Since I always only owned old cars, breakdowns were an ever-present danger. We'd be tooling down the two-lane highway, radio blasting, a long way from home, when a loud pop ended the good times and we slowly drifted to a stop along the side of the road.
My fate then rested on the kindness of strangers. Perhaps another driver would pull over to help, or maybe a tow-truck driver would be my savior; often it was a mechanic in some distant town who restored my mobility, even though he knew I couldn't pay much for it.
These many years later, I don't even own a car. My main dependence now is on digital technologies like everyone else. The giant tech companies that have us by the short hairs -- Google, Apple, Facebook et.al. -- are among the biggest, richest, most influential corporations in the world, yet until relatively recently they didn't even exist.
For an older person, nothing reminds you of your age so much as the fact that these techno-barons were not even born when you were already a successful, productive adult. So you smile and pretend the world hasn't already passed you by.
There is irony in mission statements like "Do No Evil." Evil remains firmly in the eye of the beholder.
All of this revisited me one gloomy morning when my laptop broke down, froze me out, rebelling in the process of "automatically" installing its latest system updates. I'm not entirely ignorant about operating systems, software upgrades, compatibility issues and the like, mind you. After all, I've straddled the media and software industries for a quarter century, as the old communications outlets declined and the new digital platforms took over the world.
Since strangers are outlawed these days, it was my daughter who saved me this time and eventually me 'n my computer were back in action.
But that doesn't mean I'm a happy "user" -- the name that suggests I am an addict or something when it comes to these devices.
The reason this makes me so angry, of course, is that is exactly what I am.
***
I'm also addicted to something else -- aggregating the news:
* In a last-ditch effort, thousands of Trump supporters flooded Washington D.C. to protest the election effort, clinging to the delusion that Trump won second term. He did not. (CNN)
* New restrictions, combined with Washington's failure to provide additional financial support, are sapping the economy’s momentum and delaying the recovery of millions of jobs lost during the recession. (WashPo)
* Biden’s agenda may rest on GOP centrists — and return of bygone Senate era. (WashPo)
* The number of newly reported coronavirus infections in the U.S. surged to another record Friday, notching a 20 percent increase from the tally a day earlier. (WSJ)
* Trump’s racist appeals powered a White evangelical tsunami. (WashPo)
* Chad Wolf was not legally serving as acting Homeland Security secretary when he signed rules limiting applications and renewals for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and those rules are now invalid, a federal judge ruled Saturday.Wolf in July issued a memo saying that new applications for DACA, the Obama-era program that shields undocumented immigrants who came to the US as children from deportation, would not be accepted and renewals would be limited to one year instead of two amid an ongoing review.The ruling is another defeat for the Trump administration, which is now unlikely to be able to address DACA and the fate of Dreamers. (CNN)
* Iran pounds rebels in northwestern border area: state media. (Reuters)
* Parents, students push colleges to open more in spring: ‘I wish I was in a dorm with my friends’ (WashPo)
* Russia, N.Korea hackers target vaccine data (NHK)
* Roman roofing. Tudor shoes. London’s mudlarks find castoff history along the Thames. (WashPo)
*‘Personal responsibility’ isn’t working. We need mask mandates. Editorial (WashPo)
* Biden is expected to take a historic step and select a woman to head the Pentagon for the first time, shattering one of the few remaining barriers to women in the department and the presidential Cabinet. Michele Flournoy, a politically moderate Pentagon veteran, is regarded by U.S. officials and political insiders as a top choice for the position. (AP)
* With protests muzzled, Hong Kong takes aim at the press. (WashPo)
***
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Knows not where he's going to
Isn't he a bit like you and me?
Nowhere man please listen
You don't know what you're missing
Nowhere man, the world is at your command
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere man, can you see me at all
Nowhere man don't worry
Take your time, don't hurry
Leave it all 'til somebody else
Lends you a hand
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