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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

The Ledes

Saturday, May 18, 2024

New York Times: “Dabney Coleman, an award-winning television and movie actor best known for his over-the-top portrayals of garrulous, egomaniacal characters, died on Thursday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 92.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Friday, May 17, 2024

AP: “Fast-moving thunderstorms pummeled southeastern Texas for the second time this month, killing at least four people, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings, downing trees and knocking out power to more than 900,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area.”

Public Service Announcement

The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705

Marie: BTW, if you think our government sucks, I invite you to watch the PBS special "The Real story of Mr Bates vs the Post Office," about how the British post office falsely accused hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of subpostmasters of theft and fraud, succeeded in obtaining convictions and jail time, and essentially stole tens of thousands of pounds from some of them. Oh, and lied about it all. A dramatization of the story appeared as a four-part "Masterpiece Theater," which you still may be able to pick it up on your local PBS station. Otherwise, you can catch it here (for now). Just hope this does give our own Postmaster General Extraordinaire Louis DeJoy any ideas.

The Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron. Washington Post: A “group of amateur archaeologists sift[ing] through ... an ancient Roman pit in eastern England [found] ... a Roman dodecahedron, likely to have been placed there 1,700 years earlier.... Each of its pentagon-shaped faces is punctuated by a hole, varying in size, and each of its 20 corners is accented by a semi-spherical knob.” Archaeologists don't know what the Romans used these small dodecahedrons for but the best guess is that they have some religious significance.

"Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and physical ailments." So this Washington Post page allows you to check your own area to see how good your access to nature is.

Marie: If you don't like birthing stories, don't watch this video. But I thought it was pretty sweet -- and funny:

If you like Larry David, you may find this interview enjoyable:


Tracy Chapman & Luke Combs at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Allison Hope comments in a CNN opinion piece:

~~~ Here's Chapman singing "Fast Car" at the Oakland Coliseum in December 1988. ~~~

~~~ Here's the full 2024 Grammy winner's list, via CBS.

He Shot the Messenger. Washington Post: “The Messenger is shutting down immediately, the news site’s founder told employees in an email Wednesday, marking the abrupt demise of one of the stranger and more expensive recent experiments in digital media. In his email, Jimmy Finkelstein said he was 'personally devastated' to announce that he had failed in a last-ditch effort to raise more money for the site, saying that he had been fundraising as recently as the night before. Finkelstein said the site, which launched last year with outsize ambitions and a mammoth $50 million budget, would close 'effective immediately.' The New York Times first reported the site’s closure late Wednesday afternoon, appearing to catch many staffers off-guard, including editor in chief Dan Wakeford. As employees read the news story, the internal work chat service Slack erupted in what one employee called 'pandemonium.'... Minutes later, as staffers read Finkelstein’s email, its message was underscored as they were forcibly logged out of their Slack accounts. Former Messenger reporter Jim LaPorta posted on social media that employees would not receive health care or severance.”

Contact Marie

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Page Links
Sunday
Apr152018

An Alternative to Facebook

By Anonymous*

 

To others of my generation who still do not and cannot comprehend why Facebook even exists, here’s what I’m doing to gain a better understanding:

I’m trying to make new friends without using Facebook, but using the same principles.

Every day I walk down the street and tell passers-by what I have eaten, how I feel at the moment, what I have done the night before, what I will do later, and with whom.

I show them pictures of my family, my dog, and of me gardening, taking things apart in the garage, watering the lawn, standing in front of landmarks, driving around town, having lunch, and doing what anybody and everybody does every day.

I also listen to their conversations. 

Then I give them the “thumbs up” and tell them I like them.

And…

Guess what? It’s working!

I already have four people “following” me.

Two police officers, a private investigator, and a psychiatrist.


* Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This came to me via a friend of a friend. The earliest publication I can find on the Internet is here, but there's no particular reason to think it's original to the writer here (actually, to the writer's mother). If the "real" author contacts me, I'll certain credit her or take it down, if she wishes. At any rate, thanks to my friend & to the writer, whoever she may be.

Comments Off

Reader Comments (4)

I have a friend who says she's on FB because she has friends all over the world and this is the easiest way to keep in touch. Huh? how about cc via email? Nein, she says, then she'd have to read all their separate emails which takes too much time. Knowing her as I do I'd guess it's more––"Let me tell you about ME" format. I think I'll send her this very funny piece––I give it three thumbs up!

April 15, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

The dilemmas keep coming, this time not national or international but personal.

PD will send this delicious piece to a "friend," she says, but I would hesitate to do the same because it strikes me that a personality addicted to Facebook has already demonstrated that he or she (is there a gender breakdown here?) tends so much to the self-centered that there's not much room left for a sense of humor.

With that in mind, if I were a "friend" and sent this arch tidbit along, I'd be prepared to be "unfriended."

But then that's me. I live in constant fear.

April 15, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

To my "constant fear friend": My other friend, the one I sent this to, has, indeed, already come back with lengthy explanations of why she's on FB but concedes her "stuff" is not private as she had once hoped. She found it funny––but–-and the ""Buts" were of the same as before. We have a relationship that goes back decades–-there is nothing I can think of that would sully that except for me to stop listening to her––I'm a good listener and she needs to talk.

April 15, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

PD:

Hope you understand I wasn't 't giving advice, and I certainly wasn't making judgements about friends of others I do not know. I was merely amusing myself (my own best friend) while making a point about the relationship I detect between FB addiction and self-absorption.

April 15, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes
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