1. I wish radio and TV commentators and politicians would stop misusing the word "decimate". They are, forever using the term to describe the near total destruction of something or severe bashing of some military unit. Most recently, Secretary of State John Kerry used the word in talking about the "extensive damage" done to ISIS/ISIL by Obama administration policies. The problem is that "decimate" literally means to kill one in ten and was originally used as punishment for a Roman Legion which had dishonored itself in combat. That is, 10% of the soldiers in that legion were killed as an incentive to the remainder to fight harder next time! To put the idea of how little decimation actually harms the effectiveness of a military unit in context, at the close of D-day the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions had, respectively, suffered 19.6% and 17.8% casualties---nearly twice the criteria for "decimation". But, no one told those paratroopers how "badly" they had been hurt, so they went ahead and kicked ass and took names anyway!! They were pretty effective---and remember, I say that as a "LEG"!
2. While we're on the subject of word meanings, I'd like to know who initiated the practice of using the word "existential" to mean "existing" or "current" or "real" as opposed to commenting on the philosophy of existential- ism. The President uses the word all the time as do many of the TV pundits when discussing terrorist attacks/activities. The first time I heard the term "Existential Threat", I envisioned Albert Camus brandishing a baseball bat! I hate it when people either re-purpose words to mean something new or invent replacements for perfectly good English words. For example, replacing "criteria" with "metrics", describing a difficulty, not as a problem, but rather being "problematic", or my favorite BS military term (this used by an unnamed Flag Officer inquiring about the initiation of combat operations in Iraq) "When do the kinetics start?" KINETICS---Really? How about: "When is the attack scheduled?"
3. RIDDLE: Why is Donald Trump like the ideal Communist Society as envisioned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels?
ANSWER: They are both classless.
4. This Saturday morning, I was watching Michael Smerconish on CNN when he covered a story out of Emory University where students are upset because someone had written things like "Vote Trump" and "Trump 2016" in chalk on campus sidewalks. The students claimed they felt "threatened" in this environment and demanded the school administration take positive action to counter it! Perhaps more surprisingly, instead of telling these kids to take a hike, the college president heeded their calls and said the university is using security camera footage in an attempt to find the "culprits". Apparently, at Emory, free speech is OK as long as you agree with it. That said, the best comment on this subject came via a tweet from a Smerconish viewer who said words to the effect that in WWII, our young people stormed the beaches at Normandy and today they are afraid of chalk!---'Nuff said.
5. With this being Easter week, I was surrounded by Easter candy displays every time I went to the grocery store. And a featured item in those displays is always the very colorful jelly beans of my youth. Although, for some unknown reason, nowadays the candy manufacturers refer to them as "Jelly Bird Eggs". Come now---"Bird Eggs"??? In my view they were, are and always will be Jelly Beans! How can you have an Easter morning Jelly Bean Hunt with Jelly Bird Eggs?? It just doesn't work!
But that is beside the point because I don't like those colorful jelly beans anyway. I like licorice. And licorice flavored jelly beans, while not as much in evidence as their multi-colored counterparts, are, indeed, available. In addition, I am fortunate to have, looking out for my well being, two ladies (my wife and one of her closest friends) who know of my love of licorice and each Easter make it a point of presenting me with a bag of my favorite holiday candy for they know that, to me, Black Jelly Beans Matter!
So, sports fans, that's it for this iteration. Happy Easter. Find those hidden eggs or those jelly beans and decimate them, but don't, under any circumstances, write on the sidewalk with chalk---you never know what existential threat you may offend!
2. While we're on the subject of word meanings, I'd like to know who initiated the practice of using the word "existential" to mean "existing" or "current" or "real" as opposed to commenting on the philosophy of existential- ism. The President uses the word all the time as do many of the TV pundits when discussing terrorist attacks/activities. The first time I heard the term "Existential Threat", I envisioned Albert Camus brandishing a baseball bat! I hate it when people either re-purpose words to mean something new or invent replacements for perfectly good English words. For example, replacing "criteria" with "metrics", describing a difficulty, not as a problem, but rather being "problematic", or my favorite BS military term (this used by an unnamed Flag Officer inquiring about the initiation of combat operations in Iraq) "When do the kinetics start?" KINETICS---Really? How about: "When is the attack scheduled?"
3. RIDDLE: Why is Donald Trump like the ideal Communist Society as envisioned by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels?
ANSWER: They are both classless.
4. This Saturday morning, I was watching Michael Smerconish on CNN when he covered a story out of Emory University where students are upset because someone had written things like "Vote Trump" and "Trump 2016" in chalk on campus sidewalks. The students claimed they felt "threatened" in this environment and demanded the school administration take positive action to counter it! Perhaps more surprisingly, instead of telling these kids to take a hike, the college president heeded their calls and said the university is using security camera footage in an attempt to find the "culprits". Apparently, at Emory, free speech is OK as long as you agree with it. That said, the best comment on this subject came via a tweet from a Smerconish viewer who said words to the effect that in WWII, our young people stormed the beaches at Normandy and today they are afraid of chalk!---'Nuff said.
5. With this being Easter week, I was surrounded by Easter candy displays every time I went to the grocery store. And a featured item in those displays is always the very colorful jelly beans of my youth. Although, for some unknown reason, nowadays the candy manufacturers refer to them as "Jelly Bird Eggs". Come now---"Bird Eggs"??? In my view they were, are and always will be Jelly Beans! How can you have an Easter morning Jelly Bean Hunt with Jelly Bird Eggs?? It just doesn't work!
But that is beside the point because I don't like those colorful jelly beans anyway. I like licorice. And licorice flavored jelly beans, while not as much in evidence as their multi-colored counterparts, are, indeed, available. In addition, I am fortunate to have, looking out for my well being, two ladies (my wife and one of her closest friends) who know of my love of licorice and each Easter make it a point of presenting me with a bag of my favorite holiday candy for they know that, to me, Black Jelly Beans Matter!
So, sports fans, that's it for this iteration. Happy Easter. Find those hidden eggs or those jelly beans and decimate them, but don't, under any circumstances, write on the sidewalk with chalk---you never know what existential threat you may offend!