OUR VIRUS

THE ABSURD TIMES

 

 

 

Some very strange developments or events transpired in what's left of my mind after maintaining an indoor status for longer than Nathaniel Hawthorn and his mother ever did. Now, that's a long time, but nobody ever wrote down the dates. I just assume it's right, that I am right, for there is no evidence to contradict me.

There really has been no point in writing or posting any absurd news as it is plainly visible every day. Donald of Orange is now "giving" press conferences daily, because this disease is preventing him from getting his "fix" at a rally every so often. It is an opportunity to assemble respected reporters and call them "irresponsible," "snarky," (where did he hear that one, I wonder?), "stupid" and whatever else. He also keeps active visiting with Sean Hannity who worships him over at Faux News.

So, we have a lot of B.S. (I save Bullshit for more important things) going on about this virus. One of them was that we had the same thing back in the 16^th Century. No, that was the Bubonic plague, carried by rats, and people went out with Boccaccio to tell each other stories. Not the same thing.

Anyone heard that testerone plagued Folson Prison Concert of the late 60s? Cocaine Blues was a big hit. A substitute line now is "I coughed on a man in Reno, just to watch him die."

It also occurred to me that there was no longer a need for the NRA. Self-Defense? "Come one step closer and I'll sneeze."

The reason a quarter of a million people are going to die as a result of Trump's late start is that the evil Democrats took up his time with impeachment. This is from no less a source than the Senate Majority Leader. You realize, of course, what this reduces our entire nation to? One of the major players in the running of this country is Mitch McConnell. That what we are now. We can't even look down on Tony Blair or Maggie Thatcher. It is like we are a punchline for a Rodney Dangerfield joke.

There has been a great deal of talk about people feeling depression as a result of isolation. Well, somehow, Oscar Levant has been popping up on the TV screen lately and it reminded me of a conversation he had once after being in the mental hospital for depression:

Q "Well, Oscar, I see you are out of confinement so you have recovered from your depression, right?"

A "Not exactly."

Q "Well, you are out, so you must be better?"

A "No, I was kicked out because I was depressing the other patients."

Ok, ok, so much for that. I was reminded of it when I saw that TMC was putting of something called "Romance on the High Seas," or whatever. In the list of actors, Doris Day and Oscar Levant's photos were right next to one another. Hardly appropriate, but people don't think. It reminded me, however, of the origin of his remark about her: "I knew Doris Day before she becane a virgin." That's enough.

Ever heard of the guy who was President for one day? One note not mentioned, he was asleep during his entire term as he drank himself to sleep and didn't recover until the next day:

  President for a Day

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March 4, 1849

On a statue in Plattsburg, Missouri, an inscription reads, "David Rice Atchison, 1807-1886, President of the U.S. [for] one day." The day of President Atchison's presumed presidency occurred on March 4, 1849.

A proslavery Democrat, David Atchison served in the U.S. Senate from 1843 to 1855. His colleagues elected him president pro tempore on 13 occasions. In those days, the vice president regularly attended Senate sessions. Consequently, the Senate chose a president pro tempore to serve only during brief vice presidential absences.

Until the 1930s, presidential and congressional terms began at noon on March 4. In 1849 that date fell on a Sunday, causing President Zachary Taylor to delay his inauguration until the next day. For some, this raised the question of who was president from noon of March 4 to noon of March 5. Of course, we now know that Taylor automatically became president on the fourth and could have begun to execute the duties of his office after taking the oath privately, a day before the public inauguration.

In 1849 the Senate president pro tempore immediately followed the vice president in line of presidential succession. That era's ever-present threat of sudden death made it essential to keep an unbroken order of succession. To ensure that there was a president pro tempore in office during adjournment periods, the vice president customarily left the Senate Chamber in an annual session's final days so that the Senate could elect this constitutional officer. Accordingly, the Senate duly elected Atchison on March 2, 1849. His supporters, to the present day, claim that the expiration of the outgoing president's and vice president's terms at noon on March 4 left Atchison with clear title to the job.

Unfortunately for Atchison's shaky claim, his Senate term also expired at noon on March 4, thereby denying him the chance to become president. When the Senate of the new Congress convened the following day to allow new senators and the vice president to take the oath of office, with no president pro tempore, the secretary of the Senate called members to order.

No one planning to attend Taylor's March 5 inauguration seemed to have realized that there had been a "President Atchison" in charge. Nonetheless, for the rest of his life, Atchison enjoyed polishing this story, describing his "presidency" as "the honestest administration this country ever had."