My old roommate has an online concert this week at the Twin Cities Jazz Festival. Give it a listen!

AARP MN & the Twin Cities Jazz Festival Present Jazz Fest Live Featuring the Steve Kenny Quartet

The new Supreme Court nominee is one of Scalia’s pupils. For me this is a terrible thing, but not for the usual reasons discussed in the press (but, of course, also for those). I covered this in a posting the last time the country went through this trauma. What happened to the days of finding a moderate candidate who could get 95+ Senate votes? From an earlier posting:

Supreme Court

Wynton Marsalis Says Cultural Con Jobs Began Long Before Trump

‘THE EVER FONKY LOWDOWN’
Amid enduring the pandemic and the loss of his father, the celebrated musician talks about cultural hustles, keeping jazz alive during quarantine, and those statues in New Orleans

So if we are talking about death rates, Covid-19 is roughly 10x more deadly than the flu for adults my age, and even worse for older adults. Note that the chart below is log scale, so the death rate is increasing exponentially with age for both Covid-19 and the flu.

How many of these data point do we need? Should have mandated this nationwide months ago. Funny how the same people who complain about the economic costs of covid-19 don’t seem to want to do the simple things that would make it all but disappear.

COVID-19 cases in Arizona dropped 75% after mask mandates began, report says

Ran across this story from a local Lafayette newspaper.

NFAC march: Protest in Lafayette ends as organizers proclaim ‘another successful demonstration’

i grew up in the suburbs of New Orleans, near Lake Ponchartrain, west of the city. The area was called Metairie, which I only recently learned is a French word for a small farm. My parents both also grew up in Metairie, closer to the city, in what is referred to as Old Metairie. It is hard to describe Metairie any other way but as a white flight suburb. Perhaps not in the old days, but certainly when I was growing up there.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised but the notable residents that first come to mind are David Duke (who I always note, is really from Oklahoma) and Steve Scalise, who attended my high school at the same time I did, although I don’t recall him. Now our new Supreme Court nominee is from Metairie, and attended the church my parents both attended and where they were married.

It is a bit unusual to me that my old neighborhood seems to be the go-to place to find a certain type of conservative. By “certain type” of conservative I mean one that holds fairly extreme views, but somehow puts a less extreme face on it.

I also happen to remember our new Supreme Court nominees religious group. They were a sort of offshoot of the Catholic Church that seemed to pick up some bits from smaller christian denominations in the south. I mostly remember the “speaking in tongues” part. It seemed odd to me at time I heard about it (I was probably all of 10 years old) and still seems odd to me today.

It also seemed to put the mainstream Catholic church in a bit of a bind. This group (I remember it being called Charasmatic Renewal) was essentially making up new rules outside of the otherwise strict traditional Catholic church that would not be particularly popular with the mainstream. I knew priests who attended their meetings, skeptically. I remember one priest who was a family friend who spoke several foreign languages. He joked that when they started speaking in a language he could understand, he would be impressed. The church clearly didn’t want to lose such enthusiastic supporters, but certainly kept a close eye on what they were doing.

I guess there is lots more to be said about the private views of political actors, especially ones with lifetime appointments, but I will leave that to others. From the Guardian (UK):

‘It instilled such problems’: ex-member of Amy Coney Barrett’s faith group speaks out

I have never liked grapefruit. But a fascinating article about grapefruit, it’s history and the strange interaction it has with many drugs. From Atlas Obscura.

Grapefruit Is One of the Weirdest Fruits on the Planet

From its name, to its hazy origins, to its drug interactions, there’s a lot going on beneath that thick rind.