I was thinking last night that my brain is still broken from the pandemic. It exaggerated my normal introversion and homebody tendencies into something resembling agoraphobia. I go weeks without going anywhere but the grocery store, picking up take-out once a week, my daily walk and that’s about it.
Yesterday I was looking through some photos I took on business trips and thought: That was me. I used to do that. I used to be that guy.
The situation is complicated by our being at higher risk than most people. But not going anywhere has its own risks.
This one time I narrowly escaped being a clown for a children's party
Some years ago, a couple I was friends with pressured me to be a clown at the birthday party they were throwing for their little daughter. I firmly and repeatedly noped out on that, and they hired a professional clown, and later they said they were glad because the pro did a great job.
They told me they asked the clown what was the weirdest event he ever performed at. The clown replied that it was an adult party. The clown explained that doing an adult party was no big deal—he often did adult parties and mixed up the usual clown stuff with some dirty jokes and it was fine.
But this party of adults insisted on getting the children’s show, not the adult show, and when the clown arrived, he found a gathering of grown men and women dressed as children, the men wearing rompers and the women wearing jumper-dresses, and they stayed in character the whole time.
That was more than 30 years ago, and since then, every few months I think of that conversation and wonder WTF?
Historically, clowns go back thousands of years, and for that whole time, they were creepy, just as they are today. It’s only for a brief historical period in roughly the 1950s and 1960s that clowns were considered wholesome children’s entertainment.
The Half-Truth of America’s Past Greatness.
Esau McCaulley at The New York Times:
Where can African Americans find this lost golden age? Do we discover it during the first centuries of the Republic when slavery was the law of the land? Do we fast forward to the Red Summer, Jim Crow laws and “strange fruit” hanging from poplar trees?
USENET, the original social network, is under new management. rec.arts.sf.written and rec,arts.sf.fandom are still around. Now somebody bring back GEnie.
I’m glad to see the release candidate iPhone and Watch OS betas are now available. Every year, I install the betas when the first public betas hit, and every year I regret it. I never encounter major problems, but the minor bugs are annoying.
This year's iPhone announcement is the least consequential iPhone announcement ever (and that's OK)
Pundits like to say that every Presidential election is the most consequential election in our lifetime. I recall a panel of historians discussing what the least consequential election of our lifetime was.
The consensus was rapid and unanimous: The 1996 election. Clinton was a good, but not great President. Bob Dole probably would have been a good, but not great President. The 90s would have proceeded exactly as it did.
This year’s iPhone announcement is the least consequential iPhone announcement ever. The 14 line was a good phone. This year’s phones are an upgrade. Better camera, lighter weight, improved battery life, and so on.
I have no plans to upgrade my aging ancient XS for a year, but if I need to, I’ll get an iPhone 15 Pro Max and I expect I’ll be happy with it.
Is Biden Too Old to Run Again? We Asked People Born on His Exact Birthday. I’m 62 and I worry about getting old. I’m inspired by the health and energy of the people interviewed for this article.
While walking the dog this morning, I saw this car. Kermit looks like he is desperately trying to escape from a serial killer.
I’m busy with work and other aspects of life and don’t have a lot of time for social media right now, so here is a photo of a palm tree in our backyard, which just got a trim and a shave and is looking beautiful after its spa day.
When Moviegoers Started Watching Films From the Beginning.
Throughout the classical Hollywood era, moviegoers dropped in on a film screening whenever they felt like it, heedless of the progress of the narrative. In the usual formulation, a couple go to the movies, enter midway into the feature film, sit through to the end of the movie, watch the newsreel, cartoon, and comedy short at the top of the program, and then sit through the feature film until they recognize the scene they walked in on. At this point, one moviegoer whispers to their partner, “This is where we came in,” and they exit the theater.
This is how I remember watching when I was a little boy being brought to the movies by my parents in the 1960s.
Alfred Hitchcock changed the national moviegoing habits with the release of “Psycho” in 1960. Hitchcock was a brilliant publicist for his own products, and a big publicity gimmick for “Psycho” was the demand that movie theater owners bar the doors and refuse to allow new audience members in after the movie began. Guards were stationed at the door.
Do you really need to walk 10,000 steps a day? And 17 other fitness ‘rules’, tackled by the experts. Do you need to stretch before and after exercise? Is running bad for the knees? Is sex good exercise?
People & Blogs: Manuel Moreale is doing a series of interviews with bloggers. Here are Rachel K. Kwon and Micro.blog founder Manton Reece.
I like finding out about how other people do blogging. It gives me ideas.
And I like the layout of Kwon’s home page, separating different types of posts into sections. It’s bothered me for a while that my blogging is mixed-up and spread across Facebook, Micro.blog, Tumblr, Mastodon and Bluesky.
Cory Doctorow: The proletarianization of tech workers. As employers turn the screws, tech workers are organizing.
Things I saw walking the dog this morning. I wish I’d stood directly in front of that rattan couch and centered it in the photo.
