Heavenly

Morning all! Well, well, another se’nnight’s gone by and here we are again. The gift-giving frenzy is over and all sorts of tax hype is being mailed fast and furiously. I might actually say it’s arriving with ‘turbo’’ speed.

This week, and with full apologies, things are somewhat in a ‘hack’, a ‘sniff’, and a ‘blow’. All due to the blanket of a mental fog reigning over ‘Moi’ here in the ‘Nati. I’ve been fighting a sad case of the common cold.

No need to panic, I’m over the ‘hump’ and well on the road to recovery – I’ve even traded in my stock of Acetaminophen. Thursday with temps in the mid-40s I managed a 6.78-mile hike. As an aside, on my walk I listened to Dr. Jordan B. Peterson Podcast interview on Spotify. #412 True Stories From a Soviet Spy | Jack Barsky. Stunningly fascinating and I heartily recommend it.

For a week’s first, my morning coffee tastes like the perfect elixir of old.

Probably due to a few sips of coffee the fog lifted, and I had a thought. Back in the 1950s the days of my youth (AKA ‘The Days of Yore’) times were different. During that time Guy Lombardo, Tony Benet and Elvis were playing on cabinet sized radios. Ed Sullivan and Hopalong Cassidy were seen on tiny bread box sized screens – Sylvania with the HaloLight was the best.

Now we’re in a new year and in the early part of a new century and all this 1950s technology has morphed into one handheld item – reduced to a mere 6.5 inches diagonal and no HaloLight. But it’s in living color.

We’ve come a long way baby!

As soon as I finish posting I’ll look for my mobile, it must be laying around here someplace.

Which way goeth the Arrow? — Behind this week’s closed-door meetings of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic led by neighboring Congressman Brad Wenstrup, MD, Dr. Fauci admitted that the six-foot social distancing recommendation “was likely not based on any data.”

In response to the YouTube below, and written by some wag on-line, I read; “He was “very, very, very” but not “totally” strongly”.

From the beginning, whenever I was advised that I should be doing such and such to fend off the spread of the Wuhan Flu I would always reply that I was following Fauci’s recommendations. Saying so with confidence, since they seemed to always change or be pulled from thin air. I remember doing so wandering a store aisle going anti-arrow. Remember the masking creep?

I know I may have sounded curmudgeonly, but hey; I WAS CORRECT!

Quote of the Decade; “There’s a distinct anti-science flavor to this.” ~ Anthony (I am the Science.) Fauci

Jazz – is a go-to music style I appreciate. This week I read on Axios where the Gen Z crowd is forgoing the electronic ‘beats’ and fueling a jazz comeback. It seems that every new generation has a ‘new’ something that either dumps or skewers something from the previous generation; no beard – beard, skinny pants—bell-bottoms, tie—poncho, bra—no bra, and the list goes on (I can weather all of these ‘storms’, except for the horrid ‘saggy pants’ phenomena still seen in our urban centers).

Just a little news snipped that brought a smile to my face.

The Heaven’s — and I’m not referring to Bob Dylan’s great Bourbon; “Heaven’s Door”. Actually, his Bourbon is a Tennessee whisky, and I am posting about our neighboring city of Lexington, KY.

Turns out that Lexington has an ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking Convention and Visitors Bureau; VisitLEX, assembling some thinkers and knowers, they planned a welcoming tourist ‘flyer’. Then took it one step further: 40 lightyears further.

The government’s recent UFO discussions and Deep Space imaging with the Hubble and James Webb telescopes pointed their thinking to extra-terrestrials and how they’d appreciate Lexington’s Horse Park. Turns out the nearest area possibly capable of life is the TRAPPIST-1 solar system 40 light years away.

A carefully assembled invitation, using a team of experts, was developed. “Contents of the message range from photos of Lexington to an audio recording from legendary blues musician Tee Dee Young, to a coded bitmap image containing clues to the origin and intent of the transmission.”

The FAA gave its blessing and a special Laser beam set up. Linguistics expert Dr. Andrew Byrd stated: “The bitmap image is the key to it all. We included imagery representing the elements of life, our iconic Lexington rolling hills, and the molecular structure for water, bourbon, and even dopamine…because Lexington is fun!

A first – serious note for the New Year. Our BMV notified me that my Driver’s License will expire next month. Luckily my eye/retina disaster from exactly a year ago has healed exceptionally well – lingering depth perception being about the only bit of a hiccup. So, it shouldn’t be an issue to renew.

But then, looking into the future, is the issue of age. Our licenses here are good for 4 years. It was Marcia to the rescue, she said that I could get one for 8 years. Eight years, it’s my new goal for the New Year along with a few more 5Ks.

May Peace prevail! Shalom. Happy first true winter weather of 2024,

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:
The National FOP reports that 378 officers were shot in 2023, sadly the highest number since they started tracking the data. Details of the FOP report – which one of these four is incorrect?

60% increase in officers shot since 2018.
Congress passed HR 743—Protect and Serve Act of 2023.
115 ambush attacks that resulted in 138 officers shot.
46 officers murdered by gunfire.

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