Dave Garrett

I have a Carl Reiner story that I hold very dear to me

We have a mixture of disposable, single-use masks and reusable cloth ones. We wash the cloth ones after every use and discard the single-use ones. I tend to prefer the cloth ones.

I haven't had any packages go missing lately (yet), but I am seeing lots of inaccurate or outdated tracking information more often than was previously the case. Had one package delivered a couple of weeks ago, but the tracking info is still indicating "awaiting delivery scan". OK, they forgot to scan it before dropping it off, but I have it, so no problem. Another one just showed up today, shipped via FedEx SmartPost, and both the FedEx and the USPS tracking numbers still show that they're awaiting receipt of the package after the label has been created. I'd just about given up on that one and was surprised to see it on the porch this morning. The one that really had me pissed off was a UPS SurePost package I was expecting earlier this week. The day it was supposed to be here, the USPS tracking number showed they were awaiting receipt of the package from UPS, but when I checked the UPS tracking number, it showed that it had been delivered less than an hour previously, signed for by someone at "front desk". There's no front desk at my residence, so I called UPS. After a painful journey through their phone menu, I finally got a live person on the phone who said that yes, it appeared that the package had been delivered, but if I didn't have it, it must have been misrouted to the wrong address and I would have to file a claim to initiate an investigation. The next day, USPS delivered it, so the UPS "delivery" was clearly to the post office, something I'd suggested to the UPS rep, but she insisted that it was not. All things considered, I suppose I'd rather have shitty tracking info and packages eventually showing up, as opposed to accurate tracking info and packages getting routed all over Hell's half acre or getting lost.

Ulysses - listen to the epic RTÉ dramatisation

Thanks for the link, an interesting review. I think this quote from it sums up the point I was trying to make: "Hofstadter definitely does not see anti-intellectualism as the corrupting serpent in the American Eden. Instead, as he demonstrates, it has been deeply ingrained in the national culture from the very beginning." I don't think his concept of intellectualism as nuanced and ever-conflicted is necessarily at odds with the concepts I was responding to, but like you, it's been many years since I read it, and you know the old saying about memory being the first thing to go...

Still just as relevant today as it was in 1963:

That, I can't say, as I didn't get a good look at it (it was after dark and I only saw it from a distance). But now that I know what the deal is, I'm definitely on the lookout for more representatives of the Penske-yellow, crypto-UPS package delivery revolution.

No, the Katy Trail State Park's in Missouri. The trail near me is on the Texas end of the line.

We were out walking around our neighborhood last night and I saw a Penske truck parked in front of a house with its flashers on and rollup door open. I wondered if someone at that address was moving in or out, but my wife said no, look, he's delivering a package. I was like, wtf, is Penske in the package delivery business now, but now the mystery's solved.

There is an abandoned M-K-T rail line near where I live that cuts right through the heart of the neighborhood that grew up around it. At some point within the last 15-20 years it was converted into a hike and bike trail. We walk our dog along it frequently, and whenever we do so I always think back to its origins and imagine trains running on it back in the day.

Glad you like it! There are a lot of surf music compilations out there but it's hard to go wrong with this one.

Not so sure about that. On one of the neighborhood message boards, there are always a lot of complaints about mail service. Someone who went to the local post office and talked to the guy in charge there said he was told that the USPS is struggling nationwide even more than usual because they have thousands of postal workers who've been quarantined for exposure to Covid, so they're shorthanded in many locales and having to send workers from other locales to fill in for those who are out. Anecdotally, it wasn't unusual to see temp carriers on our street whenever the regular carrier was on vacation, but it does seem like we've had a lot more temps since the start of the pandemic.

They're actually using silverware? Around here many/most of the restaurants that have reopened have switched to sealed, disposable plasticware. Many have also removed plastic drink cups and ceramic coffee mugs and are instead providing single-use paper cups.

On Fire: This blazing Van Halen club show is their earliest known live recording

I think the versions streaming on Amazon Prime are old, PD versions, not the new restoration. At least, that's what appears to be the case from an admittedly cursory search I just did there. IIRC the restoration was based on a 35mm release print, none of which had been previously thought to survive. The PD versions are sourced from dupey 16mm prints.