This day was kind of meh. I sort of wish something exciting would happen. Exciting, as in wild, passionate sex Exciting. I did some sleeping. Watched a show on YouTube about the Songhai Empire in what is now Mali along the River Niger. This is the first I have heard of this kingdom. I did know about the fabled city of Timbuctoo, somewhat related to to this empire. Thus edified, I decided to sleep a bit after that. Then when I awoke, I put a brisket in the slow cooker. So we had brisket tonight. I fixed corn, tomatoes, and okra for my own enjoyment. J does not like okra.  I also made a fruit salad with honeydew melon and strawberries for my dessert. I ought to be happy. I’m bored, fed up with COVID-19 protocols, sexual denial, all the crap senior citizens like me have to put up with. However, as bad as things seem, the country and the world are not turning to poo! Trust me. This is pretty much the way things have always been. Good stuff and bad happening at the same time. The constant you need to be aware of, in case you are not aware, is that mass media are constantly trying to manipulate how you feel. They will distort, if not outright lie about what is actually going on. This did not start with the advent of #45 on the scene. It’s been going on as long as I can remember. There are heroes and villains, people you are supposed to like, like JFK, people you are supposed to dislike , Castro, for example. Now it may be that the good guys are good and the bad guys are bad, but that is merely serendipitous when it does happen. Truth is the whole purpose of the mass media is to facilitate your buying stuff. Sixty years ago, advertisers wanted people to buy cigarettes. Now the big advertisers are pharmaceutical companies that make drugs for COPD and lung cancer. Get it?