What Have You Got to Lose?
I love this Trump jab. I took it personally. What have I got to lose? I gotta think about that.
I'm voting for Clinton although she can be awful. I oppose Trump but he is occasionally brilliant.
Like
the hat. Trump wears a bright red baseball hat. I wear a hat like that.
Millions of men wear such a hat. Is the Trump hat one of those coded
messages we hear about, a Trumpian wink? No, sometimes a hat is just a
hat.
What have you got to lose? Trump asks the black
community. You give 99 percent of your votes to Hillary Clinton and she
sticks those votes in her pants-suit pocket and travels on. What do you
get from her? You get a Christmas card every December with warm wishes
from Bill and Chelsea -- says Trump.
Trump commits major
acts of cultural appropriation with this latest action. Black America
gripes about unemployment, police brutality, high arrest rates and
neighborhoods devoid of good stores or public transportation -- a litany
of grievances. They get to say that, but we don't get to say the same
thing. I know the rules. I never say "you people." But Trump said it --
you people. What have you got to lose? Good question.
So, from Trump's red hat we go to the fashion police on the Riviera.
A
man might be known by his hat, and a woman, at least in the summer, at
least at the beach, is known by her choice of swimwear. It's fashion and
fashion isn't fair. Fashion is a tyrant, more powerful than the law.
Dress differently than other folks and you will be noticed. Dress the
same as everybody else and lose yourself in the crowd.
On
the French Riviera, all the talk is about the law and a woman's right
to choose. Okay, but also consider this as a matter of fashion.
Burkinis are Fashion Forward. The all
one-piece head-to-toe covering swimsuit is favored by devout Moslem
women, but it is also making a splash in the Western fashion world.
Ladies, it's time to cover up. Hemlines cannot possible get shorter so
they must come down, all the way down to the ankles. No more plunging
necklines -- necklines will rise to the neck, and sleeves to the wrist.
The all-revealing bikini has been getting skimpier every year, but
fashion is about changes and trends. The new trend is modesty.
Gentlemen,
what you have enjoyed looking at will soon be covered up. It couldn't
last forever. This is a great victory for Islam. Forget the civil rights
issues played out in the French courts that made the burkini
permissible. Fashion has never been about individual rights, fashion is
about the massive social pressure to conform to the latest thing. The
burkini is the new fashion. Look for it at your nearest beach. Not just
for Moslem women. Western women are wearing them too.
Driving Miss Mabel. Mabel
lives across the street from us in Santa Barbara. She got her drivers
license renewed at age 95, but she admitted to herself that she was
getting a little nervous, so she decided to give up driving.
Her
2004 Chevrolet Malibu sits in the garage now. She told me her son will
have it cleaned and polished and then sell it. "I don't need a car
anymore," she said.
Mabel is working out other options.
She might get a smart phone and use Uber. There is a cheap senior ride
service in Santa Barbara but it's complicated. The bus comes by our
street but getting on or off is too hard for her with a walker and she
can't wait outside for too long.
Now Mabel hires me to take
her the grocery store and to the bank once a week. She's old, but she's
not poor, so she pays me. She doesn't need her walker in the grocery
store because she can hang on to the cart. Otherwise she brings a list
and picks her food off the shelf.
She has resources -- a helpful son who lives 15 minutes from here and a home that she has owned for more than fifty years.
She's
thinking to rent out a room -- to get somebody who will drive her and
do other chores for a reduced rent. I told her, "Living with other
people can be a nuisance." She said, "I grew up in a large family in
Montana and I know how to get along with people."
So I'm taking her to the grocery store, but she still needs to figure out a ride to her Bridge Club.
The Frog Hospital Subscription Drive has already taken in $1,025 -- and we are just getting started.It's
all here -- from Trump's red hat to the Burkinis of the French Riviera.
Whatever men and women are wearing, whatever they are thinking -- we
have it here. At Frog Hospital you get lasting values and the latest
trends -- both! But we can't do this without your help. Go to the
Frog Hospital blog and hit the PayPal button for $25. Or make out a check for $25 to Fred Owens and mail it to:
Fred Owens
1105 Veronica Springs RD
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
thanks a lot,
Fred
No comments:
Post a Comment