Blast from the past

Just for ducks, I’ve watched a couple of the TV movies of the 1980s Perry Mason reboot. I can’t say much about the plots, because when I use the term “watch” it really means “I have it on while I’m doing other stuff”.

However—the hairstyles and the shoulder pads. Holy crap!

Shades of Watergate

More than 40 years ago, my mother was glued to the TV during the Watergate hearings in the US Senate. That was pre-cable, so she probably was tuned to PBS, one of eight channels we got in LA at the time. I didn’t quite understand what the fascination was back then, but after following the appearance of Michael Cohen before the House Oversight Committee yesterday, I think I get it; maybe.

In my case, it’s not so much Cohen’s testimony about the criminal and repugnant activities of the current occupant of the White House. He didn’t reveal anything we didn’t already know. It was the gobsmackingly rabid behavior of the Republicans on the committee. As Representative Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) pointed out—they have been running from the truth ever since they fell into line behind the Kleptocrat.

Lynch's Democratic colleague from Maryland, Jamie Raskin, clarified: They’re not outraged that Cohen has lied about Bonespurs in the past. They’re outraged because he’s not continuing to lie for him.

I wonder what Mom, a lifelong Republican, would make of that?

As little as an hour

Grocery stores have been delivering groceries since the days of horse-drawn wagons. Following World War II, at least in the US, we’d pretty well moved on to self-service, and I well remember my mom poring through Wednesday’s LA Times food section for sales and coupons to be deployed on Thursday. But then, maybe eight to ten years ago, the notion of ordering all your food online and having it delivered reshaped the whole landscape.

One of my neighbors in the Valley They Call Silicon had a regular delivery from Safeway; the driver had to schlepp crates of food up because my building had no elevator. Perhaps that’s precisely why my neighbor used the service.

These days there are multiple services, both supermarket-specific and just-in-general ones. There’s an app; of course there is.

Wegman’s, the New York-based chain, is one of the markets that will fill your order for pick-up or delivery. I often see their proxy shoppers using the app throughout the store. But recently I saw an entirely new take on the whole delivery schtick:

Now, that’s a service whose time has come.

One for the books

I think we all need this story:

When the owner of an independent bookshop in San Diego unexpectedly had to have open-heart surgery—with his wife in attendance at the hospital and their one employee out sick with the flu—people in the independent bookseller community kept the shop open for a week, until the sick employee was back.

They came from shops around San Diego, and from as far away as LA. To help a competitor. The customers never knew anything at all was wrong. 

And they’re still filling in while the owner’s recovering.

Book people, FTW.

Gratitude Monday: bills

Yesterday was bill-paying day. It was an extra-big one on account of paying the Amex bill that included the major work on the car last month, the Visa bill that included the invoice for last year’s tax prep and the annual extortion by the People’s Republic’s “association”. (I wouldn’t be so resentful about the last one if all residents of the place had to pay, but the massive high-rise developments that are bringing in thousands of well-heeled yuppies are exempt, so I’m basically subsidizing their use of the amenities.)

But as I lined up the electronics to pay them all (including Comcast, which I intend to trim back considerably), it occurred to me that I have the money for all of it, plus the final payment for the crown work I had done last year, and to get more needed repairs done to the car next month.

And even though I have a very uneasy relationship with financial things, I realized that it’s a matter for deep gratitude that I can pay my bills—even (within reason) the surprise ones. I consider the millions of federal workers and contractors who have taken serious and to some extent irremediable financial hits at the hands of the current administration, and I’m also grateful that I have enough (even in my anxious mindset) that I can make contributions to funds to help them out.

That’s a good Gratitude Monday.