Or the Cliffs Notes version:
Jul 242024
SoINeedAName
Jul 232024
Jun 062024
To orient you to the size of the Les Braves monument on Omaha Beach:
A Photo Tribute:
May 122024
Apr 192024
We probably all believed the first-ever criminal trial of a former president would be bit quite riveting. But according to The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman (one of the very few reporters allowed in the actual courtroom) and a handful of sketch artists, not so with Donnie.
As Jon Stewart succinctly framed it:
Given Trump’s now well-documented snooze, you’ve got to hope we’ll be hearing a good deal less about “Sleepy Joe” from viral-trending Sleepy Don.
If Sleepy Don is too low energy to stay awake during the first day of his criminal trial, does he even have the stamina to be President? pic.twitter.com/hrk4FC0lr0
— Christopher David (@Tazerface16) April 15, 2024
In truth, that was just the spicy tidbit the Internet was hoping for – and boy, did they run with it!
But before we get to enjoy some of the highlights, we’ll give Donnie some fair time to whine, noting that he took to Truth Social to strongly deny he was napping by including an “unaltered” photo to prove it.
But that only led to some helpful suggestions on how to better disguise his catnaps.
Almost immediately Trump earned a couple of new monikers that I’m sure would have made Mario Puzo proud:
Both George Takei and MeidasTouch noted that Trump has imitated the persona of at least three of the Snow White Dwarves: Dopey, Grumpy and now Sleepy.
No doubt a good many Americans wondered what Trump dreams about when he drifts off. Can’t help but believe this one comes pretty close …
It’s been noted that this isn’t the first time Trump has been caught “resting his eyes”.
So, like with yawning in a group, there’s some concern that Sleepy Don snoozing in court might be contagious:
And while I suspect more than a few good folks would enjoy playing Shakespeare’s Horatio to Trump’s Hamlet with “Good night … and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest” – right now we’ll just have to make do with “Keep counting those sheep, Don”.
As for me:
I prefer Presidents who DON’T fall asleep before the lunch break in their Hush-Money-Paid-To-A-Porn-Star-Election-Interference trial.
Apr 132024
It may be that the best part of the 2024 Solar Eclipse wasn’t the eclipse at all, but the feeling of sharing a unifying connecting event as a community – especially since we’re being buffeted daily by our current polarization.
It was a treat to scour the Internet in search of some of the best photos shared online celebrating such an epic event.
But given how incessantly a certain politician spews falsehoods, maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising that the much-anticipated eclipse was somewhat eclipsed by a misconception.
An X-Tweet that went viral falsely claimed that the most stunning photo of the 2024 eclipse was taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
NASA with the most beautiful image of the solar eclipse #Eclipse2024 🥇 pic.twitter.com/cIxDRqddSz
— Jerry Avenaim (@avenaim) April 8, 2024
This, despite the fact that in the week prior to the April 8th eclipse NASA took pains to explain that the JSWT would NOT being taking any photos of the eclipse because it could not withstand the heat and light generated. Heads Up: There would be NO JWST photos of the big event!
Count us out of this! Webb's infrared optics detect extremely faint heat signals, and the Earth, Moon, and Sun are *all* much too bright and hot for us to ever look their way. It's why we have a sunshield: https://t.co/tTGIWqFAz8 https://t.co/wRTZNO4i6u
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) April 3, 2024
Even more outlandish is the fact that the viral tweet celebrating the “JSWT photo“ is NOT actually a photo, but a hand-drawn homage to an actual photo of the eclipse – AND it was of the 2017 total eclipse!
The inspiration for the drawing was a composite of 35 HDR images of the 2017 eclipse taken by Dr. Sebastian Voltmer who has a PhD in the field of Scientific Photography.
And the artist who was inspired by his photograph was Cathrin Machin who posted an Instagram time-lapse video of her 10-day project to hand-draw a reproduction.
So, let’s begin our journey with a few close-ups of the eclipse – from both 2017 and 2024.
Another favorite way of commemorating the 2024 eclipse was by taking a series of pictures – essentially a time-lapse memorializing the event.
Lots of folks felt the urge to put their own unique brand to the event in fun ways.
And Americans from across the country shared their take on the epic event by posting how they marked this special occasion – whether by projecting telescopic images for all to enjoy, daredevil aerobatics or memorializing its singular natural beauty.
I can’t help but feel that we’d all be well-served to remember the feeling of such a unifying event by taking a step back to enjoy the “Big Picture” that swept across our Big Blue Marble …
Mar 142024
Like the old Mortan Salt slogan goes: “When It Rains, It Pours”.
I think I whined a bit WRT the steeper-than-anticipated learning curve for using my new Logitech Ergonomic Split Keyboard to help avoiding another carpal tunnel surgery.
(And if I didn’t whine, I MEANT to.)
Then yesterday I was reminded it was time to check for updates, and both MS & Dell had a passel of critical ones. So I downloaded and installed them.
But they both required a reboot to complete the installation. No big deal … or so I thought.
But three-and-half HOURS later the little “Restarting” with the swirling dots were STILL swirling around!
After several attempts at a hard reboot and disconnecting everything and waiting a minute and re-plugging everything back and rebooting again … all I get is the swirling “Restarting” dots.
Since yesterday was a total loss, today I had to drag out the laptop and am getting by.
Thank heavens for my OneDrive cloud!
I worked this morning on trying some fixes for the stuck “Restarting” – but to no avail. This afternoon I decided to switch to finishing my taxes before anything else goes wrong.
Like I said, fortunately I was able to continue w/ all my work since the OneDrive cloud had everything!
It may be a day late for posting, but I didn’t forget TC’s B-Day. So enjoy some birthday cake …
Feb 152024
Police repurposed the white chairs used by the VIP crowd at the Union Station post-parade rally celebrating the Chiefs Super Bowl victory to spell out “KC STRONG”.
There’s a vigil tonight at a park between Union Station and Children’s Mercy Hospital (which is only a couple of blocks away).