Lemonade, Son? -- Invitation to Write #60

For Writers:

Recently, a University of Michigan professor took his son to the ballpark to watch the Tigers play. Before taking their seats, they hit the concession stand for drinks. The dad ordered a beer for himself and a Mike's Lemonade for his son.

Luckily, small kids take a long time to drink anything, and the boy nursed his lemonade for almost the entire game. Then all hell broke loose when a security guard noticed that the seven year old boy was drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade, a drink that contains 5% alcohol by volume. (Note: you cannot even enter its website without verifying your age --> http://www.mikeshard.com/blog/wp-content/plugins/age-verification-032a.php?redirect_to=http://www.mikeshard.com%2Fblog%2Findex.php)

The dad claimed he had never heard of Mike's Hard Lemonade, which has been around since 1999. This was a college professor, one that drank alcohol himself. How is it possible that an educated man, especially one that drinks adult beverages, could have such a gapping hole in his cultural knowledge?

How high is your cultural IQ? What have you discovered that you do not know that should be "common knowledge" for your culture? What kind of attempts do you make to stay "culturally in the know" or do you care?

"A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge says 'You've been brought here for drinking.' The drunk says 'Okay, let's get started.'" -- Henny Youngman

Comments

"Digging for the Truth" Experiment #1 - Real Coffee with Scott Adams

I've been curious about how others perceive reality. What is "true" and "real" to me is not necessarily "true" and "real" to others. First stop: Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert. He's currently 67, does a daily podcast called "Real Coffee with Scott Adams" which draws about 30,000 listeners on YouTube, with 172,000 total subscribers to the channel. Podcast is also available on all the usual places, with a 4.4 rating on Apple Podcasts. Each episode is about an hour long, or a little less. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15SFbr2vj8c 1. Basic format: Just runs through news articles that drew his interest. On the April 15 episode (link above), he ran through 28 articles. Often he'd laugh at something, sometimes to show his disbelief. 2. Adams is not a big fan of science. He's open to conspiracy theories. Believes that the government doesn't tell us the truth (although he seems to think the Trump administration is an e...

Jesus and the Inconvenience of His Word to American Christians

I'm not a preacher, but if you follow the teachings of Jesus, it was he who said: Do to others as you would have them do to you. That's from Luke 6:31 , and reading all of Luke 6 isn't a bad way to spend five minutes of your time. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%206&version=NIV I guess a lot of Christians understand the Golden Rule and practice it in their daily lives. Others, however, especially political Christians (and specifically those promoting Christian Nationalism) seem to ignore the Golden Rule. They don't care about humanitarian issues. They claim they either don't exist, aren't the problem of the United States, or are the fault of the victims. They counter with distractions like, "Why do you care so much about THEM when you should be caring about the REAL people who matter?" Sorry, but I don't recall Jesus ever dividing people into those who matter more and those who matter less. Of course, Jesus also said not to j...

"Digging for the Truth" Experiment #2 -- Bald and Bankrupt

His first name is Benjamin, but he usually goes by "Bald." Bald has been posting travel videos since 2018. His passion is anything Soviet Union, but he will take the time to learn a language before he visits a place -- not only Russian, but Spanish, say. It's important for him to have the ability to speak to people in their native tongue. On Friday, April 18, Bald posted a video called "Solo on Ukraine's Eastern Front." So far it's generated 2.7 million views, and based on viewer average, it will likely go over 5 million views. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3HRnwC6pso Most of his videos are in the neighborhood of an hour in length. In them, he usually establishes where he is and what his goal for being there is. He will start somewhere and then go seek out a place, without knowing exactly what he will find there. For the latest Ukraine video, he starts at the Kiev train station. It's been 3 years, he says, since he last visited Ukraine, and he h...

The Writer's Poke

Search This Blog