Friday, April 3, 2020

Not just keeping up, but getting out ahead of it all

Hey everyone, I'm back! It's been a surreal few weeks and good lord it's been awful. Like many of you I'm working from home now and have never been so busy. And I'm lucky. I know many of you have lost your jobs or even worse are working around other people for money that is nowhere near enough.

And the list of lives we've lost is just punishing. More about that later.

But while we're all wallowing in our respective miseries over this whole situation I need to point out something. Summer is coming.

I got a rude reminder this morning that while we're doing very little to deal with COVID-19 as a nation (although individual states, cities and counties are doing a lot) we have problems coming that are going to need our attention, so we need to get this over with as not only our current dude in charge at the White House can't see past the next 10 minutes neither can the government he's put together - and that's going to be a HUGE problem.

You see, right this second, with everything shut down, the Gulf of Mexico is 3 degrees warmer than average. I don't give a fuck if you believe in global warming or not (even with all the evidence in front of you - including this) but a warmer gulf means a stronger Hurricane Season. That means damage to the gulf cities, flooding up the mid-west, and tornadoes just about everywhere.

And we're not coping with the current disaster, let alone the ones coming.

Ironically (well, not really) these impending issues will cut through the heart of the country that put these morons in charge in the first place. Where will they place the blame for the hardships to come? Truthfully, I have no fucking clue. These people don't make any damned sense to me.

Cheap Shots (drink whatever you've got in the house)

"What to you mean, you people?" pause. "What do YOU mean, 'you' people'?"

Watching the Detectives.

But no matter what they say, the Internet always remembers.


Have you ever run into someone so stupid that you just want to slap them? Here's a list.

Someone's going golfing, I suspect.

If you want to get into a twitter fight with AOC, just don't.

A short list of things Trump has done to get you killed. Part 472.

Just how bad this week's unemployment numbers are, in animated graphic form. It's really worth a look

How to make a...

Purple Haze

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces ​vodka
  • 1/2 ounce​ black raspberry liqueur
  • 2​ ounces cranberry juice (more or less)

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.
    purple haze ingredients
  2. Pour the vodka and black raspberry liqueur into a cocktail shaker with ice.
  3. Strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with fresh ice.
    Pour purple haze through strainer.
  4. Top with cranberry juice.
    Purple haze cocktail.
  5. Serve and enjoy!

And because I love you, Vulfpeck featuring Antwaun Stanley:


And some Cory Wong for Good Measure:


Some of our Losses


Adam Schlesinger, Fountains of Wayne and songwriter for That Thing you Do and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Alan Merrill, who wrote "I Love Rock and Roll"
Mark Blum, Character actor who often played Judges on various "Law and Order" shows
Terrence McNally, playwright, wrote "Kiss of the Spider Woman", "Ragtime" and "The Full Monty"
Manu Dibango, Jazz Saxophonist, best known for "Soul Makossa" 
Floyd CArdoz, chef and winner of Season 3 of Top Chef Masters, and founder of Hunger Inc.
Joe Diffie, Country Singer who wrote "Honky Tonk Attitude"
Ken Shimura, Comedian. You'd recognize his face - he was called the "Robin Williams of Japan".
Andrew Jack, Voice coach (LOTR, Sherlock Holmes and so on) and actor (General Calaun Ematt in the Star Wars movies)
Wallace Roney, Jazz Trumpeter
Eddie Large, British Comedian
Juan Gimenez, artist whose works were featured in Heavy Metal
Elis Marsalis Jr., Jazz Pianist and yes, father to Branford and Wayland.
Julie Bennett, voice actress who can be heard in various episodes of Rocky and Bullwinkle, and was Cindy Bear in the Yogi Bear cartoons.
Joachim Yhombi-Opango, former President of the Republic of Congo
Orlando McDaniel, former wide receiver for the Denver Broncos
Henri Richolet - French Surrealistic painter
Nasser Shabani, leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard
...and far too many more...

Also, Bill Withers, who died of Heart Disease in the middle of all this, who wrote the classics "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Lean on Me" as well as lending his voice and songwriting skills to "Just the Two of Us".