Nothing like a day that has gloomy omens and turns out to be bright. And hot! One last day of full-strength summer, and then 70s tomorrow. No more shorts to the office. Long pants, short sleeves. Three weeks from long-sleeves and ties.
After a week of getting no useful mail, I get three Important Pieces today. One is from Medicare, telling me that I now have my Gummint Benefit. Good! It’s an entitlement, and what am I? That’s correct: I am entitled. The second was from the extended car warranty company telling me that my policy was expiring and they could not offer the same price. It would be going up. Ah, the conundrum: well, I didn’t use it before, did I? I guess it was a bad idea. On the other hand, my car is now two years older, and more likely to need it.
We’ll see. The third piece was the insurance policy I took out and myself and my wife that covers “getting converted to insensate jam by a maniac on the highway,” which I took out because people are driving like maniacs, the police are not inclined to pull them over for something as minor as speeding70 MPH in a residential neighborhood, and while the Highway Patrol can be trusted to deal with the fools, they aren't everywhere all the time. Zigzaggers doing 100 MPH on the freeway are an everyday thing.
It was an inexpensive offering from AAA, which of course tells you the event is not particularly likely to occur.
I love AAA. Not because I use the discounts all the time - I forget about them, all the time - but because I know they have me covered in a certain set of circumstances. Once the old green Element started huffing on the way back from the airport, going into “limp-home” mode because a sensor was dead. One card, one call, and I got a ride and a tow. Once the battery just died in a parking lot - one card, one call, and a guy shows up with a battery! And he was a fan, too! (I pay extra for that perk.)
I guess all that’s left is signing up for AARP!
Except I’m not retired, and I have residual ehhhhh about that brand, over something happened years ago and people were unhappy about. On the other hand, it’s nine bucks a year, and you get . . . discounts and benefits on stuff you forgot you didn’t do anyway. But you could! I mean, Outback Steakhouse? Love that place! 30% off the Bloomin’ Onion appetizer!
Also, I have learned, if you link your AARP account to your Exxon account, you get . . . rewards! I know, I know, it’s nuts, all these organizations teaming up and helping you out. After you spend $2,043 on gas you get 2 cents off every third gallon if you pull up to the island on the opposite side from where your gas intake pipe is located.
(You know what I miss? Gas caps under the license plate. Those were cool. A man felt like James Bond somehow when he flipped the plate and undid the cap.)
I wish AAA and AARP would combine and form AAAAARP, which sounds like some guttural cry that sums up the absurdity of life. You couldn’t call it AARPAAA, because then people would think you were referring to ARPA, the American Rescue Plan Act.
The American Rescue Plan Act was signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021, it guaranteed direct funding to all cities, towns and villages in the United States. The U.S. Department of the Treasury responsible for overseeing the program.
That’s a great idea because it’s about. Damned. Time we started using Federal dollars to support urban areas. You may wonder, though, about those reporting requirements under SLFRF.
What are SLFRF reporting requirements?
For metropolitan cities and non-entitlement units of local government to receive their SLFRF funding, they must abide by the following reporting requirements:
You have to have a UEI and an SAM, and you’d better have them on hand because you can just imagine the bored and exasperated voice of the person on the other line who asks fro your SLFRF-specific UEIs and SAMs and you’re, like, “what are those” and she has to explain it to you.
Also, you do know that after April 4, 2022, the Fed switched from the DUNS number to the UEI number, right?
RIGHT?
As for SLFRF, pronounced “Essel-Furf,” it’s the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF).
It’s 1969.
Newspapers used to run traffic fatality-roundup stories all the time.
Sad news:
“Known for his durable chin,” says his Wikipedia entry.
Retired undefeated, which suggests a wisdom most lack.
In late July 1969, shortly before his death, Marciano participated in the filming of The Superfight: Marciano vs. Ali. The two boxers were filmed sparring, then the film was edited to match a computer simulation of a hypothetical fight between them, each in his prime. It aired on January 20, 1970, with one version having Marciano winning and the second version having Ali winning.
I assume people had been following this story. Or not:
Around this time there’d been talk of the US maaaaybe not living up to its SEATO treaty obligations, and the Thai government had been concerned. They were subsequently reassured.
The cartoonist just liked the title. We used to call these a “test-tube editorial,” where we’d come up with a title we liked and write the editorial to explain it.
You’d see a lot of this, for a while.
Well, yes, that could be a problem; what’s the solution?
Imagine a paper calling for this today as the official position of the editorial page. BRING BACK THE PATRIARCHY!
Women’s page filler. I remember when our local paper ran birthdays. You couldn’t wait to see your name in print!
Also, don’t block the sidewalk.
Did Death have a ticket?
A surprise to many faithful readers, perhaps.
Well, we need to get into this fellow's story a bit.
In addition to radio, Pearson appeared in a number of Hollywood movies, such as the 1951 science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still and RKO's 1945 propaganda movie Betrayal from the East.
In the former film, Pearson (playing himself) is the only journalist who urges calm and restraint (versus the fear and paranoia evoked by his colleagues) while Washington is panicked by the escape of the alien visitor Klaatu.
I imagine he had something to do with that.
Also:
According to his one-time partner, Jack Anderson, Pearson saw journalism as a weapon to be used against those he judged to be working against the public interest. When forced to choose between a story's accuracy and Pearson's desire to pursue a person whose views he disliked, Pearson had no qualms about publishing the story anyway.
Journalism was so much more honest and objective back then!
In relating his disclosures on Washington politicians, newsmakers, and the politically connected, Pearson frequently resorted to a pattern of combining factual or corroborated leaked news items together with fabricated or unsubstantiated details, the latter designed to emphasize and sensationalize the basic story.
A favorite Pearson tactic was to reveal salacious details of a subject's sexual proclivities for the purpose of embarrassment or intimidation.
Also:
On a January 8, 1950, broadcast of CBS Radio's The Jack Benny Program, Pearson was the butt of a joke gone wrong. Announcer Don Wilson was to say he heard Jack had bought a new suit on Drew Pearson's program, but misspoke Pearson's name: "Drear Pooson". Later in the show, comedic actor Frank Nelson was asked by Benny if he was the doorman. Nelson replied with a line surreptitiously given him by the show's writers, "Who do you think I am? Drear Pooson?" The audience laughed continuously for nearly a half minute
His co-writer, a fellow named Jack Anderson, would take over. Now Jack I remember. An investigative columnist! He had all the dirt!
This I don’t get. I thought the strip was called Winthrop. It’s one of the millions that arose post-Peanuts.
Wikipedia: On February 27, 1966, Cavalli removed the adult characters and renamed the strip Winthrop, after Jill's kid brother, the most prominent of the young social critics,.
So the paper just decided that didn’t happen and kept the old name.
Now two ways to chip in!
That'll do - see you around! 60s Hotel Swank takes you now to Utah.
