Wednesday Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Beginning on Christmas Day the Staples Center, home to the Lakers and Clippers, will be changing its name to the Crypto.com Arena. It has been reported to be the biggest US venue naming rights deal in history. Coming from a company I had never heard of before. This is giving off a major Pets.com vibe... Could it be that the recent highlighting of dismal poll numbers and unhappiness with the Vice President is team Biden's way of reminding people that if they tried to get rid of the "Big Guy" they'd be stuck with Kamala? As warning shots go - that's a pretty good one... The culture war seems to be breaking into one side who has preferred pronouns and another side that is proudly unvaccinated. The vaccinated who are against vaccine mandates or vaccine passports fall into the latter tribe. And it seems this tribe has most of the guns... As it has been pointed out elsewhere, one of the main reasons the FBI and other federal agencies are at constant danger of being hacked is because they drug test. Many of the best coders smoke pot and if you exclude them from your hiring pool you shouldn't be surprised to find yourself vulnerable due to the limited straight-laced talent you can hire... Massachusetts has a population just under 7 million (6,912,239) and has had 879,127 confirmed COVID cases which resulted in 19,189 deaths. So simple math tells me that 12.7% (or more) of the Commonwealth has had COVID but of that number just 2% of the COVID cases have died from the virus. Put another way - just 0.28% of the population of the State has died from COVID since the pandemic began. Tell me again why I should be afraid of a number so small. And I have to wonder if the average age of those who died from COVID is still higher than the average age for all deaths in the State... Words in a Cunning Order would be a good name for a blog (or a publishing company)... Big Tobacco is prohibited from advertising or messaging geared towards children because everyone agrees that it is wrong. Is it too much to ask that Big Pharma, Big Tech and the Government be held to the same standard?... If I had a roll of those "I Voted!" stickers - I'd wear one on random days of the year just to confuse people who don't pay attention to politics (95% of Americans)... Groin Foot would be a good name for a band... In theory if Notre Dame wins the rest of their games they could be the ACC representative in the College Football Playoffs. They're in the ACC in every sport except football but that shouldn't stop the ACC as claiming them as their own. (Not that I think Notre Dame will get into the playoffs)... As always if this column has made you smile or think - don't be afraid to hit the like button. Also please subscribe and share with your friends. Thanks in advance...