From Sammy's political days...

Regardless of the office for which he was running, wouldn't a campaign poster with this photo have prompted you to vote for Sammy?

2006: Sammy, running for office on a platform of careful, considered decision-making.

A nod to two great cats

December 2003: Rosie and Sammy.

The era of Rosie and Sammy, my family's wonderful sister-brother cat duo, ended this morning with Sammy's passing.  As thankful as I am to have had these two great cats in my life for so long, such losses never become easier to take.  I've thought a lot today about all the times when Sammy was there for us with a friendly tap of the paw, a nose touch, or a paw lift.  Rosie, who passed away in 2014, and Sammy were an endearing duo everyone in our family will miss immensely.  I've posted more extensive thoughts on Sammy and Rosie on my other blog.

If you've had the heart-rending experience of losing one or more pets, here's wishing you strength, resilience, and frequent recall of the pleasant memories you had with them.

Finishing the sentence CX & CXI

Here are two politically based one-shots, i.e. unfinished sentences I wrote in 1992 that didn't elicit many responses or received one answer that stood out:

According to Charles Colson, former special counsel to President Richard Nixon, "The painful fact is, the will is not morally neutral.  The greatest myth of our time is that people are basically good.  It's not true.  We are bent toward evil."  Colson's assertion is valid (or invalid) because...

...(valid) I think we are all bent toward evil.  We spend our lifetime trying to resist that pull against what it morally right.  Life would be too easy if everyone was innately a good person.  It is a challenge for people to resist that evil urge.  Colson just failed resisting that urge and doing what is right. (Erica C.)

In The Selling Of The President 1968, Joe McGinniss writes, "Politics, in a sense, has always been a con game.  The American voter, insisting upon his belief in a higher order, clings to his religion, which promises another, better life, and defends passionately the illusion that the men he chooses to lead him are of finer nature than he.  It has been traditional that the successful politician honor this illusion.  To succeed today, he must embellish it.  Particularly if he wants to be President."  This illusion has been followed (or ignored), considering that...

...(followed) Our public casts the illusion of being ignorant mice waiting for the piper to come lead us to great things.  Then, once everything is over, we start bitching about every decision that is made...Illusion is what the entire political system, as well as our entire world, is based upon.  Politics is just another business. (Sean B.)

Justifiable turnabout?

It's odd to me that my cat and I both take medicine for acid reflux.  Unlike me, however, she gets her medicine--in theory, at least--when I put a quarter of a pill in a pill popper, and put it in her mouth.  Each time, it looks as though she swallows her medicine. However, now and then, I've found pills she supposedly swallowed on the floor, in the kitchen sink, and, once, in her fur.  I don't blame her for being defiant.  No one of any species likes being forced to take medicine.  One of these days, I'm going to have an appointment of my own, and she's probably going to put me in a human carrier and drive me there.

"Here's that stapler with mustard you ordered..."

I ordered two parfaits in the drive-through.  When I got up to the window, the clerk started to hand me coffee.  I told her I'd actually ordered two parfaits.  She returned with a sausage and egg biscuit.  I explained again that I'd ordered two parfaits.  The third time, I received the right food.  I was still slightly disappointed, though, as I was curious to know what I might have received incorrectly a third time--a tape dispenser, perhaps, or maybe a socket wrench or a llama.

A linguistic irritant XXIV

Today marks the first anniversary of generallyrandommusings.blogspot.com--not, as too many journalists would write, the one-year anniversary.  The anniversary hasn't been going on for a year.  On November 2, 2016, I started this blog.  Today marks one year since I started it; thus, it's my blog's first anniversary.

More curmudgeonly observations to follow in my blog's second year...

Finishing the sentence CIX

I always thought this unfinished sentence I wrote was one of my stranger ones.  Here are some responses it elicited in January 1993:

Little did the unsuspecting Puritan know that just behind him, a vile charlatan was about to...

...steal his soul with a Kodak. (Tre B.)

...gut him with a crucifix while chanting "Ozzy" lyrics. (Jenni S.)

...offer him a genetically altered tomato. (Jennifer D.)