Gender Equality

Where have all the statesmen/women gone? It seems no one wants to be Speaker of the House. And there is Nancy Pelosi standing in the wings.

Harry Reid, age 75,  is suing the company makers of the exercise band he was using which snapped causing his injuries. His lawsuit also seeks damages for his spouse for the "loss of marital consortium." Check that out all you Philadelphia lawyers.

ESPN has replaced a baseball analyst with a talented female to rave reviews. She was quoted "It's important to be a positive female role model in a world with a lot of Kardashians." Here's to gender equality!
tjs

Currency Exchange

A friend is traveling to Germany for the Frankfurt Book Fair next week. The Euro is currently at $1.12 but it wasn't always so. Years ago the German Deutschmark was the strongest currency in Europe (except for the Swiss Franc). It was a time when a certain Japanese businessman made quarterly visits passing thru the Frankfurt Airport and each time he was given fewer DMarks in exchange for his Yen. When protesting he was told "fluctuations!" After his third visit when the man behind the window said "fluctuations!" our visitor rose up and shouted "fluct- u - Germans!"
tjs

Les Champignons

I just read where the recent rains have been a boon to mushroom growers. Kennett Square,  Pennsylvania is known as the mushroom capital of the world for its fertile soil. Some years ago a disgruntled employee said this of his employer: "They give you the mushroom treatment. First they keep you in the dark, then they cover you with manure and then they "can" you.
tjs

The Ubiquitous @

Sam Borden in the NYTimes riffs from France how various European countries apply a description to the ever present hashtag @:
Poles = monkey. Dutch = monkey's tail.
Czechs = rolled up fish fillet. Greeks = duckling. Hungarians = worm. Italians = snail. Ukrainians = dog. Taiwanese = mouse. While in the U.S.A. it's technically known as the "commercial at".  Sam's two year old calls it a "tubby". But we haven't asked that prodigious Twitterer, Donald Trump, what he calls it.
tjs

The Caffiene fix

The NY Times reports that yesterday was International Coffee Day. The bean was first discovered by a ninth century Ethiopian goat herder who noticed that his flock were acting strangely after eating the berries off a tree which berries contained the coffee bean. It brought to mind the tale of the flock of birds eating the berries off a different type of tree and "not a tern was left unstoned." Ouch!
tjs

A Generational Thing

As I grow older I try to keep up with the younger generation as they sometimes speak in tongues. As the Irish say "A speech the stranger does not know." In a restaurant in Cape May the waitress had a prominent tattoo on her forearm reading YOLO. When I asked for a translation she said "You only live once!" Well, with the Congress in gridlock, climate change a reality, the sea rising, Dow Jones volatility and the MidEast in chaos - who would want to try it a second time? There is no second act!
tjs

Art imitates life.

As if you didn't have enough Trump in your life, he is the subject of a feature article in next Sunday's NY Times magazine. In some of the small talk with the author the subject commented on his cleanliness and once having to admonish a guest at a social function for double dipping the salsa. This reminded me of George Costanza of Seinfeld fame who also was rebuked for double dipping at a funeral reception. Perhaps we can consider this as life imitating art.
tjs