QUARANTINE BLOG # 556

👉👉👉October 7, 2021

When QB was featuring select state birds, flowers, and songs, Amy asked about state license plates.  A quick search revealed a wide variety – as would be expected – with some states offering one or two options and some offering dozens.  Symbols, colors, or slogans dominate, and they typically have 5-7 characters, with specialty or vanity plates having up to 8 characters in some states.  I like the artwork and the variety (except for the Georgia standard plate which allegedly features a peach that looks more like a pumpkin).

So, in groups of 5 (published over 10 blogs) here are the 50 state license plates.  Oh, before we start, you may want to sing the names of the 50 states.

👉  The following is selected, but unedited, from The Wall Street Journal, and contains no QB editorial comments:

Facebook Inc. whistleblower Frances Haugen testified to Congress Tuesday on internal documents showing harms from the company’s products – from teenagers’ mental-health problems to poisoned political debate – adding fuel to efforts to pass tougher regulations on Big Tech.

The documents gathered by Ms. Haugen, which provided the foundation for The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files series, show how the company’s moderation rules favor elites; how its algorithms foster discord; and how drug cartels and human traffickers use its services openly.

“I saw Facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profit and our safety.  Facebook consistently resolved these conflicts in favor of its own profits,” Ms. Haugen told a Senate consumer protection subcommittee.  “As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable. 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), the chairman of the subcommittee conducting Tuesday’s hearing, called on Mr. Zuckerberg to appear before Congress to testify, terming the company “morally bankrupt.”  Republican and Democratic lawmakers at the hearing renewed their calls for regulation, such as strengthening privacy and competition laws and special online protections for children, as well as toughening of the platforms’ accountability. 

👉  Facebook can have positive uses.  Like my friend who successfully promotes her business on the platform.  But to find the good among the stupid, the nasty and the  destructive is like finding a rose in a pile of manure.  The following editorial cartoons do represent QB editorial comments.  

👉  One more Facebook piece.  I saw a disturbing story on the news last night about the algorithm the company uses to keep people coming back – the story begins at 17:07.  Facebook uses emojis to direct traffic, the most important one being “anger.”  If you respond to a piece by clicking on that emoji Facebook will direct you to other sites where anger is the theme, and it will also send anger links to people who are your Facebook pals.  Despicable!  As the news anchors say, this world, our society, does not need more anger!

👉  A Florida gas station employee said she’s listed as receiving a $3.4 million COVID relief check that she never applied for and never received.  Amy Williams said she’s stunned that her name ended up in the federal database stating that she received millions in COVID Restaurant Revitalization Funds for a catering business.  Williams never applied for the funds, never received any money and has never worked in the restaurant business.  And she hasn’t lived at the address listed on the check for roughly eight years.  Williams’ husband works as a restaurant cook, but that’s their only tie to the food industry.  And that restaurant did not receive any relief funds either.  Associated Press reports that the Small Business Administration declined comment on the mistaken check, saying its Office of Inspector General and the agency’s federal partners are working diligently to resolve fraud incidents.

👉  1962 had some really good Number One hits: among them, three by Elvis, two instrumentals, one by Ray Charles, and one by Pat Boone.  Today: February, May, and December by the King of Rock and Roll.

First up, “I Can't Stop Loving You.”  “Can’t Help” was recorded by Elvis Presley for the album “Blue Hawaii” as part of the sound track for his movie of the same name (Elvis plays an ex-G.I. who comes home to Hawaii.  His mother expects him to climb the corporate ladder.  But Elvis would rather wear an aloha shirt than a white collar, so he goes to work as a tour guide.).  The melody of the song is based on “Placer d’amour” – literally “Pleasure of love” – a popular French love song composed in 1784.  “Can’t Help Falling in Love” is ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest songs of all time.

“Good Luck Charm” went to Number One in May for Elvis.  The song, and his performance take a lot of hit from critics who say he was just going through the motions, knowing that any record he put out would be a hit.  Regardless, it is an enjoyable song, classic Elvis.

The last Number One song of 1962 was Elvis’ “Return to Sender.”  Performed for the movie “Girls!  Girls!  Girls” in classic Elvis rock and roll style, the lyrics laments his relationship with a hateful partner.  Writing music for the movie, Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott were stumped until they found inspiration in a returned piece of mail.  A demo that they had sent to a record company was returned to them with the words “Return to sender!  No such person!  No such zone!” stamped onto it.  Blackwell and Scott decided to use those phrases as lyrics in a song about a failing relationship between “a spiteful woman and a heartbroken man.”

👉  Today’s close, “A Wide Place for My Steps,” is from Praying with the Psalms, by Eugene H. Peterson.

“You gave me a wide place for my steps under me, and my feet did not slip” (Psalm 18:36).

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea; there’s a kindness in His justice, which is more than liberty.  For the love of God is broader than the measures of man’s mind; and the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind” (F. W. Faber, “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy”).

Prayer: You delivered me, God, from the tangled and cramped alleys of sin and put me in the spacious country of mercy and justice.  Now I have plenty of room to walk in your ways.  Assist me to follow “in his steps” even as I pray in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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