OK, so I’m quoting Rick Perry here. I don’t often do that.
But I need to set the record straight. I made a mistake. I screwed up. I led you astray.
Of course you read my last post. That’s a given.
You did read it, didn’t you?
Well, in that post that you read but forgot, I suggested that during Putin’s President’s inauguration, that you deny Trump TV ratings by tuning your TV to another channel.
Ummmmm. Well, perhaps I might have done some more checking. Because I learned that I am wrong. It’s not true. It’s an urban legend. It doesn’t pass the snopes test:
So apparently we don’t have to worry about where our TVs are tuned during Putin’s President’s moment in the sun. Errr rain... That means, of course, that tomorrow we can all Tune Out.
Let’s make stuff stick! Google image
Thanks to Jana of Stop Me If I Told You Thiswho let me know that I had a Rick Perry moment. As much as I dislike being wrong, I really appreciate being set straight!
Tomorrow will be a day of mourning for many of us, as we head into who knows what is to come.
It is time for the peaceful opposition to start in earnest.
There will be protests and marches to join, petitions to sign, letters to write and calls to make. We must keep it up.
But here is one of my favorite tactics —
Deny Putin’s President the ratings he so desires!
It’s not enough to not watch the inauguration.
You must actively turn on your TV to something else.*
Me, I plan to turn mine on to Comedy Central, home of oh so many left wing folks.
[You can also set your DVR to another channel, but the way ratings work, you must watch the recording the same day or the ratings are shown for the day you watch, rather than the day you record. ]
Of course, this is not all I plan to do as one member of the Loyal Opposition. It isn’t all I will suggest/bug/pester you into doing over the years, either.
But it is going to be hard to do anything else on January 20, 2017 through the tears we’ll all be shedding.
***
For those of you planning to attend the Women’s March in Washington, DC on Saturday, January 21, here is some important information for you:
For those of you who want some ideas of how to help, or need to get some comfort from the fact that there ARE and WILL BE things to do, here’s some ideas.
It’s that time again. I’m gonna make you listen to this song:
Yeah, you guessed it. It’s my birthday. I am, not surprisingly since I have been blogging under the stupid blog name FiftyFourAndAHalf for 5 and a half years, well, I’m older today.
Old. Probably older than you; probably shorter than you, too. Life just ain’t fair. I’m older and shorter than people I can’t even see…
Today is my 60th birthday. I’m not a big fan of my birthday, for reasons you can find here: Still, it’s a day. A decade. Something to celebrate with my husband and son and good food and cake. Gotta have cake.
And it’s something that is way better than the alternative. Yup. Way better.
To the handful who have been along with me since I was, actually 54-1/2, thanks for all the times we’ve laughed and cried together. To my new blogging buddies, welcome again. Thank you for stopping by; I hope you stick around.
Blogging has been a wonderfully fun way to spend time over these last 5-1/2 years, and counting, cause I’m not planning to stop. I see no reason to stop.
Because people my age are getting gross. So what else can we do?
As I’ve told you, comedy always comes in threes. And today? Today was a veritable shamrock of humor. And you know what? Just when I had had a long lapse in providing all of you with the information that brings you here, it was all poop-related humor.
You’re welcome. It’s my new years’ gift for you.
It started just as soon as I got up and, ummmm, and checked the news headlines. I learned that the Japanese are wiping up. Literally. They are supplying antiseptic wipes for your phone in public bathrooms. Now, I personally wipe my phone quite frequently, so I actually thought this was a great idea, right out of the, ummm, gate.
But then I saw that they provide video instructions. On how to use toilets, different butt wiping techniques, and step-by-step guides for how to wipe your phone.
I know you didn’t click on that. But you should have. At first, I admit that I only watched part of it, because I consider myself a toilet expert. Nobody does the elephant or the horse style better than (or as often as) me. However, the full international experience is worth your 2:11.
You know what? The day got better.
Because I also learned about special-use mittens. They are wet-wipes in the shape of mittens to keep your hands clean while wiping. They’re called “Shittens.” Really! Here’s the product description:
If there’s one great universal truth that we can all agree on, it’s this: No one wants poop on their hands.
And yet, we laugh carelessly in the face of danger every time we take an old fashioned wet wipe to our heinies, flying completely blind in the critical poop-to-hand spatial relation.
How many times have you taken one of those substandard wet wipes to the posterior of a child, risking major contamination from that flailing poop cloth? And how many times has your dog’s “number two” been a little closer to a number one “and a half”, requiring a deadly grab & pull maneuver with whatever’s laying around? Enough is enough!
With new Shittens, you can fully protect your hands while tending to the dirty deed.
Lastly, I read an article that might just give me nightmares:
A woman called Animal Control last week after she found a snake in a toilet in an Arlington County apartment. To repeat: She. Found. A. Snake. In. A. Toilet.
Photo Credit: Arlington County Animal Shelter.
At a minimum, it will make me use the buddy system whenever I skip to my loo.
The snake is a juvenile Yellow Anaconda. Researcher that I am, I looked up Yellow Anaconda snakes. Here’s what I learned:
They belong to the family of snakes, Boidae, which contains pythons, boas and the green anaconda, the world’s largest snake. Even though yellow anacondas are much smaller their cousin the green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), they can reach a length of up to 4.6 meters, but the average adult size is around 3 meters. [Shit, I had to underline that.]
All I can say is that if I found a large snake (or even a small snake, now that I think about it) in my toilet, I wouldn’t call the animal shelter. I’d call Amazon for a shitload of Shittens.
Because it would be “cleanup on aisle 3,” for sure.
What the hell. Do this. It is just one of the ways we can express our feelings about the fact — yes FACT — that the Russians influenced the 2016 American election.
The entire reason that the Electoral College exists is to protect our nation from an unqualified candidate. Sooo….
Call the White House: Brief the Electoral College on Russia’s sabotage before December 19
The CIA has said that the Russian government sabotaged this election with the express purpose of aiding Donald Trump. Such foreign interference is exactly what the Founding Fathers feared when they set up the Electoral College—as a final buffer before electing the President of the United States.
Before the Electoral College meets on Monday December 19, President Obama must declassify any and all relevant intelligence to Russia’s interference—and officials must brief the electors before they make this decision.
Please call the White House at 1-855-999-1663 and leave this message to President Obama:
I am requesting that President Obama declassify any and all intelligence related to Russia’s interference of the presidential election—and to brief all members of the Electoral College before they meet on Monday, December 19.
Daily Kos wants you to let them know how it went. But frankly, I’m only asking you to make the one call to the White House.
Do I think this will work?
Do I think that enough electors will change their votes?
Do I think that Hillary will become president?
Sadly “No” is the answer to all of these.
But I don’t know about you, but I must speak up (while I still can). For all the things that are important to me that I yammer on about all the time on this blog.
Again and again — we all must speak up. It’s time to get used to using our loudest, most effective protest voices — not our inside voices. We’re going to be calling this number a whole lot in the next few years.
Image from IMBd. I’m pretty sure that Putin and his Pals are not the nice Russians that arrived on our shores in this 1968 movie. Positive.
FiftyFourandAHalf 