No real topic today – just some screaming into the air for some much-needed therapy:

• Daylight Savings Time is upon us again (despite some folks insisting to me that we haven’t done it for years).  Can’t we just pick a time and stick with it?  If I have to tell one more person “no, its ‘spring forward, fall back’” and still have them look at me like I’m discussing quantum theory, I may just start answering “yes” to whatever horse dump they say.

• New trashcans showed up – unannounced  – in my hometown this week.  I guess the town clerk must be lonely and love talking on the phone to explain what’s going on, because only she seems to know.  Good thing they are red, because I envision many of these cans still adorning the front porches of several buildings in December (instead of being taken out back where they belong), so they’ll make great Christmas decorations.

• Yes, you can plant peas in the garden this early in Maryland (Zone 7, if you’re curious).  Calm down.  These are not tomato plants.  Peas will do fine. 

• That’s right, “Mardi Gras” does mean “Fat Tuesday”.  Where did I learn that?  Well, I read – and mainly books and articles that don’t have a lot of pictures in them.  Now eat your faschnaut (OK, how about glazed doughnut) and have a seat.

• $40 more dollars into the tip jar at the Legion?  That sounds like a fine idea.  I don’t know all of the reasons you won’t retire until you’re 85, but I’m pretty sure I know one of them.

• Drinking a Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day is fine (and personally encouraged), but dyed green beer is for amateurs.

• Financial literacy should be a required course in high school.  Most people don’t understand interest rates, compounding, or even know how to create a simple home budget.  They don’t know how credit cards work.  Most couldn’t give you back change from a twenty on a $10.35 bill if they had a gun to their head, but they’re more than happy to tell you about their most recent cryptocurrency purchase.  Financial mistakes made by people in their twenties and thirties cripple them for the rest of their lives, yet we act like everyone will “just figure it out”.

• In this day and age, just who exactly is eating souse?  For those of you not in the know, it is a jellied loaf made from pig’s ears, feet, and tongue, along with herbs, spices, and many other things swept up from the butcher’s floor.  I’m all for using everything on an animal, but come on, the Civil War ended long, long ago.  I personally draw the line at scrapple (which is delicious, by the way). 

<Exhale>

Thanks for that.  I feel much better.