Reminiscing . . .
First off, No, Nick and I did not coordinate our blogs yesterday. We just both know a lot of not very nice people.
I mentioned yesterday that 10,000 people had died from the regular flu since January 1st. Turns out that if you include the entire flu ‘season’ since early fall, it’s over 18,000. But then that doesn’t get the big headlines.
As of this evening, there have been 9 deaths in the U.S. so far. All of the deaths have occurred in Washington state, most were residents of a nursing home in suburban Seattle, and all had previous serious health problems.
Recently I saw this headline from CNN News.
Apparently over 50% of Amsterdam’s tourists say they are visiting there to experience the many Cannabis Cafes, and the city thinks they’re are getting “over-touristed”.
Of course, you don’t really need to actually ‘visit’ a ganja café. Instead you can just walk down the street.
When we were strolling along a waterfront street near the Anne Frank House we saw a display basket of lollipops right out on the street. Jan said, “Why don’t we get Landon some souvenir candy to take home to him.”
I laughed and said, “Read a little closer.”
Yes, those are marijuana lollipops. In Strawberry, Blueberry, and Purple Haze flavors. Not sure I want to know Purple Haze tastes like. Maybe it’s what your vision looks like post-lollipop.
And just so you don’t forget you’re in Holland, those are tulip bulbs being sold right underneath the basket.
And if a lollipop is not your choice, you can try an cannabis ice cream cone.
And No, we didn’t buy any treats, nor did we visit a ‘café’.
In a way I’ve always prided myself that as someone from my generation, I’ve never smoked marijuana. And apparently that’s a rarity. Or at least if seemed that way to the U.S. government.
Over the years, between working for the DOD, and later NASA, I’ve had more security clearances than I can count, or remember. In fact some of them were so secret that I was never even told the name of it. Just that I was now cleared to work on something.
And a number of the early ones included lie detector tests.
But I had a lot of problems getting though some of them. Because I told the truth.
When I was asked, “Have you ever used marijuana, or any other illegal drugs?”, I answered, “No!”
And when he questioned my answer, I told him again that I had never smoked marijuana, but I had inhaled deeply at a few concerts.
He didn’t really see the humor in that. They actually thought I was cheating on the test somehow. I mean, everyone in college in the 60’s tried marijuana, right?
Somehow, they finally figured out I was just a weirdo and not lying to them. And luckily I guess it got entered into my record because it quit coming up.
And one of the times I ‘inhaled’ was actually with Jan. In early 1968 when she was about 6 months pregnant with our son Chris, we drove from Tuscaloosa over to Birmingham to attend a Beach Boys concert.]
As we walked into the concert hall we could see a smoky haze hovering over the seats. I think Jan probably figured it was just from cigarettes, but as we got further into the hall, Jan sniffed around and said, “Why are they burning incense in here?”
Chuckling, I told my sweet little innocent wife that it wasn’t cigarettes, but marijuana smoke. Her eyes got real big and she said, “Really?”
And she was sound asleep within 20 minutes after the concert started.
I warned her not to inhale.
Thought For The Day:
School Reunion
(n.) A meeting where it takes only 20 seconds to realize why you haven’t seen those people for 20 years.
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