Just started a source for narrative progressive learning in French – the short story. Easier than I thought (I note with some trepidation).

Salut! The method by which I am learning French is via concepts from Olly Richards and, to an extent Steve Kaufman. Maximizing reptition, through listening and reading – passive learning – is the key gleaned from these theories.

Yes, even Minnesota has to deal with candidates like this, during the next election cycle.

How cool is this? Snoop Dogg buys label that created his career.

J & J (temporarily) halts production on its vaccine.

Oy. Another Rogan clip surfaces, this one from 2006.

Well, doggonit, I’ve decided to make 2022 the year I learn French. I’ve always wanted to speak the language, read the language, and most important … understand the darn language. I’m going all in, and have decided to chronicle the whole thing in this blog. Heck, the effort is even getting it’s own page. I formally took Spanish in high school, evantually obtaining AP credit, so I really have never taken any language subsequent to secondary education.

I will “re-learn” Spanish at some point, but, for now, I am extremely motivated to take up the “fifth most popular language in the world”. C’est la vie!

Of Sarah Palin, the late John McCain said this.

David Crosby has joined his former Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmates in removing his music from Spotify. He tweeted, “I have not and will not demand anything from Spotify or Joe Rogan …I just don’t want my music on there if he’s on there so I’m taking mine off …that is not censorship.”

He won’t be the last.

Black History Month kicks off, this, in the setting of HBCUs receiving bomb threats.

The United States nears 1M COVID-19 pandemic deaths.

Hotez: Further variants expected in 2022, post omicron.

Apple now permits unlisted apps.

Howard Hesseman dies. I was in junior high when WKRP was originally broadcast. I always thought his job was so cool!

The WH is forced to rescind its mandate for vaccination of large employer workers, following a SCOTUS halt on OSHA characterizing infected workplaces as a public health threat – giving the administration another black eye in its stewardship in managing this pandemic. Also, Sir Elton tests positive for COVID.

The number of daily deaths due to COVID now matches the number last summer during the delta variant.

Neil Young draws a red line. UPDATE: Eric Clapton. Really?

I certainly agree with this piece from CNN on the cancellation/postponements of some Adele residency performances. But it highlights a salience that COVID is here to stay and that — until a degree of population immunity is achieved through a 85 to 90 percent rate, and major employer vax mandates are much more pervasive — most aspects of living life from day to day will involve planning activities alongside this menacing elephant in the room. The central question is how long the U.S. population can tolerate how much influence this virus has on every single aspect of our lives as vax rates stagnate.

Minnesota native Louie Anderson dies.

Sidney Poitier’s cause of death is released.

If team VPOTUS is trying to “reset”, then why are PR people like this joining it?

The latest MMMH episode, a Quick Take.

UK Guardian: MLK today would make white people uncomfortable.

[…]King readily admitted that it was his goal to make white people uncomfortable. Just before he condemned white moderates in A Letter from Birmingham Jail, he revealed that his goal was to “create the kind of tension in society that will help men to rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism”. He went on to explain that nonviolent direct action – King’s primary strategy to affect progress – was an attempt to induce the white community to a point where marginalized people’s desperate cries could no longer be ignored.

Oh. So this is where old Apple tech go to die.

Baby Boomers share societal commonalities that *thankfully* no longer apply. As a Gen-Xer, here’s one I recall:

Waiting for your favorite song to come on the radio. I would call radio stations requesting a song, just so I could tape it.

Um. Yeah — just to realize years later calling into a station to play your favorite song was bullsh*t, anyway.