Belts

Hi! I'm back after a long, long, LONG lacuna. , ready to write more of my babbling just like before. Except with about five years more under my belt. And that ought to count for something, since I can still find my belts (tho I hardly wear them anymore).

Where They Can't Take Your Stimulis Check

Some folks are scared that debt collectors will try to get their stimulus payments. This is a legitimate fear since collectors are generally scum. Back when I was a debt counselor I once spoke to a sick, widow in her 70s who was told by a collector that she should die so her debts could be paid by her executor.

But some state and local governments issued emergency orders at the end of last month in anticipation of the stimulus checks in an effort to stop all or some garnishment orders. They include recent legislation in Washington, D.C., Massachusetts, Texas and Las Vegas, and... a preexisting law in Delaware forbids garnishment orders directed to banks in that state.

Four other things that could help you if you're in that situation are in this article on MarketWatch.com today.

Not Quite the Apocalypse

Hi, I'm back. Yeah, I know. It's been a while, but I figured what better time to restart my blog than during a worldwide pandemic. Plus at that time we had a relatively normal person leading the free world, but now we have a low-IQ nattering blowhard who makes up his own reality moment by moment. What a time to be alive!

The main thing to remember right now tho is that the apocalypse hasn't hit yet. This we know because the majority of Waffle Houses remain open.

On a serious note here's how to prevent Covid-19 according to the CDC.

Fresh From the Department of Redundancy Department

Talking Turkey (Well, Really Beer...)

"Welcome, welcome Englishmen! Do you have any beer?" Sub-Chief Samoset of the Abenaki tribe is supposed to have happily exclaimed when he first met the Pilgrim Fathers. Of course, that was in March, not November, but the same sentiment has endured down to this very day.

May you and yours enjoy each others company in a similar spirit on this Thanksgiving Day.

Really Hungry Plants

Meanwhile, at the Honorable Society of King’s Inns in Dublin, Ireland...

Nom nom nom...

Image courtesy of Noel Donnellon

But this sort of thing happened much more frequently in the middle ages, so don't fret too much about it.

"There's a battle outside and it's ragin'!"

Trainy has a tense conversation with "The Man"

Image: Sony Pictures Television

By now the whole world knows the misbegotten saga of the HMS Boaty McBoatface*. The state-of-the-art British scientific research ship was given that name in a cheerful public referendum only to have the will of the people cruelly stomped in the dust by "The Man" and replaced by the staid and stoggy HMS Sir David Attenborough, as described in this very sober-minded article. Not that there's anything wrong with Sir David, but he just ain't Boaty.

But the voice of the masses will not be stilled. There's a movement moving my friends, and a new world's a-comin' so don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall, man.

In Australia, a defiant racehorse has taken on the noble name of Horsey McHorseface. Even the UK's immovable establishment buckled and threw a sop to the unruly populace milling angrily in Trafalgar Square by conferring the name Boaty McBoatface on a little robot yellow submarine. (Shouldn't its name have been 'Ringo' though?)

But now Sweden has once again lived up to its motto ("Sweden: Best place in the world") and decided to stand shoulder to shoulder with the common man and woman and officially, irrevocably, and undeniably name their newest express train on the Stockholm-Gothenburg line Trainy McTrainface.

"I can guarantee with my life that the train will be called Trainy McTrainface," said MTR Express marketing chief Per Nasfi in an effort to allay Swedish fears. "I imagine that some people were quite delighted to get some revenge for the Boaty McBoatface thing."

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*Yes, I know the proper designation is RSS, not HMS. Consider it artistic license taken with Britain’s hoary traditions for the greater good.