Wings on Your Trunk, Job Loss which "Ain't," a Bit of Eavesdropping and Two from Sid

Eavesdropping at "Excellent Escorts"

Excellent Escorts, the District's finest, Raul speaking.  How can I help you?

Tell me, is your firm the kind of company that can provide someone to accompany a respectable gentleman to a business dinner, a fancy dress affair where most of the guests will be couples?

Yup, that’s what we do.  And a lot more as well, if you wish, Sir.  What kind of “arm candy” would you prefer?  Do you like blondes, brunettes, redheads?  And for how long would you want her?  We have an eight hour minimum.

That will be fine, and what is the charge?

$500 an hour, and we can arrange for overtime at time and a half.

That’s fine.  A blonde, but not too brassy, would be fine.  You don’t take bitcoin, do you?

No, just the major credit cards, and the billing will appear as Raul’s Meat Market to avoid anyone who sees your credit card bill raising questions.  If anyone ever gets nosy, you can say you bought a lot of chicken breasts and filet mignons for a big party.  Heh, heh.

Okay, but can I speak to the lady before we meet?

 

Usually, our escorts aren’t here but the one I have in mind for you happens to be in the office right now.  She has ash blonde hair, works as a high fashion model and I think would be great for you.  Susie, could you pick up on line three?

Hello, my name is Susie. What’s yours?

Call me Frank.

Frank, how come you can’t get a date on your own?  Are you ugly, obese or something?

No, I fancy myself as quite attractive, but let us say that I am from out of town and I don’t know anybody here.

Hmmm.  In this business, you have to be careful.  Do you have any references?

Sure.  My significant other and my girlfriend can vouch for me.

Hey, why can’t you bring one of them instead of renting me for the night?

Good question, Susie.  Actually, neither one is speaking to me at the moment.

I’ll buy that.  I gather I have to dress formal.  What color gown would you prefer that I wear?  Perfect, I have one that will look just great.  Okay, and you're sure you don’t want me for an “after” party at your hotel?  That would be extra, you know.   Just tell me when and where you’ll be picking me up, where we’re going and I’ll give you back to Raul to finalize the deal.  Okay?

Inaudible Mumble - Inaudible Mumble  - Inaudible Mumble  - Inaudible Mumble -Inaudible Mumble - Inaudible Mumble - Inaudible Mumble  - Inaudible Mumble - Inaudible Mumble - (curse words, screamed) Inaudible Mumble  - Inaudible Mumble  - Inaudible Mumble - Inaudible Mumble –

Raul, take this goddam phone back and stop wasting my frigging time with screwballs like this jerk who says he’s the French Prime Minister and wants to take me to dinner with the Obamas at the White House.  I just told him to fuck off and stop wasting a working girl’s time.

And so it was that Francois Hollande went “stag” to the dinner in his honor at the White House on February 11.  I hope Susie is reading this.

    

Julie, Francois and Valerie.                                                                          Susie                           

 JL


                                                  



Got Wings on Your Trunk ?

    

Having a winged trunk emblem on your car appears to becoming popular.  Bentley automobiles have always had them, but Chrysler, Hyundai Genesis  and Mini-Cooper vehicles also have similar emblems.  When I see one (not the Mini, of course), I usually give the car a closer glance wondering what kind of automobile it is.  Did the owner want me to take that second look, perhaps thinking  that  I would mistake his lesser vehicle for a Bentley?   Less common are custom-made after-market “winged” versions of standard ornaments, such as are available for Fords and Chevys, and which fool no one.  Incidentally, Bentley has been acquired by Volkwagen which doesn’t have wings on its emblem as of now. (Clockwise below are emblems used on Bentleys, Hyundai Genesis, Chrysler and Mini-Cooper automobiles.)

 

Jack Lippman

                                                        

When Job Loss is Not Unemployment

According to a report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office last week, more than two million Americans who would otherwise rely on a job for health insurance will quit working over the next decade, reduce their hours or even stop looking for employment because of new health benefits available under the Affordable Care Act.  This will not be not an increase in the number unemployed, but rather a movement from being considered “employed or employable” to being in the category of being no longer employed in a job they didn’t need nor want, other than for its health benefits.

Some of these are people actually ready to retire, but still working only because they hadn’t reached an age where they might apply for Medicare.  Others are in undesirable jobs which they hold only because of the benefits provided, and who recognize that once they had health insurance through an Obamacare exchange, they could be take any job they wanted, or even be self-employed.  Actually, the departure of these two million from the available labor pool will probably open up real jobs for the millions who are among the “truly unemployed.”  

Of course, the Republicans led by House Majority Leader Eric Canter, quickly wove this into a lie about how, in their warped G.O.P. vision, Obamacare causes job losses, still another evil which will result from making health insurance available for all Americans.

  Canter

Never forget that the Republican Party (the Anti Spending Party) bases all of its actions on avoiding tax increases on the wealthiest taxpayers, and opposing the expansion of any Government benefit programs is the keystone of this tactic.  You may have seen an ad on TV recently depicting a sad looking woman complaining how she had lost her health benefits because of Obamacare.  When you see it next, note that it is sponsored by Americans for Prosperity.  This group, of which the Koch brothers are generous supporters, includes the following as the first item its mission statement:  “Cutting taxes and government spending in order to halt the encroachment of government in the economic lives of citizens by fighting proposed tax increases and pointing out evidence of waste, fraud, and abuse.”  

The Brothers Koch (pronounced "coke")

This is what the G.O.P. is all about and it depends on convincing voters to support a philosophy which is in the interest of only a very, very small minority of them.

JL
                                                            

                                                            

Sid's Corner


Reluctance 

Sid Bolotin

I do not want to die! Not now! I’ve survived too much to have to die now. The wise Ones, the Elders teach us not to worry; that a better life awaits us. How do they know? They are the same as me. They live here and now just as I do.

I’m scared! Why should I surrender to their visions? I continue to survive the violence that kills the others of my kind. Creatures that swoop in out of nowhere to carry us off; scurrying, crawling beings that pounce and chew off our heads; stompers that squish us lifeless; ants that envelope us like a blanket and devour us one piece at a time; and, of course, spiders whose sticky, silky strands hold us helpless while our living juices are slowly sucked out.

Damn it! I’m not even sick! I can still function! Yes, my legs ache, but they are still capable to carry me along each day’s search for nourishment.

Why must I now prepare for my death!

Why must I commit suicide?

The Wise Ones warn us that one day, thoughts of self-destruction will blossom within us and then burst into a compulsion that cannot be denied. Mine has now begun, and I must prepare myself to die. I am terrified of what lies ahead.

Who will I be when I’m not me?

Will I become a no-thing?

Will there be no me?

If so, where will I have gone?

The Wise Ones try to soften the terror, to answer the questions with messages about a life that is better, about resurrection, about beauty, about glory…none of which I really understand. I am frightened; yet I have no choice. I must prepare for my dying.

                                   

They say it is Supreme Will, part of a Master Plan. Do they really know? How can I surrender my life to their visions? Besides, how can I trust a Master plan so sadistic that it requires me to search for a place, build my own coffin, seal myself into it, and then wait out a slow-coming death? Better to be caught by a stomper for a messy, but quick death.I want things to stay as they are. I do not want to swap what I have now for someone else’s promises of Paradise.

I tremble with the shivery cold as I search out the place for my death. The Wise Ones are right; I cannot stop the compulsion that is driving me to action in spite of my fear and my anger. Could the Wise Ones be also right about the rest of this terrifying adventure?

Just where is “up there”?

What is nectar?

What are wings?

Will I really be able to function with only six legs?

What is sex really like?

And, in God’s name, just what the hell is a butterfly?

                                                             *   *   *   * 

If

Sid Bolotin

Of all the wisdoms my guru has tried to impart to me, his greatest commentary was on the word, “if”.

“Only two letters,” he once observed, “but it can have an infinite impact on the way you experience your life. How much energy do you expend through its usage in your thinking?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Consider how you use it to compare the present with what might have been…as in: If your father had lived,” He intoned.

“Yes,” I responded, “I have done a great deal of that.”

“And,” he continued, “think of the decisions that you have had to make and will have to confront in the future…as in: When I chose that, this happened. If I choose this, that could happen.”

“But,” I interjected, “isn’t that normal? How can you live without grappling with the ‘if’ word and its consequences?”

He pondered a moment, searching for his reply, then answered quietly, “Consider your use of the word grappling. Why grapple? That word conjures up the image of a struggle. ‘if’ must always be considered in the ebb and flow of life’s tides. But, if you can do so without clutching at results, without attachment to outcome, without remorse, your experience can be sweeter…even through hardship or tragedy.”

“Do you mean that ‘if only’ as a lament for the past, or a pining for the future can be more damaging than the event itself?” I asked.

“Of course,” He quickly responded, “practice non-attachment to the past or to the future. Learn to live only in the present, in the NOW. Then the ‘if’ becomes only a part of speech used to simply observe and compare possibilities for making decisions, not a lamentation for either the past or the future.”

                                              

  

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