LILEKS (James) :: The Bleat 2020 WEDNESDAY

I had a different Andromeda Strain banner planned for today, one that assumed there would be loosening on Monday.

There will not be loosening.

The Stay-At-Home order continues until May 18, with exception for grocery stories, general merchandise stores, liquor stores, small hardware stores, large hardware stores, the lakes, the sidewalks, the walkways along the creek, the golf courses, and other places. But #stayhome #staysafe!

So I got in my car and went to the grocery store, because that is Permitted, to get things for next week. It was a nice warm night, with eager Spring in the breeze. Mostly I needed to drive. I needed to get on the highway and go fast, and that’s what I did. Driving back I remembered, as I always do on a warm night in this part of town, a meeting I had in the early 80s to ghostwrite a book. The meeting was in fancy Edina! I was right by Southdale, the fancy mall! Someday, perhaps - someday! And jobs like this would be the start!

I drove back exultant to my smoky flat in Dinkytown, and a certain song came on the radio. Fit the mood completely. Never forgot that.

The same song came on as I hit the onramp, the same onramp I’d taken in 1984 after the meeting. It’s possible that’s happened in the intervening years, but it’s likely I changed the station: let that moment stand alone. But hey, now, who knows? Might never get another chance. Windows down, radio up as loud as it would go. Punch it. Feel the Gs around the corner. Put it in the red. It felt exultant and reckless and necessary.

Then the song ended and I took the next off ramp and drove home at the posted limit. Still smiling when I put the car in the garage.

Story from a British paper; can't remember which, doesn't matter. I bring it up for two reasons:

What is there to buy, exactly? Are we talking about the nomenklatura of the capital?

Reason #2: remember when we were, for a moment, interested in knowing whether he was alive or dead?

Some things noticed at the grocery store:


		This seems like an oddly specific thing brought up by someone high up in the company. MENTION IT, TRUST ME, IT'S IMPORTANT

This is the saddest thing I saw all week:

Oh I feel so much better about it now.

Doesn't seem to have moved up much, but it has.

I'm waiting for the steel skeleton. Any day now, right?

Last shot of this one for a while.

Soon, the fountains will splash, unless they've cancelled that because people might stop and watch and thus contract the disease.

I wouldn't be a bit surprised.

From my vast collection of things with almost no monetary value whatsover, I bring you this week's entry.

The Queen's image on a sheild with spears is an interesting touch. As for the country, it had an interesting run:

Tanganyika was a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania, that existed from 1961 until 1964. It first gained independence from the United Kingdom on 9 December 1961 as a state headed by Queen Elizabeth II before becoming a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations a year later.

But there's more!

After signing the Articles of Union on 22 April 1964 and passing an Act of Union on 25 April, Tanganyika officially joined with the People's Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba to form the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar on Union Day, 26 April 1964.

Pemba? Pemba.

This year it's Bela on the last Friday of the week. Rather then stretch them out over the course of the week, I'll dump them all here in one day. It's like Lance, without the mystery.

The suspense is murder, isn't it

Solution is here.

Yes, the last Friday of the month is Jingle Day! Thrill with us as Anita's singers set the stage for your listening pleasure with the shouts that defined an era - and still define the medium, if you ask me.