Random Thoughts: Holiday Pro-Tip for May Poles

Tweets from May, 2022:

• 2022-05-01: Holiday Pro-Tip: If, like me, you forgot to buy a May Pole again this year, repurpose that Festivus Pole in your attic. Only you will know the difference.
• 2022-05-02: RISD's Eron Linn (who won't see this because he's blocked me) is running a quiet campaign for re-election. He raised little money. Endorsements on his website haven't been updated since 2019. The last time an incumbent lost an election was Jim Herblin in 1995. Deja vu?
• 2022-05-03: The US Supreme Court is intent on returning women to a status of second-class citizens under the US Constitution, despite a hundred years of rulings gradually recognizing women's right to rights given to men. In 2022, they're about to lose the right to control their own bodies.
• 2022-05-04: Latest fundraising email from DJTjr has the subject: "My father does not care what they think. He never has and never will." On the contrary, there's never been a more thin-skinned politician than Donald Trump.
• 2022-05-05: Severance (TV 2022): Sci-fi mystery. Ever wish you could free your mind of work when you leave the office? With Lumon's mind chip you can. Four co-workers grow suspicious. Show is slow to reveal what's going on, even slower why, setting up Season 2. Equally devious and absurd. B-

After the jump, more random thoughts.

The Lincoln Lawyer (TV 2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

The Lincoln Lawyer (TV 2022): A David E. Kelley courtroom drama fit for 1980's network television. The cast of characters has all the usual stereotypes. The plot is full of as many holes as twists. Whodunnit? Everyone. Watch Goliath instead. C+

Dealbreaker #1: She's Extreme, Even for Conservatives

In Richardson ISD's June 18th runoff election for its District 2 seat on the Board of Trustees, I'll be voting for Vanessa Pacheco. I won't be voting for Sherry Clemens because of dealbreakers like this: she promotes extreme propaganda like "The Mind Polluters."

A Very British Scandal (TV 2021)

Rotten Tomatoes

A Very British Scandal (TV 2021): Argyll v. Argyll, the trial of the century, 1963. The marriage and divorce of the Duke and Duchess. Both unsympathetic characters, at first exploiting each other cooperatively, then at each other's throats, literally. Deliciously scandalous. B+

TIL: An Old Saying in Police Precincts

Source: Precinct Saying.

In college, I read Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." In it he popularized the term "paradigm shift" for insights that forever change the framework in which we view the world.

An example is Copernicus's upending of the Ptolemaic cosmology with a helio-centric model. Just think: before Copernicus, the term "solar system" didn't even exist. Now it's second nature to all of us. Another example is Einstein's upending of Newtonian gravity with general relativity. Just think: before Einstein, the word spacetime didn't even exist. Now it's...well, still not second nature. Relativity is still impossible to wrap our minds around, even a century after Einstein, but it has fundamentally changed science.

Thomas Kuhn's work had a big impact on my formative thinking. That's maybe too portentous an introduction for what I'm about to say I learned today, but I'll say it anyway. In all the commentary on Uvalde, one comment (actually a Tweetstorm) has the potential of causing a paradigm shift in my worldview of law enforcement and public safety.

Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022): If you're not a fan, you'll be lost in all the characters and subplots. If you are a fan, you'll laugh and cry. You'll love the sets and costumes. There are twists and turns and head fakes to keep you guessing. Is this the last Downton Abbey? B+

When is a Park Not a Park?

The City of Richardson is beginning a project to build a 5 million gallon ground storage tank. Where? Well, I can tell you nearby streets. I can even tell you approximate GPS coordinates. What I can't tell you is whether or not the tank is going to be in Point North Park. What I can tell you is that a city-owned playground will have to go. So will trees. Maybe they'll be moved. Maybe new trees will be planted. And after all is said and done, some of the land that many visitors to the park always considered to be part of the park will be sacrificed to a water storage tank.

POTD: Colossi of Memnon

From 2019 11 22 Valley of the Kings

Today's photo-of-the-day is from the Colossi of Memnon across the Nile River from Luxor, Egypt. According to Wikipedia, "The Colossi of Memnon are two massive stone statues of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which stand at the front of the ruined Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III, the largest temple in the Theban Necropolis. They have stood since 1350 BCE, and were well known to ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as early modern travelers and Egyptologists."

Where does Memnon come into this? Memnon was a mythological Greek king. Blame the ancient Greeks for not knowing about even more ancient Egyptian history.

Review: The Idiot

From The Idiot by Elif Batuman

I didn’t have a religion, and I didn’t do team sports, and for a long time orchestra had been the only place where I felt like part of something bigger than I was, where I was able to strive and at the same time to forget myself. The loss of that feeling was extremely painful. It would have been bad enough to be someplace where there were no orchestras, but it was even worse to know that there was one, and lots of people were in it—just not me. I dreamed about it almost every night."

Amazon

Elif Batuman's debut novel is a first person account of her freshman year in college, followed by a summer teaching English in Hungary. She has a keen eye for detail. She shows wry humor throughout. You learn about love and linguistics along the way.

Slow Horses (TV 2022)

Rotten Tomatoes

Slow Horses (TV 2022): Slough House is where MI5 sends agents who screw up. No one wants them to do anything but this team of spies can't help getting involved in a terrorist kidnapping. Back story secrets and coverups at HQ add to the intrigues here. Gary Oldman is superb. B+