Every so often, perhaps when I’m waiting for a phone call, or I want to pick a scab but I have none on my body, I read comment sections. And sometimes, when I am filled with self-loathing in addition to a scab-picking urge, I also read Facebook comment sections. Consequently, I have developed some thoughts about memes.
Before anyone had ever heard of the world wide web, I first heard meme described as “a viral idea.” That is, those things that pop up overnight, that suddenly everyone is repeating, usually with a “you know, they say…” but you can’t really trace where they came from. When did we all stop sneezing into our hands and start sneezing into our elbows? When did we stop calling the seventh planet from the sun YER-inus when we all grew up calling it Yer-ANUS? Why is every newscaster suddenly pronouncing “negotiate” like a Brit, when we don’t say it that way in American English?
(I had an editor who liked to inventory cartoon memes, visual shorthand that we all understand, somehow: A character wearing a mirror strapped to a headband is a doctor. A body lying on a bench with crosses for eyes is dead. And ask yourself: When have you ever slipped on a banana peel?)
Then “meme” was overtaken by the internet, and now it means “a picture with words on it.” Preferably a picture of a cat. But not always! Some are very funny. I will never get tired of the woman screaming at the cat, and even the distracted boyfriend still dislodges a good gag from time to time. But others…aren’t. Anyway, I see a lot of memes dropped into Facebook comments, many so crude and stupid that I’ve come to the conclusion that memes are like a primitive form of language for some, generally people too stupid to write a simple sentence or think of a halfway creative insult or joke themselves. If I’m looking over a page I have admin privileges on, I will sometimes just delete them willy-nilly, if only to encourage people to have an original thought from time to time.
I should add this doesn’t work.
Change of subject: The news of Marjory Taylor Greene’s formal punishment broke a while ago. It made me think we need to talk about CrossFit. Greene, of course, owned a CrossFit gym — or “box,” as those people call them — in Georgia before she made it to Congress.
Some years ago, the owner of my gym subleased a corner of it to a CrossFit trainer for a while. His clientele all wore short-shorts and tube socks, and made a lot of noise — big roars when they lifted, that sort of thing. I asked a trainer on the regular gym staff what the hell was it with those people. He nearly sprained his eyeballs rolling them and said, “It’s a cult. And they’re assholes.”
The trainer eventually found his own “box” and took his tube-sock people with him. But I started noticing CrossFit stories in the media. One in the Wall Street Journal detailed how CrossFitters often had trouble finding pants that fit, because their quads were so big. Another was about how some CrossFitters get rhabdomyolysis, a potentially serious condition that can damage the kidneys, because they work out so hard. (They had a jokey name for it: Uncle Rhabdo.) And then there were stories about how the founders of the business had launched “the CrossFit Games,” an event people actually paid to watch in arenas and on pay-per-view, in which the contestants…exercise. Wow, how fun.
Now, I should add I’ve known some perfectly lovely people who do CrossFit and swear by it, but I’ve known more who were assholes. What is it about a workout that attracts assholes? Yoga has its constituency, combat sports have theirs, swimming has its own, Zumba/Pilates/powerlifting, etc. What is it about working out in a box that attracts — or produces — Marjory Taylor Greenes? We need to talk about this.
But the weekend is nigh. So let’s enjoy that at the same time. We’re having a snowstorm right now — fat fluffy flakes all night long.
alex said on February 4, 2021 at 9:07 pm
I’m guessing it’s cuz it’s got Cross in it. Same doofuses that go to a smoke-n-jumbotrons church called CrossPath or CrossBridge or CrossWhatevs and think they’re the coolest, and talk about Jewish space lasers and Comet Ping Pong.
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Mark P said on February 4, 2021 at 9:38 pm
MTG stood before the House and denied Jesus, I mean QAnon, and all her other daft beliefs. 9/11 actually happened. School shootings actually happened. I don’t remember her mentioning that Joe Biden actually won, but maybe I just missed it. It might have carried more weight if she had done it before the threat of being kicked off House committees; she seemed perfectly fine defending her beliefs before that. Her constituents still like her, and I like her exactly as much as I did before she got her comeuppance, not at the hands of her own party, but at the hands of the Democrats.
The Republican Party must be destroyed.
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alex said on February 4, 2021 at 9:41 pm
Why’s a frosh (especially such a stark raving loon) getting all these plum committee assignments anyway?
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LAMary said on February 4, 2021 at 9:55 pm
I was wondering the same thing, Alex.
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Jeff Borden said on February 4, 2021 at 10:00 pm
Putting the QAnon loon who described Sandy Hook and Parkland as false flag operations intended to repeal the Second Amendment on the education committee was Kevin McCarthy being an asshole. Pure and simple.
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Bruce Fields said on February 4, 2021 at 10:32 pm
For what it’s worth: https://ask.metafilter.com/351988/How-did-Marjorie-Taylor-Greene-get-her-committee-assignments (Summary: there was nothing special about her committee assignments. Sounds believable to me. But maybe somebody else has a more authoritative source.)
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Sherri said on February 4, 2021 at 11:16 pm
The founder of CrossFit is a racist asshole, so that may have something to do with it.
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LarrytheRed said on February 5, 2021 at 7:50 am
“What is it about working out in a box that attracts — or produces — Marjory Taylor Greenes? We need to talk about this.”
Do we have to?
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Dorothy said on February 5, 2021 at 9:47 am
In case any of you want a crash course in the history of and reasons for congressional committees:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_committee
Here is just the first paragraph that I found helpful:
A congressional committee is a legislative sub-organization in the United States Congress that handles a specific duty (rather than the general duties of Congress). Committee membership enables members to develop specialized knowledge of the matters under their jurisdiction. As “little legislatures”, the committees monitor ongoing governmental operations, identify issues suitable for legislative review, gather and evaluate information, and recommend courses of action to their parent body. Woodrow Wilson once wrote, “it is not far from the truth to say that Congress in session is Congress on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its committee rooms is Congress at work.”[1] It is not expected that a member of Congress be an expert on all matters and subject areas that come before Congress.[2] Congressional committees provide valuable informational services to Congress by investigating and reporting about specialized subjects.
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Suzanne said on February 5, 2021 at 11:08 am
So I wrote to my Rep, the idiotic Jim Banks, about his refusal to agree to certify the election and asking for his resignation. His long reply included this gem: “These clear constitutional violations are why I signed an Amicus Brief on behalf of a lawsuit filed by the State of Texas. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court refused to rule on the merits of this case and instead denied the lawsuit based on a lack of standing. In our unique system, Congress is positioned as the last bulwark in a presidential election to ensure the Constitution has been followed.”
Uh, really? That the Supreme Court refused to hear the case doesn’t tell him anything about the merits of the case?
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Scout said on February 5, 2021 at 11:39 am
In an effort to prove the vote to strip Marge of committee assignments was the correct one, the new darling of the GQP posted this today. The comments are a fun read.
https://twitter.com/mtgreenee/status/1357675098887577601
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alex said on February 5, 2021 at 11:41 am
Banks has his pat mumbo jumbo at the ready for any question and asking him anything is a waste of time. Glad to see his opponent in the last election is already gearing up for the next one and talking about real issues and courting minority voters who have always seen this congressional district as a lost cause and don’t bother to vote.
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Deborah said on February 5, 2021 at 12:19 pm
My guess, in fact I’d put money on it, Marge will say or do something in due time that will be so obviously outrageous there will be no doubt she needs to be removed and even the Trumper Republicans in office won’t be able to come to any other conclusion. Also I think it’s just a matter of time before a Democratic legislator gets assassinated by one of the crazed Q followers or a white supremacist incited by the Margories. I certainly hope it doesn’t happen but it seems inevitable when there are so many guns and so much fomented hate out there.
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Jim said on February 5, 2021 at 12:36 pm
Got the same reply from Banks. I had asked him when he was going to call out tRump about the insurrection, and said that he didn’t he should resign. Complete ass.
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David C said on February 5, 2021 at 12:42 pm
Today in large boulders.
https://twitter.com/SheriffAlert/status/1357718112599240706
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Sherri said on February 5, 2021 at 1:30 pm
We need to stop focusing on the conspiracy theory and kookiness aspect of QAnon, and focus on what it is:
Qanon is a violent terroristic political movement with strong fascistic facets the upshot of which, in every storyline, is a final violent reckoning in which Trump’s political enemies are rounded up and murdered. That’s what it’s about. The fables are just getting people primed and ready for that moment.
That’s from Josh Marshall at TPM, in a paywalled post.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is not some outlier. She was recruited by, among other Jim Jordan, to run for Congress in that district, which she didn’t live in. The Republicans will do nothing to her because they are afraid of their base. They don’t want to get the death threats that AOC and Ilhan Omar get. So they’ll privately tell reporters that they’re concerned, but do nothing.
They don’t want to do anything to people who incited an insurrection, what makes you think they’ll do anything to Marjorie Taylor Greene? I guess maybe if she pulls a gun and starts shooting on the House floor, but as long as she misses, or hits on Dems, who knows?
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Jakash said on February 5, 2021 at 2:03 pm
Speaking of memes, one of the replies on David C’s link features Captain America (I think) saying “I understood that reference.” A meme I like, though in this instance I *don’t* understand the reference. I do appreciate the understated wittiness of the San Miguel Sheriff’s tweet-meister, however.
I agree that the distracted boyfriend meme has produced some fine gags.
One of my favorite memes is Trump shouting at the lawn-mowing boy on the White House lawn. It has been used effectively on so many occasions. I didn’t even know if it was real or photo-shopped, but the video of the event is as funny as the photo.
https://twitter.com/MikeSacksEsq/status/908690130331996163
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Deborah said on February 5, 2021 at 2:13 pm
Where did that large boulder happen? Which state? I have nightmares of that happening along the Rio Grande near Taos, on highway 68 you drive next to some amazing landscapes but scary as hell when you think about possible major rock slides.
Once again today I’m watching ice chunks fall off of the Hancock building. The temps are in the teens, but the sun is shining and it snowed yesterday. So in the mountainous southwest I worry about boulders falling and in the city of Chicago I worry about ice falling. Can’t win.
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Andrea said on February 5, 2021 at 2:22 pm
My 22-year-old son was hospitalized for 6 days in December with rhabdo, although he is not a cross fitter (or an asshole, I should add). Sure learned a lot about this weird syndrome. You can also get it by being struck by lightening, among other things. He is fine now but it was a stressful few days there for us.
MTG is a poop stain and has no business being anyone’s voice anywhere. It is more shocking to me how the GQP is tolerating her and her ilk.
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Little Bird said on February 5, 2021 at 2:28 pm
A boulder the size of a large boulder, eh?
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alex said on February 5, 2021 at 2:32 pm
What a day. The world really is fucking cray-cray.
We have a friend, age 75 and with increasing Alzheimer’s, who hit a deer on his way home from our house last summer. He’d had a few drinks while here. He got a DUI. We’ve been arguing with him for years that if he’s going to drink he needs to stay over, but he always refuses to cooperate.
Because of his age and COVID and so on, they sentenced him to home detention (this was his third DUI, the first having occurred 15 years ago). Evidently there was some miscommunication or misunderstanding regarding an appointment regarding his ankle bracelet. He was expecting to be contacted but evidently it was on him to contact the agency. Anyway, short story, the sheriff’s department showed up, handcuffed him and threw him in jail the first of this week. Neither his attorney nor his probation officer knew about it. I learned of it two days ago from one of his former co-workers.
Meanwhile, I’m the only one of his friends or family with enough computer savvy to download the third-party software now required in order to communicate with inmates and I had to set up and fund an account and make an appointment. I don’t know how poor people deal with this shit. It’s simply ridiculous.
Anyway, now that I’ve gone through all of that rigmarole his attorney is working on getting him out of there but it looks like nothing can happen before Monday of next week.
We’re worried about our friend. He’s not in good shape physically or mentally and the stress is probably way more than he can handle. I have no idea what sort of inmates he’s surrounded by but this isn’t good. I know he’s desperately trying to cling to independence but he’s less and less lucid all the time and there’s really no one to help guide him at this point.
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David C said on February 5, 2021 at 3:36 pm
They do that to an old man with Alzheimer’s and they lost that little shit who killed two people in Kenosha. The world is definitely cray-cray.
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Dorothy said on February 5, 2021 at 5:12 pm
Alex that is so awful. It’s going to haunt me until I hear he’s out of jail. What kind of heartless jerks do that to a person in that condition?
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LAMary said on February 5, 2021 at 5:15 pm
Interstate 70 in Colorado gets giant boulders crashing into the roadway occasionally. Messes up the long haul trucks going through that part of the state. Pacific Coast Highway gets boulders or just collapsed hillsides it seems like at least once a year. I would not want to be dependent on that route to get home. It usually takes a while to clear away some big rockslide.
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LAMary said on February 5, 2021 at 5:24 pm
Just saw some news thing flash by me, a story from Newsweek about Steve Bannon. I did not bother to click through all the pop ups and junk to read it. I have always thought Steve Bannon looks like he would smell. Not disgusting, just musty, like he stores his clothes in damp cardboard boxes in the basement. The 5 seconds of video I saw of him just now reinforced that impression. Anyone else think Steve Bannon smells?
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susan said on February 5, 2021 at 5:30 pm
Yah, I’ve always thought Bannon must smell like stale alcohol, polyester sweat, and unbathed BO. He is such a squalid-looking sack of rooting spuds.
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Julie Robinson said on February 5, 2021 at 6:02 pm
Bannon’s hair is always greasy too, so add that to the stink. And dandruff, I know he’s got dandruff.
Alex, how truly terrifying. Sounds like he needs more help coping with life.
We now have several friends with Covid. One is on a vent, and his wife said his lungs are white on the Xray. I don’t have a good feeling about his chances.
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Dexter Friend said on February 6, 2021 at 2:13 am
alex…your county jail has some years on it, yeah, but are they really going to replace it? Like demolish and rebuild on the same site? Or is the new jail I heard about vaguely going to be the main jail at a new location and the old one on 9th become an auxiliary jail?
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Deborah said on February 6, 2021 at 3:13 am
I see that the large boulder the size of a large boulder was in Telluride, CO. Not that far from Abiquiu, just a few hours away.
We started watching the series “Lupin” on Netflix last night. We watched the first episode just fine and then halfway through the second, the subtitles stopped and since it’s in French we were lost. That’s been happening every once in a while with us on Netflix, have any of you had that happen?
Steve Bannon has that weird quirk of wearing 2 button down shirts, he’s a strange one. He always looks like he’s two sheets to the wind to me.
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del said on February 6, 2021 at 3:53 am
My CrossFit theory: people are drawn to it who lack control over their work lives, or live with economic pressures, Walter Mittys, maybe. They wake before dawn to take control of their bodies and lives, to be in charge for once. Pent with frustration.
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Deborah said on February 6, 2021 at 4:13 am
“When have you ever slipped on a banana peel?” It was 1977 in New Orleans on Jackson Ave. I landed on my butt, a classic fall that people around me couldn’t keep themselves from laughing over, I was mortified but laughed along with them.
I have insomnia again, trying to sleep, thinking about random stuff.
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alex said on February 6, 2021 at 9:22 am
Dex, they’re planning to build an all-new DeKalb jail on Seventh west of I-69. The existing building from the 1980s has been overcrowded for years and isn’t amenable to expansion. Also the ground underneath it is unstable and causing structural issues and it may need to be torn down.
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Julie Robinson said on February 6, 2021 at 10:24 am
Alex, any word this morning about your friend? I’ve been thinking of him ever since I read your post.
The “large boulders” looked very familiar to me, and when I saw it was in Telluride I remembered my cousin posting it. She loves living there and the whole family go skiing right behind their backyard.
There’s a half dozen squirrels and even more birds out back right now. Their entertainment is my zen time, helping me through the quarantine in a way I’d never imagined. New sightings yesterday were a bluebird and a robin. All for a little birdseed and corn!
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LAMary said on February 6, 2021 at 11:06 am
I had a geologist boyfriend for years so boulder falling down type stories don’t rattle me too much. It happens. They don’t fall on people very often. Even here in the land of quakes where they’re more frequent than in the Rockies they don’t fall on people. Occasionally a hillside gives way and a house is hanging on by half a foundation but the people usually manage to get out before they slide downhill with the house. John McPhee has written some good stuff about these events. The Control of Nature is good. So is Assembling California.
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alex said on February 6, 2021 at 11:09 am
Julie, I had a teleconference with him this morning. He’s very stressed out. They’ve only given him his medications on two of the last six days and his blood pressure is elevated and he’s in a constant anxiety/panic state. He needed to cut the meeting short so that he could go lie down.
He said he left messages with his attorney but hadn’t received any response and wanted me to try to secure him new representation. One of our friends has been in contact with his attorney and tells me that the attorney is working on getting him out. So I’m waiting to see what’s next.
Bluebird sighting yesterday by the way. It was eating cat food. I snapped a photo on my phone.
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Deborah said on February 6, 2021 at 1:40 pm
It will be quite cold the next 10 days in Chicago according to my weather app. Highs mostly in the low teens and lows near 0 or below. For 10 fricking days! Next Saturday’s high is forecast to be 1. I hate February.
I walked over to my Covid test location a few minutes ago, it was 12 degrees but sunny with not much wind. I had a million layers on and my husband’s giant puffy coat because my coat doesn’t fit when I have a bunch of layers under it. The tests were done inside the building today instead of in the parking garage, understandably. This test, my 6th one was the most uncomfortable one I’ve had for some reason.
Alex, your friend is lucky to have you on his side.
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David C said on February 6, 2021 at 3:02 pm
For the next week, the only double digit temperatures we’re going to see up here are double digits below zero. The only consolation is it will be sunny all week too. We got our groceries today so with any luck, we can stay inside all week.
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Deborah said on February 6, 2021 at 5:39 pm
The only day I have to go out is Tuesday for my surgery, and I’m not walking there this time because it will be dark when I leave home and about 0 degrees.
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LAMary said on February 6, 2021 at 6:57 pm
It’s 78 here.
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jcburns said on February 6, 2021 at 10:30 pm
From the today in nn.c history in 2007:
So, sorry about the cold snap!
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Dexter Friend said on February 6, 2021 at 11:29 pm
“But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn’t take one more step”
Wednesday marked 62 years since the music died near Clear Lake, Iowa. Yeah, February 3. February. But a nice remembrance: Babe Ruth and Bob Marley were born on February 3. I remember February , 1963, when I started a paper route. My first day it was -18F. The kid who broke me in to the route refused to wear hats, ever. His ears were frostbitten and they turned blackish. There was talk of amputating the outer reaches of the cartilage. Somehow it got better. That was a cold goddam February.
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Dexter Friend said on February 7, 2021 at 12:02 am
Bad info, as The Babe and also Bob Marley were born on February 6, just 50 years apart, 1895 and 1945.
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LAMary said on February 7, 2021 at 12:26 am
Old timers here call this earthquake weather. I don’t say that out loud. The plates will hear me.
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Deborah said on February 7, 2021 at 6:05 am
78 would feel to warm for me. Highs in Santa Fe these days are in the 40s, even 50s some days and sunny, plus dry, wish I was there, even when lows are in the teens at night. I usually try to be in NM during as much of February as possible.
Movies watched lately: The Manchurian Candidate and Stalag 17. I also finished watching Season 1 of Lupin, had to watch it on my iPad though, it was the only way I could get the subtitles to work.
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Dexter Friend said on February 7, 2021 at 6:43 am
Now I can’t sleep after thawing a frozen hot water pipe to the shower. I caught it before it burst. It’s 5F now and this is going to last until Monday at 1:00 PM when it hits 15F and I won’t have to monitor these pipes for freezing quite to attentively. If not for the virus, I would load up Friendo Cat and Pogo Labbie into the Chevy Impala and go to Port St. Lucie and sun it up at daughter and son-in-law’s house for a few weeks. But then again, daughter Sandi is taking the loss of her mother hard. She wouldn’t want visitors. A year ago her biological father died of cancer; I heard he had been a lifelong chain smoker. He was a family deserter and Sandi never wanted a damn thing to do with him. And so, her mother and to a lesser extent, me, were everything to her in the emotional support field. Sandi is 49 and I have been Dad to her 46 of those years. 🙂
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Deborah said on February 7, 2021 at 9:36 am
The Internet is ablaze with discussions about the SNL Zillow skit. I watched a clip of it and it is funny. I’d include a link but the version I watched was a video someone had made from their TV so poor quality. I’m sure there are better versions, just Google it.
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Suzanne said on February 7, 2021 at 11:06 am
Here is the SNL Zillow link.
https://youtu.be/yEfsaXDX0UQ
My weather app says it’s 15° in my area but my outdoor thermometer registers 6°
Ick. I hate winter.
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alex said on February 7, 2021 at 11:24 am
I saw the SNL skit and it rings true (except that I think Zillow sucks and realtor.com is better). Love looking at house porn.
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Deborah said on February 7, 2021 at 11:38 am
Here’s something on the down side of living in a highrise on the lake in windy Chicago: the building constantly shifts. This morning we had a second door come off of it’s pivot hinges. The doors are floor to ceiling, 1947 era originals, extremely heavy. This latest is one of the door panels of the three on the only closet in the unit. The first time it was one of the panels on the double door between the kitchen and the entryway. This really messes up the ceiling when it happens. We’ve tried to have the kitchen one fixed but it keeps disengaging and it had to be put off to the side leaning against the wall for the duration of the pandemic so far. When the building management allows outside workers to come in and make repairs again we’ll be able to get these fixed. I know it will cost more but I think we should replace the doors with lighter versions, that will have to be custom made because they’re extra tall, not standard sized. The trials of ownership.
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David C said on February 7, 2021 at 11:45 am
Reading about Zillow got me to thinking about our previous house so I looked it up and I’m a bit shocked. It sold last October for a quarter mil. We bought it in 2001 for $129K and sold it in the teeth of the Bush depression for $134K. We probably spent $10K in finishing the lower level just so we could get it sold. But we’re grateful we got it sold and didn’t have to resort to jingle mail and losing everything. But a quarter mil for that house seems crazy. It was a cheaply built raised ranch with really shitty and drafty slide-by windows. They put in hardwood floors and the decorating is really nicely done but the bones of it aren’t that good. They say Grand Rapids is really a hot housing market so I guess they’re right. Anyway, this is it for your house porn pleasure. https://www.zillow.com/homes/1675-Nelson-Ct-Dorr,-MI,-49323_rb/74616776_zpid/?mmlb=g,0
It was -15° this morning and it’s up to -11 with an expected high of 0°.
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LAMary said on February 7, 2021 at 12:31 pm
We had a week of thirties at night and fifties during the day. With no humidity, no cloud cover, the nights can get cold. Ask people who live in the high desert towns here.
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basset said on February 7, 2021 at 2:49 pm
The Beatles made their first landing in the USA on this day in 1964… here’s a different perspective on it:
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/n704pa/
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Deborah said on February 7, 2021 at 3:23 pm
OMG David C, your comment prompted me to look up on Zillow the house I grew up in, in a blue collar area of Miami. It’s now valued at $303,000! My parents paid $8,000 in 1957. Hard to believe. I couldn’t get any current photos of it to show up on my iPad but I can tell from pursuing Google earth that it’s been added on to, curious because it’s still listed on Zillow as a 3 bedroom, 1 bath place. It was a solid little house, cement block stucco to withstand hurricanes, as many were back then, but still.
Now I’m going to do this with every house I’ve ever lived in.
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Jeff Borden said on February 7, 2021 at 4:33 pm
Alex,
It’s too bad your friend is not a QAnon shaman. While your elderly buddy is treated like shit in the county pokey, the violent asshole who entered the Capitol building wearing furs and face paint on Jan. 6 has been transferred to a jail in Virginia where he will receive only organic meals. Of course, it could be worse for your pal. A few years ago, the Milwaukee County Jail –once run by that lunatic sheriff who worships tRump and always wears a huge black cowboy hat– didn’t give any water to an inmate for a week. He died of dehydration and the county paid his family $6.7 million. The inmate was, of course, black.
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susan said on February 7, 2021 at 5:01 pm
jeff borden @54. The sheriff was black, also. David Clarke. But a different kind of Black.
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Deborah said on February 7, 2021 at 5:25 pm
$8,000 in 1957 is equal to about $75,500 in today’s dollars adjusting for inflation, but of course real estate doesn’t work that way depending on location. Miami obviously isn’t as hot as So California for instance. And I don’t mean that climate-wise.
The little bungalow my ex and I bought in 1977 in Dallas for $18,000 is now valued at about $250,000 on Zillow. We sold it in 1980 for $35,000 when we moved to St. Louis. It was in the area called Oak Cliff which was considered the other side of the tracks (literally we backed up to railroad tracks) it was the black side of town. Now it’s completely shifted to Hispanic, or it had shifted that way the last time I was there in about 2005.
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David C said on February 7, 2021 at 5:48 pm
I would have looked up the house my parents built in 1958 for $8000 but the State of Michigan did me a favor by knocking it down to build a freeway over the top of it.
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David Edelstein said on February 12, 2021 at 8:57 am
I once slipped on a banana peel. It was on a sidewalk and there was a pretty girl a few steps behind me. I yelped to her, “I just slipped on a banana peel!” and she gave me a half smile and kept walking, as if to say, “Well, that’s a new one.”
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