The Shape We’re In

Not only is the future problematic, but the present is a hell of a mess!

Peace in the valley? Indeed!

 

Out of nine lives, I spent seven
Now, how in the world do you get to Heaven?
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in

I just spent sixty days in the jail house
For the crime of having no dough
Now, here I am back out on the street
For the crime of having nowhere to go, oh

Save your neck or save your brother
Looks like it’s one or the other
Oh, you don’t know the shape I’m in

- The Shape I’m In, The Band, 1970
wiki, lyrics, video/audio, another

What is this “World Wide Web”?

Here.

And here.

(Thanks again MeFi!)

FFSUWHE* #47

The proportion of the nation’s children identified with autism disorders has been on a remarkable climb: from one in 5,000 in 1975 to one in 50 in 2013.

A Newborn’s Placenta May Reveal Autism Risk.” Karen Weintraub, USA Today, April 25, 2013

(Let’s expand the scope of these here definitions a bit more, eh? Let’s call this one Autism Spectrum Disorder! And, oh yeah, let’s invent Internet Disorder!)

_________________________________________________________________

*Frightening Fact Stumbled Upon While Headed Elsewhere

Hot Mess!

No…not that!

Not that either!

From the Urban Dictionary:

a derogatory term describing a situation, behavior, appearance, etc. that is disastrously bad. Think “faux pas” but times ten. Possible origin is literal (think, steaming dogpile).

“She got up on stage and tried to sing Beyonce’s “Dangerously In Love” but her performance was a hot mess.”

Here’s a real-world use of the term:

Hotmess

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s from here. (I think it should be “and grind them all together”, or, better yet, simply “and grind them”.)

And somehow we’re reminded of this.

Possum’s 9 Lives All Used Up

George Jones is dead; the unquenchable is quenched.

An amazing distinctive expressive voice.

Lots of great songs.  Follow the links here (great job MeFi!). Yes, He Stopped Loving Her Today.

If we had to choose just one song, we’d choose Bartender’s Blues.

And if we were choosing just one story, we’d choose this one.

(This here’s an adult forum, folks!)

Prospective Citizens Thwarted!

pic_article_042513_murdockmexico

Source

Rough ideas, Rough talk

But far-out freaking brilliant!

(Late, but in horror of Earth Day — also the b-day of ???????? ????? ???????)

The Flower of England

You’ve heard the good news (& wrinkle), no doubt.

Windsor knows to be watchful!

The royal family keeps its eye on the main chance, even as the light goes out in the West:

The retreat from child rearing is, at some level, a symptom of late-modern exhaustion — a decadence that first arose in the West but now haunts rich societies around the globe. It’s a spirit that privileges the present over the future, chooses stagnation over innovation, prefers what already exists over what might be. (h/t Marginal Revolution)

This too comes to mind, alas.

Biscuits, circa 2012

(Click, then click again, for bigger biscuits!)

The modern version: fluffy, rich, embiggening!

Question: Did we just have an election between…

two grandsons of polygamists?

(Greil Marcus, I’ll put this here New Weird presently-strange America up against your Old Weird America any day!)

Biscuits Have Changed

We were talking about biscuits and their function in a meal. I related my Tennessee-born friend’s remark: “My mother made biscuits every day of her life.”

We talked then of biscuits as bread — as a stand-in for yeast-raised bread. Yeast bread most often has a kind of neutrality, mostly noticed if poor, but also if well-made, only excepting those with added cheese. or olives, or seeds.

It seems, then, that rich biscuits, or sweet ones, won’t serve the same neutral function for those eating biscuits every day (or every meal).

Further, a rich biscuit is not a frugal biscuit. And much of rural America, for much of the 20th century, made do with what was at hand.

So we postulated a past of leaner biscuits versus our present fat ones. (This has a parallel with the evolution of the muffin.  More on that anon!)

Here’s our research:

(click to enlarge)

The rough take? Leaner then, richer now. Actually, that’s a lot leaner, a hugely different formula.

We’ll test the old recipes and report back. More observations will follow.

To be Determined…

The President gained re-election having receiving nine million fewer votes than in 2008.

Hypotheses to be tested (all, some, or none may prove true):

  • all types of voters stayed home
  • women stayed home
  • evangelicals stayed home

For damn sure, someone stayed home.

Aphorism follows Aphorism

Reunited under one roof with a child (yea, grown) not seen for a long time, the restless parent will not sleep until the child (finally) does.

Aphorism for a Dark Night of the Soul

Much of the first night away from home is often given over to wondering whether one should have left home at all.

In This Room, the Onions Weep

The Stuttgarter Copra Spa & Tanning Parlor

Night Shift in a Pickle Factory

Gherkins (in process), Blackberry Jam, Mustard Pickles
Absent for photo op: Icicle Pickles

Fuzzy, Was he?

There’s a kind of symmetry here…

Wisdom from Westerns

The harder life is, ” she murmured, ” the less people ask of it.  People who don’t know fear or hunger or pain want a lot.  Those that face those things are happy if they have one small break.  Terror makes us all very humble.  How quick pride falls.”

– Aurora Brant to Jim Keene in Rim of the Desert (1944), Ernest Haycox, p.237-8

“Wash Teeth if Any”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Woody’s “NEW YEARS RULIN’S”

via BoingBoing