A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irritate your conscience.
William Sydney Porter
All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
A story with a moral appended is like the bill of a mosquito. It bores you, and then injects a stinging drop to irritate your conscience.
William Sydney Porter
I guess I don’t know for sure what most people think nowadays but from my vantage point it seems clear that the world is going insane. And it seems to be accelerating. Crazy things happen almost constantly and no one even bats an eye at them anymore. At the same time, it feels like some people (Trump and his administration) are trying to course correct. To give an analogy, it’s as if a pilotless airliner at twenty thousand feet was flying straight toward the ground and finally a pilot takes the controls and is trying desperately to pull the plane out of the nose dive while the rest of the crew tries to stop him. It’s like a madhouse where the lunatics are running the asylum. So how does all of this end up?
I’ve got to be honest, I’m not very hopeful. I think we have a chance but so many things have to go right for us to survive this that it seems much more likely that we’ll come up short. The main problem seems to be that people nowadays just don’t seem very bright. They believe things that are just obviously not true. Take this transgender thing. The whole millennial generation were completely alright with going along with the idea that drugging and mutilating children was the appropriate healthcare for a childhood delusion that they allowed mentally unbalanced teachers to indoctrinate their kids into. How in the name of all that’s rational can this be possible? And yet this is just one of a host of crazy ideas that have taken hold across the country. Defund the Police was another really stupid idea. Open Borders was also a suicidal policy that was put into effect even though it went against federal laws. None of these ideas make any sense and all of them were allowed to happen because apparently people are too stupid, scared or evil to stop them.
And so, I have to say if there are that many Americans who are unconnected from reality it doesn’t seem likely that we can avoid a major societal catastrophe. Near the top of the list is a major war. I guess that means a nuclear exchange. I don’t really believe that the “nuclear winter” that has been used to try and scare everyone will finish off over five billion people. But I do know that a full nuclear exchange will devastate this country horrifically. We might lose thirty percent of the population in the first few days. And the disruption to the food supply chain might kill another thirty percent.
And war is not the only disaster to consider. The geniuses in Washington who had China mutating bat viruses into bioweapons screwed us up pretty well with a cold virus. The idea that these same psychopaths might try something with Ebola or small pox has to give one pause. And there are endless other scenarios that could wreck our civilization pretty thoroughly. So that’s kind of why I’m not very bullish on our future.
But at the same time, I have all my chips bet on us getting through. And those chips are my kids and grandkids. I haven’t gathered up the clan and flown off to some tropical island with only dolphins and manta rays for neighbors. The United States, for better or worse, is the last best hope of humanity. This is our last stand. We have to make this work somehow. I give Trump full marks for trying. He could buy that island and take his family there and wait out the apocalypse. But he’s not going down without a fight. Every day he tries to pull us out of this nose dive and every day the lunatics try to pull him away from the controls.
One thing’s for sure; it’s compelling drama.
A burglar who respects his art always takes his time before taking anything else.
William Sydney Porter
Trump says he wants the drug companies to release all their COVID vaccine data.
“It is very important that the Drug Companies justify the success of their various Covid Drugs. Many people think they are a miracle that saved Millions of lives. Others disagree! With CDC being ripped apart over this question, I want the answer, and I want it NOW. I have been shown information from Pfizer, and others, that is extraordinary, but they never seem to show those results to the public. Why not??? They go off to the next “hunt” and let everyone rip themselves apart, including Bobby Kennedy Jr. and CDC, trying to figure out the success or failure of the Drug Companies Covid work. They show me GREAT numbers and results, but they don’t seem to be showing them to many others. I want them to show them NOW, to CDC and the public, and clear up this MESS, one way or the other!!! I hope OPERATION WARP SPEED was as “BRILLIANT” as many say it was. If not, we all want to know about it, and why??? Thank you for your attention to this very important matter! President DJT”
So, of course this is “Trump Talk” so you have to parse it into normal English but it seems like he is saying he wants all the info released and that is within the purview of the FDA to demand so shouldn’t RFK Jr. have that authority already? Well, let’s see how this pans out. I’d love to know the honest ruth about the safety and efficacy of the COVID vaccines. I’m sure millions would too.
So, the great retreat has begun. On Friday the pool guys showed up and closed it down for the season. Of course there was some drama. I had asked the guy in charge to tell his crew to patch three liner holes that had developed above the water line. He warned me that one of them boded ill and meant I might soon need to install a new liner at a cost of gazillions of dollars. I told him okay, but have them patch the holes anyway. So of course, he didn’t tell them and so they had to go back to get more glue or something.
And Camera Girl’s house plants needed to come back inside soon. So, I moved them into one of the decks in advance of dragging them up to the top floor. This may sound trivial but some of these things are taller than me, awkwardly shaped for the stairs, covered with huge needle-sharp spines and incredibly heavy. So, it’s always a ticklish chore. One day I assume it will be the cause of my death. What I should do is set up a temporary pulley system on the top balcony and let mechanical advantage do the heavy lifting. But I’m too lazy to design it. Maybe next year.
I also have a bunch of plants that I need to transplant outside. Then it will be time to stow away all of the outdoor furniture and begin the winter-proofing of the exposed wood. To be honest, I’ve never done a decent job of this but I’ve sworn a horrible oath to do it this year. And then I have to winterize the lawn mowers.
And finally, the biggest chore I have to shore up about eighteen posts on the pool fence. I’ve got a few kits and I’ll buy the rest but it will be a load off my mind to have that damn thing completely reinforced. There are also two gates that need some work but those can wait. A gate’s not much use if the fence around it is on the ground.
So, there’s plenty to do and things will be getting busy at work soon, so I’ll be stressed and agitated while I try to publish and market my brand-new book. But that’s what life is all about; conflicting priorities and humans choosing priorities. It’s what separates us from the Neanderthals and Denisovans. We choose wisely.
I have a feeling I’ll be self-publishing the book. I watched a video where the guy said that most trad-published books get an advance of only about $5,000 – $10,000 and since the publisher doesn’t market your book for you most of the work (other than putting a cover on it) still has to be done by the author. Well, if I’ve got to drum up the buyers myself, I might as well keep 70% of the profits instead of 10%. And that way I have the discretion to use deceptive sales tactics like increasing and decreasing the sale price whenever it suits my devious and even diabolical plans.
Well, I need to start making a Gantt Chart of this publishing and marketing process. It sounds complicated and annoying. So right up my alley. I wonder if Donald Trump has any time available in his schedule to market my book. After all, I’ve been of invaluable help to him in his campaigns. But how quickly people forget.
The magi, as you know, were wise men — wonderfully wise men — who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.
William Sydney Porter
Bradbury understood summer to a boy.
“And then, quite suddenly, summer was over.
He knew it first when walking downtown. Tom grabbed his arm and pointed gasping, at the dimestore window. They stood there unable to move because of the things from another world displayed so neatly, so innocently, so frighteningly, there.
“Pencils, Doug, ten thousand pencils!”
“Oh, my gosh!”
“Nickel tablets, dime tablets, notebooks, erasers, water colors, rulers, compasses, a hundred thousand of them!”
“Don’t look. Maybe it’s just a mirage.”
“No,” moaned Tom in despair. “School. School straight on ahead! Why, why do dime stores show things like that in windows before summer’s even over! Ruin half the vacation!”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
“June dawns, July noons, August evenings over, finished, done, and gone forever with only the sense of it all left here in his head. Now, a whole autumn, a white winter, a cool and greening spring to figure sums and totals of summer past. And if he should forget, the dandelion wine stood in the cellar, numbered huge for each and every day. He would go there often, stare straight into the sun until he could stare no more, then close his eyes and consider the burned spots, the fleeting scars left dancing on his warm eyelids; arranging, rearranging each fire and reflection until the pattern was clear…
So thinking, he slept.
And, sleeping, put an end to Summer, 1928.”
― Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine
The yearly ritual continues.