Dear Editor:
Please permit me to deviate from that hallowed precept that requires a letter to the editor to be confined to one subject. I plan to unleash a potpourri of subjects on the reader. If some of my thoughts seem bizarre, perhaps I may be excused because they are only the musings of a quirky nonagenarian.
Have you noticed that most politicians are unable to say clearly, “President of the United States”?
A Taiwanese billionaire opined recently on “60 Minutes” that AI (artificial intelligence) will prove to be a more significant invention than electricity and will eliminate 40 percent of our current jobs.
Based on their usage, it would appear that 90 percent of Americans are unable to use the verb “lie” correctly. Example, “Lay down, Fido.”
One definition for the word “idiom” is “a phrase not subject to a literal translation,” Example, “His goose is cooked.” Our language contains thousands. I’ve collected approximately 2,300. Its cousin, the cliche, is nearly as common.
I tend to breathe through my mouth, resulting in dry mouth at night. A $50 dollar chin strap failed to solve the problem, but I invented a device that fits between my teeth and its about 80 percent effective…
Lacking a mechanical bent, I do not understand why the wheels on a moving vehicle on TV appear to be turning backward.
Few Americans seem concerned about our national debt. Definitely not our government. At $22 trillion and rising fast, it has become a Sword of Damocles. Each year the interest claims a larger share of the budget, leaving less for social programs, the military, etc. When our chief economic rival, China, holds a large share of the debt, is that not an oxymoron? At least it’s moronic.
Speaking of the military, why do the U.S. and Russia need to maintain stockpiles of hundreds or thousands of nuclear weapons when less than a dozen will destroy life as we know it?
It seems to me that when diners are shown on TV they are usually depicted holding their forks in their left hands though most people are right-handed.
When someone says. “Just a sec,” it usually means one to five minutes.
Are blankets really warm or do they register the ambient temperature?
I believe its time to change the practice of conferring automatic citizenship on all babies in the U.S.
Eastern pundits, in particular, have a habit of failing to distinguish between Washington state and Washington, D. C.
Media personnel often conflate the House of Representatives with “Congress,” when most of us realize that Congress also includes the Senate.
In 1893 the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition included a 25-story ferris wheel that contained 36 cars, each with a capacity of 30 people for a total of 2,160.
I was surprised to learn that David Ben-Gurion, the “father of Israel” and its first P.M., was an atheist.
Life is infinitely more interesting when we have something to look forward to. TV advertisers treat us like juveniles when they show all kinds of animals and inanimate objects, from ducks to automobiles, acting like humans. Maybe I need a better sense of humor.
Sincerely,
A genuine Iconoclast,
Bob Hall
Bellingham
