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The Wife and I are traveling this weekend, spending a few days in the Finger Lakes. We got back to our rented cottage yesterday, when I found a Direct Message from a Facebook friend. It was something along the line of “I hope it didn’t happen in YOUR workplace, and I hope you’re OK.” I had no idea what he was talking about. I learned quickly. No, that was not my workplace. I do work in a Buffalo area grocery store, but not that chain and not in that area. It’s appalling nonetheless, on so many levels. I’ve often thoughtDown the rabbit hole….

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Here are a couple of brief quotes from two different teevee shows, both of which (the quotes, that is) have been on my mind this week: “Why are we still talking about this?” (Captain Mal Reynolds, FIREFLY) “You’ll have doled out five thousand dollars worth of punishment for a fifty-buck crime.” (Admiral Fitzwallace, THE WEST WING) No, I’m not going to illuminate just why those two quotes have been on my mind. But in both cases there’s not just a single reason.   Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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Seen on Twitter yesterday: In recent weeks in New York, the masks have been coming off. The Governor dropped her mask mandate several weeks ago (minus a couple of exceptions), and most counties have followed suit. My employer, The Store, kept its own masking policy for employees in place…until yesterday, when masks were made “optional” for employees who are fully vaccinated and boosted. I’m still exercising my option to wear the mask, and I plan to keep doing so until the policy is revised to forbid them. Why? Well, I set out my reasons for simply not minding masks backDown the rabbit hole….

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March 4 was the original date mandated by the US Constitution for the commencement of Presidential terms, which means that March 4 was Inauguration Day. This was later changed with the 20th Amendment, which moved the Presidential term of office’s beginning to noon on January 20, and there it has remained ever since. This means that today is the 181st anniversary of perhaps the most infamous of Inaugural ceremonies (well, prior to the one that unfolded on January 20, 2017, that is). I’m talking about the swearing in of President William Henry Harrison. President Harrison was the paternal grandfather ofDown the rabbit hole….

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There’s a thing that might be happening today, or it might not, and absent confirmation by the person who can confirm whether the hoped-for thing is in fact happening today, I will keep my reaction noncommittal. Moreover, everyone acting as if the thing that might be happening today actually is happening today would do well to listen to the wisdom of Mr. Toby Ziegler in this West Wing clip. Or, failing that, Professor Jones’s wisdom from this scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: INDY: Well? We made it! PROFESSOR JONES: When we’re airborne, with Germany behind us, then I’ll share that sentiment.Down the rabbit hole….

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I watched the Blue Origin flight yesterday, in which William Shatner joined three others in the very short up-and-back-again space shot yesterday in Jeff Bezos’s interestingly-shaped spacecraft. I have to admit to a certain amount of cynicism as I’ve watched the breathless reactions in recent years to the achievements of a tiny handful of ultra-wealthy white men who have apparently decided that the best thing to do with their vast sums of money, sums that it seems to me a sane society would make it impossible to accumulate in the first place, is to replicate things that the United StatesDown the rabbit hole….

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 I thought about writing a long remembrance of that horrible day, a walk-through of the weird mix of terror and business-as-usual that played out in the office where I was working at the time. I just…don’t want to do that. I remember that for several days after I tried listening to music, and I just…couldn’t. It took, I think, until Friday when I was finally ready to listen to something. I chose one of the most emotional pieces of music I know, a work I played in my freshman year of college. It seemed, in terms of mood and title,Down the rabbit hole….

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 I support the right to abortion. Moreover, I do not think that anyone who gets an abortion has done anything the least bit morally wrong. I believe that conservatives in America, for all their blather about “freedom”, will keep chipping away at real freedoms until there aren’t any left. If this is a problem for you, the “Back” button is to your upper left. And no, I am not interested in debating this. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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 Looks like the shoe is finally dropping in Buffalo and WNY, regarding the future of the region’s NFL franchise: the team’s owners, Terry and Kim Pegula, are floating the idea of a new stadium to replace the team’s existing venue, which would be publicly funded to the tune of over $1,000,000,000. Hold on, let me count the zeroes to make sure I have that right…thousand, million, billion. Yup, that’s right. Newer reports have the team citing possible other locations for the franchise if the stadium doesn’t happen. Locations like Austin, Texas. My position on this is simple: I am againstDown the rabbit hole….