This is from last week, but I really wanted to post about it: Scott Alexander did a fantastic deep dive into meta-analysis of studies of the COVID-miracle-cure du jour, ivermectin. There's a family of very professional looking websites publishing meta-analyses of alternative COVID treatments that make it seem like ivermectin is a wildly effective ( Read more... )

I just finished a play-through of Disco Elysium. If you're a fan of wordy CRPGs like (in some ways, very very like) Planescape: Torment it's definitely a great one, and the voice cast of the updated edition, Disco Elysium - The Final Cut, is brilliant and adds a lot to the richness of the story.

Disco Elysium is about an amnesiac detective in a ( Read more... )

My great Aunt Alice died last week, which I didn't get around to talking about here because I'm so scattered. (To answer some obvious questions, wasn't due to COVID, and wasn't a surprise given her age and health.) My family visited her on the Cape every summer before she moved to a retirement home in Albuquerque some years back to be closer to one ( Read more... )

Eris got her first COIVD-19 vaccine on Monday.

Your Local Epidemiologist had an interesting post about rubella, as a case-study of a disease that's been suppressed through widespread vaccination for the sake of a particularly vulnerable group (pregnant women), even though it's mild for most (less severe than COVID-19).

The lack of quiet leisure has ( Read more... )

With all the construction/demolition and all the disruption to people's routines from the pandemic, everyone's favorite commenals have been more in sight than usual in city. Yesterday, Eris and I saw a cat carrying such a trophy, perhaps bringing back a present for its favorite humans. Today, we saw one gruesomely bisected on the sidewalk on the ( Read more... )

One drink that I wish I could order somewhere is the hot ale flip (aka colonial flip), a concoction of ale, rum, eggs, molasses, and sugar, stirred with a red-hot fireplace poker. Of course, warm (and maybe flat) beer is not the most popular base for a drink, and that method of warming is probably not the most practical for modern times. But you'd ( Read more... )

Got the third entry on my vaccine card last Tuesday. Felt a little under the weather Wednesday, but wasn't as bad as dose two.

The pharmacy where I happened to find a slot was up near Winter Hill Bakery, so I was able to bring home some pastéis as well. Yum.

Eris is signed up for inoculation a week from Monday. If we can't somehow manage before then ( Read more... )

I'd feel better if I wrote every day, instead of every several weeks. So why don't I? Focus is always shot.

Dropping into the middle of things, it's almost Halloween! Earlier in the week, Eris's school had a "character parade" for the K-2 littles, dress up as a book character event! Erica went as chef!Pete the Cat from Pete the Cat and the Perfect ( Read more... )

My parents are in town this weekend for a visit. So they're getting a little time alone with the grandkid today, and I'm getting a bit of remarkably quiet time, starting with a nice brunch with Julie. They're taking her to the DeCordova Sculpture Garden and Drumlin Farm today, and we have some zoo trips planned together for Sunday and Monday. And I ( Read more... )

One of the interesting bits of news to come out this past week is that the Trump administration did try to pressure Pence to go with the "the VP can just pick the next President unilaterally right?" version of the "something somehow" steal the election plan. Put in writing by campaign lawyer and (former*) law professor John Eastman, specifically ( Read more... )