Your Friendly Curmudgeon

Of all the sexist stuff in our culture perhaps the most troubling is the universal notion that God is a dude. (Setting aside for now the notion that He is Caucasian.) I think that would irritate me the most, had I had the random accident of being born female rather than male. And what is with the long hair and beard? Seems if He can do anything, he should be able to get a haircut and a shave. For that matter He can just will Himself to have whatever hairstyle he wants. But the long flowing robe is nice, I'm sure it's very comfortable. Do you think He has just one, that "stays clean"? Probably no dirt in heaven. I would think we should have a more common conception of what God should look like. I think He/She would have to be pictured as someone we all know, that is generally our basis for picturing someone, and we would want Him/Her to be universal. How about Betty White? Or maybe that little guy from "Different Strokes"? Or how about Lassie? That would ge...

I'm sure I won't blog every day, but these two articles demanded posting. Russian to their fate And this potentially dreadful news about our cousins: Experts say coronavirus could wipe out humanity’s closest living relatives - The Washington Post I'm trying to remember what I used to think about before The Virus, and its actually pretty hard. I did waste a lot of capacity thinking about sports, which doesn't seem that interesting now. But I am still obsessed with this idea: how cool would it be if the NBA formed teams by specific themes? I love this idea. Here are my examples: The all "American white guy" team The all lefty team The all two last names team The all bricklayer team (the 12 guys with the lowest shooting percentage) The all geriatric team (have to be over 35) The all "ic" team, players whose names end in ic The all dime team, players who average more assists than points The all floor team, players who can't jump. Of...

I’ve been threatening myself and the world for quite some time that I would start blogging again, but to the relief of all it hasn’t happened yet. That is until today, when boredom, fascination, and paint fumes overcame me and decided to set proverbial pen to paper again. I’m unlikely to stay with it, I would rather paint, but at least for today I will waste my ample time doing this. The elephant in the room (don’t worry, he’s by himself) of course is The Virus. Like everyone else I have been following the story and thinking about it a lot. I’ll try not to bore you with stuff you’re reading elsewhere, or anger you with political opinions, but maybe share a few original thoughts and link to some of the best stuff I’ve seen. I think there’s a great idea for a new product for these times: Odorant. Let’s apply real American ingenuity to the challenge of social distancing. The imagination swells with the possibilities… Eau De Manure, Essence of Carrion, Fleur De Funk. You’re wel...