The verdict is in.

Apparently, one of the names under consideration by the Washington area newspaper that didn't want to call the football team there the Redskins any longer, was definitely racist.  This from a former resident of the area who remains a major fan of the Redskins.

Now the "Bamas", which is one of the names that was under consideration, is definitely racist.  But the "Half-Smokes", which is another name doesn't seem all that racist in my book.  In case you've never been to D.C., half-smokes are a type of hot dog. Usually a blend of pork and beef, coarsely ground, and much spicier than ordinary hot dogs, they are an area favorite.  Ben's Chili Bowl is one local restaurant that serves the half-smoke and theirs are famous.  Bill Cosby has commented on them and stops in every time he's in town.  President Obama had a half-smoke at Ben's.  The half-smoke is the official hot dog of the local baseball team, the Washington Nationals.  But in the mind of one pundit, the name is still racist, and the Nationals are a bunch of racists for using that as their official hot dog.  Did I mention this is from a white pundit?

I was listening to a radio talk show yesterday focused on breast cancer and the female host was really interested in presenting all sides of the equation, including the fact that men get breast cancer.  Did you know that Richard Roundtree, best known for his role as "Shaft" had breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy?  That the football player, Brian Piccolo who was made famous in the 1971 TV film "Brian's Song" regarding his cancer and his close friendship with teammate Gale Sayers, probably had breast cancer?  He had a cancer that required the removal of his left "pectoral muscle" that ultimately spread elsewhere and killed him.  There are other famous men who also suffered from breast cancer.  But since 98% of the victims of breast cancer are women, too often these men are completely ignored and forgotten.  My favorite 5K race to run was and remains the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  I'd love to see a cure.  I watched my dad's 4th wife suffer from breast cancer and I didn't even like her very much.  But I felt awful watching what that disease did to her.

I will bite the bullet (or whatever is close at hand) and force myself to go buy a pair of pants and a shirt today.  Once I do, then I can order more stuff on-line at a lower price and not have to go out and shop.

We have two people who eat in the dining room at the same meal time that I do.  Both have horrible coughs.  One never covers....okay, almost never covers her mouth.  The other covers her own mouth, but in spite of the fact her couch is worsening weekly, she continues to smoke like a chimney.  With a cough like that, more and more smoking will ultimately cure the cough completely.  By making her cease to breathe.

I have now gone to the drugstore twice to buy batteries and left both times with other stuff but not the batteries.  That's something else I have to take care of today.

To do the research I wanted to do the other day into what internet dating looks like today as opposed to when I was doing it, I had to sign up for a "free" membership on a couple of sites.  It's only free as long as I don't want to contact any of my potential matches.  Well now I keep getting matches and it's reminding me of my age.  I still want to think of myself as being late 30s and interested in dating women from late 20s through late 30s. But that's just some fantasy in the recesses of my mind.  I'm in my early 50s and women in that age range don't want guys in my age range.  Unless of course we look like Brad Pitt OR have a wallet the size of Tom Cruise.  Then we would do very well with those women.  Time for another experiment.  I'm going to alter the "financial stability" of my faux profile and see if the responses change.  Should be interesting.

I was having a conversation with someone about scriptures over the weekend.  Not so much the contents (a subject to be avoided) as about who actually wrote them.  This particular scripture is generally accepted to have been written by one individual.  The person I was having this discussion with wouldn't let go of her contention that it was undoubtedly written by a group of people and rather than allowing her to offer this argument and then pointing out that it made no difference if one or many people wrote what was written, it didn't change what was written; I stuck to the fact that it is generally accepted that it was one person.  I lost the opportunity to point out the key issue because I wouldn't let go of an unimportant side issue.  Lesson learned.

Tomorrow I'll ponder some imponderables that occur today.