A couple of Things

 
First up is about driving hazards:

LAKE PLACID [Florida] — A 98-year-old man was transported to Lee Memorial Hospital in serious condition after his 2008 Chevrolet HHR was struck while crossing U.S. 27 at Lake Mirror Drive. Highway Patrol Trooper Larry H. McClellan Jr.’s report showed that John G. Gill’s vehicle was crossing the southbound highway lane at 4:05 p.m. Friday when a southbound 1996 Ford F-250 swerved left, but struck the HHR. Jean Gill, 85, a passenger in the HHR, reported minor injuries, as did the pickup driver, John G. Thomason, 66, and his passenger, Tvonne Campbell, 51. All four are from Lake Placid.


These things happen... moreso in our "snowbird" months because there is an increase in traffic and courtesy seems to be harder to find. Though, clearly, the HHR driver might be a bit old to be behind the wheel and was likely at fault. Here's the problem for us: there is no public transportation system in this area... so, if you cannot drive, you are trapped at home.

The next thing on my agenda is a rant about racism. Much in the news these days, it is a major problem for our society.

Let's start with the definition:

rac·ism

ˈrāˌsizəm/

noun

noun: racism
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. Think about that definition...Who doesn't practice it from time to time? I am sure there are many of you who do not consider yourselves racist in any way but aren't you? When you think of a white person from the south as a redneck, when you assume someone is probably a bigot just because he or she is lighter-skinned, or that someone is poor or ignorant or cannot be rich because his or her skin is darker than yours...How is that not racism?

I had a black man once tell me, "scratch a white person, find a bigot." How is that different from saying a black man is lazy?

Personally, I believe we are all biased in some way, that this trait is deeply embedded in our DNA; that all we can do is acknowledge it and try to control it. And that we must.

Queen(?) Hillary

I don't know if you like Hillary or hate her, though many seem to take one side or the other with her. More people, I suspect, rarely think about her at all.

But she is in the news now... because of her use of a private email server while Secretary of State. And so there will be a lot of commentary about her. She has still not announced whether she will run for president, holding off the announcement for unknown reasons. But it is assumed she will run and that she will have no real competition for the Democratic Party nomination. That irks me a bit because I don't think anyone should just be "anointed" but should have to undergo some public scrutiny. Perhaps this is that public scrutiny for her.

I'll be honest, I think she would have been a better choice than Barack Obama, but we got what we got.


What do you think? Will she weather this storm, get the nomination, and go on to win the presidency or will the Hillary train get derailed before it even chugs out of the station and someone else will go up against whoever the Republicans nominate? Nothing in politics (especially presidential politics) is a sure thing and there is a lot of time before the campaigns really kick off so there are certainly other possible scenarios.

Oh, it's Friday the Thirteenth! If you care about that sort of thing.

Wouldn't It Be Nice...

...If every time Congress passed a law that a previous law was rescinded? It would not matter if the rescinded law had anything to do with the new law... just that the number of laws on the books stayed the same.

Same for taxes, pass a new tax? Rescind an old one.

Just a thought.

There isn't enough outrage at government, in my opinion. If there was, people would be right now gathering pitchforks and torches and heading for D.C.
  

Tubes And Such

I have been thinking about tubes of late. Why? Because being old, and therefore almost toothless, I have to use stuff that comes in a tube to keep my false teeth in place. I also have to use toothpaste to brush what few real teeth I still have. Squeeze tubes are highly inefficient packages for these products but they are still the used in the vast majority of gel or paste products.

Not to mention all the marital strife that is triggered by a couple where one partner squeezes the tube from the bottom and the other squeezes the middle, it is a matter of economics. I have tried those devices that claim to efficiently squeeze the tubes for you but find them wanting. You have to squeeze (whatever way you choose) some (quite a bit, actually, I have found) of the product out before you can even slide the device on the tube in order for these to work reasonably well.

Sometime in the past, a few enterprising companies offered push-up tubes but these didn't seem to work well either and there were a couple of pump types (also with inherent problems, it seems to me) but they never caught on. It seems there is just no way to get all of the gel or paste out of a tube.

 

We can put a man on the moon but we are trapped in tubes?

What's UP?

 

I once wrote a post called "I have a problem with that" and this from a friend reminded me of it...

 

Be sure to Read until the end... you'll laugh.

 

This two-letter word in English has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.' It is listed in the dictionary as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v].

It's easy to understand UP , meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP , and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP   to the secretary to write UP a report? We callUP our friends, brighten UP a room, polish UP   the silver, warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house and fix UP the old car.

At other times, this little word has real special meaning. People stir UP   trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP   excuses.

To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing: A drain must be opened UP   because it is stopped UP.
We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP   at night. We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP , look UP   the word UP   in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP   almost 1/4 of the page and can add UP   to about thirty definitions.
 

If you are UP   to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP   is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP , you may wind UP   with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out, we say it is clearing UP . When it rains, it soaks UP   the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP . One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now . . . my time is UP !

Oh . . . one more thing: What is the first thing you do in the morning and the last thing you do at night?

U

P !
 

Did that one crack you UP ?

Don't screw UP . Send this on to everyone you look UP in your address book . . . or not . . . it's UP   to you.

Now I'll shut UP