Hemorrhoids be Gone

If hemorrhoids got you down, this highly-toxic ointment will make all your worries go away - permanently:

California health officials are warning the public about a Vietnamese hemorrhoid ointment that is laced with a “highly dangerous amount of lead” and has killed a Sacramento woman.

California Health Department officials said in a written statement that the woman purchased the Vietnamese product in March through Facebook. A relative then shipped it to her from Vietnam. After using the ointment, the woman experienced symptoms related to lead poisoning and died. 

The Vietnamese product, in a small, round green container, is called Cao Bôi Trĩ Cây Thầu Dầu (Castor Oil Hemorrhoid Extract). Health officials said samples of the product showed the ointment had about 4% lead, a “highly dangerous amount.”

What Do You Mean My Credit’s Lousy?

I got this!

Sierra College's "Guys and Dolls" - April 12, 2024

"Guys and Dolls" at Sierra College.  Saw several people I knew - Adriel Cruz on piano, Paul Fearn as Arvide Abernathy, choreographer Pamela Lourentzos, and Ana Hansen in the audience. Carly Plageman Yorde was an excellent Adelaide and Josie Morales was an excellent Nathan Detroit. Kyra Obanil was a great lead dancer.

The show was directed by Scott Adams, who played Nathan Detroit in the "Guys and Dolls" I was in at Woodland Opera House in October, 2001.   In that show, Scott's wife Sherri Dozier Adams played Adelaide.  Sherri was also pregnant at the time (with Charlie, I think).  Charlie's younger brother Andrew played Benny Southstreet in this show.  It's just amazing how time flies!

Leah Deutch, who played Sarah Brown, together with Rachel.  In Lincoln Theatre Company's "Fiddler on the Roof last September, Rachel played Golde, mother to Leah's Tzeitel.

Afterwards, dessert at Leatherby's in Citrus Heights (which I didn't know existed until this night).

Looking distinguished!

Spring in Sacramento

The tree out in front of my house.

Falcon's Eye Theatre at Folsom Lake College - Cabaret - April 6, 2024

Very nice set and lighting design by Ian Wallace and company at Folsom's Harris Center.

Stage people posing for a photo, including (standing tallest in the back) Carly Plageman Yorde, who excellently plays Miss Adelaide at Sierra College's "Guys and Dolls."

Myself and Rachel pose with Alex Quinonez, who did a fantastic job as Emcee.  Alez and Rachel were both in RTAA's "Angels in America" in 2019.   In that show, I was very impressed with Alex's ability to remember long streams-of-consciousness dialogue.  In this show, I was impressed with Alex's energy.

Alex and Rachel.

I had some problems with the Kit Kat Klub. The stage was too large for an effectively-noisy nightclub environment. I thought the dancing was too austere and not enough was done with the comedic possibilities of the club.

Still, it was an excellent show.  I liked Maria Beretta as Sally Bowles - lots of energy.  Janet Motenko was great as Fraulein Schneider.

Our Orwellian Times, Particularly on Abortion!

“Leave it to the states” (Trump’s latest mantra) actually means zombie laws banning abortion return at full strength, with no exceptions, no matter public opinion. (Remember, as Texas demonstrates every day, exceptions for the health of the mother are unenforceable.) 

The only way to have a chance to stop this madness is by asphyxiating the Republican Party, by voting Democratic for every single office, until that distant day that Republicans decide to become a pro-choice party. Meanwhile, Kari Lake is twisting in the wind…

So let’s review. Lake opposes the law she had consistently said she supported. She denounces the court decision which ruled that the old law is in effect. She thinks the decision should be left to the states. She also opposes abortion. Also, Arizona is a state.

She also wants Governor Hobbs to solve the situation. Which would presumably mean making abortion legal. Even though Lake opposes abortion. 

She then comes very close to saying that abortion is a very personal issue that should be left to a state and her doctor. No really. I’m not kidding. Here’s the exact quote: “This is a very personal issue that should be determined by each individual state and her people.”

Meanwhile, the Republicans in the Arizona state legislature are too busy to fix anything:

@ynotcani The day after MAGA controlled Arizona Republicans blocked democrat efforts to repeal the worst abortion ban in America, they are out of state taking minimum of $10,000 donations in exchange for fast time with lobbyists. They said they adjoruned to meet constituents. Nope. They wanted to drink with lobbyists. #voteblue #greenscreen #politics ♬ original sound - Tony Cani

Dysfunctional Parenting, New-Zealand Style

Interesting story:

“They’re real sort of rugged, coast-y people who don’t come into town much,” a local reporter told me. “They’re kind of unusual. You’d call them rednecks, I think.” (Being “coastal” has a very different connotation in New Zealand than it does in the U.S.) Tony Wall, a reporter for the newsmagazine Stuff, told me that Phillips’ parents have been “very uncooperative. If you read between the lines, it definitely seems like they know something but they’re not telling us.”

Someone, everybody assumed, was shopping for supplies and ferrying them out to Phillips, wherever he was hiding out. “It’s almost unfathomable to think a father could survive with three small children without someone buying them supplies,” Baxter told me. “But what’s the endgame? I’m looking out my window now, and it’s pouring down rain.”

The lack of urgency on the part of Waikato police was often commented upon. “It’s very strange,” one reporter who’s been covering the case said. “The cops are not pouring any resources into looking for him and those children. I think they are of the view that he’s not going to hurt them and he’ll eventually come out.” 

...Whatever enquiries were under way, that cold and wet winter passed with no sign of Tom Phillips. As 2022 turned into 2023, Phillips and his children had been missing without a trace for more than a year. Then came the bank robbery.

Been Spending Time in Hospitals

Nothing wrong with me, but people I know have had some medical issues lately. Here is Sacramento VA Medical Center.

Hey, Where You Been?

I hear you've been busy!

Twin Rivers USD Job Fair

I attended this job fair at Twin Rivers Unified School District on April 10th. I might start as substitute teacher with them sometime soon. Strange event in some ways. Food was available for free, including ice cream bars and fresh fruit (a bell pepper, two kiwis, and about eight strawberries for me.

AI Trump Needs Cash

Eclipse Reenactment

@theholdernessfamily No need for special glasses 😎 #eclipse ♬ original sound - The Holderness Fam

The Modern Economy

Don’t Surprise the Maniac

Don't trifle with the damage:

Police in Ohio are trying to track down a man who allegedly pulled a gun on a Burger King employee over the weekend because he was mad about receiving a discount. The incident took place in the Cleveland suburb of Willowick on Easter morning, when, according to the employee, the customer flipped out after learning his order was cheaper than he expected it to be. “He was like, ‘My order can’t be right, it should be like $11,’ and I’m like trying to explain to him that we had a promotion going on, and like it’s cheaper, and he started cussing and getting all loud, and I was like, ‘I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t know why you want to pay more money.’”

Beethoven's Secret Code

I like stories about discovering secret codes:

"Then, one evening in 2013, the violinist Nicholas Kitchen was in New Mexico coaching a quartet through Opus 132. Kitchen is a man of obsessions; one of them is playing from a composer’s original handwritten manuscripts, rather than printed music, so he had a facsimile edition on hand. The errant “ffmo” caught the eye of the quartet’s cellist. “What’s this?” she asked. 

As soon as Kitchen saw Beethoven’s mark, something in his brain shifted; later, he would tell people that it was as if someone had turned over a deck of cards to reveal the hidden faces behind the plain backs. Suddenly, he had a new obsession. Over the next several years, he would come to believe he had discovered Beethoven’s secret code."

So You Say

Changes at Amazon Fresh

I've never shopped at Amazon Fresh stores, but I'm disturbed reading about the experience. It's like discovering that hamsters power your car. Apparently the "Just Walk Out" technology worked through intense surveillance. All sorts of people in India carefully watched exactly what you put in your shopping cart. And now Amazon Dash Carts will do the job instead. Powered by hamsters, perhaps? And what are the motives of these hamsters?:

Just over half of Amazon Fresh stores are equipped with Just Walk Out. The technology allows customers to skip checkout altogether by scanning a QR code when they enter the store. Though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labeling videos to ensure accurate checkouts. The cashiers were simply moved off-site, and they watched you as you shopped.

My Supermarket Has Rough Edges

I like the comments over at Reddit.

Do You Have a Light?

I’ve chosen my late-night dog-walking path in order to avoid people, but sometimes you meet them anyway.  Tonight (March 31st), Jasper and I encountered a man pulling a roller bag down a dark residential street and randomly-dropping some kind of metal bar on the pavement. It was hard to tell in the dark, but he seemed to have a goatee. 

“Do you have a light?” he asked. When I said no, he persisted with the question. I explained I didn’t smoke. That annoyed him. “I have to walk a long way; without nicotine! There was a time when everyone had a light, but these days everyone steals my lighters, and now no one can start a fire. I hate Sacramento! I hate this f***ing world!” 

Yes, there was a time when everyone wore a smile and could instantly start conflagrations, but the world has since grown cold and dark. All we can do these days is stare at our phones. 

(I may have seen the guy again this morning. He was standing at the street corner, frozen stiff like a statue, staring at the roof of a Porsche auto repair business, where a homeless guy named Grant had had a standoff with the cops several years ago. I hope he’s not thinking similar thoughts.)

Snow Globe: A Breaking Bad Short - El Camino

I had somehow missed this "Breaking Bad" gem, from "El Camino." Just love it!

 

Canada's Got Talent 2023 - Cydnee Abbott

This girl is going places! (h/t Kelly)

 

"The Man With Icy Eyes" Music Video (Based on the 1971 Movie) - Albuquerque< NM

This Italian "giallo" (yellow) movie was filmed for some eccentric reason in Albuquerque in 1970. Giallo films tend to have a film-noir/supernatural edge to them - that's why they are called "yellow." 

I love this film because it captures Central Avenue when it was still in its Route 66 neon heyday. Plus, the bad guy is named Valdez, and he tries to hide at the house that became Charles McGill's house in "Better Call Saul." And all the Spanish-speaking bad guys have Italian accents. And Barbara Bouchet is pretty (but with a heart of ice). And Victor Buono (King Tut from the Batman series) is a newspaper editor. It's just so - eccentric! Who does stuff like this?

 

Morning After the Colossal Fire, 19th and X Streets, March 26, 2024

Morning-after pictures from Tuesday night’s fire at 19th and X Streets in Sacramento. The structure at 19th and Broadway looks undamaged, and I overheard a boss telling gathered workers “we still have a building to finish.” 

I’m wondering if they’ll have to replace the concrete structure upon which the burned higher floors sit? 

The fire jumped X Street and burned some weeds there. I found 85 cents in coins on the newly-exposed ground, so it’s not a complete disaster.

Colossal Fire, 19th and X Streets, March 26, 2024

Colossal fire disaster Tuesday night, March 26, 2024, starting about 1 a.m., at 19th and X Streets in Sacramento. Millions of dollars of new construction for apartments incinerated in half an hour. Huge fire response, but most engines couldn’t get near the fire. The really tall ladders came in handy, however, for dumping water on the flames. The new structure at 19th and Broadway may have survived, but everything else on that block is toast.

When I first saw the smoke I was walking Jasper about 1 a.m. around 26th St. and Larkin.  At first, I thought it was the DMV on fire, and I shouted at one of the security guards that walk the complex that his place was on fire, and he shouted back that no one had radioed him about it.  

As it turned out, the fire was farther away, but where?  Was it the Catholic Diocese?  No.  Was it Shoki Ramen? (I had heard that they will be closing soon.) No.  Was it the Avid Reader?  No.  Instead, it was the new apartments, not yet completed.  All that exposed wood!  So flammable!

Here is the Sacramento Bee article.

 

I ran back home, grabbed my iPhone, and put Jasper away.  From my house, the fire looked alarming.

So many fire engines!  And they can't get close to the fire!

The light-rail, truck-on-rails guy monitors a very bad situation.

These extraordinarily tall ladders were the only effective available tool to tackle the flames, and they weren't all that good, because the closely-packed apartment walls helped keep the water from reaching many flames.

Millions of dollars of new construction, gone, in half an hour!

These fire fighters parked at the Avid Reader bookstore, used powerful rotary saws to slice through chain link fences in showers of sparks, and dragged their hoses across the train tracks to try an reach the flames.

It looks like War of the Worlds!

Green Valley Theater Company - VerteFée Cabaret - St. Patty's! - March 15, 2024

A fun time was had by all! (Two pictures, just before showtime).

Billions and Billions

@politicianusa

♬ original sound - POLITICIANUSA

Save The Parrot!

People and pets get into jams:

A man stumbled off a cliff while chasing after his pet parrot, California officials say.

The man was trying to get his bird when he “fell over the side of a steep cliff” in O’Neill Regional Park on Sunday, March 17, Orange County Fire Authority said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Fortunately, he landed where he did and didn’t continue down, because the crews that were on scene reported that it was about a 40-foot drop after that,” Capt. Thanh Nguyen told McClatchy News in a phone interview.

... The man was placed in a harness and airlifted from the area, all while clutching his parrot that he tucked under his shirt, Nguyen said.

Paramedics checked the man for injuries, but he was fine, according to Nguyen. Nguyen said he’s unsure of how the bird got away initially.

Music To Soothe The Savages

What’s the story with these things? Apparently they are self-sustaining surveillance devices placed in supermarket parking lots. Seemingly, they are supposed to keep overnight campers and various derelicts away from the supermarket by playing music day and night so hideous, so wretched, so mind-alteringly bad, that no sane person would want to remain nearby. For that purpose something from the death metal genre should suffice, or New Country, or various commercial jingles, but instead they play a lot of very pretty 19th-Century ballet music; Tchaikovsky, and the like. Instead of scaring people like me away, the devices seemingly lure people in. Let’s camp here! So, what gives? Have I misunderstood their purpose?

It Put the Modern in Mid-Century!

@dinosaurdinnertheatre Concrete #mst3k #mysterysciencetheater3000 #rifftrax #comedy #dinosaurdinnertheatre #mrshow #comedybangbang #concrete #midcenturymodern #1960saesthetic #1960 #midcentury ♬ original sound - Mike Baird

The Wild Parrots of Los Angeles

Home away from home:

For example, the driest month in Southern California is significantly drier than any portion of their native habitats in the western and eastern coastal regions of Mexico, the study says. The timing of the precipitation here is also different, with a winter rainfall regime rather than summer rains.

That “urban oasis effect” created by sprinkler watering systems “could partly explain why introduced parrots do not seem to be spreading beyond urban centers,” it says. “Their intelligence and behavioral plasticity might further allow them to adapt to urban life.”

The look of Southern California’s green canopies has changed significantly since the 1950s and ’60s, when developers turned up their noses at native oaks and sycamores. They chose instead to landscape their subdivisions, apartment complexes, business parks, shopping centers and roadways with nonnative trees, including sweet gums, camphor, carrotwood, fig, and ficus trees — all favored by parrots. 

For reasons that are not fully understood, several hundred parrots seek evening accommodations each night in the limbs of fig and London plane trees lining a bustling stretch of Rosemead Boulevard in Temple City. The odd locale is believed to be one of the most populous roosting sites for parrots in the Los Angeles area.

A Truthful Rant From Alabama

@laurenpcrna Katie Britt isn’t stupid but she is a MASSIVE disappointment for women in AL. #sotu #katiebritt #rebuttal #alabama #senator #greenscreen ♬ original sound - Lauren P