Before gagging, yewwwwwwing, and getting all dyspeptic on me, that's a cake over there. You want the real thing, I can hook you up, but that's a cake. There are dozens of recipes out there for Litter Box Cake, it's apparently big around Halloween. Boo. I'm a little queasy myself.Got that annual flu shot a few weeks ago. Painless enough. Last week, early on in the morning, the chills woke me, followed by an ache from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. A flash of fever followed. Reaction to the flu shot? I really don't know. Some "experts" say any reaction you might experience would not be that reaction.
The Swine Flu. Didn't we go through this thirty years ago? Seems I remember lining up at a firehouse in Taylor to take that thump from a pneumatic inoculation gun so I didn't get Swine Flu. And, I didn't get it. Who did? Some joked it was no big whoop. I think that mass inoculations, free at that, prevented an outbreak that was feared by many as the coming of a great plague, literally.
We have something for everyone. Why do businesses insist on telling me that there's nothing they don't have? No one has everything. The closest I've ever come to seeing a place that had something for everyone was Sugerman's. Even their bulging inventory didn't halt them from skidding into the big book of history.
Marcellus Shale is one hell of a seductress. If some gas company came around and started writing me astounding checks to poke holes in my property, it would be really tough to say no. Many will get wealthy beyond imagining, going from near poverty level to millionaires overnight, really overnight. We need to slam the brakes on this thing until legislation is in place to strictly regulate the process. Last week a string of Halliburton drilling rigs blew past me on I-81 north. Does anyone believe these corporate monsters will leave us better than they found us? Please, someone, anyone, do what needs to be done; place a moratorium on all drilling until we can feel safe in knowing that we aren't getting drilled along with the Marcellus Shale.
Jay Leno would do himself a favor in knowing when it's time to leave. It sure can't be the money or the benefits, so it has to be either an enormous ego in need of feeding or an equally insatiable appetite to keep working and working and working. I've mentioned elsewhere that I really loved Leno as a stand-up, then really disliked him as a late night host. Both he and NBC are trying too hard, and it shows. NBC has brought us some of the best, while bringing us some of the worst. Would someone please tell Amy Pohler that she's not funny? Her pal Tina Fey can be very funny. I don't think "funny by association" works.
SNL's Turnaround on President Obama. Their flip from pro to anti was more about pumping life back into that sad shell of a show than biting commentary on the president. The president is not above criticism. SNL is no longer funny, and far worse yet, its relevance is trace at best. My qualifications to critique the show may be a little thin. I don't watch it much these days, it's that bad.
President Obama's Nobel Prize. Shortly after news came from Stockholm that our president had been awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, his detractors began dissing not only him, but the Nobel Prize itself, some going so far to say, "...a Nobel Prize isn't what it used to be." You do realize of course, that most making all the noise have no "prizes" of their own, they haven't even a little teeny tiny plastic loving cup around the house marking even the smallest of achievements. Again, the president isn't above criticism. However, bitterness and resentment over the accomplishment of others is pretty damned small-minded.
The Letterman Affair. Affair, fling, dalliance, casual sex, whatever it was, it sure sounds like little more than a physical tangle between two consenting adults. Now, of course, the "talkers" are all out there trying to make a ton more of this thing than it deserves. Letterman cheated on his wife. To state the ridiculously obvious, that is unacceptable, wrong, despicable. Now all the vultures and parasites are circling and slithering in hopes that this situation "has legs," meaning that there is enough bubbling beneath the surface here to keep it going for months, years. My prediction? No legs. Vultures and parasites go elsewhere. Most Americans are very fond of David Letterman, that's an opinion that will not change.
I love newspapers and read at least three a day. That, I guess, is the good news. The even better news is that I actually hold all three in my hands and read them...but only Monday - Friday. Weekends, I read two of the three on-line. On-line is where I have a problem, and not with any news stories themselves, but rather with the ability offered by these papers to leave comments regarding any particular story. Read the story, then read the comments. The line gets very blurry as to where fact ends and opinion begins.
A chance of showers doesn't mean "Run for your lives!" Weather people really need to work on that. It would be the responsible thing to do. I spent twenty years yammering about the weather, and daily, hourly, fought to bring correct and precise information to the public in whose service I was. A shower is just that, a shower. It's not an all day soaking rain. I've understood the implications from both sides of the camera. While I'm making a speech here, rain is not evil. Rain is a bringer of life.
A Brief Trip on The Misinformation Superhighway. This past week we had ourselves a situation. Seems a dog got itself stranded on Scovell Island in the Susquehanna River. Scovell is one huge land mass in the shadow of Campbell's Ledge, an environment unto itself no more than a stone's throw from a busy neighborhood. By the time the dog was back with its owner, the stories circulating ranged from the silly to the absurd. Fingers of blame predictably started to look for a target at which to point, and there was no such thing. The dog got away from someone who was dog-sitting. The dog ran. The dog is skittish, a little nervous. Some dogs are, some dogs aren't. When a passer-by spotted the dog and tried be a Good Samaritan and grab it, the dog jumped in the river and swam over to the island. Most dogs swim quite well. There was no neglect, abandonment, or animal cruelty involved. I know. We had a Humane Police Officer on scene. There is far more to be gained in animal welfare with a level head, rather than with raw emotion.
We didn't get the Olympics. What shall we make of Chicago's failed bid to bring the games here? I can tell you what I make of it; America isn't the only country in the world. We may be the biggest and the best (at least we think so) but we are neither the center of the universe nor the capital of the planet. America, and Americans, can't have everything they want. When we don't get what we want, we whimper and, just as with the doggie-deal, we start looking for targets of blame.
