Backstage Pass

I had a crisis this morning. I went to make breakfast and found something I missed washing last night. I put it in the sink, turned on the water, and nothing came out. Why is this a crisis? You should be way ahead of me. It had nothing to do with cleaning the rack from the air fryer, it has nothing to do with cleaning anything. This was breakfast, water is an absolute necessity, as with no water there is no coffee! How can I be expected to face the day without the source of all life? I had to think of my feet. I then did what all great tacticians do, I assessed my assets and put them to best use even if it meant being unorthodox. I had a bottle of seltzer in the fridge from the soda stream. I used that to make the coffee. Would that work? I figured that in the heating all the carbon dioxide would come out of solution so what would be left was flat. It worked. There was something a little odd about the taste, my guess is that it was some leftover carbonic acid giving it a slightly sour taste. I double checked, at first I wrote “carbolic” acid but that’s wrong. Carbolic acid can cause chemical burns. It was not great coffee, but it was perfectly acceptable. At least I didn’t pass out from lack of caffeine

Last night was the September edition of John Platt’s On Your Radar. The best part of the streaming version is the pre-show backstage hang with the artists, Rob our technical wizard, and John. These were not artists that I knew personally though Mary-Elaine Jenkins remembered me. I saw her once, at APAP, on the same bill as Red Molly, Birds of Chicago, and Teddy Thompson. Turns out that she remembered that I saw her twice as she opened for Jefferson Hamer at City Winery Loft. You know you live a strange life when the artist remembers you being in the audience. Maybe it’s not that I live a strange life, but that I am a strange lifeform. At one point I felt the need to tell the artists, “I’m sorry, I’m always like this.” I get way too comfortable and act like I would if it were just Rob there. I did make a point of shaving as I thought it would be unprofessional looking totally unkempt backstage. This way I was only half unkempt. I’m so easy going that I wore an old WFUV t-shirt with bleach stains on it, because the stains were too low down to appear on the screen. I could look at this as being comfortable with myself.

I forgot I started writing. The outer doorbell rang, I got up to answer it, and that reset my brain. There was nobody there. I suspect somebody was ringing every bell until somebody let them in. That pretty much always works, so much for security.

Do you want to find out the politics of a baseball fan without discussing politics? Just bring up modern baseball analysis. If they scorn research and data then they are likely Trump supporters. Since I have started checking this I have found just one exception in cases where the politics can be determined. Some people never post politics, so I don’t know about them. I just posted a study showing how teams are blowing fewer leads as the number of innings pitched by starters has declined while the starters performance has improved. Essentially starters got better, and relievers stayed the same. Someone just rejected it because there have been games that relievers have blown. He referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese outbreak” so we know where he stands politically. Give this a try. I’m sure you can find similar correlations in other fields. People that reject data are overwhelmingly Trump supporters.

I know I should be providing data for this. If there were a mixture of Trump and anti-Trump supporters I would get the exact numbers, but there’s not. Just that single exception. That does mean that you shouldn’t take my word for it. Do your own research. This fits into my preconceived notions so strongly that I’m wary of unconscious bias on my part. I go against the popular idea of self-improvement. I don’t say “believe in yourself,” I say doubt yourself. Play the devil’s advocate. I’m not saying, think you’re a terrible human being. I think I’m pretty nifty. I’m saying be aware that you might be fooling yourself. I think of myself as skilled in Instagram. The evidence says no. I don’t have that many followers and my posts don’t get that many likes. I’m not terrible but I see those around me that do better. I know what I’m doing but lack something. It might just be a decent phone camera. That might just be making myself feel better. Dunning-Kruger is real. You and I are not immune.