That ornery Arctic ice cap

We got the latest issue of Columbia's alumni magazine, which I call the Smug Report, because it is.  The last page tells about the visit of our beloved President to Queens or someplace like that.  I'm surprised they found this lowly place, which is even lowlier now that Sandy has wreaked havoc upon it.  Must have used GPS.

Obama mentioned the Arctic ice cap, which, according to him,  had been melting at a rapid rate.  I am so damn sick of this ice cap and all its brother and sister ice caps around the world.  Obama seems to think it is melting, but others whom I respect deny it.

Isn't it possible to go and measure the damn thing?  Like with an airplane?  and settle this controversy once and for all.  If it is not melting, the media ought to make that a page one news story.  If it is, tell us.

And then let's never hear about ice caps again.  Ever.  They are so twentieth century.

Should I forget about blogging?

I'm considering what to do with my blog, which I think 3 or 4 people actually read.  I have signed up for all the social media stuff, but I don't know what to do with that either.  Shall I discuss my visit to Whole Foods?  My skull x-rays?  Who cares?  As for Twitter, most of the bloggers I enjoy are posting there, but I can't even begin to figure out how it works.  It seems to have enlisted all the characters on the keyboard which were formerly used only in comic strips when one of the characters inadvertently hits his thumb with a hammer and said something like:  "@#*^$$$!"

Also, politics isn't fun any more.  I can't believe the people we have in positions of authority are the best we can find.  What a dreary lot!  What happened to the quality of citizens?  There are 300 million people in this country, but the voters are offered a candidate who believes a woman's body will reject a fetus that results from rape.  Whether he also believes that the stars are God's daisy chain was not revealed.

I am reading Shelby Foote's enormous tome on the Civil War, which is teeming with interesting and distinguished people, so much so that you have to keep a list to remember which side some of them are on, very much as I had to do with War and Peace.  I am still reading about 1861 and have four more years to go.  What a cast of characters!

Funny how now that we have a Democratic president the media are not banging on about how many American lives have been lost in Iraq or Afghanistan.    The total casualties in the Civil War are estimated at 600,000.  No one knows for sure.  Don't hear much about no blood for oil either.

How I spent my Christmas vacation

I have been sidelined with flu, and it was bad.  You don't need to have all the details but I reached the apogee when I fell in the lobby of the Kimmel Center--right on my nose. It hurt like hell.

I was immediately surrounded by six or eight people.  Someone helped me up and someone else got a chair for me.  Among the crowd was one nurse and one nursing assistant.  They sent for an ambulance, which came double quick.  The paramedics checked my blood pressure, etc. and I refused transportation to the hospital.  I never want to see a hospital again, at least as a customer.

On Christmas, I was at a hospital in Harford County, MD.  The people you encounter in Harford County are almost pathologically nice.  I thought the nicest people I had ever met were in Ireland, but Harford County makes the Irish look like pikers.  If there were an Olympic event for niceness, Harford County would win going away.

By the way, I did have a flu shot, but got the flu anyway.

Too good to check

According to the New York Post,college coeds are seeking older men to finance their college expenses. That's how hard up the poor dears are. The article is short on statistics and long on unicorn poop, quoting various here today and gone tomorrow websites that match up these young ladies with wealthy oldsters. I expect to see these headlines on trashy newspapers at the supermarket checkout line, along with UFO sightings and the latest sex scandals. How many of these relationships really pan out? I'm sure there are girls who wouldn't mind taking a rich person's money for no quid pro quo. It's the other end of the equation that I find dubious. I can't believe rich prosperous older guys are gullible enough to finance some chick's education for practically no return on their investment.

Ulysses S Grant

I've been doing a lot of reading about the Civil War and have gotten tremendously interested in General, later President, Grant. Opinions on his administration vary, but everyone acknowledges he was an honorable man through and through. The public knew how to venerate the man, which is greatly to their credit. Not too many honorable men have served as President in my lifetime. Example: Clinton, a scoundrel through and through. Also on the dishonorable list: Nixon, Johnson, and the current incumbent. George H W Bush was an honorable man, and so was his son. Eisenhower was an officer and a gentleman. Gerald Ford--maybe. I can't think of many others. can you?