CSotD: Funday Will Sometimes Be The Same

It seems appropriate that Madam & Eve, which has of late dwelt entirely on South Africa’s corrupt and discouraging political scene, should offer this suggestion for relief, which applies to everyone in a corrupt and discouraging political scene, which these days feels like pretty much everybody.

Besides, one of the 10 Commandments — available soon on a wall near you — is to keep holy the Sabbath, and not fretting over things seems like a good way to do that.

We’ll start by ignoring the fact that we don’t all agree on which day is the Sabbath, and that we don’t all agree on how you are supposed to keep it holy, and that we don’t all agree on which Commandment tells us to do that.

Though I hope we all agree that the Commandment not to take the Lord’s name in vain does not mean schools shouldn’t teach cursive.

Which reminds me that, as noted in this Flying McCoys (AMS), there are a lot of folks who think the schools don’t teach kids anything that sticks with them, and I’d sure like to see the Venn Diagram of those people and the people who want religion taught in public schools.

But we’ll think about that tomorrow.

Today, rather, we will focus on odd thoughts, including this Frazz (AMS), because I discussed summer reading lists on a more serious level the other day and now I’m simply going to point out that here in the three-dimensional world nearly all teachers can hand out the same reading list every year.

There are a few schools that do what is called “looping,” in which kids have the same teacher for two or three years. One of my boys looped K-2 and I’ve heard of places that loop grades 1-3, though I hope nobody teaching at that level hands out summer reading lists.

Only in comic strips do kids and teachers in self-contained classrooms stay together year after year after year. But the summer learning loss noted in the Flying McCoys is real enough that the kids would probably forget whatever books they’d read the year before, so wotthehell.

Anyway, all this thinking is breakething the Sabbath. Let us lighteneth up.

Juxtaposition of the Day

Adam@Home — AMS

B.C. — Creators

Apparently, this is a good day for training animals. And before anyone bothers to point it out, I’ll say that you could almost certainly train a crow to drop a ball into a hole. Crows aren’t as clever as Ernest Thompson Seton taught generations of kids that they were, but there are a number of videos online indicating their abilities.

And I will attest from my experience as a small child that it is indeed possible to teach a frog to jump into water.

Though I will also attest, from my experience as the parent of small children, that training it to dance and sing is not recommended. But, hey, you do you.

Mort Gerberg offers this reflection on the heat dome that has released us here but which I gather persists elsewhere in the Northeast and is mirrored elsewhere.

While it was on, we walked our dogs in the early morning, skipped the afternoon walks entirely and just hunkered down at home, but in the early part, it was interesting to note the number of people among our gang who had lived in different parts of the country.

“It’s a dry heat” has become both a cliche and a joke, but I suspect largely among folks who haven’t sampled many alternatives. For my part, I miss the semi-desert climate of Colorado’s Front Range, where it could be 100 degrees without being all that oppressive. Meanwhile, having lived in the constant humidity southeast of Lake Michigan, never again, neither summer nor winter.

The other day, as we debriefed ourselves on the now-passing heat wave, two people reported having dehumidifiers running simply to make their homes bearable. One reported that she seemed to be constantly pouring out the accumulated water in the tank.

Which may be a snapshot of the future: Since Dear Leader plans to halt putting any research or restrictions into climate change and SCOTUS has begun dismantling the Clean Water Act, our great-grandchildren may grow up assuming that you get water from dehumidifiers much as our great-grandparents assumed that it came from wells.

Juxtaposition of the Day #2

Deflocked — AMS

Mannequin on the Moon

I don’t begrudge Bezos his wealth. I remember when Amazon first launched as an on-line bookstore, when I lived an hour away from any bricks-and-mortar bookstores, and an hour-plus-a-ferry-ride from an independent bookstore, which eventually was gobbled up by a chain.

And I’d point out that giving your money to Barnes & Noble isn’t much of a karmic improvement over sending it to Jeff.

Which applies to all sorts of categories now, since corporate chains have nearly wiped out local ownership. I shop local when I can, though, as a retired editor, I prefer to think of it as shopping locally.

But in a town this size even the chains offer very limited stock and very reluctant, inefficient special-ordering.

However, what little I’ve heard about people shopping with Temu does, indeed, sound like they develop a sudden need for a back-scratcher, less because their back itches than because it’s only $1.43.

Dammit, people, there’s merit in harnessing your needs rather than empowering the fellow in Jerry King’s cartoon, whether he lives in your town or in Bentonville, in Seattle or (allegedly) in the Cayman Islands.

Juxtaposition of the Day #3

Arctic Circle — KFS

Pardon My Planet — KFS

I tried computer dating for a while, but it yielded more strange stories than worthwhile dates.

For instance, as in Arctic Circle, I had a date with a graphic designer. In real life she hadn’t faked her photo, but she did invite her family to come to the restaurant and watch us from a nearby booth.

And that was one of the good ones.

The real problem was that I was over 50 and had not only been married and divorced but had had a couple of successful relationships since, which brought me to the level seen in Pardon My Planet.

Love may be lovelier the second time around, but the red flags sure are a lot easier to spot and harder to ignore.