Robot Jazz

  I'm back! After a two-week break, I have returned to blogging. The cause of my disappearance is the usual suspect: real life.  In addition to that, I just needed a break as fitting in a blog entry every few days started to feel less like a hobby and more like a job. It helped that politics quieted down a bit.  I mean, this admin was as nuts as ever, but the last few weeks were more about Trump and his minions embarrassing themselves than it was about actively destroying the nation.   But now, with the help of a rainy day (writing weather!), I am back at it.   🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻 We have a new pope! And he is American! I was stunned when we learned he was an American because I agreed with the mindset that America, being a superpower, would never be given even more power by having 1.4 billion Catholics come under the sway of an American pope.  So much for that logic! The reasons why an American pope was picked are still much debated. Of course, there has b...

  I'm one of those annoying people who takes pride in enjoying entertainment from other shores.  I don't do it just for some sense of cultural superiority - okay, maybe a bit of that - but because I find much of American entertainment to be juvenile. And I don't mean actually juvenile in the way that Michael Bay's endless Transformer  flicks are targeted at a young, after-school audience, but in how even serious filmmakers tackle adult topics with a juvenile mentality. Be that as it may, I am always on the lookout for a new experience from beyond America's shores. Recently, a friend of mine who knows my love of British television ( Inside No. 9  is a recent favorite of this Twilight Zone  fan!) recommended Fawlty Towers  to me. I heard of this classic bit of late 20th-century British television before but had never gotten around to watching it. Seeing how most of the episodes were available on YouTube , I sat down this past weekend to watch it.  I love...

  So, how are you doing America? Enjoying all that winning? As NBC News reports: The U.S. economy contracted 0.3% in the first quarter of 2025, the first negative reading since 2022, according to an initial measurement released Wednesday by the Commerce Department. The decline in gross domestic product was fueled by a massive surge in imports, while other parts of the U.S. economy showed signs of slowing. Consumer spending climbed 1.8%, the weakest pace since mid-2023. The report also showed inflation remained firm. But, as long as it brings down those egg prices, right? Oh... Retail egg prices, or the prices paid by shoppers, have climbed over the early months of Trump’s term, meaning household budgets have been slammed by worsening egg costs, the economists said. 🔻🔻🔻🔻🔻 The sad thing is that I know how the worsening economic picture under Trump will play out. Indeed, I got a glimpse of this recently when an acquaintance complained about the price of eggs but blamed it on Bide...