My wife's 20th class reunion is next week in Texas. We aren't able to go and I think she feels kind of bad about it. However, on Facebook, one of her classmates posted a video of her in high school and here is a still shot of my smokin' hot wife about six years before we met. Man, how gorgeous can a woman get? I don't know how she made it out of Texas without a boyfriend. How did I get so lucky? (When she sees I posted this on my blog she will file for divorce, so to my wife's family: keep in touch. I love you guys.)
Today I finally did something which I've been thinking about doing for months now. I've finally logged off Facebook and washed my hands of it. I call Facebook "The Great Experiment Gone Terribly Wrong." It is one of those ideas which seemed great in theory: keeping connected with friends and family you don't get to see often. What a great way to stay in touch! Sounds nice. But something happened on the way to heaven, as Phil Collins would say. At some point Facebook got ugly. It got gross. It happened about four years ago, toward the dawn of the presidential election of 2016. A line was drawn in the sand. It became the MAGA cult (by definition, that's what it is) on the attack and on the defense, against the rest of the world. Democrat versus Republican. It quickly dissolved into a perceived Good versus Evil. So-called Patriots versus Snowflakes. And there it has remained. Civilized discourse was severed like a head in a guillotine. Friends started fighting wi...
I am a cynical person. Or perhaps skeptical is a better description? Regardless, I do not trust easily. I do not readily embrace the unfamiliar. I am leery; always suspicious of the sincerity in almost anything. I'm not saying this is a healthy attitude and I'm not saying I'm proud of it. It's just how I am. So no one surprised me more than me when I decided to buy Paul McCartney tickets back in April and I was presented with the unknown. Uncharacteristically, I took a leap of faith. Since I am a member of McCartney's fan club, I was able to get an early pre-sale of the concert in Fargo. I went to McCartney.com and sure enough, I quickly grabbed terrific seats. But when I went to purchase the tickets, I was redirected to a web site which I had never heard of before: Crowd Surge. Immediately the skeptic in me said, "Whoa, wait a minute. What is this?" Was I redirected to some rogue site looking to steal my credit card num...