The Olympics are Over. Long Live the Olympics!
This and That
🧑💻 Tuesday was the last day of classes for the summer term. I finished grading and posted grades. No muss no fuss. Now I get a very short break before classes begin anew next week.
👩🍳 Granny’s Recipes is a project by Brandon to reproduce their great-grandmother’s handwritten cookbook online. It’s a bit like my own Recipes We Actually Use project in that they are both “blogified” cookbooks. I wonder how many other sites there are like this, collecting tried and true recipes? Maybe a webring or a cookbookroll somewhere?
🛜 At home I run PiHole, an ad blocking DNS service. It works well enough but doesn’t help when I’m away from the house. Since learning about NextDNS from Maique, I’ve been running with it on my devices. After a week or so I’m very pleased with it. I might convert the whole family to it.
☹️ It’s engagement survey time again, so I’ll repeat this so the executives in the back can hear: Nothing kills engagement like talking about engagement. People leaders, please, no. Just don't. Go lead.
📰 I stopped getting printed periodicals years ago. Newspapers especially have the problem of piling up and it just seems so wasteful. But I miss being able to read the paper from beginning to end. Today’s news websites are like archeological sites. You have to dig and dig and dig and hope you stumble across some news. It’s no wonder people are uninformed.
🎩 I posted a couple of new /slashpages: My Résumé and a list of imposter Michael Burkhardts. There are a lot!
Movies and TV
🐻 Finally pushed through the rest of season 3 of The Bear. It turns out to have been a season of catharses for several of the characters, and it seems the goal of the season was to make the viewer feel the pain that Carmy, Richie, Sugar, and the rest of the gang were all going through. Mission accomplished. I can’t imagine going back and watching it again. But there were some really beautiful moments too, including the fantastic exchanges with Olivia Coleman and Thomas Keller in the finale. I hope things take a more positive turn in season 4.
🗺️ I first saw Time Bandits (1981) when I was only 10, and it was a bit of a bizarre experience. I’m happy to say that the film holds up really well and it’s not actually that weird. Now that I’ve rewatched the original, I’m ready for the new series on TV+.
💎 Topkapi (1964) is a gem of a film. I can’t believe I’d never seen it before! I wasn’t expecting that ending!
📺 Resumed my YouTube TV subscription recently. I’m already enjoying watching old movies on TCM and one of my favorites: Jeopardy!
🏀 After watching one episode of Mr. Throwback I don’t believe I’ll be going back for more.
Reading
🧠 “Why AI’s Tom Cruise problem means it is ‘doomed to fail’” by Alex Hern (The Guardian)
The Paris Olympic Games Closing Ceremony
🏅 Although not as grand as the opening ceremony, I enjoyed the continuity and closure.
🏁 What was up with those obnoxious jackets the American athletes were wearing? All that was missing were the STP patches.
NBC’s coverage was pretty terrible. Tony Estanguet gave a massive speech that evoked thunderous applause at several points. And what did NBC do? They cut to commercial.
🏖️ IOC president Thomas Bach performed the ceremonial duty of closing the games, extinguishing the Olympic flame, and handing off the games to Los Angeles for 2024. We were given a sneak peek at the kind of gaudy over-the-top spectacle we can expect in four years. The contrast could not be more stark. Boo.
☮️ Mr Bach summed up the games beautifully, addressing his fellow Olympians:
During all this time, you lived peacefully together under one roof in the Olympic Village. You embraced each other. You respected each other, even if your countries are divided by war and conflict. You created a culture of peace. This inspired all of us and billions of people around the globe. Thank you for making us dream. Thank you for making us believe in a better world for everyone.
How do you top that? Be excellent to each other.