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Thursday, April 12, 2018

Trump's Razor

The term water closet (or w.c.) is as good a term as any, I suppose, but not commonly used in the US.  The word toilet seems a bit abrupt and direct and we haven't yet agreed on a suitable euphemism.  Restroom maybe, but who's resting?  Bathroom can be confusing unless you plan to take a bath.  Some British movies have used the word convenience but I think that's a little too precious and hoity-toity.  The best compromise I can think of right now is ladys' room and men's room unless you want to hang with the vulgar masses and use the gender non-specific terms of crapper or shitter.  Actually, loo isn't bad at all and may become more prevalent as time goes by; it can be spoken without embarassment.  But when I hear the word loo, I think of a song from childhood but that was "Skip to my Lou," which is vastly different.

Even the term "w.c." was considered too racy for American television at one time.  In 1960, Jack Paar walked off the Tonight Show after NBC cut a four minute joke from his monologue because he had the audacity to use the term w.c. instead of the forbidden word toilet.  Or so I've read.  Here's the joke.

Fun facts:  The first toilet shown on American television was on Leave It To Beaver, although only the tank was shown.  The first time a toilet was heard flushing was in the 1970s sitcom All in the Family.

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So does Old Dog live in the midst of Frenchtown?

Not to my knowledge; I don't think there is a Frenchtown in Chicago, but to follow the example of New Orleans it should be called The French Quarter, don't you think?

That school I mentioned is for American kids, to provide them with an education based on the educational standards of France.  It's a ritzy operation, with a student/teacher ratio of 6:1 and quite pricey.  How does $19,820 per year sound to you?  But they have many fine extracurricular activities, the most unique for American schools is probably their Circus Arts program.  Only the best students are clowning around.

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I knew it couldn't last.  After a more than a week without any mention of current events Uncle Ken finally broke. I didn't think Mr. Beagles would fold and although I was tempted to mention something I decided to wait and see what would happen, hoping that certain topics would no longer be mentioned in the polite discourse of the Institute as they are distasteful as well as pointless.  But I don't blame Uncle Ken; denial won't make anything go away.  We have to face the reality of the situation, and I never should have compared the current administration as a circus, despite the many clowns.  A circus is noble form of entertainment, run professionally and honestly.  The White House, however, is like a seedy traveling carnival, with lurid sideshows and rigged games of skill, doing anything necessary to separate the rubes from their honestly earned dollars.

We've talked about Occam's Razor before, and a couple of writers have come up with a new term, Trump's Razor.  It goes like this: When seeking an explanation for the behavior of Donald J. Trump, always choose the stupidest possible explanation.  Sounds good to me.

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