I didn’t write yesterday, I hate when I do that, now I must catch up. On Sunday night I went to my first Knick game since the COVID-19 lockdown. They were good about requiring proof of vaccination but not about masks. Getting in was a mess as they checked the vaccination status; I missed the start of the game. I must remember to enter from Eighth Ave next time; I’m out of practice. The Knicks have been doing well this season so of course they lost when I was there. I still enjoyed myself and I always enjoy spending time with Alan. I get to go to games because he has season tickets.
Yesterday starts with an idiot story. I made grits ala Horvendile for breakfast. I ground the coffee and put it in the French press while the grits water was boiling. Anyone seeing where this was going? When the water boiled, I measured out a third of cup of grits and started to put it in the French press with the coffee. You can’t undo that, damn entropy. I hate wasting the coffee. On the bright side I made the grits with cheese curds and that makes it special. Have any of My Gentle Readers tried any of my culinary innovations? I’m quite proud of them.
I finally made the Aldi expedition that I’ve been saying was imminent since Saturday. I tried something new on the Samsung fitness app. I treated the walk as one long workout with a break. I discovered that when you tell the app you are in a workout it’s different than when it detects it automatically; it not only gives you more information, pace, speed, and elevation, it calculates the calories differently. I suspect that’s because it takes the climbing into account. I walked 4.84 miles and burned 500 calories. The automatic step counter says I went 5.09 miles, it includes walking in the store and my building, but says I burned only 466 calories. That’s because I had to walk uphill 280 feet. What it doesn’t know was that I was pulling a full grocery cart on the way home. I burned more than 500 calories. That’s good for both my physical and mental health.
I recorded Gord’s Gold yesterday and then recorded video introductions for Rorie Kelly and Kim Moberg. They are both performing at the Folk Music Notebook virtual NERFA guerilla showcase, and Ron asked the DJs to record intros. They are only 30-second spots, but I managed to incorporate laugh lines in both. I enjoy recording videos and I’m getting better at it. That’s not surprising, it’s how most things work. The first time I recorded Kim’s my eyes were daring all over the place. I decided I can’t submit that so tried again. The second time I just read it. I positioned the script right below the camera, so it worked as a teleprompter.
Quarterback in reigning NFL MVP Aaron Rogers has COVID-19. He lied about his vaccination status and is now spreading anti-vax propaganda. How often do we see athletes, entertainment stars, billionaires, and other celebrities acting like asses? The quick answer is too often. I have two not mutually exclusive hypotheses as to why. The first is that people that excel in one field develop the notion that it makes their judgment better than others in unrelated fields. This is reinforced as they so often find themselves surrounded by admirers and lackies unwilling to call them on their nonsense. They gain feelings of entitlement and impunity. There is a lot to be said for this hypothesis. It fits about what we know of human nature. We can see people we know doing that if given that experience. If we are more open minded, we can see ourselves doing that.
I was ready to write about that as my explanation until another one hit me. Just go through your social media feed and you’ll find your friends and acquaintances saying things just as wrong the nonsense coming from Aaron Rogers and Elon Musk. I see this every day. Maybe the difference is that we get to hear about all the idiocies coming from celebrities. They get spread around the world in a day. Maybe they don’t say and do more stupid things, maybe we just hear about them more than we do most people. I’m not sure which hypothesis is scarier; that power corrupts or that it just exposes the corruption that was already there. There’s not much we can do about it either way other than to try to not be a jerk. That’s the new foundation of my morality.
Thou shalt not be a jerk.
Wise Madness 