I think democracy’s undermined when those who own newspapers fill them with trivia rather than real issues.—Ken Livingstone
As increasing amounts of information are thrust at us, even the things we enjoy risks becoming trivia
News, valid information that people need to know, too easily becomes trivia in our world. I look through the headlines this morning and struggle to choose a topic that is appropriate for this space. It’s not that there isn’t plenty to talk about, but sometimes the volume becomes so much that each additional voice begins to mute the whole.
Granted, I could keep talking about the #Snowmaggedon that is plaguing the East coast. I do genuinely feel sympathetic toward the people who live there. However, to write about an event like that when one is not actually experiencing it at the moment risks turning the whole story into trivia. Our eyes become tired of seeing the subject in headline after headline. We begin to assume that we’ve already consumed all the important information and ignore the rest.
At the same time, because of the sheer volume of information flooding the pipeline, there are a number of stories that become trivial simply because they don’t stand out enough to grab our attention. These stories fall under the category of, “oh yeah, this happened, too, but no one really noticed.” In newspaper terms, it becomes page six fodder. No one reads page six.
So, as I’m going through the headlines this morning, let me share with you some stories that you might have missed but that are probably more important than we realize. I’ll just give you a synopsis and then a link to the full article. These deserve to not be relegated to trivia.
Hidden peanut connection kills Minnesota man. If you’ve ever been around anyone with a peanut allergy, you know how crazy careful they are not only about not eating peanuts themselves, but staying away from anything that has come into contact with peanuts. Peanut allergies are one of those against which the body has limited immunity. Each negative reaction takes away from that immunity and when it’s gone, there’s no replacing it. This young man was being careful, but ate a chocolate from a manufacturer who also processes peanut candies. While none of the chocolates in the box contained peanuts, and he had eaten other chocolates from that box without a problem, the one he grabbed that morning was enough to kill him. Read the story here.
The global refugee crisis hasn’t stopped. One of the dangers of this election year is that when an issue stops being the talking point of the moment, it is promptly forgotten. A couple of weeks ago, the refugee crisis had everyone’s attention, mostly because no one in the US wanted to actually deal with the situation. Now that our political attention is literally stuck in the snow, we’ve stopped talking about the continuing waves of people flooding Greece so heavily that the EU is seriously considering, get this, building a fence around Greece to keep refugees from entering mainland Europe. People are dying on a daily basis. The humanitarian crisis is more severe than ever. What we treat like trivia now will come back to haunt us. Here’s the story from the Washington Post.
There is a superbug waiting to kill you. Getting competing drug manufacturers to agree on anything, especially government involvement, is nearly impossible but that is exactly what happened yesterday. 83 companies, including Pfizer and Merck, signed a declaration urging governments around the world to take action in combating drug-resistant infections. The bug that has them most concerned at the moment is called MCR-1. The bug was found in China late last year and has since popped up in Denmark as well. There is no existing drug to combat it and the potential fatality rate makes last year’s Ebola scare look like a tea party. You know it’s serious when drug makers are asking governments for help. Read up on the matter here.
China is still a horrible totalitarian regime. As trade relations with China have normalized over the past few years, we tend to forget that the Chinese government still has one of the worst records on human rights in the world. Recently, they’ve been rounding up dissidents and human rights attorneys and charging them with “subversion of state power.” People continue to disappear off the streets, and the crackdown isn’t limited to Chinese nationals. A Swedish citizen employed by a human rights NGO has been arrested as well. We have to ask ourselves whether the cheap electronics and fashion knockoffs are worth turning a blind eye to this tragedy. The Wall Street Journal has the story.Â
Skin cancer is five times more deadly when you’re pregnant. Melanoma is a personal issue for me because my father died of complications from melanoma, even after doctors initially said he had a 95% chance of beating it. Now, a study published this week shows that when melanoma is found in pregnant women, or within a year of pregnancy, they are five times more likely to die. Understand, this isn’t in older women, this is among women under the age of 50, women who are still very much in their childbearing years, women who, under more normal conditions, shouldn’t have to worry about the disease for another 20 years or so. The test group was small, but the results were strong enough to be frightening. Read the story here and then, if you’re pregnant, talk to your doctor.
I’m stopping there because my intent is not to totally depress everyone, but to emphasize just how much information, news we really need, is being missed, relegated to the trivia bin of social media’s short attention span. I understand, sometimes the glut of “bad” news is so heavy that we have to turn it off for a while to prevent our own plunge into depression. The world is not hopeless, though. The more you know, the better equipped you are to do something. Watch labels. Talk to your doctor. Avoid certain Chinese imports. You don’t have to be radical to make a difference. We just need to be aware.
And if you were expecting a trivia game from me this morning, I’m sorry. Maybe we’ll do something fun tomorrow.
Morning Update: 03/18/24
Negative Affirmations
There’s something different about my editing screen this morning and I’m not sure exactly what it is. The margins are off and that’s… unsettling. I’m not sure whether to blame one of the random software updates or my own ignorance, which seems to be growing by the hour. Being confident in one’s self is difficult when one loses the certainty of what one thinks they know.
Yesterday was mild. I read. I wrote. I napped. I read some more. I made dinner. Kat had a day full of haircuts, one right after another with no break. She fell asleep soon after she got home and I’m not sure she’s moved since. So everything is cool, right?
Not hardly. First, there was the matter of trying to get my prescription filled. I contacted the prescribing doctor who responded with, “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.” Ten minutes later, I got a second message, “All taken care of.” So, I check the pharmacy app and it’s back to “Getting refilled.” WHAT THE LIVING FUCK! I need the fucking medicine and I’m fucking tired of having to wait forever to get the damn thing filled!
Then, there was the matter of a recurring charge that shouldn’t be recurring or charging. We went over this with the bank three months ago. Yet, there it was again, $100 missing from my account. The bank replaced the funds, BUT their solution for preventing another incident was to replace my card. Again. Fine, order a new card. The problem with that is that not only will I have to go through and change every instance of my card number with every authorized service, but more importantly, I DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO THE MONEY IN MY ACCOUNT! I can’t buy milk or cat litter or a piece of sanity until the new card arrives. Normally, a new card would be here by the end of the week. However, there’s a freaking holiday in the middle of the week so who the fuck knows when I’ll get the new card and be able to make the necessary purchases.
Yes, the computer is still giving me fits, but no one seems terribly interested in helping resolve that problem. $300 takes care of it. Venmo: @C_I_Letbetter or CashApp: $ciletbetter. Feel free to help ease my suffering.
Since I can’t order more milk, which is the one food item we consume the most, I warned the kids last night to take it easy on the milk. What do I find in the kitchen this morning? Someone had finished the GIANT box of cereal and left the empty box on the counter with a corresponding amount of milk missing. Understand, we’ve only had that cereal a week and it’s already gone. Apparently, someone is using cereal as their primary source of sustenance.
All this and I woke up at 3:30 this morning, unable to go back to sleep. When I don’t sleep, I’m restless. When I’m restless, the cats get restless because I keep kicking them off the bed (it’s dark and I can’t see where they are). When the cats get restless, they get into things like the trash in the kitchen. Then, they wake the dogs. This morning started much too early.
Which leads me to the concept of Negative Affirmations. To hell with all the positive crap about, “you can do this,” and “make the day yours.” No. When a day starts like this, you have to accept the fact that things go wrong, things happen that annoy you and make you angry, and accept that how you feel about those things is okay. So, here are some Negative Affirmations for this morning.
It’s okay to be pissed off when no one takes out the goddamn trash.
Why is the trash bag sitting in the middle of the floor in the first place? No wonder the cats are tearing holes in the bag. If they can tie off the bag and set it on the floor, they can take it the fuck outside.
Go ahead and complain about the heat.
Everyone’s hot, everyone’s complaining about it in their head, so go ahead and say it out loud: it’s too damn hot. Alter your plans to stay where it’s cool. No one has the right to ask you to go out in this mess. It’s not healthy. Do they want you to fucking die? No? Then they can wait for this damn heat dome to pass before asking you to leave the air conditioning.
No, it’s not an oxymoron to drink hot coffee when it’s hot outside.
The only “moron” is the person suggesting you drink something other than hot coffee in the morning. Those are the kinds of suggestions that can get a person slapped, especially if I’ve not had my coffee yet. Coffee doesn’t increase one’s body temperature. Coffee keeps one from being homicidal in this heat.
Expecting everyone else to have their shit together is not unreasonable.
Never mind that I can’t remember my PIN or my passcode. My faults are not anyone else’s excuse for being inadequate. They don’t need to be adding to your bad mood with their incompetence. We’ll try to be understanding of innocent errors, but if you’re failing at the job you’ve been doing for twenty years, that’s a you problem. We’re going to expect better.
Being drunk before noon is a reasonable coping mechanism.
Just dealing with people is reason enough to drink and if they’re going to start being asshats early in the morning, then someone needs to spike the coffee. Make it a double if the person you’re dealing with is a fucking politician or telemarketer. Go ahead and drink, then take a nap. Otherwise, you might tell someone what you really think of them.
Telling a person to “shove it” is simply direct communication.
Everyone keeps telling us that “communication is key” and that we should be honest and direct. Okay, you can take all your positivity and sunshine and shove it up your ass. Let me have my bad day(s). How’s that for direct and honest?
You don’t have to give a shit about Taylor, Travis, or anyone else who may or may not be in a relationship.
There simply is no good reason for opening up the newsfeed and seeing a story about how much Taylor misses Travis right under the story about Netanyahu dismantling his war cabinet. No one with a brain fucking cares about celebrity private lives. No one with a working brain should. We have our own relationships to worry about.
No, the 70s rock music is not too loud.
There’s no such thing. You’re just jealous because your generation’s music is lame.
There are definitely more, but I’ll save them for another time. Right now, I need to refill my coffee cup that’s more than half empty.
Oh, and if you didn’t read yesterday’s educational post, you have homework to do.
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