Unconnected Thoughts

There are too many things circulating right now, but a couple of things have occurred to me lately that piqued my curiosity.

So without further ado...

--  Why is it that as phones and Ipods get smaller, watches get bigger?  I hate jewelry for me, generally, and although I wear and will never take off my wedding ring, I don't have a watch that I wear right now because it's one of those that a jeweler needs to change the battery,  but I don't miss it much.  Even so, were I to try to buy a new watch, most watches these days look like something from out of the Star Trek series.  They're so bulky, so unwieldy, I'd be afraid that one of my arms would hang lower than the other simply because of the weight it was carrying with the watch.

--  From time to time, there are cars that zip in and out of traffic at dizzying speeds.  Given that our state's highest speed limit is presently 70 mph, that means, typically, that these wannabe race car drivers are going at least 80 mph, because most people go at least 5 mph over the limit as it is.  When I complain about these speeders, who usually are driving smaller cars and who are zipping in and out of traffic across three lanes, Karen will chide me about how I don't know whether they have a legitimate reason for speeding:  Perhaps they're on their way to the hospital in an emergency.  You don't know.  Given how many of these fools are putting their own and everyone else's life at risk, I doubt very highly that even ten percent of them are headed for the hospital.  But then it occurred to me:  This type of driving was inspired by the Fast and Furious movie franchise.  I've only seen promos for the movies, but that's the only thing that makes any sense.  And unless I miss my guess, like some of the characters in those movies, these fools will suffer their share of accidents, too.  The only problem is that the innocent characters that get injured in the movies walk away from the accidents while people in real life don't always.

--  There's a furor over the Roots reboot.  I'm flabbergasted.  Rather than focus on the fact that a new generation is being educated, albeit through entertainment, about the depredations visited upon African-Americans during slavery and the Reconstruction era, we should ignore it and focus on the advances made in the present day?  At the same time, self-appointed spokespeople like Snoop Dogg are criticizing that blacks are still treated the same nowadays.  Really?  Seriously?  Please shine a light on the horror of modern day slavery in the United States, because I'm unaware of it.  Yes, there is still discrimination and income-inequality.   But spare me the hyperbole about modern day slavery...unless you want to invoke ISIS and Islam.

--  Mark Zuckerberg's social media accounts were hacked.  That's priceless.

--  I'm not very concerned personally with Gwen Stefani's life, but I have to wonder:  What is she thinking?  Say what anyone will about Blake Shelton, but he cheated on his first wife to run off with Miranda Lambert and then may or may not have cheated on her during their marriage.  What, exactly, makes him a good candidate as a romantic partner for Ms. Stefani? 

--  The summer television season is a weird one.  Thank goodness for my Alaska shows.  Without them I'd be subject to lame game shows and baseball highlights, not to mention yardwork.

--  It would appear that a twenty-year-old Stanford swimmer was convicted of raping an unconscious woman.  The judge, for whatever reason, gave him a six month prison sentence.  Last year in Texas, some punk spoiled brat was able to convince a judge that his affluenza caused him to not understand the consequence of drinking and driving, which led him to kill four people while driving impaired.  I know we like our elections, but these types of decisions by elected judges show that for the judiciary, at least, nomination and appointment might be the better path.

(c) 2016 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles