Just a Guy Who Reads the Papers

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Home repairs offer harsh distraction from news, newspapers

Sometimes I sit here trying to keep informed and make at least somewhat intelligent comments about “the news” — then sometimes I just get, should we say, distracted by home repairs and maintenance.

Drug companies understand clever marketing, don’t they?

Have you noticed the happy people who use a particular new brand of antidepressant or asthma medication in the multitude of television commercials broadcast each evening during network news programs? Or those who smile as they walk slowly along, perhaps slightly stooped from their osteoporosis — happy at the way Company A’s new Wonder Drug B allows them to remain active?

Finding information online can be fun, adventure

It’s probably a little thing, but how do you navigate your way around online news sites? Do you look for headlines on sites you normally go to, or do you use an online search site (technically called “search engines,” I think) like Google or Yahoo or Bing to look for specific news subject, then click links to get there.

As I age, I follow Alzheimer’s research very carefully

As I grow older, I confess I pay much more attention to findings in Alzheimer’s research than I did when I was younger. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out why: Alzheimer’s cases are steadily growing as the U.S. population grows older — and I’m among that so-called “aging Baby Boomers generation” so often connected with that part of the population.

Millions of lawyers, yet not many are astronomers, too

You have to wonder, given the millions of lawyers in the civilized world (maybe millions just in the U.S.?), how many of them are recognized not only for their legal work — but for their accomplishments in astronomy, too?

Are alternative power sources starting to make sense yet?

Are the many alternative energy and power sources out there that scientists and politicians have been preaching about starting to make sense yet? More importantly, are they any more practical and usable than they were, say, 10 years ago? Are the next great thing in batteries or wind turbines or even nuclear power plants on the horizon yet?

Okay, I admit it: I’m old-fashioned enough to enjoy ‘Andy Griffith Show’

There it is, my “secret vice” besides just loving to read good old, hold-in-your-hand newspapers, I love to watch those corny “Andy Griffth Show” reruns.

Call it a silly weakness, but I really get a kick out of the old Mayberry gang. And, by the way, I even enjoy the mid- to late-60s episodes after Don Knotts left. Many “purists” among fans won’t consider post-Knotts episodes the “real” show. (I do, however, draw the line at anything with Ken Berry or “Mayberry R.F.D.” associated with it. Ugh.)

Hillary Clinton for Supreme Court? Downright silly, I think

I just had a great laugh as I was looking at some online articles on Google News: There is supposedly legitimate speculation that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may be President Obama’s nominee to fill the Supreme Court seat coming vacant at Justice John Paul Stevens’ retirement.

A useless personal ‘rant,’ I suppose, but here goes anyway …

Sometimes you just gotta RANT. And when you’ve got to rant, well, the only way to get it out of your system is by ranting, then moving on.

I keep getting sp*m (rhymes with “ham” and is made also of pork, in the real world) comments on this website and most of my other article oriented websites. Those are comments that idiots try to post using, usually, perfectly clever and useless software in an attempt to get a link from my website back to theirs. And their sites normally, as you can tell if you see the structure of the web address in their comment link, are pushing some of the general crapola “enhancers” or outright p*rn (rhymes with “horn”) sites.

Sometimes libraries face financial ‘holds,’ whether they like it or not

We had local elections in my neck of the woods last Tuesday, and many folks in a county adjacent to ours were stunned that voters rejected an increase in property taxes that would have modernized and increased a county library system for the first time in something like 50 years.

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