I've got an issue with pull tabs. They are on food products everywhere.
This morning, I tried to open a container of oatmeal and the pull tab broke off.
I needed a knife to pry it open.
Lemon juice has a snap open top and the first use requires removal of a pull tab.
It broke.
Same with the rice vinegar... broken pull tab.
Milk... pull tab.
I'm not trying to negate the death of Shirley Ann Watts, widow of Rolling Stone drummer Charlie Watts. She died last Friday on the 16th of December at the age of 84.
But this is another report of someone passing away "surrounded by family."
A high percentage of famous people who die unexpectedly or after a short illness are surrounded by family. I don't know, I find it strange.
You better be good, you better better not lie, you better be good, I'm telling you why, the IRS is coming to town!
There's so much excitement in the air. Holiday lights are up, snowbirds are here in Florida, traffic is snarled and the man who said he "Knows more than the IRS" is starting to sink into quicksand. Donald, don't thrash. It will only make your arms tired.
The House Ways and Means Committee voted to release former president Donald Trump’s tax returns this week.
The January 6 committee concluded and released a final report to the DOJ urging them to prosecute Trump for 17 things including inciting the insurrection.
More than 70 years ago, Gibson Guitar Corporation manufactured their first solid body electric guitar and with the help of musician Les Paul, they released several different models in his name.
Competing with Fender who bulk manufactured basic guitars on an assembly line, the Gibson Les Paul model had more hands-on craftsmanship. Select flamed maple front, decorative binding on the body and glue-in set neck (as opposed to bolting on a Fender neck) were the most significant visual differences. Another difference were the pickups. Fender used single coil pickups that were subject to interference or 60 cycle electrical hum. The Gibson pickups named Humbucker had dual coils inside a metal shielded case. Some of the early pickups were stamped patent applied for, later known as PAF were the most sought out style of that era.
So the combination of design, wood, hardware and electronics, adding limited production has made those models difficult to find and extremely valuable.
Unfortunately, collectors... players or not, scoop up these guitars whenever they can.
Guitarist Joe Bonamassa will go through pawn shops looking for vintage Les Paul guitars in the cities where he is performing.
Last year I saw a video of the guitar collection owned by Rick Nielsen of the rock band Cheap Trick. He's got many different brands and models and remembers every purchase.
According to Wiki, Nielsen has owned about two thousand guitars over the years and currently has about 500 instruments.
I believe he's got a museum for viewing and sometimes does shows of his favorites.
Here's a 5 minute version for an online music company name Reverb:
Some of you may remember My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell's trouble with the 2020 election and false claims about the Dominion voting machines. Mike is probably up to his ears in legal troubles, but that's another story. His mouth got him banned from Twitter, but since Musk bought the losing entity, he's brought back Mike, or is that brought Mike back?
With a sense of empowerment, Mike declares they should melt down the electronic voting machines and turn them into prison bars.
For who Mike... you?
That's one more twit back on Twitter.
Maybe someone is keeping a scorecard on Elon Musk who bought Twitter to support free speech. He invites many to return but bans a few.
This week he suspended a few journalists and under pressure he removed the suspension.
Sometimes you cannot access Twitter pages without logging in and sometimes you can.
Is Trump back or hanging on to TRUTH so he doesn't kill-off the investors?
I took a few days off from morning exercise and needed to get back into a routine. It rained during the night and the streets were wet, but that didn't stop me. Sometimes I'll pass other residents of my community and give a hello or good morning response. The winds were calm but I smelled cigarette smoke and 30 feet ahead in the walkway between 2 cars was a heavy-set woman sitting on a walker with wheels. She must have been waiting for the transport bus, puffing away before her ride arrived.
I had my cellphone and was conducting business so I raised my hand to give her a half wave acknowledgment. That didn't break her attention as she was focused on the cigarette.
I think they call these Rollator walkers in Europe.
Around 5 years ago I bought a cheap toaster...$10. The price was right, the product was wrong. The temperature setting was too touchy that the slightest turn was uncooked or burnt. Possibly before I moved or during the yard sale getaway, the toaster disappeared. I didn't miss it because it was horrible, but I really wanted a toaster.
Last week, when shopping at Walmart, I bought another cheap toaster... yes, $10.
It seems low-end toasters haven't been affected by inflation.
I started it up without toast to get the 'new smell' out of it. The apartment quickly smelled of burned plastic and I unplugged it in fear it would set off the smoke detector alarm.
My partner said "Take it back" but I persisted. I moved it to the 2nd bathroom, turned on the exhaust fan and started another round of making (empty) toast. Allowing it to cool, I went for 2 more rounds. Little by little the burned plastic smell disappeared and the door closed in the bathroom kept the apartment from smelling like... burned plastic.
I had an English muffin I wanted to toast, so I split it, put it on a plate and headed to the bathroom. When asked where I was going... my response was "I'm going to make toast!"
Just to avoid questions about health and safety. It's a 2 bedroom / 2 bath condo and that bathroom (with a shower) is used for storage, the toilet has a plastic cover (like hotels) and the sink is only used for dental, water-pik, hand washing, mustache trimming, etc.
Relax, this is guitar tech talk and not what you are thinking. Ten years ago I bought a left-handed Les Paul style guitar made in Asia. I paid $250 and it looks much like a $2,500 Gibson Les Paul. Does it sound like a Les Paul... Naah, but who cares?
I'm left-handed and typically, it's rare to find left-handed guitars, so I making a collection.
The workmanship is really nice but the thing I didn't like was the setup that includes, neck adjustment, string height and the nut. It's been played less than an hour and sits in a case under the bed.
The nut is the piece that holds the strings at the top of the fretboard/fingerboard. Depending on the manufacturer, nuts come in all sorts of materials, from plastic, composite, metal and bone. Some guitarists are fanatical about nut material as it helps to influence the sound of the guitar. As the strings vibrate, the nut transfers resonance into the neck giving the guitar more sustain.
Guitar maker Paul Reed Smith is borderline fanatical because it's important in the sound his guitars make. Here's a short video of his explanation of selecting nut material.
So, I'm replacing the nut on my guitar for one with slightly different spacing and lower height. Oddly, the custom work is around $125 or half the price I paid for the guitar!
Last month when I took a vacation, my car was in the airport parking lot for 5 days. On my return, I started the motor and it labored for a few seconds. Weak battery. It's been on my list to deal with it.
Typically, I have a place in Miami where I buy batteries wholesale. They do lots of export and always had what I needed in stock. My first choice for Car batteries, 2 marine batteries I used during 2 hurricanes, power supply/backup batteries, I've been buying from them for 15 years or so.
I usually know when a battery is getting ready to fail, but three years ago, I didn't have time to get there when the battery in my Hyundai Veloster died with little warning.
AAA came the the rescue and for $130 I was back in action.
Today I was scheduled for an oil change and since my car is under 36,000 miles, I'm getting the dealer to do the service. The service advisor said my battery failed on their multi-point inspection so they replaced it under the manufacturer's warranty. No argument there.
Waiting to replace the battery, worked out as a nice gift... Thanks Toyota!
In a former life, I was a member of a site that had chat rooms, private chat, blogs and forums. On a busy Saturday night you could find over 2,000 people logged in, using the system.
One feature they had was to allow members to add comments to other members photos. Usually it was funny or nice comments. Scammers would often post email contact information for others to to get back to them.
One guy named Chotty could be found on every new profile tagging his words to every female in the system. He was famous. Often, it was mentioned when Chotty commented to a bloggers profile and often brought up in a blog. If I recall he was from the 'Deep South' maybe in Georgia or Louisiana. Chotty didn't blog and he didn't post in the forums. His thing in life was tagging photos.
With so many comments, his favorite line was:
"You've got a bangin' booty babygirl!"
I'm not sure how a face photo determined she had a banging booty... but he said it anyway.
It's not that I have a crystal ball and can see into the future, but I said it before and will say it again, that Jared Kushner will most likely be under financial scrutiny for his business dealings and association with the former president.
He's been laying low lately and there was a report he and Ivanka were somewhat cold to each other at a recent public outing.
As they say... Something could be up!
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