Friday 2/21

I wonder if she’s dreaming, like me, of warmer weather. From pinterest.com :

New wrinkle on the fight against dementia. From a nypost.com article by Diana Bruk: “What is emerging consistently is that older adults who speak more than one language have clear advantages against dementia.” I’ll have to start using a lot more of the Italian and Spanish I’ve learned, most of which has been forgotten. Given the makeup of my neighborhood, maybe I should take Russian lessons. Nyet.

I’ll leave criticism of Zelenskyy to others, but it seems the war will be a perpetual stalemate, and a diplomatic solution must be found. Perhaps that will embolden mad Vlad to regroup for a future land grab, but at present it seems foolish to keep pouring billions into the battle. I am in agreement with Trump on almost all issues, but I’d back Zelenskyy over Putin every time.

From an article by Chris Morris at msm.com: “The Central New York town of Pinckney has seen approximately 300 inches of snow this winter.” Kick me if I complain about the weather in NYC.

Headline from foxnews.com concerning Jeffrey Epstein: “AG Bondi says infamous client list is ‘sitting on my desk right now’.” The previous one was disappointing.

As much as I believe the response was completely botched and that the vaccines and masks were/are useless, I question this headline from FN: “COVID was never as dangerous as ‘experts’ claimed.” That said, the survival rate keeps trending upward. According to an article by Ian Miller at outkick.com concerning a study in Austria, where reaction to the virus was severe: “The survival rate for everyone under the age of 40 was 99.996 percent. For everyone under 60 it was 99.96 percent. Even for those under the age of 75 it was 99.51 percent. And again, these numbers don’t distinguish between healthy adults and those with risk factors.”

Selective outrage. From FN: “Obama fired top military officers to align Pentagon with his policy vision, now Trump set to do the same.”

Here’s a fun bit of trivia from FN: “‘Andy Griffith Show’ actor Ron Howard finds out he’s a distant cousin of co-star Don Knotts.”

RIP singer/songwriter/producer Jerry “Ice Man” Butler, 85. Born in Mississippi, his family moved to Chicago when he was three. A friend of Curtis Mayfield, they sang in a church choir and formed a gospel group that evolved into The Impressions. He had a numbers of hits on both the Billboard Top 100 and the R&B chart: For Your Precious Love, #11 in 1958, He Will Break Your Heart, #7 in ’60; Moon River, #11 in ’61; Make It Easy on Yourself, #20 in ’62; the touching duet with Betty Everett, Let It Be Me, #5 in ’64; Never Give You Up, #20 in ’68; Only the Strong Survive, #4 in ’68. More than 30 of his singles cracked the Top 100. Tony Orlando and Dawn revived He Will Break Your Heart in ’75, retitled He Don’t Love You (Like I Love You), and hit #1 on the Hot 100. Butler is a member of the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame through his association with The Impressions, and the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. A congenial presence, he hosted several PBS oldies shows. A Democrat, he served as a Cook County Board Commissioner from 1980–2018. He married one of his backup singers, who died in 2019. He was a father of one. A class act, an awesome run, thank you, Sir. Photo from Google Images:

Still too windy at the Anti-Inflation Book Shop’s regular nook, so I set up at an alternate site and suffered a big slice of humble pie.

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