It's the Holiday Season at the Hardware Store

When I walked in, there was Santa in his longjohns top and a pair of pants. No hat, tho. A lifesize, somewhat realistic statue? Decoration? he was really disorienting.

They were putting up their fleet of Xmas trees. Poor Halloween; I hardly knew you. On the other hand, for a couple years now actual Halloween has been screwed by the weather, so no one really needs any more Halloween stock; they have two years worth already. The wonderful and always friendly employees were having about the same amount of trouble we always have getting that top decoration to stay put and upright.

Speaking of disorienting, there was a bit of a to-do on the House floor during the shutdown vote. A (the?) stenographer took the mike and started talking about God, the Constitution, and Freemasonry. Amazingly, as I type this, what appears to be her FB page is not entirely locked down. As in, her friends list is visible, along with a userpic of the fam.

https://www.facebook.com/dianne.fosterreidy

As a result of my borderling-rude hobby (genealogy), I sort of reflexively look people up on 411.com, FB, LinkedIn, etc. But when something like this happens, I don't actually _expect_ to find anything, and am always a little surprised when I do.

Gawker's coverage of the event, with C-Span video embed:

http://gawker.com/house-stenographer-dragged-off-floor-yelling-about-free-1446830813

ETA: Unrelated, other than I'm hanging out at Gawker today, to catch up on my outrage (I'm behind).

http://gawker.com/oops-voter-i-d-laws-are-discriminatory-says-judge-wh-1446658824

I'm trying to figure out an appropriate tag for news about people who really are smart and well-informed enough to hold the right opinion at the right time, but who, through their inherent jackassitude, decide to wait until everyone else figures it out, and then say, yeah, but there's no way I could have known that _before_. This entry would be for Richard Posner. I blogged recently about Rogoff appearing on CNN while I was at McD's, saying now is not the time for austerity (convenient he finally noticed that!).

I'm sure there will be a lot more. That's what all the demographic indicators say.

I'm trying to remember the name of the guy who finally came around on climate science.

Gadget Review: Pioneer A4

R. hooked it up a day or so ago, and today I finally listened to it. We like it; T. and I danced for a little while. The room is perfect at the moment for dancing, because it is temporarily less furnished -- the loveseat has gone away and the couch has not yet arrived.

The A4 is a speaker that plugs into the wall -- this isn't battery operated. It has that kind of super-shiny finish that finds fingerprints in the air and attracts them (<-- hyperbole).

You _can_ use it by connecting to it wire-fully, or through Bluetooth, but that's not why I bought it. I bought it because it will also do AirPlay if connected through a LAN. Since we're very Apple centric, and T. likes to control what happens on the TV through the Apple TV, I was betting that he'd be happy to play music from his iPad on the speaker. And indeed, he is.

It sounds nice. We stuck it on a bookshelf, which is suboptimal from an audio perspective, but it has a nice range and relatively precise bass.

If you are have an Apple centric batch of devices, and would like to share your music, not just listen to it yourself through earbuds or headphones, think about this when you are shopping for a speaker. I'm sure there are other options out there. But I bought this one based on the WireCutter review.

http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-airplay-speaker/

When I bought it on Amazon in September, it was $179.

R. is not overjoyed about the lack of an internet radio on this device. I do not care one tiny little bit.