It would all add up if we didn't suck at math

Quotidian miracles, the Ticketmaster Tax, and the inflation that wasn’t are all on our list of gripes this week. And how are you doing?

• They're really bad at math...I read recently that everything is about money. No matter what the topic, follow the money and you’ll understand what’s going on. I felt so much smarter, but then I read that everything is about race and then I read it’s all about gender and then I read that it’s all about sex, which isn’t the same as gender and turns out to be a much more scintillating topic overall. You’d think that making everything binary—other than gender, of course—would make life simpler, but it’s not working out so far.
• Even worse at math...So, I just finished reading another article about 10% inflation in the United States and, as always, the reality was much different from the hype. Inflation over the past twelve months has been 3%, not 10%. In fact, the 12-month total peaked at 9 percent—not 10—back in June of 2022 and it’s been dropping like a stone for 18 months—1½ years—since then. We’re really not good at this whole math thing, are we?
• Also bad at cause and effect...So, I just finished reading another article about former Harvard chief Claudine Gay and I’m pretty tired of all the articles about former Harvard chief Claudine Gay. I know, it’s a big surprise that it was her enemies and not her friends who brought her down. I know, it’s a big surprise that there are double standards that helped her and hurt her in her career. Still, the immortal words of Tony Baretta are as true today as they were in 1975: “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” Moving on now.
• We had a miraculous dinner the other night...The food was good, everyone got along, we had a nice conversation…it was so natural that it would be easy to miss how wonderful it was. We pay so much attention to the setbacks in life and too little to the incessant joys in our existence. Maybe we’d all be happier if we noticed them more and savored those moments more and, maybe, found a way to revisit those quotidian miracles more often.
• Speaking of joy in life...remember back in the long-ago when we knew someone who complained non-stop and we learned how to tune them out? When did we decide it was a better idea to hang on their every word and share their latest umbrage with everyone we know? Are we having fun yet?
• The biggest business influencer...is not Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or Jerry Powell or even Oprah. Nope, it’s Ticketmaster, the long-hated purveyor of tickets that end up costing more than twice their face value after all the fees have been tacked on. The Ticketmaster Tax is rampant in hotel resort fees and airline baggage fees and restaurant service charges that bump up the price of dinner in the name of fighting inflation. And now I can’t even buy a drink without a special upcharge. I’ve been charged extra for having my drink straight up and I’ve been charged extra for having my drink on the rocks, so I decided I would just give in last week and I ordered my drink neat. And…no surprise…they charged me an extra two bucks. Sobriety is looking better all the time.  
• At least IKEA includes instructions...A relative of mine has been dealing with a complex issue that requires more than one specialist and each expert has weighed in on their part of the process. They haven’t come up with a plan for syncing all the treatments, though, so we’ve finally encountered something harder to assemble than a package from IKEA.
  
• And a reprieve for the elderly...An old friend lamented that he could remember more details from when he was 17 than he could from the prior week, but I assured him it’s totally normal. After we’ve memorized all the facts about the War of 1812 and subjunctive clauses in high school, there’s no space left for us to store anything when we’re 60.

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