As Droopy used to say, “Hello all you happy people!” SPO and I are happy. Not alert, though, after two concerts in a row, the second being at a venue which serves many, many, many mixed drinks. Being ecologically aware, we would not allow them to go to waste. And we didn’t.

So, that excuse explanation given for my lame-ass performance this morning, let’s see what’s in the news:

Apparently James Comey is also a white supremacist. The modern college campus is a marvelous thing to behold.

I am getting nightmares about the 2020 presidential election already. I’m old enough to remember 1988, where the important issue that dominated the debate was… flag burning. Which prevented discussion of anything actually important. For 2020, the debate is shaping up to be about football players’ posture. 

Allowing (not requiring) colleges to have due process as part of disciplinary hearings will apparently make life easier for STEVE SMITH. Clearly Betsy DeVos is in favor of rape. Time for outrage! The unexplained part is why accusations of criminal activity should be adjudicated by colleges rather than, oh, I dunno, courts?

I’m not quite sure what to make of this. Other than, if scientists can figure out the cloning thing from prehistoric DNA, I have a little list…

One evening in 1978, I was driving home when I heard something on the radio that caused me to pull over and listen. Music of a sort that I had never heard before (is it bluegrass? is it jazz?), played with what sounded like impossible skill. I sat there for 20 minutes waiting for the announcer to recap the song and band titles, and finally found out that it was a song called “EMD” by a group called The David Grisman Quintet. I rushed out to buy their eponymous album, then proceeded to wear it out. The stars were David Grisman, he of mandolin madness, and Tony Rice, who started with Clarence White’s skills (and guitar!), then took it to another level.

Anyway, here they are, many years later, playing as a duo. This killed two hours of my morning. I could not stop listening.