I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was a very small and low-key event here, but that’s the way I like it. More leftovers. Speaking of that, I have a boilerplate post-Thanksgiving cartoon from 1999. Have you ever stopped to think that if Ben, from the movie The Graduate, had followed the advice of that clueless old fogey (“Plastics!”), he and Elaine might be retired to their own private island with a grounds crew to dispose of the water bottles and six-pack rings and fishing line that wash up daily on their beach. No, you probably haven’t ever stopped to think that, have you?
Lidder Bug
By Jimmy Johnson
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61 responses to “Lidder Bug”
With a bit of luck, a solution for part of the pollution problem might be on the horizon: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/27/scientists-find-bug-that-feasts-on-toxic-plastic
You think so? Ever read this? https://www.fantasticfiction.com/p/kit-pedler/mutant-59.htm
I love science fiction. Does this one deal with the possibility that a plastic-eating microbe is loose upon the world and nearly brings about the destruction of the world because of our dependence upon plastics? That was the first thought that occurred to me as soon as I read the article in The Guardian.
You’ve got it. I haven’t read it in a long time, but I recall the sequence about an airplane crashing because this bug eats all the plastic parts while it’s in mid-air.
And I think it eventually mutates to eat the base material of plastic, oil, and starts devastating the industrialized world.
I believe you are thinking of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN.
Thanks.
I know that many persons decry oil, but I can’t see how our modern world can exist without plastics.
Report from Jackie just now…anticipating surgery on Monday.
JJ- Enjoyed your real time theme this week.
Actually, I think this is one reason I always enjoy Arlo & Janis — I have indeed often thought about the advice about “plastics” in The Graduate, although I’ll admit in a slightly more sinister way. (More of a “how did we not see what was happening then?” way.)
One thing we definitely didn’t see coming was which countries would be creating the most waste in the oceans:
https://www.statista.com/chart/12211/the-countries-polluting-the-oceans-the-most/
And yet the story that I always hear is that the U.S. is the world’s worst polluter and that everything is our fault.
Had “The Graduate” been made last year, perhaps the COF would have suggested, “Personal Protective Equipment.”
Will be thinking of you Jackie
Indeed. We love you, Jackie!
Thank you, JJ. She’s keeping up with the Village from her hospital bed, so she’ll see that.
Regarding today’s real-time strip (https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2020/11/27), isn’t it funny how the public’s perceptions of physical beauty are often out of sync with that of us individuals? I favored “skinny” girls (ballerinas, gymnasts, etc.) while the other males my age were chasing the more “shapely” ones. That was the era when “36-24-36” was supposed to be perfection.
Today I’m distressed that the first thing I look for in a female’s appearance is the last I get to see: her smile.
Well, when you come down to it, the most important things can’t be seen directly anyway. But you can certainly pick up on the effects of kindness, good humor, intelligence and a loving personality.
Re today’s real time: Not even a peek! No concern for us prancing, leering, Billy-goats!
Peace,
I thought of this group when I read this:
https://dilbert.com/strip/2020-11-27?utm_source=dilbert.com/share-email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=brand-loyalty
I hope that you can see it.
One Big Happy by Rick Detorie today also used Rubenesque!
https://www.gocomics.com/onebighappy/2020/11/27
Plastics. Isn’t that what Sam Wainwright tried to get George Bailey to get in to in IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, 20 years before THE GRADUATE?
As I remember, both George Bailey and Mary Hatch were distracted and thinking about getting into something else when Sam talked to them.
A marriage, you guys! Such minds…
Then there is the critical cat!
https://www.ksl.com/article/50057366/have-you-seen-this-cat-risks-everything-to-stop-a-singing-human
Surgery now probably Wednesday because have to custom manufacture a kneecap with tibia fibula shaft. Plates won’t work due to damage.
That sounds pretty fancy — and perfectly tailored just to you, Jackie! Worth the little extra wait for sure!
Have I ever mentioned that orthopedic surgery seems to me to be as akin to carpentry as it is medicine? If you don’t believe me, look up the tools and instruments they use.
I have a good friend who is leading orthopedic surgeon in west. His hobby is building wooden boats and last count he had close to 40 assorted boats with barns
His other favorite hobby was rowing boats through crashing rocks and rapids of “Rivers of No Return” that took permits to even drown on.
His hands aew more than twice the size of mine and his arm muscles like John Henry. Delicate people don’t become orthopedist.
Re 11-29-20 real-time cartoon: A neat (if not often used) app on my iPhone gives the sunrise and fall times for the phone’s location. Those times today in Eufaula are 7:10 AM and 5:10 PM.
It appears that, in Janis’s neck of the woods, another term for “sunset” would be “pokie time”.
IF you’re a night owl or otherwise can’t sleep, there’s a penumbral lunar eclipse tonight (ok, on Monday in the very early hours). I certainly wouldn’t bother to set an alarm to see it… you almost need to have a camera set up with a good zoom lens to record the stages of it. The details are at https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=29&month=11&year=2020
BTW, the darkest hour of the thing happens between 1:10 am to 2:10 am PST (3:10 am to 4:10 am CST), with the darkest point at 1:43 am PST (3:43 CST).
Thanks for this Ron. I’ve been too distracted to follow up on a thought. I was startled by the near full moon light into my window on a rare clear morning. The brightness forced me to notice the orb seemed further north than west, more than I would have expected. I had the fleeting thought of how that may match the sun’s southward progress and there may be an eclipse in the offing. Then promptly forgot he incident until reading you now.
It does seem to be a minor event this time around. But your extra info may remind me to glance up again. Thank you.
Followed your handle link, to see if you’d posted more astronomy items on your blog. Found your article that is “dated” in time, yet relevant again now. An interesting read in new light with hindsight lenses in place. One of the unintended consequences of a stale front page is the taste of a well aged article.
I have returned from Tulsa and my visit with Jackie. Thought I might have to fight my way past the receptionist in the main lobby, as she insisted that Jackie’s one allowed visitor was a lady who came yesterday, so I could not be her visitor today. But my polite insistence finally prevailed. (Turned out it wasn’t really a visitor yesterday, but one of Jackie’s “Eufaula Friends” friends who was visiting someone else there and dropped off a “happy package” for Jackie. One of her floor nurses picked it up and got it to her. It was greatly appreciated.)
Her hospitalist checked on her while I was there, but like us, he is mainly waiting for the surgeon to schedule the main event. Perhaps we will know tomorrow.
From the Department of Things I See Going To & Coming Back From Tulsa: On a roadside billboard advertising a funeral home…The. Worst. Advertising. Motto. Evah. “Trust Urned”. Look, I get it; if you are a mortuary, it’s not easy to come up with a snappy slogan, but…really?
I overtook a Silverado pickup with five antennae mounted to its roof and bed. On the rear window of the rolling antenna farm was a large sticker that read “HAM”. Thanks, guy. I was really scratching my head about that until I saw your helpful and informative sign.
Note to diabetics out there. Keep your BS numbers under control. No one wants to operate on diabetics with low or high numbers. They are working to get mine acceptable. I have entered stage where I have a plan for when I go home in about a month.
Ghost brought me bag of raw carrots, celery, brocolli. It was SO good! Food here is not bad food but so badly prepared which breaks my heart.
Easiest eating plan for me is the Eat Your Colors plate which requires no calorie counting but requires measuring 1/2 cup and 1 cup portions to “fill your plate” with listed vegetables, fruits, grains, protein.
Since I cannot eat many things now because of lactose intolerance, potassium intolerance, diabetes I just make a list of allowed foods and you use those.
Received our first Christmas card on 11/27!! I thought I was going to be the earliest, but am only as far as addressing envelopes. I will likely delay another 2 weeks before attempting to write a page of non- to semi-interesting stuff for inclusion. Not that past efforts have been glorious, but it will be very difficult this year to find anything worthy of note. My MBH’s continual “church-connected good works” activities may form one nice section. Those in need remain in need….
PS: This year’s writing will be my 42nd or 43rd consecutive annual epistle – forgot exactly when I began, but know it was in the late ’70s. I always begin with a disclaimer that it need not be read and may be better shredded for a canary cage. I write because I happen to enjoy reading the letters sent by others, which seems to be a minority opinion.
[I also LOVE fruitcake, especially from Claxton, Ga., and that also seems to be a minority opinion.]
Amen on the fruitcake & the pleasure of reading others’ news. Mine’s in the draft stage, & includes acknowledgement of COVID-19, but not [yet?] mention of my vote for Dr. Fauci as TIME’s person of the year.
Peace,
I would cast my vote for those that have worked so diligently on the COVID-19 vaccine and those who cut through the red tape to make it possible.
Good fruitcake is an art. I grew up eating the fruitcake baked in Corsicana, Texas. They were given extensively by those in oil industry to others in oil business. They have become so costly no one in oil today could afford them.
c e-p
Mothers cousin sent her a Christmas card in July once so she could beat my Mother always first out.
I think mom mailed hers day after Thanksgiving. Remember when Christmas did not start till then?
.
If I say so myself I make a decent Friendship Bread Fruit Cake. Lots of stuff but not dense like a brick.
.
News letter this year will be (maybe) three sentences long – will get lots of cards worth on an 8 1/2 X 11. 🙂
Really, Jackie, I know you were unhappy about getting your knee replacements put off indefinitely by the cancer–but breaking both bones in your leg is a pretty drastic way to get that new knee!! Love and prayers from me.
Well, Nancy, you know Jackie…she never does anything halfway. 🙂
Unfortunately, the lower leg she broke was below the knee that had already been replaced. So she’ll still have another knee replacement ahead of her at some point. 🙁