Category: photog’s Corner

Here you will find the stuff that shouldn’t be mixed in the other categories but interest me. caveat emptor.

Fiscal Madness and Buffalo Bill

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner, Trump

So last week I was shoveling snow and now I read that it’s going to be 80 degrees on Saturday.  That’s messed up.  But this is Dunwich and we’ve never restricted ourselves to reality.  Okay, I’ve been griping about the cold weather so I better shut up and enjoy it.  And I will.  We’re hosting Easter on Sunday and that will be pretty great.  We have Princess Sack of Potatoes here tonight.  Her parents are celebrating an occasion and we gladly invited her over.  Tonight, she watched “Stuart Little.”  I was busy but I popped in and saw a few minutes of the movie here and there.  Geena Davis is one of the main characters and later on I saw Dabney Coleman playing a minor character.  And that activated a very old brain cell.  I recalled that a very young and pretty Geena Davis was the eye candy on a tv show that starred Dabney Coleman as the eponymous “Buffalo Bill.”  He was the host of a tv talk show and she was one of the production assistants.  I remember one episode where Bill explained to her that once a woman reached the age of twenty-five, she was over the hill and her face began to disintegrate.  When Geena asked whether this applied to men, the much older Bill said something like, “No, as unfair as it may seem, men remain pretty much the same decade after decade maybe even getting more handsome over time.”  His deadpan delivery, in your face offensiveness and outrageous non sequiturs were what made the show fun.

Tomorrow Camera Girl will continue the Princess’s training in the mysteries of holiday cooking.  She will assist in the baking of a ricotta cheese cake and various other Easter dishes.  The main course is roast beast and even in the midst of my endless drive to lose weight I will indulge to a greater extent than usual because, who are we kidding?  That’s not something you pass up in this age of $12/dozen eggs.

I was talking to one of my sons-in-law tonight about saving money.  He’s got two kids that will be in college next year and we were discussing automobiles.  His two main vehicles have 200,000+ miles each and I asked him how much he wants to get out of them.  He said 500,000!  Now if it weren’t him, I’d have scoffed at the idea.  These are American vehicles.  They don’t last that long.  But he’s an extremely capable mechanic.  He’s worked on everything from helicopters to lawn mowers and I’ve seen him bring piles of junk back to life so I just nodded my head and said, “Yeah we’ve all got to keep what we already have on the road as long as possible.”

I was at a Dunwich committee meeting.  The talk was what is going on in the state.  The Democrats are all freaked out.  They claim that Trump’s austerity measures will force them to declare a fiscal emergency and ignore all rules against excessively increasing taxes and other revenue sources.  They’re calling Trump a fascist, a Nazi, you name it.  Needless to say, the towns will be the ones taking the biggest hit.  All of the state mandates will become unfunded mandates and we’ll have to pay for them on our own.  At the end of the meeting, we all looked around and you could see everyone was thinking the same thing, “It is what it is.”  We all shrugged our shoulders and walked out.  Well, I’ll enjoy Easter and then we’ll take it day by day.  Ah, New England.

Learning from a Harsh Mistress

photog Current Events, My Fiction, OCF, photog's Corner ,

Today was a good day on the novel.  I figured out a plot device to externalize the main character’s decision making.  I’m going to have one or more conversations between him and the AI.  Now this may sound like a faddish decision because of all the AI-associated jibber jabber we hear about lately.  But actually, I can think of a very famous usage of AI friendship in classic science fiction.

In Robert Heinlein’s novel, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” the human protagonist is friend to and conspiracy partner with a self-aware computer named Mike.  The conversations between them are a good chunk of the story and critical to the plot at many points.  Now I don’t need anything that extensive for my plot device but I need a sounding board for my character’s decision making.  I can turn a soliloquy into a dialog and that works better for the dramatic aspect of it.  And since the AI is “female” it provides a different emotional feeling to the talk.  It’s funny, I had added a scene where the protagonist is mediating an armed standoff between two military groups and without realizing it, I had decided that he would follow up by surrendering himself to the US government.  But once I did that, I realized that I had not foreshadowed this move anywhere in the story and no one would have expected it.

So, I decided I needed to build up some of his thought process in advance for the readers to see.  What I’m still working on is the reaction to his “capture.”  I’m thinking about something like a general strike with the Teamsters and other truck drivers shutting down the supply chains for everything and the country grinding to a halt.  I haven’t thought all of that out yet.  I need to up the ante and bring the book to an end on a high note but so far it doesn’t have enough drama and excitement.

Maybe I’ll introduce an external threat to provide a reason for unifying the splintered Americans.  Or maybe I’ll have the protagonist provide a stirring speech to the nation that will galvanize a movement to strip the federal government of its oppressive powers and reassert the freedoms in the Bill of Rights in all of their aspects.

And I have to do all of this without it seeming too much like a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” moment.  And that means I’ll actually have to figure out what practical changes would be made to the current state of the federal government.  Some of the things are easy.  I’ll abolish the FBI.  I’ll cancel the Patriot Act and the FISA Courts.  The CIA will have to be reformed so that it can’t touch American citizens at all.  I’m tempted to eliminate the IRS.  In many ways the second Trump administration seems to be stealing a lot of my thunder.  Maybe I should strike back by eliminating the Education department and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  No, I’ll be big about it and stay in my lane.

So today was a good day.

The Mill Rate

photog Life in Dunwich, photog's Corner ,

It’s once again time in Dunwich to produce the town budget.  And even though it’s a slightly unusual place, we still have to go through the whole public hearing thing with the First Selectman leading the proceedings and calling for the vote.  Of course, when the budget is rejected, it always leads to “problems.”

Last year when First Selectman Cthulhu asked for a show of hands on the nays it was very noticeable when one of the nay sayers was snatched off her feet by that irascible public servant and crunched and swallowed.  This was regrettable but it was noted that several nay voters seemed to change their mind in mid-count.  So, there is a history of gentle persuasion being brought to bear at these meetings.  That probably explains why over the years the voting population has progressively skewed pro-budget.

And that’s fine.  We really do need to be flexible when it comes to the finances.  With the COVID funds now completely dried up and New England state budgets straining under the weight of “sanctuary guests” from the third world filling residences and hospitals we can no longer expect the state to fund all the various mandates that they seem to invent by the hour.

Of course, Cthulhu has taken a decidedly idiosyncratic policy twist to the question of sanctuary guests.  He has been housing all of them in his own residence.  Funny thing is none of them have reappeared.  Strange kind of sanctuary.

But it is important that we keep our spirits up when the question of the “mill rate” surfaces.  In Dunwich what that refers to is the rate at which Bishop’s Mill is sinking into the swamp.  This year it was determined by the town engineer that it was sinking at a rate of two inches a day.  Now this doesn’t sound so bad but by the end of March the main entrance was entirely submerged and so the various flour products were being delivered to the customers by ejection from the third story window.  Which is fine except that a couple of times they crushed some of the customers.

This year the budget has included a special charge for the First Selectman’s rigging enterprise to raise and relocate Bishop’s Mill to higher ground.  Now this was done once before.  And it didn’t go completely without a hitch.  The mill broke up in the Great Old One’s claws and when Gerontius Bishop complained he sort of fell into the First Selectman’s mouth and sort of got eaten.  Kind of.

To obviate the same kind of situation the Bishop family has agreed to pay a special fee for extra reinforcement of the structure to allow for any miscalculations.  But the town has agreed to defray some of this cost and thus the Budget debate.  The estimate for this town expense by the riggers (the First Selectman) is $2,500,000.  Yeah, that’s a lot.

So as a kind of compromise action a few of us got together yesterday and went down to Bishop’s Mill and soaked it with gasoline and burned it down.  The First Selectman, who is also the acting fire chief of the volunteer force, arrived at the scene about twenty minutes after the flames had guttered out at the water line.  He announced that the rigging operation would obviously no longer be needed but that the contract would still be honored and the budget would proceed on the same basis.  He really is a very determined fellow.  And he is incredibly “persuasive.”

You know, you really learn how to roll with the punches in Dunwich.  You really do.

Starting Trouble on X

photog Current Events, OCF, photog's Corner ,

So, after performing all of my chores and watching another installment of “Lonesome Dove” with Camera Girl, I checked on my feed on X.  And Iowahawk was going on an anti-tariff rant.

About six rants down he posted:

 

David Burge (@iowahawkblog):

Sioux City used to have a Zenith TV assembly plant. Even if our patriotic trade war kills grain exports the farmers can get new jobs soldering Quasar circuits there after the revitalization of the American Console TV industry.

 

This was an ironical jab at our lost electronics manufacturing industry.

So, I replied:

 

Orionscoldfire:

You want to know something?  I’d trade the circa 1955 economy, technology and culture for what we’ve got now any day.  At least you could tell a man or a woman by sight.  I could do without the 80” television.

 

So, he replied:

 

David Burge @iowahawkblog:

If only I had the power to grant your wish I would give a personal time machine trip immediately

 

I thanked him for this wish.

Then there were several other opinions and replies by me.  See below:

 

 

Robert Longo @RobertL37046977

  1. a) Adjusted for inflation average household income in 1955 was $50,000, today it’s $80,000
  2. b) We live 10 years longer than in 1955.
  3. c) It’s easy to tell when a man is pretending to be a lady. A man has an Adam’s apple and a deep voice.

Orionscoldfire:

I’ve seen what those ten years look like.  A massive heart attack at eighty is my exit plan.

 

 

Econymous @EHPlimsoll1

You can do that already. No need to force everyone else to live your chosen lifestyle. Cut you income by 2/3, halve the size of your house, buy a crappy car, watch classic TV and movies, refuse any healthcare developed after 1960, and live in a conservative town.

Orionscoldfire:

Sounds promising.

 

 

RobustFeedback @FeedbackRobust

Wait until your kid was diagnosed with leukemia, and instead of a 90% chance of survival, your child had a 4% chance. Or you had no ac when it was 98 degeees, with 70% humidity.Or until you had to work substantially more hours to feed and clothe your kids.

Nostalgia is stupid.

Orionscoldfire:

“Nostalgia is stupid.”  Interesting statement.  I could think of some counterexamples but then we’d just argue.  I’ll just enjoy the thought of that console tv playing Bonanza on a Sunday evening with the family all watching together and roast beef sandwiches and pastries and coffee to come.

 

 

Alboalt @albo_alt

The post-war American economic dominance isn’t coming back unless you want to put huge chunks of the world back into communism and hoeing yam fields all day.

Orionscoldfire:

I don’t want us to dominate anyone.  I’ll settle for an economy that keeps men employed and families living comfortably.  I don’t need to drive a Mercedes I can drive a Ford.  It’s not as good but it gets you there.

 

 

Manny O’Kelly @harshm1stress:

ok so you’re a white male and you’re looking to die around 65 am I hearing you correctly?

Orionscoldfire:

Well, then I missed my mark!

Manny O’Kelly @harshm1stress

there’s a lot you missed

orionscoldfire

Nothing too important.  The important things keep you busy.  Everything else is just background.

 

 

sum_dude44 @sum_dude44

ah yes polio, nuclear annihilation, 10 hr flights to go 1000 miles, lead everywhere

orionscoldfire:

Ah, those were the days.

 

 

Totally_not_a_Bot:

sorry i used to be able to afford a time machine.. but these new tarrifs put it out of range

orionscoldfire:

I’m rooting for you.

 

 

WCB @Si3rraDrive:

That’s a pipe dream. Tariffs don’t get you there, nothing gets you there. You can choose to make that life for yourself, but society won’t be structured thusly.

orionscoldfire

Okay.

 

 

A @2006ImageMacro

You’ve posted 4000 times in 3 years.  You literally could not live in an environment that doesn’t support your internet addiction

orionscoldfire

Mercy sakes!  What can I do?

A  @2006ImageMacro

Hey I’m sorry for some reason I thought you were being snide to Dave but looking now I see that I was shitty to you for no reason, my bad!

Orionscoldfire:

I was just putting in my two cents.  No problems.  Dave’s got definite opinions.  If I get on his nerves, he can tell me to butt out.  Or ban me or something.

 

So, this is all very silly.  David Burge (@iowahawkblog) is a favorite of mine.  Back during the Iraq war, he was a humorist that poked fun at our enemies and even into the Obama years his satirical posts always made me laugh.  Now he likes to identify antique cars from old family album photos and he talks a bit about Iowa basketball.  He definitely isn’t a fan of tariffs.

But it was just the sight of this 1955 television set that made me react.  I was just thinking that if tariffs had kept American industry in this country, we’d be 1000% better off than we are now.  Apparently, most of Mr. Burge’s readers disagree with me but apparently, I couldn’t resist the urge to put in my two cents.

 

Well, it was kind of fun.

 

Update:

Neil Dunn commented:

I want the USA to be as totally self sufficient production wise as possible. No more of China producing most of our antibiotics is my #1 example = some Pharma corporate
executive(s) looking to increase profits, America be damned. Google “how many American car dealerships are in Japan?”. My Google answer = zero. And not one word about tariffs, but lots of other reasons. I say raise the tariffs on Japanese imports until Japan lets US cars into their market. And no more of the 80 year freebee Marshall Plan that taxes the US to make things easy for Europe and the UK. I think Trump was too kind with his Tariff plan.
All barriers to entry from one country toward another country should be equal both ways.

 

Wednesday, Wednesday 02APR2025

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner , ,

Ah, the Spring Honey Do List.  The most fiendish accumulation of annoying indoor and outdoor chores imaginable to the fevered brains of wives.  I had just finished what I thought was my chores for the day and had taken a shower when I saw Camera Girl raking the leaves off of the edge of the woods and her flower beds.  Now there is no more useless pursuit than raking leaves out of a forest but what can I say?  Female fastidiousness is as powerful as it is inexplicable to the mind of man.  When I saw the piles of leaves she had raked I foresaw her stooping to pick up all those leaves and painstakingly haul them to the other side of the property to her mulch pile and knew it would take days and break her back.  So, I rushed out and told her to leave the leaves(!) to me and I’d chop them with my push mower.  Hearing that I would be doing this she then proceeded to finish off the other woods for the sake of completeness.  Ah Chihuahua!  Well, no good deed goes unpunished.

But honestly chopping leaves with my trash mower is kind of fun.  After four to eight passes (depending on how wet they are) the leaves just about disappear into thin air.  It’s remarkable what steel and kinetic energy can achieve.  And I did get to see all the plants she uncovered along the woods.  The day lilies are about four inches tall.

The hostas near the woods haven’t appeared at all and some small woodland plants are already out and about.

After she left, I spent another half hour disintegrating the remaining leaves.  When I returned inside Camera Girl came running over and thanked me profusely for sparing her all that stoop labor of moving the leaves to her mulch pile.  And I thought to myself, “I am a good person, amn’t I?  Why else would she be so happy.  So, over the course of the evening several times I reminded her of how nice it was of me to come to her rescue and take care of the leaves.  But what I noticed was that after each iteration of my reminder her gratitude seemed to diminish.  And, in fact the decrease accelerated.  At the end I believe it tailed off sort of like the curve of y=1/Xn where n= the number of reminders and y= her enthusiasm for the reminders.  So, her enthusiasm approached zero as a limit but never quite reached it.

I brought up this observation to her.  She used some Italian hand gestures from her distant past and went back to the cooking tasks that she was busy with.  It’s a shame that her high school back in Sheepshead Bay didn’t do a better job of preparing her mathematically for her life ahead.  Being able to graph and recognize the various curves of common functions is a basic requirement of our technological age.  But we all have to be flexible and adapt ourselves to people as we find them.  And that is a tenet of my relationship with her and I remind her of it from time to time.

April Fool’s Day 2025

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner , , ,

No thirty inches of snow!  No ice storm!  No baseball sized hail stones!  April Fool’s Day didn’t punish us here in New England.  It’s a bloomin’ miracle.  It’s a pretty nice day so Camera Girl handed me her “Honey Do” list.  The one item I’m stalling on is walking the property with a garbage bag and a stick with a nail on it picking up all the trash that has blown into the wooded areas.  As Sergeant Snorkel told Beetle Bailey, “If it don’t walk, if it don’t talk, police it!”  But it’s annoying.  It makes me feel very uncharitably toward the whole human race when I see what kind of stuff they toss out the windows of their cars.

So, I was driving down the main east-west road in Dunwich in a section that is full of blind curves and rolling hills when up ahead about a quarter of a mile I see something in the road.  I see it’s moving but it’s too short to be an adult human so I slow down.  “Could it be a child or is someone sitting or kneeling on the road?  And then I can see.  It’s a huge tom turkey with his feathers and wings all puffed up.  He’s in the oncoming lane and he’s staring me down!  So, I creep past him looking for his harem.  But I couldn’t see them.  Either they were shielded by the trees or they were gone.  But Tom was sticking to his guns and wasn’t afraid of me.  So, I left him there and in my rearview I could see him still standing there like some blithering idiot trying to act as crossing guard to an invisible flock.

After cutting down the raspberry canes last week I’ve been hoping to see some leaves sprouting up from the dirt.  So far nothing.

But the hellebores are coming up.  More confidently in the sunnier areas and tentatively in the shade.

And likewise for the daffodils.  We have three different stages of development depending where they are on the property.

The hostas near the house have just broken ground.

And this little crocus is bravely showing its colors.

So winter is climatically over.  I will now stow the shoe spikes, snow shovels, ice scrapers, snow blower, snow boots and all the rest of the paraphernalia that litters the mud room and move forward into the growing season.  And now that the ground is completely thawed, I can begin things like fixing fences, gates, damaged wood and all the other weather-beaten components of my poor house and adjacencies.

And I will move the lawn mowers to the front of the shed and contemplate that fateful moment when I drive the mower over the grass for the first time this year.  Right now, it’s unimaginable.  Some of the grass is overly long and soaked with winter water in the soggier areas of the west field.  Some areas are worn away by snow, ice and rain.  Other areas are dead and brown.  Cementing the whole thing over sounds like a better solution.  But in just a very few days the darn thing will revive and life will return.

And in honor of this projected return of life I have put out ten preying mantis egg sacs.  I purchased them from an American company that said they are Chinese mantids.  Well, why not?  Apparently, they’re already outcompeting the Carolina mantis right here in New England.  Who am I to stand in the way of Darwinian selection?

The only thing left to cap off the beginning of spring is the reappearance of the pond turtles.  They have not made their reappearance but Camera Girl will keep me apprised of their status.

“O brave new world that has such people in it!”

They’re Good Company

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner ,

Today was a tough day.  Very sad things going on for some friends of mine.  But, let’s see what we can talk about that’s not too sad.

Penny is our basset hound.  She’s one and a half years old so Camera Girl considers her a “puppy.”  Really, a psycho is what she is.  She attacks our German shorthaired pointer relentlessly.  I attribute most of this insanity to Camera Girl’s criminally lax dog training.  But I don’t rule out congenital brain abnormality as part of the answer.  Anyway, this dog dotes on me.  If she had her way, I’d spend twenty-three hours a day scratching her enormous ears and the voluminous folds of skin on her throat.  Suffice it to say she follows me around the house hoping for an ear rub.

But today I had to get into a suit.  White shirt, tie, suit jacket and pants, black leather shoes.  The whole thing.  I come down the stairs and she takes one look at me and goes berserk; barking and growling at me.  She doesn’t recognize me!  She’s dancing back and forth looking like she either wants to bite me or run away.  I’m yelling at her at the top of my lungs trying to get her to recognize my voice and calm down.  I’m also worried she’ll shake her jowls and splatter my suit with basset drool.  Finally, she runs into the living room while I go out through the kitchen door.

I came home four hours later and almost the same thing happens.  She’s barking and howling and carrying on.  So, I go upstairs and get changed and come down in my regular clothes and she stops and looks at me and acts confused.  She won’t come near me but she isn’t barking.  Slowly she shuffles closer, sniffing at my feet and looking hesitant.  Then finally she snaps out of it and accepts that it’s me.

Bassett hounds are supposed to be second only to blood hounds in their ability to recognize scents.  So, what the hell is wrong with this dog?  Now, sure I wear pretty much the same shirts, pants, shoes and socks every day.  But if I put on another suit of clothes, I’m unrecognizable?

What goes on in the tiny brain of this dog?  Apparently, I’ve become a very stable pattern in her mind and any small change to the details of my sensory image, whether scent, sight or sound immediately convinces her that it’s not really me.  Maybe she’s been watching one of the various versions of that classic of cold war paranoia, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”  Apparently today I became one of the pod people walking the streets, disguised as her favorite ear scratcher.

Well, all is forgiven again.  I spent the requisite five minutes scratching her gigantic heavy ears and telling he she isn’t a psychopath.  It’s all lies of course but we somehow have to get through the day as a family.  So, I’ll make believe she’s a good dog.

But I will say she helped me get out of the funk I was in.  Dogs are useful, even crazy ones.  They take your mind off of big problems at least for a few minutes and from what I’ve heard petting them even lowers your blood pressure.  Well, all the yelling I did probably had the opposite effect but either way she was good company.

Update

 

Ed Brault In reply to photog.

I’m the same way. My “Wedding and Funeral” Suit and my “Military Funerals” Class-A uniform hang in a zip-storage bag in the back of the closet.

As for the Basset, well, it must vary by the dog. I visited my folks after a tour overseas, and their St. Bernard, who hadn’t seen me in nearly four years, shot straight to my car, expecting me to take her to the beach, just like my last visit.Brault0000001A

reply by photog

Yes, i think you’re right. It varies by the dog and this particular canine is a little high strung. Or just plain crazy, depending on your literary style.

To Be or Not to Be a Barbarian

photog Book Reviews, Current Events, Literature, My Fiction, photog's Corner, Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F Book Reviews , , ,

Just when I think Leftists can’t get any more un-American they say, “Hold my soy latte” and show us just how miserably wretched they truly are.  Up here in New England one of the states (it doesn’t matter which one) is debating a bill to mandate 100% voting turnout for all elections.

Now I don’t know the details.  I don’t know how they’ll guarantee that the dying and the late-stage dementia patients are forced to vote.  I’m guessing if you don’t show up the ballot gets filled out for you by the Secretary of State.  I think they’re calling it the 100% Democracy Bill or something brilliant like that.

This sounds like a joke from our side; just a way to make fun of the leftist tendency to dictate behavior for “people’s own good” but this is actual legislation that’s currently under debate.  Actual politicians in this part of the country think this is consistent with the American constitution.  Well, all I can say is these people are insane.

But they’re also running the show up here.  The insanity is baked deep into everything they think and do.  They don’t realize how this looks to people on the outside.  This is so close to North Korea and Sadaam’s Iraq where “free elections” end up with the dear leaders garnishing >99% of the vote every single time.

Well, that’s enough about that.

I was thinking today about the definition of literary science fiction.  I guess it’s any science fiction that has enough character development and enough verisimilitude to the way real people act and talk and feel to convince “serious” literary critics that your story is literature and not entertainment.  I guess it has to be in some sense “real.”

Unfortunately, I understand that what it’s mostly become is racial and sexual grievance screeds very unconvincingly disguised as science fiction.  So outside of a specific population of people primarily dedicated to reading such stuff it’s not going to very interesting to most of the human race.

But putting this political sub-genre aside what is the difference between genre fiction like science fiction and fantasy and actual literary fiction?

Well, I think that’s still quite subjective but I get the point of some of the criticism of some genre fiction.  The story can be so stereotyped that the action feels cartoonish, the characters are one dimensional and the dialog is completely predictable.  I can think of some pulp stuff that seems that way now.  But by the same token, there are literary “masterpieces” that have long stretches of boring plot where nothing much happens.  And even the most widely hailed protagonists can have whole chapters where the story drags and the dialog is meh.

So, what’s the calculation?  Can a pulp story have 95% of the story composed of space opera and still be “literature” if the author gives the hero a scene full of heartbreaking humanity and emotional conflict?  Sure, we’re not expecting Conan the Barbarian to break into a Shakespearian soliloquy when one of his comrades is skewered by a neolithic monster.  But if you write a story that has an interesting plot surely there is no shame in trying to make, some of the characters at least, recognizably and honestly human.

Now, I’m not thinking about Hamlet showing up in any of my stories.  But Macbeth might as well be a medieval urban fantasy story.  It has witches and magic and ghosts.  Just because it’s in iambic pentameter and has “thou” and “thee” scattered around in it doesn’t make it any less a crime drama.  So, who’s to say that a genre novel can’t be legitimate literature?

Just something I was thinking about.