mortadella: take 2

Mortadella! But first, a peek at "smoked pepperoni" from John Cook Deli Meats:

In Korean, it actually says, "Smoke Pepperoni," no "d" in "Smoked."

I'm extremely curious as to how this "pepperoni" will taste. On the package, you see a photo that looks like a serving suggestion. Reminds me of andouille.

And below—the mortadella I'd bought. It certainly looks legit, but it's not a John Cook brand; it's called Farm Fresh. Inside the blue border of the package labeling, you see three phrases with checked boxes next to them. From left to right, the first phrase says, "Mortadella sandwich." The second phrase says, "Italian brunch." The third phrase says, "Cold cuts you eat immediately." (The adverb 바로/baro means "directly," so it's a bit like saying you can eat this cold, straight from the package.) Moving up from the blue border, the large-font label says—as you see in English—"Farm Fresh Mortadella."

Here's a pic of the meat out of its packaging:

smooth... the way a meat emulsion should look

Each package holds a meager two slices, and you're paying through the nose for those. But as you see below, I saw and tasted right away that this mortadella was legit.

the snarl of a dog warning you not to disturb him when he's eating

If anything, this version of mortadella had too many pistachios. But that was fine: the makers of this sausage got the basics right. I miss the peppercorns and the olives, but this will do. Later this week, I'll be serving the crew deli-meat sandwiches (with some homemade bread), so I have to buy some other meats, which means I'll be taking a trip out Costco way for meat, cheeses, and pesto/tapenade ingredients.

Oi, Curtis

Curtis,

We've known each other for years as "e-friends," having never met in real life, and I can't seem to find any evidence, in my archives, that you and I have ever emailed directly, so could I ask you to do me the honor of shooting me an email so I can stick your address in my address book? It might be better to talk privately about this "Italian for Koreans" thing—not because it's top secret or anything, but just because it's a bit awkward to have that kind of conversation via the comments threads of this humble blog. So, yeah, if you could send me an email (bighominid@gmail.com), I'd appreciate it.

Pax,

Kevin

proofreading: it is accomplished

I finished the rest of my proofreading today. The job took only about two hours. Sometime just after the first hour, my boss showed up to do his own Sunday work. I mentioned that I hoped to finish early so I could go up the street to John Cook Deli Meats to see whether they had any mortadella (which I'm no longer going to capitalize because I have a French bias against unnecessary capitalization, and Wikipedia doesn't capitalize the sausage's name, either). The boss lit up and said he wanted to visit John Cook, too. I warned him that the place had been shrinking, so he shouldn't expect much. 

I finished my work; we headed up the street in the boss's car (John Cook is only a few intersections down from where I work) and found a parking garage in the same building as John Cook. A quick elevator ride up from the garage, and we were once again on the ground floor. We entered John Cook via its back door ("We're back-door people," I cracked lasciviously), and sure enough, the place seemed to have shrunk even more since the last time I'd visited—fewer shelves, less variety. I think the place is withering and dying. Sometimes, I think this sort of thing happens not because of competition, but because the place isn't marketing itself hard and creatively enough. It's always a shame to see a place go bust when it's selling decent-quality products. By rights, John Cook should have been bustling.

We walked around the meager interior, and I did manage to find mortadella. I also found a package of something labeled "smoked pepperoni," which snagged my curiosity, so I bought myself some. They also had some other stuff lying about that caught my eye; in the end, I came away with a plastic bag filled with several items. My boss, meanwhile, gave a grunt of disappointment and bought nothing. Once we finished, my boss went back to his car, and I ended up taking the subway back to my place.

Expect a blog post on the mortadella. I bought an extra package just for me to sample. John Cook's version of the sausage looks pretty legit. At least, it's got pistachios, and the meat looks fine-ground and emulsified, the way mortadella should look. Chewing on it shouldn't be like chewing on ear cartilage. Coming soon: the mort report.

home defense without guns

Ave, Dr. Gilleland!

Michael Gilleland puts up a long quote about "conjectural emendation and proofreading" that ends hilariously this way:

In Malherbe's famous 'Rose, elle a vécu ce que vivent les roses.' 'Rose, elle' was originally a printer's error for the author's 'Rosette,' and to my mind one of the best things in all Herbert Spencer is the story that in the sentimental outgiving 'Pour connaître l'amour, il faut sortir de soi' the idealistic 'de soi' became in type the realistic 'le soir.'

I love it.

To translate that last part:

Pour connaître l'amour, il faut sortir de soi. = To know love, one must go outside of oneself.

Pour connaître l'amour, il faut sortir le soir. = To know love, one must go out every evening.

So we go from an idealistic understanding of love to a more John McCrarey-ish understanding of "love" as a salacious pursuit practiced every evening.

American rock songs famously confuse or conflate love and sex, so why not?

images

Little Girl always gets her way.

If you can name the word that that's supposed to be, I'll respect you in the morning and give you cab fare.

Netflix race-swapping memes are popular these days. Did you see the one for Elon Musk?

Netflix is getting a lot of shit for its show about Cleopatra, which stars a black actress. Cleopatra, by all legitimate accounts, wasn't black. She may have been at least partly Greek, and many old artistic representations of her make her out to be, well, white-looking.

oh, now you show up

All of this month, my site-visit numbers have been unusually low, with no 3,000-visit days. My average, this month, has been about 450 visits, which is very much on the low side (my usual average is closer to 600 per day). And now, this evening, I'm suddenly getting a spike in traffic, which leaves me wondering: where the fuck were you monkeys back when I needed you? This sudden and as-ever-random surge won't be enough to push me up to my "honorable" minimum of 20K visits per month. Maybe that's apropos given how well I did the two previous months. Over the course of a year, these stats will all average out, I'm sure.

So unless I suddenly have a 6,000-visit day today (April 30), I'll be finishing under my usual 20K minimum. Maybe May will be better. May 13 is my two-year strokiversary.

no compensation for you

Headline (there might be a paywall):

US Officials Reject Compensation for People Diagnosed With COVID-19 Vaccine Injuries

Why? Because they're a bunch of fucking assholes is why.

U.S. authorities rejected multiple people who sought compensation for COVID-19 vaccine injuries, despite diagnoses from doctors, documents show.

Letters from U.S. officials reviewed by The Epoch Times show officials contradicting doctors who treated patients as they turned down requests for payment.

Cody Flint, an agricultural pilot, was diagnosed by four doctors with a severe adverse reaction to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Shortly after being vaccinated, Flint experienced intense head pressure, which led to problems such as perilymphatic fistula, the doctors said.

Flint sent a slew of medical files, including evidence of the diagnoses, to the U.S. Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), which compensates people who prove they were injured by a COVID-19 shot.

But administrators for the program rejected Flint’s application in a denial letter, saying they “did not find the requisite evidence that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination caused” the conditions from which he suffers.

[ ... ]

CICP administrators told [Flint] that “compelling, reliable and valid medical and scientific evidence does not support a causal association between the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, perilymphatic fistulas, increased intracranial pressure, Eustachian tube dysfunction, hearing loss, or loss of eyesight.”

They also tried to pin the problems on barotrauma. Colloquially known as airplane ear, barotrauma happens when air pressure suddenly changes, and is common as planes climb higher in the sky. Barotrauma causes the fistulas and symptoms of the fistulas “began while flying,” administrators wrote.

Flint and his doctors asserted in appeal letters that the barotrauma theory doesn’t hold up because Flint flies low as he dusts crops.

[ ... ] 

The CICP determination was reviewed by a panel that sided with administrators. The panel found that the COVID-19 vaccine “did not cause Mr. Flint to develop bilateral perlympathic fistulas and related symptoms,” Suma Nair, an administrator, told Flint in a final denial letter. “There is no compelling causal connection between the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and the symptomology Mr. Flint experienced; the more likely cause of Mr. Flint’s symptoms is trauma from flying a plane, which would have developed over time.”

[ ... ]

“It’s just all comical to me,” Flint told The Epoch Times. “I get the shot, I’m injured within 48 hours, and they say that that makes it implausible.”

One part of me wants to withhold sympathy for people who suffer complications after getting vaxxed, but I recognize that getting vaxxed hasn't always been a choice. In many cases, unwilling people have had to get vaxxed (well, jabbed) because it was a matter of keeping their jobs. All I can do is feel sad for such folks. I myself never got jabbed, but I had to follow the asinine masking rules like everyone else if I wanted to keep using the subway, taxis, etc., and if I wanted to enter stores, restaurants, and even my own office building and apartment. The whole thing was massively retarded, and we all had to suffer some degree of totally unnecessary humiliation. I want three years of my life back.

Korea's initial COVID measures started off being a lot saner than what was happening in blue-state America, but as the previous government (led by liberal Moon Jae-in) began to fixate more and more fanatically on those damn "confirmed infected" statistics (which had nothing to do with COVID's actual low mortality rate), South Korea's pandemic measures began to feel like screw-tightening. You could go outside without a mask, but in-building and in-vehicle restrictions were stifling, and the pressure to get the shot was very high. I often found myself doing the old-man thing of standing on a sidewalk and randomly shaking my head at the colossal stupidity of it all. Every other word out of my mouth, as I walked along, was "Fuck." 

Now, the mask mandate has been lifted everywhere but in pharmacies and healthcare facilities, and my cell phone no longer vibrates five-plus times a day with emergency messages about "confirmed infected." I still see at least 50% of people outside and in public transportation masking up... the fear, whether from social pressure or from superstition replacing science, lingers. I did a rough count while in the subway a couple weeks ago as I quietly looked at the people who were seated. Each set of seats in a typical subway car can hold about seven people, and during the day, about 6/7 of the seated people had masks on. That number seemed to go down in the evenings when trains were less crowded.

Anyway, all the world's governments responded to this virus in a manner that proved to be both fearful and stupid. I understand that we were all unsure what to do at first, but as more and more information about COVID seeped out (despite the best efforts of authorities and the media to suppress it), it became obvious that following the science meant no masks, no jabs, and no lockdowns. Essentially, the Swedish model. And most news agencies did their best to lie about Sweden. Fearmongering is a tool of both sides, but the left does it especially well. Meanwhile, the above article merely rubs salt in the wounds. Many people were forced to get the shot, then they suffered aftereffects, and now, the government predictably refuses to pay for injuries resulting from the shot. In an ideal world, organizations like the abovementioned CICP would be burned to the goddamn ground with flamethrowers, but we live in a world where the criminals get away with their grift again and again.

proofreading update

I was in the office for nine hours today, working on that second manuscript (the writing workbook that is a companion to the textbook I finished proofreading on Friday). I did manage to get through five of the ten chapters, and the remaining five ought to go by fast tomorrow. I don't expect the remaining proofreading to take more than three hours.

Today, there was a lot of "front-loaded" work to do. This first meant comparing the reading passages of the first and second manuscripts* and making corrections to the second manuscript (abbreviated "ms" in the printing/publishing world) based on the corrections I'd made in the first ms. So instead of plowing through each chapter from the first to the last page, I checked only the reading passages at the beginnings of every chapter, 1 through 10. I then returned to the second ms's Unit 1 (i.e., Chapter 1), and every time I found the type of error that I knew would be repeated in every chapter (this happens quite often when the same chapter template is applied over and over again), I would correct that error in every chapter of the ms. When all the repeated errors had been corrected, I was finally able to proceed through the ms from Unit 1 to Unit 10, proofreading and correcting any unique errors that were left over. For that last part, I got only through Unit 5, and I'll finish the rest Sunday afternoon. That shouldn't take more than three hours because there's actually very little left to do.

That's good because I need to visit the local John Cook Deli Meats to see whether they're carrying any legit mortadella. John Cook has a nasty habit of closing early. Online resources say they close at 9, but I've arrived around 8 p.m. to find them already closed. Don't trust online resources in Korea when it comes to any establishment's business hours. Unless it's a huge business like Costco. Even then, verify. Western expats learn quickly not to take things as literal truth on the peninsula.

__________

*The reading passages are basically identical, so whatever mistakes I found while correcting the reading passages in the first ms would, in principle, also be in the second ms. That was the theory, anyway. In reality, I was puzzled to see that, in some cases, errors had already been corrected in the second ms. Fascinating, Captain.

why do I find this so awesome?

I'm not sure why I find this YouTube Short so awesome. Maybe it's because I've never seen the step-by-step loading of an old flintlock pistol before. And the thing was more accurate than I anticipated, although the range was admittedly limited. Lots of comments to the video congratulate the shooter on his period-accurate aviators.

spot the errors!

From a passage quoted in that Dr. V post:

Some people think cannibalism is wrong, others think that it is right. If the former are to prevail politically they must be willing to use force against the latter.

Two punctuation errors stand out, one in each sentence. What are the errors, why are they errors, and how do you correct them?

ChatGPT's "split personality" when it comes to China

As if things couldn't get more sinister (video cued to 5:26):

Styx no longer likes DeSantis

Styx had earlier said Ron DeSantis was "growing on" him, but there was a line that DeSantis should never cross, and DeSantis has now crossed it for Styx:

"DeSantis has just gone full Dan Crenshaw."

The bill DeSantis signed curtails free speech.

Comments underneath Styx's video include:

DeSantis says he’s against cancel culture and for free speech and then proceeds to embrace cancel culture against the First Amendment. He’s an opportunist.

Never trust a politician with a leg on each side of the fence. He is one of them.

Of my three biggest problems with Desantis, this is just the icing. He already supported red flags and persecuting pet owners for an industrial accident so his developer buddies don’t take the heat. How could you think of supporting him in the first place?

One of the first things Ron DeSantis did as governor was literally act like Donald Trump during his speeches.

It was always an act.

Imagine thinking any millennial, even if Republican, is going to vote for a second George W. Bush.

People should have been skeptical of Ron Desantis simply from who finances him. He's a career politician. He's a bit better than the rest, but he's not an outsider and he's certainly not against the system.

A lot of people who warned of Desantis being Bush 3.0 are feeling very vindicated right now.

The bill in question sounds innocent enough (read more here), but I'll need to review it in detail before I can form a proper opinion on the subject.

Related: Trump the Only Way Forward

One paragraph from the above-linked post that I disagree with:

The idea that large numbers of Americans are going to “wake up” and “push back” is simply a cope. That’s not how popular opinion works. The idea that Americans are going to see transgenderism as a bridge too far is, I think, much overhyped. I remember the gay marriage “debates,” such as they were. I remember Prop 8 passing in 2008 in California. I also remember how none of these setbacks for the Left ultimately had any bearing in the end. By 2015, gay marriage was the law of the land. Today it is untouchable liberal orthodoxy supported by a majority of Americans, including large numbers of “conservatives.”

Tucker Carlson NOT fired?

Moral: rich people are stupid and fuck everything up for everyone else.

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stupid millennials

proofreading

I hope the pics below give you an idea of what it's like for me to proofread yet another error-riddled manuscript. We were suddenly assigned a proofreading job of the "needs to be done yesterday" variety (other departments can never decide whether or when to use the books we create until they belatedly realize that, Oh! We need this textbook right away!), so I've been slaving away over this manuscript, which I just finished proofing tonight. 

Click to enlarge, then right-click on the image and select "open in new tab" to see full size:

Every Post-It note = a page with one or more errors on it.

I realized that, since I was putting a Post-It note on practically every page of the manuscript, there was really no reason to use Post-Its at all. But the sunk-cost fallacy had gripped me by that point, so I continued wasting Post-Its to the bitter end.

an example of a page full of errors

As I make corrections, I leave notes, often in Korean for the benefit of our designer, whose English is shakier than my Korean (this shakiness is also the inadvertent source of many of the errors I have to correct*). This particular manuscript is about 180 pages long. I'm coming in over the weekend to work on the companion manuscript, which is even longer. (But, as my boss reassures me, it's mostly filled with blank spaces so that students can write paragraphs and essays. Yay?) The main manuscript took five work days to get through. I have to get through the companion manuscript before Monday, i.e., in two days. In publishing, deadline is king, and there's no denying the deadline.

__________

*My boss, my former American coworker, and I (it's down to just my boss and me now) all generate content for whatever textbook we're working on. We look over our work, then give it to the designer, who has to transfer our content from MS Word to InDesign, the program he uses to generate a polished textbook. The designer formats and colors the pages (thereby creating templates). He also draws certain illustrations, add photos, and works on text formatting, which has to be consistent from chapter to chapter and book to book. The designer then prints out a copy of the manuscript for me to proofread. 

Unfortunately, the designer's way of transferring Word text to InDesign is clunky: instead of copying all of a page's content at one time without losing its format, he creates dozens of individual text boxes per page, then meticulously copies bits of text over sentence by sentence, manually re-applying formats to the text as he goes. It's an inefficient process that results in all sort of designer-generated errors. Periods and whole words or phrases get dropped. Material from previous chapters gets copied and pasted into the wrong exercises; text formatting (italics, bold, etc.) gets fucked up... it's a mess. I need to sit down with the designer and show him there's a way to copy an entire page of text with the original formatting intact. This would cut down on at least 50% of the errors I have to deal with. It would also save oodles of time, and proofreading would be so much easier.

it bears repeating

And there's this:

indeed?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has plowed through a series of wives. His latest, Cheryl Hines, is apparently not on board with RFK Jr.'s anti-vaxx stance. When Kennedy gave an anti-vaxx speech that made reference to Anne Frank, Hines called the speech "reprehensible and insensitive." I have a feeling that Hines might become RFK Jr.'s ex-wife in good time. Hines is an actress known for her role in "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Hines and Kennedy married in 2014. How's it going, guys?

From the above-linked CNN article:

Kennedy apologized in a tweet on Tuesday for invoking Frank’s name, tweeting that his “intention was to use examples of past barbarism to show the perils from new technologies of control.”

“I apologize for my reference to Anne Frank, especially to families that suffered the Holocaust horrors,” he tweeted. “To the extent my remarks caused hurt, I am truly and deeply sorry.”

Hines ... replied to a tweet with, “My husband’s opinions are not a reflection of my own. While we love each other, we differ on many current issues.” She specified that she disagreed with Kennedy’s comments about Frank when pressed by Twitter users[,] including NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins.

That apology sounds like the words of someone seeking domestic tranquility and continued access to sex. Just divorce her, man. Add her to the list of wives gone by. She's obviously a hypersensitive moron, a loudmouthed idiot, and she's already failed any litmus test for being a proper First Lady since she's okay with publicly undermining her husband instead of presenting a united front (reverse the gender roles to see what I mean). I get where Kennedy was going with his analogy—probably because I'm not Eternally Primed to Be Offended. And why would a leftie complain about Hitler-era analogies, anyway? They use them all the time!

Sudan and evacuations

In case you haven't heard, Sudan is falling apart as a civil war (Wikipedia: "armed conflict between rival factions of the military government") consumes the country. Expats are bugging out, often with help from the respective militaries of the expats' countries of origin. ROK Drop reports that Koreans have been "fully evacuated" from Sudan by Korean special forces. Meanwhile, and I can't believe I'm quoting Al Jazeera (but it came up in a Google search), the US has 16,000-some citizens in Sudan, many of whom are dual US-Sudanese citizens. How many got evacuated by US special forces?

The United States has come under scrutiny for evacuating roughly 70 embassy staff in a helicopter mission by elite SEAL commandos over the weekend while warning thousands of private American citizens in Sudan there would be no similar evacuation for them.

The State Department, which has advised US citizens for years not to travel to Sudan, continues to advise Americans to shelter in place. Most of the estimated 16,000 Americans believed to be in Sudan right now are dual US-Sudanese nationals and only a fraction of them have expressed a desire to leave.

So the US situation is complicated. Many of these US citizens, far from being expats, are also Sudanese citizens who may be unwilling to leave what is their home despite the ongoing conflict. Still, evacuating only 70-ish citizens seems pretty meager. Another example of how much the Biden administration cares for US citizens.

before the doctor's appointment

Some numbers before I leave for my doctor's appointment. 

Weight: 118 kg (no change from last report) 

Blood sugar: 83 (pretty steep drop) 

Blood pressure: 139/91 (still too high)

Pulse: 78 (could be lower)

I imagine I'll get different numbers for some of the above from the doc, especially with BP. I'm generally nervous in hospitals and doctor's offices, so my BP and pulse always go up. Blood-sugar numbers are great news (I was at 97 last night, which is also not bad), so the double whammy of diet plus meds may be working. Admittedly, I'm cheating a bit, though, as I've mostly fasted over the past 72-plus hours (thus depressing my blood sugar), and since it's been only a month since I had my blood tested, I doubt that my current blood sugar does much to change the average for my A1c.

We'll see what the doc says. Expect an update later today. I don't think I'll be getting a full blood test again today, because it's been only a month, so I don't think I'll have an A1c number to report later on. But maybe the doc will test me, anyway. If he does, I have to remind him that I'll be looking for more than just my A1c: I'll also want to know the results for cholesterol, triglycerides, and insulin level. As Dr. Ekberg points out in his videos, it's possible to have low blood sugar and high insulin at the same time, which isn't a good sign.

More later!

UPDATE: the doc didn't do much except to take my blood pressure, which was unsurprisingly much higher than the reading I got this morning. The doc asked whether I had taken my BP reading today, and I said yes. Of course, even the numbers I gave him were high, so BP remains an ongoing concern. I did say, though, that I'm back to doing stairs training, so over the next few months, my BP ought to go down. The doc also looked at the photo I took of my toe this morning, and he prescribed another ten days' worth of antibiotics for my foot (so I have to go back in ten days), plus another 30 days' worth of diabetes meds. The doc seems to think that my toe won't take much longer to heal, but as I mentioned earlier, Mother Nature provides her own sign of healing: toe-wound leakage. So, as always, lay off the carbs, keep doing what I'm doing (stairs training and all), and reincorporate distance walking into my life as soon as possible.

Tim Pool on Tucker Carlson and Fox

This video is relevant not so much for what Tim Pool says about Tucker Carlson (about whose future I have no reason to worry) but for what he says about Carlson's now-former network, Fox News. Turns out Fox News is a shittier shithole than you ever imagined. The higher echelons apparently gather dirt on their own employees for use in situations just like this (i.e., petty and cowardly firings of their biggest money-earners). Well, as we're finding out, Fox's ratings are now cratering, and it's hemorrhaging money. All I can say is: good. Styx was right all along: fuck Fox News. It's corporate media like all the rest.

who says women aren't funny?

I've never seen "Bridesmaids," a comedy that came out way back in 2011, but if this compilation of "Rita" clips is any indication, I'm thinking I should watch this movie. Rita, one of the eponymous bridesmaids, is hilariously cynical about marriage and motherhood:

the AI girlfriend

Nikki Haley? no, thanks

Headline:

Now Nikki Haley is taking Woke Disney’s Side Against Gov. DeSantis

“SC’s not woke, but we’re not sanctimonious about it either.” That’s a shot at Governor DeSantis, borrowing from Trump’s attacks. Which makes me wonder if she’s campaigning for president or campaigning to be Trump’s vice president.

Seriously, who told her this was a good idea? Is grooming children into the LGBT movement all of a sudden accepted in the state of South Carolina?

The article does note that Trump, too, has wrongly sided with Disney (without elaborating). But as regards Nikki Haley, this is one more reason not to jump on the Haley bandwagon. I think DeSantis's reasoning throughout this whole Disney affair has been sound: Disney shouldn't have the right to set up what is essentially its own government inside the boundaries of Florida, nor does it deserve its various financial benefits, such as its "special tax district" status. Disney also loudly opposed the parental-rights bill supported by DeSantis (the bill mendaciously misnamed "Don't Say Gay" by the left). For Haley to invite Disney to move to South Carolina is as gauche as serving Bud Light at an RNC event.

just wow

Headline:

Tone Deaf RNC Offers Bud Light at Spring Meeting

During the Republican National Committee’s big donor meeting earlier this month, Bud Light was offered as a beverage. This was a week after boycotts of the drink had begun following Anheuser-Busch taking on transvestite Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson.

[ ... ]

In fairness, hotels generally have full control over catering of these events with menu requests made weeks or even months ahead. With that said, attention to detail is always important and the RNC clearly either ignored their base or didn’t pay attention to what was being served at their event.

A bit of background: Anheuser-Busch contributes to both political parties, but it contributes substantially more to the GOP. For this reason, Donald Trump Jr. came out and said that righties shouldn't boycott Bud Light and other A-B products. This message did not go over well with the voter base, who kept right on boycotting. Trump Jr. and the RNC seem unaware of how the hoi polloi feel, which is never a good sign.

more on Tucker Carlson's firing

I don't want to fixate too much on Tucker Carlson because he's not someone I watched with any regularity (although he may have been the sanest of the Fox News crew). But there's a train-wreck aspect to this whole affair that is admittedly compelling. Paul Joseph Watson explores some of the issues surrounding Carlson's firing (and yes, he was fired):

toe update

Not that I want to bombard you with daily reports, but today, I wore my regular shoes, and I wanted you to see what effect that has on my foot in contrast to the effect of sandals.

a tiny bit of seepage—not enough to pre-wash the sock

The leaking still gets through the thicker gauze bandage I use during the day.

what the leak looks like on the inside of the bandage

There's still a hole, but it seems smaller.

It almost feels as if we're in the latter phase of wound closure, but it's hard to be sure. I'm thinking that I've got another couple of months as the size of the leakage continues to go down bit by bit. I'm seeing my doc this coming Friday; we'll soon know how that goes. Aside from my massive bleed after that disastrous hospital visit, I haven't tracked blood all over my floor in about a month. All signs seem to be pointing toward real healing.

Nate Silver—gone

Another one bites the dust, it seems. Nate Silver, famed but misguided and often self-deluded prognosticator who heads up FiveThirtyEight.com, has been fired by ABC News, with whom FiveThirtyEight is associated. ABC, which is owned by Disney, says it wants to retain the "brand," but not Silver himself. Tim Pool is again ecstatic as he watches the mainstream media implode. I share his happiness, but I wish the implosion could happen faster.

victimhood Olympics: old school

Thanks to a random YouTube comment, I was able to connect these two "onedownsmanship" moments: (1) Wade Wilson in "Deadpool" when he first flirts with Vanessa and (2) the Monty Python "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch. You need to watch both to see the hilarious similarities.

question

Tucker Carlson was given 40,000-plus hours of January 6 footage to sift through and analyze. That was while he was a Fox News anchor/commentator. With Carlson now fired, can he still access that footage, or does it all belong to Fox?

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NGMI = Not Gonna Make It... ominous when said about a Kennedy

Because sluts know how to slurp it down.

Not a fan of McCarthy, but I get the point.

Having my guts ripped out and chewed on by a googly-eyed alien would be that much worse.

My, what big teeth you have!

I'm still trying to picture what she meant by, "My car stalled, and then it broke down."

this guy is a nutcase, and I love it

Your dose of humor for the day:

His parody of Scandinavian crime dramas had me rolling.

Doug on DeSantis

I've been watching a lot of Doug in Exile lately, but I haven't subscribed to him. He's got a pleasant enough demeanor, but he's also said some overtly religious things that, to put it politely, are off-putting (he's very anti-gay marriage, for instance). Sure, he has the right to say whatever he wants, but I also have the right to react however I want, and when Doug starts talking religiously, I get a real pod-people vibe from him. Overall, I appreciate his commentary except when he goes off the rails religiously. That said, Doug is a Trump fan, which means he obviously doesn't favor DeSantis as the GOP nominee. At the same time, he's been at pains to say he likes DeSantis and dislikes the internecine conflict within the ranks of the right. I think he's said he'd be fine with DeSantis's being nominated, if it came to that, but he also has some gentle reservations about the man. The 4-minute video below explains more:

Coronation Chicken

King Charles's coronation takes place on May 6 this year—in just a few days. Max Miller of Tasting History therefore put out a video on Queen Elizabeth II's "Coronation Chicken," which she may never have eaten. I'll be curious to know what's on the menu for Charles and Company, but in the meantime, I might make some sort of chicken dish in honor of the new king on that exalted Saturday.

Assuming I don't make the Coronation Chicken, I saw that Andy over at Andy Cooks has an awesome chicken cordon bleu recipe that might be worth making.

Dr. Sebastian Gorka

Dr. Sebastian Gorka has been dancing around the periphery of my consciousness for years, but this was my first time listening to him speak at length on a variety of interesting topics from Ukraine to Ron DeSantis. Smart guy. Knows his stuff. He's got the active intellect of Larry Elder, and he justifies his Trump partisanship with facts and figures. (Gorka served in the Trump administration.) Under the video, I've copied the "table of contents" from the YouTube description so you can zip to whatever topic interests you. Clicking on any of those segments will probably take you away from my blog and over to YouTube, but you're always free to come right back.

00:00 Intro 01:56 Dr Sebastian Gorka’s Background 04:59 Putin's Invasion of Ukraine 08:22 What is the National Security Interest for Supporting Ukraine? 10:54 Has the West Antagonised Russia? 16:39 Complaints About Sending Money to Ukraine 21:09 The US Document Leak 24:00 Conspiracy Chronicles 26:13 Extreme Views from the Left & Right 31:32 The Ukraine Situation if Trump Had Been in Power 34:49 How Can Ukraine be Resolved? 36:05 Will Trump be Re-elected? 45:02 Will Trump Heal or Worsen Division in America? 56:37 Trump After Losing the Election 1:01:34 Dr Gorka’s Thoughts on Ron DeSantis 1:09:13 The Difference Between Healing Divides & Saving the Nation 1:15:29 Will Joe Biden Run Again? 1:17:33 What’s the One Thing We’re Not Talking About?