Category: FWIW

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Hollyweird’s Penchant for Degrading Classics Continues Apace

Yeh, SJW propaganda in “Mary Poppins Returns,” courtesy of Disney, Marc Shaiman, and Scott Wittman (three elements that disrecommend almost any movie nowadays), seems to be the case. OK, so maybe it won’t as readily gag a maggot as their treatment of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” At least Shaiman and Whitman, from available trailers and synopses, cast, etc., seem to have been more subtle in their destructive efforts in the new M.P. movie.

Still, thanks but no thanks. I’ll stick with the 1964 version that mellowed P.L. Travers’s original, rather freakily scary, Mary Poppins (in her books). I may make myself watch the whole thing at some point, in an effort to bend over backwards in fairness, but currently available information doesn’t militate for any urgency to do so.

Meanwhile, sing along (in the space between your ears, as it were–there’s PLENTY of space between mine to accommodate the piece. . . *heh*):

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Mary Poppins:
When trying to express oneself, it’s frankly quite absurd,
To leaf through lengthy lexicons to find the perfect word.
A little spontaniaty keeps conversation keen,
You need to find a way to say, precisely what you mean…

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious!
If you say it loud enough, you’ll always sound precocious,

Ensemble:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye

Mary Poppins:
When Stone Age men were chatting, merely grunting would suffice.

Bert:
Now if they heard this word, they might have used it once or twice!

Mrs. Corry:
I’m sure Egyptian pharoahs would have grasped it in a jiff,
Then every single pyramid would bear this hieroglyph;

Oh!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Say it and wild animals would not seem so ferocious!

Mary Poppins:
Add some further flourishes, it’s so ro-co-co-coscious!

Ensemble:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye

Bert:
The Druids could have carved it on their mighty monoliths!

Mrs. Corry:
I’m certain the ancient Greeks would have used it in their midst!

Mary Poppins:
I’m sure the Roman Empire only entered the abyss,
Because those Latin scholars never had a word like this!

Ensemble:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Mary Poppins:
If you say it softly the effect can be hypnoscious!

Bert:
Check your breath before you speak, in case it’s halitotious!

Ensemble:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye
Um-diddle-diddle-um-diddleye

Mary Poppins (spoken):
Of course you can say it backwards, which is Suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus!

Michael (spoken):
She may be tricky, but she’s bloody good!

Mary Poppins:
So when the cat has got your tongue, there’s no need for dismay!
Just summon up this word and then you’ve got a lot to say!

Bert:
Pick out those eighteen consonants and sixteen vowels as well,
And put them in an order which is very hard to spell…

Mary Poppins:
S-u-p-e-r
C-a-l-i-f-
R-a-g-i-l-

Jane and Michael:
I-s-t-i-c-e-x-p-i-a-l-i-d-o-c-i-o-u-s!

Ensemble:
S-u-p-e-r
C-a-l-i-f-
R-a-g-i-l-
I-s-t-i-c-e-x-p-i-a-l-i-d-o-c-i-o-u-s!

S-u-p-e-r
C-a-l-i-f-
R-a-g-i-l-
I-s-t-i-c-e-x-p-i-a-l-i-d-o-c-i-o-u-s!

S-u-p-e-r
C-a-l-i-f-
R-a-g-i-l-
I-s-t-i-c-e-x-p-i-a-l-i-d-o-c-i-o-u-s!

Bert (spoken):
Here we go!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Even though the sound of it is something quite atroscious!
If you say it loud enough, you’ll always sound precocious,
Supercalifragilistic-

Jane and Michael:
Supercalifragilistic-

Ensemble:
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

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Ambivalence. . .

Lovely Daughter gave us a lovely plaque to hang on our front door that reads, “Velkommen,” a nice Norwegian “Welcome.”

I want to hang this below it:

My Wonder Woman says, “No.”

*sigh*

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If You Enjoy Writing Scathing Reviews of Crap

Just look for “gimmes” from wannabe writers on Amazon.1

Yeh, I’m just a wee tad irked with the “self-pub” wannabe writers who

a. Don’t bother to learn English (though it’s their native tongue)
b. Think characterization is accomplished by listing all the name-brand products a character uses, and describing the character by just saying what dim-witted celebrity the character resembles
c. Doesn’t bother to read their own text, and so commits multiple errors of continuity at the speed of light
d. And then packs all this wonderfulness into 100 pages (or, sometimes even worse, 200) of a “novelette lite” and calls it a “novel.” *sigh* “Novelette Lite” even with padding the word count with useless crap like, “. . .in which case he would probably be stuck out here for the rest of his life, however brief a period that turned out to be.” No. DELE “a period.” Wasted electrons. (*sigh* Rather like this whole post, eh? *heh*)

Fortunately, I only actually read through about one of these a week, because I reject the absolute worst of them within the first page of text. The “survivors” often get eviscerated in reviews, though I only note ten or so (and when I’m feeling generous, sometimes fewer) of the worst examples of text that would gag a maggot.

Yes, it got worse in the book I picked to pick on here. Because of certain external factors (namely a recommendation from someone whose recommendations are often on target), I stuck it out with the book the above example came from–through even more garbage–until,

“. . .the slug had been fired from a large-caliber handgun, probably a .45. . . He knew that such projectiles traveled at a high velocity, faster than the speed of sound. . . ”

Urm, no. A good rule of thumb for speed of sound, at sea level, under ideal conditions, is ~1,125fps. Not even a .45ACP+P with a light bullet weight of only 185gr travels that fast (max out at ~1,000fps muzzle velocity), and given the circumstances in the scene, I _seriously_ doubt the writer was referring to (or is even aware of) the .45 Colt (often called “Long Colt”) cartridge or the firearms it is used in, and even then, if he were, he’d have to have been talking about a +P load.

Sorry. When a writer just keeps spreading The Stupid, the book should be relegated to the scrub pile.

1Do note that I keep on “buying” freebie Indie pub books because I have thereby found a few really excellent writers whose other work I end up buying and reading, and not just writers of fiction. I’ve not yet found any good poets that way, but hope springs eternal.

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A Teensy-Tiny Piece of History

Back in 1959, in observance of Alaska’s new statehood (1958), the Southern Baptist Convention sponsored an evangelistic effort, partnering with existing SBC churches in Alaska. My dad obtained sponsorship from the baptist church in Seward, Alaska, along with its partnering churches in the lower 48, and spent a month as part of evangelistic meetings, clinics on church music and church education, and in personal evangelism.

I have copies of letters between him and the sponsoring church, copies of various agendas for meetings, and a very special “cookbook” compiled by students of Shishmaref Day School, Shishmaref, Alaska.It’s a little ~4”x5” typewritten booklet with a hand lettered cover that includes such “recipes” (descriptions of preparation, no amounts given; kinda like my “Not a recipe” recipes I post here now and then *heh* like

Eskimo Ice Cream

  • grate reindeer tallow into small pieces
  • Add seal oil slowly while beating with hand
  • After some seal oil has been used, then add a little water while whipping
  • Continue adding seal oil and water until white and fluffy
  • Some berries can be added to it

It might be difficult to come by reindeer tallow and seal oil, here in America’s Third World County™, but it’d certainly be “keto friendly.” 🙂

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Ambivalence. . .

A bit underwhelmed at an “auto-update” notice telling me the WP version here has gone through w/o any action from me. Last time I got one, I ended up locked out of my WP Admin pages for a while. Apparently not this time, though.

Livin’ la vida risky. . .

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A Most Excellent Idea!

Gun “banners” would prefer to have all guns “registered” and all gun owners “doxxed.” What an excellent idea, and one with such excellent precedent!

“I think this is a great idea. The enemies of the people and the state should not be allowed weapons. Only good comrades can carry weapons. And any good comrade should not need privacy, because they have nothing to hide from the state. Yes, a most beautiful idea.”

“Show me a man, and I will find you a crime.” – Lavrentiy Beria

How can one disagree with such an impeccable source?

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Living Dangerously?

After the last WP update I performed, which ended up locking me out of all admin functions, requiring some help from my hosting service (an install of an update beyond the one I had done, because not even FTP was working for me), getting a notice of another WP update available was. . . momentarily disconcerting, especially since my site’s still not 100% functional. Yet.

Still, performed a complete backup of the site and then bit the bullet.

OK, things seem to have worked.

*phew*

(*heh*)

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Quora Is. . . a Real Mixed Bag

Unlike Q/A fora that focus on one topic or are strictly information-seeking-and-sharing boards, Quora features just about any question anyone can come up with, which means it’s a site that has just about everything from serious questioners with folks making serious attempts to answer such questions to trolls baiting others and then “flinging monkey poo” at anyone who attempts a serious answer, to those like the dumbass who asked the following question:

“What’s one song that always gives you the feels?”

Anyone who uses the term “the feels” deserves no response other than raucous mocking. It’s a vague, stupid nonsense term that only self-made idiots would even contemplate (if contemplate they could) using. The Urban Dictionary (though that should be in “scare quotes” *heh*) tries to describe the term thusly:

“A word used to describe something that is intensely emotional on a level somewhere between you feeling empty and you on the floor in a ball weeping uncontrollably.”

In other words, it’s a term so broad and vague as to be meaningless, and yet this questioner wants to know,

“”What’s one song that always evokes vague, undefined, essentially meaningless emotions in you ranging from ennui to agony?”

#gagamaggot

OTOH, the stupidity of gargantuan proportions the question represents nevertheless did not prevent my mind from fleeing to a momentary wish that I could somehow know the tune Kipling had running through his head as he composed “The Last Chantey.”

Continue reading “Quora Is. . . a Real Mixed Bag”

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GHWB, Bye-Bye

I know, I know. . . it’s just me, but I had to mute the GHWB funeral when the truly awful choral music came on1. I mean, seriously, what director–fully knowing the choir will be performing in a setting that’s really not acoustically well suited to choral music–does not stress again and again that exceptionally clear, even exaggerated enunciation of the lyrics is a MUST? *sigh* Unmuted, and the serial eulogies weren’t all THAt bad, and scriptures, although poorly-read, were appropriate.

What was a wee tad amusing was the sprinkling of pretentious “Mid-Atlantic” pronunciations that a couple of speakers dropped willy-nilly into their Mid-American accents.

Apart from that, it was a good celebration of an American hero, so-so president2, and seemingly nice guy.

R.I.P., GHWB.

1Alan Simpson’s rendition of “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” was better.

2Coulda done a much better job as president, IMO, but I was at least satisfied with his character (and profoundly dissatisfied with the character of those running against him).

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Common Characteristics of Totalitarian States (all shared with socialism, BTW)

While not an exhaustive list, these characteristics are generally considered typical of totalitarian rule:

• Rule by a single party
• Total control of the military (sometimes meaning control of the party by a military junta)
• Total control over means of communication (such as newspapers, propaganda, etc. . .)
• Police intimidation and control of subjects with even the use of terrorism as a control tactic common
• Control of the economy

Given these characteristics, it is easy to see why Mussolini’s Fascism (socialist1) and Hitler’s Nazism (also socialist2) are usually (and rightly, IMO) put forth as examples of totalitarian states, but almost any absolute monarchy and every historical example of communist and socialist states qualify as well.

“Ah!” but some say, “What about European socialist states like Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, et al?” Yeh, no. Socialist states all exercise either de facto or de jure control of the economy, and none of those do. They depend upon government-muzzled and milked capitalism for the implementation of some socialist policies (bread and circuses), but lack the defining qualities of socialism that Ludwig von Mises correctly identified and applied to both Mussolini’s Fascism and Hitler’s Nazism in his trenchant analysis of both. Those who try to hand wave away the essentially totalitarian nature of socialism are either ignorant or disingenuous.

Socialist states are simply a sub-class of totalitarian states, just as Nazism and Fascism are sub-classes of socialist states. Proponents of socialism do not like these simple facts, and so lie about them at every opportunity.

Do note that I only pointed to a TownHall article offering “proof” that Mussolini’s Fascism was socialist, and the article offers weak proof but refers to Human Action (NOTE: pdf file), by von Mises, where in chapter XXV, et al. von Mises identifies all that’s needed to make the connection solid. *shrugs* The book’s a decent read, anyway, and well worth one’s time, IMO.