Snarky Tom's Rants, Raves and Ruminations

This could be a Coronavirus post but it's not really, even though, it is. Sort of. Because we are quarantined, I've been binge watching TV shows that I've always meant to give a chance but have never made the time. Now that we have the time, I've been watching Superstore. It's quirky. It's funny. It's a little bit, well, maybe, more than a little bit obscene. There's swearing albeit bleeped out and pixelated, but I know what they're saying. The current episode I'm watching is Season 4 Episode Major Crimes. In this episode, the manager, Glenn, steps down and the District Manager has hired her son. In the end, Amy played by America Ferrera gets the job because she blackmails the DM who she caught snorting cocaine. But that's not the point I'm about to make. I was thinking a real megastore would not allow the DM to hire a family member for store manager. But then I got to thinking, of course, they could or would. Nepotism started in ret...

I had mentioned something about this in my post, Hate , but would like to embellish. I despise Toyotas. No, I hate Toyotas. I should clarify. I don't hate the vehicle. I'm presume that it's a well built commodity that everybody seems to own or want to own. And I'm sure it's more than just the very attractive spokesperson, Jan (Laurel Coppock), in the TV commercials. According to  Statista , in 2019, Ford and then Toyota were the most purchased automobile brands in the United States. Laurel Coppock (Jan from Toyota) I'd like to state (without evidence); 1 out of 5 drivers really suck at driving. When I say suck, I mean: They cut off other cars while lane changing,  They don't use turn signals,  They drive past dusk with headlights off, They speed, They tailgate, They run through red traffic lights and stop signs,  They are reckless and erratic, They crash (sometimes into each other, but mostly into other makes and models), They disrupt my life...

The way the world is going I just can't handle writing about it any longer. I am trading my laptop, apartment, clothes and worldly possessions for a monastery in an ashram in the Mexican Chihuahuan desert wearing nothing more than a serape and a pair of huaraches eating avocados and refried beans and drinking Dos Equis, Modelo or an occasional Corona. (You just don't drink the water when in Mexico.) So, this is goodbye, my friends. Goodbye! | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | April Fools!! Oh, I'm not letting you suckers off that easy. I'm going to be around for a very long, long time. Unless the Corona gets me. And I mean too many cervezas. Then I'll just sober up and write on.  This was a little poke at you for now. I'll give you something to chomp on a little later. Have a happy and wonderful April Fool's Day quarantined, sequestered, self-imprisoned or whatever you want to call it. TTFN!

We touched upon this briefly in an earlier post. Finances. Everyone is shitting bricks because the Stock Market is tanking. But it has tanked before and has always rebounded. So, stack up those bricks and relax. We will get through this. Some people are pissing and moaning about how some Congresspersons have cashed in on the Coronavirus by selling off their stocks. It's not like they had insider trading information. Everyone should have known that things were going to get rough. The world was in crisis. And whatever happens in the world will affect (and in this case - infect) us in many ways. I don't fault them for looking out for themselves. Any of us who own stocks could have done the same. I could have if I was going to be aggressive about my IRA. As it is, I have a guy managing my portfolio and he called me last week as he was leaving for an unknown island destination. No, I'm kidding. He did call me though. He told me I'm down 12% compared to the national average...

I was watching the news last night. I know I shouldn't torture myself but sometimes I do. The lead-in story was, of course, about the Coronavirus, but with a twist. The video was showing a line of people, not practicing social distancing, standing in a queue to buy guns and ammo. WHAT? WTF is this? Guns? Guns!! Are we now preparing for a Zombie Apocalypse? People! Those are just TV shows. Not real. Apparently, fear of this illness has reached another level. Crazy stupid. The U.S deaths from Coronavirus is up to 100. Add firearms to the mix and it's going to double in no time at all. Statistics show that more gun owners usually get shot by their own gun than used to protect themselves or it's stolen and used in a violent crime somewhere else. The 2nd amendment gives you the right, but you don't necessarily need to exercise that right. I don't. I own no gun. I have a Louisville Slugger for protection.  A gun shop yesterday (3/17/20) in Culver City, CA REUTERS/Pat...

Has everyone been good? Washing your hands and keeping your hands away from your face? When they say, "Don't touch your face!" that's the first thing I do. I don't know why, but we all do it. Hopefully, we are all staying healthy and well and get to work from home. I'm healthy in respect to my pulmonary system, anyway. Now to assist in the timing of your hand-washing, there are songs better suited than singing Happy Birthday to You...twice. Personally, I'm using the Beatles song "Her Majesty" that clocks in just under 30 seconds. It's a nice song and reminds me several times a day how much I lust for Queen Elizabeth II. Being quarantined for two or more weeks could present problems. For instance, cabin fever. You get too many people stuck in a small space and boom. Ya got trouble. Even if your house has 4,000+ square feet of livable space, it will seem smaller after awhile. You'll feel the walls closing in on you. And it won't ...

Hate. What is it good for? Absolutely...well, it depends how it's placed. There's so much talk about hate and not hating. But let me clue you in. For some of us, hate is our motivator. Our raison d'être . Don't try to fill me with that tolerance shite. Not everyone is TOLERANT. Not EVERYONE is meant to BE TOLERANT. Some of us THRIVE on INTOLERANCE. I'M NOT TOLERANT. I used to be. But no longer. I'm getting too old for this shite. Prime example. I hate privileged white people. Specifically, whiny little shite bags born with a silver spoon in hand that expects that because they're white they're entitled. I hate poor people...of all races. Most of them are in their situation because they lacked the skill set to be successful, for many of them, they didn't apply themselves to better themselves so they could have a better situation. To quote Dean Wormer from Faber College (Animal House), "Being fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life,...

I don't know if you've been sucked into the craze lately, but I have...sort of. That craze is the World-wide Trivia game, HQ. I started out fairly well. Unfortunately, I have been beaten down like the out of touch dinosaur that I have become. 12 questions. Get them all correct. You win a share of a prize that, at this writing, is $2,500.00. It starts easy for the first two to three questions. Then it becomes more challenging. Mostly, it's trivia questions about pop culture, but some of it has to do with just about every subject under the sun, as the expression goes. My best was to make it to Question 8 before choosing the incorrect answer. You have three choices. So guessing is an option. But guess wrong, and you're out. You can sit and watch the rest of the game if you have nothing better to do or if you want to torture yourself especially if you get the remaining questions correct and you're already eliminated. No soup for you! One of the recent games I got elimin...