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"If you want to feel older, just try giving an uncooperative cat a series of antibiotic pills." The mighty Hercules trying to give the cat a pill

Thanks for all the meme-y, AI, and plain old fashioned birthday wishes. Sufficient, albeit, non commemorative, Usuals. Curiously Bacon free, but that will be remedied before too long. And a pro tip if you want to feel younger. Surround yourself (inadvertently) with significantly older people. Why I feel younger already. An I.M Pei designed building helps. If you want to feel older, just try giving an uncooperative cat a series of antibiotic pills.

Oh no! My favorite director ever. Will have more thoughts later but RIP, David. This one is a shock. Twin Peaks is my favorite show ever. Blue Velvet, Elephant Man, and Mulholland all stone cold classics. 😢

I could quit any time I wanted, honest. https://pmamagazine.org/golden-ears-anonymous-a-12-step-program-for-recovering-audiophiles/

Have a phenomenal day Sir!

Even In The Quietest Moments... by Supertramp (1977) https://album.link/i/1440868388 Example: Based on listening above, I just kept on listening to Supertramp... As I should...

Happy Birthday!

Jolly good what what! Happy Birthday me old son.

Happy Birthday, and enjoy the DC that rob posted. Umm, bacon...

Happy Birthday, Grahame!

"One of the Best Burgers in Marin" No Bacon (which would explain. It's ranking), but it was nearby, and after the trauma of having to get an unwilling cat to take an antibiotic pill, it hit the spot.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Curry Birthday.. From Gemini: And ChatGPT Cheers --

Happy birthday! Crack into a cold one!

Happy bacon day…. I mean birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!!

Have a great one Graeme! Cheers!

Happy Birthday, Grahame! Here's to hoping your day is filled with tea and the usual beverage, if that's your preference. And a side of bacon, naturally.

Happy birthday Grahame!!!

Hope it’s a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday, Grahame! (toasting with the usual)

Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 61 - Tsintsadze: Miniatures by Lisa Batiashvili (2008) https://album.link/i/380160164 Example: So my friend in LA went and saw Lisa perform the Violin Concerto the other night and he thought it was wonderful. I took a look and saw that she recorded it back in 2008, one of her first recordings. While that was 17 years ago, it was still very good. I am sure hearing her live today would be even better.

Roxette - Travelling (2012)

Brit "Fireside" Nibbles Lamb 'n fixin's Tiramisu

RIP Bob Uecker who passed at the tender age of 90. He delivered one of my favorite voice lines in all of cinema:

RIP David Lynch, just shy of his 79th birthday(!) I was never a huge fan of his work, but it was clear from the get-go that he was a true auteur with a very uncompromised vision. EDIT: Ninja'd by dsavitsk

David Lynch, Twin Peaks and Muholland Drive director, dies aged 78 https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/jan/16/david-lynch-twin-peaks-and-muholland-drive-director-dies-aged-78

I swear I don't just log in here to report medical mishaps. Yesterday was a banner day by anyone's standards. MV is an expensive place to live. There's few doctors on the island because full time general practitioners cannot afford to live here. Mum doesn't have a doctor and neither do I. She had a followup phone call yesterday from a nurse practitioner. When mum went to the ER on Christmas day because of covid, they detected what they thought was a heart murmur. Mum didn't see fit to mention that to me until yesterday, but that's another matter. The fallout of all of this was that I had to drive her to the hospital yesterday afternoon. After many hours there, they determined that she has Lyme disease from a tick bite this past summer. That is a recurring theme here on MV. I am cursed to spend my whole life in places that are hotbeds for tick borne diseases. Still, much better news than actual cardio problems. With that in mind, I've mentioned the Dreyer family here on MV before. They're a nice couple in their 80s. Peter is a photographer, who shot 4x5" for decades. Adele is a piano teacher with a Steinway. They're both in as good health as any member of the silent generation. They have a daughter named Gwen. She's my age and in far better shape than I am. Yesterday she was giving blood and fainted. The staff could not revive her and she ended up in the ER. A blood test revealed high levels of troponin. TIL (or more to the point, YIL) troponin is a protein found in heart muscles and a high percentage of it is in the blood stream, that most likely means a heart attack. I repeat, Gwen is a healthy woman in her early 50s. The MV hospital doesn't have the necessary equipment to perform the required heart tests, so they doctors ordered Gwen be sent to MGH in Boston. There were no beds there, so she had to be sent to Mass General Brigham. She was to travel there by helicopter, which arrived sometime after 1AM. At 3AM, the helicopter had to make an emergency landing because of instrument failure(!) It wasn't until 6AM that there was another one available (as of yet I have no idea where the copter touched down) so Gwen spent a number of hours in the early morning (and COLD) waiting. I still have not heard what the tests performed at MGB revealed. I did learn that one of her cats has been keeping vigil on Gwen's bed during her absence. It's been quite a 24 hours.

RIP Tony Slattery. Who is that? Well back in '79 or thereabouts we went to see the Cambridge Footlights, a showcase for comedy and acting from Cambridge University Undergrads. Traditionally participants have gone on to greatness. Been running since 1886 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footlights . The one we saw - in Southampton - had Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Emma Thompson in it. Aged 20 or 21 at that point. Each of them went on to greatness. This is them back then. Slattery is the guy in the pale sweater. After footlights he had a burst of fame in a satirical review show on the TV - and then nothing. Totally off the radar. Unrecognizable now, he was making a slow come back. He'd spent the intervening 40 years in dependency and mental illness. No sooner was he getting modestly confident in front of an audience, that he had a heart attack and died, aged 65.

Adding Magnum photographer Constantine Manos, who also passed away about a week ago. https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/remembering-constantine-manos-1934-2025/