Books for people who don’t read books
The image below is from tonight’s NBC newscast. The lady is part of the family responsible for addicting America to oxycontin. She’s getting grilled by congress. Pretty sure that’s a book backdrop. Someone suggested she might be in the law library of one of her attorneys. Maybe.
Turns out I’m not the only one fascinated by this stuff. (“Rating bookcases, backsplashes and hostage videos since April, 2020.”)
The Happiest Time of the Year
Proof of vaccination
BBC: “International air travellers will in the future need to prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to board Qantas flights, the airline says.
Bloomberg: “The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced Monday that it’s “in the final development phase” of a “digital passport” mobile app that would receive COVID-19 test and vaccination certificates. […] Global airline lobby IATA is working on a mobile app that will help travelers demonstrate their coronavirus-free status, joining a push to introduce so-called Covid passports to speed up the revival of international travel.”
This is certainly a responsible thing to do. But it is also great marketing. When passengers begin asking if the airline requires proof of vaccination, and choosing those that do, it won’t be long before all airlines do this.
Before you enroll your child in school, you have to provide proof of vaccination against common childhood diseases. (Or at least you used to.) When the highway patrolman walks up to your window, he asks for your driver’s license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance. And you better have it.
If you don’t want to wear a mask to protect others during a pandemic, that’s fine (oh, and fuck you). But let’s see how strong your “my body, my choice” convictions are when you can’t get into Arrowhead Stadium (where the KC Chiefs play), or Red Lobster, or the hillbilly casino down the road. It’s gonna be lonely out there for mask-deniers. But hey, you’ve got each other.
My new Zoom background
It’s become a thang to position oneself in front of a wall of books for the zoom session or CNN interview. I’ve decided to go a different direction.
Did Buddy Emmons perform at KBOA?
According to Wikipedia, Buddy Gene Emmons (January 27, 1937 – July 21, 2015) “was an American musician who is widely regarded as the world’s foremost pedal steel guitarist of his day. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981. Affectionately known by the nickname “Big E”, Emmons’ primary genre was American country music, but he also performed jazz and Western swing. He recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Gram Parsons, The Everly Brothers, The Carpenters, Roger Miller, Ernest Tubb, John Hartford, Little Jimmy Dickens, Ray Price, Judy Collins, George Strait, John Sebastian, and Ray Charles and was a widely sought session musician in Nashville and Los Angeles.”
According to a newspaper clipping (Calumet, Illinois) sent to me recently by Brandon Rowe, Emmons performed with one (or more?) bands that made regular “appearances” on KBOA during the early 1950’s.
PS: My favorite line from the article: “Nothing really exciting happened in Kennett that I can remember.”
“False Side Effects”
“If you take 10 million people and just wave your hand back and forth over their upper arms, in the next two months you would expect to see about 4,000 heart attacks. About 4,000 strokes. Over 9,000 new diagnoses of cancer. And about 14,000 of that ten million will die, out of usual all-causes mortality. No one would notice. That’s how many people die and get sick anyway. But if you took those ten million people and gave them a new vaccine instead, there’s a real danger that those heart attacks, cancer diagnoses, and deaths will be attributed to the vaccine. I mean, if you reach a large enough population, you are literally going to have cases where someone gets the vaccine and drops dead the next day (just as they would have if they *didn’t* get the vaccine). It could prove difficult to convince that person’s friends and relatives of that lack of connection, though.”
— Derek Lowe (In The Pipeline)
Not much has changed
The first photo was taken in January of 2020. One of the last times I was in the Coffee Zone. The second photo was taken about a week ago. My life hasn’t really changed all that much. I have discovered a nice strong filter can takes a few years off. And once it was difficult to find a photo of me without a beer in my hand, these days it tends to be a phone.
Pals (2020)
Hattie (or oldest Golden) had a little surgery on Monday. She’s doing fine but has one of those Frankenstein incisions she really wants to scratch. So the hood and the crate for another week. Riley is missing their play sessions and is staying close.
Sure would hate to do this quarantine thing without a couple of good dogs.
Find your place in the vaccine line
Interesting “vaccine tool” from the New York Times.
“Based on (my) risk profile, we believe you’re in line behind 118.5 million people across the United States. When it comes to Missouri, we think you’re behind 2.4 million others who are at higher risk in your state. And in Cole County, you’re behind 31,000 others. If the line in Missouri was represented by about 100 people, this is where you’d be standing:”
