Curtain Raiser

A good read. — YUR

CollTales

The Burning Season Is On, Colltalers

There are some fair assumptions we may now make about the catastrophic wild fires in California: they came to stay; they’ll get worse; they are, indeed, direct result of climate change. Oh, and that we’re behind the curve and still unprepared to control them.
Apart from that, last week’s headlines belonged to two other man-made disasters, whose impact we’re beginning to grasp, even if not that startled by either of them: proof that Facebook is politically biased (shock!); and that Brexit won’t work (double shock!).
Unlike what some accused The Beatles of once pretending to be, Facebook is now more popular than that famous Dec. birthday boy. So the NYTimes exposé about how the mammoth social media concern was, all along, concerned only about maintaining its sheer dominance, never mind Russia’s attacks on the U.S. 2016 elections and democracy, came as a surprise to…

View original post 976 more words

Cryptoquote Spoiler – 11/19/18

“We love what we love, and shared fandoms bring people of all ages and backgrounds into one great tribe.”   —   Margaret Stohl

(Then I’m probably a member of a relatively small tribe.  I don’t seem to like/believe what the majority does.  I’m not necessarily a contrarian.  I just don’t have a lot of patience for magical thinking.  But, welcome to the Cryptoquote Club, Maggie!  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Image courtesy of Google

Jumble Spoiler – 11/19/18

Visual Description:  No ego-checking required.

NYIVL  =  VINYL,  GITEN  =  TINGE,  CAPYEH  =  PEACHY,  ZLIFEZ  =  FIZZLE   —   Giving us:  VYTNAI

Clue/Question:  The conceited actress had a special dressing room and was showing off her – – –

Answer:  VANITY

(Not stinky, as it’s a literal/figurative pun.  My only complaint is that it was WAY too easy to get!  Even before looking at the cartoon, with the clue/question, I knew what the answer was going to be.  For me at least, the answer layout letters VYTNAI can only spell one word.  And, I kind of have a knack for solving five and six letter jumbles.

All of the clue words were old favorites today.  Three of the jumbles came up as new, with “giten” having definitely been used before.  There was nothing wrong with the answer letter layout, other than it being only a six letter long jumble.

The cartoon was swell though.  It looks like the actress definitely loves to pamper herself.  I applaud the guys for bravely using the word “actress”, instead of caving to the “politically correct”, non-gender designation of “actor”.  I think we should be able to find some middle ground between caveman behavior and the complete eradication of gender.  Vive la différence!  Be well and do good, friends.)   —   YUR

Images courtesy of Google