72 of the n y times "favorite facts of 2021'

“7. pepsico’s frito-lay division made 70 million pounds of snacks leading up to super bowl week 2021, slightly more than it did in the previous year, based on the expectation that smaller gatherings would result in increased purchases of chips.”_____ don’t watch football…don’t eat salty snacks…irrelevant to me…wonderful consumption though ( if they all sold )_____ “13. during the frigid temperatures in February, texas’ largest oil field burned off 1.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas in one day, enough to power tens of thousands of homes for at least a year.”_____ who says capitalism is “efficient”? no one i know…the waste is incredible from the micro to macro and it goes on every day in pursuit of “profit”…and that doesn’t touch on the carbon the released…where’s william t. vollmann when you need him?_____ “18. in the 1970s, the american psychiatric association adopted a rule saying that, without proper authorization, it was unethical for psychiatrists to issue a professional opinion about a public figures condition.”_____ and so no deranged, entitled, unregenerate, unmatured adolescent dingbat could be called “unfit for office” by anyone allegedly capable of making a judgement…we were not going to have the whole barry goldwater 1964 mud slinging fiasco in the new nixonite world order…wondering just what un-scrupled clowns this spared down the line._____ “20. adults spend as much as 47 percent of their waking hours letting their minds wander, according to one harvard study that tracked participants with an app.”_____ where to start? digression is the structure of human thought…it is how we make connections…even i understand that as i ramble along having full blown conversations with myself…however the whole “app” business highlights the way the majority of the population have their noses stuck in a smartphone…probably explains a lot of auto accidents and may have something to do with the 1.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas cited above…one supposes the n y times was trying to be entertaining as it propagandized…there are 72 of these little gems in today’s paper…even the one about giraffes had a feminist subtext…mass media in the “age of mcluhan”…my interpretation of the message likely was not what was intended.

shots fired? contingency in action

that's what they said...but i didn't hear any...in my retirement dotage i have aquired a "retirement job" ( for reasons which will remain my own ) at a branch of a "major retailer" in a surban mall...in the receiving department...we had a truck today and had finished unloading it and had loaded the return truck so it was time for a break after five hours of steady work...i went out to my vehicle about eleven a.m., ate something, and was perusing a book ( assignment in utopia by eugene lyons ) when at approximately eleven twenty people, including the staff at the store, came stampeding out every available exit...unusual...i though, "well, either a fire or someone is shooting"...it was the latter although not in the store ( in the mall actually ) and i did not hear anything...at approximately eleven twenty five local law enfocement began to noisily arrive and ten minutes later we were all hearded back to the mattrress department and pretty much locked in the store...i counted forty one people ( including a scattering of customers ) looking somewhat bewildered and mildly confused...this did not last as within five minutes virtually all of them had their noses in their smart phones...except for perhaps five and the guy who was stretched out on a couch in the furniture department across the aisle catching up on some sleep...( i have a flip phone and yes i did get a text from my eldest who had received an alert to "avoid the mall because of police activity"...i sent reassurances about my well-being )...this was staus quo for the next ninety minutes of being "locked-down" and it is startling how boring the aftermath of a shooting can be...conversation, already minimal thanks to the phone business, dwindled to near total silence and i regretted not grabbing eugene's book as i went back in...then again i fully expected to finish a shift since retail is loathe to lose perfectly good sales time just because of some random violence...this did not happen...stymied by the workings of law enfocement...after the nintieth minute had passed we were told to grab out coats, go out into the mall through a specific store exit, and be prepared to present our state issued photo id on demand...i did so and, after being frisked for "weapons" ( i did report to the frisking officer that i had two razor knives...he seemed unimpressed ), was told to exit through specific mall doors, passing though a phalanx of riot shields, helmeted police, and an awfully lot of people toting assault rifles and practicing stringent trigger finger discipline...i am assuming that each of them profiled me as a recreational drug user/abuser ( based, mostly, on the hair...the beard was concealed bhind a mask ) even though i abjured intoxicants in 1986 as a sure death trap if i did not...self preservation won that argument...so i got to "retire" and i got to go home early today after a "shooting incident"...weird how life can work out...i have no clue if shots were actually fired of if a miscreant was apprehended...i may check the media...i amy skip it and lean on the "grapevine" for the details...surely someone in retail will research them...or exaggerate them...or invent them...take your pick...we are all children of mcluhan now.

mercilessly

“i only add in passing that when we gorge ourselves this christmas, if we do get the chance to gorge ourselves, it is worth giving a thought to the thousand million human beings who will be doing no such thing. for in the long run our christmas dinners would be safer if we could make sure that everyone had a christmas dinner as well.” george orwell, “as i please” 20 december 1946_____________________________________ “it’s getting harder and harder to give presents. who has room for anything these days?...and mercilessly we go on giving.” gunter grass, “the rat.”____________________________ when asked “what do you want for christmas?” i have, for at least a decade, sincerely responded “nothing”…to no effect…”stuff” continues to collect…i am older…i do not need more “stuff”…my focus anymore is on actually using what i already have rather than accumulating more material goods ( and let’s talk about the “bads” involved in those “goods” sometime)…oh i still purchase books ( or someone gives them to me…a “go to” when asked for gift suggestions…i have, of late, been reading “being and nothingness”…sartre was an over-intellectualized jerk with a bug up his ass about his grandpa )…and i still eat food…but trust me i have enough t shirts and hoodies to last me until the end of my days…i have, as a “retirement job” been working in receiving at a “major retailer”…this has done nothing but harden my attitude about the “holidays” and consumerist ethics…which are somewhat confusing…is there a duty to buy? seemingly…there are hordes of shoppers browsing and buying…and the procrastinators were out in force yesterday…one wonders if they were satisfying needs, desires, or indoctrination…there is a good deal of agit-prop out there reenforcing that indoctrination…and if it is a pavlovian response where does the puzzling phenomenon of “buyer’s remorse” fit in? a reaction to an artificially inseminated desire? a subconscious recognition of blatant manipulation? an internalization of the fact that someone is profiting at your expense? ( “how easily people are distracted and robbed while being handed commodities.” andrei coderscu )…or maybe the moment of transaction is the drug and buyer’s remorse is withdrawal…whichever, a good dose of denial will rationalize it all away in time for the next purchase…is any of it “necessary”…do we actually give anything that is “needed”? a friend just lost an adult child in an accident…i’d like to give that person some equanimity…unfortunately i cannot…all i have is condolences, ineffective as they are…equanimity they will have to come to on their own…the same way we will have to satisfy our “needs”…the rest is dross…i have to go…christmas dinner is at my daughter’s house…i don’t have much of an appetite for it ( or the “holiday” ) but i am going anyway because she is my daughter…and that is important… “not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.” Epicurus ( the grossly misunderstood and slandered philosopher)