Deep Thoughts: Stupid, Sad & Silly

* Self-Award Season

It would be hard not to notice that the award season is in full bloom. I don’t want to spoil the hedonistic dance but couldn’t the Hollywood crowd tone it down a bit? When many businesses are failing, people are out of work and the differentiation between rich and poor magnifies daily. Do the award shows need to behave as though every event is a contest for the prettiest dress and most expensive jewelry? There are more award shows than prime time TV shows. There are award shows for the best award show. Most shows are preceded by and followed by related shows. Each show has dozens or hundreds of categories plus multiple nominees in every category. Do you remember when awards were given for true merit (selected by an independent qualified panel) not because the nominees and studios spent hundreds of millions campaigning? Why not produce just one show to announce the names of those actors not nominated and give the left over monies to charity? At a time the nation has men and women in combat sacrificing their lives, souls and extremities to protect us,  is it not too much to ask the entertainment industry to show more respect and appreciation by scaling back their self awards a bit?

*  Son Jeff on gun control

Many of you think I am to the right of Attila the Hun. But as my column a few weeks ago indicated (“Silent and Deep”), I support gun control. My son. Jeffrey, who is a far better writer than I, wrote a short comment on Facebook regarding this very serious and emotional issue. Jeff leans to the other side of the aisle, i.e., the left. Neither of us wants to take away all guns but rather think that we should be more careful of whom we allow to have guns. The following are a paraphrase of his comments. “This has nothing to do with abridging anyone’s second amendment legitimate rights. There is no sane constitutional reason why mentally ill people should be able to walk into a gun show and walk out with assault weapons and high capacity clips. By the way someday people will realize the NRA is primarily funded by gun manufacturers who have dressed up a business lobby in the clothing of citizen rights and opposition to tyranny. The real tyranny is the fear, when dropping my three kids at preschool, that some mentally ill person may take them from me.”

* A Difference of Opinion

The other night while watching the 10:00 P.M. Channel 5 Nightly News there was a promotion for their 4:00 – 7:00 A.M. Morning News.  In the promo the morning hosts gleefully chirped that people watch their show because it makes them happy and feel good about the upcoming day. That’s interesting because when I watch their Nightly News I feel sad and bad about the day that has just passed.

* On Fixing Your Plumbing

It’s that time of life, when those peers who have lived in Newport Beach for 40+ years, experience breakdown in their plumbing both in their homes and personally. While there’s not much we can do to over-rule Mother Nature I have a question? If we have the technology to go to the Moon and Mars why is it we can’t build a toilet and plumbing system that doesn’t leak? How hard is it to screw pipes together?

The ornery curmudgeon, Michael Arnold Glueck, M.D., Newport Beach, can be found at drglueck@roadrunner.com.