I’ll have another post about Wednesday’s events later today but, in the meantime, we all need a little humor in our lives.
Here’s how to sort fruit by size:
How the subway starts…
Nicely done:
Design flaw:
and this great ad!
Lots of musical birthdays today. I might try to catch up with them over the weekend but lets start with this guy, born on this day in 1935:
Sorry, no humor today. I can’t think of anything funny. Instead let’s talk for a second about the mob of insurrectionists who stormed our Capitol yesterday to try to prevent Congress from carrying out its constitutionally-mandated duty.
First, we know that if this had been a mob of black people storming the Capitol, the police would have opened fire with deadly force. BLM protesters have been routinely met with rubber bullets, beatings, tear gas and worse. After George Floyd’s death, Federal law enforcement officers swept people up in unmarked vans and used troops and pepper spray so that the President could pose in front of a church.
Second, how could the police be so unprepared. During the recent BLM rally, the city was in virtual lockdown but yesterday the police seemed to be unaware that anything was going to happen. This, even though the event had been advertised on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and various other social media channels. It’s hard not to believe that some of the police were complicit with the rioters, especially when you see Capitol police posing for selfies with them. The police reported that they arrested some 50 people. I can remember some anti-war protests where thousands were arrested. I guess the police thought that these insurrectionist thugs were okay guys.
Third, it’s interesting to see all those who have been enabling Trump and his lies and dismantling of our governmental institutions now pretending to discover that he’s not a nice guy. We can start with Mike Pence and Mitch McConnell both of whom seem to have rediscovered democracy and the constitution after four years of supporting the man who tried to dismantle both. Then there are organizations like the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers and so forth which were quite happy to bask in Trumps benign gaze and wallow in his money but now see which way the wind is blowing. What hypocrites! There are also those who repeated his lies to curry his favor even though they know they weren’t true, they knew the election wasn’t fraudulent and there weren’t millions of fake votes and Trump didn’t win by a landslide. But they repeated these lies anyway. They need to go.
Fourth, there are the social media companies which made lots of money repeating and amplifying his lies and the lies of others. We know that Facebook and Twitter and YouTube make money every time one of those lies is repeated and read again. It’s amusing that some of them have now decided that maybe Trump’s ungrammatical squeekings and calls to violence need to be…moderated.
Finally, there are the rioters themselves. How ironic to see them wearing ‘Make America Great Again’ hats while actually making America look like some third-rate banana republic. They should be ashamed of themselves. I’m certainly ashamed of what they’ve done to our country and its image abroad. They acted like ignorant thugs. They need to go home and shut up.
I should add that all of this took place on a day when almost four thousand Americans died of Coronavirus. Truly a sad day.
I just finished reading ‘Shuggie Bain’, Douglas Stuart’s first novel, winner of the 2020 Booker Prize and finalist for the National Book Award. It’s a great, wonderful book that I enjoyed but not the book to read if you’re looking for an uplifting tale or a happy ending.
Set in the dreary Glasgow of the 1980’s when the shipbuilding and coal industries had been destroyed thanks, in no small part, to Margaret Thatcher and her cronies.
Shuggie Bain is the story of a young boy growing up in a dysfunctional family amid disastrous economic turmoil. Shuggie’s mother, Agnes, is an unrepentant alcoholic, and his father, Shug, is a taxi driver who despises his wife’s addiction to “the drink,” cheats on her whenever the opportunity arises, and ultimately abandons her to a low-income housing development called Pithead, a depressing colliery where residents survive on government handouts.
Shuggie’s half-brother and half-sister soon manage to escape from an environment they recognize as untenable, leaving Shuggie to take care of a mother who, for the most part, is so inebriated that she is unable to attend to herself. At the same time, Shuggie is forced to face his inability to be like the other boys his age and, as he enters his teens, begins to struggle with his own sexual identity.
Early in the book there’s a scene where little Shuggie is playing with empty cans of Tennent’s beer that have pinup beauties on the side. He strokes their tinny hair and makes them talk to each other. His father is proud, thinking the boy is going to be quite the lusty man but his mother looks on realizing what’s really going on.
It’s a desolate existence for the most part. When Agnes spends all her government support money on drink, they pry open the electric meter to get the coins inside. All the while, Shuggie is loyal to her and takes care of her to the end. It’s a story of hope and despair. Some things can be fixed or overcome; others cannot. Most of the people in Shuggie’s life think they don’t count anymore, that they’ve been cast aside. It’s a feeling I believe some in our own country have and it’s not good.
There’s plenty of Scottish working-class dialect in the book and it takes a few pages to get used to it, but the book is very well-written and you’ll get used to it.
It’s a great book, immersive and affecting. You will say ‘wow’ when you finish it.
Bada Bing!
I started a band called “Blanket”.It’s a cover band.
How does a farmer find new cows to buy?He looks through the cattlelog.
British English has only three vowels: A, I, O.They have left E.U.
Therapist: Your wife says you never buy her flowers is that true?Him: To be honest, I never knew she sold flowers.
I just got accepted in a porn movie role.I’m the husband going to work.
My wife said to me, “You’re shagging that girl from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllwyrndrobwyllllantisiliogogogoch, aren’t you?”I said, “How could you say such a thing?”
Hooters is trying to stay afloat during this pandemic so they are starting door to door service thus a name change is in order.They will now be known as Knockers.
Doctors have just discovered another deadly pathogen, they are calling it the Peekaboo Virus.Doctors are sending anyone with Peekaboo, straight to ICU.
Whenever my enemies are badly cut, I never throw salt in their wounds.That would be adding in salt to injury.
What do you call a woman standing in the middle of a tennis court?Annette.
What do you call it when you’re milking a cow, and the milk goes everywhere but in the bucket?Udder chaos.
Is it a solar or lunar eclipse where the sun passes in front of the moon?Neither. That would be an apoca-clipse.
Two men were hunting deep in the woods one late afternoon. As the sun set over the horizon, the two hunters realized they were lost. Finding themselves outside of signal range and miles from civilization, they mulled over their options for rescue.”Oh,” one man perked up, “I remember reading that if you fire three shots in the air, it’s a sign of distress for anyone in the area.”With a nod from his friend, the young man fired three shots into the air. After waiting another twenty minutes and seeing no sign of help, they fired three more times. After waiting another half hour, the two shared a glance of desperation.”I don’t think this is working.””Yeah,” his friend responded, “and we’re running out of arrows.”
Today is the birthday, in 1950, of Chris Stein, co-founder and guitarist of the New Wave band Blondie. Here is one of the many songs he composed along with the lead singer, Debbie Harry. I like this song.
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