Squirrels and Politicians

In this corner, weighing one pound, 
The plump Tree Squirrel

  Next door, up on the roof, there was scuffling and shingles scraping, sounding like rapid sandpapering. 

A hawk had perfectly timed his sortie. The brown wings fanned out and stalled his descent directly above a squirrel.

  Spring-loaded talons were outstretched, poised to snap crushingly into Mr. Furry’s flanks. The scene was deadly: a PBS nature documentary, grainy CNN war footage, or an altercation on The View. The acorn muncher was a goner because there was a freeze-frame just before impact where predator pounces and life drains out of the captive.

  But … Mr. Furry had not seen any recent animal films. So, he commenced to do The Squirrel Shuffle, which he performed for my benefit, and his kinfolk back home in the old oak. He darted from one side of the roof ridge to the other. Five times, he re-crossed over the ridge, all the while moving along the housetop toward the front of my neighbor’s home.

  Three seconds later, Mr. Lucky-Day Rodent was safe. The raptor’s committed flight plan could not adjust to The Squirrel Shuffle. With frantic fluttering, the predator rose and retreated, pretending he had meant to miss the meal, and was merely out having fun. 

In this corner, weighing 13 pounds,
The Hungry Eagle

  First thoughts? What was that stupid tree mouse thinking? There he was, up on a house with no cover, at noon. There was no shadow to warn of the hawk’s approach. 

  How did he know to break into his escape dance? Some innate instinct, an ESP of sorts, Essential Squirrel Protection.

  So what does this have to do with politicians? When you consider a political contender, and like squirrels, they are all the same, please don’t support the candidate with strong convictions about anything. Go for the guy or gal who has the best record of wavering and vacillating on all issues, even the unimportant ones.

  Rule out any candidate that has any underlying family values or morals. If a statesman is indicted and subsequently exonerated, then he is a prizewinner for your vote. It shows how resourceful he can be in a tight situation.  

  To survive in this world or at midday on a roof somewhere, you have to be willing to switch positions, perhaps many times, and sometimes quickly.

Bob Simpson

Copyright 2017

Real Housewives Moves to Animal Planet Channel

Bravo Channel has announced that the Real Housewives series will be moving to the Animal Planet Channel. 

This decision comes after studies revealed that The Real Housewives shows are apparently about thin-skinned ageing drunk wolverines with push-up bras.    

Bravo is also joining with Animal Planet to incorporate cameo appearances of their Housewives stars into many of the Animal Planet’s line-up this fall. 

The Mostly Real Housewives
of New York City

Finding Bigfoot's first season opener include scenes of the Big Foot Trackers trying to return a prosthetic leg to Aviva of the Mostly Real Housewives of New York City. 

Aviva is gone this season. Rumor is that Bravo sent her hopping with her walking papers. The Big Foot trackers leave the stylish stump in the hands (the real hands) of the remaining gals.

Plans are to transfer the leg to a Do It Yourself cable show to use part of it to make a foot stool. 
  

The Real Housewives
of Beverly Hills

The Hillbilly Hand Fishing boys drop in on the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. One of the larger handed rednecks pokes his ungloved paw into a limousine window and tries to snatch a housewife. First, he chums the auto by tossing bottles of Grey Goose Vodka into the back seat. 

The action starts when something large and powerful encircles the country boy’s fishing hand and yanks the hillbilly into the dark back seat. Then the tinted window slides up and there are no more muffled sounds of a wounded animal. 

The Real Housewives
of New Jersey

Pit Bulls and Parolees feature the Parolees visiting Teresa Giudice from the Housewives of New Jersey. They make the special prison visit to offer Teresa moral support, but several of the ex-con women also inquire about the possibility of a conjugal visit. Teresa slips them special instructions that have something to do with hammers and her husband’s knees.

The Real Housewives
of Miami

Rhino Wars features a wild Rhino visiting the Real Housewives of Miami for some advice on some horn enhancement. The Rhinoceros has to be placed on antidepressants when the plastic surgeon informs her that her horn is only made of hair. “There is nothing I can do for your horn, but a tummy tuck certainly is in order.”

The Real Housewives
of Atlanta

Pete Nelson of TreeHouse Masters arrives to erect a tree house for the housewives of Atlanta. Phaedra catches Pete watching her as she climbs the Treehouse ladder. Pete Nelson goes home in shame because he made a comment about Phaedra’s Bodacious Bedonka Donka.

TreeHouse Masters fans will be happy to learn that Pete Nelson has recovered his eyesight from the temporary blindness he experienced when he raised his eyes up that Atlanta tree house ladder.

Contact

bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

Sorry Humanity, I’m trying to quit …

The First Fist Bump Attempt

Throughout the Old Testament, God has always been characterized as a vengeful, wrathful, mercurial God. He is the one that commanded Abraham to kill his own son and then changed his mind. God laughed about that for a 1,000 years. ”You should have seen Abraham’s face. What a chump.”

Recent discovery of a lost scroll shows the reason that God was such a bastard during these times. He was real mean and ornery because he was trying to quit Smoting.

The Devil was still living at home in Heaven at the time. The falling out came later when Beelzebub borrowed God’s fiery chariot without asking and totaled it in a remote area of what is now Russia.

Old Scratch offered to hypnotize the Lord. “You are getting sleepy. You no longer feel the need to smite people, Willy Nilly.” Willy Nilly was a prototype of the first man. He was given free will and then God took it back. Hypnotism didn’t work because of that omnipotent thing that was going on.

Once the Lord got a handle on the smiting obsessions, he became a gentler God and was less likely to drop cascades of bloody toads on us poor folks down below. You should have seen how mad God became when he found out that his people were gathering the bloody toads and hickory smoking the little fellers. 

Contact: 

Bob Simpson

Largo, Florida

bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

15 Fireworks Thoughts and Questions for July Fourth

1. Do you like Jimmy Walker, but don’t 

remember why?

2. If you can’t afford fireworks, do you push your fingers into your eyes until you see the lights flash?

3. You know exactly how large a bandage you will need this year.

4. Do you think your eyebrows will ever grow back?

5. You know from personal experience never to buy another explosive duck decoy for your retriever.

6. Did you take out a payday loan to buy fireworks?

7. Do you try to reuse the sparklers from last year?

8. Have you ever bought a finale fireworks rocket called Mules Across America?

9. Did your bottle rockets come with last rites instructions?

10. The Emergency Room in your county waives the deductible for visits on July Fourth. 

11. Does your plastic surgeon offer a special Fourth of July wrinkle remover called BoomTox?

12. Do you include your fireworks in a sensible weight loss program?

13. Your friends now call you Lefty since last Fourth of July?

14. Did you buy your fireworks from a South American Mining Company?

15. Old firecrackers that just lay there and don't go off are called Baby Boomers.

Contact: 

Bob Simpson

Largo, Florida

bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

Kitty Ma, Pine Needles, and John Denver

PINELLAS, Point of Pines in Spanish. If you speak Spanish you know the two words. If you don’t speak Spanish, you don’t need to know them. You will probably mispronounce them in a way that will get you slapped, killed, or happily engaged to a school lunchroom employee in Miami.

Like our Pinellas pine needles, aloft or fallen, I have a point and we’ll get to it sometime soon, maybe.

Kitty Ma McLeod was a middle-class, Victorian woman. She brought up 3 boys, Norman, Hamilton, and my grandfather Robyn. Kitty Ma’s nimble, bony fingers, the blue veined mittens, fashioned hot plate trivets, coiled from humble pine needles and raffia. It was magic.

There was a folk craft renaissance of pine needle coiling in the early 1900’s. Many well-dressed, corseted ladies took classes. The art was already ancient, even when Kitty Ma was young. South Carolina barrier island folk made sweet grass coiled baskets years before the trussed-up ladies of the 1900’s appropriated the art.

Even the late John Denver wove pine needle baskets whenever he was on the road. He carried two guitar cases, one for his guitar and the other filled with crisp, golden brown pine needles and Madagascar raffia. At least that’s what he told the Customs Man.

   

         Lubbock, Texas airport, early 1967

A young John Denver is on board a commercial flight to Montana. He has pine needles and raffia with him, busily creating a new basket. Sitting in a window seat waiting for his plane to take off, John notices a Texas thunderstorm coming.

Rain is pelting the window. He wistfully watched for a while and returns to weaving his pine needle basket. Then it comes to him. Finally, we have arrived, to the point of all of this:

Mr. Denver grins, leans back, and sings, 

“I’m weaving on a wet plane.”

Did you think that Peter Paul and Mary wrote that song?

Well, you were wrong.

Here is a subject for comments. Who do you like the best?

John Denver
Denver Pyle
or 
Gomer Pyle?

Contact: 

Bob Simpson

Largo, Florida

bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

10 Distinct Thoughts on Boogers

Hey Lincoln, did the sculptor give you any arms or hands?
I need somebody to scratch my nose.

This is not an all-inclusive-everything-you-ever-wanted-to-know-about Boogers report. Check with the Pueblo Documents Distribution Center in Pueblo Colorado. http://pueblo.gpo.gov/  There are several government studies available there on Boogers. Take your pick. What … you didn’t think I would use that joke?

1. I woke up this morning with a firmly packed booger on my hand, specifically on my thumb, specifically on my right thumb.

2. Normally, I would rise from bed and deliver the booger to the toilet bowl since I go that way anyway. This morning I was surprised to find no urgency to go anywhere. “But I have this booger on my finger and I can’t just flick it over the bed covers and onto the floor, even if I am a man.”

3. Mr. Booger appeared when I sneezed. This was not one of those honkers from a Cold or the Flu, the ones that leave a large yellow jellyfish quivering in your cupped palms.

4. I live in Florida, which is the finest state to reside to remain Booger-free. We have high humidity so boogers don’t form easily. Other states with low humidity, dust storms, or air pollution are where the boogers do grow. That was a 1955 Hank Aring country/folk song: I’m Agoing Out West Where the Boogers Do Grow.

I wonder why my
cell phone is so sticky.

5. My nose is an older schnoz, filled with coarse jungle overgrowth. When it gets cold in Florida and we crank up the heat, then we experience scattered boogers with a chance of intermittent snoring throughout the early morning hours.

6. The first evidence of booger-forming people appeared in the Fertile Crescent. They were hunter/gatherers … and pickers. Don’t mix this up with the Fertile Croissant. That was one busy French tart that visited every lonely soldier just outside of Waterloo in 1815. After contact with this woman, the soldiers had trouble passing water in the loo.

7. Whales never form boogers because they live in the watery environment of the ocean. Their blowholes are damper than a burka in hay fever season.   

8. The Grapes of Wrath original title was Dust Bowl Booger Pickers. “Once we get to Cal-aye-fornee, we can pick our boogers in public.”

9. The IRRC, Institute for the Recovery and Reuse of Cocaine, is investigating the harvesting and repurposing of cocaine-laden boogers. The Booger Fairy will visit California mansions with a burlap bag and a pair of stainless steel forceps for late night collections.

10. Some day, office bathrooms will not be the only sanctuary where a Booger Hoarder can relax. He, and yes there are also female Booger Hoarders, has a favorite stall in the office bathroom, where he displays his boogers on the inside panel of the stall door.

A collection can swell to over 350 boogers if the building cleaning crew takes the attitude, “Whoa. That’s not our job to remove and clean nasal production artwork on a stall door.”
I give you permission to translate that last quote into whatever oppressed people’s language you think is appropriate.

 

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this bit of nosetalgia.

Until that liberating day when a picker can come out from behind his newspaper or bathroom stall, polite society will continue to look down or more likely look up into the boulder-laden noses of these nares-do-wells.

Contact: 

Bob Simpson

Largo, Florida

bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

Do you have a booger story to share? Add a comment. The grosser, the better. 

8 Rules for Pancakes

Wilford Brimley's Breakfast
for Bronco Busters

Attention:

Ladles and Griddlemen

There  are at least eight rules listed below for pancake enjoyment. 

I didn't give them numbers because I didn't feel like it. If you would like to print this and add numbers to your own personal copy, then I think you should do just that.

They are called hot cakes. Please ... Serve them HOT.

Pancake Eaters: Have some respect. Be at the table, buttering and syruping up those flapjacks, within one minute of them leaving the cast iron skillet.

Serve real butter at room temperature, but melt the butter if you are eating pancakes in an igloo. Never offer margarine with pancakes. Only salted real butter is allowed.

Place crisp warm endless bacon within reach of the pancakes.

Within Six Degrees of  a
Normal Hemoglobin A1C

If you serve turkey bacon, then you might as well supply margarine or “I can’t Believe It’s Not Crap.”

Pouring a small amount of real maple syrup into a bottle of Karo syrup is not acceptable. Either pony up for the 100% maple syrup or use some good old sugar cane syrup on those flapjacks.

Syrup with butter flavor is an abomination and classed together with other combo foods such as hot dogs with injected cheese sauce or peanut butter and jelly occupying the same jar. Folks that use these products often will order pizza with pineapple topping. These same people would want to know what wine to serve with little barbecue sausages.

Pancake Theory One from a 1994 epiphany at the IHOP on Dale Mabry Ave. in Tampa Florida. Whatever you do in the first thirty minutes after eating pancakes is what you end up doing for the rest of the day. Normally the writer would explain what IHOP means but if you don’t know, then you should be toasting generic-brand frozen waffles … alone.

Do not discard pancakes in the backyard as if they were crusts of old bread. It’s disturbing to have to watch fat squirrels in the morning monitoring their blood sugar levels.

If you have questions or want to add your own rules or favorite pancake story, add a comment. I would like to hear from you.

I promise not to argue or belittle you. That's what my wife is for. Just kidding Dear. 


Contact: 
Bob Simpson
Largo, Florida
bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

Love Through Love

He said:

 

You are the prettiest girl I have ever seen in my life.

 And, you’re smart too.
 

It’s different with you. I really do like you.
 

I love you.
 

I love you a lot.
 

I will love you for a long time.
 

I will love you forever.
 

I love you.

 

Yeah, me too.
 

Back at you.
 

Dittos.
 

Yes, I still love you.
 

I’m pretty sure that I love you.
 

I love you … unless something better comes along.
 

No, you’re not getting fat.
 

It’s just more for me to love.
 

You want to go jogging or work out with me?
 

I think you would feel better if you actually got up off the couch every once in a while.
 

I’m just concerned about your health.
 

Do you want me to take over paying your life insurance premiums for you?
 

I need some time alone to think some things through.
 

No, it’s not you. It’s me.
 

Maybe we should start seeing other people.
 

I met someone.
 

She’s really nice. She's a lot like you.
 

We should both tell the kids together.
 

Will you be all right on your own?
 

I got your attorney’s letter. I don’t think it’s such a fair deal for me.
 

Yes judge, we are totally irreconcilable with no hope of salvaging the marriage.
 

I know. I know. I know we’ve always spent Christmas with the kids, but you know my girlfriend has a family that we need to spend some time with too.
 

Yes, I mailed the alimony. I will check my bank statements again.

I don't know what I ever saw in you.

Yeah, well ok then, I hate you too.

I will hate you forever.

 

I will come back to haunt you after I die.
 

I hope you die first.
 

I hope you die real soon.
 

I’ll be right there as soon as I can get a flight. Are you sure our son is in stable condition?
 

I’m sorry to hear of your mother’s passing. She was a good woman.
 

It’s good to hear from you.
 

I was thinking about you the other day.
 

Yeah, I had a little health scare last week. Everything is fine now. My heart’s doing better but I have to watch what I eat and start exercising. I remember that my portion control was always a concern of yours.
 

Thanks for the card about my Dad. You’re right. He was a good man. I miss him.
 

Yeah, I was kinda stupid about us, wasn’t I?
 

You’re being kind to say that, but it really was entirely my fault. I’m sorry.
 

Sure, that would be nice if we met for coffee.
 

Yeah, I miss you too.
 

We did have some good times.

Finally, 

he said:  

You know … Nobody else will have

my sorry ass … so I’ll always love you forever. 

Have you seen my glasses? 

If you have questions or want to add a remark, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you. I promise not to argue or belittle you. That's what my wife is for. Just kidding, Dear. 

Contact: Bob Simpson
Largo, Florida
bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com
 

Why the outrage over Ferguson?

I haven't kept up with the news, what with all the TV shows I have recorded and need to watch. I did hear something about the Ferguson riots and the outrage over Ferguson.

I can't understand why there has to be rioting, looting, and protests just because of the Ferguson decision.

Ferguson decided to retire from CBS sometime in December 2014. He wasn't fired. 

Liza Minnelli look-alike, Craig Ferguson is leaving CBS 

He is leaving on good terms with CBS. There is no animosity between CBS executives and Craig Ferguson, the late late night talk show host

Craig Ferguson epitomizes a typical legal immigrant's progression through the system to ultimately become a United States Citizen.

I beg of you. Please stop the riots and looting. This man has done nothing wrong. He overcame a life of addiction to go on to host a major television network show for ten years.

Please, can't we all just get along? Let's start today to help return to a country of love and compassion for all. 

Don't make this another Conan O'Brien-Jay Leno thing. Haven't we learned from our mistakes? WWJD? (What would Johnny Do?)

Let's make it a great day for America. 

If you have questions or want to add a remark, please leave a comment. I would love to hear from you. I promise not to argue or belittle you. That's what my wife is for. Just kidding, Dear. 

Contact: 

Bob Simpson

Largo, Florida

bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

Stephen Hawking says “There is no Cod”

Cod is Dead ... and Deep Fried

British physicist Steven Hawking has claimed that “There is no Cod.” He believes that "science offers the most reasonable explanation" for Long John Silver's decision to remove Cod from their menu.

Hawking suffers from a motor neuron disease similar to ALS, Acute Limey Syndrome. He’s English you know. Part of the treatment for ALS is a daily serving of fish.

Hawking does believe, however, that "Tartar Sauce is Absolutely Divine," an allusion to a possible deity-like entity capable of producing that tasty condiment so necessary for the enjoyment of a nice piece of fish.

Professor Hawking announced that due to the removal of Cod from the menu, he will “Never again set foot in a Long John Silver’s restaurant.”

Stephen Hawking divorced his first wife, who took care of him and guided his wheelchair everywhere. When asked why he divorced her, he said, “She was just too pushy."

Bob Simpson

Bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

High School Wrestling Leads to Increase in Same-Sex Marriages

Rikki, don't lose that number.

Scientists have found a correlation between states with well-funded high
school wrestling programs and an increase in subsequent same-sex marriages. 

The researchers were quick to note that further investigation is still required. “We still have thousands of hours of films of young sweaty boys grab-assing to review and study before coming to any final conclusion.”

In the meantime, new rules for grappling games have been promulgated throughout the country, based on these preliminary findings: 

o      The high school referee will end the match immediately if he hears both wrestlers giggling. 

o      Coaches, do not teach wrestling holds based on the Karma Sutra.

o      Never allow a match between conjoined twins, no matter how amusing you think it might be.

o      Greco Roman is not to be confused with Gecko Roman. If there is a lizard spotted in the match, charges of indecent exposure may result.

o      Discrete use of cell phone cameras is still allowed.

o      At no time, should hands ever disappear from view.

o      If you experience a wrestling match for longer than four hours, contact your healthcare provider immediately … or get a room.

Bob Simpson

Bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

Taurus the Bull

April 21 to May 21

You'd be mad too if someone
shoved boxing gloves over you hooves.

Taurus.  Patient, warmhearted, and resolute. You enjoy waiting determinedly in the 75-items-or-less checkout lane, under the banner reading, “If we notice more than 25 people waiting in any one line, we will open another register.”

However, you can be jealous, resentful, and inflexible. Lord help the person in front of you with 76 items. You will count the items in that person’s cart, even magnanimously acknowledging that a carton of eggs is really one item and not twelve. But the last time the number reached 76 or higher on the repeat count, you started dropping items from the offending cart onto the polished supermarket floor.

To your credit, when the security camera tapes are reviewed, you are smiling warmly … as the bottled baby formula and Children’s Cold medicine break onto the tile.

Taureans are frightened of falling into debt and they are extremely faithful in their relationships. The ever-true Taurus will not stray from a poverty stricken marriage unless she meets a good looking CPA specializing in debt relief.

Your star stone is the Emerald, used in rituals to stop bleeding and just as effective as a piece of gauze.

The Wizard of OZ Munchkins were actually tiny Taurus hemophiliacs trying to get to the Emerald City before they bled to death. Remember the rousing refrain, “We’re off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Gauze ... Be Gauze, Be Gauze, Be Gauze, Be Gauze, Be Gauze … Be Gauze of the wonderful things he does.”

Originally, a pasty little Munchkin accompanied Dorothy and the boys down the yellow brick road. Sadly, the director cut the Munchkin and his songs from the movie. The director said it was just too heart-wrenching to watch the little anemic hemophiliac belt out, “If I only had a Clot.”

The ruling planet is Venus, your color is pink, and your metal is Copper. Your favorite daydream is of Venus Williams in a pink tennis outfit, cooking up a mess of bacon in a copper frying pan. This daydream works for both men and women.

The favorite car of this sign is the Ford Taurus. Remember retired Florida State Seminoles football coach Bobby Bowden’s famous Ford TV commercial: “I lack (like) Taurus.” He said this one time to the camera and drove home with a trunk load of money in his new free Ford Taurus. Bobby Bowden’s astrology sign should be the $$eminole.

The Taurus sign is congruent with Virgo. Taurean Kirsten Dunst of Spiderman fame would be compatible with Virgo basketball star and past Family Man of the Year, Kobe Bryant.

Mr. Bryant said, “I would like to court her. You know, if I wasn't married or anything like that. But Kirsten probably wouldn't go out with me. It would be a long shot, certainly not a slam Dunst.”

Remember. You are a Star. Even if it’s a Fallen-and-Can’t Get-Up Star.

Bob Simpson

Bobsimpson1947@yahoo.com

Old Dog Days or Why Lorne Greene Is Not an Icon Anymore

Yes, I was younger
than one of my sons.

Our dog is old. I don’t know how old. She was my wife’s dog before we were married, (my wife and I, not the dog). 

The dog came to live with us because she was one of those kinky “Love-me, Love-my-dog” types, (my wife, not the dog). 

She came from a place called Strays Arf Us, (the dog, not my wife).

Lately, Simba, (the dog, not my wife), has been barking every day at 4:17 AM. Evidently, that’s when a Pensacola aircraft en route to Miami at 40,000 feet passes within a hundred miles of our house.  

The call came at 5 AM yesterday from Air Traffic Control, “Excuse me, I apologize for calling so early, but we need your help. Our radar has gone down and we’ve lost contact with an aircraft out of Pensacola.

This is Pensacola Tower.
Sir, is your dog barking?

Sir, is Simba barking?”

The neighbors appreciate the 4:17 barking alarm. That’s a good little doggy for getting all the neighbors to wake up together and get a jump-start on their day.

My wife says Simba is 70. There is something out there in the ether and the Discovery channel called Dog Years. A Dog Year is equal to 7 years. 

There is a Dog Sun that rises and sets 7 times a day, but only canines and Hawaiian Tropics sun-tanning customers can see it.

Our aging Simba suffers from Barkinson’s Disease and Fleabitus. The Vet gave her painkillers for her Arfritis and something for anxiety.

The vet always gives me the same lecture, “The Valium was for the dog, not you.”

I didn’t have a snappy comeback because I kept falling asleep. But I woke right on up when the assistant asked, “Is the big one in here, for the neutering?”     

With all the medication, our mixed breed Simba is feeling mutt’s better. I feel better too, now that I have # 6377 programmed on my phone’s speed dial. That’s 911 in dog years.

Simba likes to watch the Lost Episodes of Lassie, but we don’t show her the final farewell show. Lassie limps into the farmhouse kitchen, circles her water bowl, shudders, then flops down and goes to sleep.
     

Timmy pets the quiet collie and yells, “Mom, I think Lassie’s trying to tell us something. Old man Jensen must have fallen down a well, or maybe the lady forest ranger has a ruptured ovarian cyst, or maybe the network execs got the ratings last night.”

Mom pulls Timmy away from Lassie, “Yes Timmy. I think you’re right. She really is trying to tell us something.”

“What Mom? What Mom?  What is she trying to say?”

“Well Timmy, I think Lassie’s trying to tell us that she’s dead.”

Now let’s talk about Lorne Greene. Remember Ben “Pa” Cartwright of Bonanza fame? He ran a large ranch for stray dogs called the Poundarosa. 

Mr. Greene was doing Alpo dog food-with-not-a-speck-of-cereal commercials when Hoss, his former TV son, died.

The plan was to sprinkle Hoss’s ashes over the “All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Museum” in Carson City. But times were tough for lovable, yet stern, patriarch Lorne Greene, who was left in charge of the cremation. 

To save money, he dragged his old friend to the dog food factory to have the cremation comped. Records have never been found to substantiate the actual cremation, but for several years, the Alpo cans sported a new label, with just a speck of Hydrogenated Oxygenated Synergistic Stuff, (H.O.S.S.).
 

Sadly, Ben Cartwright passed on at the age of 10.3; that’s 72 in Lorne Greene years.

So here’s the conversation on the way to school with the bright children that I am raising … as if they were my own … just because of a stupid DNA test:

“Pa … If Lorne Greene and his dog were on Mars, how long would they live?”

The answer: Lorne Greene would die in 7 seconds, having had a full 6 seconds to mourn for his dog that died after only one second. 

They both would have succumbed from a lack of proper vital ingredients that are missing in the average Martian environment; an atmosphere that contains Carbon Dioxide, a little Nitrogen, and not a speck of Oxygen.

Bob Simpson

Bobsimpsom1947@yahoo.com