I think therefore I am. I write therefore I think.
Author: Eric
INTJ personality. Jack of many trades, master of some. Former banker, consultant, technical writer, marketing manager, infopreneur and communications manager, now retired. Eclectic and sometimes eccentric. Cynical and often critical.
“Nobody on the road / Nobody on the beach / I feel it in the air / The summer’s out of reach / Empty lake, empty streets”
Boys of Summer, Don Henley
73 summers have come and gone. How many summers do I have left?
Summer inspires so many remembrances of lost family and friends who shared picnics, swimming, birthday parties and vacations. Though summer fades, my love and gratitude for the joy shared in those moments never do.
Life is what is measured between summers.
The gentle sound of ocean waves softly lapping against the shore calms my heart and soothes my soul.
As summer fades, I find myself yearning for the waning light, the warmth it brings, and the endless possibilities it once promised.
Oh, if only I could capture the memories of my youth—riding a rickety boardwalk roller coaster, savoring the sticky sweetness of cotton candy, stealing glances and shy smiles on the boardwalk, and diving for a spike in a game of beach volleyball.
Summer inspires the beginning of so many love stories. There is no better season to be in love.
I am a child of summer, born under the sun’s warm embrace, comforted by soft breezes that once swayed the curtains as I napped in peaceful contentment.
Before reading this book, I was already intrigued by the Scopes trial, having encountered it through reading Inherit the Wind by Lawrence and Lee in my youth and viewing the film adaptation starring Spencer Tracy as Clarence Darrow.
This book captivated me, not just with the story of the Scopes trial itself but also with the rich background it provides on the cultural and political climate in America leading up to the trial. The country was grappling with racism, antisemitism, women’s disenfranchisement, and a stark divide between the North and South. Religious leaders were increasingly uneasy with the rise of science, and efforts to suppress scientific education in schools were prevalent—an issue that resonates even today.
Wineapple profiles three key figures of the era: Clarence Darrow, H.L. Mencken, and William Jennings Bryan. These profiles were the highlight for me. All three were intelligent, influential, articulate, and deeply flawed. Their strong beliefs on issues like racism, antisemitism, and religion shaped their actions.
Bryan, a staunch defender of the Bible, believed its teachings should be taken literally. His speeches and sermons, especially in the South, were widely popular. Despite three failed presidential campaigns, his political ambition never waned.
Darrow and Mencken, both agnostics, were critical of religious hypocrisy. Liberals in their politics, they used their legal and journalistic skills to push their principles. It’s fascinating that Bryan, Darrow, and Mencken ended up at the center of such a pivotal cultural and political moment.
Reading this book made me reflect on how much progress the United States has—or hasn’t—made in areas like racism, antisemitism, and the influence of religion in education, law, and politics. The challenges to science that existed in the 1920s are still relevant today.
I highly recommend this book as an insightful snapshot of American culture and politics in the 1920s and is still happening today.
Saturday Night will always remain burned in my memory as long as I live, as being the day when I heard the most religion preached, and the least practiced.
I am a 72-year-old man. Often it’s hard for me to grasp how old I am. I still have this mental image of myself as a man in his 30s. My body, however, tells a different story. The thick brown hair I once had is now gray and thinning in spots. I struggle to hear people even when they’re nearby. My sleep is restless, and while I never used to nap, I now rely on them—sometimes for two or three hours in the afternoon. My face is marked with age spots, and I carry a large scar on my left leg from a cancer removal surgery 13 years ago. I even had to spend over $20,000 on new teeth so I could eat comfortably.
Still, I consider myself lucky. I am moderately active, playing competitive pickleball 3 to 4 times a week. I am not a candidate for knee or hip replacement like so many men and women my age. I still have a decent pace when I walk. I can get out comfortably from my car. With medication, my high blood pressure iand type two diabetes are under control.
Despite my current good fortune, I feel the walls of time, good health and good fortune closing in. How much time do I have before my good luck runs out? They say that there are three phases to retirement, the first is go – go; the second is slow – go and the third is no – go. I have enjoyed the first phase of retirement for about seven years. But I sense a transition is coming soon.
I grow tired quickly lately. Often what my mind and spirit conceive, my body and limited energy cannot achieve. I was once used to pushing past my limits, but now I’m learning, albeit grudgingly, to accept them.
Every day of good health and life is a blessing. I realize this can all change in a flashing moment. When I think of the future, I don’t view it as the next ten years, five years or next year, my future is now.
Pickleball: where tennis players go to die. (Seen on t-shirt)
“Kamala holds the hopes of a lot of people in this country who are praying that she doesn’t fall on her face in the next 72 days. She can take heart that she’s driving Trump crazy. He is jealous of her looks, her crowd sizes, her star power and her vivacious, bodacious vibes. That’s a good start.”
Daffy Donald, Turning Pea Green With Envy NYT Maureen Dowd
Planning a wedding has become so expensive that some couples are asking their guests to pay to attend their special day…Matthew Shaw, the founder of Sauveur, a wedding planning company in London, said that selling tickets “introduces a strange relationship between you and your guests, turning your guests into customers.”
He added, “You’re no longer hosting — you’re offering them a paid experience, which introduces a very different narrative in terms of what guests are expecting.” (NYT)
NYT Hardcover Non-fiction Best Sellers
SHAMELESS by Brian Tyler Cohen
2. MEN HAVE CALLED HER CRAZY by Anna Marie Tendler
3. THE ART OF POWER by Nancy PelosI
“School board candidates backed by Moms for Liberty, a conservative vanguard whose members popularized restrictions on classroom library books, are losing elections in Florida and some swing states. Republican leaders who rallied against critical race theory and LGBTQ+ issues recently faced recalls in red pockets of California.”
Are Republicans losing the culture wars? Politico
Babe Ruth ‘called shot’ Yankees jersey fetches record $24M
I have been interested in presidential politics since I was eight years old when John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon competed against each other in 1960. If eight-year-olds could vote, I would’ve voted for John Kennedy. However, it would not have disappointed or upset me greatly if Nixon had won. I always had respect for anyone who was nominated by their Party to run for President. That respect extended until 2020. Even in 2016, I understood there was an antipathy towards Hillary Clinton. I really didn’t understand it, but I could grudgingly concede a small rationale for some people voting for Donald Trump.
I certainly don’t feel that way today. There is absolutely no argument or rationale, politically, morally, ethically. or policy wise to vote for Donald Trump and for that matter, just about anybody in the Republican party. I consider Barack Obama a great president. However, if he had lost to either John McCain or Mitt Romney, I would have been disappointed, but not devastated. Both John McCain and Mitt Romney were certainly qualified to be president.
I was not a fan of the George W. Bush/Dick Cheney administration. But I never had the fear that they would try to overthrow our democracy and turn it into a dictatorship. Nixon, as crazy as he was in the last few days of his presidency, had no intention of becoming a dictator. He had at least a modicum respect for the democratic process, our laws and the institutions of government.
I honestly cannot conceive of one rational argument for the election of Donald Trump. It’s scary that between 45 to 50% of potential voters would select him for president. Some of his supporters that I have spoken with don’t even bother trying to justify why Trump should be president. What they normally do is just attack the Democrats and come up with all types of conspiracy theories on how Trump is being persecuted.
if Joe Biden had run, I would’ve understood why some people could not have voted for him. I was also concerned about his age and cognitive abilities. However, with the nomination of Kamala Harris, there are no reasons for Democrats, Independents, and even Republicans to stay home and not vote for her. I truly hope that the positive feelings and enthusiasm for her and the Democratic ticket will last until election day and hopefully there will be a landslide that will swamp Trumpism and fascism.
The Democrats are experiencing a bit of “irrational exuberance.” It’s the same feeling that Republicans were feeling about three weeks ago. It’s way too early for any self congratulations. Too many things and events can change. Economic events and the Middle East could change the campaign around. Don’t discount the possible influence and effect that Joe Biden will have on this election.
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If I was Kamala Harris, I would not debate Donald Trump. The man isn’t capable of discussing policy issues. There really isn’t much of an upside for Kamala – – she will be expected to clean the floor with him.
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How can there be any undecided voters for the Presidential election?
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Hard to believe that JD Vance may be a worse Vice Presidential candidate than Sarah Palin, and Dan Quayle.
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Is there anything more insulting to a person’s intelligence then the political commercials being run right now?
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Ideal Presidential Debate Media Team: Hosts: Dana Bash and Jim Acosta (CNN); Questioners: Rachel Scott (ABC) Chris Wallace (CNN) Bret Baier (Fox) and Kara Swisher.
According to a recent article in dinkpickleball.com, if you can say “Yes” to five of their following criteria, you may be a pickleball snob: 1. You only play with “good” players 2. You own AT LEAST three paddles 3. You ask for full names so you can look up DUPRs 4. You say, “That’s how the pros play” 5. You scout ahead 6. You judge players by their paddle 7. You have a “Pickleball Coach”
I thought that was a rather pedestrian list so here’s my other signs that you just might be a pickleball snob:
You have three or more indoor memberships
You play with a different model paddle each day of the week
You have a “Pickleball Coach”, dietician, trainer and therapist
Joola designed a custom paddle for you
You never feel it necessary to buy or bring pickleballs to the court for play
You don’t tap paddles at end of games, you offer a dismissive wave to your opponents
I am a huge Bill Maher fan. I’ve been watching Politically Incorrect since it debuted in 1993. Maher could be considered the Will Rogers of today’s culture. But Maher is more cutting, dynamic, controversial and cynical than Rogers ever was. Plus Maher has met plenty of people he did not like. Maher’s style is more like H.L. Mencken. Maher and Jon Stewart are the rational minds and voices that Americans need badly.
I’d recommend Maher’s books of essays about politics, media, cancel culture, Trump, education and civil war etc. to anyone interested in current events, history and politics. But I understand that 40% of the country might prefer to listen to Greg Gutfield and The Five. Their loss! I find Maher to be a very fair interviewer on his show, civil and willing to give opposite views from him a fair hearing.
Read the varied essays at your leisure. Maher incorporates humor with his opinions and criticisms. Try it, you may like it…
I have posted some excerpts that caught my eye and mind…
A job in Congress is just so much better than racking the weights at CrossFit, which is what Marjorie Taylor Greene did before she set her crazy eyes on the prize. And once you get the gig, it’s yours for life. The re-election rate in the house for incumbents in 2022 was 95% – – that’s better job security than a pedophile priest has.
Everybody keeps asking, how could a guy (George Santos) like this happen?” I’ll tell you how: because no one cares anymore about substance. It’s all tribalism. The only thing that matters is “is he on our team?” Is he doing our schtick?” Santos is just the first one to realize you could do both sides’ schtick and get away with it because people have completely tuned out anything that doesn’t already fit their narrative.
Americans are far too dim and distracted to responsibly make a (voting) choice in just weeks or even months. Americans actually think it’s a brag to say that they’re cynical about politics and therefore don’t follow it. Don’t flatter yourself. Cynical comes when you know too much; you, on the other hand, haven’t bothered to learn anything.
This country simply has no education standards anymore – – they will let you out of a public high school and give you a diploma and you don’t have to actually know anything. Which used to be a mission of schools: knowing things.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok – – these are not places to read in the sense of garnering real and valuable information; they are what replaced reading so you’d have more time to take pictures of your dick. Sorry, but staring at your phone doesn’t make you a reader anymore than watching fireworks makes you an astronomer, or getting a tramp stamp makes you ass a museum.
Trump calls the Mueller report “the crazy Mueller report, “and in a way he’s right, because it’s over 400 pages detailing terrible crimes by a corrupt president, yet Mueller doesn’t prosecute. If Dostoevsky had written this report, it would be called “Crime and no Punishment.”
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump nicknamed his penis “Mike Pence” because it’s not hung like it should be.
Our economy no longer creates a middle class, it sucks it dry. Sometimes “middle class” just means you’re poor but you don’t do meth. And remember, this is the good economy, where 40% of Americans can’t afford a $400 emergency expense and 50 million have nothing saved for retirement. Sorry, but it is not middle-class when your retirement plan is a lotto ticket.
When did the American business model switch from honestly selling you a product to tricking the consumer who doesn’t read the fine print? You ever wonder, “Why is my cell phone contract longer than a CVS receipt?” If you forget to turn off “data roaming” and you go to Vancouver for the weekend, Verizon gets to keep your children. This is the way we do business, and it’s all based on the cynical premise of you fucking up: that they can wear you down, confuse you or count on you to forget.
Before we tackle any of our daunting specific problems here in America, we have to figure out how a country can solve any problem if so, many of its people are so intractably,, astoundingly, mind numbingly stupid. And I’m not saying that as hyperbole or just out of frustration. I mean this country just might be empirically, verifiably too fucking dumb to continue as an ongoing enterprise.
Colleges have turned into giant, luxury daycare centers with overpaid babysitters anxious to indulge every student whim.
Every year at graduation time we witnessed the ritual of commencement addresses, when America’s overrated, gas bags, and wisdom-free celebrities are invited by star fucking universities to come to their school and tell a bunch of spoiled, stoned, debt laden brats things like “You’re only limit is your own imagination” and The world will be a better place for having you in it.”
Before the Internet, you only had to put up with your wingnut uncle on Thanksgiving. Now he’s forwarding you proof that Trump won Arizona and Epstein was murdered by the QAnon shaman. The street corner nut with the sandwich board used to be laughed at; now he’s linked to.
Do you know the reason why advertisers in this country love the 18 to 34 demographic? Because it’s the most gullible. A third of people under 35 say they’re in favor of abolishing the police – – not defunding, but doing away with a police force altogether, which is less of a policy position, and more of a leg tattoo. 36% of millennials think it might be a good idea to try communism.
Is there anything more self-defeating than not using old people as a resource? Not taking advantage of their accumulated knowledge? Everywhere else in the world elders are sought for guidance. In America, elders are sought for TikTok pranks.
Now, I get it, Christians love to feel persecuted – – it’s part of their origin story. But it’s been a long time since anyone was getting eaten by the lions in the Colosseum. 64% of the country is Christian, not to mention every president we’ve ever had, so please don’t tell me, in what universe does it make sense when Sean Hannity says, “The liberal media’s war against religion is alive and well.”
I keep reading articles about how people don’t read books anymore. Can’t say I’m surprised. I’m often shocked how people, especially young ones, don’t know our country’s history. I am also fascinated about books and other media about Nazi Germany. Some disturbing historical similarities between Germany (1933-1940) and the United States today.