Random News: March 6, 2023

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s March 6, 2023, and it’s a Monday. There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy, so let’s see what they are…

• President Joe Biden is preparing to formally launch his next campaign in the coming weeks, and he appears set to enter the 2024 contest with the enthusiastic and unified backing of his congressional allies.
• “I think he will win. I think he’s our strongest candidate. I think that he can and should run, and he’s going to have the support of the House Democratic caucus.” - Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA).
• “He’s been faithful to his electorate that elected him – to progressives who turned out in key states like Georgia and Arizona, movements that did that and the ideas that drove them.” - Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).
• “I would enthusiastically support Joe Biden if he were the Democratic nominee.” - Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)
• “We are so proud of the progress that the Biden-Harris administration made. I certainly am very pleased to have the opportunity to be on a ballot with President Biden in 2024 – unequivocally, full stop.” - Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL)
• I’m cool with that. Let’s go Joe.
• Florida isn’t nearly done being shitty. They’re just getting started.
• That state’s legislators have proposed a spate of new laws that would reshape K-12 and higher education in the state, from requiring teachers to use pronouns matching children’s sex as assigned at birth to establishing a universal school choice voucher program.
• They also want to eliminate college majors in gender studies, dump diversity efforts at universities and job protections for tenured faculty, and to extend a ban on teaching about gender and sexuality.
• This is an expansion of Gov. DeSantis’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law.
• Lots of musicians and music-related people kicking the bucket lately.
• One was Glen Lockett, the in-house producer and engineer for legendary punk label SST Records who was better known as Spot. He passed away March 4. He was 72.
• Spot produced more than 100 records, many of which are bonafide classics in the punk and hardcore world, ranging from Black Flag to Minutemen to Descendents to Hüsker Dü and many more.
• RIP, Spot.
• Yesterday, Gary Rossington, the guitarist for legendary Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, died at 71. Rossington was the last surviving original Lynyrd Skynyrd member.
• You definitely know his playing on “Simple Man,” “Tuesday’s Gone” and the iconic slide guitar on “Free Bird”.
• RIP, Gary.
• Wayne Shorter, a man whose face is on my Mt. Rushmore of jazz, died last week at 89. I met him and interviewed him in the ‘90s. Kind, genuine, and soft-spoken guy.
• RIP, Wayne.
• And as I mentioned in a post on Friday, the great David Lindley passed away at 78. Speaking of slide guitar, you probably remember his lap steel guitar work on Jackson Browne’s “Running on Empty”.
• Lindley also had a surprising pop hit in 1981 with his cover of “Mercury Blues”.
• I knew him. About 15 years ago or so, I interviewed him for pickup manufacturer Seymour Duncan, and met him on a couple of occasions. Super nice guy. RIP, David.
• And now, The Weather: “E1” by Latir
• In other weather news, residents in the San Bernardino mountains here in Southern California remain trapped in their homes with driveways blocked and cars buried under snow piles that sometimes towered as high as second-story windows.
• “People are getting desperate. They need medication. They need food for their children,” said Derek Hayes, a resident of the community of Cedar Glen. He said he has been snowshoeing out of his home for days to get groceries and check on elderly neighbors.
• Approximately 150 people were rescued from their neighborhoods Saturday and an additional 22 residents were taken to shelters or off the mountain on Sunday.
• We’re just not prepared for that stuff here.
• In Young and Dumb News, more than two dozen students at the University of Massachusetts' flagship campus in Amherst were hospitalized for possible alcohol poisoning on Saturday from an annual pre-St. Patrick's Day celebration known as the "Blarney Blowout."
• Amherst Fire Department officials said that none of the cases were life-threatening, but Amherst town and college officials said they handled 28 requests for ambulance transport that prompted additional resources.
• It was reported that many students were seen carrying plastic containers that were believed to be "borgs" — blackout rage gallons, a homemade mix of alcohol, electrolytes and water.
• I, too, was once really stupid. I don’t miss those days at all.
• From the Sports Desk… in the Women’s NCAA tournament — something I care about slightly more than the men’s tournament, which is not at all — defending champion South Carolina is the heavy favorite, and the Gamecocks seek to become the first repeat champions since UConn in 2015-16. The Final Four is March 31 and April 2 at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
• The #1 seeds in each of the four regions are South Carolina, Indiana, Virginia Tech, and Stanford. Good luck, ladies.
• Today in history… Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam (1521). York, Upper Canada, is incorporated as Toronto (1834). After a thirteen-day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers, including frontiersman Davy Crockett and colonel Jim Bowie, defending the Alamo are killed and the fort is captured (1836). The Supreme Court of the United States rules 7–2 in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case that the Constitution does not confer citizenship on black people (1857). Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society (1869). Bayer registers "Aspirin" as a trademark (1899). Italian forces become the first to use airships in war, as two dirigibles drop bombs on Turkish troops encamped at Janzur, from an altitude of 6,000 feet (1912). President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares a "bank holiday", closing all U.S. banks and freezing all financial transactions (1933). Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States (1967). For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown in motion to a national TV audience by Robert J. Groden and Dick Gregory (1975). Forbes names Jeff Bezos as the world's richest person, for the first time, at $112 billion net worth (2018).
• March 6 is the birthday of painter/sculptor Michelangelo (1475), author Cyrano de Bergerac (1619), poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806), gun designer Georg Luger (1849), journalist Ring Lardner (1885), singer-songwriter Furry Lewis (1893), bandleader Bob Wills (1905), actor Lou Costello (1906), TV announcer/co-host Ed McMahon (1923), guitarist Wes Montgomery (1923), economist Alan Greenspan (1926), MLB player Willie Stargell (1940), singer-songwriter/guitarist David Gilmour (1946), singer-songwriter Kiki Dee (1947), actor/director Rob Reiner (1947), actor D. L. Hughley (1963), NBA player Shaquille O’Neal (1972), NFL player Sage Rosenfels (1978), and fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried (1992). 

I’m already in a shit mood this morning. I have a sore throat after just having gotten over COVID. I fucking hate being in anything other than optimum health and one thing or another has been fucked up for like five weeks now. So… deep breath… gonna try and not feel sorry for myself and just work and take my focus off that shit. Enjoy your day.