Category Society

Yay for me

Michael 14 Comments

I had such a weekend. l’ve been collecting pieces of idiocy and ran out of space in my brain before we ran out of weekend.

I doubt there is anywhere in the country where stores are not feeling the penny pinch. The US Mint stopped making pennies earlier this year. That hasn’t really caused the shortage. That the Federal Reserve Bank’s coin exchange program was directed to not accept pennies from member banks caused a big problem. Some parts of the country have none, others have enough one cent coins to last through their expected 60-year lifespan. In my neck of the woods, a major local grocery chain was running perilously low on the copper clad coins so they came up with a solution. Bring in any pennies you have laying around the house and they’ll double that in gift cards for you. The preliminary count Saturday night was over $1 million dollars in coins turned in for exchange. All because somewhere in country, banks have vaults full of rolled pennies they can’t exchange for other coinage.

Speaking of coins, there was a lot of coin dropped Friday night when The Big Cheeto gave a 1920s, Great Gatsby themed party where he performed his signature dance, the f—-ed up chicken. This on the eve when SNAP (and don’t forget WIC) benefits would be stopped. The orange menace probably thinks he’s punishing people for not working hard enough to pay their own way. I know how to stop the bleeding and get him to release the funds he is legally required to release. Tell him every dollar of benefits he holds back is $2.00 of business one of his greed-soaked friends is missing out.

There were many other tales of stupidity but I tire of listing them even though I’ve stayed away from Herr Cheese Puff’s lunacy for a while. He damn near overshadowed that today is publication day for Bad Impressions. Yay me!

Like at first sight

Michael 9 Comments

There are things I like that I have no good reason to. You do too. You know you do. For me some of them are stress balls (not to de-stress with but to keep in a display among others knock knacks and dust catchers on a bookshelf), hats of any type (NOT worn backward), anything with Peanuts (the comic strip), anything with peanuts (the food), red cars (fully 50% of the cars I’ve owned were/are red). There are many many many many other things I like but they took some time getting used to or I had some reason that I like them more/better/deeper that some other version of them whatever they may be.

These things that I just like, for no apparent reason, defying explanation, or I should know better than to, were like at first sight. There was never a time I didn’t like peanut butter cups or Kung Pao chicken or chicken satay. Nor have I ever met a hat I didn’t like. You get the idea. They all made a grand first impression on me.

What is it that the dime store philosophers say about first impressions? You never get a second chance to make a first impression. I take exception to that. With that? I take exception with that. I think sometimes people’s first impressions are so innocuous that one doesn’t even recognize an impression has been made. Other times first impressions are so offensive that one puts them out of their mind. For those of us who fall somewhere between Marvin Milquetoast and Attila the Hun, well, we probably do drop into that category of people who need to be a bit careful of the first impression they make.

What do you do if you make a less than stellar first impression. Review, revise, and retry. Nothing says you can’t strive to make fabulous second, third and fourth impressions. If you don’t want to go through all that, check out Differences Among Us, this week’s Uplift post at ROAMcare. Your first impression of it might be that it has little to do with first impressions. Sorry. It really does.

Learning to unspeed through life

Michael 4 Comments

Hello everyone. I am much later than usual today because I finally am trying to take my own advice. Or the advice of an unknown African philosopher. Yesterday in the weekly Uplift post at ROAMcare, we quoted an African proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” Unlike these slapdash, mental meanderings, the Uplift posts are researched and written quite some time in advance, so I’ve had those words on my mind for a while now. And about a week ago, perhaps a week and a half, I started thinking that I’ve gone as far as fast as I want to go alone, which in the grand scheme of things, really isn’t all that far. It’s time to extend my outlook. Time to extend my reach. Time to find others to go far with.

The problem with that is that one can’t just order “others” off the Internet. I’m not sure Amazon even carries “others” and if they don’t, where else could one expect to find some. And that became the key point in that post, Gathering Time.

Finding others to go far with means we have to slow down so we can see the others out there waiting for us. I ended up re-writing that post to build onto that initial thesis, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together” and that the only way you can find someone to go far with is first to go slow. Go slow, take in your surroundings and those with whom you share them. Go slow, experience what is happening right now and what is involve in those happenings.

So I’ve been doing things more deliberately, taking time to say more than just “hello” when I pass someone while out on a walk or walking through the supermarket, appreciating the few fall colored leaves rather than grumbling that everything is still green, thanking those who have contributed to my day, to my knowledge base, to my life – even the unknown African philosopher.

I hope you will take a few minutes to read Gathering Time. There’s a great story about ‘Grandma Camp’ buried in there.

I also realized I never shared the cover reveal to Bad Impressions with you guys. I shared it on my socials and on my author site but not here. Shame on me. So here it is, and here is the link to my site if you want to see the progress of “Bad Impressions” and where we stand with books 2 and 3 in the series. Rumor has it that the pre-order window opens Monday. (And if you don’t already get enough email, you can sign up for my monthly newsletter there too.)

And another thing

Michael 8 Comments

Sometimes the most obvious of things are overlooked. Other times, we are so ingrained in language and process that we fail to see the contradictions right in front of us.

I give you this opening sentence in a news article from this morning’s local paper. “A graphic video that shows the moment a homicide suspect shot a Robinson motel manager at point-blank range pushed the District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday seek a gag order in the case.” If you have an actual video confirmation of someone blowing the brains out of a different someone, is it reasonable to assume he’s gone beyond the “suspect” phase.

I’m sure some will say “it could have been AI generated!” Yeah, no. This isn’t one of our political “leaders”(hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!) trying to pretend all is right with the world and what you are seeing is just the radical lunatics attempting to distract you. This is a man who was also caught on camera in that same parking lot shooting and wounding a woman while her young son sat in the car watching it, and who shot and wounded a pursuing police officer presumably caught on body cam video. There was no attempt to deceive and apparently some pretty conclusive evidence. Shouldn’t it be time to call a murderer a murderer? Or is it fair game to ignore what our eyes tell us.

Another thing we too often fail to see is that we are not immortal. The question of what will happen when I die records low on most people’s inquisitive meter. Regardless of the visual evidence and historical proof, people don’t want to acknowledge death, particularly their own.

We put death on the forefront in yesterday’s Uplift post at the ROAMcare site and asked the question, “If you were told today would be your last day, what would you do?” Many of the answers revealed most of us don’t understand the assignment. (Some of the answers revealed not all the narcissists have Washington DC addresses, but that’s a different story for a different post.) We found one answer though most telling. Read that one and see our answer to the question what would you do if you found out today was your last day in our post, “The Last Day.”

What I Did Last Week

Michael 10 Comments

What a week. I’ve been so busy I barely noticed the tangerine tyrant threatening to drop 82nd airborne troops into Portland Oregon, the Notsoproudboys, aka immigration enforcement not-officers-and-gentlemen rappelling out of attack helicopters to storm an apartment building in America’s heartland, or Speaker Whatshisname sending the RINOs home then complaining that the Democrats don’t want to meet. All that good stuff all in one week.  Barely seems like it was just a week ago that I was concerned if there was intelligent life on this side of the planet.

Instead, I finally got around to doing some Christmas shopping. I know. I’m just so late this year. Usually by the back-to-school sale days I’m down to just needing stocking stuffers. Where did I go wrong?

Now I have rush through the remains of the list so I can get back on track and start shopping for next year’s May and June anniversaries and birthdays. Do you know how hard it’s going to be to find something June-worthy in December? That clearly should have been August activity.

The good news is, I have Halloween candy on this week’s shopping list.

Okay, maybe that was just a bit hyperbolic, but I really am behind the holiday shopping curve, and I know why. I’m not a “let’s go out with a big holiday shopping list on Black Friday and see how much we get in one day” shopper. I tend to pick things up all through the year as I see them and see that those things would be perfect for someone. I’ll squirrel them away, then during the week before Christmas I’ll scour the house trying to remember I hid it all. Which is still better than just starting to shop then like half of all the other men in America. Mind you now, I’ll likely still go out and shop during that week, but I’ll be calmer than the rest of the shopping crowd because I won’t have to go out and buy.

So that’s why I missed so much of last week’s news. I was out shopping. And I didn’t shop for any televisions or radios so, there’s that too.

Another thing I did was get out the ‘thank you for joining and here are some directions’ letters to the ARC team for Bad Impressions. (Those of you who did send emails expressing interest, if you didn’t get an email from me over the weekend check your spam folders. Anyone still interested in joining, there are a couple spaces left. Get back to me this week. Details and a request form are on the new website, www.michaelrossmedia.com, something else I did last week.)

Okay all, have a good week. I have a few more people to serendipitously come across things for.

What not to do

Michael 5 Comments

When I had my first surgery in the early years of this century, things didn’t go as well as they could have, and I spent a lot of time in bed watching television. (That could be why I don’t watch much TV now. Anyway…) There was a show I stumbled across called “What Not to Wear.” Over the course of a week distilled to a half hour or hour production, our intrepid hosts turned ugly ducklings into if not beautiful swans, better looking ducklings. The advice seemed simple enough.  Don’t follow a crowd. Don’t even do what you think you want to do. Do what works best.

I was thinking about that when I was reading this week’s major news stories – the releasing of National Guard on the nation, Cheesedoodle Donny and Pentagon Petey berated career officers, and of course, the government shutdown. All, yes all, a result of some people who just do whatever pops in their heads without consideration, without thought, without doing what would work best. They need a makeover show called “What Not to Do.”

Here in Pennsylvania, there has been a budget impasse for three months. They’ve not approved a budget on time in 10 of the last 14 years. It doesn’t matter what party is in the Governor’s office, the Democrats and the Republicans loyal to their party rather than their constituents, drag on and on, while on their way to eventually passing the same budget the Governor presented them well on time, all the while making news time for themselves, recording soundbites over what’s wrong with the other party, and how they are doing this “for the people who elected me to work for them.”

Over in Washington, the last time there was a shutdown over a budget fight was the last time the orange menace tried to run things his way. For 35 days the two parties listened to whatever their party leaders told them to argue about rather than to their constituents. It ultimately ended when the air traffic controllers, who hadn’t been paid for 35 days, walked out, leaving many politicians stranded in DC, unable to take their lobbyist paid junkets. All they had to do 35 days earlier was the right thing.

In yesterday’s Uplift post, The way of love, we discussed the right thing, how to get there, and how to stay there. It’s worth the few minutes to read it. Then maybe forward a copy to your Senators and Congresspersons.

Do as you say, or do as you do

Michael 5 Comments

Do you do what you say? Apparently, according to some social media reports I’ve seen, some half million people do. They are the ones who cancelled their Disney vacations, Disney weddings, and Disney+ and Hulu subscriptions. Not so many cancelled their ESPN subscriptions. Football trumps principles. That’s the verb, not the anthropomorphic cheese puff.

Perhaps it was because it was so easy. Boycotting Target had its success but the people more hurt by it were the Target employees who were “downsized” to keep the share holders happy. The outrage against CBS and Paramount never gained actionable speed probably because no one was certain what Paramount does nowadays. Should they maybe not go to a movie? But Disney, everyone knows Disney and not patronizing Disney stuff is easy. And nobody gets hurt. Just a company. No people. The Disney family members are protected bystanders rather than innocent bystanders (see Target sales associates) in such that regardless or how many or how few people travel through the various Disney parks, they still require the same number of people to work. (Think like if a play is performed in from of one dozen people or 120 people, if still takes the full company and crew.) It  is truly a matter of the only ones affected are the stockholders, the executives, the rich people at the top of the food chain.

Regardless if you are on the left side or the wrong side is not important here. Those who do what they say to do, or some might phrase it what they threaten to do, have an certain honesty in their lives, a level or respect for their words by turning them into their actions.

A good example of one who does what he says is a non-person, a character, a fictional figure – Atticus Finch.

We wrote about a great lesson Atticus Finch taught his children. His belief that all people deserve to be treated equally? Yes but no. His respect for life? Yes but no. His integrity? Yes but no. We brought all that up in yesterday’s Uplift post, Being Atticus, but his trait we were most taken by was his consistency is doing as he says and how he taught his children to do as he does. Whether you’re a movie fan of To Kill a Mockingbird, or a reading fan, or both, you are familiar with either the line, “I have to be the same in town downtown as at home,” or, “Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets”  that calls to mind that what you believe in your heart you should not hesitate to express.

Take some time, click that link and read Being Atticus and then be him. We need more like Atticus and some of them need to be real people.

MacBeth walks among us?

Michael 12 Comments

Macbeth was fascinated with murder until he committed his first. Consumed with paranoia, he continued his murderous ways to avoid suspicion and then the fix was in. Or so some may say.  Almost from the moment of the murder, Scotland became a land depicted as one contrary to its natural progression as it was moving under the former king. It took a while longer for the bloodbath to encircle all in, and associate with, the household and drive them mad.

Of course, we know that as the EXTREME synopsis of Shakespeare’s tragedy, not close to what the historical MacBeth went through. Yes, he too killed, and his victim was King Duncan whose reign he then took for himself. But it was on the field of battle and that was how kingdoms were passed around in the eleventh century.

Often fiction resembles fact but not in that case. Perhaps though it does in the fiction we are currently living. We may not have found ourselves in a Shakespearean tragedy but there is at least a figurative bloodbath happening and those drawing the bath are indeed heading toward, if they haven’t already arrived at, insanity.

The seeming victim of our contemporary Hamlet is free speech, with such decrees as remove this comedian, remove that comedian. But no, it’s not about late night comedians. On the plane back from his recent trip to England, the orange menace railed about networks being “97% against me…that’s bad publicity, bad press…they have licenses you know.”

Let’s look at one of those networks and how intricate this really is. ABC claims Jimmy Kimmel was “pre-empted indefinitely” ostensibly because of a remarks made in a recent monologue. Those who have not listened to that monologue assume it was all about a particular right-leaning activist. But in the entire monologue his name was mention once over a 2 or 3 sentence portion of the bit. The vast majority of the time was devoted to our grand(iose) leader. The one who referenced those licenses.

It so happens ABCs parent corporation is negotiating several routine business and acquisitions which would all require federal approval. One of the network’s affiliate voicing most of the initial outrage Nexstar, happens to have a $6.2 billion purchase of a rival group of television stations pending government approval. The other affiliate group, Sinclair, also is pending FCC approval of their proposal to relax the rules limiting broadcaster ownership of its stations. And Disney itself is pending administration approval for the completion of its ESPN affiliate’s takeover of the NFL network.

There may just be more than speech being challenged with that particular incident. Now the Pentagon’s announcement over the weekend that all stories regarding or referring to the Pentagon must be approved by the Pentagon. That might be a different story  if it gets approved.

Maybe not the bloodbath (yet) but indeed we are living in a time when intelligent people are being silenced so stupid people will not be offended. Sane? I think not.

 

Unburden yourself

Michael 7 Comments

Have you taken on the burden of caring for a loved one? SHAME! Being a loving human being, generous with compassion and care, offering time and patience, is not an unpleasant experience. And indeed, the caregiving individual in a caring situation often benefits as much as the cared for person. I can’t say it better than we did in yesterday’s Uplift post, Unburden yourself. Check it out. 

Forgetting to remember

Michael 11 Comments

An article penned by Pittsburgh Post Gazette Ariana Ramirez sparked a thought in my old, tired brain. Her premise was that cries of “never forget” fall on deaf ears of those who are not intimately familiar with the whatever that is not to be forgotten. Her examples were the September 11 attacks and the JFK assassination.

There seem to be precious few of us who remember the events of 1963 and that may well explain why fewer tears are shed each November. The terrorist attacks of a mere 24 years ago though. That’s recent events, right? Ms. Ramirez reminded me that those on college campuses today were still years from being born. “How can someone remember something they never experienced in the first place?” She asked before clarifying, “Ninety to 95 million Americans were born since 1998. How can they understand what it means to the people who do remember?”

I’ll go a step further than that. In a world where the world’s most popular short form social network’s most popular post length is less than 30 seconds and “educational” content sometimes reach 60 seconds, the chance of remembering anything are roughly the same odds of college freshman remembering 9/11.

The same people who after last week’s shooting of a conservative activist were posting “We must never let this happen again,” had already forgotten about the two children killed and 21 others injured 15 days earlier. Or any of the 11 other Americans killed by gun fire during 16 mass shootings that took place between those two events.

The rhetoric on both sides is becoming embarrassing. That is a significant difference from a year ago when the rhetoric on just one side was embarrassing. The right continues to push that the problem is not guns but the people who use the guns unless it is a right-wing shooter then it’s the fault of the system and we need better active shooter training. By the way, here are our thoughts and prayers. When the left had been pushing for reasonable gun control laws, they seem to have now abandoned that hopeless (until the NRA is disbanded) case, and now have turned to remind the Republican caucus of their failures to address any meaningful gun issues and to remind the American public of the failures of the current administration. Both superfluous.

We must never forget:

     There are responsibilities that go with each right

     Guns don’t kill people, the bullets launched from them do

     People launch bullets from guns

     Thoughts and prayers are a component of humanity, not a solution to violence

     Things that happened before the most recent 40 second post are still important

On September 11, 2025, I had the opportunity to act as master of ceremonies for a special event. Before I opened the event I asked for a moment of silence to remember those who gave their lives during the 9/11 attacks. Usually when a “moment of silence” is requested, people begin to stir on their feet or in their seats at about the 20 second mark. I am pleased(?) to report the audience that day was still bowed in prayer and remembrance long after the full minute I held my silence, raised my head, and looked over the crowd. Maybe we are getting better. Maybe we are remembering. Maybe we will never forget. Maybe some day we will act.