The Front Page Cover
"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened"
Featuring:
"On & Off The Radar"
Burt Prelutsky
"Know who you are standing with"
"Show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
~~~lll~~~
UN Moves Forward With Anti-Gun Treaty
Moving crews have packed up desks, lamps, chairs, office supplies and other personal items of numerous Democrat Senate and House offices now vacated after November's election. But in a suite of offices located directly across from the Senate Floor, there were relics from the list of bills that passed the U.S. House and sat without action inside dinky Harry Reid's office. Somewhere in that stack likely sits an anti-gun treaty signed by Secretary of State Hanoi John Kerry. To his credit, outgoing-Senate Majority Leader dinky Harry Reid likely knew the United Nation's Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) (full text here) would never meet the two-thirds majority requirement for ratification. But as of Christmas Eve, the treaty has gone into effect internationally. The UN General Assembly first approved the ATT in April 2013 and Hanoi Kerry signed it on Sept. 24, 2013, amid criticism from the Republican side of the upper chamber's aisle. -The Patriot Post
Civic Virtue in Decline
As we enter 2015, it's worth looking back on some key cultural indicators from 2014. Here is one bad omen: According to a 2014 Associated Press-GfK poll, Americans' sense of civic virtue is in serious decline. "I don't see any recovery," said Rutgers University Professor Cliff Zukin. "The people who were 40 two decades ago aren't as engaged as the people who were 60 two decades ago. This generational slippage tends to continue." The poll was a reprise of questions asked in 1984, and it focused on six civic-oriented activities: voting, volunteering, jury service, reporting crimes, knowing English and keeping on top of news and public issues. Only voting and volunteering were embraced as enthusiastically as they were 30 years ago, yet even those numbers are not particularly encouraging. Only 28% of Americans consider volunteering a "very important obligation." And while 75% characterize voting a central obligation of citizenship, talk is cheap: Voter turnout in the last presidential election dipped to 57.5% of eligible citizens compared to 62.3% in 2008. Voter turnout in 2014? The 36.4% of eligible citizens who bothered to vote represented the lowest turnout in any election cycle since World War II. -The Patriot Post
MITT’S QUALMS ABOUT GOP FIELD DRIVING POTENTIAL RUN
The $100 million question in the Republican Party today is what flipped Mitt Romney’s switch to the “on” position for another presidential run? Coverage of the 2012 nominee’s field-scrambling announcement to a group of donors on Friday that he was considering another run has focused on Romney’s thoughts on how he would run -- less scripted, more nimble, etc. -- but in a weekend conversation with Fox News, the former Massachusetts governor shed new light on why he went from his “no” of a year ago to a definite “maybe.”
Romney’s rationale is rooted in his concern that no one in the field of announced or soon-to-be announced candidates looks equal to the task of facing down presumptive Democratic nominee Hilly Clinton and her sprawling campaign apparatus, expected to raise and spend at least $2 billion spread across multiple groups. Romney told Fox News that no one is the field is “better prepared and in a better position” to take on Clinton’s campaign. That’s a pretty bold statement about a field that includes not just Jeb Bush, but also four sitting governors and three U.S. senators.
While Romney was quick to praise the qualities of the individual candidates themselves, he argued that given Hilly’s huge head start, his unmatched fundraising prowess, ready-to-activate national organization and near-universal name recognition might be necessary to keep the GOP from getting steamrolled. Though Romney put no timetable on his decision, he clearly sees time running short for his party. The famed Iowa Straw Poll is just eight months away and the fundraising hurdles and logistical challenges for candidates starting from scratch are steep indeed. If Romney doesn’t see another candidate who he thinks is ready to compete, he’s ready to run. -Fox News 
The $100 million question in the Republican Party today is what flipped Mitt Romney’s switch to the “on” position for another presidential run? Coverage of the 2012 nominee’s field-scrambling announcement to a group of donors on Friday that he was considering another run has focused on Romney’s thoughts on how he would run -- less scripted, more nimble, etc. -- but in a weekend conversation with Fox News, the former Massachusetts governor shed new light on why he went from his “no” of a year ago to a definite “maybe.”
Romney’s rationale is rooted in his concern that no one in the field of announced or soon-to-be announced candidates looks equal to the task of facing down presumptive Democratic nominee Hilly Clinton and her sprawling campaign apparatus, expected to raise and spend at least $2 billion spread across multiple groups. Romney told Fox News that no one is the field is “better prepared and in a better position” to take on Clinton’s campaign. That’s a pretty bold statement about a field that includes not just Jeb Bush, but also four sitting governors and three U.S. senators.
While Romney was quick to praise the qualities of the individual candidates themselves, he argued that given Hilly’s huge head start, his unmatched fundraising prowess, ready-to-activate national organization and near-universal name recognition might be necessary to keep the GOP from getting steamrolled. Though Romney put no timetable on his decision, he clearly sees time running short for his party. The famed Iowa Straw Poll is just eight months away and the fundraising hurdles and logistical challenges for candidates starting from scratch are steep indeed. If Romney doesn’t see another candidate who he thinks is ready to compete, he’s ready to run. -Fox News
Rubio for... governor? - Miami Herald: “Marco Rubio is expected to run for president. All that’s really in doubt is the year: 2016, 2020, 2024? What’s not uncertain is that the U.S. senator has a tough decision to make: does he make a longshot bid and give up his seat or does he run for president and then seek reelection? Either way, there’s increasing political chatter that Rubio is well-positioned to run for governor in 2018. And then, if he wins, there’s a good chance Gov. Rubio will run for president — 2020 would be attractive if a beatable Democrat is president. The next presidential year, 2024, an open-seat year, would be more likely. He’ll only be 52.”
-Fox News
Carly back to N.H. - Boston Globe: “Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard chief executive who unsuccessfully ran for the US Senate in California, will return to New Hampshire next month as she explores a potential Republican bid for president next year. Fiorina is scheduled to give a keynote talk at a Feb. 10 ‘Politics and Eggs’ breakfast, an event sponsored by the New England Council that has become a rite of passage for presidential candidates.”
-Fox News
1.
Congress Respond to the President’s Radical Change in Cuba Policy
(Ana Quintana) - On Tuesday, December 16, President nObama announced that the U.S. would begin to normalize relations with Cuba. This dramatic policy shift follows the release of American aid worker Alan Gross, who was held hostage for over five years by Castro’s regime, in exchange for three Cuban spies...Choosing to normalize relations with a regime whose chief export has been an aggressive anti-American foreign policy will not advance U.S. interests, let alone facilitate a democratic transition on the island. With the pending economic collapse of Venezuela—Cuba’s primary benefactor—the regime would have lost its main revenue source and, ultimately, its ability to govern under communism. Furthermore, by deciding to normalize relations, the President has justified the regime’s aggression during the Cold War, mass murder, brutal torture, and fomenting of Leftist insurgencies throughout Latin America and Africa. http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/12/how-congress-should-respond-to-the-presidents-radical-change-in-cuba-policy
2.
Are low oil prices good or bad?
(Vaclav Smil) - What do those commentators want? When oil prices reached the all-time peak (in current dollars) of $145.31 on July 3, 2008 (using the West Texas Intermediate, WTI, oil values), they claimed that a rise to $250 a barrel was imminent...and that it would bring the end of modern high-energy economies — but by December 23, 2008, the WTI oil price was down to $30.28, dropping by 79 percent in less than half a year. Now, when the prices are falling, some so-called experts see no downward perimeters, and the very people who yesterday blamed OPEC for pushing prices too high are now wondering why the cartel (which has never had any easy control of the market) does not step in, drastically cut its output, and arrest the price fall because (in a white is black reversal) low oil prices are now widely seen as deeply disruptive. http://www.aei.org/publication/low-gas-prices-good-bad/
3.
Lights out
(James V. DeLong) - His current series is called The Change, and it starts off with a simple premise: one day, electricity stops working. What happens next is not pretty...Stirling is a ruthless realist, and without electricity our civilization is about a week from cannibalism. Heat and water disappear, cars and trucks don’t run, planes fall out of the sky, supermarkets exhaust their few days of food, and the economic system collapses because money, which now mostly consists of electronic blips, vanishes. Since no way exists to move food to people or people to food, some in calorie-rich rural areas survive, but few others, and everywhere within 30 miles of a city becomes a dead zone. The die-off exceeds 99.5 percent. Stirling is not alone in his conclusions about the consequences of a grid blackout. In 2009, historian William Forstchen, who has written some careful alternate history novels with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, published One Second After, the story of a town in North Carolina following a devastating electromagnetic pulse (EMP) event. These works have been followed by a slew of other tales of survival, or lack thereof, in a world without electricity. http://www.aei.org/publication/lights_out/
4.
Congress Implicated In nObamacare Scandal
(judicialwatch.org) - They didn’t fess up willingly. But after we applied the appropriate pressure, government officials responsible for operating the Washington D.C. nObamacare “Small Business Exchange” have finally admitted that Congress is taking advantage of health benefits its members and staff are not entitled to claim...At least 12,359 members of Congress, congressional staffers, and their spouses and dependents currently purchase health insurance in D.C.’s Small Business Exchange even though Congress far exceeds D.C. law’s 50-employee limit for participating in the exchange. That’s why we filed a lawsuit in October on behalf of Kirby Vining, a D.C. taxpayer, against the D.C. Health Exchange Authority. In a court filing, the D.C. government conceded that, under D.C. law, the U.S. Congress is not permitted to obtain insurance through the District’s Small Business Exchange. But members of the political class, true to form, do not believe the rules apply to them. How do we know? http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/weekly-updates/congress-implicated-in-obamacare-scandal/
5.
Can America stop Paris-style terror from coming here?
(Pamela Geller) - As France reels from two bloody terrorist attacks in as many days, Pamela Geller warns this is just the beginning and unless Americans take action, “Such attacks are coming here.”...In an exclusive interview with WND, the author of “Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance” painted a dire picture of the Western future. Even after the most devastating terrorist attacks in French history, Geller judged that “no European nations are doing anything against Islamization at this time, and I don’t see any indication that any will in the near future.” “There is absolutely no evidence that they’re backing away from efforts to impose ‘hate speech’ laws,” Geller told WND. “In fact, just [earlier this week] a Canadian imam called for the criminalization of satirical cartoons of religious leaders.”
6.
Tens of thousands march to honor victims of Paris attack
(FoxNews.com) - "Today, Paris is the capital of the world," said French President Francois Hollande. "Our entire country will rise up toward something better."...Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were among the leaders attending, as were top representatives of Russia and Ukraine. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron were alongside Hollande at the front of the crowd, Sky News reports. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is in Paris this week to attend a meeting on fighting terrorism, but did not participate in the march. There are also no known reports of members of Congress attending the event. Ya, right, nObama and the USA, will stand next to French. http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/01/11/are-charlie-thousands-to-march-to-honor-victims-paris-attack/
7.
Fox News Airs ‘Stossel’ Special on HOLLYWOOD HYPOCRITES
(Daily Surge) - Fox News kicked off 2015 by re-airing a hugely-popular special by John Stossel called “Hollywood Hypocrites.” The featured production, taken from Jason Mattera’s New York Times bestselling book Hollywood Hypocrites...The Devastating Truth About Obama’s Biggest Backers, highlighted a cast of characters in Tinseltown whose sanctimonious lectures bear little resemblance to the way they actually conduct themselves day-to-day. Stossel had Mattera on to talk about three hypocrites in particular: Harrison Ford, Bruce Springsteen, and Jon Bon Jovi — their duplicities exposed on the pages of Hollywood Hypocrites. As Stossel pointed out, Han Solo got his chest waxed on camera to bring awareness to climate change and the environment. It was a stunt for a conservationist group, which is fine and all. Except for this inconvenient detail — Ford at the time owned seven aircraft, including a helicopter, and has stated on the record that he often flies up the coast just to grab a cheeseburger. A cheeseburger! http://linkis.com/dailysurge.com/2015/Eegu8
8.
8.
NEA Funds “Dead Cops NOW!” Group
(theminorityreportblog.com) - We’re long on record as being opposed to the National Education Association (NEA). They are nothing short of an enemy of the state. Some of our readers think we’re a little over the top on that call. We’re not...Today’s story will demonstrate, once again, that the NEA is Public Enemy #1. The NEA is funding a group in Wisconsin called Wisconsin Jobs Now, a group that has nothing to do with education – so it’s not “for the children” – rather, they are an anti-Scott Walker front group that, when they’re not demonstrating against one of the best governors in the nation, are organizing angry, anti-police protests. The same kind of people who are marching shouting for dead cops NOW! http://www.theminorityreportblog.com/2015/01/10/nea-funds-dead-cops-now-group/
9. Did You Know There Are Muslim ‘No-Go’ Zones In The USA
(Lauren Richardson) - It starts off innocently enough with them wanting to share a neighborhood with like-minded, religious thinking community dwellers. They slowly grow larger, and incorporate more Muslims into the area, and begin buying up property as fast as it becomes available or leasing it...Then they install their own courts, government, justice and punishment system, Sharia law. At that point threats are aimed at anyone living in the neighborhood that is non-Muslim. These areas have been formed with ‘ethnic cleansing’ harassment tactics; forcing existing residents out of their homes by Muslim provocation and fear of property damage and physical harm. It’s very effective, and the results advantageous to the Muslim community in establishing another ‘no-go Sharia controlled zone.’ In the U.S., Dearborn, Michigan: Over 100,000 Muslims, 45% of the city has settled into their first ‘no-go’ zone. The city and police officials have been sued in many cases that allege discrimination “against Christians” effectively by the authorities applying Sharia law. Dearborn-Dar-al-Islam, (a place governed by Islamic Sharia law). The new idea of ‘no-go’ and ‘no-entry’ is significant, and shockingly being upheld. They provide weapons and guards and government officials in their own societies. They build what they want on their compounds. They have schools inside that their kids are educated in. They are taught their religion in school. No separation of Church (mosque) and State. If Americans don’t wake up and get their heads out of the sand fast, what’s quickly overtaking Europe will consume the United States. Muslim religious beliefs do not supersede state and federal laws; the Constitution is the law of the land. And yet, we are being invaded, and nothing is being done to stop them. http://truthuncensored.net/there-are-muslim-no-go-zones-in-the-usa/
10. 6 Times The nObama Admin Said Its Job Was to Promote Islam
(Ben Shapiro) - The real problem, according to the nObama administration, is lack of leadership in defending Islam...There are some individuals that are using a peaceful religion and grossly distorting it, and trying to use its tenets to inspire people around the globe to carry out acts of violence. And we have enjoyed significant success in enlisting leaders in the Muslim community, like I said, both in the United States and around the world to condemn that kind of messaging, to condemn those efforts to radicalize individuals, and to be clear about what the tenets of Islam actually are. And we’re going to redouble those efforts in the days and weeks ahead. This, of course, is not the first time the nObama administration has discovered a duty to illuminate the inherent beauty and wonder of Islam. Over and over again, the nObama administration, in high culturally imperialist dudgeon, has attempted to explain to the world the true meaning of Islam. This prove without a shadow of doubts that nObama is a Muslim. http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/01/08/6-times-the-obama-administration-said-its-job-was-to-promote-islam/
"On & Off The Radar"
Burt Prelutsky
(burtprelutsky.com) - When some people dismiss others as low information voters, they’re not always being fair. For instance, I heard from a lot of readers in 2012 complaining that Mitt Romney didn’t bring up nObama’s Benghazi cover-up in the debates, but I pointed out that because the mass media had done such a good job of ignoring the story that if Romney had mentioned Benghazi, most of the viewing audience would have assumed he was speaking in tongues.
I mainly knew about it because Fox News had done such a good job of covering the story. But being a successful cable station doesn’t compare to being a major network when it comes to the number of viewers. But as good as Fox is, I still wish it had competition from a cable station that didn’t waste our time with the likes of Juan Williams, Alan Colmes, Geraldo Rivera, Bob Beckel and Mark Hannah. We would get plenty of divergent viewpoints if they concentrated solely on Republicans. Pitting Ted Cruz against John McCain or Rand Paul against Marco Rubio would be a great improvement over watching Juan Williams do his impression of a minstrel man, rolling his eyes in mock horror whenever Bret Baier, Steve Hayes or Charles Krauthammer, disagrees with one of his inane statements.
Although I get a lot of my news from Fox, I wish they had someone whose sole function is to follow up on things that have been lost in the wake of subsequent events. For instance, when Boko Haram kidnapped those 300 Nigerian school girls, I heard that nObama had sent a few hundred soldiers in to assist in the search, and then I heard nothing more about it. Are the soldiers still looking? Is anyone?
According to Gallup’s latest poll, nObama’s approval rating has soared to 47%. The theory is that a lot of people applauded his re-opening diplomatic relations with Cuba. Even if they disagree with me and Marco Rubio about that bit of executive action, how is it that millions of us have apparently decided after six years of nObamaCare and the Benghazi, Operation Fast & Furious, VA and IRS scandals that they no longer mattered?
Mark Twain once joked that he didn’t lie because he didn’t have a very good memory. It seems to me that Barack nObama lies because he doesn’t think we have very good memories, and the same goes for the likes of Nancy Pulosi, dinky Harry Reid, Josh Earnest and Jonathan Gruber. When nearly everything we say or do is recorded on video, you would think they would straighten out their acts, but, apparently, unless you watch Fox, you’d have no idea that these people lie, if for no other reason than to stay in practice.
But maybe nObama is wise to take our ignorance for granted. After all, even after drawing and then quickly erasing red lines with Russia and Syria, and allowing Iran to make a monkey out of him at the negotiating table, our Commander-in-chief has proven himself to be, in the words of my friend Steve Maikoski, the Great Capitulator.
In other news, we are told that Justin Bieber is worth $200 million. We have also heard that Oprah Winfrey is worth two billion and Warren Buffet is worth roughly 35 billion. I know it’s just a figure of speech, but I wish we would learn to just say these pinheads have an awful lot of money without suggesting they are worth a plugged nickel.
After dismissing the movie, “Whiplash,” as a waste of time, a friend let me know he planned to see it because he liked “drum music,” and I congratulated him on coming up with a new and unique oxymoron. But after sitting through 16 other DVDs provided by the studios, all seeking my vote in the WGA award competition, I am wondering why movies even pay editors. When the new releases average 150 minutes, it’s hard to imagine that any footage ends up on the cutting room floor. You would have thought editors had gone the way of those guys who used to provide dialogue titles for silent movies.
Speaking of movies, I can’t say I was disappointed with “Unbroken,” the story of Louis Zemperini, who first survived 47 days at sea after his plane was shot down during WWII and then, according to Laura Hillenbrand’s book, suffered daily beatings by a sadistic Japanese POW camp commander for two long years. It didn’t ring true in the book and didn’t in the movie.
It was hard enough to survive in Japanese captivity without having to endure constant torture and no medical attention. I even wrote to Ms. Hillenbrand asking if she had actually managed to confirm what she was told or had simply accepted what Zemperini said as gospel. After all, rumor has it that men, even those in their 90s, have been known to brag to women. So far, I haven’t heard back.
Because it’s been preying on my mind for years, I would like someone to explain why “Peanuts” has enjoyed such lasting success. I never thought it was a funny comic strip. Not funny or clever or thoughtful, and, what’s more, I thought Snoopy was a bore, even when he went up against the Red Baron. What have I been missing?
I once heard that the best definition of an optimist was a professional accordionist with a pager. But I have come to believe that Alan Jay Lerner, the lyricist and librettist best known for “Brigadoon,” “Gigi,” and “My Fair Lady,” should have his picture next to the word in the dictionary. This is a man who married for the first time when he was 21 years old. By the time he died 46 years later, at the age of 67, he had been married seven more times. What’s more, he was married for 43 of those years, meaning he averaged less than six months between getting a divorce and once again tying the knot. If that’s not optimism, I don’t know what it is. Well, maybe insanity.
Because some of my more concerned readers continue to ask how I am doing in the aftermath of the surgery on my hand and arm last January, I am happy to report that the rheumatoid arthritis is no longer plaguing me.
However, I did suffer an attack of the gout recently. My only prior experience with the condition was seeing old Laurel and Hardy or Charley Chase comedies in which men suffering from the gout would be shown with his inflamed foot wrapped in a Turkish towel. But in spite of the towel, someone was sure to step on his aching foot or slam a car door on it.
I thought it was very amusing until I was the guy who felt like he had a pin cushion sewn up in his big right toe. I never assumed I would have anything more in common with King Henry VIII than the fact we had both been married more than a couple of times -- though not as often as Alan Jay Lerner -- our occasional disagreements with the pope and our roguish little beards. Too bad it couldn’t have stayed that way.
Believe me, the gout is no joke. The joke is that it’s commonly referred to as the rich man’s disease and somehow I got it!
I mainly knew about it because Fox News had done such a good job of covering the story. But being a successful cable station doesn’t compare to being a major network when it comes to the number of viewers. But as good as Fox is, I still wish it had competition from a cable station that didn’t waste our time with the likes of Juan Williams, Alan Colmes, Geraldo Rivera, Bob Beckel and Mark Hannah. We would get plenty of divergent viewpoints if they concentrated solely on Republicans. Pitting Ted Cruz against John McCain or Rand Paul against Marco Rubio would be a great improvement over watching Juan Williams do his impression of a minstrel man, rolling his eyes in mock horror whenever Bret Baier, Steve Hayes or Charles Krauthammer, disagrees with one of his inane statements.
Although I get a lot of my news from Fox, I wish they had someone whose sole function is to follow up on things that have been lost in the wake of subsequent events. For instance, when Boko Haram kidnapped those 300 Nigerian school girls, I heard that nObama had sent a few hundred soldiers in to assist in the search, and then I heard nothing more about it. Are the soldiers still looking? Is anyone?
According to Gallup’s latest poll, nObama’s approval rating has soared to 47%. The theory is that a lot of people applauded his re-opening diplomatic relations with Cuba. Even if they disagree with me and Marco Rubio about that bit of executive action, how is it that millions of us have apparently decided after six years of nObamaCare and the Benghazi, Operation Fast & Furious, VA and IRS scandals that they no longer mattered?
Mark Twain once joked that he didn’t lie because he didn’t have a very good memory. It seems to me that Barack nObama lies because he doesn’t think we have very good memories, and the same goes for the likes of Nancy Pulosi, dinky Harry Reid, Josh Earnest and Jonathan Gruber. When nearly everything we say or do is recorded on video, you would think they would straighten out their acts, but, apparently, unless you watch Fox, you’d have no idea that these people lie, if for no other reason than to stay in practice.
But maybe nObama is wise to take our ignorance for granted. After all, even after drawing and then quickly erasing red lines with Russia and Syria, and allowing Iran to make a monkey out of him at the negotiating table, our Commander-in-chief has proven himself to be, in the words of my friend Steve Maikoski, the Great Capitulator.
In other news, we are told that Justin Bieber is worth $200 million. We have also heard that Oprah Winfrey is worth two billion and Warren Buffet is worth roughly 35 billion. I know it’s just a figure of speech, but I wish we would learn to just say these pinheads have an awful lot of money without suggesting they are worth a plugged nickel.
After dismissing the movie, “Whiplash,” as a waste of time, a friend let me know he planned to see it because he liked “drum music,” and I congratulated him on coming up with a new and unique oxymoron. But after sitting through 16 other DVDs provided by the studios, all seeking my vote in the WGA award competition, I am wondering why movies even pay editors. When the new releases average 150 minutes, it’s hard to imagine that any footage ends up on the cutting room floor. You would have thought editors had gone the way of those guys who used to provide dialogue titles for silent movies.
Speaking of movies, I can’t say I was disappointed with “Unbroken,” the story of Louis Zemperini, who first survived 47 days at sea after his plane was shot down during WWII and then, according to Laura Hillenbrand’s book, suffered daily beatings by a sadistic Japanese POW camp commander for two long years. It didn’t ring true in the book and didn’t in the movie.
It was hard enough to survive in Japanese captivity without having to endure constant torture and no medical attention. I even wrote to Ms. Hillenbrand asking if she had actually managed to confirm what she was told or had simply accepted what Zemperini said as gospel. After all, rumor has it that men, even those in their 90s, have been known to brag to women. So far, I haven’t heard back.
Because it’s been preying on my mind for years, I would like someone to explain why “Peanuts” has enjoyed such lasting success. I never thought it was a funny comic strip. Not funny or clever or thoughtful, and, what’s more, I thought Snoopy was a bore, even when he went up against the Red Baron. What have I been missing?
I once heard that the best definition of an optimist was a professional accordionist with a pager. But I have come to believe that Alan Jay Lerner, the lyricist and librettist best known for “Brigadoon,” “Gigi,” and “My Fair Lady,” should have his picture next to the word in the dictionary. This is a man who married for the first time when he was 21 years old. By the time he died 46 years later, at the age of 67, he had been married seven more times. What’s more, he was married for 43 of those years, meaning he averaged less than six months between getting a divorce and once again tying the knot. If that’s not optimism, I don’t know what it is. Well, maybe insanity.
Because some of my more concerned readers continue to ask how I am doing in the aftermath of the surgery on my hand and arm last January, I am happy to report that the rheumatoid arthritis is no longer plaguing me.
However, I did suffer an attack of the gout recently. My only prior experience with the condition was seeing old Laurel and Hardy or Charley Chase comedies in which men suffering from the gout would be shown with his inflamed foot wrapped in a Turkish towel. But in spite of the towel, someone was sure to step on his aching foot or slam a car door on it.
I thought it was very amusing until I was the guy who felt like he had a pin cushion sewn up in his big right toe. I never assumed I would have anything more in common with King Henry VIII than the fact we had both been married more than a couple of times -- though not as often as Alan Jay Lerner -- our occasional disagreements with the pope and our roguish little beards. Too bad it couldn’t have stayed that way.
Believe me, the gout is no joke. The joke is that it’s commonly referred to as the rich man’s disease and somehow I got it!
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