THIS & THAT

I like starting the day with something funny, like this:

Paragraph in the LA Times’ “FOR THE RECORD” column
“Geo Quiz: The photograph that accompanied the April 8 Geo Quiz in the travel section did not depict Brazil’s Marajo Island, the topic of the Quiz. It showed a scene in Latvia.”

HAR-HAR-HAR! That’s a good one!

****

CALIFORNIA Franchise Tax board says 90% of Californians pay the taxes that they owe, but the 10% who don’t are holding about $10 billion bucks that should be in the hands of the state. The tax board does file liens against these people/companies and now are making public the names of 500 delinquents who each owe over $100,000 in back taxes. I found the list online and it is quite amazing that some debts go back to 2007, although the board says they stay busy trying to collect these back taxes and have, in fact, collected $118,00 since 2007. In the scheme of things that’s not very much.

I understand not being able to get blood from a turnip, but still, I don’t think this list comes from a turnip field. It always makes me mad when ordinary citizens empty their pockets to pay their just debts while the scofflaws keep jingling their pockets in defiance.

https://www.ftb.ca.gov/aboutFTB/Delinquent_Taxpayers.shtml

***

I read today that women are mostly the culprits in auto accidents caused by hitting the gas pedal instead of the brake. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) adds: “Drivers ages 16 to 20 and those 76 or older were most likely to be involved in pedal misapplication crashes.” Finally they offer this most interesting statement “The single factor that may explain over-involvement in pedal misapplication crashes at both ends of the driver age distribution is poor executive function [my highlighting]. The relevant areas of the brain do not fully develop until young adulthood and have been shown to decline with advanced age.”

Say What??????

***

Some years back a nearby city honored a local priest by naming a street after him. Later a resident went before the city council to ask the street be renamed because this fellow was one of the priests who the diocese had “credible allegations” of sexual abuse made against him and subsequently settled a lawsuit for $200 million paid to a group of plaintiffs. The street name was changed to St. Edwards Circle, which was the name of the church pastored by the priest.

The moral of the story is don’t name streets after mortals, even if they appear pure as the driven snow. Stay with Oak, Fir, Redwood, Cedar, Jacaranda, Ficus, Palm, Chestnut, Walnut, Aspen, Ash, Beech, Birch, ad infinitum. The names are dull, but they’ll never have a hidden agenda.

***

And to end today’s choice tidbits, here are the three Decorah Iowa eaglets. Mom just fed them and flew off for a short break. Their folks think they are awfully cute, but…