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It Happened to Me Tampa Bay

Today at Bearss Groves

Photo: Pumpkin stands at Bearss Groves

If you’re in Tampa and looking for pumpkins, our regular fruit/vegetable place, Bearss Groves, has plenty in stock! I got three “sugar pie” pumpkins for $10, and they’ll end up as part of dinner (mashed like potatoes, they make a great side dish). They’ve got plenty for carving or decorating as well.

Photo: Pumpkin stands at Bearss Groves

I was there this morning, and their garden-grown squash selection was great! They had yellow and green zucchini…

Photo: Yellow zucchini at Bearss Groves

Photo: Green zucchini at Bearss Groves

…yellow squash…

Photo: Yellow squash at Bearss Groves

…8-ball zucchini, which you can stuff with all kinds of things

Photo: 8-ball zucchini at Bearss Groves

…and patty-pan squash (I got a couple pounds of these).

Photo: Patty-pan squash at Bearss Groves

Categories
Accordion, Instrument of the Gods The Current Situation

Tucker Carlson: “The dog ate my October Surprise!”

Photo: Tucker Carlson claiming “Damning Hunter documents suddenly vanish”.”

Tucker Carlson, spoiled frozen-food heir pretending to be a journalist, claims that a shipment of “damning” documents linked to Hunter and Joe Biden “mysteriously disappeared” in transit to Los Angeles.

Here’s the story, from Fox News themselves:

“We texted a producer in New York and asked him to send those documents to us in L.A, ” Carlson explained. “And he did that, so Monday afternoon of this week, he shipped the documents overnight to California with a large national carrier, a brand-name company that we’ve used, you’ve used, countless times with never a single problem.”

But the documents never arrived in Los Angeles, Carlson said.

“Tuesday morning we received word from the shipping company that our package had been opened and the contents were missing. The documents had disappeared.”

It’s strange that they wouldn’t have simply sent someone to personally take the  documents with them and book a flight to Los Angeles, as one might do when one has the budget and is transporting incredibly sensitive (but not restricted) items.

There’s also the safeguard of scanning or at least photographing the documents first. And hey, we live in a time and place where everyone has a high-resolution camera/scanner/video recorder in their pocket!

And finally, there’s the receipt and tracking number. Assuming of course, the shipment existed.

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Geek Music

Go to sleep Baby Yoda

Photo: “Go to sleep Baby Yoda” — “The Child” in the Mandalorian’s cockpit.

Go to sleep Baby Yoda, a fan-clip video put together by Auralnauts last December, takes video from The Mandalorian and adds all-new dialog to create something that probably happens but we’ll never see: The Mandalorian trying to get The Child to go to bed, first with a little playtime, then some TV, and finally, a lullabye!

If you haven’t seen it yet, watch it now:

Categories
America Music The Current Situation

Nine Inch Nails backs Biden!

Tweet by Nine Inch Nails: Warning: two political posts to follow. We are gravely concerned about the future of our country (and the world) and therefore will be voting for and supporting Joe Biden and Democrats down the ticket.
Tap to view the original tweet.

Sure, you’ve heard that Reagan’s FBI director and 19 other former GOP-appointed US attorneys are backing Biden, but if you’re still undecided, this might clinch it: Nine Inch Nails have endorsed Biden.

So now you have it from NIN themselves. Vote Biden, because it’s time for Trump to bow down before the ones he’s supposed to serve.

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The Current Situation

The ending to the game “Omaha Trail”

Graphic: Old-school “Oregon Trail” covered wagon graphic with the text “You have died of hypothermia walking back to your car after a Trump rally”.

In this new game, you don’t get the message “You have died of dysentery”. Instead, it’s “You have died of hypothermia walking back to your car after a Trump rally.”

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The Current Situation

Omaha rally turns into perfect metaphor for 4 more years of Trump

Photo: Jack from “The Shining”, frozen, wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap.

The end of last night’s Trump rally in Omaha couldn’t be a more perfect metaphor for 4 more years of Trump: Being left freezing in the dark, with no way to get out, and help being a long time coming.

After the rally ended, attendees were stuck, as there appeared to be no buses to get them back to the parking lots, located about 4 miles away:

Tweets from the scene

With temperatures at freezing and people unable to get their cars, Omaha Police, who aren’t in the transport business, were stuck with the job of sorting things out.

And their hands were full. Here are some tweets from Omaha Scanner, a Twitter account that’s getting way more readers than usual this morning:

News reports

Photo: Cold crowd after Omaha rally
Photo by Anna Reed, Omaha World-Herald. Tap to see the source.

From the Omaha World-Herald piece, Hundreds of people waited hours in the cold for buses after Trump rally in Omaha:

Hundreds of people who attended President Donald Trump’s rally Tuesday evening at Eppley Airfield spent up to three hours in freezing temperatures waiting for buses to take them back to their cars.

Several people who were waiting required medical attention, based on reporting at the scene and local emergency scanner traffic.

Omaha Scanner, a Twitter account that monitors emergency scanner traffic, said seven people were taken to the hospital, but later tweeted that officials would have the exact count Wednesday.

The president, who spoke for nearly an hour, wrapped up shortly before 9 p.m. Some people in his audience waited until after midnight for campaign buses to take them to their cars, which were parked miles away.

Walking out of the rally, The World-Herald saw two people receive help from Omaha police — an elderly woman who was warming up in the back of a police cruiser and a boy to whom an officer lent a blanket.

The Washington Post reports in their piece, Hundreds of Trump supporters stuck in the cold for hours when buses can’t reach Omaha rally:

By the time President Trump finished speaking to thousands of supporters at Omaha’s Eppley Airfield on Tuesday night and jetted away on Air Force One, the temperature had plunged to nearly freezing.

But as long lines of MAGA-clad attendees queued up for buses to take them to distant parking lots, it quickly became clear something was wrong.

The buses, the huge crowd soon learned, couldn’t navigate the jammed airport roads. For hours, attendees — including many elderly Trump supporters — stood in the cold, as police scrambled to help those most at-risk get to warmth.

At least seven people were taken to hospitals, according to Omaha Scanner, which monitors official radio traffic. Police and fire authorities didn’t immediately return messages from The Washington Post early Wednesday and declined to provide reporters on the scene with precise numbers of how many needed treatment.

Here’s a segment from MSNBC’s Morning Joe on what happened:

Stuck in the cold. Waiting in the dark for help that might not come. Victimized by bad planning. Other having to clean up the mess.

It’s the perfect metaphor for 4 more years of Trump.

Categories
The Current Situation

It’s not October 27, 2020. It’s March 27, 2020 all over again.

It’s March 27, 2020 all over again.

March 27 was only seven months ago. With everything that’s happened since then, there are times when it feels more like seven years ago. With everything that’s stayed the same — at least here in the U.S. — it might as well have been seven seconds ago. It’s not October 27, 2020. It’s March 27, 2020 all over again.

About ten days before March 27th, the US’ coronavirus progression was ten days behind Italy’s. That’s when this video featuring Italians talking to themselves ten days in the past came out:

Here are some headlines from March 27:

As far as I’m concerned, it’s not October 27, 2020. It’s March 27, 2020 all over again.

We’re on our own, and we’re all in this together.

Because it’s March 27, 2020 all over again, it means that we’re simultaneously on our own, and all in this together. It means that bringing things back to normal is up to us. We’re not getting any help from what sadly and hilariously passes for government here.

It means that it’s up to us — as individuals, and as members of families and communities — to manage the current situation and help bring about a better one. It means taking simple but very necessary steps in order to make that happen.

If you’re eligible, and you haven’t done so already, vote. Want to make things better? Vote Trump out. Have a voting plan.

There will be fools and idiots who will buy into conspiracy theories, mistake inconvenience for oppression, and ignore science and medicine. Don’t join them.

We’re seeing record numbers of COVID-19 cases. We’re moving into flu season, which may create what some people are calling a “twindemic”. We might see election-related unrest.

There may be a run on supplies. There might be a need to shelter in place from viruses, violence, or both. You should take some time this week to make sure that you’re fully stocked on what you need, whether it’s food, medicines, and other supplies.

We’re more than half a year into a plague, and you might be suffering from “hygiene fatigue”. Don’t let up. Wash your hands. Wash your reusable masks.

It’s harder to keep your life in order when your environment’s a mess. Clean up.

In uncertain, unpredictable times, a routine can be a rock that you can rely on to help you manage. If you’ve been maintaining a routine already, keep it up! If you haven’t, start!

The twin terrors of stress and boredom can cause you to seek out “retail therapy”. The effect is short-lived, and right now, you should be saving. Cut spending wherever you can.

Get outside and keep your body in fighting shape. You’re going to need it.

It’s all too easy to not know the people in your immediate area, and we’re all the worse for it. Individual neighbors are a help, and when organized, they can do amazing things. Even though we have to stay distanced, find a way to get to know your neighbors.

There’s enough that’s gone wrong all around us. The last thing you want is more things gone wrong at home. Make an attempt to fix something at home that you’ve “learned to live with”. It’ll be good practice for fixing some bigger things.

Connect. Stay in touch with friends and family. Re-establish communications if you’ve let them slide. Also make new connections. If you have the inclination, connect with the intent to organize to help bring about better times.

It’s March 27, 2020 all over again. Maybe we can get it right this time.