Update on NOTEFLIX’s production of “Troubles in the Garden”: This is a picture of Mordimur – a member of our cast, who looks pretty stupid – and lives up to his image. Oddly, Mordimur considers himself a bit of a Math whiz and upon occasion takes the younger and more impressionable members of our cast aside to teach them what he thinks he knows about numbers and other things. …Which is nil; even though he says he knows more than the real teachers do. All this is to say Mordimur is being put forward, by Dark Forces, to replace Ezmiralda, the rightful Hairy Pig Qween of the Land of Stuffed Animals, as the new Leader. A Leader who knows nothing, yet considers himself smart, could be a dangerous thing. Come back next week for more action.
—————————————————————-
A LITTLE BIT OF THIS AND THAT FROM MY READINGS:
- THE MATH: I read the mathematical probability for a meltdown of both shutdown systems in a nuclear plant is once in every 17,000 years. (Like the system they had in Fukushima)..but the Mathematicians did not add the possibility of an earthquake into their calculations. I wonder what the mathematical chances are that something could go wrong at that Nuclear plant in Ukraine; the one where the Russians are occasionally lobbing artillery shells in the vicinity. I do not want to do the math.
- THE CLOCK: I read the Doomsday Clock is showing it is 100 seconds to midnight. It has been there for over a year. I suggest we move it to Mountain Time and give us a few hours breather. No one else has come up with a better idea, so do not laugh.
- THE TRAVEL: I read this past summer some people paid $250,000 to take a submersible tour of the Titanic. I searched it out and found if you did your homework you could have booked a tour for only $155,000… but you had to commit. I’m not sure that would give you a window seat; but still…Also, I learned even though International Space Station is closer to Earth than San Francisco is to Los Angeles, it would cost you about $50,000,000 to take the trip. Granted, you’d have to stay up there for 30 days, so maybe it is worth it if you divide the cost by the number of days. I have not been caught up on what the food pairings are up there. Both the departure lounges at the Titanic Tours and the Space Station Tours are not as hectic as what you see at the large airports. So there is that.
- THE OXFORD COMMA has been making the news lately. There are many Schools, Magazines, and Newspapers which are considering dropping this COMMA altogether. Definition: “A comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’”. (e.g. “There are many Schools, Magazines, and Newspapers which are considering dropping this COMMA altogether.”) I am stridently against the dropping of this COMMA, despite my many readers having commented on this blog sometimes being over-punctuated. But one must have one’s standards. You may think dropping a COMMA is not a big thing; but it is a slippery slope. Next thing you know people will want to drop the subject of Slavery, and Sex, and all sorts of embarrassing things. Oops there goes another OXFORD COMMA.
- IMMIGRATION, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND THE PRESIDENT:) You get up in the morning, you find there are immigration problems and you can do nothing about them. You then find Climate Change is still out of control – and you can do less about that than you can about immigration. And then you see the last President of the U.S. might not be indicted for anything and he may even become the next President of the U.S. and you can do nothing about that. And then you get an email from American Airlines that your window seat on the flight to Tampa Saint Pete is confirmed. Life can have its good moments. (Test your reading skills to see if you have an IQ.: See if you can find the OXFORD COMMA in this paragraph.)
And now a few words from MATHUZALA our Resident Rodent Guest Columnist:
- Even we rats have had a bad leader, or two. We admit that. One worst case was Mose. Mose and his communications expert: Err. They were an embarrassment to say the least. But soon after Mose & Err took power – and they refused to give it up – we came to our senses and quickly, and forever, removed them from their high places and made sure they will never be of disservice again. You humans should take a lesson from our play-book.
“THE PLAYBOOK”
Should you want to know how to get rid of bad political operatives – and more, go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and buy (the non) Best Seller “THE RAT PAPERS” Buy it now; so the author does not have to celebrate his fame posthumously.
Notes from Tuscany
- I live in a small Tuscan Village, Greve in Chianti. Below is a picture of our Piazza. The Wine Festival is over. The summer heat is finished. The little darlings are back in school. But the Tourists are still coming in by the busload. A few weeks ago we shared with you some of the more stupid questions asked by visitors. We came across another one (I have been asked this twice, by Americans), “What is the Italian word for Pizza?”. People from other countries could be asking stupider questions; but I will never know – as I do not speak their languages. Be that as it may, I have not been able to answer the question, other than to tell them there are 9 places in this town where you can get whatever you call it.
A quote:
- “The formula ‘Two and Two make Five’ is not without its attractions. -Dostoevsky, “Notes From the Underground”, 1864 You know that’s right.
That’s all there is for now …and a fond “Hello” to Alice, wherever you are…
