Speaking as a European-American, I feel led to express my outrage at the blatant racism of today's holy celebration known as "Black Friday".
On this special day of the year, dedicated to the buying and selling of abundantly superficial objects, it is sick and wrong to offer such savings and early-morning wrestling to a particular skin-tone-based minority.
Am I not also a consumer? Do I not also have the capability of impulsively buying a kitchen widget? When you scan my plastic, does it not cha-ching?
It's Just...Not...Fair!
And it's not that I begrudge people of color the opportunity to waste their money. I just would appreciate some equal time.
If we must celebrate Black Friday, could we also have a Pale-Pink Saturday? Or a Brown Tuesday?
Having bidden a sad farewell to RatDog (Edgar) earlier this year, and having also bidden a reluctant farewell to my full-time job at Big Brother, Inc., neither Beloved nor I expected to be getting a new dog anytime soon.
[Editor's Note: Yes, indeed...I am currently in job transition. Having spent the most-recent 7 years as a top performing technical writer on the world's second-largest computer network, I excel at collaborating with subject matter experts to produce audience-appropriate communications, including user manuals, work instructions, and FAQs. Interested employers can see my LinkedIn profile by clicking here.]
But get a new dog we did...one whose mother is a PomChi (Pomeranian/Chihuahua mix) and whose father is a teacup Chihuahua. In other words, this little puppy is probably not going to get an awful lot bigger.
In the above Skype-generated photo, the fuzzy image to the left is my smiling face and the fuzzy image to the right is the furry, four-footed non-feline feces factory known in these here parts as MarcoSansPolo (MSP). And yes...that IS my hand MSP is standing on.
We didn't really realize how small MSP is until we brought him home for the first time, set him on the floor, and lost him in the nap of our carpet.
Sunday afternoon, we were hosting a big meal for our kids and the family of ActorBoy's fiance, AbbeySeeinYa. The biggest laugh of the day came when the other dad in the room saw MSP for the first time and said, "I don't know whether to pet it or set a trap for it."
I am in great fear and am experiencing trembling of Richter-scale proportions as I think about the future of the English language.
As to the future of this blog? Unending fodder.
I know, I know...people are losing their lives because of the Ebola virus and it is far too serious of a thing to almost about.
HOWEVER...
As curator of the Queen Ebola Hemlock FaceBook page, I am predisposed toward seeing the lighter side of the whole thing. Besides, my sensitivity filter was in for repairs when I saw the following picture above the caption "Dr. Phillip Coule and senior staff nurse Tracier Sowinski on Thursday demonstrate how to put on personal protective equipment used when treating possible Ebola patients at the emergency room in Georgia Regents University Medical Center in Augusta, Ga."
I'm just so happy to see that, apparently, affirmative action is now working on behalf of Oompa-Loompas.
