Recent news bits have caught my attention and have inspired me to comment on them.
I'll start with the death of Andy Rooney, a recently retired humorist on CBS's "60 Minutes". The lovable curmudgeon told it like he saw it, didn't mince words, and no one, group, organization or action was exempt from his acerbic wit and wisdom. My kind of guy.
The poor tree designated to be the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree was cut down this past Saturday in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Sonora, California. This 65-foot giant white fir tree lost the large-tree lottery sponsored by the U.S. Forest Service. How the Forest Service can justify the cutting down of a magnificent, non-diseased sacrificial tree is beyond me.
Another news item comes under "news of the strange". Parents are actually ordering, via mail, lollipops that have been licked by children who have the chicken pox. This in an effort to expose their children to chicken pox on the parents' schedules. This is from what playbook - Bad parenting 101?
Five teenagers from Dale City, Virginia were charged with beating two "youngsters" for not turning over their Halloween candy on demand. One of the five hooligans intimated that he had a handgun in his possession. Shame on these thugs.
Lastly, I am simply not ready to hear Christmas jingles, hear jingle bells jingling and see Santa Claus on television. I do not care that K-Mart has had lay-a-way for weeks now and that Toys R Us has the biggest and best selection of toys. I do not want to be a "Toys R Us Kid" nor do I care that Uno has several new versions out, and I could care less about Pictionary Man. This would be all so much palatable if snow was on the ground.
Oh my gosh! Did I just say I wanted snow?
