If you didn't see Jon Stewart's Monday hosting of The Daily Show, he of course opened the show (and of course had to...) on Trump wandering around the with winning Spanish World Cup team.  But the Main Story was about Trump and MAGOPs' disdain for DEI hires and promising "meritocracy" instead -- and ending up with incompetence.  This is Jon Stewart at his "going nuclear" furious and and hilarious best.

In my article this morning about the Big Switchover, I said it would happen later this week.  I just heard back from the team handling the transfer, Wix Legends, and it turns out that they have a conflict on the day I was able to make it.  So, we set up a day and time for next week.

So, unless any other conflicts pop up, the switchover is now scheduled for next Monday, July 20.  The Wix Legends folks and I will begin our Zoom call at 1 PM, Los Angeles time, but I think there are some "bookkeeping" things we have to do first we we touch base (like transfer over the two domains for this website -- ElisbergIndustries.com and Elisberg.com ), so depending on how long that takes, the official switchover will begin after that.

I've updated this morning's article with the date, and will post a reminder on the weekend.

​We’ve finally hit the mark when it’s time for the switchover to the new platform, which will go live…next Monday, July 20.  Some final tweaks were needed by the team that designed the new site and transported it from the Weebly platform (that we're on now) over to the higher-end hosting service Wix.  I’m just double-checking a few final things.  And then when everything is set, I’ll give an “In one day” heads-up.
 
That team – Wix Legends – did an impressive job to make the new site on Wix as similar as can be for readers here on Weebly.  It was a convoluted process.  That’s because Weebly uses a propriety database, so they had to move over every article one-post-at-a-time.
 
And there were a lot of articles I’ve written over the past 13 years.  For reasons too unimportant to get into, many articles got multiple-posted during the transfer.  I manually deleted these additional posts for the past month, but going through 13 years of articles just didn’t sound like fun for me.  This will affect almost no one, since most people will never scroll back over the years.  If you search for an article, though, it will be there.  (And in some cases it will be there several times.)  My guess is that the accurate number of articles is around 12,000.  Which is still a whole lot of typing.
 
The new site on Wix is much more complex (for me, not readers), so there’s a lot for me to learn.  I’m sure I’ll screw some things up, but that will be on my end.  There’s much I’ll never learn, but I think I have the basics down.
 
Before getting to the small differences, here’s how the switchover will work –
 
When Wix Legends “hits the switch” to go live, it usually is instant.  Though it could take a few hours.  But however long it takes, this site here on Weebly will stay live until the Wix site is running.  That’s why it shouldn’t affect any readers at all.
 
(If for some unlikely reason the site goes dark, just check back later.  We aren’t going away.  We will be live.  But it should be seamless.)
 
As I said, Elisberg Industries should look very similar.  Any differences are minor. For those interested, here is an explanation of a few of the differences for readers that are most-worth mentioning -- several of which I wish were otherwise, but all are borderline insignificant:
 
There is now a list of topic categories displayed horizontally at the top of each blog page, so readers can click on any that interests them, and all articles in that category will be accessed.  (The horizontal list is partial, with a full drop-down list at the end.)
 
There is still an archive of past articles on the far right, but it only archives material for about the previous year-and-a-half.  Though I suspect most people rarely use the archive.
 
For reasons unknown to man, articles inexplicably do not include the year they were written, just the month and day.  (I’ve noticed that “adding the year” is a change many have requested to Wix management, so perhaps this might eventually change.)
 
Also, for some odd reason, new articles posted during the past week are not identified by the date they were posted, but instead by how many “days ago” it is.  However, after a week, the posts all become dated.
 
Articles use a different, though very similar font.  (It’s a touch “lighter.”)  I haven’t found a way to change this, though since the font is extremely close, I’d likely keep it as is.

Because of the process of transferring the old articles from Weebly, many have a wide space between paragraphs.  This is only for the old articles.  It won’t be an issue going forward.  I fixed this manually for articles posted the past month.

Oddly, there is no native audio player on Wix.  However, I was able to figure out a workaround.  As a result, the audio player for songs and some podcasts is larger than the one used by Weebly, but I found a way to “compact” it, which I’ll probably use.  So, all is well.
 
This lack of a native audio player on Wix did, however, cause a big problem – though it’s not one that will affect almost anyone.  But not having a native audio player means that when old posts that had an embedded song or podcast were transferred over, that audio did not get embedded with it.  (This is not the case if the song or podcast was a YouTube video – those show up.)  This means several hundred songs or podcasts from old posts are gone.  But if anyone comes across such an old article with a missing song, I can always get emailed with “Hey, buster, where’s the song?!”, and it will be easy to add it in.  Podcasts are another matter – though the podcast files did get transferred over into a folder, just not embedded.  So, if anyone wants to hear an old, missing podcast and emails me, there’s a fair chance I can track it down and upload it.  But as I said, as annoying as this is, most people never search for an old article, let alone one with an embedded song or podcast.
 
The “Search” feature has been moved, but only slightly.  It’s still at the top, but a bit off to the side.  And there’s no box, just a magnifying glass and text.
 
And those are the most notable differences I’ve found, so far.  As I said, they’re minor and likely won’t even affect most people at all.  There are other differences, but they’re even more minor.  And I’m sure we’ll all discover a few together.  But as you can tell, the new interface will be very similar to the old one.
 
The serious differences are all under the hood for how I manage the platform, with zero impact on readers.  But that’s the main reason I’ve made this transfer.  A few things are a bit more difficult for me – though still easy enough.  However, because Wix does so much more than Weebly, there are added steps to do things.  But even with that, most of the changes are significantly for the better on my end.  Eventually, I’m sure it will become second nature.
 
In an earlier article, I listed many of the problems I had with Weebly that built up over time.  No need to repeat them, but I wanted to mention the two biggest changes that will make things so much easier.  And will have benefits for readers, even if you never notice.
 
The first is that I can now write articles in advance (like, when I have free time and can get ahead, or if I’m going out of town) and schedule when they should be posted later.  O huzzah!!
 
And at long last, I will again be able to use HTML code to embed videos and photos.  One of Weebly’s huge issues for me was that for the past five years or so, there was an unfixable glitch, and I couldn’t do this – which is completely bizarre since not only is HTML code the foundation of all websites, but the normal process should have been as simple as copy/paste the code into a box.  As a result, I either had to go through time-consuming steps to convert material and then upload it…or not be able to embed material I wanted.  But now I can!  Another big huzzah!!
 
So…that’s basically where we stand.
 
The official transfer to Wix should go live this coming Monday, July 20, scheduled (for the moment) in the early afternoon.  And when it happens, it should be instantaneous. But even if not, if it takes a few hours to “populate,” this site will remain active.  And then at that point – the switchover will be immediate.
 
For readers here, things should be very similar.  And most, if not all, things that are different should be minor.  For anything that isn’t, please know that I not only also wish a few things were handled otherwise, but most importantly -- I know the changes are for the better.  And if you have any questions, please ask.
 
Onward!

There have been a lot of recent videos of international tourists here for the World Cup discovering things about American they had no idea of and loving it.  And the videos are a joy.  Many, too, are hilarious when what the visitors are bowled over by are just normal, everyday things to Americans – like ice in soft drinks, or yellow school buses (which they thought was only done by Hollywood for the movies or on The Simpsons), or air conditioning, or free refills of beverages, and more.  But this might be my favorite for several reasons –
 
First, it’s something totally normal here, the kind of thing Americans wouldn’t even give a second thought.  Second, the visitors at first think the concept is so weird that they’re almost scared of it.  Third, they have no idea what the basic food item even is.  But fourth and most of all, when they do finally try it…they are utterly beside themselves in heaven for what is, to them, a transcendental experience.
 
I am speaking of a root beer float.
 
Really.  Apparently, they don’t have root beer in many other parts of the world.  I’d have thought otherwise, but the people here are completely bewildered by the beverage.  Also odd is that they think putting ice cream in a soft drink is the strangest, most terrifying thing in the world – the best I can figure is that, not knowing what root beer is, hearing the name they think it’s a kind of actual beer, in which case putting ice cream in it would be strange.  What’s so fun here is watching people take their first sips, ponder what it is they’re tasting, and then the flavors kick in…and…and they’re absolutely gobsmacked.  Really.  I’m not exaggerating.  I won’t say more, though.  That’s most of the fun.
 
It’s also somewhat interesting in how the differences in root beer come into play.  A&W appears to be the best “starter” root beer, rather than Barqs, which is a more intense product. 
 
SIDE NOTE::  Years ago, when I was doing PR on the Naked Gun movies, we had a deal of some sort with Barqs, so there were cases of it on the set.  Because I was allowed to have fun with writing the press kit, and make up quotes (always getting approval from the person I was fabricating the quote for) I decided to do a parody of product placement, and to the filmmakers’ credit, they let me keep it in.  I wrote –
 
“In a calm moment, producer Bob Weiss breaths an oft-repeated sigh.  "Lest anyone get the wrong idea, between babies, stunts and animals, we were extraordinarily careful on this movie.  We believe in doing everything with great concern and consideration.  No crass product placement, nothing other than the utmost integrity.  That's what makes 'Naked Gun' movies 'Naked Gun,'" he says, quaffing down a cold, frosty Barq's Root Beer.  That's Barq's, with the rich, full flavor that means root beer.”
 
Anyway, here’s the video.  It’s 11-minutes, and (for me) great fun all the way through.  Especially down to the very last person.  Not everyone loves root beer floats here – but most do and (most importantly) when they do… such is there is such joy watching people so ethereally happy over something so absolutely normal.

We're going to turn today's page over to Sen. Mark Warner, who appeared on CBS after the network was the only one to broadcast Trump's rally speech on Thursday.  His segment is seven minutes.
 
He’s wonderful.  And the context is even better.  Not just that he's on CBS, but that much of his comments are directed at CBS. I only wish he was as eloquent as Jon Ossoff or some others, but his passion and fury explodes through.  And though not eloquent, his facial expressions speak as clearly as Shakespeare.  He should never play poker.

And what I liked, as well, was not just Warner’s facial expressions when Bari Weiss-hire Tony Dokupil was trying to “both sides” his questions, but also that Warner was not going to play the Dokupil’s game and get away with anything.

I will say no more and let him speak for himself.

On this week’s Naked Lunch podcast, co-hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild welcome actress, director and passionate foodie Heather Graham.  As the show writes, “Graham discusses her journey from being the self-professed nerdy daughter of an FBI Agent to the stunning movie star in films from License To Drive to Drugstore Cowboy, Boogie Nights to Bowfinger, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me to Hangover."

By the way, not only was her father an FBI agent, but as she adds later, so extreme religious that he sent her a letter that said, "Now that Hollywood/Satan has claimed your mortal soul..."  Not surprisingly, she explains that she's estranged from her family.  Discussion of this comes in around the 25:30 mark.