Madness?

Whose this actor guy who died at age 54? I never, ever heard of the guy--but he's all over my computer news. In fact, he was the lead story both this AM and still this evening on Today's Headlines. That's my fault.  I don't do movies, for reasons I've noted here.  OK, so I never heard of the guy, but he seems to have had more death coverage than Neil Armstrong did!  Again, it's nothing against the guy--I know nothing about him other than he was an actor who died and I just found those out today.  But it certainly must say something about us.... 

Can the media get off that Prince Harry guy?  Who cares what he did in Las Vegas?  Did he murder someone?  Rape someone?  Rob someone?  Apparently not.  K had on one of these loony AM shows.  While I was getting ready to leave for class, the hosts were blabbing on about this Harry guy.  I wasn't really paying attention, merely tying my tie.  But I did hear the weather guy, as his time was nearing say, "Give the guy a break!"  People are getting murdered every day here in Detroit, but we're worried and interested in some guy who was part of some wild party in Las Vegas!?!?!?  Perhaps we deserve everything we get--like a $16 trillion debt and growing.  But we don't care--it's all about us, not our children and grandchildren.

BTW, yet another sign the Apocalypse is nearly upon us: a judge in Massachusetts ruled that taxpayer money must be used to pay for a sex change operation for a woman in prison--for murder!!!!!! Is it me who's nuts? Or is the rest of the world nuts? What was that movie a long time ago, "Stop the World, I Want to Get Off."

I don't know if it was a spoof, but a survey claimed that almost 50% of respondents thought Romney's running mate was "Isaac."  That has to be a joke, doesn't it?  Of course, as I found out in all of my classes today, relative to Clinton's sexcapades as President, "They all did it."  That is, all Presidents ("They") had affairs ("it").  So, then I asked how many Presidents there have been, "44," which nobody knew, but some were close.  I followed that with "What President had affairs?"  Of course, JFK was out of almost everyone's mouth.  A few named FDR, correctly.  But, for the most part that was it--and rightly so.  Two classes offered "Jefferson," but I discounted that for three reasons, which they seemed to accept.  I told them that Harding was one, but asked for others.  There were no other offerings.  Given that there might have been one or two others, does four or five out of 44 equate to "They all did it?"  Again, it was met by silence, mostly.  What does "AD" in dating mean?  Of course, the answer from far too many is "After Death [of Christ]."  I ask, "What does 'BC' stand for, then?"  Of course, students know that, "Before Christ."  (BC and AD are now usually used in tandem with the politically correct BCE and CE that were instituted in the '70s.)  I continue, "If 'BC' is 'Before Christ' and 'AD' is "After Death,' what do we label the years when Christ was alive?"  Hmmmm....  Yep, it's usually pretty quiet for a while.

Out to read Jack Reacher...almost as good as Mitch Rapp, almost.  (One character said to him, "I wouldn't want you mad at me."  Reacher retorted, "No, you wouldn't.")