Oh, don’t give us none of your aggravation
We had it with your discipline
Oh, Saturday night’s alright for fighting
Get a little action in
– Bernie Taupin via Elton John
Hello, to all of our old friends and to our awesome new members! I’m mt58, your tnocs.com tour guide, with your Friday wrap-up.
After another week of mostly sitting in small chairs in the sky, it will be so great to stretch, go outside to bask in the sunshine, and get a little exercise! Maybe go for a run… or a bike ride? I’m not yet exactly sure what I’ll attempt, but I’ll think of something.
OK, this meeting is called to order. I have completed a comprehensive Lotus 123 spreadsheet and I am pleased to report… that it was a great week – not only of “firsts”, but some general record-breaking as well. Bring on the bullet points:
• We introduced a brand new channel, Fun And Games, where we’ll cover everything from sports to puzzles. New articles needed, and most welcome.
• A great first-time-author came on board – more on that below.
• Check it out: our first official “occasional series” – it’s on the home page as we speak.
• And, a drum roll, please: the site had the highest number of views, posts and comments in our 43-year history!
(Wait… um… hold it… hang on a second...)
I’m so sorry. Wrong formula in the “A3” cell. My bad. Make that “43 days.” You know, next time, I’ll just ask Alexa to do the math.
Snarky AI jokes aside… I am so grateful for your support. Seeing the steady increase of the number of users who have delurked and signed up is very humbling. (If any of you have privacy concerns, please know that I’ve got you covered.)
Several of you took the time to talk us up on Facebook and other social media hangouts. Any mentions about tnocs.com in such places are greatly appreciated, as it helps immensely to bring new traffic and new users to the site. If anyone has a question about what and where to post, please PM me at mt58@tnocs.com. Thank you in advance.
And remember, kids, the comment section below is for all of you to use, all weekend long, to talk about anything that strikes your fancy. This “The Weekend Files” space is yours – so have a blast!
But first… the cool stuff that you may have missed this week…
This Past Week’s New Articles
You know you really have something when an author has actually read the book, and then seen the movie. Direct from the candy counter, it was Contributing Author thegue with a fun writeup about a favorite Bond film.
Judging by the number of reactions, you all must really like to going to the movies. It’s great that the experience is finally coming back. Thanks to thegue for a very cool article (spoiler: he just might be back next week…) and a great perspective on books and cinema. I learned a lot. (About poker, for one thing.)
By the way, this article featured my favorite comment volley of the week:
Imagine, if you will: getting to hang with Contributing Author Chuck Small for an afternoon, while he took you on a nice tour of a walking trail, complete with a great nostalgic soundtrack. How great would that be? Chuck’s piece on his ersatz American Top 40 created a real buzz, and brought back some great memories.
It’s so cool when you find someone who not only appreciates the history of a topic, but then takes it a step further, creating their own tribute. It’s easy to see that Chuck “gets it.” Somewhere, Casey Kasem is smiling.
In their tnocs.com debut, Contributing Author Phylum Of Alexandria helped us kick off the new Fun And Games channel with an excellent and sincere piece about their experience with a video game. So, here’s how good the article was: I know nothing about these kinds of video games. But I was 100% drawn into the story of how our scribe related to all of it. Story, narrative, plot, and execution… Phylum Of Alexandria knows that these things are the benchmark of good entertainment, and we were well schooled. Thank you so much for writing for us. Oh, and be sure to check out PofA’s blog at https://phylogenicrecords.wordpress.com/
This explains a lot.
She’s on a roll: Contributing Author dutchg8r has her third tnocs.com article in the can… and it was a smash. Game Shows? Kale, yeah! Bring it on.
And her choice for the toppermost was inspired. I would think that many of our tnocs denizens would sweep the board with correct answer, after correct answer. We. Would. Rule.
One thing that was proven: dutchg8r, as they say about all eclectic people, has “range.” She can make you ponder, and then laugh out loud… sometimes in the same article. We appreciate your passionate writing and thank you for keeping us such good company. Good on you.
Site Stuff:
- How’m I doin? Is the site loading and responding fast enough? Any major fails? Looking good on desktop, tablet, and mobile? Please let me know what you like, hate or would like to see for your best viewing experience. Feedback is appreciated and respected.
- You may have noticed a bug when trying to use the comment upvoters thingy:
- Want to see your byline Up Front? So do we! Please write for us! Old comment section veterans and newcomers are all welcome to join in the reverie.
We want to hear what’s on your mind. If you have an idea or just want to chat about stuff, PM me anytime at submissions@tnocs.com .
• Any suggestions for channels? Content? Cool features? General mayhem?
I want this to be your place. Tell me how to make it better.
Thank you so much for your support and kind comments about the site. I’m impossibly lucky to be able to hang with all of you. Have a great weekend, please be careful, take good care of yourselves and each other…
.. and good on you all.
Thank You For Your Vote!
Sorry You have Already Voted!
It’s 2:23pm Central time, which means I have two hours and thirty-seven minutes to keep myself busy at work before I clock out and leave on a two week vacation. How will I keep myself occupied? I know! I’ll re-read some tnocs articles! I’m sure I missed some comments.
You guys have fun while I’m gone. I’ll try to check in occasionally. And please don’t break into my house.
We will miss you. Please try to check in if you can, and travel safely.
Another great week at TNOCS Towers. This week I have been mostly listening to more Fontaines DC, Spoon, Elliott Smith and DJ Shadow. 50% of these inspired by mentions in the comments section over at the mothership. Its the gift that keeps on giving.
Christmas 2019 I arranged for a trip to London for family J; hotel, trains, tickets to Mary Poppins the musical and the top of The Shard. All paid for ready for us to go in May 2020. And then the world closed down for a bit. Finally, two years later than billed and we’re off, taking advantage of the three day weekend here. Everything rearranged exactly as it was planned the first time. Its gonna be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Autocorrect is for once left speechless at that.
Happy trails folks…..
It’s been so hard to be patient! That’s great! We hope that you have a great time, friend JJ!
My homework for the weekend just arrived: some piano music that a newbie like me can tackle.
Some might scoff at playing children songs, but…this old man, he’ll play one. 🙂 Hopefully more than one.
It’s so much better than just playing knick-knack on your thumb.
“ My favorite part is where they ‘give the dog a bone’ “
This week; Three Blind Mice.
Next week; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.2
Or maybe a few weeks. Achievable goals 😁
I missed my window over in Number Ones but on Monday the column was on “No Diggity” which is on I’d never heard before. So got to learn about it and hear it for the first time. That night, I hear part of it for the second time; used in an Instacart ad on Hulu. Then I hear it for the third time because Hulu repeats ads and realize they’re ending on the “gotta bag it up” line. Which, based on what I learned from Tom, means they’re encouraging you to get your groceries into a condom.
The more you know….
Just saying, if you gotta bag it up, maybe some amount of diggety is in order…
So this is something that happened a couple weeks ago, but I didn’t exactly know what to do with it, until I realized this place…right here…is the perfect spot for it. (What I’m saying is, you guys will “get it”… or at least not look at me like “what’s his deal?”)
Anyway… my wife recently went back to college, and one of her Psych classes requires a paper written every week. The professor is a bit of a YouTube pusher (he not so subtly recommends that the students use at least one video as a source). So, she’s showing me one of the videos she’s using, which happens to be an episode of the YouTube original series “Mind Field”. My immediate reaction? It’s using “Mary Tyler Moore Show” font! Made me recall when we were in virtual 1982 over on the mothership and the picture sleeve for Lionel Richie’s “Truly” used the same font.
Now, this would’ve been just an amusing thing for me to notice, and not think much of it afterwards. Fast forward to the next day though, and we’re driving on the interstate to go visit my Mom. I’m passing a slow moving truck, and I happen to glance at the logo on the side…and it’s the same damn font again! (Wish wish wish I’d have thought to snap a photo, or at least remember what the name of the company was, I was just too gobsmacked in the moment to do anything). Two MTM font sightings in the wild in as many days…what are the odds?
You’re gonna make it after all…
Did you all see the post about poorlittlefool in yesterday’s TNO column? I’m floored!
https://www.openweb.com/share/28WqsFXpvgF4zjRxz1BvEF3u9p1
This is so sad. I’ll head over in a little bit to pay respects.
Thank you for letting us know, Pauly.
Yes. I’m sending his sister a card and am working through the language. It’s hard to express your condolences for someone you never met who nevertheless meant something to you. I hope she appreciates knowing her brother brought joy to lots of people in our community.
That’s so thoughtful of you Chuck. Please do express to her there’s a large group of us who will miss that fantastic statistical mind of his, and how grateful we are he thought to channel that into music facts.
And thank you for the heads up Pauly.