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The Original Greaser Bob

Certifiably Surly
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Posts posted by The Original Greaser Bob

  1. Hey guys, any advice on Kindles and eye health/strain?  I'm on the laptop so much that I tend to like to get away from screens when reading outside of work, but I've got some more difficulty in finding the right light for comfortable reading as I get older -- I'm wondering if an ereader makes sense.  And if so, which are the kindest to your eyes.

  2.  A Hero (2021)  (Not to be confused with Summer Lovers.)

    I really like this guy's plodding movies, because I really have trouble keeping up with the Iranian characters motivations, which creates some interesting mystery and conflicts.  I had a bit more trouble with this than I have Farhadi's previous movies back to "A Separation", because the lead character was just a bit too inscrutable. 

    But quality if you can handle the pace..

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  3. The Man in the White Suit (1951)

    Another Ealing studio flick directed by Alexander Mackendrick and staring Alec Guinness, who looked old even when he was young.  Very odd slice of history, I liked it but so very British.

    the-man-in-the-white-suit.gif

    Following a common Ealing Studios theme of the "common man" against the Establishment, satirises interplay of innovator (our hero), against entrenched interests -- trade unions and wealthy mill owners. Fearing loss of income, via reduced need for their labour on the one hand, and resources on the other, that would predictably result from his revolutionary new (white) textile, they conspire his downfall.[3]

  4. On 1/30/2022 at 10:30 AM, Dewey said:

    Manchester,  I kept waiting for this moment of something good/great, but they just drag you into depression then roll credits.

    You mean something great like a time continuum portal or everyone moving to Kauai or Ben Affleck, his rich brother from Boston, showing up to save the day?

    If you want something lighter that's actually more terrific than Manchester you could go with You Can Count on Me.  Matthew Broderick has some laugh out loud moments that you would appreciate and it kinda ends well.

    Manchester by the Sea if fucking awesome, but I admit, I did see it on a double billing with Ted.

  5. 3 episodes so far.  Don't know  anything about autism.  

    The show has a vibe of a long Modern Romance episode, and that's got some drawbacks, but I've decided to just surrender to it and I'm really getting into it.  Pretty emotional stuff.

    Agree that the acting is just out of the park.  Sosie Bacon is a certain kind of archtype earnest co-ed.

    Caveat:  Reason I watched this was I was scanning this forum and I saw "How We See It (Prime Series About Austin".  Didn't quite figure out we were in CA until the second or third episode.  Thought to myself, "why have they imported so many palm trees to Austin..."

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  6. The Accommodation by Jim Shutze (originally published 1987).  

    Very good history of Dallas race relations in the 50s and 60s.  I would have liked less editorializing and more back story on the Dallas players, but it was pretty fascinating stuff.

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  7. 3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

    What about our performance thus far gives you any basis for optimism?

    the performance -- not much.  The basis for optimism if that we've created effective vaccines, and the folks who were all about mandates and closing schools (covidians) hopefully will be able to look back and identify the mistakes they made so that they aren't repeated.  I don't really have any hope for the covidiots, but one out of two isn't bad. 

  8. 9 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


    He casually dismisses the two greatest flaws in his analysis (and in the process, states something that is observably false).

    1 - the fact that there is an impact on the rest of us by the unvaxxed in taking up and wearing down healthcare resources.

    2 - his false statement about very effective treatments.

    As to 1, he just resorts to the lazy “what about” fallacy of saying “fat people and smokers and such also take up healthcare resources.” He ignores two huge distinctions. First, they don’t take up resources in huge waves. All the smokers don’t get sick at once. If COVID patients were spread out over time (yeah, the old flatten the curve concept), they wouldn’t overwhelm our resources. That’s a huge difference between a transmissible illness and a chronic condition - their distribution curve over time. Second, if we could prevent smokers from ending up in the hospital with a path that included a) generally continue your normal behavior, but b) get a couple of quick, safe shots, we would surely do so. Shit, it would probably be a requirement before you could buy cigarettes - get the safe tobacco consumption shot.

    2 - it’s false to say that we have very effective therapies. 2,000+ people don’t die every day of an illness that has “very effective therapies.” Do we have therapies now that are more effective than at the beginning of the pandemic? Yes, absolutely. And maybe without those, we’d be seeing 3,000 dead per day. But we’re still seeing 2,000 dead per day. That’s a super shitty result.

    I remain torn, slightly, on vaccine mandates based on the current state of the virus. All of that said, I think that if we have a serious, deadly illness (COVID, lung cancer, heart disease, it doesn’t matter) that can be functionally eliminated as a serious illness by a low cost, low effort, low risk mechanism like a couple of shots, there is no excuse not to take that measure. And society shouldn’t bear the cost of your idiotic refusal. So, either get the shots, or stay the fuck out of our hospitals. Oh, and don’t expect society to pick up the extra cost of caring for the family you left behind without a breadwinner (I’m actually not serious about that one, as that would be counterproductive for all of us, so it’s not even a cost we can avoid).

    The article says he is pro vaccine, and you've indicated that you are torn on mandates, so I'm not seeing your reasoning for having a particular beef with this.

    The issue Attia seems to be pushing is that it is appearing that natural immunity is arguably more effective at protecting oneself and arguably others than the vaccine.  If that is the case, why are we pushing the vaccine on otherwise healthy folks who have had COVID19 especially if recently?  

    In addition, the question is whether we would have had as many people vaccinated or had even more vaccinated had we stayed away from even discussing mandates, rather, if we shifted the message of the importance of the vaccine away from government officials and towards simple public service announcements.

    Bottom line is that once we had vaccines, that changed everything, because at that point each person had control over whether they would protect themselves.  The best way to protect the vulnerable, might have been, and might well be in the future, more effective without discussions of government imposed mandates.

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  9. 15 minutes ago, Lobo said:

    Uh, you literally just named half the U.S. population. 

    Old people, immuno-compromised and the obese are likely in more danger from things other than COVID19.  And with vaccines those folk's are much safer.  All I'm saying is that I am going to be more responsive to their concerns than I would for healthier people when it comes to masking. 

    I personally have found masking to be completely easy - you carry one in your pocket.  There is data to support the fact that wearing a good one can protect others from me if I have the flu or other respiratory illness. I'm really just arguing that it really should be everyone for themselves + responsiveness to other individuals. 

  10. 2 minutes ago, South Austin said:

    Sounds like I need to go catch Omicron.

    Yep, so says Peter Attia.  These two podcasts do a pretty good job of discussing where we are now.

    My approach for the rest of my life:  Wear a mask if I think I'm sick with some sort of respiratory illness.  Wear a mask if I know I'm going to be around vulnerable folks or if someone asks me to.  Other than that, I'm going to get immunized when I'm told to, and not give a fuck about how anyone else wants to handle themselves.

    https://peterattiamd.com/covid-19-current-state-omicron/

    https://peterattiamd.com/covid-part2/

    Good luck to all of you.  Barring some big change, we've got the vaccine, we've got treatments, and we're done, apart from looking out for those at risk - old people, immuno-compromised, and fatties.

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  11. On 1/21/2022 at 12:28 PM, henrygandorf said:

    i wouldn't be shocked if netflix is a lower tier streaming service inside of 18 months.

    I'm still old schooling the DVD's by mail.  Is there another service that competes with them with as broad a selection?

    I am actually kind of surprised that they still do the mail stuff, but given the issues you touched on, maybe that business provides them with a bit of a backup.

  12. On 12/17/2021 at 11:23 AM, DougO said:

    I really enjoyed The Plot Thickens about Bogdanovich when I listened to it last year. The extra interviews with other stars and directors were a great bonus.

    The second one really lost me. I made it through the first episode and just never went back. It's hard to get interested in a bad movie that I never cared about, and the kickoff episode didn't do much to convince me otherwise. Maybe I'll give it another shot later.

    First two episodes of the Lucy podcast were interesting, but I haven't picked it back up in a few weeks. Been preoccupied with other stuff.

    Boy, that's about me, although I think the 2nd clearly made me a bit more reluctant to get into the Lucy one. 

  13. On 1/19/2022 at 8:02 AM, PittsburghTiger said:

    Last night we watched this. I remember having gone to the theater with my dad to see it when it came out. I still enjoyed it.

     

     

    For a split second there I thought you were talking about "Where Eagles Dare" (which I saw with my dad, I think), and I was taken aback at your lack of enthusiasm. 

     

  14. Norm McDonald's semi-faux biography.  The ghost writer sidetracks are pretty funny and I liked the book but boy it got dark at times.  Was great hearing Norm read the thing.  (Audio)

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  15. On 1/9/2022 at 10:55 AM, Lobo said:

    So there’s a ham-handed 

    there’s a ham-fisted (south Austin’s mom on Yom Kippur)

    And there’s heavy handed.  
     

    Don't forget "ham, foot and mouth" and "hamberder".

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