This, That and Some Other Thoughts

 

            Warning: Pepto-Bismol is advised before sampling this smorgasbord of thoughts and comments guaranteed to cause anger and indigestion to some readers.

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            If you have ever badly sprained your ankle and had to soak your foot in a tub of ice water, you know how the initial freezing shock turns into a burning pain before your foot eventually goes numb.

 

            I fear that mass shootings in America are now so common, so routine almost, that our shocked hearts are becoming numb.

 

            Surely we are numbskulls if we cannot find some common-sense common ground to fight this insanity, and quickly before the next senseless shooting – or three or six or . . .

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            Tennis legend “Big Bill” Tilden used to defeat “Little Bill” Johnston with such regularity in the 1920s that newspapers reportedly kept the headline “Tilden Beats Johnston – Again” set in type to save time.

 

            Sadly, TV stations today probably similarly keep “Mass Shooting” and “Shooting Rampage” graphics programmed into save-get keys.

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            Did I miss the story in the sports section about Major League Baseball holding an “Ugliest & Scraggliest Beard Contest” among its players this season?

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            I have to agree with the naysayers who have jumped on Michelle Obama’s case for suggesting we all drink one extra glass of water a day to improve our health. Our First Lady should have added: “And drink one less Big Gulp of sugary soda pop!”

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            If TV weather men and weather girls insist on patting themselves on the back as if they personally gave us beautiful skies and nice temperatures, then I insist they start taking the blame for the stuff that causes floods, droughts and wildfires.

 

            And by the way, isn’t it well past time they were called “weather WOMEN.”

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            If you have or know a young reader, or reader-in-training, mark your calendar three weeks from today – Oct. 12 – for the seventh annual StoryFest from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the park area of the Ventura Unified School District’s Education Service Center at 255 W. Stanley Ave. in Ventura.

 

            The fun-and-free event will feature storytime readings aloud for children (who will all be given a book to take home), food and entertainment, as well as information about education and heath services offered by co-coordinators Ventura Education Partnership and First 5 Ventura Neighborhood for Learning.

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            Speaking of literacy, congratulations to the Ventura County Writers Club for celebrating its 80 th anniversary of working to find a cure for the dreaded affliction “writer’s block.”

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            Video game industry CEOs can cite a few studies until they are blue in the face that there is no connection between shooting/killing games and violent behavior, but anecdotal evidence – the latest being that Washington Navy Yard assassin Aaron Alexis was reportedly addicted to violent video games – shouts otherwise.

 

For one thing, studies on violent video games contain statistics – and we know what Mark Twain said: “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.”

 

For another, the military employs video simulators to train and desensitize soldiers.

 

            Also, if what we watch doesn’t affect our thinking and our actions, then why is video advertising on TV screens, smartphone screens and movie screens so effective?

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            If the NRA changed its aim, and name its to the National Reefer Association, is there any doubt marijuana would be quickly legalized? I mean, if the National Rifle Association can help make it legal for the blind to carry guns in public in Iowa, wouldn’t pot be an easy slam dunk?

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            Look-alikes: Washington Redskins head coach Mike Shanahan and Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett.

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            Last week I saw nearly 3,000 small American flags dramatically displayed row after row after row on Pepperdine University’s Alumni Park lawn overlooking the Pacific Ocean, each flag honoring a life taken by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

 

          Seeing a handful of flags at half-staff around town this week in honor of the 12 people murdered by a mad gunman Monday was no less heartbreaking and perhaps more maddening because unlike after 9-11 we are not rallying together to prevent the next similar tragedy. 

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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for the Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. His new memoir WOODEN & ME comes out later this month and is available for pre-order at www.WoodyWoodburn.com.