skipper

  • To start the subject of the post, here is a cartoon from The Week:

    Referencing a recent post, the cowboy culture, one of independent success and individual respect, in their battle against benign neglect by […]

  • Ever so slowly, thinkers and writers, even in the news industry, have begun to ferret out the real battleground in today’s hectic lifestyle. It is a battle of tradition – the American image that has been bred int […]

  • This Spring, mariner planned to move his vegetable garden to another spot in the backyard. He reasoned that March would have enough good days to build new raised beds and fix several maintenance issues that make […]

    • I don’t have a plot to plant in; I wish I had your raised bed maintenance blues. On the upside, there are now five tree beds on my block, though they are “managed” by the local BID Business Improvement District.
      Keep gardening Mariner!

      Raised bed and plotless,

    • Horticultural management is strenuous so please stay hydrated and please do not let the grass grow higher than 4 inches.

      A friend of mine once suggested that car horns should be manufactured such that no two were the same and any two honked at the same time would create a harmony. Lawnmowers next?

    • You’re still mobile. You’re just slower than you used to be. You have some ground to work that some people would die for in the “non-sketchy” neighborhood you live in. I’m the last person anyone would label as Mr. Positivity, but count your blessings. You have “something to get up for”. You may be my very senior brother, but I get it. I used to do physical labor 8-12 hours a day. Now – 6 hours tops. The best part about being retired is YOU”RE WORKING FOR YOURSELF. So cut yourself some slack.

  • As we live each day, dealing with the nitty-gritty of each hour and minute, as we get pushed around by schedules and interpersonal dialogue, as we absorb the distractions of the world at large, we lose track of […]

  • Here’s the favorite cartoon from The Week magazine:

    The daily news is so redundant that any of us could write a broadcast. Perhaps the most important news to come along recently is the growing moral and e […]

  • skipper wrote a new post, Words 1 year, 8 months ago

    Language is a complex, embedded and demonstrative part of our consciousness. Language tells us who we are, what is important not only as a subject but what is important to our own reality. As an experiment, a set […]

  • The reader may think immediately of the MAGA folks, their mouthpieces  Trump and DeSantis, but there is resistance from the economic side as well if one considers the resistance to going green by the fossil fuel […]

  • From NPR – the whole article at

    is horrifying not just for public libraries but for American democracy as well. One quote to show temperament:

    “One of the board members said, ‘Well, what about this book? I […]

  • skipper commented on the post, Family 1 year, 8 months ago

    An insightful point, Robert. Social media allows us to expand our personal associations. These associations are a benefit as long as they expand the human experience. Alas, to linger on a past conversation point, the Limbic system doesn’t know what’s going on. The compassion and depth of human-to-human bonding doesn’t occur (most of the time).

  • skipper wrote a new post, Family 1 year, 8 months ago

    John Della Volpe, of the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, used a term that speaks not only to the youth of American society but to the whole population. He used the phrase, “This is a generation t […]

    • An insightful point, Robert. Social media allows us to expand our personal associations. These associations are a benefit as long as they expand the human experience. Alas, to linger on a past conversation point, the Limbic system doesn’t know what’s going on. The compassion and depth of human-to-human bonding doesn’t occur (most of the time).

  • We are most often concerned about the growing count of retiring boomers and millennials  and what that means for health Care, assisted living and viable income. We are concerned about the number of houses […]

  • Haven’t shared Non Sequitur lately. Here’s a few:

    Have fun this summer. Think: escape!

    Ancient Mariner

  • ֎ Americans retiring now are going it alone: They’re the first generation to rely on private savings instead of pensions to navigate the financial unknown of retirement.

    ֎ Private Equity has moved into health s […]

  • Perhaps this post is a form of Requiem Mass for Bed, Bath and Beyond. Further, a favorite local branch of the department store Shopko, also has passed. There is a mall in a good-sized town nearby that was the […]

  • You are right, Robert, but Nate Silver Is outside the herd of political pollsters. He became famous for predicting the entire final ranking of NBA teams at the end of the season about ten years ago. His customer base were and are folks who gambled on sports.
    I bought his book. He is a mathematician with sociological insights. If I had to depend…[Read more]

  • Mariner knows he puts out a lot of negative stuff (if he ever hears of a positive stuff, he’ll headline it). However, this paragraph below from 538, a respected pollster and sports oddsmaker, represents an a […]

    • You are right, Robert, but Nate Silver Is outside the herd of political pollsters. He became famous for predicting the entire final ranking of NBA teams at the end of the season about ten years ago. His customer base were and are folks who gambled on sports.
      I bought his book. He is a mathematician with sociological insights. If I had to depend on a poll, it would be Nate’s. Visit his site sometime: 538.com.
      Skipper

  • Printed by Politico

    Here are your Lobbying Disclosure Act revenue rankings for the first quarter of 2023.

    Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck: $15.8 million (versus $15.6 million in Q4 2022 and $15.4 million in […]

  • ֎ The use of extracted Phosphorus by humans is becoming a serious issue. Every living thing in nature uses Phosphorus to survive but it is in a chemically bound form that exists in nature. It is part of bones, […]

  • In case you needed to know, an ant can live up to five years if lucky but the average life span is less than one month.

    Recent subjects from the thinking class are that we are amid a protracted inversion of […]

  • Traces of Homo genes have been found that existed more than 600,000 years ago but the variation that represents the beginning of humans as we would define them today (Homo sapiens) appeared about 300,000 years […]

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