A family came in with their 2mo. And they were very hesitant about vaccines. “Which ones are really important?” So I went through each disease for which the child would be vaccinated today.
The WKRP: Johnny Fever Mix
A three-hour playlist of great 70s rock hits compiled from every DJ break that Dr. Johnny Fever made on “WKRP in Cincinnati,” with introductions and comments by the Doctor himself, news from Les Nessman, and a commercial read by Venus Flytrap. I’ve listened to more than an hour so far and only heard one bad song.
A friend sent me this link, which caused my wife and me to rewatch the first episode of “WKRP.” It holds up.
Jon Nelson, who created the mix, describes himself as a college and community radio producer, audio editor and artist. He’s also done mixes for other fictional DJs, including WKRP’s Venus Flytrap and Chris in the Morning from “Northern Exposure."
After listening to the Johnny Fever mix for a while, I remembered that there are Internet archives of hours or radio DJ sets, recorded off the air on tape, digitized, and uploaded to the Internet. I found this hour of Dan Ingram on WABC New York from September 1976. I was a teenager then, living in that area, and might have listened to that hour live! But listening to it for a little while this morning reminded me that I didn’t much like WABC; I was a 99X guy and, in the 80s, WBAB. Listening also reminded me that 99% of the pop music in the 1970s was bad. However, Sturgeon’s Law probably applies here.
Dan Ingram had a heck of a career, well respected for his quick wit, spanning 50 years on radio stations and a little TV, including 22 years at WABC. “One of Ingram’s unique skills was his ability to ‘talk up’ to the lyrics of a record, meaning speaking over the musical introduction and finishing exactly at the point when the lyrics started.”
I have never liked the word “mouthfeel.” Ironically, I don’t like the way it feels in my mouth when I say it. And when I hear it or read it, I think of how it feels in my mouth.
If only there were a shorter, punchier way of saying “how something feels in your mouth.”
Stop saying “wrap your head around.” It’s a cliche, and it makes me think of catastrophic motorcycle accidents.
I was able to pill the dog this morning using “the force open her mouth, pop it in the back of her throat” method with minimal trauma to either of us. And I finished the operation with the same number of fingers I started out with.
“The housing crisis isn’t just a result of greedy landlords and investors. It’s an inevitable result of social policies that encourage people to treat their houses as in investment. Because once a homeowner internalizes the idea that their financial future depends on housing prices going up, they start favoring policies (such as NIMBYism) that make housing prices go up. “ www.tumblr.com/rudywiser…
If America continues on the path it is on now, today’s babies will grow up to dream of a life in India or China, because they will have no future here worth living.
Normalize not having TVs on in waiting rooms and other public places. If people want something to watch, they have phones.
The gulf between employers and the employed is constantly widening, and classes are rapidly forming, one comprising the very rich and powerful, while in another are found the toiling poor…. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people’s masters.
— Grover Cleveland, as quoted by Heather Cox Richardson in a brief history of the first Labor Day.
Spoiler: Labor Day was founded as a sop to labor after business interests defeated the labor movement.
I enjoyed chick lit and my dick didn't fall off
“Elizabeth Gilbert has a new memoir out.” The mere sentence radiates gentle inspiration–watercolors, billowy pants with elephants printed on them, sparkly truthtelling in a big straw hat.
— Elizabeth Gilbert’s Latest Epiphanies, by Jia Tolentino
I dismissed Gilbert as trivial until I heard her interviewed on Debbie Millman’s Design Matters podcast a few years ago and was impressed. Gilbert was promoting her novel, “City of Girls,” and I read that and loved it.
Debbie has exposed me to a couple of books I would normally have dismissed as women’s literature, written by women whom I previously dismissed as frivolous, and I have been surprised to find I loved the interviews and the books and that the authors were formidable. The other one was Susanna Hoffs, lead singer of the 80s group the Bangles and author of the novel “This Bird Has Flown."
Debbie and I were friends when we were teenagers, and I still think of her as a friend, even though we haven’t spoken in more than 35 years. I’ve followed her career from afar with great interest, happiness and respect.
Enshittification reaches beyond the grave
They’re giving interviews advocating for tougher gun laws, such as when the family of Joaquin Oliver, a victim of the 2018 Parkland school shooting in Florida, created a beanie-wearing AI avatar of him and had it speak with journalist Jim Acosta in July. “This is just another advocacy tool to create that urgency of making things change,” Manuel Oliver, Joaquin’s father, told NPR.
And in May, a bearded AI avatar of Chris Pelkey, the deceased victim of a road rage incident in Arizona, gave a video impact statement at the sentencing of the man who fatally shot Pelkey. Pelkey’s family created the deadbot. “I feel that that was genuine,” said Judge Todd Lang after hearing the AI generated impact statement. He then handed down the maximum sentence.
Eventually, maybe you’ll be having a nice chat with your dead grandma, and she’ll try to convince you to buy crypto.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order requiring law enforcement, including feds, to wear masks and ID and activate body cameras when operating in the city. The order is almost certainly symbolic because Johnson lacks federal jurisdiction.
Asked about how effective his order is going to be given that federal agents don’t take orders from him, Johnson shot back: “Yeah, and I don’t take orders from the federal government. Thank you all very much.”
How To Argue With An AI Booster. By the indomitable Edward Zitron.
I’ve been feeling nostalgic recently for Long Island, where I grew up. This Reddit thread is gratifying: What things represent Long Island?. Top comment: “A large paper bag filled with an assortment of fresh bagels” Followed by: “A hot salt bagel that you eat in the car on the way home because it’s a sin not to eat a hot bagel.”