
Archive for January, 2025

01 25th, 2025
Ol’ Man River
Happy Saturday. It’s wonderful to sit back a bit in a warm room keying these Ramblings. All week long I’ve been hearing; “worst ever” in regards our weather. And yes, it has been cold, bitter cold. And, cold enough where much of the snow, now ice, wouldn’t melt.
But in my lifetime, it’s been worse. This week forty-six years ago, the Ohio River froze over. People walked between Ohio and Kentucky. It didn’t take long before our Mayor, Jerry Springer (yes, THE “Jerry, Jerry” of TV fame) put a halt to the happy ice-walkers. It was pointed out that underneath the ice the river was still flowing; “fall through and it’ll pull and drag you under the ice”. Whoops! Hadn’t thought of that. See, we were all young and foolish once.
Love that little piece of “Ol’ Man River”? It’s from Paul Robeson singing in the musical Show Boat (London 1928)
Before I forget, last week I promised that I’d report on our emergency stash of Aldi’s coffee; Thumbs Up, we’re enjoying even as I’m writing.
Katie Hopkins – an English commentator columnist and professional ‘controversial gadfly’ who has been described as a professional troll by the Huffpost.
Her take on the last-minute indoor inauguration on Monday was that this was the plan all along.
Her Quote: “Word on the street – inauguration pulled indoors to keep the President alive & get him in the White House”.
Personally, I think it was primarily related to the weather.
So now it’s a bright new day, the Don shines.
OK – I had to do some research this past week. Basically, to get access to some missing pages in a book. Okay, no problem, we have a large County-wide Library system. Strike one, they didn’t have a copy.
All right, now it was the Amazon route, strike two. A trip to our largest, we-have-it-all, bookstore. Strike three and I was out.
Or was I? It’d been a long time, but I remembered that something called the Internet Archive; Digital Library. This is a free non-profit entity and over time had amassed the following, all easily accessible:
• 835 billion web pages
• 44 million books and texts
• 15 million audio recordings (including 255,000 live concerts)
• 10.6 million videos (including 2.6 million TV news programs)
• 4.8 million images
• 1 million software programs
The old account still worked and after no more than five minutes I had the pages, snapped a picture of the ones I needed and at about fifteen minutes there was one happy pup!
Breaking News – Just released, this coming May expect another Periodical Brood XIV cicadas. Lucky you if you happen to live in one of the following States: Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, and Ohio.
If we’re lucky it will revive the magical mania caused by the Snappy Tomato Pizza spoof jingle versions going back to the 80s; Snappy Cicada Pizza.
My small number of favorite bands – shrunk a bit this week. Whatever it is, but something in the sound of a specific group just sets it apart. It’s not necessarily an individual musician as much as how it becomes the total package. And the sound (on my list) is all over the place. They are as varied as Tedeschi Trucks, Tuba Skinny, Black Pumas, Grateful Dead, Dave Matthews Band, or St. Paul and the Broken Bones just to get you thinking.
One of my top dozen or so was The Band. This week we lost the last surviving member of The Band, the glue to their sound, Garth Hudson. His parents had him study classical keyboard, although he also played Sax, Accordion, Harmonica – my favorite Hudson work was his work on the Lowrey Organ.
The Band made their name and sound as Bob Dylan’s backup. Hudson informed his parents that he was off traveling with a new rock group. With mom & pop this was an absolute NO! Garth came back and told them that he was heading out with them as their ‘music teacher’ – a first real paying job. He then told his bandmates that each to pay him $10 per week as their ‘teacher’. The rest is history.
Cincinnati Chili – is a nationally recognized, little crazy and wildly popular, chili. A supply of noodles, the (heavily cumin laden) chili, topped with a mound of shredded cheese. Onions, beans, and such can be added. Plus, a side dish of oyster crackers completes a proper serving. The largest of the chili parlors in the area is Skyline Chili (founded in 1949) with 138 locations.
Now it’s a first. Our local, premier, Ice Cream creamery is Graeter’s which has been around since 1870. Now it has developed a one-time only batch – Skyline Chili flavored ice cream complete with oyster crackers. Buy it at Kroger’s grocery stores beginning Monday. Previewed on TV newscasts it was nothing but positivity.
The Bridge – Have you ever seen a six + lane steel bridge burn? Last November Cincinnati’s Daniel Beard Bridge which carries I-471 across the Ohio River to Kentucky did just that. As an aside, Daniel Beard after whom this bridge was named was a Cincinnati native who “founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which Beard later merged with the Boy Scouts of America” (Wikipedia).
Watch: Daniel Beard Bridge repair Crews show the repairs being done to Big Mac Bridge | Watch
Yet, as the old song goes, “The Ol’ Man River — He keeps on rollin’ along”
Have a great week, till next Saturday goodbye and good health. Not certain exactly how it’ll work next Saturday since I am participating in the Cincinnati Cyclones Foundation’s annual Frozen 5K – and yes, the route is along Ol’ Man River.
Life is AMAZING!
Dirk
BONUS POINTS:
Colorado outlaws the sale of auto dealerships to sell cars on Sundays (boats and snowmobiles, etc. are exempt). Which three (3) of the following states also have similar laws?
1) “West Virginia”
2) “Kentucky”
3) “Indiana”
4) “New Mexico”
5) “Delaware”
6) “Louisiana”
7) “New Jersey”


01 18th, 2025
Amen, change is Forthcoming
Happy Saturday, ours is a tame one weather wise. Early next week it’ll do a flip with below 0 temperatures. We’re brave at this end. Yesterday I made note that we were running short on coffee; couple that with a shopping trip to Aldi’s. Not ready for creating a Costco event I purchased coffee at Aldi’s – a pound each of two differing brands. Should I remember, I’ll give you a full report in a week.
OK – The other night I lost too much sleep with worry. I couldn’t remember if I inserted QWERTY or if I mistakenly inserted LTQBITSENUF in a document. Should I worry? Is this something major? Or is just a minor faux pax that should be glossed over? Thanks.
’41 La France at work – Jay leno at the wheel of his 1941 American LaFrance fire engine leaving a trail of Chicken and Ribs as he delivers food to first responders at the Los Angeles fire disaster. Good to see positivity such as his efforts during such a stunning disaster.
When I was – much, much younger I spent way, way too much time with craziness (i.e. Science fiction) material. Stuff such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But before that, in the ‘60s, there was Robert A. Heinlein’s science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. Buried in Heinlein’s book there was a new name introduced, ‘Grok’ meaning, “to know intimately.”
Now it’s 2025 and Elon Musk just introduced via ‘X’ his X Ai Grok vs2 a chatbot. I downloaded it! And I am having a blast. In fact, it’s quickly coming to the point where Marcia is done with anything chatbot related and my enthusing over same; “Don’t Panic.”
Ai Exploration – Part of my exploration and testing of Ai Grok Vs.2 had me ask Grok the following question: “write a 200 word article on the status of Ai generated content”, After about 2 seconds the system answered; here is Grok’s answer – zero input on my part. Pretty cool huh?
“The landscape of AI-generated content has evolved significantly in recent years, transforming how digital content is created and consumed. By 2025, experts estimate that up to 90% of online content could be AI-generated, highlighting a dramatic shift in digital media production. This growth is fueled by advancements in generative AI technologies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and DALL-E, which can produce everything from text articles to visual art and even music. These tools are not only improving in quality but also becoming more accessible, allowing even non-technical users to create content that was once the domain of skilled professionals…………”
Then I tweaked it a bit: Grok, “write a 100 word lighthearted and funny article on the status of Ai generated content”, and before I could take another sip of coffee, here is what I received:
“In the ever-evolving world of tech, AI-generated content has become the new jester in town. Picture this: robots penning poetry that rhymes “byte” with “might,” and AI chefs creating recipes with a dash of “data” and a pinch of “pixels.” From tweets that sound like they’ve had too much coffee to blogs that seem penned by Shakespeare’s distant, digital cousin, AI content is a wild ride. Sure, you might get a news article where the hero is a glitch, or a love letter that’s all code. But hey, at least it’s keeping us on our toes, laughing all the way!”
I think we’d stunned were we to see just how much content, visual, music, and written, already is being pumped out right now by Ai.
The Big something – As long as I’ve been around, I’ve made note that people with (I think) much more intellectual capacity than me have spent their whole life thinking “Big”. Never certain on the correctness of what seemingly was a naming consensus, the idea was given a name even a kindergartener could visualize – the Big Bang theory.
However, there were still many gaps which were best filled with other “Big” ideas, like really BIG. So now, bolstering the Big Bang, they’ve added the following Biggies: The Big Rip, The Big Freeze, The Quantum Tunnel, The Big Crunch, and The Big Bounce.
Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier, I’m still stuck on Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Adams convinced me that at the end of the Universe there’ll be a Restaurant. Once there it’d be interesting to reach my hand through that final end ‘curtain’ only to find that Restaurant’s short-order cook shake it. Mind you, this last bit, the handshake, is purely conjecture.
It’s about getting wet – really, really, wet. As a six- or seven-year-old my family was on vacation on the shore. Long story (for another time) but I fell into an underwater trench that was being dug to free a stranded ocean freighter. None of that three-bobs-and-under-you-go business – I went straight down. Apparently, a guy close by scraped me off the bottom and dragged me to shore. All went well.
Back from our vacation adventure my parental units signed me up for swim lessons at a nearby pool. I did learn and have always enjoyed water. However, little to no remembering of my lessons, except for one bit. The pool had a walking bridge across the middle. I remember a wide belt being put around my middle. The belt connected to a line, which went to a ‘fishing’ pole. On that bridge was my instructor full of motivational speeches – back and forth.
Our kids (and others) look at me with one of the “here’s another tale” looks whenever I describe my lessons. This week I ran across this old photo. It was taken in the 1920s so it’s quite a bit prior to my lessons. But it’s the technique people!
And let’s not forget that this weekend, finally, it’s the end of Bidenomics! The end of fiscal maladministration. Now best prepare for the Polar Vortex quickly charging towards us.
Life is AMAZING!
Adeus e boa saúde (Portuguese: Goodbye and good health)
Dirk
BONUS POINTS:
Which two of these actual town names do have an exclamation (!) mark in the name? By the way, these are the only two towns to end with an ‘!’ in the world, the other 4 named towns do not!
1) “Hamilton!” Ohio
2) “Westward Ho!” England
3) “Humpybong!” Australia
4) “Orgy!” France
5) “Cyców!” Poland
6) “Saint Louis-du-Ha!-Ha!” Quebec, CA


01 11th, 2025
A thing-a-ling kind of Week
Happy Saturday, a cold one. Our Mr. Coffee coffeemaker has just begun its “I’m nearly done growl” (or is it its ‘death rattle’)? The Mr. Coffee is just fine; I really have little need for something such as a $30,000 La Marzocco Strada AV 2 coffee machine by the Australian workshop Specht Design – even a used one.
And also, be assured, in no way shape or form do I consider myself a MAMIC (Middle Aged Man into Coffee). Or should that now be OGIC (Old Geezer into Coffee)? The acronym thing is in reference to the LSSU list of banished acronyms, words, and phrases (below).
Skibidi – and another handful of words and expressions made this year’s banished word list. Period, 100% that is! And the dear people at Lake Superior State University (LSSU) calls this year’s listing a ‘game changer’. And here IYKYK (if you don’t know, you know) are the remaining of the top 10 words/expressions which made this year’s light-hearted LSSU list: Cringe, Era, Dropped, Sorry not sorry, Utilize.
And, even after reading the various definitions, I still have no clue what ‘skibidi’ means.
Quotation: “Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well.” – Vincent van Gogh (1853 – 1890) Dutch Post-Impressionist painter.
This was written by someone who would have been in long term treatment this day and age. Van Gogh who sold only a single painting in his day (he created 2,100). Who gave a painting to his doctor in payment, who in turn gave it to his mother, who in turn used it as a cover for a hole in her chicken coop. Yet today, 99% of the people in the wealthiest nations in the world would be strained to purchase one of van Gogh’s works.
In the White – Axios Crypto recently published its list of both slowest and fastest cities for driving. The way it was calculated was taking rush-hour driving over 6-miles. The ‘Nati made neither list. Having said that, this past week we would have made the top end of the slowest city (New York). Eleven inches of snow coupled with crappy preparedness locked the city and made it so that schools were closed most of the week.
Our useless, current, city council and mayor seem to forget that we are a Northern city, and we do get snow regularly this time of year. Certainly, it’ll be very little for a few years, but then we’ll get whacked. This year we got a monster.
If you remember, a few weeks ago I participated in the Mt. Adams Egg Nog Jog. This week, for 3+ days the residents of Mt. Adams had no (as in 0) snow removal whatsoever. Other than walking in and out they were stuck – the area has no food stores or pharmacies. The city ‘leadership’ had excuses galore; but what was not addressed was the fact that snowstorms earlier during the past century managed to have a successful cleanup responses.
Yesterday afternoon and into last night it was snowing and we were expecting 3 to 5 inches more of the white death – which looks like it was achieved. At least we’re not dealing with 100-mph winds and flames along with similar crappy response (P.S., my family in southern CA are all fine as is their property).
Devotional – Just before the Holidays I picked up a daily devotional which has a short read for each of the days of the year.
As just mentioned and like everyone else, I couldn’t help but hear about the massive fires out West and the disastrous ineptitude preparing and handling these. In the meantime, most of the cars on our street are still buried in snow and miles of side streets have barely seen a plow. Then, and totally unrelated, Adrianne and Tevita had the need for 4 HVAC calls to ensure they had heat; problems, problems!
Yup, I was a good day to grumble.
Yesterday, sometime around lunch, I picked up my devotional and turned to Friday, January 10 and began to read:
“Please help me learn to appreciate difficult days—being stimulated by the difficulties I encounter rather than becoming distressed. As I journey through rough terrain with You. I gain confidence from knowing that together we can handle anything…..”
I think I am back on track.
Batesville, IN – You know this little town. About 45 miles from the ‘Nati, and it’ll be the place your next burial casket comes from? It’s also been the place (for the past 60 years) where the small family-owned Schmidt Bakery makes and sells their Cherry Thing-A-Ling fritters – last year’s ‘Fritter Frenzy’ snapped up over 250,000 of the things during the 5-days per year they’re sold.
These are sold in mere days celebrating Presidents’ Day, and then they disappear for another year. “How popular” you ask? People line up for the 4am day’s opening and will wait for hours! Online ordering starts this Monday – store pickup lasts 5 days beginning February 13.
And I can’t talk Marcia into a short daytrip to Batesville.
For anyone in the Netherlands, next week, make plans to head for the Paradiso Amsterdam. My cousin Karin and her choir (Koninginnenkoor Amsterdam) will entertain with a fun afternoon of music and songs. Next Saturday, January 18 at 3:30pm, is when the party will be in full swing and think, only a mere € 3.-.
Life is AMAZING!
Vaarwel en een goede gezondheid (Dutch for: Goodbye and good health)
Dirk
BONUS POINTS:
Surprising duties for the U.S. President. Which 3 are true?
1) “approves truck weight limitations”
2) “right to create a personalized Presidential Seal”
3) “serves as head of the Boy Scouts”
4) “arranges seating order for the Press Briefing Room”
5) “selects coin design for Army~Navy game toss”
6) “manages the White House beehive”


01 4th, 2025
Passing through Quantum?
Happy first Saturday of the year. Listening to the weather gurus it’s Armageddon at the doorstep. Our energy and internet providers have already prepped us by Messaging many paragraphs of dire ‘possibilities’, i.e. “warnings”. So, what did Marcia state was an absolute necessity? A haircut!
Now that she’s moved another year further into adulthood it’s also apparent that one gets both older and colder quicker. Hence, as a prep, should the weather types prove accurate, she’s testing out her wearable blanket, a “Comfy”.
Thursday, we celebrated Marcia’s Birthday at the Element eatery. We all gathered for a good time and three hours of good food, fine talk, with live music. Even burned a candle, sang Happy Birthday, and closed out with individual little Cheesecakes.
Just wondering – whether everyone’s head has cleared after the New Year’s celebrations. If still ‘foggy’ or headachy you should have lived in Kiribati (island nation in the central Pacific Ocean and formally the Gilbert Islands and not too far from Tonga) on this day in 1994.
See, that year, Kiribati skipped New Year’s Eve Day altogether. What? It made sense. Turns out the International Date Line cut right through this nation. The net result being that the Eastern islands of the nation were 24 hours off from that west of the Line. The net result was that there were only three days a week to conduct business.
So, a ‘carve-out’ of the Date Line was made to place all of that nation into a single time zone. To accomplish this, voila, the western islands of Line Islands and Phoenix Islands skipped the last day of December 1994. Now, don’t you feel better? If not, pour yourself another coffee.
Public Domain Day – Every January 1st is Public Domain Day, books published in 1929, and movies distributed in 1954 are now free for anyone to share and reuse. My favorites, Tintin and Popeye the Sailor Man, are now such classics, as is the art created by Matisse and Frida Kahlo. In music we find works of ‘Fats’ Waller (“Stormy Weather”) as well as Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and an “American in Paris”. Even some older, classic, movies:
U-Haul – trucks are swarming the ‘hood. It’s an end of month thing and we’re used to it. Leases are up and, musical-chair-like, there is a wild dash from one apartment to the new. This means that almost everything U-Haul has available is on the road or in a driveway. We see tiny 8 footers all the way to the largest box trucks available – with a few trailers thrown in for good luck.
What makes it all novel in these parts are the industrial sized, black plastic, trash bags. The trucks are loaded to the gills with bags of clothing, bags of shoes and boots, bags of kitchen items, most everything in a plastic bag. Moving is a grand shuffling of trash bags. Marcia enjoys watching it all to the point that I suggested she begin maintaining a spread sheet on their movements.
Quantum Theory insights – Death in a Timeless World – A number of years ago, at an after-wedding gathering I met up with an old acquaintance, Bryan. As these ‘after-the-event’ things can move along with a certain level of boredom, he and I got caught up quite a discussion. See, Bryan is a (now) retired tenured Professor of Physics, and at that time was heavily into research on Quantum Theory.
Ever since that discussion I perk up whenever things under the rubric of Quantum Theory pop into my arena. With that as backdrop, I’ve been reading on the subject. If interested, type the above heading into Google and a world will open. Anyway, ponder on the quoted couple of paragraphs below; I find them fascinating:
“Our current way of thinking goes on to assume that the world has an objective existence independent of the observer. However, numerous experiments have suggested otherwise. We view life as the activity of carbon and other molecules: we live for a while and then decay into the ground. This belief leads us to accept the concept of death, primarily because we identify ourselves with our physical bodies, which eventually perish. However, biocentrism, a theory proposed by Dr. Robert Lanza, argues that if we incorporate life and consciousness into the equation, many scientific puzzles can be explained, including why the universe appears fine-tuned for life.”
“In a timeless, spaceless world, the idea of death does not hold. In this context, immortality wouldn’t imply a perpetual existence in time but rather an existence outside of time altogether. This idea aligns with recent experiments showing that light particles can communicate instantaneously as if there were no space or time separating them. Such findings suggest that our understanding of time and space-and, by extension, life and death-is deeply flawed.”
https://tinyurl.com/fw8snvma or https://tinyurl.com/preview/2bcyzkb
Quote: So, now that we’ve learned so much more about us, the Universe, and our relationship in it; I think it’s summarized perfectly by Mel Brooks – “Humor is just another defense against the universe.”
Sun – Tied into this little-bitty Quantum Rambling I thought I’d pass along another subject of interest to ‘Moi’. Back in 2018 NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe to explore the Sun’s outer corona. After placing a bunch of heat shielding the probe, adding a couple of swings around Venus to build up speed (430,000 mph), and this past week it successfully touched the sun as it swung by and observed the corona from a ‘mere’ 4-million miles out. I found this stunning first picture – hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Life is AMAZING!
Meilleurs vœux (French for: wishing you well)
Dirk
BONUS POINTS:
Which of these animals change their color to white in the wintertime?
1) “ptarmigans”
2) “Arctic lemming”
3) “Peary caribou”
4) “least weasel”
5) “Stoat”
6) “mountain hare”

