If Everybody Left, Maybe It Would Speed Up the Process

October 30, 2019

OK, so I did go sit in on the church committee meeting the other night. (See “Wearing Out Your Welcome…” October 30, 2019)

The committee members all have good brains, which is nice; but it was still a slow process. And even though the other members have better manners than I do, I could see that some of them wanted to make “let’s move this thing along” motions.

I left after an hour and 15 minutes, and they were still going. Another woman had said she had to go, too; but again, better manners prevailed.

People with good manners must lead very frustrating lives.

Wearing Out Your Welcome—and Your Volunteers

October 30, 2019

The pastor asked if I’d be interested in sitting on a church committee. He made the mistake of telling me that he knew I volunteered for stuff, which was why he’d thought of me. That’s pastor-speak for, “We’re desperate for volunteers.”

When I was at another church, they also used to hit up the same few people for volunteer work—and the membership of that church was about 3,500!

I was discussing this with another church member while we were doing some volunteer work a couple of months ago. He was trying to talk me into volunteering for something else. I said that it was a shame that the young people with energy had kids and no time; and the people my age felt like they’d done their stint already. (In other words—no dice.)

I get it. It’s tough to work all day, then come home and go to a committee meeting, especially if you have kids. And if you have kids signed up for extracurricular activities, you’ve got even less time and mental energy. But I think that there are things that people can do. And my feeling is, if you can’t get people to volunteer for it, don’t do it.

My next volunteer stint will be to get up in front of the church and say, “Get off your butts and do something. It’s not the church’s fault you’re worn out from hauling your kids to soccer practice. Take some responsibility if you want the church to flourish. And bring the kids—it’s never too early to get them started.”

At the very least, I’ll probably never get asked to volunteer for anything again.

Mysteries of the e-Verse

October 25, 2019

If I have my blog and my e-mail open at the same time, and I sign out of one, they both sign out. It’s kind of annoying.

Yet I can have e-mail open on different devices; and if I sign out on one, the other one will keep it open. What’s that all about?

A park district, a bookstore, a clothing store, and other places send me updates via e-mail; yet when I get on their sites to use my account, they claim that they’ve never heard of me, and that my e-mail address is not in their system.

That is very mysterious.

And also annoying.

Cowabunga!

October 23, 2019

Scientists in Japan have discovered that painting cows with zebra-type stripes helps reduce attacks from biting flies. Sound crazy? Read on.

Until I read the article, I had no idea that flies biting cattle were so dangerous. But if cows bunch together for protection, they can get heat stroke, or injuries from the head tossing and stamping they do to repel the flies. Fly bites are estimated to cost the cattle industry billions every year. Who knew?

When the cows are painted black and white, though, the flies are less likely to land on them, due to the polarization of light. The painted cattle were 50% less likely to get bitten.

It’s an eco-friendly alternative to using pesticides, which makes lots of people happy.

Now for the billion-dollar question: Who’s going to volunteer to paint all those cows?

Bad Business

October 23, 2019

Whoever thinks government should be run like a business 

has never dealt with the delivery division of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Going in Style

October 21, 2019

There was a picture in the paper last week of a woman leading a dance at her retirement home. She was celebrating her 107^th birthday. 

I don’t particularly want to live that long, but if I do, I hope I can do it with style, like she does.

Social Drinking

October 21, 2019

There’s a growing trend of people now going to bars to get fancy drinks without the alcohol.

They can still get the benefits of the evening out, and the camaraderie, but without the impairment. I’m impressed.

The Telltale Tattoos

October 20, 2019

Cardinal Ritter College Prep School had a problem. The football player wearing jersey No. 4, an outstanding member of the team, was not eligible to play in the season opener, because he had been ejected from a game the previous season. Even so, the team played the opener and won.

Having served his suspension, No. 4 was eligible to play in subsequent games, and the school won its first seven games.

However: An astute observer noticed that tattoos on No. 4’s arms matched the tattoos of the player who wore jersey No. 24 in the season opener.

Technically, since No. 4 never served the suspension, all the games he played in are forfeit. So the school’s 7-0 (so far) season is in the toilet.

Furthermore, the entire football program has been suspended for the year, meaning that the other members of the team are losing their opportunity to play this year.

Is the moral of the story, “Make your players take responsibility for their own actions.”?

Or is it, “Hide the evidence better.”?

Either way, the coach has been fired.

Unrealized Earnings of the Opioid Crisis

October 16, 2019

According to an Associated Press article, the opioid crisis cost the U.S. economy $631 billion from 2015 through 2018. The article states that the biggest cost is unrealized lifetime earnings of those who died.

Apart from my automatic reduction by 1/3 of any numbers floated by experts, I have some questions about the assertion. (These are real questions, by the way, not just me being snarky.)

The deaths cost their families the earnings; but wasn’t somebody else in the country earning those wages and putting them to work in the economy?

And even if employers pulled the trick of making fewer employees do more work for the same pay and keeping the unpaid wages and benefits, the executives or shareholders would benefit. (Would you call that Trickle-Up Economics?) So the money isn’t really lost, it’s just being spent by other people.

And would the fact that early deaths meant that people were consuming less food, fuel and other resources, or were creating less pollution through decreased transportation usage, reduce the negative impact on the environment somewhat? And if so, could that lessen the negative effects of the overall impact to the economy? (Everything in interconnected, after all.)

I didn’t want to reveal the depths of my economic ignorance to you all, so I consulted my friendly neighborhood Economics major, Mary DiLiberti.

Mary pointed out that, in addition to my wages assumption being correct, some people would likely have dropped out of the workforce before retirement age due to death from car accidents, health issues unrelated to addiction, or other problems. So the numbers were probably off-base for that reason, too.

If they had said that the hit came from addicts consuming less, and therefore slowing economic growth, I could understand it. But if that’s what the actuaries meant, they should have said so. The numbers would still be wrong, because they’d still be assuming that everyone would have lived until retirement age or beyond, and would have never gotten more thrifty through lifestyle changes. But it would make more sense (to me, anyway).

So, what’s the actual story?

A Slap in the Face

October 16, 2019

Actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. now has 14 women waiting to testify against him for sexually inappropriate behavior, with incidents going back several years.

I wish people were conditioned to react automatically—a slap in the face, a punch to the groin—when others physically harassed them. (I’m not specifying women, because men get harassed, too.) Then maybe, just maybe, the harassers might get the idea that their behavior isn’t acceptable.

At the very least, it wouldn’t be a free ride for them.

And we might be able to avoid some trials.

You Say Potato...

October 15, 2019

A few years ago, the stylist who was cutting my hair asked what I used on it, and I told her.

“You still use mousse?” she asked, as if I’d just admitted to putting new batteries in my AM transistor radio.

But it was still on the store shelves, so I figured I couldn’t be the only one using it.

I just saw a can of styling product. It’s not called mousse. It’s called “sculpting foam.”

I wonder if the stylist uses that?

Correction on "Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me"

October 16, 2019

In “Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me” (October 15, 2019), I said that Stan Kroenke and his associates had gotten a deal where sales taxes on businesses would help pay for one of his new development projects. I indicated that the Kroenke properties were exempt from the tax.

That was not true. The businesses on Kroenke-owned property are also subject to the sales tax.

My apologies.

Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me

October 15, 2019

Developer Paul McKee, who got millions in tax credits to develop properties and save their areas from urban blight, but who never followed through, is asking for another deal to do the same thing.

Aldermen are considering it.

Stan Kroenke, who stiffed the St. Louis region by demanding a new football stadium and then taking the Rams elsewhere, has persuaded the leaders of Wentzville to let him build a shopping center and TO RAISE THE SALES TAX AT OTHER BUSINESSES—not his—to pay for his tax incentives.

  

If you look up the word “gullible” in the dictionary, will you see their pictures?


October 16,2019

Correction: Many of the properties in the taxing zone are owned by Kroenke and his associates; only some of the properties are not owned by them. The Kroenke properties will also have the tax levied on their sales.

Fool Me Once, Shame on You...

October 15, 2019

The operators of the Loop Trolley are asking for $700,000 more dollars in order to get the third car operational; after which, they assure us, they will make all the revenue that they claimed they would. (See “THAT Explains It,” August 16, 2019)

The county is not jumping at the chance to bail them out. I see that as progress.

He Had Nothing to Do With It

October 12, 2019

The next time your kid says, “I don’t know how that vase got broken. It must have fallen off the shelf,” don’t hold it against him too hard.

Consider the prophet Aaron. In Exodus 32:2-4, we read how Aaron told the people to bring him their gold, and he fashioned the golden calf with a tool.

Later, when Moses came down from the mountain and found the golden calf being worshipped by the Israelites, Aaron told him, “Do not be angry…they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

See? Sometimes stuff just happens.

There’s Good News and Bad News

October 3, 2019

Three men survived a shipwreck in shark-infested waters by using bales of cocaine to stay afloat.

 After several hours in the water, they were rescued by a Colombian coast guard vessel.

Then they were arrested on charges of drug trafficking.

A Fruitful Endeavor

September 30, 2019

In my ongoing quest to get the health benefits of eating fruit without actually tasting it, I put blueberries in the bottom of my cereal bowl. I ran into a snag last year when blueberry season ended, but luckily I found out this year that blueberries are easy to freeze—you don’t even have to wash them first. (You do have to wash them before you eat them, though.)

So this year I froze a bunch of them, and now I shake out a few every week into a container and put that into the fridge.


Works like a charm.