Ever thus.

     “And remember: the more packages you deliver, the more spiritual energy you’ll receive. You. You want your son to beat that cancer, don’t you? And you. You. And you, and you. There are the packages, you silly old creatures. Get going! They’re not going to deliver themselves!”

Here’s the recording of last night’s (2021-12-10) Memo of the Air: Good Night Radio show on 107.7fm KNYO-LP Fort Bragg (CA), ready to re-enjoy.

 

Thanks heaps to Hank Sims of Lost Coast Outpost here’s a page with not only the above MOTA show but also other ones going back quite a way.

And thanks to the Anderson Valley Advertiser, which provided almost an hour of the above eight-hour show’s most locally relevant material, as usual, without asking for anything in return.

Email me your writing on any subject and I’ll read it on the radio this Friday night.

BESIDES ALL THAT, here’s a fresh batch of not-necessarily-radio-useful but worthwhile items that I set aside for you while gathering the show together, found mostly thanks to the fine websites listed to your right:

Info about a new documentary film for the generous, prolific musical genius and graph paper aficionado who composed, among 10,000 other things, /Scheming Weasel/, that I use for intro and outro music for MOTA on the times when I do the show from Juanita’s place. His name is Kevin MacLeod (say muh-CLOWD).
https://royaltyfreedoc.com/about.html

Kevin McLeod’s creative commons music (and fancy graph paper!) website is http://incompetech.com

Michael Nesmith is dead. Peter Tork is dead. Davy Jones is dead. That leaves Mickey the only Monkee standing now, if you don’t count Randy Newman, Carole King, Paul Williams and Jack Nicholson, the shadow Monkees. Yes, that’s right, Jack Nicholson, who wrote and produced /Head/.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcXpKiY2MXE

Gojira, the original, gritty, uncircumcised version. RAAAGHR! (96 min.)
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2021/12/gojira.html

History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of men.
https://theawesomer.com/lego-dinosaur-slow-motion/650028/

One advantage a baldhead has.
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2021/12/06/crazy-face-makeup/

Never forget. I won’t. I didn’t even know, but now I do.
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2021/12/december-6-never-forget.html

“But I don’t speak for women, I speak for the specks.”
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/07/horton-the-justice-hears-a-who.html

An evening with Laurie Anderson. (60 min.)
https://www.ubu.com/film/anderson_collected.html

An evening with Mister Bitchin. (90 min.)
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/04/mr-bitchin-is-a-2013-documentary-about-the-extraordinary-painter-robert-williams.html

The one-question career test.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-one-question-career-test

I like this because this is the world. It’s the way the world works. It isn’t sad. These accomplishments are no less because of imperfections in the materials or a suppressed sneeze or a micro-flinch from a stray thought. These kids did amazing things and got amazing results. I remember doing tiny towers of wooden blocks in preschool for no reason at all, and again 25 years later at the Albion Whale School to make meeting times go faster. Whatever it is you pile up, it’s going to fall sooner or later. When it falls it falls. You did what you could.
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/07/domino-fails.html

On the other hand, when everything goes right that is also good. And yes, it does make you special, Lily Hevesh.
https://theawesomer.com/250000-domino-compilation/649906/

Rudolf, you don’t have to put on the red light.
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2021/12/rudolph-you-dont-have-to-put-on-red.html

Happy Feet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1w1P1VK9jGs

Cat curling.
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2021/12/06/cat-curling-2/

Chonk chart. It’s interesting how often I’ve seen the phrase /Oh, lawd, he comin’!/ in the last week. It’s weird.
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2021/12/chonk-chart.html

Pig and raccoon on couch with remote and knitted tiki-shoe-thing. (via Fark)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FF8Ppw6XoAEm-Hq

Art. The artist is Deborah Fischbach’s sister. Deborah and Ernie were land-partners with Peter Bergman of Firesign Theater, speaking of giants who lived in those days.
https://mailchi.mp/02707a33f28a/holiday-art-sale

Banjo-style bass.
https://laughingsquid.com/playing-bass-like-banjo/

Asteroid info. Cool video.
https://newatlas.com/space/sentry-ii-asteroid-impact-monitoring-nasa

A thrilling real-life innovation-in-rocketry video.
https://newatlas.com/space/rocket-lab-reveals-reusable-neutron-launcher-hungry-hippo-jaws/

Teddy Brown, voted most-nearly-spherical xylophonist of 1930. Remarkably light on his feet, which are down there somewhere, one must assume. (Click the sound on.) (via Clifford Pickover)
https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlysatisfying/comments/rbzir5/teddy_brown_xylophone_1930/

Here’s how they bend wood. This gives me an idea for something to make out of popsicle sticks.
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/oe4onk/bending_process_of_wood_after_steaming/

“He photographs by day and he pastes by night.”
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2021/12/paper-glue.html

One result of the myth of recycling is, there are places like this all over the world that wouldn’t be like this if we didn’t keep making all this crap because because /recycling/.
https://tywkiwdbi.blogspot.com/2021/12/a-lake-in-serbia.html

Further striking images.
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20211202-the-most-striking-images-of-2021

Winners of the 360 degree photo contest. Click to view gallery.
https://newatlas.com/photography/360-degree-photo-awards-gallery-winners

“I think you’re fuckin’ around with the law, T, that’s where /I/ sit.” T is for Trouble Man. (100 min.)
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/09/watch-the-epic-blaxploitation-flick-trouble-man-in-its-entirety.html

A new kind of printed keyboard.
https://www.techeblog.com/prelonic-interactive-paper-pip-paper-piano-smartphone/

Mandatory covid measures vs. forced birth. A difference in kind as well as degree.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/12/7/2067982/-Cartoon-Mandatory-COVID-measures-vs-forced-birth

She’s wrong on every point, but not that bad a singer, for some random white lady. She’s not the one in control of the unforgiving p.a. electronics. Every microphone in the world should cost fifty cents more and be made fifty cents better, and every mic preamplifier circuit should include reasonable volume limiting.
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/09/watch-an-anti-vaxxer-perform-her-special-holiday-routine-at-a-san-diego-county-board-of-supervisors-meeting.html

Riders on the storm. Little happy cowboy.
https://www.vintag.es/2021/12/jim-morrison-childhood-phots.html

Speaking of which: An elaborate halftime show of old. High schools don’t go all out the way they used to. Kids are all on the phone all the time anymore, or doing a chaotic solo gun massacre, or bullying each other into doing one. Where’s the whole-field, whole-school choreography anymore? Where are the flaming rollers of yesteryear, the shrieking sword-swingers, the glowering imperious horse-sitters and the chopees and stabees and brave bleeders all in one big insectile dance? …We did have that thing on January 6, I guess. And the tiki torch racist thing in Charlottesville a few years ago. I suppose you could count Chinese military parades, and Texas hip-hop trample concerts and Macy’s Thanksgiving and Burning Man and disease-soup motorbike conventions… Sure, okay. A little perspective.
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2021/12/this-is-magnificent.html

Bananas. (30 min.)
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/08/bananas-canceled.html

Kittens of war. “The king’s pussies throw small cups of hot water.”
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2021/12/aye-lads-let-slip-kittens-of-war.html

8-bit music with three-trace oscilloscope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFnjA0VraDQ

This video will hurt.
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2013/12/this-video-will-hurt.html

Elvis’ latest.
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2021/12/magnificent-hurt.html

To be where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars. (via BoingBoing)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vml6vq3X-Js

When I was in fourth grade my stepsister Jamie had a friend named Lupe (pronounced not looh-pay but proudly LOOP-ee) who borrowed Jamie’s bikini and, ordered to return it quickly, panicked and gave it back stained with menstrual fluid, causing a kerfuffle that almost destroyed their friendship, which would have been a shame because they were so cute together (Jamie, dirty-blonde, rail-thin, milk-white skin, freckles across the nose; Lupe, jet-black waterfall of hair, milk-coffee skin, just as thin. Both the same height. They were a set of salt and pepper shakers who went everywhere together.) Lupe’s little brother was my age and his bedroom was knee-deep in plastic toys. Their house was set diagonally on the lot so the front door faced the street corner, and I remember the door was odd, but I can’t recall what was odd about it. It was either that the doorknob was in the /middle of the door/ or that there was a jagged hole punched in the door from the inside that was left there unrepaired to teach someone a lesson. I’m trying but I can’t resolve it. That might be a point where the timelines diverge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c52GE7TazEw

Tilda Swinton as architecture. Just keep scrolling down and scrolling down. (via Fark)
https://twitter.com/JudeAtwood/status/1468030063819964424

The second one.
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2021/12/08/peaceful-manger-scene/

The triple tautonyms.
https://vole.wtf/triple-tautonyms/

Colors.
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2021/12/07/rejected-crayon-color-names/

“Green Day when /Longview/ was the big single off /Dookie/ is pure. Green Day after the release of /When I Come Around/ is immoral.”
https://catandgirl.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2021-12-07-cg90sgod.gif

Singing for science.
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2021/12/singing-for-science.html

For example, millions of people lived to die of getting old because of this brilliantly simple car part.
https://www.vintag.es/2021/12/3-point-belt.html

One-string honking bassmaster (say BAYSS-master).
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/08/its-a-thrill-to-watch-this-musician-play-a-one-string-bass.html

Loop. (via Clifford Pickover)
https://www.reddit.com/r/perfectloops/comments/raz96w/a_cyrcle/

Nung nung nung nung nunnnnngoooo.
https://laughingsquid.com/the-kiffness-mumbling-cat-remix/

Comparing the temperature scales. (via Clifford Pickover)
https://twitter.com/pickover/status/1468017763486732294

Here’s a trick from a recent /Penn & Teller Fool Us/ episode which fooled them, though it shouldn’t have. Enjoy it before you open the answer to how it’s done. I think you can figure it out.
https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/12/05/three-predictions/

And here’s how another trick works. (via TYWKIWDBI)
https://imgur.com/U2wm9Ev

And another.
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2021/12/10/work-smarter-2/

It’s a bird. It’s a plane.
https://newatlas.com/aircraft/phractyl-macrobat-nvtol-africa/

Birdplane. No, they are not Sheldon Cooper, Jack Black and Danny Elfman. Axis of Awesome are Australian and they’re the greatest garage band ever. (This is the non-swearing and so non-bleeped version of the song.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dphnKx4K-mM

Drummers particularly admire this drummer’s style. I don’t know enough about drumming to really understand why, but I know what I like.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OODA_K5hxyc

Clever but predictably counterproductive. (I know about advertising.)
https://nagonthelake.blogspot.com/2021/12/dont-smoke-dope-unless-youd-like-to.html

CatDog HorseHorse.
https://www.boredpanda.com/confusing-perspective-pics/

Consequences for elfing up. Check yourself before you wreck yourself, elf.
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2021/12/09/bad-elf-on-a-shelf/

Photos and story of the last public bloodlust entertainment guillotine execution. See, it was summer of 1939, it was France, the fuze was only fizzing on the German war machine, and there wasn’t anything good on teevee…
https://www.amusingplanet.com/2021/12/the-last-public-execution-by-guillotine.html

Nothing to sphere but spheres themselves.
https://theawesomer.com/making-stainless-steel-spheres/649963/

How to shit in the woods, a tutorial.
https://twitter.com/nysdec/status/1467955807539052546

How the villagers got their pitchforks. (via TYWKIWDBI)
https://imgur.com/EIjSoMd

How they got torches. “S’up, guys, welcome to Ironwolf Mini-Wofbane’s Things to Craft, and today we’re going to be making [click, fwoosh] a torch.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRxBnImmgYo

Allowed to bring notes to the test if the notes would all fit on one regular letter-size piece of paper, one student did this. (I showed Juanita this and she said, “I used to do that.” But if Juanita did that it would be even more information-dense. She can write so you need a microscope. Back in the old world when we used to write checks, except for her signature, which is a calligraphic landscape of Middle Earth, unless you get close you can barely tell there’s even anything there.
https://i.redd.it/fucmpv29n4481.jpg

Math sayings. (via Clifford Pickover)
https://www.instagram.com/abakcus/

The hover-text: “Increasing-precision timestamps are the Jaws theme music of incident reports.”
https://xkcd.com/2553/

Some things just flip a switch for me inside and make me smile my head practically off. This is one of them.
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/08/watch-tom-waits-pitch-dog-food-on-this-real-tv-commercial.html

And this.
https://laughingsquid.com/heavy-metal-weird-arbys-guy/

Admire this lovely serene 1950s media altar. (via Fark)
https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2018/07/28/01/08/vintage-3567130_1280.jpg

True class on the left, rude much on the right.
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/07/watch-dolly-partons-classy-responses-to-barbara-walters-subtly-insulting-questions-1977.html

“Excuse much! Rude or anything?” “Nice ensemble.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfU0kSx2cl8

Is it just me or do they seem pissed off about something.
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2013/12/reykjavikurdtur.html

Miss Heat Pump of 1957. What a doll. Look at that cute smile.
https://www.weirduniverse.net/blog/comments/miss_heat_pump_of_1957

Engagement announcement.
https://twitter.com/AtomAtkinson/status/1468799076242182144

Howard Cosell says, “Hard to go back to the game after that newsflash, which we’re duty bound to do.” Don says, “Indeed it is, Howard.” This is where the world first learned of the tragedy. This is the context. John Lennon, 9 Oct. 1940 to 8 Dec. 1980.
https://twitter.com/Super70sSports/status/1468624782291881984

Alcohol, the kitchiest drug?
https://www.vintag.es/2021/12/cocktail-lounges.html

Or Faux News, the self-obliviousest news?
https://thenib.com/looting-lunacy/

So Pesci, Pacino, Walken and DeNiro play Scrabble, and Joe Pesci puts /bumfuzzled/, where the zees are ens on their sides.
https://theawesomer.com/pesci-and-pacino-play-scrabble/650279/

Rerun: George Carlin on Joe Pesci.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlzbFxYy08c

Oy.
https://misscellania.blogspot.com/2021/12/four-meal-your.html

Our sun, the heating system. A peach. (via Fark)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10279601/Astrophotographer-snaps-clearest-photo-SUN.html

Ghosts of Xmas past.
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/09/weird-and-wonderful-vintage-snapshots-from-christmas-past.html

Hamildolph!
https://theawesomer.com/hamildolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer/649506/

Tiny things in moderately slow motion.
https://laughingsquid.com/microbes-in-slow-motion/

Art. (via Everlasting Blort)
https://www.behance.net/gallery/59550533/Walking-Christmas

It’s hard to look at this. I don’t want kids to play like this. Where are their parents? (via TYWKIWDBI)
https://gfycat.com/neglectedunhealthyguineafowl

A hundred years ago there was the shoot-the-chute. Now there’s this /what the what!/ I would say, “Where are this girl’s parents?” (see above) but here her stupid father is present, urging her on, not screaming /NO!/ I want to know all about this thing, where it is, who put it there. I want to talk on the phone to the guy who made it and hear whether he sounds like Elmer Fudd or Vincent Price.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CrappyDesign/comments/ktl9hs/curves_on_this_slide/

When I was 11 or 12 I saw Louis Wain’s series of cat paintings as he descended into schizophrenia, in the Time-Life book /The Mind/ and I was fascinated. Also it’s neat that Benedict Cumberbatch has become as ubiquitous as Patton Oswalt. (via Everlasting Blort)
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/oct/11/louis-wain-anthropomorphic-cats-display-bethlem-museum-bedlam

Jet and then rocket-powered hover-train test. I remember the music they’re using here from the 1970 British teevee series UFO that featured, among the actors, Benedict Cumberbatch’s mod mother, Wanda Ventham. (via b3ta)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1je2r4_aj0&t=492s

Matrix Resurrections trailer 2.
https://theawesomer.com/the-matrix-resurrections-trailer-2/649821/

This is a real product. What a great idea!
https://www.bitsandpieces.us/2021/12/08/say-goodbye-to-coffins/

The most wonderful instrument ever. Ben Franklin invented this. You know what it is. Say it with me:
https://boingboing.net/2021/12/09/the-fragile-glass-armonica.html

Green Child O’ Mine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FddDNR3829M

And Fark.com gave a link to a twitter thread beginning with a courtroom artist’s color drawing of pedophile drug pimp-to-world-leaders Ghislaine Maxwell during the proceedings. In the drawing Ghislaine Maxwell is staring directly back at the courtroom artist, drawing a picture of /him/. Scroll down to where someone posted a photograph of Jeffrey Epstein, back when he was alive and on top of his worm-riddled empire, and he and Ghislaine Maxwell are nuzzling side-faced and smiling for the camera. In the context of the current court drama, the caption on that image is, “Love is finishing each other’s sentences.” Ahhhh.
https://twitter.com/DJWillMartin/status/1466491155143544834

What about mouthwash? (via Fark)
https://twitter.com/timjhogan/status/1468714111856959488

Rerun: What about mouthwash? Trevor Moore, R.I.P.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOCdIY_HKM4

Dali X for Xmas.
https://www.vintag.es/2021/12/dali-christmas-cards-hallmark.html

There you go, in a nutshell, or a pinecone, rather.
https://www.alternet.org/2021/12/fox-news-january6/

And Chunky Finchman and the Interrupters – She’s Mah Baby.
https://theawesomer.com/best-selling-songs-2010-to-14000-bc/626774/