All the cool kids (Ace, Ed Driscoll, etc., etc.) are slagging on Ryan Reynolds for some pull quote from an interview where he says:

The 80s was a brutal, brutal time for people. It was a fucking mess and people forget that. It was a tremendous strife. Socio political tensions everywhere. We were still pretty fresh off a Cuban missile crisis, which was only 15-20 years before. It’s a tumultuous period, but you look back at it now and you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah. ‘Top Gun.’ Cocaine!’ Like, ‘No!’ It was really scary.”

C’mon, man. The real world was not so bad, in retrospect. We were young, and although my 80s were a series of upheavals and dealing with being the nerdy kid in the trailer park (different from my 70s, which was being the white nerdy kid in the housing projects), I have fond memories of the time because, you know what? I turned out all right in the end.

But the pop cultural zeitgeist, or at least the pop culture force-feeding, was of imminent doom. Either the Soviets were going to conquer us, or we were going to get nuked. It was the era of The Day After, Testament, and Red Dawn; it was the era of post-apocalyptic films like Mad Max, Hell Comes to Frogtown, et cetera, et cetera.

Maybe I just remember the anxiety because I was a neurotic kid (I’ve grown out of it; I’m no longer a kid) and because I don’t have any memories that remotely resembled a John Hughes or other teen comedy to overwrite it. But, yeah, it turned out to have been a good time to be a kid. Or, I presume, a yuppie that appeared in some of the other programs of the era, the ones that were designed to mock the spirit of the age and not to dampen it.

But the Cuban Missile Crisis? He’s thinking about the television series Call to Glory where it featured prominently and which was part of the not hatefully and not ostentatiously anti-American counterprogramming competing with the pro-American and more popular programming–Rambo, Rocky, the blockbusters, and the fact that the conservative characters designed to be foils for the right-thinking characters (Alex P. Keaton, etc.).

But we don’t really remember that part of the 1980s because it was, for the most part, background noise. But present.

I’ll leave the final word to the Philosopher from a 1980 treatise:

Sure, it’s from the tail end of the 1970s, but.

‘And what if someone tripped… and hurt their knees and their hands?’: Glass remains in Springfield-Branson National Airport’s parking lot after April storm:

Springfield-Branson National Airport (SGF) is still seeing the impacts from April’s hailstorm as visitors report glass shards from damaged cars scattered throughout the parking lots.

For those amongst us who might not be men, defined:

Toughened glass is processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared with normal glass. Tempering, by design, creates balanced internal stresses which causes the glass sheet, when broken, to crumble into small granular chunks of similar size and shape instead of splintering into random, jagged shards. The granular chunks are less likely to cause injury.

As a result of its safety and strength, tempered glass is used in a variety of demanding applications, including passenger vehicle windows, shower doors, architectural glass doors and tables, refrigerator trays, as a component of bulletproof glass, for diving masks, and various types of plates and cookware. In the United States, federal law since 1977 has required safety glass located within doors and tub and shower enclosures.

Yeah, it would be unaesthetic to have glass from those storms still present, but it’s not likely to be sharp, at least not the glass from broken windows from the storm–although broken vodka bottles are a different story. However, the airport would have to shut down the parking lot and clear it out to completely clean the parking lots as they have overlapping vehicle stays of sometimes days or weeks. AND they just had a rolling shutdown recently for resurfacing the lots last year. AND they just tore up and replaced all the flooring on the interior. So perhaps they’re sending people out on a rolling basis with a broom and dustpan who hasn’t gotten it all yet.

Hopefully, the glass the complainant saw was from those storms and not from later theft from parked cars which would be even more depressing.

Tell me you don’t understand lethal threats without understanding lethal threats:

Touch and go Mom of crazed Times Square killer questions why cops couldn’t grab her as she lunged at them with knives

That’ll do it.

Probably too young or too female to know Run from a knife and rush a gun either.

Maybe I’ve just read too many thrillers, but I always evaluate what to do if someone comes in the door with a gun or with a knife and what I have at hand, hopefully longer than a knife or machete, to defend myself with if needed.

But grapple a person with a knife? Not if there’s another option, up to and including hitting them with a car.

Family furious after company sends girl Kim Jong Un costume instead of Mary Poppins:

A young student hoping to step into Book Week in the most delightful way has been dealt a cruel blow after her mother received the wrong costume just days before the parade.

While planning to attend her Melbourne school festivities as the iconic Mary Poppins, CostumeBox instead sent the 10-year-old girl a Kim Jong Un costume.

The family has been left in a scramble, racing to replace the Supreme Leader of North Korea ensemble before the parade takes place on Friday.

What is the world coming to when an Internet retailer can make a mistake?

Also, do so note it was a “Musical Nanny Deluxe” costume, not Mary Poppins. No license fees were paid to the intellectual property holder in this incident.

Missouri froze Dolly Parton book program enrollment months before the icon’s death

Way to seize on the death to emphasize Fiscally responsible Republicans bad.

Instapundit:

MY DOC IS SUSPICIOUS OF THIS CHANGE: Considering statins? New US cholesterol guidelines may change your decision. An estimated 21.5 million additional adults in the United States may now be eligible for statins under updated cholesterol treatment guidelines, according to a new study.

I read borderline high until they changed blood pressure guidelines, which meant I “needed” a prescription or two. Given that I’m going to visit a new doctor because my old new doctor was in the other health care system in town and my new Obamacare plan is with the other other system, I’ll get a new doctor who will likely want to put me onto cholesterol prescriptions, too. The healthy choice, if you’re considering the health of pharmaceutical company stock prices.

Half of my radio presets and the Worktunes country station will be in one company:

Two longtime radio companies are planning to combine their Springfield radio operations, if approved by federal regulators.

Zimmer Communications and Mid-West Family announced Wednesday that Mid-West Family will merge its Springfield operations into Zimmer Communications, pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

The radio presets in the car include:

• Q92.9 (KQRA) (Mid-West Family
• 98.7 The Dove (KTXR) (A service of Zimmer Communications)
• 104.7 The Cave (KKLH) (Mid-West Family)

The radio station that the stereos in the house and the Worktunes radio for mowing is set to 105.1 The Bull (KOMG) (Mid-West Family).

Ostensibly, the radio stations will no longer compete with one another, but aside from the overlap in the country stations (and it’s been a while since I listened to 101.3 Real Country to see how bro country it is), they probably won’t be adjusting the formats too much. I hope.

Panera plans to move headquarters from St. Louis area to Boston suburb, internal memo shows:

Panera Bread plans to move its headquarters from the St. Louis area to Weston, Massachusetts, in the Metro Boston area, according to an internal memo obtained by First Alert 4 Investigates.

CEO Paul Carbone informed all support center team members of the plan in a memo dated July 27, 2026. Staff were also told of the move on a call with Carbone Monday morning. Carbone has been with the company since 2023 and has ties to the Boston area.

* * * *

Panera has been open about struggles in recent years, including high costs, a drop in food quality and smaller portions. In response, the company worked to downsize and shift employees to a remote model.

I find it hard to believe there is a competitive advantage in relocating to Boston. But the CEO won’t have to go to the icky middle of the country.

Facebook showed me this Democrat-themed ad:

How do I know it’s a Democrat-themed ad? Because Facebook shows me a preponderance of them. As though it would nudge me. Ah, but haven’t you listed on your determined attributes that I’m extremely conservative and have sold this insight far and wide?

How it works is: A Democrat Secretary of State (::cough, cough:: Robin Carnahan) schedules things that Democrats want on low-turnout Spring elections on off years where most people won’t bother, but the activists will show up. Republicans (Ashcroft II, in the royal line) schedules things Republicans want on high-turnout elections because normal people will outnumber activists.

So: This year, one of the amendments is to tighten restrictions on ballot initiatives making them harder to pass. Which I favor. So although I generally vote against state constitutional amendments (because ballot initiatives are the equivalent of one man, one vote, once principle in action (on low-turnout elections if the Democrats hold the Secretary of State position, etc.) and rewritten by the Secretary of State to clarify or obfuscate according to the Secretary’s party affiliation and position, and….

Yeah, no, this is not taking away the power of the people. It’s taking away the power of gaming this particular system into permanent, untouchable diktats.

So count me in. And no on everything else.

St. Louis leaders look to Detroit for pointers on how to build a lasting resurgence

How can you tell Detroit is resurgent?

Its elected officials and nonprofits will tell you so.

Horror as police pursuit of a truck ends in massive crash with nine rushed to San Francisco hospital

We did not need Cash for Clunkers in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Hollywood demolished cars wholesale.

Concerns over future of southwest Missouri newspapers, employees laid off:

It could be the end of an era for newspaper readers in Taney County, Barry County, Stone County and beyond.

Journalists from the Branson Tri-Lakes News, the Stone County Republican-Crane Chronicle and the Barry County Advertiser told Ozarks First that all employees from these newspapers were laid off today.

I used to take the Branson Tri-Lakes News, but it was one of the first I let go because it was $100 a year–but it was twice a week.

The Stone County Republican was one I renewed even now because it had a number of local columnists I liked, including a garden column by Susan Lamb which I shall miss.

We got the most recent issue in the mail this week, and I said, “Uh oh” to my wife because the front page had been in color but was in black and white. I guess it uh-ohed out.

President Donald Trump on Sunday posted a falsified image of former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, waving before boarding an Air Force One that had been spray-painted with graffiti.

It came months after another racist post by the president that showed the couple as primates in a jungle. That one was deleted after stiff, bipartisan backlash.

The breaking news is that there is no news today, or that journalists think posting and being OUTRAGED!!!! about Internet chatter is news.

Want to know why I don’t post about the news much any more and instead am veering into long-winded reminiscences? Because all the news is like that, and posting a hot take on the news would make me like that.

Um, Daily Mail, perhaps you should lay off the knife metaphors given the state of “knife crime” in the UK and because it’s not “MAGA” embracing political violence in the US.

KTHXBAI.

Bolsheoisie:

The children of the well-to-do who, finding themselves not as financially viable as their parents (probably because they got worthless humanity degrees) who embrace revolutionary ideologies, particularly “democratic socialism” (that is, communism) and support violence to achieve those ends even if they’re not doing the violence themselves.

Adjective: Bolsheois.

I have an English degree. I know when to use bourgeoisie and when to use bourgeois. I won’t say that I needed to use them early and often to get a passing grade–but I might be in the last couple of graduating classes that did not and who could run counter to the prevailing orthodoxy and pass.

IT WILL BE 90 DEGREES THIS WEEK! EVERYBODY PANIC!

Pipeline to the CCP: Missouri State trained executives tied to China’s military-industrial complex:

A new report from Strategy Risks found that Missouri State University (MSU) spent roughly two decades training Chinese executives, including individuals who later held positions in state-owned enterprises affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

If our universities have been giving MBAs to Chinese executives running military-connected companies and taught them financialization over all, offshoring for bigger bonuses, sacrificing quality for short term profit boosts, and failing upward before the consequences of failure are felt, doesn’t that help the United States in the long run?

(Link via Instapundit.)