Saturday 9: Heartbreak Hotel

Saturday 9: Heartbreak Hotel (1956)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Elvis checked in to the hotel at the end of Lonely Street. Where was the last hotel or motel you stayed at?

A. We stayed at a Hampton Inn in Virginia Beach.

2) He sings that Heartbreak Hotel is always crowded. The fear of crowds is so prevalent that it has four names (enochlophobia, ochlophobia, demophobia and agoraphobia). Are you comfortable in a crowd?

A. Not really. It depends on the crowd and what my reasons for being there are. It was one reason why I liked newspaper reporting. I stayed on the sidelines but was still involved.

3) The desk clerk at Heartbreak Hotel is dressed black. Do you often wear all black?

A. Yes. It is supposed to be slimming but I daresay it doesn't hide much.

4) The song was written by Mae Boren Axton, who said it was inspired by the story of an anonymous young man's suicide in a hotel. She said she read in The Miami Herald that the John Doe left behind a note that said, "I walk a lonely street." What's the last note you handwrote? (Hopefully it was more upbeat.)

A. Just same names and phone numbers, nothing overly important.

5) When Elvis was 11, his parents bought him a guitar. He had asked for a rifle, but his mama convinced him a guitar was a better idea. Tell us about a time one of your parents was right about something.

A.  My mamma said you can't hurry love, you just have to wait. She also knew the day I met my future husband and that he would be the one I married.

6) Not long before "Heartbreak Hotel" was recorded, Elvis' father recommended he give up the guitar and become a truck driver. Tell us about a time one of your parents was wrong about something.

A. My mother said I could never make a living as a writer. I did for about 25 years. Not a great living, but I did okay.

7) There are many stories about Elvis' manager, Col. Tom Parker. One anecdote, about his career before Elvis, has the Colonel painting sparrows yellow so he could sell them as canaries. Have you ever been ripped off?

A. Yes. Most recently I bought an iPhone carrier thingy off Amazon. It was something you could supposedly use to strap on your phone if you didn't wear a belt (which I don't). It cost $11 or something. I opened it and it smelled horrible, very strongly of plastic, and I can't handle strong smells. It also didn't really do what it promised to do. When I went to return it, instead of my usual easy return with Amazon, I realized this had come from a secondary seller, and they wanted me to pay a restocking fee plus the return postage, and by the time I did all of that I ended up just keeping it because my refund of about $2 wasn't worth the effort. It is in a box with other items to be donated when I next make a visit to Goodwill.

8) Speaking of birds, Elvis once owned a peacock. It damaged his cars, so he gave it to the Memphis Zoo. In earlier days, it might have been dinner, for peacock was considered a medieval delicacy. What's the last poultry you prepared?

A. Chicken.

9)  Random question: You and a friend have dinner at a restaurant. Your friend left her wallet at home, so you pick up the entire tab of $62, including tip. A few weeks later, you two meet for lunch and when the bill comes, she puts down half. Do you remind her that she still owes you $31 from the last time you dined together?

A. No. I don't keep up with that sort of thing. If we were only business associates and not friends I might say something, but I offer things freely to my friends, no strings attached.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Here there be spoilers, so if you are one of the last people to see this movie, and you don't want to be "spoiled," you've been warned!

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We went to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi a week ago. We went to the Valley View theater, and the sound was LOUD. Deafening, even. That in and of itself was enough to spoil the movie for us, as we both came out of the theater with a massive headache.

Otherwise, the accommodations were fine. But I do hope my next movie IS NOT SO LOUD.

Star Wars is one of those things that I have mixed feelings about. I loved the original first three movies (now called movies IV, V, and VI). I saw them in the theater and was fascinated by the CGI, the story line, and the world. What was there not to like, aside from the minor role of women in the thing. At least there was Princess Leia, who was not a Disney princess by any stretch of the imagination.

I did not see the next three (now I, II, and III) in the movie theater. I eventually saw them on TV and agreed with critics that they were not on par with the original movies. It is hard to mess with perfection, after all.

Star Wars returned two years ago with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We saw that and I enjoyed it. I liked the addition of the new characters and was particularly glad that the newest Jedi was a young woman. Girl power! I did not like the new Darth Vader or his parentage, and the fact that he could kill off his father was too pat (and too circular, since the original Vader was Luke Skywalker's dad). The character was not Darth Vader material, in my opinion. (He still isn't.)

With Carrie Fisher's death, this last Star Wars took on a poignancy that the film wasn't meant to have. We knew that this was Fisher's last appearance in the films, so I was keen to see how her character developed and what they did with her. I was pleased that she didn't die in the film, but the changing of the guard was apparent. Princess Leia is old and while still fighting the good fight, it is time for younger faces to take over.

I was terribly unimpressed with the writing regarding Luke Skywalker. I was not pleased that he was portrayed as a madman, more or less. I do not believe that he would have done what the film said he did and ultimately "create" the new Darth Vader by sending Solo's son over the dark side. His refusal to deal with Rey upon her arrival was frustrating and went on too long.

In the end, he died a hero's death, though a long distance one. Still, it was a good death and he remained on the side of the light.

The Resistance lives on to fight the fight as evidenced in the last scene, when a young boy looks to the sky and then at a ring on his finger that has the Resistance logo. (Do they hand those out in Cracker Jacks throughout the galaxy or something?) As long as there are underdogs, there will be a Resistance.

Now the story passes to a new generation. I will not go see any more Star Wars movies in the theater, no matter how much I may like Rey. She was unimpressive in this last film, for one thing, and for another, I feel like the series has become nothing more than a cash cow for Disney. They will milk it for all it's worth but it was obvious that the mythology and lore is not being embraced in these new films. I am sure I will watch them when they are on the small screen, but that's it.

I went to this last film mostly to see how the writers ended the lives of the main characters. It is fitting that Leia be the last one of the original group still standing (along with Chewbacca - but maybe Wookies live forever), but I did not find the movie inspiring and thought it fell short of a goal of good storytelling as well as movie canon. But it is what it is and no one consulted me.

Doesn't mean I can't have an opinion, though.

Thursday Thirteen

Since health care is such an issue these days, I thought I'd look up some old-fashioned remedies for various ailments. We'll call this the new medicine . . . for a new age.

Don't try any of these at home. Well, I suppose #3 wouldn't hurt anything unless you're allergic to nuts. But still . . . don't try these remedies.


1. To cure arthritis, carry a potato in your pocket. The potato will not rot, but instead will harden as it absorbs the arthritis. (I might get my husband to try this.)

2. To cure asthma, wear a muskrat skin on the chest with the fur next to the chest. (I presume this is a dead muskrat.)

3. To prevent cancer, eat three almonds a day.

4. To prevent a cold, eat an onion and then wash your hair.

5. To cure a fever, gather a supply of rabbit dung and make a strong tea of the dung in hot water.  Strain and drink the tea every half hour until the sweating stops. (I imagine that the sweating would stop sometime after you quit vomiting at the idea of drinking rabbit dung.)

6. To cure a headache, sleep with a pair of scissors under your pillow.  The next morning the headache will be gone. (That's because you will have cut your fingers open in the night and the bleeding and pain will make you forget your head hurt.)

7. To get rid of lice, (1) put your clothes on an anthill.  Then (2) wash your head in kerosene. (3)  Spring your head with sea salt. (4) Part your the hair. (5) Pour raw whisky on your scalp. (6) Let it stay for 48 hours. (7) Do not smoke or go near the fire. (No kidding! Your hair would go up like a torch with all that alcohol on your head.)

8. To cure rabies, sear the bite with a hot iron to keep from going crazy. (I imagine the pain from that hot iron would make you a little nuts if the rabies didn't.)

9. To cure a sore throat, tie a piece of fatback on a string and swallow the fatback, pulling it up again by the string. Repeat several times. (After you've choked to death on the fatback, you won't care if you have a sore throat.)

10. To cure stuttering, hit the person stuttering in the mouth with a chicken gizzard. (I cannot imagine how this would cure stuttering, but it would certainly cause the person to quit talking and start screaming.)

11. To cure warts, apply a snail. (Live snail? Dead snail? Doesn't say.)

12. Another way to cure warts is to take a tick from a dog and let the tick bit the wart. In two or three days, the wart should be gone. Then put the tick back on the dog. (I think not.)

13. To cure whooping cough, place a pan of fresh chicken droppings under the bed. (Eww.)

Again, these are just for fun. Don't try these so-called remedies, though I am sure someone somewhere has at sometime.

Information from: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-oldremedies/3/


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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 536th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

What's the Right Price?

I have always subscribed to magazines. My mother was a big magazine reader, and I looked forward to reading Reader's Digest, Woman's Day, True Story, and many others after she was finished with them.

Reader's Digest has been one I've read since childhood continuously. But I eventually lost interest in other magazines, like Cosmo. I found the articles repetitious or not germane to my life, and my subscriptions dwindled.

Writer's Digest was a staple for about 25 years, but I gave that up about 10 years ago. The articles seemed stale and I was busy earning a living with my writing and did not need that advice anymore.

For a long time I took O! The Oprah Magazine, but in September  decided to stop it. I sent instructions online to halt my subscription because I wasn't renewing.

The magazine kept coming anyway. Finally, this last issue arrived, proclaiming "Final Issue."

Along with the proclamation came a "preferred renewal rate" of $19.97 for one year - plus I could give two people a year's subscription for free! (Of course, they would billed the next year.)

The same day that arrived in the mail, I received an invitation from O! for a one-year annual subscription to the magazine for . . . $8.00.

And also that same day, I received an envelope from Hearst magazines. It was a "We've missed you!" sale. It offered a variety of magazines, including some I used to subscribe to, like Redbook - and they were each only $5 for the first year.

O! was also included in this offer. For $5.00 in this advertisement, I could get a year of the magazine.

Now I confess $5 for a year's worth of a magazine is very enticing. But I recalled the clutter and the piles of magazines that I once had, and I read the fine print about the "continuous service program" wherein the subscription continues until you ask them to stop (and apparently, based on current experience, for months after you've asked them to stop). It really isn't worth the hassle.

I also wonder why I can't get the magazine for $5 in digital. I might subscribe to three or four of these for $5 each if I had the option to get them on my Kindle, PC, or smart phone instead of in paper. I might waste my money and ultimately never read them, but at least I wouldn't have to deal with the clutter.

It irked me too to have received on the same day an offer of three different prices for the same magazine. Obviously if I were going to subscribe again, I'd take the $5 deal.

From a marketing standpoint, I give this effort a Fail. First, I am not subscribing, regardless of the price, so their product is no longer something I find useful. (The clutter outweighs the advice, I guess.) Second, having three separate price quotes for the same magazine on the same day is just so . . . wrong. If they can afford to sell the magazine for $5 a year, then why offer it for $19.97? And why is it $4.50 a single issue if I pick it up at the grocery store?

(I looked up the digital edition of O! on Amazon. For my Kindle, it would cost me $19.99. Other Hearst magazines are available for $5 (Family Circle, which I used to receive, was one), but they have that stupid auto renew feature. I hate auto renew.)

I like all of these magazines. I suspect I will, at some point, pick one up from the newsstand on impulse and bring it home.

But for now, Reader's Digest will remain my lone magazine subscription. It is the one I have always read, and the one I expect I will always read, as long as it is published.



*As a writer, I feel guilty for not subscribing to more magazines. As the person who has to keep the trash picked up, I'm not sorry at all. I am sorry corporations believe auto renew is great, though, because I could have my magazine in digital if I could just by an annual subscription and be done with it.*

Dear Lady M.

Dear Lady M.,

I hope this finds you having a glorious day despite the clouds and chill in the air. This morning around 9:30 a.m. I was delighted to find my yard full of birds - mostly robins, but also a few sparrows, blue jays and at least one bird I could not identify. While it seems to me that this migration is a bit early (my delightful grandmother used to always say the sight of robins meant spring was nigh), I confess I stood outside for a while simply listening to the chatter of these beautiful creatures. Some time ago I learned to see birds in trees - a difficult but not impossible task, as it takes only time and inclination to find them. I stole the idea from Annie Dillard when I read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Of course, it is easier to spy birds in leafless trees in January than it is in June, when the leaves make bird watching a tad more difficult.

Our government, it seems, is throwing a tantrum and congressional discord has closed various governmental agencies until such time as the toddlers can find their lollipops and return to a semblance of content and tolerable play. I must say, Lady M., that I find this all very puzzling. I would like to see less kindergarten antics and more actual governing, but I am not at all sure that the current office holders are capable of anything more than pushing and shoving. The New York Times today reports the Democrats are open to negotiation. My personal thoughts are that problematic items should be removed from the budget debate and they should pass what I call a clean bill - one that funds what must be funded. These government shutdowns create much confusion for the citizenry and I am sorry for anyone who works in these departments who is now caught up in political bum fuddling.

As you know, January is always the time I work on tax items for our various enterprises. So far it has gone fairly smoothly. A severe cold has been more trouble than the tax documents this year, so I am grateful that the former is subsiding and the latter is coming to an end. I hope to be finished with this paperwork by Friday.

I am looking forward to spring and the arrival of warmer weather. What a dreadful January we have had, with record low temperatures and ice. We have a drought on top of that, so it is difficult to fuss about precipitation. Rain tonight will be welcome.

In closing, Lady M., I hope that you have a pleasant week and that your efforts to write a novel are going well.

With kindest regards,

Lady J.

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Dear Lady J.,

As always, I am pleased to hear from you. Your description of your morning with the birds sounds lovely. I have found it difficult to have birds around because of my cats, but that is the price I pay for having such splendid creatures by my side. You know I adore their purrs and meows very much and find them pleasant company.

Your comments about the government are, I fear, on the mark. We do seem to have devolved in the art of statesmanship. I can recall better times when gentlemen (and gentlewomen) were the champions of the people, not the bastions of soiled monetary despots. That was a different world then, and while I do not knock progress, I must say what I see now does not strike me as progressive in the least. Regressive, perhaps. But certainly I do not see forward movement. My copy of the newspaper notes the "blame game" is strong, with neither side taking any credit for the state in which we the people now find ourselves. Each so-called congressional representative should look long in a mirror and say the following, "I serve all of the people of the United States." Perhaps repetition would make them learn that they owe their service to more than their "base."

May the upcoming week be one of joy for you. I know those taxes can be troublesome, but I have every faith in your ability to do what must be done and complete the work on time. I hope too that your health continues to improve.

Your faithful servant,

Lady M.

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Note: This is a work of fiction (sort of). There is no Lady M. or Lady J. I have been watching Victoria on PBS and the queen writes frequently to "Lord M." in the show, and I thought it would be fun to create two characters and have them write back and forth once a week, using a more gentile language and style than our present day verbiage.

Sunday Stealing: Friday Questions

Sunday Stealing: Friday Questions

1. Have you ever tried to learn (or re-learn) a foreign language as an adult? Which one? What worked for you?

A. I had four years of Spanish in high school and have retained very little of it. Occasionally I try to pick it back up but I would not call any of my efforts successful.

2. Do you donate blood? Do you know your blood type?

A. No, and no. I was told not to donate blood because of some medication I take.

3. Have you ever been in a play or musical?

A. Only in grade school.

4. Do you use certain text or ring tones for specific people? Who gets their own? Or do you just use the default on your phone?

A. I use a ring tone from Lord of the Rings for everyone. I don't have enough people calling me to set separate tones for folks.

5. When did you get your first digital camera? Do you still shoot on actual film, or all digital now?

A. I think I went digital around 2000, when the newspaper began to use digital. I no longer use film, it is all digital.

6. What do you think someone else would say the most daring thing you’ve done is?

A. My husband says it is the time I went up into the sky in a two-seater airplane with a known drunk. Either that or the time I went up in a hot air balloon.

7. Do you talk with your hands?

A. I use my mouth.

8. Do you have a lucky number? What is it, and what is the story behind it?

A. I don't have a lucky number.

9. What kind of milk did you drink, growing up? And now?

A. When I was a baby I could not handle formula or cow's milk (early 1960s, women apparently had stopped breast feeding). I drank goat's milk. After a while I switched to cow's milk, but by the time I was 12 I stopped drinking it completely because it made me feel bad. I do not do dairy except for yogurt; for some reason I can handle that. I haven't had ice cream since I was about 12, so "have a hot fudge sundae" is on my bucket list.

10. What is your favorite kind of pie?

A. Chocolate pie, and I do not eat the crust unless it is graham cracker crust. I just eat the pie innards. I have always done that. I don't like pie crust.

11. Are you a note taker?

A. Yes.

12. Do you have an eclectic mug collection, or is your stuff all matchy matchy?

A. Eclectic.

13. Do you have a junk drawer in your house/garage/at work/wherever?

A. I have several of them.

14. What is the longest amount of time you’ve worked at one job – and what was/is it?

A. I have been a freelance writer since 1994.

15. How old were you when you took your first commercial flight? To where did you fly?

A. I was 16 and I took a trip overseas to Spain and France with a school group.

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I encourage you to visit other participants in Sunday Stealing posts and leave a comment. Cheers to all us thieves who love memes, however we come by them. #SundayStealing 215

Saturday 9: Jump

Saturday 9: Jump (1984)

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) David Lee Roth does a lot of jumping in this video. He credits his flashy moves to his study with marital artist Benny Urquidez. Have you ever tried karate, judo, or jiu-jitzu?

A. No. I do tai chi with a video sometimes, though.

2) Dave claims to be fluent in Spanish. Say something "en español."

A. El burro sabe mas que tu.

3) Dave appeared as himself in an episode of The Sopranos, playing poker with Tony Soprano. Are you a good poker player?

A. Probably not. I haven't played in years.

4) Though known for his prowess on the guitar, Eddie Van Halen wrote the opening of this song at the keyboard when he was still new to the synthesizer. When did you recently venture outside your comfort zone? Was it a success?

A. Well, I took up coloring and did very well at that, which surprised me because I didn't think I had any "artistic" talent aside from photography and writing. I learned to knit, and I do okay with that. I learned to crochet, and I do ok with that. So I suppose you could call that success.

5) Eddie's older brother Alex is the Van Halen drummer and his son, Wolfie, began touring with the band in 2007. Have you ever worked with a family member?

A. Yes, a long time ago. And my husband and I run a farm together, though that is more of a lifestyle than a job.

6) Van Halen's first manger was Marshall Berle. Mr. Berle's uncle was Milton Berle. Does the name Milton Berle mean anything to you?

A. He was a funny man who was on Bewitched a lot, I think, and on some game shows.

7) In 1984, when this song was popular, AT&T/Bell Telephone was broken up into 24 separate companies. Today, who is your phone provider?

A. ATT provides my wireless, my landline and DSL is provided by Lumos Networks, which is a fairly localized company.

8) Also in 1984, Michael Jackson was severely burned while filming a Pepsi commercial. Would we find any Pepsi in your kitchen right now?

A. No. We do not drink Pepsi in this house. My husband drinks Diet Dr. Pepper and I drink tea or water, with an occasional ginger ale or root beer thrown in for good measure.

9) Random question: Have you ever been so angry that you kicked or hit an inanimate object?

A. Yes.


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I encourage you to visit other participants in Saturday 9 posts and leave a comment. Because there are no rules, it is your choice. Saturday 9 players hate rules. We love memes, however. 

Thursday Thirteen

1. We have been watching the home remodeling shows (because there is little else on). We are fashionably in style with the "open floor" concept of what we called a great room in 1987. If my kitchen had white cabinets instead of dark ones, we'd look like a modern reinvention of a home.



If these were white, I'd be in style.

 

Central Vacuum

2. However, our house is not overly smart. No automatic vacuum cleaners or things like that. We do have a central vacuum, which was a big deal at the time we installed it (again, 1987).

3. We will need to do some basic home updating in the next few years. New flooring, for one. Our carpet is now 12 years old and showing some wear.

12 year old carpet.

Parquet flooring, also installed
in 1987.

4. However, the last time we installed carpet, it sickened me terribly. We are not installing carpet again. We will go with some kind of hardwood or laminate floor.


5. We last painted the entire house in 2005. We have since painted the kitchen, living room, and bathroom, but the bedroom and the two rooms we've converted into "offices" need painting.

6. One room in this house was last painted when we built it, 1987. That would be the laundry room, which also still has the original peel 'n' stick tile flooring on it.

Not painted since 1987.

7. In 2013, we updated the two bathrooms and installed a walk-in shower. This has turned out to be one of the smarter moves we have made in recent years.

Laundry room tile needs replaced. This was also in the
one of the bathrooms.

8. In 2015, we removed the outside deck and poured cement. Also a good move.

9. Over the years we've gone through about 5 dishwashers. We don't use a water softener and have lime water. It eats up things like dishwashers and washing machines. It is especially hard on coffee pots, electric tea kettles, and warm mist humidifiers.

10. In the winter time, we buy a lot of distilled water to use in warm mist humidifiers to keep the machines from "liming up."

11. My husband also uses bottled water in his coffee pot.

12. I filter the water I drink from the sink twice - once with a Pur filter at the spigot and again with a Britta filter in a pitcher. Unfortunately, this doesn't help with the lime issue.

13. Our house, including the garage, is 1,560 square feet. We built it ourselves, with our own two hands, using a house-building kit similar to what Sears sold way back in the 1920s. Ours came from a company called TimberTruss, which is no longer in business. 

Home Sweet Home (in 2010). A few changes since then.

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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 535th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday.

Money For Nothing

Because of some issues I'm having with my phone company, I started thinking today about all the ways we hand over hard-earned cash.

The phone company wants me to pay $3 a month to block a single irksome caller. It's a call that has no remedy as the call just rings one and a half times and that's it. Nobody is ever there when you pick up. I also know, because I asked on Facebook, that many others are receiving this call. But the phone company won't block the number unless I add call blocking to my phone. I refuse to pay for something I think the phone company should rectify. Ultimately, they are going to lose even more of my business because I'm going to get rid of voice mail and go back to an answering machine, and I'm also going to look into something other than their DSL for Internet. They stand to lose $100 a month over $3, if I can get it all sorted out.

Anyway, this brought to mind numerous other items that I pay for with minimal return. A head of lettuce is one. I buy lettuce because I'm supposed to eat healthy salads, but I haven't found a way to "process" lettuce so that it keeps for any period of time and is convenient. I find making a salad inconvenient as I am forced to spend 20 minutes making a healthy dish that I eat in 5 minutes. I may as well simply walk into a grocery store and say, here's $10, this is my "salad allotment" for the month, and walk out with nothing. Ultimately the salad fixings end up in the trash.

AOL also brought this to mind today because they've changed their log-in screen or something, and now I am having to log in with a password every time and I have three accounts. This is frustrating. I remember when AOL was the only access to the Internet for me, and so I paid for dial-up through it. Then after I was able to obtain dial-up through my local phone company, I no longer paid for AOL (by that time it had switched to a free version). I ignore the advertisements and use the email. However, I have a friend who still pays whatever she was paying for dial-up with AOL from way back when. I have suggested multiple times that she is paying for something she doesn't use, but to my knowledge she still pays it. I don't know how that keeps happening as credit cards expire but whatever.

This is why I dislike allowing companies to charge for things on your credit card automatically. It is too easy for a person to ignore the charge and for the company to simply take money. I had signed up for a trial run of a Zazzle Black account during the holiday season so I would get free shipping, and I forgot to cancel it within the one month period. I was dinged for the $9.95. That was my bad so I ate it.

Norton (virus protection) always wants to do its automatic charge and I turn that off, too. They charge the full price for automatic renewal, but you can always find a better deal and get it that way and save yourself $20 or more.

My mother-in-law was paying the phone company for a rotary dial phone rental - a phone that they had long since tossed. I finally convinced her to call and get the charge off of the bill. I wonder how many older folks are paying that fee on their phone bills when they haven't actually rented a phone from the phone company since 1965.

DirecTV is going up $5 on its charge on January 21, so we will once again be looking at our programming and trying to figure out how to deal with that. Here too there is a possibility we may simply pull out and take our business elsewhere.

Now we are trading money for air. Video games with "in game" purchases are raking in money in $0.99 increments. Every time someone gets stuck and pays the little $0.99 to move ahead, they are literally paying for their lack of patience. All of these games are winnable if people take the time to play them (sometimes over and over, but still, you are putting out your own time and not money). I personally prefer to pay for a full game up front and be done with it. I do not pay for in-game purchases but I know a lot of people do. I am playing one game that I bet people have paid $1,000 for in order to progress, based on the outrageous charges the company asks for the "diamonds" one needs to move forward quickly.

My point - and I do have one - is that we all need to be more careful in our purchases and watch our credit cards and bills. If you see something on a bill that you don't understand, call and ask about it. You may find out you're being charged for something you shouldn't be.

It's a crazy world we live in. Your job is to hold on to what you can make and hope it is enough to live on, and it's everyone else's job to try to take it away from you, apparently. That's capitalism for you. I hate it but I know it appeals to the innate greed of human nature.

Nothing to do but hang tight to my quarters and dimes, I guess.

When the World Smells Like Dead Pig

You don't want to eat
or drink, really, because
dead pig makes you want to gag
but there it is, a smell
trapped in the pockets of your sinuses.
All you can do is smell it,
hope that the antibiotics
do their thing and clear your nasal passages
so that the stench goes away.

As things clear up you start to think maybe
you should eat something again
(lost three pounds so far)
or at least drink a Boost
and then you read your Facebook page,
see that the White House Press Spokesperson
doesn't know how to change the settings on
an Amazon Echo
and blames Amazon
for her own failure.

Then the husband who doesn't believe in conspiracy theories
tells you he thinks the missile mistake in Hawaii maybe
wasn't a mistake but preparation
because we're going to bomb somebody
just to see a big boom.

You see words like shithole and president in the same sentence
then hear about earthquakes, mudslides, fires
and third-world countries in Alabama,
and after a while
you start to think it isn't just your sinuses
causing you to smell dead things.

Maybe you're smelling dead things
because after one last stupid tweet,
morality and all that is good in this world
rolled over and died.