I’ve now had enough! If we hadn’t just gotten over snowmageddon, this would be a perfect snow. It’s hovering right at the freezing mark and it’s beautiful. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow and wash all this away. The bad news is, that translates to more soggy ground and with 3 dogs, that’s a lot of mud that will be tracked inside.
Weekend weather doesn’t look much better. Rain… snow… wind… same weather on just a different day. On the bright side, we’re warm and dry inside, and our Internet connection is grand. 🙂
Now you know: Only 48.5% of adults reported reading at least one book in 2024, down from 52.7% five years earlier and 54.6% ten years prior.
Depending on where your seats were, tickets to the 2025 Super Bowl were around $8,400 on average, with a range of around $6,500 to $23,000. A father with one child must decide to take that child to this important NFL event, or buy a brand new Nissan Versa. A family of four at the Super Bowl? You could instead pay cash for a brand new Honda HR-V — an SUV that would easily accommodate 4 people — with enough money left over to take a vacation.
If you opt for a car, you don’t get to see the halftime show live.
I’m too old to appreciate some of the more recent halftime shows, and not too dumb to realize that others love them. While I’m here in 2025 thinking that the halftime entertainment should be more like 2001 where many music genres were represented…
Or the year Prince sang Purple Rain — in the rain! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lElCzhjiPX8) Neither of which my Momma or her generation would’ve likely appreciated any more than I appreciated the 2025 halftime show.
And of course, there are others that simply don’t care who is performing at the Super Bowl.
Now you know: Michael Jackson was booked to perform at halftime in 1993 and his performance got higher ratings than the game itself.
Preface: this is a political post from a business perspective…
I understand why the Democrat party is freaking out because Elon Musk and team are allowed access to sensitive information. What I don’t understand is why the majority of the Democrat party’s leadership aren’t also expressing outrage for the crazy expenditures that were being made with tax dollars by USAID — and offering forward-thinking solutions. Those elected by the people should represent the people they work for.
Seriously, you have to wonder why your tax dollars funded a $43 million dollar gas station in Afghanistan, spent almost $50K for a transgender opera in Columbia, and gave Peru $32,000 to create an LGBTQ-centered comic book. Don’t you? And it’s not like these accusations of where the money went are “made up.” All the expenditures of USAID are public and may be accessed through various government transparency and accountability websites.
You don’t swing at every pitch.
Polls show that the majority of people think the government is wasting money. Trump is generating outrage by the steps he’s taking — he’s a master of disruption and is moving so quickly it’s hard to keep up — that’s his strategy. Say what you want about Trump, but his strategy is smart. Democrats are kept off-balance trying to put out small fires and frankly, are made to look out of touch and irrelevant in every form of media outlet (most recently, even on CNN).
I’m no expert, and I’ve never been a staunch supporter of either party affiliation, so you can take this observation with the weight it has (none) — it seems to me that Trump is disrupting, while Democrats are distracting (the ole’ “don’t look there… look over here” tactic).
Trump is a businessman and disruption in business is crucial.
Disruption drives innovation and challenges outdated models. It introduces fresh solutions that improve efficiency and sets new industry standards. Companies like Uber, Netflix, and Tesla have shown that embracing disruption leads to growth, market dominance, and long-term success. As Trump disrupts, it makes the Dems look like they’re playing whack-a-mole — and I can’t understand why they continue defending choices that don’t represent the majority of the people.
Stepping off my soapbox, here’s what is going on in my muddy slice of the world. 🙂
Now you know: William Halsted was a famous surgeon and a founder of Johns Hopkins, but was addicted to cocaine and used it during surgeries. He would inject himself with cocaine to test it before using it on patients. Eventually his writings for the NY Medical Journal became incoherent.
I don’t know why, but for some reason I thought Perry’s birthday was today, the 6th of February. It occurred to me 2 days ago and I was in a panic. I was wondering what gift I would get since the shipping window was over, and even sent Ben a text letting him know we’d be doing cake and ice-cream on Thursday.
Looking for a photo of Perry to share on his non-birthday, I ran across the following one from last year. I didn’t share it earlier because it’s a reminder of how a certain few number of Disney rides are incredibly hard on bad backs. I look like a blind woman in pain — and half of that was right.
Perry’s b-day is 2/24 — not 2/6.
I still don’t know what I’ll buy for him and feel pretty stupid that I screwed up the date. At least I didn’t buy a cake. Everyone does stupid things sometimes. In today’s connected world complete with social media, we hear about most of those crazy things. Like this guy…
Now you know: During the Cold War, the U.S. developed the Davy Crockett, a recoilless rifle that fired one of the smallest nuclear warheads ever made.
Still a kid in the 70’s, I remember that round of push for equality for women. I remember the women’s rights movement being different than it is now, but who knows since the memory is coming from a very young brain and being compared with thoughts from a pretty darned old one. And my memories were created in a small Indiana town, and that too changes perspective insofar as the overall national viewpoint.
I remember there being 3 things that were scary to young me: 1. a nuclear war involving Russia 2. getting drafted because women wanted to be equal, and 3. my Mom. 😉
Common sense is not so common anymore.
Even all those decades ago, I believed that women should be paid the same for doing the same job as a man, but didn’t believe women were suited to perform the same jobs as men in certain situations. As a young adult, I believed that as a lender in a bank I should make the same pay as any man that performed equally at the job. (If my performance was better, even as a woman I should be rewarded with higher pay. Makes sense, right?)
On the other hand, if I was hired onto the state highway crew and wasn’t physically able to do the most difficult assignments, I didn’t believe I should make the same for holding a flag. Still today, I hold those opinions. To me, it’s common sense.
It’s 2025 now, y’all.
I simply can’t understand why any large employer wouldn’t simply hire the best fit person for every job assignment required to run their company smoothly. It means increased profits and oftentimes better workplace safety for employees and consumers. It shouldn’t matter what color a person is, what their sexual preference is, or if they are a man or a woman. Obviously, employers can’t be trusted to hire people who aren’t white men for their workforce so we need laws to force them to do so.
As a reminder… you can’t be a translator if the only language you speak is English.
Now you know: The gray streak in Tulsi Gabbard’s hair is her natural color. Tulsi said she started to gray in one spot during and after her first deployment to Iraq. She said she’s chosen to keep that spot natural as a daily reminder of the cost of war, the importance of peace, and who pays the cost of war. (I’m guessing she dyes the rest of her hair and leaves that spot?)
