Odds and Ends and Such

Musings of an Aging Mind

By Jack Bagley

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column concerning our return to the Moon with the Artemis 2 space mission. Once that column hit the streets, however, the mission was postponed until March at the earliest, thanks to some issues with the massive rocket that will take four astronauts there.
That’s what I get for forgetting that space missions don’t always go off as planned … and sometimes, they don’t go off at all.

Baseball season is right around the corner, now that the Super Bowl is over. That means we will be hearing from Homer K. Frink, the Baseball Curmudgeon who lives inside my head. He’s been suspiciously quiet over the past few months, primarily because my health hasn’t permitted him to vent his own spleen on the topic of America’s National Pastime.
But don’t worry, fans of Mr. Frink (and I know you’re out there). He’s tuning up his thoughts on the upcoming season and will be along to entertain us with his take on the game in the not too distant future.

Speaking of the Super Bowl (number 60, or LX if you’re counting in Roman numerals), I have to ask – did anyone actually watch the game? I certainly didn’t.  I didn’t watch the fancy commercials, I didn’t watch the halftime show with Bad Bunny (who – or what – is a Bad Bunny?), I didn’t even bother turning on the television.
I learned later that the Seattle Seahawks won the game. Hooray for them. I would only have watched if the Chicago Bears or Atlanta Falcons were playing.  Since they weren’t, I didn’t.
For those who may be wondering about the ongoing state of my health, I am happy to report that I’m still on this side of the grass, and while I am not yet back to 100%, I’m working diligently to get there. I take my meds daily (three times a day), I do what the doctors tell me, and I think I’ll be hanging around for some time to come.
You may interpret that last part any way you wish.

Speaking of my health, I have been getting a lot of sales calls from places that use “health care” or “Medicare” in their opening spiel in an effort, I would suppose, to get me to buy something or other from them.
I don’t know about you, but I have never – and will never – purchase anything from someone who cold-calls me with an ad spiel that any six-year-old could have written. I’m still not sure how they got my phone number or name, but these days such information is widely available, whether we want it to be or not.
In that regard, I also get several calls per week asking if I still own such-and-thus an automobile, and every time it’s a car I have never owned or (in most cases) would never purchase. When I tell the caller that, they then ask what kind of car I do have?
At that point, I realize I’m on the cusp of either being sold a so-called “extended warranty” that will cover absolutely nothing, or some other scam is brewing. I advise the caller that I’m not interested and hang up.
A recent caller, however, did his level best to keep me on the phone, asking if he could just have one moment of my time. After telling him I wasn’t interested numerous times, yet interested in seeing how it would play out, I asked, “Which part of what I just said did you not understand?”
The man sputtered a moment, then hung up.
He beat me to it.

The online streaming service YouTube has recently seen posted a set of five episodes of Jeopardy! from 1972.
Those are the NBC originals, friends, back when the host was Art Fleming, the announcer was Don Pardo, the game was faster (and harder), and the dollar amounts for each category were in double digits and everybody – winners and losers – got to keep their winnings.
A lot of people don’t recall that Jeopardy! was on NBC for 11 years, from 1964 to 1975, as a network game show. Its revival in 1984 with the great Alex Trebek as host wasn’t the beginning of the show, just the beginning of the modern era of the show. It’s more high-tech, glitzier, and the money can border on the outrageous, but if you get a chance, check out the 1972 originals on YouTube and see from whence it all originated.

Finally, I found myself drawn to participate in the new fad on Facebook of using AI to generate cartoon images of myself in various endeavors, just to see what I might look like.  I did the basics for me – game show host, news reporter, Safari tour guide – and a few odd ones like a superhero.
Suffice it to say that at my age, I make a less-than-threatening-to-the-bad-guys superhero.