This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

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Curmudgeon’s Corner: Really Basic Thing

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Ed joins Sam for some discussion of the whole thing with the Trump DoJ getting subpoenas of phone activity for some House Democrats and journalists, as well as the reactions to those revelations. Ed also provides some of his medical insight on the pandemic, as well as that new drug that was recently approved for Alzheimer’s. Before that though, they talk a bit about movies and TV. Because of course they did.

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Show Details:

Recorded 2021-06-12
Length this week – 1:41:02

  • (0:00:22-0:19:19) But First
  • (0:19:57-0:56:05) Trump DoJ
  • (0:57:06-1:40:30) Pandemic
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Pedal to the Metal

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner Sam and Ivan talk about Police Violence and Infrastructure. And of course the pandemic. Can’t forget the pandemic. It is not over yet. Really. So they talk about it again. Oh, and Sam talks about a book he read. And as usual, they go on a few tangents along the way. Enjoy!

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Show Details:

Recorded 2021-04-17
Length this week – 1:57:55

  • (0:00:23-1:02:57) Segment 1:
    • Sam: Sam Book with Alex: The Return of the King (1955)
    • Ivan: Pandemic Stuff
  • (1:04:07-1:57:34) Segment 2:
    • Sam: Police Violence
    • Ivan: Infrastructure Week
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Cooking Cookies

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan have two “heavy” topics: The Atlanta massage parlor killings, and worldwide covid trends heading upward again. But on the lighter side, Sam reviews a book, and the curmudgeons discuss the dynamics of video conferences versus audio conferences. Plus a couple of bonus mini-segments on Daylight Saving Time and Sam’s email. All the usual sorts of fun things! But shorter this time! No cookies were harmed in the making of this podcast.

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Show Details:

Recorded 2021-03-19
Length this week – 1:36:40

  • (0:01:12-0:38:47) Segment 1
    • Ivan: Atlanta Killings
    • Sam: Sam Book: Earth Awakens (2014)
  • (0:40:48-1:36:19) Segment 2
    • Ivan: Video Conferences vs Audio Conferences
    • Sam: Covid deaths increasing again
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: The Burden of Pants

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Bruce joins Sam for a bit different view on the presidential transition and the pandemic than we usually get from Ivan. They discuss Trumpworld conspiracy theories, low-information voters, social media deplatforming, just how close this election actually was, and more. On the pandemic side, besides the usual update on the trends (spoiler: the trends are bad) they discuss natural vs mandated behavior changes, vaccines, masks, and more. And before all that, Bruce talks about a TV series, Sam discusses a book, and they note a historical anniversary. Enjoy the show!

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Show Details:

Recorded 2020-11-21
Length this week – 2:15:01

  • (0:00:22-0:28:04) But First
    • Ivan out this week
    • Bruce TV: Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
    • Sam Book: Spook (2006)
    • Dishwasher shopping
    • Mayflower anniversary
  • (0:31:00-1:16:32) Presidential transition
    • Welcome Patron Ryan
    • Election mechanics
    • Trumpworld conspiracy theories
    • Very close election
    • Upcoming gridlock
    • Low-information voters
    • Remaining Trump gambits
    • Social media deplatforming
    • “JoBiden”
    • Trump military drawdown
  • (1:17:21-2:14:41) Pandemic
    • Trend update
    • Overwhelming hospitals
    • Natural vs mandated behavior change
    • Initial response problems
    • Vaccines
    • Masks
    • Ventilation
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

2019 Reading List

About a quarter of the way through 2018, I lamented that I wasn’t reading enough books, and made a resolution to do better. I did finish more books in 2018 than in either 2016 or 2017. But I plummeted in 2019, coming nowhere near my goal of 12 books for the year.

Oops.

Anyway, here they are:

2019 (0 Physical, 1 Kindle, 3 Audible)

  1. 2019-01-22, Non-Fiction, Audible, The Zimmerman Telegram by Tuchman
  2. 2019-04-01, Fiction, Kindle, Bull from the Sea by Renault
  3. 2019-05-21, Fiction, Audible, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by Lewis
  4. 2019-08-06, Non-Fiction, Audible, The Ideas Industry by Drezner

And that’s it.

Pitiful. So far I’m not even at that pace for 2020 though. So the trend doesn’t look good.

Finally the updated chart of my reading since 2006 with 2019 added in…

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Waddaya Gunna Do?

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan do the usual round of political news, discussing dirty tricks on the campaign trail, the latest veepstakes talk, the New York investigation into Trump, and possibilities of a disputed election. But first, they respond to some feedback, review a book Sam read, talk a little about family history and how 2020 sucks, and react to the explosion in Beirut. A full show as usual!

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Show Details:

Recorded 2020-08-08
Length this week – 2:08:10

  • (0:00:22-0:37:53) But First
    • Feedback
    • Sam Book: The Two Towers (1954)
    • Family history
    • 2020 sucks
    • Beirut explosion
  • (0:39:54-1:21:23) Campaign 2020 Dirty Tricks
    • Foreign interference
    • Controlling the narrative
    • Kanye West
    • Historical dirty tricks
    • Slowing down the mail
  • (1:22:40-2:07:50) Campaign 2020 Clean Tricks
    • Veepstakes
    • Trump interview
    • New York Trump investigation
    • Laws with no teeth
    • Disputed election?

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Tower Life

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan discuss the latest in politics and pandemic news as they always do. But this time you also get a book review from Ivan, some insight into Sam’s sleep patterns, some economic talk, and even a bit on the tradeoffs between global and domestic sourcing of products. Plus a fun electoral vote strategy to consider!

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Show Details:

Recorded 2020-08-01
Length this week – 2:31:36

  • (0:00:22-0:31:19) But First
    • Ivan Book: Underwater [2020]
    • Hurricane headed for Ivan
    • Sleep Patterns
  • (0:32:04-1:07:58) Politics
    • Veepstakes
    • Delegitimizing the election
    • Problems with mail-in voting?
  • (1:09:08-1:50:07) Pandemic
    • Ivan goes to Disney
    • Sports bubbles
    • Latest stats
  • (1:52:08-2:31:08) Potpourri
    • Economic Update
    • Political responses to the virus
    • Domestic production of critical supplies?

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Moving Reality

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan’s main topics are Trump’s mind through the lens of Mary Trump’s book, Trump’s current attempts to position himself for the election, and the pandemic. But first, the curmudgeons respond to a listener comment, Ivan delivers on a promise from last week, and Ivan rants about a local political candidate. Enjoy!

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Show Details:

Recorded 2020-07-25
Length this week – 2:33:58

  • (0:00:22-0:27:51) Random Stuff
    • Comment from Sam’s Mom
    • Ivan Movie: Downfall [2004]
    • Irv Slosberg’s Campaign
  • (0:28:32-1:02:22) Trump
    • Ivan Book: Too Much and Never Enough [2020]
    • Trump’s UK Golf Thing
    • Trump’s Cognitive Test
  • (1:04:06-1:46:40) Election 2020
    • Federal Surge Into Portland
    • Trump Campaign Developments
    • Polling Update
  • (1:47:18-2:33:37) Pandemic
    • Latest Stats
    • Next Covid Bill
    • Masks

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Talking is Hard

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan try to keep things pithy and concise by having only two topics but fail utterly and completely as they go in-depth into the latest Trump nonsense as well as the latest pandemic related developments. Plus Ivan tells us about his light summer reading! So there you go.

Click below to listen and subscribe!

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Show Details:

Recorded 2020-07-03
Length this week – 2:33:06

  • (0:00:22-0:12:55) But First
    • Agenda
    • Ivan book: Social Security Made Simple [2019]
  • (0:13:32-1:33:35) Trump Nonsense
    • Russia paying to kill US troops
    • Calls with world leaders
    • Polling update
    • Racist callouts
  • (1:34:40-2:32:41) Pandemic
    • Cases and Deaths
    • Reasons for the 2nd wave
    • Reactions to the 2nd wave
    • School reopening plans

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Clippy 2020

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan cover ten separate topics for about ten minutes each, including recent developments in several countries, a 1940’s era movie Sam watched, the Congressional impeachment investigations, Joe Biden’s latest gaffes, the Epstein suicide, and much more. Tune in for a very full show!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

 1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
 View Podcast in iTunes
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patreon-30x30 Support us on Patreon

Show Details:

Recorded 2019-08-17
Length this week – 1:59:02

  • (0:01:49-0:13:44) Ivan: Feedback
  • (0:15:30-0:24:36) Sam: Sam Movie: Double Indemnity (1944)
  • (0:25:56-0:36:57) Ivan: Epstein Suicide
  • (0:37:34-0:48:29) Sam: Impeachment Investigations
  • (0:49:45-0:59:19) Ivan: Steve King Comments
  • (1:00:04-1:09:00) Sam: Sam Book: The Ideas Industry (2017)
  • (1:10:10-1:20:32) Ivan: Biden Gaffes
  • (1:22:33-1:32:54) Sam: Election Graphs: Blue Texas
  • (1:34:37-1:44:49) Ivan: Argentina / Hong Kong / Moscow
  • (1:45:53-1:58:41) Sam: Greenland

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.