Update on NOTEFLIX’s production of “Troubles in the Garden”. While we are on filming break during the Lockdown, some of our critters are taking a class on Phrenology – in hopes to understand the strange, and often, inhuman ways of the Humans. Here, they are staring at one of those little squares on the forehead which might explain it all. And then again, the science may be just so much bunk. (Come back next week for more action.)
Below, you will find topics you might not have considered over the past few days; things being what they were.)
Thunder & Lightning Round:
- The AMYGDALA: I read we humans have developed a part of the brain we did not use to have: The AMYGDALA. After you wade through some difficult material about Cortexs, the Hypothalamus and the Periaqueductal gray – you find the Amygdala is an almond shaped organ in the brain which modulates, among other things, Rage, and is where the feature of Empathy resides. The AMYGDALA is sort of the Central Station for our brains – and helps keep our memories, wants, emotions and desires in balance. It is believed if a person’s AMYGDALA is damaged or weakened, he usually develops: “an argumentativeness, a loss of social graces, a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others including lawbreaking, deceit, aggressiveness…and being prone to violence.” It is said if you were to dissect the brain’s AMYGDALA of a man with these behaviors – you would find you were looking at a sickened and non-functioning organ. Just saying.
- CONFOUNDERS: (a word I had not seen before) It means: “Factors that can lead to mistaken assumptions about causes.” There are a lot of CONFOUNDERS confounding the situation down on the ground these days. I think people who intentionally CONFOUND should have their AMYGDALAE looked at.
- THEORIES: This is a ‘refresher’ paragraph – and if you know about THEORIES you can go straight to the next bullet. A theory is …”a hypothesis that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment and is propounded or accepted as accounting for the known facts.” I bring this up because there are a lot of statements floating around claiming THEORY status. (i.e., ‘Pizza-gate’, ‘The President is sent to us by God’, ‘Satanic Pedophiles are eating children’, etc. These are the handiwork of CONFOUNDERS in action….and they are not THEORIES – they are preposterous statements – devoid of reason.
- Apparently, the Long Neck Titanasaurus was born ready to hit the ground running, right out of the egg – on day one. I wonder what was wrong with that plan? Why could not the Divine Creator have built that feature in us? I know it is uppity to ask such a question; but geez…I’ve been around for decades and I’m still learning how to hit the ground running.
- Here is another one: I read grizzlies have a low reproductive rate – almost as low as humans. When I was a child there were only two billion people on earth and now there are over seven billion of us. So, either something is wrong with our numbers, or maybe there are more grizzlies out there than we know about.
- I read that the Russians have a Flat Tax of 15%. The Commies!
- A note of mine from 2009 says a lot of people are paying bills with Credit Cards. And here is a current note which says we are using Credit Cards to pay bills more now than ever. The typical rate of interest is over 17%. Something is not working – even though the ‘Market’ is at all time highs.
- Speaking of the ‘Market’, I have a good investment idea. You know what a ‘Basket’ is in the Market? (A bunch of stocks virtually gathered together and you bet on whether that bunch will go up or down in price.) Well, here is the idea: We make a real basket of stocks the U.S. Congressmen/Congresswomen have bought after meetings they hold in closed session. I think we should concentrate on stocks of companies which are located in their home districts. We could make a bundle – so much money I’d be happy to pay more than 15% in taxes.
- I have another money making idea: You know how when you are feverishly searching the news on your phone – and you cannot read the whole article you want to read because you have not subscribed to the magazine for a year? Well, what ‘they’ should do is offer you the chance to read the whole thing for 50 cents. You’d pay 50 cents for an article which had a gripper of a headline. The News Industry is missing out on a lot of coins, but they will catch up on this after they read this posting. The important people will be the ones who write the lead-in headlines, even more important than the writers of the articles, because they will direct you to what you read. We hope the Headline Writers of the future will not be CONFOUNDERS.
- So, you work hard, you behave, you get a good credit score – and then you die. Shouldn’t your credit score be in your Obituary? Or on your grave-stone? It seems like it is one of the most important identifiers in your life. What if you died and your score was 878? Don’t you think people should know about that?
- Speaking of death, a few years ago I was afraid we were going to entertain ourselves to death. There are a gazillion shows on TV, NETFLIX, HULU, you name it…shows, shows, shows. But here is the good news: They seem to have made every decent Movie and Series that there is to make. Have you noticed you can search for hours and find nothing? (You cannot trust the Tomatoes and Per-Cents anymore.) You have seen all the good stuff. Now you can go back and catch up on your reading.
- A second to last thought: Keplar has found 1,284 Exoplanets and some people are wondering if there is life out there on one of those Exos. Me? I wonder if there are critters out there who have souls? And If they were born ready to hit the ground running on day one? Or if they have a God and if their God had a child on one of those planets?
- My final thought is in the form of questions: (…Especially to the younger generations) Will you ride the Hyper-Loop from San Francisco to L.A. in 1/2 hour? Will you sit in a car as it drives you from NYC to Washington D.C.? Will you clap your hands to turn on and off the lights? Will you take a trip to Mars? Will you tell your phone to feed the dog? …and Vacuum the living room? Will you like all that? Will you take a walk in the woods?
And now a few words from our guest Columnist, MATHUZALA
MATHUZALA SPEAKS:
- The garbage of the rich is no better than the garbage of the poor.
- You are not alone, but some of the others who are with you are not on your side. We rats are all on the same side. That gives us strength.
- We rats suffer from heat. You humans are making this world hotter. You are not on our side. All of you are not on our side – except for the Chumpers. We are growing in strength.
We apologize for today’s ramblings from our friend. As you may know MATHUZALA has been the subject of many laboratory experiments and sometimes his meds are not quite right. However, if you want to know more about MATHUZALA and the Chumpers and their efforts to correct the ways of the world, please go to Amazon, go to “THE RAT PAPERS” and buy the book.
A few quotes:
- “…Bad times, they pass with the wind.” Jessi Colter, Singer/songwriter…second line to song mentioned in title to this post.
- “Never Give up: and never, under any circumstances, no matter what – face the facts.” -Ruth Gordon, adviser
Update on the TEDDIE AWARD CEREMONY: As you know there has been a recount on the votes for who gets which awards this year. As far as we can tell, here is the situation as of this posting: Our Hero, The Multicolored Bluebird of Happiness and his true love, Mamzelle Pinkie are the far and away favorites to take “Leading Couple”. Miz Scarlet, ( To Mamzelle Pinkie’s right) is the odds on bet to take “Best Supporting Actress”. Ezmiralda, (Lower right corner) the Hairy Pig Qween of the Land of Stuffed Animals, is up for nothing – but she showed up for the photo, anyway. Big Sis (Next to Teddy in the upper back) is coming on strong as “Best Crowd Pleaser” – to everyone’s surprise. Bork, the Angry Purple Slug, should not be in the picture – he just wormed his way in. Perhaps in a week or two, all this hoo-ha will be over and we can return to the business at hand.
