Always have, no doubt always will. The wretched simulacrum of a fashionable woman was launched, or inflicted on the world about the same time that I started kindergarten, so you would have thought that I would have been one of the first generation of girls to have played with the grotesque thing but I never felt the appeal, and it probably just wasn’t because Dad was a grad student living on a GI Bill stipend and supporting a wife and two small children at the time. But I had indulgent grandparents and if I had truly wanted a Barbie doll, I am certain that one would have appeared at Christmas, or among birthday presents. But I never really wanted one, even though many of my friends had Barbies, their endless accoutrements and accessories, the Ken doll and all of Barbie’s friends. The one doll that I envied helplessly and wished that I did have was possessed by the girl my age who lived next door.
Rodeo Songs
Earlier this month, I linked some coal mining songs. Another prolific source of American music has been the rodeo. Here are a few songs on that theme that I like.
Bucking Horse Moon, Tom Russell
All This Way for the Short Ride, Tom Russell
Everything That Glitters is Not Gold, Dan Seals
Someday Soon, Suzy Bogguss
Also Someday Soon, Ian Tyson
Saddle Bronc Girl, Ian Tyson
And this one isn’t about the rodeo, but about a young cowboy and his first cattle drive:
Banks of the Musselshell, Tom Russell
…and the same song by Ian Tyson
Others?
Will There Ever Be an Apology for Covid Overreaction?
In the light of this story, and this one as well, I am more than ever glad that my daughter and I said “no” to the Covid shot and follow-on boosters. Of course, I know that any new vaccine or drug can have a small number of unfortunate side effects but honestly, aren’t well-informed adults allowed these days to calculate the risks and make their own decision? Apparently not for many employees, who were ordered to get the Covid vaccine or be fired … and are now facing health problems that make Covid itself look like pretty small potatoes.
What Happened in 2012?
From cdrsalamander at Twitter, based on an analysis of Monitoring the Future survey data by Jean Twenge.
Thoughts?