"Yeah, I think I'm OK."

Waiting at a bus stop a few mornings ago, it wasn't a bum or a woman that caught my attention, it was a spider's web stretched between a bush and a tree. Sunshine sparkled on the webbing, and it was simply spectacular. I couldn't look away.

#210

Saturday,
Oct. 15, 2022

The web was bigger than a supper plate, intricately interwoven with dozens of support beams, all anchored to the squarish webbing beyond the plate, and in the center of it all, a spider waited patiently for breakfast to be delivered.

Jeez, the work of making the web, the instinctive engineering, it's simply amazing that it's all done by a little eight-legged monster.

And when the web gets knocked down or loses its stickiness, the spider will simply weave another.

Watching it, mesmerized, it briefly brought me out of my head full of ordinary annoyances, worries, and observations of people struggling even more than me to make it through each day.

Waiting at the transfer center, a very earnest looking young man peered into my face and said, "Are you OK?"

He was a Hispanic kid, maybe 20, and didn't look like trouble, but he seemed oddly concerned with my well-being. Giving myself a self-assessment, I saw a fat white man, mid-60s, dressed lousy but not laughably, in sweat pants and two layers of t-shirts, all relatively unstained because I'd dressed up fancy to spend the afternoon at my brother's house. 

"Yeah, I think I'm OK," I said. I didn't want to ask if he was OK, or ask him anything, because it might trigger the story of his personal relationship with Jesus.

"You're sure?" he asked again. My impulse was to say Fuck you, kiddo, but he seemed so very sincere that I rewound my mental tape...

Just before the kid asked if I was OK, a young woman had walked between him and me, wearing a too-tight dress with at least no bra and, I hoped, no underwear. At that sight, I'd probably said something under my breath... Yeah, that's what had happened, but for his kindness in inquiring, I thought the kid deserved an explanation.

"I'm an old man who talks to himself," I said to him. "I saw her—" pointing at that woman's fine butt, now swaying off into the distance "—and said 'Sweet Jesus', but it wasn't a please for help."

He didn't seem convinced, but I was done with his earnestness, and walked away to lean on a wall and wait for my bus... and to study a few final moments of that woman's bouncy butt before she stepped onto a #161 bus and rode away, back to Heaven from whence she'd come.

Just Stop Oil activists throw soup at Van Gogh's Sunflowers

That's probably not the most brilliant strategy, but doing nothing should no longer be seen as an option. 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Those wacky Catholics are still diddling kids. 

And anyone still tithing is complicit.

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Kroger seeks to create grocery giant in $20B Albertsons bid 

In Seattle, there's damned near nowhere else to shop. If the Biden administration allows this, they'll allow anything.

♦ ♦ ♦ 

A landlord-shaming project in Madison goes national 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Police chief accidentally shoots himself while cleaning his gun inside the public safety building 

♦ ♦ ♦  

Chicago Sun-Times kills its paywall; makes content free for everyone 

One-word newscast, because it's the same news every time...

Climate change isn't 'coming', it's underway. It'll kill billions, and we're not doing squat about it.
• climate • climate • climate • climate • climate • climate • climate • climate • climate • climate 

All cops are bastards, or they know who the bastard cops are and do nothing about it, which is the same thing.
• cops • cops • cops • cops • cops • cops • cops • cops • cops 

Republicans are the enemy of common sense, common decency, simple truth, and democracy.
• Republicans • Republicans • Republicans • Republicans • Republicans • Republicans • Republicans • Republicans

Pirate streaming site punishes movie fans with free festival tickets 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Why Arsenic and Old Lace sat for three years 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Explosions by year 

♦ ♦ ♦ 

Violet Jessop 

♦ ♦ ♦

♫♬  Mix tape of my mind  ♫

• "All That," by Sparks
• "Tryouts for the Human Race," by Sparks

♦ ♦ ♦

The End

• Robbie Coltrane
• Eclipse
• Mike Schank

10/15/2022  

 

Cranky Old Fart is annoyed and complains and very occasionally offers a kindness, along with anything off the internet that's made me smile or snarl. All opinions fresh from my ass. Top illustration by Jeff Meyer. Click any image to enlarge. Comments & conversations invited.

 

Tip 'o the hat to Linden Arden, ye olde AVA, BoingBoing, Breakfast at Ralf's, Captain Hampockets, CaptCreate's Log, John the Basket, LiarTownUSA, Meme City, National Zero, Ran Prieur, Voenix Rising, and anyone else whose work I've stolen without saying thanks.

 

Extra special thanks to Becky Jo, Name Withheld, Dave S, Wynn Bruce, and always Stephanie...

Cranky Old Fart
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