November 28, 2021

I'm pulled into the upper right hand corner of The Washington Post — so dangerous, so syrup-drenched.

Here's that corner (9 items):

It's an omakase breakfast — omakase, not omicron — the selections entrusted to the illustrious mainstream newspaper. I will update this post, course by course. 

1. "For Clarence Thomas, avowed critic of Roe v. Wade, Mississippi abortion case a moment long awaited" by Robert Barnes. There's oral argument in the big abortion case this Wednesday, and, we're told, Thomas receives "unprecedented deference" these days — because of all his new colleagues, who "think like him," and because there's a new method of asking questions at oral argument, and not only does he speak now, he goes first, and no one cuts him off. They let him finish "his low-key inquiries." Thomas has repeatedly written separate opinions to say that Roe ought to be overruled. "Thomas’s idiosyncratic views and his resistance to compromise still make him the justice most likely to write a solo opinion," writes Barnes. But what's to prevent these new Justices, who may genuinely respect him, from curing that loneliness? Asking that question, I thought of the adage, "Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already." And then I realized I'm talking about the person named in the next headline down, Henry David Thoreau.

2. "The Black people who lived in Walden Woods long before Henry David Thoreau": "'Down the road, on the right hand, on Brister’s Hill lived Brister Freeman, ‘a handy Negro,’ slave of Squire Cummings once... With him dwelt Fenda, his hospitable wife, who told fortunes, yet pleasantly – large, round, and black, blacker than any of the children of night, such a dusky orb as never rose on Concord before or since,' Thoreau wrote in 'Walden.'"

3. "Amid massive shortage, Canada taps strategic reserves — of maple syrup": "Petroleum stockpiles aren’t the only strategic reserves being tapped this season amid concerns of supply shortages and sky-high prices." There's a Canadian federation that, we're told, gets called "the OPEC of maple syrup." The shortage seems to have mostly to do with people cooking more pancakes and such on account of the lockdown, but there's also stress to the maple trees from climate change, so make sure to keep worrying about climate change. It affects pancakes!

4. "The Rule of Six: A newly radicalized Supreme Court is poised to reshape the nation" by Ruth Marcus. The conservatives are no longer just looking for a 5th vote. With 6, it's like "an heir and spare." They can afford to lose one. No more need to cajole that last one, the fussed-over "swing" voter. And Marcus tells WaPo readers to be be afraid, be very afraid.

5. "Hanukkah isn’t ‘Jewish Christmas.’ Stop treating it that way. No need to include our holiday in the winter extravaganza of commercialization, thanks." Sample sentence, representing the tone and message of the entire piece: "No Jew has ever gazed longingly at a 12-foot inflatable reindeer and wished in her heart she had an equally large Moses to display in front of her house."

6. "Greece was in deep trouble. How did it right the ship? Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the arrival of migrants — and tech companies." An interview with the prime minister. Highlights: "We should agree in principle that no country has a right to weaponize migrants. . . . We won’t let people come in as they please." About criminalizing “fake news”: "What we are doing is very measured and very valid."

7. "Five myths about the supply chain/No, self-driving trucks wouldn’t fix all our problems." "Much of today’s mess was caused by relying on extremely fragile — and extremely long — supply lines. Ohno would have shuddered at the thought that his ideas were being applied in this manner." Oh no! Taiichi Ohno originated the concept of just-in-time delivery.

8. "The newest coronavirus variant is raising alarms. The pandemic is not over." "It will take time to determine if the variant is more transmissible than delta, or more virulent, but it is a worrisome development." Won't there always be a new variant so that we will always be told we don't know enough yet and we will need, once again, to err on the side of safety? This feels like a treadmill that we can never step off.

9. "Stephen Sondheim made art that made life more real" by Alexandra Petri. A song "can’t be too clever, and it can’t be too dull. It has to land on your ear as a surprise. If it contains jokes, they have to rhyme. (If it contains rhymes, words that are spelled differently are funnier, Sondheim thought, than words that are spelled the same.)... The song has to take the character singing it somewhere. It has to be essential to the show. 'If you can take the song out,' Sondheim said, 'and it doesn’t leave a hole, then the song’s not necessary.'... Life also exists in time. You cannot stop it and start it and go back and hope to make yourself better understood. You must express yourself in the moments allotted and make yourself heard and choose what to say." 

If I hadn't committed to reading every one of those 9 stories, the ones I would have read would be: 1, 2, and 9. And I would have blogged all 3. 

Having read all the stories, I rank their bloggability, for me, beginning with: 1, 9, 2. Then, there's a big drop off. There's something I'd wanted to say that 8 gave me the chance to say, so I'll put 8 next. I'd put 3 dead last, because I don't really want to blog about the syrup supply, though it would shoot to the top if I had a "syrup" tag (and I might create a "syrup" tag, but it will take a while to add it retrospectively, and it's only interesting if it collects a lot of old things, which it will, more than 10). I put 4 next to last, because it's obvious to me what it will be from the headline and the author, and I don't need more of that. Third from last is 5, which is unnecessary holiday fluff, and I didn't like the insinuation that I was "treating" Hanukkah in any particular way. That leaves 6 in dead center. The Greek Prime Minister. I had to force myself to read that, but he was concise and hard core — quotable.

Oops, I forgot the supply chain. I know it's important, but it's not my thing. I put Greek Prime Minister at what I called "dead center" and in 5th place, so let's put 7 in 6th place. 

Final ranking: 1, 9, 2, 8, 6, 7, 5, 4, 3.

ADDED: I have now made the tag "syrup." Click. It's pretty exciting. 

85 comments:

Joe Smith said...

Did you ever think that you were being served these particular stories because of your browsing/reading habits?

Maybe you are the perilous pancake...

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

WaPo is for true believers like Tom Hanks.

Sebastian said...

A "newly radicalized" SCOTUS! So radical, it might even read the actual text as actually written! Like, without any mention of a "right to privacy" or "substantive due process"! Radical stuff!

Ann Althouse said...

"Did you ever think it..."

Did you ever consider going to WaPo to see if the corner looks the same to you?

narciso said...

what robert barnes knows about clarence thomas fits in a thimble, probably judge roberts will pinch hit for moloch

Jersey Fled said...

I rarely read the Times except when you post excerpts here. I still don't get how smart people can read it and not get that they are being told how to think. (Our host excepted) and lapping it up.

Jupiter said...

"Did you ever consider going to WaPo to see if the corner looks the same to you?"

Got a link?

Joe Smith said...

My post was intended at humor, but I'm also pointing out that large media outlets have the ability to target stories just as they do advertisements...

I don't read the WaPo, but I did go to the home page (don't know what the 'corner' is), and most of the stories are the same, but my 2 main stories are about travel and education in Georgia...and also Sondheim.

Limited blogger said...

thanks to WaPo for 'splainin' this all to me

madAsHell said...

Did you ever consider going to WaPo to see if the corner looks the same to you?

No. I leave that to you!!


traditionalguy said...

Baby Lives Matter.

SteveWe said...

Well? Is it the same or different?

Virgil Hilts said...

If the Omicron variant turns out to be a godsend - a highly contagious version which mild symptoms -- meaning that we should all try to get it (even if vaccinated) so as to shore up / add natural immunity, the freak out oin the crazy left would be almost as precious as the lives saved.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

"The justice most likely to write a solo opinion?" Gee, I remember when the knock against him was that he slavishly followed some conservative white guys and couldn't think for himself. It seems we are hard to please. Whatever stick is handy will be used to beat him.

mikee said...

I, for one, am certainly glad that Roberts is counted among the six stalwart, certain votes for conservative opinions. Of course, I scoff at that idea, after his ACA decision, but I'm glad other people still think that way.

Temujin said...

I never go to WaPo anymore, but did today because of your note to another commenter above. Your upper right is the same as my upper right. Which means I can continue to rely on you for WaPo news. I guess I actually have a login with WaPo. Been so long since I subscribed, I'd forgotten that I had that.

Anyway, many reasons for the changing of the climate, but one wonders if the maple trees are enjoying the early cold of winter. I know the 20 or so ships caught in the early Arctic Sea ice are not. Early cold. Nature is always one step ahead of WaPo.

I wish I could get worked up about the upcoming abortion discussion at the Supreme Court. Maybe I expect nothing to change other than a lot of heavy breathing coming from the Northeast. I could be wrong. I wonder if anyone on the left actually took the time to read Clarence Thomas's book on his life (or watched the documentary based on the book), "Created Equal"? It's really a remarkable life lived by a remarkable man. Those who get goosey over RBG would have gone absolutely bonkers over Thomas's story, which is actually even more remarkable because he ended up as a Conservative. That is not who he was as a younger man.

Steve Pitment said...

The only person less happy than Ruth Marcus about that 6th SCOTUS member is John Roberts. It was so good to be King.

n.n said...

Some sects are starting to question the arbitrary "viability" threshold. A woman's right to abort her child should not be restricted to the second, third, fourth trimester.

Roe, Roe, Roe your baby, down the river Styx.

roger said...

"a newly radicalized Supreme Court"

But the Washington Post would never cite Congress as radicalized for the New Green Deal or Build Back Better or Medicare for All.

May we be Blessed to Live in Interesting Times.

Ice Nine said...

>>Althouse said...
Did you ever consider going to WaPo to see if the corner looks the same to you?<<

Just a guess but I bet that you lost him at "Did you ever consider going to WaPo."

JPS said...

"Hanukkah isn’t ‘Jewish Christmas.’ Stop treating it that way."

The even better sub-headline reads,

"No need to include our holiday in the winter extravaganza of commercialization, thanks."

The article actually makes the point I hoped it would: Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday. But it got played up in part because gentiles didn't want Jews, especially kids, feeling too left out of the holiday spirit. And now these writers want them to feel guilty for that.

Wish us a Merry Christmas? Don't assume! Wish us a happy Hanukkah? No need to include our holiday, thanks." How proud I get this time of year, that my tribe identified that first modern microaggression: trying to be nice to Jews around Christmastime.

Floris said...

The liberal media seem to forever be telling their readers what they are doing wrong, and how their thinking is incorrect. And, their readers lap it up.

gilbar said...

“We’re taking action. The big part of the reason Americans are facing high syrup prices is because sap producing trees and large bushes have not ramped up the supply of sap quickly enough to meet the demand. And the smaller supply means higher prices globally, globally, for syrup,” Biden said during remarks at the White House.

Tim said...

I have been in US manufacturing for over 35 years. Ohno did indeed pioneer JIT manufacturing, pulling lots of costs from mainly the auto industry over the decades. But he pushed and pushed HARD for suppliers to be within 300 miles of the final factory....and for their suppliers to be local as well. I remember well the days when Honda pushed to increase the US made content of the Accord...and they were already over 90%, and trying to increase it. When that lesson was forgotten, the JIT model became too fragile...and those hidden costs started creeping right back in.

Big Mike said...

Did you ever consider going to WaPo to see if the corner looks the same to you?

Nope. For many decades I subscribed to the Post as my local newspaper, but once I realized that it was (1) burying important news deep in the inside pages, and (2) misreporting news events about which I had personal knowledge, for instance by placing the event at a location over a mile away from where it happened, and sometimes at a fictitious address, or by misidentifying individuals involved. After we cut back to Sunday only delivery their circulation desk called, offering to convert us to seven days a week for just one cent more than we were paying for Sunday only. The woman on the phone was flabbergasted when we turned them down. The comics, the college football box scores, the weekly TV guide, and the Sunday Sudoku were worth something to us. Made up “news,” not worth a penny.

And that takes us to the article you linked. What the Hell does Robert Barnes know about the inner workings of the Supreme Court? More likely it is a screed ginned up just to roil abortion extremists such as yourself. And it seems to have worked.

BG said...

They didn't give me a corner but all the same articles were a descending column on the right side of my screen.

Heartless Aztec said...

"Number 9, number 9, number 9..."
Amid the cacophany...

Ray - SoCal said...

I just went to the WP Home Page and it looks the same to me.

The term radicalized to describe the court is BS and just part of a pressure campaign to make sure the squishes vote the right way. Trumps appointees have been more in the Roberts model.

Trump's appointees were painted as horrible choices, rapists, religious extremists, and yet overall they have shown a lack of courage on major decisions. They dodged any challenges to the 2020 Election, and more dodging on the Covid Vaccinations so far.

Heartless Aztec said...

I caught #9 blank before the Sondheim addition. Thought to myself I'll just delete my comment. And then thought again, no.

Loren W Laurent said...

As a Beguiling Jewish Woman I personally wouldn't find the need for a 12-foot inflatable Moses, although I would not have a problem with my Christian neighbors erecting such a thing on their front lawn.

Of course, a lot depends on how much the inflated Moses looks like Charlton Heston, and not simply the bearded Jewish brother of Santa Claus in a toga.

When I was young a sweet boy who had a crush on me gave me a Christmas gift. I told him I couldn't accept it, but if he were to return tomorrow with the gift having been removed from the Christmas wrapping paper I might be interested in receiving such a thing.

The next day he brought me a box of Charlie perfume. He meant well, but it was obvious he didn't know the first thing about Young Beguiling Jewish Girls.

-Loren

Fernandinande said...

One awkward sentence could be more awkward:

There's a Canadian federation that, we're told, garners being called "the OPEC of maple syrup."

Did you ever consider going to WaPo to see if the corner looks the same to you?

I see the #1 to 3 articles prominently and vertically up on the right side, 4, 5, 7 horizontally down lower. First time I've looked at WaPo's main page in a few years.

Achilles said...

Ann Althouse said...

"Did you ever think it..."

Did you ever consider going to WaPo to see if the corner looks the same to you?

Not sure if Timing matters.

The left three are the same. The right 6 are different for me.

The left 3 are the current agenda they are trying to push. I doubt that changes for anyone.

The right 6 are click bait "opinion" pieces.

I assume they choose which click bait to send with rudimentary Machine Learning algorithms. They are likely fed cookies of your past interactions with the website and possibly some purchased google analytics of your browsing history. The top piece and the last piece will be the highest softmax results of a regression is my guess.

wildswan said...

It's interesting that the WaPo story states firmly that it was impossible to live the simple life in Walden woods yet that was Thoreau's entire project. The story on Brister Freeman states definitely that he and his relatives died of malnutrition, more exactly, of scurvy, due to inability to raise enough food on Walden Pond. So, since Thoreau knew Brister Freeman's story we see that Thoreau was trying, by his life on Walden Pond, to refute the lesson that was being drawn from the fact that the Freeman family died of "malnutrition." That family had lived mainly on beans. Thoreau's diet, though simple, was far more extensive than beans - he raised beans, corn, potatoes and peas, he bought dried apples, he picked and boiled green vegetables such as purslane, he caught fish. This diet would prevent scurvy and was still, as he demonstrated with figures, a very cheap way to live. The WaPo story states that Thoreau was cadging free meals off White relatives and thus preventing hunger and scurvy. That's typical. And, in fact, this WaPo falsehood and this story of the cause of deaths in the Freeman family together contradicts the WaPo general narrative on vegetarian life. The Wapo would have us believe that we can live a simpler, vegetarian life without dying of malnutrition and scurvy. Comes now this story - look what happened to the Freeman's and the same would have happened to Thoreau if he hadn't been sneaking over to the Alcotts for a square when needed. But narrative contradiction is not something waPooers can be expected to notice or understand as having meaning. It's nasty and un-Harvard to notice contradictions and not done.

robother said...

I can smell a 'No True Scotsman" trap lurking in the Hannukah piece.

Scot said...

Re Hannukkuh: how about an inflatable Antiochus burning at the stake? With a strong enough air pump, you could raise flames all around.

Roger Sweeny said...

Did you ever consider going to WaPo to see if the corner looks the same to you?

It was a folkway in our house that you didn't argue about something factual if you could easily find out who was right. It is now a joke with our daughter's friends, "Elizabeth's looking it up on her phone."

Kevin said...

How the WAPO wants its readers to feel when reading each headline:

1. Outraged.
2. Outraged.
3. Informed.
4. Outraged.
5. Outraged.
6. Informed.
7. Informed.
8. Informed.
9. Informed.

Or should I say "more outraged than others in your peer group" and "more informed than others in your peer group"? In short, a significantly superior person for having read "the news".

Ray - SoCal said...

Interesting what is not covered.

Stories I wish they would cover:

1. Where are the Variants coming from, if the majority of people are vaxed.

2. How effective is the Covid Vax? How long does it last.

3. Why are so many footballers having heart attack issues in Europe? Could it be related to the Jab?

4. How widespread are the Vax Side Effects?

5. Is Omicron really from Africa?

6. If Omicron is so widespread world wide, why a travel ban?

7. If both the Vaxed and Unvaxed can spread Covid, do mandates make sense?

8. What is going on in Australia? Forced Vaccinations?

9. Why is Florida doing so much better in Covid than the rest of the US?

10. More on that SUV Attack in Waukesha, Wi.

11. Did China use HCQ to control Covid?

12. What impact does the Vax have on your immune system?

13. If you got jabbed, and then get a varient, are you then have immunity? Or was your immune system reprogrammed so you don't gain immunity to Covid.

14. Why the ignoring of Covid Immunity due to having Covid? Why the insistence on being vaccinated, if you are already immune?

15. How many people would have been saved if Covid had been treated early, as Japan and India are doing, instead of immediately incubating people?

16. How are Indian and Japan doing with Covid?

Steven said...

No Jew has ever gazed longingly at a 12-foot inflatable reindeer and wished in her heart she had an equally large Moses to display in front of her house.

And yet the Mensch on a Bench, created by a Jew, is a wildly successful knockoff of "Elf on a Shelf".

And, of course, none of this stuff would be on offer this year if similar stuff hadn't sold last year; businesses do not give up valuable floor space during the peak shopping season to stuff they don't think will sell.

The sentence Ann quoted and I re-quoted, of course, is not supposed to be taken literally. It's supposed to be read as saying "We, the writers of this piece, are horrified that there are Jews are gazing longingly at 12-foot inflatable reindeer and wishing they had an equally-large Moses to display. But since we're afraid to explicitly condemn our fellow Jews, we're going to passively-aggressively signal that no real Jew would want this stuff, going so far as to compare the buyers to the Hellenizers that Judah Maccabee warred against."

Yancey Ward said...

"Won't there always be a new variant so that we will always be told we don't know enough yet and we will need, once again, to err on the side of safety? This feels like a treadmill that we can never step off."

Sokath, his eyes open.

Leland said...

I sense that 7 isn’t debunking supply chain myths but creating them.

Yancey Ward said...

Big Syrup is ripping people off.

Joe Smith said...

'I assume they choose which click bait to send with rudimentary Machine Learning algorithms.'

Nothing rudimentary about it. Why do you think Bezos and Zuck are two of the richest men on earth?

Kirk Parker said...

"This feels like a treadmill that we can never step off."

Brought to us by your people.

Rollo said...

Complaints about the commercialization of Christmas have been around for a long time, to little effect, and yes, Hanukkah is "Jewish Christmas" (only harder to spell) -- enjoy it.

That there were African-Americans at Walden Pond had been known for some time. I think Thoreau even says that in the book.

Gahrie said...

The article actually makes the point I hoped it would: Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday.

Mexicans and Mexican-Americans are the ones who have a right to be pissed. The beer companies are the ones who tried to turn Cinco de Mayo into a Hispanic St. Patrick's Day to sell more beer.

(Cinco de Mayo marks a Mexican victory in a minor battle against the French in a war the French eventually won)

Sebastian said...

"Thomas’s idiosyncratic views"

That we ought to follow the Constitution as originally understood. Weird!

Rollo said...

Surely the real headline story is the one about maple syrup ...

When Canada taps the strategic moose and beaver reserves we'll know the end is near
...

tim in vermont said...

"No Jew has ever gazed longingly at a 12-foot inflatable reindeer and wished in her heart she had an equally large Moses to display in front of her house.

Making fun of the proles is half the reason people buy the WaPo, isn't it. But "No Jew"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah_bush

effinayright said...

The idiocy about climate change affecting maple trees is just....idiocy.

The Green Weenies seem not to understand that trees worldwide are THRIVING from the additional CO2--their food---in the air.

Here in New England people are marveling at the lush growth in forests they see from highways and in our forests.

Since Canada is farther north, why shouldn't OUR trees, which exist in a warmer climate, be suffering mightily---when they are not??


Here's another question for the Greens to address: if a degree Celsius temperature change is sufficient to "affect" trees, then how the EFF did all those trees survive during the Medieval Warming Period and then the 350-year-Little Ice Age, where air temps were warmer, then cooler, than today before rising again in the early 19th century.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/09/07/study-global-tree-cover-on-the-rise-thanks-to-co2-induced-global-greening/

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/09/03/trillions-and-trillions-of-trees-make-that-giant-sucking-sound-of-co2-from-the-atmosphere/

There is NO data to suggest that trees are suffering. In fact, there's plenty of data to show that ever since satellites monitoring global temperatures were put up in 1979 and after, there's been about 0.5 degree Celsius since.

On the absolute Kelvin scale on which Celsius is based, that represents a change of 0.36%.


Does that sound like impending DOOM to you?

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/10/04/uah-global-temperature-update-for-september-2021/

"The linear warming trend since January, 1979 is +0.14 C/decade (+0.12 C/decade over the global-averaged oceans, and +0.18 C/decade over global-averaged land)."

Yet the idiots bray on, believing a Litany of Horribles are occurring around them.

Finally, whatever happened to the idea of Evolution? Why don't the Climatistas ever consider that some trees will thrive, and others die out through Natural Selection, as Darwin posited?

Yancey Ward said...

"How many people would have been saved if Covid had been treated early, as Japan and India are doing, instead of immediately incubating people?"

Autocorrect is hilarious sometimes.

madAsHell said...

made life more real

Astrid Oakson was my third grade teacher, and slapped the shit out of me when I suggested something could be "more better".

Mikey NTH said...

Several stories. A few are informative, others are just the usual nagging pieces or the whining pieces.

Sunday in the American newspaper.

rcocean said...

Stop treating Hannukah like Jewish Christmas.

Given 98% of the USA isn't Jewish, "we" haven't been treating it at all.

rcocean said...

The Marcus Article is just the standard "OMG THe Right Wing Extremeists have taken over the SCOTUS" that we've been reading for 30 years. IRC, David Savage of the LA Times built a whole career on it.

Mr Wibble said...

I, for one, am certainly glad that Roberts is counted among the six stalwart, certain votes for conservative opinions. Of course, I scoff at that idea, after his ACA decision, but I'm glad other people still think that way.

See, based on the ACA decision I think Roberts will side with the five conservative justices, because if he thinks that there are five votes already there, he'll want to tailor the ruling as narrowly as possible. The ACA decision was, IMHO, Roberts trying to avoid the more controversial routes of either a) striking the whole law down which would have put a target on the backs of SCOTUS, or b) upholding a major expansion of government power. He tried to thread that needle by basically rewriting the damn law so that he could interpret it as something it wasn't.

gspencer said...

"And Marcus tells WaPo readers to be be afraid, be very afraid."

Of course, Ruthie, we wouldn't have it any other way. "They're gonna put you all back in chains." Republican contractors are just lusting to build more back alleys. We've falling behind in pushing grandmothers off of cliffs. Too many black children have been getting sufficient nutrition; this has to stop. Etc.

Leora said...

Two people in my neighborhood have 12 foot inflatable menorahs. I am envious of the inflatable alligator with the Santa Hat and the Snoopy in his airplane other neighbors have.

gilbar said...

a lot depends on how much the inflated Moses looks like Charlton Heston, and not simply the bearded Jewish brother of Santa Claus in a toga

Moses is just about my Most Favorite person in the whole bible!
Just the thought of Moses in the Sinai, with his Uzi; shouting "Damn Dirty Apes!"
fills me with pleasure

gilbar said...

effinayright said...
The idiocy about climate change affecting maple trees is just....idiocy.

i LOVE maple syrup! it's Truly addicting. Do you know where the maple syrup gilbar put on this morning's (just like Every morning's) came from?
Clayton County Iowa... Which is SOUTH of where gilbar lives (up in Fayette county)
gilbar lives south of Toronto... South of nearly All of Vermont...
his maple syrup comes from trees 30 miles south of him
Explain to me, Again about how global warming is affecting Maple Syrup Production

ps.
before my dad died he worked the Sugar house at Indian Creek Nature Center, WAY down in Cedar Rapids
(That's FAR south of Vermont and Canada and all). I worked there too. I do NOT need to check google about things like that... My dad taught me

pps.
if you're in the CR area next feb... Think about Pancakes!
Enjoy a taste of real, fresh, handcrafted maple syrup at Indian Creek Nature Center’s signature event, the Maple Syrup Festival

Darkisland said...

Blogger Tim said...

I have been in US manufacturing for over 35 years. Ohno did indeed pioneer JIT manufacturing, pulling lots of costs from mainly the auto industry over the decades.

I would say "popularized" rather than "pioneered" If you read any of his books, he gives full credit to Henry Ford for pretty much everything in the Toyota Production System.

If you have not read "My Life and Work", Henry Ford's autobiography from 1923, you should. If you are interested in lean manufacturing.

It's all in there, including JIT. The single best book ever written on lean manufacturing. (To use the generic term that includes JIT but much else)

It was out of print in English for about 75 years. It has never been out of print in Japanese.

I am a big fan of Ohno and would be the last to denigrate his contributions. But Henry Ford was the original.

Ford was also absolutely fanatic about quality. Not the common definition of being within specification. He believed, as I do, that quality, in manufacturing context, is the absence of variation. Never achievable, but a goal to be continuously strived for. The Six Sigma philosophy stems from that definition.

John Henry

John Henry

Darkisland said...

Blogger Ray - SoCal said...

3. Why are so many footballers having heart attack issues in Europe? Could it be related to the Jab?

Adam curry of Noagendashow.com seems to think that this may be the case. But the reason, he thinks, it is not affecting AMerican footballers or bballers is that they are not getting the vaccine.

American athletes are worth 10s of million$ and owners, worth 10s of billion$ do not want to risk losing their investment on vaccine related heart problems. Thus, they have the team doctors, giving jabs with saline.

Players and doctors probably think they are getting and giving legitimate vaccine doses but the vials are being switched out.

He has no evidence but that's his theory and I like it.

John "I have a vaccine card" Henry

Darkisland said...

Blogger Rollo said...

When Canada taps the strategic moose and beaver reserves

In the US moosehead is a crime. If a beaver is involved it aggravates the level of offense.

In Canada, it's just beer with a pet.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Yes there will always be a new variant and no panic is necessary. In fact with each variant publicized as worrisome one should dial back the panic to half the previous level. Therefore even one was at 10/10 with the original pandemic you would be greatly reduced in actual panic by 50% or more just by virtue of the vaccine. So starting at five you could have dropped to 2.5 once Delta became a VOC (variant of concern) and now another half upon hearing about Om. So even if you were at peak panic last year by now at most you’re at 1.25 out of ten, more than likely within your own personal margin of error or mean panic coefficient anyway. Relax not-Mu/not-Xi maybe-Om is good news.

Narr said...

FWIW, I went to the WaPoo site and got a somewhat different array of stories. Michael Vick instead of Clarence Thomas. No Canada, Greece, or Sondheim IIRC.

But I'm way late, per usual around here, and these things change fast.

Static Ping said...

"Hanukkah isn’t ‘Jewish Christmas."

Well, yes and no.

Yes: It is not the celebration of the birth of the Messiah, nor is it a Christian holiday. Also, Christmas is one of the two major holidays of Christianity but Hanukkah is considered a "minor" festival to the Jews.

No: The only reason it has such prominence as a holiday is because it falls around the same time as Christmas and features gift giving and candle lighting, making it an excellent analog to Christmas for the observant Jew.

It is also pretty much the only reason "Happy Holidays" is a Christmas greeting, which has elevated it, at least on a secular level, to the same level as Christmas.

Mark said...

I don't know. Maybe before bitching about the commercialized world or the secular world or Christianized culture, these proud children of Abraham have something to say about their secularized Jewish brothers and sisters.

Instead of bitching and moaning, how about promote the INSPIRING story of the Festival of Light and Rededicatation of the Temple -- of remembering that it is God Himself who is a Light that is everlasting and can never be extinguished.

These days of rededication and the manifestation of God's eternal light remind us that evil will be defeated and, even if the evil has defiled the good, in the meantime, God cannot be defeated. His light is everlasting. More than light from oil, which runs out, His is the Eternal Light which cannot be extinguished. Thus, this is a time of hope.

Temujin said...

I personally love the Christmas season and particularly love it when it's allowed to be celebrated across our public life in full. Displays, holiday music, lights, smiling kids, lit up shopping centers and small downtown areas. I used to even love a fresh snow fall to arrive in time for Christmas. All this, and I'm Jewish. I never felt slighted. Never felt 'accosted' by people wishing me a Merry Christmas. Why would I? I love this time of year. Particularly so now that I can enjoy it among palm trees.

To the Beguiling Jewish Woman- You are correct that the young boy next door did not know what he was getting himself into approaching young Royalty. It's tricky. I spent a lifetime trying to figure it out and frankly, dated Catholics, atheists, and even Methodists for years. (Not Methodists!) I just found it easier. But it always reminds me of the joke: Why do Jewish men die before their wives?

Because they want to. (cue snare and high hat)

That's from Henny Youngman, a very underrated comedian from another era, who often used his wife as a prop for his comedy. "Take my wife. Please!"

Of course, I'm joking. Or...truthfully, partially joking. What was the question?

Greg The Class Traitor said...

4. "The Rule of Six: A newly radicalized Supreme Court is poised to reshape the nation" by Ruth Marcus.

It's a newly DEredicalized Supreme Court. because the left wing oath breakers who've been re-writing the US written Constitution based on their personal beliefs are the radicals

5. "Hanukkah isn’t ‘Jewish Christmas.’ Stop treating it that way. No need to include our holiday in the winter extravaganza of commercialization, thanks." Sample sentence, representing the tone and message of the entire piece: "No Jew has ever gazed longingly at a 12-foot inflatable reindeer and wished in her heart she had an equally large Moses to display in front of her house."

Probably true.

But thousands of them have looked at lighted up reindeer, and normal deer, and bought them and put them in their yards

6. "Greece was in deep trouble. How did it right the ship? Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the arrival of migrants — and tech companies." An interview with the prime minister. Highlights: "We should agree in principle that no country has a right to weaponize migrants. . . . We won’t let people come in as they please." About criminalizing “fake news”: "What we are doing is very measured and very valid."

Sounds like' he's not an idiot. Of course, that means the Left claims he's a "Nazi"

7. "Five myths about the supply chain/No, self-driving trucks wouldn’t fix all our problems." "Much of today’s mess was caused by relying on extremely fragile — and extremely long — supply lines. Ohno would have shuddered at the thought that his ideas were being applied in this manner." Oh no! Taiichi Ohno originated the concept of just-in-time delivery.

The big benefit of "Just in time" is that it lets you know where your problems are, quickly.
As opposed to making bad parts for 6 months before the 1st one actually gets used, and found to be bad. Leaving you with 6 months of inventory to trash.

The big cost of "Just in time" is that you don't have slack available when what JIT is telling you is "your shipping system is screwed up" / "it's really stupid to rely on foreigners for everything".

8. "The newest coronavirus variant is raising alarms. The pandemic is not over." "It will take time to determine if the variant is more transmissible than delta, or more virulent, but it is a worrisome development." Won't there always be a new variant so that we will always be told we don't know enough yet and we will need, once again, to err on the side of safety? This feels like a treadmill that we can never step off.

Why yes, the power mad in government are always going to push fear, to try to keep us under their control.

Which is why they do their best to "spike" any and all treatments for Covid. Since if it's treatable, new variants don't cause nearly as much fear.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

effinayright said...
The idiocy about climate change affecting maple trees is just....idiocy.

The Green Weenies seem not to understand that trees worldwide are THRIVING from the additional CO2--their food---in the air.


Ding ding ding!

Trees breathe in CO2 and breathe out O2. Raising teh concentration helps them grow.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Just in Time's problems leads to "don't outsource your manufacturing to China", which caused me to laugh about this line while reading about George Washington Carver https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver:

By 1920, the U.S. peanut farmers were being undercut by low prices on imported peanuts from the Republic of China. In 1921, peanut farmers and industry representatives planned to appear at Congressional hearings to ask for a tariff

Some things never change

Quaestor said...

My Canadian ex once made for me the worst cocktail in the inner solar system. (There are worse ones on Titan, liquid methane and creme de menthe, for example, known to the natives as a tourist obliterator.) It was a maple leaf -- Lord Calvert and maple syrup. Being anxious not to offend I smiled and even asked for another in case it was one of those acquired taste concoctions. If it was I didn't. Pretty sure the maple leaf is the only drink served in Hell.

I followed your new tag, Althouse. I wish to tell you I was relieved to learn the turd was not slathered in Aunt Jemima, not that I particularly enjoy syrup or pancakes or even breakfast.

Paddy O said...

"No Jew has ever gazed longingly at a 12-foot inflatable reindeer and wished in her heart she had an equally large Moses to display in front of her house."

Just like most folks don't put inflatable Easter bunnies out on Christmas. Wrong holiday for both.

Now an holiday appropriateinflatable menorah, maybe.

MartyH said...

NYT Editorial: “To Protect Abortions Rights, Turn to Elections.” A long time argument against Roe has been that the decision prematurely froze a political debate that could have been solved electorally. Instead, there has been fifty years of fighting over control of the courts. Now that Roe may be in jeopardy, the Times catches up to a decades old conservative position based on a federalist argument.

Leora said...

I am struck by what is missing - Waukesha and the pillaging of retail in major American cities and their suburbs. I can even come up with progressive angles for them - defenses of bail reform despite occasional slip ups, now white areas can suffer like inner city neighborhoods, or even allowing personal automobile use contributes to crime.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Living in a Jewish Region I was surprised to see a giant lighted Menorah made of 6 inch and 4 inch PVC drainpipe. Reindeer, not so much.

Quaestor said...

"Did you ever consider going to WaPo to see if the corner looks the same to you?"

Did. What I saw: An obit for Virgil Abloh, fashion designer and visionary.

What I also saw: A dude, Abloh presumably, with a shaved head, full beard, wearing sunglasses and a tee-shirt.

Visionary. Right.

Mark said...

NYT Editorial: “To Protect Abortions Rights, Turn to Elections.

The leftist elite has accepted the end of Roe as a done deal.

That's a good thing. Less of a reason for another Kennedyesque faction to chicken out as they did in Casey.

Craig Howard said...

"Much of today’s mess was caused by relying on extremely fragile — and extremely long — supply lines“

All of today’s mess was created by safety-obsessed governments shutting down world production for months because of a variant of the flu.

Bilwick said...

"Thomas's idiosyncratic views . . . ." Yes, people who prefer liberty to statism and resist the lure of serfdom are just so WEIRD, ain't they?

Kirk Parker said...


Temujin said... "... All this, and I'm Jewish"

I think I'm going to go sue all my history teachers.

Don M said...

I only read the newspaper syruptitiously.

Gemna said...

I recently saw for sale a Hanukkah Advent Calendar. I figure its really more insulting to Catholicism. Whoever was working on marketing clearly had no idea what Advent is and just thought it meant countdown.

MadisonMan said...

That ice cream recipe that included sitting on the couch: Pure gold!

Achilles said...

Don M said...

I only read the newspaper syruptitiously.

This post requires acknowledgement.