As a result of Hurricane Irma, a Florida nursing home lost power to its cooling system, and eight of the home’s residents died. A few days later, Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced a new rule that nursing homes and assisted-living facilities must have generators to maintain reasonable temperatures for four days if power fails. Apparently at least some of the time, a conservative like Scott, feels that governmental regulation is a good thing, even if the regulation imposes a cost on private industry. Now, Governor Scott, can we talk about global warming?

Often when a football player injures one leg, people from the sideline help him to stand up, and the player then puts his arm around one of those helpers and the player limps off. The helping person is often, not surprisingly, much smaller than the player, and the player often can’t put much weight on the helper, and the two often have trouble syncing their walk. Instead, the teams ought to keep canes on the sidelines. The player would be able to get off the field better with a cane than with his arm around another. But I guess the cane would undercut the image of manly youthfulness, or is it youthful manliness?

A tall, young man sat down next to me on the subway. He was cradling a basketball with large letters inked onto it. I asked, “Are you any good?” When he got over his surprise that someone was speaking to him, he stated, “I’m ok.” “Are you being modest?” After a pause, “Yes, I am being humble. I play professionally.” He went on to say that he had played in Colombia, Europe, and next year in Toronto. I asked if he still had the hope of playing in the U.S., and he said, “The dream is still alive, but if I don’t make it, I am earning a good living now and enjoying life.”

On a different subway ride, the man next to me home was reading Tropic of Cancer.  I wanted to say something to him, but I couldn’t figure what.

Liberals have gotten one rhetorical label correct when they called them “Dreamers.”

Remember when President Trump was standing during the national anthem was his arms at his sides, and Melania whispered in his ear apparently saying that he should put his hand over his heart, which he then did?

Yet another doomsday, end-of-the world prediction has circulated recently. How many such predictions have been made in the last century or two?  In your lifetime? How many of them have been accurate?

Reading Al Franken’s latest book, Giant of the Senate, I realized that it was better being a satirist before becoming a politician than being a joke after being elected.

She saw the brace on my left wrist and asked if I had had carpal tunnel surgery. I said that it was just a sprain, but I thought that she had asked was nice. Until she went on at length about her carpal tunnel surgery. (But now I am going to have carpal tunnel surgery on my right wrist. Would you like to hear about in some detail?)