Top Comments: Random Thoughts for August edition

A few items ... from the inner mind to the outer lim ... after-the-jump.

But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.

Preamble—  if any of you will be attending Netroots Nation next week, I hope we’ll have the chance to meet.  Especially hoping that a Cheers & Jeers dinner for Wednesday evening can be arranged, and (weather permitting) I plan to go see the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game on Thursday evening.

Recently, I heard on the radio the 1983 song She Blinded Me with Science by Thomas Dolby — that reached #5 in the US charts (compared to only #49 in his native country Britain) — which he saw as a “slightly forlorn mad scientist” who falls for his lab assistant, and the song was produced by Mutt Lange (married to Shania Twain from 1993-2010).

Many recall the accompanying video, with an elderly man bellowing out “Science!”. Yet that was not an actor: instead, it was an actual scientist named Dr. Magnus Pyke, who received a Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1936 (and interestingly, whose undergraduate degree was from McGill University in Montreal, Canada).

Thomas Dolby knew him from his BBC shows on radio and TV from 1953 to 1980, and in 1975 the London-based magazine New Scientist asked its readers for their best-known scientists. Pyke came in #3 (after Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein) and Dolby wanted to introduce him to North American audiences. He sure did: as in a 2016 interview Thomas Dolby revealed meeting Pyke years later in Edinburgh.

He’d just returned from a lecture tour of the USA. I asked him how it had gone. “Badly, Dolby,” he spat back. “Every time I walked down the sidewalk someone would sneak up behind me and yell ‘SCIENCE!’ at the top of their lungs! It seems that bloody MTV video of yours is more widely recognized than my body of scientific work.”   

In 2006, VH-1 ranked the song as #76 in its 100 Greatest Songs of the 80’s list, and three years later it ranked as #13 in its 100 Greatest 1-Hit Wonders of the 80’s list.

Now, a pet peeve of mine (though hopefully not of the Old Man Yells at Clouds variety). Time was that at retail stores, coffee shops and the like: the cashier’s set-up had a small $ total screen visible to the customer (in addition to the one that the cashier could see). This way, I could find the right amount of cash to tender.

More recently … many do not have one. The downside is that if the cashier has a soft voice (or a heavily accented one) I feel awkward asking them to repeat it again and again — and simply take out a $20 bill. In recent times, this is made worse by Covid — large plexiglass plates they are behind and especially if they are also wearing masks. Here’s hoping this is not a permanent trend.

Finally, an item from the “What is that thing called, anyway?” file.

Visiting my sister’s home for a family gathering last weekend: her ex had her two sons for the morning and brought them home for the afternoon cookout. Nowadays, they walk through the garage door into the house — when they were little boys, they burst through the door. And I never got around to having a boom box for their return, playing the Thin Lizzy chorus “The Boys are Back in Town!”

I also thought there should have been a sheet of paper they would bust through (like a football team would use to exit the dressing room and enter the field). Part of the reason I never did that, either: what do you call that contraption, anyway?

Turns out there are numerous terms for it (partly depending upon how it is held up, is it a rectangle or circle, etc.) which made it frustrating to describe.

A search seems to indicate that the most common name is Breakaway Banners:

Breakaway Banners are custom printed banners with Velcro down the middle to attach two banner pieces to make one cohesive image. With poles on either side they are most commonly used at youth, high school, and college football games. Parents or cheer team members hold the poles on either side while the Velcro strip allows the team to run or break through the banner as they run onto the field.

If there is a more generic term, I’d be glad to know it. I fear this is but one of those many devices in life that you-know-it-when-you-see-it … yet can’t name it precisely.

Let’s close … with the song mentioned at the outset of this essay.

t

Now, on to Top Comments:

From twingrace:

In the diary by Sidof79 about the Tennessee legislature’s latest attempts at controlling school libraries— rnturn puts their finger right on the issue when pointing out the actual abuse of children perpetrated by the Party that wants to ban books to "protect" children.  

From Denise Oliver Velez:

In my own Caribbean Matters diary for today — this comment posted by AVeng, who is a community member from India, is one of many thoughtful comments she has made which always educate me.

And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........

In the diary by AKALib about the potential “mole” informant at Mar-a-Lago— an interesting analysis came to us via G2Geek.   

Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful (and now eternal) *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment featuring that photo.

TOP PHOTOS August 10th, 2022 (NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)

And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:

1)  Until We Meet Again by JekyllnHyde +266

2)  What makes it even sweeter is that the specific  … by MarkW53 +244

3)  P.S. Beto got a Standing O. by MutareParadigm +181

4)  My mother was the kindest person you ever met. S … by Diogenes2008 +174

5)  Correct. He meant that the law should be used by … by IntegrityMatters +170

6)  Every time a Russian ammo dump blows up, an ange … by paulex +167

6)  In Trump’s defense, he never meant that the law  … by EugeneDE +167

8)  H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y! by JekyllnHyde +141

9)  [image] by LamontCranston +137

9)  Oh, they’ll say all of the following:  … by raboof +137

11) The Daily Show has a mashup of Fox opinion of ta … by Bourne2Bmild +133

11) I posted this in another thread as well … by DEMonrat ankle biter +133

13) Planting evidence is exactly what Trump would do … by Lincoln green +132

14) (‘Bases’ is a plural of ‘basis’) by Elwood Dowd +123

14) As for anyone saying “Democrats are not being ci … by Diogenes2008 +123

16) These are the people that set the rules for the  … by AKALib +119

16) Well if they’re complaining that the FBI planted … by dderry6 +119

18) Only a Job for Plumbing Professionals … by JekyllnHyde +118

19) I wonder how well this would survive actual evid … by libera nos +117

20) “Republicans have decided to back Trump, with no … by Lincoln green +116

21) Trump’s taking the fifth can be consid … by Fiendishthingy +110

22) In Case Anyone Forgot This from 2016 by JekyllnHyde +109

22) After We Lock You All Up by JekyllnHyde +109

24) Thank you, Greg.  Daily Toons … by Denise Oliver Velez +102

24) Dump by Denise Oliver Velez +102

26) They aren’t bothering to hide their swastikas ar … by Colorado Blue +101

27) Tell me that caller has been identified. by Olds88 +99

28) My new bumper sticker idea: by unionstrong +97

29) "You see the mob takes the Fifth. If you're inno … by DEMonrat ankle biter +95

30) I’m sure the Belarusians had their stuff FAR awa … by zenbassoon +92