Do As They Say, Not As They Do

 

November 28, 2020

 

Well, well, well. After yelling about incompetent leadership during the pandemic, and pushing guidelines about social distancing and masking and not traveling for the holidays,

Three high-profile government leaders decided that the rules didn’t apply to them.

• The governor of California attended a birthday party/fundraiser in November.
• The governor of New York was going to have Thanksgiving dinner with his mother and daughters, who were going to fly in for the occasion. Public outcry changed his mind.
• The mayor of Denver “deeply regrets” traveling for Thanksgiving, after urging others to stay home.

                                  

Why do you suppose that people don’t think that their elected leaders really have a clue as to how the pandemic is affecting them?

 

Why do you suppose that people think their elected leaders look down on them as lesser beings?

 

Why do you suppose that people don’t really trust their elected leaders?

 

Well?

 

If We Believed in Ourselves Like We Believe in Each Other

November 20, 2020

 

Sometimes we look at other people and say, “You’re so good at [whatever]. Why don’t you capitalize on that?” But we don’t look at ourselves and say the same thing.

I think the reason that most people don’t is that it’s easier to believe in other people than it is in ourselves. And it’s a shame.

We just need somebody to help us, step by step. If we just set up groups for ourselves, of people who believed in us, we could do wonders. Most projects are daunting because they have so many steps. If we had somebody to say, “Have you finished Step 1? Good. Now we’ll work on Step 2,” we could probably move mountains.

Maybe there is a program somewhere called “Self-Doubters Anonymous.” If there isn’t, there should be.

 

 

We Could Have Been Great

 

November 20, 2020

 

I feel sad when I see the opportunity America wasted during the pandemic.

This was when we could have shone. We could have pulled together and displayed that “Can Do” spirit that everyone associates with two world wars and the Depression. People in other countries could have thought that we were still a force to be reckoned with, a country that overcame obstacles and worked together for the common good; leaders in searching for a worldwide solution. Undefeatable.

Instead we fought against wearing masks, and made ourselves looked like a nation of whiners; too spoiled to wear a mask while we went out shopping or partying, too faithless to realize that God can still reach us, even if we’re watching a service online instead of at our place of worship. 

I’m sure that people worldwide are thinking that we’re weaklings who can’t lead in anything; who couldn’t fight off an attack if we wanted to, because we’re too busy arguing about our “rights” to work together to repel invaders. I hope that they don’t take advantage of that (any more than they already have, with cyber-attacks and whatnot) and decide that now would be a great time to invade us. Because honestly, how would we react?

 

We could have been great. But we blew it.

 

Have a Holly, Jolly Pothole

 

November 19, 2020

 

A man in Massachusetts was on his way to pick up dinner one evening, and encountered a series of potholes on Route 1. He had previously complained to the town and state governments about them, but gotten no action. This time, all 4 tires on his car were flattened.

So he picked up some dirt and some small Christmas trees and planted the trees in the potholes on his way to work on Monday morning.

 

On Monday afternoon, the potholes were fixed.

 

 

 

 

Maybe They Can Lead Sister Cities

 

November 19, 2020                                      

 

The mayor of the Japanese town of Yamoto, Kumamoto prefecture, wondered why his name was trending on social media.

Then, family members pointed out to him that the characters in his name (which is actually Yutaka Umeda) spelled out “Jo Baiden.”

 

 

Data-Driven Nitpicking

 

November 14, 2020

 

As you know, I’m a grammar freak.

But I’m wondering if it isn’t time to give the data debate a rest.

It’s a plural noun; but the use of “data” as a singular noun is so widespread that continually correcting it is exhausting; and besides, everybody knows what you mean, and isn’t that the point of language?

I’ll even cave on pronunciation. (Correct: day-ta; Incorrect: datta)

Does that mean I’m sacrificing my principles for convenience?

 

Or am I bowing to the inevitable evolution of language?

NOW He's Done It

 

November 14, 2020

 

In the same Post-Dispatch article cited in “If You’re Sure…”, a man says that the media have blown the pandemic out of proportion. According to the article, the man had recently visited with a member of an Amish community, “‘Nobody got it,’ [the man], half-joking, said the [Amish] man told him. ‘We don’t watch TV.’”

 

Now that the Amish man has been in contact with the unmasked man, I wonder if that will be true for long.

If You're Sure...

 

November 14, 2020

An article in today’s Post-Dispatch is talking about why rural residents in Missouri don’t think that wearing masks during the pandemic is necessary. It quotes a woman from Cuba, Missouri saying, “I am 89 years old. I am going to die of something at some point.”

And I’m thinking, “That’s great. But if you get sick, are you going to refuse medical treatment so that you don’t divert resources from people who actually took steps to slow the pandemic but got sick anyway?”

 

Her name is in the article. Maybe hospitals can flag it so that, if she gets sick enough to need treatment, they can make sure she puts her money where her mouth is, and be told to stay home.

 

Why Bother?

 

November 15, 2020

 

I read in the paper that people demonstrating in support of President Trump are clashing with counterprotesters.

I’m thinking, “Why bother counter-protesting? It just seems like a waste time and energy. The vote has already been decided.”

In fact, getting into fights just brings more attention to the demonstrations.

 

So, let the police make sure that the demonstrations stay calm. Everybody else, stay home.

 

 

And You Thought It Was 42

 

November 13, 2020

 

I was having a bit of trouble with my computer at work, and the IT guy advised me, “With Windows, the answer to almost any problem is a Restart.”

I thought that would make a nice cross-stitch sampler: “The Answer is a Restart.”

 

 

 

(If you don’t get the title of the post, read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.)

Darwinism and Political Selection

 

November 11, 2020

 

Missouri has a tradition of taking newly-elected legislators on a statewide tour by bus.

This year, there will 2 buses: One mask-mandatory and one mask-optional.

 

Seeing who picks which bus may impact my future election choices.

About That Cognitive Dissonance Thing...

 

November 14, 2020

 

In another stunning example of cognitive dissonance (the holding of two opposite beliefs at once)…

A St. Louis couple made and distributed a greeting card with a UPI photo of themselves standing in their yard holding guns; apparently they were pleased to be thought of as heroes standing up for their rights.

But now they’re suing UPI for taking the photo in the first place because it has it has garnered “significant national recognition and infamy.” In other words, it made them look bad.

But it can’t have looked too bad, because they used it on their greeting cards.

 

Aaanddd, the search for logic continues.

 

Cognitive Dissonance Is Not A New Phenomenon

 

November 8, 2020

 

Many of us have been stunned during the past four years at how people can hold onto a conviction in the face of completely contradictory facts. But it’s not a new phenomenon.

In “Love is a Many Splendored Thing”, which takes place in 1950, a Chinese doctor and a Eurasian doctor doing her residency in Hong Kong both plan to return to Mainland China to practice medicine. Eventually, the resident decides to stay in Hong Kong. The Chinese doctor insists that, now that the Communists are in power, life in China is going to be wonderful for the common man, and that she should return and practice medicine there.

She points out that 3,000 people a day are arriving in Hong Kong, fleeing Communist China, so that it can’t be that great. He keeps insisting that it is, that they just don’t realize it.

 

Sound familiar?

Amazing, Adaptable Humans

 

November 11, 2020

 

There’s a saying about making lemons into lemonade. If you look at the history of the human race, we’ve pretty much done that.

Here we are in Fall. Fall can be dreary, with cold rain and trees going bare. But people cozy up with cups of cider and they bake pies; they go on leaf viewings and have bonfires. These things not only make what could be a depressing season bearable, but something to look forward to.

And then there’s Winter. The days get darker and colder. So what do we do? Most cultures have a celebration of light at the heart of the dark time. They’ve made it so that people actually look forward to that period, and even wax nostalgic about it. Cold and dark—good times? Apparently.

There are also snowball fights and sledding and, for some lucky folks, skiing and skating. We took what we were given and turned it into something good.

I think that’s pretty darned amazing. I hope we can adapt to the restrictions of coronavirus with the same spirit.

A D-Lightful Side Effect?

 

November 9, 2020

 

It’s been speculated that low levels of Vitamin D can make a person more susceptible to catching COVID-19.

Well, much of the country has been experiencing an unexpected warm spell this past week, which has encouraged people to spend more time outdoors than is normal for this time of year.

 

Maybe it will help get those Vitamin D levels up, and keep people healthier. At least we can hope.

Is COVID Time the New Thing?

 

November 12, 2020

 

Ever since the pandemic started, my newspaper delivery is getting later and later.

 

With so many people in lockdown, I can understand the carrier not dragging him- or herself out of bed before dawn to deliver a paper to people with no place to go, since they wouldn’t need to read the news before leaving for work.

But people are working again, and the paper delivery still gets later.

I’ve heard of Southern Time, and Indian Time (from both Native Americans and Indian Americans), and Smith Time (a pseudonym for my family’s chronic lateness), all ways to describe a relaxed approach to starting times. 

I wonder if my carrier is working on COVID Time.

Behind the Times

 

November 12, 2020

 

An intoxicated Utah man was arrested for driving 130 mph. He said he was going to Missouri to kill former senator Claire McCaskill.

Since McCaskill lost her reelection bid in 2018, I’m not sure what he hoped to accomplish.

 

Maybe he’s behind on his news-reading.

Do They Really Want to Know?

 

November 12, 2020

 

I got an email asking me to fill out a survey about my experience at a medical facility. So I did.

 

I arrived for a scheduled COVID test, as required for a procedure I’m having next week, and called from the parking lot as directed. Not knowing where to go, I left a message with my phone number and waited for a response. A few minutes later I walked to the building to see where I should go.

At the door, I saw a sign saying that COVID appointments were done in the rear of the building. As there was no indication whether that meant inside or outside, I went in. A staff member directed me to park behind the building in one of the numbered spots, and mentioned that people had been waiting for a while.

I thought that a sign as one entered the parking lot would have been more helpful than one at the door.

I parked in a numbered slot, then called, then called again, always getting an answering machine. I saw staff members walking back and forth with testing gear, but 40 minutes later, I was still waiting. A car pulled up next to me and was seen immediately, so I asked the nurse why I was still waiting. She asked if I'd tried the number, and told me to keep trying. 4 calls later, I called my doctor's office and asked them to notify someone at the clinic that things were not going as they should. As I was pacing outside while talking on the phone, I noticed several other people dialing and redialing—apparently they were having the same experience I was. The nurse put me next in line, and said that she would notify someone that she had done my test.

I don't have any real confidence that the information will actually be processed properly, so I hope that I don't have COVID, and won't spread it, because I may never find out from your facility.

The staff that I DID interact with was wonderful.

 

At the end of the survey, the last slide said, “We value your feedback.” I wonder if they’ll even read it.

Can You Smell the Difference?

 

November 9, 2020

 

Several years ago it was discovered that certain dogs that smelled a person’s breath or stool samples were almost as accurate at predicting colon cancer as standard tests were.

 

I wonder if they can do the same thing for COVID-19?

December 14, 2020

According to some articles I looked at today, yes they can.

January 13, 2021

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/covid-19-sniffing-dogs-santiago-airport_n_5fe4c13cc5b6e1ce8338f206

Cook the Chicken at Home

 

November 7, 2020

 

In August of this year, rangers at Yellowstone National Park were notified of a group carrying cooking gear toward a hot spring.

The rangers arrived to find two chickens in a burlap bag cooking in the spring.

 

Lest you get inspired to try it, know that fines and jail time ensued.

 

 

The Terms of the Contract

 

November 5, 2020

 

Jack Wilson and a friend applied for a job with the Blonde-Headed League. The ad for the job specified that applicants must have blonde hair. Jack got the job. His friend, who was brown-haired, sued the League for discrimination.

Catholic Social Services wants to contract with the City of Philadelphia to find foster homes for children. Philadelphia says that it requires the foster care agencies it works with not to discriminate as part of their contract.

Catholic Social Services, which will not place children with same-sex couples because of its religious views, is suing because they are not being considered for the contract.

 

My ruling: If you don’t meet the conditions of the contract, don’t apply for the job.

Post-Campaign Strategy

 

November 5, 2020

 

Nicole Galloway, Missouri State Auditor, ran against incumbent governor Mike Parson. She has demonstrated fairness and good business sense. She lost the rural vote—not because rural citizens are against fairness and good sense, but because Mike Parson was one of their own, and her campaign didn’t point out the obvious: their economies are in the toilet because of current bad political practices.

Joe Biden may be elected president of the United States. If he wins, he will have to deal with a Congress that includes the likes of Roy Blunt, Josh Hawley, and the woman from QAnon; individuals whose actions indicate that they wouldn’t understand the concept of Public Good if it came up and introduced itself.

My advice to them both is: Spend less energy appealing to people who already support you; give the people who voted against you concrete reasons to work with you from now on. 

It won’t be easy—if this election has demonstrated nothing else, it is that FACTS DO NOT MATTER when a person’s mind is made up.

 

Biden should start working the states who voted against him RIGHT NOW. He should give voters reasons to support his policies and to make sure that their representatives vote accordingly during his presidency.  He should be strategizing already about what will shake people’s confidence in hucksters and conspiracy theorists. He should get people out there on the ground, talking to citizens in ways that they can relate to. His biggest opponents are comfortable, middle-class people who have not yet been damaged economically or personally by the destructive policies or complete indifference of the current administration. (When current policies do start to backfire on them, they will blame him, because he’ll be holding office, so he should prepare for that, too.) He should figure out how to morph their current complacency into a long-term awareness of what their actions can lead to.

Galloway should frame her campaign in terms of dollars and cents. How have current tax policies (i.e. tax breaks for corporations in the cities, tariff wars on farm goods) negatively affected the rural communities and economies? In this case, demonstrable facts will matter somewhat more than they will to the comfortable urbanites; being able to point to reasons why rural areas are losing economic ground will hit closer to home. However, she should also find people that can make the case in the same grass-roots fashion that I suggested for Biden.

Short version: While you should never neglect the people who support you, find ways to relate to the people who don’t. Don’t wait until the next election; start now.

 

Cooking Up Some Radio Astronomy

 

November 5, 2020

 

A radio burst lasting only milliseconds was spotted by two radically different telescopes in April of this year. One was a $20 million Canadian observatory;

 

the other one was a California doctoral student’s set of hand-made antennas, which included actual cake pans.

It’s a Good Thing Other People Aren’t in Charge, Either

 

November 5, 2020

 

Boy, I thought I was being tough yesterday as a hypothetical Runner of the Universe, when I said that if I were in charge of it, only the people who refused to take basic precautions would be adversely affected by the coronavirus.

A letter-writer to the Post-Dispatch took it a step further.

Now that urban hospitals are being overrun by patients from rural areas, where mask-wearing is pooh-poohed and not widely practiced, this person says that urban hospitals should refuse to treat patients from areas that don’t have a mask mandate. He’s pretty sure that that would spur mask mandates in those areas.

I understand the frustration, believe me. But I’d hate to be the person from a rural area that did follow safety protocols and still got sick, and then got denied treatment.

 

Guess it’s a good thing that NEITHER of us is in charge.

January 9, 2020

Carolyn Hax has a humane answer to this question:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/advice/carolyn-hax-heres-why-denying-treatment-to-anti-maskers-is-a-bad-idea/2021/01/07/d8c5ec14-479f-11eb-b0e4-0f182923a025_story.html

Update on "Let's Liven This Place Up"

 December 24, 2018

I was driving through some really flat, brown, barren landscape for hours. I thought, “Wouldn’t it be swell if there were a device that would let drivers see holograms of interesting sights, without bothering the people who actually lived in the area?”

Someone pointed out that it might be nice at night, but that daylight would make seeing the holograms tricky.

I still think it’s worth pursuing, though.

October 30, 2020

 

Apparently it wasn’t such a far-fetched idea after all.

 VAN MCELWEE: TIME FORK

https://www.laumeiersculpturepark.org/current-exhibition-mcelwee

Who Deserves It?

 November 4, 2020

“Alleluia, Noel, be it heaven or hell, the Christmas we get we deserve.” (Greg Lake, “I Believe in Father Christmas”)

I’ve never believed that.

I don’t believe it now. I don’t believe that people who tried to do the right thing deserve to get a life-altering illness or a death sentence because other people chose for them, by not wearing masks or keeping their distance or staying away from crowds.

It’s a good thing that I’m not in charge of the universe, because I would make sure that the only people who suffered were the ones who willfully disregarded the rules that could have kept everyone safe; and the ones who spurred on the disregard for public safety by knowingly propagating false information.

 

End of story.

November 5, 2020

 

A letter in today’s Post-Dispatch likens the refusal to wear a mask to manslaughter. I really can’t disagree.

January 9, 2020

Carolyn Hax has a humane answer to this question.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/advice/carolyn-hax-heres-why-denying-treatment-to-anti-maskers-is-a-bad-idea/2021/01/07/d8c5ec14-479f-11eb-b0e4-0f182923a025_story.html

You Don’t Mind Being Uncomfortable If It Makes You Look Good

 

November 4, 2020

 

The next time you complain about wearing a mask, look at yourself.

 

Are you wearing a necktie? High heels? Tight jeans?

 

If you’ve done any of these things on a regular basis, either because of a work dress code or because of the dictates of fashion (yes, the dictates—you DO behave the way other people tell you to),

 

WEAR THE DAMNED MASK.

               

Election Day Prayers

November 2, 2020

 

As Election Day approaches, can’t you just hear people thinking the following?

 

 1. Lord, I’m praying for the country, not the candidate.

 

 2. I hope everybody who votes my way turns out, and that everybody else stays home.