OCTOBER
7, 2024 
THE
BIG PICTURE
The Pittsburgh newspaper once editorialized, “The Post-Gazette is not about to recommend a Yes or No vote on tomorrow's ballot questions. ...What we do endorse is an informed approach to the question, in which people do the math on how the new rates would affect the family pocketbook and then vote accordingly.”
My reaction, however, was this: “Good citizens should not cast their ballots selfishly. We shouldn't always base our decisions on what's best for our particular family. We ought to consider also what's best for the commonwealth in general.”
I recently read in the Richwood Gazette that an Ohio woman strongly objects to a county project to clean out a logjam on Mill Creek. Though it might benefit the overall public, it would not benefit her property. “The proposed improvements are not necessary for me as a land owner.”
On a larger scale, should our elected representatives enact whatever's preferred by the partisans in their half of the divided electorate? Or should they enact what they know is best for the people as a whole?
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That's the question in this month's 100 Moons article, in which some self-centered citizens say: |
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OCTOBER
5, 2024 BE
PREPARED
Four months ago in Doonesbury ... five months before the heated Presidential election that's now only one month away ... Garry Trudeau imagined a talk-radio host checking out a rumor.
“We're back and continuing our conversation with FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. Mrs. Criswell, I understand FEMA is now pre-positioning temporary shelters in the nation's red states. What's going on?”
“Well,
part of FEMA's mission is to prepare for and mitigate against
man-made disasters. In the event that Trump loses the election,
we need to be ready to set up reality re-entry camps.”
“FEMA camps?”
“We're concerned that millions of MAGA survivors will be wandering the country — unmoored, confused, and unable to make sense of post-cult life.”
“Oh.”
“We'll be offering deprogramming services, slowly re-exposing them to actual facts.”
“I see.”
“But we'll be doing so as humanely as possible. These folks have been through a lot.”
“So what happens to the camps if Trump wins?”
“They'll be used for immigrants. Don't get me started.”
OCTOBER
2, 2024 HIT
THE BRICKS, LOSERS
Well,
the Pirates have packed up and left Pittsburgh, because another
regular season of baseball has ended. It's time for me to
illustrate the Diamond Brick Road
of wins and losses traveled in 2024 by our local team, the one with
the second-lowest payroll in the majors.
No surprise; the black line depicts the Pirates' sixth straight losing season. Despite starting the year with five straight wins and later staying in the gold (above .500) for a couple of weeks in July-August, they ended with a 76-86 record, the same as last year.
Pittsburgh hasn't been in the postseason playoffs since 2015. Some fans are in despair. Mark Vidonic, my former colleague on the local broadcast crew, posted on Facebook: “The further removed I am from it being my occupation, now going on 15 years, the harder it's getting for me, as also a lifelong fan, to pretend things don't need to change from ownership on down. I'm just at the lowest point of tolerance I've ever been for this.”
However, 2024 attendance at the ballpark was 1,720,361. That's the largest in seven years! “Pirate fans keep buying the product,” wrote columnist Gene Collier, “but unfortunately the product is hope, not baseball, and that's a sin.”
Other comments include:
“They picked a proper fanbase for their model. Pittsburgh sports fans are unfailingly loyal. Since the great majority will support the team whether they win or lose, there is not a great incentive to spend up profits to win.”
“The ‘model’ isn't attracting professional baseball fans, though. It hasn't since the 1990s. The model is attracting families who like fireworks, free T-shirts, food, and other gimmicks while a baseball game is in progress.”
You
see, ownership's goal isn't to win games, let alone championships;
it's to make a profit.
Of course, things could be worse. I can't resist displaying a more extreme example of a franchise that doesn't need wins to survive, so far at least: this year's Chicago White Sox. Their Diamond Brick Road is shown by the red line. It includes three separate losing streaks of at least a dozen consecutive games, making them the first team since 1900 with this dubious accomplishment. One 21-game streak dropped their record from 27-67 to 27-88 and put them on pace for 124 losses.
During the season, the Sox allowed 813 runs while scoring only 507. Winning only a quarter of their games, their final record was 41-121. That's the most losses in a season during Major League Baseball's modern era.
SEPTEMBER
29, 2024 REVISITING
THE REVISIT
One year ago today, it was Homecoming Weekend at Oberlin College. I was there as part of the Cluster Reunion of my alma mater's Classes of 1967, 1968, and 1969, celebrating 55 years since our graduation.
Stopping by the current home of my old radio station, I took pictures like the ones below. I described that day in this earlier article.
But the college's professional photographers saw much more of the weekend celebration. I've included some of their photos on our Cluster Reunion website, on a page called Scrapbook.
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SEPTEMBER
26, 2024 |
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This frozen breakfast product comes in a box more than six inches square. It would be entirely practical to print the microwave instructions in readable 11-point type (four millimeters tall). But no, they've used fine print. The skinny letters of the Spanish version are only one millimeter tall.
My morning eyes are bleary. Anyone have a microscope? |
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SEPTEMBER
23, 2024 DETAILS!
While watching TV dramas, I can get distracted and obsessed by minor plot points.
In an episode of Law & Order: SVU, a 13-year-old girl is discovered to be pregnant. People suspect the father might be her teacher, but he insists that's impossible. He offers to give blood and DNA samples to prove his innocence.
Suppose he does so. To what are those samples to be compared? The blood and DNA of the baby, right? But it's still in utero. Are we going to drill a hole into the girl's womb to extract tissue samples from the fetus? No one suggests that. It would be safer to wait until after the baby is actually born. But that would require a delay of many months. Be sure to join us next season for the results of those tests.
However, the TV story needs a resolution within the hour. Before long, the teacher is murdered by being hit on the head with a trophy.
Later, an oblong box containing the alleged murder weapon is brought into court. From watching Perry Mason 70 years ago, I learned that the proper procedure is to formally introduce the trophy into evidence, tag it as Exhibit A, and set it aside.
But in the show I'm watching, the prosecutor has the box on his table. He dramatically opens it and holds up an object loosely wrapped in transparent plastic. Because of the reflections on the plastic, we can't easily identify what's inside. It might be the murder weapon, or it might be a different trophy, or it might be a bowling pin or a loaf of bread.
A police officer is on the witness stand. The prosector asks her, “Is this the murder weapon?” “Yes,” she replies.
How could she possibly see it well enough to know that???
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On Perry Mason, the investigating officer would be asked to testify whether an exhibit was indeed the item in question. Lieutenant Tragg would examine it closely and say “Yes, this has my mark on it.” Today, though, we have no time for such careful fact-checking. Grumble. |
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SEPTEMBER
19, 2024 KOMMA
IHÅG / INFLATION
My first job after graduate school was in Marion, Ohio, in the early 1970s.
“Stonekettle” Jim Wright's first job in the 1970s happened to be at a buffet restaurant called a smörgåsbord. That's a Swedish word, and the restaurant was called The Sveden House.
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There was a Sveden House franchise in Marion, in the strip mall now known as Eastland Towne Center. My parents and I dined there a few times. You could go back to the buffet as many times as you wanted, because the slogan was “all you care to eat.”
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Stoneketttle posted an ad that he'd saved. Note the prices. A 99-cent luncheon? That's not surprising; back then, gasoline was 36 cents a gallon. If my co-workers and I went to lunch at a regular restaurant that had waitresses, I usually left a quarter on the table as a tip. |
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When my generation gripes about inflation, these are the prices we remember. In 1972 the Consumer Price Index was less than one-seventh what it is today. But when present-day politicians discuss inflation, they're complaining about relatively minor short-term increases.
Jim Sylvester remarks, “You may want to catch up on the extent to which prices are set by corporations and other companies — and not the government.” Although a “Right for America” commercial claims that Vice President Harris has “tripled the price of gas” (all by herself?), a gallon of gasoline actually got 12% cheaper over the past year. Other prices did go up, but the average climbed only 2.5% in the twelve months ending in August 2024. That dropped inflation to the lowest level in more than three years. Yesterday, the Federal Reserve — confident that inflation is coming back down — cut interest rates by half a percentage point.
Dean Baker writes, “Serious newspapers could run regular stories with headlines like ‘public badly confused on inflation’ or ‘inflation far lower than Reagan-era rates.’ And they could run these headlines every day, since they would still be news to many readers.”
SEPTEMBER
16, 2024 INDUSTRIAL
ROBOTS IN HIGH SCHOOL
The Richwood Gazette in my former Ohio hometown regularly boasts of victories by the robotics teams from the local North Union High School. I assumed this was fun and games, comparable to winning a volleyball tournament. But it can mean more.
When I was in high school 60 years ago, not all the courses were in academic subjects like history or algebra. There were practical options to prepare students for careers, like Shop and Typing and Bookkeeping and Home Economics and Vo-Ag (vocational agriculture). Nowadays, I learn, there's at least one other vocational course that didn't exist in my day: Engineering. According to a Gazette article by Kyle Meddles, the engineering program had only a dozen students six years ago, but now it's up to 80, due largely by the arrival of new FANUC arm robots.
FANUC,
pronounced fan-uck, stands for Fuji Automatic Numeric Controls.
The instructor, Jesse Miller, says that the FANUC arms cost about
$50,000 apiece, but with the help of a $400,000 grant the school was
able to obtain five of them. They have different tools that can
go on the end of the arm, including a gripper, paint sprayer, welder,
and screw gun.
“We are really impressing this upon our kids: It is unique to be at North Union right now and have access to these,” he told the Board of Education. “There is nobody else out there that does. One of the biggest deals is if it's FANUC, there are FANUC credentials recognized by the state.”
For example, a Handling Tool Operation and Programming course (HTOP) normally costs $2,226. “Once I get completely certified,” said Mr. Miller, “every student will get that for free,” as well as FANUC CNC machine and IR vision certification. Another course, Fusion 360, costs a bit of money, but “at the end of the day they're going to have four highly valuable industry-recognized credentials.”
In
this front-page picture, student Montana Donahue holds up her Fusion
360 certificate while Weston Drumm demonstrates his assembly line
program on the FANUC arm robot.
Mr. Miller said he has had students who go to college and have a leg up on other students. “If you start college successful, you're going to be way more likely to stick with engineering.”
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SEPTEMBER
13, 2024 |
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The Canadian military has invaded the United States? Apparently it's our northern border we need to worry about! At least that's what I first imagined when these scary sentences appeared on news sites last weekend:
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But no, USMNT does not stand for United States Marine Corps. I suppose if I followed international “football,” I would have known that.
USMNT stands for United States Men's National Team. They play soccer.
SEPTEMBER
10, 2014 
WELLLL,
DOGGIE!
The neighbor’s doggie was named Augie. He was familiar with the old song, a novelty record from 1953 in ¾ time. At a pet shop Patti Page sings:
I must take a trip to California
And leave my poor sweetheart alone.
If he has a dog, he won't be lonesome,
And the doggie will have a good home.How much is that doggie in the window? (Arf, arf)
The one with the waggley tail.
How much is that doggie in the window? (Arf, arf)
I do hope that doggie's for sale.
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One day, I heard the neighbor sing the first line of the refrain, “How much is that doggie in the window?” Augie watched intently for his cue. He knew his part well. Right in tempo, he chimed in, “Arf, arf.” I was impressed by this duet. They proved it wasn’t a fluke by repeating it more than once. |
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SEPTEMBER
7, 2024 I don't gamble, but a lot of folks do, especially now that online apps have made wagering incredibly easy. What are the odds that those gamblers will actually win more money than they lose? |
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Fifty NFL seasons ago, a fictional newscaster realized that point spreads aren't purely scientific predictions. They're partly influenced by emotion. What does this suggest? Well, if a team is a double-digit underdog, you ought to bet on them. Yes, they'll probably lose the game, but there's a fair chance they'll beat the spread because they're not as outclassed as the fans perceive them to be.
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SEPTEMBER
4, 2014
QUESTIONS
& ANSWERS
“You claim that people evolved from apes, millions of years ago,” says the creationist. “But if the monkeys turned into humans, why are there still monkeys? Huh? Answer that one. You don’t have an answer, do you?”
“No, but I have another question. If our family is descended from Scottish people who emigrated from Scotland to the New World two centuries ago, why are there still Scotsmen today? Huh? You see, some Scots became Americans, but not all of them.
The only legitimate marriage sanctioned by God is the joining of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman who are married to each other, and has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.
Clearly, not only have the people at “Answers in Genesis” not read their biology textbook. The people at “Answers in Genesis” have not even read Genesis! At least they haven’t read it beyond the story of Noah’s flood.
Scripture clearly does not delineate God’s insistence on a single, exclusive union.
• Abram, later known as Abraham, was God’s choice to become the father of His chosen people. But his wife Sarai was infertile, so he took her slave girl Hagar as an additional wife (Genesis 16:3).
• Later, Abraham’s nephew Lot impregnated both of his own daughters (Genesis 19:36). In his defense, he was drunk. Both times.
• Abraham’s grandsons Esau and Jacob each married multiple wives. First, Esau wed two Hittite women (Genesis 26:34). His mother didn’t get along with them and declared, “If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like those who live here, my life will not be worth living” (Genesis 27:46). So she sent her other son off to marry his cousin (Genesis 28:2). Thereupon Esau took the hint and also married one of his cousins, Mahalath, who became his third wife (Genesis 28:9).
• Jacob duly wed his mother’s niece Leah, but she wasn’t the pretty one, so he also married her sister Rachel (Genesis 29). He eventually fathered twelve patriarchs: six by his wife Leah, two by his wife Rachel, two by Leah’s slave girl, and two by Rachel’s slave girl (Genesis 35:23-26).
God did not condemn any of this. He accepted these arrangements, and the men who made them were revered.
Therefore, “Answers in Genesis,” has God commanded his people to restrict their sexual activity according to the standards of 18th-century America? The way you’d prefer?
No, he has not. The answers are in Genesis.
SEPTEMBER
1, 2024 GIVE
US A VICTORY!
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All cheerleaders know that if you want a score, all you have to do is raise your arms to give the appropriate signal and your prayers will be answered. It works every time, because Cheerleading Affects the Outcome. |
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Brother Billy learned that when he interviewed the Biblical character Hur. I've even found a few pictures of Hur's experience.
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