•  My wife has been out of town for a few days visiting my daughter.  I have not watched the news since then, and other than catching up on some old Daily Show episodes, I have hardly glanced at the television.  If it were up to me, I could pretty easily unplug the damned thing and save $1000 a year — once Jon Stewart departs.

•  After I took my wife to the airport, I stopped at the supermarket and bought myself two  fried chicken breasts and a half-gallon of butter pecan ice cream.  I mention this just in case you thought I was being smug about giving up television.

•  I have developed a smartphone app for readers of The 100 Billionth Person.  Whenever I post something new here, the app will scan it and notify you if there is anything worthwhile for you to read.  A one-year subscription to the app costs $899.  If I were you, I would just read the blog and save yourself a lot of money.

•  I go into a restaurant and take a seat at the bar to have a beer and a sandwich.  The bar is pretty full but there is one seat left at the far end.  I sit down, order a beer and start reading the book I brought along — I am not into small talk with strangers.  Some time later, after my meal has arrived, I look up and notice there is no one sitting at the bar except for me and the guy next to me.  This feels weird, I thought, and I redouble my attention to my book.  Eventually, however, the vacant seats become occupied again and the weirdness dissipates.

•  In grade school, we were taught there were three degrees of adjectives: positive (good), comparative (better) and superlative (best).  When we became old enough to buy albums of our favorite music, we found out there is a fourth degree: hyperlative (very best).

The album shown here, The Very Best of Sad Songs, does not include Hey Jude by the Beatles.  Apparently, they can take a sad song and make it better but not one of the very best.

•  One cannot live in the relatively sane part of the world without regretting that the rest of the world is so turbulent and crazy.  But some try their very hardest.

•  I have been skeptical of the American Red Cross for years.  Even so, the recent exposé by NPR and Pro Publica on Red Cross rebuilding efforts (so to speak) in Haiti was eye-opening:

Lee Malany was in charge of the Red Cross’ shelter program in Haiti starting in 2010. He remembers a meeting in Washington that fall where officials did not seem to have any idea how to spend millions of dollars set aside for housing.  Malany says the officials wanted to know which projects would generate good publicity, not which projects would provide the most homes.  [He] resigned the next year from his job in Haiti.  “I said there’s no reason for me to stay here.  I got on the plane and left.”

My last donation to the American Red Cross was in the immediate aftermath of 9/11/2001.  Within eight weeks of the attack, it had raised over $560 million for its “Liberty Fund” but had distributed only $150 million of it, setting aside most of the rest for “future needs.” Since then, I have directed my support to CARE and Doctors Without Borders.

•  A story about a dog whose muzzle had been taped shut by its owner has been circulating on Facebook, prompting a storm of outrage.  One commenter said, “This is the most heinous thing imaginable.”  With due respect to animals, no it’s not, unless your imagination stops somewhere short of child abuse, assaults on women, hate crimes, terrorism and genocide.  People are accustomed to humans treating other humans horribly but, oddly, the thought that humans also harm animals is a shock to many.

•  The last thing people want to see is the last thing we see.  In that respect, we all get our wish in the end.