For Every Seven Days That Pass, A Week is Gone

I've been gone for a couple of weeks, mourning that I now feel older than I did three weeks ago, and my list of questions just keeps getting longer. As we've aged, many of my friends and I talk about how quickly time passes and how little sense it makes. The thing is, time passes one day at a time. So how we fill any specific day is the only thing that determines whether time passing is a good or bad thing. I hope that the things which make us happy are short term memories and not only things from our distant past. And remember to question everything-most of what we see is not what it seems. So, here goes....

1. There is a commercial for my favorite retailer to bitch about in which the hawker has tables of delicious summer fruits, all sliced for a group of "man on the street" taste tests. At the end he reveals to these unsuspecting taste testers that all the produce comes from WalMart. There is one customer who registers great surprise on his face. BEFORE THE HAWKER FINISHES SAYING HIS PIECE! One of the rules I was taught as a young drama student doing plays was, "Never answer the phone before it rings."

2. A friend needed to borrow some syrup recently. When she came to get it, I had an unopened bottle of dark corn syrup that I was going to offer her. As we stood talking, I noticed that the bottle has a disclaimer on it that says, "No high fructose corn syrup." I still can't wrap my head around that one. Corn syrup contains no high fructose corn syrup? Somebody help me-this makes my head hurt.

3. Many people are asking why we no longer talk to each other, but use texting and social media for all of our conversations. Has anyone else observed the reason for that? I've made a couple of actual calls on my mobile phone this week, once in the car and once in a public place, and it is almost impossible to hear on it. My hearing is not bad, so it's not being old and "deef" as some in the south call it. You just can't hear on these things. So text me if you really want to talk. Or send me a tweet or FB message. Because your call is very important to me. :-) I want to savor every word.

4. There is a television program on about lawyers. While that's nothing new, this particular one, called "Suits" is particularly bad. In that it takes every single negative stereotype about lawyers and multiplies them exponentially. Ugly stereotypes about lawyers are not new. Many years ago I read a book of Celtic folk tales, and one of those even made fun of the low morals and questionable honesty of barristers, so this is not new. But "Suits" takes it to such an extreme that I keep asking, why hasn't some lawyer sued?

5. This is not really a question, but a form of journaling a great fear of mine. All my shrinks have said that if one does not journal, it's hard to get feelings under control, and fear is one of the feelings I want to control more than any other...well, except regret. Anyway, historians, pundits, philosophers and analysts tell us that there are cycles in the story of human civilizations. There will be a moderate cycle, that leads to a libertine cycle, and then back to a very conservative cycle. We are probably in the moderate cycle right now, but moving toward the libertine, and I'm afraid. You see, I remember the 80s. I remember the Reagan years. In fact, I voted for Ronald Reagan for president. Please, stifle your gasps, my liberal friends. I was misguided, but found the light, during those self-same days. During the Reagan administration I began to see that "trickle down economics" don't, and the explosion of homelessness made me very sad in that terrible decade. Then let's think about the belligerence of the administration, and its secrecy. But these are not the source of my fear. My fear is going back to that horrible conservatism as a backlash to the current popularity of...TWERKING!!!! For any who don't know, twerking is a dance move, not terribly new, but becoming ubiquitous, with excessively sexual movements, holding most of the body motionless, bent at the knee, legs apart, quickly, repeatedly moving the hips back and forward. (I didn't do that description justice, I'm sure.)  Now there are YouTube videos showing many people twerking their dogs...this has got to stop. Kids, you don't want to take us back to the 80s, do you? My dad already complains that the dancing on "Dancing With the Stars" is too overtly sexual. If he ever sees twerking I hope Mom has a home defibrillator handy. Please, young people, can we stop this before it's too late?

Demagogue Is Not a Verb

This has been a busy summer in every area of interest to me. Politics, music, my family life, religion, food...all of these things leading to question after question. So, if anyone has answers, I'm open. If not, well, I'm used to it.

1. There are so many things we can hate politicians for, and what they are trying to do to our education system is one of them. But could we PLEASE get over the fact that governors and presidents and congress people send their children to private schools? Can you IMAGINE how disruptive it would be for the children of state or national leaders to be in public schools? Really, let this one go. Focus on the other crap they are doing to us daily.

2. I love dill pickles. Recently I had one of those giant ones you can buy at the convenience store in the single serving plastic wrap full of pickle juice. Also being a long-time label reader, I made the mistake of turning the package around and reading this one. Did you know it does not contain one shred of dill? It also says on the nutritional information that it contains NO FIBER! Are pickles not simply cucumbers "pickled in brine?" Since when do vegetables not contain fiber?

3. Why does anyone mow in the dead of summer? During a severe drought no less? It's hard work that often leads to health problems for the out-of-shape. The machines most people use contribute a great many nasty emissions, and watering the grass just to keep it green in summer uses a great deal of a precious resource that we will one day not have enough of that is usable for the consumption of our exploding population. So, if we get rain, be happy, your grass will be green. If we don't, you save the air, water, reduce medical costs-everybody wins!

4. When did small business owners become millionaires and billionaires? I keep hearing the republicans talk about increasing taxes on millionaires and billionaires is raising taxes on "small businesses and job creators." What is the connection? The billionaires are the owners of really big businesses, and do not seem to be the target of any suggested new tax rates.

5. Speaking of the possibility of new tax rates; I think the top tax rate is either 35 or 39%. But you know what, it doesn't matter what the tax rate is if there are so many loopholes and the richest people and largest corporations pay none or very little.

6. This all brings up another question: The right keeps talking about how we have the "highest corporate tax rate in the world." So-which of these other countries would our republican brethren like to imitate? If the US is the best country ever made, and our people are the best and brightest, most fabulous people anywhere, which country would they like us to be like? Do they realize that most of those other countries also have completely different priorities for how their tax revenues are spent-some even including (HORRORS, GASP) health care for everyone? So-France? How about France? Italy? Germany? Pick one, Speaker Boehner. But remember, there is always a package that goes with such things, and if you don't like the package, don't try to imitate one little piece.

7. Do the anti-government right-wingers realize that people who hate the government and wish to dismantle it are called "anarchists?" Anarchists used to be considered left wing. Does anyone but me see the irony in that? Anarchy in the USA!! Brought to you by Sarah Palin.

8. Who are the people who have been unemployed for over two years? Are they from any particular sector of jobs? If it is the over-fifty crowd, infrastructure jobs might not really help. But we need to rebuild our infrastructure, no question. We need high-speed rail nationwide. We need to reorganize our cities to accommodate mass transit. But I am deeply concerned about the middle aged workers who have been unemployed for so long. Where can they go? I'm not sure that building highways and filling pot holes in roads are jobs that they can do.

9. What is the evolutionary purpose of women's attraction to shiny objects and adorning ourselves? It seems that every woman I know is drawn to jewelry and shoes. On the one hand, I can see that the adornment thing may be in order to attract a mate. But I don't know many men who say they ever notice a woman's shoes. But some women I know who never, ever wear makeup still love shoes. And if attracting a mate is the reason for attaching shiny objects to our ears, fingers, wrists and necks, why do middle-aged women still have this desire? We aren't looking for mates. We may just be hoping the ones we have don't last much longer. We can't reproduce anymore, so how does this characteristic help us pass on our genes?

10. Who is the governor of Alaska now?

11. When they were young, what did Pat Sajak and Vanna White want to be. Surely not the hosts of a stupid game show for the rest of their lives.

12. I watch Morning Joe most every morning. It is often just background noise while I get ready for work. But do the producers really think no one notices when they re-run first hour? They do it regularly, and I'm not sure why.

13. I'm a big fan of the Harry Potter series. I've read every book, and seen every movie. I've semi-followed the growing up of the three main stars. Last week I saw a story about Emma Watson, who has played Hermione since she was ten-years old. She came to the US to attend Brown University for a time, but it didn't work out. Anyway, the story last week said that Ms. Watson is going to study "abroad." At Cambridge. She's a Brit-how is Cambridge "abroad" for her?

14. Lastly for now, I have a question about the whole Rupert Murdoch British press tabloid scandal. The stories have to do with the management of these papers being invited to all the best parties, hobnobbing with politicians and the wealthy and famous. They then used these relationships to make big, splashy, ugly headlines. Well, hoodathunk? I've said for years that it makes me uncomfortable to see American journalists invited to these parties with the Washington elite-or any elite. But it continues. So why should anyone be surprised that the integrity of the press might be compromised by inside access?