From Heather Cox Richardson’s latest daily commentary on the news:
While Republican lawmakers continue to grab headlines with outrageous behavior and obstructionism, President Biden has been derailing them in the only way no one has tried yet: ignoring them and governing. Only two weeks into his administration, this approach appears to be enormously effective.[Insert Road Runner sound effect here.]
The problem with Safari that Mojave users (like me) first noticed in mid-November has been fixed. Safari 14.0.3 fixes a problem that began with 14.0.1 and continued with 14.0.2 — the inability to perform any task that involved opening the Finder from the browser, like, say, attaching or uploading a file. You know, trivial blue-moon stuff. Strange: Apple now offers updates for both 14.0.2 and 14.0.3 for Mojave, with the boxes for both downloads checked as a default.
After learning that Apple employees read all e-mail addressed to Tim Cook, I wrote to him, or them, in mid-December:
Hello Mr. Cook,As you can already guess, I received no reply. It’s impossible for me to tell from the one Apple document about 14.0.3 I can find that Apple is acknowledging a problem that has been fixed. But Safari, at least for now, works.
In 1985 my first computer was an Apple //c. I’m a liberal-arts type, but I nerded out creating macros for AppleWorks with Beagle Bros’ MacroWorks. I finally gave in and began using Windows in the 1990s. With Windows 7 on the horizon, I switched to a Mac in 2007 and have been a happy user ever since. My family and extended family are now all Mac, iPad, and iPhone users.
But right now I’m not a happy user. For those of us still (for whatever reasons) staying with Mojave, the recent 14.0.1 update breaks any button that opens the Finder to browse for a file. In other words: it’s no longer possible to attach a file in Gmail. (You can drag and drop, but sometimes that’s not appropriate.) It’s no longer possible to upload an image to Blogger. It’s no longer possible to do many, many ordinary tasks that require opening the Finder from Safari:
https://discussions.apple.com/search?page=1&q=safari%2014.0.1%20mojave&content=filterDiscussions
My solution to the problem was to reinstall Mojave, get the [then-new] security update, and stay with 14.0. From what I’ve read in Apple Community discussions, the problem that began with 14.0.1 persists with 14.0.2:
https://discussions.apple.com/search?page=1&q=safari%2014.0.2%20mojave&content=filterDiscussions
The problem with 14.0.1 has been a problem for over a month now, and 14.0.2 apparently does nothing to fix it. Several people have reported calls with tech support that yield no solution. At least a couple of people report being told by Apple tech support to use Chrome. Sheesh!
As I’m sure you will agree, Apple should do better by its customers. Please, make Safari work properly in Mojave.
Science! An Iowa State University research study has found that “diet modifications — including more wine and cheese — may help reduce cognitive decline.” Wine and cheese FTW.
Four specific findings:
Cheese, by far, was shown to be the most protective food against age-related cognitive problems, even late into life;I hereby declare this study to be the final word on the subject. But don’t forget the crackers.
The daily consumption of alcohol, particularly red wine, was related to improvements in cognitive function;
Weekly consumption of lamb, but not other red meats, was shown to improve long-term cognitive prowess; and
Excessive consumption of salt is bad, but only individuals already at risk for Alzheimer’s Disease may need to watch their intake to avoid cognitive problems over time.
[Mutts, February 4, 2021.]
In today’s Mutts, Earl reminds us, or alerts us, that it’s National Mail Carrier Day, aka Thank a Mail Carrier Day. Funny, I thought that day was shortly before December 25. Yes, we write a check for our mail carrier every year.
Related posts
“Everybody’s trusted friend” : The Mailman (An educational film)
[Life, May 24, 1943. Click for a much larger view.]
I’m not sure how I found it, but I did. A complete kit for writing V-Mail, with everything but fountain pen and mechanical pencil: ink, leads, stationery, pen wiper, calendar, ruler, and instructions for pen care.
What led me to Sheaffer’s Voyager? A World War II motto, as seen in a movie flophouse: “Write that letter now.”
[Of course Sheaffer wouldn’t think about wood-cased pencils as writing instruments.]
“I googled [blank].”
Okay. But what if one uses DuckDuckGo?
“I duckduckgo-ed [blank]”?
“I duckduckwent [blank]”?
“I searched for [blank] with DuckDuckGo” is too prolix for this twenty-first century. But still I’ll go with DuckDuckGo.
A guest on The 11th Hour tonight: “vius versa.” And another guest, a couple of minutes after that: “stimmied,” for “stymied.”
[Hi and Lois, February 2, 2021.]
[Hi and Lois revised, February 2, 2021. Click either image for a larger view.]
In the spirit of Harold Ramis’s movie, I am trying to get Groundhog Day right. I think snow is much more appropriate than bright green grass. Besides, snow in the comics always looks beautiful, so clean and bright.
Related reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)
[I do like that tree as is.]
[Sid Bennet (Whit Bissell) is surprised to see his sister Sheila (Evelyn Keyes). From The Killer That Stalked New York (dir. Earl McEvoy, 1950). Click for a larger view.]
Sid Bennet manages The Moon, a Third Avenue flophouse. His sister Sheila has shown up looking for a place to stay. I noticed that sign to Sid’s left: “Write that letter now.” A hangover from the war? I think so.
From a record review in Billboard (October 30, 1943): “The Hill Toppers remind us to write that letter now and send it to your soldier boy tonight.” A snippet of something in Collier’s (October 1944): “Write that letter now. Write it V-mail.”
The sign to Sid’s right: “Have you forgotten any personal property?”
Have you forgotten any personal property? If so, go back and get it. And then write someone a letter.
Made for these times: The Killer That Stalked New York (dir. Earl McEvoy, 1950), a fictionalized semi-documentary treatment of the 1947 smallpox outbreak in New York City. A nightclub singer and diamond smuggler (Evelyn Keyes) returns to the city from Cuba, and as a T-man tries to track her down, she unwittingly spreads disease. She tips a porter; she comforts a child; her huband (Charles Korvin) talks to the milkman; and smallpox travels, first through a neighborhood, then through the city.
What most strikes me about the response to the threat of a pandemic here: it is swift and overwhelming. The word comes down: “Vaccinate the whole city.” If that takes hundreds of clinics? “Get them.” And doctors? “We’ll draft them.” Police stations, clinics, firehouses all become vaccination sites. Hospitals and their staffs are on call around the clock. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are told that they must come through. When needles run short, a sewing-machine company is pressed into action.
Then, as now, there are vaccine skeptics: a crowd scene shows a sign declaring VACCINE IS POISON, and a householder declares that “Nobody’s gonna put no germs into me or my family.” But social pressure is subtle and effective: our narrator (Reed Hadley) tells us that anyone who didn’t get the vaccine was “out of fashion, not in style.” A sore arm “told your neighbor you had good sense.” The slogan that carried the day in 1947, and again on screen: “Be safe. Be sure. Be vaccinated.” More than six million adults and children were vaccinated, five million of them in two weeks. A six-year-old Brooklyn boy, Anthony Fauci, was one vaccine recipient.
The Killer That Stalked New York will air on TCM’s Noir Alley, February 6 or 7 (depending on time zone). But you can watch right now a YouTube.
More on the 1947 smallpox outbreak
1947 New York City smallpox outbreak (Wikipedia) : An interview with Anthony Fauci (ABC News)
[One telling point: We’re told that Washington, London, and Paris are waiting to see what happens in New York. But there’s not a word about Cuba. In 1947, smallpox came to New York in a Mainer returning from Mexico City.]
