A Sense of Normalcy

 No blogging yesterday, as instead Favorite Niece and I went to Blossom to see the Story of the Year/Mayday Parade/Yellowcard -- the 20th anniversary of "Ocean Avenue" tour.  I had not seen Yellowcard in many years (mainly at Warped Tour, from what I recall), and it was...very good.  Excellent show, if a bit long -- it started before 7, and ended at 11, with Yellowcard putting on a full 90-minute show.  Our seats were in the poors (pavilion only), but I didn't want to pay inflated prices for the pit.  This is sad, as it is NOT the same to be in a seat and in relative comfort.  Alas.  

Today I decided to be somewhat productive and helped with the Thursday pickups at the OC.  Truth be told, we did not get that much today -- some bread and meat and some random stuff -- and while that is fine, if we have another big crowd Saturday, we will be quickly stripped of everything but canned goods.  This is not a problem per se, but the clients will be...grumpy.  I commented that this was a good thing -- if a store manages its inventory well enough, that will keep costs down for the consumer, and I think it was not exactly grasped by the volunteers.  I can only imagine, therefore, how our entitled clients will field about this.

The new power couple taking on Wall Street: J.D. Vance and Elizabeth Warren - POLITICO
I don't think this is a bad thing.  For one, some bipartisanship is a good thing, and the new GOP is a populist party, and there is nothing more populist than going after big banks and protecting smaller ones.  I would assume that no one from cleveland.com has seen this, as they assume that Vance is some neo-Fascist, but those views may explain why they keep moving into smaller and smaller buildings.

Why Democrats are losing men (msn.com)
I wonder when the GOP will start actively campaigning for men and running on men's issues.  Democrats seem to do it on women's issues -- almost exclusively -- and it does work, so why don't we do it?  To be sure, some of this is because we also do well with married couples, and we can't exclude the wives.  But I think there are plenty of ways in which we could drum up votes -- men don't vote as often, especially the younger ones -- and a targeted approach would be wise here, I think.

Turner Classic Movies Is a National Treasure | The New Yorker
I wouldn't go that far, but it is a good thing to have this around... the thing I am fascinated by is that they are profitable, so I would think keeping TCM around would be... not the worst thing.  Of course, Hollywood is also on strike now, so you can guess how they think about things, too.