W for weird

 All the lights went out say 20-30 minutes ago. Noticed it first in my apartment of course, but then looked out the window and saw that the rest of the street was dark too, street lights included. But not the whole city, although that happened a few years ago. There was an electric company truck on the street, so I don't know if this was planned. Anyway, a few minutes ago we got power back.

Had been thinking of another topic for a blog post, but it was already getting kind of late for that one. In fact I was about to go to bed when we got the lights back. I figured I'd document that strange mini-blackout anyway.

Quartet of 4

 

Possibly the first in a series on bands where all the members do lead vocals some of the time. See how things develop.

Anyway, the Beatles. Maybe you've heard of them. Their achievements are multiple. They kickstarted the British Invasion, of course. They promoted the idea of rock music as a subject worthy of academic study, for better or worse. 

And in a real sense they invented the rock group. As talented as they may have been, the Crickets in the public mind were Buddy Holly and some other guys. Not so the Beatles. There were John and Paul, George and Ringo, and any one of them might have been your favorite. Young Marge Bouvier idolized Ringo before she became a Simpson. Bands since then have followed suit. Not all try to make everyone the front man. And lineups aren't stable. But since the mid-sixties, listeners have been more aware that there is a lineup, each member playing their part.

As I've mentioned, I have an interest in alternate history and timelines. You can apply this to popular music history. Phil Ochs or, say, Tom Paxton might have gone electric at a folk festival, although I don't think either would have been as fun as Dylan. And while he later became more of a country star, Conway Twitty had a lot of qualities that could have made him Elvis if Elvis hadn't been Elvis.

On this level the Beatles both interest and frustrate me, because I can't think of a sensible alt for them. Remember, all the things they did, and no other candidate immediately present themselves. The Rolling Stones and the Kinks did great things in their own way, but neither existed in any recognizable form before the Fab Four broke through. Britain mainly had a lot of working beat groups, some good, but not visionary in the way they were. Which makes them necessary and sui generis.

The difference between sex and death is, with death you can do it alone and nobody's going to make fun of you.

 The court of public opinion doesn't really do acquittals. Maybe it once did, although not that often. Now the 24/7 news cycle and Twitter have pretty much made it a non-option.

Being a liberal used to mean staying open to the possibility that the accused were innocent. I can't be the only one who remembers insisting to rightish relatives and/or coworkers that you should let even accused drug dealers and murderers see the inside of a courtroom before you string them up. But that's another one of those liberal values that seem to have fallen by the wayside.

Woody Allen faced some pretty serious accusations in the nineties in regards to his daughter Dylan Farrow. He seemed to get off with at least a hung jury, partly because even in the midst of a bitter breakup with Mia (not technically a divorce since they were never married) no one could find enough evidence to actually charge him.

A reversal started a few years ago. I've always wondered if certain parallels between his and Mia's story and the backstory of the Cate Blanchett character in Blue Jasmine might have riled her and two of their children up. In any case now comes the HBO documentary detailed in Rosenfield's article.

One of the producers has been quoted as saying, "You can believe the survivors" in campus sex crime cases. And the "always believe the victim" line has started to become something of a standard. You can see the appeal. Doubt doesn't feel good, especially when it's about something serious. Certainty feels good, and the human mind is geared to find it. But certainty without any basis except for moral fervor is almost bound to lead you down the wrong path.

In practical terms, Allen―who's always been funny in both the positive and negative senses of the word―will be fine. He can continue in his diminished filmmaking career, and the number of actors who've publicly denounced him might even mean he can have more confidence in the ones who'll still work with him. Maybe that in itself bothers you, but it's better not to jump to conclusions.

On second look

 Okay, so the past couple of days I've had a problem with Word. The vertical scroll bar seemed to have disappeared. Sounds maybe like a small annoyance, but makes it very difficult to work. And it was frustrating because I checked and double-checked my settings. The bar very definitely should have been there.

I was wondering if I'd have to do something like do an online repair, or more drastically to reinstall Microsoft Office. Then I noticed that the red X in the corner that you click on wasn't quite all showing either. It turned out that the scroll bar was still there, I just had the window misaligned so that the rightward edge wasn't showing.

Ruefully I recall that this is what IT workers call an ID10T problem.

Blanched

 

Well, apparently the above is actually a real thing, as detailed here and elsewhere.  I have three responses.

1. Reflecting on your actions and attitudes is productive. Reflecting on your whiteness doesn't really seem to be.

2. There have always been nutty theories and there always will be. So the existence of charts like this doesn't bother me in itself. But of late people seem to have been confusing somebody's contentious doctoral thesis with real life. Also, is this actually supposed to be going to kids?

3. Hesse is overcounting. Sex and the City taught us that there are only four white identities. I say that as a confirmed Miranda.

Be of stoat heart

 Warning: Video is about a predator species. Things might get vicious. Especially if you're a rabbit lover. 

Stoats are pretty wild. Their movements are almost serpentine, despite the fact that they have four feet. It's like watching a snake with fur.

Second warning: The narrator pronounces it "stauts." Don't know if he's Canadian, but the pronunciation could drive you mad.

sounds

 I was just on Wikipedia researching for a joke (I know, and the joke isn't even ready yet) and I figured just for the hell of it I'd look at the Russian version of the article I was skimming. One of the words in the name started with "Bc". Or rather "Вс", which are the Cyrillic equivalents of v and s. These consonant sounds that an English speaker would never start a word with unless there was a vowel between. Much more difficult for us than "sv", which is also a rarity in English, although we use "svelte." Which goes to show that there's some wide and strange variety even within the general Indo-European family.

Lemmingly

The idea of lemmings regularly committing mass suicide has never really made a lot of sense, of course. Not from an evolutionary perspective, certainly. Most species have enough external challenges to their survival without collectively dropping the hammer on their own existence. So the fact that much of this stereotype was promoted by a Disney snuff film is horrifying, but not that surprising. 

It's an enduring impression, though. There was even a theatrical hit in the early 1970s, National Lampoon's Lemmings, that reflected this myth and projected it onto youth culture. Was a big break for John Belushi and Chevy Chase, so go figure.

Feets don't fail me now

 Finally bought a new pair of boots on Monday. The ones I'd been wearing were in pretty ratty shape, so it was definitely time. Would have been nice if I could get a pair without laces, but for some reason those seem to be reserved for men with smaller feet, and women. Still, nice to have my feet a little warmer in these months.

Hopefully will have time for more thinkpiece-y posts in a few days.

Ooooh that smell

 Just started a temp job that will last until the start of next week. Coworkers are nice, to a pleasantly surprising extent. The workspace is filled with fruit, much of it dipped in chocolate. Enough so that there's a constant smell of chocolate in the air. The aroma actually followed me home, noticeable for a few hours after I left. There are worse things.

Story within story

 While reading day to day on news stories I guess I gravitate to stuff that rings true to my worldview. That's close to universal. Up to a point it's fine

When seeking out nonfiction books, though, I try to get away from my opinions. Or anyone's opinions, really, in the political sense. I have interests, but want to be presented with knowledge I haven't formed an opinion on. 

One book I'm currently reading is Narratives of Human Evolution by Misia Landau. It takes a look at early writings on human evolution by Darwin and his contemporaries, as well as the first generation influenced by them, through the lens of story. Vladimir Propp who identified recurring elements of Russian folk tales, is one influence. Landau's thesis is basically that Darwin, and some others, made sense of the fossil record of humanity's evolution by weaving a tale of a hero questing and overcoming obstacles. It's just one view, but an interesting one.

There's also a little on the Piltdown Man hoax, which wound up embarrassing a lot of people but was educational in its own way.

How they make sausage

 If you've been sitting at the poker table for five minutes and you don't know who the sucker is, you're the sucker.

Watching something like Marjorie Taylor Greene being stripped of her committee assignments can be entertaining and educational. But if you believe everything you're told about it, see above. 

In the wake of Our Brief National Nightmare on January 6, Democrats feel the need to make an example. Someone's head has to roll, and it has to be someone on the other side. Despite his already having vacated the office, the second impeachment of Donald Trump grinds on. But the odds of two thirds an evenly divided Senate voting to convict lie somewhere between "nonexistent" and "hilarious." Similarly, removing Ted Cruz and or Josh Hawley from the upper chamber is a non-starter. AOC's wild accusations give her a hold on her own tribe but they don't work on anyone else, and there's no legal case to speak of.

So Greene it is. There's no to convict, just to register disapproval. She makes it easy enough. But the idea that she poses a unique threat in the history of Congress doesn't hold water. Not when you recall that the House of Representatives recently held Allen West, a bullethead xenophobe discharged from the Army for torturing a foreign prisoner. West lost his seat to reapportionment after one term, but frothing lunatic Bob Dornan held on for quite a bit longer. Those are the Republicans. Democrats tend to be Lawful Evil rather than Chaotic Evil like the GOP, so they make for fewer splashy examples.

And Greene isn't really a QAnon lunatic. By the preponderance of evidence she's a huckster, one who found it useful to curry favor with the online cult for a time, but now that time is over. Having just been handed more free time by the House majority, it sounds a lot like she'll be making plans to run for President in '24, which will also be a huge grift. That's not the same as an assault on the commonwealth.

Ambrose Bierce defined "politics" as "A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles." Now's not a good time to forget that.

The merry merry month of February

 Interesting background here on the month we're currently in. The name derives from a Latin term for purification, I suppose before spring and its various festivals. Pagan and Christian Rome would have had this in common. 

One strange aspect is that, "January and February were the last months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period." The late addition of those two months stands to reason, what with September through October bearing the numbers 7 through 10. But the reasoning that winter had previously been considered a "monthless period"? How were they defining "month"?

Nor'easter birds

 As predicted, we did get snow today. A pretty substantial fall, if not the two feet they were saying New York could get. 

One thing about snowstorms is that they frequently turn the sky bright white, even in the evening. That happened today, making it even easier to see a large murder of crows flying together over the rooftops. Which got me to thinking about how birds like crows handle winter weather like this. Apparently the answer is that this way and that, they do all right. This is nice to know. 

Also there was a marabou stork in a bathroom somewhere. Hope everyone knew about that one before they walked in.