Category: News

US renames 5 places that used racist slur for a Native woman

The word is squaw which has only recently come to be a racist slur because some people want a cudgel to beat others. If you look at the etymology of the word, and if you’re looking at an online source if you scroll past all the verbiage describing how this is a racist, vulgar, double plus ungood badthink badmouth, you’ll find this comes from a Massachusett (the tribe for which the commonwealth is named) word for woman or younger woman.

In common usage, I’ve seen the word used to describe a Native American woman (of any tribe–remember, the natives were tribal, and sometimes those tribes slaughtered other tribes–history, anyone?). So it’s a single word to describe a human person of a particular heritage. It does indicate “race,” but I haven’t seen it used much as a slur or to denigrate someone unless you already think that someone of a particular heritage is inferior. Which I don’t because most squaws are not blondes.

In my experience, it’s fallen out of common usage anyway as the cowboys and Indians mythos has fallen out of the common culture. For example, through the 90s, you see the baddest word fairly frequently, but not this other not the baddest but bad word (and if I start using that expression for not baddest word racial descriptions it will get confusing). Of course, I guess I read a lot of urban suspense novels and not a lot of things set in the southwest.

This online source usage note is rich, though:

It can be very offensive when members of the dominant culture appropriate piecemeal bits of language to imitate or perform impressions of an ethnic or racial minority. Borrowed words like firewater, squaw, and wigwam, or imitative words like how were once used for comedic effect, but they are now considered insensitive to Native Americans and their cultures.

My quibbles (which in this sense means complete disagreement with) the usage note (which is much like what you find on other dictionary sites and Wikipedia):

1. English is nothing if not a thief of words from other languages–because if they have a better or more concise way of expressing it, we want to use that. But you don’t see the Greeks and the Romans rising up, much less Hispanics or the Spanish, the Italians, or the French rising up. Well, I am sure the French try.
2. Firewater would be a compound word the natives might have borrowed from the English (I say might have because I have only seen it in pop culture sources, not original or historical documents). So how is it that English speakers would be appropriating it?

Never mind; it’s not about speaking and writing with concision. It’s about beating others with any cosh you can.

Also, if full disclosure, I used firewater in a video I shot some decade ago. Because I’m a racist. Or a pedant. Which some parts of the disculture might think they’re normalizing for me, but they’re not.

Man shot, killed at Maryland Heights tire shop after argument with coworker.

I used that auto shop when I was in Casinoport both times I lived there–it is on the corner of Dorsett/McKelvey, which was about half way between the apartment where I lived before I got married and the house we would later buy. It was in the same plaza as the Gold’s Gym where I was a member for a while between stints at the YMCA (which was down McKelvey). I was a customer there until they recommended I replace the exhaust manifold on my Geo Storm, and I had them do it, but it resulted in the car stalling out on me at times when I was first accelerating from a standstill, like when turning onto busy roads.

Of course, if the shooting had occurred at the ITD shop across Dorsett, I would have been a patron of that establishment, too, briefly, when it replaced the fuel pump in the very same Geo Storm with a fuel pump that I could hear in the cabin. Friends, have you ever heard your car’s fuel pump? Well, I have, and no matter what the shop manager said about how everyone can hear them, I made them replace it with something probably not out of a salvage yard while I watched, standing in the shop with crossed arms, until something moderately better was installed.

So somehow a headline turned into a musing on car shops I’ve known. I haven’t known the mechanics, per se, but the guys out front. And I’ve seen some turnover in the shops, and I tend to stick with a shop until something egregious happens. Knocks on wood. I’ve been with the shop we use now, a nice five mile walk away, for five or six years now. May they continue to not disappoint me.

Official government agencies in the heartland take on the slang based on popular entertainment. Yes, when I was riding the buses to and from the university in Milwaukee, I heard the local police called “the 5-0” from a television series that had gone off the air a decade before (and whose short-lived reboot was still almost 20 years in the future).

This week, I renewed the plates on one of our vehicles, and I brought my oldest son along to see the process as he’s a licensed driver now and might, in the next couple of years, have to license his own vehicle (not the one of our vehicles that he uses now and calls “his” truck).

On the way, I pointed out that Missouri does not have a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). Instead, it has License Offices, which are run by charities on behalf of the Missouri Department of Revenue (not the Department of Transportation). But people still call it the DMV because that’s what it’s called in movies and television.

Including headline writers for the local television station.

Ozark License Office (DMV) closed after building collapses nearby on the historic Ozark, Mo., square

::Sigh:: It’s so hard to be right on the Internet.

Bomb cyclone expected to hit US, prompting airlines to issue travel waivers

C’mon, man, “bomb cyclone” was coined by hucksters and headline writers (some overlap) to describe winter weather back in 2019.

If we really want to keep the edge on the hysteria around any weather that deviates from an artificial statistical mean, we have to amp it up.

How about Bomb cyclone psycho tsunami?

Steve Green at Instapundit links to this story: Walmart CEO warns that retail giant could HIKE prices or shut down some stores if ‘historically high’ thefts at the chain continue and prosecutors’ lax approach to dealing with criminals is not corrected.

Meanwhile, here in Springfield: Shoplifter injures greeter at a Springfield Walmart

Not our home Walmart, but when we went to the office supply store next door only to discover it did not have Christmas stationery, I thought about stopping in at this Walmart to see if they had any. But we did not. We were about four hours before this incident, though.

UPDATE: Couple tricks Walmart cashier to get away with $6,400 worth of items, deputies say

Two-for-one: Bowhunter gets antlered deer with extra skull and rack attached in Missouri:

“The deer (Lewis) harvested still had the skull and antlers of another deer locked in its rack,” according to Missouri Department of Conservation’s post on social media in early November.

This could be a prompt for a macabre story, or perhaps a light one: Perhaps a deer hunter harvests a deer with a Predator skeleton still attached.

Roman Coins Once Thought to Be Fake Reveal a Long Lost Historical Figure:

Long dismissed as forgeries, a handful of ancient Roman coins uncovered in Transylvania more than three centuries ago have been authenticated by a new analysis.

It’s not hard to see why the coins – dated to the 260s CE – might have been considered fakes. Where most ancient coinage displays the head of an emperor, one of the artifacts displays a mysterious figure not portrayed in any other known record.

On some the name “Sponsian” is stamped, a figure of Roman authority history seems to have forgotten.

* * * *

“These observations force a re-evaluation of Sponsian as a historical personage,” Pearson and team write. “We suggest he was most likely an army commander in the isolated Roman Province of Dacia during the military crisis of the 260s CE.”

So while he may not have ruled over the entirety of Rome, Sponsian appears to have fashioned his own little empire in a remote gold mining outpost, complete with a crudely minted currency using metals from local mines, probably after the Roman Empire had started to become fractured, the researchers suspect.

“We suggest that Dacia became cut off from the imperial center around 260 [CE] and effectively seceded under its own military regime, which initially coined precious metal bullion using old Republican-era designs, then using the names of the most recent previous emperors who had achieved some success in the area, and finally under the name of a local commander-in-chief,” the team explain.

Of course, they’re gold coins, so I would never have been able to afford them. And my status as a coin collector is so fresh that I do not have a place to put the four coins I own, so they’re awaiting inclusion in a Five Things on My Desk post as we speak.

(Link via Instapundit.)

I mean, one should win the lottery first and then buy all the sports cars second.

Although, as a Packers fan, given their performance this year, I’m just happy to see some Lambo sell out.

Outkick is shocked to learn JEOPARDY MAKES CONTESTANTS PAY THEIR OWN AIRFARE, HOTEL AND FOOD

C’mon, man, we all knew that already. Or maybe just those of us who were in the Jeopardy! contestant pool at one time.

Spoiler alert: They make you pay your own way and for your own lodgings for the auditions, which are generally regional in nature, as well. I had to go to Kansas City for mine. Other times I picked places like Boston because making a Jeopardy! audition would make a good excuse to visit those locations.

I mean, c’mon, man, even if you’re a returning champion for a couple of days, you’re not winning life-changing money. It’s not about the money.

I kinda sorta scan the obits in my hometown newspapers. Not because I will know anyone–I mean, my “hometowns” where I take the newspapers are all adopted home towns, and I didn’t go to high school there. But rather because I want to make sure that the people who have passed away are older than I am. And they are, for the most part, but that’s probably just as much because only old people and their families put obits in the paper any more.

At any rate, in the Stone County Republican and Crane Chronicle last week, I did spot a familiar name.

As you might remember, gentle reader, I read his book Traces of Silver about the mythical Yocum Silver Dollar not long after I moved to the area. Well, two years after I moved to the area, but in the perspective of the time that has passed, not long at all.

The book made an impression on me–I mean, I know the origin of Silver Dollar City’s name, and I know enough of the story that I can tell of it. And at the coin show this weekend, I thought about asking at the booths whether they had any Yocum dollars today, but I did not.

So rest in peace, Mr. Ayres. While the world mourns another actor, I’ll give thanks for your life and its slight impact on me.

Man clocked at 163 miles an hour on U.S. 60; arrested on Friday:

A Georgia man was clocked Friday by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper traveling on U.S. 60 in Howell County at 163 miles per hour, the agency said.

Troop G of the patrol said it is believed to be a record speeding violation within the nine-county area.

What we’re all wondering: What was he driving? A BMW M3.

Also, note that they did not pursue him and catch him. They conducted a search for him, which means that he was not just passing through on his way to Poplar Bluff or Springfield. Or was he? Hopefully, the print edition this week will have more. Considering that I have picked up numerous papers along US 60 in my trips to my brother’s and back (and to De Soto and back), I shall probably read about this in various places.

Ohio woman almost loses ear in deer attack during 5K race

Gee whiz, the last 5K I ran would have been…. a year and a half ago? No, the Ruck’n’Run was just last November.

Our autumn schedules have been pretty full of cross country, marching band, and whatnot in the interim. But I understand we are going to do the Turkey Trot this year as well as perhaps the Ruck’n’Run.

Still, they will be during the daytime. So I am more likely to be struck by a car or to be attacked by someone wearing a Thanksgiving-themed costume than be attacked by a deer.

Still, I should probably take it easy.

Causeway connecting Florida mainland to island washed away

Storm surge from Hurricane Ian washed away part of Florida’s Sanibel Causeway.

The causeway is the only way to get to or from Sanibel and Captiva Islands to the state’s mainland.

The only way, as boats and aircraft (and hovercraft) do not work in that particular region, a phenomenon known as The Lazy Journalist’s Triangle.

You know, I’ve driven over that span as I drove from a distant airport to Sanibel Island eight years ago. Eight?!

Modern journalism is 24-year-olds putting Twitter into paragraph form sometimes.

Ace says in his fashion:

You know, back in 2001-2002, cable “news” stations used to fill up cheap minutes by paying some Brooklyn idiot $28,000 per year to scroll through Twitter and highlight tweets for them to “react” to during short segments.

But soon, they decided that they would expand this pilot program, and that idiots babbling on Twitter would become their main “research tool.” Now Twitter would become what city hall and the courthouse and the police department used to be — the place you go to find “stories.”

And so they just go to Twitter to find some absurd “microagression” that some axe-grinding, attention-whoring leftwing lunatics are complaining about today, and bang, that’s a “news” story.

Imagine this 20 years ago — that what Stacy in Brooklyn is complaining about, that they’re not properly texturing the milk in frappuccinos lately, or that someone “misgendered” her because she doesn’t feel like a “she” today, she feels like a “shim,” is now “news” which “professional” “news” outlets now make “lead stories” on their actual broadcast “news” shows.

Imagine that.

No one could have imagined such a bizarre and dark world twenty years ago.

But that is the media we have now.

Because it’s just easier for the lazy, unprofessional, stupid, lazy, barely-educated, pig-ignorant “journalists” to get “stories” this way, so this is how 90% of “news” outlets’ “stories” are now “researched.”

True for the big dailies. Not so much the small papers I take.

‘The Phantom of the Opera’ to close on Broadway next year:

“The Phantom of the Opera” — Broadway’s longest-running show — is scheduled to close in February 2023, the biggest victim yet of the post-pandemic softening in theater attendance in New York.

The musical — a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts — will play its final performance on Broadway on Feb. 18, a spokesperson told The Associated Press on Friday. The closing will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary. It will conclude with an eye-popping 13,925 performances.

In news that some people pretend is unrelated because it is the result of the ongoing policy failures of the elite, Two pedestrians — including European tourist — shot while refusing muggers in separate NYC incidents and McDonald’s ax swinger had just been ‘rejected’ by woman, witness says. Key note:

Robbery and other major crimes have increased by about 40% in the city recently, NYPD data show.

One might think that it was not the virus nor the draconian authoritarian and ultimately inconsequential government actions that have led to the decline of downtown life in downtowns that are becoming no-go zones. But that would mean that the current officeholders and bureaucrats and their ongoing decisions are continuing to contribute to this problem.

But if it was COVID, man, that was the last governor and the last mayor of New York. Nothing the current crop can do about it. No need to hold them accountable!

(First New York City crime link via Instapundit who has another example. But I read the New York Post daily, so I see stories like these every day.)

Bass Pro Shops wants a special transportation taxing district to improve the infrastructure around Big Cedar Lodge and its various golf courses just south of Branson.

Projects include something called duel drop right lanes.

How far our society has fallen. I mean, lanes so you can just pull over and settle your score? I have seen dystopian films with more optimism.

But it should perhaps drive some people to the Big Cedar Lodge shooting academy. At least once. Maybe only once.

MicroRNA found to regrow 90% of lost hair, new study finds:

People affected by moderate hair loss turn to topical treatments like minoxidil (antihypertensive potassium channel opener) and finasteride (dihydrotestosterone-suppressing 5α-reductase inhibitor), the only Food and Drug Administration–approved treatments for inducing hair regrowth. Both are designed not for hair loss treatment but serendipity.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have identified a microRNA (miRNA) that could promote hair regeneration. This miRNA – miR-218-5p – plays an important role in regulating the pathway involved in follicle regeneration, and could be a candidate for future drug development.

Yeah, I know, miRNA (Micro RNA) differs from mRNA (Messenger RNA). However, I have become very cautious about anything that deals with my personal nucleic acids. So although I am beginning to notice that I am bald, and old, none of this for me. Yet.

(Link via Instapundit, with whom I share a large percentage of my DNA.)