matters

1. In the absence of the full report, I don't have much to say about the news that the scripts for the (unpreseved) 1955-56 BBC radio version of The Lord of the Rings have been discovered, save that it's not surprising that it was Stuart Lee who discovered them, as he's done previous estimable work on Tolkien in the BBC archives. It should be recorded that Tolkien's own reaction to the script and performances included words like "dreadful," "not well done," and "sillification."

2. The Senate has passed a bill mandating year-round DST. Oh no, no, no. The one thing worse than changing the clocks twice a year would be staying on DST over the winter. What advocates of DST seem to fail to understand is that changing the clock doesn't make the day longer, it just moves it around, and in winter there's not that much to move. DST is supposed to make you happier because the sun is up, so it won't make people happy having to get up and go to work in the dark when they didn't have to do so before. Here's a little map showing how grim it would be, and that's from an article favoring the change. The last time we tried year-round DST - anybody else remember that? - it was popular when enacted but a complete disaster in the implementation and quickly repealed.

3. I sympathize with Ukraine under attack, but I wish its politicians would stop begging the West to establish a no-fly zone. This is not, as the term might suggest, a neutral peace-keeping measure. It would consist of militarily attacking Russian planes, ergo going to war with Russia, and NATO has made very clear that it's not going to war with Russia over Ukraine. We're in a situation similar to the early stages of the World Wars (not a parallel that invites much confidence in the future), and the NATO countries should do the equivalent of what the US did then, which is support from outside. Supplying Ukraine with planes and letting them enforce their own laws would be best. And good luck with that: it's not feasible to enforce no-fly over such a vast area.

4. Gas prices are up, and Republicans are blaming Biden. That's silly. Biden blocked Russian imports on bipartisan demand, and we still have plenty of oil. And our fuel prices are still lower than Europe's have long been. Prices went up because the oil companies exploited the crisis: they could raise their prices so they did. That's the oft-touted free market for you.

5. Twitter thread on 'prospective memory,' i.e. remembering that you intend to do something. I don't have ADHD, but I have concerns in this area. This is why I consider my pocket appointment book my portable memory and feel lost without it - though not as helpless as I tend to think. I've lately taken to numbering daily chores, including the medicines I take, so as not to skip one; since they're daily, I don't have the usual problem of mentally numbering things and then saying, "I know I had five tasks, but I can't remember what the fifth one was."