Patterico's Pontifications

1/1/2020

Happy New Year!

Filed under: General — Dana @ 10:33 am



[guest post by Dana]

I’m still trying to recover from the flu but wanted to put up a fresh thread. I typically don’t make a list of resolutions at the beginning of a new year because I find it’s just another opportunity for personal failure and disappointment. It’s better for me to simply try and do my best each day. With that said, while I don’t agree with everything here, there are some sensible ideas. Read the whole thing for context. This is just a quick abbreviation of the resolutions because my bed is calling:

Nationalists to the right of us and progressives to the left of us sneer at the idea that people should be left alone to do their own thing. It can be a little demoralizing. But another year dawns, and with it comes the opportunity for a fresh take on the world in which we live. Yes, New Year’s resolutions are a bit of a cliché, but they can help us break bad habits and reboot our lives. What you do is up to you, of course. But you might resolve to:

Get some perspective…

Work on your self-reliance…

Get out…

Reach out…

Stay firm…

Resolve to take this new year in stride. You might as well, since it’s coming no matter what. Realize that it could be a lot worse, make sure you’re prepared for a rough ride, enjoy the world around you and the people in it, and stay true to yourself!

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

42 Responses to “Happy New Year!”

  1. Hello.

    Dana (643cd6)

  2. Happy New Year.

    Read more books. Learn more history. Educate yourself.

    NJRob (4d595c)

  3. Happy New Year! My flu is over (I hope), what a mercy! Get well soon, Dana!

    felipe (023cc9)

  4. Happy New Year Dana!

    I hope you feel better soon.

    My New Year’s goal is to have more grit and sass. We’ll see how that goes.

    Nic (896fdf)

  5. Happy New Year, Dana. Just remember the song.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q

    To paraphrase, meet the new year, same as the old year.

    You really should try that apothecary I recommended earlier: I oz. whiskey, 1 tablespoon each of honey and lemon juice. You’d be surprised at how curative it is.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  6. Best wishes, Dana, and swift recovery from our viral overlords.

    Simon Jester (9ac1a0)

  7. I am not a doctor (of medicine) but alcohol is a (mild) poison that (other than possibly making you drowsy) will do nothing to help your body fight off an infection, and has potentially dangerous side effects with other medications, including many over-the-counter cold and flu remedies.

    For instance, doctors warn against mixing alcohol with diphenhydramine (aka Benadryl and many other brand names), a common antihistamine, or with acetaminophen (aka Tylenol) and ibuprofen (aka Advil), common pain-relievers.

    Dave (1bb933)

  8. Oh heck – forgot to edit a bad word.

    “ This Iowa man found himself in jail after shooting fireworks off at 4 a.m., which is the ideal time for lighting off mortars and aerials.

    When confronted by police, Iowa man stood his ground, telling the brass he would light more fireworks “with a blunt in his mouth because this is America.”

    Pressed by police officers to submit to a breathalyzer test, our Iowa man responded “that he would take a preliminary go f**k yourself test.”

    2019 Washington Free Beacon – Man of the Year: Iowa Fireworks Man

    https://freebeacon.com/men-of-the-year/2019-man-of-the-year-iowa-fireworks-man/
    _

    Happy New Year!!

    harkin (d6cfee)

  9. @8 He understands that Dennis Leary’s “4ssh0le” song wasn’t supposed to be a life guide, right?

    Nic (896fdf)

  10. #9
    The clearest answer is no.

    steveg (354706)

  11. My resolution is to do whatever my wife needs done in her journey in running a fundraiser for Sturge Weber Syndrome.

    mg (8cbc69)

  12. Well, too bad Iowa man is gonna have to wait to crawl across the Mississippi to one of Illinois’ newly open dispensaries.

    urbanleftbehind (71a780)

  13. mg #11: please find a way to post that fundraiser. I would contribute. Best wishes to you and your wife.

    Simon Jester (9ac1a0)

  14. Will do, Simon. It will be in the summer. And thanks so much for the support.

    mg (8cbc69)

  15. Thank you, Gawain’s Ghost. It’s been awhile since I’ve heard that song. Keith Moon’s drum work is so magnificent.

    norcal (42c8d0)

  16. You’re welcome, norcal. And it is a great protest song. “Meet the new boss/ Same as the old boss.” The Who did their best work on that song and that album. And it wasn’t just Keith Moon, it was John Entwistle, Pete Townshend, and Roger Daltrey, who found themselves.

    Oh, and by the way, Dave, whiskey was originally invented as an apothecary, as was gin. Both wer called the “water of life” hundreds of years ago. Any time you feel a scratchy throat or a cold coming on, whiskey, honey and lemon juice is the best remedy. Pharmaceuticals are for suckers.

    Gawain's Ghost (b25cd1)

  17. Flu, fly!

    On behalf of Dr Dryasdust, I would like to remind everyone that, contrary to many postings you may see, the current decade has 365 days left until it ends. (I’m writing this late in Jan 1.)

    Kishnevi (b66096)

  18. Still remember Dec 31 1999/Jan 1 2000 sitting in a remote microwave shack on a hilltop in ID sipping champagne w my gf and watching all the receivers doing absolutely nothing different at midnight but still had to be there because Y2K.

    harkin (d6cfee)

  19. Pope slaps pilgrim.

    Impeach him, hell: excommunicate!!

    Happy New Year.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  20. JVW’s heartthrob Tulsi went surfing in New Hampshire to start the year out right. Try that Biden!

    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/tulsi-gabbard-makes-splash-surfing-freezing-new-hampshire-n1109326

    Kevin M (19357e)

  21. @20. JoeyBee’s a pool man, Kevin– ask Corn Pop.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  22. I like the way Rob Gronkowski celebrated the New Year:

    http://nesn.com/2020/01/steve-harvey-was-in-disbelief-after-rob-gronkowski-spiked-his-lego-head/

    urbanleftbehind (22400c)

  23. Pharmaceuticals Placebos are for suckers.

    FTFY

    🙂

    Dave (1bb933)

  24. Happy 78 birthday country joe mcdonald who’s song fix in to die rag ended the vietnam war.

    asset (6ce46e)

  25. 2. There really was a corn pop. And there even was a Wilmington gang called the Romans in the 1960s.

    https://heavy.com/news/2019/09/joe-biden-corn-pop-william-morris

    https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1173342875691692032?

    WILLIAM L. MORRIS
    (CORNPOP)
    AGE: 73+

    William L. Morris passed away with family by his side on Dec.2, 2016. Home going services will be held at Mother UAME Church 701 E 5th street on Saturday Dec. 10th. Viewing will be held from 10-12pm and services following. Arrangements provided by Bell Funeral Home http://www.bellh.com.

    He would have been born 1943 or slightly earlier – Joe Biden’s age.

    who died at 73 in 2016. (Thread)

    Sammy Finkelman (3bf6ea)

  26. Heh…Sammy, you’re usually very precise in your comments however that link that you provide (copied?) goes to Bell Helicopter company not a Bell Funeral Home.

    PTw (894877)

  27. Just a bad copy. Missing the letter ‘h’…should be:

    https://www.bellfh.com/

    PTw (894877)

  28. * That should be http://www.bellfh.com and the last line shouldn’t be there.

    The point of Biden’s story was that by making an apology (albeit for a side issue) he caused or enabled “CornPop” to back off, because he liked the idea of an apology and continuing the confrontation would have meant that he was throwing away this “victory” which he preferred to bank.

    Maybe clever tactics, but it wouldn’t work with Iran or North Korea. Not the same thing.

    If there’s a problem with the story, it might be with some of the details.

    Sammy Finkelman (3bf6ea)

  29. Yes. Just a little curious and killing time whilst waiting on a co-worker. While Corn Pop’s obit is not at the Bell FH site either, I did find it on Legacy.com. Only three people commented in the time frame in which he passed (December, 2016), there are several comment starting September, 2019, likely from smart alecks.

    https://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/delawareonline/william-l-morris-cornpop-condolences/183025951?cid=full&page=2

    PTw (894877)

  30. There really was a corn pop. And there even was a Wilmington gang called the Romans in the 1960s.

    There really was an Al Capone, too. I remember it well. I says to Al, I says: “Al”, I says, “you’ve gotta pay the Federal mob their cut, Al. Just like the Northside mob, and the Cicero mob, and the Bridgeport mob are paying you your cut, Al”, I says. “It’s the cost of doing business, Al”, I tells him, ” and they got all the guns, Al. If you don’t pay their cut, they’ll send you to the Big House or even whack you, Al.” But he didn’t listen to me, and you know what happened.

    nk (dbc370)

  31. @ Kishnevi, #17:

    On behalf of Dr Dryasdust, I would like to remind everyone that, contrary to many postings you may see, the current decade has 365 days left until it ends.

    You know, I’m a stickler for the centuries thing. The first century ends with AD 100, the twentieth century with AD 2000…and I looked down on those who thought 1999 was the last year.

    But decades are different culturally. We don’t speak of decades in the same way as we do centuries…we speak of the 1920s, the 1950s, the 1980s. And though 1925 and 1930 are technically in the same decade when measured on the calendar, 1930 is not part of the 1920s, nor do we treat it as such. And I’m okay with that slight inconsistency.

    So yes, the 202nd decade of the Gregorian calendar still has a little less than a year to run. But regardless of that fact, the 2010s are over. Praise all that is holy.

    Demosthenes (7fae81)

  32. nk may be many things, but he’s not a war-time consigliere…

    Dave (1bb933)

  33. Like whatever, Demosthenes. I can’t even.

    nk (dbc370)

  34. Dave, it’s a New Year, and I’ve unblocked you. But don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family again! Ever!

    nk (dbc370)

  35. The historians don’t have a year 0, but the astronomers do, which is important for dates of eclipses.

    And neither of them uses the Gregorian calendar, or anything similar, but only the Julian calendar, so by the time you get to 1200 BCE, spring is starting in April. And by the time you get to 2807 B.C., May 1 can be the start of the first lunar month of the year, not the second.

    Sammy Finkelman (3bf6ea)

  36. Welcome to the family, Dave. Now, about your tributes…

    felipe (023cc9)

  37. An ounce of whiskey isn’t going to hurt 98% of the population and the other 2% probably already know to avoid alcohol.
    I think the panning of the remedy should be moved to the nanny Bloomberg thread.

    There should be another repository that serves as a dunce cap for posts that mess up details like centuries and decades.

    steveg (354706)

  38. 30.

    they got all the guns, Al

    It was for this reason that his successors had an ironclad rule against killing policemen, or politicians: They might stop obeying the rules.

    There was also, for many years, starting around 1931, a (highly secret) rule against killing anyone in the Bronx (ostensibly because it as neutral territory) Joseph Valachi tells a story somewhere of someone who was kidnapped in the Bronx but killed in Manhattan, and even he doesn’t know why it was done that way. (although I find that a Stephen Franse is supposed to have been killed in Valachi’s restaurant/bar in the Bronx but his body was found, strangled, doubled up on the floor in front of the back seats of his car which was parked in front of 164 E. 37 St just west of 3rd avenue in Manhattan near the entrance to the Queens Midtown Tunnel on June 19, 1953.)

    And this

    https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22960088/stephen_franse_new_york_daily_news_19/

    lists several Bronx cases, although one is from 1931, and some don’t have a clear Bronx connection. But one is someone shot down in front of a fruit and vegetable store at 2280 Arthur Avenue on June 17, 1957. But I know I read somewhere that Valachi said someone was kidnapped from the Bronx and taken to Manhattan and killed there.

    Sammy Finkelman (3bf6ea)

  39. Joe Biden told this story in 2006, or probably it was still 2005 when this interview was conducted:

    https://www.gq.com/story/joe-biden-iraq-bush-war-democrats-republicans

    One morning on the train to Washington, Biden is asked about international affairs. Does he see himself as a hawk in the vein of, say, the late Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson

    “I served a fair amount of time with Scoop Jackson, and I didn’t agree with Scoop Jackson,” he says. “I would say I have more of a John Kennedy foreign policy outlook.

    He thought we had an obligation to, where it was within our power, spread freedom in our own interests. He also placed an overwhelmingly high premium on cooperation with other nations. He believed that people, other nations and leaders, seldom acted against their own interests. They might be evil but not irrational. Whereas Scoop Jackson believed we could only change the world by force.

    Here, Biden offers a shy sort of grin—he’s well aware of his reputation—and asks permission to indulge himself. And suddenly, he’s not talking about Kennedy anymore. He’s talking about Joe Biden as a 19 year old lifeguard at an inner city swimming pool in Wilmington who’s yelling at Ester “Cornpop” Williams, “Hey, Ester! Quit jumping up and down on the diving board!”

    [Robert Draper, of Gentlemen’s Quarterly, doesn’t catch the reference to Esther Williams, and also doesn’t decipher his notes correctly, or it got garbled in the editing process]

    “He wouldn’t get off,” Biden says. “So I jumped in, took him out, and kicked him out of the pool. Well, so I’m closing the pool at dusk, and I always parked my Chevy convertible outside of this gate. The year before, there’d been a white lifeguard who’d gotten sixty, eighty stitches around the middle of his back because straight razors were the thing in those days. God, give me back straight razors instead of Glocks. Anyway. So Cornpop and some of his guys are waiting in my car for me with their straight razors. I say to the maintenance man, ‘Look, let’s call the park police.’ He says, ‘You do that, you might as well quit.’ I said, ‘Man, I’m not gonna go out there.’ So he took me out to the boiler room, got a great big roll of chain, and cut off six feet and said, ‘Wrap it around your arm, put a towel over it, and you go out and tell ’em you’re gonna wrap that goddamn chain around their head.’

    “So he’s watching, everyone’s watching, what am I gonna do I go out. Six foot one, 155 pounds, right I walk out, they creak their straight razors open. So I take off the towel and say, ‘Cornpop, you may cut me, but I’m gonna wrap this chain around your head and hurt you.’

    “Or that’s what I was supposed to say,” Biden says, leaning forward now, smiling. “ That’s Scoop Jackson. But here’s what I said ‘I was wrong in calling you out, Cornpop. You were wrong jumping on the board, and I should’ve thrown you out, but I shouldn’t have called you Ester.’ He looked at me. ‘You apologize for calling me Ester Okay.’ Puts up his razor, goes home. The point is, you gotta be prepared to use the chain— but there’s other ways to do it. You know what I mean”

    I think there’s a missing question mark here.

    In other words: Carry a big stick but also apologize and speak softly?

    Sammy Finkelman (3bf6ea)

  40. You know what’s funny? Biden’s story makes a great case for concealed-carry.

    norcal (42c8d0)

  41. 40. While going swimming?

    Anyway nobody had a gun there.

    Nobody had a gun in the Monsey attack, too.

    If you imagine that only non-criminals have guns, it can beat a knife.

    Sammy Finkelman (3bf6ea)

  42. New York City parking meters (actually the place where little confirmation of payment slips are issued – there are no longer individual parking meters) had a Y2020 problem:

    They couldn’t accept payment by debit or credit card past January 1, 2020. This was because of some fraud detection software. I don’t know how this avoids fraud. It’s not expiration dates they can’t accept – it’s the date of payment.

    They could still accept coins and use an app and the city so far seems prepared to collect parking tickets from those who did not know how to pay or couldn’t.

    They are fixing all the meters one by one (updating software) starting with the most heavily used meter paying places and should be done by Thursday January 9.

    Sammy Finkelman (3bf6ea)


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