March madness includes a rush on toilet paper at grocery stores and big shop retailers…gougers sell toilet paper upwards of $25 a roll. Guy in NYC was selling at $100/roll…he found a buyer. I some swamp land here in Florida….
Libby Znaimer….
….the daughter of broadcasting mogul Moses Z….hosts a daily fone-in show on 740 Zoomer Radio after the noon news. I guess I could/would classify myself as a ‘sometymes listener’, depending on whether or not I have finished my daily ‘buckboard run’….aka shopping. The topics have a wide range but politics….at various levels….is on most callers minds along with her ‘invited guests/experts’. She also has ‘choose-your-own-topic day’, which Rotzy caught last week. I suppose I may have been running a tad late as I heard the entire show. Well, getting on toward the end of her show, she got a call from some olde guy from St Thomas….he sounded, partially from his subject matter, to be about 75 and when he was done talking, Libby and her panel had nary a word to say. ‘Dumbfounded’ may be the word. The oldster went back two (or maybe three) generations and was recalling a large number of serious incidents involving ‘tree huggers’ and environmental groups such as Greenpeace who were getting headlines for chaining themselves to trees, bulldozers and cetera belonging to the large ‘paper mill companies’. Their main ‘tree-killing target’ was the large, brown kraft paper bags used by supermarkets. (*I recall them well, because as a 15-16 yr olde Rotzy was bagging groceries at Calbecks) Actually, the brown kraft bags came in all sizes….sandwich size, which my Mom packed my tuna fish and peanut butter and jam sandwiches in for my lunch at PJCVS, right up to the large sacks. ALL supermarkets/grocery stores used them, in fact, so did ALL other stores/businesses. Well, ’twas a long/sometymes bitter fight but the ‘tree huggers’ and governments eventually prevailed over the supermarkets, and cetera and brown kraft paper bags and sacks basically went the way of the dinosaur!! Of course they were replaced by plastic. Ooooops!
”It’s A Very Strange World….
….we live in, Master Jack” (*see below). A very non-descript, non-popular, non-#1 hit song (from the 1960’s?) from a singer I can’t recall, nor do I care about….it’s just that it fits rather well these days, you think? Tell you what, leave it with me and yours truly will try to come up with some tune that’s ‘more fitting’, tho I’d say a ‘novelty/humerous number’ is pretty much out of the question….what with the monstrous ”CLOSED” sign that was hung on Mother Earth last week. So….SO….I said (to myself) “Well Toad, where do you start with this #$@%%& mess”? Well, Miz. Jo and I are in Brant’s Ford and we have a reader who calls Btfd the COTW….aka Centre Of The World….so what the heck, we’ll start right here. And, altho we’re not as ”CLOSED” as Italy, for example, is, that’s not to say half of the 120,000 people here have not lost their mind….all or part of it….and/or at the very minimum ‘pushing the panic button’ right through the wall. In spite of the fact, that at this point in tyme (Sat Mar 14 12:07 EDST) The Telephone City has no cases of the Corona virus thing on record. None. ZERO. So….SO….what’s with all this sudden ‘over-reacting’?! In the supermarkets for starters, where common sense doesn’t live anymore. I was in Zehr’s yesterday and the shelves look like Mother Hubbard’s cupboard. Toilet paper? Nary a roll!! By the bye, as I was out on The Rez for my smokes and gas this ayem, some guy told me that diarrhea is NOT a symptom of the corona virus thing. I also heard on 92.9 News that ‘somebody on KIJIJI’ is selling t-paper for $25 a roll, $400 a case….no kidding! *It says here ‘somebody on KIJIJI’ has been sniffing too much glue. No kidding!! Tell you what Master Jack (*see above), it’s gonna get a hell of a lot stranger. At this point, “From Nakina” is gonna make a prediction….without the use of a crystal ball, tarot leaves, black cat bone or mojo tooth. One year from this tyme….let’s say the entire month of March 2021….the Earth is gonna see a population increase, possibly/probably like never before, so hospitals around the world will have to heed the need to get ready! Like New York City nine months after the New York Hydro Blackout….but this one’s gonna be round the world. ”Why” you ask??!! ‘Cuz everything is CLOSED and there’s nothing else to do. Except……….
March Madness….
….the annual NCAA tournament to select their basketball champion has of course been cancelled….along with virtually every other sport known to mankind/womankind, whilst ‘March Madness’ continues to present itself in ways never even dreamed of. Like two Costco customers in Guelph duking it out last Thurs….over toilet paper!! And there were some frazzled tempers at my Zehr’s Store Friday when two skids loaded with Cashmere*tm 12-packs were rolled out onto the floor and disappeared in a New York Minute….likely less than that….as a handful of shoppers each grabbed 5 or 6 bundles. Actually, Rotzy thought it was quite funny….tho not the knee slapper that KIJIJI getting $25 a roll was/is….and the rest of yesterday’s stroll up and down aisle after of barren shelves makes me wonder how long until these panic-stricken people are set to weather the storm. By the bye, don’t get me wrong folks, I’m not at all downplaying the fact that the entire world is in an all-new/dangerous/precarious situation with this new corona thing….nor do I find it amusing at the ridiculous over-buying/over-spending on foodstuffs….and t-paper. OK, OK, OK…..I lied about the latter! I think it’s a hoot. Ditto for the finger pointing, which has begun in earnest as of the last few days, with a few ‘higher-ups’ blaming social media for planting the initial seed of panic….then President Trump taking direct aim at the E/U (which still includes G Britain last tyme I checked) for allowing the corona to make its’ way elsewhere from there. Seems he may be right on that one as Junior Trudeau’s wife just returned from Britain with the virus. It’s Sunday 10:00AM as I finish this….just got off the elevator with a guy from Thunder Bay who told me of a ‘new’ case up in Ft Frances….then he added ”I don’t think we’ve seen the last of this”.
*Thought Of The Day…I expect he’s quite right.
