Brown Motion

May 31 2020. End of another calendar month in the year 2020.  Historic for a variety of reasons. After nine years the human endeavor to continue to devise ways to escape earth's gravity continued with a successful commercial launch of a rocket with a space module (made by SpaceX) the day before and the phenomenal docking with the International Space Station about 260 miles above earth. Bothe vessels were traveling over 17,000 mph during the time of docking. Simply amazing - requiring scores of staff working in close collaboration toward one single goal. Contrast that with the tragedy and travesty of what is unraveling on earth itself.  The same species but certain individuals with ideologies that are completely opposite of what made the victorious event possible. Potentially fueled by poor judgement and certain biases toward fellow man there was a death of a black man as the outcome of a police interaction in midwestern America. What followed was equally tragic with the expres...

My wish came true. The society is back to using plastics. Lots of it. First the ego filled arrogant ones in our species all across America decided to tell me and folks who share my disdain for all so called 'green initiatives' that are not thought out, to not use plastic. So they decided to ban plastic grocery bags. Then the straws in restaurants and QSR. Next they kept at their charade to look important by banning it in all manners of packaging and the like. Enter covid. LOL. Now to drink with a mask on from a goofy childproof cup is a nightmare.  Perhaps plastic (sturdy) straws will come back (with a hole in the mask allowing the drinkee to satiate their thirst). Already stores are offering plastic bags at no fee to just get customers to not bring their own variety of germs (in cloth and other bags that who knows went where before). Plastic dividers to prevent sneezes and coughs and all the germs in the hot air blowing from the orifices of these loud mouths from infecting the...

There was a funny comic cover that I remember from many years ago. That comic mag was MAD. Some foreign returned cousin or such had got a few copies and I happened on one. It showed a dunce (called Alfred E. Neuman) with a finger up his nose and the lady liberty staring down or a flag draping this dunce.. cannot remember much of the artistic detail. But the caption read - What me worry?  It spoke to the breakdown of American culture back in the late eighties inside the cover if I recollect.  The mag was written by a bunch of hilarious Jews and died a recent death after almost seven decades.  Fast forward to present time and now we got ourselves a pickle.  Not simply by the fact that MAD is dead. But a pandemic to be exact.  And the whole cause of this is Who? No I mean the answer is WHO.  As in the World Health Organization.  Not a rock band.  Not exactly. Now memory does not serve here as I forgot about the genesis of this world body but it must ...

AKA Entering Holy Matrimony.  Marriage.  And preceding it the execution of the 'Marriage Vows'. Whew! How on earth are terms like knots, vows, betroth part of an arrangement that supposedly guarantees to the betrothees and those assembled to view this ridiculous affair pretending there is something permanent here? This blog explores what a crock this whole vowing is.   To begin let us start with the basic plot / thesis or  vowing language as shown below in exhibit A. Exhibit A - I, ___, take thee, ___, to be my wedded husband/wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith [or] pledge myself to you. First question - what is a 'thee'?  In today's day and age when most people only speak Emoji do we think that this Dickensian language is going to get any takers?  Th...

So far my phone lines seem to be working well.  As is my internet and cable. Ya that thing which snakes in through holes in the wall and plus into the large screen in the back.  And pushed mostly marketing messages any channel you choose.  That one.  It is providing a sense of comfort in these discombobulated times. So then what's the disconnect you ask? For America at least -  Wall street is not the economy.  They are two completely separate things at this time if one is watching the prints from both tapes. Government (of the people and all that nonsense) is not really the people or reality.  Frankly I do not think (or rather hope) that people pay much attention to the moron in the top spot.  Remember he still thinks this is a TV show. Number of toilet paper rolls and assholes - the ratio simply makes no sense.  The way an average American is hoarding it would appear they all adopted a country in Africa to support for the next year.  Ea...

The amount of drugs pitched on American television stations is staggering.  Many come with so many side effects one would stagger if not already staggering from other issues. But this blog is about something else.   Side effects of a major event.  Not an iphone launch but something more profound like a pandemic. Below are some - Cleaner air and water in many parts of the world where people congregated in large amounts. Birds seem to be using different frequencies for courtship and people are actually more aware that there is something called nature just outside their working home office window. Some are literally breathing in a deep sigh of relief. In places like New Delhi, India they can actually see their family members across the hallway - no more polluting air obfuscating the view.  So much so that some folks actually realized that the Himalayas are not that far - one can actually glimpse them from some states. And finally, finally no more homeless bums shit...

No this is not a new Jerry Springer wannabe episode but my observations about 'garbage out' portion of our lives.. 1.  Taking out the trash - at my home when I take my trash can to the curb I have noticed I am one of the few who has very little to throw out.  Small can and not all 3 cans each week.  But I pay my trash hauler the same.  Hmm I guess my way of donating to this faltering economy as the others help with their conspicuous consumption causing each can to flow over its max limit causing their lids to pop upward. 2.  White house press forums - pure Trash Talk.  No other way of explaining that shower from the podium. 3. All of our devices  - with stay at home the world's personal computing devices are now full of the same junk.  Some weirdo doing hand tricks or animals wandering aimlessly through malls, messages of hope and despair and rants from those that officially lost it.  Whose gonna clean? How about buying the latest and biggest...

I do not remember dates.  I was in America when George Carlin - one of my all time fav comic had died.  But I found out later. Today thanks to the stay at home condition and access to internet I read that Ben Stiller had updated us on his father's passing.  Apparently Ben did it in the bird kingdom called Twitter.  But that twit was picked up by NYT which I read and thusly found out that a close second in terms of comic genius to George Carlin (not Costanza) was now gone.  Jerry Stiller dead at 92. I may have seen him in a cameo here or there in film or television but I only came to know of him as a character and father of another comic (Ben) as I started enjoying Seinfeld.  As the eccentric and irascible father of Jason Alexander's character called George Costanza, he was a glue that carried the show about nothing to new highs. In many ways he was a perfect foil with his advanced age and mental blocks to the fast moving witty banter among the younger four ...

Before the readers panic I am referring to an event circa Oct 2019. Pre covid. Yours truly wanted to get a first hand taste of what the hype was all about.  Sure I have witnessed plenty of these new fangled battery powered appliances silently zipping across the bay area.  In fact my neighborhood might pass for a Tesla Show set (akin to the Truman show).   It appears every able bodied human is behind the wheel doing everything other than driving this thing. I had a chance to touch and feel the thing when they showed up at work one day too to promote green something or the other.  Whether that is marketing, fake news or what is another blog. But I decided it was time to experience this behind the wheel feeling of what had become a staple.  Typically (as the readers likely know) I am a reluctant technologist and in no hurry to familiarize myself with things that do not immediately hold appeal.  Let others bleed on the edge I say.  See if they survive...

As the famously smart Robert Fulghum would say - we need to be able to determine what is an inconvenience vs a problem. Life is lumpy. A lump in the oatmeal, a lump in the throat and a lump in the breast are not the same kind of lump. One needs to learn the difference. As such with the advent of covid (almost sounds like a religious holiday lol) we Americans need to wisen up and decide what is really a problem.  Not everything is.  Not being able to get out and burn gasoline and buy things we did not need in the first place is not a problem.  May not even qualify as an inconvenience but hey to each his own. Agreed much of our so called normal life is at a standstill.  In that lot of the otherwise Aisle walking is out. No bride is walking down any Aisle anytime soon.  Zooming to get the vowing done is more du jour. No aimless wandering in a Walmart Aisle looking for a Star Wars costume.  Going down the Amazon route is it. And speaking of being grounded - no ...

Lot has been written about the disconnect between main street and wall street as Covid rages on in this world. The political urge and seeming will to stem the negativity indicative of all that is wrong with the world and inherently the businesses that help run it is to bail out said enterprise. In doing so these tools in the arsenal are those with the federal governments of the world.  These bodies are the proverbial last stop where the buck stops.  Oddly this terminal feature gives me goosebumps.  This is to say that without these governments we sapiens as a species are F**D. And we all know how smart or not these so called governments are.  Some are more screwed wrong than others.  And to expect these clowns to actually step in as the last resort?  Caveat Emptor. Buying stock in companies because there asset values are cratering on the open market is a fool's errand.  To an extent it might serve as a bandaid as all manner of enterprises get a lifelin...