Tuesday Reads

 If  AI were done away with, I wouldn't shed a tear.

If used by students in academia, that is flat-out cheating.

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What the eff is the matter with men regarding Trump?

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Sunday Evening on the Obituary Page

 Musician Country Joe McDonald, one of the featured acts in the original Woodstock festival, has died.  He was 84 years old.

He died yesterday at his home in Berkeley, California.  He had been battling Parkinson's disease.

Snip:

Born in 1942, in Washington, D.C., he grew up in El Monte, Calif., outside Los Angeles, according to a biography on his website. As a young man he served in the U.S. Navy before turning to writing and music during the early 1960s, eventually becoming involved in the political and cultural ferment of the Bay Area.

In 1965 he helped form the band Country Joe and the Fish in Berkeley. The group became part of the emerging San Francisco psychedelic music scene, blending folk traditions with electric rock and pointed political commentary.

The band's best-known song, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die Rag," captured the growing anti-war sentiment of the Vietnam era. With its ragtime-influenced rhythm and sharply satirical lyrics about war and political leadership, the song quickly became associated with protests against the conflict.

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Actor Eric Dane, 53, lost his battle with ALS.  He was an advocate for research into the disease.

Snip:

"He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world," said a statement that requested privacy for his family. "Throughout his journey with ALS, Eric became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same fight. He will be deeply missed, and lovingly remembered always. Eric adored his fans and is forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support he's received."

Dane developed a devoted fanbase when his big break arrived in the mid-2000s: He was cast as Dr. Mark Sloan, aka McSteamy, on the ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy," a role he would play from 2006 until 2012 and reprise in 2021.

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I missed the February death of  James Van Der Beck, who was only 48 when he passed from corlorectal cancer.

Snip:

In early November 2024, Van Der Beek announced he had been diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer.

“I’ve been dealing with this privately until now, getting treatment and dialing in my overall health with greater focus than ever before,” Van Der Beek said in a Nov. 3, 2024, post on Instagram. “Please know that my family and I deeply appreciate all the love and support.”

He chronicled his experience living with cancer on Instagram, where he frequently paid tribute to his wife and children for their support.

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Actor and acting coach Corey Parker, 60, died Thursday in Memphis, Tennessee, following a cancer diagnosis.

Snip:

Born July 8, 1965 in New York City, son of actress Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Parker and husband John David Haas, Corey Parker began acting in TV commercials at age 4 before attending New York’s High School of Performing Arts.

Making his onscreen debut in a 1983 episode of As the World Turn, Parker became a familiar face on TV, appearing in The New Leave It to Beaver, Thirtysomething, Flying Blind, Touched by an Angel, Love Boat: The Next Wave, Nashville and Will & Grace, in which he had a recurring role as Grace’s boyfriend Josh.

Student Loans and Me

 Today I received this message from Aidvantage, the outfit that has handled my student loans the past couple of years when I consolidated them:

Congratulations! The U.S. Department of Education has forgiven your federal student loan(s) listed below with Aidvantage in full. This forgiveness is effective as of 12/31/25.

Loan Program Disbursement Date Original Principal Balance
DLSUBCONS 04/25/24 $ 7,382.19
DLUSUBCONS 04/25/24 $ 4,750.77

Log in to your account for details at Aidvantage.studentaid.gov.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Here are some important points on this IDR forgiveness: ·

Due to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 the balance of your loans that were forgiven is not considered taxable income for federal income tax purposes. Since state and local tax implications will vary, we recommend you contact a tax advisor for more information. · Not all your federal student loans may be represented in the table above as you may have begun repaying each loan on a different date. If you have federal student loans that are not included in the table, please continue to make payments on them. You can find your personal loan details through your account on our website and your StudentAid.gov account. To find options to help with repayment, visit StudentAid.gov. ·

We have notified, or will notify, all national credit bureaus of your student loan forgiveness. ·

If applicable, we’ll process a refund for any payments made towards the loans listed above after the effective date of this forgiveness.

NOTICE: This letter is NOT an attempt to collect a debt or a demand for any payment.

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I needed that bit of good news.

Here is something I saw on Forbes regarding the latest legal wrangling over student loan debt forgiveness:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2026/03/03/student-loan-forgiveness-may-be-about-to-either-stall-out-or-accelerate/

Snip

The Education Department is currently in the process of implementing a surge in student loan forgiveness approvals. This is good news for borrowers, many of whom have been waiting months for a formal determination that they qualify for a discharge. According to recent court filings by the department, student loan forgiveness approvals may have been about to peter out, however, at least temporarily. But a brand new legal development within the last week could actually lead to the opposite outcome – an acceleration in discharges for federal student loans.

The rollercoaster is due to a complex set of legal factors related to the current state of income-driven repayment (or IDR) plans. IDR, which is an umbrella term that refers to multiple separate plans, allow borrowers to make payments on their federal student loans based on a formula applied to their income and family size, with any remaining balance eligible for forgiveness after a fixed repayment term (historically, 20 or 25 years).

The department had halted student loan forgiveness for multiple IDR plans last year, but recently started resuming processing, leading to thousands of approvals. Due to legal issues impacting IDR plans, and in particular the SAVE plan, it’s not entirely clear where discharge processing for federal student loans is currently heading. But it could either slow down significantly, or dramatically expand. Here’s what’s going on, and what borrowers who are waiting for their student loans to be forgiven need to know.

This was a huge load lifted off my shoulders. I would have had to work into my eighties if I didn't have them forgiven.

Some Thursday Reads

 "You're fired, Kristi," was the big news of the day, especially after that horrendous performance she gave yesterday at Capitol Hill.

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Wednesday Follies

 She can't say "no":

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More about this here.

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Tuesday Follies

 This is the video of the day.  Of course, Tillis is retiring:

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Religious batshittery has polluted our military, and all because of a complete misinterpretation of the Book of Revelation.

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Thirty to forty years ago, I worked for this company when it had the Reno branch.  Now it went out of business.

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Saturday Night on the Obituary Page

 Yes, I knew about the death of singer/musician/songwriter Neil Sedaka yesterday, but I had a lot of stuff to deal with late in the afternoon, so I decided not to post anything online about anything yesterday.

Anyway, Neil died at the age of 86, so he had a good, long life. Perhaps his most famous recording was "Breaking Up is Hard to Do."  He wrote and performed not only his own hits, he also wrote songs for others:

Snip:

Sedaka's songwriting prowess extended beyond his own career. He and Greenfield wrote the perky pop tune "Love Will Keep Us Together" in 1973, which Sedaka recorded. But it was the 1975 version by Captain & Tennille that made the song a worldwide smash and karaoke favorite.

Sedaka's work also infiltrated the catalogs of Elvis Presley ("Solitaire"), Frank Sinatra ("The Hungry Years"), Tom Jones ("Puppet Man") and The Monkees ("When Love Comes Knockin' At Your Door").

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Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been confirmed dead, now that the US, with Israel, has decided to pull bullshit in the Middle East.  

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I missed this obituary of former child actress Lauren Chapin, best known for playing the youngest daughter, Kitten, on the 1950s classic sitcom Father Knows Best.  She was 80 years old and passed away from cancer on February 24.

She had been an ordained minister and often appeared on religious talk shows like PTL.  As a young woman, she had some substance abuse issues.

As noted in the link, she got the part on Father Knows Best because she strongly resembled one of Young's four daughters.

Snip:

Chapin’s older TV siblings were Betty “Princess” Anderson (Elinor Donahue) and James “Bud” Anderson Jr. (Billy Gray), and their mom was the level-headed homemaker Margaret Anderson (Jane Wyatt). Young played Jim Anderson, an insurance salesman.

She had brothers who were also actors.

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