Taking Note of a Few Things: The Following up Edition

You are probably wondering what I could possibly have to follow up on. For starters, sex.

If I took myself seriously, I might begin with something newsworthy. However, since there are plenty of others who cover breaking news, I lead with sex.

CVS must want a war with me. You would think making a few female employees squirm and writhe a few times by asking them why they place their sex toys in the row where people wait for their medications that CVS might move them elsewhere. Not my local CVS. In fact, they ignored my questions and doubled down. They literally doubled down by adding brands and products to where they now take up two shelves.

The first thing I thought when I noticed a second shelf of toys was,“Where did they place their erection spray products?”  It seems the only way I can make a woman moan these days is for a female CVS employee to actually groan loud enough for the entire store to hear because she sees me walking toward her.

My main concern with CVS selling sex toys has nothing to do with morality. By now, I would hope you realize I am a man of few morals and even fewer topics to write about. Mine is purely an issue of convenience. I read articles every week about all the major drug stores that are closing branches because of a loss of revenue. If my CVS angers enough old farts over sex toy placement in the store, it might receive the axe. If that happens, I have to find a new drugstore and if it is not another CVS store, all my records will need to be transferred. This requires me making phone calls to understaffed doctors’ offices to change my local drug store. It also means filling out forms and searching my new drug store to see where they place their sex toys. Switching to mail ordering my meds, well, that’s even more forms to complete. I’ve had enough change in the last two years. I don’t need any more.

Sex is the only thing that appeals to men on the internet. That’s the way it seems to me based on my internet experience. Before you say anything, I do not look at porn on the internet, thanks to the way legitimate news and sports organizations portray women. I thought the headlines about Caitlyn Clark in a bikini was pushing it. However, when I saw a headline that was bashing the way 117-year-old Cybill Shepherd looks today, she is actually 74, then they have gone off the rails.

Unfortunately, women, there just is not enough Botox, filler, and silicone for everyone, thanks to Jane Fonda and Helen Mirren. Imagine if Cybill Shepherd were to try to keep up with them? And with Madonna, who is my age, getting her share, what’s a normal 70 year old woman to do?

Female athletes are sexualized far more than male athletes. Men just have to win. Women need to look hot more than they need to win. We all know it is no different in the real world. A male boss who is bald and homely is just a boss. A female boss who is really attractive is a bigger bitch to her female underlings while simultaneously viewed by men as someone they just want to %#&$.

I saw a film clip recently where Sean Penn, the guy whose face has more lines than a road map, is involved with a woman who is probably young enough to be his granddaughter. Where is the senior female with a face like a Muppet getting it on with her great looking lover who is young enough to be her grandson? Hollywood still hasn’t recovered from The Graduate.

Democrats may be offering a female presidential candidate who is 59, but even they are light years away with ever debating whether an 80-year-old woman is too old to run for re-election for president. We all know Trump’s skin color is as fake as his doctor’s findings of his physical condition. However, does anyone really believe Kamala Harris could appear as hideous and be ahead in the polls?

Marjorie Taylor Greene recently drew a wide range of responses when she quipped, she did not look bad for a woman who is 50. Compared to what comes out of her mouth, she looks better than she sounds. However, the 80-something Nancy Pelosi needs some top-level people to tell her enough with the surgery and procedures to her face. She’s looking too much like the host from Tales for the Crypt.

No one is telling Mitch McConnell to look 20 years younger. Maybe 20 IQ points higher, but his age is what it is. I don’t want to see women like Pelosi have to be sexualized to appear more attractive to voters. Why can’t she be allowed to look as repulsive as old Mitch?

I mentioned Caitlyn Clark earlier. It has been nice not to read about her every exploit on and off the court the past two weeks. I would be willing to bet she has appreciated the break too.

Caitlyn Jenner Never won a gold medal. I can appreciate she went through a major change from Bruce to Caitlyn, however, to list her as the winner of the 1976 Decathlon Gold Medal is wrong. I watched those Olympics and I know what I saw. That was Bruce Jenner that won. Perhaps Bruce felt like Caitlyn inside, however, he fully tested out as well as appeared as Bruce to win a men’s competition. Otherwise, Caitlyn needs to be stripped of her gold for not meeting the requirement of competing in the men’s decathlon. She can’t have it both ways.

Gender issues came into play with women’s boxing at the Olympic games. It’s not like the Olympics do not have rules where there is a cutoff point. Yes, I thought the boxer from Algeria looked far more masculine than feminine, but apparently the Olympics have a standard which she met and had met for some time. This is never an issue with male sports.

However, child rape was an issue. It appears someone from the Netherlands was allowed to compete in beach volleyball after he served a term for underage sex with a twelve-year-old. I guess this is not looked down on in The Netherlands like it is here, unless your pastor from a mega church is the guilty party, then you tithe to him.

I wonder how many kids 40 years ago who received strange looks from people like me while spinning on their heads thought that one day break dancing would become an Olympic sport. I still have yet to grasp rhythmic gymnastics, or something called artistic swimming. I am not saying it doesn’t take talent to do what these participants do, but I am one who thinks a “sport” should be defined by an outcome between opponents and not entirely what a judge sees.

It takes great athletic skill to be a gymnast. However, when an outcome results in one person being awarded a bronze medal only to see the decision changed to someone else, which of course results in a protest so the original third place finisher takes back what has already been placed around her opponent’s neck, it is not a sport nearly as much as it is a mockery. Maybe the solution is to only award gold medals.

We may have peaked too soon. At least that is how I see our recent performance at the Summer Olympics. With Los Angeles set to host the games in four years, we will be hard pressed to match our medal haul, especially in women’s gymnastics and swimming, and track and field. These are the events most coveted, and we will be hard pressed to match squads that equal or surpass this year’s squads. We are not even a lock to win gold in men’s basketball. Add to it a nation like China that values a broader range of athletic events and we stand a good chance of not looking so superior in the athletic world in 2028.

One thing for certain is triathletes and endurance swimmers won’t have to worry about swimming in a cesspool like the Seine. Surfing events won’t need to be held 10,000 miles away. Best of all, if everyone in the Southland goes on vacation during the games like they did in 1984, traffic won’t even be an issue.

However, if Diaper Donny wins the election this fall, he will want to turn the games into something all about him and his new Reich. He’d be POTUS in 2028 and probably demand he be appointed POTUS for life while the games were unfolding.

The closest I have seen anyone get to being a perfect athlete in my life is Sydney McGlaughlin-Levrone. She has mastered her specialty, the 400-meter hurdles, to the point she can run the race as fast as many female Olympians can run the same distance without the ten hurdles.

Sydney is also not one to brag or boast. She doesn’t draw attention to herself with her nails, tattoos, or crazy hair color. Her focus is entirely on running her race and nothing else. Maybe this is why she won a Gold medal by 1.5 seconds, an unheard margin of victory. All she has left to do is run a few tenths faster to break the 50 second barrier. I am predicting she will do it.

Another prediction I will make is that the network that covers the games, NBC, will ruin it with constant shots and interviews of film and music stars attending the events. They will just reinforce our already too large infatuation with fame while reminding others the tickets to events will be priced way beyond what most people can afford.

I probably should follow up on a few other topics. For those of us who remember, Kamala Harris may not be Barack Obama, but her candidacy has had the same effect on younger people. Every generation needs that certain someone who inspires them and offers hope for a better tomorrow. To the 18 to 25 crowd, Harris does that. Keep in mind, that same demographic in 2008 is now between 34 and 41. They have had time to see their dream of a better tomorrow either play out or flame out. It’s now time for the next generation to find their inspiration. Trump wants to take us back in time. For younger voters, this holds no appeal. It’s their future they are more worried about.

How old farts my age or older can invest so heavily in Donald Trump when they were the very people who raged against Nixon and his crimes and Reagan, and his nostalgia, is beyond my comprehension. We all want to change the world and, in most cases, we come up much shorter than our aspirations from our youth. That said, why do we feel compelled to exclude others from their dreams and worse, why do we feel the need to trash and burn this world and leave the mess to others to clean up?

If you grew up in the Bay Area in the 1970’s, like I did, you are more than just a little familiar with the band Journey. Original bass player, Ross Valery, attended the same high school as I did and was a classmate of older siblings. We enjoyed their growth from seeing them go from a band formed out of Santana to one of the biggest and most successful bands of the early 80’s.

A year or so ago, I wrote about how I would not pay a penny to watch that current bunch of asshats in concert because all you are doing is helping pay for their legal fees as Neil Schon and Jonathan Cain sue each other. Well, after clearing up their differences over things like credit card spending and who is and is not aligned with Donald Trump, they have picked up where they left off with their current tour.

I love classic rock, but I would much rather go see a good cover band play over seeing a couple of angry old men fake a lovefest just so I can pay a hundred times the ticket price before they call it a career, ending their musical journey just to go their separate ways.