Butt dial an old friend today

Image source: https://cagle.com/topic/butt-dial

OK, it wasn’t exactly a butt dial but the principle was the same. I asked my car’s phone connection to call one person, but instead it called someone with a similar sounding name. (My car may need to get its hearing checked.) And the other person answered before I could find the right button on the steering wheel to end the accidental call.

But I am glad she did. My old Kentucky friend was someone I often saw at library conferences and with whom I enjoyed socializing over the years. But when I retired and COVID ended conferences, there have been no opportunities for us to see each other. And despite following each other on Facebook, we haven’t had much virtual contact either.

So it was good to hear her voice and get caught up a bit. No earth shaking news, but it was comforting to know that a friend is leading a pretty good life.

That accidental phone call made me ask myself why I don’t reach out to old friends on a regular basis. Over the course of 70+ years, I’ve been lucky enough to have quite a number of friends. But due primarily to changing jobs, changing home locations, and changing interests, many friends with whom I was once close have slipped into the past. 

Many of these folks I remember at Christmas time, sending a holiday letter summarizing the events in my and my family's lives. And happily, quite a few send similar letters back. But is once a year enough? Should I be reaching out more often? Should we all?

Being fortunate enough to have a few close personal friends with whom I connect with regularly lessens, I suppose, the need to rekindle old relationships. But what can it hurt?

Butt dial an old friend today.

Healthy AND convenient?

Source: Minnesota Star Tribune, April 13, 2025

While I am not one to criticize, I can’t help notice an ever increasing number of people who are overweight. Including my fellow YMCA exercisers. While genetics may be the primary determiner of one’s shape, eating habits also play a significant role. Including why I carry an extra 20 pounds or so.

The article in which the graph above appears examines how the popularity of weight loss drugs like Ozempic have started to impact the junk food market. It seems that weight conscious people are not just taking drugs, but actually changing some of their dietary habits. The companies that make junk food can’t be very happy about the trend.

Might this, however, be a real opportunity for forward-looking food industries to attract a new, more health and weight concerned set of consumers? 

One of the things that frustrates me is the paucity of convenience foods that are non-processed and therefore healthier. Listen Marie Calendar and Totinos, I would most definitely purchase pot pies, frozen pizzas, and single-serving meals that were actually good for me. Lays, I might go back to eating potato chips were you offering those that taste good but had highly reduced fat and salt. Ben and Jerry, my primary guilty addition is to ice cream. Can’t you help me satisfy both my ice cream cravings and my desire to return to a smaller waist size in my pants?

Yes, I am aware and can afford “fresh” fruits and veggies and I could be cooking a lot healthier for myself. But I am also addicted to popping a ready-to-eat meal in the microwave, hitting a couple buttons, and then waiting a minute or two. And not having leftovers or kitchen cleanup.

General Mills? Betty Crocker? Amy’s? Please show some compassion for this lazy old man and the rest of us at the Y who would like to shed a few pounds. You could even charge me extra. (Oh wait, you already are.)

Trying to maintain news balance

It's a well-known fact that reality has a liberal bias.
Stephen Colbert

Given the looney tune nature of politics lately, I am finding it increasingly difficult to maintain my “radical centrist” stance. In order to have rational thinking rather than factual cherry picking and overblown example-making by “influencers,” I do my best to read, watch, and listen to journalists and news sources that attempt to remain objective. 

I am not sure how well I am actually doing.

It’s pretty easy to locate organizations which “rate” the bias of different news sources. I listen to NPR. I watch CBS and NBC national evening news. I read two newspapers: the Minnesota Star Tribune and the Mankato Free Press, and several columnists from the New York Times. I read selected articles from The Atlantic. Most of these sources are rated slightly left. <https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/> I appreciate the counter editorials published in the newspapers I read. 

Three sources of commentary I am not particularly proud to engage with are Heather Cox Richardson’s "Letters from an American" newsletter and Jon Stewart and crew’s The Daily Show. I get a chuckle out of the postings of "Living Blue in a Red State" on Facebook.  I guess I would categorize them as guilty pleasures, hopefully by recognizing their extreme biases, I counteract their influence.

I often wonder if having such a plethora of “news” sources increases or decreases the national average ability to make informed decisions. Are we in some sense returning to our tribal past, identifying only with those who live, act, and believe as we ourselves do? Will my grandsons at my age have any chance for political balance in their lives? 

Blue Skunk readers (yes, both of you), what news sources do you rely on for objective reporting?