I'm back.

Thanks to my marvelous son, Chris, my doctor was persuaded to give me a magic pill, and I feel good again.

Loo-King

It has been reported that newly-crowned King Charles the third always has his own personal toilet seat with him whenever he travels.

Once I read that foreign dignitaries would not use toilets in other countries, because of fear of poisoning. (Putin was one of the dignitaries.)

How they got around that problem, I can only guess.

WOKE

"alert to injustice in society, especially racism."

I believe that the concept is fine, but the sound of the word grates on my ear.  It's just not nice-sounding English.  Surely someone can come up with a less obnoxious sounding word.

Politics

I hope that all of the losers will apologize to the winners for the nasty things they said about them prior to the election.  (I know ... fat chance.)

Ambrose Bierce wrote:  

"Politics - A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.  The conduct of public affairs for private advantage."

Besame mucho!

John Winokur quotes humorist Joey Adams:

"Never let a fool kiss you - or a kiss fool you!"

Ambrose Bierce has something to say about this too:

"Kiss - a word invented by the poets as a rhyme for 'bliss.'  

Mystery Man

I mentioned this a long time ago and was thinking about it today and I thought I would bore you with it again.

Back in the 1950's, I was seated on a bench in Boston's South Station, waiting for a train that would take me to Basic Air Force training in upstate New York. I was seated next to a new acquaintance going to the same place.

A tall bearded gentleman holding a long carved cane stick approached and asked to sit next to us.  He asked me where I was from and began to talk about some of my relatives.

Next, he did the same for my companion.  We did not live anywhere near each other.  He knew all of my companion's relatives too.

At one point, he said, "You're Doris Vaughan's son Joe, right?"  

I asked him how he knew all of this information about us.  He side-stepped the question and reached into his long coat with deep pockets. He pulled out a packet of 8 x 11 inch glossy black and white photographs.

One photo showed him with tall Masai natives; 

 one showed him near an igloo with Eskimos;

one showed him in the midst of Alpine skiiers.

Some photos looked like he was talking to famous people, like Presidents.

Who was this guy anyway?  Did he know about everybody waiting for a train?  

He waved "goodbye" as our train pulled away from the station.

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