Chris Williams
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gaffa.bsky.social
Chris Williams
@gaffa.bsky.social
530 followers 210 following 4.3K posts
Husband of Vickie
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gaffa.bsky.social
Seeing Thomas Dolby tonight!

Staying safe with my @flomask.bsky.social respirator equipped with a @sipmask.bsky.social port so I can have a drink.
Weird old balding guy wearing a high quality respirator, sipping a hard cider.
November 29, 2025 at 1:15 AM
gaffa.bsky.social
Here's what his Marketing professor at the Wharton School of Business said about him:

www.phillymag.com/news/2019/09...
It’s rare for a professor to disparage the intelligence of a student, but according to attorney Frank DiPrima, who was close friends with professor William T. Kelley for 47 years, the prof made an exception for Donald Trump, at least in private. “He must have told me that 100 times over the course of 30 years,” says DiPrima, who has been practicing law since 1963 and has served as in-house counsel for entities including the Federal Trade Commission and Playboy Enterprises. “I remember the inflection of his voice when he said it: ‘Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had!’” He would say that [Trump] came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything, that he was arrogant and he wasn’t there to learn.” Kelley, who passed away in 2011 at age 94, taught marketing at Wharton for 31 years, retiring in 1982.
November 28, 2025 at 2:21 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
John Candy from Plane Trains and Automobiles reading a Beeline book titled The Canadian Mounted.
November 28, 2025 at 2:11 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
Kate Bush - Before the Dawn

Todd Rundgren - Todd/Healing

The Bulgarian Voices at St John of Rigla

Jane Siberry & Friends - A Choral Christmas

And most importantly, a free private concert as a last wish for my late wife, who was dying of cancer, by Happy Rhodes.
Singer-songwriter Happy Rhodes on stage at Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City Missouri, performing a concert as a last wish for my late wife, Vickie Mapes Williams, Happy's biggest fan. She refused to take any money, or even expenses, and would not let us sell tickets.
November 28, 2025 at 2:32 AM
gaffa.bsky.social
If you have to fly, please wear a respirator. The worst air on the plane is while on the tarmac, and during takeoff and landing.

I wear a @flomask.bsky.social which I have modified with a @sipmask.bsky.social port to drink.
Weird looking old bald-headed guy wearing a high quality respirator and sipping from a clear plastic cup through a straw.
November 26, 2025 at 3:10 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
This, a hundred times!

This is my late wife's '95 Toyota Corolla, a perfectly respectable sedan of it's time, surrounded by monstrous rolling midlife crises. And yeah, the stupid headlights blinded us everywhere she drove.
Mid-90s Toyota Corolla, surrounded on all sides by gigantic lifted pickup trucks. The roof line of the Toyota doesn't even come up to the bottom of the window of the trucks and SUVs. Reasonable little car pretty much hidden between the huge pickup trucks. Yet another view of a 95 Toyota Corolla surrounded on each side by a gigantic lifted pickup truck.
November 26, 2025 at 7:18 AM
gaffa.bsky.social
Did these people forget that Mark Kelly has an identical twin who is *also* a badass?
Identical twins Mark and Scott Kelly. Both are wearing blue jackets and blue jeans.
November 25, 2025 at 4:02 AM
gaffa.bsky.social
The air quality on the bus I'm on in Kansas City. Which is why I'm wearing my @flomask.bsky.social
Carbon dioxide meter reading 1373 ppm. Weird looking old bald-headed guy wearing a high quality respirator, black T-shirt and black coat.
November 25, 2025 at 1:36 AM
gaffa.bsky.social
From the article on "chosen plain text attack" in cryptography:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chosen-...
Also during World War II, Allied codebreakers at Bletchley Park would sometimes ask the Royal Air Force to lay mines at a position that didn't have any abbreviations or alternatives in the German naval system's grid reference. The hope was that the Germans, seeing the mines, would use an Enigma machine to encrypt a warning message about the mines and an "all clear" message after they were removed, giving the allies enough information about the message to break the German naval Enigma. This process of planting a known-plaintext was called gardening.[5] Allied codebreakers also helped craft messages sent by double agent Juan Pujol García, whose encrypted radio reports were received in Madrid, manually decrypted, and then re-encrypted with an Enigma machine for transmission to Berlin.[6] This helped the codebreakers decrypt the code used on the second leg, having supplied the original text.[7]
November 24, 2025 at 10:45 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
Ozma appeared at the end of Walter Murch's Return To Oz.
Ozma of Oz. A blonde girl wearing a diadem and a very fancy green dress, holding a wand.
November 24, 2025 at 10:30 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
Large Language Models remind me of the fictional software tool "Reason" from "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams.

In it, a character named Gordon Way writes a piece of software:
Gordon’s great insight was to design a program which allowed you to specify in advance what decision you wished it to reach, and only then to give it all the facts. The program’s task, which it was able to accomplish with consummate ease, was simply to construct a plausible series of logical-sounding steps to connect the premises with the conclusion. ‘And I have to say that it worked brilliantly. Gordon was able to buy himself a Porsche almost immediately despite being completely broke and a hopeless driver. Even his bank manager was unable to find fault with his reasoning. Even when Gordon wrote it off three weeks later.’ ‘Heavens. And did the program sell very well?’ ‘No. We never sold a single copy.’ ‘You astonish me. It sounds like a real winner to me.’ ‘It was,’ said Richard hesitantly. ‘The entire project was bought up, lock, stock and barrel, by the Pentagon. The deal put WayForward on a very sound financial foundation.
November 23, 2025 at 11:06 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
I asked Google's Gemini AI whether a particular McDonald's Monopoly piece was rare.

There are only two pieces in this particular color.

It got it 100% wrong.

Wikipedia got it 100% right.
Screenshot of Google's Gemini AI: Yes, Park Place is a very rare McDonald's Monopoly piece, especially in the US where it must be combined with Boardwalk to win the top prize. In the US, the odds of collecting the winning combination are approximately 1 in 5.9 billion, making it one of the rarest pieces. US vs. UK: In the UK, the equivalent piece is called Park Lane and is used in combination with Mayfair to win the top prize. Just Jared notes that the top prize is for Park Lane and Mayfair in the UK, while eBay UK also mentions the Park Lane and Mayfair combination for the UK. Park Place is the name in the US version of the game. Rarity: Park Place's rarity is due to its place in the highest-value set of properties, making it a crucial piece to win a major prize. Top Prize: Collecting the winning combination of Park Place and Boardwalk is required to win the top prize, such as a motorhome. Odds: The odds of winning the top prize are extremely low, estimated at around 1 in 5.9 billion for the US version of the game. Wikipedia getting it exactly right.
November 23, 2025 at 10:09 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
I don't understand people who hate and fear cities. Vickie managed to see a movie in the theater nearly every night. Her record was 662 films in the theater one year. And she managed to meet so many actors and directors at Chicago screenings.

Here's her with Elizabeth Olsen at a screening.
My late wife Vickie Mapes Williams with actress Elizabeth Olsen. Vicky is wearing a dark top and she has gray hair. Elizabeth is on the right, wearing a print sweater, and she has blonde hair.
November 23, 2025 at 5:36 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
My late wife and I lived in Chicago for 37 years, without ever owning a car. Lived in Albany Park, a short walk from the Brown line, and half a block from a 24-hour bus line. We'd go out and see movies & live music constantly.

Miss it (and her) so much.
Me and my late wife Vickie Mapes Williams.
November 23, 2025 at 4:26 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
Classic XKCD cartoon with two stick figures talking, one wearing a hat. Hat guy says "See, it's good to get infected, because it gives you immunity." Other guy says "Why would I want immunity?" Hat guy replies "To protect you from getting inf… …wait."
November 22, 2025 at 12:26 AM
gaffa.bsky.social
I'm 65 and lost friends to AIDS. That earlier pandemic taught me the phrase "viral load" and the importance of keeping one's exposure to a minimal level.

Use my @flomask.bsky.social + Azelestine nasal spray + BLIS K12 lozenges and I haven't had a symptomatic case of covid, cold or flu since 2020.
Me out seeing live music, and staying safe at the same time. Flomask and a Sipmask port.
November 22, 2025 at 12:22 AM
gaffa.bsky.social
I'm a huge fan of @flomask.bsky.social

They got me and my late wife through 16 months of fighting stage 4 small cell lung cancer without either of us ever having a symptomatic case of covid.

When I had to acknowledge she was never coming home, I gave her mask to my favorite of her nurses.
Me and my late wife Vickie Mapes Williams in the lobby of the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Center. Vickie receiving chemotherapy infusion. Vickie lying in a hospital bed, I'm leaning over touching my forehead to hers. Nurse in scrubs with dark hair glasses and a high quality respirator.
November 21, 2025 at 2:54 AM
gaffa.bsky.social
"For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mentioned the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that's moses, not jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. "Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!" Kurt Vonnegut
November 20, 2025 at 11:08 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
Especially when you're just holding them in front of your face like a Kleenex!

Even the most expensive one is cheap compared to losing work hours and health.

I'm able to do a 45 minute #bodypump workout while wearing my @flomask.bsky.social

Here's me and my instructor after the workout.
An old, desperately unfit sweaty balding guy, wearing glasses, a black T-shirt and a high quality respirator, and a fit young woman wearing a black tank top with the words CrossFit printed on it, dark brown hair and a wireless headset.
November 20, 2025 at 10:45 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
Whenever I think of Fox "News" viewers, I think of this quote from Carl Sagan's book "The Demon-Haunted World":
"one of the saddest lessons of history is this: if we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back." -Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
November 20, 2025 at 5:14 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
It's not cheap to start with, but it's much less expensive over the long run as the filters stay clean because they don't touch your skin.

Their N95 is 3X easier to breathe through than most N95s, and their N99 is as easy as most N95s. And it's incredibly comfortable.
Me and my late wife Vickie Mapes Williams at a doctor's office for a checkup. She is wearing a black T-shirt and a maroon hat with black trim. I'm wearing a gray print t-shirt. We are both wearing high quality respirators.
November 19, 2025 at 11:12 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
Here's the carbon dioxide level at the Dolby Cinema auditorium at my local AMC. This is honestly better air quality than most hospitals I've visited.
Carbon dioxide meter, showing a concentration of 895 ppm.
November 19, 2025 at 11:08 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
I'm lucky. I am a large man who my late beloved wife of 41 years described to strangers as "scary looking".

So nobody gives me any crap about my respirator when I'm riding the bus.

I haven't had a cold or flu, let alone a symptomatic case of covid, since 2020.

@flomask.bsky.social
Old balding guy wearing a gray print t-shirt, and a high quality respirator.
November 19, 2025 at 7:47 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
Yeah, the vertical seam on the front of the mask makes it obvious this is a pocketable, fold-flat KN95.

Much respect to the artist who designed this!

It's not my preference, but it's inexpensive and effective.
A KN95 style White respirator with ear loops.
November 19, 2025 at 3:41 PM
gaffa.bsky.social
I just saw the new trailer for Project Hail Mary, and I'm sitting here in tears. I can't express how much I wish my late wife of 41 years was still alive to see this film.
Me and my late wife Vickie Mapes Williams aboard a train on a last wish tour around the country. I'm wearing a black T-shirt and glasses and a knitted hat, she is wearing a maroon shirt, a black jacket, a dark green plaid scarf, and the most amazing knitted hat I've ever seen.
November 19, 2025 at 2:34 AM