Checkmate
Hello. Welcome to the Weekend Gene Pool, wherein we are erudite enough to use the word “wherein,” but also banal enough to supply you entertainment in return for your anecdotes and observations.
Today, the subject at hand is Joe Biden’s performance at his first debate with Donald Trump, an ignorant congenital liar — a debate Biden managed to lose, somehow. You know you are toast when the most common adjectives used to describe your performance are “dismal,” “disastrous” “cataclysmic” and “catastrophic.” Two “cata’s.”
We at the Gene Pool still have hope. We have faith in the electorate, which was smart enough to elect Lincoln in 1860, and FDR in 1932, and JFK in 1960, when stakes were similarly high. But we cannot ignore the train wreck of Thursday.
Thus, today’s question is on topic:
What is the stupidest mistake / pratfall / misstep you ever made? Funny is good, but poignant is also good.
In my case, you can argue it involved Indian food, though I am frankly pretty unrepentant about that. Instead, I hark back to when I was 16 and invited Suzy Gottfried on a date. Suzy was cute, smart and funny, and waaay beyond my still infantile ability to impress, delight, or seduce a female, but I still screwed up the courage to ask her out.
I knew deep down that I was not in her league or anywhere close — she was the New York Yankees and I was the Hartford (Conn.) Yard Goats, which is a real Double-A team that plays in Dunkin' Donuts Park. Still, one hoped — I did — that emotional courage might actually be rewarded in life. The answer is, yes, sometimes, but not then. Poor Suzy had to endure a girl's worst date imaginable that does not involve an actual serial killer. It was a pairing of a charming, sophisticated young voluptuary with a timid, stammering adolescent so insecure that he rehearsed witticisms, which wound up sounding every bit as extemporaneous as the Pledge of Allegiance.
So.
Also, I once told a mildly racist joke to a new Black friend. I thought it would cement how much I respected her, and how close we were, that I could tell her such a joke. Haha! You know, friends, willing to be a little daring with each other, exploring boundaries! I was horribly and inextricably wrong. And in case you want to excuse me for a youthful error, you needn’t …. I was 35.
So. Send your gaffes, pratfalls and such right here, to this inexcusable orange button.
Meanwhile, today’s first Gene Pool Gene Poll:
Second poll:
See you all on Tuesday. SEND IN QUESTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS.
While a great keening was heard in the land on Friday following what was billed as a debate, the Imperial Court slipped us another one. SCOTUS struck down the 40-year "Chevron deference" doctrine precedent (Relentless v. Department of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo) and, in so doing, the Court majority, in its inimitable fashion, has again sown chaos and uncertainty as it did with Dobbs. Yet another example of zealotry or ideology preempting not only science and expertise but common sense. By curtailing the power of federal agencies to interpret the laws they administer, as granted by Congress, and ruling that the courts (and it will be lower courts considering how few cases SCOTUS hears in a year) should rely on their own interpretation of ambiguous laws, the Court majority has effectively left the business community scratching its head. Business relies on dependable rules and procedures --- whether it agrees with them or not --- and now, the Court majority in its infinite wisdom, has knocked that into a cocked hat, by allowing unknowledgeable judges to decide what the laws governing these rules and procedures mean. Nothing less --- whether religion, reproductive rights, voting, and now business --- than a full out attack on the way we not only choose to, but the way we can, live our lives.
It’s only June, FFS. If the Dems were a party bent on winning they would do what the Republicans do every day. “Biden won the debate! He didn’t look old, he looked wise! He didn’t flub any lines! He meant to do that! Trump is a felon! Biden won!” Instead they insist on feeding the Republican beast. Yeesh.