In Impromptus today, I have a typical mix, beginning with the question of “guardrails” – our constitutional “guardrails.” These things, these protections, are written on paper. But doesn’t it take individuals to enforce them? To make them true, so to speak? In the end, aren’t the “guardrails” individuals who are willing to do the right thing? Willing to observe the rule of law?
On January 6, Mike Pence was a guardrail. Right?
Anyway, my column is here. Let’s sample the mail.
In a column a few weeks ago, I had the following little item:
When I see a Girl Scout selling cookies, I must buy. It’s some kind of patriotic or cultural compulsion. I don’t care whether I happen to like the cookies she has on hand — I must buy (and perhaps give away).
A friend in Calhoun, Ga., writes,
Jay,
Mom was a Girl Scout troop leader.
People don’t understand the effort and logistics that go into establishing a nationwide distribution network using volunteers every year. And this involves tens of thousands of troops in all 50 states.
That Mom was part of this in an era without cellphones and email, and when long-distance phone calls were an expensive luxury, boggles my mind.
P.S. Calhoun is in Gordon County, named for William Washington Gordon, the first Georgian to graduate from West Point, and grandfather of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts.
Readers and I have been talking lately about smartphones, and their effect on youth. A reader now chimes in with,
The business about smartphones is interesting, and I am all for making kids wait, but the problem is also one for older generations. My still-very-active 95-year-old father is sometimes so distracted by his smartphone that he has to be asked to set it down in order to discuss anything of importance.
I can see it.
How about this?
Hi, Jay,
My wife and I piled into the Sisu Cadillac and drove three and a half hours northwest of the Twin Cities to Menahga, Minn., to partake in the Saint Urho’s Day celebration. We missed most of the Friday-night festivities, which were basically the crowning of Mr. and Mrs. Saint Urho’s Day. Saturday started with a pancake breakfast at the senior-citizens center. We shared a table with a couple and found out that they were both 82 and were marking 60 years of marriage this year. And they had 15 children who are all doing well.
The next event was a gathering at the Saint Urho statue at noon to acknowledge the King and Queen, listen to the mayor read the proclamation, chant the phrase “Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä helveteen!” (“Grasshopper, grasshopper, go from hence to hell!”), etc.
Then there is a one-block parade which consists of a fire truck, an ATV carrying the King and Queen and the mayor, and ten people handing out candy to everyone there.
Saint Urho’s Day is a whimsical holiday. I was told by a few people that it is strictly an American holiday as the Finns in the homeland have no clue about it. Discovering events like this makes life fun.
I’ll say. And the United States is chockfull of pockets.
In a column last week, I mentioned Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – prompting a reader to write,
In the early 1970s, my best friend’s family owned a record of the Fifth, and I even remember the liner notes: “There is in the world music of more sophistication, but none that more surely, more powerfully makes itself understood.”
See you later, everyone. Thanks.