As you get older and the color fades out of your hair and your face and your life, you need to compensate with more colorful attire. In case you’re wondering about the pink shirt . . .
Pink Shirt
One man who minds his own business is more valuable to the world than 10,000 cocksure moralists. — H.L. Mencken
People Who Have Died
I am getting aware of the fact that I keep writing and thinking about people who have died. I love living. I do not want to die for a long time because I am not ready. I suppose if I thought I was going to die, I could get ready given a period of time, but I am not sure about that. Some folks think that this is not a good thing to think about. I envy the control they must have over their thinking processes.
Pug Photos on Flickr
EppsNet Movie Reviews: We Are the Best!
Contrary to the IMDB summary below, only two of the girls, Klara and Bobo, have no instruments (or talent). The third girl, Hedvig, is a painfully shy classical guitar-playing schoolmate recruited to teach them about music.
This movie is a joy! I don’t know what else to say. See it.
Rating: 
We Are the Best!
Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band -- despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead.
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Cast: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne
IMDb rating: 7.1 (11545 votes)
Hard Deadlines
Does saying “This task has to be done by Friday” increase the chances that the task will be done by Friday?
No, but it increases the chance that it won’t be done before Friday.
Better question: Why isn’t it done now?
Thus spoke The Programmer.
Rickie Lee Jones at the Coach House
We saw Rickie Lee Jones at the Coach House Sunday night. I’ve been an RLJ fan since . . . I think it was 1979, when this young woman I’d never heard of showed up on Saturday Night Live and sang “Chuck E’s in Love”:
[youtube http://youtu.be/o-skfqam0-I]
It might be possible to watch that now and say, “What’s the big deal? I’ve heard women sing like that.”
Not in 1979, you didn’t. In case you’ve forgotten or blocked it out or you weren’t born yet, in 1979 we were listening to Olivia Newton-John, Debby Boone, and similar lame-ass bullshit. (Or Christopher Cross, Barry Manilow . . . the male singers were equally uninspiring.)
I couldn’t have been more electrified if she’d capped off the performance by whacking the Captain and Tennille across the face with her beret.
RLJ’s style influenced a lot of singers, including some who’ve been much more commercially successful, and she really hasn’t I think been properly recognized for that.
She didn’t have a band, just played guitar and piano and sang. She sounded great, reinventing some of her best-known songs with new tempos and phrasing. As I mentioned when we saw Neil Young’s stunning solo show in April, a lot of performers hide their shortcomings as musicians and singers by adding a band, backup singers, electronics and other accoutrements, but when you’re up there all by yourself, there’s nowhere to hide. It’s organic music.
She told some stories between songs, many about living in New Orleans after moving recently from LA. Topics included voodoo ladies, fireflies, impromptu parades and neighbors who sit out on their front porch and wave to you.
The venue was sold out. That’s good. I feel like we were part of something. There was a long standing ovation at the end of the set . . . people went on clapping for several minutes even after the house lights came up, which I don’t remember ever seeing before.
Here’s the set list, to the best of my recollection:
Weasel and the White Boys Cool
Sympathy for the Devil
Young Blood
The Last Chance Texaco
Satellites
It Must Be Love
On Saturday Afternoons in 1963
We Belong Together
Living It Up
The Weight
Company
Chuck E’s in Love
Dying at the Right Time
Paul McCartney has 5,700,000 Likes on Facebook. John Lennon has 15,000,000 Likes, despite being dead for more than 30 years.
As Nietzsche used to say, “One must discontinue being feasted upon when one tasteth best; that is known by those who want to be long loved.”
Limit Your Meeting Attendance
If there’s any question as to whether your presence is required, compare your own goals to the meeting’s reason and decide whether the benefit of attending is greater than the benefit of doing something else. To make this decision, ask yourself two questions: “What’s in it for me?” and “What bad thing would happen if I pass on it?”
If the answer is close to “nothing” and “nothing,” find a reason not to attend.
Know Why the Meeting Was Called
People call business meetings for seven reasons, so plan accordingly:
- To get you to decide something. (Probably useful to you.)
- To hone their own ideas. (Maybe useful to you.)
- To convey information. (Probably not useful; ask for a document instead)
- To test out a presentation. (Probably not useful unless it’s your boss.)
- To accomplish group writing. (Never useful to anybody.)
- To prove their own importance. (Never useful to anybody.)
- To fulfill a process step. (Never useful to anybody.)
Eat Mor Chikin
I like Chick-fil-A. I like that they put people with a mastery of English at the drive-thru, and I especially like that, unlike every other fast food outlet, they never ask me if I’d like to try the latest menu item.
Carl’s Jr. is the worst offender in this area. They seem to constantly have new items on both the breakfast menu and the regular menu so no matter what hour of the day I show up, they have something to force feed me.
“You have a huge picture of that item right here on the menu. It’s not like I’m unaware of its existence. Why can’t you just let me order what I want to order and stop badgering me?”
It’s rude. They don’t do it face to face because they know it’s rude. They don’t “would you like to try” you if you get out of your car and go in to the restaurant, but in the anonymity of the drive-thru it’s okay to badger me and waste my time.
I Am Disenfranchising Myself
I was looking over my vote-by-mail ballot for the California election . . . there’s not one person on there I would trust to represent my interests above their own. It’s like voting on which gang of thieves will be allowed to break into my home and rob me.
In previous elections, I’ve usually voted for all the Republican candidates because I dislike 99 percent of Democratic programs, whereas I only dislike 95 percent of Republican programs. Not much of a choice.
This year, I ripped up the ballot and threw it in the trash.
More People I’m Sick Unto Death Of
People who attribute the cause of their own actions to
- vague impersonal forces
- their condition, diagnosis, personal or psychological history
- the actions of others
- gender roles, social roles or age roles
- uncontrollable impulses
Self-Importance
If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced. That's why people with no sense of humour have an increased sense of self- importance
— Volker Weber (@vowe) April 14, 2014
(Willis) Tower of Terror
Cracks appear on Willis Tower’s 103rd-story ledge — TODAY
Been there, done that, took a picture:
It was boring. You know what would make it more exciting? If they put up a sign that said ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK and three to five times a year the glass cracked and people plunged to their death.
Is that too much? OK, switch it to one plunge every three to five years.
Oceanside, CA
Forget mistakes, forget failures, forget everything, except what you’re going to do now and do it. Today is your lucky day. — Will Durant
Estados Unidos de Converso
People I Thought Were Dead
- Chuck Barris – TV host, “The Gong Show”
- Fidel Castro – Cuban dictator
- Richard Chamberlain – actor, “Dr. Kildare”
- Jules Feiffer – cartoonist, “The New Yorker”
- Rhonda Fleming – actress
- Pete Fountain – clarinetist
- Zsa Zsa Gabor – actress
- Dick Gregory – comedian
- Lee Iacocca – automobile manufacturer
- Dean Jones – actor
- Graham Kerr – The Galloping Gourmet
- Imelda Marcos – Philippine first lady
- “Little Richard” Penniman – rock ‘n’ roll pioneer
- Neil Simon – playwright, “The Odd Couple”
- Larry Storch – actor, “F-Troop”
- Rip Taylor – comedian
- Mel Tillis – country singer/songwriter
- Grant Tinker – TV executive, NBC
- Y. A. Tittle – Hall of Fame football player
- Claus von Bulow – acquitted attempted murder defendant
- Gene Wilder – actor, “Young Frankenstein”
- Chuck Yeager – test pilot
Updates
- Chuck Barris – died 3/27/2017, age 87
- Fidel Castro – died 11/25/2016, age 90
- Richard Chamberlain – died 3/29/2025, age 90
- Jules Feiffer – died 1/17/2024, age 95
- Rhonda Fleming – died 10/14/2020, age 97
- Pete Fountain – died 8/6/2016, age 86
- Zsa Zsa Gabor – died 12/18/2016, age 99
- Dick Gregory – died 8/19/2017, age 84
- Dean Jones – died 9/2/2015, age 84
- Lee Iacocca – died 7/2/2019, age 94
- I.M. Pei – died 5/16/2019, age 102
- “Little Richard” Penniman, died 5/9/20, age 87
- Larry Storch, died 7/8/2022, age 99
- Rip Taylor, died 10/6/19, age 88
- Mel Tillis – died 11/19/2017, age 85
- Grant Tinker – died 11/29/2016, age 90
- Y. A. Tittle – died 10/9/2017, age 90
- Claus von Bulow – died 5/25/2019, age 92
- Gene Wilder – died 8/29/2016, age 83
Sitting quietly, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself. — Zen Proverb