Easter 2024

We wish you and yours, and all who celebrate, an Easter Sunday of devotion and reflection.

The Saturday Picture Show, March 30, 2024

 

The guy who made this mugshot mug had a really nice Chevy van back in the day. He had it all rigged up to go very fast. You should have seen that van go.

This is the picture featuring the most living presidents ever taken. Ask your children to name them all.

Just when you think we have invented everything that needed to be invented, behold the Burrito Bumper. Just place a tortilla in the red part below and chow down on tacos overhead. In no time, your taco detritus will fill your new burrito. I tell you, this could go on infinitely!

Even the Pope has to deal with March winds.

Not a bottle of catsup in sight. That's the way to dine.

Here's a really clever way to mount and display your collection of seaglass.

They say that spotting a female cardinal is a sign from your loved ones gone on that they are holding you in their hearts. I saw one the other morning, hanging around the Bradford pear tree out front. The bird was outside, not I. But still.

Somehow, I doubt this handicapped ramp met with approval from the code inspector.

And I just don't know...is this a huge architectural foulup, or a clever stairway to the attic?

This week we all had the chance to meet some experts in bridge construction and maritime operations. Just the other day, they were experts on infectious disease control, women's reproductive health issues, and vaccine safety. Amazing, the degrees one can be granted online these days.

For shame

You know, it's really a shame what's going on in the schools these days. People are out of control with their arrogance, their misbehavior, their constant flouting of the rules and the laws, and I really have little hope for the future unless someone somewhere steps up and puts a very fast halt on this conduct.

Now would be the time for me to tell you, I am not talking about the students or the teachers. Kids are what kids are and always have been and always will be. Teachers do their best, and succeed admirably, especially in light of the fact that a person with degrees after their name could make better coin as a district manager for Cracker Barrel or a home visitation speech therapist.

The teachers are there trying to teach, and once the students file into the class in their time-honored desultory fashion, they get taught. 

And sometimes they get taught too much, as in the case of the Stemmers Run Middle School in eastern Baltimore County, where the kids pounded the pavements and the parking lots and wore out a lot of sneaker rubber selling that World's Finest Chocolate as a school fund raiser. 

It must have been bittersweet chocolate. The treasurer for the parent teacher student association, James Michael Harris, 46, has pleaded guilty to ripping off $29,000 of the candy money.

Baltimore County prosecutors says that from April 2022 to March 2023, Harris drained the school's non-profit bank account. They say he used PayPal to line his own pockets, eventually using the money to gamble on sports.

“Those kids worked so hard to raise that money and they got nothing for it in return,” says Rosemary Roos-Whitney, president of the PTSA.  “It’s really disappointing.”

Harris could get 10 years in prison, but you know how that works. These guys always wriggle off somehow. 

Gambling is a sucker's game, anyway. In all of recorded history, there has only been one man stupid enough to go bust in his own casino. Except for that orange exception, the people on the other side of the gambling table are more than happy to take your money as you dream of cleaning up on betting that the Steelers will win and the Seahawks will cover the spread.

Meanwhile, the kids are the losers. People like this man should be shunned, as they do in Amish Country.  And then send him to the hoosegow and try to explain to the kids that all their work and hustle was for naught. 

Being young, the kids will likely forgive more readily than I will.

 

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Take Me Out To Eat At The Ballgame

Depending on what happens with all this rain they've been talking about all week, the Baltimore Orioles (defending champions of baseball's American League East) will open their season this afternoon at 3:05 against the California Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, California (their official title) who come to town with their all-star Mike Trout and several dozen other players.

Rain or not, ballgame or not, there will be chow for the multitudes. Fan favorite Boog Powell will be slinging the sammies; his Boog's BBQ famed rolling smoke will fill lots of bellies. It's described as "a fan-favorite, the low-roasted beef top round rubbed with Boog’s famous spice blend, smoked in-house to a perfect medium rare, and served atop a corn-dusted Kaiser roll." 

Life is nothing without corn dust on your roll! Boog's stand is on Eutaw St, where everyone has a chance to eat great Bmore beef. It's so close to the field, even the outfielders can dart up there during pitching changes...

And I think this is great. Oriole Park at Camden Yards has a new sensory room, designed for individuals with sensory processing needs. It's near Gate F along the main concourse. The room offers adjustable lighting, calming visions, and comfortable seating.  Sensory tools to enhance the experience include bubble walls, bean bags, and tactile objects. 

And last but not yeast, local favorite National Bohemian beer (we just call it "Natty Boh," hon), is back for those who like a can of beer with their baseball. It's also available in the coolerator in our kitchen at substantial savings.

 

 

 

A Bridge Too

We will talk about yesterday's bridge collapse in Baltimore forever. If you didn't see the story, a freight ship allided (that's the maritime term for when a moving ship hits a stationary object) with the buttress of the Key Bridge, demolishing in 40 seconds the connection from southeast Baltimore County to Anne Arundel County, passing over the Patapsco River in the Baltimore Outer Harbor.

When the bridge opened in 1977, it completed the circular "Beltway" highway around the town, making an easy trip for ten of thousands daily. The bridge is gone, six lives of men working on its roadway are most tragically gone, but just as surely, the bridge will be rebuilt.

I695 circles Baltimore. The blue oval shows the part now destroyed.  Alternate routes will be the order of the day for many days.

It got me to thinking about a waterway further northeast, so much so that it's almost not in Maryland. Up in Cecil County you'll find the little town of Chesapeake City, home to 736 people in the 2020 census. The town is divided in two by the C&D Canal, which opened shipping traffic to the bay for vessels in the Delaware River with the destination being the Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, and the entire world.

Once larger vessels started traveling the canal, a lift bridge needed to be built for them to pass under, and one opened in 1926 to replace an old swing bridge. 

However, in 1942, the empty oil tanker Frank Klassen, tugged by three tugboats, was carried away on fluctuating tides, and struck the bridge, knocking it down. With World War II barely underway (and American forces seeing some setbacks) the focus was on the war effort, and the little town of Chesapeake City had no connection to the mainland, except for ferry service, until 1949, when a new high-level bridge was constructed.

Old timers up that way will tell about how they rode that ferry all those years for basic needs - or how stores got their supplies trucked in by the ferry. 

I bring all this up to say that, as grim as things look this morning, and with the sadness in our hearts as it is, Baltimore, Maryland, and the United States have always prevailed, and we will again, because we have always been great.

 

Good advice costs nothing and it's worth the price

I would never presume to tell a woman what to do with her life, but I stumbled upon this list of  Things You Should Never Say to Your Partner ( According to Therapists) so I thought I would share it with you menfolk. Many's the time I have cringed while watching a man take his verbal shovel and dig himself a hole that would take anyone two weeks to crawl out of, so guys, pay heed...

Generalizations A sure way to end a meal is to say, "No one on earth could be a worse cook than you." Or how about, "You always order the worst kind of pizza that no one likes!" Bad for business. 

And the therapists say, this moves the discussion out of conversation mode and into attack zone. Suggestion: "Next time, could we look over the carryout menu again and order something we both like?"

My wife and I have been married for 50 years. We both love anchovies. Those two items are related.

Deflections When the other person brings up a significant concern, address it, and don't go, "Yeah but you forgot to return that book to the library." 

The therapists say that coming back with a big "but" just says you are perfunctorily acknowledging their concern, but you don't really validate it. Best reply is something like, "What I'm hearing is..." which honors their issue.

Comparisons are odious. I've even seen it written that they are "odorous," and either way, they are not fair. Best to avoid, "You should be more like (so and so)."

“You should be more like _____.” Comparing your partner with someone else is “never, ever a great strategy,” Gaines said.

Remembering that every person is different might help cut back on comparison. No one likes to hear that the neighbors are going out more, buying better cars, whatever. It's awful to hear that and feel you don't measure up, so don't throw that around. Keep it to the two of you.

Dismissals None of us are in the position of being able to determine if someone else's reactions are appropriate, and to tell someone that they are overreacting is just a way to minimize that person's feelings. The therapists recommend saying, "OK, I’m listening. Tell me more. Help me understand what you’re having a hard time with."

And for the record, can you think of a time when someone hollering, "Calm down!" resulted in anyone calming down? Me neither.

Better to understand you're both coming from different places, and try to see how an issue might be important to your partner for reasons you never understood before. 

*******************************************************************************

If you've read this far and are still looking for one of my corny jokes or pallid banalities, they took the day off today. 

 

Same but different

It's interesting to read about a life that parallels yours in some ways. Rosearl Julian West and I are the same age, went to school in the same time, and our paths crossed in the radio business and when we both worked for Baltimore County Government. She has written a book about her life and times through her school and college days, and I give it two hearty thumbs up.

Rosearl Julian West

"Reflections: My Journey On Arunah" takes place on the west side of Baltimore City, where Rosearl grew up with her brothers and sisters as the proud progeny of a family physician, Dr. Emerson Julian, who, in the old fashioned way, had his office in his house and saw patients there regularly. Dr Julian served three terms on the Baltimore City Council, and Rosearl's mom was his campaign treasurer. They formed a magnificent family and this book is full of stories we can all relate to.

Memories, good and bad. The disappearance of a little girl from the city when we were 13, the riots following the assassination of the Rev. Dr. King when we were 17, and the "Decency Rally" that turned into a mob riot at the old Memorial Stadium during our senior year in high school....the good memories of homemade waffles and riding bikes, the bad times of the riots and the burning of homes and businesses owned by friends and acquaintances of the Julian family.

Not only does Rosearl take me on a walk down Memory La, which runs from her old home on Arunah Ave. in the Northwest part of the city to my old stomping (literally) grounds in the Northern suburbs. Simultaneous childhoods make for interesting comparisons. It's funny how many times, reading the book, I said "I did something like that." But my bike riding was on woodsy trails, not city streets. My volunteer fire company helped out in the city during the riots by filling in for Engine 42 in Hamilton but we saw nothing of the destruction except on the news. Where Rosearl's childhood bête noire was a mean neighbor all the kids called "Yogurt Man," ours was the local habitually-intoxicated lawyer up the street who had kids on bikes and adults in cars scattering like bowling pins as he lurched along in his green '61 Chevy, a safety hazard which continued until he drove that car into my mom's car as she was bringing me and my sister home one sunny afternoon.

Different times, different memories, but still so much the same. Rosearl says that at 16 she possessed a "myopic but optimist view of the world." What 16-year-old doesn't? 

I'm glad Ms West brought up her upbringing in such a readable, enjoyable book!

I await Volume 2!

Sunday Rerun: "It's not personal, Sonny. It's just business."

 When I was a child in the 50's (the 1950s, that is) there was nothing more respected in America than The Businessman.  Oh, he (and it was almost ALWAYS a male, white, with a white dress shirt and a tie in a Hart Schaffner Marx dress suit) was the object of veneration.  It was assumed that he had Made It when he was seen tooling around town in a Cadillac, shopping at all the right stores, golfing at the right course, sending his 2.3 kids to the right schools.

That .3 of a kid was tough to teach, though.

It was all part of the comfortable environment of those days.  We kids went to school, learned math and science so we could beat the evil Russians to the moon, participated in atom bomb fallout drills (we were assured that getting in the school hall and covering our heads with our elbows would keep us safe from the effects of nuclear detonation) and did all we could as young citizens to make the world better.  The businessmen built and developed huge corporations to employ our dads, feed us, sell us cars and all was good.  We watched "Leave It To Beaver" and we felt good about things, because things that were out of the norm, such as alternative lifestyles, were swept into a corner as being only for "weirdos."  Just picture Red Forman from That 70s show.

Something happened somewhere along the line, though.  The line itself was blurred and people were hopping along either side of it. Just yesterday, I turned on the news in the morning to see that:

• The head of a peanut business in Georgia, knowing that his product contained salmonella, told his subordinates to ship it anyway so he wouldn't lose out on the sales.  Now he himself is being shipped off to the stony lonesome for 28 years, and his lawyer whines that that is like a life sentence for a 61-year-old man whose foul peanut butter killed nine and sickened hundreds.
• A company called Turing Pharmaceuticals jacked up the price of Daraprim, a medicine used for treating a food-borne illness suffered by AIDS patients and others with compromised immune systems, from $13.50 per pill to $750 overnight. That's a rather large markup, but Turing chief executive Martin Shkreli dismisses his critics as "people who don't think logically," and, when asked via Twitter how he manages to sleep at night, replies, "You know. Ambien."



Pharmacy Boss celebrates himself

• Just a few years after Hitler and his atrocities threatened to obliterate the world, the Volkswagen car he had commissioned became popular the world over. Plenty of men who had fought World War II were driving VWs to work by 1960, little suspecting that in 2015, that corporation would be found to have cheated emissions control tests on 11,000,000 vehicles that were sold to people who thought they were environmentally sound.  

Don't get me wrong.  There are plenty of businesspeople doing honest business and improving the public weal.  Bill Gates, without whom I would be writing this with a pencil (and you'd never see it) is not only the richest man around but also the most generous, and companies large and small live in harmony with the world and its people and its environment.

Volkswagen stock prices took a slight dip when the news came out

But reading about those horrible people who sell poison food, raise the price of life-saving medicines by 1500% and sell cars geared to cheat on emissions tests makes me shake my head in sorrow for the way we used to think things were.

The Saturday Picture Show, March 23, 2024

 

What a great idea for a beach shower! No one likes trooping back from the beach with half the beach stuck to them, so rinse and relax. Just...tell me again that it's water, and not Sprite, ok? 

From 1820, a library table that unfolds to become a library ladder for reaching that dust-collector on the top shelf. How did they have the time to come up these ideas, and then make them happen so beautifully? They weren't sitting around watching judge shows on TV, that's how!

In 1969, the New York Police Department responded to a rash of assaults on women by dressing up the homeliest male police they could find as decoys. As the passersby indicate, you can't fool a real woman with anything.

It really does look like Top Cat here has found a magic flying bucket, but it's just dirt, not a shadow.

A supermarket chain tried having singles nights in the 80s, in the hope that love would blossom amid a backdrop of Jimmy Dean sausage sandwiches, fig newtons, and ginger ale. Have you met a couple that found true love in aisle 8?

Call me a cheeky lad, but I always had a little crush on her late majesty, Queen Elizabeth. Thought she was cute as a young girl and elegant as she aged. She was never my #1 boyhood crush, though. Sandra Dee still reigns supreme. Look at her!

They say that Meyer Lemons, which are not lemons at all but a Chinese hybrid of citrons and pomelos, are expensive because they are thin-skinned. Usually, we associate that quality with orange things. 

HRING: One cption wrtr nt ovrly fnd of vwels.

The caption said this is I-70. I haven't been through Howard County for a long time; I guess things are changing over there...

Rebecca will fix you Mexican dinners for the rest of your life if you'll just buy this house! 

The old ball game

 I follow several pretty good baseball fan pages on social media (and have given up on several others.) I like a page where people swap information, bring up little-known facts about players and teams current and backdated, and share pictures. The ones I can't stand are the opinion pieces that invariably start off with something like "Mike Schmidt was the greatest third baseman ever, no debate, don't even talk to me about it." And of course, the popular "Joe Schlabotnick couldn't carry Harry O'Hoolahan's glove." Everyone has their favorite players, and why would I debate someone else's choice? Facts and statistics are one thing, but we all decide on our favorites and least favorites. 

Now, some people have a favorite thing about baseball, and that's when their favorite team is winning. Not so much when they lose...which is what got me interested in the post a Yankee fan made a couple of weeks ago, something to the point of "Have you ever stayed loyal to your team even when you know they're going to be bad?"

I am an Oriole fan, and have been one since age six, and I am well past my three-score and ten now. I have seen three World Series Championships (1966, 1970, 1983) and a whole lot of lost games over the years. All I ever ask is that I see professional effort from the team, and there have been very few times I was disappointed in that aspect. Like someone said, there's no such thing as bad pizza, and if you are a major league baseball player, you are among the best at your job in all the world. I enjoy the game for the pleasure of seeing it played.

Besides which, I don't base my happiness on whether or not the Orioles won last night or not. Some people do, and that's a shame, because taking credit or blame for the actions of other people when they win or lose is a real stretch.

And as I always say, I love baseball because it's the only place a man with a name like "Cookie" or "Tomato Face" can find honest employment. You'd never want to introduce anyone to your spine surgeon, Dr Tomato Face Cullop, but as your right fielder, Nick "Tomato Face" Cullop was good to know.

"According to a spokesperson..."

There is an entire field of work, an endeavor that's just right for those who can explain things in many words.

For instance, an unexplained light kept showing up on my dashboard - and it was a picture of a light. It came on whether all the lights on the car were on, or off. Didn't matter. Just out of curiosity, I asked the guy in the repair shop what the light was and what it indicated, and his answer told me everything and nothing. It was really a marvel of words. I think he even mentioned Brazilian copper exports and the best ways to remove unsightly stains from contour sheets, but nothing that touched on this random light thing. 

Then there are the people - public spokespersons by trade - whose job it is to explain why a public official was caught up in a prostitution sweep ("He had gone to investigate reports of illegal activity at the motel") or why a train was going 130 mph when it jumped the track ("Despite all efforts by the engineer to lower the speed, the train continued to accelerate until an unfortunate derailment ended the trip") or, in this case instant, why a LATAM airlines flight from Sydney to Auckland experienced strong movement while in the air ("It was a technical event").

What happened on March 12 on that plane was that a flight attendant was handing the pilot his dinner on a tray (it's unknown whether he chose steak or fish) and in doing so, pressed a button on his seat that forced him up against the controls of the plane. When that happened, he hit a control that caused the plane to suddenly dive, resulting in passengers being tossed around the plane like freshly-popped corn kernels.

The switch has a protective cover to keep this from happening. One is not supposed to be able to operate the switch while the pilot is in the seat. 

Uh huh.

50 passengers needed medical care after being tossed against the plane's ceiling as the result of the "significant turbulence" that was caused by a flight attendant pressing a button that he or she was not supposed to be able to touch.

The airline's spokesman said the company is "working with authorities" on the investigation. 

Can you imagine the meetings that are taking place? "Let's say the flight attendant noticed that the plane was too high and wanted to help the pilot reduce the altitude! That's the ticket!"

It worked so well the first time...

You have to hand it to this Australian billionaire, Clive Palmer. For more than ten years, he has been has been sailing along, trying to build Titanic II.

You might have heard of Titanic #1. It sank in 1912 while over 2,200 people checked their tickets for the part that said the ship was unsinkable. It made for a nice movie, though many people believe it was a made-up tale, but it was all true – and it gave us Young and Restless fans a chance to see Eric Braeden step away from the the exec offices at Newman Enterprises and play John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt  Astor, a really rich guy who drowned in the wreck.   

Palmer (I really wish his first name were "Bob" or "Wade") has tried launching this plan in 2012, and again in 2018, and now here he is again to see what will happen when the ship hits the fan in 2024. Let's hope he can keep his plans afloat.

The original sinker carried the flag of the White Star Line; Palmer is calling his company Blue Star Line, because fate loves to be toyed with. Plans are to get this vessel underway in June 2027.

 

Palmer tries again

And speaking of Eric Braeden...He wrote his autobiography ("I'll Be Damned") in 2017. In the book, he mentions that he was one of the survivors of the sinking of the German transport ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff, which was torpedoed by Russian subs in 1945. The Gustloff was transporting evacuated civilians, military personnel, and technicians as part of Operation Hannibal. That operation, in the closing months of World War II, brought over 1,500,000 refugees from ports in East Prussia safer shores in Germany. The future actor was not quite four at the time. Some 9,400 people died on the Gustloff.

 

 

Purrfect

In the Massachusetts town of Worcester, which has always been my favorite shire, you can beat the rap for returning library books late by bringing in a picture of a cat - or an "honorary cat". They'll accept a picture or drawing of a dog, raccoon, orca, capybara, or any other animal. 

The deal is called "Felines for Fee Forgiveness!" and it's part of their "March Meowness" celebration.

In fact, the program is already underway. The WPL has had hundreds of items returned (that's the point! Get the books back on the shelves!) and they are posted on a "cat wall."

The library's Executive Director, Jason Homer, says, "We found that many of our patrons may have items that were misplaced during the pandemic as schools shuttered and we entered quarantine.  We wanted to get everyone back in the library, and using our resources, and also wanted to create a really low barrier to get these fees forgiven." 

 

March Meowness seems to have something for everyone! There will be a screening of the 2019 movie "Cats",  cat-eye make-up lessons, a "de-stressing" hour of playing with shelter cats, DIY cat crafts, a scavenger hunt and more!

Worcestershirians need not feel they need to attend all these activities. That "Cats" movie was a real dog, in my "Memory."

More on the Truman show

I can't say enough good things about the FX/Hulu docudrama “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans.” And I'll tell you this - even if you have not had my 50+-year fascination with Truman Capote's talent and why he wasted it away like pouring precious water out of a bottle in a sere American literary landscape that he could have helped flourish, you will enjoy this eight-part series as a study of humans and their friendships and their willingness to deal with the devil.

After Truman drove away almost all of the people who loved him in the New York society-page world that he once ruled, he wound up in California, sponging off Johnny Carson's ex-wife, Joanne. Not even she was enough encouragement for him to get off his aspidistra and finish what he promised would be his Next Great Book, "Answered Prayers." All of us who prayed for a chance to read that book got the same answer: Forget it. 

After Truman died (1984) Joanne held onto a portion of his ashes for a decent period of mourning, and then auctioned them off for $44,000. She hoped that some young writer could be inspired by Truman Capote's boxed remains.

It is true that everyone could be a great writer; all of us walking around this earth have access to the same dictionaries and thesauri. The skill part is knowing which of those words to use, and when. And why, because Capote spent so much time idly gossiping with yentas that he forgot he could write about things that mattered.

Parceled off in a hand-carved Japanese wooden box, his ashes at least allowed him to urn a living again. Pun intended.

 

Tom Hollander, the actor who played Capote so perfectly, and the hand-carved box.

 

Sunday Rerun: Dress Up!

 The United States Senate, that august body of sobersided ladies and gentlemen dedicated only to the public weal, was conducting hearings two years ago in the Banking Committee about the Equifax data breach.

Former Equifax CEO Richard Smith (if that is his real name) testified about the data leak that caused the personal banking information of 145 million people to get into evil hands. As in "Smith's" prior testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, he claimed "full responsibility."

He also scheduled appearances to sing "Mea Culpa" to the junior varsity soccer team of Salmon P. Chase High School in Blue Earth, Minnesota, the Wednesday Afternoon Reading Club of Conway, Arkansas, and the staff of the E. Z. Bucks payday loan company in Twitty, Mississippi.

But for "Smith's" boffo Senate appearance, a spectator enjoyed the show in a black silk top hat, big bushy white mustache, and monocle sat in the crowd, swabbing away forehead sweat with gag paper money.  It was a simulacrum of the man we all know as Rich Uncle Pennybags from the Monopoly game show.

Ms Werner in costume

The Moneybags effigy is all part of the protest of the group known as Americans for Financial Reform. The Monopoly "man" is actually a female, one Amanda Werner, who wishes to make known her group's opposition to the forced arbitration clauses that the big banks use to limit consumers' (our) right to fight things out in court with them.



But I hasten to point out something almost as important as the fight against the pythons of capitalism, who seek daily at every turn to squeeze the middle class out of every nickel they can force us to cough up.

The Monopoly Man did not have a monocle!

Nor did Scrooge McDuck, who wore pince-nez spectacles.

People always confuse Monopoly Guy with Mr Peanut, the beloved mascot of the Planters Nut company.

That's a monocle!

The Saturday Picture Show, March 16, 2024

 

This is the legendary Smetana's Delicatessen, at York Rd and Burke Av in my beautiful hometown of Towson, MD. It was here that I would stop on my way home from high school detention to get a half a cold cut sub, a quarter of a pickle, and a coke. Then I would walk up York Rd to the heart of town, stop in at Read's Drugstore ("Run right to Read's!") for an ice cream, and then walk through Towson Plaza to get to Providence Rd and hitchhike home. That's 2.04 miles, says Google Maps.  At 6' 5", I tipped the scales at 140 lbs. in those days. It must have been all that walking.

Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow!

It's as if you saw a paintbrush owned by Van Gogh, or a typewriter that Truman Capote used. This is the cord that amplifies the notes Keith Richards plays.

We are lucky around here; our tap water is very tasty. Even the fish who swim in it say it's great!

It's a good idea to vary your wardrobe and not rely on the same color tie every day of your life.

A pound of beef, some cheese and rice, and here's a stuffed pepper that will feed a family of 27!

The Daffodils, having spent the winter hibernating, are bursting forth already!

Ah, the indignities of a life chasing the footlights. This fellow's claim to show biz fame this week is that it was he who worked the applauding paws of Messi the Dog at the Academy Awards.

Normal? We passed Normal a long time ago, and we're not headed back that way for a long long time.

Well, I'll be doggoned! Look what's back! And so are the inane posts from people who will search all over town for a doctor who doesn't require masks for office visits, because "everyone knows they don't work." Some of us will not learn.