Constant reader (and Prime Obsession fan!) Clyde McKenney point me to a fine

video clip of Ethel Merman getting to the heart of all mankind’s problems.

The clip is from the 1963 movie “It’s a

Mad Mad Mad Mad World.”

[Unidentified gent]: “Take it easy, Honey. These things happen”

Mrs. Marcus (Ethel Merman): “Now what kind of an attitude is that, ‘these

things happen?’ They only happen because this whole country is just full of

people who, when these things happen, they just say ‘these things happen,’

and that’s why they happen!”

You nailed it, Ethel.