Where The Rubber Meets The Road

Failure is indeed an option. In fact, it’s a pretty popular one.

My wife recently reminded me of an old saying. Of course, she was using it quite literally, as we have had a recent and massive immigration of household pests. And no, I’m not talking about a grade-school sleepover.

However, it reminded me of a conversation I’d had once, when I was yet a bachelor.
The problem with dating while being on the road – particularly as a comic (or musician) – is that 95% of the people that you meet are in their early twenties. Which would be fine if I was also of an age, but being on average ten years older… well. The age disparity is almost always accompanied by one of experience, and that disparity is the relationship killer. Anyway, after a time, I grew – shall we say – less than perfectly gentlemanly. Often as not, my sarcasm and blunt manner would send an otherwise interested young lady a-runnin’.

The aforementioned conversation was with another comic, who was commenting on my demeanor and it’s counterproductive nature. What he said (and the saying my wife had used) was, “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

To which I replied, “But I’m not looking for a fly. I’m looking for a grown-ass woman.”

Fortunately, I found one.

Even the feeblest grasp exceeds the hand that doesn’t reach.

As Bob Hope and Bing Crosby might have sang, had
1). they gone there, and
2). there was an actual road to it,
we’re off on the road to Jamaica.

Then, of course, ol’ Bing would have slapped you around a little.

See you all after I find out just how authentic this Jamaican Jerk is. In the meantime, you can play spot-the-tag-that-doesn’t-belong. Hint: it’s not “Blurb”.

Pardon my harping on the subject, but, oh, how the profiteers of our symptom-treatment-for-blood-money wail at the prospect of a so-called “public option”.

The Lewin Group, cited beyond reason and out of context by the henchmen of the opposing industries, is a wholly owned arm of the private insurance engine.

And right now, that arm is flailing madly, trying to distract the public from what everyone knows and has known for a long time now: that despite unprecedented (in scale) attempts by private insurance companies and pharma giants to indoctrinate the public with the privatized-is-best dogma, three-quarters of U.S. citizens have continued to demand a national health care plan.

For decades.

It begs the question, since the propagandists are well aware of this. So, who is all this noise aimed at? Because they’ve failed repeatedly to sway the public in the past, the message they’re sending now can’t be intended for us.

Sometimes, it’s instructive to ask these little questions…