What's Up With That?

Oprah Winfrey tells of “moments when I sit down to talk to somebody and they say things that make me look at life or a situation in a completely different way.” She describes these “aha! moments” as a “lightbulb, bing bing bing” experience, when the little hairs on your arms stand up. I’ve had a few of those moments myself, but in recent days I’ve had  a different reaction: “What’s up with that?”

When renewing our car registration, I noticed an increased fee for hybrid ($100) and electric ($200) cars. What’s up with that? Shouldn’t the choice to use less fossil fuel be rewarded, not punished? Apparently not in Ohio. The legislators need to fix the roads, and since these environmentally responsible cars use less fuel, they pay less tax per mile traveled. Rep. Tom Brinkman explained: “You know – it’s a user fee. You want to use the road, you gotta pay for it.”

It was seventy degrees in Ohio last Saturday – in the middle of January. What’s up with that? If the sun had been shining, it would have been a glorious day. This week, NASA announced that 2019 was the second-hottest year since they’ve been tracking temperature, while the past decade was the hottest to date. Yet a spring-like day in January feels like a gift, not a symptom of climate change.

Also here in Ohio, the President of the United States said that the Speaker of the House wasn’t “operating with a full deck,” and called the chair of the House Intelligence Committee a “pencil neck” who buys “the smallest shirt collar you can get.” Imagine that! Wall Street Journal contributor Joseph Tartakovsky suggests the political insult has long been a part of our history. H.L. Mencken said Warren Harding’s speech “reminds me of a string of wet sponges . . . it is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.” Senator John Randolph described one opponent: “Like a rotten mackerel by moonlight, he shines and stinks.”  Poetic.

What’s up with the political insult? Tartakovsky explains: “Its purpose is to stain character, which, in the great personality contests that are elections, is the candidate’s most precious asset.” I do like Ronald Reagan’s style, when he told Walter Mondale on the debate stage: “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” 

On a sweeter note, I got an e-mail encouraging me to purchase a special brand of skinny chocolate claiming to be the holy grail of weight loss. Given that I have a stash of chocolate in my desk drawer, that’s good news, right? Somehow, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is – and would likely fail my taste test.

My granddaughters and I had free samples at Sam’s Club last week – they voted for the Hot Pockets and I thought the chilled raspberry coated in dark chocolate was the bomb (forget the skinny holy grail). We sure love our free samples. This week in Richmond, Virginia, protesters gathered for and against gun control on Monday, and according to an NRA tweet, they were giving away one thousand “30 Round PMAGs” (a high capacity magazine) to members who showed up to fight the proposed gun ban. What’s up with that?

Here’s another addition to my “what’s up with that?” list. Lumi is a new product by Pampers that integrates a video monitor and a sensor  attached to a baby’s nappy so you can receive a text when it’s time for a diaper change. Only $349.00 for the starter kit. In their advertising for Lumi, baby Anna’s mother provides a testimonial: “I like having the data at my fingertips.” No comment needed.

What’s up with the quest for a holy grail, the character assassination of the political insult, the lure of free samples and the search for a more efficient diaper? My deep contemplation of these pressing issues revealed an “aha! moment.” The details of life may change, but the underlying truth is expressed in the book of Ecclesiastes. “There is no new thing under the sun.” At least until tomorrow’s news cycle.