Lost Time ... A Sign of Early Dementia?

Doing something that's small, daily, and documented -- that is, my daily Wordle hint -- has revealed to me that I may have some kind of memory deficit.

Specifically, every so often, I will completely forget to do the day's Wordle and Wordle hint post. And forget that I forgot until the next day, when I'm doing the hint post and see that there wasn't one the day before.

As you've probably noticed, I've been less active on the blog this month for various reasons. But the "missed a day of Wordle" thing doesn't seem related -- it's happened in the past a time or three when I was more active and didn't have any specific stressors or distractions going on that would explain it.

Then again, I've been worried about the possibility of Alzheimer's, etc. since my late teens or early twenties, even though there's not any big family history, etc. I worked in an aluminum boat plant for a couple of years (1986-87), where the air was always full of aluminum dust, and saw an article claiming a link between aluminum exposure and Alzheimer's. That was what set off the life-long worry.

So who knows? Also, where am I and who the hell are you?

Wordle 1045 Hint

Hint: One form of today's Wordle results in fine beer; another used to get its alleged practitioners burned at the stake.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

Less than a Month Until the Libertarian National Convention

Things:

1. I expected to be named an alternate in the Missouri delegation. I was (I've seen the submitted delegate list).
2. Endorsements from me may be a bad thing or a good thing. At the moment, I have endorsed two candidates -- Mimi Robson for LNC vice-chair (link coming when I know of one) and Shawn Levasseur for LNC secretary.
3. I will, of course, attempt to do some blogging and such from the convention. If that's something you want to support financially, see the right sidebar. One reader is already paying my air fare and hotel costs, and I think I have the other expenses in hand, so it's not a matter of dire need -- more a matter of how soon after I'll be able to get motorcycle school and a new vehicle purchase taken care of, as I've put those things off to make this trip (and I have a planned trip to Atlanta in July, for which I'd like to be riding a long-trip-worthy bike).

Wordle 1043 Hint

Hint: You may have one in your eye. If not and if you want one, shop for it during the day -- after twilight they're hard to find.

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First Letter: G

Wordle 1042 Hint

Hint: I'm usually inspired by Wordle, but today's is boring and tasteless.

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First Letter: V

Wordle 1041 Hint

Hint: To get started on today's Wordle, tell it a little bit about yourself.

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First Letter: I

Wordle 1040 Hint

Hint: The answer to today's Wordle isn't hidden, it's in plain sight.

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First Letter: O

Wordle 1039 Hint

Hint: The Red wanderer in a popular children's playground game of yore.

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First Letter: R

Wordle 1038 Hint

Hint: The most important use for today's Wordle just may be providing light entertainment for cats.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: L

The HMO/PPO Healthcare System Is Not Geared Toward Listening To Patients

I'm not usually the one in my family who runs into that, but this week I was the one in my family who ran into that.

My primary care physician is leaving her practice within the network that provides my care (Tamara's insurance through her work). I had an appointment scheduled for her final day, but had to cancel that appointment due to the sudden travel you've previously been mentioned here.

So, I had to re-schedule with a new doctor.

The earliest available appointment is in late July. OK, no problem, I'm the one who canceled and these things take time.

BUT!

I had a bunch of bloodwork done a few days before the appointment I had to cancel.

So when I scheduled the replacement appointment for three months from now, I suggested in the scheduling web form that new labs be ordered, since the existing ones will be more than three months old.

Initial doctor's reply: We'll schedule labs after the initial appointment.

My response: There are several things on that lab report that my prior doctor wanted to discuss -- and I have reason to believe that the measurements will have changed by the time I see you.

Doctor's assistant's response: Labs will only be scheduled after we "establish care."

So basically I get to make a visit and pony up a co-pay for the entire purpose of having the following conversation:

Doctor: Hello, Mr. Knapp.

Me: Hello, doctor.

Doctor: I care!

Me: So do I!

Doctor: OK, get some lab work done and come back in three months.

Fortunately, I can do something about that. The measurements for worry -- that is, the ones the doctor who is leaving wanted to discuss -- are:

1. My A1C, which went way up for fully explicable reasons and which I expect to look a lot better three months from now.
2. Slighly low sodium, slightly low chloride, and slightly high alkaline phosphatase. I strongly suspect the first two have to do with me spending a lot of time out in hot weather doing yard work, drinking lots of water, and not drinking anything with electrolytes in it during the three days before my bloodwork. Not sure about the last one, but unless it is sustained I don't find it too worrisome in the absence of other markers for liver problems (I've also had my liver looked at in the last few years).

They can do an A1C at the doctor's office.

And I can get a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (which measures the items in #2) done for about $20 at an outside lab and just take the results with me to discuss with the doctor.

So not really a big hairy deal.

But it would have been easier on me, and likely not a big deal for the new doctor, to have just put in an order for new labs. And those doctor-ordered labs, unlike the ones I'll be getting done myself, would have been right there in the "MyChart" for the new doctor to see before I even get there, shortening the appointment time consumed by her looking at old labs and me showing her new labs.

Wordle 1037 Hint

Hint: Mr. Roger is apparently a very cheerful guy, but not someone you'd care to encounter while traveling by sea.

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First Letter: J

When Otherwise Good Organizations Support Very Bad Things

For the most part, I support the great work the Electronic Frontier Foundation does opposing Internet censorship, supporting the Fourth Amendment, etc.

But EFF just can't seem to get past the mistake of supporting one kind of Internet censorship scheme and one side in a fight over who gets a big corporate welfare subsidy.

"Net Neutrality" is worse than a solution looking for a non-existent problem. It's a real problem making up a non-existent problem to ride the coattails of.

It's trash. And EFF shouldn't support it.

Wordle 1036 Hint

Hint: To solve today's Wordle, let it shine (your thinking process, that is).

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: L

Wordle 1035 Hint

Hint: If you gamble on Wordle, today would be a good day to increase your bet.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: R

Wordle 1034 Hint

 Hint: There are several sides to today's Wordle. Pick one.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: F

Wordle 1033 Hint

 Hint: Ten percent for the big guy, biblically speaking.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: T

Brief Libertarian National Convention Updates

• RFK Jr. has apparently given up on the idea that he can just waltz into the Washington Hilton and jitterbug out with the Libertarian Party's 2024 presidential nomination.
• While I have not seen the emergence of any "unified slate" of candidates to replace the current Libertarian National Committee regime, several good individual candidates are starting to come forward. More information coming on that as things develop.
• I've been notified of my acceptance as an alternate for the delegation from the great state of Missouri (where I lived most of my life prior to moving to Florida, and where I participated in the party as a member, county party official, state executive committee member, and candidate for / appointee to public office). Yay!
• I'm considering starting a No Particular Order Caucus in time to get literature, stickers, etc. printed up for distribution at the convention. Anyone who's interested in possibly financially supporting said printing (or in what the hell all that means), talk to me privately or in the comments.

Wordle 1032 Hint

 Hint: When shopping for ham, you may have to decide between this kind and "butt."

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

More or Less is Objective. Goldilocksism is Subjective.

I've talked about this before, but I'm seeing the same mistake again. This time it's Art Carden at EconLog:

Since public goods are non-rivalrous and non-excludable, we won’t get enough of them if we rely exclusively on the free market.

Wrong.

A free market will produce less, rather than more, of a good that is non-rivalrous and non-excludable.

Whether the amount produced is "too much," "too little," or "just right" is entirely a matter of subjective valuation.

Wordle 1031 Hint

 Hint: Any project requires certain tools and resources; today's Wordle refers to the process of acquiring those things.

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First Letter: E

Ritual Car Rental Complaint

You know the drill ...

This is such a frequent complaint, from so many people, for so many decades, that I don't see my little voice changing anything, so I'm not even going to bother naming the company (in part because the ladies we interacted with were so pleasant, etc., that I don't feel the need to slam them).

1. Tamara specifically reserved a medium-sized car -- not a compact, but not a large car or SUV.
2. When we arrived to get a car, we were told that they had none of those available ... for the drive she had specifically booked the reservation for, which was from St. Louis to Gainesville. They had a lot full of that type of car, just none they were willing to rent for non-local return.
3. So, they were going to "upgrade" us, at our expense. Which is what they ended up doing, although the additional expense was less than the initial quote, probably because we were about to walk out and go to another place.

The reasons Tamara booked a mid-size car were threefold:

1. There were only three of us, so we didn't need, say, a Lincoln Town Car or a Ford Explorer to comfortably hold five or six.
2. We weren't planning to haul a piano or anything. Just the luggage we brought when we flew in (one suitcase total plus our "personal item" carry-ons), plus a few things we picked up in St. Louis (a case of Fitz's root beer, a couple of vinyl LPs, and a few other, small, items). We didn't really need a cargo bay. The back seat and/or a trunk would have been more than sufficient.
3. We were driving about 900 miles and preferred a vehicle with good gas mileage.

What we got was a Ford Explorer.

That was not an "upgrade." There was nothing it had that we wanted or needed that the mid-size sedan wouldn't have had, it was less pleasant to drive (especially for Tamara, who is 4'10"), and it probably got at least 10 miles per gallon less than the sedan would have.

To put it a different way, instead of charging us extra for a supposed "upgrade," they should have been knocking the price down for sticking us with a car we didn't want, a car that we didn't need, and a car that cost us more to drive.

Just sayin' ...

Wordle 1030 Hint

Hint: This kind of gasbag sometimes has a good year.

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First Letter: B

Well, I'm Back Home ...

... safely and all that. Flew from Orlando to St. Louis early Thursday morning. Started the drive back to Gainesville yesterday around noon, stopping for the night just south of Chattanooga.

No significant negative incidents. Just a quick trip to visit our former neighbor who is preparing to move to Texas. My son badly wanted to see her, and her house (where he spent significant time as a child) one last time befor she left. We helped with packing, etc.

We hit a couple of favorite spots while in town, but nothing major, and just didn't have time to see a bunch of friends we'd have like to visit with.

I did score a copy of an album that I used to own and that had long since disappeared, by a band I saw live many times in Springfield, Missouri, for $2.99 at Vintage Vinyl, which was cool. That only happened because we stopped by Fitz's for root beer, across the street.

The hotel in St. Louis had terrible wi-fi, and by the time we got to the hotel in Georgia I was worn out, which is why you haven't really seen me.

Wordle 1026 Hint

Hint: If you have today's Wordle, you're already most of the way to having a nice cup of soup.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: B

Apologies Now ... and in Advance

Yes, I've been slacking a bit on the blog front.

It will probably be worse for the next few days, not just here but at the Garrison Center.

A family matter is taking me to St. Louis on Thursday and Friday. I generally write Garrison columns on Tuesday (that one just published), Thursday, and either Saturday or Sunday. There's a good chance that I will miss the Thursday column, as I will be up at oh-dark-thirty on Thursday, in the air Thursday morning, in St. Louis Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon, and arriving home late on Friday.

Sorry about that. On the other hand, if you happen to be in St. Louis on Thursday/Friday, maybe we can say hi in person!

Wordle 1025 Hint

Hint: You might have two answers in mind for today's Wordle. Try combining them into a single solution.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: M

Wordle 1024 Hint

Hint: A subgroup of a species, or the process of creating that subgroup.

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First Letter: B

Wordle 1023 Hint

Hint: When you want to speak English but you also want to sound French, today's Wordle is an acceptable alternative to "shazam" or "whoomp, there it is."

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: V

Wordle 1022 Hint

Hint: A little bird told me that today's Wordle could be about an Alabama lawyer with a daughter he calls "Scout."

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: F

Wordle 1021 Hint

Hint: The technique for solving today's Wordle may all be in ... today's Wordle!

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: W

Wordle 1020 Hint

Hint: There's only one way to become king of the mountain.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: C

I Don't Find It "Upsetting" That NASCAR Won't Refrain From Having Cars On The Track So I Can Join The Daytona 500 On Foot

Per The Daily Beast:

Jackass star Steve-O is coming up on 16 years of sobriety, but not everyone is willing to accommodate him as he abstains -- one such person, allegedly, is Bill Maher. In a recent episode from Steve-O’s podcast Wild Ride!, he said Maher’s team reached out to invite him onto Maher’s podcast Club Random, where Maher interviews people while smoking marijuana. ... “I’m a clean and sober guy, approaching 16 years,” Steve-O said. “The Bill Maher podcast, which I saw you on, reached out and they -- his thing is he smokes pot the whole time while he interviews people. And I said ‘Hey, I’d happily go on there but could you, while I’m on, out of respect for my sobriety, could he refrain from smoking pot?” he continued. “He said no, that’s a dealbreaker.”

I find it hard to believe that anyone would consider this rude, let alone controversial.

The premise of the show is people smoking dope and talking.

If the participants aren't smoking dope, they aren't participating in that show.

If NASCAR fans tune in to, or show up for, the Daytona 500 and just see me walking around the track, no cars, they're not going to consider it the Daytona 500. They're probably going to be bored at best and actively upset at worst. The NASCAR brand will be damaged.

That doesn't make me a bad guy for liking to walk. It just means I should choose some other venue/event for walking, rather than getting puzzled or irritated at NASCAR's refusal to change what it does so that I can do what I like to do in their venue and at their event.

A conscious decision to avoid alcohol, cannabis, etc. doesn't make Steve-O a bad guy, either. It just means he should avoid venues/events clearly and unambiguously based on consumption of alcohol, cannabis, etc. ... and not let the existence of those venues/events upset him.

My First (And Possibly Only) Public Endorsement for Libertarian National Committee ...

... is Shawn Levasseur for Secretary.

Why maybe my only public endorsement?

Because I'm well aware that my endorsement, to the extent it's noticed at all, could be a negative as well as a positive. I don't endorse without letting the endorsee know that first so that I can be asked not to endorse, if that seems like the better way to go. I asked Shawn, and he said to go for it, so here it is.

Why the endorsement?

1. It is my opinion that the entire current LNC owns the consequences of its current term. They should all be strongly considered for replacement, because the current term has been a financial, membership level, and "messaging" disaster. If I'm a Coca-Cola stockholder and the company loses money, loses market share, and runs commercials saying "our beverages taste like ass," my default position will be against re-election of the board running the show. Which is not to say that I won't listen to arguments from incumbents as to why they should be re-elected ("I personally raised this much money, I personally recruited this many members, and I vehemently objected to and voted against the 'tastes like ass' commercials"), but that would be a request for an exception -- as a body this LNC has been a failure of epic proportions.
2. While I supported the current secretary for election in 2018 and re-election in 2020, I believe that position in particular is up for a change after three terms, and would be even if the current secretary hadn't become a damaging chaos agent in her second and third terms. I'm just generally a "two terms at most, then out" type, although I've made exceptions.
3. Shawn has the record (see the link above for his resume) and he's someone I trust to do the job because he says he's willing and able to do that job. I strongly prefer a long record of party work and demonstrated competence when looking at candidates. When it comes to LNC, I tend to emphasize those factors over ideological agreement.
4. But, speaking of ideological agreement, Shawn's long-time support for this blog and other projects of mine indicates to me that while we may not agree on everything, we're at least somewhat on the same general page.

That's it for the endorsement, but let me add a note.

As you may have noticed, I am an "anti-Mises-Caucus" type by inclination and have belabored both that  orientation and my reasons for it. That does not mean I will never support a Mises-affiliated or Mises-endorsed candidate for LNC. In point of fact, I supported Joshua Smith for LNC in 2018, though in retrospect I think that was a bad call. I will listen to (and probably have questions for) any and every candidate I come across, regardless of affiliation.

Wordle 1019 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle could get hairy -- you may have to weave your way to the solution.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: P

Wordle 1018 Hint

Hint: You surely know today's Wordle -- it's in your blood.

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: S

Wordle 1017 Hint

Hint: Part of a palm (not the "hand" kind of palm, the "plant" kind of palm).

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New to Wordle? You can play it at the New York Times, and here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: F

Thanks For Asking! -- 04/01/24

No AMA thread this month.














Of course there's an AMA thread this month. It's April Fools' Day, duh.

Ask me anything in the comment thread below this post. I'll answer in, or linked from, comments.