Tag: The Silly Season

19AUG2021 – OCF Update – Peak Silly Season

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From now until Labor Day folks will be trying to enjoy the end of summer before their kids have to go back to school.  Of course this year that will be extra painful as parents behind the COVID Curtain will be sending their little ones into masked purgatory.

This is the lowest traffic period for the site and also typically a time when the news cycle is filled up with stories of man-bites-dog type non-events.  Luckily for us this year the Taliban may rescue us from boredom by banning the LGBTQ contingent from indulging in buggery.  This should trigger General Milly-Vanilly to flip out and nuke Kabul.  After that it’s anyone’s guess how the fall season will proceed.

Creepy Uncle Joe is catching a lot of flak from the various sororities around the country for not insisting that the Taliban go trans-gender.  Personally I think Joe did the best he could.  But it does make you wonder what those negotiations between the State Department and the Taliban sounded like.  I’m trying to imagine how equity, diversity and inclusion translates into Pashto.  My guess is that after listening to the DC boys for a few weeks they decided to just make believe they agreed to whatever was said and just go back to stonings, amputations and beheadings as soon as the Americans leave.

It’s funny, twenty years ago was 9-11-2001.  We moved heaven and earth to force the Taliban out of Afghanistan.  But if Al Qaeda invaded New York City today I’d tell them to keep it and run it however they felt.  In fact I think it would be a distinct improvement.  It’s a cinch that crime rates would fall.  If I remember correctly the Taliban outlawed the heroin trade when they were in power.  And they’re pretty tough on crime.  Amputating a thief’s hand definitely gets his attention.  Compare that to the present defelonization of stealing anything less than a thousand dollars in New York and California.  No, I’m convinced, New York needs to import a thousand Taliban to supplement their police department.  Sure the RPG’s will probably cause some complaints in the gangbanger neighborhoods.  Those boys aren’t used to being outgunned.  But I think it will be a real morale booster for the NYPD.  And talk about diversity, those turbans will be the talk of the town.  But I’m afraid Greenwich Village won’t be happy.

So stay tuned.  It may be slow for the next week or two but things will pick up soon enough.  Enjoy the quiet time and the end of summer.

The Dog Day

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It’s a hot one, a scorcher.  I was out there trying to get some shots of hummingbirds and I think they were watching me from the shade of the trees saying to each other, “Is he crazy?  We’re not going out in that sun for a little sugar water!”

But this is real summer.  You can see all the moisture the ground has soaked up over the last month or so rippling into the air as currents of chromatic diffractions of the solar photons pummeling the ground.  I put on my floppy hat and brave the noonday sun in quest of photographic knowledge.  And there’s scant little of that.  Even the usually reliable bees and butterflies and even the dragonflies have taken refuge out of the sun, the cowards.

Camera Girl and Princess Sack-of-Potatoes took to the pool after lunch and of course as soon as I went in for lunch, supposedly, the hummingbirds were everywhere, on the flowers, at the feeders, even hovering between the girls at the side of the pool.  I shouted out, “Fake News!”  But her haughty sneer let me know I wasn’t fooling Camera Girl.  I knew she spoke the truth.

I will go back out after four.  At that point the sun’s blast will be merely Saharan and therefore survivable.  I will say that this tracking autofocus function still requires a fair amount of skill, of technique that I am sadly lacking.  But persevere I will.  I must know the answers.  Are my old lenses useful or ballast?  I will find out.

After conferring with my grandsons I recognized their seasonal anxiety.  They sense the end of summer vacation.  They reminded me not to waste the days that we have left.  Labor Day is right up the road and after that there’s nothing on the horizon until Halloween.  So I must get out there and see what I can see.

I think tomorrow I’ll head for the local lake.  I want to see if any water birds are around.  That would be a nice tame autofocus-tracking target.  I’m tired of trying to capture Larold running at full tilt.  The camera doesn’t stand a chance.  Last year there was a bald eagle at that lake.  I don’t suppose I’ll luck out and it’ll be there but you never know.  In an unrelated photographic idea there is an old colonial graveyard nearby and I thought I’d go over there and do some closeup photography of the old stones.  Nothing that will show the whole stones but more the texture of the erosion on the carving.

Haven’t seen much wildlife this summer.  There was a bear on the property recently but he didn’t do any damage surprisingly enough.  Last year he flattened one of our bird feeder polls.  And speaking of birds Camera girl has been reading about some mysterious bird ailment that is killing the birds.  So of course the first thing they tell her is “Stop feeding the birds!”  Blah, blah, blah.  I told her do as she pleases.  If feeding the birds is going to cause the apocalypse then let her rip.  I figure it’s bird COVID.  So why shouldn’t they get a taste of it too?

Well, the silly season is ending in three weeks or so.  Then we’ll have the atrocities in Washington to bemoan, only I’m all out of outrage for the inevitable.  I figure codified election fraud is in our immediate future so bring it on.  But it will wake up a mess of normies.  Maybe that will do some good.  So enjoy the rest of the summer and I’ll be here when you get back.

And here is the dog himself Larold the Wonder Dog.

30JUL2021 – OCF Update – It’s All Been Said

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Last night I was putting up some photos from last fall for the daily photo and I had some quotes to download (some Thomas Edison coming up).  Then I was thinking about what to write for a post.  But without anything new in the news I had nothing new to say.  We’re in a bad place and it will continue like this for a good long time until something gives.

The Left is running most things and if they want to continue locking down the blue states and weaponizing the federal government against us, there’s not a damn thing we can do about it.  For the people lucky or smart enough to be living in the red states it’s different.  They can make changes to protect themselves from the feds and the Left.  DeSantis and Abbott are making some of the right noises.  Maybe we’ll see some sort of breakthrough that will spark some large scale realignment.  But right now it’s holding actions and some small efforts to clean up the mess.

And that’s not much to write about.  Abbott and Garland may be headed for a confrontation over Abbott’s executive order to criminalize transporting illegal aliens.  If it does come to a fight that will be interesting.  Seeing one of our guys standing his ground would be something to talk about.  But right now it’s just posturing on both sides.  So I’ve just said all there is to say.  DeSantis is going after the tech companies over anti-right discrimination.  But with the federal courts running cover will it stick?  If he does stick to his guns that might look like something interesting too.  But once again, to be continued.  So you see my dilemma.  There’s just not enough meat to make a stew out of.  It would end up just a thin soup with no flavor.

I’ll be putting together some culture pieces but those take time and thought.  So things are a little slow on the site right now.  But I think that’s better than just banging away at the same old themes.  Writing about the revolution when nothing good is afoot is sort of silly.  And since we’re deep into the silly season the next big news will probably be in September when all those blue states kids are going to be headed to the classrooms trying to breath through a gag.  Who knows, maybe one of the blue state governors will try to save his hide by leaving his state open and deny the teacher’s unions cover.  Or maybe a bunch of cities will start electing republican law and order types to save themselves from being savaged by Saint George Floyd’s disciples.  But I figured I’d explain the drop in output.  I’m also doing some fiction writing which also takes up a good chunk of time for writing and even plot outlining.

But for those who enjoy the content here I promise to be more resourceful and find interesting things that don’t depend on our political leaders doing the right thing.  Based on historical trends that would be a losing strategy

20JUL2021 – OCF Update – The Weather Gods Relent

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Finally, finally, a day without rain.  So I went out there and cut the grass.  Although not all of it.  About two thirds of the west field was still too soggy to cut.  But the rest is done and now I’ll get back to work.

A week ago I was in a store looking for a baseball glove.  I have my grandsons coming over on Saturday and I want to be able to have a catch.  I’ve been using one of their spares and it’s a little on the small side.  So I looked at some gloves at a local store and they’re all made of pleather?  I was outraged.  The salesman called it vegan leather.  I walked out.  Finally I found a real leather glove.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.  With MLB supporting cop killers and disrespecting the flag and anthem I’m done with them too.

But now I can enjoy baseball the way it’s supposed to be.  Tossing around the baseball with my son was one of my favorite memories.  It brings me back to having a catch with my Dad.  He never had much time and we mostly played with the other kids but every once in a while he’d throw the football or the baseball around with us and invariably he’d pull something in his back or neck or whatever.  He’d put on a big show of being injured and beg off from the game and just watch us.  Mostly he’d yell warnings that we better not break any car windows on the block we lived on.  But it was still something I remember fondly.

Camera Girl has given me a new list of demands.  I must sweep the basement, vacuum the window blinds and clean up all the junk so we can have thirty people on Saturday in splendor.  We’ll see about that.  Calls are coming in about food that people are bringing and Camera Girl is getting kind of uppity when I ask about the arrangements.  I think she’s trying to pick a fight with me but I’m too wise for that.  I told her that she can serve the food in a trough if she wants, as long as we feed the guests I’ll be good with it.  My family isn’t too picky about meal protocol as long as the food is tasty and plentiful.  And I’m sure both of those will be true.  The whole family hasn’t gotten together in two years.  So this is going to be kind of great.

And miraculously (although maybe I’m trusting too much to the accuracy of weather forecasters) the weather is supposed to be sunny and in the mid-seventies.  That should make the party very comfortable for everyone including the cook and the busboy (me).  So the summer has reappeared just in time to make the family get together great again (FGTGA).

The news cycle right now is full of the usual nonsense that the Democrats talk about.  Four trillion dollar stimulus bills that they hope to use for illegal alien amnesty and other horrors that they hope to inflict on us.  Good inflation and delta variants and Bezos in Space and Ben and Jerry’s joins the PLO.  The silly season is in full swing.  The runaway Texas democrats have infected Pelosi’ and Biden’s staff with the plague.  Let’s just say there’s no good news and the bad news is just too stupid to talk about.  Enjoy the summer and enjoy your life.  I’ll let you know if something interesting comes along.

Silly Season – 2021

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Definition of “Silly Season”

1: a period (such as late summer) when the mass media often focus on trivial or frivolous matters for lack of major news stories

2: a period marked by frivolous, outlandish, or illogical activity or behavior

 

It’s not late summer yet but when the mercury climbs above 90°F even the Burn-Loot-Murder crowd gets easily overheated and things slow down.  Sure, the professional gang-bangers are making their living and shooting each other off porches and through windshields but that kind of news isn’t very interesting anymore.

With school out for summer the Antifa kids might want to burn down the local police precinct but it’s Pride Month and they have to get the police to protect their freak parade so they’ll take off their black bloc paraphernalia long enough to go down to the local precinct and fill out the paperwork to allow them to float some giant-sized sex toy down main street while dressed as a wombat or whatever other fetish symbol they’ve adopted this week.

What’s a blogger to do?  How will I manufacture sufficient outrage to keep the public interested if all I have is Joe Burden surfacing every few days with another listless mumble about vaccinations or the Fourth of July or white supremacists threatening to tip over the continent or sabotage the summer’s ice cream supply.

I guess I have no choice but to actually think about what I want to write about.  “A thoughtful essay?” you may question.  “Does he do those?”  Well, not normally.  But during the silly season I have three choices.  Either go 100% to non-news topics (entertainment and general knowledge), fly completely off the handle and just rave like a lunatic or spend a little time digging into political and social subjects a little more thoughtfully and try to provide something insightful.

But the truth is insightful is hard.  And it’s hard to pump that kind of stuff out.  In fact, you can’t.  When you try to pump it out it pretty much equals the ravings of a lunatic.  So, during lulls in meaningful political news, I expect to be doing more cultural/entertainment stuff and fewer political items.  But my hope is that the political articles I do publish will be worth reading.

And don’t get too worried that my output will go down much.  There are bound to be a few outrages coming up shortly.  After all, these people are certifiably insane.  Even if they weren’t chock full of anti-psychotics there hasn’t been a moment in decades that they weren’t so removed from reality that they wouldn’t know the difference between a Fourth of July fireworks concert and the burning of the Reichstag.

With respect to meaningful political meditation, of late I’ve been thinking about how I would recognize “the real deal.”  To be more precise, how can I recognize who is truly working towards the re-establishment of the Old Republic and who is just running a grift?  After the exposure of the Bushes and the rest of the RINOs you’d think that we could point to their talking points and know who is the real deal.  After all the people who still whine about “illegal immigration is love” like Jeb Bush are obviously the controlled opposition.  But I think the grifters have gotten cagey.  Even Liz Cheney was smart enough to vote along with President Trump when it looked like he was going to be running things.  It was only after the election was handed to Biden that she showed her true colors.  So, it’s not a foregone conclusion that we know what’s lurking in the minds of men.  And that’s a separate question about how much brains and guts a fellow has.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking about today.  When I work it up into something interesting, I’ll put it out there.  In the meantime, I’ll be watching that H.P. Lovecraft/Nick Cage collaboration.  The things I do for my readers!

The Dog Days – 2019 Edition

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As I’ve mentioned too many times before, there are only two seasons in New England; Winter and July.  And a glance at the calendar tells me that this week it will be time to have the snow blower tuned up and order a couple of tons of road sand (I stay away from salt on account of respect for my well water quality).

But before the horror truly begins it’s allowable to savor the brief ecstasy that July represents.  July this year has been undeniably full-blast summer almost from beginning to end.   It’s been one sunny hot day after another with only a torrential thunderstorm thrown in occasionally to keep the lawn from turning to straw and blowing away.  The only irregularity was a soggy May and June where the lack of sunshine has offset flower bloom and butterfly schedules by at least three weeks.  Only in the last few days have the monarch caterpillars finally appeared on the milkweed and the Black-Eyed-Susans are behind in their flowering by about the same amount.  But actually, that isn’t the worst thing in the world.  It will make August much livelier than typically and will allow me the illusion that Autumn is far, far away.

The other thing that the end of summer heralds is the beginning of the political season.  July and August are the silly season in the news business.  Everyone is on vacation and no one reads the news.  Even blogs see a downturn in readership during this time and compensate by featuring human interest stories, conspiracy theories and scantily clad women.  Here at OCF we can’t afford these fripperies so we make up for it with good old fashioned hard-boiled investigative reporting.  We make the deep dive into the who, what and why behind those headlines you see splashed across the top of the News.  We’re not satisfied with echoing the news.  We’re determined to break the news.  And that is why I’m honored to announce our first scoop of the New England Winter Season.

Creepy Uncle Joe Biden will select Michelle Obama as his running mate.

It seems to be the perfect way for a campaign ticket fronted by Creepy Uncle Joe to add the requisite number of intersectional victim points that he so obviously lacks.  Also, that way, when Biden loses it adds the marginal credibility of having been a VP running mate for when Michelle runs for President in 2024.  For the Dems it’s a win/win.  This lets them vote for an old straight white guy who has the best chance of actually winning but without feeling like sellouts.  And it gives the Obamas a foot back in the White House door.  And now they can reuse all those Obama/Biden buttons and bumper stickers.  They just have to cut the year off.  And flip them around or something.

Now you may ask where this bombshell report originated.  Well, let’s just say that the research was a combination of powerful artificial intelligence search algorithms and the intuition that only comes from decades of good old fashioned hard-boiled investigative reporting.  That’s right, we had Walter Cronkite’s engrams uploaded into a cloud-based matrix and then overlaid them with the programming from the HAL 9000 system.

Well, actually, we really couldn’t do either of those things.  We don’t really know what engrams are and even if we did, we wouldn’t be allowed to mess with Walter Cronkite.  And the HAL 9000 computer never really existed.  So, no, we didn’t do those things.  But we really thought about this a lot and we really think we nailed this.  It’s definitely Michelle Obama, definitely.  Well, there is a small, small chance that it’s actually gonna be Oprah.  Like three to six percent.  And maybe like a half a percent Beyoncé but that’s like not even worth mentioning.

Well there you have it.  Hard hitting news gathered by good old fashioned hard-boiled investigative reporting.  You heard it here first.  It’s Biden/Obama!  Or /Oprah.  Or just possibly / Beyoncé.  One of those for sure!

I think.

 

 

The Silly Season

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It’s officially the summer doldrums both on the web and in the real world.  I remember an old science fiction short story called the “Silly Season” that had as a premise that during the summer doldrums newspapers were so starved for real news that they would publish any kind of nonsense just to fill space.  Apparently the Martians knew about this too so they flooded the news with UFO sightings throughout the silly season for several years running.  This had the effect that the papers and their readers became so completely fed up with reading these accounts that when the real invasion began everyone ignored the initial news stories for so long that the humans were conquered before they could react.

That is how I’m beginning to feel about Flynn and Cohen and Manafort and Mueller and Hayden and  Brennan and Clapper and Rice and McCabe and Comey and Page and Stryzk and Rosenstein and, and, and!!!

I am completely and utterly fed up with hearing about these idiots.  I just can’t decide who is playing whom.  Is President Trump about to be dragged off in irons or is Comey and the whole lot of them headed for Guantanamo Bay?  Either way I just can’t care anymore about any of this stuff.  In fact, I can’t even care enough to make a Trump vs. —– parody about it.  The only thing I can think of is to have a parody where he is bored to tears about it.  That seems reasonable.

So anyway, sorry for the lack of output.  But let’s face it, the silly season is in full swing.  If only there were some way to get the Kanamits to load all of the Deep State swamp creatures into the saucer and send them off to that big smorgasbord in the sky.  That at least would be worthy of a parody.