Prognosticate: to foretell from signs or symptoms: predict
I love the word prognosticate. It sounds like it belongs to another meaning altogether; like chewing, which we all know is masticate. Now masticate sounds like something I did a lot of when I was fourteen.
Prognosticate and forecast are both used to predict events or occurrences. I always think of forecast for weather and prognosticate for sports outcomes. You can prognosticate or forecast all you want, or, just flip a coin. Heads you lose, tails I win. Heads it's over 100, tails it's not.
The last few days I've written about the heat here. It's been miserable but we do have air conditioning so I'm not complaining too much. It was 102 yesterday. Eight o'clock last night the breeze was so cool I was closing windows. Now that's the California I know and love. Today we get a break, the forecasters and the prognosticators say, more of the same but mid 90's.
Tomorrow is July 4th. I would be remiss if I didn't mention "Yankee Doodle Dandy" with James Cagney and my old friend Bob Stone. Tomorrow would be his 65th birthday, so Happy Birthday Bob. I'm really sorry you didn't take better care of yourself and left the world thirty years ago. You missed a bunch of stuff.
I now have several computers and the entire knowledge of the world at my fingertips. I carry my telephone in my pocket and can talk on it anywhere I want (except in my car when I'm driving). I don't write letters and use stamps because I have e, or electronic mail. I never tell jokes now because I have e, or electronic mail. I don't read real books. I have several hundred TV stations. It's OK to say asshole, bastard, and son-of-a-bitch on most of them and fuck you on lots of others. People even get naked on TV now.
We have LCD's and LED's, MRI's and DNA, mp3's, jpeg's and mpeg's. My favorite is the GPS which stands for Global Positioning System so I never get lost. Like I said, you missed so much. Not many people listen to records now, just the music snobs. I have an I-pod, it's about the size of a playing card, it holds all my music. We have Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and lots of people, me included, pay between $3 and $4 for coffee drinks at a place called Starbucks.
Lots of manufactures now produce both electric and hybrid cars. Gasoline is $4 a gallon. No one is allowed to smoke in a public place and a pack of cigarettes is around $6. And one more thing, The U.S. Postal Service is broke but still delivers mail on Saturday. I don't care because I use e or electronic mail.
I know it's overwhelming. I also know things are easier, but better? I'm not sure about better. There's nothing like the good old days.
I'm tired of apologizing from my lack of political understanding. From now on just take it for granted I have no idea what I'm talking about. Having said that, how about that health care bill?
Here's what I think, somehow, someway, sometime, everyone was supposed to have health coverage. Now, according to what I read this morning, it's not going to happen for at least one more year.
The last few days I've written about the heat here. It's been miserable but we do have air conditioning so I'm not complaining too much. It was 102 yesterday. Eight o'clock last night the breeze was so cool I was closing windows. Now that's the California I know and love. Today we get a break, the forecasters and the prognosticators say, more of the same but mid 90's.
Tomorrow is July 4th. I would be remiss if I didn't mention "Yankee Doodle Dandy" with James Cagney and my old friend Bob Stone. Tomorrow would be his 65th birthday, so Happy Birthday Bob. I'm really sorry you didn't take better care of yourself and left the world thirty years ago. You missed a bunch of stuff.
I now have several computers and the entire knowledge of the world at my fingertips. I carry my telephone in my pocket and can talk on it anywhere I want (except in my car when I'm driving). I don't write letters and use stamps because I have e, or electronic mail. I never tell jokes now because I have e, or electronic mail. I don't read real books. I have several hundred TV stations. It's OK to say asshole, bastard, and son-of-a-bitch on most of them and fuck you on lots of others. People even get naked on TV now.
We have LCD's and LED's, MRI's and DNA, mp3's, jpeg's and mpeg's. My favorite is the GPS which stands for Global Positioning System so I never get lost. Like I said, you missed so much. Not many people listen to records now, just the music snobs. I have an I-pod, it's about the size of a playing card, it holds all my music. We have Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and lots of people, me included, pay between $3 and $4 for coffee drinks at a place called Starbucks.
Lots of manufactures now produce both electric and hybrid cars. Gasoline is $4 a gallon. No one is allowed to smoke in a public place and a pack of cigarettes is around $6. And one more thing, The U.S. Postal Service is broke but still delivers mail on Saturday. I don't care because I use e or electronic mail.
I know it's overwhelming. I also know things are easier, but better? I'm not sure about better. There's nothing like the good old days.
I'm tired of apologizing from my lack of political understanding. From now on just take it for granted I have no idea what I'm talking about. Having said that, how about that health care bill?
Here's what I think, somehow, someway, sometime, everyone was supposed to have health coverage. Now, according to what I read this morning, it's not going to happen for at least one more year.
"Under the health law, companies with 50 or more workers must provide affordable coverage to their full-time employees or risk a series of escalating tax penalties if just one worker ends up getting government-subsidized insurance. Originally, that requirement was supposed to take effect Jan. 1, 2014. It will now be delayed to 2015.
Most medium-sized and large business already offer health insurance and the mandate was expected to have the biggest consequences for major chain hotels, restaurants and retail stores that employ many low-wage workers. Some had threatened to cut workers' hours, and others said they were putting off hiring.
Business groups have complained since the law passed that the provision was too complicated. For instance, it created a new definition of full-time workers, those who put in 30 hours or more. It also actually included two separate requirements, one to provide coverage and another that it be deemed "affordable" under the law. Violations of either one exposed employers to fines. But such complaints until now seemed to be going unheeded.
Republicans called it a validation of their belief that the law is unworkable and should be repealed.
"The president's health care law is already raising costs and costing jobs. This announcement means even the Obama administration knows the 'train wreck' will only get worse," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in an email. "This is a clear acknowledgment that the law is unworkable, and it underscores the need to repeal the law and replace it with effective, patient-centered reforms."
I think I may have finally discovered the underlying problem of the great majority of helpful, different, or progressive undertakings in our world. Everything is just too difficult. Those that have don't want to give anything away. No one understands what anything means or how to implement them even if they did. And everyone has their own interpretation of the rules.
"it underscores the need to repeal the law and replace it with effective, patient centered reforms"
You know when that's going to happen don't you? When Hell freezes over.
Here I am, once again apologizing. The blog isn't at all funny today, and I know funny ("Good Morning Viet Nam"). Is is too much to ask? People should be able to get medical care without having to worry about bankruptcy. I thank God Wanda and I are both as healthy as we are.
No comments:
Post a Comment