New Shoes in the Rain

...and neither do I. In reference to several people and events in the news recently, I've been thinking about a song by the late, great Tom Petty, entitled "You Don't Know How it Feels."  Suppose there's some truth in that, but it all depends on perspective, and when it comes to the rich and famous, we really DON'T know how it feels. Take all of the celebrities who've been swept up in the college admission scandal of the past few months.  Actress Felicity Huffman pleaded guilty to her role in this (her offense was that she paid a proctor to change answers for her daughter's college entrance exam) and was sentenced to 14 days in federal prison, a fine and a specified amount of community service. Huffman went off to prison recently and was photographed while there, and was released last Friday, a couple of days early, because the end of her sentence fell on a weekend.  I think this qualifies as a "you don't know how it feels" scenario...

It's Friday.  Finally.  I have a friend with whom I exchange TGIF messages each week.  You know who you are! I think we're in a remarkable period of what will eventually be our country's history from this time period, in which we're witnessing all manner of strange and previously unbelievable events unfolding right before our eyes. Yesterday's announcement heralding a cease-fire between the Turkish military and the Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria is a great example of this.  This is a conflict that arose almost entirely because our President agreed to move American military forces out of the region to allow a Turkish incursion into the area. I won't pretend to fully understand all of the nuances of the vast number of faith-based groups throughout the Middle East, but it's clear that the Kurdish rebels involved here have been great allies to American and other coalition forces in their efforts to fight back against ISIS in recent years.  And our co...

It's Friday, folks.  Hope you have a big weekend planned, and are not under the effect of severe weather where you live. Ruminating this morning on the subject of name brand merchandise versus generic or store brand stuff.  How do you shop?  Are you a name-brand-or-else shopper or are you at least open to alternatives? This started when I ran across a video on YouTube that discussed the wildly popular Yeti Rambler drink tumbler with a similar item sold at Walmart for about 1/4 the price.  The video's author did some relatively good testing and determined that there's not a whole lot of difference between the two, in terms of insulation, capacity and the like. So that started me thinking about what makes that decision to buy the name brand item in any category.  Here's a little info on how we go about it. First and foremost, on major stuff like appliances, we go with known and reputable name brands.  Why?  Well, I always have believed that if yo...

Happy middle-of-the-week to you.  Thanks for stopping by. Recently I was prompted to remember a couple of things from way back when, and began to think of more such items that fit that description.  Glance through the list and see which of these YOU remember (bearing in mind that we're not all in the same age range), listed in no particular order: A mail truck that was essentially a slow three-wheeled go-kart that would only hold the driver Superhero TV shows that sought to capitalize on the popularity of "Batman," like "Captain Nice" and "Mr. Terrific" Speedy, the Alka-Seltzer mascot/commercial character Johnson Smith, a novelty company Columbia House, seller of recorded music by mail Trading stamps (in my part of the world we had both S&H Green Stamps and Top Value Stamps) The Osmond Brothers appearing on the "Andy Williams Show" Nancy Sinatra singing a duet with her father Frank called "Something Stupid" ...