13

OPINIONOPINION

MOUNTAIN 
VIEWS

NEWS

PUBLISHER/ EDITOR

Susan Henderson

PASADENA CITY 
EDITOR

Dean Lee 

SALES

Patricia Colonello

626-355-2737 

626-818-2698

WEBMASTER

John Aveny 

DISTRIBUTION

Peter Lamendola

CONTRIBUTORS

Lori A. Harris

Michele Kidd

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

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

STUART TOLCHIN

PUT THE LIGHTS ON

RICH JOHNSON

FIBBERTIGIBBET


TRICK OR TREATERS YOUNG AND OLD


Over the course of our 
lifetime we will have 
learned and used many 
expressions for one 
purpose or another. 
Dissecting a number 
of these expressions 
might prove to be a boring and tedious 
project (I’m bored already), or devoid of 
any real substantive use (like all my columns). 
Then again, it might be “more 
funny”. Or should I say “funnier”? And 
if it puts you to sleep, all the better.

Take the expression, “more or less”. 
What does that really mean?

“More or less” is defined as true in a 
general way, but not completely true. 
The British would define the expression 
as “to an unspecified extent or degree”. 
Us Americans are more prone to define 
“more or less” as “to some extent or as 
an approximation”.

More importantly when is it good to use 
the expression, and more importantly, 
not use it? If you teach a “English as a 
Second Language” course and the prospective 
student asks if he or she would 
be able to converse with someone who 
speaks that new language, it’s okay for 
you to say, “More or less”!

On the other hand, if you are in a 
church, in a tuxedo with a beautiful girl 
in a white gown standing next to you, 
when a person nearby holding a Bible 
asks you, “Do you take this woman to 
be your wife, do you promise to honor 
and keep her and so on…” I would 
strongly recommend you not say “More 
or less”.

Our use of the language has rules of usage. 
For example, if I somehow accidentally 
tell you a joke that’s actually funny 
and then I tell you another joke that you 
like better do you say the second joke 
was “more funny” or “funnier”? Experts 
tell me “funnier” is by far the correct 
choice to use. But, not so fast: “more 
funny” is making a comeback in literary 
circles. People are still good with saying 
something is “funniest” as opposed to 
“most funny”.

Just to completely confuse you (always 
my goal), experts tell us you cannot use 
the words “funner” or “funnest” as other 
forms of “fun”. So, you can tell someone 
“you are more fun than I am”, but 
you cannot tell them you are “funner” 
than I am. I say “Why not?”

In an attempt to redeem this already 
“tedious” column, I will share some of 
the funniest words (more or less) in our 
native tongue.

“Bumfuzzle” (to be confused) “Rich 
tends to “bumfuzzle” people who read 
his column.”

“Snickersnee” (a knife from the 1700’s) 
“Rich uses a “snickersnee” to fight off 
the angry readers of his column.”

“Gubbins” (something that is useless or 
silly) “Why doesn’t Rich’s editor realize 
Rich is “gubbins”.

“Lollygag” (mess around or waste time) 
“If you ever want to “lollygag” read one 
of Rich’s columns”.

“Malarky” (a situation which is madness 
or chaotic) “(Referring to Rich’s 
columns) I should not read this “malarky” 
for another second”.

“Flibbertigibbet” (a person who talks a 
lot or is silly) “I don’t know how much 
longer I can read this column by Rich. 
He’s such a “Flibbertigibbet”.

“Snollygoster” (A politician who serves 
for his own benefit and not the community.) 
“I double dare you to run up 
to Arnold Schwarzenegger and call 
him a snollygoster”. Okay a “former” 
snollygoster.

“Bibble” (To eat or drink in a noisy fashion) 
“Don’t ever go out to lunch with 
Rich. He doesn’t eat, he bibbles!”

It’s terribly important to realize when 
should we use these expressions, and 
more importantly, when we shouldn’t.

Shameless plug! If you are looking for a 
second opportunity to wear your Halloween 
costume, why not come to Nano 
Café Saturday night, November 1st for 
a Halloween Costume Party/Concert. 
My band JJ Jukebox will be performing, 
costumes are not mandatory, but 
fun. Great food, full bar, dancing to 
vintage Rock and Roll a la JJ Jukebox. 
7:00-10:00pm Saturday evening. (626) 
325-3334 for questions (Call after 4:00 
Wednesday through Saturday) 

 I am sure you have 
noticed that Halloween 
decorations are 
everywhere. I feel as 
if I am surrounded by 
pumpkins. Already I 
am worried. Framed 
on my bedroom wall is a picture of my 
column from November 4, 2023, in which 
I am pictured walking with my granddaughter 
who was then 4 years old. We 
are in costume. I wear a straw-hat, dressed 
in overalls and am carrying a wooden pole 
with three paper fish attached. In the article 
I explain that the picture was taken just 
after I had tripped over some rocks and 
fallen to the ground. Now I was standing 
up, and both my granddaughter and I are 
grasping the fishing pole.

 In the article I explain that my granddaughter 
is now proclaiming that the fishing 
pole should belong to her as I imagine 
she believes I am too old to fish and it is 
now up to her. In another article written 
within the last couple of years I described 
my granddaughter noticing that 
my wife has colored the front part of her 
hair leading to my granddaughter to announce 
“Mima, you're not old anymore.” 
I was wearing a baseball cap at the time 
and removed the cap displaying my bald 
head and white hair. I asked my granddaughter 
“What about me?” and she replied 
“Grandpa, you were always old!”

 Well, that is the way she saw me then and 
still sees me now. To her I was always old 
but that is not true for me. It is true that 
I worry this year if I will walk be able to 
walk along with her trick or treating without 
falling all over again. It is something 
to worry about because, as I have written, 
I am a few years older than Donald Trump 
and everything, almost everything, has 
gotten much harder. I mention Donald 

 Trump having just seen the accolades 
given to him by his cohorts and other 
world leaders. Whether these accolades 
are deserved is not the question. My point 
is that the President is motivated by his 
need for praise in a way that is embarrassing 
to the rest of us.

 Really, I sympathize and somewhat understand 
why the President is as needy as 
he seems to be. Perhaps this need is not 
necessarily connected with his age. This 
inevitable ageing is generally connected to 
a diminution of abilities which most of us 
want to ignore and disprove. Recently, I 
saw 88-year-old Jane Fonda being interviewed 
on a morning news show. Not 
surprisingly she was articulate, alert, and 
filled with passion and ideas and energy. 
After all, she is Jane Fonda, a hugely successful 
actress, activist, with a varied life 
history that is unique. I know all that; but 
what amazed me was the way throughout 
the interview that she sat in her chair.

 Not once did she rest against the back of 
her chair. Her back remained completely 
powerfully straight in a way that absolutely 
amazed me. By some bizarre coincidence I 
have attached to the wall in my bedroom, 
the same bedroom where the Halloween 
picture of my costumed trick or treating is 
hung there exists a tracing of a picture of 
Jane Fonda. I believe I traced the picture 
probably forty-five years ago when I first 
moved alone to Sierra Madre soon after 
the break-up of my first marriage. I imagine 
I was planning to live a life containing 
exercise and activism and whatever and 
that picture of Jane Fonda traced from the 
cover of her exercise book was intended to 
be a motivating factor of some sort. Well, 
things changed and I soon had sole custody 
of my two children, and exercise and 
activism took a back seat. 

 What I realize now is that life keeps 
changing in the most unpredictable ways 
and that although ageing can be predicted 
its effects are still a surprise. Trying to 
hold on to what we were is probably damaging 
but accepting who we are and noting 
what we have already accomplished is 
always possible. I am not Jane Fonda and 
never was, but I still will have this Halloween 
to do what is best and appropriate for 
me to do. 

 America today is what it is, and I wish 
it wasn’t. Holding on to what now seems 
like our untroubled past does not help. 
We should all notice where we are walking 
because we have tripped before and need 
to get back on our feet and maintain this 
world as safely as we can for ourselves and 
our grandchildren. After all; Things often 
get better. Look at the green mountains 
today after the rains of yesterday and the 
recent fires.


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TOM PURCELL

FAKE AUTHENTIC STUFF


It’s called “messy authenticity,” and it’s the latest trend to 
clearly demonstrate America has lost its collective mind.

Looking for a Maison Margiela sweater with unfinished 
threads and gaping holes? It’ll cost you nearly $1,500.

How about a designer purse with fringed eyelets, frayed material 
and uneven seams? That’ll be about $1,700.

How about a “Rag Chair” for your living room that’s stitched together with 
discarded fabric scraps? That will set you back about $4,000.

I first documented the “designs made to look imperfect” trend nearly 18 years 
ago. Distressed furniture was one of the first troubling examples.

As it went, people were bringing brand new chairs, tables and dressers into 
their garages, kicking and scratching the bejesus out of them, then covering 
them in a lumpy, blotchy paint.

My sister, an interior designer, told me that people did this because they wanted 
an antique look, but real antiques are hard to come. So they paid good 
money for brand new furniture which they spent hours making look tired and 
worn.

The blue jean trend was another regrettable example. In 2007, the owner of 
an upscale jeans store told me the jeans with holes and splattered paint were 
selling like hotcakes.

“People spend money on jeans with holes and paint on them?” I said.

“Yes, up to $700,” she said.

“But they have holes and paint on them!” I said.

“Yes!” she said.

She told me the best-selling jeans were either washed in dirt or smeared with 
grease — so that people who buy them can be as fashionable as the guy digging 
graves or changing fluids at the Jiffy Lube.

Since 2007 the trend for authentic-looking fake stuff has accelerated in some 
areas, but it is declining in others, and I think I know why.

As more Americans move to major metro areas — nearly 85 percent of us live 
there now — we’ve traded dirt, grass and sky for pavement, strip malls and 
cookie-cutter townhomes.

We work long hours in gray cubicles doing bland service work — keeping our 
personal observations and human emotions to ourselves out of fear that HR 
will write us up.

The farther we drift from hands-on living and the freedom to be ourselves, 
the more we long for authenticity of any kind — even messy authenticity that 
is totally fake.

Then again, more young people are walking away from college and paper-
pushing jobs to become electricians, plumbers and carpenters. They’re rediscovering 
what we once called blue-collar horse sense — the joy of making and 
fixing things with your hands.

Our country was built by people who toiled with their hands. Ben Franklin 
started as a printer’s apprentice. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson 
farmed — most of the founders did.

Working daily in nature — wrestling with real problems out in the fields and 
the woods with the many animals they cared for — taught them humility, 
practicality and authenticity.

To that end, the return of young people to the trades gives me hope. The more 
that Americans fix and create things, the less we will desire fake authentic 
stuff.

One design trend offers hope:

The “working-stiff” jeans of two decades ago have become more refined — 
the holes are smaller, the dirt’s rubbed in more gently and the grease is applied 
in modest dabs.

It’s a start.

HOWARD Hays As I See It


“The war is over; the 
war is over! Okay. 
You understand 
that?” - President 
Trump, embarking 
on his mission to the 
Mideast

 

Two dozen world leaders were in attendance 
at the summit in Egypt, marking 
approval of the peace plan for Gaza negotiated 
under President Trump. Missing, 
however, were Israel and Hamas. This followed 
Trump’s speech to Israel’s Knesset, 
where he called for pardoning Israeli PM 
Benjamin Netanyahu – facing charges of 
bribery, fraud and breach of trust. (“Give 
him a pardon. Come on.”)

 

At the Egyptian summit, Trump complimented 
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia 
Meloni on her looks (“You don’t mind 
being called beautiful, right? You are.”). 
He praised Hungarian PM Viktor Orban 
(“You are fantastic, alright?”). 

 

Orban’s held office for fifteen years – targeting 
press freedom, political opponents, 
independent institutions, immigrants, 
gays, etc. – and is up for re-election next 
Spring. Polls show him behind, but with 
fears he’ll refuse to give up power regardless 
of the vote. Trump assured him in 
front of the other world leaders, “We’re 
behind you 100 percent”, while also reminding 
them, “but I’m the only one that 
matters”.

 

In attendance were two of the lead negotiators, 
the president’s chief envoy Steve Witkoff 
and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner. 
Witkoff is a former real estate attorney 
whose firm once had Donald Trump as 
a client, later be-coming a billionaire real 
estate developer. His son is a partner in 
the Trump family crypto firm. The Qatari 
gov-ernment sought to get in good with 
the first Trump administration by getting 
in good with those close to Trump – so 
provided bail-out funding to the Witkoff 
Group real estate firm.

 

Kushner is now also a billionaire – mainly 
through his private equity firm. That 
company kicked off with a $2 bil-lion investment 
from the Saudi Arabia sovereign 
wealth fund, months after Trump’s first 
term ended. Late last year, it received an 
additional $1.5 billion from an Abu Dhabi 
firm and the Qatar Investment Authority. 
Reported-ly, it was Kushner who recommended 
to his father-in-law that Steve 
Witkoff join the team in Mideast negotia-
tions. Also at the summit was the intermediary 
for Hamas, Emir Al Thani of Qatar.

 

Negotiations had been going on since the 
Biden administration. There’s been speculation 
as to why it’s now that they’ve concluded. 
Some say it had to do with France 
joining ten other nations (Canada, Australia, 
the U.K., Mexico, etc.) that just this 
year have recognized a Palestinian state. 
Others suggest there simply wasn’t much 
left to bomb. Over 67,000 killed, a third of 
them children – thousands more still buried 
in the rubble. 10% of the population 
killed or injured, 90% displaced. 98% of 
housing damaged or destroyed, 78% of the 
buildings. 99% of agricultural land inaccessible. 
95% of hospitals damaged or destroyed, 
90% of the schools. 

 

Other countries had long since ended 
their support for this war on Gaza, but 
not Trump - until Israel’s targeting Hamas 
leaders with an attack on Doha, the capital 
city of Qatar. While meeting at the 
White House, Trump had Netanyahu call 
Qatari PM Al-Thani with a personal apology. 
That same day, he issued an executive 
order – that any attack on Qatar would 
be regarded “as a threat to the peace and 
security of the United States”, promising 
we’d provide “if necessary, military” aid to 
defend Qatar against such attack. It’s like 
the commitment among NATO allies, but 
Qatar isn’t a NATO ally.

 

Defense Secretary Hegseth is getting flak 
from even diehard MAGAs for his recent 
announcement we’d be allow-ing Qatar to 
establish a military training facility at an 
Air Force base in Idaho.

 

Six months ago, Qatar gifted that $400 
million tricked-out Boeing 747 to Trump 
– with skeptics wondering what, if anything, 
Qatar would be receiving in return.

 

For the war in Gaza, some Israelis feel the 
whole point was return of the hostages – 
and the remining twenty still alive are now 
home. There are 28 bodies to be recovered, 
but Hamas says it doesn’t know where they 
all are. And then there are members of 
Netanyahu’s own cabinet who feel that regardless 
of whatever commit-ments made, 
the war must continue.

 

As of this writing, aid trucks are still not 
being allowed into Gaza. Five were killed 
by an Israeli drone strike – Israel says they’d 
crossed a “yellow line” too close to their 
troops, others suggest they were returning 
to check out damage to their homes.

 

Hamas still patrols the streets of Gaza. 
Earlier this year, Israel was supporting rival 
gangs to help take down Ha-mas. Now 
it’s Hamas taking down those rival gangs, 
in very public executions. But Trump’s 
cool with it: “They want to stop the problems, 
and they’ve been open about it, and 
we gave them approval for a period of time 
. . . I think it’s going to be fine”, Trump said 
of this new role for Hamas.

 

Meanwhile, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner 
are no doubt reviewing Mideast business 
interests – property devel-opment, 
construction, raw materials, investment 
and finance – within the context of an estimated 
$53 billion, ten-year rebuilding 
project in Gaza. 

Appearing at the Harvard Kennedy School, 
Kushner made his suggestion for the Gaza 
waterfront; “Get the citizens out, then go 
in and finish the job” – a year before his 
father-in-law pro-posed a “Gaza Riviera”. 
It’s remarkable, the possibilities now that 
“the war is over! You understand that?”


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