Gossip Girl

Someone once asked me what I like to do for fun. Recently, I have been binge watching the series 'Gossip Girl'. I am trying to figure out how some people can go around plotting and scheming, eating whatever they want, drinking whatever they want (mostly alcohol) and somehow still managing to maintain perfect GPAs, extracurricular activities, and getting into the best Ivy league schools without being doubled over in pain or running to the bathroom all the time. In other words, how do the rich and famous manage stress without succumbing to incapacitating digestive issues?

Why Gossip Girl? Several years ago, I was presented with the natal chart of Blake Lively as an example of associating astrological prediction with personality. Aside from being good friends with Taylor Swift and occasional showing slightly too much cleavage, Blake seems like a pretty cool person who is surprisingly 'down to earth', raising four children with her husband (and their father), Ryan, of over ten years. Cudos on that anniversary, Blake. Hope you keep it up; menopause can be a bitch.

Back to the show...

When I see all those women (and men) at their high society parties and charity events, I wonder what is going on in their colons at that moment. As mentioned in a previous post, a person's microbiome can have a big effect on their personality which in turn, I understand, is affected by diet. I briefly considered spending a summer dumpster diving on the upper east side of New York, if they even have dumpsters. I think it would be very informative as I have heard astonishing statistics about the amount of food people throw away and rich people are probably the worst offenders.

Most of the research I have read about the correlation between gut bacteria and socioeconomic status assumes economics is the cause of the bacteria. However, new research on the gut-brain axis makes me wonder if the relationship is reversed. Is there a correlation between the microbiomes of the rich and famous and if I inoculate the colon of a poor person with a stool sample from a rich person, will the poor person become successful?

Healthcare

How to tell if your doctor is bad: no repeat customers
How to tell if your doctor is good: no repeat customers
How to tell if your doctor is rich: lots of repeat customers

Therein lies the fundamental problem with healthcare. The entire goal of the profession is to make money and that means selling something people want, but it isn't health. Rather, I think it is something more like an illusion of health that only makes people feel better for a short time.

Health insurance is also the ultimate example of socialism. The entire concept (of insurance in general) is based on everyone putting something in a giant pot based on probability and then only taking out what they need, hopefully not all at the same time. If you got out what you put in, you wouldn't need insurance and could just save your money and pay for healthcare yourself. The question is, will the chips fall in your favor? I think that is really the appeal of socialism, because everyone wants to feel like society has got their back. It is, however, a false sense of security because, eventually, you will run out of other people's money.

Christmas Limerick

The season is here.

So go be a dear

And buy me a gift

To heal the old rift

And ring in a merry new year.

Limericks II

Pulling this wagon is hard.
The workers, they won't accept lard.
They're becoming unwilling,
With this system of billing.
I hope that they don't shoot the bard.

Election

I will be taking mother to the polls tomorrow. I assume she will vote republican; I will abstain. I don't trust Trump and I can't bring myself to vote for the party that condones turning little boys into little girls and vice versa. I remember a quote from Queen Victoria, "My only regret in life is not being born a man." Imagine her shock to learn that in the present day, there are men who are voluntarily castrating themselves to become members of the 'weaker sex' and yet feminists still believe that women are oppressed. In this age when gender should be irrelevant, it has instead become an issue surrounded by increasing confusion and disillusion.

Collectors

Why do people collect things? It seems like a particularly deranged psychology is necessary to assign inflated value to something simply because only one or a few people have it when the item or items themselves have no intrinsic value (i.e. you can't eat it or wear it or shelter under it).

Alpha Male

When I was growing up, my older brother claims that I was constantly attacking him verbally. He says I would make statements not obviously directed at him but passive aggressively trying to goad him into a fight. This he interpreted as an attack.

I think what I was really doing was testing him. I would make statements and ask questions, sometimes in response to assertions he made. My brother viewed this as a threat. I think, as the younger sibling and female (yes, at birth but is there really any other kind?), my behavior was actually quite normal. How else was I supposed to determine if he was really as confident and awesome as he tried to make everyone believe. How else could I know if, as a resident male, he was worthy of my allegiance? How else could I find out if he was capable of protecting me from the screwed up, scary outside world?

I think, in some sense, it was actually a mis-represented complement. The correct response was confident instruction, calmly explaining why I was wrong, or graciously being open to new ideas and ways of thinking. This would have made me feel safe, confident in the knowledge that he knew what he was doing. Instead, his reaction was to become defensive and degenerate into arguing and verbal abuse. This made me feel very anxious and probably contributed to life-long digestive issues.

As a child, I wanted to know if I could trust my brother as a protector, but I think the same philosophy translates into romantic relationships.

Men often think women are annoying and this is sometimes an excuse for knocking them around. Men think by doing this, they are asserting their dominance and, putting the woman in her place. But that could not be further from the truth. What they are really doing is asserting their intellectual insecurity and using their obviously greater physical strength to gain control of the situation.

I think many times when women are 'annoying' what they are really doing is testing men in an attempt to find out if they are really as awesome (smart, funny, patient, etc.) as they say they are. Ultimately, the woman's goal is to try and find out if this man is worthy of giving up the months and years of her life necessary to bear and raise his child. Of course, most of this is done instinctually and subconsciously, which is what makes it all so confusing for both parties.