At this moment my computer is non-responsive, having gone katty-whompus (aka teats pointin’ straight at the moon) and I am trying to get it back. It hung during a memory intensive event called “simply using the internet.”Te SiriusXM streaming site uses so much memory the page frequently reloads itself because it cannot accommodate the firehouse of needless data the page is requesting. You’d think they could hone it down a bit, create a simple desktop player -

Ah, but there’s my problem, no? “Desktop.” That’s so 20th century. Who does anything on a desktop anymore? It’s all mobile, the whole wide world edited down to a bewitching rectangle you cannot leave alone.

So I’m doing this on my laptop while the computer endures a torturous reboot full of constant gargling from the drive; it's indexing everything anew, because it completely forgot everything it had remembered.

UPDATE: It hung on the indexing, so I've rebooted.

UPDATE: It is now not showing a desktop at all HEY GREAT FANTASTIC. So I’m doing tech things. I got it to the Recovery Mode, which has the options of running a diagnostic on the hard drive - the computer equivalent of a self-criticism session, I suppose, without the summary execution that followed, or reinstalling the OS. Surgery or brain-wipe.

In the old days we had to get out of a disk to reinstall the OS, and there was always a question about whether it would work. The disk might be damaged. Everything was suddenly unsure. What of our data? What? Well, you probably backed up now and again, but if you backed up on Iomega slabs you might get the click-of-death, and then you were foobared, unless you had another backup somewhere. (On another Iomega disk.)

It’s different now; I have all sorts of automatic backups that ensure data is never lost. But. I’m also sure I had about 30 files created since the last hourly backup, and they could be gone. Also, backing up from the emergency portion of the computer’s hard drive just feels bizarre. The machine is saying “I’m broken! Good news is, I have a perfectly good copy of my OS right here - oh, shoot, it’s on the broken part. Well, let me see what I can do!”

(Two hours later) “I canna change the laws of physics, cap’n! I’m doing as best as I can!”

UPDATE: I reset the power management whatever thing and unplugged all the peripherals and gave it another shot, and the computer is now behaving as if nothing happened. It still needs replacement, since the new OS won’t run 32-bit apps. We’re at that point where you have to move on. To this day I find old files that required an ancient version of the Mac OS, and beg to be booted in Classic mode. I’m sorry. No one around here speaks that language any more.

Have to write a column as well, so pardon me if this is the extent of fresh top-of-the-fold Bleatage. I wish it weren’t so. On the other hand, we have another landmark today: the end of the Sears catalogue section, which means we'll move along to other elements of the 80s site before everything resets at the top of the year.

Why, I've no idea, but that's just how it is around here. The typeface for the google ad division below will change.

Slightly.

It’s 1929.

Rebels? I assume everyone knew the reference. If they didn’t, they’d think, well, there are always rebels. Many were slain? Fine by me.

Slain is a headline word, because it’s smaller than killed.

If you're curious:

The Cristero War or the Cristero Rebellion (1926–29), was a widespread struggle in central-western Mexico in response to the imposition of secularist, state atheism, anti-Catholic and anti-clerical articles of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico.

		Beer Flat May is probably a better nickname than Flat Beer May.

		How do they know the part about the shoe and the “many months”?

Front page statement:

That’s a timely comment on the events of the day, and by no means something you could run any dang day of the year.

Back in the features section, it's a special puzzle that'll really make you put on your thinking cap!

WHOEVER COULD IT BE

WAIT

IT GETS HARDER

A typically dense furniture ad - I feel as if I should break out individual pictures, but I think you get the idea.

OH ALL RIGHT

Such a sunny tableau! Such a grim end for the chain. Grim.

A little movie add for Noah's Ark.

The director: the guy who did "Casablanca." It's a bit jarring to think that silent directors did the 40s classics, no? Makes perfect sense, though.

Did I say . . . little movie ad?

Oh my, it's huge.

Finally: a store for Lawndale.

Sigh.

That'll do; enjoy the update, and I'll see you around.