All Space Thumbs

Does NASA need to redesign those suits a little, to allow for better extraterrestrial home repair? Not only are the American and Canadian astronauts slipping up and helplessly watching bolts and other small items float away on their International Space Station work, but I remember hearing about a recent incident with a 14 inch spatula drifting off into orbit. A new danger to ISS visitors? Potential death by spatula?

Bike, horse, jet, shuttle — a ride is a ride. And a rider needs the best gear possible, even more so when they have to fix or customize things.

So how about NASA and the Canadian Space Agency doing something nice for those astronauts, hmm, and improving your reputations a little? Possibly you folks can roundtable some ideas, maybe a robotic glove extension solution, at least? Any little thing that might give our astronauts a boost in doing their home improvements on the station would be fine.

This is definitely worth an eye roll, and you can’t really blame the astronauts.

My best to you,

HWD

Preview Sale

Ahh, the latest in sales tricks at department stores, the big “preview sale.”

I was shopping on gift cards given to me for my birthday. The department store was Macy’s but they’re hardly the only guilty party.

So here’s the deal with the “preview sale.” You spend your money, and the store will always be happy to take your money up front, but you have to leave your purchased item there in the store. Does this really make sense? Why would anyone do this?

Can you believe these department stores being so sure their lowly customers are desperate enough to have a pair of relatively common shoes, for instance, that the customers will pay and be forced to walk away empty-handed until the store is in the mood to call the sale officially on?

Bad idea, Macy’s, and all the other department stores using this lame sales tactic.

I walked away without dropping any money there. I’m just not as desperate as Macy’s would like, I guess. Maybe when the sale is really, truly, most definitely begun, maybe then I’ll gather my gift cards up and shop there.

My best to you,

HWD

Cartoons and Carnage

Let it never be said that art is impotent, that it lacks the power to move people.

As ever, even a few clever cartoons can seem to indirectly result in rioting, rampage and death. Beyond the cartoons as scapegoat, much more has to be at the root of such insanity, as there always has been where severe reaction to political cartoons is concerned. It’s never really the cartoons alone, but the cartoons are often kept in print for many years afterward to help the future remember highlights or low points of those moments in history.

But since the first cave sketches, artists have often been known to go for effect and to make our statements about the world around us, don’t we? Is that part of the pen being mightier than the sword? Well yes, and that pen draws as well as writes. We can only hope it does so as responsibly and with as much heart as possible.

My best to you,

HWD