A carefully considered compendium of contemporary commonsense concerns and [contestable] critiques crafted by an ex-California crusty curmudgeon.
Confusion Reigns High and Low
Too many successful artists assume their celebrity somehow makes their opinions about other subjects sage, even when ignorant and uninformed. I can usually look past lame comments, made for example, by Neil Young or Dave Grohl and still enjoy their music. Despite Elton John’s wacko posturing on many issues, I won’t stop relishing his tunes; I even watched the biopic about his life. But Bruce Springstein has taken it too far with his loony liberal sermons the past few years. Yes, Boss, I still listen to your music but won’t be watching that flick bemoaning your mental breakdown in the early ‘80s. Will there be a sequel about your breakdown over conservatives? De Niro is pushing my limits as well. Robert, put a cork in it for crying out loud! I never imagined that the stud I watched in The Deer Hunter would turn out to be so bitter, mushy. and whiny. TDS much?
Dribble and Shoot
So, the NBA has a gambling problem. I may soon stop watching the regular season entirely, as I did major league baseball back when they cancelled the playoffs over money squabbles between millionaires. However, I will always watch the World Series. What the Dodgers pulled off in the fall classic was mesmerizing.
College sports have always been my “go-to,” but with all the athletes now vying for NIL cash over school loyalty, I am starting to teeter. Why are these players still given scholarships when making all that dough? At least make them pay for classes. Thank goodness the play on the field remains stellar, even if I can’t keep up with the revolving names. With so much money flying around and the fusillade of betting promotions and shows, is it just a matter of time until a college sport is engulfed in scandal?
What’s with the five-foot-long shoelaces in sports shoes nowadays? Isn’t that a lot of wasted money producing those infernal things? Why?!
Shut Up and Sing
One of my old pals screeched that there just isn’t any good music being made these days. I told him that is ridiculous. With all the enabling tech and talented (underemployed) folks, there is a tsunami of incredible new music being produced. Sure, I still like Led Zeppelin as much as the geezer who refuses to give a listen to Greta Van Fleet.
Ramadan in the Big Apple
So, a dual citizen of Uganda and the U.S., Shia Muslim and avowed “democratic socialist” promising pie in the sky is leading the NYC mayoral race over a former governor who, if there was any justice, would be doing life in the Big House for Covid crimes. Should it be surprising that the law-and-order GOP candidate who founded the Guardian Angels is polling a distant third?
Jab Jabber
Do you know one person who has regretted not getting the Covid jabs? Me neither. But I know a slew of folks who deeply lament taking them. Of course, we won’t hear about any of those people on the evening news, brought to you by Pfizer.
Ai, Yai, Yai
I read where demented Bill Gates has done a sudden pivot from, if not reversal, on his longtime urgent warnings of deadly consequences from climate change. Those capricious billionaires! A few years ago, Elon Musk was warning anyone who would listen – not many at the time – that AI would be the death of humanity as we know it. Haven’t heard him say that lately – Grok wouldn’t agree anyway.
How many billionaire tech bros or congress people are warning to tap the brakes on AI?
Mayday! Mayday!
Now that I live in flyover land, folks ask me when California started going off the rails politically. I point out that in 1994 – by a whopping 59% margin – voters enacted Proposition 187, also known as the Save Our State initiative, prohibiting illegal aliens from using veritably all U.S. citizen public services in the state. It was also enthusiastically endorsed by Republican Governor Pete Wilson. The law was challenged in a legal suit the day after its passage and found unconstitutional by a federal district court two days later. In 1999, Democratic Governor Gray Davis halted all state appeals of the ruling, killing it. Government betrayal: will of the people denied! Floodgates opened wide.
Revolution in the Tech Homefront
How is the tech in your car working? Mine is melting down. My Bluetooth regularly shuts off or leaps onto the portable listening device inside the center console. The music suddenly jumps from my iTunes library to a Sirius XM promo or AM station. Instead of song information, my screen often lists local restaurants, something I never wanted. I’m constantly reminded there is “no disc” – never was. My digital gauges are all going south as well. The blind spot warning light is constantly on, and my tire air pressure sensor is kaput. But those obnoxious childproof automatic door locking devices will probably keep working forever.
On the good tech front, I can tune into a YouTube live broadcast of my son’s symphony orchestra performance from California. I don’t have to hassle flying back there with all the delays caused by short-staffed air traffic control facilities. Controllers are considered essential but are not being paid during the shutdown. Does that make sense? I want focused folks doing that job.
Snapping it Up
I don’t quite understand how the government, which through incompetence or lackadaisical regulations, allowed all these people to receive SNAP benefits in the first place, now refuses to divert funds to keep them from “starving.”
Is there another country in the world with such obese poor people?
Don’t Let Him In, Coach
Gavin Newsom finally came out and admitted what everyone suspected: he will likely be a candidate in the 2028 presidential election. The old phrase “As goes California, so goes the nation,” has never been more ominous or in need of reversal.
Azel Griswold is a longtime California resident now semiretired living in Appalachia. He is author of the literary fiction novel “Swim a Crooked Line.”
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The article highlights all the frustrations and complaints many of us feel. I blame the media for not informing the public what is being done to us. Berney
Yep fun piece as Polly states.
At the same time it is chilling to see what is happening because a "handbook" states this is the outcome.
When the outcomes fail after 20 some years isn't it time to tell the authors of fiction it is time to get out of the state OR change your vote.... (now there is something that will create a few ulcers... *laugh*)