(written 09/28/2015…12:05a)

MSNBC introduced Meet the Press six days a week, (MTP Daily), with adequate, predictable results, the standard blond heads or two or three, image repeatability at the mention of a name, with one small blessing, I am appreciative of no news crawl, however, it’s still as if it’s an industry standard that all producers, program directors must follow, having attended the same school, read the same books on how to produce a political talk show. It is possible to predict where and when an image will be inserted into the program, again, how often a loop will be played, again, the split screen deployed, again, a few seconds discussing someone’s home team a must. Some will claim most egregious of all a sound bite printed on the bottom of the screen having just been uttered by the guest being read by the viewer, another comment is missed not consumed or even heard because of the screen print. Someday someone will come along and throw out the playbook on political talk shows, of course that will be the end of life on earth as we now know it…

A few months ago the President of the United States appeared at a function in a tan suit that sparked a news item for days in fashion magazines around the world. Today there are at least two women opting for the presidential nomination of the two major political parties. Should either of them win their party’s nomination and the presidency at the very first news conference, the hot news item in both the fashion and general publications will most assuredly be the color of choice of hair. If their hair was not dyed the amount of gray would be mentioned perhaps once or twice in years to come as the toll the office has taken on their appearance. Since it will be dyed there will be much made of it and fodder for cartoonist and comedy television shows for many seasons to come and then some…have fun…

If you are among that group that consume most of your news from television, then you are among the most ill-informed of Americans in the nation. Almost every news item is coupled with a visual that has to be processed by the brain, be it actual or stock footage. On the other hand, the group with the most comprehensibility are those that get their news either from print or radio, why, not much visual in print, none from radio that has to be processed. Last week the story of the price of generic vs name brand pharmaceuticals, ran with a clip of a local pharmacy, the story on the increased price of some automobiles, accompanied a clip of an auto assembly line, the growing price of fresh food, you guessed it, a super market, even a farm, to sharpen the point, all the above images had to be processed at the expense of the all-important details of the story and did not advance the story one bit. There are times when a visual is a must to illustrate a story, with, ‘as you can see’, however, the suggestive mental image that only words can produce is for more effective with a longer staying power, accurately/realty/authenticity in real time is better when available, if not less not fake it…

Once upon a time along New York City’s restaurant row, a cluster of about twenty or so restaurants at the close of business, steel containers with lids would be dollied out to the curb with the remains of the day, leftovers, discarded food stuffs, all typical of any well served restaurant throwaways. The clitter-clatter of the containers announced to the neighborhood that garbage trucks will soon be appearing around four ante meridiem to be emptied, a rather noisy affair. The containers with lids were employed to keep the rodent population in check, it is well known that the availability of food becomes a kind of coordination complex, food vs population, less food the lower the population. The above arrangement while in place worked as desired, until non-biodegradable plastic bags were introduced. After the throwaways were placed at the curb there was nothing to be retrieved, the neighbors were happy without the daily morning clatter, the garbage collectors were happy without the heavy containers to empty and replace at the curb and most of all the rodent population were happy they had hours to rummage the bags for the most tasteful morsels and grow the population to new highs…’There are eight million stories (rodents) in the naked city, this has been one of them’…

It seems every few year’s imperialism raises its ugly head, ‘cultural imperialism’ to be more precise. A culture that has been in existence for thousands of years suddenly invaded, culturally uprooted, landmasses renamed, forbidden from speaking native tongues, hair cut short, native dress altered and most damaging their religion castrated. Centuries later some of those that engineered the disruptions are honored with canonization for bringing more souls into their fold…

I remember when my hair first began to turn a little gray, how upsetting it was for my mother since I was her last born baby…

Attended a dinner party yesterday of fifteen people all age deniers, the men potbellied hair thinned or bald, some in cheap toupees. The women, dyed haired, skin face pinned back which made the face look smooth and wrinkled free, the standard false eyelashes, bright red greasy lips, all quite ghoulish in appearance. It was easy to tell the wedded, he was gray she was not. Just as in crime it’s not the crime that so offends it’s the cover-up. All these people hand a chance as they aged to do so gracefully in a dignified manner, instead they chose to deny their age which provided me with the fossil fuel for this post of ridicule. The indecorous of the above description is made even more peculiar when mixed with a combination of light conversation and flatter, as in ‘my how well you look tonight’…And I continued on to the dessert wine and the hereafter…

A foot note…If you are not there yet…you are on your way to this dinner party…

The chief argument against immigration by some natives is that they will take jobs from the inborn. When the only jobs freely available to them are jobs that most natives feel is below them or just will not do, would rather, since it is available to them, take a government hand out instead. Jobs like, home attendant for the elderly, hotel housekeeping, hospital orderly, and crop harvesting to name a few. Ask an immigrate their level of education and why they did not achieve a higher level the answer will always be lack of money, in most countries basic education is not free. And yet in the USA some drop out because of a lack of ambition or just being lazy. Immigrates have always been envious of the natives and their birth right opportunities that seem not to be freely or fully taken advantage of, however, when immigrates do they are charged with some sort of having been given favoritism, when the only favoritism they received was being allowed to be here…

Whoopi Goldberg once hosted a television talk show solo, I don’t remember much about its content, what I do remember was the opening, a lone musician tickling the ivories which made whatever the subject to be discussed more exciting. The opening of most television talk shows these days seem contrived in trying to duplicate the imitation of the second coming, which can mean, unless the first guest is a really big personality be a come-down. Then as has always been the case in audience supplied shows, they are told when to applaud, laugh, and sigh and even to be silent. With such controls on an audience can the viewer at home truly trust the quality of what is being served up and should they be experiencing the same emotions at the same time. I am very weary of a situation comedy show with a laugh track that annunciate that the jokes are not that funny but here is where you should be laughing, as I cry out oh now I get it, I think?

Yesterday after all the Facebook posts I thought this story had run its course, I guess not.

If you can find one, disassemble a mechanical table top clock, note the springs and levers, or observe an old fashion pendulum clock, just to get an idea of its various mechanisms, how one looks and works. A much easier task, find a modern digital clock, disassemble it, you will observe that it will look very much like the tinker’s clock. It would be too much for the average person to be able to distinguish between a digital clock and a time bomb disassembled having only seen a so called time bomb in movies. But if you let your suspicions run wild based on the maker of the clock then the clock can turn into an atom bomb even before the bomb squad has certified it as one. And of course you the average person know all too well what an explosive substance looks and smells like. Now let me hear you say out loud that you know what a time bomb looks like too…

On a day I expected my attention to be on political matters, it has turned to the at home effort of a tinker. A fourteen year old tinker, who wanted to empress his teachers not with some way out complicated contrivance but something simple that even they would be able to understand and appreciate the achievement, instead what they saw was a threat, even if it could have been proved to have worked, the threat blossomed into a ‘fake’ which in their eyes seemed far more dangerous than the real thing a simple timepiece…