LINE UP: NO ONE WANTS TO LOSE THEIR PLACE?

The line up is everywhere.

From the grocery store to the gas station to the box office, there’s a line of people holding their place.

And waiting.

Waiting more.

Then someone takes cuts.

One way of avoiding the line up is over consumption. I wrote this yesterday. It helps explain why we over do it.

WWII shifted production into over production to beat back Germany and Japan, and Italy for a while. Can’t leave them out.

The guys who made it home were used to a certain abundance. Guys who had never experienced the land of plenty wanted it and they got it.

They got plenty of what the wanted and then some. Who stood in longer lines than soldiers waiting for everything from lunch, to a ship, a train, a plane. Their special power then and now, is waiting in line without breaking down.

But no cuts. Jump the line and things could get ugly fast.

Line Up And Wait

I joined the Army and stood in line.

“Be all you can be in the Army,” didn’t mention the lines.

There was the uniform line, the food line, the shots line, the shower line, the marching line, the parade line.

And the range line.

We stood in line to shoot rifles, throw hand grenades, and stood in lines to leave.

During one long training march up the firebreaks of Fort Ord, California, one guy decided he’d had enough. He was done and let the Drill Sergeant know he had rights.

It was a gentler time in the mid-seventies Army. They wanted to appeal to new recruits, which brought guys like that into the service.

After asking, pleading, ordering; after nothing worked to get the trainee to march, the Senior Drill Sergeant reverted to slapping him a few times to wake him up.

The results were outstanding. The kid popped up and took his place and no one heard a discouraging word from him the rest of the cycle.

Which doesn’t mean a few hard slaps across a disagreeable face is a good idea anywhere else but a force march on a hot day.

I’ve Waited My Turn, So Long Suckers

The outcry heard today is laughable compared to back then.

Grown men and women who decide it’s their right to refuse wearing a mask in a grocery store, then pitch a fit to drive it home for their perceived audience who are wearing masks, are the squeaky wheels getting the oil.

Some become hapless victims getting covid, but they do so with their ‘freedoms’ intact.

The brighter ones recognize their disease risk once they get sick, and repent, but not everyone.

I’m not bragging about it, but in terms of illness, I’ve logged some time in the sickbay I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

First I got tagged by HPV neck cancer. Then broken heart syndrome took a shot.

Nothing says pay attention to mortality like cancer and heart problems, but tell me more about how hard wearing a mask is?

I wore a radiation mask that locked my head to a radiation table. Did I bitch and complain? No, because along with neck cancer treatment I was scared shitless of getting cooked alive, or cooking neck parts that weren’t supposed to get radiation.

I’d heard of smart people who decided to cure neck cancer on their own. Have you heard of these people? The ones I knew decided to try conventional therapy after their alternative therapy failed.

The problem was that the disease had progressed too far and the conventional radiation and chemo would take them out faster than the chemo. What happened? They went home and got their affairs in order. Then died before their time.

I’ll Lose My Place

A great fear across the land is losing one’s place, or being replaced, or canceled.

It’s a great fear provoked by experienced fear mongers.

“Only I know the answer.”

“Only I can fix the problems.”

“Good people on both sides.”

How so many people threw in with a man in daily drag queen make-up is more than I can understand, not that I’ve got anything against drag queens.

By the way, Happy Birthday, Darcelle.

How so many keep him uppermost in their thoughts after Jan. 6 is hard to comprehend.

When a hustler, a known cheat, and crooked husband convinces otherwise upstanding people he is their best choice to lead them forward, there’s a problem.

How does such a man collect fealty from recognized leaders of organized churches along with the kooks and crackpots who traditionally attach themselves to a bamboozler?

The next sniffy lying mouthpiece who takes centerstage will have a lot to live up to.

Can another rich man with no experience handle the pressure of international relations in a volatile world?

Will the next over-hyped bag of skin behind a microphone be able to suspend disbelief over a jaded constituency used to flamboyant gestures and outrageous proclamations?

One anti-news source will tell the tale.

This was a company that lost their own leader due to sexual harassment claims from twenty women. Was the top man having a harassment contest with the former president?

One thing never mentioned, but ought to be: How many of the network men took a knee to prove their loyalty to the head man when they were hired?

How bad did they want that job?

(Wrong answers only.)

The line starts on the right.