Hole Punchers and Drive-Thru Windows

“Yes, yes…what is it, Rick?  I thought you were harvesting fungi and making algae soup for breakfast this morning.”

“Well, I was looking at the growth patterns of vines in the woods this morning, paying attention to capillary action, when I saw a branch of the future you might want to tell my…I mean, your readers.”

“Rick, Rick, Rick.  How can I do that?  I’ve already told them you’ve retired and here you are, still setting up your supercomputer to extend prediction paths out into the forest.  That doesn’t sound like you’re retired to me.”

“‘You young whippersnappers!’  Why, I ought to give you a good whoopin’ for backtalking me but then you are taller and stronger.”

“Oldtimers.  Geez.  Look, am I or am I not in charge of your network?”

“Let’s just say you were handpicked for the job.  Kinda like the way we maneuvered the population of the United States to put a man who had an African Muslim father and Caucasian Christian mother into the White House.  Which goes with one of these future predictions I see.  The way the vines tell it, now that we’ve secured a member of the Muslim Brotherhood as president of Egypt, we need to convince one of the U.S. President’s daughters to marry a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, thus cementing the bond between the U.S., and thus the West, and the Middle East.  It’s the only longterm way to secure peace within certain circles of the Muslim community and get rid of terrorist breeders within their ranks.  And if they adopted a Chinese baby, that’d perfect the deal!”

“Man, you and your wildlife.  I suppose the ants were talking to you again today, weren’t they?”

“Now that you mention it…”

“Naw, forget it.  I’ve got my own show to run.  You want this gig, you gotta take it from me!”

Rick says to thank Nancy for the smile and laugh she shared this morning.

Backspace, Enter, Shift, Alt, Control

I took a sip of tea, grown cold after hours waiting for me while I washed laundry, watered the potted plants and sent messages to me delivery boys who would carry out muh orders to eliminate waste.

Waste is a word I use for people who get in my way.

How does the Irish saying go, “Don’t be breaking your shin on a stool that’s not in your way”?

I agree wholeheartedly.

No sense in hacking the emails and passwords of a social networking site if you don’t plan to spam the world using other people’s email accounts.

My main competitor says, “Catch me if you can.”

It’s a threat and dare not worth taking.

I just steal his business, take his mistress, torture his kids and turn his wife into a raving lunatic.

No reason to catch him if I can ruin him, instead.

And if you’re going to spam the place, make sure there’s a profit in it.  Otherwise, you’re just a cock crowing at the security light you set off when you walked past the motion sensor.

My detractors say I kill for a living.  Well, I don’t bloody well have a Muslim birth name as a Christian going around killing Muslims for my cheap, showoff thrills, pushing buttons from afar and claiming responsibility for blood on the shards of errant bombs, now, do I?

I’m not a terrorist, for Christ’s sake.  Or, for that matter, a terrorist for Christ’s sake.

I’m a businessman, through and through.

After the last election, I stood in line like the rest of the fellows, signing up for me licence to have multiple wives after our newly “elected” leader proclaimed an executive order to authorise polygamy for all provinces in our great country.

And me wives agree it was a tough bargain to get me as an ‘usband.  Not like I just walked up to every woman on the street and asked, “Will you be my true love but not my first wife?”

The interview process alone was a great wedge that just about drop apart me business partners from me profit.

But I convinced me business partners that having marriage partners who were business savvy was good for business.

Now, when I want to sleep with my secretary, she doesn’t mind that the other women in my business, who just happen to be my wives like her, won’t be getting jealous and spreading angry gossip down the halls for weeks on end.

They’ll get their turn when they’re good and ready to have me.

The way we see it, when a business deal goes bad, someone has to pay, including me.

Besides, it cuts down on pressure from my competitors to steal my employees by offering greener pastures to graze.

You see, I found a loophole in the executive order, despite details of the order being put under the protection of executive privilege.

Women can have multiple husbands, if they want.

Although the order implied it was a male-only right to claim multiple wives, there is not a word of gender specificity.

So, not only do I have multiple wives but many of my wives have multiple husbands.

Keeps our business and personal calendars rather full.

Or, as we say around here, “Cha d’dhùin doras nach d’fhosgail doras.” [No door closed without another opening]

I’ve been rambling on again, ‘aven’t I?  Well, that’s the curse of old age, I’m afraid.  Bua na cainte.

Well, I better be getting along to me next meetin’.  I’ve a few gambling debts to call in before me competitors try to buy their way into some of my wives’ husbands’ wives’ in-laws’ line of work and who might decide they can get better rates from someone else besides me business partners, if they listen to the silk tongues of my competitors’ spouses wantin’ a little extra income to support their expensive lifestyles.

Every executive order has its downside, does it not?

The New, Reformed Catholic Church for Modern Women

I guess we knew it was coming sooner or later.

Today, the organisation, Our Lady for the Reformation of Male-Led Religion, announced its official split from the Roman Catholic Church.

Nunneries around the world are holding secret ballots to vote on whether to stay with the Roman Catholic Church or join Our Lady for the Reformation of Male-Led Religion.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Our Lady for the Reformation of Male-Led Religion has hinted that a later announcement of a name change, possibly to the Rowomyn Catholic Church, may be possible, off the record, of course.

The Vatican has flatly denied the right of Our Lady for the Reformation of Male-Led Religion to leave the Church, citing multiple traditions, as well as possible passages in the Good Book, itself, as valid reasons why women must continue to submit to the biggest, original Male-Led Religion of them all, for now and for eternity.

The leader of Priests for Equal Pay would neither confirm nor deny whether Priests for Equal Pay were in support of nuns asking for equal religious leader positions in the Church.

Rumours spread that the rise of Our Lady for the Reformation of Male-Led Religion has increased mumblings within Islam of women seeking equal job status in the religious leadership positions of mosques and, given time, being restored to the ancient roles of gender-neutral imams again.

The European Central Bank announced that these recent events have no bearing on the decision to lean on the Vatican’s vast stores of wealth to pull Europe from the brink of disaster and return Catholicism to its primary role as a healing force in modern economic policies.

When asked for ‘is opinion, Fidel Castro held up a cigar and say, “This is for you, Señor Richard Dawson.”