star Expedience = Star Expedition.
Of course it does.
- james james
"BTW, I tried to look up the word "squunched" and got zero hits - and now I want to know what it means."
Thanks for reminding me that I wanted to do a post about it!
A bit of onomatopoetry in that word “Squunched”. I think you can figure it out by its sound.
Snow... quiet... extreme cold... walking inch by inch... crunch... "squunch"
Squunch post up.
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