damn hot

My brother in Midwest America wrote to tell me about their record cold and blizzards. We have the opposite problem here Down Under -- we've been in a yet another record heatwave for a week.

Melbourne and Adelaide have seen the worst of it. Adelaide broke its all-time record of 116 degrees F a few days ago. Melbourne was much cooler at only 114.

Our part of metro Sydney has been positively arctic in comparison. It's been hitting the mid-90s, so it's hot but not obscene.

Quite frankly, I'd prefer it too hot than too cold. At the same time, that might not be good for the planet.

Some nitwits have been crowing about how climate change is fake because parts of the US are experiencing record cold. They conveniently overlook parts of the world like us that are experiencing record highs.

Climate change doesn't mean that everyone is getting hotter at the same time -- it means greater extremes with an overall rise in global temperature averages. So, yes, hotter hots and colder colds. A one-day snapshot of one part of the planet does not disprove decades of global climate statistics.

I imagine by the time my children reach old age, they will have seen higher highs and lower lows with more extreme weather than we do now. Hopefully technology will have advanced enough to give them the tools to fight planetary warming.

Seen below, Australian seagulls hide in the shade because it's damn hot.

underwhelming parenting

An online motherhood forum I visit on occasion got into something of a tizzy over this news item about a British mother who gave her daughters a timeout in a supermarket and required them to sit on the floor for ten minutes.

Some people thought this was horrendous. Others were fine with it. Some, like me, weren't outraged but didn't find it particularly good parenting.

I'm not big on humiliation as a form of punishment. I don't think it's abuse, unless it's extreme, but I think it can be damaging. The girls in question also sound like they're an ongoing discipline problem because this is not the first time this happened -- why didn't they know already that acting out like that was not appropriate?

I don't believe in public punishments. There's something exhibitionist about it on the parent's part, like he or she is fishing for compliments or comments. Punishment, IMHO, should be remedial but not vindictive and it should only be between parent and child.

The above aside, I would never let my kids sit on the floor of a public place like a supermarket. Yeah, the floor looks pretty clean, but it's not a surgery center. Floor grime becomes clothing grime and clothing wear. Who knows what or who was on that floor an hour before your kid was. Young kids tend to put hands into their mouths a lot, hands that were recently on that floor.

How would I have done this differently? When I feel the need to correct my kids in public, they are given a "silent timeout." They must not speak for a period of time and I notify them when that time's up. That way, they're being punished but no one knows but us.

monkey baby

During my last two pregnancies, shortly before the end, I had semi-regular dreams that when birth occurred, I didn't deliver a human baby but, instead, a full-size monkey -- specifically a Capuchin monkey (see below). And now I've started having those dreams again.

The dreams are similar but not the same. In some of them, the monkey is quiet and newborn-like in the delivery room. At other times, the critter immediately tries to escape. And sometimes it bites the midwife and nurse and then cuddles up against me, trying to nurse.

I don't believe I've ever seen a Capuchin monkey in person, except possibly at the zoo. So I don't know where this comes from. A few times I've seen chimps in person, but I've never had a chimp baby dream.

During my first pregnancy, I thought it was my subconscious worrying about birth defects. But that didn't happen twice over. Everything seems normal this time around, with the possible exception that this is the most active of the three children that I have carried.

Baby Three's older brothers are slightly excited about the impending arrival. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I actually did deliver a Capuchin monkey, they would like that more than just an ordinary baby brother who mostly sleeps for weeks after you bring him home.

stopping the stopping

I think this is a really good idea -- bipartisan legislation under consideration in Washington that would prevent the government from shutting down when Congress and the White House fail to finalize the annual budget on time.

Once the fiscal year or extension period ended and if a new budget wasn't passed, the federal government would continue operating at existing spending levels until the budget was approved. Hence, the government would never shut down.

Many of the elected officials responsible for the recent government shutdown in Washington ran on platforms of "making the government run like private industry." But private industry would never put up with shit like this.

If senior management can't agree on a particular policy, a business isn't shut down because of it. Sorry, we couldn't agree on which cheese to carry, so we've closed the whole store.

Hopefully, this proposed bill passes and becomes law. That may seem like a no-brainer, but in today's Washington, a common-sense solution isn't always the one that prevails.

are hairy chested men smarter?

While looking for a photo to use with a recent entry, I stumbled on this webpage and an article called "Men With Hairy Chests Tend To Be More Intelligent, Researchers Say" from last year.

The conclusion seems rather anecdotal, but I do know this, based on personal experience: I've never known a hairy-chested man not to be smart but I have known a few smooth-chested men (not shaved) who were dumb bunnies.

I have heard the claim that hairy chested men are more sexual, which may be true, but that could be tied to testosterone function. My husband is hairy all over, very sexual, and very smart, for what it's worth. He never went to college, however -- he's like me and prefers to be self educated, a process that's always ongoing.

I do think hairy chested men are sexier, but that's entirely personal preference. I know some (many?) women prefer a smooth, hairless man. But if that's the case, why not just sleep with a sea lion?

goodbye paramount?

The New York Times is running a feature article about the decline of Paramount Pictures and the prospect that the company may fold not too far down the road.

While recognizing in part that it's rather silly to mourn the demise of a company, nonetheless it's sad to watch such an iconic brand implode like this. Paramount was once known for its cutting edge, artistic movies.

It's also a testament to that old William Goldman line that "nobody knows anything in Hollywood." Paramount is full of very well paid studio executives who, while likely not intending to, have run the company into the ground. If too many cooks spoil the broth, far too many make it toxic.

When I lived in Los Angeles, I used to pass the Paramount studio all the time on Melrose Boulevard. IMHO it was the most classic-looking of all the studios because it still had its original gates. If the company eventually is liquidated, hopefully the gates can be saved for posterity.

how to ask questions

I think this columnist is spot on the money. "Quizzing candidates on the details of proposals that will never come to fruition is a waste of time," she writes. I totally agree.

This is a no-brainer in presidential races and also in Senate and House races. Without a majority of his/her party in both houses of Congress, a President can never achieve most if not all of the programs he or she wants.

And a congressional candidate who promises he or she will pass this or that bill is nothing short of foolish. Back-benchers have little to no power. He or she will be lucky enough to snag a wanted committee assignment.

But this won't stop candidates from talking like this, particularly presidential candidates. But the reason they do it is because the public pays attention to these proposals and, arguably, the program specifics go a long way toward shaping their voting decision.

Many (most?) people are fooled but some of us are not.

let's check back in seven years

The woman seen below has a very elaborate and artistic tattoo, as you can see (enlargement).

I think some enterprising documentarian needs to do a long-term film series where people are interviewed about their ink and then, five or so years later, do another film checking back with the tattooed folks to see what their sentiments are about their ink. This would be like the Up Series and done at periodic intervals.

Of course there would have to be follow up pictures. So when skin started to sag and go all cottage cheese lumpy, we'd see how people really thought about their ink. Maybe they'd still love it, cellulite and all.

Nevertheless, I want to see this tattoo on a sixty-year-old woman's ass thirty years after she got it. And then I want her to tell us how much she still loves it. I don't think that will happen.

the pubescent toddler

I try to avoid articles about birth anomalies while I'm pregnant. When I realized there was no possibility of the subject condition affecting my infant, however, I read this piece about a rare genetic disorder that causes ridiculously early puberty.

The author carries the mutant testotoxicosis gene, which means he started going through puberty when he was only two years old. All the males in his family have had the same condition, meaning puberty when they were only toddlers.

And, yes, there are photos.

Those with testotoxicosis eventually outgrow the malady when peers all go through puberty, too. It does make for a very strange childhood, however.

There is no equivalency for females. So there's no danger of a two-year-old child beginning her periods. That has to be some consolation for male carriers of the testotoxicosis gene.

royal crash test dummy

A few days ago, the 97-year-old Philip Mountbatten-Windsor, also known as Prince Philip and the Duke of Edinburgh, was involved in yet another car crash. And then to add insult to injury, he was photographed driving again two days later without a seatbelt.

Doesn't anyone in that family have the stones to take the keys away from the old geezer? Nobody his age with the number of crashes he's had plus the number of health scares should be driving.

Many jurisdictions require people over a certain age to be road tested if they're involved in an accident, even if it's not their fault. My great-uncle, who's in his nineties, was rear-ended by a texting idiot yet he still had to be road tested before he'd be allowed back in the driver's seat. It was also the only accident he's ever had.

Right now, Philip's driving seems to be treated like his habitual gaffes, just more wackiness from crazy royal grandpa. But how will the palace react if Philip accidentally kills one or several people while driving? Given his history of wrecks, that's more than a little likely.

This is a disaster waiting to happen.

rip philip kerr

I was checking online yesterday to see when British writer Philip Kerr's next novel would be published and was saddened to learn that the author died almost a year ago. Somehow I had missed that at the time.

Kerr died last March at age 62 from bladder cancer. That's far too young of an age to die. But he was a consummate professional and continued writing up until only a few days before his death.

Kerr wrote a fantastic series of novels featuring anti-hero Bernie Gunther, a Nazi-hating detective who manages to keep his opinions mostly secret in 1930s and 1940s Berlin. Some of the later books are set partly or fully after the war where he's often wrongly accused of being a Nazi.

There is a silver lining to this cloud -- just before his death, Kerr finished proofing one final Bernie novel, titled Metropolis, which will be published in April.

Before I read about his death, I was thinking about reading some of the early Bernie novels again. I will now definitely do that, both to enjoy them once more and also in tribute to a great writer who will be sadly missed.

aunt bee

I was reading something offline about the American actress Frances Bavier who was best known for playing Aunt Bee on the TV classic The Andy Griffith Show and was struck by a thought.

All of the characters on the show were supposed to be from the small town of Mayberry, North Carolina. They all had quite prominent southern drawls.

Except Aunt Bee. She was supposed to have lived her entire life in the south yet she spoke like a Yankee. None of the program's characters, to the best of my knowledge, ever remarked about that fact. I don't pretend that I saw every episode but I saw a lot of it as old reruns when I was a child.

Aunt Bee spoke exactly like the woman who played her -- an upper middle class Yankee who was trained for and appeared many times on the New York stage. Bavier had done Broadway theater for decades and then segued into TV where she eventually became Aunt Bee.

This inconsistency doesn't detract from the charm of the show, but it's a glaring inconsistency if you happen to notice.

the handmaid's tale

My husband and I had wanted to watch The Handmaid's Tale when it came out on DVD about a year ago. One thing led to another but we never got around to borrowing it.

My Hollywood friend who sent me the big boxes of DVD screeners also sent a bunch of TV series screeners he received. One of those was the second season of the show, so I borrowed the first season from the library here and we watched two episodes of the show a night for about two weeks. Now I'm completely caught up.

We both liked a lot of things about the show quite a lot, but at the same time, there were things we didn't like. We both thought Max Minghella was miscast. He's a great actor but looks too young for the role as Nick the driver. He doesn't seem to have any romantic chemistry with the central character of June aka Offred, brilliantly played by Elisabeth Moss.

We also both thought the pacing of the show is too slow and ponderous. Without losing a scene or a line of dialog or even a shot, the whole production could have been edited tighter. Do we really need to see thirty-second reaction shots for every slightly dramatic moment?

We also thought the last episode of the second season was something of a mess. Characters seemed to do things merely to set up cliffhangers to hook the audience into season three. Of the twenty-three episodes released to date, we both thought it was the weakest and then some.

I would definitely recommend the show, particularly the first season. If you find yourself hooked, keep watching.

the future, circa 1959

It's always intriguing to look at what people from past generations thought the future would look like. Seen below (more photos) is a "futuristic Plymouth" circa 1959. If you know anything about Plymouths, you know they're no longer even made today. So much for that future.

This reminds me of the commercial moon flight seen in the classic film 2001 -- passengers are traveling on Pan Am's interplanetary service. The real Pan Am company imploded in 1991 and is no more.

Nonetheless, this is a very pretty car. It certainly turned heads in 1959, but I imagine the same would happen today if you pulled to the curb in this beauty.

the terror

Yesterday, I finished reading the long but very compelling The Terror, a genre-bending fictional retelling of the doomed Franklin Expedition to the Arctic in the 1840s.

This is the first book of Simmons that I've read and I definitely want to read more. There are plenty to choose from, given he's written nearly thirty and in many genres and genre mixes: thriller, mystery, period, gothic, horror, fantasy, scifi, and more.

Although the Franklin Expedition was real, so little is known about what happened once they left Britain in 1845 that the source material provides an ideal fictional canvas. Simmons has clearly done his research and fully conveys both life aboard ship in the mid-nineteenth century and also what the Arctic world would be like for an 1840s traveler.

There's a lot more I could say about this book, but it would give away the plot and, in particular, the ending. The novel reads primarily like literary historical fiction -- and not unlike Patrick O'Brian's best works -- but also has small side orders of fantasy, magic realism, and even a little horror.

If you want a deep dive into a longer and captivating novel, I heartily recommend The Terror.

Seen below is one of the few surviving written records from the real Franklin Expedition (enlargement).

the steam-powered spaceship

Here's something that sounds ludicrous but is actually being built: a steam-powered spaceship. Once it's explained, it sounds perfectly logical.

I have to imagine this is a technology that would only work on very small spacecrafts and probes. The one being built is the size of a microwave oven.

So I have to imagine it wouldn't work for spacecraft carrying humans, which would not only need to be larger but exponentially much heavier because of all the life-support equipment that must be carried.

But such devices could be sent in advance of humans as probes to scan and survey conditions and materials. Given they're the size of a microwave, I wonder if they can make a toasted cheese bagel sandwich, too?

opinions are like assholes

An old saying holds that "opinions are like assholes -- everyone has to have one but most of them stink."

That came to mind when I was reading about Michigan State University's interim president who said that sexual assault victims victimized at his institution are "enjoying the spotlight."

He was speaking specifically about the Olympic athletes who trained at MSU, many while still minors, and who were sexually abused and assaulted by the now-convicted former team physician who was affiliated with the university.

He also said the victims were "still enjoying that moment at times, you know, the awards and recognition."

So how about we call a press conference, strap the interim president face-down on a table, and then sodomize him with a broom handle. That way he can see how much fun it is to "enjoy the spotlight."

Here's a thought for the interim president before he speaks in public again about a controversial issue: "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt." This advice has been attributed to both Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln. The source might be unknown but the wisdom contained therein is solid.

horrific, if true

Now at seven months pregnant, I probably shouldn't read news items like this: allegedly, an infant was accidentally decapitated during delivery. Then again, the chances of me falling down the stairs and harming my baby are probably far greater than ending up in a delivery room with Nurse Robespierre.

I'm wondering if the medical facility was too reluctant to perform a cesarean and insisted on conventional childbirth. Competent medical staff will know when an attempt at natural delivery should be interrupted for a cesarean.

When I had my first child, there was a woman in the labor room who had been in labor nearly fifty hours. She was determined not to have a cesarean but, finally, was convinced that she might harm the baby if she didn't. Finally, she relented.

I remember feeling a little guilty at the time because I came in well after she had arrived and was taken into the delivery room before she had her chance. But I failed to see the advantage of enduring fifty hours of labor just to have bragging rights that you delivered naturally.

If I have any difficulties delivering my third and, presumably, last child, I would consent to a cesarean in a heartbeat. Better to be safe than sorry, even if that means a longer recovery for me.

does not compute

Every day, when I sign into the email account associated with this blog and other Hypersexualgirl accounts, I see anywhere from ten to twenty emails from Tumblr informing me that my Tumblr page has been flagged for containing porn. Given they've closed public access to all Tumblr pages that feature adult material, only I can see my Tumblr posts.

The messages are always the same. They don't link to a problematic post. They say replies to the email won't be read. They just keep sending the same message over and over again, on average every hour or two.

To date, I've received hundreds of these messages and that number may run into the thousands, given I have more than fifteen thousand images on my Tumblr, with nearly all of them containing adult content.

Why do they keep sending me this message? Don't they think I got the point the first hundred or so times they sent it? I don't want to block them as spam because then they may block my access to my files.

You'd think one of their coding geniuses would have put some kind of message limit on their system so they wouldn't end up harassing people like this day in and day out.

mixed nuts

Conspiracy crackpot and professional troll Alex Jones suffered a legal setback this past week in a Connecticut courtroom. Families of children and teachers killed in the Sandy Hook massacre had sued Jones for claiming that the attack didn't happen, that no children died, and that the parent and relatives were simply actors.

Jones attempted to claim what he said was protected by the First Amendment. The judge wasn't buying it.

It would be nice to see Jones financially ruined by this lawsuit and then to disappear into obscurity. Chances are that won't happen, however. All he needs is an internet connection to continue his hoax.

Whenever someone or something starts to generate media attention, Jones more often than not begins peddling some crackpot theory that defies logic and common sense. And every time I see him in the news, I always recall what his attorney said in a divorce pleading -- that he's really "a performance artist" and that "he's playing a character."

In other words, he's a fraud.

Well, you don't have a First Amendment right to defraud people nor to defame them nor to harass them. When you say something horrible that you know is wrong and hurtful, get ready to pay the price for that. I'm hoping that price will be steep for Jones. I imagine I'm not alone in that sentiment.

fundal height

During each doctor visit in the later stages of pregnancy, I'm always measured for fundal height, a means of calculating the baby's size.

If the measurement is high for the stage of your pregnancy, chances are the due date was miscalculated and the child is due earlier than previously calculated. But it can also mean you'll have a larger-than-average baby.

The fundal height was slightly large for the first two children and both were slightly larger than average babies. For Baby Three, however, the fundal height is considerably large for the gestational week.

I'm positive the due date was not miscalculated because I know when I had my last period. And it was clearly a period and not some early pregnancy bleeding, because I can always tell about 48 hours before the blood flow that I'm beginning a period.

I hope Baby Three will not turn out to be one of those freakishly large fourteen pound babies or something. I've weathered this pregnancy with greater ease because I'm used to all the inconveniences; however, that doesn't mean I'm ready to give birth to a human walrus.

hall of asses

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time-travelling rare earth miner

Recently I read in the newspaper here about a new rare earth mine that will soon open here in Australia. (If you don't already know what rare earth means, Wikipedia has a good primer on the subject.) Many rare earth material end up in electronic equipment and devices, so they're critically important.tim

Until recently, the United States dominated rare earth mining. Now China fills that role.

Right now, I also happen to be reading a novel that deals with time travel. When I woke up to pee last night -- now a regular occurrence, thanks to the tenant in my womb -- I started to think that if time travel was ever perfected, humans could use it to travel back to earlier millennia and simply mine valuables like rare earth to their heart's content without having to worry about government interference.

And, this could be done multiple times. Travel back to 30,000 BC and then mine the minerals. When you're done, travel back another year and then begin again, which would actually be on a different dimension, thanks to quantum mechanics.

But that might also explain why rare earth deposits are not often found today -- our planet has already been mined by future time travelers.

how it happened

Last night, I finished reading How It Happened, the newest crime thriller from American novelist Michael Koryta, which was published earlier this year. Although this was the author's thirteenth book, it's the first of his I've read.

While the book is not flawless, I found it an engaging and well crafted thriller that definitely piqued my interest about reading more of his work. I particularly liked how he worked with damaged characters and how villains are often drawn in shades of gray and don't appear to be antagonistic at first.

The plot is very twisty but everything seems to have been thoroughly established beforehand, so when something catches you by surprise, you realize it was already laid into the story. A few times the plot felt a bit forced and there was one glaring plot hole, but those were only minor moments that could have been fixed with some more diligent editing.

The ending seems to be barreling toward an expected, stock conclusion with gunplay, but then the author deftly twists it not once but several times over in an unexpected direction. He also does a superb job tightening the jeopardy throughout.

All in all, a fine book and something every thriller fan should consider.

voluntary execution

In a Nevada prison on Saturday, a death row inmate named Scott Dozier -- who waived his appeals in 2016 and wanted to be executed -- committed suicide. This was out of apparent frustration over the fact that his execution had been repeatedly delayed over the last two-plus years.

While I oppose the death penalty for several reasons, I do think that any death row inmate or anyone serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole should be permitted to commit suicide if he or she chooses to.

Two judges in Dozier's case had signed death warrants and he was scheduled to die on several occasions. Legal wrangling over what particular lethal injection cocktail would be used as well as appeals against Dozier's wishes by his lawyers delayed the process.

His wishes could have been granted simply by handing him a bottle of paracetamol, a powerful variety of sleeping pills. There's something absurd about legal wrangling over which method to use in putting someone to death while at the same time denying the inmate the right to just do it him or herself.

The 1939 photograph below (enlargement) shows the last public execution by guillotine in France a few minutes before the sentence was carried out.

super dave

Bob Einstein, aka Super Dave Osborne aka Marty Funkhouser, died a few days ago. His Super Dave act was mostly before my time, but I knew of him because of a compilation video that my older brother had that I watched repeatedly as a child.

If you're not familiar with Super Dave, these short videos should give you an idea.

the dancing gadfly

I made pretty clear on Monday's post that I don't have much time for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the youngest-ever female member of Congress and who was sworn in this week.

But I have to say the harsh criticism she has faced because of her dancing videos is just ludicrous. There's nothing wrong with dancing. No one should ever have to apologize for doing so.

Considering some of the really nasty shit that previous members of Congress in both parties have done, to condemn someone over dancing is just plain silly.

I'm not now giving Ocasio-Cortez a pass, however. As I expected, she's already suggesting dead-on-arrival ideas like a 70 percent top tax rate, which has zero chance of passing the Senate or being signed into law.

The dancing is okay. The goofy ideas are a waste of time.

the moon's dark side

China says they've successful landed a rover on the far side of the moon, which would be a first-ever human achievement. To date, the US and Russia have landed theirs on the side facing us.

I have to say I maybe 95 percent believe what China claims. While I have no doubt they've landed something on the moon, can scientists outside China verify that it's indeed on the dark side? Given China's considerably spotty record on space flight and given it's an opaque autocracy that regularly churns out sometimes deceptive propaganda, I can't help but feeling somewhat skeptical.

If this is indeed true, I'd love to know how much of the technology for this mission originated in China and how much was stolen, given their government and its emissaries are notorious for industrial espionage and technology theft.

I'd also like to know how transparent they will be with their findings, both good and bad, and how much they'll be sharing their discoveries with the international scientific community. In other words, how much -- or how little -- will they be like NASA and the European Space Agency?

And finally, I'd like to know how much the date -- 2019 -- factored into China's decision to land this mission this year. If deliberate, was that an attempt to divert attention away from the fact that 2019 is also the thirtieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre?

Somehow, I don't think the China press agency would answer my questions if I were to pose them.

how soon is too soon?

The United States is now a little more than twenty-two months from the 2020 presidential election. The first primary/caucus is more than a year away. It's been less than two months since the 2018 midterms.

And already, household names are declaring they're running for President.

I've been reading a book this week that has mentioned several times Lyndon Johnson's decision not to run for re-election in the 1968 race. He announced that in March of 1968. Those were the days.

So this raises the question -- how soon is too soon? During the next cycle, will people be announcing they're running for President even before the proceeding midterms?

Or how about announcing for the race after the next one before people even vote in 2020? Let's say, in 2019, people could already announce for the 2024 election?

This could be like one of those things where people start preparing for the child to go to Harvard or Yale before its even born. They could do this for their small children with an eye on a political career.

My children are United States citizens because I am one. So maybe I should announce my sons are candidates for President in 2060.

You can never start too soon.

happy 2019!

I hope everyone reading this has the happiest new year possible. I hope you're warm, too, wherever you are. Here down under in Sydney, most days this time of year are sunny and in the mid-eighties.

As the calendar turns from the old to the new, I often think about some of the most important decisions I have made in my life and how much different things would be if I had made a different choice. What would I be doing if I had not come to Australia with my then-newish boyfriend who would later become my husband? I don't think I would be anywhere near as happy as I am now.

Happy 2019 and may you have many more.