Signs of the Times

A Las Vegas Jigsaw Puzzle

I picked up this puzzle at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas when I was there for Ira's funeral at the beginning of February, 2022. 999 pieces (the last piece in the upper-left corner was unaccountably missing).  Classic Vegas!

Walking Jasper Around the Neighborhood

Tomorrow is Jasper's fourth birthday, and so he's getting more walks than usual. We walk all over the neighborhood. 

Here's an oddly-specific sticker on a car that was parked in front of the Sierra II theater. 

I'm constantly amazed at the number of people who approach us and tell me what a handsome dog Jasper is: at least three groups of people in front of Gunther's ice cream parlor, plus a homeless man passing by on a bicycle. A woman carrying a dog in her lap stopped driving for a moment on Fourth Avenue in order to point out Jasper to her canine. Jasper's a rock star! 

There have been a few odd moments in the neighborhood too. Jasper and I were walking along Freeport Blvd. when a vehicle stopped. Windows rolled down on the passenger side of the vehicle. "Please help us," the heavy-set driver said, pointing to a woman, his wife, sitting in the back seat. "We are from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and we are low on fuel. Please, if you would, buy this ring so we can get gasoline." He removed a big, heavy, expensive-looking ring from his finger. Nevertheless, I never carry any money on our walks, so couldn't oblige. The disappointed folks rolled on. 

Then there was a punkish-looking young woman, with razor cuts embellishing her short hair, riding a bicycle. She stopped at the corner of 24th and X Street and started ripping the tips of limbs from a ornamental, succulent-looking shrub growing at the corner, and throwing the debris into the street. This plant attack looked all-wrong to me, so I approached her and asked her what she was doing. She smiled - apparently I looked harmless - and said it was time to prune the shrub. I couldn't tell if she belonged there, or not - I thought not, but I could be wrong - so Jasper and I kept on walking. Passing by the next day, it looked like the shrub is still intact, despite the abrupt pruning. Maybe it was time to prune the shrub?

Orrin Hatch Shuffles Off His Mortal Coil

What a dreadful man. Glad he's gone:

In any case, Hatch could routinely be the worst during Supreme Court nominations. He was outraged that Bork didn’t get confirmed. Moreover, he was on the Senate Judiciary Committee during the Clarence Thomas hearings, where he read from The Exorcist to “prove” that Anita Hill had stolen her (obviously false natch) sexual harassment allegations from that book. 

In fact, few did more than Hatch to push the Republican Party toward extremism in the judiciary. He was a huge supporter of the nomination of Mr. Torture Memos himself, Jay Bybee, to the Ninth Circuit Court.