OP 3: I like this. Sometimes have related thoughts along the lines of: (extreme) longevity is pointless, since at some point I will have little to no recollection of the earlier me.

And on OP 1: my fear now is not only that Biden or Harris will get Covid, but that Democrat campaign discipline will somehow slip, and the messaging become flippant or triumphalist in a way that turns off voters at the last minute. A lot of crazy in the air.

Not to be all gloomier than thou, but even if Biden wins the election I'm pretty sure things will get worse until he's actually in office. There are a lot of plausible horrible election scenarios, or even if Biden wins in a landslide, a lot of horrible things Trump would do between then and January.

But I'd rather be in the scenario in 3, than in the one where Trump wins re-election, so.

I think I'm one continuous person, but I did travel from Athens to an island and back, so who knows?

Re: OP.3, I've always ("always": since college, maybe?) had the sense that I remember less of my early childhood than I should. I don't think I have a single personal memory of what it's like to be three, or at least, not one that I can't be sure isn't a dream or a story told to/about me that I've retroactively turned into a memory. I might have a memory of something that happened when I was seven but I could easily have been 5 or 6 or 9 at the time. I could put together dozens of anecdotes or snapshots of my preteen years, maybe hundreds if I really tried to enumerate every single one, but it still seems like fewer and vaguer memories than Heebie or most other people.

For a while I joked that I was repressing memories of trauma, but I'm now more sensitive about joking about things like that. These days I'd guess either that I reinforced the memories of my early childhood less than some people do (e.g. telling stories about them in my teens, dwelling on them, being surrounded by reminders of them), or that my memories are totally normal but I'm more aware of the shortcomings of memory. Hard to say.

It was really striking how much of my own childhood came back to me when I had a child in the house. Now I've forgotten it again.

These days I'd guess either that I reinforced the memories of my early childhood less than some people do (e.g. telling stories about them in my teens, dwelling on them, being surrounded by reminders of them), or that my memories are totally normal but I'm more aware of the shortcomings of memory. Hard to say.

Hawaii and Pokey are both very compulsive about rehearsing how things went throughout their lives up to this point, eg "I'm going to list what I was for Halloween every year....Baby: Octopus. 1 year old: Teddy bear. Etc" For teachers, dance recitals, activities in given years, etc. I suspect this helps lock down a lot of childhood specifics and grounds the loose impressions to specific events.

I think I did a lot of compulsive listing and remembering as well, and I remember scads more than Jammies does. Jammies is definitely more in the "it was a blur until I was in middle school" camp.

re: 6

That is normal. Most of us have quite poor recall for large chunks of our childhood. I'm exactly the same.

Quoting from wiki:

"Childhood amnesia, also called infantile amnesia, is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories (memories of situations or events) before the age of two to four years, as well as the period before the age of ten of which adults retain fewer memories than might otherwise be expected given the passage of time."

9: Yeah, I've heard that phrase. The thing I'm not sure about is what amount of childhood amnesia is "normal". FWIW Cassandane seems closer to heebie's amount than to my amount. Not that it matters, it just feels weird to get these detailed stories about what people did when they were six or eight and when I try to come up with something from the same era, all I have is maybe my elementary school teacher's name that year and one or two brief snapshots.

My aunt and uncle had a similar gap, and there was a family joke that wasn't really a joke about how he would ask her what the name of his third grade teacher or other details.

I still remember Sister Angela.

That was her teaching pseud. No idea what her real name was.

6, 9, etc. for whatever it's worth, I also have very limited memories of my childhood, particularly early childhood, but also up through age 9 or 10 or so.

1. IME many very old people have clearer (though incomplete) memories of their childhood and youth than of what happened a year or two ago.

Unpopular take: The 80s version of Lean on Me is superior to the Bill Wither's version.

Trying out for Slate, are we? If we're talking about this one, well, it's not awful.

There's a category of songs (I would argue) that sound like covers, whether they are or not -- songs that gimmick things up in a way that feels overdone. That's what this one sounds like to me. But of course, the original is so lean and simple and straightforward that any cover is likely to screw it up that way.

My son used to recite a mental list he had of every time he barfed.

"Remember that time I threw up on my birthday?" Only because you keep reminding me.

I'm a sucker for the overproduced 80s soul music revival. Wilson Pickett's 1987 remake of In The Midnight Hour is an interesting parallel universe. On Motown!

"Lean on Me" isn't that good of a song regardless of who sings it.

19: I was thinking the same, and wondering if it made me a monster.

16.3: What's an example that's not a cover?

I only know the DC Talk version.

And people wonder why our civilization is collapsing.

21: I was trying to come up with an example when I wrote that, but couldn't. I think my problem might be that I don't listen to music I don't like -- but I think C. ned probably articulates the concept better than I did by using the word "overproduced."

Maybe I'm also trying to articulate something about a song that ought to be straightforward but isn't. I still can't think of an example.

See, our kitten is named Neon, and so this morning I was singing "Neon me! When you're not strong..." etc, and so then I went to play it for the kids, and obviously went for the 80s soundtrack version.

I'm not sure what would fit the category (of "songs that sound like they are covers"), but for a specific example, how about Brian Eno's "I'll Come Running" (one of my favorite songs of his actually). It has an odd combination of sincerity and archness.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY1Xxl9ZyfM

Another Trump tax return-based report - mysterious revenue that materialized in 2016. A leg up from a friend and business partner, or a disguised bribe from a third party?

Something I was wondering: are rock songs worse produced now than they used to be? I really got into Mitski, and I have to say that the production is... bad. I have to listen to every song like 20 times before I appreciated it. It's the worst-produced thing I remember listening to since Husker Du. Every pop song, in contrast, is polished to a high sheen. I don't know if it's because Mitski has terrible taste in production, or if rock music is so unpopular now that the budget for production is one dollar.

Isn't rock defining itself as Not Pop now? So the more perfectly produced Pop is, the more rock must forgo it?

29: I'm not a fan of the production on Mitski's records but tend to view the problem as more in her choices and it also sounding fairly polished? I wouldn't call it lo fi or anything. But I never really got into her enough to have real thoughts about it.

Today I thought that it's a little surprising that Michelle Malkin and Pam Geller haven't wormed their way into this administration (but I supposed Trump knows a competing attention hound when he sees one), and then I thought, would they actually be worse than what we've got? I suppose they're a tick or two more explicitly bigoted than even Trump, so maybe.

Worse that Miller?

Or worse than Miller?

I just found this picture of a shark attacking a pteronodon on Wikipedia, and, I'm sorry, but I don't think its very realistic.

29: Studio time certainly is expensive and I don't think indie labels are shelling out for it like they would have in the nineties, so I would guess that all the Mitski records before Be the Cowboy (and maybe that one too) were recorded on a shoestring. If you're just a croony songwriter with a guitar, it's easy to forgo the whole studio thing for a home setup with a couple of good mikes and a DAW, and of course if you're making a modern pop song the whole song will be built up inside the DAW anyway, so Billie Eilish and her brother can make a record in a bedroom, no problem. But a full-band rock and roll setup is harder to record without a lot of specialized infrastructure and experience. Dear God, just miking the drums.

I suppose they're a tick or two more explicitly bigoted than even Trump, so maybe.

I can't remember either of their greatest hits off the top of my head, but it's hard to imagine that anything considered scandalously racist during the Obama years would even make us blink these days.

Life was so much better when we had a black president.

yeah, Clinton was so good at the saxaphone.

Maybe it's just that I was less up on outrage-blogging under Obama, but I feel like Geller and Malkin's heyday of outrageousness was under Bush?

I still miss Obama every day.

honestly it feels like it was 100 years ago. How did we ever manage to have such a good person in office?

Have I ever shared here that I went to college with Malkin? This popped up recently up in one of the FB alumni groups I'm in.

Was that fun for you?

41: He's still alive so you aren't breaking any local norms.

44 was to 41, right?

43: I'd forgotten she went back to speak there under the auspices of the college Republicans. IIRC her future husband Jesse was more of a visible provocateur during his time there.

Probably a WTF Thursday item but the Trump calling Harris a "monster" seems to be getting somewhat underplayed. Everyone is numb to his words but still. Especially with a national political media who wring hands over any perceived slight against the Repubs that gets amplified in the Right Wing beserkosphere. Bed of nails works I guess.

Also see latest corroborated sexual assault account getting far less media play than consensual sexting in the NC Senate race. Joe the Goatfucker's big mistake was of course that he only fucked one goat.

Continuing in the WTF Thursday themes and Ogged;s question, Trump continuing to double down on his vocal disappointment in Barr and the non-release of the Durham Report. (Although smarmy sub-cunt from sub-hell Mike Pompeo was clearly stung by Trump's criticism and has now pledged to release Clinton's emails.*)

*"We're doing it as fast as we can," Pompeo said. "I certainly, I certainly think there'll be more to see before the election." But Loretta Lynch spoke with Bill Clinton for 10 minutes on the tarmac.**

**And despite their "concerns" with Bill Barr I'm sure that smarmy Republican-lite stick-up-their-asses "straight shooters" like Comey and Mueller are in their heart of hearts more comfortable with Barr then Lynch. (Also see proto-fascist mainstream media types like Peter Baker***.)

***I dampened discussions with some of my NYC-based relatives on a recent trip with poorly-tempered vituperative broadsides against NYT national political writers, editors and fucking Sulzberger. 28 years of ratfucking the political discourse in this country in ways both subtle and occasionally direct**** and yet I'm the crazy one.

**** Just for grins my ranking of NYT national politics fuckheadness (ranking based on a stupid mingling of consequentialness and degree of fabulism and misplace emphasis in the Times reporting).
1) Iraq War
2) Whitewater
3) But her emails
4) Gore 2000 coverage. (The WaPo was right there with them on this one.)
5) Their absolutely disgraceful coverage of ACORN. Truly NAtional Enquirer level stuff.
6) Clinton Foundation (not probably that consequential but the fact that they paid extra for an exclusive look at a right-wing hit-job book by Peter Schweizer that would be released in a few days is incredible even for them). Chozick did this story***** with Maggie "access" Haberman tweeting "@amychozick got her hands on the Clinton Cash book y'all."
7) One they actually did do good work about illegal surveillance during the first term of the Bush presidency bu they admittedly waited until after the 2004 election to publish conceding to the Bush admin's wishes to not unduly influence the election. Quaint.
8) Barr summary of Mueller report "lifts a cloud" hanging over Trump's Presidency.
9) I'm sure I missed some.
10) Everything else in a "both sides" context.

*****Chozick actually has written a pretty good book about her time covering Clinton. She reiterates what she has said before how the surety that Clinton was going to win warped NYT coverage in the last month or so of the 2016 campaign. She was told to pore through the Wikileaks emails and not go out on the trail over her protests. I note that since she made those complaints she appears on much less important stories .

All that said the Times of course has some pretty good stuff. Has gotten much better on climate change. And things like the taxes. (But I will not that during the 2016 campaign they had relatively little coverage of Trump form their local NYC team (or the financial folks) who really knew Trump's modus operandi, and lot more from their national political team that rots.

Nested footnotes just like the old days.

I don't think I'll ever go back to subscribing to the NYT because of that.

I got distracted from my Barr rant by my pathological animus with the Times, but I think he is both still somewhat institutionally constrained* but also sees diminishing returns in the rehashing of 2016 beefs. If he is going to majorly ratfuck (beyond what he has done already of course) it is going to be in the area of intervening in the election and vote counting. Much more direct and negative rat orgasms per illegal/unethical interventions.

50: Yeah, they abuse nested footnotes like a motherfucker.

Now I'm of to rearrange some deck chairs on the Titanic.

Democracy is dying, so I'm going to deliver leaflets as soon as I'm done with breakfast.

Stormcrow, I love your rants. Getting angry makes me less eloquent, so I admire the way that you can always put that anger into words.

The unwillingness to learn from their Whitewater experience -- and the lack of consequences from that whole thing -- really stand out to me.

But Carol Rosenberg is a national treasure, and the NYT taking her on shows that there's at least something there.

I'm still mad about Durham from his last run, but I maybe it's the same thing: he didn't think he'd get convictions, so he just ran out the clock.

7,000 steps for Biden-Harris.

And this morning, the NYT notices that Trump's financial dealings might not be on the up-and-up. At the top of the front page, the headline is The Swamp That Trump Built.

Nice of them to notice.

The story is pegged to the tax returns, and I haven't read it yet, but where was the NYT when Trump was accepting what the Constitution refers to as "emoluments?"

Oh well. We must be grateful for the crumbs we are tossed. Better late ...

If in search of a sane perspective that has nothing to do with politics, may I recommend Richard Williams' blog, the Blue Moment? He really was one of the very best and most versatile journalists of my generation and worked as an A&R man for Island records, too. I've been listening to stuff off that all day.

The unwillingness to learn from their Whitewater experience -- and the lack of consequences from that whole thing -- really stand out to me.

Yes. I think the NYT political reporters and editors have operated since then as if Jeff Gerth was a commendable muckraker rather than a reprehensible hack. His work on the Los Alamos guy (forget the name) was even shoddier.

43 and 46 have me wondering how many commenters I knew in college. Jesse was the more vocal jerkoff in college. Cross country runners told me he also really hated losing arguments to black students.

Let's all list our SAT scores and the shameful schools in Ohio we've attended.

Going from Oberlin to IU had many people assuming I was a musician. In our timeline, getting shunted from chorus to music appreciation at age ten was when I first twigged to classism.

I think I was accepted at Oberlin but with no scholarship.

Anyone else here with a degree from Kent State?

Seeing a pro-Desert-Storm rally at Kent State in 91 was super depressing at the time. But there was still so much more to come!

I had a co-worker with a Ph.D. from there.

66 was me. I think the lengthy meowth research in Pokemon Go has made me a bit punch drunk.

I gave up Pokemon Go for the duration. Really, literature dropping is similar in that you follow an app around the city.

65: I thought we went to Michigan!

Check your degree and see what it says.

I just got an invite to a watch party to the 10/22 debate. I think the commission hasn't made any decisions on that one yet, but if Trump continues to keep any viral test results secret, wouldn't they have reason to require it be virtual too? (14 days' wait isn't for people who actually contracted it, after all.)

71: "nth"

64 was me too, and presumably lots of other people. I can't really argue that it was Oberlin's loss.

(in my particular case -- only one school rejected me, even though THEY ALL SHOULD HAVE because I was manifestly immature and crazy.)

Going to state school was free.

Back before the internet, kids would pick a college based on mail they got which was based on geography and ACT/SAT scores and (probably) how much money they thought your parents had.

Some kid just rode down a commercial-district street on a MX bike. He was standing on the seat and riding on one wheel only. It was a little impressive but honestly I don't want to see someone die while picking up dinner.

I guess he's not coming back anyway.

70: I got a bachelor's from University of Michigan and a MLS from Kent State. The Library Science program has a branch campus in Columbus, so I got my degree from Kent State without ever going to Kent.

My mom has an MLS. Now she can't remember any of the Dewey decimals.

I also got into Michigan for undergraduate, but didn't want to pay out of state tuition.

Jesse was the more vocal jerkoff in college. Cross country runners told me he also really hated losing arguments to black students.

Yeah, he was the trolliest of racist trolls.

43 and 46 have me wondering how many commenters I knew in college.

I graduated in '89 and my real name is an anagram of my pseud -- just reverse the first 4 letters.

Oh god don't draw us into this. signed, the Unfogged East contingent.

...because we will love it too much.

Half of the time, everybody who comments here has lived in Ohio at some point in their life.

Michigan is basically Ohio but with some actual scenic forests.

The last time I was in Michigan (except for connecting flights in Detroit), I was helping a classmate of the current nominee to the Supreme Court buy a very old VW Beetle.

Anyway, the Detroit airport has the last Max and Erma's I have ever seen, but the staff there know absolutely nothing about German Village.

I haven't been back to Michigan in many years. I was planning to go twice this year. I bought a ticket to see Iris Dement at the Ark in Ann Arbor in May. That was cancelled, of course. And there was my nephew's wedding in September, that I decided not to go to.

83: I was '76 so probably long gone by the time any future Unfogged reprobates showed up.

89: There is still one in Monroeville.

92 : Still a few open in the Columbus area.

Well, they closed the one in Shadyside.

87: And militiadomestic terrorists, no? Or does OH also have those?

Good point. Not nearly the same in that regard.

These terrorists are all about alliteration. No one wants to be a part of the Ohio Militia.

Yeah, a lot of vigilantes are that way: Peter Parker, Matt Murdock, Sue Storm ...

On June 6, Croft, Fox and 13 others from several states met in an undisclosed location in Dublin, Ohio, northwest of Columbus. A confidential informant for the FBI was at the meeting.

Just sayin'.

It's not all 21 Pilots and malls.

I bought a ticket to see Iris Dement at the Ark in Ann Arbor in May.

We saw her here in February. It was a great show. She was accompanied by two musicians, one playing a bass clarinet. Never seen or heard one before but now I love the bass clarinet.

I had the stupid kind of clarinet, like Woody Allen plays.

Hey, DFH College doesn't have just the Malkins to boast of. (Why they went there, I don't understand.) It can also claim other luminaries, such as B. Wittes. Heh heh.

Why they went there, I don't understand.

It's pretty clear that the conservative elite doesn't want to spend time with the portion of the mass public they support politically. The complaints about "cancel culture" wouldn't be so long and consistent if the people making them had even the slightest intention of forming a social or intellectual life centered around each other and the kinds of crude racists they make their money from.

At one point, I recall there were attempts to fight the culture war by working to develop a cultural movement and independent intellectual movement. I have no idea how much of it was sincere, but there was too much money in the grift and absolutely no pay-off for real work.

What the fuck happened to Ray Liotta and Steve Buscemi that they have to appear in direct to Netflix Adam Sandler vehicle?

Why they went there, I don't understand.

She started in the Con, then switched to the college and decided to rage against affirmative action at a school founded by abolitionists. Him, I have no idea.

It's pretty clear that the conservative elite doesn't want to spend time with the portion of the mass public they support politically.

I thought that was what Dartmouth was for.

She started in the Con

Oh!

I used to ride the bus with an actuary who went to Dartmouth. I think they just have a normal college with an extra boosting of assholes. Of course, the 90s were a long time ago, so I don't know know.

106: I had a chance to interview Ray Liotta during his promotion tour for 2002's Narc, but I didn't take it because the promotional firm retained by the studio was being really pushy about it and threatening not to send me any more passes for movie previews. So I called their bluff, can't push Editor Natilo around that easily. No doubt that is the cause of his subsequent fall and humiliation.

Everybody was bad, but it was really noticeable in his case. Buscemi did O.K. given the material.

The covid rates in the Dakotas are just nuts, with Montana not far behind.

I worked on the college newspaper with Jon Meacham. That he's openly on the Democratic side these days kinda spins my head.

Bonus University of the South joke:
Q: How many Sewanee students does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Change? Change??!

I thought that was what Dartmouth was for.

A friend of mine received an attractive job offer from Dartmouth. She didn't take it because she received a better counteroffer, but I certainly pointed out that she would have some challenges with large portions of the student body if she moved there.