Growing up in the greatest time for variety shows was quite the blessing. The Smother's brothers, Ed Sullivan, Johnny Cash's show, Bobby Darin (Dusty John Dusty) and The Sonny and Cher Hour were great places to hear songs from all over. They all took chances on unheard of artists as well as the best known of the day. Included in that were the hosts themselves (okay, not so much the case with Ed Sullivan).

 With the Sonny and Cher hour, the format was pretty simple: Sonny was always set up as the foil and Cher would always come out the winner in the comedy bits. Nothing wrong with that. That formula was a guarantee in those days. It always seemed like he deserved it anyway, and Cher was the star.

Behind the scenes, Sonny was the gifted songwriter who wrote and produced most of the hits they would have in their career together. Considering he was of the old school writers like Paul Williams, Paul Anka, Neil Diamond and Goffin/King he nonetheless played around with meter and Key change.

I rediscovered this song from 1966 and it shows how much Sonny messed around with convention at the same time new artists like Zappa and Bowie were getting their feet wet.

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My cousin's kid tweeted a twat, or whatever you call it (tweeted a twit in this case), proclaiming that he got free dental care now that the Affordable Care Act is in place. He ended the message with a big ol' "Thanks, President Obama!"

I'm happy for him. I really am.

I don't think he realizes that dental coverage is not required under the ACA for a company the size of which he works for. This is the same for my company as well. In fact, we are too small to even be required to offer health insurance at all.

The fact that companies like ours always have has nothing to do with the good graces of the President and the legislators who voted for this monstrosity, but by the nature of the employers who have offered it since I became management.

The fact that all policies must now fall in line with the ACA requirements is illustrative of what happens in most cases when the government "helps" us all. By getting into the thickets with detail, they leave loopholes, gaps and opportunities for the insurance conmpanies to fine tune themselves a nicer deal than they had before. As an example: I used to have routine blood work for diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol and other various afflictions. This was routine and paid for 100%. Not any more. I have to pay for all these tests myself now. Perscriptions used to be a three tier system where I paid either $10, $25, or $45, depending on the generic to brand name fall of the drug. Now there are two tiers, plus a possible 50% co pay. There now is a list of drugs covered and I have had to change three different prescriptions to stay on the list my insurance companies offer.

Procedures that my podiatrist performs are no longer covered. Other office procedures are the same. I have a deductible that I never needed before that kicks in not only for in patient hospital procedures, but for such things like imaging (x-rays, MRI's, etc.).

In short, I pay more money for the policy, have a deductible for services that were covered before the ACA, and have less benefits than I had before the ACA.

"Thanks, President Obama!".

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Scheduled for a 26 episode run, Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei is winding down the final arc of the series. The Light novel it is based on is written in a very wordy style. The author explains in detail every type of magic and how it relates to the great magic experience. In addition, political and family trees and how they all fit into the picture are detailed as well. It seemed as if it would be a challenge to complete the first two arcs, and with limited success at at that. Some novels just don't seem to translate well. Instead, they trimmed quite a bit and managed to fill in three major arcs, jumping over a minor arc to get there.

I think they did a rather good job of trimming to keep as much exposition while maintaining as steady a pace as they could so far. I have to say that this final arc, an arc that shows the audience the true extent of both Tatsuya's and Miyuki's full range of power and skill, as well as the skills of several other characters has very few episodes to tell a huge amount of story.

Tatsuya and Miyuki are a brother and sister pair who are the main characters of the series. The audience are in on who they are and how they relate to this world where magic power is largely hereditary and confers status and family hierarchy. The other characters in the world runs the gamut from knowing to being completely ignorant of who this powerful pair are.

This latest episode starts at the invasion by the enemy. I look forward to see how much the authors show us in the three episodes they have left. It is a good place to end the series. The side characters get a good opportunity to show their stuff and they all step up to the plate. At the end, we see the awesomeness that is the main character, Tatsuya, and his sister, Miyuki.

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In this post, Steven describes a few series from where he is pulling images for his (very cool) rotation. One of the shows is Rokujouma no Shinryakusha. To borrow a quote:

"As a joke she's something of a one-trick pony and I really wish she'd prove to everyone else that she's really magical so they'd stop being cruel to her."

The magical girl's name is Yurika Nijino, and Episode 8 is her spotlight. Another magical girl enters the picture and Yurika knows her. She is trying to warn everyone but, as Steven said, no one believes she is a magical girl and figures the two are cosplaying friends. They even scold her for treating a friend like that.

Why don't they believe her? Good question. you have a double D dirt dweller, a tsundere space princess, a grating ghost. That's all fine and dandy, but a mopey, manic mahou girl? That's just crazy!

The potential love interest student Steven talks about - Harumi Sakarabe -  has been making appearances every episode. Although she is not often the focus, she seems to be very important in the scheme of things. In a past episode, she and Yurika became friends and Yurika used her magic to cure Haraumi of her disease. Harumi does not know this, but instantly feels more refreshed than she has been in a long time. In this episode, she confesses her crush on the MC to Yurika, who herself has mixed feelings about him. However, the evil magical girl notices their relationship and captures Harumi.


more...

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