PAUSE FOR THOUGHT - JUST SAYIN...

JUST SAYIN….

Okay, I keep a notebook full of ideas and topics so I always have something to write about.  I have hundreds.  Some will probably not get expanded out into articles because there just aren’t enough hours in the day.  Because if it bleeds it leads.  And I don’t mean that I only write about gory, violent, horrifying issues, but I do think that women being stoned to death for adultery under Sharia law is a little more urgent an issue then say, my hint to use dust rags attached to your Swiffer rather than the disposable pads because it’s more economical and environmentally sound.  Both are legitimate pieces of information but the Swiffer hint is not going to save lives. 

So every so often I’m going to ‘spit out’ the tidbits that are interesting, that you may benefit by, and let you have at them.  Comment away, they are strictly my opinion, and as blogs go, they will be pot luck, anything from politics to household hints, to beauty tips.

Here we go: 

·                    Little addition to the Swiffer tip:  You can use vinegar in a spray bottle as a cleaning fluid, and paper towels or cloth rags (even better) on the Swiffer in the bathroom, where you’ll want a disposable pad for the mop head.  Very cheap, very effective, very green. 

·                    I personally think the term ‘social drinker’ should be changed to ‘anti-social drinker.’ 

·                    Just as I was amused at housewives in the 50s wearing pearls and beehives while running vacuum cleaners, I am amused at ponytail moms in the new millennium with tennis outfits and ponytails through the visors. 

·                    I hate cheap sour cream that is not cream but just sour milk thickened with cornstarch.  Just dastardly. 

·                    Who the hell told George Foreman he knew how to cook or what grilling is?  All that piece of garbage ‘grill’ of his does is squeeze every detectable trace of moisture out of a piece of meat.  Get out of the kitchen, George!  Ugh! 

·                    Mandating that people pay for health insurance, and imposing exorbitant fines if they don’t is not democracy, but tyranny. 

·                    The entire insurance industry is a huge, convoluted scam. 

·                    Illegal aliens are not a new problem to North America.  Ask the Native Americans. 

·                    I don’t understand why decent women marry violent jerks thinking they can change them, are amazed that the men don’t change and frequently get worse, and then refuse to press charges against them when they get pounded, and their kids get pounded, because ‘they still love him!’   SMH 

·                    Writing executive orders to muscle legislation through Congress is called taxation without representation.  That did not work out well for King George III. 

·                    A 6 ton gas-guzzling pickup truck doesn’t make you a lick better in bed.

·                    There are sheriff’s departments around the country whose deputies were paid $400 a shot to deliver foreclosure papers.  Wow.  Now it’s profitable to kick people when they’re down. 

·                    You don’t need some money-grabbing, corrupt institution to commune with God.  You are not born with a prayer book in your hand, God’s inside of you, and every living thing. 

·                    I think convicted pedophiles should be tattooed with a big red P right in the middle of their foreheads so that children can be taught was the boogeyman actually looks like. 

·                    No one working in retail should start a job before being taught by a certified health official, the meaning of sanitary.  Many employees responsible for cleaning bathrooms in small stores and businesses have no notion of health & safety. 

·                    I refuse to pay $12 or more to sit in a movie theater and miss lines of dialogue because of rude ass people who chomp loudly, rattle candy bags, use their cell phones, yap, and drag in squealing babies.  Ugh! 

·                    Men in corporate offices, unless it’s specifically written into their job description, should not be packhorses.  I worked for a large insurance company, and when we moved our offices around they had the guys moving furniture around and lugging file boxes.  This particular insurance company got government bailout money.  What happened to all the money they saved not using professional movers for that office change? 

·                    Want to learn something ground up?  Buy kids' books about the subject.  The topic will be explained completely and in easy to understand language because there’s no assumption made that you have previous experience or foreknowledge. 

·                    Before I listen to an ‘expert’ telling me how to handle my kids, I want to see more than a degree.  I want to see a log that indicates life experience with children.  What qualifies them to have an opinion that squelches mine?  What kind of kids are they turning out? 

·                    I loathe professional women who oppress other women trying so hard to prove they have corporate balls.  Bad enough when men do it. 

·                    For those with allergies and dry heat in the winter.  When your nasal passages get dry and burn, try this: breathe in through your mouth, hold your breath for a count of 5, then breathe out through your nose.  Do this several times.  The moisture in the exhaled breath will humidify and soothe your nasal passages. 

·                     How ‘comfortable’ does a tampon applicator really have to be?  Not like you’re inserting it for the duration of your period!

·                    Fire-at-will states inspire cynicism.  Knowing you can be fired at any moment for no reason at all can only cause you to resent the tyrants in control. 

·                    To people trying to get Howard Stern or anyone else off the air.  Novel idea: change the channel!  Why would you restrict his entire audience rather than yourself or your family members?  Can you say freedom of speech?

·                    I was in a ladies room stall once that was so tight I had to climb over the toilet to get around the open door.  There was barely room to turn around let alone change a sanitary item, and my knees bumped the door while doing so.  Ugh!

·                    I’d rather have 1 small scoop on real ice-cream then 10 scoops of low carb, low fat, sugar free, chemically treated frozen milk garbage. 

·                    “There’s a sucker born every minute.” – P.T. Barnum - apparently in encouragement to the inventor of the diet industry, insurance industry, packaged food industry which are all circuses.

·                    On raising children, I believe that ‘bonding’ is more than breast-feeding.  Quality time is bullshit.  Quantity is necessary.  There is a huge difference between working to survive and working to live beyond one’s means, especially when it’s at the children’s expense. 

·                    …And which rep of the diet industry is refuting all the evidence that aspartame causes serious health problems?  Is he or she related to the tobacco rep who swears up and down that smoking doesn’t cause cancer and emphysema? 

·                    Customer service = damage control, and it’s a joke.  Companies seek to do the very least they can get away with to get the most money. 

·                    Automated phone systems were invented by the devil. 

·                    Production of plastic uses as much petroleum as operation of cars.  Seriously, everyone, recycle!

·                    Stay-at-home moms are treated like they aren’t valid while yuppie mothers pay nannies to do exactly the same job.  SMH

·                    My answer for eating disorders is an exchange program:  Bring ten starving 3^rd world children into the home of each anorexic and send the anorexic to take their place.  Problem solved. 

·                    If they pump animals full of growth hormone to fatten them up, what do you think ingesting the meat does to you? 

·                    Cell phones in cars should be treated like liquor: only allowed in the trunk, and should be sealed for driving. 

·                    People working in offices: When you’re finished using the copy machine or fax machine, clear your settings. 

·                    Women who ‘hover’ and pee on toilet seats: you’re the reason the rest of us have to wrap it.  Either sit down or grow a penis so you can aim it. 

·                    Huge peeve: kids in commercials and TV shows who chew with their mouths open.  Revolting!  Who raised the director?

·                    It occurs to me that individually wrapped cheese, tough blister packs for meds, snack item bags that are untearable, and inner seals on bleach and milk jugs are protecting products that are so full of preservatives they won’t go bad anyway.  And on second thought, it’s probably better for our health if we can’t get into them. 

·                    Observations about the corporate world: The more money you make (except top executives) the less job security you have.  The bottom line is always money.  Nothing else matters: not people, not conscience, not ethics, not creativity, not honor/integrity. 

·                    Every grave dug up by archaeologists is someone’s ancestor. 

·                    Thank you, feds, for letting criminals dictate yet another arena of my life. Now I have to fill out a whole form in the store to buy Sudafed because you can’t control the meth cookers.  They win yet again over myself and others who just want to drain the snot out of our sinuses. 

·                    The people who used to play the walnut shell games at fairs and swindle people are now the corporate executives of America.  They work all day shuffling papers and doing reports about nothing, then steal benefits and money right out from under their employees’ noses. 

·                    Just because there are no bombs does not mean there is no war. 

·                    America is more like a 64 box of crayons than a melting pot.  Each color brings its own beauty to the picture. 

·                    I hope you and other idealistic people like you can change the world so dramatically for the better that it renders my skepticism and cynicism obsolete. 

·                    Bastardizing the English language for business writing is wrong. 

·                    The value of a toy is the nostalgia and fond memories attached to it, not the buying/selling value of it.  Decades from now, toys sealed in their packages will just be a legacy of joyless wealth.

My “Keith” doll is priceless, was and is a part of me.  He’s beat to crap: been cried on, puked on, talked to, taken everywhere, especially scary places, and received a cabillion hugs.  Can’t do that through the box. 

·                    I always thought telephones were rude, demanding little gadgets.  No matter when it rings you have to jump up and answer it.  When I was a kid I sat back down to many cold dinners, missed the ends of many favorite shows and cursed myself for answering to hear a long-winded relative on the line who would no doubt monopolize the next 3 or 4 hours that I’d scoped out for a long relaxing bath or walk.  And whose idea was it to change the jingly, friendly-like bell to those shrill, urgent, alarming, nerve-wrenching pulses?  Ick!   Thank goodness for answering machines and the ability to screen calls and voice mail. 

·                    Much preventative medicine is a pseudonym for marketing strategy. 

·                    Religion=organized speculation.

·                    If I can choose to light a cigarette (which not only harms myself but others) why is it against the law for me to commit suicide?  And why, if another person can offer me a light for my cigarette, is Dr. Kevorkian more of a killer than Phillip Morris or Hiram Walker are pushers? 

·                    I think books like Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus give people permission to behave like the worst elements of their gender. 

·                    I agree with Roseanne Barr: The only time politicians tell the truth is when they call each other liars. 

·                    Mr. President: write an executive order dissolving the Federal Reserve.  Take the bailout money that execs will piss away on themselves and give it to teachers, firemen, policemen, soldiers, farmers, trades people, and medical personnel who do the real work in this country.

·                    Why do kitchens at parties always seem to house the “Oh honey, you think that’s bad” pain competition between women?  Worst childbirth experience, worst bout with pneumonia or some other disease or pain, most inconsiderate husband/children, worst financial problems, and on and on. 

·                    Personally I think Civic Associations/Homeowners’ Associations are unconstitutional.  There are county and city health and safety codes.  Beyond them regulations set by CAs and HAs are often discriminatory.  The property you are paying for should be your own, not subject to the tastes and whims of a group of elitist petty dictators.

·                    How is it legal for former employers to renegotiate contracts and change early retirement packages that were agreed upon on earlier date?  How is that not breach of contract?  Whatever your contract states on the day you retire should stand permanently, not be changed and turn your life upside down years later. 

·                    For hundreds of years the Catholic Church performed Mass in Latin—you would think it would have been performed in Christ’s own language of Aramaic. 

·                    What is it with talk shows airing everyone’s dirty linen?  Like it’s an honor to have the worst problem Oprah’s ever aired. 

·                    People buy into everything they’re told to.  Like brides and weddings.  Salespeople tell you all about the proper etiquette.  Who made all the rules?  The salespeople.  It’s ridiculous.  Doesn’t anyone ever say, Why?  A lot of tradition is snooty elitist bullshit. 

·                    Sometimes you just have to say no to your kids and mean it, no explanations, no counting, no discussion. 

·                    Should marriage necessarily follow love?  Just because you’re sexually attracted or romantically involved doesn’t mean you want the person in every single aspect of your life. 

·                    I don’t understand why anyone would pay for a stair-climbing machine if they have a staircase in their home. 

·                    If you have a desk job, and pay to go to a gym, why not just get a job that has more physical aspects to it?  Nothing like getting paid to stay in shape. 

·                    One Sunday I was in church and the priest said, “Please notice that the pews have been refinished, don’t they look beautiful.”  In the same breath he asked that everyone donate to the building fund for there was no money in the budget to pay for the work that was done.  I said, loud enough to be heard by many people, who nodded in agreement, “Then why didn’t the church wait and save up the money to have the work done like the parishioners do?”  Cosmetic work is vanity and not what Christ is about.  I haven’t been back, and the decades since have been the most spiritual of my life. 

·                    Is it me, or do traditional bedtime stories, rhymes, and prayers set kids up for nightmares?  “If I should die before I wake…”  “Don’t let the bedbugs bite!” and Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, Three Blind Mice, and many others.  What’s up with that? 

·                    I don’t get this.  A guy said because his phone number appeared on a major rock group’s album cover, publicity disrupted his life.  So he sued the rock group for two million dollars.  There was no publicity surrounding the lawsuit?  What an ass.  It might be inconvenient to change one’s phone number, but suing an internationally famous rock band is not going to give you peace and quiet. 

·                    The American Dream takes work to become the American Reality. 

·                    If they give animals growth hormone to make them plump, what happens when we eat the meat?  1+1=2

·                    I don’t think shoving kids into every activity on earth is raising them.  Let them make up their own games.  Shove them into the backyard and let them play freeze tag, Mother May I, Duck Duck Goose,  Red Light, Green Light, Hopscotch, Jumprope, ride bikes, Hide & Seek, shoot hoops, roller skate or blade.  You don’t have to take them to some organized sport or facility for them to have fun. 

·                    I don’t know what’s worse, trophy wives or trophy kids.  Pathetic. 

·                    They won’t let you put a modern storm door on the houses in Historic New Castle, Delaware, but they put an obscene, ugly chain link fence around the wharf.  Probably because some Yuppie mommy didn’t want to supervise her Yuppie Puppie.  The wharf was never fenced for centuries, because it's unnecessary and obscures the view. 

·                    Professional people (especially women!) who look down their noses at stay-at-home moms (and dads) really piss me off.  How many of them pay a daycare to raise their children?  Or pay someone to clean their homes?  Or have laundry done?  To me, stay at home parents are professionals working pro bono. 

·                    If kids don’t fit into the assembly line yuppy puppy package, they must have some sort of disorder.  Bunk.  Maybe they’re just bored with the curriculum and all the structured activities, and being shoved into the daycare system when they’re a month or two old.  They never get to imagine.  Maybe we need to tear into the educational system that’s whitewashing every lesson plan to the point of sterility.  Maybe it’s the teachers and parents who have attention deficit. 

·        I am a very spiritual person, but I think organized religion should be abolished.  You can believe in anything you want, but it should be treated like sex: personal and private, to be learned about and expressed privately. 

There’s just too much slaughter, destruction, meanness, and corruption in the name of religion. 

You aren’t born into the world with a prayer book in your hand.  You come into the world with a body and an innocent soul.  Everybody’s equal at birth and death.  You show your spirituality and character by how you treat the rest of creation—and not just the human part, either

·                    My generation was conditioned for years by moms who didn’t know any better than to listen, absorb and believe TV and the media about nutrition.  The food industry is big business, and huge profit centers.  It keeps TV in business.  They fund research, sometimes at the level of the institutions that are doing the research, and make you believe anything they want you to believe.  That’s the name of the game.  We need to think for ourselves, and take the time to sort out the good information from the bogus.  If you want to find out what’s bogus, follow the money. 

·                    Survive the weather: On the hottest day of summer remember trying to drive in a snow/ice storm.  On the coldest most treacherous day of winter remember when the air conditioning didn’t work during the heat wave. 

·                    I saw a mother in the mall whose kid was behaving really bratty, and she pulled her out of the stream of traffic and said: “I want you to remember that I didn’t spank you just now, when Mother’s Day gets here.  I should get breakfast in bed and a really good present for my self-control today!”  I couldn’t help but smile.

·                    The only thing that health insurance companies insure is that patients are dehumanized. 

·                    You would think that as ridiculously screwed up as our legal system is, our legislators would have far more pressing things to do that harass people who are sick and in pain about the medicinal use of cannabis (marijuana) as prescribed by their doctors. 

·                    Common consideration!  Turn off your freaking engine when sitting in a fast food parking lot.  Not everyone keeps their windows closed.  It’s not fair to gag other diners with your exhaust so you can sit there wasting gas with your air-conditioning on!  If you want climate control with your meal go inside and eat! 

·                    People use the walking path along the Delaware River in Battery Park in Delaware.  It’s beautiful, with sensual sounds and smells from the river and park.  There are gulls, ducks, trees, wind, waves lapping, boats moored, among other things.  Yet people race-walk or run with headphones on, oblivious to the scenery and nature.  They might as well stay home and use a treadmill.

·                    Diet secret:  Eat less.  Exercise more.  You have to burn more calories than you take in.  That’s really all there is to it, no matter what the diet industry tells you. 

·                    New way for people to ignore each other—go out to dinner and answer cell phones.  I was in a restaurant and there was a man on his phone, his female companion looked bored out of her mind.  I thought to myself I would have pulled out my own phone to make a call—for a cab.

·                    I don’t get women who date married men, and wait for them to divorce their wives.  Doesn’t it occur to these morons that if he divorces one wife to be with you he’ll divorce you to be with someone else?   SMH 

More to come.  Muahaha!