Sunday Serendipity

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Amazon prime video is streaming 2001 a Space Odyssey. It was first released fifty-five years ago. It is remarkable how well it has held up. The dates are a little off but other than that… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I last saw it on the big screen just before it’s 30th anniversary release, back in 1998. The big screen with a good sound system is the best way but it wasn’t bad on the small screen last night.

I love the scenes of the space liner, set to the Blue Danube waltz. They still work.

So today we get a truly great performance of Johann Strauss II’s “The Beautiful Blue Danube” by André Rieu & his Johann Strauss Orchestra.

Enjoy, Jack

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36 thoughts on “Sunday Serendipity”

  1. Jack, thank you, as i dance around the room – waltzing one…two…three to the coffee pot, one…ywo…three pirouetting  with sloshing cup in hand, one…two…three gracefully swooping through the kitchen and one…two…three atwirl to the table.

  3. speaking of war and changing tunes

    McCarthy reverses on Ukraine aid as GOP scrambles on funding bills – POLITICO

    Speaker Kevin McCarthy is backtracking on his plan to remove Ukraine aid from a massive military spending bill as Republicans scramble to find a way forward on funding the government.
    The California Republican’s U-turn comes a day after he told reporters he would remove the roughly $300 million from the Pentagon bill and give it a separate vote as he faced GOP pushback on its inclusion
    But in the Capitol on Saturday, McCarthy said the bill will move forward with the Ukraine aid included, arguing it would be too complicated to remove because of the Republicans’ funding strategy of bringing the Defense bill to the floor with other measures. The decision injects fresh doubt into whether the Pentagon spending bill will come up for debate at all after failing twice in recent weeks.
    “It became too difficult to do that, so we’re leaving it in,” McCarthy told reporters about the Ukraine funds.
    Republicans are preparing to vote Tuesday to start debate on four government funding bills: Defense, State, Homeland Security and an agriculture bill. It would mark the latest attempt for McCarthy to get his party’s funding bills off the ground.
    [continues]

  4. horror story from harlan county  (one can imagine hearing the ride of the valkyries buzzing)

    A closeup of a group of bees with fuzzy green in the backgroudn.

    Kentucky man dies after swarm of bees attacks him on his porch | Kentucky | The Guardian

    A Kentucky man has died after a swarm of bees attacked him on his porch.
    On Monday, the 59-year-old man whom local reports identified as Michael Alford was moving a bag of potting soil in Harlan county when he was stung by a swarm of bees from inside the package, authorities said in a statement.
    […]
    From 2011 to 2021, there were a total of 788 deaths from hornet, wasp and bee stings across the US, with an average of 72 deaths annually, the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. Overall, 84% of the deaths that occurred were among men.
    Last September, a 20-year-old Ohio man was stung at least 20,000 times by bees while he was cutting branches. The man eventually recovered after he was put into a medically induced coma.
    Meanwhile, in 2021, an Arizona man died and two other people were hospitalized after they were stung hundreds of times by bees.
    [continues]

  7. As per usual Jack puts up a refreshing addition to Sunday’s ambiance.  Great work, Compadre 
    When I was a kid I always placed the Strauss waltzes up there with the Brahms Hungarian music and the Beethoven sonatas. And Hank Sr.

  11. Didn’t need to see this before coffee…

    Trump leads 52-42 in Washington Post/ABC News poll. Biden faces criticism on economy, immigration and age

    https://wapo.st/48rBCP5

    But the Post trashes its own poll as an “outlier”. So why publish it if you don’t believe in it?

    WAPO: “the sizable margin of Trump’s lead in this survey is significantly at odds with other public polls that show the general election contest a virtual dead heat. The difference between this poll and others, as well as the unusual makeup of Trump’s and Biden’s coalitions in this survey, suggest it is probably an outlier”

  12. Popular vote:  
    How many millions of people voted for Hillary over Chump?
    How many millions of people voted for Biden over Chump?
    Can anyone imagine a situation in which the number of people who will vote for Chump in ‘24 has grown, or that the number of people who voted Democrat will be less? I can’t.
    It’s like Doug Jones running against that freak Roy Moore. There are some things in America which just will not fly, no matter what “the news” puts out about what “the news” thinks you should be thinking about.  
    And Biden old and tied with Chump is one of them. 

    Ergo…..Turn UP the heat on Republicans—not democrats.

  13. Mia brings the heat. 
    Mia Farrow 🏳️‍🌈 🌻 @MiaFarrow Sep 20
    Merrick Garland: -Harvard Law Sch., clerk to Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, fed prosecutor in Dept of Justice, prosecuted Oklahoma City bombers. Chief Judge D.C. Court of Appeals its chief judge 2013 – 2020.

    Jim Jordan: wrestling coach

  19. But celery is through the roof. 
    I think the real cost increase that a lot of younger folks see is housing and cars. Big ticket items. My nephew “the budding artist”  saved up enough money from his warehouse job to quit and dedicate his life to his art. His landlord raised his rent by a third, He had to go back to work to pay the rent.
    The price of used cars is insane, last year my little car we payed $17000 for in 2017 was totalled in a wreak, the insurance gave me $16000 and the insurance company lowballed me. Eggs and celery you can do without or substitute but housing and transportation ya gotta have.
    Jack

  20. Bacon is through the roof but ham’s price is the same it has always been for the last 10 years.
    Fat pork shoulder and sow belly cost more than pork loin. Eating “high on the hog” has never been cheaper. 
    Weird
    Jack

  22. “celery is through the roof”
     
    Find me one man that eats an entire bunch of celery before it starts wilting and i will spare this land

    The real issue is corporate middle-managers making 6 figures for doing fuck-all and with plenty of leisure time to drive the price up on everything. No one else is going to tell you that because that’s the target voting demographic

    ok enough outta me✌️

  23. I didn’t know celery could wilt. I’ve had it rot a few times but wilt??
    But then I start chopping at the top of the head. It is one of my cheap fillers for soups, stews and stir fries. But it is not cheap anymore.
    Jack

  24. Bink, I think you have a point. Certain foods are running counter to normal supply and demand theory. Coke and Pepsi have been very stubborn. It has been several years since they engaged in the summer price wars. I used to stock up on my diet coke in the summer. But that savings trick is gone. I’m going to have to find some other thing to mix my whiskey with. btw, my jim beam is the same price it has been for at least the last 20 years.
    Jack

  26. Celery prices went nuts before 2020, thanks to the celery juice craze.   You couldn’t even find it some weeks.  

    I’m in the flyover and nobody is happy with anything or anyone.   Definitely a red area, and I’ve heard they don’t think DuhSantis can do it.  (By “it,” they mean best Biden.)
     
    By the way, they are clueless about Booblehead, but are up to date on Fetterman’s attire.   They are just accustomed to the sh/t the far-right media shovels to them.

    As for the movie, we skipped “Rocky Horror,” Fame” and “Wizards” one weekend in college and made “2001” our midnight movie. I slept through most of it.

  27. one of those Sunday TV ladies tried that “our poll” business on Mayor Pete and got her ass handed back to her toot sweet.  “This here poll I have here says “more Americans” are going to blame democrats for the shutdown. What do you think about that?”
    Vile Person she is.
    This Week

  28. Ag prices are disrupted due to many separate issues.  Poultry and egg prices were hit with the worst avian flu wipeouts ever and are now recovering.  A couple days ago I paid seventy-six cents per pound for chicken thighs, one dollar and forty cents for eighteen eggs.  That means the poultry is back on the Middle Atlantic region.  Pork is a mess due to the Chinese purchase of Smithfields.  Bacon is too high, so Spam it is for a while. Sausage is a good go to.  Beef prices are something I do not follow anymore. I do occasionally need a pound of beef or pork, but that is not now.  Flour prices are dropping, but specialties such as rye flour are still high.
    Two major factors are hitting produce.  One is the Florida effort to get rid of farm help, which is succeeding, causing reduce crops.  The other is a lot of California is the reemergence of Lake Tulare causing a lot of crop and nut production to drown.
    Citrus is being decimated by greening virus, which has moved from Florida across the South.  As with other products, imports are filling in and making a difference in prices.
    Wine is still being affected by the duty taxes which President Biden has declined to reduce.  Three dollar bottle in EU is not that here.
     
    That is an high level look at what is going on.  The one thing Biden can control, he is not.

  29. “Look here, Mr NFL Football Coach, this here poll we got here says that more Americans think your team has absolutely no chance of winning this upcoming football game.
    What do you think about that?
    Does it make you feel as though you’ve already lost?
    How do you even IMAGINE overcoming those odds?”

  32. Sec Pete did well refuting her rather nasty insinuation.  Can you even say something like that?  “Our poll says most Americans”
    Maybe I’m taking it out of context.  

  33.  
    It is such an easy mistake to see polls as predictive but that misses their usefulness, to figure out a candidate’s strength…

    Sure, but that’s not why major-media companies sponsor them, they sponsor them for the horse-race
     
    fun fact: it’s illegal to publish public-opinion electoral polls before an election in France because of their recognized effects on attitudes and turn-out

  35. 2001 was an eye opener to me – I had no idea models and cinematography could produce such convincing images of things that didn’t exist. Better even than King Kong versus Godzilla. And better than Neal and Buzz from a visual perspective. I loved that movie and still do. 

    Show me a poll of AZ, PA, MI, WI & NV and I might think it suggests something worth paying attention to. Joe beat Dumbass in NH by 7% in 2020. Latest polls show him up by 12% now. I tend to think that that New Hampshire a poll may say more than any of the national polls.

    Gasoline dropped $.30 in the last week in East Bumfuck.  Watch gas prices. (And fuck Russia and Saudi Arabia).

    Ever since”Pork, the other white meat” pork’s demand (and price) has been dependent upon marketing. Crisp Bacon is good, crisp fatback is good, but they are held up on the foodie shows and networks as the only ingredients that universally improve whatever the hell you’re cooking. Gotta say, they may have a point. Jalapeños may dispute that.

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