Message from NOTEFLIX’s production’ of “Troubles in the Garden”: Enjoy yourself. enjoy yourself – It’s later than you think…”
WORDS DU JOUR:
- BILLIONAIRES: What are BILLIONAIRES investing in? Who are they marrying, or divorcing? Are they flying into space? And why? And what should they be doing with their money? Are they paying any taxes? Do they pay no taxes because they are smarter than everybody else who is not a BILLIONAIRE? – except for the millionaires who also pay no taxes? Why do they seem to give money only to ‘the other’ political party? Why are some of the people who are not BILLIONAIRES – why are they even in ‘the other’ political party? Is the former President a BILLIONAIRE? (or does he just pay taxes like one?) Are BILLIONAIRES happy? Will they live longer? What do they eat? …Are they the new Royalty? I liked it better when our Movie Stars were our Royalty.
- “WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT, ANYWAY?” I was in a conversation where we were talking about the condition of the earth – with this Climate Change business. Our consensus was “It’s too late”. We sat there, at the cafe, and sighed, shrugged our shoulders and collectively said “What can you do?” Somebody at the table suggested “Enjoy life while you can.” And we agreed, and took in some more caffeine. Me? I keep thinking about “What is going to happen?” since “It’s Too Late” to do anything about “IT”. I guess the waters are going to rise and change our coastlines, and it’s going to be hotter than blazes, and masses of people will migrate all over the place and at the same time rivers and lakes will run dry and ‘Things’ will get really rough and life will not be as refined for some as it is today. I have not figured out what to do about all this. If you have any suggestions – please write me asap. I have taken in as much caffeine as I can hold.
- VACCINES: I have been reading a lot of articles about the subject of voting procedures for the next election – and how complicated it is becoming. ID’s, registrations, hours of polling places, etc. I have an idea to cut through all of this: In order to vote in person, you have to submit proof of vaccination against Covid. (So you keep the chances of your harming the next person in line to a minimum.) If you have no proof of vaccination, you can still vote by absentee ballot. Of course, the problem with this is that the ‘Non-vaccinated’ mostly belong to the party that want to restrict the voting of certain members of the other party in the first place. I wonder if anybody has taken a count on the percentages of how many from each party have been vaccinated and how many have died from not being vaccinated – and if any of those numbers will have an actual influence on the voting count. These are grisly thoughts, for grisly times. We have entered an era of Unknown Unknowns, but it is not too late to do anything about it.
- DOME: There is a heat DOME over much of the U.S. I like the word DOME. It is very descriptive. We do not use it enough. We have a Disinformation DOME over the U.S. (what with QAnon, et al) We have an Idiocy DOME hovering over Congress. But then I repeat myself.
- ANIMAL REELS: I have taken to spending a lot of time looking at ‘ANIMAL REELS’ on my Instagram & Facebook, etc., and find I enjoy watching cats play with dogs, chickens riding on puppies backs, baby tigers cuddling with lambs… What I am learning, I think, from all this is: If we all have enough to eat, we tend to behave.
(photo by Irina)
NOTES FROM ABROAD: I have been living in Tuscany for over a year and a half and have noticed a few things:
- Tourists, in general, look exactly like immigrants. The difference between them is: Tourists tend to have money. Other than that, it is hard to tell one from the other.
- English, American English is the ‘Default’ language used by foreigners over here who do not speak Italian. I have asked several Nordic & Germanic types how they learned our language and the answer usually includes having watched American films on Netflix, Amazon and the like. Funny, I have watched a lot of the same shows and all I’ve learned is: We have often sent the wrong people to jail, we have serial killers out there, our spy agency has the best hit-men and women in the world – and women, properly trained can beat up men; but my English has not improved at all.
- When I left the States I was drinking de-caf., because ‘Regular’ was giving me the shakes (aka ‘jits’). I drink espressos over here and do not have the ‘jits’. “How can that be?” I asked, and learned from my Barista that …”The amount of caffeine in your coffee is directly proportional to how much time the water spends over the grind. The espresso, though strong in flavor, hardly spends any time over the grind.” See what you can learn when you travel outside the comfort of where you have always lived?
And now a few words from Mathuzala, our Guest Columnist:
MATHUZALA SPEAKS:
- “Your having to make money is a common experience among you, but not necessarily a bonding one. You are fighting each other over scraps. Life will be simpler when we rid your world of money altogether…and you will not even have to try to understand this Bitcoin and Crypto-currency business.
If you want to understand more about what MATHUZALA and his crew are up to, go to: Amazon or Barnes & Noble and buy “THE RAT PAPERS” (While you still have the money to do it with.)
A quote, or two:
- “The rich are different from us, aren’t they?” – F. Scott Fitzgerald to Ernest Hemingway
- “Yes. They have more money than we do.” -Ernest Hemingway, responding to Fitzgerald
- “You work and work for years and years, your’e always on the go/ you never take a minute off, too busy making’ dough/someday, you say, you’ll have your fun, when you’re a millionaire/ imagine all the fun you’ll have in your old rocking’ chair” – Guy Lombardo…and Doris Day 1950 …”It’s Later Than you Think”
Goodbye for now …and ‘Hello’ to Tiger, wherever you are…
