Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - October 27th
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The mid-term elections are right around the corner, and while elections always matter, this one feels like it is more consequential than any in recent memory.
It seems clear that our country will go through another change as a result of the outcome: either we slide further into some sort of tyranny OR we see the pendulum start to swing back toward a middle ground.
I'm hopeful that the latter option shall come to pass and we can move forward with better days ahead.
But to get there, we need to ensure that EVERYONE we know gets out and votes. It's important to not take this for granted, and to take action! So get people you know motivated and vote against the status quo. VOTE BLUE!
Let's get the next phase started. Of course, we will still have a ways to go, but at last we can be on a different path than we are today.
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Sadly, we lost a true pioneer in the field of software development. And a pioneer who literally saved the Apollo 11 mission with her calculations.
The fact that she was a woman is icing on that cake in a way….
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This happened a while ago but it’s a great story. In short, the woman thought that the money she already spent on the wedding shouldn’t be wasted, and the food should do some good.
So she invited 150 homeless people to attend what would have been her reception, arranged a donation to get them dress clothes, and bussed them to the venue.
I love everything about how this turned out (well, in that sense, anyway. She declined to say why she called off the wedding).
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This is an interesting look at 6 of the revolutionary war veterans who sat for a photo (a new invention!) and told their story to an author.
And intriguing that this happened during the civil war.
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I've been watching Stanley Tucci's tour of Italy on Disney+, and I am finding it most enjoyable. Yes, the food aspects are fun, but it's so much more. Tucci takes on cultural aspects and human interest stories that are timely and topical.
A few examples: he talks about a same-sex couple that adopted a boy, but can't get the country to recognize that they are the parents due to some recent law changes. There's a story about immigrant communities in an ever-changing landscape, and how everyone comes together to get to know one another by sharing foods from their homelands. And there are threads of Italy's history under Mussolini that are presented from the point of view of people living in the country.
It's worth a watch IMHO
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In the early days of Disney World, the term "Guest Misconduct" was almost never used. People came into the Happiest Place on Earth, followed the rules, and left via the typical exit and went home. Then, as we entered the late 80s, there were incidents of note. But they were handled discreetly, and you mostly heard about them through whispers from friends.
By the later 90s, that started to change. Guests were behaving badly at times, and police - uniformed officers - started to appear at the parks more often. And then by the early '10s, there was an alarming regularity to incidents.
One reason that I can pin to all of this is: entitlement. People feel like they deserve more, and because they are paying more, their expectations go way up. And of course because its' "me-first" many times, this just gets worse.
And social media these days is a central reason we hear more about things - because some guests filmed themselves to make their own 5 minutes of fame, and others figured they could report on it and get their own likes.
With that, I'd like to call attention to a few incidents that have happened in the last couple of years. It just goes to show how people have changed behaviors.
I should note that in nearly every incident, the Cast Members step in and call the sheriffs office who handle it from there. It's unknown what happens in each case, unless there is a police report and we know the person was arrested or otherwise charged. Sometimes the guests are simply escorted out, sometimes they get a ban for a day, a week, or a lifetime. And sometimes they have charges pressed against them by the company.
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This young lady won a science fair…but the work is much more impressive than the run-of-the-mill baking soda volcano.
She used game theory and some mathematics to determine how to better place sensors to detect seismic activity. And she did so in a way that doesn’t require any sophisticated changes, and doesn’t replace the existing sensors (it only adds a few pieces of equipment).
But her story is equally impressive. She’s been flying model rockets since she was 9, and regularly studied how to improve their performance.
We should be celebrating this! She should be the story of the day, rather than the mishegas the media typically feeds us.
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Bonus: In case you missed it, this may have been one of the best college football games played this year, or possibly ever. It was the underdog, middling, UCF taking on the #2 ranked BYU. It was chaotic and fun.
There was drama, poor clock management, and a likely mistake on the clock by the officials. And there was overtime! With more drama!
So much fun!
Bitchin' Dave's newsletter is published weekly. Please feel free to forward it around. If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe, send an email to geezergamer92@gmail.com
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