WTF-Beta

@ShiroKuro There is a video of the segment, along with extra video they call Overtime.

On 60 Minutes tonight.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/payam-method-piano-lessons-60-minutes/

Definitely overpriced.

Same piano but with a gloss finish.

https://www.klaviano.com/pianos-for-sale/brod-jorgensen/used-brodr-jorgensen-424241.html

Thanks. Readily available around here.

My world traveling neighbor used to bring me something local, often a food item, from the countries she traveled to. One year she went to Hungary and brought back some fabulous paprika.

@mik Looks fab. Have bookmarked the link.

Which Hungarian paprika did you buy?

MASTER YAN'AN HAS trained at the Shaolin Temple in the Henan province of China since he was 6 years old. He has climbed the roughly 1,500 stone steps up Wuru Peak to the Bodhidharma Cave thousands of times. None of the steps is the same size or height. Some are narrow; some are tall. During the day, tourists who visit the temple usually take one to two hours to reach the peak. It is not advised to climb at night. There are no lights along the trail, and one wrong step could send a hiker tumbling down the steep staircase.

But Master Yan'an had an unusual student last summer. San Antonio Spurs All-NBA center Victor Wembanyama was looking for a challenge that would test him in ways he'd never been tested before. He wanted to build his inner strength alongside his already prodigious physical strength.

His goals, he said, transcended mere athletic glory.

"I told him: You play basketball, and I do kung fu. If you want to be great, you have to do things that other people can't do," Master Yan'an told ESPN. "There are two parts to climbing the mountain. The daytime is for your body. Your endurance, your strength. The nighttime is for your mind. Your awareness."

Wembanyama understood.

After darkness fell on the sixth night of his retreat at the Shaolin Temple last summer, he joined Master Yan'an and a group of monks for a hike to the Bodhidharma Cave.

"There were no lights anywhere," Master Yan'an said. "You can't see anything. The only way to go is step by step. Listen to your breath and listen to your heart. Feel each step with your foot. Use your awareness."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48818786/how-34-generations-shaolin-warrior-monk-training-helped-build-once-generation-nba-superstar-victor-wembanyama

@Rontuner said:

I won't be surprised if Chas is right.

Neither will I.

https://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/msg/d/palatine-trenchtown-cb-custom-guitar/7915961134.html

(No, I'm not looking for musical instruments. I was doing a search for "teak")

Produced by Brødrene Jørgensen in the 1960s. (Denmark). Jorgensen was Danish piano factory known for Scandinavian craftsmanship.

Model: "Minerva," their most iconic model, which is even featured in the Danish Music History Museum.

The teak wood is even more stunning in person.

https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/msg/d/chicago-jorgensen-upright-piano-mid/7934035221.html

@DougG said:

those of you who appreciated fine and sophisticated music in the 1960s would associate the brand with the song… What's made Milwaukee famous
Has made a loser out of me …

My era, but the music was unknown to me, probably because I didn't listen to country music.

Schlitz beer. I remember my Dad used to drink it. He also liked Blatz and Hamm's.

https://www.tastingtable.com/2177282/legendary-midwest-beer-schlitz-discontinued/

So Faulkner was right.

https://connectedeventsmatter.com/litera/literature/literature-and-meaning/my-mother-is-a-fish-modern-reflection

From the WSJ's lips to God's ear.

Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, and a team of White House aides arrived at a hastily organized meeting near the Senate chamber hoping to reassure Republicans about a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization fund” promoted by President Trump.

Sen. Tom Cotton, a Trump ally from Arkansas, wasn’t having it.

“Who thought this was a good idea? Who chose this timing?” Cotton asked bluntly inside the Senate’s ornate Mike Mansfield Room, pressing Blanche, White House legislative affairs director James Braid and others about the fund with a series of point-blank questions, according to people familiar with the tense exchange.

Cotton was far from alone—more than a dozen Republican senators grilled Blanche about the settlement in the two-hour meeting, the people said, questioning its merit and warning that it could derail approval of a $70 billion multiyear package funding immigration enforcement.

“One of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), said Friday on his podcast. “Fiery does not begin to cut it,” Cruz said, adding that some senators were screaming at Blanche.

For more than a year, Republican senators had largely been deferential to Trump’s wishes—from backing contentious cabinet nominees to giving the president free rein on tariffs and the Iran war.

This week, they revolted en masse, fed up with Trump’s insistence on settling personal scores and pursuing pet projects at the expense of their legislative agenda. The tipping point came when Trump endorsed a rival to Texas Sen. John Cornyn on Tuesday, a move that stunned many of Cornyn’s colleagues. They saw it as a reckless way to treat a senior Republican incumbent whose seat the party can’t afford to lose in November.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-week-that-broke-trump-s-control-over-congress/ar-AA23R6JA

Good article from the Breadtopia blog

https://breadtopia.com/bread-baking-strategies-and-techniques/?utm_content

wtg, once again sharing little known and even less cared about information...

https://www.popsci.com/science/how-do-erasers-work/

@Bernard Yes, I guess they would be.

I doubt that Comey is actually going to apply. I think he's just pointing out the unintended consequences and needling Trump about the lawfare he is exercising against Comey

Cohen falls in the camp with the rioters, at least theoretically. Lawfare by the Biden administration against him. And I'm guessing he's more desperate for money, which I doubt Comey is. I've never thought of him as someone acting on principle.

I would be totally surprised if Powell applied for compensation. as a matter of fact, I doubt he would ever even make any comments about the compensation fund, and certainly not while he's still a Fed governor.

wtg said:

I wondered earlier if Comey, Powell, or Kelly might apply. Don’t know about them, but Michael Cohen says he will.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/michael-cohen-anti-weaponization-fund-claim-trump-lawyer/

I was sort of kidding about Comey and Powell. But...

Former FBI Director James Comey, who the justice department indicted twice in the span of eight months in cases that criminal law experts have deemed legally dubious, told CNN he might apply for the fund.

"It appears that they're serious," said Comey, who has publicly sparred with Trump since the president fired him as FBI director in 2017. "It's to compensate people who have been targeted by the justice department for, they say, personal, political, or ideological reasons."

"So I'm guessing, I'll be in line," Comey said. "I hope I'll be ahead of those who savagely beat police officers and sacked the Capitol."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1m2j8lnnm5o

This Jewish Hungarian restaurant owner shared his recipe for Chicken Paprikash.

https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2025/01/06/jeremy-salamons-hungarian-mashups/

@CHAS

Congratulations on the new piano!!

And....happy belated birthday!!!

Daily Herald article about Paprikash.

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Best+of+Budapest+Hungarian+fare+spices+up+Paprikash+in+Arlington...-a0148935177