December 24, 2022

Merry Christmas, Darling.

This is video from the 1978 special dubbed with the vocals from the original 1970 single. Not sure which I prefer, but of course anything that Karen sings is all right with me!

-- Mal

December 23, 2022

The Immaculate Reception: Raiders game film.

This footage had been "lost" for many years until it showed up in Peyton Manning's hands. Love to know the story about how that happened, but in any event, this is conclusive evidence that Franco Harris cleanly caught the ball (it wasn't even close to hitting the ground), and pretty solid circumstantial evidence that it did, in fact, bounce off Jack Tatum.

For those who haven't seen it:

&t=1s

-- Mal

October 11, 2022

My god, that bullpen sucked.

I don't follow baseball anymore, but the waiting room in the doctor's office had the NL game on, and I got to see the beginning of the Phillies almost throwing away a 7-1 lead. Ah, the memories! It seems like some things never change.

-- Mal

October 6, 2022

Every Mom in 1964:

"You can't have Beatle boots, they'll ruin your feet!"

Also every Mom in 1964:
"Oh, look at the lovely 4-inch stiletto heel shoes!"

-- Mal

August 31, 2022

"Mar a Largo may be the biggest dead-drop in the history of espionage."

I find Beau's struggle to maintain calm restraint in this video even more telling than the ones in which he appears openly a little irritated. Clearly, he'd like to start screaming and breaking things.

But that line about Mar-a-Largo is priceless.

-- Mal

August 28, 2022

The Double-Ear-Worm.

My latest earworm is Herman's Hermits, "No Milk Today," but with a twist. There's a five-note phrase in the song which is identical to one in Chicago's "Saturday in the Park," and whenever my brain starts singing the first, it switches to the second when it reaches that point.

Not the first time this has happened (there are, after all, only so many notes to go around), but now I can't think of one without thinking of the other.

-- Mal

June 25, 2022

Unpack the Court, end the filibuster.

It doesn't take a genius to see that these are the two short-term tactics Congress could take to stop the rising tide of reactionary totalitarianism. But there is a problem: the Democrats do not have a reliable majority in the Senate to take such actions.

The argument "if we do it to them, then they will do it to us" is specious. They could always have done it to us, they just have not found it necessary. Before you say "Aha, then it is foolish of us to make it necessary," you should remember that they're already getting their way in all things, so letting them continue to get their way without a struggle is equally foolish.

Perhaps it would be well if the Democrats could grasp the slender power they now have, and make things so much better thereby that the voters will endorse them in future elections, rather than reject them as impotent.

-- Mal

June 25, 2022

"A pregnant woman has no rights the country is bound to respect."

Once the States get around to criminalizing abortion (and miscarriage, and all the rest), we will be faced with a Constitutional and jurisdictional crisis that will put the Fugitive Slave Laws to shame. The shade of Mr Justice Taney speaks above, from Dred Scott, if you didn't learn that in school.

And if the radicals get their way, make no mistake, we might as well just strike the "pregnant" from that statement.

-- Mal

June 25, 2022

To hell with Lysistrata.

Women who live in states that criminalize their reproductive rights should just move out. We should set up a fund to help all those who seek asylum from their own State governments.

-- Mal