Every time fam visits, I once again realize how unusual it is for me to sit in a room and have so much in common with people in it. I was surprised last night that my family visitors seemed to understand why I liked some of the videos I embedded in yesterday’s post. Daughter Sarah commented on yesterday blog and I couldn’t quite tell what she thought of Chandelier and Beyoncé. But I think the people last night might have been slightly bemused to find me, the family curmudgeon, showing them a Beyoncé video.  I know they liked the Chandelier video.

So my brother, Mark; his wife, Leigh: their kids Ben and Emily; and their respective partners, Tony and Jeremy are all visiting for one night. Eileen, Mark and Leigh went over to say hi to Mom after they arrived. The rest of the group arrived later in the evening. I skipped the Mom visit in order not to spread my illness from which I am gradually recovering. It looks like Mom may be released from her care facility back to her assisted care place tomorrow. No one asked, but I guess it’s assumed we are her ride home. That should work fine.

Last Saturday a friend of mine ended up in ER in an induced coma in hypothermia. Apparently he suffered some kind of a cardiac event and was rushed there. His dad has been posting updates on Facebooger. His name is Ken Thevenet and is a working church musician in Louisiana.

I knew him in grad school as a sweetheart of a guy who worked his ass off to be a good musician. I hope he pulls through and am following the updates.

In North Dakota, a Tale of Oil, Corruption and Death – NYTimes.com

This report is amazing. The embedded video and story work together nicely to form a top rate piece of new journalism.

In Ferguson by Darryl Pinckney | The New York Review of Books

Another good piece. On the ground in Ferguson the night the grand jury announced it was not going to indict. Vivid and eye opening.