I can't begin to express how absolutely thrilled I am that Ann Coulter -- who wrote an entire book on people supposedly whining about being victims and slammed the man who was abused by United Airlines when he didn't want to get bumped from a flight -- was still tweeting and whining half a day later about having to move two seats over on her Delta Airlines flight.  For all I know, she's still tweeting and complaining about it, a day later.  (I don't have it in me to check.)  And it doesn't seem unreasonable to think, given her past record, may well continue doing so when the spirit moves her.  I just dearly love this.

I haven't spent much time writing about Ann Coulter in half a dozen years or since she has ceased to be even annoyingly interesting, largely because her "outrageous" statements about others seemed to be intended solely to get an outraged reaction, not because there's any substantive meaning behind them.  But this is different, this is not her making some outrageous statement to outrage people -- this is her whining about herself because she had to move her seat from the aisle to the window, and seemingly being unable to stopping whining.

Delta publicly offered to refund the $30 she spent on the special seat she booked.  She whined in return that she actually spent "$10,000" of her valuable time booking the seat, researching airplanes and checking back to see her reservation.  Now, assuming that this figure is true -- not a reasonable assumption -- the realty is that one can certainly sympathize with anyone's loss of time (again, assuming what Ann Coulter says is true, never a safe assumption), but the amount Delta owes her, as it would owe anyone, is...$30.  If she actually does feel that deeply aggrieved -- not a reasonable assumption -- she is welcome to sue for the remaining $9,970, of course, and hope the law agrees with her.  But forgetting the court system, since that shouldn't be the lengths one has to go to correct a wrong, let's just look at that claimed wrong itself.  And to be fair, let's also be wildly generous and say that Ann Coulter makes as much as $1,000 an hour.  That would mean she spent TEN HOURS booking a seat.  (And 20 hours to book the seat if she "only" makes a still-whopping $500 an hour...)  If that's how long it actually, really truly took -- it explains a lot in Ann Coulter World.

Then there's the matter of Ann Coulter tweeting out a picture of the private citizen who did absolutely nothing wrong other and merely sat in the seat the airline assigned her that Ann Coulter wanted.  If the young woman seems less then happy in the photo, wouldn't you be, too, if you had to sit in the same row as a whining Ann Coulter for an entire flight?  But worse, wouldn't you even more be upset if you knew that Ann Coulter, a public figure who is taking your picture to tweet it to the world knowing it will make national news, has previously called for a presidential candidates to be assassinated.  (I won't remind you of who, since just the thought of it is so despicable.)  And quipped about poisoning Supreme Court justices she didn't like.

And of course, then there's the the tweet where Ann Coulter called Delta "fascist" for one of their responses which called her public actions "unacceptable."  Because, as we know, a company trying to defend the privacy of their private-citizen customers is so-very what fascism is all about.  Fascism??  How pathetically whiny and demeaning to all the actual fascists out there who have spent a lot of effort becoming fascists.  Of course, the reality is that Ann Coulter most certainly knows perfectly well what real fascism is.  After all, she "waved" at it in her salute to the nominee-booth during the recent Republican National Convention.

It speaks volumes that Ann Coulter's tweetsorm meltdown has done the near-impossible -- made most of the public sympathize with an airline.  Mind you, I have no idea why Ann Coulter was asked to move two seats over.  Maybe the airline had a great reason, maybe a lousy reason.  But Delta did offer to refund her $30 for the inconvenience of moving her over two seats.  However, since we don't yet know why it was done and since this clearly is a problem of monumental proportions from all the whining tweets sent out, my hope is that if Robert Mueller has the time he also please look into the case of Ann Coulter being moved two seats over.

I could go on, but that would be oh-so Ann Coulterish.  And besides, that's about as long as I can bear writing about Ann Coulter.

But I sure am enjoying her whine relentlessly about being a victim for having to move two seats over.

Heading back once more On the Road with Charles Kuralt, we come across a fellow who's found his bliss stringing plastic beads together and making jump ropes.  It's not one of my favorite of the Kuralt pieces, but written wonderfully and presented with charming appreciation.

This is a TV report of a story I read about the other day.  The short version is that a fellow recently out of prison was on the way to a job interview on a bus, when he said a terrible car accident.  He asked the bus driver to wait for him, but the driver couldn't -- and the guy ran off anyway to help.  He missed his job interview, needless to say, but when the story got out, other offers came in, and a local woman started a GoFundMe project for him, not just for his action but also to him him as he raises a daughter..

After one day, they had raised about $15,000 of the $25,000 goal.  That goal has been increased to $35,000, and in just a couple days is now up to $26,000.  (I gave a small amount -- I thought his action was awfully generous and worth positive reinforcement.)  In case anyone else is interested in donating, I figure that I'd pass along the link here.  Here's the story --

After posting on Facebook my story about Nigel Farage and his Steve Bannon "Napoleon" painting, I got a response from a British "friend/follower" who wrote that she'd be happy to send Farage to the U.S., adding that "He is such a berk."

I didn't know the meaning of "berk," but it sounded so descriptive all by itself that no definition was necessary. But I looked it up anyway and saw the Cockney slang meaning. It seemed to fit my assumption, though I told her that it is is even more pointed, more crude, and funnier than I presumed. And I loved how it linguistically came about.

Cockney slang is such a fascinating thing.  In this case, the expression "berk" comes from a famous event held at Berkeley Castle, begun in the 1930s known as the Berkeley Hunt.  In Cockney slang, the word in question is "hunt," which they then rhymed with another word, one which begins with one of the first three letters of the alphabet...

This week, we have a slightly different -- and much longer -- edition of NPR's quiz show, Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me!.  Instead of just a single "Not My Job" segment, here is a full-length "Best of..." show.  This includes several "Not My Job" sequences, but also several sections with host Peter Sagal and the panelists with their own quizzes, including some material that didn't make it on the air.
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Once more, we head back out On the Road again with Charles Kuralt.  This is an early one, still in black & white with Walter Cronkite introducing us to a visit with some unlikely bagpipers in an unlikely spot.

I don't generally watch shows like America's Got Talent, or Little Big Shots, though occasionally I see a video that stands out.  And this is a yowzer.

It's from Little Big Shots, which seems to be about little kids, but this is the opposite, a woman named Johanna who is 91 years old -- and does gymnastics!!!  They've sub-titled this edition, "Forever Young."  That doesn't do it justice.

Now, normally, even at that, I might admired it a lot, but not necessarily even watch.  But given all the time I've spent the last few years at the independent living residence where my folks lived, with most people there generally in their late-80s and 90s -- and some in their 100s -- my perspective on the video and lady is very pronounced.  

People walk very slowly -- very slowly.  A great many use walkers, some motorized carts.  A couple years ago, one of my dad's friends in his late 80s was extremely proud to point out that when he dresses, he's able to put his pants on standing up, without holding on to anything and not loosing his balance.  (This really is impressive.)  My dad was 96 when he passed away, and for his last couple years was able to get around very slowly with a walker, but even that was difficult and tended to be fairly immobile.  (It was less a pure physical issue, but more related to congenital heart disease.  But that's one of the realities many face when hitting their 90s.)

Which is why I don't just link this video merely stands out, but I watch it in near-disbelieving awe.  I particularly like that the director had the good sense to periodically cut to host Steve Harvey for his reaction.  And there's nothing show-biz here, as might be the case when he's reacting to some cute little kids.  No, this is pure reality.  You can see it in his face and eyes, and how he turns to others to respond.  And you know it's his reaction because it's how you most-probably feel.  It's like -- what???!!

I like too that they bring someone out at the end.  I won't give it away, but I was glad to see that the woman, Johanna, immediately recognized the surprise.  And glad to see the person's reaction was just much in awe and said all the right things. 

Peter Sagal's guest contestant on this week's NPR quiz show, Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me! is comedian Eddie Izzard.  Among other things, they talk about him doing his comedy act in four different languages, which is quite an impressive achievement.
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This is a fun article about a tradition in the Japanese railway system known as "shisa kanko." That's the process of conductors in their white gloves pointing-and-calling when doing tasks, even the most basic and simple ones.  It's based on the concept of "associating one’s tasks with physical movements and vocalizations" in order to present making mistakes by “raising the consciousness levels of workers.”  In some ways, though it might seem the silliest of all, it's the simplest tasks where shisa kanko is most valuable, since those are the jobs that are easiest to take for granted, get bored doing, and let slip.

It's apparently very successful in Japan and has increased productivity and safety significantly.  But it hasn't caught on elsewhere around the world because workers seem to think it's...well, really silly, and feel foolish doing it.  Pointing and calling out their action, even the most ordinary ones.

The article points out that there's one notable exception -- of all place, New York City’s MTA subway system,. There, "conductors have used a modified point-only system since 1996 after then Chief Transportation Officer Nathaniel Ford was fascinated by the point-and-call system during a business trip to Japan. In the MTA’s case, conductors point to a fixed black-and-white “zebra board” to confirm a stopped train is correctly located along the platform."

​And the thing is, the New York conductors adapted to it quite well, and in only two years, "incidents of incorrectly berthed subways fell 57 percent."

You can read the full article by Allan Richarz here, along with some more videos and graphics.  It's definitely odd -- but oddly fun.