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Thursday, February 24, 2022

News Shorts: A Chess Upset and a Sad Love Story

 Hola darlings!

Just a brief visit, I've yet to finish reading all the news but there isn't much "good" in most of it.

First, it appears that Magnus Carlsen is not a Borg machine-man after all, he actually lost a chess game, to a 16 year old Indian kid, no less.  GASP!  I couldn't help but laugh at the headline of this article, from The New York Times morning online edition today:

16-Year-Old Chess Prodigy Defeats World Champion Magnus Carlsen

While it did not affect the reigning champion's title, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa of India defeated Carlsen in the middle of the night during a rapid online tournament, stunning the chess world.

The second article, also from today's morning online edition of The New York Times, is a love story that, unfortunately, had a sad ending.  Two people, long together, in their 80s, separated when she was put into a nursing home and COVID-19 restrictions in Australia prevented him from visiting her daily.  They tried to escape, and tragedy ensued:


Terry Gibbs was apprehended after abducting his longtime partner from her nursing home and setting out on a 3,000-mile journey.

Monday, February 21, 2022

News Shorts - The World is Insane, Period

 Hola!  It's 2022 and we're almost 3 months into it, Holy Hathor, where does the time go?  

We're expecting freezing rain and sleet in southeast Wisconsin later today, and lots of snow, up to a foot or more, in the counties further north.  Not looking forward to three or four days of iced-over sidewalks, so I dashed out early this morning and picked up essentials for survival:  a loaf of 12-grain bread, a cannister of Pringles (not low sodium), a 16 ounce jar of unsalted shelled peanuts, whole milk (no wimpy 1% milk for this woman), dark chocolate candies, and 3 liters of wine.  

First up, this touching obituary that brought tears to my eyes thinking about my own long-departed and much missed four legged friends, about a much-loved doggy from The New York Times:

Finnegan, Dog Known for His Exemplary Nose, Dies at 14
By Dr. Alexandra Horowitz
February 21, 2022

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And then there this is this story, also from The New York Times, about a romance scam aimed at stealing money from lonely people.  It infuriates me first of all to read stories like this, because I can't imagine HOW somebody could possibly get suckered into giving somebody money that they've never met and don't even know if they're actually a real person!  Heeelllloooooooo - WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?  And it makes me sad that there are so many lonely people in the world, people so desperate to make a connection with somebody that they can so easily be entrapped in this kind of scam.  Read:

Crypto Scammers’ New Target: Dating Apps
By Kevin Roose
February 21, 2022

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Violence against women and children has been committed since the dawn of time.  How pathetically sad that males have to attack those who are least able to defend themselves - and for what?  Violence against women and children in the United States has always been a problem - one so seemingly endemic that it is rarely even covered in news stories these days, despite an average of three women (and sometimes their children) killed in "domestic violence" situations every day in the U.S.  This article attracted quite a bit of attention because it came out of Austria - a country most folks associate only with Julie Andrews singing about the hills being alive, the Von Trapp family and "The Sound of Music."  

Austria Raises Alarm About 'Dramatic' Femicide Plague 
From AFP
January 18, 2022

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For the grand finale today, there's this from The Daily Beast (one of my favorite online news vendors, they rarely fail to report on something absolutely outrageous).  It made me give thanks for the fact that we actually have PROCESSED and SAFE TO USE Milorganite, created from a process developed by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District, oh yeah.  

Desperate Kim Jong Un Pleads with Citizens to Make More Poop
By Donald Kirk
January 12, 2022