There are two types of politicians: the ones that are courageous and honest, and the ones that have a successful career.
Gerhard Kocher, Vorsicht, Medizin! Aphorismen zum Gesundheitswesen und zur Gesundheitspolitik, 2000. (English translation provided by the author)
April 1, 2022
QotD: Political careers
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March 29, 2022
Giving up vegetables for Lent
Felipe Fernández-Armesto on updating the traditional Christian observance of Lent for our virtue-signalling, social media age:
“Bruegel the Elder, Fight between Carnival and Lent, detail 6” by f_snarfel is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
For Lent, I am abstaining from vegetables. It may seem counter-intuitive, because “Carnival” or “Carni Vale” — which the English in their glum way call “Shrove Tuesday” and the French, more cheerfully, call “Mardi Gras” — means “Goodbye to Meat”.
The worldly, historic purpose of Lent is to eke out deficient livestock, doomed, unless slaughtered, to die, emaciated and inedible, on sparse or frozen pastures. Nowadays, however, vegetables seem a sacrifice both reasonable and pious.
If I wanted to be lampooned in Private Eye, I’d say that vegetables are the new meat: marketed as dietetically superior, and flattering to a moral form of snobbery.
Like meat in the old days, they are the preferred food of people who want to look down on the rest of us. Flesh and fish are now humbling meals, consumed in self-abasement. “Veganuary” and “Dry January” — wicked, secularist attempts to subvert the sanctity of Lent — repel me from conventional kinds of penance.
I want to defy the absurd propaganda of meat-haters, who try to shame the ill-informed into vegetarianism with mendacious allegations about the environmental cost of carnivorism. Scientifically, they’re on a par with Pythagoras’s denunciation of “passion proteins” and the meat-phobic campaigns of the nineteenth-century evangelists who hawked joyless, overpriced breakfast cereals.
I also want to expose the folly of people who, in flight from the butcher’s shop, grab textured soy concentrate from supermarket shelves: theirs is the idiocy of the ersatz. If you want something like meat, have meat. If you don’t want meat, have something unlike it. My sacrifice would be greater, of course, if I disliked rare steaks and juicy roasts. But I like vegetables, too. So that’s all right.
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March 26, 2022
QotD: The evolution of Twitter
I like apples.
I like pears.
That’s cool.
Yeah.Twitter 2018.
I like apples.
So you’re anti pears then.
No, I just prefer apples.
So you hate pears.
I never said that.
Fucking pear hater.
I don’t hate pears!
Yes you do. You make me sick. Scum.Amanda (Pandamoanimum), Twitter, 2018-09-13.
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March 24, 2022
What a bunch of hosers! Take off, eh?
In The Line (which is operating on skeleton staff due to March break), Laura Mitchell considers the existential question of Canadian nationhood: what if we’re just a bunch of hosers?
Bob and Doug MacKenzie’s “Great White North” on SCTV.
Screencapture from YouTube.
Remember Bob and Doug MacKenzie? I’m old enough to have owned a bag featuring this pair, Canada’s quintessential Hosers. But for those of you who might not remember, Bob and Doug were a pair of TV characters played by Canadian comedians Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, who played up Canada’s silly, self-deprecating sense of humour on SCTV.
[…]
Now, The Canadian Encyclopedia has a definition and an entry to define this particular personality subtype, and it’s not terribly flattering:
Hoser: is a slang word for a Canadian of limited intelligence and little education.
I profoundly disagree. Hoser is all of us and we are all hosers.
Hidden in the silliness of baby bottle beer chugging and yodelling, there is subtle genius to the premise behind these characters (beyond the genius of the entire concept, of course — Bob and Doug sketches were cheekily and overtly mocking “CanCon” rules by providing government regulators content that was wildly over the top in its stereotypical portrayal of an average Canadian). In this particular sketch, we see just two normal dudes concerned about local matters and asking basic questions. They don’t try to be anything more than they are and they don’t apologize.
In the entry above in the Canadian Encyclopedia, there is much hand wringing over the idea that a hoser has to be white. This obviously stems from the fact Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas are white and the skits are set in rural Ontario in the early ’80s, when Canada was noticeably less diverse. But focusing on race misses the point of the whole thing. Hoserdom isn’t racial, it is a state of mind. To be a Hoser is to accept your place in the world and to be at peace with it.
[…]
The Canada of the 21st century is suffering from an identity crisis — somewhere along the line we stopped feeling inferior and began to fancy ourselves superior. Whether it be our health-care system, immigration policies, perceived influence on global affairs or success of some of our celebrities (looking at you, Celine Dion), we took on a feeling of grandiose majesty we simply don’t deserve. Our current prime minister is the personification of this collective delusion — pretty on the outside but hollow and fake beneath. Canada is alarmingly little more than a two-bit Instagram influencer with a closet full of free designer clothes but no ability to pay the gas bill.
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March 23, 2022
QotD: Fansplaining that feudalism is bad
Portrayal is not promulgation, people.
That said, I’ve spent thirty years learning that no writer, be they ever so clear and plain, can control how readers read, or misread, their texts. Reading is a dance, not a march. If some readers step on one’s feet, well, it’s still better than sitting by the wall … Usually.
Lois McMaster Bujold, “Lois McMaster Bujold on Fanzines, Cover Art, and the Best Vorkosigan Planet”, Tor.com, 2017-11-02.
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March 15, 2022
QotD: Pecan pie
I won’t even discuss the lowly pumpkin pie, which reminds me of nothing more than the goo that seeps out of a broken sewage pipe or the remains of the vegetable bin after a 10-day blackout.
You apple pie people may have a point, but really, the best part of any apple pie is the crust, so just climb down off that high horse!
Blueberry you say? Yes, I will grant the glory of a well-made blueberry pie, but on the second day it is a soggy mess, while my pecan pie is a wonderful accompaniment to a great cup of coffee. And bacon. But that doesn’t even have to be said.
Key lime and Boston cream and … um … other pies are certainly good eating, but for sheer pie power and authority there is nothing quite like American pecan pie served after a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner.
[Here’s my go-to recipe … probably from Cooks Illustrated, but I don’t remember]
CBD, “Food Thread: Family, Friends And Pecan Pie … But Mostly Pecan Pie … And Family And Friends!”, Ace of Spades H.Q., 2021-11-21.
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March 14, 2022
Legends Summarized: Journey To The West (Part IX)
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 26 Nov 2021Journey to the West Kai, episode 6: Two Weddings And An Asskicking
FIRST EPISODE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61nuX…
PREVIOUS EPISODE: https://youtu.be/xFD_0PIfHHA
FULL SERIES: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list…Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.
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March 9, 2022
QotD: Cynicism
Lois McMaster Bujold, Borders of Infinity, 1989.
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March 8, 2022
QotD: Modern pop music
James Lileks, “Turning into an old crunker”, Star-Tribune, 2005-05-29.
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March 7, 2022
Henning Wehn’s Rant About “The War” | QI
QI
Published 15 Nov 2021Follow QI on Twitter ▶ http://twitter.com/qikipedia
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For more visit ▶ http://qi.comThis clip is from QI Series I, Episode 8, “Inequality” with Stephen Fry, Alan Davies, Clive Anderson, Sandi Toksvig and Henning Wehn.
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February 26, 2022
QotD: Taste in decoration
It’s as if a Las Vegas wedding chapel designer had been abducted, brought to Indonesia, and forced, at gun-point, to lower his standards. One half-waits for the Elvis impersonator to come down the staircase.
Conrad, “The Long Weekend”, The Gweilo Diaries, 2004-09-28
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February 24, 2022
QotD: Being 18
Grant McCracken, “What’s it like being 18?”, This Blog Sits at the, 2006-03-27.
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February 21, 2022
QotD: Parenting dilemmas
On one hand, you’re touched they made something for you, and you want to reward their creative desires. On the other hand, if you accept everything uncritically, they’ll grow up without standards, and think everything they toss off gets the same wonderful reaction. (“A broken crayon with some string glued on the end? Why, it’s the best birthday present ever, Hon. And tell your husband I said hello.”)
James Lileks, “Romzak triglit? For me? I love it!”, Star Tribune, 2006-04-21.
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February 20, 2022
QotD: The male animal
David Warren, “Manliness”, davidwarrenonline.com, 2006-03-26.
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February 19, 2022
Antique Antics: The Doge’s Palace
Overly Sarcastic Productions
Published 5 Nov 2021To celebrate my marriage to my Darling Wife Cyan, I asked her to select this video’s topic. Now, given she chose Venice, I wonder who truly gave the gift to whom?
SOURCES & Further Reading: A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich, Francesco’s Venice by Francesco Da Mosto, Venice: City of Dreams from Rick Steves’ Europe, and perhaps literally the most fun source I’ve ever stumbled upon: a 17-page document from the actual Museum of the Doge’s Palace in Venice, explaining the history of the building and the collections inside. The bottom of their building-history webpage has a link to download the magnificent full-PDF, enjoy: https://palazzoducale.visitmuve.it/en…
Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.
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