Daily Inflammation

The portrait titled “Giocondo” is believed to be of the wife of Italian businessman and merchant Francesco del Giocondo.  You less educated dilettantes may know it as the “Mona Lisa,” by a painter I like to call Leonardo da Vinci.  It has been hung in The Louvre behind bullet proof glass for many years.

Get it?  I made it sound like the French executed a woman. Hah, fooled you!  Okay, so it’s a cheesy joke not worthy of one as intellectually gifted as myself.  YOU try being clever every day.  It’s a free site.   Give me a courtesy chuckle and move along! 
Whew!  Tough crowd.

I received the above title email today and a new question.  We want to cruise The Nile but how far in advance should a couple in their seventies plan?  No problem getting the reservation but you have to prepay or make a substantial down payment.  
What if something better comes along?  Perhaps George and Amal Clooney will invite us up to their chateau on Lake Como at the last minute because Rande and Cindy had to cancel and Amal had her heart set on some thought-provoking and witty conversation. (I hear George is pure eye candy; nothing up top).   It could happen.  We would miss the refund deadline and get stuck eating fifteen thousand bucks in unused reservations?  A conundrum.  Should I book a trip almost 2 years in advance with so many unknown factors?

Maybe, just to be safe, I should give Amal and George a call before booking a cruise.  Does anyone have their phone number?

I was reading the news on the internet today and saw this article.  Perhaps I should have taken the time to read it because I have no idea why they purr.
Who cares?

Have you ever thought about that?  For example:

• “Gone South”  –  Metaphor meaning things went wrong.
• The South Side  –  Always the roughest part of a city; Where Bad, Bad Leroy Brown met his demise;  the “Baddest part of town“…Jim Croce
• The Deep South  –  Where science and reason are left at the border.
• The South Pole  –  Desolation. Even Santa and Superman picked the North Pole or Arctic for their primary residence.

You can make the word south much better by simply adding the letters ern at the end.

• Southern Hospitality  –  While perhaps a thing of the past they used to be nice down there.
• Southern Comfort  –  The standard by which all fruit flavored whiskey liqueurs are judged!
• Southern Fried Chicken  –  Ain’t nothin’ wrong with that!
• Southern Charm  –   Sweeter than clover honey dripping off Aunt Jody’s homemade biscuits!

Editor’s Note:  While Fred has historically not been very complimentary regarding the Southern States, he wants his scores of friends condemned to live in that unpleasant geography to know that he only says these for their humorous value and for the fact they are true.  He offers the same advice to you he would to residents of homes occupied by Freddy Krueger,  Jason Voorhees or Leatherface: “GET OUT!”

(While still on the subject of Nietzsche, see yesterday’s post…)

I, of course, refer to my friend and philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche whom I happened to run into the other day on the #5 bus going to the beach.  Freddy, as his friends address him, said the following, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”   It seems he must have been referring to Vampires, *(I know he was a huge Buffy fan while I found Willow Rosenberg much more alluring, a topic of many a good natured argument between us).  When you lose a fight to a vampire you do become a vampire whereas if you lose a fight to Godzilla you are a mere appetizer and gone forever.

There are those who believe Nietzsche was actually saying that in any type of altercation, verbal, mental or physical, strive to maintain your humanity even when your adversary does not.  Sure.  How many people can we name that live or lived by that?  Jesus, Gandhi…Gandhi…Jesus…Ga…certainly none of us on Facebook!  

We can learn many life-altering lessons from important quotes.  Here are a few that are much more to our liking and easier to follow: “All’s fair in love and war.”  “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing!”  “Tuesday is Senior Discount Day, proof of age required.” 

When Friedrich Nietzsche wrote the often quoted phrase in his book “The Gay Science” in 1882, he was not saying that the Christian God had died. He wrote the phrase to illustrate that Enlightenment had eliminated the possibility of the existence of God. 
But many have knowingly misinterpreted the statement to use Nietzsche’s phrase to bolster their own specious arguments.  You know, the same people that think it’s a good idea to wear a tin foil hat, overturn an election and follow the Kardashians.

Well, it is August 13th and for all you idiots…sorry, that was unkind.  I refer to all you people of greatly diminished intelligence that have been wandering in a daze under the influence of the orange golem saying “all will be revealed” with regard to the previous election.  I hope you will acknowledge nothing was revealed and apologize, or at least STFU.
Just a suggestion given with the purest of intentions.  It’s for your own good.

Tropical Depression Fred is headed to Florida.  With any luck it will complete the job there and then scoot across the Gulf to Texas!
That would certainly ease Fred’s depression.

 

Name-calling is the lowest form of social discourse.  People who resort to this form of communication to express dissatisfaction with someone holding an opposing point of view are, in most cases, ignorant, inarticulate and acting out because they have not been given everything they want on a silver platter without having to put in the work (see millennials), or are quite possibly just an egomaniac with an insatiable lust for adoration.

But a very few highly intelligent, humble and eloquent humanitarians such as myself, use it in a witty, satirical manner to address those people unaffected by facts and common sense.  

So if you refuse to wear a mask in public or have not been vaccinated out of fear or a misguided notion your rights are being violated then I am referring to you, you stupid, ignorant, jerk-faced butt-munch!

Thought for the Day from EdgarCayce.org:

“(Q) What can I do to get along better with people? To make them like me?
 (A) Do not MAKE people like you! Rather be yourself.”    (ECRL 982-4)

One moment while I react to the message:  Hahahahahahahahahaha! (That’s LOL for people over 60).
What a crock!  Here is a better way to go to get people to like you:

1. Keep your insane conspiracy theories to yourself.
2. Wear your baseball cap with the brim facing forward.
3. Give them money.

It’s just common sense people!