A Midsummer Potpourri

 

It has been a while since I last potporried (probably not even a word).

I potpourri for a few reasons.  Foremost is that I don’t really have a topic worthy of a full blog.  So, I write about observations sometimes related, though mostly all over the place.  Secondly, as in this case, I am in a writer’s slump and using the potpourri format to breakout of the slump.  So, here goes.

I watched part of a movie this morning, The House on 92^nd Street (1945).  It is a noirish World War II classic that shows the dedication and efficiency of the FBI in infiltrating and destroying the well-organized cell.  Sure, the Nazi’s were smart and had a well-crafted plan for their espionage.  They were no match for the even more dedicated FBI with righteousness on their side.  As with many of the war times films, this movie was designed to bolster the spirit and war time resolve of the people.  78 years later with all we know now about J. Edgar and the manipulative missteps we have taken since World War II, we look at a movie like The House on 92^nd Street under a different lens.  Casting ourselves as the good guys and those confronting us as the bad guys does not seem as simple as it was back in the day.

It is a gorgeous weekend in Chicagoland.  While the rest of the country is suffering from severe heat and others, like New England, deluged by crazy intense rainstorms, we had a brief drought in May and four days in the 90s last week.  Other than that, it has been a most pleasant summer.  When I first moved here, folks would rave about summer in Chicago.  Having lived elsewhere, I had never heard anyone tout the Chicago summer weather.  Now that I have lived here and experienced it, I have to agree.  For about five months, we have some pretty nice weather.  The difference this year is that our normal summer seem exceptionally good relative to the rest of the country.

It is definitely helpful for the writer’s slump to write these kinds of blogs about nothing.  Well, perhaps not actually about nothing, but more so, a little bit a few to several topics.  They are almost never popular, but for some reason there are a small number of readers mystified by these offerings.  The wonder in amazement how and why I write such “stuff.”  I try to explain.  That is why I use the Seinfeldesque “blog about nothing” explanation.  I also explain that a blog, short for weblog, is an online journal.  The subtitle of mine is, as I often note, is a “Monthly Letter of Musings and Meanderings.”  I emphasize the musing and meandering part… it has no impact on these friends and that’s OK.  For the most part, as they say, they are just busting my chops.

Speaking of weather, it is crazy out there.  Phoenix experienced 30 days of temperatures above 110 with a high of 118 on day!! Las Cruces, NM had 34 days of temperature readings above 100 from June 19 through July 22.  El Paso experienced 27 days of temperatures that warm.  It is easy to say, “But, it is a dry heat,” but we have all heard and read about the dangers of these unprecedented heat streaks.  Most reports are attributing this to climate change.  Fewer are reporting that we are experiencing climate change compounded by El Nino.

I do like to muse and meander…