ABC Wednesday Archives - Page 8 of 91

N is for naughty and nice

Knowing what everyone’s doing seems entirely plausible.

Rudolph's Report Card - Imgur.com — Rudolph’s Report Card – Imgur.com

Last Christmas Eve, naturally, the site Now I Know published We’re Gonna Find Out Who’s Naughty and Nice. Dan Lewis then proceeded to dissect the adjectives.

“The word ‘nice’ is something you use when a stronger term of affection isn’t appropriate. [It] comes from the Latin word ‘nescius’ which literally meant ‘not knowing’ — basically ‘ignorant…’ It was, unambiguously, an insult, which in a roundabout way, is how it got to this catch-all way to give faint praise today.”

One of the running bits my wife and I enjoy together involves the TV show MASH. Major Frank Burns (Larry Linville) says, “It’s nice to be nice to the nice.” That this line is given to the most buffoonish character on the show is telling.

Lewis adds, “The word ‘naughty’ has a similarly muddled history, and one which may reflect on how we, by default, often blame those in poverty for their situation. It literally means ‘having nothing’ — someone with ‘naught.'”

One of my pastors noted that his least favorite Christmas song is Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. I think it’s the “he’s gonna find out who’s naughty and nice” bit. When I was a kid, I thought it was hyperbole that “he sees you when you’re sleeping…” But now, with the US National Security Administration, cameras everywhere, plus Alexa and Siri, not to mention Elf on a Shelf and Facebook, knowing what everyone’s doing seems entirely plausible for Claus.

However, my daughter asked a reasonable question. If Santa knows when you’ve been bad or good, how was he unable to recognize the bullying of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Remember that “all of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names.” Well, until he saved Christmas.

I think it’s similar to the cobbler’s kids going shoeless. Santa was externally oriented, but failed to see the abuse at his own place at the North Pole! I do believe he now has systems in place to avoid a repeat of that toxic situation.

For ABC Wednesday

Migration is important to the United States

“Unless American birthrates pick up suddenly and expand the work force — an unrealistic assumption given that the country just set a record for low fertility… the United States will be staring at real G.D.P. growth of less than 1.6 percent per year in less than a decade, all else remaining equal.”

Migration to the United States is a volatile issue, you’ve likely read. Yet “a growing number of Americans say immigration levels should remain the same or increase.”

This word comes from the the latest data from the General Social Survey — “a widely respected poll that has measured trends on American attitudes since the 1970s. The 2018 survey, released in March 2019, shows 34 percent of Americans want immigration levels to be reduced, down from 41 percent in 2016…

“That’s compared with 23 percent of Americans who want more immigration, up from 17 percent in 2016. Forty-one percent say they want immigration levels to stay the same. It’s the first time since the survey question was first asked in 2004 that more Americans want immigration to remain the same than to be reduced.”

Perhaps it’s the realization that the numbers show that we need more migration to the United States, not less. “By any reasonable metric, the idea that America is experiencing mass immigration is a myth. The reality is that we desperately need to pick up the pace of immigration to maintain our work force and economic health.

“A good yardstick for whether a country is admitting too many or too few immigrants — beyond the political mood of the moment — is its economic needs. If America were admitting too many immigrants, the economy would have trouble absorbing them.”

“In fact, the unemployment rate among immigrants, including the 11 million undocumented, in 2016, when the economy was considered to be at full employment, was almost three-quarters of a point lower than that of natives. How can that be evidence of mass immigration? The truth is that America is a low-immigration nation. Demographic trends in America point to a severe labor crunch that’ll become a huge bottleneck for growth unless the country opens its doors wider.” (Source: https://www.fl-ilc.com/inmigracion/)

Yet the federal government has made legal immigration more difficult, even adding regulations to H1B visa applications, the ones that restrict the type of applicants to those with “special” skills. It has also reduced the overall numbers, banning people from certain countries.

“It has long been clear that the dropping fertility rates of native-born white Americans meant that the generations coming after the millennials were on track to be much smaller. From 2015 to 2035, the number of working-age Americans with domestic-born parents is expected to fall by eight million. Furthermore, the Census Bureau in 2017 quietly revised downward its population forecast for 2050 by a whopping 50 million people from its 2008 estimates…”

The government has also regularly employed mass deportation efforts against legally registered immigrants, removing Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the most vulnerable. These are usually people escaping war and violence in their own countries and now being solid contributing residents here.

“Unless American birthrates pick up suddenly and expand the work force — an unrealistic assumption given that the country just set a record for low fertility… the United States will be staring at real G.D.P. growth of less than 1.6 percent per year in less than a decade, all else remaining equal.”

Experts suggest that America should be admitting a million MORE migrants moving to the US per year — more than double the current number from now until 2050. “This still won’t add up to mass immigration because it would put America’s foreign-born population that year at around 26 percent, less than Australia’s is today.”

Also, the Dreamers, the children who came here as minors, need a path to citizenship. They know no other home save for the US and have contributed mightily, going to college, and/or serving in the armed forces. Even DJT said to the Wall Street Journal in January 2018: “I have great feeling for DACA. I think that we should be able to do something with DACA. I think it’s foolish if we don’t.”

Here’s a video showing where people came to the US from.

For ABC Wednesday

King: weakest/most important big piece in chess

King of the Road – by Roger Miller was #1 for ten weeks on the adult contemporary Billboard charts in 1965

king I woke up on my birthday morning this month thinking about the king in chess. It’s the weakest piece, except for the pawns. It can only move one space at a time, save for castling, which can only take place once a game.

Yet the very point of the game is to capture the king. It lead to a melisma of thoughts about how we need to protect the most vulnerable among us. Dreams, and exhaustion, will do that to you.

Then I thought of all the people who have been dubbed the “king of” some aspect of life. “I’m king of the world, ” Jack Dawson (Leo DeCaprio) shouts, not long before he dies in the cold Atlantic in the movie Titanic (1997).

King of the Hill (1997-2010) was an animated program I watched a lot. Hank Hill, the patriarch of a middle-class American family in the fictional city of Arlen, Texas. He was hardly the monarch of his household.

My daughter is studying world history, and for all the great kings, Caesars and czars she read about, there were three or four duds.

As usual, the brain went right to music. A recent article in the Boston Globe suggested that Michael Jackson, who had been dubbed the King of Pop, should really make us uncomfortable now, after the revelations in the recent documentary Finding Neverland. So his music should, too. Discus.

Here’s a piece from NPR: Benny Goodman: Forever The King Of Swing

King Of Swing – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

It’s Good to Be King – Tom Petty

King of Pain – The Police (#3 in 1983)
King of Suede – Weird Al Yankovic (#62 in 1984), parody of the Police

King of the Road – Roger Miller (#4 pop, #1 for ten weeks adult contemporary, #1 for five weeks country in 1965)

King Tut – Steve Martin and the Toot Uncommons (#17 in 1978); the Saturday Night Live performance

(Chart action from Billboard, pop charts unless otherwise indicated.)

For ABC Wednesday

JEOPARDY!: Jackie Fuchs/Jackie Fox

Will we see Jackie Fuchs in the JEOPARDY! Tournament of Champions?

When it comes to the game show JEOPARDY!, which I’ve been viewing since I was in grade school, I try to watch each episode. Thanks to the technologies, first the VCR and now the DVR, I don’t tend to see them in real time.

It was a Wednesday in mid-December when I was watching the Tuesday show. The player in one slot, an attorney and writer from Los Angeles, was asked by host Alex Trebek, “Jackie Fuchs is our champion… and was also a performer in an all-girl rock band?” She noted, “I was the bass player in the ‘70s all-female rock band the Runaways.”

What? So I immediately contacted the biggest Runaways fan I know, SamuraiFrog. As it turned out, he had happened upon the second half of the game on his own. Apparently, the producers of the show knew who she was, though I very much doubt that Trebek was aware of Cherry Bomb.

“Fuchs’ tenure in the Runaways was short — she joined the group that launched Joan Jett when she was 15 years old, under the name Jackie Fox, and left at 17. In 2015, the world found out why: According to Fuchs and several alleged witnesses, Runaways manager Kim Fowley raped her in front of a crowd, including her bandmates, while she was drugged and semi-conscious at age 16. Fowley died before Fuchs made her allegations public.”

She noted: “Once you can talk about that on camera, an audience isn’t going to faze you. It’s kind of like that’s the worst thing that can happen to you, so you know, losing a game show is not fun, but it just pales in comparison.”

Jackie Fuchs or Fox has been on variety of game shows over the years. She was on The Dating Game on the same show – though not the same segment – as Peewee Herman. “‘I was on ‘The Chase’ on the Game Show Network — it’s not on anymore… I did not acquit myself well on that show, but it made me want to get back up and do it again.

“‘So I went on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (in 2013) — and I still didn’t acquit myself that well, but it was better. I figured I would try one more time, and this time I was ready.’ In both of those earlier cases, she was identified as an ex-Runaway immediately before flaming out, “which is also part of the reason why I didn’t want to lead with that’ on JEOPARDY!'”

Will we see Jackie Fuchs in the Tournament of Champions, which brings back the best players over the past two years? There are 15 slots. Two are for the college champion and the teachers’ tournament champ. When she finished with four wins and $87,089 in winnings, she was in the 12th slot, so it was possible. However, four players since then have exceeded her score, so unless one cannot play, it’s now unlikely.

For ABC Wednesday

I am an introvert – seriously

“Unlike extroverts who gain energy from social interaction, introverts have to expend energy in social situations.”

Myths About Introverts Busted — From HERE

I am an introvert. There are people I know, and know well, who think otherwise. They are incorrect.

The article 8 Signs You’re an Introvert notes: “It is… important to note that introversion is not the same things as social anxiety or shyness. Being an introvert does not mean that you are socially anxious or shy.”

I used to be socially anxious, but through repetition, I’ve learned not to care as much. Public gaffes I have made, which would have put me into a funk for days – or much longer – I generally deal with with self-deprecating humor.

“People who are introverted tend to be inward turning, or focused more on internal thoughts, feelings and moods rather than seeking out external stimulation.

“Unlike extroverts who gain energy from social interaction, introverts have to expend energy in social situations. After attending a party or spending time in a large group of people, introverts often feel a need to ‘recharge’ by spending a period of time alone.

“This does not mean that the average introvert wants to be alone all the time. Many introverts love spending time with friends and interacting with familiar people in social situations.”

So if I am affable at church, which I generally am, it’s because I’ve been there almost two decades, and I have developed a certain degree of comfort.

“While introverts typically do not enjoy a great deal of socializing, they do enjoy having a small group of friends to whom they are particularly close.”

Technology is wonderful in this regard. The emails I’ve spent with Catbird down south, after meeting for the first time in well over a decade have been quite meaningful. I actually have done a couple video chats with friend Deborah in France, after not seeing her for nearly three decades until 2018.

On the same recent weekend I spent 90 minutes on the telephone with one sister and two hours with Uthaclena. Old school!

“Because introverts tend to be inward-turning, they also spend a great deal of time examining their own internal experiences.” Goodness, yes.

Noted author and clear introvert John Green (no relation) did a video recently Battling Apathy and Searching for Meaning, which I related to – a lot.

“Where extroverts tend to prefer to jump right in and learn through hands-on experience, introverts typically prefer learning through observation…

“When introverts do learn from personal experience, they prefer to practice somewhere private where they can build their skills and abilities without having to perform for an audience.” Check.

Blogging is actually a useful tool for the introvert. It allows me to “put myself out there” in a controlled environment.

For ABC Wednesday