Marilyn Monore is not mentioned in this post but here's a photo of her anyway
Among the most boring things a person can tell you about is how busy they were/are/have been. What can make it especially tedious is when the speaker is clearly proud of being “super busy.” It’s not a badge of honor, folks. What one should take pride in is having successfully carved out leisure time for themselves. Imagine thousands of years of civilization and people are still unable to make time to relax. How far have we really come?
I had a friend (may he be resting in peace) who would avail himself of any opportunity to tell me how busy he’d been. That obnoxious phrase from middle school always came to mind: “Am I supposed to be impressed?” I never was. He even mentioned once that he and his wife “like being busy.” Why on Earth would a person prefer to have every waking minute of every hour of every day filled? Is it that people are afraid? I think that’s part of it. People are afraid of down times when they might find themselves being contemplative, ruminative, staring into eternity. The empty moment can be terrifying.
Full confession: I like to fill my hours and days. I get nervous if I don’t. But here’s the difference. I often fill those hours with activities such as watching a movie or reading or a watching a proper football match. These are not exactly the traditional activities of someone who is “just so busy.”
The cousin to busy people are the ones who bought something for “such a bargain.” I remember three blokes at work talking about haircuts, two were bragging about how little they paid for their haircuts when the third said that he didn’t paid a cent for haircuts because he cut his own hair. I looked at his tresses and concluded that it’s true that you get what you pay for. It is with that belief that I pay a pretty penny for my haircuts and without the slightest regret. My hair (if nothing else about me) always looks good.
Anyway, I’m not really interested in how little you paid for your socket wrench. Maybe if I’m shopping for one I’ll check in with you then.
But the most constant topic of conversation that I find tedious and that often makes me feel excluded is the goddamned weather.
In my experience the vast majority of people are only happy if it’s at least seventy degrees without a cloud in the sky. Heaven forbid it should ever rain or that we enjoy a little variety in our skies.
I hear about what a “nice” day it is or was or will be constantly at work. Yawn. But this is especially annoying because sunny, warm days bore the hell out of me. I love clouds, fog, rain and cold. Fortunately I have a co-worker who shares my views on the weather and she is quite vocal about it.
People enjoying unseasonably hot days is especially annoying given that global warming is here.
I’m also mystified by people raving about there not being “a cloud in the sky.” If it’s going to be a sunny day give me some big, puffy, white clouds. Much more interesting than a blank sky.
Did you know that there are more planets in the universe than grains of sand on Earth? Mathematically it’s impossible that not a single one does not host some form of life and the odds against there being intelligent life are astronomical. We’ve got company. Questions thus abound. Have they been here before? When, where, how often? Will they be popping back by? Is there some point when they’ll come out of hiding and make introductions? Scary question: what if they’re hostile? If they’ve got the technology to visit Earth from wherever the hell they started, then surely they’ve got weaponry that’s far superior to our pop guns.
As I understand it if life exists 100 light years away and they’re watching us from their homes they’ll be seeing us in 1925. If they’re a thousand light years away they’ll be seeing us in 1025. A million light years and they’re watching dinosaurs having the run of the place. Fascinating.
Speaking of weird (actually, no one was speaking of anything weird but do go on) I see that Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green is at odds with Trumpy. She has also apologized for her role in “toxic politics.” I’ve always found MTG to be an odious person but one has to give credit where it is due. Unlike so many Republicans (and for that matter Democrats) she’s got a backbone and refuses to cow tow to Trumpy no matter what he says or does. There’s still a million and half things about her that I have problems with — like her views on most everything — but it’s nice to see one of Trumpy’s loyalists doing the right thing in some circumstances. I wonder if this could be a trend and other members of the GOP will grown a spine. Sometimes I think there’s still hope for our democracy. Other times I see that Trumpy has again blasted late night host Seth Meyers calling for him to be fired and that the FCC Chair has reposted those comments. If they come after Seth there’s gonna be trouble.
How'd ya like the hodge hodge?
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