Seasonal allergies may be associated with mood disorders like anxiety or depression, according to The New York Times.
Huh. And here I’d thought my mood had become disordered due to the pain in my ass, an ailment I contracted from reading The New York Times.
I shouldn’t pick on The Ould Gray Hoor here. Anxiety, depression, and ass pain can be acquired just about anywhere, from the lowliest blog (thanks for reading) to the self-anointed Newspaper of Record.
Lately we are presented with a sitting president going all Oprah on his studio audience — Look under your seats! Debt forgiveness for you! No arms for them! — and his predecessor snoozing through court dates, occasionally waking to flash the stink-eye around the room or curse a porn-star paramour. A third candidate for the job has a brain worm, a slow, underhand pitch not even I can take a swing at.
Two rappers are said to be “beefing,” which seems to mean “talking shit about each other from a safe distance.” You’d think these two gents might bump into each other at some social event, like the Met Gala — which is still getting coverage three days later — and then what? An X-slap followed by a virtual duel? Mics at 10 paces?
Speaking of talking shit, slaps, and mics, the House of Reprehensibles gave the back of the hand it wasn’t using to write the Liberty in Laundry Act, the Refrigerator Freedom Act, and the Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act (HOOHAA) to the Creature from the White Lagoon for trying to topple Squeaker Mikey Mouse (hey, if you can’t legislate, defenestrate). MTG couldn’t even get the window cracked, much less toss Mikey out of it. Nevertheless she drew reporters like a dead dog draws … well, reporters. (Hi, Kristi Noem!)
Shoot, we can’t even get a new iPad without drama. Not that I want one.
When not blowing my nose or shifting uncomfortably in my chair I wonder whether in the race to become all things to all people at all times the media have become “a dildo that has turned berserkly upon its owner,” to misuse a Thomas McGuane quote.
McGuane was talking about America. And in some small sense, I suppose, so am I. Back to you, Chet.
Mad Blog Media 
So Apple advertising executives are finding inspiration in the “Will it Blend?” Web video series?
Demonstrating man’s inhumanity to man, how the patriarchy is everywhere, cultural insensitivity of westerners, the rot of progress for the sake of progress, planned obsolescence, the Peter Principal, and the further degradation of the American attention span, all in a 30 second commercial
You ever get the feeling that A.I. has already taken over? It feels a little chilly here in MeatWorld lately.
Other than being an informed voter, which doesn’t take reading the news everyday, I am close to taking Mr. Prine’s advice.
I miss reading the news, by which I mean the news as it used to be. More or less one serving at a time. It all had to fit in one newspaper, one hour of TV news, a few minutes between the hits on the radio. But this Internet is bottomless. Ain’t no filling that infinite bowl, so they shovel everything into it and holler for more.
I think you could listen to the NPR hourly newscast a couple times a day, then check their website along with AP, Rueters, CBC, and BBC in the evening and be informed, not disinformed, on anything that happened that day worth knowing. I check Frontline on PBS for in depth investigative reporting for things I am really interested in.
Apple iPads? It’s just and ad for crying out loud. Goddamn people are fucking touchy these days. Must have been a social media “influencer”, which is newspeak for a salesperson, that stirred that foolishness up. Influencer my ass. Gotta run because the local spa is going to dip me into total body deodorant. Saw it on youtube so it must be good. Yea, kinda like sheep, heh?
They should take dumpster and throw the muhfugger into a vat of truth serum. Let him soak for a day or two, put a microphone in front of him, and then tell him he’s on national TV. That would be good for a few giggles.
Actually got a new guitar, so gotta run to a jam.
I dunno, Paddy me lad. NPR these days seems heavy on features, light on news. Can’t blame ’em — like everyone else, they’re casting a wide loop, trying to corral a new herd, the Old White People (and their affiliate support) growing ever more scarce.
The iPad furor is mildly amusing. Mustn’t upset The Creatives. Coffee shops across the nation are alive with the sound of Revolution. Or at least frantic typing between lattes.
More thoughts on this topic from John Gruber at Daring Fireball.
Ah yes. The news the way it used to be. Real, genuine and honest. But now the beancounters have too much control over the media wand and our fine capitalist driven society supports what we shall be fed. It’s not surprising that civilization falls and is replaced. I’d be sad to think about what the youth must face, but it’s funny because all the youth of those earlier civilizations had to face it as well.
Quod in futurum est, veniet.
A new guitar though ! Now that be news !
News organizations not only misread the existential threat posed by the Internet, they failed to prepare themselves for a changing societal demographic. Now everyone and his granny flails in search of a new audience and their dollars.
But the decline actually began sooner than that, with the arrival of the 24-hour news cycle and outfits like CNN. Used to be that the TV nitwits took their guidance from newspapers, the rip-and-read being commonplace in local markets with understaffed/nonexistent TV news staffs. When newspapers started having CNN on 24/7 in their newsrooms, the dynamic shifted, and not for the better. The birth in 1982 of USA Today, a.k.a. McPaper, gave us an early look at where the “real” newspapers were headed.
It’s a Taylor 512ce Urban Ironbark. Urban Ironbark is a wood that Taylor is getting from an arborist that maintains trees in large California cities.
Another new git-fiddle? You remind me of a certain someone with a bicycle fetish. How d’ye like it so far?
It is much more than I deserve. It has tone to die for, plays so easy, and has lots of bling.
I had a Rainsong Parlor that I truly hated. It was an impulse buy, and you know those rarely work out. And, Sandy recently got a bit of a windfall from her Mother’s estate. She says to me, “let’s go up to Rainbow Guitars and you can trade that Parlor for something you want.” I said OK. We get there and she says “get what you want.”. I played 4 candidates and then brought the Taylor home. What a lady, heh?
Mr. O’Brien, She is indeed a fine lady.
Although I do enjoy bikes, I must admit that I’d rather sit back and listen to some nice acoustic licks then sit back and watch somebody ride a classic Italian bike. Well at least almost. I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to ride along with and chat with Penelope Cruz riding a fine Italian bike or similar. Now that would be some music.
But when it comes to that nice Taylor, I recalled seeing Hayden Pedigo playing something similar on Tiny Desk. He plays the Taylor for his second song “Carthage”.
https://www.npr.org/2023/11/13/1211880682/hayden-pedigo-tiny-desk-concert
That’s how one of the guys I ride with got his new Trek. He’d been rocking a model three decades old, the wife came into a bit of money from a kinsman’s estate, and she said, “Go wild, hon’.” He kept it under $4K, which I call reasonable, and it wasn’t an impulse buy (you’re right, they rarely work out).
Herself got an unexpected raise the other day, and I suggested she spend a chunk of it on something fun. So she upgraded her ticket for an upcoming trip. A little elbow room and a direct flight? Priceless.
Good karma is coming your way for suggesting something fun for Herself. She is right, direct flights and more room are the way to go.
We have no desire to fly anymore, but if we have to it will be first class. I never have, but Sandy has.
USA Today. All glitz and fuzzy details. It did have a pretty weather section though. The “did” part indicating that I haven’t bothered to review the current version. I recall CNN turned on in just about every US airport blabbering, and blabbering, and… I’m sure one of my Hells will include CNN on multiple screens. At least at that time most of us were being brainwashed the same news. Now it’s clusterfuck news absorption. ”What did you learn today boys and girls on the multitude of endless internet sources today?”. But as Mr. O’Brien indicates, some of us interested in the real story have our multiple target news sources. More than one to insure that we are getting the entire story and not just the Dan Rather one. Of course one needs to include fox online so that we can periodically be refreshed of what one of our other Hells is like.
Word, Shawn. Multiple sources combined with critical thinking is required to get the real story. And, word Patrick. the “real news” used to have journalists that would do that for us and distill it down to an easily digestible product that you could usually trust. That was the corps of professional journalists. Nobody wants to pay for it anymore; most people don’t value it anymore.
As far as Mr. Gruber’s piece, he seemed more interested in the business side of that ad. In my simple mind, it was just an ad, nothing more. Either buy the new pad, or don’t. Boy, I would love to hear George Carlin riff on this bullshit!
Pat: You nailed it! Critical thinking! Looking at several sources of info and then doing the tough mental gymnastics of determining what portions, if any, of them you can use to form your view.
Lots of places (universities, for profits, etc.) that allegedly teach that; but it takes critical thinking to sort the wheat from the chaff as to which are valid.
The snake eats its tail?