Singular

 Been listening to a lot of H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur Conan Doyle.  Both seemed enamored with overusing the word 'singular.'  Their use of singular. isn't.

Throw a unique in there, fellas.  Or even an extraordinary.

But I don't think it is just them.  A century ago a lot of prose had extra singulars, if I can now recall.  

Another thing the snooty Doyle and Lovecraft worried about a lot in their stories.  Scandal!  People would murder themselves or others if something embarrassing happened to them or to prevent same, and if they didn't die greater society would never let them off the hook.  Alien to out modern sensibilities.  If my bride worked in summer stock theater performing musicals and it got out that she did so just after the marriage I wouldn't go begging for an annulment.  But we do overshare, these days.  I would mind a little less, if we could do it without great stigma.  I've heard about too many strangers sex lives and colonoscopies.  And I am guilty, too, no mistake.

Grocery Report

 Not much to report.  I stopped sorta doing this when things got back to normalish in the early fall.  Supplies were decent, and there were few shortages.  

Moreso now.  All the cleaners were in place, and there was so much paper goods that they were stacking Brawny and Bounty on the floors in front of the shelves.  

One other thing.  Traffic backup are back to normal.  Which is unwelcome.  It means people are going into the office as these backup aren't on schoolbus routes.  

Crazy Town

Do you know anyone, especially in your own family, that is legit mentally ill.  Crazy-town?  A danger to themselves and others?

I was thinking about how HARD it would be to do something about that.  Just massively difficult.  I am glad it is not a problem I have had to confront.

To get a friend or family member committed, even if it is for the best would be gun wrenching.  

How to fix this?  I don't know.  Make the experience feel much more like you are securing them real meaningful help rather that condemning them to compelled institutionalization?  But we'd have to be confident that the insanity could be cured, and rather quickly, properly resecuring the afflicted's freedom.  

But we aren't confident.  At all.  There is no quick cure.  This isn't the Clap, circa 1965.  Where a shot fixes you up.  So we are still confronted with the hesitancy of compelling someone to at least get treatment.  And sometimes that is deadly.  If it was ALWAYS deadly, it'd be a lot easier to lock up crazy Uncle Frank.  But not all ticking time bombs go off.  Hell MOST of these time bombs don't go off.  And therein lies the problem.

The family of the Boulder shooter, I am sure, would rather have had that shooter committed to some asylum 2 months ago and maybe getting good treatment, but definitely secure and in custodial care, than in jail now and prison hereafter.  Also secure.  But without the 10 innocent victims. 

Well THAT will replace the white whale in my nightmares

Dr. Heller inspects the skull of a victim of the 1806 Mycelium infections, an epidemic that decimated a village in the south of France.
The fungus grew into the bone, creating ossified structures that broke out of the skin to spread spores. pic.twitter.com/LyoLYUU3d7

— Eduardo Valdés-Hevia 🐛 (@Valdevia_Art) March 20, 2021

See?

Pressure mounting to end filibuster to get through gun control.

It was so long ago

I am trying to remember what guns I was interested in before Covid and Antifa riots and Gun Ban legislation made gun shopping challenging.

Let the first time buyers get ahead of me in line.  I have guns.

But there are still holes.  Still have gotten a DeLisle.  A suppressed rifle that shoots .45, preferably taking 1911 mags.

And I was close to getting an M&P Shield.  Single stack? (naw, staggerg stack), compact, 9mm.  Maryland friendly.  Replace the J-Frame in my year round carry regime.  I think Tam has an article coming out soon that will address my questions.  

Social media ads seem to think I need an Urban Carry G3 holster.  The small Shield would match with that.  But I don't know.... Master Ken seems to like the crotch protecting features.  Maybe stick with a more conventional holster.

Taxes are gonna go up

 And YOU are going to pay more.  A lot more.

"But T-Bolt, Biden said he is only going after the people making $400,000 or more."

Let me be very clear: If you make under $400,000 you won’t pay a penny more in taxes under my administration.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 16, 2020

That number has altered to 200k.

Biden tax hike could hit people earning $200K, White House clarifies https://t.co/YYzEqoDPJz pic.twitter.com/wW4Wj6aCPt

— New York Post (@nypost) March 17, 2021

But that doesn't matter.  It will be 50k soon enough.

Usually the anchor goes right through

Ask EB Misfit. She'll tell you.

Heh...

pic.twitter.com/xzgQEe9U3J

— ✯╾━╤デ╦︻ (@intlgunnut) March 19, 2021

He's not an Idiot

He just thinks all you rubes are.

No state requires you have a drivers license to buy a car. You have tweeted a fallacy. Withdraw your silly legislation.

— J T Bolt (@NewJovianTBolt) March 18, 2021

DC Industry

 This place hasn't always been a one-company town.  We used to do industry.  Well, for the gummint, yes, but still better than producing nothing but paper that tells other people what to do.

They turned the place that made torpedos across the river into an art center.

But there was more general industry in this ecosphere, including a woodworking tool manufacturer.

Other regions were further along with hard industries than this sleepy southern town, and all local ones would be eclipsed in economic market share by the exponential growth of the federal government during the FDR administration and the coming of WWII.  

"But the Navy still needs weapons systems T-Bolts?  Why is Navy Yard not the powerhouse it used to be the first half of the 20th Century"

Dunno.  Lotta money in weapons contracts in the cold war era.  Lotta political favors need to be bought out there.  Might be that lead to an industrial diaspora away from the mother ship.  And those machinists could move or just get office jobs, I guess.   

Dangit

 I was using information gleaned from lived examples in the misty past when my grandfather was but a tween and THIS guy uses something from Johns Hopkins two years ago.

In September 2019, Johns Hopkins in partnership with WHO published a detailed report on "high-impact respiratory pathogens" that is prophetic. For example, they warned NPI policies could be abused by overreaching governments for political/social purposes, not because of evidence. pic.twitter.com/DbC1WQjeQc

— Eric (@IAmTheActualET) March 16, 2021

Pandemic -100

The graph for infections and deaths in this pandemic is remarkable parallel to the one in 1918

First noticed in January, then initial surge, quieter summer, much bigger spike in the late Fall, then another regular size Spring.

Differences.  Back then public fear and gov't underreaction 100 years ago lead to shut downs.  We didn't have the same kind of war censorship today we had then.  Totally different kind of censorship now.  And different age cohorts were harder hit.  Not as many crowded draftee army bases, troop ships, and trenches nowadays.

Oh and there is more of a vaccine rollout now than then.  That'll make the comparative spring graphs diverge.  So watch Europe.  Worse vaccine rollout there, so it will look more like 1918 there.

But the graphs, no matter how an area reacted to the outbreak, the humps came when the humps came. Some crowds made for superspreader events, other indistinguishable crowds did not. Just a huge feeling of inexorable inevitiblity.

Pince nez

 And palimpsest.

I’ve seen those words, as printed words, most of my literate life.  But I have only heard them pronounced this week.  Not what I expected. One of those "I was today years old" things.

From a librivox recording.  A Sherlock Holmes story, The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez, and Kristin Hughes is a wonderful podcast narrator.   Very crisp and precise reading voice.

And taking joy in the language.  On today, an Irish holiday.  A nation with a plethora of people that also revel in the written word. 

But I use these, myself, for reading.  I thought I had them in a 0.5 diopters correction, but the lowest they sell now is 1.0.  Nooz.

I always liked Yaphet Kotto

RIP Yaphet Kotto pic.twitter.com/4OmmrqsETA

— The Tweet Sniper💥 (@IWashington) March 16, 2021

The Ammo Situation

Went to check online.  Ugh.  But you knew that.  The ammo situation is still dire. Low availability and 200% markups from 'normal' on what is actually in stock.  With the gun banning legislation bouncing around it won't get better until that is long over.  And that's me being optimistic.

Doesn't matter.  Gonna get an immunization shot tomorrow and be effectively immortal and invincible, by...  Sunday?  Certainly by 2 Sundays from now.  Then I will stride the earth like a titan, help get little cats out of high trees.  Stop by ammo factories and see if there is heavy stuff they need moved around for free. 

Maybe I'm Not Too Fat

(And I take a lot of my self defense online training from Master Ken, of course.)

I view Mr Correia's videos on youtubeyoutube, too.  He is a man of similar size and carriage as me.  But until this Master Ken video I didn't know he did appendix carry.  A lightbulb went off.  Maybe a guy as fat as me CAN appendix carry.  I'll have to get the blue gun and putter around the house, see how it feels.

I am in hell

Thoughts and Prayers for Schumer

 Vote?  Is he gonna suspend filibuster rules for the first time ever on gun control bills?

Or maybe he has 10 Republicans going along with his agenda.  I doubt one is Steve Scalise, not despite what happened, but because.

(ed:  I don't know why the link works sometimes but not others... Stupid Fox)

Man I love living in the future

 What is WRONG with some of you people.  And when I say 'you people'  I don't mean you people you people.  I just mean you people.  The 'tother way.

A Bucks County woman created ‘deepfake’ videos to harass rivals on her daughter’s cheerleading squad, DA says