Author: Thomas Walters

With primaries held recently in Massachusetts and upcoming this week in New Hampshire, there are striking differences in the candidates and their parties that gives one pause to compare. In full disclosure, I consider myself a centrist independent voter, more frequently swerving left than right.  Although, in my first presidential election, I cast my ballot for Richard Nixon.  I also voted for John McCain in the New Hampshire primary of 2000, and right up to his death, I came to think  him to be an honorable man, Sarah Palin being a temporary lapse in judgement. 

Continue reading “The Political Landscape 2022”

Noticing the trend to “extras” – Discovery Plus, Apple Plus, HBO Max, and PBS Passport, the time for change is in the air for this blog. It’s time to expand and upgrade – giving you, the reader and consumer, more features that draw in more readers, build our platform, and most important, create a stream of cash leading to . . .well, me.  Of course, there will be an extra charge for that premium reading experience.  But I think you’ll all find it well worth the investment.  

I’ve noticed over the last few years that so many platforms are adding “plus”, and thus allowing them to charge extra.  It started at the gas station.  You could buy the basic octane, whatever that is, then step up to the “Plus”, and finally, the “Premium”.  Did this upgrade improve your car’s performance?  I have no idea.  I don’t really know what “octane” even is.  It probably has something to do with tweaking the chemical formulas at the refinery to produce a more expensive, and thus valuable product. It may even burn faster, requiring the driver to purchase more, contributing to the oil company’s profits, which of course should be the ultimate goal for all of us.

To expand my “platform”, there would need to be added features.  For those that don’t like to, well, actually read, I’m looking into having a version read by some impressive voice, perhaps Patrick Stewart or Derek Jacoby.  I think a distinguished voice with a British or Scottish accent would lend itself well to these writings.  Some visual bits would also attract the kind of attention for which we’re looking.  Scenes from everyday life, maybe even a soundtrack with original music by John Williams would add an air of sophistication and dignity to my profound thoughts and insights about things like annoying commercials the change of seasons, or baking Christmas cookies.  Of course, I’d need to add a tech team and a marketing department.  Right now, it’s just me at my computer, and despite my highly developed tech skills, they wouldn’t and definitely couldn’t get the job done.

There might be some degree of advertising, tastefully done and high-end, with an added cost for cutting out the ads.  Just a quick image of me napping or Her Ladyship watching Law and Order interspersed with the story line.  Sometimes the logic of charging more for less advertising escapes me.  Perhaps we could pay people not to eat sweets, but I’m not sure how the bakery folks would go for that. Or we could give people a stipend not to drive their cars, heat and cool their homes.  All great ideas in a similar vein, but eventually, we’d freeze to death or starve, so perhaps not quite so great.  Once again, I’ve digressed.

Back to my premium package.  I could develop an archive of my premium stuff, collected together by topic.  My House Hunters writing, for example, grouped by bickering couples, locations where nobody in their right minds would want to go, home categories like “move in ready”, “fixer upper”, and “bulldoze this baby and start over”.  Available to my Plus customers could be an added service, like rating what lottery winners choose on My Lottery Dream Home.  Saw a couple that won $100,000 on a scratch ticket and was on the hunt.  I wondered what they’d buy for that amount, and then realized that they were looking in Upstate New York.  By that, I mean really, really upstate. Another few hundred yards and they’d be in Montreal.  Priority number one for them should have been moving to civilization.  During election years, I could (or should) have a premium feature on candidates and why we shouldn’t vote for them, if their ads are anything to go by.  Some of them, amazingly and in a head-scratching way, have already been elected and are sadly running for reelection.  I know, right?  Their statements and tweets alone should disqualify them from being out on the streets, let alone holding public office.

I’ve given news features some thought for inclusion in I’m Thinking . . . NO Plus, but it would seem that CNN, MSNBC, and at brief intervals Fox News, along with major networks have that covered.  In fact, if anything, we seem overexposed to the news.  Even at my crankiest, my readers think of me as an escape, a diversion from what’s happening daily.  Or validation and sympathy for what’s happening in their lives. So, that doesn’t seem like a boulevard I’d like to drive down.  

I could put together an archive available to Plus readers, a smaller version of the National Archives, the Library of Congress, or what was just trucked out of Donald Trump’s study in Mar-A-Lago. To my knowledge, none of my blogs are considered “top secret”, although some might be considered “mildly offensive”. For a small fee, one could possess a printed copy of blogs.  Leather-bound issues for a larger fee covering postage and prep work.  And again, for a larger fee, I’ll keep out the advertising.  You wouldn’t get Dame Judy Dench reading them, or the soundtrack, but still an attractive package.  Which opens up a new world of publishing.  I could start a publishing house:  IMTHINKINGNO Publications.  Some titles literally throw themselves at me.  For example, 

Tips for Writing an Obituary to Embarrass Your Family

Playing the Lottery . . . . . . And Losing

Ten Easy Steps for Napping

Making Gardens Accessible and Attractive to Small Animals

Preparing for Christmas: The Lead-Up and Let-Down

Adventures with Lady Peacock

Aging Gracefully . . . . Or Not

Torn From the Headlines:  A Collection of Foibles and Insanity

Yes, my dear readers, I think the time has come to take I’m Thinking . . . . No to the next level, to go big, to monetize the brand.  It’s time to provoke thoughtful discussion or angry debate.  Time to throw off the cloak of curmudgeonly chitchat and paint in broader strokes, hit a thousand points of light.  Yes, indeed.  It’s time to become a true “influencer” and, well, bring in the big bucks.  Or some bucks.  Or a few bucks to meet payroll.

Yes, yes.  I know all about marketing.  They play to the demographic.  When I shop with an online vendor, their recommendations pop up.  I’m shopping for hummingbird food or disposable latex gloves, and the next thing I know, they’re showing me lawn mowers and vacuum cleaner bags that “they think I’d like.”  Really?  How in the world did they connect those dots?  I think there are some serious glitches in the algorithm.

Continue reading “Commercials (III) Causing Aggravation”

Throughout history, there have been some valuable lessons to be learned.  Or not. Human development progresses, wrongs bubble to the surface of society and over time, we seek to identify and fix them.  The Reformation, for example, would not have happened without the Rome’s insistence on control and orthodoxy.  Here in America, we have notable example of people that have walked resolutely into the history books on the wrong side.  Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Roger Taney, more recently George Wallace and Strom Thurmond, all stand out for their support and defense of that which should never have been supported or defended. While the Freedom Riders and leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. strode boldly into collective memory on the right side because they “had a dream”. 

Continue reading “On the Wrong Side of History”

There has always been a certain elasticity to the seasons.  I know – the calendar divides them evenly, but even as kids, we’d know that summer seemed like a few days and winter dragged on forever.  But still, I have to ask myself, what happened to summer?

Continue reading “What Happened to Summer?”

It’s come and gone once again.  A national celebration, acts of violence, and perhaps not quite the unity that some holidays have had in recent memory.  

Continue reading “Reflections on July 4th”

It’s the little things that push us over the edge.  One might say I’m back to “grumpy” status. My readers should know that I myself are renowned for my infinite patience and calm dignity in the face of inanimate objects acting in concert to thwart me, but I have seen others react badly. These are just some of the things that cause adverse reactions under the right circumstances.  Here’s just a sampling.

Continue reading “Don’t You Just Hate It When . . . . .”

I was sitting on my back porch on a recent morning, sipping coffee and reading a book, waiting for Her Ladyship to make her grand entrance into the day.  Most every morning in the warm weather, I sit and read the paper, then a book.  Always have at least one book in process. Right now, I have a biography of Arturo Toscanini, a French mystery, and a John Grisham. I’m working my way through.  Books are one of the great sources of happiness.  I’ve always felt sorry for folks that don’t read. Work has been progressing on my gardens, and fanciful spots of color with containers of flowers are everywhere.  It all looks quite nice, if I do say so myself, and it occurred to me that amidst the unhappiness of our time from sometimes empty shelves at the grocery store to the price of gasoline, I’m very happy.  You wouldn’t always know that, based on my occasional “grumpy old man” writings, where I highlight the foibles of humans and our times, but I am.  Life has been good to us, Her Ladyship and myself.

Continue reading “Creating Happiness”

This is a blog that I wrote in 2018, and four years later, it’s once again a topic of discussion. It’s brought about because the Texas Attorney General has recommended to Republican legislators in that state that consideration should be given to arming and training school teachers and administrators to “prevent” school gun violence.  This on the heels of the NRA’s (and former President Trump’s) insistence that school shootings are a mental health issue, not a gun issue.  So, here once again, is my take on the discussion.

Continue reading “Guns in the Classroom, Again”

I originally posted much of this blog in 2020, before the general election either was legitimate or “stolen”.  In the year and a half since, we really haven’t moved on.  Democrats want to move on. Republicans want to step back to the 1950’s.  Fingers are pointing.  As my grandfather would say, “My mind’s made up.  Don’t confuse me with facts.”  So, here we go again.

Continue reading “Why I’m Still an Independent Voter”