And on a lighter note….
More cops killing black people, black people killing cops, Hillary’s careless emailing, Trump’s daily racist, misogynist, xenophobic, bigoted Tweets, Brexit fallout, the mass-shooting-of-the-month…alligator snatches toddler at Disney World…the worst of times…and the worst of times. What a summer so far. And the Trump Republican coronation convention still awaits. After the Dallas cop sniper-murders The NY POST ran a William Randolph Hearst yellow-journalism banner head declaring “CIVIL WAR.” (In 1897 Hearst dispatched illustrator Fredric Remington to cover for his newspaper the Cuban uprising against Spanish rule and supposedly told him “you furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”)
Maybe America needs a breather. Instead of a war.
Just a few weeks ago we were engaged in news accounts of the gorilla who was shot after tossing around a small boy who had fallen into its zoo pen. Boy 1. Gorilla 0.
Later we were charmed by the heart-warming story of the cultish followers of self-help guru Tony Robbins who burnt their feet walking on his command across burning coals. Good times.
And of course we all giggled uncontrollably at news articles about the latest athletic endeavor of Competitive Endurance Tickling. A new documentary, “Tickled” exposes this brutal underground, “fight club”-like dangerous sport. Belly laughs all around.
Also in the news, a story, based on a new book, “Pit Bull… the Battle over an American Icon,” pits this viscous breed against its reputation as a face-ripping 4-legged monster dog. Not so fast, argues this book’s author. Pit Bully is really a cuddly, lovable lil’ ball of puppy fur. Hmmmm. Good dog. Down boy…..down…..
But now it’s “BLACK/BLUE/All LIVES MATTER” 24-7. Predictions of race riots, vigilantes, mobs, civil war. I’d walk across hot coals laughing until I cried uncontrollably, a gorilla and a pit bull on leash, if all we had to worry and argue about were dogs, burnt feet and tickling.
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