Judy is not very comfortable yet from where they cut off her thumb then reattached it to her hand. Her right arm is immobilized from her elbow to her fingertips. She can’t open a bottle cap or medicine bottle by herself. She can’t even lean back in the recliner without help to pull the lever. And her cabana boy is unreliable. Poor Judy!
What happened to the news?
When Walter Cronkite closed his show with “And that’s the way it is.” we believed him. When did the news stop being about the truth? The sports broadcasters don’t just make up scores and tell us one team won when the other really did. The weather forecasters might not get it right every time, but they never try to tell us it’s hot outside when we can look out the window and see it’s snowing. What happened to the political coverage: and how did so many things get political? Every cable news broadcast has panels so they can present all sides of the story; often surrogates who spin events to sound like their candidate is always right and every other candidate is always wrong; and if they can’t answer the question, they just answer some other question of their own choosing. Having surrogates come on the air and lie is not presenting all sides of the story; it’s not the news; it’s just people lying. I watched a disagreement about a point of fact; a demonstrable fact; there was video tape of what actually happened. In this disagreement, one person is describing what happened, and the other is saying what we were looking at didn’t happen, and sticking to that talking point in the face of incontrovertible evidence. The newscaster had to go to break and ended the exchange with “Well then, we’ll just agree to disagree.” It wasn’t a disagreement! One person was telling the truth and the other was lying. Wrong does not deserve equal time with right. The news is so predictably infused with opinion, that we can choose the slant we want just by choosing a particular channel. I don’t want to watch the conservative news or the liberal news; I just want to watch the news.
I want a new Olympic event
We’ll call it the Kidney Stone Shuffle; one hand low on your gut, bend over and shuffle your feet. See how far you get. I’m getting pretty good at this. Better than I want to be. Yes, despite my protests that it’s not my turn, I’ve already gotten all the attention I need this year, it’s my turn to take care of Judy while she heals from her hand surgery, I’ve got a kidney stone. Nothing serious. It will pass on its own, but it leaves me incapacitated from time to time. Sometimes Judy has to wait for dinner. Anyway, now that I’ve had sufficient training, I’m ready for the Olympics. USA. USA.
The Olympics
Athletes from all over the planet. Young and old. Experienced and inexperienced. From big countries and small. Communist and Capitalist. Democracies and Dictatorships. Athletes doing their best; congratulating each other for both wins and efforts. The games declaring that the most significant thing in the Olympics is not to win but to take part. An ultimate celebration of hard work, fair play, open engagement, and appreciation of the efforts of others. Once every four years. If only they could have hidden a lesson in there for the rest of us for the rest of the time.
USA. USA.
…and it’s fun to watch great performances from the best in the world, even when they’re not from the U.S. The best athletes from the entire planet. What a concept. That’s a lot of great performances to applaud.