The Romans had their share of humongous egos, but at least they took a stab, so to speak, at humility by having somebody saying, "Remember, you are human/mortal" next to the maniac having a glory day.

We've just gotten past one supposed billionaire thinking he deserved anything he wanted, yes even pocketing "honors" and knickknacks like hosting SNL. Well, MUSK, Mark CUBAN, et al., your vast material success and even the accomplishments that got it for you are their own thing, NOT transferrable to other endeavors or marks of honor and glory - or *SERVICE*.

If you're not naturally lovable, gracious, or humane your accomplishments and material success can't buy or appropriate them for you - not even stupendous charitable donations.

You can afford to hire somebody to do nothing else except to stand next to you and whisper in your ear, "Remember, you are human/mortal," until you get fed up and have them executed.

There was this dude in line to pay for a set of golf clubs and he was playing to the gallery about making sure everybody knew it and how he had cash to burn, and said to the minimum wage cashier, "The difference between a boy and a man is the price of their toys." She and everybody ignored him.

A Roman emperor played at being in the theater, another at being a gladiator, and we had one of your ilk try to own our government. It's been done, MUSK. Just play your games and play with your toys and leave the rest of us alone.

*******QUOTE******

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/24/business/elon-musk-snl-host-may-8/index.html

.... Miley Cyrus will be joining Musk as musical guest on May 8. ....

That said, the show has selected business moguls before, including former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and, of course, former President Donald Trump (before he was president.) ....

As for Musk, the businessman will be able to show off his comedic chops. How exactly that plays remains to be seen, but this certainly is one of the buzzier choices SNL has made lately. It will likely get people to tune in who may not normally watch the show. ....

Musk is no stranger to being in front of the camera. He's popped up in Marvel's "Iron Man 2," in a 2015 episode of "The Simpsons" and in several episode of "South Park."

********UNQUOTE******

ON EDIT: Actually, am saving your perfect post for my future use in the same, all too frequent circumstances:

https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1344019586757386240

https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1335072391869984769

Sign 1: Still able to mow my grass, but for now because there's been none to cut since the end of last summer. There was a small sample to do last week and lasted half an hour followed by flat out nap time. Soon it will be blazing hot with voracious growth and lots of scheming about doing it in early evening with mosquitos or early morning if no dew. And spread over 2 or 3 days with three hours flat out after each session. The change in stage of life is coming, meaning contracting it out.

Sign 2: The easy parts have been in the can for years - managing the disposition of material effects, cremation with all arrangements and Will. Getting rid of *things* is easy. The harder part is the PAPERS. Probably everybody knows what "THAT BOX" means - or boxES, of crap residue of the lifetime. Probably nobody would miss any of it and will never study it - we want them to or DO we?!1 Yet, it's a pang to trash it - the scribblings and relationships. Yet all that PAPER, so proximate to *trash* in material worth. But all those biographies and autobiographies of Great People, where every dang detail and scrap was hoarded and precious. And us English majors fantasize about having our psyches dissected - by an UNDERSTANDING, COMPASSIONATE interpreter - down to the cell level and beyond to whatever smaller unit comes.

So then the option rationalized into transferring all the paper onto DISCs and shredding the paper - brilliant! This became a mania of *months* - sorting, chronologizing, scanning all Landscapes into Portraits. Not unexpected but worse was the *RE-LIVING* of every scrap of life.

Turned out into two large sections. So it's all done. Two discs. Binders and hundreds of page protectors donated to Habitat. Special carrying case for the discs, and don't DARE scribble anything else. And who knows what to do with the discs.

Remember Election 2020, the fervor to vote and expectations of hours in line. Well, I was possessed to find a "cane seat" since I'm a portly (then age 73, now 74). First, the odyssey of googling, shopping by internet or finding a local outlet, extensive comparison of seat sizes and sturdiness (230 lbs). It turned out that two big box sporting good stores had them, apparently used by golfers. Happily, Dick's, the one on the correct side of non-guns, had the better one. Then my big day of early voting came, and the thing stayed in the trunk because there was no line at all. Fine.

Then the covid vaccine lines came along, and too late, already in a 3 hours' line, I remembered the cane seat for the second jab, but it turned out that the 2nd jab was a faster thing, so it stayed in the trunk.

But a further use turned out, since I'm a wimp about trimming my dog's nails, or rather both he and I are about my doing it, and after a couple of years of bouncing around for small business groomers to do it, we ended up at a chain place that - get this - had no seating. So the first time the cane seat hit the spot!1 But then the next time, the three legged thing would *not* stay standing, would sway over to one or another side with me scarcely escaping being splattered on the deck.

The problem was obvious: That the spread of the three legs was too narrow, or close together. My pondering (mental work) went on for weeks, with my first thought being to BEND the aluminum legs apart, perhaps a double bend with outward slantings near the joint and downward slantings to the ground. My mental wheels kept turning, settling on replacing the screw with a longer one, perhaps also including some bending.

More weeks passed before getting around to gathering the bolt and nut, finding only the eye-bolt, 1/4 inch thick and 4 inches long. Thinking some more about the steps, having to hack saw tightly the light weight bolt, then probably having to drill the holes wider for the eye bolt, both tasks likely to be troublesome.

So today, all other tasks abating for the moment, took it up. I decided to experiment first with just the bolt length without any bending of the legs. And the two steps were unexpectedly easier and the eye bolt and nut worked as projected. But then, surprise surprise, the legs were just as unstable as before, swaying over to one or the other side. After a couple of attempted seatings and adjusting the spacing of the legs, the problem became clear: The eye bolt had *BENT* from my weight?!1 ------I was astounded, since I assumed a 1/4 inch thick bolt could take me like a feather!1

So instead of the big box place that was limited in its bolts, went to a specialized local bolts-and-steel place. Nope, the humorless dude said his bolts were all bendable, not iron. There were other places, and found one. This dude had the right stuff and it was the strongest composition, and 54 cents. I had the bent eye bolt with me and left him laughing about what bent it.

Back at the engineering studio, the iron or steel bolt introduced into the aluminum holes well, with only a few turns of a vice plier. And apparently the spread was fine with the length of the bolt. The seating feels sturdy and stable. First serious use will be at the next appointment for dog nails clipping.

Many/most of us Dems here went to the mat defending Bill against the (what I called *FAKE* ) impeachment. Even back then I blamed both him and her for their selfishness but knew that my defense was grounded on Party loyalty, seeing the attack as purely partisan.

When the dust settled much reflection and digestion ensured, and I reached the clarification that my Democratic allegiance is based on the Party’s *AGENDA* (civil rights, civil liberties, social justice, stewardship of the planet). *NOT* on any single leader/personality.

I realized for myself that, its being *SO* difficult and precious to win our time in power, it is a WASTE of our precious time in Power to spend all of our energy defending one person ------ instead of being able to use it on working on our agenda. A waste and a distraction.

If it were happening today I would not defend Bill. I would want him to resign and let Al take over. Never again any one personality.

I love it when we find a leader with charisma who WINS and therefore will be more effective in moving our agenda forward even if in the tiniest steps. But being a Dem is not a Gold Card for anything goes. If a Dem has bundles of illicit cash in the freezer or whatever the flaw, the Dem label is forfeited.

So, Andrew is just too much déjà vu. Even without the investigation so far, it’s just too much ugly distraction and parsing and weeping. My little, one-person support or lack thereof is negligible, but for the record it’s bye time.

“ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Texas_gubernatorial_election 1994 Texas gubernatorial election - …. Before the election, Richards had a high approval rating due to the strength of the state economy. However, Bush's campaigning on cultural and religious issues resonated with many Texan voters, and the race was considered a tossup on election day.”

And then, as The University of YouTube might call it, came the Bronze Age Collapse for the decades of Democratic rule in Texas. This collapse happened from a combination of things – the “Weak Governor” system, wherein the Governorship is a figurehead with the Lieutenant Governor being dominant in running the Legislature and being the attack dog; the collapse and defection to the Fatcats of the last young generation of Democratic leaders (think, Ben BARNES) ; the soft underbelly of Hispanic non-voters or voters-against-their-own-interests; the active but can’t-do-it-by-themselves Black voters; the myth of Tough Talk Texas “rugged individualism” and the Easy Pickings of Repukes who discovered The Secret to power in Texas; and an ever smaller but engrained apartheid ruling structure. In Texas even a civic minded project like anti-littering is masked threateningly as “Don’t mess with Texas.”

The secret for Repukes in Texas started with Poppy BUSH, the managerial secret of keeping a low profile (see, “Dark Legacy I & II” ), claiming to stay out of the loop, and creating an image of being inoffensive and replacing outer substance with smiling – lots of smiling. Why would the heir of Eastern Power set up in backward Texas?! Poppy of the hidden hand discovered the easy pickings that is Texas, the hot knife in butter.

But Poppy used the Texas low profile as a cover. George W. used the low profile as a claim to higher power and set the template for Repuke governors in Texas – big talk, “tough” talk, suck off of the Fatcats and screw the most vulnerable – swagger but with a cute, fratboy air of playfulness and humility and above all SMILE. Photo ops with mariachis after refusing Medicaid dollars.

So there were Shub (George W., thanks to Molly IVINS) and Goodhair (Rick PERRY) – two of the luckiest little a-holes ever. And now one Greg ABBOTT, who has been difficult to nickname. Until now. How do you make fun of somebody in a wheelchair with a half-Hispanic wife – a Gold Card of insulation, firewall.

Well, Repukes are always hoping for a Great White Hope, and currently in Texas in the aftermath of a humongous disaster, they think they found the Hope in ABBOTT, who is at the epicenter of all the characteristics – tough talk against the electric grid villains but who will not endanger the inherent structure of the Texas-only grid. Yes, after his first five years of weak governorship – nondescript, no distinguishing characteristics, tough talk but smilingly inoffensive on the outside – he “addressed the people of the State” firing up his wingnuts with brimstone on the grid villains – “ https://www.kxxv.com/hometown/texas/many-of-you-are-angry-im-angry-too-abbott-addresses-power-outages-states-winter-storm-response 'Many of you are angry... I'm angry too': Abbott addresses power outages, state's winter storm response”.

So there you have him, “tough” but safely so on a safe issue, and promising Judgment Day but not in a meaningful way (e.g., ditching the lone Texas grid).

So what do you call Greg ABBOTT – that mixture of bluster and namby-pambyism? I humbly offer:

O.K., this is the last of my craft therapy. Previously were the Roman "bocca", seahorses, soccer Cup. These little paint jobs were for a change in the near year of quarantine, when cooking was probably the first choice as an escape and now past its appeal. So this craft thing has reached its two weeks' shelf life, and the objects can go back to gathering dust and spider webs.

I had painted these things some 20 years back upon acquisition, and the taste was different at that stage of my life, more "tasteful" instead of garish. So Mr Quixote was done up in baby blue pantaloons to complement the gray armor. Now, the paint technology is metallic and glitter and black light, and it occurred to me that his very essence is batshit cray-cray, so now he is in RED metallic. Red and yellow are (now, not in the 16th Century?) the colors of Spain (are you listening, Hilaria BALDWIN?), so there's this little double meaning.

Our friends, the Artists in their group, are amazingly gifted and accomplished. This ain't it. The seahorses in particular were a bummer just to stay inside the lines. These items have been around here for 15-20 years, faded, dusty, spider webby. Cooking by quarantine is getting old. Was just looking for some mind numbing activity to freshen up things. The Bocca della Verita original in Rome is thought to have been a sewer cover, is gigantic like 5? ft in diameter? And is plain off white marble. With its legend that anybody who puts the hand in the mouth and tells a lie will have it chomped off, as in the Audrey HEPBURN/Gregory PECK Rome movie. As for the Cup, yeah the original real green looks better, but I wanted Metallic paint and the avocado was what had it. As for the seahorse garish colors - the yellow/red/green are Vietnam, and seahorse might suggest Navy (when I say so). ON EDIT, P.S. The Before seahorses were also my paint job, bland colors to be "tasteful" in years past, now I'm old so torpedoes be garishly danged!1 ************ON 2ND EDIT: Corrected the "Cary GRANT" to great Democratic luminary "Gregory PECK" of "Roman Holiday" - surprised that a Lounge movie buff who might have strayed here didn't catch me out.