The Markives

  In retrospect, the sign on the door of the motel where I was staying last night designating the building as an official public nuisance, as certified by the Albuquerque Police Department, should have been a bigger red flag than it was. Of course, that designation is only earned for an unnecessarily large number of calls to public safety officials, and what I saw didn't rise to that level. In the room where I was staying last night, the following novel features were not in the brochure: The overhead light fixture was ripped from the ceiling and placed on the coat rack. The smoke detector, hair dryer, and iron had vanished.  One of those had the potential to matter. The only shower supply present was a tube of moisturizer.  There were also no Kleenices*. Minor irritants, each, and if I'd discovered them all on my arrival, it might have been possible to do something.  By the time I made the last discovery, I was too exhausted to care very much--plus the front desk was...

  It's been 2 days of driving on this research trip combined with two vacations that constitutes my late winter and early spring this year.  Here's what's happened so far: When I crossed the Michigan/Indiana state line yesterday, I realized that this trip is going to take me out of the state of Michigan for the longest stretch of time since my college days.  I'm not sure why that never occurred to me over the course of (over-) planning this trip.  It's not a big deal (except that Michigan is where I keep all of my stuff), but it's an interesting observation. Standard license plate game: 28 states, 2 Canadian provinces, the US government, and one tribal plate.  Off to a good start, sure, but Delaware and West Virginia are likely to be the elusive targets yet again. Reverse license plate game (Spot a Michigan plate on a moving car other than mine): 4/4 so far.  Indiana and Illinois are slated for return visits, but they won't need them.  Missouri and Okl...

 ...is winding up with kakistocracy . I've been thinking about what the Capitol Fools might someday soon have to say about the last 4 weeks in America, and one thing that's come to mind is that a lot of words for other forms of government rhyme nicely with "kakistocracy".  There's an opportunity here. On a slightly more serious note, I find myself joined with the folks who are wondering what the Democratic Party is going to do to push back against, well, everything.  I get the argument that they're profoundly out of power, but that doesn't mean they can't be a vocal opposition. Something like referring to the President as the convicted felon that he is.  Indeed, I'm inclined to think that the Associated Press, already on the outs with the White House over their refusal to go along with the petulant* renaming of the Gulf of Mexico, should let the crime fit the punishment by amending their stylebook.  Something like   "On first reference, Presid...

 The following material was posted on 02025 at the original site, and is copied here for convenience.  Someday, maybe the archives will also make the migration.   20 January 02025: Lost In Time  I hate to see a really good trivia question rendered obsolete by the passage of time.  The first time I remember this happening was in 01980, when the question "Who was the only filly to win the Kentucky Derby?" (Regret) had to be retired when Genuine Risk won the Run for the Roses. Winning Colors came along a few years later and further diminished the value of this line of questioning. We lost another one today, when "Who was the only US President to serve two nonconsecutive terms?" was superseded by events. You know the ones. I'm still clinging to "Which is the only current NFL city that has neither appeared in nor hosted the Super Bowl?", though.   I don't think that one is at risk of disappearing any time soon.   (Fun fact: The answers t...

So, we're on the move at The Markives .  There are some server issues at the original host that are taking a long time to resolve, plus I'll be away from said machine for a while no matter what happens.  This will allow me to keep posting without having to be hard-wired to the DMCS server while I'm zipping about the continent over the next few weeks.  It's an experiment for the moment.  Time will tell.  The past 20+ years of content haven't migrated yet, but 2025's accumulata are copied over here.  We'll see where things wind up.  Welcome aboard. M-->