Rain, Rain, Rain.
Rest in peace, Robin Williams.
01. Super Reader
A 9-year-old won the Taneytown Library reading contest by reading 488 books in 70 days. That's an average of 7 per day. Good for her! A new Pew Research Center poll found that 23% of adults did not read a single book in 2013!
02. Beloved item is resurrected by Burger King
Burger King announced that it is bringing back its famous "chicken fries" (breaded and fried chicken strips). These gourmet delights were discontinued in 2012. Now, they become a challenge to McDonald's $2 jalapeno double burger. (I can't wait... I mean.. I can't wait.)
03. Speaking of Gourmet Food..
Professor Mohamed Esa, of McDaniel College, mentioned an African proverb that his friend, Ira Zepp, used to cite: "If you never travel, you think that your mother is the best and only cook."
Doctor Esa has a position in the German Society where I am a member. I'll be writing a bit about that group in the future.
04. *Lawsuit
Mitch Edelman talks about the Republican lawsuit against President Obama in his column today. He notes, as I have mentioned, that the case should be immediately dismissed because of a lack of "standing" by the suers (sewers?) Mitch is an excellent writer and the ideas he puts forth in his columns are very clear and easy to understand.
05. Traffic Fatality
The young man who ran a red light and crashed into another car, causing a death, will not face jail time, because fatalities resulting from traffic violations apparently do not require that punishment. Hearing protests about the decision, the judge mentioned that the driver at fault will have to think about what he has done for the rest of his life, and that is a punishment. The driver remarked that he was sorry and that he has had "some" sleepless nights over the event.
Someone I knew was intoxicated when he drove into and killed a man and his pregnant wife. I was very unforgiving about this for many years until I realized the agony that he went through every day, thinking about what he had done. What about soldiers who kill in war? What about the pilot of the Enola Gay?
06. More of Maher
In his interview with Jon Wiener (The Nation), Bill Maher was asked:
JW: "You've had Jimmy Carter on your show a couple of times. You are a big Jimmy Carter fan, why?"
BM: "He's the one President who never fired a shot in a war. This is where America should be. And Jimmy Carter was the last president to talk to the people like an adult and tell them they have to sacrifice to get us off the oil. Ever since then, it's been downhill."
07. Pretty Kitty
Consumer Reports says: For just $19,000, you could buy a necklace for your favorite feline. It's 18K gold, with 15 1/2 carats of precious gems, and it's offered in the Fancy Cat Catalog, of Irvine, California. You could also buy a matched cat-and-owner pair of necklaces for $49,000.
08. *Guns again
There is a gun death in America every 17 minutes.
The Progressive Populist mentions that Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said, in 1972, that he could find "no reason why all pistols should not be barred to everyone except the police."
Such a statement would anger distinguished legal scholars like Glenn Beck and Ted Nugent. You remember Ted Nugent , he used to be an entertainer and NRA backer, who called President Obama "a subhuman mongrel" and asked him to "suck on my machine gun." (Unbelievable!)
Justice Douglas was probably right when he argued that handguns should be manufactured only for soldiers and policemen. The problem of 100 million guns already in circulation? Just keep civilians from buying any ammunition for these weapons and time will take care of the problem. (Elaine has been saying this for years.)
09. How Geezers can get into Shape
Someone has come up with another study on the benefits of exercise .. and I like the results of this study. It says that just 5 minutes of running each day could reduce your chances of premature death. So.. all of you old timers, get your ass off of that couch and put those running shoes on!
10. Selfies
Fast Company.Com for July/Auguest 2014 talks about this new thing that is "all the rage" now. "People have taken photos of themselves since the dawn of the camera (and painted self-portraits since the dawn of time), but once we started calling them "selfies", the act was imbued with a magical newness.. and for brands, a bottomless potential for user-generated, social-media-fueled marketing. Kids take and share photos of themselves; surely they'll do it with brands in the frame too!"
And so it has come to pass... a glorious time for advertisers, because it is free.
11. A Doughnut on Mars?
Back in February 2014, NASA space scientists noted the sudden appearance of a rock shaped like a jelly doughnut on the surface of Mars. Largely white, with a dark red depression in the center .. it generated two theories:
1. The rock was displaced by a nearby meteorite impact, or
2. It was kicked up and turned over by the Mars rover Opportunity's wheels.
Com on, guys.. don't try to fool us. Or if it's not you guys, then it's those tricky Russian hackers who are messing with our picture feed from Mars.
12. Humor!
The book HA! by Mr. Weems says: "Skilled joke-tellers realize that what's being communicated isn't just a joke but a message about the relationship between teller and receiver. The receiver contributes to the humor just as much as the teller does." (And let that be a lesson for you.)
No comments:
Post a Comment