Quickly

Early to rise, nice 113 hgl level, 15 minutes early to work. Tried to finish a project from yesterday but the machine crashed. Had to delete the database and revert to the previous release.

2 pm meeting, so I went to nearby Carl's for lunch. Team leader showed the new stuff in the new product which we need to write test cases for. I volunteered for one which will need a lot of cutting and pasting.

Finished the project, confirmed that instead of having 30 unique programs on 30 feeds, we have 4 of the same program in a row, then 4 of the same next program, and so on. With one unique feed. So out of 30 feeds there are only about 7 unique programs. Four TBS, four CBS, four Encore, etc.

Online I found a well-reviewed unit which can play all my vinyl, 78s, and cassettes into a USB output.

Left at 5:30 to attend an estate planning presentation at the credit union, which is two blocks from the office. It started out okay, presented by a junior lawyer from a firm across the street. After about two slides, she answered a question from the audience, which turned into 20 minutes of Q&A. Finally went back to the slides, two more of those and another 20 minutes of Q&A until someone raised her hand and suggested she finish the program. Which she did.

In short, 3 minutes of useful to me information packed into 2 hours.

One of the useful bits was to avoid her law office.

Home, Spook was very vocal, for no apparent reason.

Delivered was a pair of hummingbird feeders, this time the right kind, but with a nice upgrade - a widemouth opening so I don't need a funnel. The one which was hanging outside was empty, so I filled all three and hung them outside. Two have red food coloring, one is clear, all have the same water:sugar mix. I will bet real cash dollars that the clear one will last the longest. I'm hoping that having 3 will lower the amount of territorial foo, so all the birds get fed.

Now I have 3 higher-capacity feeders to go to Goodwill.

Plans for tomorrow:
Work
Big men's clothier near Satanic Row to maybe get a white suit for the wedding.
Men's Wearhouse if that is a FAIL

Too personal for Facebook

Jimmy Gunn, who directed the Little Shop of Horrors I was in, died recently, and there was a FB announcement that there would be a memorial stand-up comedy show at Rooster T. Feathers, a comedy club he was a regular at. I went to catch his act during a night off in the rehearsal schedule, and was appalled.

Jimmy, who in real life was mentally fully functional, and in fact one of the sharper wits among theater folk, chose to be a screechy-voiced, nervous boy with the intellectual level of a 4-year-old. What we used to call a retard.

The audience thought it was hilarious.

I thought it was obscene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02A3UC34HNo

The reason I didn't think his act was funny is this:

I had a cousin who was born mentally impaired. He was about 10 years younger than me. He ran away from whatever facility in NY he had been sent to, and found his way to LA. The last contact I had with him, he had sent me a cassette tape. He had either written to me or phoned to ask if he could send it, and I said yes. He had decided he could make it as a stand-up comedian in LA, and the tape was of one of his routines. It was about an hour of ranting, in his thick Brooklyn accent, rambling and often incoherent. It was painful to listen to.

Soon after I heard the tape, he died homeless on the streets of LA.

Jimmy Gunn's performance sounded a lot like my cousin's. And his mannerisms were similar.

So I posted on FB that I would not be going to the stand-up memorial for Jimmy, because I found his comedy routine offensive.

I made the mistake of tagging Jimmy, and making the post public. Very soon there were a couple of young women I did not know ranting about how evil I was for speaking ill of the dead. Of their hero. One said she thought I was mocking her grief. I responded that I had mocked no one, if she felt mocked she must be feeling guilty about finding Jimmy's performances funny.

And then I thought about it for a bit, deleted their posts, because it is my timeline, and I changed Jimmy's name from a tag to just plain text, and made the post friends-only.

Comedy was only a tiny part of Jimmy's life. Mostly he was a drama teacher at the Jewish high school, and an actor in community theater. Which is where I met him in 1984 when he was probably still in high school, as the youngest adult cast member of a production of Annie. His name then was Jim Orne.

I might have gone to a celebration of his life, but there is no way I will attend a stand-up comedy event in his memory.