Rain Gryphon

I finally got a new phone, a TCL Ion. It came with the time zone conveniently preset to Peking time :) The price for a 256G MicroSD chip astonished me - $25! Strangely, the chip came preconfigured with a standard Android filesystem, which is something I've not seen before. I intially thought the phone had done that on startup, but all of the folders are dated July 13, 2023. I then had to spend an hour or more removing all of the junkware that the phone came stocked with. To my chagrin, I can't remove Facebook's app, but I managed to disable it and nuke the icon.

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Why does Lea & Perrins, who stopped using that iconic paper wrapper on their bottles, still display the slogan "Unwrap the Flavour" on the label? It's as though they were taunting me with the absence of a wrapper.

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For that matter, why is Charmin' toilet paper pronounced "Sharmin"? That goes back to the 1930s, apparently. "Sharmin" reminds me of a brand of curry powder, something one doesn't wish to contact one's butthole.

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The Haitians are apparently in the process of reverting to cannibalism. There's a video going around of one guy roasting another's leg, then eating it.

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In further news North Koreans are now expected to eat their dogs.

So, if you surprise someone by shooting them at their birthday party, should you shout "Unhappy Birthday!", or will a regular "Surprise!" suffice? What would Miss Manners say?

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A very good boy's funeral.

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A local TV news crew makes themselves useful.

So, tomorrow I should reach peak immunity. At that point, I think, I can eat out once again, for the first time in over a year, at a proper fast food place staffed by underpaid teenagers^1, with a no more than average risk of the food killing me. I would very much love to have a Subway Veggies n' Cheese footlong, soggy with oil and vinegar.

I still, however, have problems with the clumsy, greedy machinations of Subway's management. Their current plan is to require customers to install an app, then buy two subs, getting the second one for half off. First, I'm not going to install an app to order from. I'll cheerfully make exceptions for places like Wow Bao! automatic restaurants, where never seeing a human during your entire visit is part of the fun. For ordinary fast food, and especially for places like Subway that actually show the workers in their advertising as part of the reason you should come there, no. No chance whatsoever.

Second, I object, and object strongly, to being required to buy two sandwiches to get a discount. That's not even volume discounting. That's just being dicks, and trying to coerce customers into bringing a friend. I shouldn't wonder that they lose more business than they gain on that point.

I think that what I'll do tomorrow is to go to one of the Subways, and ask to buy a sammich for 25% off. We'll see if the manager wants the business or not (I suspect he will). Fortunately, with it being Subway, they're liberally scattered, so I'll prolly find one that wants the sale.


^1 At places staffed and supervised by adults, hence presumably safer, I've been somewhat more liberal in my conduct.

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I won't be going to Hardee's. There's something entertainingly ironic in their misfortune, as their advertising stresses that their burgers are prepared by being mildly charred by open flames. I was never a fan of eating burnt meat, although the practice has survived long enough that I have to suppose it's more than just some weird 80s fad.

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Africa, too, is getting back to normal, with the money they were given for the Chinese Doom being stolen and wasted. I suppose I should see signs of hope in the fact that they're arresting people, rather than just asking for replacement money. Certain commentators are suggesting direct remedies, as well.

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Vaccination seems to be gaining traction in Indiana. Unlike many others, Indiana concentrated on vaccinating those groups with the highest death rates first.

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A Dog rescues his friend from drowning.

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Cuba, of all places, passes a law against animal cruelty. I am heartened.

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So, a few years back, three unfortunate Horses were discovered at the ruins of a villa just to the north of Pompeii. One was harnessed.

Now they've got the cart he was going to pull. It is very obviously a special, expensive ceremonial cart, with loads of decorations. I wonder what happened? Was he getting ready to pull the cart to a safe place in view of the ongoing eruption? Was there a wedding or special occasion that day, and they decided to go through with it regardless? Were the other two part of a troika who hadn't been harnessed yet, or were they going to carry outriders? Or, perhaps the situation was scarey enough that they brought along a little herd of stablemates for reassurance - Horses always feel safer with friends.

At any rate, interesting but sad.

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Instant Karma's Gonna Get Ya! Stabbed 'im right in the 'nads, too!

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I'm glad I moved back here. It's a safe place, filled with people like myself. If there's to be another Civil War, I can defend this place wholeheartedly.

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Cuomo chips - because pointless rules deserve pointless compliance. It used to be the law in NYC, back around the end of the 19th C, that bars had to serve food to remain open. The common practice then was to bring a stale, dried-up cheese sammich to the table along with the beer, then remove it when it wasn't eaten. Once it had properly dried up, a single sammich could last for weeks if treated with a bit of care. I'm pleased to see the nod to tradition.

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A homeless shelter that accepts dogs. That's great, and long overdue. People shouldn't have to choose between shelter and their pet. I should, perhaps, devote some of my energy to establishing something similar.

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Woohoo Dutchmen and Swedes! Stick it to 'em! I'm quite enjoying this.

I can't help but think of Lucy from Peanuts, having a freakout when Snoopy licked her...

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More to the point, I keep seeing stories like this everywhere these days. I never used to. Why? Is it something that had been happening all along, and just nobody noticed, or else it didn't get reported? Did something change?

Same thing with going swimming, and getting infected with some horribly aggressive vibrio strain. I spent much of my childhood swimming, splashing around in muddy puddles and swampy bits, walking barefoot through horse and cow poop, etc, as did most of my friends. I never heard of anything like that happening to anybody.