Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a blog (I dunno, is this still called a blog?) on substack. I subscribed to the mailing list. Always liked Kareem and enjoyed his book Coach Wooden and Me.

Nicki Minaj’s Anti-Vax Tweets Have Deadly Effects

Lots of little things mark the end of Old Austin for me. Most are closing of certain bars and restaurants. I’m still haven’t gotten over the closing of West Lynn Cafe. Just read in Texas Monthly that Dry Creek is shutting down. I did not know it had been there 68 years, but that is easy to believe. To call it ramshackle is an understatement. I remember being a bit afraid the entire place would collapse at any moment. I only went there once, in probably the late 1980s. Of course I remember the proprietor, Sarah. I made the mistake of asking for clarification of her “bring the damn bottles down” command and was treated like the clueless fool that I was. I’m not exactly sure why I never went back. A bit off my beaten path. But I drove past many times and it was always good to know that it was still there. An article from Texas Monthly and the jukebox playlist from Spotify.

Dry Creek Cafe, an Old-school Dive Bar on Lake Austin, Is Closing After 68 Years

From the BBC. I really just enjoyed the headline.

Climate change: Biden urges world leaders to cut methane gas emissions

Just read about this Civil War massacre of Texans of German descent who opposed the Confederacy. There is a monument, just off of I-10 and south of Fredericksburg called Treue der Union Monument. It has the distinction of being “the only monument to unionism dedicated by locals in former Confederate territory”

Nueces Massacre

Looking at houses (on line) in AZ we saw a place with a 200 sq.ft. “fully detached basement”. It was in the middle of the yard of an otherwise unremarkable house. I asked our agent about it, assuming it was an old 1950s bomb shelter. He opined that it was a storm cellar (he is from the Midwest). Storm cellar in Phoenix? I think I might have a new understanding of this modern home feature.

I made more than $1.7 million in a week selling doomsday bunkers. You know who doesn’t buy them? Democrats.

I suppose I will lay off the Texas bashing. I decided it was over after the Big Freeze. One last editorial on the Failed State of Texas.

Texas ain’t what it used to be

A local story that pretty well covers the known facts on the popular “alternative” treatment for COVID-19.

Austin pharmacist gets 300 prescriptions a day for Ivermectin

We are still doing the pandemic grocery pickup thing. Sometimes you get things substituted. Sometimes you end up with stuff a little unexpected. Just tried a slice of this cheese. Wife bought it with a coupon. Packaged like lots of other cheeses we have bought. I didn’t notice the skull image, or the markings placing it on the high end of the heat scale. Now that I’m thinking it I have heard of Carolina Reaper Peppers. Hottest pepper in the world (since 2012)? You don’t say. Grown by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum? I don’t see any legitimate peacetime use for this sort of cheese.

Why is Nicki Minaj tweeting about vaccines and some guy’s swollen testicles?

As the 20 year war in Afghanistan ends, I can’t help but think of President Eisenhower’s famous quote from his final speech as president. The entire speech is worth a read (or watch). A more recent article from The Guardian explains what should be obvious.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower

Where did the $5tn spent on Afghanistan and Iraq go? Here’s where