Things I Want (or Need) to Know

Why is leap-year day in February?  I know February is the shortest month of the year, but who wants more February?  I say we change leap-year day to the end of June.  Who’s with me?

My TV has a light that glows bright red when the TV is off.  My cable box has a light on it that goes off when the cable box is off.  Why does every electronic device seem to have a light on it these days?  And, can’t we have some consistency?  On when the device is off or off when the device is off, but pick one.  Shouldn’t they all work the same way?

Marine Gen. David Berger, the Marine Corps commandant, has banned all Confederate flags, bumper stickers, and other Confederate mementos from all Marine Corps bases.  Fine, but it makes me wonder when the US military will start renaming all the military bases named after Confederate generals.

When did time immemorial start?

Recently, I was talking about old cars (I like them) with a husband and wife I know.  The woman told me her father once owned a white, 1955 C-300 Chrysler.  It’s a rare car sometimes described as America’s first muscle car.   She told me when her father sold it, the new owner painted it red, which annoyed her dad who insisted the cars were available only in white or black.  I said they were also available in red.  She insisted and I didn’t argue.  But I did look it up.  Even though her dad owned one, I was right.  Now, the question is why do I remember what colors a 65-year-old C-300 Chrysler was available in, but I don’t know anything that would make me a lot of money?

Things I Know

If you’re tired of the process the Democrats are using to choose a Presidential candidate, and who isn’t, Super Tuesday is next week.  Hopefully, that will narrow the field considerably.  Mike Bloomberg has spent something like six-hundred-million dollars on ads.  And his campaign is focused on Super Tuesday.  If he doesn’t do well, that’s a hell of a lot of money to waste.  Or, is he spending it with some other purpose in mind?

It always amazes me that British election campaigns last something like six or seven weeks.

If you want to be pedantic, and I frequently do, grammar, dammit! From the NY Post Website today, “A Florida woman smiled to family members in court Thursday before she was sentenced to 30 years in prison for fatally stabbing her father 69 times.” She stabbed him 69 times, killing him. He didn’t die 69 times.

It’s Leslie’s birthday. Why do I remember, many decades later, the birthday of a junior I dated for a couple of months when I was a senior in high school? Humiliation. When I learned she was born on February 28, I remarked that she just missed being born on leap year day. She looked at me as if I had more than the standard number of heads and told me the year she was born wasn’t a leap year. Humiliation. I know you’re supposed to think first and then speak. I still do those two things in the wrong order occasionally, but when I was 17, I sometimes omitted the think part entirely. She, her husband, my wife, and I remained friends into our twenties, but as life does, it moved on and we all drifted apart. Still, every year at this time, I encounter a renewed twinge of humiliation and can’t help recalling it’s Leslie’s birthday.

I bought myself a scanner designed to digitize film negatives, slides and prints.  I’m still figuring it out, but so far, it’s working well.  I’m not going to convert every picture I took before I switched to digital.  I doubt I will live long enough for that.  But it looks like I’ll have throwback Thursday material for many years to come.

Prince Harry hasn’t really got a lot to complain about.  It’s been centuries since British monarchs or heirs to the throne have gone around killing anyone else in the line of succession.

Bloomberg

Multi-billionaire Michael Bloomberg is running an unorthodox campaign for the Democratic nomination to be President of the United States.  He didn’t participate in the Iowa caucuses, but he will be in tonight’s.  He didn’t run in the New Hampshire primary either, although he did get some write-in votes there.

He didn’t qualify for earlier Democratic debates because entry requirements included performance in polls and the number of donors you’ve lined up.  Bloomberg is now showing up in the polls but didn’t meet the donor rule because he has personally paid for all those ads currently inundating television sets near you, and everywhere else as well.  If the slogan, “Mike will get it done,” doesn’t resonate with you, you’re tv is probably broken.

Bloomberg says he’s running for President to defeat President Trump.

History tells us that more liberal Democrats are likely to vote in primaries, and the same for more conservative Republicans.  Bloomberg has done some things that won’t appeal to left-wing Democrats.  For instance, as mayor of New York, he was a strong supporter of stop and frisk.  As a result, a significant number of political pundits think Bloomberg has very little chance of gaining the nomination.  As a Presidential candidate, Bloomberg has apologized for that position on multiple occasions, and stranger things have happened. 

Last weekend, Bloomberg dropped the news that he’s considering Hillary Clinton as a possible vice-presidential running mate.  Recall for a minute the 2016 Presidential election.  Just about every poll that asked the question determined that Trump and Clinton were the two least liked candidates ever to face each other while seeking the Presidency.  It’s fair to say both are polarizing.  I know people who didn’t vote for either of them.  I am people who didn’t vote for either of them.

Vexed isn’t too harsh a word, is it? By mentioning Clinton as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate, I’m sure Bloomberg has vexed the other people still seeking the Democratic nomination.

By spending all that money in running, it’s clear that whatever else his motives might be, Mike Bloomberg is messing with Donald Trump.  If you have upwards of sixty-billion dollars, I suppose it is pretty easy for you to mess with somebody.  But, suggesting he might designate Hillary Clinton for his running mate leads me to wonder if Mike Bloomberg is trying to mess with everybody.