Saturday, March 16, 2024

Asleep But Studying, Maybe - Trump Slurring and Dune Popcorn

The Schloss-Blog is noticing a study that says students who don't get enough sleep curse more. We also noticed Katie Britt in the kitchen. Yikes.

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Apparently, if students - college students - don't get enough sleep, they curse more. Probably. Let alone have poorer performance (in the classroom, that is - anywhere else, who knows).

According to Current Psychology, this is the case. They curse about aches and pains and tend to curse about just being tired.

Think about it - what did you say - what do you say - when you had, when you have aches and pains? And feel tired after, perhaps, a not-so-good night's sleep.

Yeah, me to, God __in'  damn it.

***

Got a Dune Popcorn Bucket?

They are going for more than $100 and the internet is going crazy for them.

You tell me why (heck, I know).

***

In Arizona, Kari Lake has dropped her lawsuit to inspect mail-in ballot signatures in Maricopa County, which she claims would have revealed that there was voter fraud.

Because there was none.

Also, the lawsuit against her, for libel, filed by Maricopa County's Republican Recorder, Stephen Richer, has been allowed to proceed, after she allegedly defamed him after she lost the gubernatorial election in 2022.

She'll lose that one, or settle.

But Republicans don't lose elections - they are victims of fraud. Or as President Biden said in his State of the Union address -  "You can't love your country only when you win."

***

Katie Britt.

In the kitchen.

Sounding as scripted as she looked.

Will not be Den Mother nor PTA Mother of the Year.

Was she barefoot?

***

Adam Sandler earned $73 million in 2023. SEVENTY-THREE MILLION.

His films were watched on Netflix some 500 million hours in the first half of 2023 alone.

FIVE-HUNDRED MILLION HOURS.

I guess it pays to get bounced from Saturday Night Live. Shane Gillis, there's hope for you.

Sandler, by the way, beat our Margot (Barbie) Robbie and Tom (Mission Impossible) Cruise.

***

About Arizona, one more time, according to Axios Phoenix, it takes singles 19 times longer to save up to buy a house than it take couples.

NINETEEN TIMES LONGER.

(No, I'm not going Trumpian here with the all CAPS).

Can you imagine being a confirmed bachelor and waiting 18 more years, perhaps, longer than your married and/or cohabitating friends to buy a house?

Me neither. Get married guys.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Jill Biden.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.


Saturday, March 9, 2024

Aimlessly Wandering Through The World of Outrageous Ticket Pricing and HBO

The Schloss-Blog has discovered that "aimlessly wandering" can be good for you, as long as it's not while you're aimlessly drifting between lanes on a four-lane interstate highway, that is.

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We've been reading some lately about "aimless wandering," the practice of just going out there and walking, conscious more of letting your senses go to take in all that is around you as opposed to where you are actually doing that. Going out and walking wherever your instincts take you is one of the precepts of this practice.

It's a Daoism thing - to be aligned with the natural order of the universe.

Don't worry - the Schloss-Blog has not gone off the deep end (did that a long time ago). It's just that the frustrations of life can be so overwhelming (i.e., SCOTUS) that an escape is a good release and we like to go out for long walks, early morning, along the golf course outside our Arizona door. Either that or go the gym and attack a stationary bike or a cross-trainer while letting the mind do the aimless wandering as Stephen A. Smith aimlessly wanders with his off-the-wall rants about why the Knicks should've acquired Donovan Mitchell instead of Jalen Brunson.

Or perhaps both of them. Yes, the 'A' in his name stands for aimless.

***

While aimless seems to define the Supreme Court of late (did away with abortion, likes guns, hates the environment, kisses Donald Trump's ass), you should try navigating HBO.

In Arizona, that is.

The indications that Arizona has been leaning blue politically do not apply to HBO. Yes, the Grand Canyon State has one independent senator and one Democrat. Yes, the state has a Democratic governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General. But both houses of the legislature are still red, albeit by just one vote. And every abortion-banning, gun rights-expanding piece of legislation they pass along gets vetoed by the governor (who won her seat by fraud - just ask that bitch she beat - Kari Lake).

HBO doesn't care. If it's liberal, it gets buried in Arizona.

Bill Maher, for instance, whose liberal-leaning and entertaining "Real Time" is on at 9 p.m. in our Illinois abode (that would be 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. in Arizona, depending on which side of Daylight Savings Time we're on), is not on until 11 p.m. in Arizona (or 10 p.m., again, depending on which side of Daylight Savings Time we're on - Arizona does not spring forward nor fall back). And 11 p.m. in Arizona is the other side of midnight in Illinois (again, depending on ... OK, you get it...). Which means that Friday night show is not until Saturday morning in the Grand Canyon State.

Apparently, Maher's liberal rants are too much for Arizona to absorb, according to HBO and Cox Cable, although he's had some pretty conservative voices (Ted Cruz) on the show, of late.

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But that's not all in Arizona and the oddity that is HBO. Liberal means late night in Arizona, very late, as in the next morning.

"Last Week Tonight With John Oliver," doesn't air on Sunday night, like it does everywhere else. Try Monday morning, after midnight. Try pulling it up on demand on Cox - good luck.

Oh, there's some good 'X-rated' and even 'R-rated' programming on HBO. Who doesn't like seeing a trim Jodie Foster getting banged on "True Detective: Night Country" or listen to Larry David and his frenemies go off with f-bombs on "Curb Your Enthusiasm?"

But even that is on Sunday nights at - you guessed it - 11 p.m. (depending on which side of Daylight Savings Time we're on), just before - you guessed it - what becomes the Monday morning telecast of "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver."

By now, you're saying, Schloss, get rid of Cox Cable and get - oh, say - YouTube TV, or Fubo, or one of those streaming services. But by the time I get all of the of the streaming services with all the shows I want (they're just not all on Hulu, Netflix or any one of them), I'd be spending as much on streaming - or more - than I am on cable.

And it's not just HBO. Gannett's Arizona Republic has joined the fray (full disclosure - I have been one of their sports correspondents since 2015 and an online subscriber since before then).

But Doonesbury, the politically insensitive cartoon strip, is now out of the Sunday paper, which, in our household, we don't read online - yours truly gets up early and goes out and buys the late edition on Sunday mornings (plus a Starbucks stop - remember when you could buy the Sunday paper at Starbucks as well? Not anymore.). 

Hunt around for it on the azcentral.com website. I dare you. Doonesbury doesn't come up on an online search.

I have called and/or written to the powers that be on HBO and the Republic. No luck. No response.

You'd almost think an abortion ban and everyone toting AR-15's is next.

No, wait...

***

Quick-hitters:

  • If you think inflation-driven prices are bad, wait until Donald Trump becomes president again, slaps tariffs on everything and deports every essential worker in the hospitality and agriculture industries and see what happens to prices.
  • Ukraine says it has lost 31,000 lives in the war with Russia. But estimates are that somewhere between 66,000-88,000 Russians are dead and another 412,000 wounded or MIA. Putin doesn't care who he kills.
  • Bought tickets for a Cactus League exhibition baseball game (preseason game, my ass). Four tickets were - with service fees - $464 to go see the Giants play the Cubs (split squad) at Sloan Park. If we're lucky, maybe Cody Bellinger will be part of the split we get.
  • Checked other prices - four at a Dodgers game against the Padres were $562. How about Olivia Rodrigo concert tickets? Try the neighborhood of $563 per ticket. Billy Joel? You could pay upwards of $1,200 for a ticket. The Stones on their Hackney Diamonds tour? Good luck finding something under $600 with a reasonable view.

Don't mention Bruce Springsteen or Taylor Swift.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night as always on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.



Sunday, March 3, 2024

211 to 186

The Schloss-Blog is noticing that the NBA All-Star Game is not your father's NBA All-Star Game, not even his father's.

I've got 397 reasons why I haven't watched it since Magic Johnson made his return from HIV in the 1992 game. Like the NBA regular season, it's got no defense, a lot of unnecessary 3-pointers and a bunch of frivolous slam dunks. 

It's time to make the NBA All-Star Game into a 3-on-3 competition for big money, single-elimination. C'mon NBA, take the same chance the NFL did when it turned its high-scoring Pro Bowl into a flag football event.

Otherwise, it just sucks.

***

I swear, everyone except Donald Trump is asking me for $19.97 a month for life to help them feed children, perform surgery and care for pets.

If I paid all of them I can think of, it would cost me something like $220 a month.

Trump is asking for a lot more than that. And he needs it. Thank you, Judge Engoron

***

If 70 is the new 60, I'm 40, right?

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Is Julian Assange a journalist?

Then why is everyone griping about his prospective extradition to the United States being a violation of the First Amendment?

Or is it?

According to First Amendment Watch at NYU, Assange's alleged violation of the Espionage Act with his leaks to Wikileaks don't matter whether he is a journalist.

Or not.

"The Espionage Act doesn’t make any distinction between journalists and non-journalists," according to Justice Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

So he can be charged? So the profession of journalism is not in jeopardy because of the charges against him?

Or is it?

Yes, it is.

No, wait...

***

Joe Biden just canceled another $1.2 billion in student debt and has canceled $138 billion all told.

So why are young people having so much trouble believing in him, especially with their intended vote? Trump would've kept the money to pay off his legal fees.

***

Alabama's Supreme Court says embryos are kids and destroying them can incur the wrath of God.

In other news, the Alabama Supreme Court declared Donald Trump to officially be "Orange Jesus."

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, ladies of New Jersey.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show (hello GDX).