What Kind Of a Crazy World...

Sometimes I have to wonder what kind of a crazy world is this?

ITEM! 

My wife Andrea and I were driving to pick our daughter Miranda at a skating rink where she spent part of Sunday afternoon with her friends. As I recounted here, Andrea does not have a really good sense of direction. Yet as we're driving along the route to get to the skating rink, a couple of things happened: 

I needed to make a left hand turn at a traffic light. I was getting ready to make that turn when Andrea said, "No, it's the next light." And she was correct. 

Later, I was approaching an intersection and I wondered aloud if I needed to turn left. "You need to turn right," Andrea said. And she was right again. 

Yes, it's a small thing but the world as I know it says I know how to go places and she doesn't. Seriously, what kind of a crazy world is this when she knows directions better than I do?

ITEM! 

For many years, the Carolina Panthers have been a woebegone franchise in the NFL. Some years there were flashes of potential but mostly this was a team of has beens, not quites and never weres with a losing record to match. 

The last few years, the Panthers have made some incremental improvements but nobody expected that as of mid-December, the Panthers would be undefeated. Yesterday, the Panthers shut out the Atlanta Falcons 38-0. Things were going so well for Carolina that quarterback Cam Newton sat out the 4th quarter to let the back up QB have a go just for practice. What kind of a crazy world is it when the Carolina Panthers are not only unbeaten but can afford to give the starting quarterback a rest because the team is just that far ahead? 

One business that was caught off guard by the Panthers' success is North Carolina based doughnut chain, Krispy Kreme. They had a deal where every time the Panthers won a game, the following Monday a dozen glazed doughnuts were offered at a discount price. I imagine when the deal was made, Krispy Kreme figured the promotion would mean reduced price doughnuts for what, six, seven weeks? So far, Krispy Kreme has sold a whole hell of a lot of boxes of 12 doughnuts for 13 weeks. It's a sweet deal if you want to give your office staff a sugar rush to jump start their Monday morning but I imagine its been a bit more costly than Krispy Kreme anticipated.

ITEM!

As you go about your Christmas shopping and other holiday related errands, you might be singing Winter Wonderland and White Christmas to the hum of your car air conditioner. 
I complained about it here on Saturday and I'm not being paranoid.  According to this report, "arctic air that has been locked up in Canada isn't budging, making for record-high temperatures from the South, through the Plains and into the Northeast. Temperatures in those regions soared to 15-30 degrees above average". 

What kind of a crazy world is it when I need to dress in short sleeves to be comfortable while Christmas shopping? I'm not trying to be an alarmist here. I remember when I was a kid there were some years when a few days in December would be warmer than usual. But not this warm and not this many days. 

I know this is not scientific but I just feel that the world around me is different from what I remember. The evidence of my senses tells me the climate is different now from what it was 40 years ago. And 196 nations seems to think so too as they signed on to an historic climate agreement to try and change the course of our planet's environment. 

To the surprise of no one, Republicans are already lining up against the deal. Trust me, their press quotes and Op-Ed pieces were written up months ago. As is the case with most things of this nature, I'm sure there are things of concern and deals that may have been improved upon. But the larger issue is our environment is changing and not for the better. And we need the cooperation of the world to do something about that. But in the modern GOP, "negotiating" is a dirty word, particularly when the negotiator is President Obama.  

And speaking of the GOP...

ITEM! 

Ted Cruz is surging in the polls in Iowa 50 days ahead of their first caucus. What kind of a crazy world do we...

Ah, to hell with it. I think when it comes to the race for the Republican nomination for president, it's hard to be shocked by the crazy world we live in. 

Everyone, try to be good to one another.

Dave-El 
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You