Snoopy is my favorite philosopher ~ and punster

A year or so ago, I posted this picture of a "branch manager" with his assistant on the bulletin board at the elevators on my floor.  Snoopy, my favorite punster, has a slight variation on that joke.

It's so frustrating when our friends just don't get it.  Last week, I posted this cartoon on Facebook and on the bulletin board by the elevator, so you may have seen it already.  But I want to "use" this cartoon to segue into a bit of philosophy because Snoopy is also my favorite philosopher.  Bear with me here, as you scan these four logical fallacies.

When I ran across these four logical fallacies on Facebook (red herring fallacy. ad hominem fallacy, anecdotal evidence fallacy, and straw man fallacy), I felt like I was back in my college logic class.  My textbook was by Copi, and I still think his is the best.  Following my train of thought, I looked up Copi and found a Wikipedia article about him.  Hmm, I see that his text is now in its 14th edition, so I must not be alone in thinking it was excellent.

Linus and Snoopy

"Copi studied under Bertrand Russell while at the University of Chicago."

Ha!  I didn't know that.  While studying for my first degree, maybe even the same year I took logic, I imagined Bertrand Russell in a homework paper/story I wrote.  Bertrand Russell called something in that story "claptrap," and I had Linus retort, "Well, you're in this claptrap with us."

Word of the Day

se·gue / ˈseɡwā,ˈsā- / verb / past tense: segued / past participle: segued = move or shift from one role, state, or condition to another.  Example:  I used the Snoopy cartoon to segue into a bit of philosophy.

Bookish Puzzle #3

1. What Comes Before a Fall and Preconceived Judgment Towards a Group
2. Mitt-wearing Home Plate Squatter Enclosed by Reuben Sandwich Bread
3. An Au Revoir for Everything Inside the Shirt Sleeves
4. Y2K Minus Number of Candles on Molly Ringwald's Cake
5. That Audio and That Rage
6. Toward What Person or Persons a Recess-is-Over Sound Is Directed

Can you come up with the names of these famous books whose "titles" have been vastly re-worded?  Have fun grappling with this batch.  I've share other Bookish Puzzles here and here.

Don't forget

Don't forget to wear your mask.  Those of us living at the Crown Center are required to wear our masks whenever we are outside of our own apartments, as you can see by this sign.

Sandy has her mask hung on the lock of her door to the hallway.  I had mine NEAR my door, but this makes so much sense that I've followed Sandy's example.  Do you always wear a mask when you go out?

Someone in a Facebook group I'm in saw a woman take OFF her mask to cough.  Another person asked, "Why would she DO that?"  A nurse responded with a very helpful explanation:

"It's an instinctive response.  Way back when, when I was in nursing school, they taught us that we would experience this and they even had us practice coughing with a mask on to get used to it.  I went to a very thorough nursing school.

"When you cough, it's because your airway is feeling blocked, so you inhale a bit more deeply in preparartion to try to cough out the blockage.  Grabbing at the mask that is 'blocking' your airway is an instinct."

And then we have those who insist it's a free country, and they choose NOT to wear a mask.  I recently ran across a perfect analogy.  Imagine a whole bunch of people during the London Blitz of World War Two saying, "I'll turn on my lights if I feel like it."  Yes, people would have died for their stubborn "freedom" to do whatever they like.  And the point is — WEAR YOUR MASK TO PROTECT EVERYONE, not just yourself.  And please be sure that BOTH your nose and your mouth are covered.

Bookish Puzzle #2

1. Scoliosis Sufferer at the Fighting Irish School
2. Pirate Loot / Counter in the Center of a Kitchen
3. A Story of a Duo of Municipalities
4. About Little White Rodents and Grown Boys
5. Ruby-Covered Nametag Indicating Bravery
6. The Star in Our Solar System Comes Up, Too

Can you figure out the actual names of these famous books?  The "titles" have been slightly re-worded, as you can see.  Have fun grappling with these.  I posted another Bookish Puzzle here.

It's been ten years

The last service at East Lake United Methodist Church on June 27th.  Betty Madewell (on the second row in the photo below) was present at that closing service and told me she had been christened at the first service in this building on Easter Sunday, April 8, 1928, when the sermon by the Rev. Jack Anderson was entitled "A House Not Made with Hands."  River Setliffe noticed that Mildred Setliffe had been ten years old when she attended that first service in this building.  River, who is Mildred's great-granddaughter, was then ten years old herself, when she came to the church's last service.  She's almost hidden between her father and her brother, far to the left in the first row, in the picture below).

This photo, taken by John Shearer, shows some of the worshipers inside East Lake United Methodist Church before the service started).

First pew (left to right):  Jimmy Setliffe, River Setliffe, Sam Setliffe, Jim Setliffe, Carol Setliffe, and Charles Moses.
Second pew:  Henry Mason, Charlotte Mason, Jane Helton, Betty Madewell, Ed Madewell, and Ken Smith.
Third pew:  John Paul Williams and Martha Morgan Gardin.
Fourth pew:  (I can't tell who they are).
Fifth pew:  couple visiting from First-Centenary UMC and June Rollins Tant.

Those who contributed to the service that day:

• The Rev. John Paul Williams sang "My Tribute"
• Laura and Richard Young, John Coniglio, and Nell Williams were the musicians who played and sang for us.
• River and Sam Setliffe were the acolytes who lit the candles.
• Jim and Jimmy Setliffe were the ushers.
• The Rev. Bonnie Setliffe Jacobs preached the church's final sermon, using the same scripture that the Rev. Jack Anderson had chosen for the FIRST sermon after that building was constructed.  (The point I wanted to make was that we who comprise the church take the spirit of love with us, wherever we go.  It isn't about buildings, but about love.)
• John Shearer wrote about the closing service for Chattanoogan.com.

Nobody could have guessed that exactly ten years later (on June 27, 2020, a Saturday) I would be attending Virtual Annual Conference at noon in St. Louis (1:00 pm Eastern Time).  The church is indeed not the building, but the people, however we gather together.

Busy day ~ and a new word

Holston Annual Conference

What a treat!  I've just "been" to Annual Conference for the first time in many years.  Living in St. Louis means it would take lots of time and cost me a lot to drive to Lake Junaluska in June every year.  And I'm retired and no longer have the stamina I once had.  Oh, did I fail to mention we met this year using Zoom and Livestream?  That's how I was so "close" to Bishop Dindy Taylor when I took her photo (above).  It's almost like sitting across the table from her when we went to lunch together back in the 1990s, when she and I were both appointed to churches in the Chattanooga District, now the Scenic City District.

It's nice that we can just "click" to get all of the videos and resources mentioned during today's Virtual Annual Conference:

• Council of Bishops Juneteenth Announcement
• Sexual Ethics Task Force Video
• 2020 Memorial Service
• Responding to the Opioid Crisis

One problem I never had, when I attended in person, was having Clawdia appropriate my tablet by sitting on it.  She was none too pleased when I insisted on taking more notes about Conference business.  I had tried to prepare for every contingency — okay, it was ONE contingency, that she WOULD want me to feed her during the three hours set aside for Annual Conference.  I put extra food in her dish, but she still came to me, begging for food.  When I evicted her from her tablet perch, she did go find food was already in her dish.

Word of the Day

Today, I've learned a new word — doxxed.

dox /däks/ verb, informal / past tense: doxxed = To search for and publish private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent.  Example:  "Hackers and online vigilantes routinely dox both public and private figures."

Or another example, as I learned from an article published in the Riverfront Times yesterday: St. Louis Mayor Broadcasts Names, Addresses of Citizens Calling for Police Reform.

"St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson doxxed protesters today live on air with full names and addresses.  Apparently a group of protesters left their info with names/addresses regarding the city budget and it was used against them."

Wow, what were you thinking, Mayor?  She has since apologized and the information has been taken down.  But still ... really?

Click to enlarge this image

Am I late to the Game?

I found an article from 2019 on How to Dox Yourself.  Apparently, this is a thing for reporters and people who have information "out there" that could cause trouble for them down the road.

"If you’re like most people, there are bits of information about you scattered around the internet.  These breadcrumbs can be used to “dox” journalists — that’s when malicious actors track down and share private information, including phone numbers and home addresses. ... New York Times security experts Kristen Kozinski and Neena Kapur shared the following tip sheet outlining how to dox yourself and safeguard your information before someone else can make trouble for you."

Lock it up!  Hide your information!  Hmm, maybe I should explore this further.  Okay, I've found another article by the same authors with a nearly identical title:  How to Dox Yourself on the Internet.  Am I the last person to learn this word?  Have any of you felt a need to dox yourself?

Protect vulnerable people

Do you love someone who is over 60?  Or someone who is diabetic or has cancer or heart disease or high blood pressure?  Think of them, and wear your mask — while social distancing — when you're around people.

Photo by Colleen Redman of Loose Leaf Notes

P.S.  And please be sure that BOTH your nose and mouth are covered!

Down and Up ~ and in between

Surprise!

In mid-afternoon, I was playing a rousing online game of Solitaire when there was a knock on the door.  Scott delivered a bag full of surprises from my "secret admirer."  After Clawdia had tackled the paper wrapped around these things in the gift bag, she came to investigate the other contents.  On the left is the bag with a big "Embrace Hope" sticker on it.  At the top is the card of a monarch butterfly on a flower, with these words written inside:  "Have a Beautiful Day from your Secret Admirer."  Beside it is a mug inscribed with these words:

I AM ONLY
TALKING TO
my cat
TODAY

You can see the MEOW wall hanging across the middle and the envelope below, but can you make out the six tiny dots under the sign?  Someone — correction, my secret admirer — had taken a hole punch along the top of the paper bag and punched out six tiny kitties walking with their tails held high.  Maybe there were more that fell to the floor when Clawdia tackled the wrapping paper.  Clicking on the image will enlarge it.

Library Loot

You're Only Old Once!: A Book for Obsolete Children ~ by Dr. Seuss, 1986, humor

"Is this a children's book?  Well...not immediately.  You buy a copy for your child now and you give it to him on his 70th birthday."

In the middle of this pandemic shutdown, I thought a little humor would be good.  I am, after all, an obsolete child.  Old folks take pills and more pills, but I'm not so sure these quotes are funny:

• "When at last we are sure you've been properly pilled,
  then a few paper forms must be properly filled
  so that you and your heirs may be properly billed."
• "...you're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in."

Word of the Day #1

shut·down / ˈSHətˌdoun / noun = temporary closure of a factory or system due to a malfunction or for maintenance.  An example is turning off a computer.  My example:  "We need humor in the middle of this pandemic shutdown."

The pandemic shut down whole communities, states, countries, the world — so the whole world has malfunctioned!  By the way, when used as a verb, the correct form is TWO words:  shut down.

Bookish Puzzle

1. The Geezer and the Caribbean
2. An Elm Develops from a Sapling Where the Dodgers Once Played
3. While I Was in Bed Croaking
4. The Muscadines Belonging to Anger
5. Tremendous Anticipations

Can you figure out the names of any of these famous books whose "titles" have been slightly re-worded?  Have fun grappling with these five, and I'll give you another list of books next time.

Buck Up

Don, who sends daily "flower of the day" email photos, sent a couple of young bucks today.  "Looking out my window this morning," he wrote, "I saw that the kids are growing up.  At least they were munching on the grass and not the wildflowers.  It will be interesting to see how their growing from young bucks to adults will be handled in this settled neighborhood."  Thanks for sharing these, Don.  And thanks for adding me to your daily emails.

Word of the day #2

buck / noun = a male animal.  Example:  Those two young bucks in the photo were munching grass, not wildflowers.

Word of the Day #3

buck up / idiom = to buck up someone's spirits, you say or do something to make them more cheerful.  Example:  Don's photos of flowers buck up the people he emails.  Including me.

Me and White Supremacy ~ by Layla F. Saad

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor ~ by Layla F. Saad, 2020, race relations

This book challenges white people to do the essential work of unpacking our biases, and helps us dismantle the privilege within ourselves so that we can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color.  And it shows us, in turn, how to help other white people do better, too.  It gives us the language to understand racism and to dismantle our own biases by walking step-by-step through the work of individually examining:

• My own white privilege
• What allyship really means
• Anti-blackness, racial stereotypes, and cultural appropriation
• How to change the way I view and respond to race
• How to continue the work to create social change

BIPOC

I've already discovered that BIPOC is used 285 times in this book.  (The book's on my Kindle, which tells me such stuff.)  Here's what it means:

The acronym BIPOC stands for "Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color."  Its aim is to emphasize historic oppression of all people of color.

POC stands for "People of Color" and is primarily used to describe any persons who are not considered white in the United States.  It emphasizes common experiences of systemic racism.  POC was in dictionaries as early as 1796 and, thus, is a much older term than BIPOC.

Many people prefer BIPOC over POC because they view the use of POC as lumping all people of color togther.  BIPOC acknowledges that people in Black and Indigenous communities face different, and often more severe, forms of oppression and erasure, especially when it comes to the racial oppression that permeates the history of the United States.

We have seen a massive surge of awareness of systemic. racial injustice recently.  As people all over the world protest, many are also working to educate themselves about the history and persistence of systemic racism.  Who's interested in reading this book with me?

Update:  Click here, and join me on my book discussion blog.

Beginning ~ with curiousity

"For many years, I was intrigued by the story of Margret and H. A. Rey's flight from Paris on bicycles in June 1940.  Others in the children's book field had mentioned this escape from the Nazi invasion, but no one seemed to know the details of those harrowing days.  The story felt incomplete.  I wanted to know more.  I wanted real images.  I was curious, just like the Reys' famous little monkey, George."

The Journey That Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H. A. Rey ~ by Louise Borden, illustrated by Allan Drummond, 2005, children's biography

Curious George is known and loved all over the world.  But few people know the exciting hisstory of his creators.  In 1940, Hans and Margret Rey had to flee their Paris home as the German army advanced on the capital city.  They began their harrowing journey on bicycles with their children's book manuscripts among their few possessions.

Louise Borden combed primary resources, including Hans Rey's pocket diaries, to tell this dramatic true story.  Archival materials introduce readers to the world of Hans and Margret Rey while Allan Drummond dramatically illustrates their wartime trek to a new home.

I don't remember where I first heard about this book, but I put it on hold at my library and got it yesterday.  I reported last fall that my library delivers books to home-bound patrons, using these colorful book bags.  Now they're once again delivering as lock-down restrictions are easing.

============================
Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts
Book Beginnings on Fridays.
Click this link for book beginnings
shared by other readers.
============================

Black national anthem ~ "Lift Every Voice and Sing"

Lift Every Voice and Sing
#519 in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989)

1.  Lift every voice and sing, till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty;
let our rejoicing rise high as the listening skies,
let it resound loud as the rolling sea
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us;
sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won.

2.  Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered;
we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

3.  God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
thou who hast by thy might led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
lest our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand,
true to our God, true to our native land.

Words by James Weldon Johnson, 1921
Music by J. Rosamond Johnsonn, 1921

"Bombs bursting in air" and "the rockets' red glare" during the War of 1812.

Replace our national anthem?

Why it might be time to finally replace "The Star-Spangled Banner" with a new national anthem.  That's the title of a Yahoo column posted yesterday.  Click on the title/link, if you want to read the whole thing.  Ideas from the article:

• "The Star-Spangled Banner" has "blatantly racist" connotations.  (See my paragraph below.)
• An Afro-Latina student says she asked to sing "Lift Every Voice and Sing," widely known as the Black national anthem, when she was picked to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" during graduation, and the school approved the change after strong support from the senior class.
• So, is it time for this country to dispense with "The Star-Spangled Banner" and adopt a new anthem with a less troubling history and a more inclusive message?

If so, should "Lift Every Voice and Sing" be the one?  I like the idea of changing our national anthem, especially since the current one includes these words in the third stanza:  "No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave."  And the fourth verse mentions "freemen," but not slaves (or women, for that matter).  Do we really need to remember "the rockets' red glare" and "bombs bursting in air" from the War of 1812 with Britain?  Why?  More information:

"Lift Every Voice and Sing" was written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1900, set to music by his brother J. Rosamond Johnson in 1905, and first publicly performed as part of a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday by Johnson's brother John.  It was dubbed "the Negro national hymn" by the NAACP in 1919.  Maya Angelou referred to it in her 1969 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Here are the first and last lines of the Yahoo article:

• "In an increasingly anti-racist era when problematic iconography — ranging from Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben to even the Dukes of Hazzard General Lee car and country band Lady Antebellum’s name — is being reassessed, revised or retired, America’s national anthem, 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' seems to be striking a wrong note."
• "If there's a tradition that hurts any part of the society — sexist, patriarchal, misogynistic — then it’s time to just throw it away."

Racism, sexism, and singing about "bombs bursting in air" — which sounds to me like we're glorifying war.  We've done too much of that and are now perpetually at war all over the world.  I think a change in our nation anthem might be a good thing.  What do YOU think?

Two more book spoofs

The Sisterhood of the Stretchiest Pants ~ by Stefanie Trilling, 2020

The Pants were the only witness to all our dietary transgressions in quarantine. They were the witness and the document too.

I posted one of Stefanie Trillings imaginary "books" a couple of weeks ago:  The Paper Mask Princess.  Today, I'm sharing a couple more.

We’re Going on a Haircut Hunt ~ by Stefanie Trilling, 2020

We're going on a haircut hunt.
We're going to get a big one.
What a risky day for grooming!
We're kinda scared.

Way back in March, three months ago, I posted about the children in my neighborhood "going on a BEAR hunt."  Do you remember that one?  I shared two different videos of the author singing his way through the book.  Stefanie Trilling has parodied the bear hunt book now, and I'm singing along with these new words.  Did YOUR hair grow long during the lockdown?

Thinking about racism ~ on Juneteenth

FREE HISTORY COURSE

Yale University is offering a free course on African American history from emancipation to the present.  The article posted on Facebooks says that "the time commitment is about 2 hours per week for approximately 13 weeks."  The course is taught by Jonathan Holloway, a former Yale professor of History and African American Studies, and was recorded in 2010.  It’s part of the university’s Open Yale Courses, which provides free access to a number of introductory lessons taught by distinguished Yale University teachers and scholars.  I'm considering it.  Interested?

Pamela and Jeffrey Blair, owners of EyeSeeMe African American Children's Bookstore

AFRICAN AMERICAN BOOKS

This is also a good day for me to give a shoutout to the EyeSeeMe African American Children's Bookstore at 6951 Olive Blvd in University City.  Donna and I used to visit the store when I still had a car.  I was impressed with the store and the owner Pam.  The store cannot be open right now because of the pandemic, but you can check out their website.  Even if you are not in St. Louis, I recommend ordering books from them online.  They have a great selection, and looking over their books may give you ideas for some excellent books.  They also have Book Box Subscriptions for age levels:  Board Books for ages 0-2, Pre-School for ages 3-5, Elementary for ages 6-9, Middle Grade for ages 10-13, and Young Adult for ages 14-18.

What books have you found lately that are helping you understand this moment in time?

Beginning ~ with a mirror

"Oona stopped trusting the mirror years ago. After all, it told only a sliver of the story. This isn't me. I am not this woman."

Oona Out of Order ~ by Margarita Montimore, 2020, fiction

It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lock-hart has her whole life before her.  At the stroke of midnight she will turn nineteen, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence.  Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend?  As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens thirty-two years in the future in her fifty-one-year-old body.  Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random.  And so begins Oona Out of Order.  Hopping through decades, pop culture fads, and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside.  Who will she be next year?  Philanthropist?  Club Kid?  World traveler?  Wife to a man she’s never met?

============================
Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts
Book Beginnings on Fridays.
Click this link for book beginnings
shared by other readers.
============================

Two exercise videos to share

I have been getting these exercises in email, but only today did I notice that "Share" up in the corner of this 3-minute Coordination Challenge from SilverSneakers.  I clicked on it, and was given the option to grab the necessary url and post it here.  Unfortunately, I don't know how to reduce the size to fit into my blog better.  You can, however, just click on this Coordination Challenge link and go there.

I also follow SilverSneakers on Facebook, where I did Skills and Drills with Jenny today.  This one is 30 minutes long, and it doesn't start until about half a minute into the video.

What we say and what we do

Words matter

People who cannot get out and march have been putting Black Lives Matter signs in their yards.  Some people in my town have been putting signs like this in their yards.  And some of us, who are still staying at home, are putting pictures of signs on our blogs.  We do what we can and what we feel may make a difference.

Masks matter

A hair stylist in Missouri was diagnosed with covid-19 in late
May, and she ended up directly exposing 84 customers who had
sat just inches from her face for up to 30 minutes each.  She had symptoms, but wore a face mask; salons were one of the few places where people were required to wear them.  Because of that, health officials say, none of her customers was infected. 
The result appears to be one of the clearest real-world examples of the ability of masks to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Read more in a Washington Post article.  This pandemic has changed the way we think, and I think I'll be wearing masks for a long time, even if others around me choose to toss them when things open up.  Since I'm 80 years old, I feel safer around people wearing their masks.

"83 Days" ~ FREE movie ~ right now

83 Days is an award-winning short film about George Stinney, Jr. (October 21, 1929 – June 16, 1944), an African American child who was convicted of murdering two white girls, ages 7 and 11, in his hometown of Alcolu, South Carolina.  The proceeding was later vacated as an unfair trial,  He was executed by electric chair on June 16, 1944.  They released this award-winning short film to the public worldwide for free at 6:30pm EST, today, exactly 76 years to the day and time that he was electrocuted.  The pictures above are from a much shorter YouTube clip.

This isn't taught in our history classes, so here's another YouTube video from 2019.  This one includes an interview with the man who was his cellmate when he was taken away to be electrocuted.  Maybe we can learn a little bit more of our history.

Covidiot and masticate ~ TWOsday words

Most of you have probably never, ever heard this word spoken.  But I have.  Repeatedly.  My Aunt Bonnie, known to my siblings and me as Auntie, used this word so often that I laughed when I saw this pun.

Word of the Day #1

mas·ti·cate / ˈmastəˌkāt / verb = chew (food).  Example:  "He bit off more than he could masticate."

Word of the Day #2

Covidiot = Someone who ignores the warnings regarding public health or safety.  A person who hoards goods, denying them from their neighbors.  Examples:  "Did you see that covidiot with 300 rolls of toilet paper in his basket?" and "That covidiot is hugging everyone she sees."

I saw "Covidiot" for the first time yesterday and found the definition in the Urban Dictionary.  People who are crowding back into bars right now are "Covidiots."  I'll have to remember this word because it is so perfect.  Did I really need to define it for you?

It ain't over yet

A couple of weeks ago, Clawdia got to visit outside with her good friend Sharon, who was wearing a mask.  I was at the far end of Clawdia's leash, also wearing a mask.  The mosquitos were terrible that day for the two humans.  I don't know about Clawdia.

Here's my little black panther in her open window this morning.  Having it open is her usual way to get fresh air.  She begs me to open it.  Unless it rains or gets too hot, I try to keep it open for her.  It's 85° out there right now, but I've left the window open because there's a breeze.

I'm still sheltering in place, until I see what happens as things open back up.  Many of us can relate to this cartoon.  The days seem to stretch on and on and on.  Some of us enjoyed sitting outside recently — all socially distanced — and actually talking to real people.  At least, the couple in this cartoon have each other.

Some of the gardeners have planted things in the raised beds near the gazebo.  I noticed this sign has all the right letters to spell O-K-R-A, my favorite food.  On the back, the sign is in Chinese.  I assure you that no ORCAS were mistreated in the making of the gardens here at the Crown Center.