Skip to main content

GRACE SLICK, BREXIT AGAIN, SELF CHECKOUT, AND MORE: #18

 

 


GRACE SLICK

I just listened again to Volunteers, the last Jefferson Airplane album with the 'classic' lineup. 1969. Perfect. Sometimes sloppy. Sometimes over dramatic. But perfect.

And Grace Slick. Grace. Slick. Perfect.

BREXIT & CONSERVATISM

Except for the 30% or so who've drunk the Kool-Aid, can we all agree that Brexit is not working out as advertised? And that the Republican Party in the USofA has sold its soul to a cadre of authoritarians who think they are the true small-d-democrats but who don't want everybody to have a vote and won't abide by a vote that they don't like? How did it happen that, in the name of political conservatism, two countries put into power incompetent leaders financed by greedy elites?

And I just read that Michael Gove thinks that Liz Truss is toast because her agenda has been shredded. Whose agenda has been shredded more thoroughly than Gove’s and why would any thinking person be interested in his opinions except to listen carefully and then run screaming in the opposite direction?

EDIT: Truss has resigned.That didn't take long, did it? So maybe Gove was right. Well, even a broken clock...

EDIT 2: Boris again? Really? The Whack-a-Mole PM!

PODOKESAURUS HOLYOKENSIS 


You are looking at the new official state dinosaur of Massachusetts. Seriously. Won with 60% of the online vote over the losing dinosaur. Signed into law by the governor. If you thought that American politics were no joke, think again.

HUNTING IN FRANCE

Every time hunting season rolls around in France, folks on social media get their knickers in a twist. Some people just can't get their head around rural life. Folks hunt for food. Folks hunt to protect their crops. Folks hunt. And like what happens in just about any human endeavor, sometimes folks who shouldn't be hunting hunt. And they hunt badly. Dangerously. Tragically dangerously.

In the news right now is one such tragedy. A woman, a British woman living in France with a French partner, was shot and killed by that partner in an accident. Oddly enough, that seems to be a theme of such hunting accidents in France. The victim knew the shooter well. So maybe it shouldn't be the people who live near the hunters who should worry. Maybe the people who live with the hunters should.

SELF CHECKOUT

Why do folks who rant about self checkout at their grocery store have no problem pumping their own gas? Asking for a friend…from New Jersey.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

RESTAURANT TEN, UZES: RESTAURANT REVIEW

Ten sits just off the market square in Uzes, one of the prettiest villages in southern France. The newly renovated space is airy and comfortable with tables of sufficient size and sufficiently spaced to provide for a pleasant dining experience. Service was cheerful, fully bilingual, and attentive without being overbearing. The food presented well to both eye and tongue. And the rate of approximately 30 € per person for a party of five included starters, mains, a dessert or two, two bottles of local wine, and coffees at the finish. Reasonable if not cheap eats.  So why am I hesitant to give an unqualified thumbs up?  It took me a while to figure it out. Uzes is a quintessentially French village in a quintessentially French region of southern France. There are those who will say that the Languedoc is just as beautiful but less crowded and less expensive than its eastern neighbors. I know. I'm one of those people. But the fact remains that for many people, villages like Uzes are t

CONGRATULATIONS, DUNCAN AND FIONA: JUNE 1, 2019

We've known Duncan since he was about 5 and were honored to be invited to all of the festivities surrounding his wedding to Fiona. The wedding was held in a magazine converted to a military museum in Gosport. Duncan's dream...a wedding in a place where they used to blow things up. I've never been around so many uniforms. Live Long and Prosper! A kiss was the price to continue... That's Duncan's sister Clair arriving on the right. Grandparents...headed for 100 and sharp as tacks. Reception in an old magazine/museum. Mom baked the cake and made the ducks to order. Not from the wedding but seemed appropriate.

2004 BURGMAN 400 SPARK PLUG CHANGE

No, there won't be a video. Changing the spark plug was a relatively simple operation except for the fact that it was the first time that I took off any of my plastics. If you want a video tutorial, they're all over YouTube. I watched one before I got started AND I took my laptop into the garage and punched up the service manual. You can't be too prepared. And being prepared meant knowing that the fasteners holding the plastics together are likely to break when you mess with them. That's why I went to a dealer and picked up six before I started. Worked out well. Four broke. While I was buying parts, I made certain that I had all that I needed for my next oil change. And of course, I bought the plug, an NGK CR7E. The manual says to replace the plug every 7,500 miles. It's been a bit over 6,500. Close enough. My intention is to change the plug at every other oil change. The object of the exercise is to remove the left side leg shield to get at the spark plug. So,