On this day in 1948 Shirley Jackson’s short story The Lottery was published in The New Yorker. You can download it as a PDF here. Handle with care.
Stay healthy and safe.
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“Hey Siri, turn off all of my alarms.”
“I turned off all your alarms.”
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The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.
It feels strange to go someplace like a local coffee shop without wearing a mask. It’s nice, but strange.
Stay healthy and safe.
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.
Someone asked me recently what I was going to do with this site once the pandemic was over. The short answer is I plan to keep updating it, although I may change the name. I enjoy maintaining it. It only takes about 30 minutes a day and it’s a nice break between the workday and the evening. People enjoy it, and I like giving people something they enjoy.
The more important part of the question to consider is when the pandemic will be over. For me and my immediate circle of family and friends, I can make the case that it is, barring some new variant that’s not covered by the current vaccines. I’ve stopped wearing a mask when I go out unless my destination requires one. I think regular weekend get-togethers with friends will start again soon. I expect to participate in large family gatherings for Christmas this year.
On the other hand, much of the world remains in crisis and parts of this country with low vaccination rates are still at high risk. We’re still dealing with this and it’s important that I recognize that, even as my life slowly returns to normal (whatever that is). So I’ll be here for the foreseeable future.
Stay healthy and safe.
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.
I’m having five trees removed from my front yard. Four of them are junk, including two Bradford pears. The fifth is a nice looking river birch that’s too close to the house. Its root system is starting to interfere with the sidewalk and would eventually start messing with the foundation. I hate to lose it, but I have three other river birches in the yard to enjoy. (Yes, there are a lot of trees in the yard.)
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The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.
Yesterday was the summer solstice. Today we’re under a severe thunderstorm watch. It looks like it’ll pass north of me.
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The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.
I hope everyone had a great Father’s Day.
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The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.
My replacement printer toner cartridge arrived yesterday. I installed it today and the printer seems to be working fine. Of course the old cartridge leaked toner all over the place as I removed it and the first five or so pages I printed had toner smudges all over them from where the old cartridge had leaked inside the printer, but that’s life. I still hate printers.
Stay healthy and safe.
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.
I came across this passage from Ethics, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and wanted to share it.
For the tyrannical despiser of men popularity is the token of the highest love of mankind. His secret profound mistrust for all human beings he conceals behind words stolen from a true community. In the presence of the crowd he professes to be one of their number, and at the same time he sings his own praises with the most revolting vanity and scorns the rights of every individual. He thinks people stupid, and they become stupid. He thinks them weak, and they become weak. He thinks them criminal, and they become criminal. His most sacred earnestness is a frivolous game. His hearty and worthy solicitude is the most impudent cynicism. In his profound contempt for his fellow-men he seeks the favor of those whom he despises, and the more he does so the more certainly he promotes the deification of his own person by the mob. Contempt for man and idolization of man are close neighbors. But the good man too, no less than the wicked, succumbs to the same temptation to be a despiser of mankind if he sees through all this and withdraws in disgust, leaving his fellow-men to their own devices, and if he prefers to mind his own business rather than to debase himself in public life. Of course, his contempt for mankind is more respectable and upright, but it is also more barren and ineffectual. In the face of God’s becoming man the good man’s contemptuous attitude cannot be maintained, any more than can the tyrant’s. The despiser of men despises what God has loved. Indeed he despises even the figure of the God who has become man.
From Ethics, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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Happy 79th birthday, Paul McCartney.
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.
Frank Bonner Dead: ‘WKRP In Cincinnati’ Star Was 79 – Variety
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Definition and Examples of Mondegreens
The entire Song of the Day playlist is available on YouTube.