Good morning, Glibs and Glibettes. And any of you non-binary whatevers. We’ve been in a celebratory mode, what with SP passing her first midterm exam with what is, for her, a barely acceptable score (99/100)- but you know the old joke about what you call the guy who graduates last in his medical school class. In any case, a bottle of New Mexico’s finest Champagne has been sacrificed, and I’m raiding the nearby orange grove to gather raw materials for Screwdrivers. So in this brief interlude of sobriety, I’ll drop in a few links.

First, some selected birthdays, and there’s a lot to choose from. Those of us who admire the genius of the US Constitution and sorely wish our politicians would read it every once in a while mark the birthday of its architect and defender against statist pieces of shit like Adams and Hamilton, James Madison; the original #Resist, Georg Ohm; my spirit animal, Henny Youngman; star of two of my all-time favorite TV series, Leo McKern; and legend of real football, Ozzie Newsome. Oh, and someone to be named later.

But next up, some curated news items.

 


 

Trump accidentally says something true. Outrage ensues.

 

And another black child killed by white supremaci… oh, wait.

 

Creepy Ignoramus’s creepy behavior quietly swept under the rug. Next: Bill Nye’s penis complains about his hand.

 

“Rebecca Drago, Cunningham’s spokeswoman, said he wasn’t aiming for technical accuracy.” No. No, he wasn’t. But that’s not what politics is about. Not that it matters, the world will come to an end in 12 years.

 

Much of the reason for the imminent end of the world: “The US is standing in the way of a new set of phony-baloney jobs.”

 

Unfunny AND unoriginal is no way to go through life, son.

 

The stupid lash out at the retarded. Popcorn, please.

 

In the same vein… I can’t decide who’s stupider, Louie Gohmert or the Twitter howler monkeys. You tell me.

 

Bernie’s campaign dooms itself in a most delightful way.

 

Snopes beclowns itself again by demonstrating a lack of understanding of what a “metaphor” is. Sigh, that was once a useful site.

 


Old Guy Music, with a short story. The birthday boy I didn’t mention is the great pianist Tommy Flanagan. And he played on one of the most revered of all jazz recordings, the original Giant Steps. GS is easily the most deceptively complex and difficult jazz piece ever written, with two key changes per measure and totally non-intuitive progressions. John Coltrane, as was his habit, came into the studio with the charts and recorded the song with essentially no prep by his band. Famously, Tommy Flanagan struggled with it, and this song is still the basic test of aspiring jazz musicians. Years later, Flanagan had his revenge and recorded it with his own band- after working on it for years- and vindicated himself with absolutely incredible solos. But you judge.