Bits and Pieces

Aging Celebrities: curiously, many icons of the entertainment, newscaster and fashion industries are dying off or simply fading out of view. It is what happens when a society ages. Then too, youth icons spring up to take their place. Older audiences don’t understand much of the youth music, let alone its literary genre. The generational curse is alive and well. My kids have expressed the knowledge of things they know little about. On the other hand, they know much about science, technology and culture trends that I do not share. Doubt I ever will. I recall my son wondering why a men’s toiletry bag is called a Dopp kit. I told him a Mr. Dopp invented the first such bag and the rest is history. I don’t know if this is true, but so far, he has believed me!  Shame on me. Dad’s will be dads.

Ukraine: standoff or not? Is the war over or not? Most likely it is not. Russia has many other forms of attack they have not used up to this point. The world community is cautioning Putin not to use nuclear weapons. That warning, however, does not cover Putin’s ability to attack and damage nuclear power stations to spread deadly radioactive debris to a large area of Ukraine. Remember, Putin waged this war to gain borders with the ‘free world’ nations so he would have more bargaining chips against NATO nations. He doesn’t need the landmass of Ukraine or its domestic economic product. Or its people. Just the borders.

Weather Expense: catastrophic financial losses will be felt by Florida for years. Hurricane Ian dealt a blow to southwest Florida with damage not seen for many years in Florida. Hurricane Matthew was one of those record breaking storms and that was back in 2007.

Losses are counted in property damage, infrastructure damage, personal property, death and injury perhaps as severe as disability. Commercial losses will add up as closed businesses miss income and obligatory expenses like mortgage and rent payments regardless of their operating status. Jobs lost is another measure of commercial costs of hurricanes.

These storms are packing a punch rarely seen over the years. It appears that more damage is registered with these big storms each year. Is this a cost of climate change? No one knows for sure, but a lot of people feel a connection. It is up to the scientists to study these trends and announce their findings. Meanwhile, let’s do all we can to protect Mother Earth. This is the only planet we have.

October 5, 2022

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