Don't you know I done all that I can do to try to get along with you. You're too much, everythin' you touch turns to something else.

  Well, I guess I need to put something down. I really don't have anything collected, but that's never stopped me before. So what the hell, eh?

 Sort of running off Tuesday's essay about the Free State Of Jones, I've decided on a focus for this blog. See, I did that because my buddy wanted background for an RPG character he was playing. My friend - who's known me for 20 years and knows what I'm like - knows I like to look up off-the-wall facts of the universe only slightly less than I like telling someone else that esoteric knowledge before they run me off.

 I had so much fun I told my buddy anytime his RPG buddies needed similar background material especially for something like that, give me a holler. It goes double for something connected to history or with mythology/folklore because that is so my jam.

 He said I ought to do a podcast, which just won't fly. Not only do I have a fairly thick Southern accent, but I also have the tendency to mumble, mutter, and occasionally stutter. As I said, I have a face for radio and a voice for newspapers. And then it hit me: this damn blog. I still have that other Blogger blog but I don't remember where it is. Typical.

 Anyhow, when the mood strikes me, I'll write about Cú Chulainn or the Scolormance or my very strong feelings about Dracula and how every other piece of media gets it and vampires wrong. And, of course, harmonicas. I've done this before, writing about bands I like or musicians I felt were worth knowing about for whatever reason. The worst problem I have with writing without access to herbal inspiration.is coming up with topics. That's been a problem for years, so if you - and I know someone's reading this - have something like that you want to read about, drop me an email at matt7542@gmail.com.

 So that's going to be the new thing I do. Just not tonight, because nothing's kicking and I haven't had my nap today. Otherwise, we've had two mass shootings in the past 24 hours, one in South Carolina and one in Texas. The South Carolina shooting wound up being done by a former NFL player who killed a local doctor and his family before shooting himself dead. The Texas one was done at a cabinet company, injuring five and killing one. The suspect is in custody. No one knows why either went down.

 So that's, what. four mass shootings in the past three weeks? Joe Biden announced today his administration would do something about guns, but how that will go is anyone's guess. One thing I find interesting was how many conservatives were throwing fits that the media wasn't covering the South Carolina shooting even though every single one of them included links to the Associated Press' story on it.

 These people are, of course, disingenuous and from the get-go. If you're taking conservatives at their word, you have no one to blame but yourself. In any event, every one of them said the media was "suppressing" the story because it didn't fit their "narrative."

 I never understand this. What's the "narrative" supposed to be and why is the corporate-owned media pushing it? I know conservatives think the media is trying to make everyone cool with LGBT+ and not racist, but that's because they're too dumb to realize these big-time corporate entities ran the numbers and figured out losing bigotted assholes wouldn't cut into the bottom line enough to worry over.

 And if they'd just take it down a notch, they'd had nothing to worry about. The South Carolina shooting was all over the news until the Texas shooting knocked it out. Honestly, I don't think people who complain about the media really have much idea how the media works nor do they want to learn so long as they can complain about something.

 Okay, then. I believe that's all I have this evening. Any of y'all got something you want to see me go off on, let me know. Weird history, mythology, folklore, Fortean phenomenon, serial killers, cowboys, pirates, possible faster-than-light travel drives, and, of course, harmonicas and country music. Especially country music, to be quite honest.