Author: Kim du Toit

News Roundup

Bad News

And speaking of crossing water:


…

On to Silly News:


...okay, I got nothing.

More silly news:


...as long as we can also cancel Juneteenth, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and MLK Day, I’m okay with this.

Some Election News:


...after the first three words, you just know that what follows will be absolute bullshit.  And it is.  Ditto this opening phrase:


...man, it must really suck to be a vegan environmentalist right now.

And from the Dept. of Health:


…

And not to be outdone:


...keyword:  Canada.  Let’s hear it for the planet of Euthanasia!

Some Lawn Order:


...nice to see that the Britcops have solved all other crimes Over There, so they can devote time and man/womanpower to tackle this pressing social problem.


...more proof that the Britcops have so little crime to investigate that their cops become crack addicts out of sheer boredom.  And he’s not even French.

Over Here:


...am I the only one who thinks it’s a pity they stopped it?

Musicians Behaving Badly:


...P Diddy:  the early years.

From the Dept. of Education:


...one would have thought that at that age, just the sight of her mimsy would have been sufficient;  but evidently not.

And in thankfully link-free 

   

...four words:  single mom, eleven kids.

And in keeping with today’s sponsor, some Good News:


...remember her?  Here’s a reminder:

Now that we know who she is, here’s more of her:

 

Finally:

And that’s the bottom of the news.

Missing The Cold

Beauty, Weather

From Reader Joe Donuts (probably a pseudonym):

“Your wallpaper got me pondering as do many of your posts about what used to be Great Britain.  I spent most of my 20 plus years in Uncle Sam’s Traveling Air Circus stationed in East Anglia. Miss it terribly and shudder at what it, and the rest of Europe, has become.

“Fall left here last week.  The snow has been on the ground since Monday and is here to stay until late April. I’ve woken to single digit temps the last day or two; they’ll have a negative sign soon enough. Call me odd, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Nor would I.  Possibly the strangest thing is that as much as I wouldn’t live pretty much anywhere in the North that I used to (Chicago, New Jersey etc.), I do miss the seasons thereof.

I loved the spring:  the way that one day it’s brown and ugly after the snow has melted, and a week later the trees are in full bloom and the grass has somehow recovered after being buried in snow for a few months and is now green again;  the joy of a warm, occasionally-hot summer when it feels good to be outside and life just seems more worth living after the February-April dreariness;  of the fall, where the trees change from uniform green into a kaleidoscope of many colors and the sweaty heat of summer is replaced with cooler temperatures;  and finally, that first snowfall, the beauty of the white covering over everything and the incredible hush that falls after the snow has fallen…

I miss it all, terribly.

And yes, I know that raking the leaves is a pain in the ass, that shoveling snow every morning at 6am in sub-freezing temperatures can become tiresome, and that after the snow has more or less melted away in the late winter/early spring that everything looks dirty and ugly.

As the man said:   “Show me paradise and I’ll buy us the tickets.”

HOW Much? (Part 2)

Marketing / Advertising, Old Fartism, The Gun Thing

Never checked my email over the weekend because I had other stuff to do.  So I opened  the program just now, to find this in my Inbox:

It’s not the sale price that offends me (that much):  it’s becoming increasing difficult to find a decent rifle for less than a grand nowadays (sigh).

But two grand (regular price)?  For a Marlin lever rifle?

Has the world gone fucking crazy?

Then again, there’s this:

…which seems too good to be true.  (I don’t know who “SDS” is, but whatever.)  If I were to guess, that might need a few hundred bucks in gunsmithing to make it acceptable, but I could be wrong.  (I do like the lanyard ring, by the way.)

Healthy Drinks

Health

…or not, as recently revealed by A Doctor:

A Harvard and Stanford trained gastroenterologist has revealed four scary facts about diet soda — and why you may not want to drink them anymore.

I’ll spare you the need to click on the link.  Diet pops (Diet Coke, -Pepsi, whatever) mess with the following:

  • Heart
  • Kidneys
  • Gut biome
  • and make you crave chocolate (or something like that)

Of course, they all taste like shit, without exception, so there’s also that.  In my experience, people who claim the opposite have generally been drinking them for an extended period — i.e. their taste buds have become accustomed to that battery acid tang.  I tried a couple of them, many years ago, and found that they made me thirstier than I was before drinking them.

For those who read John Sandford’s Prey  novels, this will come as Bad News to ace detective Lucas Davenport, who seemingly chugs a Diet Coke with every meal.  Then again, he also drinks that foul Leinenkugel beer, so his taste in drinks is questionable at best.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

To a reporter who asked when he would use the words “climate change.”:

“The chance of me virtue signaling for people in the media is zero. So, do not count on that. I do not subscribe to your religion.”  — Future POTUS Ron DeSantis

The more he speaks, the more I like him.