Ah, Friday! Well-earned, although now that I think of it, that’s just the usual self-justifying narrative that led the entire female population of the United States to agree with L’Oreal that they were, indeed, worth it. No one ever hits Friday and thinks “well, I don’t deserve this easy cessation to the week. I put in the minimal effort and skated on a few things, and really, I should work extra-hard today so I do have a rich, satisfying feeling at the end of the day.”

(I did twice the usual work for the paper, though.)

Amazing sight at the office today: the great illuminated ceiling over the hub, the center of the newsroom, was ON. I haven’t seen it on since March 2020. It was like the scene in “Star Trek: the Motion Picture” when the floodlights turn on and illuminate the old vessel in dry dock, and I say that after at least a minute of searching around for a better comparison.

There were more people downtown today than I've seen since the evacuation.

I know, I know, it's not exactly Times Square on New Year's Eve, but it's something. The Farmer's Market had set up.

When I got to the office, the displays had replaced the "MASK UP MINNESOTA!" signs with the cartoon generic face with new instructions, presumably aimed at the people who are heading back to the office.

I was delighted to see this.

No, it's not the world's worst Mounted and Stuffed Droid Head collection. It's what's not there. The machine that took your temp. It sprang to life when it sensed someone was near, and the screen had animated circles and targets and lines like a sci-fi movie interface. You were supposed to lean in and let it look at your face and take your temp.

The word "underutilized" comes to mind.

I read a news headline today that said "the Epsilon variant may defeat the vaccines," and I just wanted to toss the phone across the room. In related news, here's something odd.

There are lots of these. Who's behind it? Three options:

1. Antisocial loser dudes who have never known the touch of a woman, doing it for the lulz

2. A hostile state

3. Fearophiles who want the lockdown to continue indefinately to give shape and purpose to their lives.

A lot of work has gone into this. Not exactly Hoover-Dam work, but it's not all slapdash. I searched for the tweet text, turned up this guy . . .

 . . . whose feed also had this . . .

 . . . and . . .

Yet most of the tweets don't come back as dupes.

This is not how we thought the internet would turn out, but I don't think we would have been too surprised.

The view from Washington and Nicollet:

I like this, but it does remind you that the rest of the building doesn't try very hard. Or try at all.

Altogether now:  "the weekly sweep!"

The business partner should go straight to the slammer, and probably will:

Lance wants them to think he's established its fakeness by the handwriting, or the age of the ink.

Solution here.

As I said a while back, "I've heard Dimension X and X Minus One so many times I know how all the stories go. But I still listen. Sometimes I hear something I hadn't heard before, or perhaps something I forgot. In this case, I don't think I forgot.

From Dimension X, a cue that usually closed the dramatic shows. What's interesting in this ep - The Barnhouse Effect - is how the other cues relate. We usually don't hear the rest of the suite.

		Our old friend the First Order theme.
		Same suite, obviously.

		Again, same source - but I've not heard this one elsewhere.
		The last one. This is the most complete use of this set of cues, I think. Composer? Who knows.
Now, this week's Tell-Tale Horn, the sound that aways preceded the crash. It's from the Whistler.

I suspect this might be a tad on the overproduced and inauthetic side of the country genre:

		How much Larry was involved, I don't know. This is almost damned surreal.

If David Lynch ever shot a Coen Brothers script, I'd use this for the soundtrack.

		From 1975: why don't you buy the wrong air conditioner? No, I didn't say wrong

That'll do; thanks for the visits! Hope they were worth your time. Starting a new book in the Gallery this week.

See you Monday.