CSotD: Complaint Department

Our first conflict was brought forth in part by this morning’s Tank McNamara (AMS) and in part by my having missed the first three weeks of the football season and not feeling all that bad about it.

There was a point at which I would agree with the fellow suggesting a three-concussions-and-you’re-out approach, and I remember watching Steve Young take a succession of concussions and wishing he’d hang it up. But he is now a commentator and mentally sharp, so …

So nothing. Irv Cross also became a commentator after his football career ended, and Alex Karras did that and had a substantial acting career, too, and both ended up with advanced dementia due to CTE.

No amount of money makes that worthwhile.

Yesterday, I heard on NPR that a third of retired players surveyed believe they have the condition, and, while it can only be confirmed post-mortem, studies show there is really no safe level of exposure and that, while it can happen to people in any sport, it is common in American football.

Now how about something a little less grim?

Juxtaposition of the Day

Joe Heller

Bill Bramhall

The Tupperware company has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and while Bramhall is closer to the reason for its failure, Heller is right that it will be replaced by less durable plastic containers. If you’ve got Tupperware, even if it was a hand-me-down from your parents, it probably still works, while the cheap containers sold in grocery stores, though a step above plastic bags, become brittle and cracked relatively soon.

“Tupperware Parties” were a thing back when, as Bramhall’s cartoon says, we had housewives. My sense of things is that while a lot of women — and some men — take a few years off from work to be home for young children, both personal ambition and economic necessity see them return to the workforce once the kids are somewhat independent.

During my thankfully brief time selling vacuum cleaners in 1972, we set evening appointments by phone during the day and there were plenty of women home to answer our calls. I don’t know how it’s done now, but that certainly wouldn’t work.

Even a few years later, when I was the at-home parent, there were few enough of us scattered around the neighborhood that we got together for coffee occasionally but only in twos and threes. I know people still had Tupperware and other direct-sales gatherings, but the Avon lady worked one-on-one.

It’s a pity that durable, affordable storage containers are hard to find, but I don’t much miss the culture that Tupperware represented.

Though I once invited Norman Mailer to host a Tupperware Party for a project I was trying to fund. Oh well.

Juxtaposition of the Day #2

Steve Kelley — Creators

John Deering — Creators

Gary Varvel — Counterpoint

I understand that the Secret Service came under a lot of criticism for their failures in the first attempted Trump assassination, though it was obvious at the moment and the report that was recently released didn’t add a lot that wasn’t public at the time.

So far, they’ve followed military protocol in that sh*t rolls uphill rather than down and the director of the agency resigned, just as the captain of a ship takes responsibility for accidents even if he wasn’t on the bridge at the time. And, in the press conference linked above, the acting director promised major changes in procedure.

I suppose continued mockery as seen in Deering and Varvel’s commentary will act to remind them that the nation is watching and that they have to follow through with those unspecified but major changes.

Still, for all of Kelley’s concern that political candidates don’t have the same level of protection as the president, it seems they did a good job at spotting that fellow on the golf course, and what came out of that were reports of Trump refusing their advice not to play on hard-to-secure public courses.

But despite conservative blamecasting at the Biden Administration, it turns out the staffing decision rests with the Speaker of the House, House Minority Leader, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Minority Leader, and one additional member selected by the others, who then “advise” the Secretary of Homeland Security, and I suspect, at this stage, that their advice would be accepted.

Juxtaposition, Part Deux

Mike Smith — KFS

Bob Gorrell — Creators

Well, somebody is sure stirring up division in the country, and perhaps we should argue about that, rather than fussing over the fact that both attempts were made with assault rifles, the second of which was illegally obtained and had its serial number removed.

More critical, perhaps, is the news story about how shocked everyone in Butler, Pa., was at that first attempt, saying “Of all the places …” I think people had better get over the notion that “it can’t happen here” because it can, it has, it will.

The Secret Service pledges to establish a “new paradigm” but the whole country could use a new paradigm and I’m not sure we’ve got the will.

On one hand, we’ve got a contest between “Joy” and “They’re eating the cats” coming up November 5, but we’ve already seen how some people respond to losing an election and it’s not particularly promising.

Mike Peters (AMS) picks up on the bizarre attitude of Ohio’s Republican Governor, who responds to the lies and hatred being spread by Trump and by Ohio’s Republican Senator, condemning the lies but promising to support them anyway.

Perhaps he’s convinced that it can’t happen there, either, no matter how much hatred is sown.

However, we can’t pin it all on Trump and Vance, Matt Wuerker (Politico) reminds us, given how their pal Elon has transformed Xitter from a place where people once exchanged thoughts and opinions into a flowing font of hateful sewage. He claims it’s “free speech” but there seem to be limits on what can be said that contradicts his own troubling beliefs.

His latest innovation is to change the “block” feature so that, while you can block someone, it only means you won’t see what they post; they’ll still be able to monitor your posts.

But he’s also promised to remove blocking entirely in December, perhaps because so many Xitter users have blocked him.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.