oybay

[oybay]

March 3, 2025 Let March Madness begin

Time to put away the compilation of doomscrolling latest hits…anyone remember ‘K-Tel’ records? Hello? Anyone? Okay, gather ‘round boys and girls and hear the tale of of the birth of “But wait, there’s more” and SNL Legend Dan Ackroyd’s iconic Irwin Mainway, Bass O’Matic and 4 records of the in my closet stash with psychedelic covers proclaiming all hits of ‘60’s, 70’s – all hits, no ‘b’sides and…

[oybay]

March 1, 2023 Wear a Leek, Make Some Soup, Repel a Saxon

Just taking a break from banging my head against the nearest wall. Let’s look at a grand tradition from a wonderful part of the world – how I’d love to be in Wales right now. Today is St. David’s Day. Traditionally Welsh people around the western world wear a leek—yes, the veggie that looks like a green onion with a pituitary tumour. I’m not sure if the tradition is still followed or if it’s…

[oybay]

Feb 26, 2025 Time to Pick up the Pace

It is so hard to keep up with the crazy the Commodus in Chief is cranking out. Every day something new comes on the news to top the previous standard of outrage. One day he issued a variety of social media posts proclaiming himself king. He’d issued a social media post proclaiming he’d struck down traffic rates imposed by New York City. This brag about exerting power over a jurisdiction where he…

[oybay]

February 19 A New Hat for a New World

Week 4 – where to begin? It’s been an ongoing series of ‘oh look over there’ and complete batshit crazy decrees from HRH Don R to baffle onlookers and leave the rest of the world gob smacked with terror. It isn’t funny anymore. Well, okay, there is an urge to laugh at the dissonance of some of the actions. In one stroke the reigning monarch of the USA declares broad tariffs on steel and…

[oybay]

DT Commodus; Season 2: Chaos Restored

A Brief (yeah, okay, not so brief) Review Week 1 was spent walking around in a freshly concussed state of trying to remember the day and location. The question of ‘how many fingers am I holding?” replaced by what’s the current number of executive orders he’s issued today. It was impossible to keep track of the blizzard of paper flying out onto Pennsylvania Avenue. Technically, an audit should…

[oybay]

January 28/25 Ginger or Snickerdoodle?

I spent the day baking cookies, catching up on Will Trent and noodling on my guitar.  Apparently I missed a bit of a circus from the big noise down south but I always find comfort in food and history.  Or, in this case, how our current tumult will go down in the historical record. Pause for a moment and consider how future generations will view the first quarter of the 21st Century. More…

[oybay]

Dec 4/24 No need to rush, where ever you go the line up got there first.

A sense of normalcy is settling in. Flu season is starting up but so far no signs of serious effect – then again, I swim in the shallow end of the grey panther pool. We’re the ones driving with the perpetual turn signal; parking grocery carts in the middle of any aisle while investigating the ingredients of a granola bar and paying with startling amounts of change—shaken out of a well used…

[oybay]

Nov 22, 2024 Trading One Plague for Another

The current nominee for dismantling the health system in the US is a strong voice for reducing the use of unnecessary additives in food. One of the plans is to cut back on sugar in the general food supply with a focus on the complete removal of all sweetie temptations directed at children. Outlawing gummy bears is one of the proposals. This fairly reasonable sounding proposal – after all there…

[oybay]

Nov 15/24 Take a Breath Now

Each day becomes more of a challenge. I’m really trying to avoid the topic of the day for a couple of reasons. Firstly, this journal/blog/whatever you want to call it is supposed to be about the overlap of politics with CoVid – sometimes a little more one than the other. Secondly, in the deep days of the Trump/Vid intersection, I made it a practice to shut off the political podcasts and…

[oybay]

Nov 8, 2024 Gobsmacked

With a smidge of PTSD. The world is in denial right now as the eponymous figure for this blog has actually managed a comeback of tragic proportions. It has taken a few days to be able to actually mention it out loud – the shock has been deep and pervasive with the texture of cold sick. The recovery process will be a long one. Few current, tentative discussion of ‘the result’ include the felon…

[oybay]

November 2, 2024 Covid is still here but 7 Million People have exited through the COVID Gift Shop.

Or 14 million if you go by excess mortality (for 20/21) . The only errror factor is from countries that don’t keep/publish accurate death statistics. As the circus continues each year’s grim plague total will be added. The odd thing is there are more vaccine deniers now than ever before. It may be difficult to determine numbers of Covid anti-vaxxers (the claims of mind control, genetic…

[oybay]

September 8, 2023 F’Tang-F’Tang-Ole-Biscuit-Barrel

So if conspiracies and plagues go together like imaginary ham and real eggs, where are we now? There are some of the classics, of course. The rise of pandemics is because God is angry at: a) our sinful ways; b) the persistence in the belief in evolution and of course, c) so many folk embracing miscegenation Not much new about that. Of course there’s always the return of that perennial…

[oybay]

Evolution of conspiracy theories: what’s science got to do with it.

There is the tradition of conspiracy theories during plague times going all the way back to the Bronze Age. The easiest explanation is it’s a desperate attempt to find an answer to why cousin Bucketta went to bed humming a happy tune and woke up dead the next day. Followed rapidly into the hereafter by the rest of Bucketta’s family including the dog. The moon? A red sky at noon? An improperly…

[oybay]

May 1, 2023 Okay, it’s not for everybody…

Walking around these days everyone is pretty chill about the whole pandemic thing. In stores staff and customers wearing masks are definitely in the minority. More clerks stay masked because they are still in the respiratory droplet line of fire. Anyone who has worked with amounts of cash know money is literally filthy so it’s not a stretch to imagine the air around the people forking it over is…

[oybay]

April 20, 2023 What did I miss?

Sorry, got distracted by a great comet of life crashing into my world. Okay, maybe not a comet – more a matter of dealing with the pervasive fatigue attached to my ass like a helium filled boulder. I managed stitching some paragraphs together but they lack continuity. Sometimes within the paragraph. Anyway, I’m sure I can winkle out some meaning from them and maybe even piece together a few…

[oybay]

March 18, 2023 On the Other Hand

So, the Wuhan lab theory is now being pushed aside by cute pictures of raccoon dogs. Yep, I’ve never heard of them either but as a poster animal they’ve got bats beat. It is a critter that has been known in the past to play host to viruses capable of making the jump to people. Of course that doesn’t mean it happened in this case. Apparently some early samples of SARS-CoV-2 had trash panda puppy…

[oybay]

March 11, 2023 The Day The World Changed

3 years ago today, the W.H.O. officially declared the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak a pandemic. Let the denials and body counts begin. As previously noted, it seems like it was a lifetime ago and yesterday at the same time. It could be nicknamed COV-TARDIS SARS-2 because everyone has difficulty placing events that took place within 2 years of today’s anniversary. I know 2023 has only clocked 3 months…