Innocent Bystanders

Departing This Mortal Coil, Miss Moneypenny October 31, 2020

Sad to hear about Sean Connery’s passing (age 90!). While we all know and appreciate his work as James Bond and in The Untouchables, I have special fondness for Zardoz and Robin and Marian. And The Presidio. And Highlander II. And . . .

His voice was one of the most mimicked in media history. All of my attempts at imitating Sean Connery ended with “Miss Moneypenny,” so listeners will know who I was trying to be. Imitations may not be my forte. Fortunately neither I nor my listeners were as pedantic about Sean Connery imitations as Steve Coogan:

Progress on the Border Wall October 27, 2020

If you were curious about how ye olde border wall is doing, here’s a snapshot of its current status (from the US Customs and Border Protection site):

The red is the new wall that’s been built – currently 371 miles have been completed. The black is pre-existing wall.

I was never a fan of the wall, because it seemed much more straightforward and affordable to simply enforce existing employment laws against companies that hire illegal aliens. That eliminates the incentive to enter the country without authorization to work, and gets rid of the schizophrenic law enforcement policy we have, where we let employers slide while throwing the book at the employees.

But, having made the decision to put up the wall, its nice to see that the government isn’t just spinning its wheels and mouthing platitudes – something’s actually happening.

Mini Birthday Hiatus October 23, 2020

Heading up to the mountains to celebrate the passage of my 6th decade next week, so if blogging in the recent past has been light, you can look forward to a week that is simply . . . evanescent.

Funny to think that I was in my early 40s when I first dove into the blogosphere.

At least we can all age together.

Almost Enough Books October 22, 2020

I don’t know anything about architecture but I do love me a good bookstore, so even I was impressed by this Chinese bookstore that appeared recently in The Architectural Digest. Using lighting, mirrors, and some printed images of books, the store designers created this:

Many more cool pics at the link, as well as a more coherent description of how they did it.

Life Imitating Art October 22, 2020

Via H2:

Tesla Finally Admits Model 3 Bumpers Fall Off In Rain And Will Fix The Damage Under Warranty

Retired Geezer posted this video some 6 years ago, but it seems especially relevant now:

Who Does Number 2 Work For? October 21, 2020

From the Unfortunate Headlines File:

After being her own boss, Kamala Harris embraces new role as Biden’s No. 2

When You Just Gotta Pet That Dog October 19, 2020

A little old (~ 7 months), but then, aren’t we all?

Moving the Money Around October 18, 2020

According to the Congressional Budget Office’s October 2 report, the redistribution of income in 2017 (the year before Trump’s tax cuts took effect) looked like this:

After the redistribution, the lowest quintile saw its income raised by 68.5%, while the top quintile lost 25.8%.

Is it fair? I dunno. I don’t really care about fair so long as hard-working people have mobility among the quintiles.

But if you’re going to make it more fair, you have to stop importing people into the bottom quintiles.

Transportation Innovation, Florida-Man Style October 18, 2020

Dean Kamen spent over 7 years developing the Segway to “revolutionize human transportation.”

This fellow spent about 45 seconds developing his version:

The Segway stopped production in June, BTW.

Effin’ Coca-Cola Company October 17, 2020

I’ll be in mourning over the never-to-be-purchased-from-again company’s decision to kill off Tab, which has been my primary drink for 40 years. Haven’t been able to get any since Covid reared its ugly head, but I had hoped that production would resume after the pandemic was under control.

Now I have to live a gray, meaningless life. Even if Biden doesn’t get elected.

Missed It By That Much October 15, 2020

Let’s Get Small October 13, 2020

The annual Nikon Photomicrography Competition has just finished, with 88 entries shown at the site. They’re all worth a gander, but here are a couple of my faves: