Handful of Larry King-Inspired Musings

In deference to the recently departed Larry King, who used to pen a syndicated newspaper column that would address a range of current events with ellipsis between thoughts, here’s my best attempt to recapture his curmudgeon commentary:

What Tampa Bay Bucs quarterback Tom Brady has accomplished, winning 7 of 10 Super Bowls in 21 years, is jaw dropping – even for those who love to hate him. Tom Terrific is a hero to all Americans over the age of 40, showing how it’s possible to get better with age or at least still be able to compete at an incredibly high level as the body and mind often lose their edge…

Folks who refuse to mask up or thumb their noses at edicts to limit the gathering of crowds during the pandemic are like toddlers who can’t play nice in a sandbox. We’re battling a common enemy: COVID-19. Not one another. And we need to wage this war together! The fact that this issue ever became politicized shows how deeply callous people can be about putting others in harm’s way, as well as distressing that the dividing line in a country that’s supposed to be united is so sharp. It’s not about infringing on individual liberty; it’s about saving lives…

Speaking of childish behavior: I’ll never understand flakey parents of tweens who don’t respond to text messages about arranging playdates and rarely, if ever, take the initiative to set them up or reciprocate as a host. Is it a millennial thing? West coast or Pacific Northwest passive-aggressiveness? Laziness? Mental illness? This is especially troublesome during a pandemic when kiddos are bored to tears, which is why necessity became the mother of invention with so-called bubble families to lean on without the need for extensive contact tracing to offer stressed parents a respite from round-the-clock child care. All I can really do is venture a guess about this phenomenon and search out to more responsive moms and dads…

It’s ridiculous for Britney Spears to still have a conservatorship hanging over her head at age 39. She’s clearly old enough to squander her fortune, if that’s what she decides, and according to various news reports, apparently stable enough to make better choices. Some helicopter parents cannot help but micromanage their children, even if they’re rich and famous. The Spears are one heck of a crazy gene pool for the ages…

Antifa is a misnomer. Why not simply call the group anarchists, the antithesis of fascism? Portland, Oregon, where I live, is unfortunately a hotbed for such activity. When people demonstrating under this moniker recently denounced President Joe Biden while committing acts of vandalism, their nefarious intentions became clear as can be. They simply cannot function in society no matter who is in power…

My city is also a magnet for Proud Boys who have nothing to be proud of and are indeed just boys, not men. The militia movement overall is deeply troubling. It clearly went off the rails in 2020 when a Neanderthal group of Michigan “patriots” plotted to kidnap, put on trial, convict and kill the governor over stringent lockdown orders. Extremism on both the left and right is frightening and unacceptable. And in a related rant, conspiracy theories can be fun and entertaining, but if enough people believe in enough nonsense, then it’ll be are undoing…
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Cancel Culture needs to be cancelled, right alongside political correctness. People make mistakes. Apologies matter, especially if they’re sincere. In a free society, we have the power to end careers by voting people out of public office or turning off the TV, not banish them forever because of poor judgment decades earlier or an off-color remark on social media. And while words matter, we need to lose our hyper-sensitivity – not our sense of humor or common sense – and stop camouflaging our language for fear of offending the faint-hearted. This is 2021, not 1984. Let’s dispense with the Thought Police and Orwellian reactions and let clear heads prevail…