HERE SHE IS

A few days after "Anonymous" told me I was ugly inside and out, a friend and I were having breakfast at a Perkins. As we were leaving, a woman and a young boy were coming in, and she said, "Let the beautiful woman pass." I gave her a quizzical look, and she said, "Yes, I mean you." So, here's the ugly woman.

THIS IS A TRUE STORY

Rebuttal

Dear anonymous--you must be fat. I'm 72, been smoking since 9 years old, and am healthy as a horse --however, I'm quite sure that if I get hit by a semi and get killed the death certificat will read, "Death due to consequences of smoking."

SOLUTIONS?

When I was a youngster, I would see scratched into sidewalks and in other places, "WPA."
Our infrastructure in this country is in such bad shape, and I live in a state with 8% unemployment, wouldn't be a better idea to re-start the WPA and let the unemployed be proud to be working rather than hand out a pittance (which I won't get). I'm quite sure that if I got that 600 bucks, I'd go out and spend it on things made in China. So will a lot of other people--and there we are, back to square one. I always used to laugh when I saw the cement street markers in the town where we lived, because they were made by the WPA, in a town that never in its history voted for a Democrat, and the town was quite snobby about its unique street markers.

Solution 2: Reinstate gasoline stickers, so that even if the rich drivers of giant SUV's could afford it, they could buy just so much gasoline. I remember during WWII what a treat it was when my parents save enough gasoline stickers so we could take a Sunday drive.

Solution 3: Tax obesity. Everybody gets weighed once a year and if their BMI was too high, they'd get socked with a big tax. Also tax the restaurants that serve us lumberjack portions and "all you can eat" buffets.

Wyn for President. Imagine walking down smooth sidewalks in your size 4 dress, and actually enjoying an outing with the kids!

Elder Ignore

I sometimes wish I were Chinese or Chippewa where elders are revered, instead of ignored as we Americans do. At a recent gathering of younger people, parents of small children, I just sat in a chair out of traffic. The only person who spoke to me was a 3-year-old who planted himself in front of me and said, "HI!" When I complained about the lavishing of presents (privately) and expressed the wish that some of that money could better be spent giving to charities, I was chastized and told, "You don't know these people," to which I replied, "They don't bother to know me, so I feel like fifth wheel." I live among a lot of people whose kids are lucky to get one toy from the Salvation Army, and even the SA's kettle giving in this area was down $17,000 this year. Those at the gathering called my area _____Tucky, which really hurt my feelings. I have apologized for making a family member angry, and have not heard from that family member since Xmas.

I am a reasonably intelligent, well-read person, and have much to share in just about any group of people, if only they'd just not assume that I am a dumb old 72-year-old, to be tolerated. It hurts a lot to be ignored

TV commercials

Does anybody besides me remember the one-sponsor TV Show--such as Chevrolet for the Dinah Shore Show, Texaco for Milton Berle, etc.? Nowadays, I count as many as 11 commercials between "We'll be right back," and the actual being back. I record most shows--like ER--so I can rush through the commercials. Anything on HBO is worth the price of HBO because I know I'm going to see an uninterrupted show. Even the Bill Moyers Journal on PBS has to tell me who sponsors the show, so I can go toast a bagel before the program actually starts. Someday I'm going to sit patiently through an actual present-time show and time exactly how much of the hour is programming and how much is commercials. Aw c'mon--I'm a capitalist, but this is really getting to be too much. One day I'll watch a commercial or ten and a tv program will actually start! Like going to a fight and a hockey game breaks out. Or is it soccer? Whatever. Can you tell I'm pissed?

llanguages

Yesterday as I was opening a frozen dinner, I saw that the instructions were in three languages--English, Spanish and French (I think). It got me to wondering, what's next? Farsi? Arabic? Chinese? There won't be room on the wrapper for all the languages which might be needed by the consumer. Bigger packaging, thus killing more trees?

My father-in-law, bless his soul, immigrated from Italy to here when he was 17. His name is on the Wall of Fame at Ellis Island--I put it there. He earned his citizenship in the US by serving in WWI. Never was anything but English spoken in his house. His kids were going to be Americans. It's a shame that he didn't speak Italian at home and English everywhere else, because my husband did not learn Italian--except for a colorful variety of swear words!

I can't for the life of me learn what makes it so impossible for immigrants to learn at least broken English. Spanish is supposed to be very easy to learn. Why is it so difficult to go from Spanish to English?