The Invasion Seems Unstoppable. (You are looking at: Episode #3 of a binge-watch photo series “Troubles In The Garden” – Produced by NOTESFLIX. To catch up, see the last two posts, this site)
THE BAD NEWS: (THE GOOD NEWS COMES IN ANOTHER POSTING)
- PHTHLATES: This word is hard to say out loud, without emitting spittle – so watch it. It refers to a plasticizing agent which adds to the plasticity of plastics – makes them more rubbery, long lasting and worse. They are in our food, packaging, plastic food preparation gloves; then in our poultry, milk, food labels, stickers on apples, floor tiles, waxes, paints…and now in our urine, breasts, the oceans and God only knows where else. I read the average American swallows about a credit card sized amount of them a year. I have not found out how much of that card we excrete…or exactly where that excretion goes…and I do not want to know. I feel my card has expired; but I still carry it around.I share this information with you in the hopes that I will feel better for having done so. I wonder if anybody out there can do something about the PHTHLATES situation. If so, please do. We need a break – as I have given up hope on the BLACK HOLE thing. (See last posting)
- RIDEZILLAS: Does everyone know this term but me? I just learned this word exists and that it refers to those passengers in Uber who behave badly during their rides – and are rated accordingly. 5 is perfect behavior – anything below 4.5 is to be ashamed about; and are to be called a “RIDEZILLA” If you did not know this before, now you do.
MORE ON THE BAD SIDE: BUT NOT BELOW 4.5BAD
- HUMAN ERROR: Is this term a redundancy? For many years now, I have read this term in reference to when something has gone wrong, i.e., airplane dropping out of the sky, food poisonings, bombs going off by accident – those sorts of things have been attributed to HUMAN ERROR My question is: Is I wonder if there any other kind of error?
- GODWIN’S LAW: (This is a good one.) If an online argument goes on long enough, somebody will invoke Hitler and the conversation ends – because rational discussion has ceased. I have been a party to some of those conversations, I must admit.
- MAESTRO RECHARGEABLE SYSTEM: This is a new device, a pacemaker-like implant, that sends electrical pulses along your vagus nerve, from your stomach to your the brain, that will tell you: “Don’t eat that!” Approved by your FDA. What could possibly go wrong? HUMAN ERROR? (Obesity is a 147 Billion dollar industry – lot’s of opportunities to make a buck here.) Soon, many of us will be wired up and then some hacker kid in a garage in Poland will tell our Vagus nerve to do something we don’t want to do – like eat raw PHTHLATES or erupt with RIDEZILLA behavior in the back of cars, or mention You Know who in casual conversation.
The more I live – and I plan on continuing to do more of it – the more I realize just because we can do something – does not mean we should do that thing. In that spirit, I am signing a paper today which states even if I’m judged obese or in Extremis: “Do not fool with my Vagus nerve”.
Today, as I sign off, for some reason, I wonder about History and how it repeats itself in disguised ways. To wit: over 70 years ago, Sir Winston Churchill said of Charles Beresford …”He is one of those orators of whom it was well said ‘Before they get up they do not know what they are going to say; when they are speaking, they do not know what they are saying; and when they sit down, they do not know what they have said.’ ” I guess the truth is: even if we know our history, we are compelled to revisit it.
Best, (-cem)
