Day 52 - Shrove Tuesday

Today is the 3rd day of the 8th week, the 21st day of the 2nd month, the 52nd day of 2023, and:

• Card Reading Day
• International Mother Language Day
• International Pancake Day - IHOP is trying to make this also a National holiday as well.  Pre-COVID, I used to stop by the local IHOP on the way home from work, before it got really busy, because it is the busiest day of the year for them.  These days,  if I am working from home, I enjoy my pancakes by ordering both an omelet and pancakes using Uber Eats and having them delivered. 
• Losar [AKA the Tibetan New Year] a Buddhist festival
• Mardi Gras
• National Grain-Free Day 
• National Sticky Bun Day
• Pączki Day - there is a large Polish community hereabouts and there are plenty of places in Baltimore to get this tasty seasonal treat
• Pancake Day Race [US VS England]
• Single Tasking Day
• Travel Africa Day

Quote of the Day:

"This is the gift of change, to know that although it is difficult right now, this too shall pass." 

 ~ Martine Batchelor, “The Gift of Change”

Getting up and realizing yesterday's post was still sitting there in preview status was a bit on the discouraging side!  Of course, the penalty for having a three day weekend is that you have to deal with a Monday masquerading as a Tuesday, and that is always fun!  My coworkers should be very grateful that I am working from home today - one of the lovely side effects for me of the meds that I take is sometimes I suffer from fluctuance, and today for some reason the odor is particularly noxious.  Seriously, I realize this is probably too much information, but I wish it was warm enough to open the windows because I am spraying a lot of air freshener.  I guess that rounds out my tale of three for the day, and if feels good to get it over with early

A new blog [also available as a podcast] I have started following is DeCoding Fox News because I am trying to understand the alternate reality that apparently exists.  The comparison between Fox News, as well as their imitators, and other news outlets goes well beyond how the stories are covered or spun - there are literally entire bits of news that are not even reported.  Even while the Fox News anchors and show hosts are admitting under oath that they don't believe the tripe they are peddling, they haven't stopped or slowed down one little mite, aided and abetted by the politicians in the GOP.   And yet, no matter how carefully the lies and half-truths are fact-checked and contradicted, there is a huge swath of folks who only hear the propaganda being peddled and dismiss anything that contradicts it.  It is as though these viewers live on some remote isolated island instead of in the world with so many information conduits.   And the justification for this?  Fox News is telling the people what they want to hear, whining that if they don't, then someone else [e.g. Newsmax and OANN] and their viewership will suffer.

Is that the purpose of news, to tell people what they want to hear?  Not to educate or enlighten or inform, but to reinforce prejudices, perceptions, and stereotypes?   Enquiring minds want to know

I found this little gem in the wilds of Facebook:

I may resemble this remark at times....