Odds and Ends, Vol. 2

The iconic short track in Bristol, TN has every year hosted a pair of equally-iconic races since at least the 1980’s, both at the 500 lap distance. Not, mind you, 500 miles, a mark which has drawn the particular ire of the two aforementioned racers, but 500 laps on a half-mile track. At one point, a ticket to see one of those races was known as something that you could only obtain if someone else died, the waiting list was that long. But now, owner Speedway Motorsports (remember these folks?) felt compelled to do something different, presumably to sell more tickets to the event. And so they took arguably the most exciting racing venue in NASCAR and covered it in dirt, sawdust and layers of other stuff, cut the number of laps in half (Surprise! Link here) and thought they could run a dirt event like they used to do in the early days of NASCAR. But, no, like a leopard NASCAR found it impossible to actually redefine its spots. There were more fans in attendance than some other recent events, but still not breathtaking. But then, despite NASCAR’s efforts there were in fact some interesting moments in the race, so all was not lost.

• Retailer JC Penney is now launching a bid to acquire the rival Kohl’s organization, for a number of billions-with-a-b of dollars. My town once had a Penney’s store, but awhile back they picked up their stuff and left, determining apparently that our size did not justify their continued presence. My town currently has a Kohl’s store. As they say in all those Star Wars movies, I have a bad feeling about this.
• Arrogant software is just plain irksome. There are very few personal finance applications to choose from (OK, maybe one, which I will not name) and it seems that my having given them money in exchange for their product is insufficient for them. The thing has turned into a modern version of nagware, constantly wanting me to create an account with them, add more features, move my finances to their cloud (HA!) and so on. The thing is becoming a first-class nuisance to use. You could never tell that I actually gave them money at all based on the application’s behavior. There’s an app for that: calculator and pencil.
• Yet another era comes to an end: the B-52s are having their last tour, billed as “The Final Tour Ever of Planet Earth”. While I am not a huge fan of theirs (but do know the hits, like everyone), they do seem like a rather fun group of musicians and the musical milieu will be a little less colorful with their departure.
• So my high school graduating class, the Class of a Helluva Long Time Ago On a Planet Far Away, is planning a reunion. A virtual reunion, no less. I think I will have to pass this up; to attend a reunion, I would be highly dependent on those ‘Hi My Name Is’ stickers that people wear with their name and high school senior picture on it, to give you a fighting chance of figuring out who the heck they are. I just can’t imagine how this would work, with 50 or 100 people on the screen all in tiny windows with even tinier ‘Hi My Name Is’ stickers, which probably would be out of the webcam headshot picture anyway. I have enough embarrassing moments in life already. And no reunion is complete without *someone* dancing on a table. How would they figure that one out? I’m out.