In 1965/66, Norman Rockwell envisioned the girlfriend I would have ten years later, right down to the drawing pad and jeans with boots. Except for her height. Marion was almost 5’10” tall. Few girls could pull off this classic “gorgeous college art student” look so beautifully.
Picasso vs. Sargent, by Norman Rockwell, 1966
As with other Rockwell paintings, Picasso vs. Sargent has a humorous idea behind it, like a single-panel gag cartoon. Here is a critique by someone who has put a lot more thought into the painting’s gag than I have.
It was exactly three years ago that I finally whacked down the technical moles that were crippling my WordPress installation. In the aftermath of my struggles, I was left with some residual problems on older posts that I occasionally fix on an as-needed basis.
Now there’s a different sort of WordPress trouble. WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg isn’t happy with WP Engine, a large hosting service that caters to business customers, rather than hobby bloggers like myself.
His complaint is that WP Engine, which is owned by a private equity firm, takes advantage of the free resources available from WordPress.org, without contributing very much of anything in return. This goes against the idea of being an Open Source software participant.
Mullenweg cut off WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, and WP Engine sued in response. A judge has decided that Mullenweg must restore full access to WP Engine.
Mullenweg’s hosting service is WordPress.com, so I can understand why he isn’t pleased with a competitor that wants the freebies without playing by the rules. I am neither on WP Engine nor WordPress.com. I’m on the third leading service specializing in WordPress, which is also owned by a private equity firm. Here’s hoping all is well between the respective parties.
Follow-up: It’s getting extra nasty!
“It’s hard to imagine wanting to continue to working on WordPress after this.” – Matt Mullenweg
I saw the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 at the (now-defunct) Caldor flagship store in Norwalk, CT. The car had previously been on display at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, where this picture was taken.
I watched the demonstration of the car’s secret agent tricks as many times as my father would let me. I was so taken with the DB5 I talked my father into going back for another viewing.
Three anniversaries today. 1941 you know about. 1979 one of you remembers. 1999 was the day when the retina in my left eye spontaneously detached, beginning one of the most difficult periods of my life.
Twenty-five years! Just like Pa Kent, it don’t hardly seem that long. Uh, oh. Looks like Pa had the afib real bad!
Wait. What 25th anniversary did the neighbors think the Kents were celebrating? Pulling baby Clark out of a burning rocket from outer space?
Late this evening, after I’d turned off the outside lights (except for the strings of lights on the Christmas decorations), I received a text message on my phone from someone claiming to be an Amazon delivery driver. I wasn’t expecting a package until tomorrow, so I flagged the message as spam and deleted it.
An hour later, I checked the e-mail account I use exclusively for Amazon and it said that a package had been delivered. Checking the front porch, sure enough there was tomorrow’s delivery. My first same-day delivery as a 28-year Amazon customer. This got me checking on Amazon’s policies.
Deliveries can occur between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. local time. To avoid disturbing you, delivery drivers may knock on the door, ring the doorbell, or directly contact you for delivery only between the hours of 8:00 am – 8:00 pm local time, unless your delivery is scheduled or requires a signature. For those deliveries, drivers may place a call or text to the phone number you provided for your order. They should not attempt to deliver the package outside 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. unless they are able to reach you.
So the driver was trying to reach me to get approval for the delivery, that he made anyway. I think it’s ridiculous that deliveries should ever be promised for as late as 10 PM, and I am not at all comfortable with the idea of drivers texting my cellphone number. When I entered my cell number to enable 2-factor authentication, I didn’t know I was giving them permission to have drivers text me. Not liking this.
