Tough crowd

Hey, it’s Monday. Slow start today.

The knives are out in the Sheehan family. There’s a lot of money in beer distribution.

I read the now famous Twitter thread over the weekend where John Roderick, now always to be known as bean dad, described his can opener life lesson. It was funny and stupid. But the Internet seems to be un an uproar over it and he’s deleted his Twitter account. I must be missing something.

Gerry and the Pacemakers were the first real famous rock band out of Liverpool, although not the last. Gerry Marsden has died at 78. Paul McCartney weighed in on the loss.

Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, wonders why no one is in charge of the US vaccination effort. In Israel, by contrast, vaccinations are going fast and furious.

And, Cam Newton has crossed the bridge and the Patriots season is over.

Food for thought

Good morning. It’s Sunday. It’s a Wonderful Life is 76 years old today.

So, who gets the vaccine first? That’s easy. Politicians.

The president is attacking the media for indicating that the recent major hacking attack against the US was conducted by Russia, Russia, Russia despite Microsoft, FireEye, sources in the national security and technology communities and Trump’s own Sectary of State all saying that it was Russia, Russia, Russia. Eyebrow raising. This is also a little concerning. And this.

I don’t usually pay attention to what’s going on in gaming but this disaster couldn’t be missed. It’s raining tanks.

In New York City, a garbageman went to the top of the heap. (I enjoyed my time as a garbageman as a teenager in the 1960’s. It was a good job. Two bucks an hour and all you can eat.)

And this happened ten years ago. Go Pats.

Get out the red pen

Friday, December 11th. Happy National App Day.

Biotech giveth and biotech taketh away.

Charlie Baker has sent the Massachusetts police reform bill back to the legislature with some changes. Matt Murphy breaks it down.

When Roger Ebert hated a movie, he hated, hated, hated, hated it. Here are 50 movies he hated, and here’s how he artfully described one of them: “This movie doesn’t scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels.”

Still no stimulus. A complete dereliction of duty.

And the knives are out for Cam Newton as the Pats chances to make the playoffs pretty much dissolve after last night’s loss.

Everything you know is wrong

Sunday. It’s the 30th anniversary of the start of the Belgian UFO wave.

First it was here, and now it’s gone. The mystery of the monolith continues.

Here are a few articles for Sunday morning on our vulnerability to misinformation. In the first, Scientific American explores the “New World Disorder.” The Guardian looks at how to spot logical holes in a conspiracy theory. And David Brooks channels Jonathan Rauch on Republican distrust of traditional sources of information.

It’s everything you wanted to know about the McRib sandwich, including how work at Natick Labs contributed to its success and how its availability rises and falls with the price of pork.

Matt Patricia is out. Fired, along with Lions general manager Bob Quinn, who hired him.

And you may want to stay away from World’s End in Hingham in early December (unless you’re outfitted in bright orange.)

Plan your work, work your plan

It’s Monday morning. The last week of October starts now.

Sharon Brody considers the cider doughnut.

Does the administration have a covid plan? Joe Biden says they don’t but apparently they do – or did. It had something to do with Santa Claus. But that plan has been scrapped and it seems like they’ve just given up.

It was not a good day for Cam Newton. As the Post puts it, Patriots struggle, Brady soars. And that about says it.

I think the ratings for last night’s 60 Minutes episode were probably higher than they would have been if someone hadn’t brought all that attention to it. The Streisand Effect in action.

And we probably can forget flying cars. But walking cars? I guess it’s better than nothing.

Happily ever after

Monday morning. Let’s get to it.

If you’ve always wanted to be in the movies, there’s a casting call for a film shooting on the South Shore this fall. Maybe you’ll qualify for a pay bump.

The Herald reports that FinCon flagged a $40 million dollar city fund for a lack of ongoing audits. But the fund, attached to the Guaranteed Streets program, seems to be doing what it was designed to do and, apart from the lack of audits, appears to be well managed. So audits will be forthcoming now and everyone is happy. Nice to see routine checks and balances are working at the city level.

So this looks like another one of those ‘what did he know and when did he know it‘ deals.

An article in Discover magazine tells us that the quantum internet will transmit information faster than the speed of light. That would be a nice trick if it were true. But it’s not.

And how about Tampa’s second half comeback from behind to win the game? I always thought it was Belichick’s halftime pep talks that turned things around. But maybe it was Brady all along.

An act of God

Sunday is here. Sputnik, the first satellite, was launched 63 years ago today.

St. Matthew‘s, in the heart of Dorchester, is closing its doors for good. The parish will be absorbed into St. Angela’s in Mattapan Square.

Virus? What virus? And on it goes. No one is to blame. Judd Gregg is quoted in the Post saying that voters will see the virus simply as “something that was like a horrible hurricane, where you can’t lay the blame and have little control over it.” Sure, I guess, if, as the hurricane approached, you ignored an evacuation order, left all your windows wide open and then stood on the edge of the seawall in howling winds as the waves crashed and sucked you into the sea. It happens.

No Pats today. Cam Newton had a positive pre-game test. More time now for game films before facing the Chiefs.

The latest Bond was delayed until 2021 and it looks like that will spell doom for Regal Cinemas, which are expected to shut down later this week as a result. Some say theaters may never come back.

And Anthony Fauci tells Science Magazine that he doesn’t mind being the skunk at the garden party. We don’t mind either.

Like a drunken sailor

Saturday. Today’s word is leitmotif.

The northwest has had a bad enough year as it is. And now come the Murder Hornets.

Total government spending this year to date is about $6.1 trillion dollars, with a deficit of $3 trillion. We had 11 consecutive months of deficit spending. Then came the virus. At some point we need to start digging our way out of this hole.

Bill Pennington, writing in the Times, says we, in New England, are past Tom Brady. Probably not yet, I think. But we’re getting there. We’re moving on.

Everyone wishes the president and first lady a quick recovery from Covid. But you have to just shake your head at the arrogant stupidity of this group of Trump family anti-maskers.

And, fortunately, it’s still nice enough outside to do the peace walks. Evan Allen tagged along on one in Dorchester. Too bad they had to suspend the walks for the summer. We needed them more than ever this year.

Chicken or the egg

It’s Sunday. The Pats kick off the season today with the Dolphins, at 1.

Dave Epstein advises us not to pull the air conditioner out, just yet. September, he says, is now more like a fourth month of summer than the first month of fall.

Small and large business groups in New York City are worried that the city is backsliding into what it was in the 1990’s and they want the mayor to do something about it. “Until the people come back, the streets aren’t safe. If the streets aren’t safe, the people don’t come back,” one executive said.

Craig Walker went on assignment for a photo essay on the conditions at Mass and Cass. It’s not a pretty picture.

Chrometophobia is a fear of cash. Dirty, filthy, germ covered cash. SoftBank is betting big on coronavirus-based chrometophobia in a cash happy Japan.

And an 81 year old congressman became an expert at Zoom. Minus mute/unmute.

Magneto and Titanium Man

Today is Saturday. The word of the day is foment.

Football is back. Jim McBride breaks dow what to expect for tomorrow’s Pats game. It’ll be interesting in more ways than one.

Strontium, Zirconium and Phosphorus are the nicknames Microsoft gave to the hacking groups operating out of Russia, China and Iran, respectively. These are the groups actively targeting the presidential election. “It is critical that everyone involved in democratic processes around the world, both directly or indirectly, be aware of these threats and take steps to protect themselves in both their personal and professional capacities,” wrote Tom Burt, the company’s Vice President of Customer Security & Trust, on the Microsoft blog.

Hey, here’s a crazy idea: a team of non-partisan experts from across government, epidemiology and health care, all focused on tackling the problems at the heart of a national emergency. Sort of like a Covid Manhattan Project.

In the 1990’s, the big names in cheap, mass produced PCs were Gateway and Dell. Gateway was the big kahuna and Dell the upstart. As competition heated up, Dell ate their lunch and eventually Gateway disappeared. But they’re back. Or, at least, the name is. Acer is now offering a Gateway branded laptop. Unclear if it comes in a cow box.

And eating in the great outdoors should continue into the fall as Charlie Baker has stated that he intends to sign an executive order extending the timeline for permitting outdoor dining. Now it’s up to the weather. Which, in an La Niña year, means, get out the snowblower.