Rat, Driving Privileges, NetFlix; The Week That Was

This week has been exhausting - leaving me with nothing written but a regained driver's license.

Monday, or Tuesday, I went down to see CC, but she was not home. A lot of hours spent on that little expedition.

Five hours it took me to get home Tuesday. I went to see CC, and I think I made a pit stop at home to get my glasses - I am wearing the reading glasses at work, they are good enough for that. We spent some time talking; she may move in with me when she gets done with rehab and halfway house. She did not balk when I made my major condition: she gets out of Muncie for good, I was back on the bus. I needed to get a charger, so off I went to Walmart. Made my purchases, then came home to stay. During dinner, I got light-headed and then there were muscle spasms. I went to bed.

All I remember of Wednesday is calling Paul S. He has been having health scares of his own. What else happened? Damned if I can recall other than signing up with Netflix to watch White Collar, only I wound up watching Warrior. I have seen some of that show while in Fort Dix FCI.

Thursday was the big day. I was watching Warrior after I woke up, and turned it off to go shave, only to see a rat inside on my kitchen windowsill. It ran very quickly away. My morning at work was aggravated by thinking on my last rat. My sister showed up at 10. We went off to get ready for my driver's test. I passed. 100% score. I got a message that work was shutting down early. We went off to see about my renting a car this weekend. Then Aldi's, since it was in the same strip mall. I was close to CC, and my sister wanted to go to the post office. She let me drive by. I gave CC a bag of dates. Then back here, I was fixing dinner when the rat reappeared. It is another black and white rat. My theory is someone either lost or let loose their pet rats. However, since the little critter was attracted by my Mahi-mahi scrap that fell on the floor, I got an idea of how to rid myself of the beastie. I finished watching Warrior.

I like Warrior. My initial interest was in it being an idea of Bruce Lee. It got me interested in checking the Tong Wars out online. I have a little problem just being able to sit and watch. This is a long-standing behavior for me - TV always has been more of a background noise for me rather than a focus of attention. I learned that there is a link between Banshee and Warrior; I can see it now in some of the lurid violence. Both shows also employed Hoon Lee. He improves both shows. We also watch Banshee at Fort Dix - a lurid, outrageous bit of pulp fiction that lurched between brilliance and absurdity. Warrior is far more consistent in tone. Justin Lin is involved, but Andrew Koji carries the weight of the main character. He also appeared on Peaky Blinders.

Then I started Guy Ritchies' The Gentlemen. I have been a Ritchie fan since Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. It is on in the background right now. It is enjoyable. Not like Lock, Stock, or Snatch, but is quieter in its execution. He has a good time exposing the criminality and bizarre life of the English.

I went back to looking at the removal of Native Americans from Indiana: Indian removals in Indiana, American Indian Center of Indiana, Inc., Washington County Indiana – Land of the Indians, Indigenous History in Indiana: Treaties and the Complexity of Language Preservation, and Survivance and Continued Existence of Native Peoples in Indiana.

I found JHI Blog.

Since its founding in 1940, the Journal of the History of Ideas has aspired to be an ecumenical and encyclopedic venue for research in the capacious interdisciplinary field of intellectual history.

Now, more than 80 years later, the JHI Blog continues this mission in a dynamic online format, reaching a wide audience within and beyond academia. A vital supplement to the journal, the blog publishes think-pieces, fora, and interviews on the broadest range of fields, topics, figures, methodologies, and contexts. We also feature conference reports, exhibition reviews, and reading recommendations, as well as a podcast. The JHI Blog is a space for public-facing interdisciplinary and original work, especially promoting new research from graduate students and early career scholars. We aim to keep intellectual history in constant evolution and connected to other disciplines.

There is an essay on Nietzsche I want to read. 

Childlessness came up in group therapy yesterday and then along came The Parenting Panic: Contrary to both far right and mainstream center-left, there’s no epidemic of chosen childlessness by Aaron Bady (Boston Review)

If every generation thinks it invented sex, they are also wrong when they invent choosing childlessness. The fact is, outside of a very narrow, highly educated slice of the Global North, the vast majority of people today still become parents, and at roughly the same rate they always have. Meanwhile, it’s worth remembering that people in the past tended to exercise the same general kinds of choice-within-constraints that we have today. The difference is in degree far more than in kind.

The childlessness worried about by JD Vance seems to be less than it seems - a posh white problem mostly.

I have been suffering from a stiff neck all week. Last night, it settled into a low-grade headache.

The Ball State Daily News reviewed the new downtown restaurant I mentioned here a few weeks ago: New Italian-American restaurant, Little Chicagos, operates along Walnut Street in downtown Muncie.

Little Chicagos’ signature pizza, being the namesake of the restaurant, is a Chicago-style deep dish personal pan pizza, which Stackpoole has been making for over 25 years.

“It's all in the name Little Chicagos,” Stackpoole said. "Little Chicago pizzas [are] our forte. It's what we're famous for. Instead of waiting 40 minutes for it to bake, like you would in Chicago, these bake in about 15 minutes, and you get pizza [in] half the time.”

With Stackpoole’s experience in the field, he’s been working with owner Summer Hellis for around 11 years before starting Little Chicagos.

The Stackpoole-Hellis partnership began with a restaurant in Pendleton, Indiana. They also have a history in Muncie, when they opened their restaurant Osteria 32, a former Italian restaurant that closed five years ago.

Stackpoole and Hellis opened Osteria 32 — with the help of Mike Martin and the Common Market — because they’ve “always wanted to help Muncie grow,” Stackpoole said. Along with the love of food, that’s why they opened Little Chicagos.

Stackpoole was excited about a downtown space, with the restaurant located on South Walnut Street, due to the growing downtown culture.

I spent a long time last night reading The Unfortunate Consequences of a Misguided Free Speech Principle. It is a different slant on free speech that persuaded me by the end of its good sense.

I found out Kurt Wallinger died:

I need to get to Enterprise Rental by noon today. Then laundry.

Pretending:

A thought from The Rolling Stones for the upcoming election:

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