LOTS OF STUFF ... SOME SAD ... SOME FUNNY ... SOME JUST WEIRD

(Stay tuned for the elephant story!)

01. Covid

Elaine and I just got our booster shots.  It looked like everyone in our village was lined up to get theirs.

I'll never understand those folks who refuse to get vaccinated and therefore continue to have no concern for the well-being of their neighbors, as well as their own children and grandchildren.

THINK! Damn ya!

02.  TV Show Titles

Yesterday, I was reminded of those movie "interns" whose duty was to ask people waiting in line at movie theaters their preferences for proposed titles for upcoming movies and TV shows.

Once, I was accosted and asked to pick the title I liked best for a New York based TV Show.

My options were:

1. Fun In New York

2. Sex in the City

3. Manhattan Madness

Guess which one I chose.

03.  A Great Loss

A software executive was killed last week when the plane he was traveling in crashed in northern New Jersey.  Glen de Vries helped found the life sciences company called Medidata Solutions and was an environmental activist.

Now... how do the newspapers headline the information about this Renaissance Man's demise?

SHATNER  CREWMATE  ON  TRIP  TO  SPACE  DIES  IN  PLANE  CRASH

Come on, guys!  I like Captain Kirk as much as everyone else, but he is not God.

04.  Work vs Prison

I like some of Sheri Johnson's contrasts between work life and prison life.  Her analysis is "spot on," and I will try to paraphrase some of her findings.

1.  In prison you live in an 8' x 10'[ cell, and at work you have a 6' x 8' cubicle.

2.  In prison you get three meals a day, and at work you only get a break for one meal.

3.  In prison you spend most of your life looking through bars from the inside wanting to get out, but at work you spend most of your time wanting to get out and inside the bars.

4. (Best of all!) In prison there are sadistic wardens, but at work there are managers.

05.  Ms. Porter Some More

"I think joy is just as instructive as pain, and I like it better."

06.  Baltimore's H. L. Mencken Sez

"Men have a much better time of it than women.  For one thing, they marry later.  For another thing, they die earlier."

07.  F. Scott Fitzgerald Sez

"Baltimore - I belong here where everything is civilized and gay and rotted and polite."

08.  New Bedford, Massachusetts' Rogue Elephant

Buttonwood Park Zoo employees used to take one of the elephants (Emily) to the Dunkin' Donuts nearby on Kempton Street at coffee-break time. (absolutely true)

They suddenly stopped after being accused of making the elephant rob the place by sucking up the contents of the cash register through her trunk.

This is what happened when the Donut shop owner called the New Bedford Police:

Owner: "I've been robbed by an elephant."

Cop:   "Can you describe the perpetrator?"

Owner: "Well, she was sort of elephant-looking.  You know - big and wrinkled with a long trunk." 

Cop: "That's not much to go on.   Can't you give me a better description?"

Owner: "What do you want?  An elephant is an elephant."

Cop:  "No. That's not exactly true.  For instance, was this elephant who robbed you an Indian or an African elephant?"

Owner: "What's the difference?"
Cop:  "An Indian elephant has small ears close to its head, and an African elephant has large floppy ears.  What kind of ears did this elephant have?"

Owner:  "How should I know! She was wearing a stocking over her head."

.............................................................................

Go, and spin no more.