Tired of This

 With so much war in the news lately, I found myself thinking, unfortunately, about things I'm tired of:

1. Tyler Perry/Madea: I thought he was giving this shtick up but, every few years, he trots out another Madea installment because he claims the public wants it. Whatever. I'm proud to admit I've never seen a Madea movie or been to a Madea play. I strongly feel Perry gets some perverse thrill from watching women get beaten down and then somehow redeemed. Which leads me to our second candidate of tiredness.

2. Andy Cohen: Why is he still a thing? I do admit I used to watch many of the Housewives shows when they first started before I got smart and stopped that noise. Cohen, like Perry, I believe, enjoys seeing women be humiliated but while Perry might have some sympathy towards women in the end, I feel like Cohen just cackles at the women he's made so much money from as he watches them degrade and embarrass themselves on TV. There's no sympathy, no redemption, just money and laughs at their expense. This joker should have been off the air a long time ago, yet he keeps on keeping on. I can't figure out why Anderson Cooper is friends with him. Ugh. You can and should do better, Coop!

3. Commercials featuring Jimmy JJ Walker and Joe Namath: These commercials seem to run nonstop on many stations I watch during the day. Walker's is particularly annoying. When Walker says, "It's me again!" I can't hit the mute button quick enough. Ugh.

4. Ye/Kayne/Kardashian/Jenner/Whatever news: Enough of these people already. I can't even read my daily gossip sites without one of these annoying folks popping up in the mix. They're all awful and their ten minutes of fame should have ended years ago, yet they're still here. Ugh again.

5. The Royal Family: I've had enough of them too and I mean all of them (William, Kate, Meghan, Harry, Andrew, Charles, Camilla, Lizzie). Must their every trip, statement, baby, item of clothing be discussed and analyzed in detail? No. Give it a rest already.

I'm really trying not to live in the negative because I do this far more than I should, but these people/things put me in a negative headspace. 

March 12, 1992

Do you remember what you did on March 12, 1992 (if you were even alive at that time)? I do. I met author P. J. O'Rourke at Hillsdale College. The bigger question is exactly WHY I felt the need to drive to conservative Hillsdale College and see O'Rourke speak and then meet him and get him to autograph my copy of Parliament of Whores. When I heard O'Rourke passed away earlier this week, I remembered that I'd met him. I remember him being very nice and laughing and telling me that his wife was angry with him when I asked him how she was doing. I believe my main interest in O'Rourke had to do with the fact that, at that time, he was married to Amy Lumet, one of Lena Horne's granddaughters and one of Sidney Lumet's daughters. I found that interesting. Still, was it interesting enough to make me drive from Detroit to Hillsdale with a friend? Apparently it was back in 1992. I even borrowed my father's Mercury Marquis to make the drive because I figured the beater I was driving at the time wouldn't make the trip. 

I don't even recall reading Parliament of Whores. I'm not one to read political satire, yet I've held on to my autographed copy of O'Rourke's book for all of these years. I pulled it from my bookshelf today for this post. Maybe I actually SHOULD read it now that he's passed away. Maybe. RIP, O'Rourke. 

I Weep for Humanity

I watched The Tinder Swindler on Netflix last weekend and my first thought after watching it was that I weep for humanity. So many women were perfectly willing to give a man they barely knew thousands of dollars. And these women couldn't afford to give anyone this kind of money, so many of them took out loans and ran up their credit cards to help this phony billionaire. This may sound cruel, but I didn't even feel sorry for the women who were duped. I felt sorry that they were so gullible. I also felt angry that they were probably the same kind of women who'd reject a guy with a normal job who didn't have access to a private jet or wear designer clothes. Am I blaming the victim? A little, but am I wrong? I don't think so. People certainly should trust others, but people also need to trust their gut and if something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't right. If you can't afford to lose any money you loan/give to someone else, then don't loan/give it. 

I know the Tinder Swindler had all kinds of stories about being chased by bad guys and having his funds locked down due to this but why didn't he get money from his wealthy family? Why weren't they about to provide him with funds to help him out during this rough patch? The whole thing just didn't pass the smell test. If you're flying around the world in a private jet on one hand then begging your girlfriend to up her Am Ex limit to help you out on the other, something ain't right.    

Snow...Again

It's another snowy day in the Chicago area and I'm tired of the white stuff already. As someone who grew up in the Midwest in Detroit, I'm no stranger to snow and ice and dreary overcast days during the winter, but I don't know how long I want to keep dealing with this weather. I keep seeing commercials on TV that are trying to lure people to Florida. I see ads for the Keys, Orlando, and I just saw one for Ft. Lauderdale. What kills me is that all of these ads show people relaxing on the beach or sunning themselves on a boat and I can't help but wonder, What about Covid??? It's still out there, folks. Alive and thriving! Still, I'd love to be somewhere warm and sunny now. (Maybe not Florida, but somewhere else where there isn't a foot of snow on the ground.) 

The snow here is getting in the way of my daily walks. I was able to get out yesterday and it's horrible that some folks can't be bothered to shovel their walkways. The picture below was taken yesterday outside of a local business. I could see if someone's elderly or physically unable to shovel their walk and might need some help, but a business should know better. I bet folks in Sanibel aren't worrying about sidewalks that haven't been shoveled.