Exhausting!
After what you put up Neo, another YouTube video came up of a couple dancing the Black Bottom. Not as vigorous, but still moving. What is interesting too is that the couple are White and the Jazz Band is all Black.
Wow! And she did the whole thing without music.
Chainsaw guy on Cracker Barrel, and how less and less of it’s food is cooked fresh and as it used to be.*
In the final scene of the black bottom video the bottom words are covered over by an ad for another video. I can see only that it says something about where the steps came from–can you fill in the blanked out area please so I can get the “whole story”.
Mike Plaiss – as I recall you work in downtown Chicago. Did you happen to see the pro-Hamas protest yesterday afternoon? We received a warning notice from our physical safety team at work that CPD just made them aware that a “demonstration of unknown size” would start adjacent from my building so expect disruptions to our commute home, etc. which was all I needed to head out and take an early train home. I couldn’t find much on it in the news today so wondering (hoping) the unknown size turned out to be like 3 pathetic people. I’m in the financial district by the way.
Paul S – I go into the office nearly everyday, but worked from home yesterday because I had a doctors appointment. So no, didn’t see this one. I will say I’ve seen a half dozen or more in the last couple of years – ones organized to the extent that CPD sent out a notice. Typically they number 25 to 40 in a good turnout. Sometimes they have a megaphone or two and can project noise beyond their size. I haven’t seen one yet that wasn’t pretty pitiful. The Israeli consulate is in my building, so they often descend upon us.
Thanks Mike, sounds like your Dr appt spared you from witnessing another chunk of nonsense!
There is a young woman, who goes by Jazzy Feet, on You Tube that can Black Bottom up a storm!
Opening sentence:
“The guilty secret among students of American politics is that many of them—perhaps most—have not read The Federalist in its entirety….”
So in the past (2-4) years how many conservative people do you know or have heard of who switched to liberalism?
Silent films give a clear indication of how widespread literacy was – at least in the big cities.
Would a modern audience be able to read those intertitles?
@ BenDavid – according to some of the news reports we have seen, the modern audience would have trouble reading “Dick and Jane” books.
There were lots of “hits” on “college students can’t read books” but I consider the Atlantic story as an “admission against interest” since the magazine is decidedly on the left.
@AesopFan:There were lots of “hits” on “college students can’t read books”
Ten years ago I knew this to be true. Many of the college students I had could not read their textbooks. They would read the beginning and end of a word and guess at what word it was, and so they would get things hugely wrong. They could generally pick out the nouns and verbs in a sentence but if the sentence wasn’t as simple as subject-verb-object they didn’t understand.
If you asked them to read anything out loud, you ran the risk of humiliating the ones who couldn’t do it.
I generally had college seniors by the way, so three years of social promotion before they got to me. One reason I left academia is because we were not actually allowed to hold students meaningfully accountable. You had to pass so many of them, no matter how poorly they had performed, otherwise your department chair or department dean or the Dean of Students would override what you’d done, and at minimum calling you on the carpet over it, if not worse career consequences.
One study used a paragraph from the opening of Dickens’ Bleak House:
London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly retired from the face of the earth, and it would not be wonderful to meet a Megalosaurus, forty feet long or so, waddling like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill. Smoke lowering down from chimney-pots, making a soft black drizzle, with flakes of soot in it as big as full-grown snowflakes—gone into mourning, one might imagine, for the death of the sun. Dogs, undistinguishable in mire. Horses, scarcely better; splashed to their very blinkers. Foot passengers, jostling one another’s umbrellas in a general infection of ill temper, and losing their foot-hold at street-corners, where tens of thousands of other foot passengers have been slipping and sliding since the day broke (if this day ever broke), adding new deposits to the crust upon crust of mud, sticking at those points tenaciously to the pavement, and accumulating at compound interest.
Most of the students in the study were very confused by the dinosaur.
The subject cannot make the leap to figurative language. She first guesses that the dinosaur is just “bones” and then is stuck stating that the bones are “waddling, um, all up the hill” because she can see that Dickens has the dinosaur moving. Because she cannot logically tie the ideas together, she just leaves her interpretation as is and goes on to the next sentence. Like this subject, most of the problematic readers were not concerned if their literal translations of Bleak House were not coherent, so obvious logical errors never seemed to affect them. In fact, none of the readers in this category ever questioned their own interpretations of figures of speech, no matter how irrational the results. Worse, their inability to understand figurative language was constant, even though most of the subjects had spent at least two years in literature classes that discussed figures of speech. Some could correctly identify a figure of speech, and even explain its use in a sentence, but correct responses were inconsistent and haphazard. None of the problematic readers showed any evidence that they could read recursively or fix previous errors in comprehension. They would stick to their reading tactics even if they were unhappy with the results.
Another quote from that study, this from a reader classed as “competent”:
Subject: O.K. Two characters it’s pointed out this Michaelmas and Lord Chancellor described as sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall.
Facilitator: O.K.
Subject: Um, talk about the November weather. Uh, mud in the streets. And, uh, I do probably need to look up “Megolasaurus”—“meet a Megolasaurus, forty feet long or so,” so it’s probably some kind of an animal or something or another that it is talking about encountering in the streets. And “wandering like an elephantine lizard up Holborn Hill.” So, yup, I think we’ve encountered some kind of an animal these, these characters have, have met in the street. yup, I think we’ve encountered some kind of an animal these, these characters have, have met in the street.
@ Barry > The guilty secret among students of American politics is that many of them—perhaps most—have not read The Federalist in its entirety….”
I was shocked to discover that Constitutional Law students don’t even read the Constitution in its entirety.
FWIW, I did read The Federalist Papers front to back, but that was in 1977 while I was laid up for long stretches at a time nursing my first-born.
@AesopFan:I did read The Federalist Papers front to back
So did I, and had my middle-school-age son do so as well. Colonial illiterates were able to comprehend it if they got someone at the local tavern to read it to them, so I figured he could too.
Barry Meislin on August 28, 2025 at 10:17 pm
I came across that L&L book review today, too. Thought enough of the book to add it to my “perhaps to be bought” list (only $20 for PB). But I will hold off actually buying until I reduce my current pile of unread purchases. I don’t have enough shelf space for the books I have and have taken to putting books horizontally over the vertical ones already on the shelves. And then I started to notice that many others on the internet with extensive book collections on display behind them often do the same thing!
Is it an addiction to buy books that I now may realize I might never read? [if cheap enough]?
Is it an addiction to read Neo’s blog everyday?
AesopFan: so with your first born, you gained insight from the Federalist on how to provide executive enforcement of feeding, legislate later personal and family rules for his upbringing, and adjudicated conflicts when those rules were found wanting. 🙂
NC: are you saying you took your son to a local tavern to have the patrons explain the Federalist to him? 🙂 Or is he now supposed to explain it to them? I for one would welcome hearing his explanation on several points, as I have not made (or remember making) a full reading of the Federalist as part of my education [just selected summary versions].
@ R2L > “I don’t have enough shelf space for the books I have and have taken to putting books horizontally over the vertical ones already on the shelves.”
Guilty as charged.
“you gained insight from the Federalist on how to provide executive enforcement”
I never thought of it that way! Obviously that is the source of my parenting style!
On the other hand, I have heard the boys occasionally remark that I somehow missed my calling as a Marine drill sergeant.
@R2L: are you saying you took your son to a local tavern to have the patrons explain the Federalist to him?
Now I wish I had. No, I had him read them. I didn’t think it would be too hard for him, the colonial illiterates could understand it so I figured he probably could too. Hope that clears things up but I do feel now like I missed an opportunity.
However, I have a young daughter, I can still have it read to her in a tavern when she’s a little older, it’s not too late.
I doubt that dance was all that shocking. Society was far less constrained and conservative in 1927 than in 1957. Remember the origins of the Hayes Code.
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Exhausting!
After what you put up Neo, another YouTube video came up of a couple dancing the Black Bottom. Not as vigorous, but still moving. What is interesting too is that the couple are White and the Jazz Band is all Black.
Wow! And she did the whole thing without music.
Chainsaw guy on Cracker Barrel, and how less and less of it’s food is cooked fresh and as it used to be.*
* See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqB2REJNHK4
Snow on Pine…Cracker Barrel link to presentation by activist investor and discussion here:
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/74858.html
In the final scene of the black bottom video the bottom words are covered over by an ad for another video. I can see only that it says something about where the steps came from–can you fill in the blanked out area please so I can get the “whole story”.
I found this 2 part interview quite compelling.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/484-days-in-gaza-released-hostages-keith-aviva-siegel-recount-the-horror/amp/
Mike Plaiss – as I recall you work in downtown Chicago. Did you happen to see the pro-Hamas protest yesterday afternoon? We received a warning notice from our physical safety team at work that CPD just made them aware that a “demonstration of unknown size” would start adjacent from my building so expect disruptions to our commute home, etc. which was all I needed to head out and take an early train home. I couldn’t find much on it in the news today so wondering (hoping) the unknown size turned out to be like 3 pathetic people. I’m in the financial district by the way.
Medical interlude (Dr. Peter McCullough) FWIW:
“FIRST HUMAN CASE OF FLESH EATING PARASITE CONFIRMED. HOW YOU CAN STAY SAFE.”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/sponsored-post/first-human-case-flesh-eating-parasite-confirmed-how-you-can-stay-safe
Stay healthy, stay safe…
Like clockwork….
“Riots Erupt In Swiss City After Migrant Teen Is Killed In Scooter Crash While Fleeing Police”—
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2025/08/27/riots-erupt-in-swiss-city-after-migrant-teen-is-killed-in-scooter-crash-while-fleeing-police/
Paul S – I go into the office nearly everyday, but worked from home yesterday because I had a doctors appointment. So no, didn’t see this one. I will say I’ve seen a half dozen or more in the last couple of years – ones organized to the extent that CPD sent out a notice. Typically they number 25 to 40 in a good turnout. Sometimes they have a megaphone or two and can project noise beyond their size. I haven’t seen one yet that wasn’t pretty pitiful. The Israeli consulate is in my building, so they often descend upon us.
Thanks Mike, sounds like your Dr appt spared you from witnessing another chunk of nonsense!
There is a young woman, who goes by Jazzy Feet, on You Tube that can Black Bottom up a storm!
The book review to end all book reviews?
“The Shape of Publius;
“Every judge or legal scholar should have this book ready at hand.”—
https://lawliberty.org/book-review/the-shape-of-publius/
H/T Powerline blog.
Opening sentence:
“The guilty secret among students of American politics is that many of them—perhaps most—have not read The Federalist in its entirety….”
So in the past (2-4) years how many conservative people do you know or have heard of who switched to liberalism?
Silent films give a clear indication of how widespread literacy was – at least in the big cities.
Would a modern audience be able to read those intertitles?
@ BenDavid – according to some of the news reports we have seen, the modern audience would have trouble reading “Dick and Jane” books.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/
There were lots of “hits” on “college students can’t read books” but I consider the Atlantic story as an “admission against interest” since the magazine is decidedly on the left.
@AesopFan:There were lots of “hits” on “college students can’t read books”
Ten years ago I knew this to be true. Many of the college students I had could not read their textbooks. They would read the beginning and end of a word and guess at what word it was, and so they would get things hugely wrong. They could generally pick out the nouns and verbs in a sentence but if the sentence wasn’t as simple as subject-verb-object they didn’t understand.
If you asked them to read anything out loud, you ran the risk of humiliating the ones who couldn’t do it.
I generally had college seniors by the way, so three years of social promotion before they got to me. One reason I left academia is because we were not actually allowed to hold students meaningfully accountable. You had to pass so many of them, no matter how poorly they had performed, otherwise your department chair or department dean or the Dean of Students would override what you’d done, and at minimum calling you on the carpet over it, if not worse career consequences.
One study used a paragraph from the opening of Dickens’ Bleak House:
Most of the students in the study were very confused by the dinosaur.
Another quote from that study, this from a reader classed as “competent”:
@ Barry > The guilty secret among students of American politics is that many of them—perhaps most—have not read The Federalist in its entirety….”
I was shocked to discover that Constitutional Law students don’t even read the Constitution in its entirety.
FWIW, I did read The Federalist Papers front to back, but that was in 1977 while I was laid up for long stretches at a time nursing my first-born.
@AesopFan:I did read The Federalist Papers front to back
So did I, and had my middle-school-age son do so as well. Colonial illiterates were able to comprehend it if they got someone at the local tavern to read it to them, so I figured he could too.
Barry Meislin on August 28, 2025 at 10:17 pm
I came across that L&L book review today, too. Thought enough of the book to add it to my “perhaps to be bought” list (only $20 for PB). But I will hold off actually buying until I reduce my current pile of unread purchases. I don’t have enough shelf space for the books I have and have taken to putting books horizontally over the vertical ones already on the shelves. And then I started to notice that many others on the internet with extensive book collections on display behind them often do the same thing!
Is it an addiction to buy books that I now may realize I might never read? [if cheap enough]?
Is it an addiction to read Neo’s blog everyday?
AesopFan: so with your first born, you gained insight from the Federalist on how to provide executive enforcement of feeding, legislate later personal and family rules for his upbringing, and adjudicated conflicts when those rules were found wanting. 🙂
NC: are you saying you took your son to a local tavern to have the patrons explain the Federalist to him? 🙂 Or is he now supposed to explain it to them? I for one would welcome hearing his explanation on several points, as I have not made (or remember making) a full reading of the Federalist as part of my education [just selected summary versions].
@ R2L > “I don’t have enough shelf space for the books I have and have taken to putting books horizontally over the vertical ones already on the shelves.”
Guilty as charged.
“you gained insight from the Federalist on how to provide executive enforcement”
I never thought of it that way! Obviously that is the source of my parenting style!
On the other hand, I have heard the boys occasionally remark that I somehow missed my calling as a Marine drill sergeant.
@R2L: are you saying you took your son to a local tavern to have the patrons explain the Federalist to him?
Now I wish I had. No, I had him read them. I didn’t think it would be too hard for him, the colonial illiterates could understand it so I figured he probably could too. Hope that clears things up but I do feel now like I missed an opportunity.
However, I have a young daughter, I can still have it read to her in a tavern when she’s a little older, it’s not too late.
I doubt that dance was all that shocking. Society was far less constrained and conservative in 1927 than in 1957. Remember the origins of the Hayes Code.