NOTEFLIX’s story line to “Troubles In The Garden”: Our hero, The Multicolored Bluebird of Happiness is still lost, and is now in the Woods of Fallen Trees. He comes across a pre-historic reptile and asks him the way out. The old turtle says “Go Slow.” This advice does not seem to be enough for our hero.
IT IS ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU WONDER
- THE SCIENTIFIC CABAL: I have been hearing a lot about this lately – and I wonder how I can join in. Who do you contact? Do you have to pay to get in? Or do they pay you? Me? I’ve never been good at scientific practices or studies – but I still like the idea of science a lot.
- OVERTOURISM: This has been reported many times this year. Venice, even Venice Beach, Florence, Barcelona, towns in Germany you have never heard of, San Francisco, The National Gallery of Art, Mount Everest,…too many people ebbing and flowing all over the place…too many people getting off cruise ships, buying hats, t-shirts and banners….The locals are getting crowded out. It seems when people leave home, some of them go crazy out there and frequently get drunk, disorderly, sexually promiscuous and throw their trash all over the place. There were 19 million tourists in the Netherlands this past year. It does not take a big percentage of those tourists to wreck havoc in Utrecht. “Good for business,”they say. Whose business? And the tourism wave is mounting – despite the threats of world wide economic slow-down. The trick is to go where nobody wants to go – but there is probably somebody already there.
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND…
- I read the piece of Uranium that destroyed Hiroshima was the size of a pea – and we have a piece now that is the size of an NBA basketball. No wonder people are not reading the news anymore. I read we spend more money on our military than does the rest of the world put together – but some argue we only spend more than the rest of the industrialized world. Either way, why do we spend anything at all when we have that Uranium basketball thing?
- I Read 30% of Millennials do not follow the news regularly and 20% do not follow the news even once a week. The forecast is: The news is not profitable…and nobody will know anything.
- I read only 1/3rd of Americans can identify the three branches of our Government.
- You can fix your phone so it will ring when your favorite team is losing.
- Last month we increased spending on rec-vees, eating out, gas & electricity – and we dipped into savings to meet expenses.
- The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population and we have 25% of the world’s prisoners. We beat China and Russia in this category in per cents and raw numbers. I suppose the question will be asked: Do other countries have enough prisoners? Are they doing their share?
- There is a study that shows the wife’s personality effects how much money the husband makes. Me? I want to get paid to do the study to see whether the husband’s personality has an effect on his wife’s income.
- Youth crime is down – murder, sexual assault, car theft, etc. The usage of Ritalin and psychotic drugs are way up for our youth – these help reduce aggression, mischief, and risk taking. Electronic games are in high favor – they help pass the time.
- 18% of us cannot resist texting while driving. 18% of us are Climate Change Deniers”. 18% of us do not believe we went to the moon. Are these the same 18% in each case, or what? Can they buy guns? Do they vote? What is it with 18% ?
- Here are some questions asked of park Rangers last year: “How much does a cave weigh?” “What time do moose come out for photos?” “What is the fastest way out of here?” “How far is Vegas from here?”
It is difficult to keep up nowadays. There is so much coming in, day after day. But then if you do keep up, it could ruin your day. And today might be the last day of your life and you should spend it in joyous gratitude, hugging a tree or marveling at a butterfly – but first you need to check out what is the latest headline….aaagh…and then maybe you should take a vacation and bother somebody else’s town. It is very complicated. No?
If any of the above makes you nervous about the soundness of the American voter, or whether you want the vote count to be up or down – reflect upon H.L. Mencken’s famous utterance: “In American Democracy the voter gets what he wants – Good and Hard.”
Or as Senator Hightower has said,”The water won’t clear until we get the hogs out of the creek.” And you have to know the hogs are in the creek, before you can get them out – so stop it with thinking about taking that vacation and becoming a tourist.
Later,
