Wednesday's Whispers

• Not that any readers here ever had any doubt, but I am apparently a certified genius, having quickly (and without assistance) solved the impossible math equation.  Of course, part of me wants to point out that those are really patterns, not true equations, arranged for the purpose of the parlor trick they're doing on that website...yeah, whatever.  I mean, if you set it up algebraically, the answer would be pretty obvious, no?
• Yes, I know some readers have their doubts.  But I did have a 750 Math SAT.
• (670 verbal, for those taking notes).
• The murderer of five Dallas police officers was said to be a weapons expert.  Maybe yes or maybe no, but unless he had an arm like Nolan Ryan, carrying a .25 caliber handgun was a pretty lame move.
• Bimbo-fest on Fox as news chicks attempt to explain 'assault rifles'. Oldest son asked me if I wanted to go to the Kroger to get a Leupold scope for my Ruger #1.
• Words and ideas do matter.  A TV news journalist has been suspended from her job for praising the Dallas killer as a 'martyr' on social media.  It's one thing to defend from an aggressor when being attacked, but there's no justification for murdering others not involved simply for their skin color or the fact that they wear a uniform.
• Here's an interesting, that I'm kinda surprised the barrister blogger hasn't posted: The, uh, pron industry is criticizing the RNC's opposition to smut in their policy planks.  I don't expect anything to come of it, either way.
• As an insomniac international man of mystery, I sometimes watch PBS global news.  While it's too early to say, the new UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, could be the next incarnation of Maggie Thatcher, and not just because of her gender.  The sense I get of David Cameron was that he is a decent chap, but simply miscalculated on the Brexit issue.
• I really very rarely have trouble falling asleep.
• An 80 year old co-worker who retired recently visited the workplace today. I had worried a bit about him, fearing that not working would lead to a decline.  I needn't have.  He looked very fit and well rested, and reported that his wife of 60 years makes him lunch every day, keeps him busy with chores (nary a complaint from him), and that they are planning to go to a family reunion in a week or two.  I remarked to another colleague that if Paul Harvey were still alive, he would celebrate them on his 'Tournament of Roses'.
• It just struck me that my folks have a 58th coming up next month.  Good work, Mom & Dad!
• From a recent Wendy's visit:

Dawn?  Srsly, Victor, I'm not going Caitlyn or anything.

• Dang millennials...aren't they taught spelling anymore?  Although I suppose that's an age old (old age?) complaint, as I recall a story from a magazine when I was in high school, about a fellow who'd gone off to college, grew a beard, then mailed his folks a picture of his newly hirsute visage, inscribed: "Do I not look like a Count?".  Upon seeing the pic, the dad groused: "Stupid kid, thousands of dollars for an education, and he can't even spell!"
• A friend and sometime reader of this blog has in the past criticized my fine musical tastes, positing that the musicians I like are either dead, or their careers are.  Unrepentant, I have continued posting from my eclectic musical palette, as recent pages bear out.  Last night, I definitely listed to dead composer music, by putting on a Beethoven CD (excerpts of 6th 'Pastorale' and 2nd symphonies).  It was quite good.  Tonight it will be CBS Masterworks' 'The Viennese Album' with Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, and Johann Strauss.
• Not the biggest Wolfgang Amadeus fan, but as an adolescent in Vienna, I was fond of the Mozartkugeln confections.  They were to Austrian Airlines DC-9s what peanuts are to Southwest 737s.
• PEZ were also quite the thing.  It was very common to find mechanical coin-op vending machines expressly made for that candy, attached to walls in train stations and businesses, or on outside walls of buildings near streetcar stops.  I think AS1 (about a nickel in those days) would get a dispenser's worth of the miniature sugar bricks.
• I used to have two or three dozen dispensers - no idea what happened to them.  Maybe in Mom & Dad's attic?
• Heard on Carson tonight:  "You see a lot of weird stuff in L. A.: A gay out-of-work Indian got a job downtown - scalping ballet tickets."  Probably wouldn't get past the PC, microaggression censors today.