What Makes a Man a Man?

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Today, let’s start off with a multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanker…

If you hang around a particular, video sharing platform for more than three minutes, tops, you’re bound to bump into an oddball who’s “occupation” is best described as _________:

• A. adman
• B. madman
• C. nadman
• D. all the above

If you chose “D”, go to the head of the class.

Typically, his insufferable ads begin with him spilling his spiel…

“Testosterone is what makes a man a man.”

Typically, his “well duh” “revelation” triggers my recollection of an apt, bygone, screenplay retort…

“Geeze, you figured that out Sherlock.”

Actor Jack Lemmon • Character John Gustafson • From film Grumpy Old Men

Seriously, what middle school graduate wouldn’t already know that?

This nameless dude (Hey, let’s call him Sherlock) actually considers himself to be some sorta leading authority on… on…

Well, while I won’t aid and abet his con by working his side of the street, suffice to say, he’s been doing his damnedest to sucker in gullible, roly-poly, past middle age guys, who’ve been “hanging” around whatever love nest(s) they’ve been frequenting.

Anyway, Sherlock appears oblivious to how his speaking with authority is only coming across as off-putting arrogance. And, seeing how he neither trots out a medical degree nor, bare minimum, dons a white lab coat, it’s highly unlikely he’s a qualified physician or even a dietician.

Oh, by the bye, his on cam attire is way too dress casual. He’s nearly in the buff (topless) (and no buff bodybuilder is he).

Truth be told, a Saturday Night Live, hilarious send-up could not upstage what he does in dead seriousness.

To keep it all real, Sherlock has been manufacturing a solution to a problem that’s a non-problem. Stripping this down to the bare-bones, Mother Nature prefers her procreators to be physically fit and under age 40. And therein is the main reason why she slows 40+ guys down.

Yeah, sure, most couples do know that it’s not always about making babies; that there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with people staying active up till the very end.

Yet, Ma Nature would disagree.

Going beyond that, the way Sherlock demeans the male gender is offensive to me. I do consider myself more than a “Y” chromosome.

In spite of that, what’s truly astounding, here, is how Sherlock has, actually, inadvertently, sleuthed the very, driving force that, from time immemorial, has hammered in needless, incalculable human suffering; the bloody, no-win wars, torture, sexual violence, enslavement, ethnic cleansing, persecution, hyperpartisanship, workplace posturing, road rage, anti-maskism, anti-vaxxism, Trumpism, etc.:

“Testosterone is what makes a man a man.”

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Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

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The “n” and “nn” Homophones

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Be the homophones spelled with an “n” or “nn”, American society appears to be stuck with a most ungainly, uncompromising, temporal predicament.

Re that “n”, we find Einsteinian Canon precluding time travel to past eras; the type of good old days we’d find far more comforting; i.e, when compared to our present-day news cycles dominated by reportage of the Covid-19 pandemic, environmental ruin, no-win wars, threats to women’s rights / civil rights / human rights, police brutality, looming fascism, insurrection conspiracies, hyper-partisan politics and anti-vaxxers / anti-maskers / Karens (of all genders) gone wild.

In other words, be the historical accounts printed out between the covers of our official, honestly authored textbooks or handed down from generation to generation, via familial folklore (in the most myth-free sense of that word), we can only yearn for days of yore; not actually return to them.

Re that “nn”, we find the Trumpian Cannons. Oh, to be sure, we speaketh not of the literal cannons and cannonballs, but none of us should be whewing, “That’s a relief”, either.

• We must NEVER forget how anti-American Donald J. Trump’s anti-American insurrectionists had violated and attacked the U.S. Capitol; had been armed with loaded handguns, shotguns and rifles; not to mention large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, stun guns, machetes, crossbows, Molotov cocktails, bats, flagpoles (with Old Glory still attached), crutches, skateboards, camouflage smoke devices, chemical sprays, fire extinguishers; not to mention zip-tie handcuffs and a hangman’s gallows; not to mention their weaponizing human excrement.
• We must NEVER forget the resultant death and destruction, which Trump and his terrorists are totally responsible for.

And seeing how that rioting mob, in all likelihood, will be facing down little, if any, punishment; how no one (as of my posting time) has had the spine to haul Trump’s considerable Fascist fanny before even one honest to God judge, once again, as usual, we find that traitor to America giddily and WRONGFULLY claiming exoneration.

While none of these domestic terrorists have, in actuality, halted the hands of time, the net temporal effect is identical. It all distills down to how Donald J. Trump’s backwardness halts, dead in its tracks, nearly all advancement of American society.

So, let’s check out the damned Catch-22 in a nutshell…

• Einsteinian Canon won’t allow us time travel to relive better days of yore.
• Trumpian Cannons won’t permit us to travel normally ISO a brighter future.
• Be it the “n” or “nn” homophone, our society stagnates in the here and now.

Factoring in how too damned many insufferable, alleged world leaders have been parroting DJT’s bleated, moronic, CYA catch phrases (e.g., “fake news” and “witch hunt”) AND have been aping his deplorable, despotic deeds, would the following be a foregone conclusion…

As goes America so goes the world?

Wherever we dwell, let’s do the utmost to prevent such a dreary, dreadful destiny.

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Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

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To whom it may concern…

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To whom it may concern (be you many or few):
When you espy us, how do you construe?
Our X-OneNation, ISO its glue;
And devoid of its vertebrae, too.

How would you treat pseudo science reliers?
And defeat global warming deniers.
And anti-maskers; social distance defiers.
And all the rest of these wisdom decriers.

Would you deck out, all decadent folks?
Decked out in brown shirts or white hoods and cloaks.
Who’d reinstall OrangeMan; instill his hoax.
Who’d call on wild insurrection to coax.

How would you fight all who deepen each schism?
Out the “devout”, who flout their catechism.
Fire the pushers of each evil ism.
Devotee voters who’d fight FOR Fascism!

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Stay Publicly / Properly Masked!
Stay Safe at Home!
Stay Healthy!

-30-

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That’s a Godly Man?

How the Hell does anyone ever wind up multiple decades into biological adulthood and still throw temper tantrums? Hmm… perhaps we should call them Trumper Tantrums? Yep, that’d give credit where credit is due.

So, WTF was “Godly Man’s” goal? Did he actually expect these underpaid, essential Walmart workers… these courageous sentinels patrolling the COVID-19 frontlines… to apologize profusely? Beg him not to leave?

Obviously, he neither knows nor cares about the fact that with 95% mask compliance… throughout the remainder of 2020, alone… we could save 70,000 lives!

He needs to realize that his beef is not with retail workers… it’s with Donald J. Trump.

If “Godly Man” could harness just a minuscule fraction of his rage and channel it more productively / appropriately he’d vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Their winning the White House is America’s best bet for, eventually, making mask wearing a thing of the past.

Stay Safe at Home! Stay Publicly Masked! Stay Healthy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dragged Out / Dragged In / What a Drag!

Even now, eight long months into the pandemic, some of us still don’t get it… CUT! CUT!! CUT!!!

Let’s cut through the crap.

I was raised in an era where, early on in life, nearly everyone learned to be “we” NOT “me” oriented.

Anyone who values such for-the-greater-good sentiments, will find our video’s showcased conduct both cringe-worthy and inexcusable. How else could we react to the sight of the masquerading as a grownup, cussing shopper getting dragged out into the parking lot by his own son. And even more disgusting is the audible flatulence at 0:36.

Alas… what else can we expect, when all the man-child knows is how to ape and follow his (mis)leader… namely, the cringe-worthy and inexcusable man-child, who holes up in his oval shaped digs. The fake prez flunking out in Science 101, Civility 101 and Civics 101, is why, eight long months into the pandemic, approximately 4 out of 10 Americans… my guesstimate*… still cannot wrap their warped minds around this truth…

Until safe, reliable vaccines and / or therapeutics are discovered, humankind’s best and only defenses against the pitiless, deadly coronavirus require our masking up and socially distancing in public and isolating at home.

What could be easier than that?

To slightly shift gears now…

Following a bit of introspection, it dawned on me that I could also appear in my own pandemic related video… although the “cam” would be focused upon my self-preservation instincts… not immature selfishness.

Were it humanly possible to capture / post online my state-of-mind… we’d be witness to my overwrought condition whenever I must mask up to set foot into the Donald diseased America. We’d see how my own home, the symbol of relative safety, acts as the unseen force, which relentlessly drags me back inward… inside where I’d be tirelessly toiling away… permanently hammering shut all of my dwelling’s exit doors, and, just to be damned sure, boarding up all my windows, too.

Stay Safe at Home! Stay Publicly Masked! Stay Healthy!

 

 

*based on Donald J. Trump’s still astoundingly high 40% approval rating (August 2020)