WhereRealityLivesVille
Normally, unless we're off travelling somewhere, I only drive the car once a week, tops.
On Saturday mornings.
Because that's when the Whackadoodle II and I get up reasonably early and drive out past the local airport to the beach.
And this morning the
snow geese were already there when we got to Iona.
Which was bizarre in the extreme given that, except for the dry, crispy leaves strewn about the sand, it seemed more like late-August than mid-October.
Anyway.
After a whole lot of wave running and stick chasing, mixed with a wee bit of beach guitar strumming, we finished our walk and headed for home.
Given that the 11:00 am Saturday hour is, for me at least,
a dead/no go zone on MoCo radio, I fired up the pod-machine and listened to the latest offering from WNYC's 'On The Media' for the drive home.
This week, the OTM folks did an in-depth dive into how a particular online billion dollar verdict-carrying grifter and his rabid followers adversely affect, harass and bully real people in the real world for money, self-validating lulz, and ideological gotcha points. It is an excellent show, especially the part where they talk to
a young fellow who worked as a camera person for said grifter until he came to realize the evil he was contributing to after he actually met some of the folks he was affecting one-on-one, in real life.
****
The OTM show wasn't quite done when we got home so I plugged in the earbuds to finish listening while I walked over to the local elementary school gymnasium, voting card in hand, and ridiculously complex mock ballot in pocket.
As such, I must confess that I wasn't feeling all that good about politics and people, in general, when I finished walking the block-and-a-half to the school.
But all that changed when I walked through the gymnasium door into a clean, well-lighted place where the poll workers were extremely organized, courteous and decorous.
And all the voters were polite and well-mannered as they sat down in front of little cardboard desktop cubicles to complete the task at hand.
As I stood in the short line to have my real ballot fed into the machine I was struck dumb, once again, by the realization that this is the way the real world should, and actually does, work.
Despite the legions of grifters lurking out there, online and elsewhere.
OK?
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Many thanks to Bigger E for prodding me into completing the mock ballot last night before I headed home from the lab....And thanks, also, to reader EG for getting me into the civic mood over the last few days...
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