Politics, Religion & Money – Page 124 – Prattling Before the Pratfall

Beeby Baby

I have been listening to BBC radio stations since they first became available online. Before that, NPR began carrying selected hours of the BBC World Service.

This is the complete list of BBC radio stations.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/stations

Whether it’s the widely heard Radio 2 in London, or local station Radio York, announcers are actively engaged with their listeners in a way that’s nothing like American talk shows. (Which reminds me to say that when I renewed my SiriusXM subscription, I stepped down to the level that doesn’t include Howard Stern. Never have and never will listen to him.)

A favorite BBC station of mine is the sister of spoken word station Radio 4. Radio 4 Extra is where radio plays and features of all sorts from the archives can be heard.

The Beeb is under the same sorts of partisan attacks that NPR gets, with calls to change the funding model. The New Yorker has this to say.

Between 2010 and 2019, the BBC’s budget fell by thirty per cent in real terms. Punishing negotiations with the government have forced the corporation to find savings of up to a billion pounds a year.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/18/can-the-bbc-survive-the-british-government

I am sufficiently interested in, and devoted to the BBC, that I have ordered the Kindle edition of the new book that’s cited in the article.

Par-tick-ular viruses

YOW! Deer ticks carrying Lyme Disease have been a concern here in New England for decades. This is the first I’ve heard of Powassan, a potentially fatal virus that can be carried by deer ticks, but also woodchuck ticks. These ticks seem to prefer certain animal hides.

Chronic Conditions

Urban medical centers will pick up the slack for the rural hospitals that are either overwhelmed or don’t even exist. Uh, no they won’t.

Finding My Religion

A recent 88 Rewound on WMBR featured a playlist from May, 1971. I hadn’t heard this song in many years.

Honestly, I’d forgotten how much of an effect the song had on me. Life was changing fast, and I felt extremely unsettled. Six months later, entirely on my own, I started attending a Lutheran church I passed on the way home from my after-school job.

So began my religious period. It lasted until I was in my senior year of college.

Some years ago I attended my nephew’s wedding in the Midwest. My sister mentioned to her mother-in-law that she never knew how she and her husband were given permission to marry in the Lutheran church near our parents’ house. They lived out of state, and their church was in a different Synod. My sister’s mother-in-law smirked and said, “I know how.” My sister seemed surprised that, after so many years, this was the first she’d heard of it. “You do? How?” Her mother-in-law looked at me and said, “You were dating the minister’s daughter.” My mother must have told her. The minister’s daughter was Lori, and she got her dad to perform the ceremony.

Management Lessons from 2011

Netflix has two movies I watched yesterday, almost back-to-back. What a fascinating contrast these selected scenes provide.

This one is about Major League Baseball.

This one is about Mortgage-Backed Securities.

Brad Pitt, playing the real life Billy Beane, sees the future and is scrambling to get ahead of it. Jeremy Irons, playing a fictional CEO, is doing likewise. In each scene, a whiz kid is called upon to share his insights.

Mass General Retreat

Following up on an earlier post, Massachusetts General Hospital has withdrawn its expansion plans for suburban outpatient facilities. Boston’s best in TV news, Katie Brace, has the details.

Katie, a Massachusetts native, is a Boston Marathon runner, and she has participated in Reach the Beach. When I ran the 200-mile event, I was one of twelve team runners. Katie was on an ultra team, with only six runners covering the distance from Mount Washington to the New Hampshire coast.

“I love telling a good story, animals & running.” – Katie Brace on Facebook

For a long time, Katie was with WBZ-TV, Boston’s CBS affiliate. After Covid hit, the station slashed its news department and Katie was one of the staff who was let go. Katie’s many fans (2,200 Facebook followers, 4,200 on Twitter) were glad when she announced she’d be staying in Boston, at NBC10.