The Wish Book

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International Business Times: “Sears and Kmart filed for bankruptcy in October 2018 and were able to stave off another bankruptcy filing during the pandemic as sales lagged and foot traffic waned. But now the retailer is facing a new series of financial troubles.”

My mom and her family (farmers) called the Sears “mail order catalog” the “wish book.” Children on the farm or in small towns would begin paging through the toy section in the months leading up to Christmas, circling toys they wanted Santa to bring them. Today, I assume, they have and app — many apps — for that.

Growing up in the ’50s in a small town, the selection of toys was slim. Don’t recall it seeming so at the time but there were a couple of “ten cent stores” or “five-and-dime stores” but they could only stock so much. No, the Sears catalog was the motherlode.

While reminiscing on this today I found myself wondering, how did we order something? Toll-free numbers didn’t come along until 1967! Long distance calls were expensive and the idea of placing an order by phone was laughable.

I think the catalog had a bunch of blank order forms and you filled these out, included a personal check (money order?) and put it in the mail.

Weeks later (months?) the items would be delivered by the “mail man” or UPS, although I don’t recall getting many “parcel post” deliveries in those days.

And we thought nothing about going through this process. It was this or take whatever you cold find on the shelves of local stores (remember them?)

What we have today? Literally unimaginable (for me). The Sears catalog was replaced the internet and websites and the entire chain was doomed long ago. And you something? My toys don’t mean quite as much as they did back then.

“I prefer the term, Synthetic Person”

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It’s impossible for me watch this and not believe we’ll see a day when it will be nearly impossible to distinguish between the best robots and humans. Oh sure, you be able Turing Test them and know which is which. But they don’t need to be human like to be very useful to humans.

Could one of these clean the hospital room of a COVID patient? Disarm that camper bomb in Nashville? Will one of these guys take me upstairs to my office when I’m no longer able to climb the stairs.

You an go all RoboCop and Terminator on this but I choose to believe we’ll find more good uses than bad. And perhaps the Boston Dynamics guys can build in some failsafes for when they’re misused.

PS: This video has been viewed almost 9 million times in the last 24 hours.

Cult of Ignorance

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“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means the “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

— Isaac Asimov

The Beatles: Get Back

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Peter Jackson has released a “sneak peek” at his COVID-delayed documentary, The Beatles: Get Back. He stresses this is not a trailer or a sequence, rather a “montage” to give you a feel for “the spirit” of the film. Can’t imagine where or how he come up with 56 hours of “never before seen” footage of the band.

The Beatles hit the U.S. airwaves in February of 1964 (“I Want to Hold Your Hand”). I was a sophomore in high school and I won’t even try to tell you want a big deal this was. Nothing even close in the 50+ years since.

The Beatles broke up in 1969 so they provided the soundtrack for my high school and college years. I am really looking forward to this documentary. PS: It sure looks like they were having fun.

Books for people who don’t read books

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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.”)

Proof of vaccination

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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.