Ternaugh

Exidor: What we need is more of your experiences with the Venusians here on Earth. Mork: I didn't meet them on Earth, I met them on Venus. Exidor: You've been there? Mork: Oh yes, I've been to all the planets in your solar system. Exidor: Mars? Mercury? Pluto? Mork: Oh, don't ever go to Pluto, it's a Mickey Mouse planet.

My first cousin once removed is strongly anti-immigration. From what I can tell, there is a very big chance that both she and my mother were actually first-generation Americans*, and that their parents were not actually from the United States. This, of course, she vehemently disbelieves. I've tried to find my grandparents and great-grandparents in the census documents, and my great-grandparents show up in the records around 1930. My grandparents show up in the records for 1940. My grand-père had a funny family story about a convenient church fire--"thirteen new citizens that day!", which would always get a reprimand from my grand-mere (she would have been one of the new citizens). A few years ago, I found out from my Mom that the convenient church fire was limited to one book of baptismal records. I can't really fault someone for overstaying their visa, or for wanting a better life for their child. *Mom had dual citizenship with Canada until age 18, when she had to choose.

Just finished it a few minutes ago. A few rough spots, but overall, I liked it.

What, you mean like ALGOL or Lisp?

Given current events, I'm afraid that Orwell was an optimist.

Better known as Parts: The Clonus Horror from 1979, and used for an episode of MST3K.

The pods are in a package that looks pretty much like any other Tide detergent package. Tide has been making the packaging progressively harder to open. There's a slide zipper that requires *just* the right mount of pressure on the very top while it's sliding, or the bag doesn't open (I'm betting that it's pretty much impossible if a person has arthritis in their hands). That's to prevent small kids from being able to open the bag, but it's obviously not there for some teenager who's too stupid to avoid peer pressure, or trying to show off.

Oh, flugelhorn!

When they brought back Ward (pick any time).

I've seen Fleetwood Mac twice, and Stevie Nicks once, back in the late 80s/early 90s, because a friend of mine was really into them at the time. All of them were in the Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts, a venue that had absolutely gorgeous acoustics. None of the three concerts rate very high in my enjoyment, and I found myself more interested in the guys working the spotlights in the lighting rig than the music during the second concert (for the absolutely terrible Behind the Mask tour--the first CD that I ever sold back to a record store). They're basically a band that should have broken up many years before. The Aladdin Theater holds a very special place for me. It's where my high school graduation was held, and where I saw a bunch of really great concerts, like "Weird" Al and the Moody Blues. The acoustics were so good, especially when it was properly balanced by a good sound engineer. The Moody Blues concert was a favorite of mine for that reason. You could feel low notes go right through you, and mids and highs were crystal clear. I didn't need earplugs, and left the concert with no ringing in my ears. The other thing that made the concert was that it was obvious that the Moodies were having fun making music up on the stage. They had opened the Goodwill Games that year, and just decided to put together a quick concert tour because they wanted to play some more.

Kansas is one of those bands that I've always enjoyed. I saw them live here in Las Vegas back in 1992 at the Huntridge Theater (which was basically a big concrete box with seats at that point), and it was an amazing concert. While I like Leftoverture and Point of Know Return, I keep going back to In the Spirit of Things. Jumping over to another classic act, Steve Walsh and Kansas drummer Phil Ehart both worked on this track from former Genesis lead guitarist Steve Hackett's second solo release, Please Don't Touch:

It's the unabashed joy that Geddy Lee shows in that performance that shows why Rush was such a great band to see live. I was lucky enough to see them on the Roll the Bones and R40 tours, and both concerts were a delight. Here were three friends making music that they loved to share with us. That's pretty hard to beat.

Drama and the Buggles' Adventures in Modern Recording get a lot of play for me, and the remastered release of the latter has a couple of bonus tracks that ended up being the core for the Yes album, Fly from Here. There's supposed to be a release in March of a version of Fly from Here with Trevor Horn on lead vocals instead of Benoit David, though I'm not sure how rare it's going to be.

Yikes! I had totally forgotten about Heaven & Earth. Sure, I bought it when it came out, and I must have played it at least once. But I'm listening to it right now, and I have no recollection whatsoever of any of it. Every once in a while, I get a flash of Asia/Yes in the keyboards or guitar, but it then gets put through a blandness filter, and it morphs into the realm of bad cover band.

About a minute ago, when I Googled "underwear with belt loops". Who knew?

It's cute from where I'm sitting, which is currently 150 miles inland and 2000 ft elevation. Anyway, the white tigers and dolphins will take care of it.

Standing tough under stars and stripes We can tell This dream's in sight You've got to admit it At this point in time that it's clear The future looks bright On that train all graphite and glitter Undersea by rail Ninety minutes from New York to Paris Well by seventy-six we'll be a.o.k What a beautiful world this will be What a glorious time to be free Get your ticket to that wheel in space While there's time The fix is in You'll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky You know we've got to win Here at home we'll play in the city Powered by the sun Perfect weather for a streamlined world There'll be spandex jackets one for everyone What a beautiful world this will be What a glorious time to be free On that train all graphite and glitter Undersea by rail Ninety minutes from New York to Paris (more leisure for artists everywhere) A just machine to make big decisions Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision We'll be clean when their work is done We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young What a beautiful world this will be What a glorious time to be free

Sorry, no. It's about the Rush with talent.

Blade Runner 2049 -- Serviceable extension to the Blade Runner setting, suffers some of the same flaws of the original with pacing and story development, but is visually and audibly stunning. The Dolby Atmos mix on the 4K Blu Ray is *LOUD*, especially in the LFE (subwoofer) and height channels, and I wouldn't recommend playing this late at night unless you want everyone to be shaken awake. Halt and Catch Fire -- Finished the first season, having trouble getting into the second season. The Good Place -- About halfway through the first season. I had stalled on this one in the second episode, until I found an article online that gave me a peek at a plot point in the last episode of the first season.

I'd suggest reading the article again. Hint: It's not really about Trump.

“If you owe the bank $100, that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem.” ― J. Paul Getty

I keep on looking at the shadows on the wall to see if one of them looks like Darth Vader.