DID YOU EVER WONDER ..?

 DID YOU EVER WONDER ..?

Today, I read where baseball player Buster Posey announced that he was going to announce his retirement from baseball tomorrow. Did you ever wonder why a person would announce that they were going to make a announcement about some specific thing tomorrow? By announcing tomorrow’s announcement today, there is now no need for any further announcement. I don’t get it.

In a recent murder case against a woman and her young child, the accused admitted publicly to having killed the woman. We are now in the midst of a two-week trial. Given that he has already admitted his guilt, why are we going through the agony and expense of a long legal trial. I thought our courts were already so overtaxed that this would be a slam dunk decision. The judge should have only delivered a sentence for the crime. That would save everyone two weeks of their lives. What is the purpose of a trial for someone who admits to their guilt?

Scotland is hosting the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26 to deal with issues of climate change and especially reducing greenhouse gas emission and slowing global warming. Notably absent are four major industrial nations China, Russia, Turkey and Brazil whose environmental footprints are enormous. If these four major global players are not participating, is there any point in continuing? Without their support and cooperation on strategic decisions, very little will change.

Voting in a democracy in my mind is a one size fits all exercise. Whether it is the election of a President, a Senator, a Congressman or a Governor, the election process should be identical in all states and cities. In the US every state establishes their own rules and procedures. There is no uniformity in who can vote, when they can vote, what the ballot contains, what are the boundaries of an electoral district, a paper or electronic voting system etc. I really fail to understand why one model cannot legitimately work in every state. Can you?

There are two numerical measures that leave me clueless. When I read some solar system is 200 light-years away, my mind just blanks out even though I know the definition of a light-year. The same happens when I hear that the US government is trying to pass a 4.3 or 1.8 trillion-dollar bill to repair national infrastructure and stimulate the economy. I have to work hard to budget my frugal pensions against expenses. I often wonder if a “trillion dollar” plan is really a loosely defined wish list with minimal details and assessments and is more of a dream like having one wish granted by a magic genie. I can’t comprehend anything measured in trillions! If you really want to blow my mind, tell me they have discovered a planet two trillion light-years away!

I can understand why some people solve crossword puzzles. To be successful it requires a fairly sophisticated vocabulary, good general knowledge base and some problem-solving intelligence. I do not understand the appeal of word-search puzzles where they try to “find” words from a given list that are mixed in a large grid of letters. If anything, this kind of puzzle is an exercise in visual acuity, good eyesight and perseverance. I just wonder that is the point. If you want a really gratifying search puzzle, try and find and match all of your socks into pairs!