I had to force myself to go to the office today. It seemed more pointless than usual. Then I thought about what was ahead if I didn’t go - four days at home, more or less. No, dammit, go. Drive the car, which is enjoyable. Walk among tall towers, listen to radio as I head across the parking lot, nod to the building guard, listen to the bells in the City Hall clock tower, note the way the light at a certain time seems different than it did a week ago.

Or sit at the desk at home and do this and that, followed by that, with some “this” interspersed.

On the highway I discovered that my car does not have an empty windshield-wiper fluid button. If it did, I wouldn’t have smeared grime all over the glass. I felt like a spirit beholding the passings of mortals from the other size of a gauzy veil. Of course, what do you do in this situation? Try the windshield wipers again, in the hopes that the fluid-squirter will pass a stone and a full flow will once again dash its blue magic upon the windscreen. But that just smears it worse.

Once I parked, I forgot all about it, of course. I remembered it hours later, and cleaned the window with a handful of snow, something that feels as cheap and busted as washing your car with the gas station squeegee.

It's been a while since we did some Internet Detritus. No, I don't know what that means. Perhaps "curious things, noted" as well as things that have irritated me to the point of irrational rage. But first: ha ha someone didn't proof the ad

BEHOLD, AN EMPLOYMENT FEATURE

Wonder if someone got fired for this.

Least enticing clickbait ever:

Next, we move into the realm of the Contemptible Internet.

   
 

Oh look, it's an ad from 25 years in the future!

I mean, really? Remember her? She's literally on the front page of Reddit now in an AT&T ad.

   

I've spent more time on YouTube lately, and I've been signed out and VPN'd It's a good lesson on what the site is selling: FACES AGOG. PEOPLE REACTING. I get it; branding. You put your mug on the thumb in an identifiable fashion that conforms to the genre.

But let's just say that the art of the thumbnail isn't exactly like the great era of movie posters.

   
 

The Beast reacts to expensive food by opening his mouth in a posture of infantile petulance? Where do I click!

   
  SMASH THAT BELL AND SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE REACTIONS TO THINGS FROM OVER-SATURATED BEARD ATTEMPTER
   
  Soyface, the "Look closers" red circle, the doctored photo: twenty million views.
   
 

She's a "Gamer chick" who also reacts.

"Another level" in this tier of internet thought means "people who have honed practical skills in order to feed themselves"

   
  At least she changes it up, donning glasses I'm sure are medically necessary and have nothing to do with wanting to project a hint of "nerd" to go along with the gaming persona.
   
  STAY TUNED FOR THE EXCITING MOMENT WHEN SHE MAKES THIS FACE GOSH I HOPE IT TURNS OUT OKAY SHE LOOKS SO WORRIED
   
Reaction Face has infected everything.

YouTube has an amazing quantity of wonderful stuff. The front-facing page is a parade of goggle-mawed idiots.

Also, when did Goldblum take over the Tyrell Corporation?

 

This week's look at the Thrivent Apartments is almost identical to last week's.

I wonder how they're selling.

So much for New; on with the Old.

One of my favorites is the ur-80s 701 4th street, a Helmut Jahn building. The most adventurous design of its time. Snapped this the other day:

Okay, context. i was looking up as I went down the escalator.

The marble is unusual. The columns are odd. The escalators are too narrow. I love all of it.

Oh, the outside is Pink and Blue. It's the building at the top of the page.

 

Four panel? EIGHT! Guess what we have this year, at month's end? SUNDAY LANCE!

"I'm not crazy, and yes, I can pin it on you." It's not as if he has to reply to them all in turn.

Solution is here.

 

 

Sherlock Holmes had quite the run on radio. The program always began with the pitchman dropping in on Dr. Watson to hear a tale. I never thought about where it happened . . . until this.

   
 
   

Somehow that's just wrong.

This year we're counting down the top hits . . . of 1922. Why not?

Today it's Van & Schenck. The latter died in 1930; his partner outlived him by 1968. They came from vaudeville, did Ziegfeld's Follies. This is the "Virginia Blues."

   
 
   

Here's the key to understanding this peculiar number, which I suspect is intended as a routine, more than a heartfelt tribune to the Old South.

The duo sang and performed comedy routines. Van was especially adept at dialect humor, and could imitate any number of regional and continental accents. One of the team's typical novelty hits was Pastafazoola, in praise of Italian food and sung in the appropriate style. Van's hearty baritone and Schenck's high tenor harmonized well, and the team became known as "the pennant-winning battery of songland." 

Yes, there's dialect "humor" in this one.

 

I had way more 1968 South African commercials than I thought. A rather breathless and needlesly intense pitch for Pledge.

   
 
   

 

G'wan, name another one-man operation that gives so much! Just try! Okay besides that one.

   

 
   

There: that should do. Average quality stuff, but so much! Have a fine weekend, and we'll meet back here Monday morn

 

 

 

 
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