Depth Perception

Sometimes, for no reason that I can tell, Windows file drag-n-drop stops working for me. I can grab a file, and drag its icon around, but the cursor will never acknowledge that it's over a possible target application. This is immensely frustrating.

But, I finally found the fix!

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del.
2. Press Esc.

It works, but... WTF ?

Today in Assholes

The Lando Society

Ran out of new books in my inbox, so I'm re-reading Infinite Jest. I read it ages ago, but I barely remember any of it: tennis, drugs, a video that melts your brain, The Year Of Glad - not much else. And, 50 or so pages into it, I'm realizing why...

David Foster Wallace was an awesome writer: unbelievably insightful and clever. Nearly every chapter has something brilliant in it. But, I'm dying to figure out WTF any of what I've read has to do with anything else. I've read at least a dozen chapters so far, but I still haven't found a plot. It's just sketch after sketch - each interesting in its own right, but almost completely disconnected from all the others. Asynchronous, non-linear. Things happen; but you don't know when anything happened in relation to anything else, or why you need to know about it. It's like a David Lynch movie, but with the scenes played in random order.

I realize most of it gets pulled-together by the end. But man, it's a tough read to start. Very hard to keep focused and enthused when he's doing everything he can to pull your attention in as many different ways as he can. Much tougher than Gravity's Rainbow. Probably not as tough as Ulysses (which I cannot get into, let alone through).

Spoiler?
Makes me doubt that the book itself could be eponymous The Entertainment.

Rain just started.

Luckily, we have a half case of wine, plus brand new bottles of vodka, Jack, and Carolan's.

For some reason Gillian Welch is doing another show in the area tomorrow. (Maybe they had a show scheduled in the hurricane's path?) Whatever the reason, yay for us!

Wealth Gaps Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics

Atrios complains:

I loathe all "main street" references as nobody knows what the hell main street is anymore, unless perhaps there's a "main street" section of your local mall...

Actually, my little town has a great little main street. Sure, it's only two blocks long, but it's full of locally-owned shops and restaurants and is typically so full of locals that parking can sometimes be tough.

There is no mall in my town, but we have plenty of big box and chain stores and restaurants a mile or so away from Main Street, and the town is bookended by a Target on one end and a Walmart on the other. But, despite all that, Main Street is doing fine. And everybody knows where and what it is.

Obviously, not all towns are my town.