PicoBlog

Dear Mary Pat, My first question was, "Are increased deaths from falls just a function of a decrease in other causes of mortality?", but you have explored that thoroughly above. Somewhat related, today, my boss heard that a cousin had suddenly died the day before - somebody only a few years older (~45-50) than him. Relevant because the man's either phone or wearable device (watch) detected his fall (likely fall was caused by fatal event, not vice versa), and auto-alerted his wife and emergency services (although EMS arrived only to pronounce him dead and transport the body.

I got into Tuscaloosa around 3 p.m. and I stayed at one of the hotels/motels that is by the Cracker Barrel and the freeway, I can't remember the name of it. It wasn't anything special, just a place to sleep for the night. I drove around for about 45 minutes just looking at the area and also for a place to eat, and really didn't find anything that sounded interesting, and wound up at the Cracker Barrel because it was getting close to dinner time and it was Valentines Day and I didn't want to get caught in the middle of that at a restaurant.

The Pennsylvania Germans, aka Pennsylvania Dutch, came to the US for religious freedom reasons, whereas most other German immigrants came to start over for other reasons--second sons, land, adventure, new life, etc... like the German ancestors on my dad's side. Those of German descent make up the largest ancestry of American immigrants. All of my ancestors came in through the Port of Philadelphia, and they spread out from there. Philadelphia was one of the biggest ports for immigration prior to the Ellis Island years.

Wow, great explanation. I've read a lot of explainers on this but this one is one of the absolute best I've ever seen. Thanks. I live in Georgia, but my experience is not the same. I'm a Yankee living behind the front lines, so to speak. I live in Atlanta. I know nothing, really, about this experience you describe, because I don't live in the kind of place in the South where I'd notice it.

I absolutely love this AWFUL label and would extend it to AWFUL CRYBULLY in certain cases. Now you are getting it Erick. This is a war for the future of the country and it is being played in the media Madison Avenue style. It is about branding. It is like Pepsi spending 95% of its ad spend to negative brand Coke, instead of positive branding Pepsi. Pepsi does not do that because Pepsi is a quality tasting soda to rival Coke.

It was a fascinating study in human behaviour. I've spent a bit of time on the Traitors reddit and people HATE that series. As I understand Oz has cancelled the show in the wake of it (was before the recent UK & US series blew up so perhaps they might change their minds). People hate it because it was so frustrating watching the faithfuls fail to spot the obvious - but I'm with you, I think subconsciously they all knew what was going on and were scared and acted on instinctive self preservation.

Thank you for linking my piece about the dumb AI sandwich above, my friend, and I am currently hoping that I made my distaste for the use of AI, *especially* to replace real human writers, plain enough in it. Not gonna lie, though, that sandwich was killer. Expand full comment ncG1vNJzZmien6Sxqr%2FSraypoZRjwLau0q2YnKNemLyue89oq6GdXZi8rbHSpZiwZaCkvbS1wqWcaJuforqmutOs

What a mature young man you were. I cannot imagine having the ability to stop and try to understand why others were treating me badly. This is why I keep thinking you would be a good minister: you have a message that resonates. You help me to think, and look more closely at myself. Am I proud of who I am? Do I treat others the way I want to be treated?

I remember years ago, at a B&N reading in Manhattan, you said something along the lines of: I'm sorry but I have to read this piece out loud. It was something you'd been working on that had to do with aliens, and some crazy space shit. Lasers were involved. You apologized (profusely) and said you couldn't know if the thing was good until you'd read it to an audience. When you finished, you apologized some more, and shoved it back in your pocket.