That's
Grand, Baby!
 Youtube
is full of great little short videos about how things
are made. Bubble gum, marbles, potato chips, you name
it, there's a video giving you a bird's eye view of
the process. I love these things.
So last week I was digging deep into the Netflix library
when I found a film called "Note
by Note: The Making of Steinway L1037." It
sounded good so I added it to the queue, and Beloved
Girlfriend
and I watched it this past Saturday night.
It was WONDERFUL from start to finish!
This film is nominally about how Steinway
pianos are crafted, which is fascinating enough, but
it's the multi-cultured work force which gives the
instruments, and
this
movie, its soul. It's also about the piano industry,
featuring a handful of well-known professional musicians
discussing
their craft, and
I learned much that I never heretofore suspected.
The movie doesn't reveal as much technical detail about
construction as I expected but, from what I've seen,
they'd need much
more than just 90 minutes to do it justice. Still,
it sufficed and left us both with a warm glow when
it was over.
If you don't have Netflix you can find
copies of this award-winning movie at Amazon. You won't
be sorry.
----------
Ends
and Odds
 Nice
story from The Atlantic reminding us all once
again why Dick
Cheney should be composted alive and
buried in scorched-and-salted earth.
--------------
The good old Smirking Chimp offers three
eye-opening charts you really, really
really need to show to your conservative brother-in-law. Neener-neeners optional. Here's
one to pique your curiosity:
---------------
 Michelle "Vote for me! I'm stupid!" Bachmann
quipped ever-so-hilariously that the recent earthquake in the northeast U.S.
was a
warning from God that
we're
not giving rich people enough tax breaks... or something.
In reaction to Ms. Bachmann, Pharyngula's PZ
Myers reminds us that there have been almost
3000 earthquakes in the U.S. so far this year.
So exactly which earthquake was that again,
Michelle?
-------------
 Finally, three cheers to Fresno County Schools Superindendent Larry
Powell, who's taking
a voluntary $200,000 pay cut in order to help his school system.
They don't
make the eyes of needles big enough for this guy.
-------------
Note about today's comic: Appearances to the contrary, it
hasn't escaped my notice that making fun of closely-held beliefs like religion
and gun-fetishism
is
an inefficient way of garnering a broad and diverse readership. So why do I
continue to do it?
Let me put it this way... I'd much rather spark neurons
into hate-mail fury than go softly into that good night
of
cat, and sex jokes.
=Lefty=
------------
Republican Job Creation Update
 "We're
going to have a relentless focus on creating jobs." -
John Boehner, February 10, 2011.
The following is #73 in a list of Republican
job creation activities
since they gained control of the House in 2011.
None, sad to
say,
have
yet to result in one, single new job.
(73) 8-31-2011: When the GOP returns from
vacation they plan on voting every week
to gut every government
regulation within arm's reach because, you know, "regulation costs jobs".
What this means, of course, is that regulation
has been proven to actually create
jobs.
------------
Dump Fox News
 And
what manner of lie is Fox News spewing today? They're
continuing to give credence to the long-ago debunked Climategate.
Good grief!
Click here to help Drop
Fox from your cable system.
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