Author: jaythurbershow

Well den, who did dun it?

This past weekend we watched two of the new batch of “whodunits” — “Glass Onion” with Daniel Craig, and “See How They Run” with Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan.

“Glass Onion” is a sequel of sorts to the 2019 surprise hit “Knives Out,” starring Craig as the “world’s greatest detective” (with a vaguely French Creole accent) Benoit Blanc. Netflix, which financed the film, released it into movie theaters for only a week before pulling it back and re-premiering it (is that a word?) on the streaming platform — an unusual move that apparently raised concerns in Hollywood that other studios will soon follow suit, hurting the already-struggling movie theater industry.

“Knives Out” kicked off a “mini-boom” in old-fashioned drawing room-type mysteries of the sort popularized by Agatha Christie novels in the 1930s and 1940s, and memorably spoofed in the ’70s and ’80s by films such as “Murder By Death” and “Clue.” “Glass Onion” both has its cake and eats it, skillfully walking the line between spoof and genuine locked-room mystery.

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Ow, my freakin’ ears!

I was listening to another college-owned radio station — not WRCT — the other day when they played an uncensored version of The Chats’ “Emperor of the Beach.” (Lyrics not even marginally SFW.)

Maybe they figure the FCC has gone home on Christmas break, too. Or else they applied for one of those Special Temporary Obscenity Authority permits. (It’s like the Special Temporary Friday-Night Football Authorizations that daytime-only AM stations in the Mon Valley used to get in the fall months. You know, the football game is going to go on past your local sign-off or power-down time, and if you were to somehow be distracted from throwing the transmitter switch at the right time … ?)

Meanwhile, in the City of Brotherly Love

You thought Thanksgiving dinner with your relatives was unpleasant?

A retired columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News has won a defamation lawsuit he filed against his former employer and co-workers after what was either the best — or worst — retirement party ever, depending on your point of view.

A jury in Philly last week awarded Stu Bykofsky $45,000 in compensation for “emotional distress” after a going-away party in 2019 at which one of his former co-workers accused Bykofsky of having “a taste for child prostitutes.”

I don’t know how I missed this story when it first happened, because it’s off the chain.

Continue reading “Meanwhile, in the City of Brotherly Love”

Not my first rodeo

Aren’t we all sick of talking about the bird app and its piss-baby spoiled brat owner? Last night, he posted this:

“I’ll take “The Least Self-Aware People in History” for $200, Ken.”

One of my listeners is trying to get me to go back to the bird app. My listener says “Musk may be stepping back.”

Yeah, sure, because the banks and his other investors — including the always patient and gentle Saudi Arabian royal family — are worried that Elmo is pouring $44 billion down the drain, along with a substantial part of Tesla.

If and when Elmo steps down as Twitter’s CEO, one of the leading candidates to replace him is Jason Calacanis. Calacanis is a close friend of Musk’s, as well as other Silicon Valley tech-bro billionaires.

His name is one of those in Jeffrey Epstein’s little black book and he’s admitted to being friends with Ghislaine Maxwell. He also helped fund the recall election that replaced San Francisco’s district attorney. I suspect Calacanis leans libertarian and he would do exactly the same things at Twitter that Musk has done — just with less drama.

I could be wrong, but it sounds like a case of different clown, same circus.

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Jay Thurber’s Lo-Fi Christmas Eve

My wife has often mentioned that one of the things she liked best about Christmas growing up was “scratchy Christmas carols on AM radio.” So, this Saturday from 12 to 3 p.m. on WRCT-FM (88.3) and Tube City Online Radio, the two of us are going to re-create the sound of scratchy Christmas carols on AM. It’s Jay Thurber’s Lo-Fi Christmas Eve! Join us!

Brand A or Brand B?

I’m experimenting with two of the social media apps that have been touted as replacements for Elon’s House o’ Nazis & TERF Emporium — Post and Mastodon.

Honestly, I expected to like Post better. There is a waiting period — apparently there’s a huge backlog of people trying to sign up — but once you’re approved, setting up an account is very simple.

Mastodon has a much shorter waiting period. But it’s a little more confusing. Unlike Twitter or Facebook (for instance), or Post, where all of the technological infrastructure is owned by the company, Mastodon is a series of servers — basically, privately-run networks. You have to pick which server (I’m going to call them networks) you want to join.

Think of it like signing up for a cell phone plan. Your Verizon phone can talk to my T-Mobile phone, and both of us can call someone with an AT&T phone.

Most of the Mastodon servers (networks) seem to talk to the other networks, so people from one Mastodon network can talk to the people from the other networks. But unlike Twitter or Facebook, when you sign into your account, you’re not signing into your account on the service; you’re signing into your account on your particular network.

Like I said, it’s a little confusing and clunky, which is why from the beginning, I expected to like Post better. I’m https://post.news/jaythurbershow on that app.

And guess what? I think, so far, I like Mastodon better.

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C’est fantastique

I got a free trial of SiriusXM radio, and I’ve been dipping into the international stations — especially the French/Quebecois rock station, called “Attitude.”

I speak only a few words of French, and badly. Mostly I can say “en anglais s’il vous plait.” But I listen in case I hear any new songs I want to add to the playlist, and also because I enjoy hearing bands that don’t get played on U.S. radio.

I got in the car last night and to my surprise (and delight), “Attitude” was carrying the Montreal Canadiens game … en français.

Unfortunately for the Habs, they lost to the Anaheim Ducks, 5-2. Is how you say, le stinko?

This is the first day of the rest of my blog

The late New Yorker magazine columnist A.J. Liebling famously wrote, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.”

So, since I own this space, I’ve decided to start using it.

Facebook proved itself to be more trouble than its worth a while ago. (I wrote about my decision to exit Facebook, except for professional and work-related use, back in March.) While I still maintained a presence there, I was spending more and more of my time on Twitter, at least for fun.

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