Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and  thought I' share.

- David Simon's original pitch to HBO for The Wire

- Noah Smith with an interesting look at innovation and employment

- 15 things you may not know about Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man

- The "experts" on inflation.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I think one change that should be mandated across the country is to change all the signs that hang in bathrooms from "Employees must wash hands before to returning to work" to "Everyone must wash hands before leaving bathroom." Sad that we even need signs for basic hygiene... David Simon is my spirit animal... Proposed solution to help out restaurants and bars being stressed by Wuhan Virus closings - have States waive all 2020 sales and meal taxes so that bars and restaurants get an immediate cash cushion to help them through. If taxes have already been paid have State departments of revenue issue refund checks. Simple and elegant way to help out...  The Red Sox unofficial team song s Shipping up to Boston, the Patriots song is Ozzy Ozbourne's Crazy Train, and the Bruins is Zombie Nation. May I suggest with the signing of Tom Brady that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers adopt the Grateful Dead's Touch of Gray as their unofficial theme song (Carly Simon's Nobody Does It Better would also work but too mellow)... Proposed NCAA punishment for Rick Pitino for the wrong doings at Louisville that happened under his watch - require him to grow and maintain a Jeff Ruland mustache for as long as he's head coach of Iona... Who knew? Apparently among the new golf etiquette rules in the face of the Wuhan virus is to leave the flag in while putting so nobody has to touch the pin... 

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Norman Borlaug - the man who helped feed the world

- Heh Heh

- Physics is cool - the bead chain experiment

-  Cool - David Simon's pitch to HBO for The Wire

- Much has been made about Hollywood LOUDLY threatening to move TV and movie production out of Georgia because of the new abortion law. But do you recall how QUIET Hollywood was when they moved TV and movie production completely out of the US because of the passing of Obamacare?

- Did Trump just revolutionize healthcare in the US and nobody notice? Love this change. One thing I'd add - any unused HRA or FSA funds should be able to be rolled into IRA or 401k retirement plans at the end of the year without penalty. "Use it or lose it" is so silly and wasteful. Maybe this change will even help the Hollywood hypocrites to move some of their TV and movie productions back to the US.

- So awesome!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- New evidence for the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis. Not exactly news for anyone who's listened to Randall Carlson and Graham Hancock on Joe Rogan's podcast.

- Seeking the Productive Life by Stephen Wolfram. Long read but interesting look at the life and technology hacks of one of technology's best known names.

- David Simon with a little inside baseball on how things work in Hollywood

- Interesting look at how Montana tamed the beast of high medical insurance costs.

- A conservative's wet dream

- Can Alzheimer's be detected decades before onset?

Robin Williams

Some tributes and remembrances of Robin Williams that I wanted to share.

- Robin's now poignant appearance on Louie

- Slightly NSFW bloopers from the first season of Mork & Mindy. Williams at his manic peak.

- Norm MacDonald's very personal tribute

- Ken Levine's thoughts on the passing of Williams

- David Simon's brief encounter and how Williams changed his life. It may not be a stretch to say without Williams' sacrifice in trying to help a friend's struggling show there may not have ever been The Wire

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

After the reported trade between the Celtics and Nets - Boston went from a 33-1 bet to win the NBA championship to a 75-1 longshot. Meanwhile the Nets went from 40-1 to 10-1...  Big Bang Theory meets Firefly... If I were an MLB player - my "walk up" music would be God Bless America just to see if people would stand when I came up to hit... Cool - David Simon's original pitch for The Wire... MMA Jesus would be a good name for a Christian rock band... Heh heh - it's funny because it's true... Bill Simmons should give his Chippers season tickets to Jeffrey Ross whenever he's in town just so he can heckle Doc Rivers...  Interesting interview with Neil Gaiman...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting and thought I'd share.

- Why Japan really lost WWII

- Why the NHL is better than the NBA

- Marine General speaks from broken heart at memorial's dedication.

- Excellent long read of Muhammad Ali's biggest fan finally getting to meet him. Cool anecdotes of Ali in private.

- David Simon (creator of The Wire) on the NSA tracking Verizon call records. He makes some very good points which I agree with but I think misses the forest through the trees. I may post my thoughts on this at a later time.

- Cool story of 19 families that moved to a then uninhabited North Carolina island in the 70's.

- If D-Day failed Eisenhower was going to take full responsibility. When it succeeded he deflected the credit.  Sounds like the polar opposite of today's leaders.

Treme

I tried to watch David Simon's new show Treme last night. I tried and failed.

Maybe I was just tired having spent the day playing golf and then watching golf.

Maybe I was turned off by Steve Zahn's naked white ass and John Goodman's ranting.

Maybe the juxtaposition of watching two consecutive episodes of The Pacific as a lead-in to Treme put me in a mindset where I was more disgusted by people like Steve Zahn's character. It was tough to watch the self-sacrifice of the Marines in The Pacific compared to the no-sense of responsibility Steve Zahn character and then hear John Goodman's character blaming the Army Corps of Engineers for the city's woes.

I'll give Treme another shot but honestly so far I'm lukewarm on the show.

David Simon

Very interesting profile of David Simon - creator of The Wire. (Warning the article is several pages long.)

I'll watch his new show Treme but I'm not too jazzed up for it (pardon the pun).

The Wire and the World

An in depth look at the show The Wire and what David Simon was trying to get across.

The full title of the article is "The Wire" and the World: Narrative and Metanarrative. It is a very encompassing article but the main flaw is that you just can't use Baltimore and the world David Simon projects as stand-ins for the rest of society. If you are a fan of the show - the article is worth the read. If you haven't been hooked by the show yet - then give it a pass.

The Wire - Season One

I'm a big fan of The Wire and I was engrossed by this Season One - episode by episode - review by Alan Sepinwall. The episode reviews are geared towards "veteran" viewers of The Wire - people who have seen the entire series and who won't bothered by spoilers. Sepinwall also wrote non-spoiler versions for newbie watchers of the series. I know that these were written almost a year ago but I just ran across them via the magic of the Internet.

There were many insights gleaned from the review of the first season but one that really struck me was:

One of the series' key themes is the folly of placing your faith in institutions, because they're designed to protect themselves and not you the individual. D'Angelo placed his faith in both The Game and his family, and they combined to drag him down and send his ass to prison for 20 years. McNulty put his faith in law-enforcement and found out that no one on either the local or federal level really cares about stopping the likes of Avon and Stringer. D goes to prison, Jimmy to the boat, and their institutions grind on with them on the margins.

This insight seems especially relevant today when the government seems to be strengthening the role of institutions in our lives and creating new institutions where none existed in the past. Are we trying to turn America into the Baltimore of The Wire? That's my fear.

Sepinwall also reviewed other seasons of The Wire. I can't wait to read his review of season two. If you read the reviews - make sure to take time to read the comments. Some of the best insights are found there and the show's creator, David Simon, even makes a guest appearance or two.