Monday OT: 02/22/21 is World Thinking Day

Today is day 53 of the Gregorian Calendar year,
Pungenday, Chaos 53, 3187 YOLD
And let us not forget 13.0.8.5.5 mlc (the Mayan Long Count)

rodin_thinker_2

The Thinker - Auguste Rodin

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It's World Thinking Day  We cannot have enough thinking or do enough thinking, and, as a matter of fact, we don't.  I am sure that somebody will point out that this holiday comes to us courtesy of the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, which it does, and I, for one thank them?  What, you may ask, not the Boy Scouts too?  Well, no.  That's not their job.  They left that frivolous stuff for the girls to do.  Seriously, at inception they were conceived of as military scouts, junior sized and junior grade.  They were to be ever alert, especially in time of war, keeping an eye out for the unusual and suspicious, tracking and trailing suspicious persons , noting their comings and goings, and informing the appropriate authorities.  Should the country have been occupied, they were to be an arm of the resistance.  And, while awaiting such military endeavors, they were supposed to busy themselves being generally helpful to their communities.  They were really not envisioned as being of a contemplative ilk.  But the girls seemingly evolved a penchant for thinking, and a good thing, too.  So we thank them and celebrate with them.  While I'm at it, I'd like to encourage everybody of all genderts to follow their example, and think a bunch, if only for one day.  :-)

It's also National Cook a Sweet Potato Day  For the sweetest  ever, supersweet potato there is a simple trick derived from a street food and/or snack version popular in certain parts of China.  Scrub some smallish sweet potatoes and then freeze them for about an hour.  (This converts the starches, I'm told.)  Then bake them, skin on, on parchment paper, foil or a silicon mat, for about an hour at 450 degrees F.  The skin will begin to puff out from the trapped steam and crack and the tuber will begin to weep caramelized sugar.  At that point they are ready to serve and eat, no butter or any other additions needed.  You'll be amazed.

And, last but not least, it's Walking the Dog Day - see below for details

Be Humble Day ditto

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On this day in history:

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1632 – Ferdinando II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, the dedicatee, received the first printed copy of Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems

1819 – Spain sold Florida to the US for five million U.S. dollars.

1848 – The French Revolution of 1848,began

1856 – The US Republican Party opened its first national convention

1904 – The UK sold a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina

1909 – The Great White Fleet returned to the US

1915 – The Imperial German Navy instituted unrestricted submarine warfare.

1921 – Russian forces drove the Chinese out of Mongolia  and reinstalled the Bogd Khan as emperor

1943 – Members of the White Rose resistance were executed in Nazi Germany.

1946 – The "Long Telegram", proposing how the US  should deal with the Soviet Union, arrived from the US embassy in Moscow

1958 – Egypt and Syria joined to form the United Arab Republic.

1973 – FollowingNixon's visit to the PRC, the two countries agreed to set up liason offices.

1974 – Samuel Byck attempted to hijack an aircraft and crash into the White House 

1997 – British scientists announced the cloning of an adult sheep named Dolly

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Born this day in:

We forfeit three-fourths of ourselves in order to be like other people.

~~Arthur Schopenhauer

1440 – Ladislaus the Posthumous, subject of a painting by Anonymous in 1457
1631 – Peder Syv, historian
1732 – George Washington, colonist, general and politician,
1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher and author
1796 – Adolphe Quetelet, Bmathematician, astronomer, and sociologist
1819 – James Russell Lowell, poet and critic
1824 – Pierre Janssen, astronomer and mathematician
1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, general who co-founded The Scout Association 
1857 – Heinrich Hertz, physicist, philosopher, and academic
1863 – Charles McLean Andrews,  historian, author, and academic
1876 – Zitkala-Sa, author and activist
1879 – Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted, chemist and academic
1880 – Eric Lemming, athlete
1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, scout leader, founded the Girl Guides 
1889 – R. G. Collingwood, historian and philosopher
1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet and playwright
1900 – Luis Buñuel, director and producer
1903 – Frank P. Ramsey, economist, mathematician, and philosopher
1914 – Renato Dulbecco, virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1917 – Reed Crandall, illustrator
1922 – Joe Wilder, player, composer, and bandleader
1925 – Edward Gorey, illustrator and poet
1925 – Gerald Stern,  poet and academic
1927 – Guy Mitchell, singer
1928 – Texas Johnny Brown, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1928 – Bruce Forsyth, singer and television host
1930 – Marni Nixon, Asoprano and actress
1932 – Ted Kennedy, soldier, lawyer, and politician
1932 – Zenaida Manfugás, pianist
1933 – Ernie K-Doe, R&B singer
1937 – Joanna Russ, author and activist
1938 – Ishmael Reed, poet, novelist, essayist
1944 – Mick Green, singer and guitarist
1945 – Oliver, pop singer
1947 – Harvey Mason, drummer
1950 – Lenny Kuhr, singer and songwriter
1950 – Genesis P-Orridge, singer and songwriter
1951 – Ellen Greene,  singer and actress
1958 – Dave Spitz, bass player and songwriter
1961 – Akira Takasaki, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1964 – Diane Charlemagne, singer and songwriter
1968 – Bradley Nowell, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1973 – Scott Phillips, drummer and producer
1974 – James Blunt, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
1978 – Jenny Frost, singer and dancer
1980 – Shamari Fears, singer, songwriter, and actress
1980 – Kang Sung-hoon, singer
1980 – Jeanette Biedermann, singer, songwriter, and actress

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Died this day in:

They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

~~ Andy Warhol

1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, cartographer and explorer
1875 – Charles Lyell, geologist and lawyer
1888 – Anna Kingsford, physician and activist
1903 – Hugo Wolf, composer
1939 – Antonio Machado, poet and author
1942 – Stefan Zweig, journalist, author, and playwright
1943 – Christoph Probst, activist
1943 – Hans Scholl,  activist
1943 – Sophie Scholl, activist
1944 – Kasturba Gandhi, Indian activist
 
1961 – Nick LaRocca, trumpet player and composer
1976 – Florence Ballard, singer
 
1987 – Andy Warhol, painter and photographer
 
1994 – Papa John Creach, violinist
 
2013 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, pianist and conductor (
 
2014 – Trebor Jay Tichenor, pianist and composer
 
2015 – Chris Rainbow, singer, songwriter, and producer
 
2016 – Sonny James, singer, songwriter, and guitarist
 

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Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:
Birthday of Scouting and Guiding founder Robert Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell, and its related observance:
Founder's Day or "B.-P. day" (World Organization of the Scout Movement)
World Thinking Day (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts)
Be Humble Day (It's only for one day, man, you can do it, really)
National Cook a Sweet Potato Day
George Washington's Birthday
Recreational Sports and Fitness Day
National Margarita Day
National Wildlife Day (Do hurry and look at some before it's all gone)
Walking the Dog Day

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Music goes here, iirc, well, With apologies Wink

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Walking the Dog Day:

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Be Humble Day

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Joe Wilder

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Guy Mitchell

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Texas Johnny Brown

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Ernie K-Doe

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Mick Green

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Oliver

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Harvey Mason

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Nick La Rocca

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Florence Ballard

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Papa John Creach

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Sonny James

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WAR!

  There is one day each year, December 25th, on which many purport to celebrate "Peace on Earth and Goodwill to Men".  Well, this ain't it McGee, this is one of the other 364 (or 5) during which we celebrate, perpetuate, commit and commit ourselves to WAR!, endless and exalted.  The foundation of our economy, the employer of ever so many and the source of our eternal pride, WAR!  So remember, though it may not be good for living things, it is what keeps this country running and keeps its ruling elites happy, so hooray for war!

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It's an open thread, so do your thing, got it? Below this point this is a public forum, your forum, nothing is off topic, so go for it


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Comments

lotlizard's picture

Original by Angelo Branduardi 1977:
[video:https://youtu.be/m9AThddzEjQ]

Shorter instrumental version by German women’s woodwind ensemble:
[video:https://youtu.be/zBFTHuf2Ln0]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_pulce_d%27acqua

It's the water flea who stole your shadow and now you are ill;
and the autumn fly which you have crushed will not forgive you.
 
At the water of the creek you perhaps lean too far,
you call your shadow, but it will not return.
 
It's the water flea who stole your shadow and now you are ill;
and the green snake which you have crushed will not forgive you.
 
And now you have to sing for a long time to make it forgive you;
and the water flea that knows it will give you back your shadow.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@lotlizard

Love it

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Lookout's picture

I didn't think about the military aspect of scouting as a kid. Really kinda obvious with troops and squads. I loved the camping. Our troop went every month, plus spring break AT hiking trip and a summer multi-day canoe trip on the river. It was lots of fun and I learned many skills.

Well guess I better get busy thinking. Think I'll cook some sweet potatoes today.

Thanks for the OT, music, and thoughts!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

usefewersyllables's picture

@Lookout

hardcore Objectivists, refused to let me join the scouts, precisely because they didn't want me to be a member of a paramilitary organization... I owe 'em a debt of gratitude for that, and also in no small part because my local boy scout organization was really a farm team for the Klan. Fun times, growing up in the path of Sherman's march to the sea.

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

travelerxxx's picture

@usefewersyllables

...my local boy scout organization was really a farm team for the Klan.

And ours was a prep school for the John Birch Society ...and equally Christian Nationalism. Luckily, even at that young age, I'd already learned about the Birchers and got out of scouting completely.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout

did a lot of camping anyway and my dad taught us a ton of skills too, so it all worked out ok. Maybe better because I never had to salute anybody. Heh.

Once you try those sweet potatoes, you won't go back. Perfect recipe for a polar vortex too, just toss them outside into a snowbank for an hour or two before roasting.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

@enhydra lutris
That vortex is pretty fast. Might just cary them away never to be seen again. Buh bye. Lol

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

Lily O Lady's picture

@Lookout
Scout. Before he turned 18 he got his dad to sign a waiver for him to join the Army to serve in Europe during WWII. He knew how to fire a rifle, but it was the other stuff that got him. He gained the rank of First Sergeant through attrition and fought in the Moselle valley. He ended up with a medical discharge for mental issues. It’s all fun and games until someone loses their mind.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

lotlizard's picture

And the usual reference to French people eating snails. Comic strip from 1955 Boys’ Life magazine, which my brother got as a Cub Scout.

https://peeweeharris.fandom.com/wiki/1955_Pee_Wee_Harris_strips?file=Bl_...

For us, it would have been even funnier if Pee Wee ended up wearing a Hawaiian malo, but I guess that would have been rather risqué for 1955.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hawaii-graduate-malo_n_6392902

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enhydra lutris's picture

@lotlizard

lava-lavas to our high school when it had a "casual day", but we didn't own any and couldn't round any up in time. (San Diego, for reasons, appropriated assorted bits and pieces of polynesian and specifically hawaiian culture, especially the beach towns.) Still regret that we didn't do it.

The guy graduating in the malo is great.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Raggedy Ann's picture

A good Girl Scout is always prepared!

Enjoy the day! Pleasantry

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

enhydra lutris's picture

@Raggedy Ann

even a song about that.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

thanatokephaloides's picture

@enhydra lutris

Morning RA. So I've heard, I think that there is even a song about that.

Ask and ye shall receive:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEb9cL3-kf0]

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"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Good morning all! Have electricity and water (still must boil) but it sure changes some attitudes. The weather yesterday was glorious and temps into the 70’s so we took the dog for a walk. It was so nice to be outside and able to stretch out the legs. Other brief forays into the outside were very cautious walking watching for ice and not wanting to fall.

Loved the songs.....was singing “oh lord it hard to be humble” to sister and brother in law and they had never heard of it and had a good laugh when heard it here this morning.

Also having deeper thoughts about where we still need to go in making things more resilient in the great state (snark) of Texas and will it happen and how much one week of deprivation immobilized us and what about the people who face this every day in places like Gaza, Syria, Libya, and on and on. Places the US has played a part in this misery. It is another beautiful day here and will spend some time working on my own resiliency plan for the future.

Have a good day all!

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Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

enhydra lutris's picture

@jakkalbessie

things up. Hope you keep it and get past the water issues pronto too. Glad you liked the tunes.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

of the Harp-Weaver by Edna St. Vincent Millay
here's an audio version of the poem (about 5 min)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Balladoftheharpweaver_millay_ll.ogg

Did a short walkabout with Dog this morning, even before I realized it was walk a dog day! I'm ahead of the game.
TY for OT...have a good one.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@randtntx

Hope you thoroughly enjoyed your walkabout.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Granma's picture

Celebration morning. I've had internet for over 12 hours in a row. Maybe it will stay fixed this time. As my daughter says, it isn't a necessity, but it sure is nice to have.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Granma @Granma

Let's hope it stays that way.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

Et al

There’s a copy of The Thinker at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

https://legionofhonor.famsf.org/

It’s huge.

Have a good one everyone.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@magiamma

Honor, or the de Young, or SF MOMA, or ... . Miss those days. BART to Muni and then walk thru the relevant park to the museum, maybe stop somewhere for a pick-me-up on the return leg. When this shit's over ....

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Wow! A new museum for me to venture to next time I visit the Bay Area. Really looked interesting.

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Life is what you make it, so make it something worthwhile.

This ain't no dress rehearsal!

magiamma's picture

@jakkalbessie
And I will gladly be your guide and chauffeur.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD2GUKwqliU]

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as a Cub Scout, we only had den mothers,
no fathers. I got in trouble by bringing in one
of the local poor boys to join our pack. For some
unnamed reason, poor boys were not meant to rub
elbows with the better off bunch. I had no problem
with it, but the den mothers saw things differently.
An early lesson in stratification of privilege.
Never really got that one.
Slow on the uptake. Wink

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mimi's picture

be expressed in curse words. It was my last heavy duty working day, my hip hurts as much as my knee did one two years ago. I needed surgery for the knee. As of tomorrow all heavy duty bodily work is OVER!!!

So, I can think of something else than that everything is Scheiße. Hallelujah.

I can rest now. Good Night and don't think too much.

PS, oh yeah, it is really hard to be humble if you are rich. Just saying.

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dystopian's picture

There is an outstanding statue garden at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena that is loaded with full size replicas of a bunch of Rodin, and others. It is awesome. Like Magi says, huge!

Our wildlife seems to have taken a big hit from the 10 day polar freeze event. There are no vultures overhead and I just checked the roost tree at the park, not a bird in it, should be over a hundred this late in day. They could not get up, out, and fly for over a week, whence at the same time chills were around zero, sometimes below, snow, ice, etc. We lost our yard pair of Carolina Wren and am hearing lots of reports of others losing them as well. I saw elsewhere in Texas one nest box had 6 dead male Eastern Bluebird in it, another box had 7! Lots are reporting losing their hummingbirds that were wintering. I can't find an Eastern Phoebe, we had a pair that has nested here and was resident for years, and even at the mayfly hatch right now at the park, there were none. Fruigivores and seedeaters seemed to fare best. I did just see the Zone-tailed Hawk coming in to roost in the park woods, so it made it.

Hope yer wildlife is doing well!

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

but had a few years of Boy Scouts back in the '60's. They lapsed, got back on track in the late '80's.
By brother was a Scout. One good thing was he learned to dive, was a qualified lifeguard,and in his teens, he dove down to the bottom of a local lake, pulled up the body of a young man that had drowned. It was the cops that called him for help.
He was a Scout for a few months, then got kicked out for something. Setting off a mosquito bomb in some other troops tent,IIRC. He most certainly did not get indoctrinated. And taught the Troop Leader tricks about camping, which he had learned from Dad.
I am currently using Dad's tricks to live comfortably in a home with no running water.
It may be 2 or 3 weeks before everything returns to normal.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

janis b's picture

Something to make one think, from the BBC documentary - Cant Get You Out of My Head, by Adam Curtis.

The power dynamic, how it shifts, how it hides and how it is used to shape our world – the world in which we ordinary people must live – is Curtis’s great interest. He ranges from the literal rewriting of history by Chairman Mao’s formidable fourth wife, Jiang Qing, during the Cultural Revolution to the psychologists plumbing the depths of “the self” and trying to impose behaviours on drugged and electro-shocked subjects. He moves from the infiltration of the Black Panthers by undercover officers inciting and facilitating more violence than the movement had ever planned or been able to carry out alone, to the death of paternalism in industry and its replacement by official legislation drafted by those with hidden and vested interests. The idea that we are indeed living, as posited by various figures in the author’s landscape and (we infer from the whole) the author himself, in a world made up of strata of artifice laid down by those more or less malevolently in charge becomes increasingly persuasive.

Whether you are convinced or not by the working hypothesis, Can’t Get You Out of My Head is a rush. It is vanishingly rare to be confronted by work so dense, so widely searching and ambitious in scope, so intelligent and respectful of the audience’s intelligence, too. It is rare, also, to watch a project over which one person has evidently been given complete creative freedom and control without any sense of self-indulgence creeping in.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/feb/11/cant-get-you-out-of...

Harvey Mason’s scatting, wonderful! Thanks.

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