Monday 01 September 2025 11:15:45 PM CST





Monday 01 September 2025 11:19:02 PM CST

I've probably hit this one a time or three before. Much like the masterpiece Made in Japan by Ritchie's group at the time On Stage is one of those masterpieces. MIJ was recorded on pretty primitive equipment while On Stage just a handful of years later would have had a more sophisticated setup. While MIJ had to be produced pretty much as a set of live performances OS was the result of cherry-picked pieces from several sets in Germany and Japan so it was probably easier to get some good performances. An apocryphal story about MIJ is that Ritchie only played the opening of Smoke on the Water properly once the four recordings. He did things his way. Anyhow Martin Birch produced both MIJ and OS and his brilliance shows in both cases.

This was 1976/1977 (probably the shows were in '76 and the record produced later) so we got early Rainbow with Dio and about as good as it got, not that later iterations weren't as good and Ritchie Blackmore like a fine liquor improved with age. Anyway it was Dio and Tony Carey and Cozy Powell and it don't get much better. Jimmy Bain was on bass and sadly died rather young from an undiagnosed cancer.

I picked up the vinyl when it was released and did the usual transfer to high-dollar cassettes on high-dollar decks with high-dollar turntables and all. Since it was vinyl it was on two discs and a couple of the tracks occupied the entire side of one and the other two sides had only a couple of tracks. Opening with Kill the King - one of the best openers there is and doing a medley of Man on the Silver Mountain and some blues before finishing off with Starstruck we move on to Catch the Rainbow and Mistreated each taking a side. The final side opens with Sixteenth Century Greensleeves and finishing with Still I'm Sad. SIS is a Yardbirds song and Ritchie gives it what I call the Free Bird treatment with Tony laying down a keyboard odyssey that segues into a serious guitar finale. Nice thing about this is that the drum solo is omitted - probably because it would have added another eight minutes or so and wouldn't fit on a vinyl side. Almost all recordings I've hear have the drum solo included and I'm not that crazy about drum solos. I'll make an exception for Carl Palmer.

I mentioned it again because I ordered the remastered version on CD. Still like to crank it once in a while when I got the time - the opening is worth it and so is the ending but in the end I have to listen to the whole thing. It's that good.

Whiskey of the day just happens to be Beam Rye, something I don't see much. It looks a lot like the regular white label Beam and I don't see it a lot so I grabbed a handle at the county line store last week and finally got around to having some. Beam got about a half dozen or so fruit flavors and if... nevermind. I quit buying Charter and Ancient Age when they went to plastic bottles and I ain't drinking fruit flavored whiskey. Anyhow I grabbed a handle off the top and picked up a Ezra Brooks to go with it. Come to think of it I may stop drinking whiskey that don't have a handle on the big bottles. No excuse for that. Any more than plastic bottles.

Cigar of the day is still the 4x30 Swishers. The tubes come off more reliably lately and I don't have to cut the end off and pull it out. Not that I often smoke more than one a day if that many. Weird snack of the day is herring fillets from Dollar Tree. They're the Beach Cliff brand and are the sardines and such are available at regular grocery stores like Wal-Mart but the only place I see the herring is Dollar Tree. At a buck and a quarter they're not that expensive compared to sardines and if you're looking to shake up the Vienna Sausage and whatever else you eat when you feel like eating something strange they're not bad. Hafta be careful and check the country of origin as there a lot of stuff from China these days. I prefer mackerel to salmon but all I can find is canned in China these days and I ain't eatin' nothing from China.

Like the Vienna sausages I like to use one of those little cocktail forks. With the sausages I stick the fork in the middle one and turn it to get it loose and then fork out the others one by one. The empty containers are good for ashtrays or mixing small amounts of paint or stuff like that.

Classic book of the day is Joe Haldeman's Buying Time from 1989 or so. The deal here is that people at some time in the 21st century can extend their lives indefinitely while good physical condition by having their bodies reconstructed every ten years or so at a minimum cost of a million bucks but however much they have they have to pay it all so when they come out of the resto shop they're impoverished and got to get another million to pay for the next one. We find out it could last longer, maybe a hundred years but they rig you so something will fail in about ten years and if you don't have another million you're toast. Right after his tenth or so treatment our hero finds out and now the ruling cabal need for him to die right away. He goes on the run with an old girlfriend (she has also been renewed a few times) and tries to shut them down.

In this version of some time in the 21st Century the Moon and Mars and Venus and some asteroids have been colonized but travel isn't as smooth as in the movies. People with enough money have their own spaceships but using them can be risky. One funny thing people still carry bunches of cash around to pay for stuff even though modern payment technology exists so maybe in that scenario the governments haven't got it locked down.

Haldeman's stuff is pretty rough and a few people get killed including that paid to be semi-immortal. He's probably best known for the Forever War books and if he never wrote anything else that would have made him pretty famous and probably rich to boot. Kinda like American Pie was for its author.

Classic movie is the day is Dracula, A.D. 1972 from... about 1972. I probably mentioned some time or other that I was in the UK in the late 70s and 80s and this flick shows some of how London was then. Sadly those days are gone and may never return. There is hope for the U.S.A. but I suspect the UK and Europe have some bad times ahead. Chris and Peter as usual much better than the material and their class is not sullied but perhaps enhanced by it. Making a silk purse and all that. The very lovely Stephanie Beecham is very lovely whether in hippie garb or the white dress on the altar. The equally lovely Caroline Munro was also featured - briefly. Not sure if she lasted as long as she did in The Spy Who Loved Me.

DAD1972 was kind of a resurrection of Dracula in the modern age that only lasted for a couple of films. Not that The Satanic Rites of Dracula was all that bad - Hammer films were well made no matter how ridiculous some of it was. You could see that the deal was about over though. Reportedly it was getting a little old for Chris and he didn't do as much horror afterwards. He did to the second Howling movie and some other stuff. He shows up in the 1980 comedy Serial and a Chuck Norris flick the next year.

That dream. Again. Only recurring one, the others he couldn't remember.

Alex was used to it. He'd learned to recognize it, stop it. Sometimes. Wake up. Eventually.

Problem was, they didn't disappear right away. Wiring still tangled.

He lay still, eyes open but not yet seeing the real world, despite the light from the large window just beyond the foot of the bed.

It was going to take a while.

He could still see the cages in the other room. The room he'd been in before they moved him. The beds had had cages around them. The patients were tied to their beds. The way he was tied. Wire around wrists and ankles. Unable to move any extremity more than a couple of inches. He heard the screams from the other side of the wall.

He lay still, waiting for the hallucination to fade, to let reality take over.

At least it happened more quickly now, or at least it seemed to. Usually.

It seemed there was another bed beside his, but he knew there wasn't. There had been a body in the bed. But now it was empty. The bed that wasn't there no longer had the body that wasn't there.

FUCK!

"You OK?"

Jessica.

She hear me? Dumb question, of course she did.

The soft voice, just above a whisper. She always came in quietly, waited for him to wake before speaking. Waited until she was sure he was at least mostly back in the real world.

And until he could speak. Sometimes he'd start to talk, try to. Not making any sounds. Wait a minute, try it again. His nervous system was scrambled. Some days it seemed to be getting better, other days not so sure. Still kept his walker close, moving around was risky without something for support, furniture or walls close by. Better than the wheelchair though. Rather die than be stuck in that.


Human Harvest (2022)

How about some news? Left Memphis has had some problems lately. Municipal water type. Seems some system failures caused people not to have enough water and had to close the schools for a while. Reportedly multi pump failures but they got it fixed in a couple of days and the kids have to go back to school.

What, Chris?

I never wanted to go back after a snow day or whatever. But if you had to many you had to make it up at the end in May or whenever school was out for summer. Schools these days....

What?

Wasn't gonna say it. Actually I was. In other Left Memphis news the four cops that was alleged to have done something inappropriate have been fired. Haven't been able to find any details but some me-too types were saying sexual harassment. One of them was a female type though so who was she harassing? Kinda like a teacher did wrong with a student and they show the teacher but most times don't say which sex the student/victim was. Sometimes they do but not always or even often.

Since we're in the Memphis area a few items. I've observed that there are a lot of fake temporary tags in use. This bit says there's a bunch. Or was. Or may still be. Issue 18K citations but how many got paid? Do the plate reader cameras just spit out citations and they send'em out and the offender is supposed to pay up?

"We want to be able to issue the citation, and when that person goes to court, be able to submit proof to a judge that now I have registered my vehicle," Chief Davis said. "Some of these cases get dismissed. Some get dismissed without any fines. The car ends right back out there on the street."

WREG.com
Oftentimes, these tags are placed on stolen vehicles and used in crimes to evade law enforcement. MPD didn't know how many of the e-tickets were connected to stolen cars, but told council members they'd work to crunch those numbers.

WREG.com
Okey-dokey. They gonna work on it.

Not many Dodge Charger stories lately so here's one. This was the feds but the police chief assures that MPD was involved. Working with their federal partners, donchaknow? No, more like the feds say we're coming in the get these malefactors and if you want to come along that's good. And the locals send some guys so the police chief and maybe the mayor can to a press conference and tell how good they done.

Finally the dude that kilt several citizens three years ago is going away for a long time. Three life terms figure he may be an old man when he gets out, like Red in Shawshank. Or in a few years some when the victims are long forgotten somebody will take up the cause of this poor oppressed victim and find all the ways his civil rights were violated and he ends up getting sprung after just a short time. Why else write this shit?

"There were several extreme losses he went through that summer. He was virtually homeless. He was, a lot of things going on, with him mental health wise, along with, significant drug abuse at the time. And before this all happened, he'd been up for 3 or 4 days," Scholl said.

Acquaintances who knew Kelly as a youth said he was a victim of poverty, which led him down a spiraling path of trouble.

WREG.com

The little punk livestreamed his killing spree. One of the things about dumbing down technology - Ja'Kiel can't read or write but he can burn a key fob or install a Glock switch or livestream a handful of murders.

MAGAHurtz@MyndCryme



Who the... shut up Chris... who's paying attention to anything Covid these days? If I hear about the Plandemic perps being arrested and going to prison I'll pay attention to that. ~~ The Marshall Project is about how bad Whitey is. Ostensibly it's about justice or the injustice of people being punished for crimes Here they just say immigrants to presumably deporting illegal aliens (they refer to them as immigrants - so the guy that busts into my house to steal stuff and maybe kill me is a visitor - got it. ~~ Why isn't the economy crashing because tariffs? The devil is in the details - President Trump did what lefties like to call 'leveling the playing field' by making some of the big tariffs go away and imposing some small ones and making some good deals. ~~ If a construction project is no longer on budget because the cheap illegals got deported what does that suggest? ~~ Are 1 in 1,000 year floods becoming more common? If we have another big one like the one in Texas (that was a 100-year statistically) in the next ten years may be or maybe not. If we have three in ten years it would be pretty not normal. ~~ The "famine" in Gaza was faked and they were caught in the act. The terrorists that control the place to deprive people of the food that is being shipped in but there is no lack of food. The people are being starved by the masters they tolerate. ~~ The BLS has been faking (and mostly guessing) for years. Make Dims look good and Republicans look bad. Reliable stats are available from other sources but the government likes to make up their own. ~~ We're all gonna die from heat. So it's back to global warming again? Or global heating. ~~ I would say that with the defanged EPA there will be less confusion without the EPA making up new rules all the time just because.

What, Chris?

Beats me. If everybody is playing on the same field why does it matter if it's level or not? These people don't bother to figure on whether what they say makes any sense, just if if it sounds clever. That one never did to me. Like most of them.



As I say there should be something realistic about it. President Trump isn't sending Bat-Signals for anything. He took over the cesspool that is the nation's capitol and pretty much shut down crime in a couple of days. The ones that haven't been arrested are hiding. And that's what really burns these clowns. Not that reality ever intrudes much into their thinking beyond making them face the facts.

A guy what got arrested for CSAM possession (I began my career working with computers of the IBM type and ISAM and VSAM which were file storage/access methods and whenever I see CSAM I figure they should find another term. I believe I related that earlier, probably when some person got arrested for CSAM possession. Might have been this dude. Whatever the case he dead now and it seems that the authorities are thinking that five or so other inmates made him dead. Now looking at the names of the accused and a pic of the dead guy I have some suspicions. Wouldn't be the first time something like that happened.

Swing by Wynne for just a minute. Railroad running through town (east-west) about the time it gets near the east edge the elevation change has the crossing real high . Like you're driving up and you can't see anything ahead except the street because it's so steep. It's scary for me in a car or even a pickup and I avoid it. Apparently some truck drives aren't (that they're doing there Idunno, it's a residential district) and having problems. I wouldn't tackle it in a truck because I just might get hung up and a train come by.

Some years ago they had a derailment just past there, place smelled like some awful chemical stuff for months. Supposedly some chemicals used by Kodak or something like that but it was a good while ago. Thirty-forty years or so. Anyhow the city trying to get them to stop so this

And sometimes weird stuff happens and I can't resist. Like rubbernecking at an accident. Why they say that anyway? Same radio bimboes say they "tracking weather stuff" say about traffic that people rubbernecking is causing delays. How the fuck does she know? Maybe traffic moving real slow because the cops directing traffic is keep it slow. And the fact is most people don't look much except straight ahead at the guy directing traffic.

What, Chris?

They are bimbos, every one one of them. One more thing what makes me happy radio and TV will soon be gone. The market now is for people that actually know stuff and how to do stuff and the bimbos that get fancy hairdos and makeup and read teleprompters have no future.

Jonestown opinion page has the usual, besides the dumb cartoons. Did President Trump get rolled in Alaska? The butthurt in the enemy camp is epic. President Trump said come and the Euro/NATO bosses came. They came to get the best deal they could for the Ukrainian boss but all they did was say nice things about President Trump. Now it ain't over and Putin is gonna be a tough one but given President Trump's track record (and I'm considering some omenology here) it will likely be resolved favorably before long.

Constant attempts to reinvent a democracy that does not exist continue in the minds of the malcontents. Speaking of butthurt and delusions of a democracy. It seems that the Republic may be on its way a serious recovery. And the best way to deal with people incapable of caring for themselves at the most minimal level should be institutionalized. I am aware that institutions can be evil and that would need to be addressed but these people don't need to be on the streets.

Jessica sensed it. He didn't know if he'd have made it, if she hadn't been there, wanting it as much as he did. More probably.

Actually he did know.

The silky sleeve of her robe brushed his forehead as she leaned over, placed a hand there.

"No fever. How do you feel?"

Full vision now. Almost anyway.

How do I feel? Good question. Let me finish waking up.

Try to speak.

OK, looks like it's going to work.

"All right, I guess. Dreams won't stop."

"They seem less frequent. At least not every night like it was. Let me get you some coffee."

"No. I'd spill it. Need to get up anyway."

"OK, let me help you."

She moved the walker over beside the bed, stood on the other side holding it steady as he sat up, leaned over to hold on to it. Got his legs under him. Still shaky, especially early. He pulled himself up, standing inside the frame, holding tightly.

"Got it?"

"Yeah, I think so. Let's see."

Jessica moved back slightly, let go.

"Go ahead, I'll follow you."

He maneuvered the contraption to the door, out into the hall. After the first few steps he was usually all right, but he still felt weak. Shaky. Rubbery legs. Had to get started working out. Somehow.

Work out? Who the fuck am I kidding?


Human Harvest (2022)


We occasionally - we don't care enough to often - discuss whether propagandist cartoonists are really oblivious to facts or just ignore them. I suspect a lot of ignorance as I've known a few of the type and they seem convinced of the truth of what they say. Whatever... for President Trump to get Putin to even talk is a major accomplishment. Russia is almost immune to sanctions as almost every possible sanction has been enacted with no effect. Possibly the threat to Russian oil sales brought him around or maybe Putin is ready to get out of it and Trump offers a reasonably painless way out. In any case Putin came to Alaska. Not DC, not Mar-a-Lago, Alaska. The Alaska that once belonged to Russia and was sold cheaply when Russia was in a bad way. Whatever else he is Putin is intelligent and knows his history and wouldn't have missed the dig. The B-2/F-35 flyover was a nice touch. At any rate Trump is large and in charge and while I doubt that the cartoonists really get it yet - all they know is that they are losing bigly - howevermuch of they do get is fun to contemplate.

Idunno about the cultural center thing. Someone said they didn't believe that "the African American community was targeted in the decision" which means they do. I know the Allen Park is a bigass place over on Race Streed where they took about a thirty-forty acre field and made a huge recreational center of some kind. Race Street - that end of it anyway - was already going downhill when I lived over there thirty years ago and now I avoid even driving through there.

Some dude looking at ten centuries in prison for something that seems more common than I would like. I guess there is more enforcement these days what with the law doing trawling operations. I don't know how widespread it is but it seems worse lately. If I were so inclined - and that's about as sick as sick gets - I would worry as much about the shame of being exposed as going to prison. Almost. A friend has an idea about the intelligence of such:

If I didn't want something found I sure wouldn't keep it on my phone. Who is so obsessed with that stuff that they have to carry it around with them? I don't do illegal stuff but something I want completely private is on an encrypted USB stick and never gets copied to the host computer. I have a computer with no disk drive and always boot from a USB - if the computer gets confiscated it won't have anything on it. If I were doing something illegal and/or something I would be extremely embarrassed about I'd be even more careful.

Alex@MyndCryme
I suspect that people like that are so far gone mentally and morally that they just don't think. It may be like alcohol and drugs, you get addicted and obsessed and maybe there isn't anything else in your life that makes you happy. I've never known one - at least never knew that anyone I knew was like that - so dunno how they are to be around. Statistically I suppose I do know someone who has a dark secret like that but hope never to find out that I do.


Dark days for some folks maybe. Just noticed that another lawfare attack on President Trump has gone down. Speaking of dark days a fat dark woman may be having some. If they can try the case in Virginia or even outside NYC she may well be convicted. I suspect that if that looks likely she'll try to cop a plea but I would be disappointed if it doesn't include some prison time. A week would do if that sick cretin had to go through prison in-processing. ~~ My pants always fit right. Wranglers 34 x 34 is easy to remember. ~~ If you don't know that Tea is quit while you're well off. The "male rage" was more like male ridicule. ~~ And then there's the resentment of white men. ~~ I suppose it's better to stack them in some place like nuclear waste so you know where all the toxic stuff is. ~~ DOGE still going? Good. It didn't have the effect we hoped for but attrition continues to nibble away at government waste. ~~ Some people don't like Laura, including some on the 'right'. Overall she probably does more good than bad. ~~ The first graders are safer now. ~~ I don't want a Covid vaccine. I may check into selling some of my pure blood.

Jessica had already dialed the emergency number.

Alex had slumped in a chair, about to slide to the floor. Jessica caught him. Alysin stepped out into the hall.

"Watch for an ambulance!" she shouted to anyone in range. "Jessica's office!"

Within seconds people were emerging from doorways, looking her way.

"Help me get him on the floor," Jessica said.

"Who can do CPR?"

"Got it," Jessica said

She had actually worked for as a nurse a couple of years after getting her RN license.

One of the reasons she quit. Couldn't take seeing people die. Selfish? Maybe, but I just couldn't take it after...

"He's got a pulse," she said. "Breathing OK, maybe a little weak. He may be having a heart attack."

The ambulance would be coming from Arkansas Methodist over on 412.

We're out here almost to Missouri. Damn city council. Methodist ambulance has to be called first. They'll fool around for a while if they don't have a unit. Don't want to call one of the other companies if they can avoid it. Council just voted again couple of months ago to leave it that way. All about the money. Everyone knew it, they knew people knew. Didn't care. Every year, someone, several someones usually, tries go get them to put the hospital on rotation with the other ambulance operators. There were at least two locals with several ambulances. Same results. Someone's gonna die one day, because of your greed. Please don't let it be Alex. Please.

And if the ambulance was sitting there on ready. She did the math. Drove to work part of that route. Ambulance a good twenty minutes away, if we're lucky.

"Alex. Can you hear me?"

She placed her fingertips on his carotid again. Seems normal. Breathing. Shallow? Hard to say. She knew he worked out, not a fanatic, but in good shape. She knew he did a hundred pushups every morning, first thing, on the floor beside the bed. Again later in the day if time allowed. Walking a couple of miles most days. Working around his hobby farm out north of town all weekend. Sixty four or not, he was in better shape than people ten, twenty years older.

Just passed out. Hadn't been time to ask about pain. Might be flu again. Where's that damned ambulance?

Then the EMTs were in the hall, Alex going onto the gurney and out the door. They work fast once they get here. Problem is getting them here.

She grabbed her purse. Phone. It was too late to catch them and ride in the ambulance. Better anyway, he's in as good hands as he's going to be in. She hoped.

"Thanks," she said to Alysin. "Seeya."


Human Harvest (2022)

"We all remember that teacher that made a difference." Thus begins a spot running on all the Iheart streams. Mostly talk radio in my case, or vast right-wing conspiracy radio for some. Used to be Rush Limbaugh (now Clay and Buck) and Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck and Mark Levin. Still they run this crap in the commercial breaks. This isn't the worst but who had a teacher that made some massive difference in their life? How do you know what your life would have been otherwise? Kids are easily impressed and maybe for some there man be something that some teacher did that drastically altered the course of their life. Or maybe they just remember it that way.

MAGAHurtz@MyndCryme
I suppose if I had had a teacher that stopped the other kids for picking on the autistic (but intelligent enough not to be in special needs) kid or the socially upper-class kids from doing it once were in junior high and high school (because my family wasn't rich but I was the smartest one in the class) but none did. Maybe the commie from Chicago made some difference - he laid on the black power revolution a little early and it alarmed some of us - or the female teacher that palled around with the society gals and made the senior year kind of miserable (and had parties at here place and drank and smoked dope and screwed some of them - both sexes - or the history teachers that went on and on about social (racial) justice - and hired black kids for peanuts to work on her big estate on Hamilton (THE street from way back and still was in the 1970s) or the history/government teacher that was pretty intelligent (not super smart) and was in tears the night Ronald Reagan won his second election. Nah, none of them inspired me (except in how NOT to behave) and teachers were pretty much the cliche - those who can do and those who can't teach. So I guess I don't remember that teacher.

I wasn't the smartest kid in the class. There was this one guy that had a higher IQ but suffered the effects of it and didn't socially integrate even as well as I did. He got a degree in physics but went to work for a military simulations game company in NYC and had a pretty good career. I had a pretty good one too money-wise and that's the main thing. At least when you retire you're glad you made a lot of money.

I ordered the Kubota 1880s at 11K each. They sticker at 12K and I bought one to mow with a while back and we got to an agreement pretty quick. For some reason they don't offer the R4 tires off the shelf but the dealer found a way to make the swap. My best girl and I will be driving them all over the place and I already picked up a nail in the one I use for mowing when I drove over to my new next door neighbor (a family member of course) who is building a house. Should be here in a week or less.

OK, the Memphis rapper deal. Back in 2021 so it's near four years a Memphis rapper got capped in Memphis. Shot a bunch of times in a bakery in Memphis. Like Mafia guys getting gunned down on restaurants maybe but Mafia dudes had more class than rappers and that's saying something. Without welfare there wouldn't be as many rappers and for sure not as many rich ones. Taxpayers pay for the women to produce the hordes of consumers and welfare pays for them and they make the rappers rich. One more reason....

What, Chris?

Yeah, whatever. Truth hurts. So the dude got famous and made a lot of money and Wickedpedia sez he was a record executive. That works about like some actor/actress who was in enough successful films to get rich is also a producer and/or director. Pay people to make films and put you on the credits as director or whatever. I can spin up an LLC and make myself CEO for less than a hundred bucks. Done it plenty of times. Another twenty gets me business cards with me as CEO. As I said he got capped in Memphis and they been having trials for the alleged killers. The supposed mastermind got acquitted and some people ain't happy. In other news my best girl just called and said you about Mexican for dinner. I'd been thinking about pizza but OK, es bueno. I know the Mexican joint she's thinking of and that's bueno too. IOW IDFC. Does anyone actually think this stuff is important? Including the consumers? I doubt it.


Actually I doubt President Trump has ever given a second of thought to the peace prize unless a reporter asked him about it. He's been too busy making peace and in any case if Ovomit and the bloody-handed terrorist Arafat got it why would he want it? He seems more concerned about the people being killed than anything else. Sadly it may take a revolution in Ukraine (reversing the one that put Zelenskyy in power) to have a solution. Whatever the case President Trump seems to be moving on and if at some point the belligerents want to do a deal they can let him know. The cartoonist is as usual behind. Speaking of moving on there has been some talk of urban crime cleanup possibly happening in Memphis. That could be interesting. Sure governor could call in the National Guard and probably should already done so but the state government agonized for months - years really - over taking over the schools. Put National Guard and state police on the streets and those "faith leaders" will really go nuts. How dare the state stop the wholesale murder?

Going to need surgery. Ambulance on the way, take him to Jonesboro.

Follow the ambulance to Jonesboro. Fifteen minutes down 49, good new four-lane.

Fifteen minutes to the nearest hospital. Ambulance passed it, going downtown.

Dammit! What are they doing?

Another ten minutes or more, off 49, downtown streets. Midday traffic.

Find a parking place. Where? Anywhere. Lucky it's not a big city. Pay to park, multi-level garages. Just find a place.

She looked up at the hospital, two blocks away. Where did the ambulance go?

She ran, glad she didn't have to dress up for work. Jeans and sneakers. Didn't even put her jacket on before leaving. Not cold now.

Couple of nurses coming out the door.

"Where's the emergency room?"

"On the other side."

She tried the door. Locked.

"You can't go in that way," one of them said. "You have to use the front entrance."

Sign on door. Covid-19. All visitors must use main entrance on Jackson Avenue.

Running again. Rounding the corner. Don't see a street sign. That looks like the entrance.

Run some more. That's not the...

Ahead on a tunnel entrance. Big red letters. EMERGENCY. Run some more.

Why did they come here?


Human Harvest (2022)

The youngest black mayor in the country seems to have some problems with the city council getting bills paid. Not real clear on why of as to whether or not the councilors know what they doing. I'll check back later and see if the lights are still on or the garbage truck(s) are running.

According to the mayor, the bills he claims were tabled were for gas for city vehicles such as fire trucks, garbage trucks, and boom trucks.

"Gas are in those bills that's being paid. Diesel is in those bills, and it impacts police services, the garbage truck services that are essential to the residents of this community," said Mayor Smith.

Mayor Smith said operations will stop once the current supply of diesel and gasoline in city vehicles is exhausted.

WREG.com
But that was before the city burnt down. Most of what was left of it anyway. It may be just me but a near dead and continuing in decline town burns down... well that's assuming the stuff was insured. But then the mayor sez:
"It's a big blow for the community," Earle Mayor Jaylen Smith said. "Now what our administration has to do is go back to the drawing board and re-create downtown Earle, and where the main strip is. We did have a plan - we're working with the chamber in Memphis to actually put a plan in place to revitalize and revamp our downtown area."

WREG.com
'scuse me?
"We're working actually now toward ANRCD to get these funds secured so that we can start actually fixing that and putting that problem behind us," he said. "This administration has always been committed to the community about transformation and building a better chapter of this city." ... Earle Mayor Jaylen Smith says, they've been working with Memphis on revitalizing their downtown.

WREG.com
Memphis can't afford to fix its own downtown. Or get the inhabitants to stop killing each other. Or have tens of thousands of cars running around with Xeroxed plates. Look, Earle is gonna be dead wether in ten years or twenty, same as Parkin. Smaller towns like Hickory Ridge can survive and even grow a bit because of their location and population and Earle and Parkin die for the same reasons. I feel bad for people trapped there but I feel worse about paying taxes to keep them alive a little longer. The state should at some point decertify them and have the sheriff department provide law enforcement. But as long as there's a handful of people there making a living off the town (city employees) they won't give it up.


Memphis is just a 100x bigger version of Earle or other such cities. We still got 3.5 years or so of an administration that does not suffer fools gladly or even grudgingly. Federal money to keep these places in business (what the young mayor of Earle seems to be envisioning) likely will not be forthcoming.

Between Chinese sex trafficking in Jonestown and Indian (that's Indian Indian) types running scams in Imboden.... Imboden? Imboden is a wide spot on 412 (and once had the youngest mayor (any color) in the USA) and what these guys were doing operating there I have no idea. Besides whatever they were doing to get money. There was a Chinese national involved with the Indian Indians. I'm guessing that the kind of money these folks have access to they probably bonded out pretty quick so I won't bother to check the jail inventory.

Couple of late weird ones. I guess multi-weapon could be a good strategy . Musashi approved of a two-blade techique and reportedly kilt people with a quarterstaff and another with a modded boat oar but apparently didn't use carpentry tools. Chasing someone in a Wal-Mart with a crowbar and knife could get weird fast. I don't know that this part of Nashville is like but if it has a McDonalds it probably has a fair amount of peoples around. Reading this it seems this body might have been there a while for it to be decomposing and the head autotomized. Nashville does have more bad area than it did 20-30 years ago when I used to get over there pretty regular. Commie mayor and all.

Few editorials in the Jonestown paper. Migration of normal people from blue states to red states has been going on for a while. It cost California and New York last time around and you can expect more of same next time. Even bigger is deportations - with over a million gone voluntarily and maybe half that many more by yearend and 770K or so per congressional seat they may be in even bigger trouble. The re-gerrymandering attempts are unlikely to help and could backfire. They've squeezed out about all there is. ~~ School freedom in Arkansas is still under attack as it is everywhere. Even if some parts can be undone the undoable damage of school choice can not be reversed. ~~ Dunno if it took a while to notice or what. The deal is that a dollar is no longer useful for much. Once that line was crossed - Dollar Tree low end went to 1.25 and some to 1.50 and they started bringing in 2,3,4 and 5.00 stuff. At least it should be a while before there's no longer any $2.00 stuff. For what it's worth I was behind a woman at the checkout with a load of stuff and she said "Every time I come in here I tell myself I'm going to spend less than a hundred dollars." Moved to another line so don't know how that turned out.