Monday, June 26, 2017

This is News?

Did you catch the big story on the news last night?  The reporter was so excited that one might have thought that she was announcing that a cure for cancer had been found.  No.  She said that a whole flock of new emojis have been released which will thrill those who have cast aside the English language to use dumb, cartoony, infantile, mindless graphic images instead of real words.  What is this world coming to?  This is supposed to be “news”?

Did you know that the English language has more words than another language in the world?  Now we can be restricted to the 1,851 emojis and we don't have to bother with the subtleties of language.  Cast aside such descriptive things as adjectives, verbs, nouns pronouns and modifiers, just visual grunts if you will. Instead of describing the subtleties of that first cup of coffee in the morning we can just say instead ☕️❤️.



Friday, June 16, 2017

Holidays?

“Women's Day should be Everyday” ....Pardon me while I get up on my high horse.  I am not for any day that is exclusionary and I never have much appreciated them.  Why should a special day be set aside to celebrate a portion of the population pie, leaving out everybody else?  Somehow I find it undemocratic to focus on a day which includes just a segment of the population.  In other words we should celebrate and respect everyone on every day 

Growing up I loathed it when Father’s Day came around and I have never bought a card.  Now there is Grandparents Day, which I put up right there with the bumper sticker which says, “Happiness is being a grandparent” or “My kid is an honor role student ”. 

I swear naming new days is a ploy of Hallmark to see more cards.  Do you suppose that this is the start of a rush to name yet another day?  How about a Gay Day or Straight Day, which Bi and Trans people might find objectionable.  If there were a Dog Day, then cats would get pissed off.  How about Paraplegic Day, leaving ambulatory people up in arms?  A Red Hair Day, or Blonds Only Day (no dark roots) might bother bald folks.  There is a Veterans Day but no Returned Peace Corps Volunteer day nobody to celebrate us.  

Let’s just keep the old days going and delete all the new ones.  I think Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the Fourth of July are fine.  They have a history and don’t shout out “Look At Me”.  And of course birthdays are important.  But save me from yet another new day to celebrate. 

I am now stepping off my high horse if I haven’t already been thrown.

Sunday, June 11, 2017

My Friend, Snoopy

Pets are humans best friends.  As a child growing up I adored neighborhood dogs and frequently I would bring home strays and my mother would telephone the dogcatcher to have the animals taken away.  She was allergic to all kinds of animals especially cats and would have an asthma attack to even step into a house which used to have a cat living there.

I dreamed about having a dog and would have been more than delighted to have been given a puppy at Christmas time or my birthday but that was never to be.
 

How I envy friends who have companion animals in their lives, but am so thankful that they have shared them with me.  Take Snoopy, Annie’s Border Collie, who greets me with ecstatic enthusiasm - a complete display of unconditional love, and tries to talk to me, probably saying things like, ‘It is so great to see you Lucy, you have made my day, I am thrilled that you have come to visit.  So glad that you are here.”  

Yesterday he bound up onto the sofa where I was sitting and gave me a French kiss before I knew what was happening.  It took him about 10 minutes before he settled down to take a nap on the rug.  He had had a wonderful morning going to the park, running and running in the rain after a Frisbee and then plunging into the lake.  He had taken on the day full force in spite of the weather.  One has to learn from dogs to enjoy every moment.