1. The other day -- Thursday, to be exact -- I thought of someone I hadn't thought of in many years: famous Formula One race car driver Sir Jackie Stewart.
I never actually followed racing, but sometime in the mid-1970s, I was visiting my friend Wayne, who was watching some sports program on TV (probably ABC's Wide World of Sports) where Jackie Stewart was a "color commentator." Something about this cocky little Scotsman appealed to me, and I saw him a few more times at Wayne's.
So, as I said, I hadn't thought of him for years, but his name just popped into my head on Thursday.
At this point, you may very well be thinking, Uh-oh, every time David thinks about someone whom he hasn't thought about in ages, that person dies! (At least, I'm assuming you thought that, as well as assuming that you correctly used "whom" rather than "who.")
Well, I wasn't too worried that I would jinx this poor guy as I searched for his Wikipedia entry, because I was pretty darned sure that I'd heard he'd already died a few years back...
And I was wrong! I was quite pleased to learn that he was still alive at the ripe old age of seventy-eight.
That was Thursday.
On Friday, I was doing something I rarely do, namely, sitting in a bar having a couple of beers. Less than five minutes after I arrived there, one of the bar's half-a-dozen televisions began playing a Heineken commercial, and said commercial actually showed some VFX-enhanced archival footage of... none other than Jackie Stewart. At the very end of the commercial, it showed him as he looks nowadays.
I followed up by doing a little research on the commercial itself, only to discover that it's over a year old.
Over a year old. But I never saw it until one day after I thought of someone whom I otherwise haven't thought of for several years.
What are the odds?
* * * * *
2. Ever since the "fall" of Harvey Weinstein and the increasing activity of the #MeToo movement, I've been seeing more and more exposé-type articles bemoaning the fact that multiple instances of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault have suddenly been "discovered" in one industry, or occupation, or whatever. And people are shocked to discover that such things have been taking place in this "new" walk of life.
Oh, really?
Why the hell is anyone surprised?
Anything involving more than one person, whether they're male and female mixed, all male, or all female, is a potential situation for sexual harassment/assault. And this behavior is carried on by cosmeticians, sanitation workers, Uber drivers, juice bar employees, butchers, bakers, candle-stick makers...
People just suck, okay?
You want to be outraged by sexual harassment or assault? Good. You should be. You want to speak out against it? More power to you! You want to try to actually do something about it? My proverbial hat is off to you!
But if you're actually surprised that such behavior exists in any occupation?
Don't be.
Thanks for your time.
