This came up from a "fortune" program this morning.

To understand this important story, you have to understand how the telephone company works. Your telephone is connected to a local computer, which is in turn connected to a regional computer, which is in turn connected to a loudspeaker the size of a garbage truck on the lawn of Edna A. Bargewater of Lawrence, Kan.

Whenever you talk on the phone, your local computer listens in. If it suspects you're going to discuss an intimate topic, it notifies the computer above it, which listens in and decides whether to alert the one above it, until finally, if you really humiliate yourself, maybe break down in tears and tell your closest friend about a sordid incident from your past involving a seedy motel, a neighbor's spouse, an entire religious order, a garden hose and six quarts of tapioca pudding, the top computer feeds your conversation into Edna's loudspeaker, and she and her friends come out on the porch to listen and drink gin and laugh themselves silly.

-- Dave Barry, "Won't It Be Just Great Owning Our Own Phones?"

Newspaperin' has always been a hard trade. Frank Blethen, publisher of the Seattle Times and scion of the family empire, has turned to comedy as a strategy. His Save the Free Press Initiative includes this:

"Reform the internet for the public good by redirecting the large tech platforms’ excessive control of internet advertising revenue to newspapers and other trusted news sources."

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/save-the-free-press-initiative-a-public-service-of-the-seattle-times/

I will always wish I was young enough, and skinny enough, to flirt with Mel.

This right now is the moment when people realize that all along Fox News is just controlled opposition:

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1311730708742901762

Did Dr. Griffin not let them spell it "hampster?"

Because of the recent death of an actor I'd never heard of, I found a 1975 movie that gets a high rating at the IMDb - 7.5, out of 10. There, the title is "Queen of the Gypsies" (not to be confused with "King of the Gypsies" with Brooke Shields), but at Wikipedia, the title is "Gypsies Are Found Near Heaven."

For some reason, Wikipedia doesn't mention that the main actors are Moldovan.

Anyway, there are musical clips at YouTube, and you can watch the whole movie online! Thankfully, when you do, someone had the sense to put the subtitles BELOW the picture, so they didn't get in the way of anything - AND they're legible!

Here's one clip - it's under 4 minutes. Btw, just before the 1-minute mark, watch for a dancer on the left in a pink blouse and a pale orange shawl - she looks a lot like a well-known singer/actress of the same generation! (Hint: the one I'm thinking of goes by one name only.)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JlhX6XQ5gPs

The photography and costumes are incredible.

To see the whole movie, search on "Gypsies Are Close to Heaven."

I should have said "Google," not "search." (YouTube doesn't have the whole movie, I think.)

Lenona, you're an interesting woman.

It's just so difficult to keep track.

• $4 Mil, because all the best people.

• 3D, because all the best illusions.

The New Yorker publishes an anti-Trump hit piece. The sun rises. The oceans keep oceaning. Somewhere a sheep thinks about shooting that damned Border Collie and bemoans its thumbslessness.

I will rejected the results of Fat Bear Week if Holly 435 is not the winner.

That sister is hyooge, and you're a cuck if you say otherwise.

> thumbslessness

No matter the documentation, reject opposing sources.

Not to be grossbuckets or anything, but I'm wondering if Patrick would have any sort of advantage in choosing the winning bear.

Ok, fine, I'm an idiot. But you knew that when you let me in!

Dood, we can say whatever we want this weekend: There's speculation on Twitter tonight that ACB is a Covid superspreader! Things can't get any more psychedelically vicious.

To wit.

Welcome to team crazyTrump, Gog. You can pickup your MAGA hat and a shotgun at the table. Yes I know the libertarians offer an AK-47 and a bale of weed, but you knew just how low rent it was here before you came.