TYWKIWDBI ("Tai-Wiki-Widbee")

Worldwide toilet paper consumption

2026-04-08T22:10:00.003-05:00

I'm not particularly surprised that the U.S. leads the world in this metric, but the numbers are unexpected. Per capita usage of 141 rolls per year would mean 2-3 rolls every week. How many squares are people using???

Zweeeeëg explained

2026-04-08T22:03:00.004-05:00

If I'm going to blog words tonight (in order to avoid you-know-what/you-know-who), we might as well look at this wonderful word meaning "dizygotic." This discussion thread at the etymology subReddit has a lot of interesting and relevant content, including how in Danish one word can mean either dizygotic or double-edged. Followed by a allusion to the two very different meanings of "unionized" (union-ized vs un-ionized) and the two meanings of logistics (vs. logistic).

Words are always fun.

Word for the day: deranged

2026-04-08T21:50:00.004-05:00

It's a word most people recognize and vaguely understand, but I was curious about the etymology.

From French déranger, from Old French desrengier (“throw into disorder”), from des- + rengier (“to put into line”), from reng (“line, row”), from a Germanic source. See rank (noun).

Coming from the French is what left it out of my wheelhouse. But it makes sense - disrupting a rank, creating disorder.

The Google Ngram viewer for usage in books shows several generations of quietude followed by a rise in recent decades. I suspect once the 2025-26 data is entered that there will be an upward spike. If there is an equivalent tool for monitoring usage in blogs and social media, I should think the numbers will have gone parabolic this year.

The synonyms are pretty familiar -

- and the idioms are perhaps more fun to peruse:

Kinetic art

2026-04-08T21:31:00.003-05:00

TYWKWDBI doesn't do any product promotions or have sponsored posts, but I'm going to post this video because the technology behind this Kickstarter project is so cool. I grew up with Etch-A-Sketch, and now it seems toys have evolved to the point where you don't do any of the art yourself - you just watch the gadget do it for you. The video shows people using the table for playing cards, which looks ridiculous. Our cats would love to have one of these.

Lusitano stallion

2026-04-07T22:57:00.005-05:00

One of the winning photos in the 2026 Sony World Photography Awards open competition.

Celestial Dance. Shortlist, Motion. This young Lusitano stallion was allowed to move freely during a photography session, enabling the photographer to capture its powerful and graceful movements.

Credit Lorea Hausheer, via The Atlantic. Posted so I don't end the blogging day with a damn war story at the top of the column.

NASA team during the Artemis launch

2026-04-07T22:57:00.004-05:00

These are the scientists in the Science Evaluation Room, built by NASA specifically for Artemis missions, designed to support lunar science and planetary observations alongside mission operations. Via Newsweek, where the discussion focuses on the composition of the team.

An existential threat to Pacific island micronations

2026-04-07T11:17:00.001-05:00

Yesterday TYWKIWDBI received a comment from reader Jim, who was addressing points relevant to the recent post about international mail disruptions. His focus was on the island nation of Niue, and his point was that mail disruption is only one aspect of a huge threat to Pacific island nations resulting from large increases in the costs of fuel oil.

Amongst the pacific islands, there are big ones with multiple options (standouts are Fiji/Nadi, Tonga/Nuku’alofa, Solomon Islands/Honiara, Samoa/Faleolo, New Caledonia/Noumea, and of course Hawaii being of least concern), then there are the littler ones with maybe one or two airline choices like the Marianas, Marshall Islands, Cook Islands, Palau, Kiribati (which isn’t tiny by population, but was never well-covered logistically), Micronesia, etc….

Then you have the tiny ones that were almost always “too hard basket” jobs. Some were harder than others, occasionally I could get a rate to/from one of these, but I would sometimes have to offer to get a client service to/from a location nearish their target, then advise them to contact charter services to meet up with where I could get them. Examples were Pitcairn (sea only), Nauru, Rapanui/Easter Island, Niue, Tokelau and Tuvalu, and possibly some others I’m forgetting.

If the Middle East nonsense is to continue for a long time, I fear for the food security of many of the inhabitants of the islands, especially those of Kiribati and Nauru, which IIRC, have absolutely nowhere near the ability to feed their local populations without regular food imports. Niue may be in less immediate danger of food insecurity simply by virtue of having much lower population density. If things deteriorate, I foresee humanitarian relief missions to the islands being undertaken by AU+NZ (and perhaps Chile for Rapanui), and (the cynic in me compels me to add) almost certainly China, who for some time have been trying to curry favour amongst the pacific nations, most notably the Solomons of late.

This is perhaps pessimistic of me, but if the situation continues to deteriorate, we may see large scale de-population of some of the less food-secure and economically vulnerable pacific islands, especially those more vulnerable to sea level rises, for whom the writing is somewhat on the wall already. A geopolitical shove added to the already keenly-felt climate-change push might be enough to convince many to head for higher ground, both literally and figuratively.

(boldface added by me for those who speed-read TYWKIWDBI). I totally agree that China is likely to step in. As the U.S. loses its credibility around the world, China is able and willing to step in to be the new world leader.

Here's that link from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, if the one in the embed isn't clickable.

Potential effects of the Trump/Netanyahu war on Iran on world economics

2026-04-07T10:59:00.002-05:00

An extended (8-minute) discussion of current economic and market conditions by Mohamed El-Erian. He makes note of the little-appreciated "side effect" of inflation, which is demand destruction.

The interview was conducted by and posted by Faux News, so I have no control over the freeze-frame image in the embed - but this was the most extended and most current interview I have seen with El-Erian, so I didn't want to pass it up.

It doesn't take long

2026-04-07T10:22:00.004-05:00

From the time I left my house until I got back it was 11 minutes on my phone's stopwatch. A simple ballot and an efficient crew at our neighborhood church polling location.

Addendum:

In Wisconsin’s Supreme Court election, the Democratic-backed candidate sailed to a nearly 20-point landslide victory Tuesday in a battleground Trump carried less than two years ago. Meanwhile, a Georgia Democrat slashed Trump’s margin of victory by two thirds in the state’s reddest district despite losing the election — the most significant overperformance the party has seen across all seven House special elections so far this cycle.

The results in the battleground states — home to key Senate, gubernatorial and House races — are the latest repudiation from voters of Trump and his agenda and flashing warning signs for the GOP heading into November.

Wisconsin in last presidential election:

Results from yesterday's state Supreme Court election:

Res ipsa loquitur.

Childhood punishments become adult goals

2026-04-05T19:10:00.001-05:00

I didn't want to end the bloggin day with all that war crap at the top of the column, so I'll shift gears to this aphorism. Perhaps later I can find a nice photo or such, but right now I need to watch the end of the NCAAW championship game.

Screencaps from Al Jazeera

2026-04-05T18:50:00.002-05:00

Not emphasized on American media are the antiwar protests going on in Israel. There apparently is a lot of opposition to Netanyahu, either because of his principles or out of fear of retaliation, but the people there may have as little control over their leader as we do.

Yemen is situated quite a distance from the Persian Gulf, but in close proximity to the Red Sea and the access to the Suez Canal. This image from last week when the Houthis joined Iran and Hezbollah in sending missiles against Israel, with mixed success.

Also not featured much on American media is the Israeli push into Lebanon in their efforts to lay waste to the southern part of the country to create a "buffer zone" from hostile forces there. This image posted after an Israeli "double-tap" attack - a rocket to a residential neighborhood followed by a second one schedule to arrive when rescuers and journalists were present at the scene.

I think I mentioned in the Facebook excerpts that Iran is responding to destruction of its own universities by counterattacking American-related universities in the Gulf region.

A screencap from April 1 in response to Trump's claim that negotiations were underway. The Iranian counterproposals are diametrically opposite to Trump's 15-point "plan" that any intelligent observer would see they are not compatible.

From April 5 (today), part of the message the Iranian parliament sent to Trump. The phrase in the screencap "because you insist on following Netanyahu's commands" shows how they think the dynamics of the war are set. More of the message to Trump was posted in The Times of Israel: he said "“Your reckless moves are dragging the United States into a living HELL for every single family..." in response to Trump's claim that Iran will be living in Hell.

If any readers here do decide to intermittently monitor Al Jazeera's broadcasts (note they come not from Iran but from the Gulf state of Qatar), you can do so via a link at the World Monitor app, or via their You Tube channel (both are in English). If you do so and happen to view at a time when this young woman is providing analysis -

- I would encourage you to pay special attention to her commentary. I only picked up the closing moments of an interview, and her perception of the power play between Trump and the Iranians is superb. I believe that she is Negar Mortazavi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy based in Washington DC. She has ten years experience covering US/Iran relationships. She is also the host of The Iran Podcast.

Gleanings from Facebook

2026-04-05T17:03:00.004-05:00

I'm sure it's reasonable to assume that the "one million" number is exaggerated, but it's worth remembering that this is a country of 93 million people, whose lives are being systematically ruined by Trump and Netanyahu.

This is "old" war news from more than a week ago, covering the destruction of one very advanced aircraft. I don't remember whether it was the Telegraph coverage or commentary elsewhere that made special note of the position of the damage, which indicated specific targeting of the radar bubble where the hi tech was stored, suggesting (but not proving) that the attack was achieved using "smart" drones or drones guided by precise navigation coordinates, as perhaps could be provided by Russian satellites.

A good map of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, from a different perspective. Kharg Islad would be the little brown dot above the word "force." Note the distance from the actual Strait of Hormuz at the bend. There is a lot of real estate in between. I think the distance is about the same as from Boston, Mass to South Carolina. Found in the New York Times, as part of an informative article (not from Facebook, but it seemed to fit in here on a topical basis).

The image is probably AI-generated, but the sentiment expressed is accurate. Several spokespersons for Iran have expressed on Al Jazeera that Iran's response to American/Israeli aggression would be "proportionate." In other words, now that Israel and America have attacked non-military targets in Iran, Iran feels justified in targeting non-military targets in Gulf States that are supporting the war effort. This includes American university branches in the region, which I understand have been evacuated. And as I write this I think there is a report of a desalination plant having been hit last night.

(BTW, I'm not enjoying posting wartime coverage. I have an interesting article about head lice, and one about the U.S. leading the world in toilet paper consumption and a great Agatha Christie quote and other stuff I'd rather blog, but this war material is important, and I can't just stick my head in the sand and ignore it.)

Grim forecasts for the U.S. economy

2026-04-05T16:32:00.006-05:00

The embed is a screencap from Facebook several days ago, but I've seen a similar forecast during a live discussion on Bloomberg TV. The next Consumer Price Index report is scheduled for this coming Friday, April 10, before the markets open. This will cover the month of March and thus will be the first one to reflect rising oil prices from the U.S./Israel war on Iran.

The second embed is also from before this weekend. The Federal Reserve is in an impossibly terrible position if the anticipated "stagflation" occurs. The investment community has been counting on a decrease in federal funds rates, arguing over one vs. two cuts in the year ahead. More recently they have expected no rate cuts. Now the possibility of a rate increase looms.

Before we started this war, nobody would have imagined the Fed increasing rates. It's probably not priced into the market now, but even the possibility of a rise in the future will have major reverberations on equity prices and bond yields.

"Pentagon Pizza Index" explained

2026-04-05T01:04:00.002-05:00

In the wee hours of the night while doomsurfing for world geopolitical news, I noticed while looking at Euronews a reddish icon near the top that said "DEFCON 2 44%", and when I clicked on it, the pulldown showed a "Pentagon Pizza Index" as the index for the DEFCON rating.

Wikipedia has this to offer:

"The Pentagon pizza theory is the informal observation that spikes in fast food orders, particularly pizza delivery orders, near US government buildings such as The Pentagon, CIA headquarters, and the White House often occur right before a major international crisis...

In 1990, Frank Meeks, a Domino's franchisee in Washington, told the Los Angeles Times about an extraordinary observation of some unusual late-night deliveries to the Pentagon, CIA and the White House. Meeks had noted that on August 1, the CIA had ordered a one-night record of 21 pizzas, and the following day Iraq invaded Kuwait, starting the Gulf War. At first, Meeks thought it was just a coincidence, but he observed a similar surge in deliveries in December 1998 during the impeachment hearings of Bill Clinton...

In a statement to Newsweek in 2025, the Department of Defense denied the theory, claiming that the Pentagon has numerous internal food vendors that are available to late-night workers. It criticized the accuracy of the timeline provided by the Pentagon Pizza Report.

I found the Pentagon Pizza Index homepage. It seems to monitor the number of pizza ordered from various places near the Pentagon, but has no evidence for where they are being delivered. I think the page is run mostly for humor, as evidenced by this graphic:

International mail disruptions

2026-04-04T10:52:00.004-05:00

From the USPS website. None of these are surprising, but it's interesting to note that they are advising people not even to try sending mail now. Imagine how this is rippling through the business communities involved.

(test)

2026-04-04T10:40:00.006-05:00

I'm having trouble trying to tranfer a video from my Facebook page to my blog here on Blogspot. Not sure how to tweak the code - but I can't fix it now because I have plans for midday today.

Also don't know anything about the source for this, but the claims being made do tend to echo what I've heard intermittently on Al Jazeera. There is a war of disinformation going on, and I don't know how this fits in. The video uses the face of George Will, but I'm sure this is generated by AI from a written text because of various glitches in pronunciation. I may erase this by tonight if I don't find other confirmatory evidence.

Years ago, probably during the first Trump presidency, I remember speculating (silently to myself, not here on the blog) whether if Trump were to order a nuclear strike or some other catastrophic order, whether the Joint Chiefs of Staff would tell him "Sir, we need to move you to a secure facility first," and then would take him to a bunker in Washington, lock him in, and announce to the Congress and the American people that they have effected a bloodless coup and ask the country to select a new leader. Trump has removed most of the military brass who disagree with him, but I still wonder whether such a turn of events would be possible. It would result in a total political clusterfuck, but might be better than the alternative.

Chuckleworthy

2026-04-03T23:17:00.004-05:00

Found on Facebook.

"Make a fortune" may be the"truth" after all...

2026-04-03T16:14:00.001-05:00

That from Trump. This from the American public (via Facebook):

Trump really said this. Out loud. In public.

2026-04-01T18:42:00.007-05:00

I found confirmation at The New Republic:

Donald Trump doesn’t think the federal government should fund child care, Medicare, or Medicaid.

At an Easter Lunch reception at the White House Wednesday, the president told guests what exactly he thought about what the U.S. should be prioritizing, and it doesn’t bode well for the government’s most widely used and popular social programs.

“I said to [Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought], ‘Don’t send any money for daycare because the United States can’t take care of daycare.’ That has to be up to a state. We can’t take care of daycare. We’re a big country. We have 50 states. We have all these other people,” Trump said. “We’re fighting wars. We can’t take care of daycare. You got to let a state take care of daycare and they should pay for it, too. They should pay. They’ll have to raise their taxes, but they should pay for it. And we could lower our taxes a little bit to them to make up.”

“It’s not possible for us to take care of daycare, Medicaid, Medicare, all these individual things. They can do it on a state basis. You can’t do it on a federal. We have to take care of one thing: military protection. We have to guard the country. But all these little things, all these little scams that have taken place, all you have to you have to let states take care of them,” Trump continued.

Newspaper clippings

2026-04-01T10:32:00.001-05:00

Gleanings from recent entries at Bad Newspaper - a reliable refuge in a world of geopolitical turmoil.\

Beavers as landscape architects

2026-04-01T10:32:00.000-05:00

There's nothing fundamentally "new" in this video about beavers being reintroduced into Scotland, but the results are impressive.

Related:

A "rescue beaver" starts building dams inside a house (3-minute video)

Trailcam video compilation of one year activity on a beaver dam in northern Minnesota (6-minute video)

More than you would ever need to know about beaver testicles (re medieval bestiaries)

"Lunar Grazing Model" - a celestial bovine containment system

2026-04-01T10:31:00.003-05:00

Posted at NASA's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) website.

Related: Historic footage from the BBC of the Swiss spaghetti harvest (1957):

Whom do you believe?

2026-04-01T10:31:00.002-05:00

While the world jumps with joy and the financial markets soar upward on an announcement from Donald Trump that productive peace talks are underway, this screencap is from Al Jazeera this morning.

Could be empty rhetoric from their side... or perhaps both sides are just reloading their weapons. Commodity traders must be having conniption fits. And people with inside information are making immense profits from this volatility.

"Funeral bread" explained

2026-03-30T22:24:00.004-05:00

Cinnamon bread. Cheez Whiz. Green olives.

These are the sole ingredients of a potluck offering that’s popular in some parts of Minnesota and North Dakota. Some people use breads with a little less flair, like pumpernickel or rye, but the cinnamon version has its die-hard fans, especially in Roseau, Minn...

“When you go to our local grocer — we only have one in town — on the Super One display is fresh baked, in-house cinnamon swirl bread with a pyramid of Cheez Whiz displayed next to it,” said Sinnamon Krings, Roseau promotions director. “To someone not from here you might wonder why but to a local it’s as common as peanut butter and jelly.”

Those who love the combination are often nostalgic about it and remember eating it as a kid after church services or funerals. In some circles, it’s called “funeral bread.”..

The company debuted Cheez Whiz in 1952, first in Britain, where Kraft marketed it as an easy way to make the sauce for Welsh rarebit. When the product landed on U.S. supermarket shelves the next year, Kraft already had the perfect way to introduce it to shoppers — on the company-sponsored television program Kraft TV Theatre... On Sept. 8, Sasser wrote that during that week’s program, Kraft TV Theatre demonstrated a recipe that is very close to funeral bread: Melba toast spread with Cheez Whiz and topped with sliced olives. Could this be the dish’s origin?

This may have been a standard sandwich in northwestern Minnesota, but not where I grew up in the southern part of the state. The closest sandwich to this that I can remember eating regularly from the 1950s used cream cheese and olives (not Cheez Whiz), and we ate it on puffy white slices of Wonder Bread, not cinnamon toast.

But this "funeral bread" looks yummy I'll give it a try.

Image credit Erica Pearson via the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Horrific and incredible tweet by Trump

2026-03-30T09:37:00.002-05:00

I am so very very very tired of posting war-related matters on TYWKIWDBI, but this turn of events cannot go unmentioned. The embeds above are copypasted from Facebook.

The tweet by Trump is real and accurate. I saw it displayed this morning on Bloomberg television's "Opening Bell" segment, accompanied by an excerpt of a video of Trump being interviewed on a plane in which he says talks with Iran are going "very well" but they are difficult because after we talk with people "we negotiate with them but then we have to keep blowing them up." (!!!)

The response by Alt National Park Service is to my knowledge correct. These threats by Trump may be just "jawboning" and empty rhetoric, similar to the Iranian boasts that they would incinerate America "boots on the ground." It is my understanding that since taking office, Trump has replaced the top brass i the Joint Chiefs of Staff with men who are more hawkish, but I believe seasoned warriors would be hesitant to implement war plans that are internationally-recognized war crimes.

The stock market opened up this morning in response to weekend claims that "talks are underway," perhaps referring to third-party talks hosted by Pakistan. I took this morning's upward move as an opportunity to add to my bearish positions.