Why do they have a photo of the Titanic?

Microwave potatoes, the heroism of Jimmy Buffett, and all the progress we haven’t made, among other blips rattling around my brain this week:

1. Jimmy Buffett is so much braver than almost anyone on the internet and here’s why: At the end of Margaritaville, he admits “It’s my own damn fault,” which is a sentiment I have never seen in all the posts I’ve read since the dawn of social media. We should all aspire to emulate his heroism, and also to drink more margaritas.
   
   
2. Every so often, I’ll end up at a public dock or, more rarely, a yacht club, and there’s almost always a framed newspaper story about the Titanic hitting an iceberg. But when I’m at the airport…
   
   
3. I was reading a book about historical developments and the suspicious resistance that long-ago people demonstrated in the face of everything new. Whether it was the government plot to enslave us through fluoridation or polio vaccines or the infringements on our freedoms when they mandated seat belts in our cars, we get really cranky when we have to change. At first, I felt relieved, because it puts today’s crises in context and demonstrates how things haven’t changed at all. Then I felt the grief, because things haven’t changed at all.
   
   
4. It turns out the fundamental flaw in the collectibles market is that there are way more collectibles than collectors.
   
   
5. Sometimes we forget to put the potatoes into the oven early enough, so we toss them in the microwave to precook for a few minutes and make up for the lost time. We did this one day when two of the grandkids were over and they thought microwave potatoes are the best thing ever. Instead of going home and telling their folks how we forgot to put the spuds in the oven, they asked if their parents could learn how to make microwave potatoes, too. It almost feels like cheating, but we’ll gladly add this to our win column.
   
   
6. Sobriety is such a buzzkill.
   
   
7. All these online surveys are getting to be a bit much. Last week, I had just opened a site when it asked me to rate the site’s performance—not in the future, but right now, before I could even look at the home page. By the way, how do you like this post so far? Isn’t it great? Wouldn’t you like to give it a twelve?
   
   
8. It goes without saying that there should be a fence and we are on the fence and nobody can climb the fence but us at any time that fence gets fountain gets bounced around and we fall off. No, I don’t have any idea what that means, either, but it’s how my phone transcribed it when I dictated a brilliant idea the other day. Rest assured that your life is better now that you’ve read it and, whatever you do, don’t fall off the fence.
   

 
Also, whatever you do, be sure to click here to subscribe to Dad Writes, just in case I ever figure out what that dictated text meant.

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