The Front-Yard Maple, our most reliable indicator of things to come, is showing bits of yellow and orange at branch tips. Just to let you know.

At the Oscars and other televised awards shows, organizers have 'placeholders,' people who sit in a celebrity's chair when said celebrity is taking a bathroon break or accepting an award. I wonder if Republicans should appropriate this idea to swell the ranks at rallies where attendance has been less than maximal.

In this election season, with all the effort to ensure only real citizens vote, it might be prudent to remember the words of the philosopher: 'if you make every bird feeder squirrel-proof, most birds will starve.'

Stonehenge.

There are as many theories about why and how Stonehenge (and other similar Neolithic monuments) was constructed as there are rocks. Some people contend it was an early, less portable version of The Old Farmer's Almanac, a cemetery, a concert hall, a worship site, an astronomical calculator, and 'jes' 'cuz they could.'

We'll never know. Archeologists complain about ancient people's sloppy recordkeeping and just plain lack of consideration in not developing writing. But the use as an astronomical site that helped determine when to plant crops seems to be the leading contender.

Well, I've sort of got a problem with that. I find it odd that people who have been farming, and have to be in close touch with nature, would rely upon something maybe hundreds of miles away to determine when to plant crops four to five months later. I think they would be much more in tune with meteorological events around them, to say nothing of natural signs, say an early leafing bush, the return or departure of migratory birds, and so on. If the fields are under six inches of water, you're not going to plant just because some rocks said so four months earlier.

And the 'window of the sun' being the primary use: why do you haul three dozen stones nearly 20 miles when you only need three twice a year? Frankly, if it's only to frame the solstice, a few tree trunks would do the job just as nicely.

Life's lessons.

We all have wells of wisdom we dip into. Some are steady, some occasional. One of my transitory wells is Mark & Angel Hack Life. I dipped into an essay the other day (6 Reasons to Stop Proving Yourself to Everyone Around You), and had a connecting thought. Their advice in number one is to not only ignore but distance yourself from the naysayers. It's healthy.

Then I remembered there is a Scriptural precedent. In Matthew 10 (14), Jesus tells the disciples, if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.

Two nice things about this. One: the dust-shaking applies to individuals, not just towns, and two, isn't it nice to have bedrock support for a course of action to counter self-centered monologists?

Oh, really!?

Something called TheStreet reports World's most intelligent human being makes bold XRP prediction.

Some notes:

1. WMIHB is a South Korean woman, not that that matters.
2. MIHB designation is self proclaimed, much like 'the most interesting man in the world' in the Dos Equis ads.
3. No correlation is established between intelligence and accuracy of predictions, or even the ability to make predictions.
4. I wonder if I'm making too much over the inclusion of the word 'human' in the headline
5. In case you're interested, XRP is a cryptocurrency

I sure hope she got that prediction entered on Polymarket.

Scary thoughts

I probably shouldn't even say out loud.

I know I'm not the only one who gets annoyed by the escalation of tips, in size, suggested tipping amounts, and where we're supposed to tip. Someday, some genius is going to figure out how to put tips on a subscription basis, where you pay a set fee monthly whether you use a tippable service or not. Then when we go into a 'tipping expected' establishment, you scan a card or whatever, and you're good to go.

That's right—we're not.

I will say that the number of spam calls (excuse me, 'telemarketer inquiries') has been declining recently. We can go multiple days without a call. But when they come, they come–a half dozen, ten at a time.

So it was with no little trepidation I heard the phone ring, and the ID Lady announcing 'Caller Unavailable,' which is phonespeak for 'name/number blocked.'

We didn't answer the phone. They didn't leave a message. But I did mutter, 'That's right–we're unavailable, too. I would think you would know that by now.'

Cutting losses.

I didn’t even get through the first sentence before bailing on this article. The culprit sentence? The ‘70s get a lot of credit for bell-bottoms and disco,...

Today's rabbit hole.

I would be lying if I tell you I fell into this hole researching useful information for you, my faithful fromacomfychair readers, but no, I stepped in this trap all on my own.

The temptation? A town called Redhaw, Ohio. I saw a reference to it in an article about creepy places. When I lived in Ohio, I drove across a fair amount of the state. Did I drive past/through it? I decided to check it out. So it's 'hie me to the internet' time.

Interesting search. To quote Gertrude Stein, There is no there there. Looking at images, they have a church. There is a state park. Redhaw boasts one of the shortest Wikipedia entries I have ever read.

Still I kept trying, and was rewarded with this entry from one of those data-packaging sites:

Redhaw is home to 46 residents, according to the most recent Census data. Gender-wise, 47.8% of Redhaw locals are male, and 50% are female.