cactuswatcher (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cactuswatcher) wrote2018-06-06 05:48 am
cactuswatcher) wrote2018-06-06 05:48 am
Odds and Ends
It's been mesmerizing watching videos of the progression of the current heavy eruption of Kilauea. The cracks, the fountaining, the rivers of lava, lava pouring into the sea... For me it was especially dramatic watching hours old videos from the air and being aware that things were changing very fast. There were shots from a helicopter of Kapoho Bay. You could see a breakwater that had been built to allow swimming in much of the bay. I wondered if the lava would reach the breakwater, and if so how quickly. The next morning it was all gone, lava was far into the bay. I caught a bit of someone talking about the fact that that area had the highest house prices on the whole island, and that houses on the water there were worth over a million dollars. It was all gone over night. The lava has completely covered bay as of yesterday noon and had traveled another 3/4 mile (over a kilometer) out into the shallow water of the ocean there. It's weird hearing somebody saying thus and such is worth millions and knowing that by the next morning it was all next to worthless.
The eruption in Guatemala is, of course, such a contrast. Instead of the overgrown rolling hills of Hawaii, you have the steep-sided cones most of us think of as looking like volcanos. Instead of the daily warnings in Hawaii to be prepared to evacuate because the roads were getting slowly destroyed, and people walking up in front of moving lava fronts for photos, you have a mountain top exploding and material roaring down the slopes with people having no chance to flee...
Miss America: I think for most of us guys, interest in the Miss America Pageant went out with growth of the feminism in the 1960s. What had seemed like a fun thing to do on a September evening, turned creepy and we guys finally noticed how disrespectful it was. The people running it didn't seem to notice the world had changed around them. Add to that the racism resulting from African-American women suddenly winning a couple times in a row and it's amazing any shred of it has survived. (Did you know that as early as 1951 the winner refused to pose in a bathing suit for publicity photos?) For most of us the whole business went out with top hats, one-piece Catalina bathing suits and Bert Parks. Except for the high school prom, how often do any but very wealthy women actually wear anything like an evening gown? In the last day or so the runners of the Miss America Pageant announced they are trying to keep the dead horse in motion by dropping the word "pageant" and getting rid of the swim suit and evening gown competitions. They want to be more receptive of women of all shapes and sizes. The question is why bother? Why not get rid of the contest altogether (I'm assuming they are keeping the talent contest)? As a profit making deal it seems like a hopeless venture. Why not just turn Miss America into a charitable organization to collect money for many scholarships for American women instead of trying to keep a pointless contest going? Is it any surprise that Mr Out-of-Touch-With-Reality Trump was running a beauty pageant till he was elected?
Speaking of the President, did you see the little "patriotic" party DJT threw for himself (and the press) yesterday when the Philadelphia Eagle football team mostly decided to skip going to meet him? A big troupe of Marines brought in on short notice to sing the nation anthem for him... White House staff out on the lawn pretending to be the average public instead of at their jobs. He may be of the opinion he can pardon himself for anything. A lot of us are not going to pardon him for anything.
The eruption in Guatemala is, of course, such a contrast. Instead of the overgrown rolling hills of Hawaii, you have the steep-sided cones most of us think of as looking like volcanos. Instead of the daily warnings in Hawaii to be prepared to evacuate because the roads were getting slowly destroyed, and people walking up in front of moving lava fronts for photos, you have a mountain top exploding and material roaring down the slopes with people having no chance to flee...
Miss America: I think for most of us guys, interest in the Miss America Pageant went out with growth of the feminism in the 1960s. What had seemed like a fun thing to do on a September evening, turned creepy and we guys finally noticed how disrespectful it was. The people running it didn't seem to notice the world had changed around them. Add to that the racism resulting from African-American women suddenly winning a couple times in a row and it's amazing any shred of it has survived. (Did you know that as early as 1951 the winner refused to pose in a bathing suit for publicity photos?) For most of us the whole business went out with top hats, one-piece Catalina bathing suits and Bert Parks. Except for the high school prom, how often do any but very wealthy women actually wear anything like an evening gown? In the last day or so the runners of the Miss America Pageant announced they are trying to keep the dead horse in motion by dropping the word "pageant" and getting rid of the swim suit and evening gown competitions. They want to be more receptive of women of all shapes and sizes. The question is why bother? Why not get rid of the contest altogether (I'm assuming they are keeping the talent contest)? As a profit making deal it seems like a hopeless venture. Why not just turn Miss America into a charitable organization to collect money for many scholarships for American women instead of trying to keep a pointless contest going? Is it any surprise that Mr Out-of-Touch-With-Reality Trump was running a beauty pageant till he was elected?
Speaking of the President, did you see the little "patriotic" party DJT threw for himself (and the press) yesterday when the Philadelphia Eagle football team mostly decided to skip going to meet him? A big troupe of Marines brought in on short notice to sing the nation anthem for him... White House staff out on the lawn pretending to be the average public instead of at their jobs. He may be of the opinion he can pardon himself for anything. A lot of us are not going to pardon him for anything.
no subject
That's a very good idea. Perhaps someday...