Whipped Cream Difficulties

My wife once asked me to help my daughter with the perspective on a diorama she was making for school.

I said, "Maddy, in 20 years nobody will give a shit about your diorama" https://t.co/cMpmFrmgmy

— Robert Kroese (@robkroese) September 23, 2021

Apropos of nothing in particular:

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

–G. K. Chesterton, The Thing

They are talking like we’re going to get near apocalyptic rain later on today.

That’s a good thing. Maybe it will wash all this damn dust out of the air.

Tyler “Marginal Revolution” Cowen interviews Dave “Goat Boogers” Barry.

Link goes to the transcript on Medium, which is an annoying site, but I don’t have time to listen to any more podcasts than I already do. The conversation is actually surprisingly serious, for a guy as funny as Dave Barry is.

Apparently (I did not know this) there’s a whole series of “Conversations With Tyler” podcasts where he’s been interviewing some interesting folks: Atul Gawande, Fuchsia Dunlop (“She joined Tyler over dinner at one of his favorite restaurants in DC…” Sold!), and coming up, Mary “Stiff” Roach.

Kim Jong-nam Died of Heart Failure, North Korea Suggests

“Heart failure,” MacAdoo said in an almost sorrowful tone.
“Heart seizure,” Haere said automatically.
“What’s the difference?”
‘Everyone dies of heart failure.”

–Ross Thomas, Missionary Stew

‘Hog Apocalypse’: Texas has a new weapon in its war on feral pigs. It’s not pretty.

I have no joke here. I just want to embed this:

Two stories related to the declining fortunes of the retail industry that I thought were worth noting:

1. Sears is selling off the Craftsman tool brand. My dad did all of his own auto and home maintenance, and he swore by his Craftsman tools. And why not: they had a lifetime warranty, no questions asked. (I remember going with him to a Sears at one point to exchange a socket wrench: he was trying to get a rusted bolt on a truck bumper unstuck, as I recall, and was using a length of pipe to get additional leverage. The wrench snapped in half before the bolt gave. And Sears didn’t even ask any questions. They just gave him a replacement socket wrench.)

But I haven’t been in a Sears store for years, and I’m not even sure that they still have the lifetime warranty on Craftsman tools. I’m not sure what my dad would be doing now: perhaps purchasing Snap-On instead, as I think they’ve become a little more available now. (You kind of had to know people in the 70s and early 80s, or work professionally as a mechanic, to get Snap-On tools.) This looks like a quick attempt at a cash infusion to prop up a dying company.

2) Macy’s is laying off 10,000 people. And they’re closing three stores in Houston, including the one at Greenspoint Mall.

When I was a teenager, I spent a fair amount of time at Greenspoint Mall, and I (well, my family and I) shopped at the Foley’s.

Note I said “the Foley’s”. Not “the Macy’s”. Foley’s was a beloved regional brand that Macy’s bought and which they have proceeded to run into the ground.

Granted, it is hard to do retail these days, and it is hard to run a mall. Especially Greenspoint, which has changed considerably since my teenage years. (I have heard that it is now commonly nicknamed “Gunspoint Mall”.) As Mike the Musicologist, who is also familiar with the area, said when I informed him, “… seeing what’s become of Greenspoint and West Oaks, the better question is ‘What took you so long?'”

Maybe sometime real soon now, they can use what’s left of Greenspoint to film the big chase scene in that all-female remake of “The Blues Brothers”. I remember there being lots of space in that mall.

The Leonard Cohen obit will probably go up some time tomorrow. The news is breaking and I want to give it time to settle.

No particular reason. Just feel like it.

This may be my new favorite blog.

I hate being silent for two days straight, but I don’t have any thing I feel is worth writing about.

The Chris Christie thing is now being covered by everyone else in the world. I don’t have anything new to add, or anything more to say, about the gun show thing; there’s going to be a Saxet show this month per the existing contract, and Premier is going to have shows in Cedar Park during April and June. I’m frankly a little burned out on this fight, and I’m not sure what else we can do. (“If voting could change the system, it wouldn’t be legal.”)

More than anything else, I’m just feeling cranky and upset and tired and depressed. I think part of it is the season and part of it is the weather. I don’t know. I’m having trouble concentrating on stuff: I’m still trying to write the King of Sports review and do coursework, but both are struggles.

Maybe I just need a weekend. One more day to go.

I’ve quoted these lines from Ian Frazier’s On the Rez before. For reasons I can’t really explain, they have a special resonance for me. It seems appropriate to quote them again now.

If I had a film of SuAnne at Lead (as far as I know, no such film exists) I would study it in slow motion frame by frame. There’s a magic in what she did, along with the promise that public acts of courage are still alive out there somewhere. Mostly, I would run the film of SuAnne again and again for my own braveheart song. I refer to her, as I do to Crazy Horse, for proof that it’s a public service to be brave.

It’s a public service to be brave. Even if you don’t believe you are.