Senate Trial Super Bowl!

Where is the Bigger Game - Washington or Miami?

This is a big week-end for Washington as well as Miami. The Senate's game has been going on for two weeks now and we still don't know the outcome - more like cricket.

There are more parallels than differences. However let's compare the biggest game in the Washington season and the biggest game in the football season:

• Both rely heavily on corporate money.
• Both make a big deal out of the kickoff but most times it amounts to nothing.
• Inactive players sit on the sidelines. Senators watch their phones; footballers the game.
• The Super Bowl umpires wear stripes. Perhaps the Senate ones should also - head to toe!
• There is rough play and hard hitting in both but no penalties in the Senate.
• You will do well in either if you can dodge, run fast, and pass the ball. 
• In football you try to catch the ball. In the Senate you try to avoid it.
• Both have offensive and defensive players. Most Senators however are always offensive.
• Post game analysis lasts for hours in one but forever in the other.
• The fans in both get into passionate fights.
• In both, if you can keep winning you can keep playing.
• Sometimes the oldest players do best in the Senate - not so much in football.
• Women go crazy for footballers. You can probably guess the rest of this.
• In the Super Bowl there is a clear winner. In the Senate there is no winner. Just losers.
• Fans would miss almost anything for the Bowl; watch anything else but the Senate trial.

What a country! There is something for everyone.

The Brewster

Recycling Problem is Huge

Help Solve the Problem since You are the Problem

If you want to make a contribution to our world, just Google a few items on recycling of waste, types of recycling, sorting waste, classifications of waste.

Short on time? Start with plastics. The amount and types of plastic we use are eye openers. No wonder our oceans are full of them.

It seems to me there are two major problems: money and convenience.

The money part is obvious. Huge companies and their owners are making fortunes from producing and selling plastic. They are not so keen on taking it back. In addition, the packaging industry relies heavily on the stuff. Look at what you buy and what you throw out, including the fast food at restaurants and the containers discarded there that never make it home.

The convenience problem rests mainly on our shoulders. We buy the products. They are quick and easy and, as mentioned above, help to reduce the cost of the things we buy. Let's face it. This is one area where the average person is just too apathetic and lazy. Throw in cheap.

Focusing on plastics, manufacturers could use alternatives but they know if cost goes up and convenience goes down, we won't buy. As well if they ignore this, one of their competitors will likely break rank for the profits.

We are also guilty of doing a really lousy job of properly recycling. Be honest. Do you remove labels from containers? How many paper towels are discarded after a single use? Do you thoroughly wash out that peanut butter or margarine container? Do you still buy plastic shopping bags? Do you search for that tiny recycle emblem (plastic resin code) to see if it is acceptable for recycling where you live?

I could go on. My suggestion today is that since we are the major problem how about more suggestions on solutions or hacks to reuse items from us the consumers?

Here is a small one. What about mandating that those plastic codes must appear on the sides of containers? They should be big and bright enough that sorters of materials and you the consumer can see them right away. Color code them. Currently they can be difficult to find and read. If this will help with the separation, that would be a big step.

I welcome any other suggestions. All we need are ideas. There are enough entrepreneurs out there to run with them.


The Brewster

The Golden Years of Retirement

My Golden Years Must Be Silver. They Are Tarnished

Many people fear retirement. I am there and would definitely say it is not to be feared but it absolutely requires preparation. The big one is finances. I have no problem keeping myself busy and that does not mean sitting on my butt in front of the TV. If you really want  to enjoy yourself you need 1 of 2 things: A big net worth to replace your salary with earnings or a very inexpensive passtime which you love.

I did really well in school always getting top marks but in that subject which is not taught per se, called life, and its advanced topic called retirement, I give myself a failing grade.

I was born in the late '40s. There are many things for which my generation should be grateful. In my case:

1. I never had to go off to face the horrors of war possibly never to return.
2. I did not face the discrimination many face daily.
3. My family was not wealthy growing up but we had a decent life because of the hard work and sacrifice of my parents.
4. I never had and so far still don't have any serious health problems. I do workout and watch what I eat to preserve this.
5. I could have done anything and become anything I really wanted. So can you.
6. I lived for several years in a university residence and had the time of my life. I had a lot of catching up to do with experiences most kids had in high school. My energy went more into socializing than to academics.
7. I lived and worked for a few years in another country experiencing an entirely different culture - the U.K. I enjoyed it.
8. I have no serious financial debts but also no excess to do many things that others are now enjoying.

I have many regrets and for these I am solely responsible:

1. I never found a calling at which I had a natural talent and which I enjoyed. If you find that and give it all you have you will do well in life.
2. Long before meeting my partner I let the one woman I should have asked to spend our lives together get away. That's the one regrettable thing about my time in the U.K. In the case of my partner on the other hand, long before we met she found the man she thought was her match but it did not work out.
3. I should have pursued music, writing, or some other form of the creative arts.
4. I did not have kids.
5. I took my education for granted working very hard at it but for the wrong reasons and in the wrong fashion.
6. For some time I did give professional financial advice and sold financial products to clients but in this area I was like the plumber with leaky taps at home.
7. Essentially I drifted through life event by event. I should have charted a course.

So why people will ask, am I writing this? Perhaps some younger person or their parent will read it and realize the answer to that question: This is how NOT to lead your life. Invest for a rainy day and find something you love doing and someone to love. The rest will take care of itself.

The Brewster

Kobe Bryant and Gianna

A Tiny Bit of Positive, in a Horrible Tragedy

I don't follow sports but I knew the name and his celebrity as a basketball star. Now I even know the name of one of his daughter's.

Many are probably castigating me right now for the heading "Tiny Bit of Positive" for such a sad event. I understand but please read on.

The Bit of Positive to which I refer is simply that such an event involving a famous person makes us realize:

1. Such a horrible thing can and does happen to ANYONE, even ourselves.
2. Several families suffered here
3. Such events can happen in the next 5 seconds, today, tomorrow - anytime.
4. There is nothing we can do to prevent them.
5. Celebrities and their loved ones grieve just like us.
6. Live for today because tomorrow might never happen.
7. Be damned appreciative that this has not yet happened to you or those you love (if that is the case) and make every minute with them count.

Having expressed that, my heart goes out to all of those who knew and loved all of these people because above all that is what we lost - people.

We will never know why this happened - not the technical causes - but why now, and why this, and why them. Religion and faith have no real answers.

It's called life and sometimes it really sucks.

The Brewster

The Dumbing Down of English

Misplaced Participle - Say What?

English is one of the most prevalent languages and citizens of many counties learn and speak it. I never forget however that it is indeed the ENGLISH language. It is not Canadian, American, Australian etc. So when it comes to one aspect of any spoken language - pronunciation - they are always right and we are not. WE have the accent and not those from over the pond.

It is natural that over time any dictionary grows and changes because of new terms and words. These are often slanged or technological terms that have simply become so commonplace that the great institutions like Oxford and Webster have accepted them. To me, sometimes this is good, sometimes not.

One I have heard frequently recently is nucular. Presidents and spokespeople for the industry have said it. The word is nuclear and I hope it is not accepted simply because many people are wrong in its use. More acceptable are viral as in a video "going viral" or Facebook "friends" even though you will never meet them.

There are lots of others but I am straying from my point.

What IS sad to me is the apparent total lack of focus on vocabulary and grammar the way they were taught years ago. Vocabulary was not taught per se but those who tended to read more possessed more extensive vocabularies.

Grammar is another matter. Perhaps this is because it used to be one of my better subjects and I remember a lot of it. Example: It is a topic most people won't relate to. Did you catch it? That should read "… is a topic to which most people won't relate." I speak this way and people look at me like I am from another planet - even those of my generation. Here is another: "As far as grammar most people don't care." It should be "As far as grammar is concerned …"; "As far as grammar goes …"; "When it comes to grammar … ."

At this point I have probably lost half of my readers. I am not trying to be snobby, it just means something to me. It's a bit like those who still send real snail mail cards and acknowledge emails or gifts - just a case of old habits not dying because we don't want them to die.

In the late 1980's I took a business writing course at work. I was dressed down a few times because they were teaching that one should write at a grade 11 high school level. You were supposed to avoid words of more than three syllables. Really? So why did I finish school?

Do they even teach grammar? I know spelling is gone and script. What about basic math or arithmetic?

Too bad. I will continue to offend the sensitivities of some I suppose. After all, I is smart!

The Brewster