It's Time Again for Streams of Unconsciousness News & Notes, I'm Calling this one, Odds & Edds

 A red panda.

I looked out the window a minute ago and saw a crow walking down the middle of the sidewalk. I’m used to seeing crows walking in the street or or roofs or on lawns or over corpses, but there was something odd about it walking smack down the middle of the sidewalk. Like a goddamned pedestrian.

If you’re in indescribable pain and a doctor asks you to describe it, what do you do?

I can’t be the only one who thinks that the Holy Ghost is badly in need of a better publicist. It’s always God this and God that or Jesus this or Jesus that but when do you ever hear anyone invoke the Holy Ghost except when saying something like, in the name of the father, the son and the holy ghost. Even then sometimes people say “holy spirit.” Maybe the Holy Ghost is lazy.

Aren’t red pandas cute as hell? Why aren’t they more often featured in cartoons? Maybe they need a better publicist too. The fact is they’re endangered. That sucks.

I remember as a kid thinking that all films were shot on location. What mystified me was how they managed to shoot World War II films during World War II in France and other places where battles were taking place. I figured the Nazis must have just let film crews come in. I was a pretty bright kid, but I had some blind spots just like everybody else.

Jacob Blake would not have been shot seven times if he was white. That’s just a fact. This country is racist as fuck.

I drink St. Pauli non alcoholic beer and am starting to develop a crush on the woman on the label. In my defense, she's hot.

I just discovered that Molly Jong-Fast is the daughter of Erica Jong and granddaughter of Howard Fast (hence the last name). Did everyone else know this? I also recently learned that Jason Bateman is married to Paul Anka's daughter.

The missus and I finally watched the mini-series, A Very English Scandal. Cracking good stuff. Again, to prove what an idiot I am, I didn’t realize until after finishing that it was based entirely on actual events. Hugh Grant was brilliant, by the way, and has won my respect. Ben Whishshaw was also very, very good.

Animal facts, lions edition: A lion in the wild usually makes no more than twenty kills a year. The female lion does ninety percent of the hunting.

I could do without ever again hearing the thoughts of sub-humans like Tucker Carlson, Anne Coulter, Tomi Lahren, Aubrey Huff, James Wood, Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity. Sick to death of them and all other racists assholes. Actually you can add Trump and sons to that list.

Word origin (courtesy of the Oxford Royale Academy: The word “quarantine” has its origins in the devastating plague, the so-called Black Death, which swept across Europe in the 14th century, wiping out around 30% of Europe’s population. It comes from the Venetian dialect form of the Italian words “quaranta giorni”, or “forty days”, in reference to the fact that, in an effort to halt the spread of the plague, ships were put into isolation on nearby islands for a forty-day period before those on board were allowed ashore. Originally – attested by a document from 1377 – this period was thirty days and was known as a “trentine”, but this was extended to forty days to allow more time for symptoms to develop. This practice was first implemented by the Venetians controlling the movement of ships into the city of Dubrovnik, which is now part of Croatia but was then under Venetian sovereignty. We now use the word “quarantine” to refer to the practice of restricting the movements, for a period of time, of people or animals who seem healthy, but who might have been exposed to a harmful disease that could spread to others.

I’m really enjoy a podcast I’ve been listening to but the host keeps saying, for example: “the quote unquote dirty secret” rather than, “the quote dirty secret unquote.” Shouldn’t bother me so much but it does.

Here’s a headline from CNN: Yellowstone warns visitors not to get mixed up in elk mating season. I rather think that should go under the category of "it goes without saying." Evidently, however, some people are trying to play Cupid with elk.

Saw this tweet this morning from  @joshgondelman and I'm all about it: "The abbreviations for teaspoon and tablespoon are too similar and NOBODY'S TALKING ABOUT IT!!!!" (Though I could have done with one less exclamation point.)

Collywobbles is an actual word and it means: "sickness or stomach pain from anxiety." Have had a bit of that in my lifetime. In fact our current president is giving much of the country the collywobbles.

It's time once again for me to complain about writers (including some of the best in the world) penning sentences like this: "Bob thought to himself that...." Let's be clear, you can only think to yourself. Perhaps if you're writing science fiction you may have an alien capable of sending thoughts but we're not there yet. Please stop.

Be safe everybody. Wear your masks, social distance, spay and neuter your pets and breeding age Republicans.