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OPINIONOPINION

Mountain View News Saturday, November 16, 2024

RICH JOHNSON 

NOW THAT’S RICH

STUART TOLCHIN

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

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Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
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Howard Hays

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Hail Hamilton

Joan Schmidt

LaQuetta Shamblee


TESTS and OPPORTUNITIES 

FABLES & FANCIES

Like many baby boomers I have not really had the opportunity 
to test myself. During my long lifetime I have been 
fortunate enough to avoid most difficult periods. There 
have been conflicts, but no actual wars of violence have 
been fought on these shores. I avoided military service and 
survived unscathed through the Covid Pandemic. There 
have been economic downturns, but I was lucky enough to 
be an attorney and there was never a shortage of people with legal problems. I 
have had flat tires and dead batteries, but I always had my Automobile Club card 
with me and had my phone to call for help. In fact, right now the major crisis I 
experience is when I awaken in the morning and cannot find my phone.

Of course, I am simplifying things, but the fact remains that in most ways life 
has not really tested me. Today I am challenged and tested. I think my family 
will be able to take care of themselves after I am gone. It is not the practical fears 
that are testing me. Instead, it is the present realization that I have been so out 
of step that I did not know what other people are feeling. 

Seriously, I cannot and don’t want to imagine how anyone could vote for Donald 
Trump. I can understand how so many Americans have been sickened by the 
whole political process and have chosen not to vote. I too have been turned off 
by the constant requests for donations for all sorts of candidates and frankly 
detest knowing that it is the availability of money which is thought to be the 
thing that will decide elections. Still, I think not voting is unforgiveable, but a 
substantial percentage of eligible voters have always chosen not to vote.

 I am absolutely not a consumer. What is genuinely important to me is maintaining 
my relationships with friends and family and being able to get out of the 
house and eat at restaurants. Yes, I know going out to eat has become expensive, 
but I can handle that. What I don’t like is that I seem to be alienating many 
friends and family members and cannot find anyone very willing to talk with 
me.

It’s true that a number of old friends have died and my contemporaries that are 
still around are frequently hospitalized relating to broken pacemakers and broken 
bones; but the real problem is that I keep offending the friends I still have. 
I enjoy talking about politics and the place of religion in society and maybe it’s 
best that I keep my opinions to myself but there must be more to talk about than 
the Dodgers.

 Maybe it is true that religions, whether based on truth or faith or myth or whatever 
have in the past held families together; but that does not seem true now. I 
would further like to talk about it and the concept of Grace which I really don’t 
understand, but no one wants to have the conversation. I have one friend who 
lives thousands of miles away, (whose name together with my loyal friend in 
France and my granddaughter begins with a J) and we talk on the phone in the 
mornings. Occasionally other friends contact me by text or email. This generates 
more angst when the whereabouts of the phone are unknown.

Hooray for my wife and my dog but my customary way of coping with feelings 
of negativity is through reading; but for the last few months I have been 
unable to read a whole book. I blame my eyesight and have now had many eye-
examinations and bought new glasses, but the problem remains. Of course, my 
hearing is bad, and hearing “aids” are misnamed. (The people I enjoy speaking 
to most now are generally strangers but since I don’t get out of the house much 
there are not that many strangers around).

Last week though I finished an entire book recommended by wife entitled 
Where the Crawdads Are. I enjoyed the book which reminded me to remember 
to have fun. Well, I am trying but it just ain’t that easy. Well, thanks for sticking 
with me to the end of this piece and know that you readers, imaginary or not, 
together with my comfortable mattress are also among the most important 

No, this is not a column describing my love life. It’s much more exciting 
than that. Fables & Fancies is a brand new BOOK STORE here in 
downtown Sierra Madre. (You remember books: A couple hundred pieces 
of paper glued together with words and pictures on the pieces of paper. 
Mine usually come with crayons.)

Anyway, this new bookstore is right next door to Corfu Restaurant. Fables and Fancies 
are open from 11:00 to 5:00. Well, they are actually kinda half open. Responding to 
enthusiastic pleas from future customers (some who write columns in a local newspaper), 
store owners Ana and Tim opened the front half of their store. They are finishing up the 
back. (Maybe they can have two grand openings.) I’m actually glad they didn’t wait. Their 
phone number is (626) 665-8856.

Stop and think about the exciting new life you can have sitting outside eating lunch at 
Corfu with a great new book to read. I’m getting tired sitting there eating a wonderful 
Corfu tuna melt watching Sierra Madre’s finest write illegal U-turn tickets. So, I am 
excited. 

Just to prove to you that I know how to read, I’m going to write about something I know a 
lot about…misuse and distortion of a word or phrase: “Spoonerisms and Malapropisms!”

An old British scholar (no, not John Cleese) but Archibald Spooner is credited with 
inventing the “Spoonerism”. (What an amazing coincidence!)

Archie, a distinguished Oxford Professor uttered what came to be known as a “spoonerism” 
once accidentally and that’s all it took. So, what’s a spoonerism? 

A spoonerism is what’s called an “occurrence of speech”: corresponding consonants (not 
continents), and vowels, are switched. The spoonerism may be rip-roaringly hilarious, 
funny, clever, or just stupid. I’m guessing you want some examples:

I’ll start with Dr. Spooner’s sole spoonerism: “Kinkering kongs”. He meant to say 
“Conquering kings”, but it didn’t come out right. Here are more.

“Bad salad” when you meant to say, “sad ballad”. “Birty dirds” while looking at some 
“dirty birds”. “Bunch luffet” instead of “lunch buffet”, “caking bookies” fumbling “baking 
cookies”.

Here’s a fun one: “Chork pops” instead of “pork chops”. I got to get my “praiser linter” 
repaired…I mean “laser printer”. Looks like a “doggy fay”, err, “foggy day”, could I have a 
slice of “poobarb rye” oh, so sorry, “rhubarb pie”.

There are 3-word spoonerisms: “Chewing the doors” translates to “doing the chores”, it’s 
raining “cogs and dats” “dogs and cats”, look, a “glock of flees” err a “flock of geese”, What’s 
that smell? You better “shake a tower”, maybe, “take a shower”.

While we are at it let’s take a look at malapropisms. What is a malapropism? A incorrect 
use of a word with a similar sound to another word. (Sounds like my columns) Here goes:

“Having one wife is called monotony.” (monogamy)

“I remember because I have a photogenic memory.” (photographic)

Famous people’s malapropisms

“The police are not here to create disorder, they’re here to preserve disorder.” Mayor 
Richard Daley of Chicago

“Alcoholics Unanimous” instead of “Alcoholics Anonymous” Mayor Daly again.

“It will take time to restore chaos and order.” George W. Bush

“I might just fade into Bolivian.” (oblivion) Mike Tyson

Speaking of books, a couple of people have asked if I have a collection of my better 
columns available in print. Wowsers, what a thought. If you have any opinions or 
suggestions regarding a book of my columns (at least the 5 good ones) please email me at 
rich@versatape.com. I would really appreciate your input.

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HOWARD Hays As I See It


“HAVE YOUR OWN MEDIA” – HUNGARIAN 
PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR 
ORBAN AT CPAC, 2022

 

The Democratic president chose not to seek re-election and 
the vice president took over. Despite significant accomplishments, 
other problems led to the president’s withdrawal. A 
last-minute slogan of “To make the needed change” failed to 
adequately differentiate the vice president from the administration 
and the Republican challenger prevailed. 

 

That 1968 election was the first I seriously followed. It had similarities with the 
one we’ve just endured, but also significant differences – which make the outcome 
of this one particularly hard to fathom. 

 

Both elections followed transformative achievements. The administration of 
Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey brought the Civil Rights Act, Voting 
Rights Act, Medicare and Medicaid, Head Start, etc. 

 

Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris the Inflation Reduction Act led to massive 
private investment in clean energy, the CHIPS and Science Act brings microchip 
production home from China, a $15B investment in public safety is made 
through the American Rescue Plan, 40,000 infrastructure projects are in the 
pipeline with 700,000 new construction jobs already created, etc.

 

Another similarity is that despite those achievements, other problems caused the electorate to seek new leadership. During Johnson’s last year in office, we were suffering 
an average 320 casualties a week in Vietnam. But a major difference is that while the Vietnam War was an ongoing reality, accusations against President Biden and 
Vice President Harris – primarily concerning the economy, immigration and crime - were made up.

 

Post-Covid inflation declined faster under Biden-Harris than in any other G7 country. The Wall Street Journal says the next president will inherit “a remarkable 
economy”, one that’s “putting its peers to shame”. The Economist describes it as “the envy of the world”. Both violent and property crime rates continued falling last 
year. No, the Biden Administration has not let “millions of people from jails, from prisons, from insane asylums, from mental institutions, drug dealers pour in” across 
our borders. Immigrants are neither eating our pets nor taking over apartment buildings in Aurora, Colorado. And no, our kids are not undergoing gender-altering 
surgeries at school.

 

Another difference is that in 1968, Republican candidate Richard Nixon came with an actual record of service; in the U.S. Navy, in Congress, the U.S. Senate and as vice 
president under Eisenhower. He was not a serial sexual predator, a multi-count convicted felon nor one who ran businesses through bankruptcies and stiffing contractors 
(nor had he been already twice-impeached). But Humphrey still did better against Nixon (losing by less than one percent of the popular vote) than Harris is doing 
against Trump (currently behind some 2.4%).

 

The loss is especially confounding when looking at states like Missouri; voting decisively to protect reproductive rights, raise the minimum wage and ensure sick leave 
for workers – while at the same time supporting candidates opposed to all of that. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) took to Instagram trying to figure how some 
in her district could vote both for her re-election and for Donald Trump. 

 

Partisans and pundits offer two different explanations for the outcome: either Harris didn’t move far enough to the left, or not enough to the right. But there’s another 
reason having to do with how voters get their information - and as Orban of Hungary suggests, the importance of controlling it.

 

Michael Tomasky in The New Republic reminds that customarily, a story would come from a candidate and then the media would pick it up and run with it. But now 
it’s the opposite. That story of pet-eating immigrants came from a Facebook post, circulated on Elon Musk’s X, picked up by Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance and then 
the candidate ran with it. The one about Biden-Harris diverting FEMA hurricane relief funds to undocumented immigrants came from a (debunked) bit on Fox News. 

 

Few would likely be familiar with Harris’ offering economic proposals on help for first-time homebuyers and small business start-ups, crackdowns on price-gouging 
food monopolies and expanding Medicare to cover home care for seniors. But most everyone’s heard of Biden (who wasn’t running) referring (doubtfully) to Trump 
supporters as “garbage” - and of Harris not offering any economic proposals.

 

A survey from NBC (last April when Biden was still running) showed that 
among Biden supporters, the largest percentage (70%) got their news from 
newspapers. For Trump supporters it was “YouTube/Google” (55%). For voters 
18-29 years old, 46% got their news from social media, while a 2020 Pew 
Research study found those relying on social media for their news were “less 
knowledgeable, less engaged”.

 

In 1968, voters tuned into nightly newscasts from Huntley and Brinkley, 
Frank Reynolds or Walter Cronkite. They read daily newspapers. Time and 
Newsweek were owned by companies committed to journalism. But as noted 
by Steven Waldman in Politico, “We’ve lost one-third of our local newspapers; 
the number of reporters has dropped 60% in two decades”, leaving a “vacuum 
– which has been filled by partisan news sources and social media”. Billionaire 
owners of the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post declined to make 
presidential endorsements, lest they be regarded as among Trump’s “enemies 
within”. Viktor Orban would approve.

 

And there might be another explanation for this election outcome, offered by 
George Carlin – “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half 
of them are stupider than that.” No comment. 

Editor's Note: Who's that standing next to his pride and joy at the recent sierra 
Madre Car Show? Photo courtesy Dirk Bolle


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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