Dimland Radio

dimland radio 11-14-20 show notes

Captain Phillips Spoiled

I led off the showing spoiling the film Captain Phillips (2013) starring Tom Hanks as the captain of a container ship that get attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. I mainly described the scene after the captain had been rescued and was getting medical attention.

My mother many years ago had said something about acting that has stayed with me to this day. She was remarking on Carrie Fisher’s acting in the original Star Wars. Mom said she could tell Carrie was acting. That struck me and I grew to understand what Mom meant. Great actors are so good you can’t tell they are acting.

Although I didn’t quite get everything in the scene I described quite right, my overall reason for talking about it was to remark on how natural Tom Hanks was. You believe he is the character and that he is breaking down after having being so brave during the crisis. It’s quite a powerful scene.

Yes, But Why Spoil The Movie?

I spoiled Captain Phillips because, although the stress level I experienced over the past four years was nothing like what he experienced over several hours, my reaction to the announcement of the Biden/Harris victory was not all that different from his reaction to being rescued.

Van Jones news commentator on CNN was also overwhelmed with the feeling of relief when the American voters clearly rejected Pres. Trump. His stress of the last four years was certainly different than mine.

Fearless Loser lost by more than five million votes and yet he refuses to concede. His legal teams have been trying to sue Trump into a second term. But the cases have no merit. They are being dismissed. The YouTuber LegalEagle gives a more knowledgeable take on the lawsuits here.

But more than 72 million Americans voted for four more years of character not mattering; four more years rejecting the notion of a kinder, gentler nation; four more years of rejecting compassionate conservatism. Those Americans were OK with Fearless Loser. I don’t get it.

Hey! Why Not Spoil Another Movie?

Then I spoiled 1973’s The Wicker Man starring Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward. I had watched again recently and was amused by the resolute devoutness both characters had for their religions. Woodward portraying a Christian and Lee as a pagan. This scene had me, an atheist, snickering at both of them.

A Dimland Radio ARGH!

I’ve been hearing a lot of nouns being used as verbs in advertising lately…

“Brain Better”

“Help You Health”

“First! We Taco!”

ARGH!

A Cool Thing: Amy’s New Job

For seventeen years, my wife Amy has been a stay-at-home mom. This past week she started a new job. There will be challenges in scheduling, but we will work it out.

If all goes well and the job is permanent, I may finally be able to quit my night job. That would be a very cool thing.

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: Shaken Not Stirred by Red Guitars and Talking Doll by The Screaming Blue Messiahs

Second ad break bumpers: Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police and Lullaby by The Cure

Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle

That’s it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 11-7-20 show notes

A Very Tense Week

This show was recorded before the news of the Joe Biden/Kamala Harris victory. (I’ll tell that story next week.)

Tuesday’s election results were looking good for Pres. Trump on Election Day and that had your host worried, but the pundits were saying before the election that that would be how it would appear on the day. We would have to wait as the mail-in votes were counted. Counting those ballots would likely turn some red states blue.

And the country watched as those ballots were counted and swing states started turning blue.

Of course, Fearless Leader, true to form, did not take that well. He had been telling us he wouldn’t accept the results of the mail-in ballots for weeks before the election. He knew those votes would favor Biden. Do you think he would have been calling them illegal votes in his late night tantrum on Election Night if those ballots would have favored him?

Stephen Colbert’s reaction to Fearless Leader’s day after the election tantrum about legal (Trump) votes and illegal (Biden) votes and the impending litigation, which could go to the US Supreme Court, was better than anything I could have mustered. Watch it here.

Seth Meyers’ A Closer Look at the election counting brilliantly skewered the Trumpers’ mixed message of whether we should “count the vote” (Arizona) or “stop the count” (Michigan). There’s also this excellent A Closer Look segment.

Correction: On the show I stated there was a lawsuit in Pennsylvania that delayed the counting of the mail-in ballots until after the polls were closed. I was wrong. That delayed count was put in place by the Pennsylvania legislature.

This Map Is Misleading

A Facebook friend who is a Trumper shared this image with me.

I explained to my friend that, though the image showing almost all the counties (Alaska’s, Hawaii’s, and Puerto Rico’s are not included) of the 2016 election as very red, the map is misleading.

Simply put: Land does not vote.

Yes, the map is very red with a few tiny blue specks. And we all know that red represents the Republicans and blue is the Democrats. So, the red areas are where Trump prevailed in 2016, blue is where Hillary Clinton did best. The thing is, those tiny blue specks are high population areas. Millions and millions of people live in those tiny blue specks and they tend to vote Democrat.

This year’s election results by counties map will look very similar to 2016’s. And I’m sure Trumpers will be misled again.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton received 65,853,514 votes. Trump received 62,984,828. I think a mistake was made.

Oh! And, by the way, what’s a “mistake snowflake”?

Someone needs to learn how to use a comma.

Trump’s Woman In White

The Daily Show recently did a countdown of the top 100 scandals of Pres. Trump. At number two is Trump’s pandemic response or lack thereof. At the 23:20 mark of the video, look for the attractive woman in white standing behind Fearless Leader. He turns to receive the adoration of his Trumpers and she has quite a reaction.

*“Psst! Mr. President. I think that woman will let you grab her by the…”*

A Dimland Radio Promise

Pres. Trump has a special talent of ALWAYS being in the news. He is constantly digging his way into our daily lives. His constant presence has just been grinding us down. Yes, it was an election year and there’s a pandemic, so he’s been more of an irritant, but still.

The promise?

If Fearless Leader should be successful in his bid to steal the election (not very likely) and retains his office, I promise to do my best to minimize the amount of time I spend talking about him. You don’t need me adding to the grind.

However, I don’t think it will be a problem after January 20, 2021.

A Disappointing Halloween

In 2018, we had 121 trick-or-treaters come to the house. In 2019, it dropped to 61. This year was even lower. Sigh. Damn pandemic!

Thanks, Fearless Leader.

A Cool Thing #1: Minnesota State University, Mankato

There was no show last week because my wife and I took our son down to Mankato to visit the university he would like to attend. They had an open house and a tour. They did their best to keep visitors safe during the pandemic as they told us about the school and campus life. I must say I’m more than a little envious of the boy.

My sister and her husband both teach there and they took us out to dinner on Friday night. It was the first time my wife and I have been to a sit down restaurant since the pandemic took hold. I have to admit that I am feeling a little nervous about possible exposure to my family and me. My sister did say, and she was correct, the restaurant was being very careful to keep customers safe.

And the coolest thing is on Wednesday we received word that Hayden had been accepted! He’s a Maverick now!

A Cool Thing #2: Amazing Randi Amazes

Two weeks ago, I talked about James Randi, who had just died. Check out that week’s show to hear my tribute to him.

This past week, I watched a YouTube video of Randi giving a talk about how a “psychic” had fooled scientists with a trick using a simple matchbox. Randi’s reveal of the trick is humorously done, which is cool. However, right at the end of the video, Randi does a little sleight of hand trick that surprised and delighted me.

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: God Damn Job by The Replacements and Erica’s Word by Game Theory

Second ad break bumpers: Woman by John Lennon and All You Pretty Girls by XTC

Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 10-24-20 show notes

James ‘The Amazing’ Randi (1928-2020)

*A treasure procured for me by my friend and fellow skeptic Chris* Brown.

2020 just can’t seem to stop being a horrible year.

Both the world of magic and the world of skepticism have lost a giant. James Randi died this past week. He was 92 years old.

I talked about a few of the highlights of his mission to expose frauds and fakers and to demonstrate that no matter how smart we may think we are, we can be fooled.

I also wrote about James Randi on the Warehouse Find blog, the official blog of Nostalgia Zone.

Three Horror Movies Worth Watching

Two are very recent, while the other is a favorite from my youth. I’ll start with that one.

The Legend Of Hell House (1973) is a creepy, eerie haunted house movie. The horror relies upon suspense and suggestion. The special effects are simple, but effective. There are plenty of ghostly whispers and an electronic score that all go to create a terrific haunted house movie.

There is a strong sexual content to the film. However, it’s quite tame when compared to the book it is based on and it is PG, so it doesn’t get very racy.

Director/writer Jordan Peele followed up his excellent Get Out (2017) with last year’s Us. We watched Us this week and I thought it was pretty good. We meet an average family as they start their summer vacation. The mom seems trouble as she remembers a disturbing event from her childhood in that very same vacation area. Things seem to be going fine until one evening when four strangers show up in the driveway of their vacation home.

The film gets quite violent and some of it is surprising when considering who is meting it out, but things never get too heavy on the gore.

My third recommendation is good, but there is one particular moment that gave me some difficulty getting past, but I did. I discuss it carefully on the show. I don’t want to spoil the film.

The film is Midsommar and it also was released last year. The film is of the same sort of horror genre as The Wicker Man (1973), the strange rituals of an isolated community that eventually becomes horrific to the outsiders who have been brought in. This one is a slow build to its conclusion.

Midsommar is rated R and has very strong sexual content. There are some moments of some shocking violence and gore.

A Dimland Pedantic Moment: Who Wears A Mask On Big Brother?

*“Julie, why aren’t you wearing a mask? Don’t you care about my health?”*

Big Brother is one of those reality shows on television. About a dozen people are put into a house/studio to live together and compete in games to determine head of household for the week. The head of household picks two house members to put on the chopping block and one will get voted out. The last person left is the winner. Something like that. I don’t watch it, but my wife does.

The pedantry?

The people in the house are quarantined. That’s how the show works. But when someone is voted off the show, they don a mask before sitting for an interview with the show’s host, Julie Chen. Julie doesn’t wear a mask. She’s been in the outside world with the Covid pandemic raging and she doesn’t wear a mask. Curious.

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: Escape From The Planet Earth by The Alley Cats and Electric Lash by The Church

Second ad break bumpers: No Self Control by Peter Gabriel and Antonin Artaud by Bauhuas

Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 10-17-20 show notes

And Like A Good Neighbor…

Amy came to the rescue of our next door neighbor. The neighbor had gotten her finger caught in her garage door and the finger got pretty messed up. In a panic, she came over to our house to see if Amy could help.

Amy jumped into action.

We Got Our Flu Shots

The Fitzsimons household believes in vaccination and we get out flu shots every year. This year is no exception.

If everyone gets their flu shots and follows the CDC guidelines to deal with the COVID, we could see a drop in COVID infection rates and have a less problematic cold and flu season. Win, win!

If only we had good, strong, intelligent federal leadership.

Why Skepticism?

*Blindly trusting a voice on the phone. This is going to go very badly.*

In 2004, at a McDonald’s in Kentucky, a phone call from someone claiming to be a police officer led to the three hour humiliation, including sexual assault, of an innocent young woman. An assistant manager believed the voice on the phone. She just took him at his word and she did what she was told. The story is infuriating.

You can get a more detailed account of the story than I related on this recent episode of Casefile, a true crime podcast from Australia. You can also watch part of the ABC’s PrimeTime Live report on the case here. The 2012 film Compliance was based on these events. Here is the Wikipedia article on the case.

Although one employee of the restaurant had his skeptical radar working and sniffed it out as bullshit early on, the assistant manager kept right on doing what she was told until another and older than her employee got involved and put an end to the torture.

A healthy dose of skeptical would have prevented the entire scene and kept an innocent person’s horrific life-altering torment.

But when authority speaks, people tend to listen…

The Milgram Experiment

Speaking of obeying authority, when listening to that Casefile episode I kept thinking of an experiment that was conducted to see how far people would comply with authority. Would people continued to apply increasingly intense electrical shocks to someone because they were told to by an experimenter in a lab coat.

Well, according to an experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, in 1963, 65% of participants would follow the instructions of the person in authority all the way up to 450 volts. Click here to learn more.

Something Strange Happened While Making Planet Of The Apes (1968)

When the classic 1968 sci-fi film The Planet Of The Apes was being produced, people involved noticed a strange phenomenon. When on lunch breaks the cast of extras, in full makeup, would gather in groups according to the species they were portraying. Gorillas with gorillas, chimps with chimps, etc.

This mystified the cast including the star Charlton Heston. No one could explain why people would self-segregate like that. It’s a mystery…

Well, I give a possible explanation on the show.

A Dimland Pedantic Moment: An 89º Angle

The meme show what is supposed to be an 89º angle and it challenges perfectionists to look at it and still have a nice day. Presumably, perfectionist would want that to be a 90º angle, being so close, that it not being so would ruin their day. However, why would a perfectionist be bothered by a depiction of such an angle? The meme says it’s 89º, not 90º. No problem.

But! Is it an 89º angle?

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: Dear John by Au Pairs and Eighties by Killing Joke

Second ad break bumpers: Repetition by Urban Guerrillas and Tears by Chameleons UK

Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.

dimland radio 10-10-20 show notes

I Was Wrong, But Things Are Turning Out Right

Last week I talked about the Houston Cheaters (Astros), who defeated the Minnesota Twins in the first round of this year’s playoff. They handed the hapless Twins their 17th and 18th playoff loss in a row. Gah! So frustrating.

During that talk, I mentioned the Cheaters would get their asses kicked in the next round. Well, the Cheaters proved me wrong. They beat the Oakland A’s in their best of five American League Division Series. Houston is now one series win away from making it to the World Series. Let’s hope the Tampa Bay Rays can crush the Cheaters’ hopes.

Tampa’s win also signifies something special. The Hated Yankees lost! YES! No 28th World Championship for the Evil Empire this year.

The Superspreading President And His COVID Hot Zone White House

Pres. Trump still has the COVID. If he was being tested negative, he would be telling us. He’d be touting it as vigorously as he touted his cognitive test in which he was able to identify a drawing of an elephant. “Very good, sir. Now can you spell your name?”

His little garden party for the hand maid he wants to put on the Supreme Court has been pinpointed as a major COVID spreading event. Everyone was tested before the event and they all tested negative for the virus, so no one wore masks or distanced themselves. This shows how testing can give false negatives, which must have happened, because many people in attendance got infected.

The Horrible People Are Upset

Part of what makes Fearless Leader such a horrible person is his ability to reveal the horribleness of others. To encourage it. To fan the flames of hatred. “Stand back and stand by.” “Liberate Michigan.”

Remember the laughter of his followers as he ridiculed Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, when she took ill with pneumonia? Have you seen the two horrible people, members of the basket of deplorables, proudly wearing their Trump 2016 t-shirts? The shirts with the slogan, “Fuck your feelings.” Remember them?

Well, now the Trumpers are upset at the pleasure many Never Trumpers are taking in witnessing this horrible man and so many in his White House all being infected with the virus they decided to downplay.

Really? This upsets you? You feel it’s being mean? You feel it’s being uncaring? You feel it’s not showing the proper respect to out president?

I’ll just refer you to the slogan on those t-shirts.

Eddie Van Halen

UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1970: Photo of Van Halen Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

While I was never a big fan of the band Van Halen, I did like a few of their songs and I certainly understood the mastery Eddie had when it came to playing guitar. It just wasn’t the kind of music I was into.

The news of Eddie’s death came as a surprise to me. I was unaware he had been battling cancer. The news really did affect his fans as of course it would. Eddie Van Halen created a signature guitar sound and he had a far-reaching influence on the musicians who followed.

It happens to every generation. We lose our heroes and it reminds us that we are getting older.

Cool Thing: Is It A Dog Or A Clown?

It’s a dog, but because of pareidolia (finding patterns where there are no patterns) some people see a creepy clown face. Which do you see?

Really cool. And really creepy.

A Dimland Pedantic Moment: Westworld (1973)

I really like this movie. I loved it as a kid and we just picked up the Blu-Ray version. It looks so much better than the VHS copy I had. The picture is excellent and the plot holes are massive and plentiful.

I read the blog I wrote in 2015 listing some of those plot holes and I added a couple more.

Be patient. Wash your hands. Stay home. Stay safe. WEAR A MASK!

Dimland Radio opening theme song: Ram by The Yoleus

First ad break bumpers: Can’t Get There From Here by REM and Honeymoon Croon by Bauhaus

Second ad break bumpers: One Day In Your Life by 54-40 and Like It Or Not by Genesis

Closing song: Angler’s Treble Hook by $5 Fiddle

Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

Subscribe to Dimland Radio on PodBean!

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you’d like.

Images used under Fair Use.