HISTORY BELONGS IN THE PAST

Blog number 102                                               July 24, 2007

When I get an idea for something to write in my blog, I talk into my recorder, but I usually only say the topic.  When I listen to what I recorded, ready to put it into my blog, the one or two word hints don't sound very interesting or funny, so I pass. 

Yesterday I got to thinking that maybe if I spoke the whole thought and THEN heard it played back, it would remain as interesting or funny as when the event happened or I thought of it. 

I recorded this that I just wrote, but I didn't listen to it.  I just remembered it and wrote it, so I still don't know if that's going to work, or maybe it already is and this is a result of the full speech.

I just read that Starbucks is going to raise prices because of the raise in THEIR prices.  I have been watching this phenomena for a while, since it is a repeat of something that happened back it the sixties or seventies and that's one advantage of getting old.  You get to watch history happening all over again.

The phenomena is that inflation is now going on, but nobody says anything about it, not even using the "I" word.  They just say, "So and so is going up in price, but that's because ..."  Back in the sixties or seventies, every day the newspaper would say the same thing - something like, "The cost of living increased, but that's because doctor's fees went up," or some such thing.  Always a reason why things cost more then they used to. Then after about a year of this, they started really talking about INFLATION. And talked and talked.  Same thing is going to happen this time - you watch.

Which reminds me - back when stocks were a big item (And they will be again), this one columnist, every day, would write, "Stocks hit a record high."  So I wrote to him and explained that, since stock prices had never before been this high, doesn't it make sense that ANY increase would be a new, "Record high?" Why declare something so obvious?

I really didn't expect it to make any difference in his "reporting," but by golly, he never used that phrase again.

And listen to this.  "Dear Abby" was going on and on about sending thank you notes for gifts received and I wrote her and said that a gift is given without any expectation of receiving ANYTHING in return.  I said that if you expected something in return for a gift, it wasn't a gift, it was a barter.

She printed what I wrote and responded with, "Only a saint could do something like that."  That reply blew my mind.  Why is it that only special people can do logical things? Why is not the ordinary man on the street logical enough to give gifts like that?  Huh?  Isn't that a stupid thing to say?  Yes, of course it is.