Some artists only have one really big hit. Looking Glass went to number one in 1972. They had a top 20 Adult Contemporary hit with “Jimmy Love Mary-Anne” a year later.
What’s been on your mind? Got something you’d like to share? A topic to discuss? It’s Wednesday Night Open Thread.
Who wants to start?
This is a reposting of one of Harvey’s classics. There’s a link to the book in the sidebar. — The Editors
Welcome to Fun Facts About the 50 States, where – week by week – I’ll be taking you on a tour around this great nation of ours, providing you with interesting, yet completely useless and probably untrue, information about each of the 50 states.
This week, grab your racing gear because we’re headed to Indiana, so let’s get started…
That wraps up the Indiana edition of Fun Facts About the 50 States. Next week… well, I hope you really like corn jokes, because we’re headed to Iowa.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go put fifty bucks on Axl Rose.
[The complete e-book version of “Fun Facts About the 50 States” is now available at Amazon.com. If you don’t have a Kindle, you can download free Kindle apps for your web browser, smartphone, computer, or tablet from Amazon.com]
See the boldfaced portion for the lie.
One Year Into “Soda Tax,” Researchers Find Law Did Not Affect Sugary-Beverage Consumption
Drexel University / February 26, 2020 / Phys.orgOne year into Philadelphia’s 1.5-cents-per-ounce “soda tax,” new findings show that the law had minimal to no influence on what Philadelphians are drinking. The results were published this month in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health from researchers at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health.
The team conducted a random phone survey of 515 adult residents of Philadelphia and neighboring cities of Camden and Trenton, New Jersey, and Wilmington, Delaware. Respondents shared how much and how frequently they drink soda, fruit drinks, energy drinks and bottled water during a 30-day period when the tax was first implemented, in Dec. 2016—Jan. 2017, and again reported their consumption over a 30-day period during a follow-up survey a year later in Dec. 2017-Feb. 2018.
Taking into account other health behaviors and socio-demographics, at the one-year mark, 39% of Philadelphians, and 34% of those in surrounding cities, reported drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages. This amounts to only three fewer sugary beverages for Philadelphians each month—not a statistically significant difference.
…
“Although this law was not passed for health reasons, the tax has the potential to generate long-term health benefits for many Philadelphians because revenue from the tax is being directed toward expanding access to quality early childhood education for children in lower-income families—and education has a positive effect on many health outcomes,” said senior author Brent Langellier, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health.
LOL!!!
I’d like to see the arguments that were used in favor of passing this law.
Since we answered the question of the best Bond we move onto the question of the best Bond Villain.
For our purposes we will start with just Sean Connery’s Bond (Yes, that means we will see other Bond villain polls. You lucky devils.) You will notice that these are just the main villains. Henchmen will be done at a later date. Bond girls as well, the Good, the Bad and the Dead.
Blofeld appears twice as we had two in the films. (4 actually, but he doesn’t show up on screen until You only live twice.) So you get both those choices.
Largo also appears twice (Emilio and Maximillan). The “Remake” of Thunderball as Never say never again gets us the same character twice, even if the name changes slightly. So, once again, you get two choices.
Rosa Klebb is listed for the villain in From Russia with love. Blofeld does not appear visually on screen and Kronsteen and Grant will be considered as Henchmen.
The poll will remain open until Tuesday March 31st at midnight.
Have fun.
Maximillan Largo – Klaus Maria Brandauer
Ernst Stavro Blofeld 1 – Charles Gray
Ernst Stavro Blofeld 2 – Donald Pleasance
Emilio Largo – Adolfo Celi
Auric Goldfinger – Gert Fröbe
Rosa Klebb – Lotte Lenya
Dr. Julius No – Joseph Wiseman
Who is the best Bond Villain (Sean Connery films)?
Total Voters: 139
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I’m glad this crisis is giving people more opportunity to mindlessly dunk on Trump over absolutely everything. That’s as helpful as that always is.
It’s become impossible to sort when Trump is being a buffoon from when journalists are being buffoons.
“I wish absolutely everything in the news wasn’t about Trump.”
*everything in the news becomes about the coronavirus*
“Oh no!”
*everything in the new becomes about Trump’s reaction to the coronavirus*
“Oh no no!”
I’m way ahead of all you suckers. I washed my hands over a year ago.
So how much worse does it have to get before everyone drops the stupid partisan politics? Because I’m actually kind of looking forward to that.
Ain’t nothing free. The question is always how do you have enough of supply and control costs, a question free markets are 1000x better at answering than the next best solution.
In my dream world, there would be a party answering the slouch towards socialism in health care saying, “We don’t want to be like the other countries. We want to be better” and putting forward a way to let markets work in health care, but alas.
I can’t do social-distancing. Everyone loves me.
D’oh. Had a Bee article pulled today because it was too similar to one from The Onion a few years ago. Got reamed by the chief. Threatened to take away my satire gun and badge.
I try to limit all my joke theft to The Simpsons.
Hey, baby, you up for some social-closening?
I’m just tired of this childish nonsense where you think you can say “Everyone should have this!” and then everyone magically gets it. The challenge is supply and cost, which is the challenge free markets excel at.
Having a free market in health care is a human right, but it’s long been infringed.
Free markets are a human right.
I know from the warnings about vaping that nicotine is addictive, but they never explain what’s bad about being addicted to nicotine other than you constantly needing to vape and thus look like a cheese bag.
The goal now is to be able to look back and say we all overreacted.
With everyone so gloomy, I feel like I need to come up with some hopeful satire, but that’s a hard code to crack. Detached and cynical is so much easier.
If you need tips on what to do other than watch sports, just talk to the nearest dork.
As someone who has worked from home for years, my main tip is to make sure your office door can be locked from the outside. Inevitably, you will go insane and you want to give your family some way to protect themselves.
Oh, and shower and dress before your work day or you’ll feel like a bum.
People have been so jumping a gun to blame Trump for a super plague he’s probably going to get a popularity boost if it’s anything under the worst predictions.
“Hey, he didn’t do as bad as they said.”
I wonder if you can get people to hoard something just by buying a lot of some random thing so people are like, “I better get some before they run out!” Like if you bought up 2/3rds of the WhiteOut.
“Daddy, can I have a hug?”
“No, I’m social distancing.”
‘What’s that mean?”
“Learn it from context. The context of me not hugging you.”
This is my opportunity to be that cold, aloof father like I’ve always seen on TV.
Is it ironic or apropos that this pandemic has finally given us time to finish playing Pandemic Season 1?
I’m not a very good liar. My main tip is to not say, “Yeah, that’s the ticket!” after making something up, but it’s nearly impossible.
The people using a temporary shortage during a pandemic to try and excuse the constant shortages in socialism are as morally despicable as racists. It is a choice to be that dumb and ignore the benefits of free markets and the hideousness of controlled economies.
This idea that all it takes to give everyone everything they need is to just pass a law saying people get that thing is like believing in Santa Claus. Unfortunately, we have a large segment of the population who are hurt and angry we won’t all just trust in Santa.
I don’t know who decided raising prices was a worse thing than scarcity, but I would hit that person with a stick if I could (a stick of at least six feet in length to maintain proper social distance).
Every day, 500 billion people die from student debt. With the amount of money Jeff Bezos spends on one yacht, we could get rid of all debt and each have a rocket jet pack.
If we confiscate all the wealth of billionaires, we can spend all day making terrible art as none of us will need to work again except for one guy we’ll have to enslave and make a janitor so things don’t get dirty. His name is Steve and we’ll all be programmed to hate him.
This is perfect socialism.
I’ve never disliked a politician’s politics so much I wished physical harm on him or her. I guess I’m just not as caring and passionate as other people.
If coronavirus is everywhere, why can’t we see it? That’s because the government tells us it’s “invisible” and will “kill us.” This sounds a lot like the last made up thing the government tried to scare us about, electricity.
My wife doesn’t like how I growl “Get over here!” every time I grab the baby… even though it’s a pitch perfect imitation of Scorpion. Some people like to be unhappy.
I think I’d be a great ruler. And I’d have only one rule: Do everything I say or get thrown down a well.
The main concern I hear with this is “Do we have enough wells?”
We’d build more wells. The entire landscape would be dotted with wells.
The other question I get is “What happens to people after they’re thrown down a well?”
I don’t know. I’m not some sort of well expert. I just know that they’re holes in the ground that, if you throw people down them, immediately after they no longer annoy me.
Biden says he’s going to pick a woman as VP? Can anyone even define what a woman is anymore?
It’s a woman’s right to control her own wallet. And if she finds abortion horrific and wants no part of it, she shouldn’t have to pay for it.
Bernie loves authoritarian dictators. It’s good to keep in mind that he’s just as likely to kill or imprison you as give you health care.
This is all really scary. I just want you all to know I love you… even the losers and the haters.
Know what? Especially the losers and the haters. Just all please lose and hate from some place safe.
I’m getting a little sick of people who think all this coronavirus chaos is a great opportunity to dunk on Trump. Why do you pretend to be so bothered by Trump’s awfulness if you’re even worse? You should find how much he achieved despite being terrible a personal inspiration.
Has Frozen had a bit of backlash? I feel like everyone has a recent era Disney movie they think is better. For instance, I think Moana is way better.
I’d define recent era Disney movies as any where Alan Tudyk voices a character plus Tangled.
I feel bad for how excited I am to not be going anywhere for the near future. I do my best to not feed my introversion, but no helping it now.
The all-time record for social distancing is Michael Collins.
I have to say, I had never heard anyone call it the “China Chinese Virus from China” before Trump.
Is there anyway Disney could get the new episodes of The Mandalorian out sooner? Society could really use some more Baby Yoda right now.
Got supervillains trying to make bioweapons deep in underground lairs when all you gotta do is eat some bats.
I forgot the Democratic primary is still going on. Could you imagine risking your life to vote for Joe Biden?
Food is even more of a necessity than health care, but it’s just something we never have to think about — at least on the supply side. It’s nice now to at least for a while recognize all the people who keep our supermarket shelves stocked.
I think we all may be starting to realize that our relationship with the Chinese government is poisonous in a number of different ways.
It’s racist to call the Wuhan Virus the Chinese Virus.
How about we call it the “Evil, Corrupt Chinese Government Virus”? Is that clear and not racist enough?
ME: “If you want to get the new Animal Crossing, it will be $60 plus maybe another $5 tax.”
9yo: “How about I pay the $60 and you pay the tax… or you pay the $60 and I pay the tax.”
100 years from now.
“In 2020, millions were killed by a coronavirus, but we’re glad they’re dead because they called it something that could be racist.”
What’s worse? Being a racist or being a mouthpiece for the evil, oppressive Chinese government? I feel like one of these doesn’t get enough outrage.
I dunno. Might be best to deal with the crisis and worry about blame afterwards.
Capitalism is free markets. When you hate capitalism, you hate freedom. And that makes you a bad person. Like you know how much you claim to hate racists? You’re just as morally awful and your views are just as destructive.
There is no economic system that will make you happy when you’ve chosen to be ungrateful and miserable no matter what privileges you’ve been given.
I’m baffled people are using a pandemic to rant against capitalism. What is the economic system that would do well in that?
I know free markets are the ones that will adjust quickest to rapidly changing circumstances as everyday it’s reacting to billions of pieces of data.
Any other economic system involves some corrupt bureaucrat reacting to a few dozen pieces of data, if that many. The next best system is many orders of magnitude inferior.
But it does have something people love: control over others.
I guess it’s easy to judge if you’ve never eaten bats. Maybe as soon as you bite into one, you’re like, “Wow. This is worth five pandemics.”
It would be morally wrong to force anyone pay back those student loans other than:
A. The students who took out those loans
B. The colleges who caused them to go into so much debt
As part of our isolation, we found our TV remote that had been missing for months. It was inside the couch.
“Months ago, did you put the remote into a hole in the couch?”
*my 4yo looks at me and smiles*
“No.”
*goes back to pretending to read a book*
Our youngest son’s middle name is Winchester, which means for nicknames we call him “Win,” “Win-Win,” “G.K. Winchesterton,” and “Winnie the Flem.”
I watched Uncut Gems. Didn’t live up to the hype for me. And I ended up in the doghouse for subjecting SarahK to it.
Main thought at the end: Is anyone going to pay back Judd Hirsch?
Any legitimate criticism of Trump is always buried under a mound of garbage criticism. To defeat Trump would take a modicum of restraint, but partisanship ruins people’s minds too much for that.
Heard what sounded like rain, but instead of standing up to walk one foot over and look out the window, I glanced at my Apple Watch.
“Yep. It’s raining.”
Don’t worry. Eventually my watch will tell me to stand up.
One important thing after all this is to make sure we don’t go back to the status quo with China. They’ve been too poisonous to us in too many different ways.
The people who think this crisis is a great opportunity to attack Trump just keep proving they care even less about their fellow Americans than him.
You go to war with a virus with the president you have, not some fictional super-competent one that exists only in your head.
Most of the time I’m happy that Congress is a bunch of idiots caught in gridlock and doing nothing, but this is one of those times I wish they were marginally competent.
We need student debt forgiveness in the bill or no deal. If we can’t have very specifically targeted relief for the privileged idiots out spreading coronavirus at the beach, then we might as well all die.
My 4yo daughter loves Star Wars right now and I plan to water and cultivate that. Currently her favorite character are Rey and Ahsoka Tano, but hopefully I can eventually push her toward the original trilogy.
It goes without saying she also loves Baby Yoda, as does anyone with a soul.
A functional media would be scouring those bills for anything that doesn’t actually have to with the coronavirus crisis and shaming whoever put them in there.
We got to get off this absolutely idiotic aversion to prices being raised. That’s so much better than shortages despite all the cries of “PriCe GoUgInG!”
People keep insinuating that the entire economy grinding to a halt will only hurt people with big stock portfolios, but I don’t think they’ll be the most affected.
Compromise: Everyone goes back to business as normal… but while wearing hazmat suits.
The problem right now for a crisis is we have a bad president and a media very invested in making sure he fails.
When stocks keep having these huge jumps and drops right after the other, it just makes stock traders seem like a bunch of idiots.
