Tag: bemusement
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When was it invented?
From Motor Age in 1919, a brand new and clever method for ‘working a car into a small space’. “Not one driver in a hundred knows how to work a car into a small space to get near a wall or curb.” Still true after 100 years of required driving tests.
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Primly and properly
Speaking of subjunctives… There are lots of old jokes about proper prim Bostonians. Maybe they’re right. Motor Age in 1909 has some pretty pictures of the motoring conditions around President Taft’s “summer capital” in Beverly. Nice Stickley typography. I’d say the summer capital is almost large enough to hold Taft. Alongside this picture: the article…
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What’s the purpose?
The D party here in Wash is proposing mandatory “voting”, like Australia. I’m not sure what they’re trying to accomplish. No state has ever done this, and it’s a safe bet that some “court” will eventually block it, which won’t make any difference and won’t be obeyed. Government does what it wants. Do they think…
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What makes Sammy run?
Now Sammy is openly tampering with witnesses. He contacted one of the main accusers suggesting “reconnection”. Sammy is not dumb. He’s drugged up and spoiled and entitled and an incurable cheater, but I can’t see why a perpetual cheater would MAXIMIZE his own sentence. Was he planning to reveal these contacts during the trial? Witness…
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There must be a reason….
An observation on the peculiarities of social media algorithms. I wanted to write a couple of uncontroversial comments on Reddit, answering a linguistic question and a snow-shoveling question. I knew the answers to both, and the correct answers hadn’t appeared yet. So I signed in using Google as a ‘mediator’ and supplied both answers. After…
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Mercy for orphans
Sammy’s got a Substack now, opened just a few hours ago. In his first post he puts out some carefully lawyered-up caveats, and then bashes the bankruptcy CEO for not undoing Sammy’s crimes fast enough. Later: Various discussers are trying to figure out Sammy’s motives. At least one lawyer has already given up on him,…
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Write but not read
Just noticing an oddity for the hundredth time. ‘Write what you know’ is excellent advice. EXPERIENCE is the only thing that counts. When you know about a job or a skill or a place or a culture, you can IMMEDIATELY spot an outsider’s attempts to describe it. Staying inside your zone of familiarity also breeds…
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Introview squared!
A few months ago I coined the word introview for an interview conducted by an introvert. Here we have a double introview! Lots of real Shannon information, real news that breaks up standard ideas. Even though I’m a solid introvert, a double exposure of non-eye-contactors in a show business situation is disconcerting and hard to…
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More WordPress erosion /// Edit: No, it’s not WP.
Last week I noticed an odd gradual “erosion” in some of my GIFs posted here. The sender in the original Morse prototype was being erased in an oddly analogish way. The result looks like a printer smearing ink. Now another set of erosions shows up. Instead of fixing and reposting, I’ll just link to this…
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Trash puzzle
If a fictional detective encountered this oddity, he’d pursue it and find a complex crime at the base. I doubt that there’s anything complex, but it doesn’t make sense. Like most ‘environmentally conscious’ cities, we have a brown bin for regular trash and a blue bin for recyclables. My simple lifestyle doesn’t fill the bins…
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Sunroof mystery
One of the little mysteries of auto history is the soft spot in roofs. Metal shaping technology wasn’t up to the task of pressing out a complete rooftop without wrinkling and stretching the middle. GM finally perfected the ‘deep-draw press’ in 1935, and others soon copied. I’ve been puzzled by the continued use of crude…
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Who invented the Like Button?
I’ve been pointing out that radio, especially shortwave, made it harder to constrain expression. SW always sneaks around borders and walls and jammers. But radio also made it harder to run a pay-for-value business. Subscriptions and customer service require either printed magazines sent to specific addresses, or a hard-wired communication system. Telegraph and telephone and…
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