Recommendations

SONGS:

Walking in Memphis, Marc Cohn

Song for a Deck Hand’s Daughter, John McMurtry

Political Science, Randy Newman (who knew he composed a MAGA theme song back in the 1970’s?)

MOVIES: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—worth a second look.

            Black bag-in theatres near you

BOOKS: The Selected Stories of Jack London  I have become a fan.

The Great Influenza  by John M Barry. This has everything from the history of medical education in the USA, to the evolution of early Public Health, to graphic descriptions and the history of the “American virus” which killed 100 Million people world-wide and set the stage for so much later.

LIVE THEATRE: The Play “Three Summers of Lincoln” at the La Jolla Playhouse had the opening scene with a union soldier, a “peg” replacing his amputed knee do a tap dance set to music while the script for the opening scene was displayed behind him. WOW!  In the closing scene, Lincoln is contemplating his loss in the presidential election of 1864 to General McClellan and tells his wife that McClellan is a formidable candidate; Mary Todd replies, “you always said he was a bafoon and incompetent.” He responds: “That never stopped the voting public from making such a person president” to which there was a thirty second hold-the-dialogue applause from the audience.

ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Long but one of the best articles on the practical look at immigration and current politics Europe/USA

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/24/magazine/denmark-immigration-policy-progressives.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Opinion | Academia is finally learning hard lessons

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/24/universities-colleges-liberal-power-trump/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic%2Fpolitics and it is going to get worse.

Mark Cuban: Democrats Are Too Inept to Exploit Trump’s Chaos

https://time.com/7260685/mark-cuban-democrats-trump/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic%2Fpolitics

Mencken:  I don’t like socialists and liberals, they chase butterflies…. But their enemies? They are way worse…….

https://wapo.st/3Def9KV Discussion of Trump's executive order to release water in California after Palisades fire.  Recall Mao Tse Tung and The Four Pests Campaign: the Great Leader managed the cultural revolution—something akin to what we are experiencing now where all norms are upended by loyal and fervent supporters. The campaign was designed to eradicate "four pests" (rats, sparrows, flies, and mosquitoes) and led to the destruction of sparrows, which were beneficial to agriculture (by eating insects), further exacerbating the food crisis. There was mass starvation in China worsened by this effort.

UNUSUAL THINGS FOR ME THIS MONTH: At the San Diego large animal park: two tortoises “exchanging fluids” very very slowly. And, I saw my first live Platypus.

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Marc Cohn (singer songwriter) was seen at the Bellyup

Someone selling medicare supplemental insurance from the east coast did an outreach call that rang on both Kernie’s and my cell phones at the same time!

            Total Lunar Eclipse was totally cool