By Bob Gaydos

Snoop Dogg, Olympics ambassador extraordinaire.

    Tim Walz may be on to something. The newly anointed Democratic candidate for vice president went viral a few days ago when he labeled an entire political party — the other one, the Republicans — as “weird.” No sooner had he said it, everyone else seemed to notice and started doing the same thing.

   Well, not the Republicans. They didn’t like it, although it’s difficult to figure out why since they haven’t really objected to being called mindless cult followers of a racist con man for several years now.

     But that’s not the point here. Walz’s weird proclamation suddenly seems to be manifesting all over the news:

      — Bobby Kennedy Jr., the crown prince of weird, went for the gold medal right off the bat, confessing to leaving a dead bear cub in Central Park 10 years ago. Yes, that news does make one pause and say, “Why?”

      Well, it seems Junior  came across a dead bear cub that had been hit by a car in front of him and collected it to take home and skin it because “it was in very good condition. I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator — and you can do that in New York State.” Kennedy was explaining that in a social media video to, umm, Roseanne Barr (remember her?), for whatever reason.

     He said he had dinner with friends later who said it would be funny to leave the bear in the park, next to a bicycle, suggesting a cyclist had hit and killed the bear. Yuk yuk. (Alcohol was included with dinner.) The story of the dead bear in Central Park was big for a while and a mystery that remained unsolved until now. Also, this man wants your votes to be president of the United States.

   — Snoop Dog was “reportedly” being paid $500,000 a day by NBC to be a roving commentator and ambassador of goodwill at the Paris Olympics. Reportedly is in quotes because I couldn’t find any story with Mr. Dogg or NBC confirming that outrageous amount, other than a secondhand account of an overheard conversation. That’s weird, but it passes for journalism these days.

    For his reported half mill a day, the rapper has hit all the venues, dressed appropriately, swam, ran, talked about gymnasts, horses and skateboarders and has had a grand old time in Paris on NBC’s dime. 

  He was also clever enough to avoid swimming in the Seine. A bunch of athletes were taken ill after participating in races in the storied river. E. coli was said to be the culprit. Seems Paris has a combined sewer system, so wastewater and stormwater use the same pipes, meaning heavy rain can cause untreated wastewater to overflow into the river. Dunno. Seems weird to me to have Olympic athletes swimming with this risk, even in la belle Paris.

   — Beyond weird, to me at least, is NASA’s insistence on depending on Boeing as one of its two providers of ferry services to the International Space Station.

   Two astronauts were carried to the Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner in June, but only after a delayed maiden launch due to leaky valves and stuff like that, which you don’t really want on your super expensive spaceship. It’s all too reminiscent of Boeing’s 747 jumbo jets crashing in the past (64 planes, more than 3,000 deaths) and doors falling off their planes in flight in the present. 

   Anyway, the astronauts got to the Space Station, but now it seems the Starliner, which was supposed to bring them back after an eight-day visit, is having some, uh, leaky problems. Also thrusters not thrusting. So the astronauts have to hang out a bit longer than expected. About six months longer.

  Despite Boeing’s assurance that their spacecraft is safe to return the astronauts, NASA is saying it’s probably going to use Elon Musk’s more reliable Space X rocket for that task. That flight is scheduled for next February.

      The astronauts, Navy veterans, reportedly have plenty of company (the ISS has room for eight) and jobs to keep them busy until then. It also gives Congress enough time to get Boeing back to the Capitol to explain why its flying machines seem to still have so much trouble just flying and NASA to explain why it’s spending and depending on such an undependable company.

   — Finally, it seems Vladimir Putin has his own weird definition of what war is all about. The Russian president, who launched a full-scale invasion into neighboring Ukraine, which has resulted in widespread death and destruction in that country but little success in terms of achieving his goal of annexation, recently accused Ukraine of a “large-scale provocation” when Ukrainian forces reportedly raided an area in southwestern Russia causing some death and destruction. Weird, huh? Guess the Ukrainians didn’t read the ground rules.

   — And really finally, giving a gold medal for breaking, as in breakdancing, in the Olympics to me is, well, weird.

rjgaydos@gmail.com

By Bob Gaydos

Ghee.

  Stick with me here. I’m not sure where I’m going, but I hope it’ll be worth the trip when we get there.

    I typically start my day (assuming the stars are aligned and the usual very considerate dog-feeder has fed the dogs) by tackling a New York Times word game called Spelling Bee. You get points based on how many words you can make from seven letters. It’s one of several word games I play each day so that, among other things, I can continue to write columns that I hope readers find (a) informative, (b) provocative, (c ) entertaining or (d) all of the above. The people who know about keeping brains vital recommend such games. And I enjoy them.

   So, this particular morning I advance to the point in the game where I am “amazing,” but one point short of “Genius.” I hate when that happens because it means all the obvious and most of the non-obvious words have been found, leaving words no one ever heard of and the odds of picking up a single point is slim.

    Finally, after going away and coming back several times, I see it. The word that will give me one point: Ghee.

   Yes! Genius once again and, gee, isn’t it interesting that I got there on a word I didn’t even know a few years ago. 

   For those who aren’t familiar with the word, ghee is a form of highly-clarified butter that is traditionally used in Indian cooking. Like butter, ghee is typically made from cow’s milk. It is made by melting regular butter, which separates into liquid fats and milk solids. The solids are removed, leaving a liquid with less lactose. Ghee is thus considered to be vegetarian because there is no animal product in it, but not vegan, because it is derived from animal product. (See, we’re already learning something.)

   Since I am neither vegan nor vegetarian, the technicalities don’t bother me. I became acquainted with ghee several years ago by adopting a diet with less meat and more plants. A quick scan of the internet on its health benefits or risks quickly pointed out the problem of our unfettered information glut, with ghee being declared either good or bad for weight loss, digestion, cholesterol or the heart. There was even a report the FDA had banned it, which should be a surprise to the thousands of Indian restaurants in this country, as well as the USDA, which regulates ghee and other products derived from cows. Consult your doctor on this, please.

     For me, ghee has been no issue and we only have it when we treat ourselves to a meal at a wonderful nearby vegetarian restaurant, The Red Dot, in Wurtsboro, N.Y, which is the entrance to the Catskills region if you’re planning a trip.

   If instead you’re planning a trip to Paris this year, be aware that the Summer Olympics will be in town and by “in town” the Parisians mean it literally, with urban games at Le Place de la Concorde, beach volleyball at the Eiffel Tower and Equestrians at the Palace of Versailles.

   I know all this only because when I got my genius score on Queen Bee, I put up water for tea, doled out a truckload of vitamins and then checked my Facebook feed, which promptly informed me that Snoop Dogg was going to be a special commentator for NBC on this year‘s Olympics in Paris.

    Oh. I thought. Why? I further thought.

     It seems Mr. Dogg, or Snoop to his friends, was such a hit four years ago with his colorful, occasionally profane, comments on the dressage competition at the Tokyo Olympics, NBC figured the rapper/business mogul would be a good bet to raise ratings for this year’s event.  

Snoop Dogg

   For the record, the 2020 Olympics recorded the lowest average primetime viewership for the network since it began presenting the Olympics in 1988. In fact, viewership fell by 42 percent from the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

   But we’re now in the world of streaming and watching anything, anywhere, anytime. If he was so popular on NBC’s streaming coverage on Peacock in 2020, NBC figured, why not bring on the Dogg and his irreverence, if not expertise, to the whole network? It’s entertainment, isn’t it?

    Yes, and the size and, now, diversity of the audience also sets the price of the advertising, doesn’t it? 

    Snoop will apparently be free to roam around Paris and all the Olympic venues and “add his unique perspective to our re-imagined Olympic primetime show,” according to Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production.

    Gee.

    Before I turned to tea and breakfast on this particular morning, one last look at Facebook informed me that the National Football League had fined Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper $300,000 for throwing a drink toward Jacksonville Jaguars fans from his luxury box. Classy.

 The Panthers were in the midst of losing to the hometown Jaguars, 26-0, leaving Tepper’s team with the worst record in the NFL. In fact, the team hasn’t had a winning record since Tepper bought it five years ago after a sex scandal under the previous owner.

   Tepper accepted the fine and expressed “regret” for the incident, but didn’t apologize. Apparently, he’s still feeling a bit agitated. Panthers fans can identify.

    Well, thanks to Queen Bee, the Internet and Red Dot, I have a suggestion for Mr. Tepper: Clarified butter. Ghee. More of it.

    Ghee is a staple of Ayurvedic medicine, the traditional medicine of India, which is rooted in Hinduism. The philosophy of Ayurvedic medicine contends that the body, mind and soul are connected to the outer world and when the relationship among these elements is out of balance, health problems arise. 

    Ghee is often suggested to improve gut health and they say a healthy gut is a healthy body. It helps in cleansing the body of harmful stuff. In fact, it is regarded by some as one of the most sattvic foods. In Hinduism, sattva (a Sanskrit word) is having a serene, harmonious state of mind.  

    Some believers say that regular consumption of ghee leads to a reduction in stress and anxiety levels.

    It can’t play quarterback, Mr. Tepper, but ghee whiz, at least it’s more sattvic than listening to Snoop Dogg commenting on Olympic equestrian events in Paris.

       I told you we’d get there.

(PS: I have attained Queen Bee status just one time in more than a year of playing the game.)

rjgaydos@gmail.com

By Bob Gaydos

Hillary Clinton … the only rational choice

Among the many unpleasant things this presidential campaign has unearthed (festering racism, arrogant ignorance, ugly nativism, cowardly politics …) is the phony fairness theory. Or, the false equivalence doctrine.

It’s the belief that: 1) the news media has an obligation to present information about both major presidential candidates fairly and equitably, without value judgments and 2) anytime anyone writes a critical piece about one candidate, it’s a “hit job” if the opposition is not also criticized in some way.

Obvious caveat: The fairness theory does not apply to Fox News. although its viewers are the loudest in demanding it of others.

Second obvious caveat: The fairness theory does not apply to the hundreds of social media propaganda sites posing as news outlets.

The misguided notion that the press has to be “fair” by being non-judgmental and showing appropriate respect for both candidates is what led to the rise of Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. While Fox News was skewering Hillary Clinton daily with unproven charges and innuendo, the mainstream media were reporting on those innuendos while treating her opponent as if he were someone who had any clue about how to be president — despite his own statements to the contrary every day.

On and on and on it went, with only a rare few having the guts to say, “That’s racist,” or “That’s stupid,” or “That’s offensive,” or “That’s sexist,” or “That’s a lie.” And so here we are, with Trump still doing the same things day after day and the mainstream media desperately playing catch-up on calling Trump a dangerous bigot and a possible threat to national security.

All except Matt Lauer, of course, who froze up in that NBC-TV debate the other night, letting Trump ramble and lie without calling him out, while grilling Clinton about her e-mails that have dominated Fox News but — to be fair — have resulted in no official charges against her for anything.

I don’t know Lauer, but it sure seemed that he was more comfortable being aggressive with a well-spoken, accomplished, educated woman than with a schoolyard bully. Just saying.

At any rate, back to fairness. The Fairness Doctrine was instituted by the Federal Communications Commission in 1949. It required the holders of broadcast licenses (radio and TV stations) to present controversial issues of public importance in an honest, equitable, and balanced manner. The idea was that, since they held licenses to use the airwaves, they had an obligation to fairly inform the public.

It was killed in 1987 In Ronald Reagan’s administration. It never applied to print media. It no longer exists. And it never meant that reporters or editors or columnists were supposed to ignore the truth in the interest of “fairness.” You don’t just get to say anything — true or not — just because we have to be fair. That would not be in the public interest. Challenging candidates to prove their statements is in the public interest.

Interestingly, the notion of fairness keeps coming up with regards to press coverage of Clinton, both ways. She has been called the favorite candidate of the mainstream media, who are supposedly doing all they can to ignore her shortcomings while repeatedly excoriating Trump, so as to get her elected. She has also been called the favorite target of the media, who are said to carry a longstanding resentment against her for treating them as a necessary evil at best. In a way, this could be considered fair and balanced treatment.

I’ve had readers comment on my articles saying that it’s not fair to just criticize Republicans for giving us Trump, when the Democrats gave us Clinton, who allegedly stole the nomination. I must be a Clinton-lover, they say. Be fair.

First off, it’s dangerous to make assumptions off one article, whoever the author. Second, we are way beyond that point, people. It’s two months to Election Day. Just as Republicans will have to figure out what they stand for after this election, Democrats will have their day of reckoning with the Bernie Sanders supporters and others who are not fans of Clinton (including me). That’s all to the good and grist for future columns.

But right now, we need to focus on the issue at hand: Donald Trump, is the most dangerously ill-prepared candidate to ever run for president representing a major party. (Please don’t distract me with third party arguments at this point. Aleppo.) Hillary Clinton is one of the most-qualified persons to ever run for president and she is a woman. I submit those as pertinent facts. I don’t have to like Hillary to vote for her; I just have to accept that she is by far the better choice. In fact, the only rational choice.

rjgaydos@gmail.com