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OK I am going to admit something about myself that I really really find embarrassing. The problem is it is what was rumbling through my head when I heard Peter Frampton’s Show Me The Way the other night. So, here goes, I can be a bit of a snob sometimes particularly about popular culture. To give you a good example of how this snobbery sometimes makes me behave, I have never seen the first three Star War movies. That is correct. I haven’t seen the Star War movies that almost everyone agrees are the best ones because someone had the audacity to recommend this popular entertainment to me. TO ME. That last vestige of advant-garde art and foreign films, depressing movies, John Cassavetes movies, that’s the movies I watch, not this nonsense that the hoi polloi watches. The nerve.

Which somehow brings me to Peter Frampton’s Show Me The Way. It is one of my guilty pleasures. I have to be in a mood before I deign listen to it but it generally does the trick for me. I particularly enjoy the live version which I linked to above. And I do not have a reasonable explanation for it. Frampton is a good guitarist who sings well and with a lot of energy but the song has pretty trite lyrics accompanied by pretty pedestrian music. So pretty much like most of the entertainment I encounter.

The lesson for me here is that is all I really should expect. A bit of pleasure. And if later I decide that it was a groundbreaking, earth shattering, inspiring piece of art all the better.

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I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to see only 7 stories about the Met Gala on the Huffington Post.

Only seven! For the Met Fucking Gala! You can tell I am riled because I rarely use exclamation points and I have used two in one paragraph.

It is an insult too difficult to bear. I can only hope that the editorial team at the Huffington Post will seriously assess their headline reporting a bit more seriously and make better decisions.

Poor Anna Wintour! She must be gutted. My heart bleeds for her!

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Dear God. Donald Trump has sent out a picture to his many fans as him dressed as the new pope. Isn’t this really disrespectful to Catholics? I think so but then I am just not sure any more. That is how jaded I have become about Trump’s behavior. I really don’t know what is acceptable behavior any more. It seems wrong for the President of the United States to do this but I could see a comedian doing it and being perfectly fine with it. Where is the line?

And forget Hitler, I think we have moved into Caligula territory now. I am pretty sure we are pretty close to Trump announcing a horse to the cabinet.

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We have two cats — Chloe and Cisco. When we first got them, Cisco would finish first and then nudge Chloe away from her bowl. This didn’t seem to bother here and she would pretty much surrender her food to Cisco. Bob got into the habit of standing in between them so Chloe wouldn’t be bullied away from her share of the food.

Bob proved to be a successful block to Cisco. Cisco stopped trying to bully Chloe away from her bowl. What is weird is that the no longer harassed Chloe can eat her meal without Cisco’s looming presence threatening her but now she always, and I mean always, leaves a little of her meal for Cisco. How did they come to this arrangement?

I am told that in every living situation with more than one animal that there is an Alpha who takes over. Cisco is definitely bigger and stronger than Chloe but she is smarter, faster and more athletic. She can get away from him with ease. Despite this somewhat equal distribution of talents, Cisco is still the boss. But why? Who told them?

It baffles me that they have come to an agreement about this. It seems to work for them but the process is a mystery. Surely, on occasion she comes across a food that she likes more than the others and wouldn’t she want to eat her full bowl — just because she likes it more. But, no every single time, she leaves Cisco something. The mystery of nature.

Chloe is the black one and Cisco is the grey one.

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Texas State Representative Stan Gerdes is concerned about children identifying as cats and demanding litter boxes in the classroom or, as they are known as, furries. The fact that no child has ever made this demand is beside the point. If it could happen, we need to stop it.

I am relieved that this urgent problem has been addressed. I know I will sleep more soundly knowing that no child can make this claim any longer.

Now that this urgent problem has been taken care of, maybe, we can focus on the teaching of Reading, Writing and Mathematics. Things, by the way, that actually get done in the classroom.

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How long will it take to get into this apparatus? Seriously. I am used to pulling up my underwear in one fairly quick tug. The straps, that pouch, this is going to take some time to assemble, don’t you think? You just can’t tell a lover that you are going to slip into something a bit more comfortable and come out an hour later in this. You might find a sleeping partner.

Even if you do manage to get it on, how long will it take to get it off. A teenage boy struggling with a bra would have better luck than someone who is entrapped in this. Imagine an erect member is such a small pouch and multiple straps to release. The mind boggles on how difficult this would be to disentangle in a moment of passion. Talk about your mood killer.

Then there is the faux bra, why? The whole structure of the garment resembles a bra more so than a leather harness. I have nothing against bras but really not a good look for a guy trying to capture a more masculine look. The delicate shoulder straps, the bottom strap offering support, the top strap revealing cleavage. Look at it and tell me you don’t think bra. And, although ultimately less important for the throes of passion, I imagine getting in and out, particularly in a pinch, might be a struggle as well.

I can see only frustration and confusion for the couple who decides to make this fashion choice.

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Heather MacDonald writes that Donald Trump took “the most important step it can to restore meritocracy. to American society” by eliminating disparate-impact. When exactly was there a meritocracy in the United States? Certainly no time before 1964 when discrimination against people of color and women was legal. Not directly after the passage of Civil Rights laws in 1964 when White resistance to the new laws was so fierce it required the implementation of Affirmative Action in order to ensure that Whites complied with the new law. Since MacDonald finds any tool that aids people of color a boost is an affront to meritocracy, it certainly isn’t the recent past So MacDonald needs to identify the golden age of meritocracy in USA because from the evidence I can see, there never has been a meritocracy.

MacDonald glosses over 200 years of American History. She assumes that the 1964 Civil Rights ended discrimination and nothing more needed to be done. For her racial prejudice is obvious, racists are obnoxious assholes in a Ku Klux Klan robe screaming the N word. It certainly couldn’t be nice middle class whites who hire employees or admit students to Ivy League colleges. They wouldn’t be caught dead in a Ku Klux Klan robe, so how could they be prejudiced.

The advantage of the public bigots is that they are easy to identify. The problem is the more prevalent form of racism that Blacks encounter is from polite and powerful White who, just the same, might be disinclined to hire someone different from them. They don’t say we are picking a White over a Black. They know the game. They say that the White guy is just more qualified for the job than the Black guy. For this reason, discrimination is difficult to prove. This is the barrier that Blacks face. MacDonald doesn’t appear to be bothered much by this more subtle form of racism or even acknowledge that it might exist.

Disparate-impact was one of the tools that the government used to show discrimination. If an employer has never hired Blacks, year after year, in a community where the population is 25% Black, then the government can see that there might be a problem with discrimination in hiring. Without disparate impact, how does MacDonald propose to identify non-compliant businesses and schools?

She doesn’t. She views discrimination as a phantom problem that doesn’t occur any more so there is no reason to investigate. People are only looking for the best – Black, White, Man, Woman. Race and Gender don’t matter only quality. Well, maybe, but how do we know this is happening unless we evaluate?

Finally, for the record, there will never be a meritocracy as long as rich families hand over their businesses to their children. It is never going to happen as long as some people have connections and others don’t. It never is going to happen as long as people with money can buy their children’s ways into universities. It never is going to happen when White middle class people can avoid “bad” school districts. It never is going to happen as long as poor Black children are given a second rate educations while White middle class children are given a first rate one.

How does MacDonald feel about those problems? Until she addresses them, I don’t believe that she gives a damn about meritocracy.

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As you might know, Bob and I are in the process of moving house, so we are furiously throwing away stuff. I found my high school diploma today with a holy card from Monsignor Koch. For those of you who doubt whether I graduated high school, see below. Read it and weep. It’s official and you can’t take that away from me.

Why, at 67 years of age, am I having trouble giving up my high school diploma. Never has any of my employers asked to see it nor did the colleges and universities I attended. I don’t even see the point of giving it to me at 18. It has been sitting in a drawer since then. A new draw ever few years, but a drawer nonetheless.

And the holy card. I didn’t even know who Monsignor Koch was when I was in high school. I vaguely remember the name but what he did and why he gave me a holy card is a complete mystery today.

It was sort of an accomplishment for me. I can’t tell you how bad a student I was in high school. About all I did was show up and that was mostly because my Mom herded us out the door every morning and wouldn’t put up with anything remotely close to ditching school. The only reason I made it through was mid-way through my Sophomore year, I discovered marijuana and thus was able to survive my remaining years in what for me was this educational prison. I hated it more than any other experience in my life.

Yet, I can’t seem to throw them out.

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Sometimes when I see ads, like the one below, against all better judgment on my part, I surrender to my curiosity and click on the Learn More link. Even though I know it is going to be disappointing, Even though I know it is linking me with some business network who, now knowing that I exist and am willing to learn more, will flood me with more and similar advertisements. Even though, there is a strong possibility that it is loading malware on to my computer. Despite all these risks, I press the learn more link.

The one above is taunting me right now. They hooked me with the sexual tag line and then I wondered what on earth could they be talking about. What biological reason might cause one to masturbate after 50 – other than horniness and convenience? I know it will be a disappointment. They always are. But, I, sort of, want to know and the learn more link will tell me. It is right there waiting for me to depress the learn more link.

It’s really important to learn more, right?

Take my word for it, it isn’t. Do not ever click on the learn more link. If you do, two annoying things will occur. You will page through about a hundred pages of nonsense and each page will have advertisements. They really don’t have anything to say about the topic, or nothing new or interesting, but it doesn’t matter. They weren’t trying to educate you, they wanted to show you their advertisements. And, boy will they advertise to you now that they know you are a person willing to learn more.

All I wanted was to sate my desire to learn more about was why people might be masturbating after 50. Something, by the way, I wasn’t the least bit concerned about until I saw the above. Bastards.

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Back in July, I introduced my first household tip, I am now ready for my second. The gap in time should give you some hint on how seriously I take household chores.

Bob and I are getting ready to move so we are getting rid of our unused possessions at a prodigious pace. One of our tasks in this process is a garage sale. I know Tom and Garage Sale would seem like contradictory concepts as there is nothing more than I hate then talking with strangers and selling shit but a guy has got to do what a guy has got to do.

So yesterday, we found some sterling silver utensils which we forgot about on a frequent basis. We usually discover them when we are trying to get rid of stuff. Decide to save them because they are silver and have sentimental value. Before they get tossed back into the drawer, I polish them in order to make them ready for the next time we use them. Which is admittedly rare, I mean do you really want to use silver when tossing a salad that you are going to then eat in front of the TV. It seems a bit over the top.

Which means they get polished, thrown in the drawer and promptly forgotten until next household purging event. Of course, they are tarnished and require polishing.

Any way, we found these tarnished beauties and we were faced with the question — do we keep or do we garage sale. But before deciding, I had to polish which is depressing because I hate polishing silver. So I do what I always do when faced with an easy but hateful tasks, I smoked a joint, got suitably mindless for this mindless task and polished those mother fuckers.

I am not sure why. I worked really hard on this. At least twenty minutes, maybe even a half of an hour. and the results were somewhat disappointing. First, the silver on the left turned out a lot better than the silver on the right. The silver on the right, from my eyes, don’t look like they’ve been polished at all. Both had stubborn stains I couldn’t remove and the blemishes in the silver would make me think twice before bringing them out for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Which brings me to my question. Why does anybody uses silver? It doesn’t look all that great and it is difficult to take care of. Stainless steel is much cheaper than silver and much easier to clean. I could have washed all the dishes from a 4 person dinner in the time I polished these 4 utensils and 2 of them, in my humble opinion, still look like shit. What a waste of time.

If I have any say in the matter these are going into the garage sale. My judgment on polishing silver is don’t.