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Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 301

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List week we saw Big Fat Greek Wedding II. Entertaining, but predictable.

I imagine this is a rare occurrence for most, but I’ve been dealing with these issues all at the same time: cell phone, laptop, tablet, wireless router, and server storage.

Our handbell season is over, so here’s the last song we played (Celtic Praise). The musicians in the crowd will enjoy the rhythms in this piece. The link is the composer’s choir, which he (interestingly) didn’t use a flute accompaniment.

I feel very behind on much about blogging … so I’m delaying the next act of Colors: The Musical.

Oh my … the stats are dropping like a rock – but I’m pressing on.

Sorry, no Explore post this weekend.

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With Donald Trump (R-NY) being the presumptive Republican nominee, talk about his running mate has begun. His the aFa Power Ranking at this point in time: 5)Snookie 4)Sarah Palin 3)John Kasich 2)Chris Christie 1)Newt Gingrich

Republican partisans are predictably starting to embrace the Trump candidacy. After all, that’s what partisans do.

I seldom read two of the three columnists below, but on this day, I appreciated their columns and (in particular) these lines:

It was actually a rare opportunity for Cruz to shed his image as a reptilian barfly and trade his mom-jeans for Lycra tights and a cape. (Kathleen Parker, Washington Post)

His (Trump’s) metabolic urge to be scabrous guarantees that GOP candidates everywhere will be badgered by questions about what they think about what he says. What they say will determine how many of them lose with him, and how many deserve to. (George Will, Washington Post)

But as Trump himself says of being a conservative – at this point, who cares? As of Tuesday night, certainly not the GOP. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post)

To lead you into your weekly dose of satire, The Onion explains how the USA pick Supreme Court justices.

Weekly Headlines from The Onion (combos welcome)
Lone ant crawling through kitchen trumpets arrival of horde
Biologists discover billions of missing bees living anonymously in Sacramento
Laughing woman clarifies amusement with clapping
Genie presidential candidate promises to grant American public three wishes if elected
Teary-eyed student loan officers proudly watch as $200,000 asset graduates from college
Waitress who took over at table just doesn’t have same spark as Richard
Chinese astronomers inform Beijing residents sky will be visible for rare 2-Minute window tomorrow morning

Interesting Reads
About colors (Thanks, Ray)
Government jobs – where did they go?
Japanese decoys of WW II
Genetically-modified mosquitoes – is that a problem?
The mysteries of ear wax
Militants targeting personalities
(Images plus) Food photographer of the year

To send you into the weekend, enjoy this hit from a collection of stars. Have a safe weekend and in the words of Garrison Keillor, Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.

54 thoughts on “Opinions in the Shorts: Vol. 301”

  1. I think I’d rather your frank angle on My Big Fat Greek Wedding II, Frank.
    We’re about to have an election ourselves. Thankfully we haven’t had to put up with the usual lies and promises and sleazy suck ups for as long as the poor beleaguered citizens of the US but I’m fed up with it all. And scared.
    I’ve only seen the first Greek Wedding film. The first time I watched, I laughed myself silly and had a ball. The second time I saw it, I noticed that everyone was bright and vibrant and so simply fabulous that it highlighted the bride’s future in laws as limp, pale, boring and lacing in humour or even any sort of opinion. I began to wonder how they raised such a terrific son. 🙂

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    • Mary,
      As for the wedding movie, I will say that the son (in my opinion) shines in the second movie.

      As for the election, many are fed up but in different ways … but n the end, I still see the country surviving … Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

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    • Cynthia,
      Hooray … someone listened to Celtic Praise! We also played that song a month ago as part of a 700-member choir …. that’s a lot of bells! … and you completely made my day by reading the earwax article. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

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  4. I haven’t seen either of the Fat Greek Weddings, Frank, but I have seen all the latest Marvel movies! Someday I will see an adult movie. I catch up on Netflix. A lot of people seem to be swayed by Trump in the GOP lately. They’re all coming his way. But still no tax returns!

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    • Amy,
      The first Big Fat Greek wedding is a hoot! So, do you recommend any of the latest Marvel movies?

      The primaries are coming your way … too bad you won’t experience the full force of both sides. The latest news on the tax returns is that he doesn’t see releasing them as important – something all candidates have done for the past 40 years.

      Liked by 1 person

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  5. I probably won’t see the movie, but I’m glad you enjoyed it. I can’t get started on Trump.;)
    The color article was interesting. I knew about the Pantene and choosing colors for the year, (I’ve written about it in my testing work), but I didn’t know the other info.
    You must have had fun with the handbell piece.
    Have a great weekend, Frank!

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  6. Rare occurrence? Joking right?! 😉
    Loved the handbell piece – beautiful!
    Haven’t seen BFGW II but I wonder how far can the same story go!
    Wishing you a wonderful weekend, my friend! 🙂

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  7. “The Search for Our Missing Colors” by Amos Zeeberg got me thinking about what colors we think we’re seeing when we watch TV or look at a painting, or stare out our kitchen window.

    The beat groove of the melodic line of “Celtic Praise (The Rap)” was fantastic! The entire population of Cincinnati will be out dancing in the street the day all the church bells in town are coordinated to play that tune.

    Thanks to George Will for teaching me the word ‘scabrous’ and to Kathleen Parker for adding ‘reptilian barfly’ to the list of images of Ted Cruz.

    Today’s Onions tried too hard and were easily ducked.

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    • Tim,
      As you know, George Will has a knack of demonstrating his vocabulary depth. in terms of the bell piece, it wasn’t easy to count, so I relied on playing by feeling the rhythm … and it seems the Colors article was the big winner this week!

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  9. LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the Celtic Praise, but I’m a little confused. Is this the choir you and Mrs. A are in? I did very much appreciate the rhythms! In fact, I put it on repeat to that I could groove to it while I catch up on your posts.

    I’m writing a post on the GOP selling its soul to the GOP (which you promised me wouldn’t happen, Frank! 🙂 ), so I stopped by to see if your faith was still hanging strong or if you were in as much a state of shock as I am. Sigh.

    Loved the line from the Onion: “Lone ant crawling through kitchen trumpets arrival of horde” because we just finished dealing with this scenario in our bathroom. Saw several lone scouting ants, and the exterminator put down some type of clear poison that draws out the horde. We returned the next day from a trip and our bathroom was overrun with so many ants that it looked like someone had painted black stripes all over our bathroom. It was like a horror story!!

    So my friend, may we both survive November. Stay strong. 🙂

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    • E-Tom,
      Glad you enjoyed Celtic Praise, but this video was a choir in Colorado (not ours) … but the director was the composer.

      Thanks for checking in on me. As time went on, I was relying on a brokered convention … so yep – I missed it along with many other pundits. Meanwhile, I believe that a Trump nomination is a black mark against the American public. Very sad. One thing for sure, it’s been crazy so far, and we probably haven’t seen anything yet.

      On the other hand, I remain calm and have declared I won’t vote for Trump and would be willing to cast a vote for someone else as a vote against him.

      Oh no on those ants … and it seems The Onion may have been in kahoots with the ants at your house! Meanwhile, hope all is well with you and hi to WW.

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      • I just noticed that I wrote “the GOP selling its soul to the GOP” when I meant to say “selling its soul to Trump”. . .but you got the idea. You are so right that it will be a black mark against the American public because it will bring out all the fascists, racists, and xenophobes who will think it to be okay to shout from the house tops at Noon what they have been whispering in the privacy of their homes at night (they have already started). But I still have hope and I believe in the power of prayer–I won’t stop praying and sounding the alarm through my writing until election night is over. (Just posted a Judge Judy type court room exchange between “truth” and the GOP regarding Trump. Hope you like it.) In the meantime, I’m not in the tank for Hillary either, but what you gonna do? Take care my friend. 🙂

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        • The whole situation is absolutely crazy. I’m not sold on Hillary either, but I am willing to give her my vote as a vote against The Donald … and that type of voting is something that I seldom do as I have a tendency to vote for someone instead of voting against someone. Oh well … hang on for new levels of campaign wackiness!

          Liked by 1 person

    • Kerry,
      In general, I like the writers who are more to the center – such as Parker, Ruth Marcus, David Brooks, and others …. so I tend to bypass the columnists in each direction. George Will is a fabulous writer … even one that wants his readers to know his extensive vocabulary.

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  13. I enjoyed the article on color and the images of food in the food photography piece. Thanks for sharing those. 🙂
    I am behind when it comes to blogging, too. It’s the way it goes sometimes. Hope all is well in your world.

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    • Robin,
      The color article came from a photographer, so I’m glad the link led to another photographer enjoying it. … Yep – being behind at blogging does have a way of happening.

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  14. Blogging is not my job. It is an enjoyable activity when I have time. For the next month, I will probably have time to post once a week, at most. I do miss visiting pals.
    I enjoyed the Traveling Wilbury’s piece.
    Something in my gut always said… watch Trump run! Watch Trump win!
    Have a great week, Frank!

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  15. I’m all in favor of genetically-modified mosquitoes to fight the coming Zika virus epidemic. I just wish the author hadn’t started his article with horror stories about the failure of new-species introduction. Modified male mosquitoes are very unlikely to be worse than coating entire cities with pesticides or tens of thousands of deformed babies!

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  17. Nothing’s better than the WIlburys. Oh, OK the bells are cool, too….but summer appraoches and you need road trip music
    I’ll take Carrie and your advice about the movie. Something not serious and funny is really needed. (I can hardly take the news shows on any channel any more. “Conservative” is a word that no longer has a meaning. Both parties are fighting among themselves and it does seem we are approaching hold our nose and vote for one of them.)
    Don’t worry about the stats, it’s an ebb and flow thing….as well as WP and search engines like Google making changes such as in placement. I’m not sure the stat count is accurate anymore but I’m sure they will be glad to let you buy a more accurate accounting HA HA
    Hope your week is off to a great start

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    • Mouse,
      In November, many will use the “hold-your-nose” voting technique … and many of those voters will be using their vote more as a vote against someone than for the candidate … and that will happen on both sides.

      My stats haven’t been so much ebb and flow, but actually in steady decline for the past 2-3 years. I don’t fixate on them, but I watch. Part of that is do to some long-time regulars no longer on the WP prowl.

      Glad you enjoyed the Wilburys … and cheers a good week ahead for you!!

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      • So many bloggers have gone silent for various reasons. One thing I have noticed is that Reader has had more and more issues. Yesterday I got down to the bottom of the scroll and it refused to load any more posts – so anyone who posted late last night or early early couldn’t be viewed. I wish they would go back to the thumbnails so you could quickly see who you hadn’t read. Then there’s the problem with email notices not working 100%. A lot of people are noticing something’s going on.
        The election. Sigh. I’m still wondering if Hillary will be shoved aside at the last minute like last time for some “new” face…may have been the plan, but they didn’t count on Bernie’s appeal. I can’t and won’t vote for Hillary – may not be able to afford Bernie. Cruz is scary for many reasons – the more he talks, the more people back away. Trump is an unknown. All we can do is wait and see what shakes out. But generally people are really angry with established politicians and both parties

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        • Many reasons for bloggers going silent … tired of it … focusing on other social media …. family and work …. sickness and death … and those are a few. I miss them – but I’m also proud for my persistence … yet, my time to step away will come … I just don’t know when.

          Regarding the election, the “I count vote for Hillary” + “I count vote for Trump” = a sizable percentage of American voters.

          Liked by 1 person

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