Finland's government is facing heavy pressure and accusations of racism from several Asian countries after its representative to the 2025 Miss Universe pageant was seen pulling the corners of her eyes in a photo -- and some Finnish politicians posted their own photos repeating the gesture.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko says Russia's latest hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile has been deployed in his country and is ready for use.
It's been a week or two or three since I last posted this. So .... here goes ...
Kids, and kids at heart, race out to make a snowman after a winter storm blankets the ground. Just as every snowflake is unique, each snowman's size and accessories are limited only by its creator's imagination. Indeed, snowmen of all sorts have dotted front yards and public spaces for centuries. Yet they were not always the "jolly happy" figures immortalized in the song and animated television special "Frosty the Snowman."
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued five large TV manufacturers yesterday, alleging that their smart TVs spy on viewers without consent. read more
Finland apologizes to Asian countries over beauty queen racism scandal
www.nbcnews.com
... Finland's prime minister has apologized to Asian nations for "offensive" social media posts made by a former Miss Universe contestant and several members of parliament.
The controversy erupted after the winner of this year's Miss Finland pageant, Sarah Dzafce, posted a picture on social media this month of her pulling the corners of her eyes alongside the caption "eating with a Chinese person."
Her racist gesture quickly drew condemnation online before it was deleted, and Dzafce, who is not of Asian origin, subsequently apologized.
But after Dzafce, 22, was stripped of her Miss Finland title last week, several members of the far-right Finns Party posted similar images of themselves making the same gesture in an apparent show of support.
That prompted Prime Minister Petteri Orpo to apologize for the "offensive" posts made by the lawmakers whose party is one of four that make up Finland's governing coalition. ...
I'm waiting for Sec Noem to dress up and pose for a photo op with those she has deployed to the border. Those who face unsanitary conditions.
When will we see those photos? ( drudge.com )
Field Report - Home (Leave the Lights On) (2014)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
[Verse 1]
Cold snap like a coiled spring
You can feel the frost coming on
We are Marigolden, dropping orange and umber
And barely holding on, just barely holding on
And now the downtown's dolled up with tinsel and angels
Seasons sneak like hair cuts teased apart and tangled
We were praying for awhile and we took it all down
Like garland and the traffic signals
[Chorus]
Leave the lights on
Cause it might be nighttime when I get there
When I'm on my way home
Leave the the lights on
Cause it might be nighttime when I get there
And I'm on my way home
...
Reminds me of my travels to home for the holidays.
@#7 ... It's a fair bit of cash. It's almost 28% of what it cost to bail out Argentina's failed economy. ...
Good point.
But that bailout of Argentina seems to have benefits for the billionaire(s) in the Trump Cabinet.
Scott Bessent's $20 billion dollar gamble on Argentina (November 2025)
www.npr.org
Found this ...
Police Say Reddit Post Led Them To Brown University Gunman
www.mediaite.com
... A Reddit post led authorities to the suspected killer of two Brown University students and an MIT professor on Thursday night.
Police in New Hampshire say that Claudio Neves Valente was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a storage facility in Salem. Authorities say Valente, whose name was publicly revealed for the first time on Thursday night, opened fire at Brown's School of Engineering in Providence on Saturday, killing students Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, while wounding nine others.
Authorities were also seeking Valente in connection with the subsequent murder of MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in Brookline, Massachusetts.
At a press conference, officials announced that Valente had taken his own life and said a Reddit post tipped them off.
A redditor posted on the Providence, Rhode Island subreddit and said they had seen a gray Nissan with Florida license plates:
I'm being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental. That was the car he was driving. It was parked in front of the little shack behind the Rhode Island Historical Society on the Cooke St side. I know because he used his key fob to open the car, approached it and then something prompted him to back away. When he backed away he relocked the car. I found that odd so when he circled the block I approached the car and that is when I saw the Florida plates. He was parked in the section between the gate of the RIHS and the corner of Cooke and George St.
The same day, another redditor replied to the post stating that they had called in the post "just in case it wasn't already done." ...
David Bromberg Quartet - Mr. Bojangles (1977)
www.youtube.com
Lyrics excerpt ...
...
I knew a man Bojangles
And he danced for you
In worn out shoes
With silver hair, a ragged shirt, and baggy pants
He did the old soft shoe
He jumped so high
You know he jumped so high
And then he lightly touched down
Mister Bojangles
Mister Bojangles
Mister Bojangles
C'mon dance
I met him in a cell down in New Orleans, alright
I was down and out
He looked to me to be
The eyes of age as he spoke right out
He talked of life
Yes, he talked of life
He laughed and slapped his leg a step
...
[Spoken by David Bromberg, "This is really a true story, ya know.
A lot of people had heard the song. And well, at least Jerry Jeff has told me it was a true story.
I played guitar with Jerry Jeff Walker for about two years and we did this song every night for two years. And I never got tired of it. Jerry got a little tired of it. At night after the clubs closed we would do horrible things to it.
It was a true story, he, this guy, Bojangles was a, he was a street dancer in New Orleans. What he do was go from bar to bar, and ah, he put-a, put money in the jukebox or get someone else to do it. And then he would either dance or pantomime the tune, right.
And for that people would buy him drinks, get him pretty drunk, and then he would go onto the next bar and, the next one until it was closing time.
And then he would do it the next night. And after a few night of this, he would end up on the corner and the cops would pick him up and take him to the drunk-tank; which is where Jerry Jeff met him.
Ah, Jerry Jeff wasn't there on a research project, I... I mean the way I got that story, I, I may have that wrong, but the way I got that was he propositioned the right woman, at the right time, in the wrong place.
And her husband, the bartender ... ah, called the cops and they, ah, they took Jerry, ah, to the parish jail.
And he, he and this guy just talked for three days in the cell about, you know about what he does."
...
... And her husband, the bartender ...
I still enjoy that lyric and its context ...
Chuck Mangione - Chase The Clouds Away (1975)
www.youtube.com
A fav instrumental tune for me ...
YMMV ...