Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

A news source reported that TikTok influencers have taken up pasta salads. I remember a generation or two ago when cold pasta, veggies, and cheese were the rage. They were a novelty, something different. But no matter how many I sampled, they all were, in what is not too much of an exaggeration, an abomination to good taste. Perhaps they are better now. Or perhaps a new generation will eventually learn what I did decades ago.

One of the best things many people could do for their descendants would be to sharply limit the number of them.

A wise person said, “People who boast of their ancestors confess that they belong to a family that is better dead than alive.”

The hottest new parlor game. Everyone gets a slip of paper and a pencil. Everyone secretly makes up a name for a new drug. (In an advanced version, the letter “X” cannot be used.) The slips are folded and tossed into a bowl. Each participant draws out a slip and then makes up a disease the new drug treats. Both the name of the drug and the disease are scored by all.

“Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” Mark Twain.

Has Donald Trump ever blushed?

Down the road, but I am glad to say 250 miles down the road, a manhunt was on for a man who escaped from jail. A news report said that the escapee was a “self-taught survivalist.” Are there community colleges or technical colleges or other institutions that teach survivalism?

I was convinced that the spouse’s hearing was slipping. I stood ten feet behind her and whispered, “Honey, can you hear me?” Nothing. A few steps closer, I repeated, “Dear, can you hear me?” Again nothing. I went right behind her and whispered in her ear, “Honey, can you hear me?” With irritation, she snapped, “For the third time, yes!”

I have learned how to have the last word with the spouse. I say, “Yes, dear.”

I didn’t know what to eat for breakfast, but luckily my canary flew into the electric fan. I had shredded tweet.

I asked my doctor if I really needed to give up wine, women, and song. No, he said. Sing as much as you like.

My friend was teaching his son right from left. When Harold picked up the dropped car keys, he asked, “Luther, what hand did I use?” The confident reply; “The left.” With an exasperated tone: “Luther, you know better than that. It was my right hand.” With an even more exasperated tone: “Dad, I know my right hand from my left. Why do I need to know yours?”

“I have never been hurt by anything I didn’t say.” Calvin Coolidge.

“There is often a sin of omission as well as of commission.” Marcus Aurelius.

Posted on by rjonakait

Snippets

I watched a few minutes of a TV travel show about the Alps. It showed street performers in a touristy town. There was yodeling. That evening while getting ready for bed, an NPR segment featured yodeling. I had heard yodeling twice in a day when I had not heard that art form for a long time. I used to hear it more because a lot of country singers once yodeled, and I thought that even my favorite of the singing cowboys, Roy Rogers, occasionally yodeled. The next day I went to YouTube and was pleased to find that some of my memories were still correct and that Roy Rogers did indeed yodel. (It does not seem right just to call him Rogers, but it would be ok to just say Roy.) That, as is my wont with YouTube, led me to other clips, and I heard more yodelers. I realized that during each of these yodeling encounters, I smiled while listening to the minute or two of the distinctive vocalizations. A whole hour of yodeling might be bad for mental health, but a few minutes can make you feel more lighthearted. Perhaps in these troubled times we all ought to take a break each day to listen to some yodeling.

I dreamt I was in a land where there was too much coffee. It was a fantasy.

Jonathan Alter reports in His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, A Life (2020) that after Jimmy Carter said that he would tell no lies as president, a reporter asked his mother Lillian Carter whether the Carters ever lied. Miss Lillian said that the family had told white lies. When asked for an example of a white lie, she said, “Remember how when you walked in here, I told you how sweet and pretty you were?”

Old joke: She said that she wanted to confess the sin of vanity because she always thought about how beautiful she was when she looked in the mirror. The priest replied, “My child that is not a sin. That is a mistake.”

“How hollow and insincere it sounds when someone says, ‘I am determined to be perfectly straightforward with you.’ The thing needs no prologue; it will declare itself.” Marcus Aurelius.

I was at first surprised that the Wisconsin Congressman on Fox News was not wearing a U.S. flag pin. Instead, on his lapel was a Green Bay Packers symbol. You might not think that he has his priorities right, but for a Wisconsin politician he does.

A reminder to everybody: This year I continue to be awards-eligible.

New York City pedestrians violate the traffic laws less than they did a generation ago. I was used to walkers coming to an intersection with the light against them and looking for a break in traffic in order to scamper across before they got the green. Now if people can’t cross when they get to the corner, they look not at the traffic but down and read, scroll, or text on their smartphones. They don’t look for an opening in the cars and trucks and often don’t even notice that the light has changed.