Society

"Every day these people would wake us up. At first, I was polite and asked them to please be quiet. Then after a few days I was shouting, and my husband was like: 'Stop it! You can’t do that.'"

Said Kyle Luker, whose window — on Manhattan's Upper West Side — is just above where people line up for an hours-long wait to get into Trader Joe’s. He's quoted in "Anything You Say in This Trader Joe’s Line May Be Used Against You/These neighbors’ signs respond to loud shoppers: 'We are so sorry your wife is leaving you,' one read. 'And we are SURE the "Everything but the Bagel" Seasoning will help.'" (NYT). I think Trader Joe's opens at 8 a.m., so what time were people talking right under hi...
Tags: Meat, Food, Instagram, Shopping, Law, Relationships, Etiquette, Signs, Manhattan, Hearing, Upper West Side, Sleeping, Joe, City Life, Ann Althouse, Gender Difference

Nashville Christmas Bombing: CARVER

26 December 2020 Portland, Oregon A Yon-Genre Mind Dump without edit: During World War II, the OSS was our clandestine and covert operating force. After the war, OSS disbanded. From OSS formed Special Forces, and Central Intelligence Agency. Special Forces later took the nickname "Green Berets". (Not to be confused with Special Operations Forces that includes Special Forces, DELTA, SEALs, and more.) During my Green Beret training at Fort Bragg, one of the first lessons in target sel...
Tags: Featured, Navy, America, Military, United States, Bangladesh, Nashville, Portland Oregon, Fort Bragg, Carver, Oss, Michael's Dispatches, Michael Yon, Sabot

Wild ice morning.

[Author: [email protected] (Ann Althouse)]
Tags: Photography, Law, Birds, Ice, Sunrise, Lake Mendota, Ann Althouse

My family is finally together. I hope 2021 will be a year of reunions for everyone | Michelle Lim

Michelle Lim is used to family separations but this year was different. She is one of a generation of young Australians whose lives are being shaped by Covid-19Read Michelle’s first Dreams interrupted diary hereRead how the pandemic-fuelled recession will affect Australia’s young people hereName: Michelle LimAge: 23This morning I woke to a familiar voice chattering away at home. After 10 months overseas, my dad has just returned from mandatory quarantine in a hotel. As he knocked on my door to s...
Tags: Family, Australia, China, Society, World news, Australia news, Parents and parenting, Young People, Melbourne, Youth Unemployment, Michelle, Michelle Lim, Coronavirus, Michelle LimAge

Ninth Circuit Says Amazon Isn’t “Seller” of Marketplace Items–State Farm v. Amazon

This is another Amazon marketplace hoverboard case. The majority summarizes its conclusion: While Amazon provides a website for third-party sellers and facilitates sales for those sellers, it is not a “seller” under Arizona’s strict liability law for the third-party hoverboard sales at issue here. The majority reached that conclusion by applying a multi-factor test for determining who is a seller (I added bullets to this quotation–it was a giant paragraph in the opinion): First, Amazon expressl...
Tags: Amazon, Texas, Law, Ebay, E-commerce, Fox, Arizona, Lg, State Farm, Osu, McDonald, First Amazon, U S Postal Service, McMillan, Hinton, United Parcel Service

"As retro as a shelf of books might seem in an era of flat-panel screens, Books by the Foot has thrived through Democratic and Republican administrations..."

"... including that of the book-averse Donald Trump. And this year, the company has seen a twist: When the coronavirus pandemic arrived, Books by the Foot had to adapt to a downturn in office- and hotel-decor business—and an uptick in home-office Zoom backdrops for the talking-head class.... If an order were to come in for, say, 12 feet of books about politics, specifically with a progressive or liberal tilt... one of [the] more politics-savvy staffers to the enormous box labeled 'Politically In...
Tags: Books, Law, Washington, Reading, Donald Trump, Marie Kondo, Bob Woodward, Ann Althouse, Interior Decoration, Chuck Roberts, Hillary Clinton Bill Maher Al Franken

"All of a sudden, Ms. Duke, a vocal critic of 'mommy wine culture' and a member of the Sober Mom Squad, a virtual community created during the pandemic, was fielding questions..."

"... about alcohol from friends and acquaintances. Was two bottles of wine a night a bit over the top? How much was too much?... 'No one is talking about glasses of wine anymore,' said Ms. Duke, who works for a dog grooming app and lives in Manhattan with her two teenage sons. 'People are measuring by the bottle,' she continued. 'That scares me. I know too many women who went from one or two glasses to two bottles of wine to vodka in your coffee cup.'...  'Being inside all these months was extre...
Tags: New York, Law, NYC, New York Times, Drinking, Manhattan, Cheever, Ann Althouse, Natalie Silverstein, Coronavirus, Ms Duke

How the word "how" has become the most deceptive word in the history of headlines.

I'm sure some "how" headlines sit atop articles that really explain how to do something, but I must cry out against the infestation of "how" in headlines. I'm seeing headline after headline that would be more accurate if you just crossed out the "how," because the article isn't really going to tell you how X happened. It's only going to tell you that X happened.I've been meaning to rail about this for quite some time. What pushed me over the edge this morning was this, in Rolling Stone: "How Leo...
Tags: Law, Reading, Leonard Cohen, Ann Althouse, How (the Word

"At French Resorts, Skiing Has Become an Uphill Sport/The government closed ski lifts, fearing they might spread the coronavirus. The skiers came anyway."

The NYT reports.  “When you go out skiing in the cold, the first thing that happens is your nose starts to run,” said Miles Bright, an English mountain guide based in Chamonix. “And what do you do? You wipe your nose. So your gloves are covered in snot, you join in the lift queue, you touch things.”  “I just can’t see how it can be hygienic, getting in and out of the ski lifts,” he added. “But for the nation’s health, I think it’s absolutely essential.”  Bright, like the rest of skiers on ...
Tags: Law, Skiing, Chamonix, Ann Althouse, Bodily Fluids, Coronavirus

Federal judge blocks January 12 execution date for only woman on federal death row

As repoted in this AP piece, a "federal judge said the Justice Department unlawfully rescheduled the execution of the only woman on federal death row, potentially setting up the Trump administration to schedule the execution after president-elect Joe Biden takes office." Here is more about a ruling that was handed down before Christmas: U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss also vacated an order from the director of the Bureau of Prisons that had set Lisa Montgomery’s execution date for Jan. ...
Tags: Law, Court, Joe Biden, Ap, Missouri, Biden, Justice Department, Montgomery, Trump, Moss, The Associated Press, U S District Court, Lisa Montgomery, Terre Haute Indiana, Federal Correctional Complex, Bureau of Prisons

"Trump pardoned us. But pardons don’t replace criminal justice reform."

The title of this post is the title of this Washington Post commentary authored by Christopher 2X and Topeka K. Sam.  Here are excerpts: In this holiday season, in a year of racial unrest, record gun violence in our cities, and a devastating pandemic, we received a blessing — a presidential pardon for our drug convictions. We are extremely grateful. We’re fortunate to have many friends who have supported our work for justice, second chances and nonviolence since we left prison.  They vouched fo...
Tags: Law, Washington Post, Joe Biden, Biden, Black, Trump, Christopher, Douglas A Berman, US Sentencing Commission, Prez Trump, Topeka K Sam, Topeka K Sam Here

"It would be nice if the wall-to-wall marathon showings of A Christmas Story on TBS and TNT led to a rediscovery of Jean Shepherd's other work..."

"... and even to a revival of the radio arts, but given that people have so many other things to occupy themselves nowadays, that it's unlikely."  Said Lurker21, in the comments to the Christmas Café. I've never seen "A Christmas Story," though I am one of Jean Shepherd's biggest fans. For years, in the 1960s, I used to get in bed in time to hear the "Call to Post" — which, today, sounds like something about blogging — on my radio tuned to WOR. And then...   Listening to those Jean...
Tags: Facebook, New York, Law, Wikipedia, Christmas, Blogging, Indiana, Tbs, TNT, Seinfeld, Mad magazine, Donald Fagen, Shepherd, Johnny Cash, WOR, Griffith

Ten reasons why we got Covid-19 vaccines so quickly without 'cutting corners' | Adam Finn

The speedy rollout is thanks to a combination of foresight, hard work and lucky breaksCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe speed at which effective Covid-19 vaccines have come through to authorisation has caused surprise. Compared with previous vaccines, the process has been very fast and so, naturally, people are asking how can it have happened without some kind of compromise on standards and care. Explaining it all as simply a result of the wonders of the latest scie...
Tags: Health, Science, Biology, Society, World news, Medical Research, Infectious Diseases, Microbiology, Vaccines and immunisation, Coronavirus, Adam Finn

‘The idea was to put smiles on faces – and it snowballed’: the people who saved 2020

From the Spider-Men who rescued the children of Stockport, to the women who won the Nobel prize, here are seven people who brightened the darkest days When Andrew Baldock decided to don a Spider-Man suit for his daily jog in March, to cheer up locked-down children on his estate, he never expected such a huge response. “The original idea was just to put some smiles on faces and then it snowballed,” says Baldock, 45, who lives in Stockport, Greater Manchester. “Everyone loved it.” Continue reading...
Tags: Life and style, Communities, Society, Television & radio, Stockport, Stockport Greater Manchester, Baldock, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Tiger King, Andrew Baldock

Covid rules out Boxing Day hunts and parades amid uncertain future

Cancellations across large swaths of UK add to controversy over hunting governing body’s webinarsTraditional Boxing Day hunts across large parts of the UK have been cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions, with those going ahead elsewhere not parading through town centres prior to their yuletide meet this year for the first time in recent history.The centuries-old activity faces an uncertain future after a number of landowners suspended hunting with hounds on their property amid controversy ov...
Tags: UK, UK News, Animal Welfare, Rural affairs, Hunting, Coronavirus, Hunt Saboteurs

Daniel Howell: 'If young people aren't supported it's going to screw everybody'

In our latest report for this year’s Guardian and Observer charity appeal, we talk to the Young Minds ambassador and YouTube star• Please donate to our appeal hereDaniel Howell has spent the pandemic in “a slight apocalyptic nuclear bunker”, with terrible internet. It is quite the revelation for someone who shot to stardom documenting his life on YouTube, with his channel reaching more than 6 million subscribers.Speaking over a Zoom call, the former BBC Radio 1 presenter jokes that his routine “...
Tags: Health, Children, Society, Mental Health, NHS, Young People, BBC Radio, Howell, Daniel Howell

‘I expect my elderly parents to die – but to suffer alone?’: the truth about caring through Covid

Toilet-roll paranoia, terminal shortness of breath: my nonagenarian parents and I were there before it went mainstream. How would we cope with the pandemic?Two hundred and twenty days into the pandemic and I am uncertain which is the bigger threat to my father – my impatience or Covid-19.Bad news about the new lockdown, I offer. Continue reading...
Tags: Family, Life and style, Society, Social Care, Carers, Older people