- 1. How Germany outfitted half a million balconies with solar panels
- (tags:solarpower germany )
- 2. UK families to save hundreds of pounds in major homebuying overhaul
- (tags:housing uk regulation GoodNews )
- 3. Edinburgh's "Auld Hoose" pub is up for rent, if anyone fancies running one of my old favourite pubs
- (tags:pubs edinburgh )
- 4. Australian experts review The Cass Review and find it full of 'stigma and misinformation'
- (tags:LGBT transgender healthcare bigotry UK Australia )
- 5. Global solar power grows 31% as coal use drops
- (tags:renewables coal electricity GoodNews )
We head back to the royal residence, this time from inside, because this is where many noble visitors end their tour: in the portion of the royal residence where the Jackal and his High Lord receive honored guests.
Foreign visitors are shocked by how starkly plain this chamber is. They ought not to be. It is in keeping with the ways of the Jackal. Believe me or no, this room is luxurious in comparison to the Jackal's private quarters.
One of the few reminders in the palace of the Emorian occupation is the Emorian-style reclining couch in the corner. I apologize for the wine-stain. I have a tendency to spill things when I am angry.
[Translator's note: That little incident took place during the time of the Emorian occupation. You can read about it in Blood Vow.]
More LLM fun! Miserable fail at running a vending machine business simulation.
Monday, October 6th, 2025 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thewayneAnother old tab from May.
This is quite interesting. Researchers set up multiple LLMs and configured them to run a vending machine simulator, described as "Agents must balance inventories, place orders, set prices, and handle daily fees – tasks that are each simple but collectively, over long horizons." Basic business process.
The LLMs behaviors were, shall we say, interesting.
As the run went on over multiple simulated days, one decided it was the victim of cybercrime and 'reported' the event to the FBI (it had an email simulator but no external connection), another declared its quantum state as collapsed, yet another threatened suppliers with "ABSOLUTE FINAL ULTIMATE TOTAL NUCLEAR LEGAL INTERVENTION".
Basically it was a demonstration of how such large-language models are terrible for long-term runs and shows their ability to hallucinate and make poor decisions. I'll have some more posts on that soon, particularly concerning Canada and Australia.
The paper is quite interesting, detailing how some of the LLMs melt down and can't prioritize tasks. For example, a person knows that we must receive orders from suppliers before we can send someone out to refill a machine. The LLM might assume that on the date the order is promised, as soon as that date arrives the orders are suddenly there and the stocker can be immediately dispatched, even if there is no product or a shortage. Now the vending machine is understocked and the LLM doesn't understand why.
LLM no thinkie good.
The paper:
https://arxiv.org/html/2502.15840v1
The Slashdot article:
https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/31/2112240/failure-imminent-when-llms-in-a-long-running-vending-business-simulation-went-berserk
This is quite interesting. Researchers set up multiple LLMs and configured them to run a vending machine simulator, described as "Agents must balance inventories, place orders, set prices, and handle daily fees – tasks that are each simple but collectively, over long horizons." Basic business process.
The LLMs behaviors were, shall we say, interesting.
As the run went on over multiple simulated days, one decided it was the victim of cybercrime and 'reported' the event to the FBI (it had an email simulator but no external connection), another declared its quantum state as collapsed, yet another threatened suppliers with "ABSOLUTE FINAL ULTIMATE TOTAL NUCLEAR LEGAL INTERVENTION".
Basically it was a demonstration of how such large-language models are terrible for long-term runs and shows their ability to hallucinate and make poor decisions. I'll have some more posts on that soon, particularly concerning Canada and Australia.
The paper is quite interesting, detailing how some of the LLMs melt down and can't prioritize tasks. For example, a person knows that we must receive orders from suppliers before we can send someone out to refill a machine. The LLM might assume that on the date the order is promised, as soon as that date arrives the orders are suddenly there and the stocker can be immediately dispatched, even if there is no product or a shortage. Now the vending machine is understocked and the LLM doesn't understand why.
LLM no thinkie good.
The paper:
https://arxiv.org/html/2502.15840v1
The Slashdot article:
https://slashdot.org/story/25/05/31/2112240/failure-imminent-when-llms-in-a-long-running-vending-business-simulation-went-berserk
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
Today in one sentence: Illinois and Chicago sued to block Trump’s deployment of 300 federalized National Guard troops to the city; a federal judge declined to stop the deployment, allowing 200 Texas Guard troops to move toward Illinois as part of the operation; federal agents shot and wounded a woman in Chicago after what Homeland Security said was a ramming and boxing-in of a law-enforcement vehicle; the Trump administration offered unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody a $2,500 stipend to voluntarily leave the U.S.; a federal judge blocked Trump from sending any National Guard troops from any state into Oregon, expanding an earlier order that said he lacked legal authority to federalize Oregon’s own Guard; the Supreme Court allowed Trump to move forward with ending Temporary Protected Status for more than 300,000 Venezuelans; Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired a whistle-blower three weeks after she filed a complaint alleging the Trump administration defied court orders and undermined vaccine research; the Supreme Court rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal, keeping her conviction and 20-year sentence for recruiting and grooming girls abused by Jeffrey Epstein; the Treasury Department said it was considering a $1 Trump coin to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary next year; House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries challenged Speaker Mike Johnson to a live debate on the sixth day of the government shutdown; and 52% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the government shutdown.
1/ Illinois and Chicago sued to block Trump’s deployment of 300 federalized National Guard troops to the city, calling the order “patently unlawful” and “unconstitutional.” A federal judge, however, declined to stop the deployment, allowing 200 Texas Guard troops to move toward Illinois as part of the operation. Gov. JB Pritzker called the mobilization “an unconstitutional invasion” and said the administration’s “plan all along has been to cause chaos.” Attorney General Kwame Raoul said Trump “failed to establish any legal basis” for deploying troops, while the White House claimed he acted lawfully “to protect federal officers and assets” amid “violent riots and lawlessness.” Chicago police data, however, shows violent crime and murders have fallen sharply this year. (NBC News / CNN / Axios / NPR / CBS News / New York Times / Bloomberg / Wall Street Journal)
2/ Federal agents shot and wounded a woman in Chicago after what Homeland Security said was a ramming and boxing-in of a law-enforcement vehicle. Officials said she was armed with a semiautomatic weapon. The shooting follows a week of federal raids that detained 37 people, including U.S. citizens and separated children. Gov. JB Pritzker said federal forces were “making it a war zone” and ordered a state investigation into reports of abuse during the raids. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, meanwhile, defended the crackdown, calling Chicago a “war zone” that had taken “a thousand criminals off the streets.” (Reuters / CNN / Chicago Sun-Times / USA Today / New York Times / The Guardian / New York Times)
3/ The Trump administration offered unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody a $2,500 stipend to voluntarily leave the U.S. DHS said the payment would apply to children 14 and older in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody, exclude Mexicans, and be issued only “after an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin,” with ICE calling it a “strictly voluntary option to return home to their families.” ICE said the rollout would start with 17-year-olds. U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, meanwhile, issued a temporary restraining order blocking ICE from transferring “age-outs” to adult detention in violation of a 2021 injunction. (NBC News / The Guardian / Politico / ABC News / CNN / CBS News / Bloomberg / Associated Press)
4/ A federal judge blocked Trump from sending any National Guard troops from any state into Oregon, expanding an earlier order that said he lacked legal authority to federalize Oregon’s own Guard. The decision came after the administration deployed about 200 California National Guard members to Portland despite that first ruling, which the judge called “a direct contravention” of her order. California and Oregon sued to stop the deployment, accusing the administration of abusing its authority. “The rule of law has prevailed – and California’s National Guard will soon be heading home,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said, while Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek added: “There is no insurrection in Portland. No threat to national security.” (The Oregonian / Sacramento Bee / Axios / Politico / Associated Press / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / Democracy Docket / Washington Post / CNN / NBC News / Axios)
5/ The Supreme Court allowed Trump to move forward with ending Temporary Protected Status for more than 300,000 Venezuelans, pausing U.S. District Judge Edward Chen’s ruling that said the administration acted improperly. In a brief order, the justices wrote, “The same result that we reached in May is appropriate here.” The three liberal justices dissented, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writing: “I cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference with cases pending in the lower courts while lives hang in the balance, I dissent.” (NBC News / Washington Post / USA Today / Associated Press / Axios)
- The Supreme Court new term will focus on Trump’s expansion of presidential power, including cases on tariffs, agency firings, and ending birthright citizenship. The justices have repeatedly backed Trump through more than 20 emergency orders with little explanation, leading Justice Sonia Sotomayor to say his administration “has the Supreme Court on speed dial.” (Associated Press / NPR / New York Times / ABC News / Politico)
- A fire destroyed the South Carolina home of Judge Diane Goodstein shortly after she blocked a Trump administration request for state voter data. Three family members were hospitalized after escaping the fire, which investigators say followed an “explosion.” Authorities haven’t determined whether the fire was accidental or arson, and the judge had recently reported receiving death threats. (CNN)
6/ Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fired a whistle-blower three weeks after she filed a complaint alleging the Trump administration defied court orders and undermined vaccine research. Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had been placed on leave in March and said she was punished for defending vaccine science, saying her dismissal showed the administration “does not share my commitment to scientific integrity and public health.” Her lawyer called the firing “retaliatory.” Kennedy cited his authority to make the termination but gave no reason, while HHS called Marrazzo’s claims “false.” (New York Times / CBS News / The Guardian)
- The CDC approved new vaccine guidance that scales back federal recommendations for Covid and childhood shots, following directives from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Trump. Acting Director Jim O’Neill said “informed consent is back,” as the agency dropped universal Covid vaccination for older adults and limited access to a combined measles and chickenpox shot. (Axios / Politico / NBC News)
7/ The Supreme Court rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal, keeping her conviction and 20-year sentence for recruiting and grooming girls abused by Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell argued that a 2008 nonprosecution deal in Florida should have protected her from trial in New York, but Solicitor General D. John Sauer called that claim “incorrect,” saying the agreement applied only within Florida. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also rejected her argument earlier. (New York Times / CNN / Washington Post / NBC News)
8/ The Treasury Department said it was considering a $1 Trump coin to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary next year. A draft image of the proposed coin shows Trump’s profile on one side and a raised-fist with “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” on the other. A Treasury spokesperson said a final design hadn’t been selected, but the “first draft reflects well the enduring spirit of our country and democracy.” A 2020 law authorizes $1 coins for 2026, but says “no head and shoulders portrait or bust” and “no portrait of a living person” may appear on the reverse. Federal code also limits currency portraits to the deceased. (Politico / Washington Post / Axios / The Hill / The Guardian / CNBC / Reuters)
9/ House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries challenged Speaker Mike Johnson to a live debate on the sixth day of the government shutdown, proposing to meet “any day this week in primetime” to give Americans “the transparency they deserve” and allow Johnson to explain his “my way or the highway approach.” Johnson, however, dismissed the invitation as “nonsense” and accused Jeffries of making “desperate pleas for attention.” Johnson noted that the House already debated before passing its stopgap funding bill, which the Senate has repeatedly failed to advance. The House remains out of session this week while the Senate prepares for another vote expected to fail Monday evening. (CNBC / Axios / CBS News / Bloomberg / Politico / New York Times / NBC News / CNN)
poll/ 52% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the government shutdown. 52% also disapprove of congressional Republicans and 49% disapprove of Democrats. 39% blame Trump and Republicans in Congress for the shutdown, 30% blame Democrats, and 31% blame both equally. The most common word Americans use to describe Democrats is “weak,” while “extreme” is the top descriptor for Republicans. (CBS News)
⏭️ Notably Next: Your government has been shut down for 6 day; the 2026 midterms are in 393 days.
- Three years ago today: Day 625: "Historic fragility."
- Four years ago today: Day 260: "The country is watching."
- Five years ago today: Day 1356: "Tragic."
- Eight years ago today: Day 260: Calm before the storm.
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VW Dieselgate scandal: Two former execs sentenced to prison terms!
Monday, October 6th, 2025 10:47 amthewayneThis dates back to May, I'm clearing out some old tabs.
Four executives were convicted in German court of naughtiness concerning the manipulation of tailpipe diesel emissions. They rigged the computers so that under specific configurations, only found in static testing conditions, the engines would tune-down and produce lower particulate levels and would pass. Then, in real-life road driving, the engines would be tuned-up and produce higher performance and higher emissions.
The result, aside from prison terms, were thousands of cars being recalled and replaced and huge losses for the company.
From the article: "The former head of diesel development was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, and the head of drive train electronics to two years and seven months by the court in Braunschweig, German news agency dpa reported. Two others received suspended sentences of 15 months and 10 months."
We toured a VW assembly plant in Dresden just two months before this particular scandal broke. Amazing place. It kind of broke my heart when it came to light to see how well VW was doing things in this one instance, while doing a rug pull regarding diesel emissions in another.
Further in the article: "The company has paid more than $33 billion in fines and compensation to vehicle owners. Two VW managers received prison sentence in the U.S. The former head of the company’s Audi division, Rupert Stadler, was given a suspended sentence of 21 months and a fine of 1.1 million euros ($1.25 million). The sentence is still subject to appeal.
Missing from the trial, which lasted almost four years, was former CEO Martin Winterkorn. Proceedings against him have been suspended because of health issues, and it’s not clear when he might go on trial. Winterkorn has denied wrongdoing.
Further proceedings are open against 31 other suspects in Germany. So it ain't over yet for the company.
Wikipedia states that Volkswagen Group is the largest company in the EU and the largest car company in the world by revenue. It goes in to list their marques as: "The Volkswagen Group sells passenger cars under the Audi, Bentley, Cupra, Jetta, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda and Volkswagen brands, motorcycles under the Ducati name, light commercial vehicles under the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand, and heavy commercial vehicles via the marques of the listed subsidiary Traton (International Motors, MAN, Scania and Volkswagen Truck & Bus).
https://apnews.com/article/volkswagen-germany-diesel-emissions-court-fraud-3878fcf6c06c9574bf5bff8d31029f90
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/2155250/german-court-sends-vw-execs-to-prison-over-dieselgate-scandal
Four executives were convicted in German court of naughtiness concerning the manipulation of tailpipe diesel emissions. They rigged the computers so that under specific configurations, only found in static testing conditions, the engines would tune-down and produce lower particulate levels and would pass. Then, in real-life road driving, the engines would be tuned-up and produce higher performance and higher emissions.
The result, aside from prison terms, were thousands of cars being recalled and replaced and huge losses for the company.
From the article: "The former head of diesel development was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, and the head of drive train electronics to two years and seven months by the court in Braunschweig, German news agency dpa reported. Two others received suspended sentences of 15 months and 10 months."
We toured a VW assembly plant in Dresden just two months before this particular scandal broke. Amazing place. It kind of broke my heart when it came to light to see how well VW was doing things in this one instance, while doing a rug pull regarding diesel emissions in another.
Further in the article: "The company has paid more than $33 billion in fines and compensation to vehicle owners. Two VW managers received prison sentence in the U.S. The former head of the company’s Audi division, Rupert Stadler, was given a suspended sentence of 21 months and a fine of 1.1 million euros ($1.25 million). The sentence is still subject to appeal.
Missing from the trial, which lasted almost four years, was former CEO Martin Winterkorn. Proceedings against him have been suspended because of health issues, and it’s not clear when he might go on trial. Winterkorn has denied wrongdoing.
Further proceedings are open against 31 other suspects in Germany. So it ain't over yet for the company.
Wikipedia states that Volkswagen Group is the largest company in the EU and the largest car company in the world by revenue. It goes in to list their marques as: "The Volkswagen Group sells passenger cars under the Audi, Bentley, Cupra, Jetta, Lamborghini, Porsche, SEAT, Škoda and Volkswagen brands, motorcycles under the Ducati name, light commercial vehicles under the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand, and heavy commercial vehicles via the marques of the listed subsidiary Traton (International Motors, MAN, Scania and Volkswagen Truck & Bus).
https://apnews.com/article/volkswagen-germany-diesel-emissions-court-fraud-3878fcf6c06c9574bf5bff8d31029f90
https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/05/27/2155250/german-court-sends-vw-execs-to-prison-over-dieselgate-scandal
- 1. Scientists Reveal Biological Basis of Long Covid Brain Fog
- (tags:Pandemic brain disease )
- 2. Fire destroys Korean government's cloud storage system, no backups available
- (tags:Korea data epicfail backup )
- 3. Disastrous South Korean data centre fire is connected to North Korean hacking
- (tags:NorthKorea korea hacking sabotage )
Just had to ask what was going on.
Sophia told me "There's a spider in the bathroom"
Original
is here on Pixelfed.scot.
A bit of a story. And you know I like telling stories!
In the past, I was using an Alamogordo tire shop to get the oil changes on our two cars done. Then they did one thing that ticked me off, and a second thing that utterly [EXPLETIVE DELETED] me off, so I stopped using them. The first was they used the wrong wrench type to tighten the plug on Russet's car's oil pan, which damaged the threads. It took them absolutely forever to get a correct replacement.
The second was they accidentally drained some transmission fluid from my car, thinking it was the oil fill. This was my 2015 Subaru Crosstrek. The transmission is sealed: you cannot manually add tranny fluid to it without a computer. Which they did not have. I made them bring up a mechanic with the computer from El Paso the next day to service it properly. But what really made me mad was no apology, no discount on the oil change.
So that was it for them. They had another long-standing strike against them regarding some snow tires that I wanted, so that was actually three strikes. Back prior to 2015 I had a Toyota Matrix, good car. All-wheel drive, and I knew I was going to need snow tires. I asked them for a recommendation, and they said and they said "Buy THESE tires!" The time came when snow season was proverbially around the corner and it was time to order new tires. But I decided to do a little online research before calling them to order them. And review after review said 'DO NOT buy THESE tires - they are horrible in snow and mud!' I ended up calling a tire shop in Ruidoso - they're at an elevation of approx 7,500' and told them what I needed, and he said 'Buy THESE OTHER tires, I equip the Ruidoso Downs Police Department with them and they're very happy.' I told him okay, let me do a little internet digging, and I'll call you back. Review after review were along the lines of 'I'm a first responder, and THESE OTHER tires are so incredible that I've equipped every car in my family with them!' After I got THESE OTHER tires on my car, after our first decent snow there was maybe 4-5" of snow on the ground and we decided to go down the mountain for dinner. I had Russet drive my car, and we took the long way out of the village. She very quickly remarked 'These are really good tires!' I ended up buying two sets of tires from them. I now get tires from another place in Alamogordo and have been very satisfied, but all they do for me is tires.
ANYWAY....
Started using another place for oil changes, I'd used them before and they'd been consistently good, and they continued to be good. For whatever reason the site they were in kicked them out, or they went out of business, I don't know what. The guy moved to another location which felt kinda skeevy. I needed new brake pads done all-around: the rears didn't really need 'em, but they were down over half-way, so I figured why not. After I got home, I found out that two or three of my lug nuts had been replaced! I have aluminum rims, it was quite obvious. The factory lug nuts were nice chrome dome caps, these replacements were standard nuts where the remainder of the bolt was exposed.
So that was it for him.
I started using the Toyota dealership since basically an oil change is an oil change, and as long as they used the right filter and weight of oil, it was fine. No worries there.
While driving to/from Las Cruces, I noticed a new oil change place next to the interstate. I looked them up, and they're a nationwide chain that's a drive-up and you stay in your car. I decided to try them, and I've been pretty happy. They give us a fleet discount on our cars since we work for the university, which is cool, and they're going to build a location in Alamogordo - eventually. I know where it's going - I thought, could be a second site that's now under prep - we'll see how soon it opens.
ANYWAY, they do a variety of services. Engine air filters, cabin air filters, wiper blades, tranny fluid, differential fluid, and probably some others of which I'm not aware. Last change, perhaps a month ago, they offered to do the differentials on my Crosstrek, now ten years old with 170,000+ miles on it. In my brain I did an 'OOPS! Shoulda done that a long time ago!' So I had it done. And they showed me the drain plug which has a magnet embedded in it to act as a trap for metal shavings that are kind of a normal thing when you have metal-on-metal contact.
Not long after that, I started hearing a speed-dependent whine from my car. Not a good thing. Speed goes up, whine pitch goes up. No other symptoms: no acceleration hesitation, RPMs are steady, speed is steady, mileage is nominal.
On October 11, I'm heading for Phoenix. I'm probably going to be driving approximately 1,200 miles round-trip on this little jaunt. And I wanted to know what's going on before I hit the road. Today I took my car to Firestone. I figured the probable suspect was that the oil change shop didn't tighten the differential drain plug sufficiently and it was low on fluid.
I was wrong. It's the transmission.
It's a continuously-variable tranny, a CVT. For the most part, Subaru doesn't do conventional manual transmissions anymore, most car makers are moving to CVTs as they're more fuel efficient. (Yes, I can drive a stick, no problem. I've owned three cars with sticks, and driven two of Russet's with manual transmissions.) Anyway, the guys at Firestone took my car for a test drive and heard the noise, but being much more experienced and trained mechanics, decided to test the transmission, and found that it was shifting late. Like when it should have been shifting at around 2,500 RPM, it was shifting at around 4,300.
Not good.
So Russet's car, having just gotten back from a jaunt to Phoenix then on to Las Vegas and back, is returning to Phoenix next week. It changes my planning a bit as I was needing to get a different repair done on my car, and also wanted to get the seats shampooed or maybe the entire interior detailed. Clearly that's not going to happen. The Firestone manager gave me the name of an excellent transmission guy in Las Cruces who has the needed equipment to diagnose and repair CVTs and is really good at them - and specifically has worked on Subaru CVTs before! - I'll be calling him Monday. The Firestone manager said that as far as he'd heard, transmission repairs took about four days, there's no way we can accommodate that before I leave, so it'll probably be late October before we can get my car serviced properly and we'll have to hope for the best. It's not going to be cheap: I've never had to deal with a transmission problem, this will be my first major repair on a car, basically since forever!
But the best thing? FIRESTONE DIDN'T CHARGE ME ANYTHING! They don't do transmission work beyond changing fluid and filters, and what I need is far beyond that. The manager said that they could go ahead and do another flush and fill on the differential, but it wasn't needed, so they weren't charging me for the diagnostics.
I was a very happy customer leaving there. I've used Firestone a lot in the decades that I've been driving, I'm particularly fond of their lifetime alignment and have used that often. Needless to say I shall be going on Yelp and Google to leave five-star reviews for the place.
But Monday and Thursday, I'll be cleaning up Russet's car and my car so hers is ready for me to drive and mine is ready for her to drive.
And after mine is fixed up after I get back, then I'll have to set up the other repair that I need, and the seat shampoo/detailing that I want done, and deal with that. Maybe at the Tucson dealership that we bought it from.
In the past, I was using an Alamogordo tire shop to get the oil changes on our two cars done. Then they did one thing that ticked me off, and a second thing that utterly [EXPLETIVE DELETED] me off, so I stopped using them. The first was they used the wrong wrench type to tighten the plug on Russet's car's oil pan, which damaged the threads. It took them absolutely forever to get a correct replacement.
The second was they accidentally drained some transmission fluid from my car, thinking it was the oil fill. This was my 2015 Subaru Crosstrek. The transmission is sealed: you cannot manually add tranny fluid to it without a computer. Which they did not have. I made them bring up a mechanic with the computer from El Paso the next day to service it properly. But what really made me mad was no apology, no discount on the oil change.
So that was it for them. They had another long-standing strike against them regarding some snow tires that I wanted, so that was actually three strikes. Back prior to 2015 I had a Toyota Matrix, good car. All-wheel drive, and I knew I was going to need snow tires. I asked them for a recommendation, and they said and they said "Buy THESE tires!" The time came when snow season was proverbially around the corner and it was time to order new tires. But I decided to do a little online research before calling them to order them. And review after review said 'DO NOT buy THESE tires - they are horrible in snow and mud!' I ended up calling a tire shop in Ruidoso - they're at an elevation of approx 7,500' and told them what I needed, and he said 'Buy THESE OTHER tires, I equip the Ruidoso Downs Police Department with them and they're very happy.' I told him okay, let me do a little internet digging, and I'll call you back. Review after review were along the lines of 'I'm a first responder, and THESE OTHER tires are so incredible that I've equipped every car in my family with them!' After I got THESE OTHER tires on my car, after our first decent snow there was maybe 4-5" of snow on the ground and we decided to go down the mountain for dinner. I had Russet drive my car, and we took the long way out of the village. She very quickly remarked 'These are really good tires!' I ended up buying two sets of tires from them. I now get tires from another place in Alamogordo and have been very satisfied, but all they do for me is tires.
ANYWAY....
Started using another place for oil changes, I'd used them before and they'd been consistently good, and they continued to be good. For whatever reason the site they were in kicked them out, or they went out of business, I don't know what. The guy moved to another location which felt kinda skeevy. I needed new brake pads done all-around: the rears didn't really need 'em, but they were down over half-way, so I figured why not. After I got home, I found out that two or three of my lug nuts had been replaced! I have aluminum rims, it was quite obvious. The factory lug nuts were nice chrome dome caps, these replacements were standard nuts where the remainder of the bolt was exposed.
So that was it for him.
I started using the Toyota dealership since basically an oil change is an oil change, and as long as they used the right filter and weight of oil, it was fine. No worries there.
While driving to/from Las Cruces, I noticed a new oil change place next to the interstate. I looked them up, and they're a nationwide chain that's a drive-up and you stay in your car. I decided to try them, and I've been pretty happy. They give us a fleet discount on our cars since we work for the university, which is cool, and they're going to build a location in Alamogordo - eventually. I know where it's going - I thought, could be a second site that's now under prep - we'll see how soon it opens.
ANYWAY, they do a variety of services. Engine air filters, cabin air filters, wiper blades, tranny fluid, differential fluid, and probably some others of which I'm not aware. Last change, perhaps a month ago, they offered to do the differentials on my Crosstrek, now ten years old with 170,000+ miles on it. In my brain I did an 'OOPS! Shoulda done that a long time ago!' So I had it done. And they showed me the drain plug which has a magnet embedded in it to act as a trap for metal shavings that are kind of a normal thing when you have metal-on-metal contact.
Not long after that, I started hearing a speed-dependent whine from my car. Not a good thing. Speed goes up, whine pitch goes up. No other symptoms: no acceleration hesitation, RPMs are steady, speed is steady, mileage is nominal.
On October 11, I'm heading for Phoenix. I'm probably going to be driving approximately 1,200 miles round-trip on this little jaunt. And I wanted to know what's going on before I hit the road. Today I took my car to Firestone. I figured the probable suspect was that the oil change shop didn't tighten the differential drain plug sufficiently and it was low on fluid.
I was wrong. It's the transmission.
It's a continuously-variable tranny, a CVT. For the most part, Subaru doesn't do conventional manual transmissions anymore, most car makers are moving to CVTs as they're more fuel efficient. (Yes, I can drive a stick, no problem. I've owned three cars with sticks, and driven two of Russet's with manual transmissions.) Anyway, the guys at Firestone took my car for a test drive and heard the noise, but being much more experienced and trained mechanics, decided to test the transmission, and found that it was shifting late. Like when it should have been shifting at around 2,500 RPM, it was shifting at around 4,300.
Not good.
So Russet's car, having just gotten back from a jaunt to Phoenix then on to Las Vegas and back, is returning to Phoenix next week. It changes my planning a bit as I was needing to get a different repair done on my car, and also wanted to get the seats shampooed or maybe the entire interior detailed. Clearly that's not going to happen. The Firestone manager gave me the name of an excellent transmission guy in Las Cruces who has the needed equipment to diagnose and repair CVTs and is really good at them - and specifically has worked on Subaru CVTs before! - I'll be calling him Monday. The Firestone manager said that as far as he'd heard, transmission repairs took about four days, there's no way we can accommodate that before I leave, so it'll probably be late October before we can get my car serviced properly and we'll have to hope for the best. It's not going to be cheap: I've never had to deal with a transmission problem, this will be my first major repair on a car, basically since forever!
But the best thing? FIRESTONE DIDN'T CHARGE ME ANYTHING! They don't do transmission work beyond changing fluid and filters, and what I need is far beyond that. The manager said that they could go ahead and do another flush and fill on the differential, but it wasn't needed, so they weren't charging me for the diagnostics.
I was a very happy customer leaving there. I've used Firestone a lot in the decades that I've been driving, I'm particularly fond of their lifetime alignment and have used that often. Needless to say I shall be going on Yelp and Google to leave five-star reviews for the place.
But Monday and Thursday, I'll be cleaning up Russet's car and my car so hers is ready for me to drive and mine is ready for her to drive.
And after mine is fixed up after I get back, then I'll have to set up the other repair that I need, and the seat shampoo/detailing that I want done, and deal with that. Maybe at the Tucson dealership that we bought it from.
Early this morning, Hope spent a long while peeing in the cat box, hanging out afterward, then marching through the house meowing and vomiting and straining to poop. I immediately got up from my work desk, mixed the usual dose of Miralax into her watered down food, and went about my day waiting for her to lap it up.
That moment never came. She spent an hour or two roaming around the house vomiting, then she holed up in the closet in my bedroom. She doesn't even go in there during thunderstorms. She only goes there when I have to let a worker into the house, once a year or so.
Here, I managed to coax her head out of the darkness for a brief pet. She didn't feel like she had any fever. She's not panting or showing other obvious signs of distress. But she's not budging from her hiding spot.
She's been there about 10 hours now. It's starting to worry me as much the howling she did last time before I took her to the vet hospital. Total silence and isolation this time. I don't like it. I emptied her food bowl and mixed more watered down canned food with a full dose of Miralax from the vet recommendations last time. I'm hoping that sometime tonight she takes the water from the food bowl so she gets her medication.
The thing* I ordered from India on eBay was simply delivered to my porch yesterday, with no mention of needing to pay any extra fees, hallelujah! The delivery person wore a yellow reflective vest and drove a personal vehicle with no very obvious company markings.
The package does not have a USPS label on it. It has a uniuni label on one side, and a ShipGlobal label on the other side.
Checking the tracking numbers from those labels on the respective websites shows that my item:
2025-09-21: was received at UNI DATA CENTER
2025-09-23: arrived in Delhi, India
2025-09-25: departed Delhi, India
2025-09-27: arrived in the USA; was being inspected by customs
2025-09-30: "Gateway transit in", in New York
and was delivered on from there to me.
So my package made it into the US on 9/27, two days before the De Minimus exemption was removed!
NO, scratch that. (Gosh darn, I keep mixing up August/month 8 with September/month 9!)
I don't know where my package was between the time I ordered it in mid-August and Sept. 21 when uniuni received it. But somehow I got it without having to pay a tariff fee. I suppose the seller ended up paying the extra cost.
Actually... I placed the order on 8/16.
On 8/20 eBay posted an "order update" showing "Tracking number provided" along with an India Post International tracking number. That must have been when the seller ordered a shipping label, before mailing the item.
On 8/22 or 8/25 (per my prior post), IndiaPost stopped accepting shipments for the US. The seller must not have dropped the item off before that cut-off, or if they did, perhaps IndiaPost returned the item to the seller.
The seller must have started looking for another shipping option, and eventually sent it through ShipGlobal.in who must be partnered with uniuni.
I still think it is bad form that the seller never informed me of any of this, and didn't even reply when I messaged them through eBay asking about the status of the shipment. But I'll give them good feedback considering the hassle they must have gone through.
I'm still in the dark about the other item which is showing up in my USPS daily digest emails. It started showing up in the emails back on 2025-08-19 as "Awaiting from sender". Yesterday, I thought that must have been the India package after all. But today I got a new email that the mysterious tracking number item is expected to be delivered by Wednesday.
*an Indian brand of toothpaste
Update:
I bought the toothpaste for $39 (excluding taxes, free shipping). As a point of reference, the eBay seller is now charging $50.70 for the same thing, and that is still the best price I can find. So the tariffs increased the price by $11.70.
The seller posted a reply to a negative review from someone else who didn't receive their order, asking them to kindly wait longer, that the tariffs are causing delays, and that the seller paid the tariff for the order, and that the buyer will not need to pay anything at time of delivery. That seems to confirm my speculation as to what happened with my order.
Errant thought:
Now people can probably use AI agents to determine what items that are available in local stores could be sold online at a profit to people in other locales, taking into account current shipping prices and tariffs and the current online prices being charged by other sellers.
Errant thoughts 2, 3, 4:
Now people can make software to make use of AI agents to determine what items [ditto]...
Then people could buy the software to help them determine what items [ditto]...
Then companies can use said software to direct employees or gig workers in various locales to buy items from local stores, and to mail them ... for making a profit.
The package does not have a USPS label on it. It has a uniuni label on one side, and a ShipGlobal label on the other side.
Checking the tracking numbers from those labels on the respective websites shows that my item:
2025-09-21: was received at UNI DATA CENTER
2025-09-23: arrived in Delhi, India
2025-09-25: departed Delhi, India
2025-09-27: arrived in the USA; was being inspected by customs
2025-09-30: "Gateway transit in", in New York
and was delivered on from there to me.
So my package made it into the US on 9/27, two days before the De Minimus exemption was removed!
NO, scratch that. (Gosh darn, I keep mixing up August/month 8 with September/month 9!)
I don't know where my package was between the time I ordered it in mid-August and Sept. 21 when uniuni received it. But somehow I got it without having to pay a tariff fee. I suppose the seller ended up paying the extra cost.
Actually... I placed the order on 8/16.
On 8/20 eBay posted an "order update" showing "Tracking number provided" along with an India Post International tracking number. That must have been when the seller ordered a shipping label, before mailing the item.
On 8/22 or 8/25 (per my prior post), IndiaPost stopped accepting shipments for the US. The seller must not have dropped the item off before that cut-off, or if they did, perhaps IndiaPost returned the item to the seller.
The seller must have started looking for another shipping option, and eventually sent it through ShipGlobal.in who must be partnered with uniuni.
I still think it is bad form that the seller never informed me of any of this, and didn't even reply when I messaged them through eBay asking about the status of the shipment. But I'll give them good feedback considering the hassle they must have gone through.
I'm still in the dark about the other item which is showing up in my USPS daily digest emails. It started showing up in the emails back on 2025-08-19 as "Awaiting from sender". Yesterday, I thought that must have been the India package after all. But today I got a new email that the mysterious tracking number item is expected to be delivered by Wednesday.
*an Indian brand of toothpaste
Update:
I bought the toothpaste for $39 (excluding taxes, free shipping). As a point of reference, the eBay seller is now charging $50.70 for the same thing, and that is still the best price I can find. So the tariffs increased the price by $11.70.
The seller posted a reply to a negative review from someone else who didn't receive their order, asking them to kindly wait longer, that the tariffs are causing delays, and that the seller paid the tariff for the order, and that the buyer will not need to pay anything at time of delivery. That seems to confirm my speculation as to what happened with my order.
Errant thought:
Now people can probably use AI agents to determine what items that are available in local stores could be sold online at a profit to people in other locales, taking into account current shipping prices and tariffs and the current online prices being charged by other sellers.
Errant thoughts 2, 3, 4:
Now people can make software to make use of AI agents to determine what items [ditto]...
Then people could buy the software to help them determine what items [ditto]...
Then companies can use said software to direct employees or gig workers in various locales to buy items from local stores, and to mail them ... for making a profit.
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
*********
Link
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
Link
( Fake Emergencies )
*********
( Common moon mistakes )
****************
( The Insane Biology of: The Pangolin )
**********
( The Most Dangerous Escalator in Rome )
**********
( Backyard Squirrelympics )
********
( Apparently, the dog dancing championships are a thing? )
************
( The Assassin's Teapot Is Weird )
**************
( All The Non-Passenger Trains in the NYC Subway )
( Common moon mistakes )
( The Insane Biology of: The Pangolin )
( The Most Dangerous Escalator in Rome )
( Backyard Squirrelympics )
( Apparently, the dog dancing championships are a thing? )
( The Assassin's Teapot Is Weird )
( All The Non-Passenger Trains in the NYC Subway )
And every once in a while I end up there during the morning rush, which I try to avoid, and find somebody else bitching about how they "always" mess up their order and "always" take forever.
This is true, by the way - or, maybe not literally always true, but frequently true - but all the same, every time I hear the incessant whining I want to turn around and say "You knew what it was like when you placed your order!"
It's not like they're the only place to get coffee and a breakfast sandwich that's not your own home. There are three corner stores, every once of which will be happy, or at least willing, to make your standing order every day or week or however often you like. There's McDonald's right there, there's Wendy's right there, there's a Dunkin Donuts on the boat and another one just down Bay a bit, if you drive. Or, as I said, you can go home and make your own coffee for faster and cheaper, but you didn't do that, so you can't really complain that you're getting exactly what you obviously expected!
(It is my lack of whining, I think, that always gets me out of there a smidge faster. Should they be more efficient? Should they make fewer mistakes? Should I be able to order a muffin without fear that it'll be a bit raw in the middle? Yes to all three, and I've stopped ordering muffins! But they're close and I don't have to cook it myself, and I imagine that's why everybody else is there, so whatever.)
*********************
( Read more... )
This is true, by the way - or, maybe not literally always true, but frequently true - but all the same, every time I hear the incessant whining I want to turn around and say "You knew what it was like when you placed your order!"
It's not like they're the only place to get coffee and a breakfast sandwich that's not your own home. There are three corner stores, every once of which will be happy, or at least willing, to make your standing order every day or week or however often you like. There's McDonald's right there, there's Wendy's right there, there's a Dunkin Donuts on the boat and another one just down Bay a bit, if you drive. Or, as I said, you can go home and make your own coffee for faster and cheaper, but you didn't do that, so you can't really complain that you're getting exactly what you obviously expected!
(It is my lack of whining, I think, that always gets me out of there a smidge faster. Should they be more efficient? Should they make fewer mistakes? Should I be able to order a muffin without fear that it'll be a bit raw in the middle? Yes to all three, and I've stopped ordering muffins! But they're close and I don't have to cook it myself, and I imagine that's why everybody else is there, so whatever.)
( Read more... )
I haven't yet settled on how to use my commute on in-office days. For a workday it totals 3½h door-to-door, at least I could try to use the inter-city segment well. One challenge is that I don't want to add much weight to the bag I am already carrying, especially as it has the mighty work laptop therein, and my water flask. In the meantime, the railway carriage window gets looked out of somewhat.
One morning last week, I had a surprise: I glanced up at the right moment and, in the distant cloud or fog, I could make out a row of three large, white, shallow pyramids. I very much wondered something like,
One morning last week, I had a surprise: I glanced up at the right moment and, in the distant cloud or fog, I could make out a row of three large, white, shallow pyramids. I very much wondered something like,
WTF?. Ongoing observation revealed that I was seeing the towers and cables of the Queensferry Crossing, carrying the M90 toward Edinburgh. So, support for a bridge, rather than a row of pyramids.
My job comes with good enough private vision coverage that I finally visited a local optician. I much liked Andrew Bolton Opticians in Dundee but they're over an eighty minute drive away for me now and that keeps not happening in a way that comfortably fits an eyecare appointment.
I had been getting by fairly well with over-the-counter reading glasses: +1.0 for distance, +1.5 for close-up work. In my youth I had excellent vision, well beyond what glasses will correct me to now. So, in trying out my new glasses, things mostly didn't look great. Then, I tried my previous over-the-counter ones again and things looked even worse. I suppose that I just get to live with vision that's really not what it was. At least the vision benefit claims went easily.
I had been getting by fairly well with over-the-counter reading glasses: +1.0 for distance, +1.5 for close-up work. In my youth I had excellent vision, well beyond what glasses will correct me to now. So, in trying out my new glasses, things mostly didn't look great. Then, I tried my previous over-the-counter ones again and things looked even worse. I suppose that I just get to live with vision that's really not what it was. At least the vision benefit claims went easily.
My recent entries make it easy to predict what I think of His Majesty's Government's proposals surrounding indefinite leave to remain. Perhaps I should have been clearer: it's not just that we need immigrants, it's that we are already hostile to them, they were never the real problem, yet the government seems happy to go along with the narrative that they are, perhaps because they make for a convenient scapegoat. I can understand that, in a democracy, the government might be a bit leery of trying to introduce sections of the electorate to reality but, inconveniently, reality has a way of determining the outcomes of policies so it would be responsible to face it anyway. In the meantime, innocent people suffer.
A more general theme of incompetence is emerging. For instance, this nonsense about digital identity cards for proving right to work. Could we have a clear problem statement please and an explanation of how this fixes it? There are already largely adequate procedures in place for checking one's right to work, R. and I have enjoyed them again in recent months in starting with a new employer. Is Starmer seriously suggesting that people come over in overcrowded dinghies then produce a convincingly forged birth certificate, or what? There is certainly a black economy issue that needs solving but how this proposal makes a whit of difference to it remains far from clear to me.
Is the government meant to be sounding this clueless, this soon into a term in which it has a large majority? If only any of them had the spine of, say, the late Robin Cook. At least Corbyn seemed to care more about people than votes. Could we perhaps swap the current lot for any group that has the courage to admit what the actual problems are (apart from, that the right-wing media has the bigots riled up again) and suggest anything that might usefully address them? Bonus points for having some compassion. I may have had some scorn for Labour at times but I didn't expect their pandering to fools to make me angry enough to consider relegating them off the
A more general theme of incompetence is emerging. For instance, this nonsense about digital identity cards for proving right to work. Could we have a clear problem statement please and an explanation of how this fixes it? There are already largely adequate procedures in place for checking one's right to work, R. and I have enjoyed them again in recent months in starting with a new employer. Is Starmer seriously suggesting that people come over in overcrowded dinghies then produce a convincingly forged birth certificate, or what? There is certainly a black economy issue that needs solving but how this proposal makes a whit of difference to it remains far from clear to me.
Is the government meant to be sounding this clueless, this soon into a term in which it has a large majority? If only any of them had the spine of, say, the late Robin Cook. At least Corbyn seemed to care more about people than votes. Could we perhaps swap the current lot for any group that has the courage to admit what the actual problems are (apart from, that the right-wing media has the bigots riled up again) and suggest anything that might usefully address them? Bonus points for having some compassion. I may have had some scorn for Labour at times but I didn't expect their pandering to fools to make me angry enough to consider relegating them off the
worth consideringlist. Starmer is turning out to be like Badenoch: the more they say things, the less I like them.
- 1. Here Is Your Periodic Reminder that Stars Move
- (tags:space time )
- 2. Anti trans school guidance causes children to not use school toilets leading to worse physical and mental health.
- (tags:children bigotry lgbt school scotland uk transgender )
- 3. What Did People Do Before Smartphones? (I carried a book at all times)
- (tags:phones history boredom )
- 4. Common mistakes when drawing the moon
- (tags:moon drawing video )
Ted Hughes "Birthday Letters" (Faber & Faber)
This work presents itself as a commentary on Plath and Hughes' relationship with the implication that the poems were written in real time. I don't believe this. I think this is a reputation washing exercise and therefore a different type of dishonesty than is usual in poetry.
We learn nothing significant about either person, Plath or Hughes, that we couldn't have already guessed, but the arrogance and cruelty shown by Hughes in this collection regularly took my breath away. He never shows any sign of attempting to understand her mental health issues, or reflect on his own feelings about those issues. She is reduced to a madwoman, a raving creature obsessed for reasons unclear with her own father, a compulsive unreflective beast dedicated to being difficult and getting in the way of him writing Important Poetry.
Her behaviours are not rational or based on any set of values, they're just childish tantrums that hurt random people around here, like the imagined English countryman setting traps to catch rabbits for his pot that she starves by tearing up the snares - he gaslights her from beyond the grave, her moral values are fake whilst his are unimpeachable. Their chidren are often mentioned, but only once are either of them refered to as 'his' or 'my', otherwise only 'her', but the children's feelings or lives are not touched on, only their existence refered to obliquely to draw attention to her failings are a parent. He shows no interest in the lives of their chilren or their inner worlds, just uses them as a stick to beat her with.
There are so many mocking references to Daddy and Ariel, but no engagement with the works. This is a world in which a woman's trauma is treated as a personality flaw, her bpd is treated as difficulties and troublemaking. I have seen so many people like him in my professional life, they are everything we seek to change about the world and their refusal to understand trauma and psychiatry or do any self-reflection is a major problem in the interpersonal lives of so many people.
I am a fan of Ted Hughes' work, but this is cruelty pretending to be neutrality, insults pretending to be artistic neutrality, and worst of all, there are very few poems in here that are Hughes at his best. Perhaps the best poem in the book is Wuthering Heights, or maybe The Minotaur, but mostly they are cold, like adverts, like PR bumpf, showing only excerpted versions of the human experience. Poems should make you see things in a new way, good poems should reveal the truths of the world in ways you never imagined. Not a single poem in this collection made my blood pump harder, made me exited, made me read the work out loud to my partner excitedly.
There were some good poems, certainly. Hughes skill is undeniable, but there were so few moments in this where his descriptions, his rhythm, his vision grabbed me and surprised me, only depressed me with his art, a great painter leaving a portrait to posterity that is a grotesquery, handing on hatred as truth to posterity. I feel so sorry for Sylvia Plath, being handpicked as a trophy wife by a selfish man who didn't understand her and didn't want to, who felt attacked by the existence of an emotional life that was inconvenient to him, and then having her pain and art turned into mocking and dismissive poems.
There is nothing in this book that tells you anything about why he loved her, what he liked about her, the good times they had together, the work they created during their relationship, how he felt and why, what she said about her subjects, their courtship, why they got married, why they had children, a whole relationship reduced to 60 or so bitter vignettes of him having the arse with her. It's the poetry equivalent of a man explaining that his ex is a nutter and you shouldn't believe anything she says. Horrible stuff, sometimes very good in a technical kind of way but mostly the only thing I felt was annoyance.
This work presents itself as a commentary on Plath and Hughes' relationship with the implication that the poems were written in real time. I don't believe this. I think this is a reputation washing exercise and therefore a different type of dishonesty than is usual in poetry.
We learn nothing significant about either person, Plath or Hughes, that we couldn't have already guessed, but the arrogance and cruelty shown by Hughes in this collection regularly took my breath away. He never shows any sign of attempting to understand her mental health issues, or reflect on his own feelings about those issues. She is reduced to a madwoman, a raving creature obsessed for reasons unclear with her own father, a compulsive unreflective beast dedicated to being difficult and getting in the way of him writing Important Poetry.
Her behaviours are not rational or based on any set of values, they're just childish tantrums that hurt random people around here, like the imagined English countryman setting traps to catch rabbits for his pot that she starves by tearing up the snares - he gaslights her from beyond the grave, her moral values are fake whilst his are unimpeachable. Their chidren are often mentioned, but only once are either of them refered to as 'his' or 'my', otherwise only 'her', but the children's feelings or lives are not touched on, only their existence refered to obliquely to draw attention to her failings are a parent. He shows no interest in the lives of their chilren or their inner worlds, just uses them as a stick to beat her with.
There are so many mocking references to Daddy and Ariel, but no engagement with the works. This is a world in which a woman's trauma is treated as a personality flaw, her bpd is treated as difficulties and troublemaking. I have seen so many people like him in my professional life, they are everything we seek to change about the world and their refusal to understand trauma and psychiatry or do any self-reflection is a major problem in the interpersonal lives of so many people.
I am a fan of Ted Hughes' work, but this is cruelty pretending to be neutrality, insults pretending to be artistic neutrality, and worst of all, there are very few poems in here that are Hughes at his best. Perhaps the best poem in the book is Wuthering Heights, or maybe The Minotaur, but mostly they are cold, like adverts, like PR bumpf, showing only excerpted versions of the human experience. Poems should make you see things in a new way, good poems should reveal the truths of the world in ways you never imagined. Not a single poem in this collection made my blood pump harder, made me exited, made me read the work out loud to my partner excitedly.
There were some good poems, certainly. Hughes skill is undeniable, but there were so few moments in this where his descriptions, his rhythm, his vision grabbed me and surprised me, only depressed me with his art, a great painter leaving a portrait to posterity that is a grotesquery, handing on hatred as truth to posterity. I feel so sorry for Sylvia Plath, being handpicked as a trophy wife by a selfish man who didn't understand her and didn't want to, who felt attacked by the existence of an emotional life that was inconvenient to him, and then having her pain and art turned into mocking and dismissive poems.
There is nothing in this book that tells you anything about why he loved her, what he liked about her, the good times they had together, the work they created during their relationship, how he felt and why, what she said about her subjects, their courtship, why they got married, why they had children, a whole relationship reduced to 60 or so bitter vignettes of him having the arse with her. It's the poetry equivalent of a man explaining that his ex is a nutter and you shouldn't believe anything she says. Horrible stuff, sometimes very good in a technical kind of way but mostly the only thing I felt was annoyance.
Book 54 - Guy Browning "Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade"
Friday, October 3rd, 2025 06:02 pmjazzy_daveGuy Browning "Never Hit a Jellyfish with a Spade" (Atlantic Books)
This is a series of short essays (taken from the author's newspaper column) each of which starts How to... and then goes on to discuss some small facet of modern life. The book's divided into short sections of 10 or so essays on a related topic, love & marriage, sport, etc. As with any collection of this type, it has it's ups and downs. There is a dry sense of humour at work here and I found myself giggling happily at some of the essays. Some very good one liners and not at all afraid to poke fun at certain groups. Men in particular come in for a certain amount of stick. If you happen to be a single male trainspotting rambler, this is probably not for you.
This is a series of short essays (taken from the author's newspaper column) each of which starts How to... and then goes on to discuss some small facet of modern life. The book's divided into short sections of 10 or so essays on a related topic, love & marriage, sport, etc. As with any collection of this type, it has it's ups and downs. There is a dry sense of humour at work here and I found myself giggling happily at some of the essays. Some very good one liners and not at all afraid to poke fun at certain groups. Men in particular come in for a certain amount of stick. If you happen to be a single male trainspotting rambler, this is probably not for you.