I did a surprisingly good job of paring down my Christmas expenses. Any good money manager knows that you have to bring a heavy dose of politics to your Thanksgiving holiday to pare down the Christmas list. Works like a charm. It’s important to bring enough political heat to make family mad for a few months, but not so mad they completely disown you.
Fine line, but doable.
Thanksgiving seems to me to last approximately three months. Seems like a lot of celebrating and thankfulness for the Pilgrims and Indians deciding to gather for a feast. I’m not a betting man, but I’d bet they had some libations as part of that first feast back in 1621. Probably had some wicked smoke available too. Bunch of Indians and Pilgrims’ high and drunk had to be a good time. Surprised that it didn’t get out of control, to be honest. Alcohol and muskets or hatchets never mix well.
Wait. I have bad news. According to the internet, Thanksgiving was originally a day of fasting and prayer. Apparently the first step in the process of colonization was to start making America fat. It worked. I suppose they figured a little turkey and pumpkin pie couldn’t hurt too much and then it all just got out of control. You know the feeling.
I’ve never thought praying on an empty stomach would be a promising idea, but I’m no expert on praying. Also, I lied in the second stanza of this column. I am a betting man.
I’m a little late to the prayer game usually. I typically wait until complete disaster is imminent to call in a big prayer. Probably not the way to pray but always feel like He might be too busy to worry about the Missouri Tigers football team or my knee that hurts when the weather changes.
While praying may not be my expertise, irony is. Nothing cracks me up more than the NFL’s constant virtue signaling each week on some cause they are raising money for. All while they are promoting a game that is literally causing brain damage to the participants. “Here’s some money for your charity, but we’re going to need your charity to help out our CTE victims eventually.” Life is a flat circle.
Speaking of irony, the overwhelming amount of advertising for the start of “legal” gambling in Missouri seems to only foretell that we will soon be inundated with “1-800-Bet’s Off” advertising. I don’t want any of you to be insulted, but I am beginning to think that the human species is not nearly as evolved as we think we may be. Our history has been filled with a series of creating problems and then solutions to the very problems that we started, except COVID, that solution didn’t work.
Anyway, I should be writing anti-gambling columns before the end of the year, complaining about our government not doing “something” about this.
(Guy Speckman can be reached researching Gambling Anonymous meeting locations)
