Author: The Cat Herder General

aka Dennis Moser — Citoyen du monde: Peregrinator, photographer, retired librarian/archivist/academic, musician, teacher of English to foreigners, and sometime writer... Due to bureaucratic nonsense, I have left Europe. I DID not return to the US, I took a left turn at the Calgary airport and am a refugee trying to learn to understand, and maybe speak, "Jouai" over here amongst the Quebecois.

Not a Happy Birthday

OR: “… I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong”

It’s funny: In German and English, we recognize the birthdate with “Happy Birthday” or “Fröhliche Gebürtstag” but in French, we recognize the “anniversary”of the day —”Bon anniversaire.”

So, no, not a “happy birthday” for you, US of A. We will acknowledge that you have managed to last 250 years, but happiness is in somewhat short supply today.

It was with tears in my eyes that I posted this over on the Book of Failures. The lyrics are those of the version that Giddens and Simon performed at the Grammy salute to Simon. The change in lyrics is ever-more important today of all days.

“Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
And certainly misused

Oh, but I’m alright, I’m alright
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home

I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
Or driven to its knees

But it’s alright, it’s alright
For we lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the
Road we’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly

And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

~ “We didn’t come here on The Mayflower
We came in a ship in a blood red moon” ~
[ORIGINAL: We come on the ship they call The Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon]
We come in the age’s most uncertain hours
And sing an American tune

Oh, and it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all I’m trying to get some rest.”

~~ P. Simon, “An American Tune”

https://youtu.be/67pyIglP79U?si=REXDfUNFNWx1IpjG

Brains! HUMAN BRAINS!

OR: I wasn’t a teenage zombie…

Some days this really gets tedious; yet another post that can’t go through META, so here goes:

The title of the post sets the tone immediately. And yeah, the RoboCop analogy is definitely on target here.

“Startup Testing Drugs on Freshly Extracted Human Brains That Are Kept On Life Support“

from the text:

“The company is extracting human brains just hours after their owners died and then hooking them up to specialized life support machines, Science reports. While the masses of pink mush no longer host electrical activity, most of their key functions remain intact, allowing scientists to test experimental drugs, such as potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, like never before.”

Startup Testing Drugs on Freshly Extracted Human Brains That Are Kept On Life Support

Et tu, Canada

OR: It’s no secret…1

thewalrus.ca/trump-wants-to-tap-your-phone-ottawa-might-let-him/

Three highlights from the article —

  • Bill C-22 could align Canada’s surveillance laws more closely with the US A
  • CLOUD Act agreement could let US agencies conduct surveillance in Canada without Canadian oversight
  • Ottawa has not been transparent about the bill’s implications for privacy

Not so great, eh?

  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGd2o-Z1VV8 ↩︎

“Ride, Sally, ride…”

Or: “So you think you know how to ride a horse?”

Sharing from here because Al Jazeera is definitely a “news source” and it would never get past the META Overlords from the Great White otherwise…

(Not sure if Montréal is REALLY “The Great White North” — I tend to think of that as a bit further to the West and North of here.)

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/24/want-equal-respect-pakistan-females-galloping-to-glory-in-tent-pegging

‘Want equal respect’: Pakistan’s females galloping to glory in tent pegging

“Talk, talk, talk. . .

Or: Where to even begin?

The following was a brief adventure checking out a new LLM called “talkie” — started by asking “What is a theremin” 1 and it went downhill quickly from there. To wit:

. . . so I queried, asking WHO was Leo Theremin 2 .

Uh, yeah. I don’t think so. . .let’s move on. How would it identify the true nature of the theremin, i.e., among the first electronic musical instruments 3.

Hmmm. . .that didn’t go very well. So how does one play the theremin 4?

Wow — I don’t even have to do any of that on my semi-modular synths! Okay, let’s try who is Leo one more time 5.

Oh, dear. Houston, we have more than “just a problem here. . .how about the brightest star in the “Theremin Pantheon” Ms. Clara Rockmore 6?

Okay, so no concurrency, according to them. Let’s try something else 7:

Oh, dear.

So close, so hopeful 8.

Mind you, this was the SECOND time I’d run this line of questioning — the first run was both close and just as bad. I would have screen-capped the session if I had foreseen how bad it was going to be. I didn’t but I ran this about 18 hours after the first run. I’m tempted to do another run, but [SHRUG]. . .these really are pretty simple topics to track down without resorting the use of any kind of AI agent 9.

  1. https://www.classical-music.com/features/instruments/what-is-a-theremin ↩︎
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Theremin
     ↩︎
  3. See #1 above ↩︎
  4. https://www.wikihow.com/Play-the-Theremin\
    https://youtu.be/DhAHIMHel7U?si=DsNI95AjOVuRC     ↩︎
  5. See #2 above ↩︎
  6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Rockmore
     ↩︎
  7. See more details in #6 above ↩︎
  8. Well alrighty then! https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=M.%20Wheatstone&title=Special%3ASearch&ns0=1\
    WHO? ↩︎
  9. I am a musician working in electroacoustic/experiment music — https://audiozoloft.bandcamp.com/ as well as a retired archivist/librarian, so yeah, a LITTLE insider knowledge but it really only informed the search queries. ↩︎

Resilience and “Bouncing Back:

Or: How do we deal with these cha-cha-cha-changes?

Rather than blocking out the things that have happened, this suggests that we integrate them in to move forward. This is not only for the physical, but other forms of trauma, too.

https://theconversation.com/bouncing-back-is-a-myth-resilience-means-integrating-hard-experiences-into-your-life-story-not-ignoring-them-275069

“Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?”

Or: “No . . . it was Beauty killed the Beast.”

Hadn’t planned to be blogging this but once again, I’m battling with the ongoing META embargo of news stories from posters residing in Canada and posting without using a VPN. Thinking that I may need to start using one on another computer to post things directly to “that other platform.”

Anyway.

Came across a piece by Thomas Pynchon, published in the New York Times back in 1984 (perfect for the timing!) about the Luddites and the history of the movement.

So here’s a link to the piece (archived, so you should be able to see it past their firewall)

Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?

Personally, I’m now inclined to answer that with a resounding “Yes.”