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OPINIONOPINION
Mountain Views News Saturday, January 6, 2024
RICH JOHNSON
NOW THAT’S RICH
STUART TOLCHIN
MOUNTAIN
VIEWS
NEWS
PUBLISHER/ EDITOR
Susan Henderson
PASADENA CITY
EDITOR
Dean Lee
PRODUCTION
SALES
Patricia Colonello
626-355-2737
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WEBMASTER
John Aveny
DISTRIBUTION
Peter Lamendola
CONTRIBUTORS
Stuart Tolchin
Harvey Hyde
Audrey Swanson
Meghan Malooley
Mary Lou Caldwell
Kevin McGuire
Chris Leclerc
Dinah Chong Watkins
Howard Hays
Paul Carpenter
Kim Clymer-Kelley
Christopher Nyerges
Peter Dills
Rich Johnson
Lori Ann Harris
Rev. James Snyder
Katie Hopkins
Deanne Davis
Despina Arouzman
Jeff Brown
Marc Garlett
Keely Toten
Dan Golden
Rebecca Wright
Hail Hamilton
Joan Schmidt
LaQuetta ShambleE
PUT THE LIGHTS ON
OPTIMISM
24
Surprise! This is intended to be an optimistic
article. This morning I wrote an already too long
article which attempted to answer two questions.
1). What is the next year going to be like? 2). What
are the causes of antisemitism and what can be done
about it?
You must agree that these are pretty difficult
questions and, though I tried, I was unable to come up with answers
that came close to satisfying myself. After writing the article my
wife and I at about noon departed to the Santa Anita mall in order to
see the 2023 version of Color Purple. I knew little about the film and
did not even realize that it was a musical. All I knew was that a film
by the same name was a very effective picture that starred Whoopie
Goldberg about 40 years ago.
The movie began with a bunch of jumping around consistent
with most musicals and then, at almost the very beginning, there
appeared Whoopie as an aged midwife assisting in the birth of a
main character. This appearance was a complete surprise to me
as I was unaware that she was in the film and at the end she was
completely uncredited. After I got home I looked up the movie on
the web and learned that Whoopie’s appearance had been kept a big
secret and I felt gratified that I was now in on the secret that she was
engaged in giving birth to the new movie.
Actually, I enjoyed the movie and learned some things. Throughout
the movie the Black men completely mistreated and brutalized
the women over whom they had power. I thought more about the
importance of ending the suppression of women which I had always
taken for granted.
When I went to UCLA Law School there were absolutely no
women or any people of color in the School. Frankly I never thought
much about it as I was much more concerned about avoiding the
draft. Perhaps I am exaggerating a bit, but like everyone else I think,
personal concerns generally trump everything else.
During the film there is great emphasis on the Christian religion.
I am a person of Jewish heritage who is a life-long atheist with no
religious training and very little familiarity with the importance of
religious ritual or religious belief. As the film progressed and the
lives of the characters were filled with horrible conditions I began
to understand the importance of religious belief to its adherents.
Their understanding of the world depended on their belief in God
and a specific God at that. Without that belief they are at the mercy
of circumstances, often very difficult circumstances. People who
don’t believe in their religion or their God threaten everything and
understandably can become hated.
This realization gave me a glimmer of understanding about the
fierceness of anti-semetic excesses. People are willing to kill and
even to die to protect their feelings. To you this may seem surprising
but to me who has always considered all religions as a kind of myth
designed to keep control of a population I began to understand. I
believe that religious fervor is connected with fear, the fear of a world
with no clear rules. If you live by these rules and learn that there
really are no rules you must face your own ignorance and who wants
that?
At this moment I believe that as the world is faced with even
more immediate problems like the climate crisis all of us will have
to rethink everything about how we lead our lives. Maybe some will
believe that global destruction is inevitable or simply part of God’s
will and will refuse to look at their own behavior. Maybe they'll
blame the Jews but I don't think so. Right now I am optimistic
enough to believe that a kind of global sanity will prevail and that
the personal concern for our own survival together with the concern
for the survival of future generations will be a huge wake-up call.
Perhaps my optimistic belief is also a kind of nonsense but right
now I feel pretty good thinking about tomorrow which is a big
change for me. How about you?
Well, here we are in the first week of the year 2024. What do we
really know about the number 24? Let’s take a look...
For those of you with analytical minds, 24 is an even composite
number with 2 and 3 as its distinct prime factors. Are you with me?
I have no idea what I just wrote.
24 is the atomic number of chromium. Oh, and the NBA shot clock is set at 24
seconds. That ought to mean something. 24 karats represents 100% pure gold.
Four and twenty is the number of blackbirds baked in a pie in the English nursery
rhyme “Sing a Song of Sixpence”. That’s how they referred to 24 in merry old
England.
1924: 100 years ago in 1924, IBM and MGM both went into business. J. Edgar
Hoover also went into business as the head of the FBI. In the high tech world spiral
bound notebooks were invented in 1924. Speaking of high tech and spiral bound,
astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered the spiral nebula Andromeda in 1924.
Johnson and Johnson (dang it…no relation) began mass producing Band-Aids in
1924.. Kleenex made it to the public this year.
1824: The toy balloon and Portland cement (the kind of cement most used) were
pretty much all that was invented in 1824.
1724: A German physicist named Gabriel Fahrenheit is credited for inventing
the mercury thermometer which used mercury liquid to measure temperature in
thermometers. I think they named something after him.
1624: Cornelius van Drebbel constructed a leather covered submersible rowboat.
It could travel for hours 15 feet beneath the surface and is considered the first
submarine.
How about famous people at 24? What were they doing? Jeff Bezos, (current net
worth $171 Billion) founder of Amazon was working the grill at McDonalds. He
said they never let him work the cash register. I guess he was not good with money
lol! Mark Cuban, (current net worth $6 billion) at 24 was living with 5 other guys
in a three-bedroom apartment.
Ralph Lauren (current net worth $8 billion) at age 24 went from the army to
working at Brooks Brothers suits. He said his most important decision at that
age was changing his name. It wasn’t always Ralph Lauren. He was born Ralph
Lifshitz. If you take a close look you will see a vulgar four letter word in the middle
of his last name, which is why he changed his last name. (Of course, I ain’t really
big on the name “Ralph” either).
J.K. Rowling (current net worth $1 billion) was a secretary in the London office
of Amnesty International in 1990 when she got the inspiration for a story about
young Harry Potter. Her focus on her book writing got her fired from her job.
So, she got married, divorced, had a child, lost her mom, and was diagnosed with
clinical depression living in relative poverty. By the way, Harry Potter was rejected
by at least twelve publishers. Ms. Rowling is currently the richest author in the
world.
Finally, Oprah Winfrey (current net worth $2.8 billion) was fired around age 24
from her job doing the 6:00pm news at WJZ New in Baltimore. Shortly thereafter
Oprah switched to a talk show on the same channel and discovered her niche. The
rest is history.
Why not make 2024 your breakthrough year. Think outside the box. Start
tinkering in your garage and who knows. You might be the Cornelius van Drebbel
for 2024 and invent something like sprayable cheese, or the mankini.
Who knows…you might become as famous as Gary Dahl, who in 1975 became a
millionaire as the father of the short lived but profitable “Pet Rock” craze.
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DINAH CHONG WATKINS
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE
WRONG KIND
WHAT’S IN A NAME
BREAKING NEWS: Reports of luggage thefts are on
the rise at baggage carousels in major airports across
the nation. Airport security on the look-out for lurking
bystanders that brazenly steal luggage right under the
noses of their owners.
Louis Vuitton, Tumi, Rimowa, luggage brands that shout “Take me! Even if
there’s only crackers and soiled underwear inside, I’m still worth it!”
Branding. We started at polo shirts with embroidered crocodiles, moved on to
Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie & Fitch, Air Jordan’s and graduated to Gucci,
Dior, and Versace. Now with social media, all that’s you is questioned by the
hoi polloi through the lens of “authenticity, transparency, and values-driven”.
People want to know “What is your brand?”
So embellishments creep into our everyday lives, ordinary people too, not just
journalists, wannabes and politicians, although some in the hallowed ranks
above have gone as far as to mix up their mother's tribulations at 9-11 to a
nighttime run at a 7-11.
But equally lazy and judgmental, we like to have obvious sign posts to tell us
about the strangers we meet. Is that a Kirkland Signature Active Jogger set he's
wearing or a Loro Piana Baby Cashmere sweat suit? Does her cell phone fold
up and when open displays a seamless screen across both sides or does it just
flip open? What is she wearing? Where does he live? What do they do? Like
ranchers and their cattle, we’ve been branding each other since the days of Cain
and Abel.
When I was living in Asia, American products were hard to come by and
three times as expensive if you could find it. Twice a year I’d fly back and my
first stop was Kmart, a precursor to Target but without the eye-catching, data
driven, customer forward touches. Kmart offered all that Target does but under
buzzing, seizure-inducing fluorescent lights, linoleum floors, and basic metal
and peg racks. Attention Kmart shoppers, this is paradise!
Family members would tease me about my loyal affinity to Kmart,
“Try Sears,” they said, “JC Penny has coupons”
“Egads!” I replied, “I live in the Hills of the Ten Thousand Coal Ash Pots not
Beverly Hills.”
Besides, why wear clothing with someone else’s name on it?
Of course, there are innumerable and unarguable situations when identifying
your tribe through your clothing is admirable, sensible even. Wearing your
school colors, cheering on your sports teams, bonding at work and most
importantly, prisoners on the lam - a common sense justification for those eye-
catching zebra stripes.
I rarely buy for the namesake except when it comes to function. For twenty
years I flew across the Pacific with my red polypropylene clamshell, Samsonite
hard-side, its scars from feckless baggage handlers and luggage-eating conveyor
belts proudly displayed along with a half-torn 90’s era sticker, “Aloha Waikiki”.
Faithful, dependable, and most importantly, overlooked by would-be thieves, it
practically screamed “Only crackers and holey underwear in here.”
Dinah Chong Watkins column appears every 1st and 3rd Saturday of the
month.
For more Close Encounters Of The Wrong Kind go to www.ceotwk.com
Mountain
Views News
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Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com
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