Disinfectant

Wouldn’t it be hilariously funny if President Trump was onto something with his suggestion of injecting a disinfectant into one’s bloodstream to kill the coronavirus? Now we know that such unconventional thinking has heaped mountains of ridicule on the Orangeman. But let’s think about this possibility a little more ...

We know that Lysol or bleach are unlikely candidates for this injectable disinfectant ... but what about grain alcohol? Alcohol IS a powerful disinfectant ... we use it in sanitary wipes. Even some distillery companies are making these wipes as a patriotic gift.

And we also know that, in very small quantities, alcohol is tolerated in our bloodstream. So, could it be used, injected or ingested, as a way of killing this invisible enemy? Who knows? But one intriguing thing we do know is that COVID-19 has not swept through the West Coast homeless communities like we all expected. And what other infliction permeates these gatherings? Alcoholism!

Now this possibility might be utter hokum ... but wasn’t Trump onto a possible way of taming this monster?  Not that he would ever use it ... being an avowed teetotaler. But many of the rest of us would. Just imagine ... the “four martini cure!”

The Dawn

Alcohol-inspired insights have a funny way of fading with the rising sun. — Anon.

Happiness Formula

Happiness occurs when there is very little angst overhanging one's life.

And how does one banish anxiety from one's life?

Approach all potential problems with a smile and a positive attitude ... put on a happy face.

In other words, happiness begets happiness.

(Apparently, for a number of people, alcohol and/or weed also works.)

Modern Nutrition

Our children are once again under assault in the guise of helping them. Despite the constant liberal echo chamber that says it's always about "the children," it is really more often about the nanny state. My eleven-year old granddaughter who is in the sixth grade here in Massachusettes is soon to be surveyed about her nutritional habits .. good intentions, no? But like most things here in this road-to-hell state of a fake-Indian Senator and Indian pudding, this survey from the Massachusetts Office of Food and Nutrition took a left turn in its design ... and now deals with many non-nutritional issues in its daunting 99 questions. For instance, what do the following sample questions from the last survey have to do with food and nutrition?

- A transgender person is someone whose biological sex at birth does not match the way they think or feel about themselves. Are you transgender?

- During the last 30 days, on how many days did you carry a weapon such as a gun, knife or club?

- Has anyone ever had sexual contact with you against your will?

- Have you ever tried smoking cigarettes, even one or two puffs?

- During your life, on how many days have you had at least one drink of alcohol?

- During your life, how many times have you used marijuana?

And on and on ... This state agency has used its authority and good intentions to take a can opener to the private lives of Massachusetts families. Yes, this survey says that respondents will remain anonymous and will suffer no repercussions ... but dollars to donuts they are lying and some poor six-grade schlub who believed that his/her parents allowing a sip of wine on a special occasion was OK will now find a posse of do-gooder state-ists putting their family in the parental-abuse docks. And does anyone truly believe that any heads-up gang-banger-to-be is going to answer the weapons question in the affermative? The naïveté of these survey designers is mind-boggling.

For those of you, who are as incensed as my son and I are at this state intrusiveness, please spend some time viewing what my granddaughter is likely to be asked to fess up to about her family life ... see: Youth Risk Behavior Survey. There are many other ways for dealing with the social problems that this survey is trying to address. I suggest that the Massachusetts Office of Food and Nutrition investigate some of these alternatives. And I have also suggested that my granddaughter decline answering any of these neb-nose questions.

Adage of the Day

Twitter kills more people's careers than alcohol, sex and drugs combined.

High Society

The other night I watched  the old movie "High Society" on Turner Classic Movies ... starring Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, and Celeste Holm. This comedy of manners originally came out when I was a freshman in college and I, along with many of my classmates, were gaga over the message it conveyed ... sophisticated social interactions, loose morals, plenty of alcohol consumption (without real consequences). and romantic music spiced with lots of newly-discovered jazz. I still recall the general appeal that this film engendered. Many of us imagined a fling with Grace Kelly after an evening of champagne and ballroom dancing in a well-appointed mansion.

Alas, it was all a chimera then ... as I can clearly see now in its re-viewing ... Grace Kelly driving Frank Sinatra along the curvy roads of Newport, Rhode Island without hardly turning the steering wheel (rather ironic in that this was the way that Princess Grace of Monaco perished) ... pear-shaped Bing Crosby wooing and winning his scripted svelte former wife, Grace Kelly, at least 30 years his junior ... Frank Sinatra launching into song at the drop of a cigarette ash. This movie is replete with lots of bon mots that don't survive the years. Most of the charm of this movie that I cherished 58 years ago has been interred with its actors.

But then, I strongly suspect our grandchildren will some day feel the same bitter nostalgia about today's romantic cinematic blockbusters (if there are such things?)

Yes, We Cannabis

Every generation seems to have its own cherished vices. For my parents it was booze and cigarettes. For my generation, we added cigars, marijuana, LSD, and free love. For our children, it is still marijuana and free love ... only they have also added cocaine, methamphetamines, designer drugs, and even freer and more bizarre sex.

And, just to prove that they are open-minded toward their elders, they are dissing alcohol and destroying tobacco use. They want us to put our alcohol instead in our gas tanks so we can drive to some remote, unpopulated location to smoke our cigars and cigarettes. They have done this with extremely effective public relations campaigns that demonize our sins while lauding theirs ... marijuana, cocaine, etc. are drugs that inspire creativity and cause no harm (except, maybe, to Charlie Sheen.)

Well, surprise, surprise. This may not be the case. I have long suspected that designer drugs, cocaine, LSD, etc. may be the source of much of our grandchildren's myriad learning disabilities. Now we are also finding out that legalized marijuana is becoming a major source of greenhouse gasses and is an electricity hog. See: Bad Marijuana.  I just hope that I live long enough to witness our great-grandchildren performing the same form of rabid social ostracism on their parents and grandparents for their vices as are being foisted on us today for some of ours.

"The Surgeon General has determined that Acapulco Gold causes serious damage to the environment and grave injury to your genetic material."