Maybe it’s just me but this so-called “2022” feels like it is having a bit of trouble getting started. It reminds me of my old 2004 Saturn, which I owned for 17 years and which in its declining years initially refused to respond when I turned the ignition key to “on.”
When this failure to launch started to happen, I usually called my road service number for help. After a guy arrived and started up the car, I dutifully drove it around for 30 minutes as instructed until the battery was fully charged.
Those 30-minute drives to nowhere were strange experiences. Sometimes I just cornered around the city, repeating familiar routes to schools, offices and stores I used to visit. Occasionally, I got on a freeway and headed south to some point in Silicon Valley before turning around and heading back home.
The car performed as instructed and then, for a week or so, it would start up properly whenever I needed to go somewhere for real.
But then another morning would come, usually a chilly or wet morning, when it refused to start again.
This became such a chronic condition that I consulted several mechanics seeking a solution. They tested the car, replaced this or that, pronounced it fixed and returned it to me, but then the reluctance to launch problem came back again.
This might not have bothered me as much as it did if my own body didn’t seem to be following a similar trajectory, preferring as it were to remain stationary when I tried to get it going each morning.
Luckily, I rarely needed to call road service (aka 911) for my body’s sake although that occasionally did prove necessary. But my car proved to be another matter.
Then I learned a trick. If I tried and failed to start it, then waited ten minutes, the old engine would fire up just like it was new, and I could drive away successfully to wherever I desired to go.
This continued to be the case for over a year (no more emergency road service calls!) until I reluctantly parted with the old thing, mainly because I didn’t really much need it anymore — or so I thought at the time.
Anyway, enough about old cars and old bodies and back to the new year. It most definitely is 2022, because both my iPhone and my laptop say it is. Here’s hoping that the world wakes up and starts acting like it one of these days soon.
TODAY’S NEWS:
Child Tax Credit’s Extra Help Ends, Just as Covid Surges Anew (NYT)
VIDEO: Israel Approves 4th Covid Vaccine Dose for People 60 and Over (Reuters)
Covid cases rise by 948% in Florida as Omicron drives huge wave across US (Guardian)
How will pandemic end? Omicron clouds forecasts for endgame (AP)
The FDA authorizes a Pfizer booster shot for children ages 12 to 15 (NPR)
Turkey’s annual inflation soared to its highest in nearly two decades, with consumer prices rising higher than expected and staples such as transportation and food and drink rising even faster. The lira continued its fall, even as President Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks to keep their savings in that currency and to bring gold savings into the banking system. Erdogan’s words come after the government sharply raised prices for electricity and natural gas prices, and as prices also jump for gasoline, car insurance and some bridge tolls. (Reuters)
Colorado Residents Ponder the Road Ahead After Wildfires (NYT)
Trump, Ivanka, Don Jr subpoenaed by NY attorney general (AP)
The truth in 2022 is our strongest weapon against the lies that fed the insurrection (WP)
Biden pushed to speak out more as US democracy concerns grow (AP)
The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol is considering whether to subpoena Republican membersof Congress to force their cooperation. The committee is trying to establish what former President Donald Trump’s actions were while thousands of his supporters attacked police, vandalized the building and sent members of Congress and then-Vice President Mike Pence running for their lives. (Reuters)
Jan. 6 Panel Faces Difficult Questions as Anniversary of Capitol Riot Approaches (NYT)
Since Jan. 6, the pro-Trump Internet has descended into infighting over money and followers (WP)
Greene hit with Facebook suspension after Twitter ban (Politico)
How Bad Are Plastics, Really? (Atlantic)
Apple Becomes First U.S. Company to Reach $3 Trillion Market Value (WSJ)
The chief executives of AT&T and Verizon rejected a U.S. government request to delay the introduction this week of new 5G wireless service over aviation safety concerns. They said they would not deploy 5G around airports for six months, but rejected any broader limitation on using C-Band spectrum. (Reuters)
A 5G fight shows no signs of slowing (Politico)
Paleontologists Discover Fossil Evidence Of Career-Oriented Dinosaur Who Froze Eggs (The Onion)
TODAY’s LYRICS:
“Love Minus Zero/No Limit”
Bob Dylan
My love she speaks like silence,
Without ideals or violence,
She doesn't have to say she's faithful,
Yet she's true, like ice, like fire.
People carry roses,
Make promises by the hours,
My love she laughs like the flowers,
Valentines can't buy her.
In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books, repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.
The cloak and dagger dangles,
Madams light the candles.
In ceremonies of the horsemen,
Even the pawn must hold a grudge.
Statues made of match sticks,
Crumble into one another,
My love winks, she does not bother,
She knows too much to argue or to judge.
The bridge at midnight trembles,
The country doctor rambles,
Bankers' nieces seek perfection,
Expecting all the gifts that wise men bring.
The wind howls like a hammer,
The night blows cold and rainy,
My love she's like some raven
At my window with a broken wing.
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