HMK2
6d ago
Also Lord Peter Wimsey, who always heavily salts his conversations with quotes from some poem or other that nobody (who hasn't specifically majored in fin-de-siecle English poetry) has ever heard of. It gets annoying for the reader sometimes!
I'm reminded of Ring Lardner's story Haircut, which is a barber reminiscing to a new customer about a deceased regular, who the barber remembers as a salt-of-the-earth guy with a great sense of humor but who the reader comes to realize is a total garbage human being. Edit: included link to story
HMK2
6d ago
I saw a video on the history of the wheel. The oldest wheel ever excavated consisted of three slabs of wood pegged together and sawed into a circular shape - yet the video's images of this object mysteriously grew spokes and lost them between shots. Nobody bothered to edit this thing before posting it, obviously.
HMK2
6d ago
If the narrator is never seen on screen, I assume it's AI nowadays unless I hear the little hesitations and changes in tone of voice that proves it's a human.
HMK2
12d ago
I stay away from all clubs and live-music venues, because they're just too loud, and because I don't care for most modern music. (I like Lehar, Johann Strauss, and C.M. Ziehrer's output, and also pre-rock&roll pop music from across the globe. I despised Run Lola Run because the soundtrack, as I remember it, was just screaming with hardly a trace of rhythm or melody. How far has fallen the land of Walter Kollo and Paul Lincke. And seeing the film's music get praise in most reviews I've read is simply inexplicable.)
HMK2
12d ago
One example: Science-fiction conventions were huge in the 70s through the 90s, but barely seem to exist in the cultural zeitgeist any more. ("Convention" in popular parlance nowadays translates to anime, furry or whatever Dashcon was.) The ones that still exist all have woke codes of conduct that are seemingly aimed at eliminating fun and spontaneity. No -isms or -phobias, no flirting with women, etc. Plus they're a hell of a lot more expensive to attend than they were in their heyday.
HMK2
18d ago
I saw a TV commercial (or PSA?) in 1978 touting a phone number (presumably a call-forwarding service or perhaps voicemail) that runaway teens could use to assure their parents that they were alive and in good health.
The commercial also said "No tricks, no traps, no traces." If this wasn't a lie, then the "youth-lib" movement was still strong enough that someone could create this service to help teens remain "free" of parental "tyranny" and that the TV station agreed to air the ad.
HMK2
24d ago
Dead forum?
I guess there's just no-one left here who cares enough about the issues that energized discussion in Reddit days.
HMK2
26d ago
All of a sudden, I can't access Kiwifarms on android. The Tartarus browser verification keeps failing, on Chrome, Firefox and Adblock Browser.
Is there another takedown attempt ongoing?
HMK2
1mo ago
They began flooding into East Harlem right after V-J Day. I think there was some drought or crop blight in Puerto Rico that pushed them, plus affordable flights that made it easy.
HMK2
1mo ago
This person, who clearly hates America and all it stands for, is apparently peddling IRGC propaganda with a straight face; I admit I was fooled by it at first since it sounds plausible. His kind are constantly dooming.
HMK2
1mo ago
If I could legally buy Veronal or other heavy downers I'd do that. But I won't do anything painful or messy, or that might hurt other people like jumping from a high place.
HMK2
1mo ago
Well, I might do it before that if the DSA gets in power and fucks up the economy, Salvador Allende-style. Or if the university library closes permanently.
HMK2
1mo ago
I have no children, loved ones or friends who would take care of me when I can no longer look after myself, so I want a quick painless death when my health starts to irreversibly decline. Preferably by barbiturate overdose. Will an American doctor sell me that? Not likely.
HMK2
1mo ago
In case you are not a native English speaker, the words are synonymous in this case.
HMK2
1mo ago
Usually, a kid who doesn't care about schoolwork, steals, uses drugs/alcohol, and doesn't obey their parents (especially if they curse their parents out).
Half a century ago, "listening to rock&roll" would have been part of the picture too, especially those bands who used Satanic imagery.
HMK2
2mo ago
I suppose some people believed that comic-book garbage about clones inheriting the memory and personality of the original.
HMK2
2mo ago
Huh - just tried it at home and I posted just fine, didn't even show the captcha. Guess I passed their spambot test!
HMK2
2mo ago
Reddit finally banned me for running afoul of their permanent Anti-Rightist campaign, so I bit the bullet and registered on KiwiFarms. But whenever I try to post, the captcha tells me I have a "residential VPN" on my phone. AFAIK I have no such thing; I always connect on T-Mobile 5G (Android.) Is it just not possible to post there from a phone? Is there something I'm missing? Thanks.
HMK2
2mo ago
And they constantly bring up slavery as if it was just abolished last week, in all manner of crazy contexts. I've seen Los Angeles public transit buses called "slave ships", and the fucking Library of Congress referred to as "the plantation". They never get tired of their schtick.
HMK2
2mo ago
You've never been to a theater with a predominantly black clientele, then. In 1990, I made the mistake of watching Necessary Roughness at the Union Station theater in DC. During the climactic scene, the whole audience SCREAMED so loud, my ears genuinely hurt and I was afraid my hearing might be damaged forever.
I think it was Dylan Roof shooting up a black church while wearing Confederate and Rhodesian flag patches. It was pretty soon after that, that Amazon and such stopped selling Confederate flag merchandise, and streets and schools started getting renamed.
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