September 28, 2020
A Pennsylvania woman became the first person at her local bowling alley to bowl a 300 game—all strikes, no open frames.
It was also the first time she ever bowled a 300. Pretty impressive, even without this additional fact:
She’ll be 97 on November 30th.
September 28, 2020
An Australian woman had to cancel her vacation due to COVID-19. It was disappointing, but it worked out OK:
During the time she would have been in Europe, she purchased a lottery ticket instead, and won over $700,000.
Finally, we hear about the virus having a
positive effect on someone’s life.
September 24, 2020
A woman who pressured her boyfriend into smothering his infant son has been sentenced to 120 days in prison and five years’ probation. The charge was dropped from first-degree murder to involuntary manslaughter because she never explicitly instructed her boyfriend to murder the boy; although the article also says that she exerted emotional pressure, sending dozens of messages pressuring the man to kill the baby, and threatening to leave the boyfriend because his sons were a burden in their relationship. (???) (The boyfriend is serving a life sentence for the murder.)
If the woman violates her probation, she could have to serve up to 10 years in prison.
I hope she violates it on her first day out of the slammer.
September 22, 2020
In “Parental Concern” (Sept. 19, 2020) I noted that some
parents and schools were skirting the “no youth sports” rules in St. Louis County
by having their future stars play their games in St. Charles County, instead.
One of the first schools to do this was a Catholic school.
Since the Catholic Church is so fond of (mis)quoting St. Paul when it suits them; and since Paul said in Romans 13 that people should be subject to the governing authorities;
I’m surprised that the archbishop of the St. Louis Diocese hasn’t given them a sternly-worded scolding on not following the law, AND on setting a bad example for others.
Maybe we should have the Pope weigh in.
September 20, 2020
Well, the Ig Nobels (in what was billed as “The 30th First Annual Ig
Nobel Prize Ceremony”) have been announced for 2020.
My favorites: The study that shows people can often identify a narcissist by the person's eyebrows; and the one discussing why many entomologists are afraid of spiders (which are not insects, but still...).
September 19, 2020
I watched “Spenser: Confidential” today. If you’ve never
read a Spenser book, it’s a passable movie. Actual Spenser fans might be irritated
with Hawk being portrayed as a marshmallow; and God forbid that Spenser look
rugged instead of smooth-featured; but that’s Hollywood for you.
What I find just as annoying as the Hawk personality debacle is the fact that only one person in the entire movie has anything approaching a Boston accent. A movie set in Boston, rife with Boston cops and Boston citizens, and nobody speaks Bostonian? (It was the same way in the TV series with Robert Urich and Avery Brooks.) And the woman with the accent, although brave and clever and tough, was made to look just a little lower-class than the star. (She was, however, a huge improvement over Susan Silverman, so that’s a plus.)
Don’t be afraid, Hollywood. We’ll be able to understand what
they’re saying. Instead of just having a few shots of the city, let us get the
whole picture—accent and all.
September 19, 2020
With COVID-19 running rampant, some parents in St. Louis County are
concerned about their children playing sports.
That is, the parents are concerned that their children are not being allowed to play sports. Many use the excuse that their young Beckhams, Bradys, and Gretzkys may be losing college scholarships since they are not allowed to play team sports.
(I wonder how many of them already have each and every move their child ever made on the field on video? Can’t they send those loaded-with-potential clips to the scouts?)
Are these kids really that good? Good enough to risk their lives in order to play high school sports on the chance that a college may come calling?
Now parents and schools are scheduling games outside the county so that their budding stars can play without those pesky health restrictions.
Honestly, it makes me sick to my stomach—no exaggeration—that
they would put their kids’ lives at risk in order to try for scholarships that
most of them—let’s face it—wouldn’t earn anyway, or in order to live
vicariously through them.
Every time a meeting is held about letting kids play sports, I think that it should start with one of the many videos made by teens who have suffered through COVID-19, and are warning others to take precautions. It might make a smidge of an impression on some of those rabid parents.
Kids: If your parents are pressing you to play sports—well,
best of luck to you, my friends.
September 18, 2020
To Justice Ginsberg, who fought the good fight for years and years,
We are grateful for all that you did.
September 15, 2020
So: A lot of helpful citizens—with weapons—are stopping
people in Oregon to make sure they’re not looters. They are basing their behavior
on rumors they’ve heard about wildfires being started deliberately by various
groups that they don’t like.
Now, the right to bear arms is contingent on belonging to a “well-regulated militia.” Threatening people because you’ve heard a rumor is not being well-regulated. It’s being a sap. It means you’re being played.
Perhaps when people apply for their weapons permits, there can be an added step to the process. In addition to proving that they can handle their firearms safely,
Maybe people should be required to prove that they know how
to tell fake news stories from real ones. Especially the self-appointed defenders of law and order.
September 15, 2020
After reports that armed citizens in wildfire-impacted areas
of Oregon are stopping people to make sure they’re not looters, it seems that
there’s going to have to be another item in municipal Emergency Plans.
Keep in mind that there are already plenty of things to keep
law enforcement and municipal authorities busy. For example:
“Go Door to Door to Evacuate Residents.” “Deal with Medical Emergencies.” “Monitor Evacuation Routes” “Keep on Top of Disruptions in Services.” “What to do if Gas Lines Break.” Etc.
Now they can add, “Deal with Vigilantes” to the Emergency Response list.
September 14, 2020
I posted about the man who was stranded in a lake and was
saved by a group of priests floating by on a tiki bar.
Naturally, the image of priests on a floating tiki bar tickled people’s funnybones. But I looked at a few different sources for the story, and was fascinated at how the details each story offered depended on the writer’s point of view.
Here are some of the ways the story was presented:
The first story, by Fox News, mentioned that the man was
hanging onto his kayak, his life jacket, and his new $1,400 cell phone.
Naturally, you wonder, “If he’d dropped his cell phone, would it have helped
him fight through?” I wondered why that detail had been included. The story
says that the priests helped Tiki Tours staff help the kayaker.
NBC News in Washington didn’t mention the cell phone. It
reported that the priests were on a break from a religious retreat, which the
Fox News story had left out (giving the impression that the priests were partying
down). NBC didn’t mention the staff of Tiki Tours performing the rescue, leaving
the impression that the priests had hauled the man in by themselves.
The Catholic News Agency said that the man had been taking
pictures on his cell phone, but didn’t mention the price, or that he was
hanging onto it for dear life. CNA also noted that the priests were on a break
from the retreat, and that they had assisted the Tiki Tours staff in the rescue,
not performed it all by themselves. That story mentioned that the kayaker had
drifted far from shore, but before he overturned, he waved on several boats
that stopped to offer help.* CNA dealt with the tiki bar angle by
writing that the priests were on a boat rented from Tiki Tours, giving the impression
that the tiki bar was not the reason the priests were on that particular craft.
NBC and CNA both mentioned that the rescued man had been
sober for 7 years, and that he thought that it was ironic that he’d been
rescued by a tiki bar.
All the stories said that the participants in the drama credited divine intervention.
Nobody mentioned whether the priests had been imbibing.
My point, Ladies and Gentlemen, is that you should always check more than one source before you repeat a story. You never know what you might be missing, depending on what point of view the author is trying to present.
Try to get all the angles. And to figure out the angle of
the person who’s writing the story.
*I am irresistibly reminded of the joke about the man
stranded on the roof of his house during a flood. A rowboat, a motorboat, and a
helicopter, at different times, all stop to offer assistance, and the man waves
them on, saying each time, “The Lord will provide.” Eventually the man drowns,
and when he gets to heaven he says, “Lord, I was counting on you to provide a
rescue. Why didn’t you?” And the Lord says, “I sent two boats and a helicopter.
What more did you want?”
(Luckily, our real-life kayaker eventually accepted help.)
September 14, 2020
Intriguing Headlines I Haven’t Seen (Yet)
Trump Supporters Claim that Bob Woodward was Trying to
Get Rid of Them
“He knew we supported the President, and didn’t believe the scientists. So we didn’t take precautions. Now we’re sick, and it’s Bob Woodward’s fault, for not telling us that the President was lying. I think he did it on purpose.”
The President received no blame from his supporters for not telling them that the coronavirus was real.
Bob Woodward Says He Didn’t Reveal that Trump Lied about Coronavirus because, “Anybody with any Sense Already Knew About It. Besides, I Didn’t Want to Ruin My Book Sales.”
September 14, 2020
A man stranded with an overturned kayak in a choppy lake prayed for help—and it came.
The man was rescued by a group of priests who were on a floating tiki bar.
“We’re missionaries,” said a seminarian. “For us, that day, that was our mission to be present and help someone in need.”
Nice work, fellas.
September 9, 2020
COVID-19 seems to be pretty random about whom it affects. It isn’t, of course—we just haven’t figured out the common denominator that makes some people susceptible to a gamut of issues, while other people can get infected and have not even minimal discomfort.
At first it was deemed to strike mostly the elderly and people with underlying health conditions. But then I read that even people who live healthy lifestyles, i.e. go running, etc., are getting struck down. And I started wondering if anybody’s considered stress levels as an indicator of susceptibility. I always imagine that athletes are pretty high-stress in other aspects of their lives, although I don’t know any runners or other athletic sorts to check this theory with. Maybe some stress-related effect on the body makes people more vulnerable.
On the face of it, since the elderly in nursing homes are getting clobbered in droves, it doesn’t seem likely that stress is a factor; but who knows what their personal stress levels are? (Nursing home life, contrary to what you might expect, is not always a piece of cake. Read the papers.) And then, of course, there are those underlying conditions.
So if you’re going nuts trying to live one of those over-scheduled lifestyles that involves working late, or running the kids to and from activities on top of trying to work full-time and still maintain the family home and do Zumba or hit the gym, you might want to dial it back.
Or at least take up meditation for a few minutes a day. Even
if I’m wrong about the COVID connection, it can’t hurt.
January 25, 2021
I saw an article on Yahoo! today, originally published on Insider that recommends that people with COVID avoid exercise, even if they're asymptomatic. The article says that anything more than a brisk walk could make the infection worse, “as higher-intensity exercise can temporarily reduce immune function.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/people-covid-19-avoid-exercise-215546507.html
September 8, 2020
Like a lot of people, I’ve found myself with some time on my hands the past few weeks. So decided to travel to some places I have always wanted to visit, but never got to. I traveled down the Danube, and stopped in Budapest to see some beautiful architecture; I traveled by boat through Alaska—different boats, even; and I traveled down the Amazon River and got a glimpse into the rainforest.
I did it all because other people were adventurous enough to take journeys, and generous enough to post their vlogs on YouTube. They weren’t cruise-ship ads, or National Geographic specials; they were videos taken by (extra)ordinary people and shared with the rest of us.
If you want to see the world but can’t afford the expense or don’t want the discomfort of going in person, check out these videos of other people’s adventures.
Thank you, vloggers. I appreciate your generosity.
September 6, 2020
Police in some areas have been having run-ins with scofflaws
lately.
A Georgia policewoman had her patrol car invaded by a goat, who proceeded to chow down on some paperwork before finally being evicted from the car.
Police in Park Forest, Illinois tried to round up three stray pigs, who were much faster than the humans. The pigs ignored a laughing policewoman’s cry of “Stop! Police!” and, as of press time, had not been captured.
Police are not planning to file any charges.
