Month: July 2025
01AUG2025 – Quote of the Day
The Raven
…
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,
Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.
“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something at my window lattice:
Let me see, then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore-
Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore;-
‘Tis the wind and nothing more!”
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore;
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door-
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door-
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore.
“Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,” I said, “art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore-
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night’s Plutonian shore!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
…
Edgar Allan Poe
Guest Contributor – ArthurinCali – 31JUL2025 – Sydney Sweeney Redux
One angle about the whole “SS Hitler” affair is how weird it is to feign outrage at a clothing company over the perception that the ads are mainly targeting White people, yet examples abound of marketing aimed at other demographics for specific products. I mean, Abercrombie & Fitch, Banana Republic, American Eagle, and a slew of other clothing brands are mostly White-coded, so it’s not the 2nd coming of the Waffen-SS when their ads reflect that.
I didn’t know many non-melanated folks who were mad brands like Footlocker, FUBU, and Urban Outfitters didn’t overtly pander to their demographic. Furthermore, no one is stopping minorities from purchasing these styles of clothes if they so choose. Social media (and parts of mainstream media) pretend that people are posted up at the store entrance in the malls, keeping minorities out as if it’s 1954 Little Rock.
Just Leave the Bow Tie Home
PBS Anchor/Carnival Barker – It’s Friday on the News Hour and that used to mean our weekly pilgrimage over to the desk of our resident sages David Books and Jonathan Capon. But as you know budget cuts forced us to part ways with Jonathan. And now the second round of layoffs has done the same to David. But all is not lost. We have arranged a teleconference with them at their new employer the Chevy Chase branch of the Red Lobster. Gentlemen, can you hear me.
David Books – Yes, I can. As you can see, I’m the assistant manager here at Red Lobster and happy to have landed on my feet as it were. And I’m relieved to say that Jonathan has escaped from the refrigerator box under the overpass and is one of my most promising new waiters.
Jonathan Capon – Well the jury is still out on this whole gig. I was promised all the shrimp I could eat and generous tippers. Well, the shrimp is tiny and the tips are sub-par. But we’ll see.
PBS Anchor/Carnival Barker – Tonight we wanted to get your sense of the Trump economy. Last quarter’s GDP was up 3% which is quite robust but we were hoping you could throw your usual cold water on the Trump parade for our viewers’ amusement.
David Books – Well normally I’d gleefully accommodate you. But working in retail and in a very tenuous part of it I have to say I’m praying on my knees each night before bed that Trump pulls off all the miracles he can. Now that I’m part of the great unwashed and have lost my sinecure at your underfunded hothouse media company my whole attitude has taken a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn. I’ve got kids in expensive private colleges and if I can’t come up with twenty grand this semester those kids will be coming home and taking over my rec-room. So, as much as it pains me to say “God bless Donald Trump!”
PBS Anchor/Carnival Barker – How about you Jonathan? Surely you must have some of your trademark snit for Trump and his economy.
Jonathan Capon – Look, I don’t have time for this. There are fourteen orders of King Crab Legs and a giant crab cake that are starting to get cold. If I don’t move my gay little butt pronto, I’ll be bouncing out the door on it without a paycheck. So, make up whatever cute little anecdotes you want for your tote-bag fixated geriatric audience but for those of us below eighty we’ve got to make a living. All I can say is thank Trump for deporting those five Congolese guys that showed up last week. I could never have outworked them and one of them kept pinching my butt and I think he had monkey pox.
PBS Anchor/Carnival Barker – Well, there you have it. Trump’s American hellscape has destroyed the intelligence and the objectivity of two former beacons of cultured intellect and turned them into knuckle-dragging Trump sycophants. A truly discouraging side-effect of the 2025 defunding of PBS.
Security Agent – Okay pal, here’s your termination notice. We’ve got your stuff in a box so just take off the microphone and head for that door.
PBS Anchor/Carnival Barker – David, David. Is there room for me at the Red Lobster?
David Books – Sure Barry. There’s always room for everyone in Donald Trump’s America. Just leave the bow tie home.
31JUL2025 – Quote of the Day
The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more.”
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Nameless here for evermore.
And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
“‘Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-
This it is, and nothing more.”
…
Edgar Allan Poe
31JUL2025 Photo of the Day
Is Sydney Sweeney Actually Hitler
Sydney Sweeney is an American actress. Among other things she has blonde hair, blue eyes, a very pretty face and a figure that would be considered extremely attractive by most normal men. She did a commercial for a clothing manufacturer called American Eagle that is for blue jeans. So, the joke is that Sydney Sweeney has good jeans which sounds the same as “good genes.”
And because she is sort of the poster girl for attractive white women this has been deemed to be some kind of crime against humanity. The usual suspects (feminists, anti-white bigots and ugly women) have declared this not only white supremacy and racism but also fascism. In other words, Sydney Sweeney is an agent of the Nazi party trying to bring on the genocide of non-white, non-blonde and non-blue-eyed women everywhere. Boy, that’s some trick.
I’ve watched a few of the angry videos. The less unhinged ones are upset because young women and girls will be “harmed” because they don’t look like Sweeney and so they’ll have their self-esteem bruised. It’s interesting. I’ve watched a number of movies and commercials with guys like Brad Pitt and Robert Redford in his day and even though I lack some of their classic northwestern European charm I always managed to resist the urge to kill myself or hide under a rock. And come to think of it, Camera Girl’s hair is brown and her eyes are hazel so how did she manage to survive the onslaught of the Swedish Bikini Team and other equally blonde and blue-eyed fashion stereotypes that filled the television screens in her youth?
Now, do I think that the jeans commercial is an obvious commercial use of sex to sell clothing? Of course it is. But in what way is that a new thing? And hasn’t the last ten years of trying to use anything but young, fit, shapely, white blonde women as models been a pretty pathetic failure? Even Victoria’s Secret tried to use overweight and non-white models to sell their lingerie and it almost bankrupted the company.
As to the race, hair and eye colors of the models, I’m sure in today’s multi-ethnic society a cross-section of beautiful women will surely help maximize the appeal for advertisers. But it seems that the decade long experiment of excluding white women from modelling is being abandoned and Sydney Sweeney is just a shot across the bow to announce that America likes pretty blondes again. Gee, what a surprise.
But this is a free country. The other jeans manufacturers are free to use overweight models of any and all ethnicities. They can even use trans-women and extol the tuckable nature of their pants for this special demographic. They can have the women looking especially unfeminine with their heads shaved or half shaved, with piercings and nose rings and tattoos and as flat chested as boys. Whatever makes them happy. But one thing is definitely true. Billions of people are looking at the American Eagle ad and they’re gonna sell a lot of jeans.
Guest Contributor – Neil Dunn – 29JUL2025 – Guadelupe River Flood
A few weeks ago, you asked for some input about the Guadalupe flood in Texas and I think you were interested in some of the possible political shenanigans.
Well, we live in Kerr Co. on the Guadalupe and lost at least 3/4 of the trees on the river. It looks like a war zone. Our home and other buildings are on the top of a rise 30+ feet above the river. The debris line crested just over the top but all our buildings were fine.
Over the next two weeks after 7/4 we had over 300+ search and recovery people (many from in and out of state; all were dedicated, hard-working, serious, polite, courteous, respectful) searching through massive amounts of debris (one pile was 75 ft x 25 ft x over 5 ft high) with excavators, skid-steers, a SHERP, many-many chain saws, 2 scuba divers, multiple cadaver dog teams (to include two ladies from NYC-one of whom participated post 9-11) and horseback riders on our stretch of river (about 1500 ft)–>tragically, they found 6 victims over that time which will provide closure to loved ones. I wish that no one has to go through something like this.
Politics: Discussions have begun at the state level but seem pretty nebulous at this time.
I have seen a couple of articles tracing the history of what has been done about statewide flood control and relative to the Hill Country, I am not impressed.
Locally, I obviously don’t know what has been going on behind the scenes, but things have just started at the City Council in Kerrville and at the County Commissioners of Kerr County. There is a public hearing this Thursday at 9:30am at the Ag Barn (properly known as the Hill Country Youth Event Center in Kerrville) on disaster preparedness and flooding put on by The Texas Legislature’s Joint Committee to hear testimony from officials with the City of Kerrville and Kerr County relative to the emergency response to the July 4 flood.
The Mayor, City Manager, and Kerr County Judge are scheduled to speak. Citizens who sign up will each be allowed to speak for 3 minutes. I plan on attending, and if there is any interest, I can try to provide a follow up. I envision this disaster response and responsibility assessment to go on for some time.
If interested: there is a 37 min Utube video of the 30+ rise of the G.River at the Center Point bridge about 12 miles east of Kerrville. The last 2 minutes/so show a house floating down the river and lodging at the bridge. The water crests over the bridge with sizeable debris being deposited. That water is what all of us on the river were exposed to. It is being described as a “thousand year” flood.
30JUL2025 – Quote of the Day
The Cask of Amontillado
…
It was now midnight, and my task was drawing to a close. I had completed the eighth, the ninth [[,]] and the tenth tier. I had finished a portion of the last and the eleventh; there remained but a single stone to be fitted and plastered in. I struggled with its weight; I placed it partially in its destined position. But now there came from out the niche a low laugh that erected the hairs upon my head. It was succeeded by a sad voice, which I had difficulty in recognising as that of the noble Fortunato. The voice said —
“Ha! ha! ha! — he! he! — a very good joke, indeed — an excellent jest. We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo — he! he! he! — over our wine — he! he! he!”
“The Amontillado!” I said.
“He! he! he! — he! he! he! — yes, the Amontillado. But is it not getting late? Will not they be awaiting us at the palazzo — the Lady Fortunato and the rest? Let us be gone.”
“Yes,” I said, “let us be gone.”
“For the love of God, Montresor!”
“Yes,” I said, “for the love of God!”
But to these words I hearkened in vain for a reply. I grew impatient. I called aloud —
“Fortunato!”
No answer. I called again —
“Fortunato!”
No answer still. I thrust a torch through the remaining aperture and let it fall within. There came forth in return only a jingling of the bells. My heart grew sick; it was the dampness of the catacombs that made it so. I hastened to make an end of my labour. I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up. Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones. For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!
Edgar Allan Poe
30JUL2025 – Photo of the Day
