NOTEFLIX Quiz: See if you can relate the picture (below) to any of this week’s posting. Clues: 1) The creature on the left could be an alien, or an immigrant. 2) Our cast members are stuffed animals – they neither eat, nor have any money. If you cannot make sense of the photo, it does not mean you are wrong. There is no right or wrong.
NEWS AND THEN SOME:
- I READ: If you took a 14th Century European off the fields and brought him to the U.S. today and gave him 2 hours of training, he could do the typical job available. But how much would we have to pay him?
- I ALSO READ: The average American citizen does not have enough money in the bank required to pay a smuggler the fee that would get him from El Salvador to the Mexican/U.S border. How can the people who get smuggled to our border afford the trip?
- I FEAR: If aliens were to arrive from another planet, our first and dominant thought would be “What do they taste like?” Tell me I’m wrong.
- BOOKS I HAVE BEEN READING Tell me the only successful ways to have addressed inequality have been: #1) WAR #2) REVOLUTION #3) PLAGUE and #4) COLLAPSE.. But we are hoping to try a new 5th way: #5) TAX INCREASES and CLOSING LOOPHOLES. Unfortunately, a lot of the Powers That Be are willing to deal with options #1) – #4) rather than consider option #5)…We will see how this plays out.
- IF CORPORATIONS ARE PEOPLE TOO, why can’t people get the same benefits as the corporations do? Like tax breaks? …And keeping ourselves safe from personal lawsuits? …And things like that? But if we can make corporations people too, why not make whales and bears and other critters people too? …and protect everything.
- A NOTE (dated 2016): Says “A Digital Student with access to a 3D printer, straightened out his teeth…” (Somehow)… “for the cost of $60″…thus showing the typical dentistry charges for such are unnecessarily high. What happened to that student? How come this story has not gotten more traction?
- SCIENTIFIC PHOTOGRAPHIC PICTURES suggesting the Big Bang theory of the beginning of the Universe remind me of the paintings of Joan Miro… I prefer the version of the beginning of things as done by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. As for the truth to the matter, I hope neither are correct.
NOTES FROM ABROAD:
- Sitting in the cafe in the Piazza where I write this blog, I have overheard: The Local Italians like the Dutch; but they have noticed that the Dutch tend to look at their receipts longer than tourists from other countries. The Americans, though few in number this year, never look at their receipts. …I also hear the Italians cannot understand why so many Americans resist wearing masks and getting vaccinated. Those unmasked and unvaccinated types would not be allowed to go anywhere over here. The Italians are beginning to wonder about us.
- Below is a picture of our Saturday Market…sort of an outdoor version of a “Big Box” store back in the U.S. of A.
A few words from MATHUZALA, our guest rodent Columnist:
MATHUZALA SPEAKS:
- “What would the world look like if you did not see the affects of man? Viewed, today, from down on the ground it is quite a dismal picture. A lot of trees are gone. Asphalt all over the place. Rivers and lakes dried up. From 60,000 feet up in the atmosphere it looks pretty much the same…except you get a really good view of the pollution. But from 100 miles out in Space you would not see much of what man has done. So, it is all a matter of perspective. WE, however, are on ground level and would appreciate the help of humans to correct the picture of things down here.
If you want to know more about where MATHUZALA and his minions are headed, go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and buy “THE RAT PAPERS” and get a different Point of View.
A few quotes:
- No one party can fool all of the people all of the time; that’s why we have two parties. -Bob Hope
- Golf is a game that needlessly prolongs the lives of some of our most useless citizens. -Bob Hope, again
- “I like to be in America!/ OK by me in America!/ Ev’rything free in America/ For a small fee in America” – S. Sondheim, “West Side Story”
- “The trouble with Melting Pots is those at the bottom get burned and the scum rises to the top.” -William Buckley.
