Gossip
Matt Margolis avers that "we know Michelle Obama really is a horrible person" because of a wisecrack she made. Asked "Why didn't you have a son?" she didn't say "Because two children are enough" or "Because we were older, and a third baby did not be happening," as most women would, nor did she say "Why don't you go home and learn some MANNERS?" as would have been fully justified, if not necessarily endorsed by Miss Manners herself. She said that if they'd had a son "he'd be another Barack Obama."
No link, because I don't think a case of foot-in-mouth disease is enough to identify "a horrible person," but it was a horrible joke. Never mind her being his wife--I think it's a flat joke even for a voter to make.
I mean, I didn't vote for him, and I think historians already agree that his presidential administration did more harm than good to the nation, but even I can think of a lot of worse things than "another Barack Obama" to bring into this world. Another Bill Clinton? Another Saddam Hussein? Think about it. If people remembered not to elect him President, another Barack Obama might choose the right employment and accomplish good things just as a role model of well controlled extroversion.
And meanwhile, while Trump struggles and Biden failed to clean up Obama's mess, Obama's legacy is also that now all four serious political parties are positively eager to groom Black candidates for a political career, as far as they can possibly go. Now little Black boys still have to think about the possible hazards of Driving While Black, though at least we're all more sensitized to those, but little Black boys also have to think that they too can grow up to be President.
Winston Peters, anyone? (This is an earlier version than the one that made him Calypso King.)
Now, about little White boys who don't have the idea that they can coast through life on looks alone knocked out of them at school...
Gavin Newsom would be a fabulous choice to play an elected official on TV. I hope Californians keep that in mind while electing someone who can actually do the job next time around.
Health News
It's a logical puzzle: If measles vaccines are worth the trouble of having, then unvaccinated people present no threat to vaccinated people. Measles is often described as a long, miserable infection, like a head cold that goes on and on and gets worse and worse and settles in the eyes and also itches for a month or more, but people have a free ethical choice whether to have the disease--which is almost never fatal, though permanent damage to the eyes used to be common--or have the vaccine--which, as a live-virus vaccine, will always carry an especially high risk of contamination and long-term side effects. Neither alternative guarantees a long healthy life after exposure. Playing the statistical odds has suggested to many people that the best course of action is to try to have measles during the middle school years when resistance tends to be high, but, if not immune and interested in having babies, have the vaccine before starting a pregnancy since the virus is most harmful to fetuses. Based on what everyone knows, or thinks we know, about measles, the incessant whine that unvaccinated people can infect vaccinated people with measles seems like a definition of venality, a "Yes, of course you should make the choice that carries a higher risk of worse injuries for you and profit for me" that it's hard to believe people can utter with a straight face.
So why can they? Jon Fleetwood offers new data. Apparently vaccinated people can infect both vaccinated and unvaccinated people with a laboratory-bred, stronger strain of measles virus. This strain of virus is unaffected by vaccines against the ordinary or "wild" strain, and also, being a super-virus (in the sense that COVID-19 was a super-coronavirus, more dangerous than normal coronavirus), it's more likely to be fatal or have long-term side effects than normal measles virus ever was. And--don't read the rest of this sentence if you've already had your recommended daily allowance of irony!--tax-funded efforts to improve public health are probably to blame.
History
Making history in an attempt to celebrate it, the Governor of North Carolina proclaimed an "Igbo Day."
"What's an Igbo and why should I care?" arose a cry from the western point of the State. And, "I thought the word was 'igmo,' and why are we celebrating them?"
Igmos are Individuals Geographically Marooned Outside (the) South(ern States).It should probably be "igmots," but even if it were, the T might be silent as in French. The word also means what it sounds like in English. It means people who are dangerously ignorant due to their unfortunate upbringing in some backward foreign place such as New York.
Igbos, otoh, are an ethnic group found in Nigeria, adjacent countries, and also the United States, where the local customs in some Black American communities have been traced back to Igbo roots. Many Igbos are also igmos, but not all. There are thousands of Igbo-Americans in eastern North Carolina. Wikipedia says 98% of Igbo-Americans identify as Christians, 35% as Evangelical Protestants. They have an interesting, for English speakers quite challenging, language and a substantial body of folklore. They are credited with the Carolina coastal "junk canoe" celebrations of which town festivals are made--profitable.
It is probably unfair, but it is too rich not to giggle about, that the Igbos' best known contribution to humankind is the Classic Nigerian E-Mail Scam: you know, "Some billionnaire just died and left all his money to you. Send me the information I need to get access to your bank account and I will send you the money." And I am the Tsarina Anastasia. Anyone who fell for that scam deserved it.
The Governor probably intended to give his official blessing to those coastal towns whose main tourist attractions involve parades, but he will go down in history as the patron of e-mail scams. We learn something every day.
"So what about the links?"
Best igmo jokes:
Igbo Village as permanent museum exhibit in Staunton:
Seriously, Igbo community organizations exist in some cities and regions, including Charleston, Nashville, and Seattle. Here's a link to one in North Carolina:
Here's a list of North Carolina's top 100 town festivals. The western mountains are, let us face it, the most interesting part of the State and have most of the top 100 festivals, and still need tourist money this summer. Raleigh and places further east, however, advertise specifically African elements in their summer events.
Reenactments of "John Canoe" parades have been publicized in other years. Google doesn't show any major ones scheduled for this year, but they were often associated with Christmas, so there's still time.
Seniors Only
Do not talk about this until you can prove you are over age 55: I have no plans to retire. I did pay into Social Security when I was younger. I knew the money was going into a fund out of which some of my elders' retirement pensions were being drawn, and I wished I'd been able to put in more; I sent some of these people money, back when I was earning. I didn't expect that Social Security would last until I was 55, but even if it had, when people stop working they start dying and I like being alive.
Some say things like, "But I've never liked my job, particularly. I did it because it was the easiest way I, with my peculiar mix of talents and disabilities, could earn the best wages possible for me. Every year it's become more tiresome, and after thirty years..." So, after thirty years you have a right to pick a new job. Realistically, it'll probably be classified as self-employment, as gigs rather than a full-time job. This may give you more time to be a better grandparent (or aunt or uncle). Do what you wanted to do before you settled for the easiest job that paid the best wages.
One year in my late twenties, some people who thought it was their business, in some way, were giving me well-intentioned advice about spending too much time doing things that they saw as Fun and not enough time chasing the dollar almighty. "If you'd just give up writing, drawing, knitting, and music and concentrate on job hunting, sooner or later you'd have to get a job at Wal-Mart or Wendy's or..." It was still the 1980s; I was still young enough to apply for entry-level jobs and be considered. I filled out forms and was even hired for a few entry-level jobs. None of them lasted long. Came the end of the year and I added up my accounts and showed them to these people. "You realize I made four times as much money from writing, drawing, knitting, and music as I made from entry-level jobs and (the dying market for) office temp jobs together?" So they never nagged me any more and I never looked back. This is the situation in which many people of my age are going to grow old, without having become accustomed to it in their twenties. Well...youall never should have relied on the inherently unsustainable Social Security scheme. Save some money now.
But keep working...if you enjoy being alive.
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