☘️ Happy St. Patrick's Day! 🍀
In surprise move by the city,
Chicago river dyed green for St. Patrick's Day.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/chicago-river-dyed-green-st-patrick-s-day-surprise-move-n1261046
(Just gotta ask...doesn't that kill the fish?)
Talking Points Memo headline:
ReplyDeleteMcConnell Threatens To Grind Senate To Halt If Dems Don’t Let Him Keep Grinding Senate To Halt
We Weren’t Going To Get The COVID Vaccine Until Fall. What Changed? [Click] Not clearly written; some guessing at the intent of the writer is needed.
ReplyDeleteWhy home-produced Covid vaccine hasn't helped India, Russia and China rollouts [Click] “Challenge of reaching vast, far-flung populations is combined with a lack of public interest.”
ReplyDeleteWiki:
ReplyDeleteThe tradition of dyeing the river green arose by accident when plumbers used fluorescein dye to trace sources of illegal pollution discharges.[78] The dyeing of the river is still sponsored by the local plumbers union.[79]
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) outlawed the use of fluorescein for this purpose, since it was shown to be harmful to the river.[78] The parade committee has since switched to a mix involving forty pounds of powdered vegetable dye.[80] Though the committee closely guards the exact formula, they insist that it has been tested and verified safe for the environment.[81] The environmental organization Friends of the Chicago River disapproves of dyeing the river, saying the practice "gives the impression that it is lifeless and artificial", adding "Friends doesn’t think that the river should be treated as a decoration for an annual holiday, but treasured and cared for as the wonderful natural and recreational resource it deserves to be".[82]
And just to add: For several decades now people have been catching and eating fish from the Chicago River. That wasn't always true.
DeleteWhen I saw the photo I instantly thought of fluorescein; the color is a very good match. It seems to be a rather outdated practice, certainly.
DeleteGetting drunk on St. Patrick's Day has spread to this part of the country during my working lifetime, and that is decidedly dangerous. I have heard some saloons peddle green beer on the day, which seems very weird.
DeleteIf you were in Boston, however, you'd think green beer on St. Patrick's Day perfectly natural and non-negotiable. The whole city goes a bit crazy. You see, it's also Evacuation Day! (The day in 1776 when the British left Boston!)
DeleteI just checked our bank account, and the stimulus checks are there. The bank's web site is slow this morning--probably everyone and their dogs are looking for the checks; we agreed that we can probably afford to order a takeout dinner from a Chinese restaurant we patronize from time to time.
ReplyDeleteThe heater in the end of the house with our bedroom conked out several days ago (probably the controller on the heater itself--the thermostat seems OK), and the repairman will come this afternoon. There is fresh snow up in the mountains, and it has been getting progressively cooler; that end of the house was down to 60 deg F this morning. Thank goodness for electric blankets! I even wore a watch cap to bed last night, delicate subtropical flower that I am.
Slight pain at and near the Pfizer vaccine injection site, stronger on the second day just like before, but definitely less than the first time. Nowhere near enough to even think of taking some acetaminophen.
This is very good to hear, indeed...especially as my turn for dose #2 of Pfizer is coming up in 9 days.
DeleteYep NP came up with a buncha. Compression stockings for swelling legs, gabapentin for nerves, physical therapist will be scheduled this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteSounds good.
DeleteOhhhhh goooood!!! Yes, yes yes! All in all a great day for you puddle!
DeleteAND. . . ONE AND DONE!!!
ReplyDeleteWOOT!
DeleteExcellent on all counts!
DeleteOnce the coronavirus vaccinations wind down, the mRNA techniques (and the installed equipment) ought to make vaccines possible and practical for other diseases that now lack them. Malaria (at least three of the four human kinds), Chagas' disease, African sleeping sickness, and valley fever (coccidiomycosis) come immediately to mind.
ReplyDeleteOHIO; COVID cases 993,681 and no change in death number.
ReplyDelete🤷🏻♀️
DeleteHeaven knows that Iran has plenty of reason to hold grudges against the US and UK in particular. But this article [Click] also rings true.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans: End the Filibuster, and We’ll Punish America by Enacting Our Agenda [Click] Mitch McConnell’s latest defense of what remains of the filibuster yesterday veered wildly between two irreconcilable claims. On the one hand, he warned a majority-rules Senate would be a “scorched earth,” “disaster,” “hundred-car pileup” in which nothing happens. On the other hand, he warned that once Republicans gained control of government, the chamber would become a smooth-running machine in which conservative priorities are quickly enacted. Is this the death rattle of the Republican Party?
ReplyDeleteOh, that headline made me laugh. Thanks, Alan. It's been a grim day here, and that laugh was mighty welcome.
DeleteYeah, I'm glad I wasn't sipping anything when I read that headline! LOL!
DeleteCat, what made today grim? You okay?
My day was Meh. Was expecting something like 5 items from various places to be delivered today, including one (my new camera) requiring a signature. I received exactly NONE of them...!! I began to wonder if there's a trucking strike.
House Republican Conference has voted to reverse its internal ban on requesting earmarks. [Click]
ReplyDeleteQuite a surprise, eh?
DeleteA new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds more Americans now think the country is on the right track than wrong track, 55% to 45%.
ReplyDeleteGee, d'ya think all those stimulus checks might have something to do with that?
DeleteSee what they say in another week or so; I expect the right track numbers will go up.
DeleteRussia’s ambassador to Washington has been recalled to Moscow for “consultations” to determine how to move forward with relations with the U.S., the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday, Axios reports.
ReplyDeleteHouse passes bill to renew Violence Against Women Act [Click]
ReplyDeleteHouse adopts resolution to remove the deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment [Click]
ReplyDeleteBoth this and the previous item are most encouraging.
DeleteThey probably have to at least reform the cloture rule to get them through. The idea of requiring 40 votes to continue the filibuster rather than 60 to stop it would mean considerable inconvenience for the filibusterers, many of whom are far from young.
DeleteThe heater repair guy came out and got it working again. The only possible problem he could see was possibly where the wires from the thermostat connected to the controller on the heater, so he took it apart, cleaned some more insulation off the wires, fastened them down well, and all is well. He also serviced the air conditioner compressors and just billed us a trip/inspection charge. He warned us that parts aren't available any more for the type of furnace we have, and the AC compressor uses a refrigerant that is no longer legal to replace. So if things stop working again, depending on what malfunctions, we might have to replace the furnace and A/C compressor. Well, we have had 25 years' use with only two service calls for three different units, which must be pretty good. The heaters are very efficient; they are built sort of like a V-1 pulse jet engine and make a put-put-put sound. The AC compressors are of the variable-speed screw type, which is far quieter and longer lasting than the old style (but still common) reciprocating compressors. So far, so good. I won't need to wear a watch cap tonight!
ReplyDeleteDad got the family's stimulus "check" yesterday and transferred my 1,400 into my checking account today.Quite something.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't be too hard to take. When I checked this morning ours was received but still in "processing." Checking...checking...checking... still there.
DeleteNo sign of ours yet.
DeleteNo reaction at all that I'm aware of, not even at the ejection site, which I can only locate because of the bandaid. I did have a two hour go round with restless leg syndrome, but a magnesium pill settled that down, and I truly doubt that was the shot.
ReplyDeleteThst'd br INjection. . . .
DeleteThe first interstellar object from beyond our solar system was discovered in 2017 and named ‘Oumuamua. ASU astrophysicists have determined that it is likely a piece of a Pluto-like planet from another solar system. [Click] Oh, phooey.
ReplyDeleteA Pluto-like planet? Doesn't that mean Pluto is a planet? Take that, Neil Degrasse Tyson!
DeletePluto, like Ceres, is a _dwarf_ planet. But that's irrelevant. The point is that this block of solid nitrogen came from a body that, like Pluto or Titon, had a crust of solid nitrogen.
DeleteI am most disappointed; I liked 'Oumuamua far better when it was an alien spacecraft with a solar sail. But hope springs eternal; all will be forgiven if they can demonstrate that Planet X is a black hole roughly the size of an orange. Here are a couple of articles about the possibility:
DeleteSpace.com [Click]
Auntie Beeb [Click]
Police raid home of former Florida GOP lawmaker who bragged about planting no-party candidate [Click]
ReplyDelete“Democrats are zeroing in on raising the corporate tax rate from its current 21% to 28% as one of the easiest ways to find new revenue for an infrastructure package,” Axios reports. Sounds pretty easy to me. . . Then on to restaffing the IRS so they can audit wealthy tax dodgers, I hope.
Open Secrets: “After years of dark money overwhelmingly boosting Republicans, this marks the first presidential election cycle where dark money benefited Democrats. That’s a continuation from the 2018 midterm elections when Democrats benefited from more dark money than their Republican counterparts at the federal level for the first time since Citizens United.”
Key takeaway: Democrats and their aligned causes took in and spent $514 million in dark money, while Republicans took in and spent $204 million.
“A leading Republican hard-liner clashed behind closed doors with House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, exposing a rift in the Republican conference and suggesting that a chamber-rattling floor protest by the far right isn’t fading anytime soon,” Politico reports.
“During a closed-door conference meeting, House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Biggs (R-AZ) went after McCarthy for not being more supportive of a conservative-led effort to force a series of lengthy — and largely fruitless — procedural votes that have snarled the floor.”
The more the “Republicans” fight with each other, the less effective they will be at contesting the Democrats. Have at it, boys and girls.