- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 577
Sometimes - albeit rarely, Reddit is an amazing place.
Above, see antique photo of Travelling Merkin Salesman.
Who seems to be wearing one upon his chin as a sort of endorsement, or badge of the trade.
Now - these all are far too bushy for my taste - were I to come across one of these in real life I'd definitely flee in horror - but, something about the trade amuses me and I can't quite put my finger on it...
Imagine, after a hard day of fitting merkins coming home to your wife - "Honey, I'm bushed".
I mean, between the start of the day and the end of the day the many adventures of the travelling merkin salesman. Which I'm sure in every way beats a day in the life of James Bond, I'm sorry.
I most definitely missed my calling.
And - somewhere in this furry mess there has to be a Netflix movie or miniseries...
Oh, and it's very definitely still a thing (I've never seen one in the wild, others must have), but I'll let you do your own google searches and - note the abundance of festive and seasonally themed merkins.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 660
or maybe I should have titled this: Fact Checking Freedom of Speech.
We live in an era - relatively rare, where we take it for granted that anyone should have access to Freedom of Speech, but - when this liberty was granted it was not foreseen how abused it would become. By which I mean no-one foresaw the state of US politics. There was the not-unreasonable presumption of decency, good intention, the allowing for differing points of view.
Now this has spiraled out of control. The media gives equal weight and press to the most absurd and preposterous of lies, told solely for the increase in reputation or profit of the seller, and at great cost to society.
Think the anti-vaxxers, who are allowed to voice the most inane oppositions to current scientific methods and models. Solely for the increase in their reputation or ego; by being contrary to science they can with no small arrogance put themselves on the same pedestal as those who wasted 10 years of their life getting a medical education.
Even worse, if it can be imagined, are those that spread this disinformation with a view to profit from the "alternatives" they're marketing or have shares in. And then - irony of irony - take the conventional vaccines as a matter of course, failing to disclose this to their audience.
And - it is worth noting - all of these people survive by and large as a result of increases in medical understanding - the plague of childhood poxes and polios, rubella, whooping-cough, measles, etc - they survive because they've been vaccinated, if not them then largely because the surrounding populace has been vaccinated and thus reduced their own exposure.
It is quite possibly the biggest abuse of Free Speech in existence. If you, for example, went on to social media and claimed to be anti-gravity, offered a challenge to like-minded viewers that saw them leap from the highest buildings in their area, if you advertised yourself against "Big-Gravity" it is very possible that following a few of the inevitable mishaps you might find yourself facing criminal charges. Vaccines don't offer the same immediacy, and so lies and disinformation spread about them are not so instantly verifiable.
Vaccines are but one example - think of the countless other lies currently in existence and popular coinage - ballot fraud, QANON, Alex Jones, etc, etc.
These things cause real harm, no merely to individuals but to society at large.
While it is certainly OK to question facts, it is best done by those who have first done the requisite research, and with the required educations.
So - perhaps it is time to talk about ending Freedom of Speech. There are things that are true and are false, and a great many things in between that we're still figuring out.
If anyone should knowingly spread falsehoods - there should be grave consequences.
Stupidity is killing us all.
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 564
The poetry slam, last Thursday, attended, in a pub - and - no longer the cozy venue it once was, now perhaps 70, 100 people.
And tonight I'm committed to reading...
Only, it's not quite done and so, taking the microphone, discover I'm not as comfortable speaking in front of crowds as I'd imagined, skip the poem I'd written, too long, too many trigger warnings, and default to another:
The lyrics I'd written to accompany John Cage's "4'33"" of silence.
Unfortunately nobody knew the tune, and so nobody appreciated the lyrics...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 575
And this, the commercial space I'd had my eye on before it got let, first paper in the windows, now this sign:
And I'm more and more certain that somebody somehow got into my head and stole my ideas...
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 580
I can imagine this being used in any number of contexts, but - apparently Michael thinks I've (wasn't me, I would have priced it lower) undervalued a piece.
This piece:
Now this, THIS - I'm pretty sure I have a good idea as to it's worth, only M****** is assuring me it's worth far, far more.
Which I sincerely doubt, but supposedly all things are possible. Anyways, now I have to live with it staring at me from the shelf for the next month while he gets 'round to appraising it.
I really want to film him showing up on the Antiques roadshow with his collection of kitsch and treasures...