bookofjoe

Cheez-It Pool Float

Res

ipsa 

loquitur.

57.8"L x 56"W.

$19.88.

U.S. Dollar Inflation Calculator

At least once a week I ask Perplexity AI how much in today's dollars something from the past would cost.

I finally woke up and smelled the coffee today and added the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis's Inflation Calculator to my bookmarks bar.

Way better than other sites that do the same thing: "The Minneapolis Fed maintains historical tables of inflation rates from 1913 to the present... and estimated rates back to the year 1800 using various pre-1913 measures.

You can too!

Bonus: there's an iPhone app.

'Si tacuisses, philosophus manisses' (If you had kept silent, you would have remained a philosopher) — Boethius

Best quote of the month — maybe even the year.

I suspect it's the basis for more commonly encountered contemporary iterations, for example: "Before you said anything, I thought you were stupid. Once you opened your mouth, I knew."

I've heard them all at one time or another.

The illustration up top is an Initial depicting Boethius teaching his students and is from folio 4r of a 1385 manuscript of the "The Consolation of Philosophy."

Read "The Consolation of Philosophy" — published in 524 in Latin — here in its entirety.

Free, the way we like it.

Inset Salad Servers — Clever Variation on a Theme of Spork

I love these.

From the website:

Tired of overstuffed kitchen drawers?

I don't know about you, but my kitchen drawers are filled with things that I don't even know what they are.

Save some space with these Inset Salad Servers.

The large salad fork sits inside the salad serving spoon, making it the perfect space-saving device.

The Perfect Combination

The problem with most utensils is they take up too much room in the drawer and fit awkwardly.

It's almost impossible to make sense of it.

Inset Salad Servers are easy to pull apart for use.

When you're done, wash them and put them back together.

Features and Details:

• Stainless steel

• 11" long

$14.99.

Rest in Pieces (Ashes to Dust)

Wrote the artist, Nadine Jarvis:

"A ceramic urn

with a lifespan

of 1-3 years.

The thread

degrades,

causing the urn to drop,

and smash

as it hits the ground."

Above, stills from 

Roma Levin's 32-second long video.

NationsCourts.com — 'Case Filings Library'

Now armchair types who've never been closer to a courtroom than their TV can put themselves on equal footing with big-time mouthpieces in Gotham and its ilk.

From the website:

NationsCourts.com closely follows activity in the federal and state courts, offering online directories of judges and clerks of court and reporting on new litigation through our Case Filings Library and Case Filings Alert services.  Our Customized Case Tracking offers case filing coverage to suit your individual needs.  These services are intended for attorneys and all those interested in court documents and the wealth of information they provide.

"These services are intended for attorneys and all those interested in court documents and the wealth of information they provide" (my italics).

That means anyone with a valid credit card can sign up and dig as deep as they want.

Have at it.

ClampTape

From the website:

This tape dispenser is a game changer.

The ClampTape grips to fit a wide range of tables and shelves — wherever you are sticking, the ClampTape can grip nearby!

As the ClampTape doesn't slide around, you can dispense exactly the right length of tape with one hand.

That will certainly make fiddly tasks like wrapping presents easier!

$9.95.

'Solaris' — Judge a book by how many different covers it has

From hypeandhyper:

Stanisław Lem’s 1961 novel "Solaris" follows the strange adventures of psychologist Chris Kelvin on a space station hovering above the surface of the distant planet Solaris.

The novel was translated into numerous languages, and Lem became one of the most widely read non-English science fiction authors in the world.

Let's take a look at some of the different covers of this book, his most famous, which has been translated and published all over the world.

The covers of the book depict some form of the cosmos, the planet, the ocean, and occasionally a lonely man facing it.

However, while the 1960s and 1970s were characterized by hallucinogenic, sprawling, or more abstract visions, more recent editions have a more streamlined design.

One novel, twenty-one languages, thirty-seven covers.

More covers here.

'Watching TV is so complicated now'

[The first 8 of the 65 titles on my IMDb watch list.]

The headline up top is a quote from reader Bubbub's comment earlier today.

In its entirety:

Watching TV is so complicated now.

I remember last November looking for "Yellowstone," it was on Hulu for what seems like 1 day then the next day it was not.

One day we could watch it, the next day it's on a service that we don't subscribe to.

Seems we'd have to be computer savvy to figure out where to watch something.

We search on our TV and we also have to search on Decider and/or JustWatch or even TVGuide.

So frustrating.

I agree 100%.

Just the other day I wanted to watch "A Common Man" starring Ben Kingsley; it had been on my Prime Video Watch List (aka "My Stuff" on other streamers) for weeks.

When I clicked on it, I got "This title is no longer available on Prime Video."

What? It was there the day before!

Movies on streaming services behave like quantum foam: they blink in and out of availability at random.

How I deal with this:

1. I keep watch lists on IMDb (Internet Movie Data Base) and JustWatch. IMDb is much better and rarely doesn't have a title in its data base. Having said that, I will note that many of my "to watch" titles on IMDb have been there for years.

2. Every couple months, when I'm feeling particularly energized, I go down each of these two lists title by title, manually entering each title in the Search boxes on AppleTV+, Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, Max, and Peacock. This is VERY tedious and time consuming but fortunately I'm excellent at such tasks because I'm pathologically patient (something I've remarked on here in the past). Much to my delight, out of the 60-70 titles on my lists I find about 5 each time I do this, playing on one or more streamers. Sometimes titles on AppleTV+ which cost $ to rent there also appear on other streamers free.

[My watch list on JustWatch.]

What is it?

Answer here this time tomorrow.

Hint: smaller than a bread box.

Another: moving parts.

FedFlix — 'No Late Charges in the Public Domain'

A joint venture with the U.S. government's National Technical Information Service of the Library of Congress.

Over 6,000 videos available on YouTube here.

The complete collection is also available at the Internet Archive.

"The Internet Archive features full-resolution MPEG2 files for downloading — use these films in your next documentary!"

Our tax dollars at work.

Free, the way we like it.

Fair warning: there goes the day.

'Keep an Eye on You'

From the "Objects of Co-Dependency" series.

By Keetra Dean Dixon and JK Keller.

Sound Burger

Last week I received the email below from longtime reader Bubbub:

I've long since forgotten when and if I featured the Sound Burger on boj but it sounds like something that would appeal to me.

Below, its Wikipedia entry:

The Sound Burger is a portable record player developed by Audio-Technica of Japan.

Originally released in 1983, it was brought back in an updated form in 2022.

The original Sound Burger (model no. AT770) was marketed in the United States as the Mister Disc.

It was battery operated and sold with a set of fold-away headphones, and was able to play both 33- and 45-RPM records.

On November 1, 2022, to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of Audio-Technica, a batch of 7,000 new Sound Burgers were announced and available for purchase for $199.99 and quickly sold out.

The units were all in red, with some changes from the original model such as: a rechargeable battery charged through USC-C; Bluetooth audio connection; buttons along with indicator lights instead of toggle switches, and a plaque on the back commemorating the anniversary.

Following its success, on January 5, 2023, Audio-Technica announced a wider re-release of this edition without the commemorative plaque.

Now known as the AT-SB727, it keeps the changes introduced in the 2022 model and is available in yellow, black, and white — and red on eBay.

Yellow: $199.

Black: $149.99.

White: $199.

Red: $433.

'Theatre for me must be simplified and grotesque. To me, the world seems that way.' — Eugène Ionesco

Above, the playwright speaks in a 1961 interview.

Please drink responsibly

Am I the only person on the planet who finds the three words in the headline up top, increasingly the tag line for beer commercials on TV, somewhat inappropriate — at best?

I mean, here they are trying to get someone to alter their consciousness in a way that cannot but hurt others if things go south, while at the same time expecting them to act as if they had no blood alcohol level at all and are thus fully able to do the right thing.

Disingenuous is a better word.

You can't have it both ways: you want people to drink, then don't expect them to monitor themselves when what they're drinking gradually obliterates their judgement.

The whole point of drinking is to lose the constant background noise that accompanies being responsible.

Responsible drinking is an oxymoron unless you're staying home.

...................................

Note: I originally published this here many years ago.

Soon after the post appeared, in came this pithy observation from clifyt: "That's bulls**t — you can be irresponsible while you are at home too."

Thank you for that.