Definition of potpourri – 1: a mixture of flowers, herbs, and spices that is usually kept in a jar and used for scent. 2: a miscellaneous collection. The second definition above pretty much describes today’s blog, a collection of miscellaneous thoughts and info that I’m sharing because I don’t have anything else to talk about today.
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I got an email yesterday from somebody with a twelve-year-old Class C motorhome for sale. The woman asked me if I had any idea why they had not had one call in the three months that have had it advertised in several different places online, except for half a dozen scammers. I told her that the market for used RVs seems to be pretty soft, but asked for a link to her ad. It didn’t take me long to figure out her problem.
First of all, the RV is in poor shape. Her husband, who considers himself quite the handyman, replaced the regular RV toilet with a nasty looking composting toilet, complete with a photo of the disgusting view down it. He removed the stove and oven, and the microwave and put in a hot plate and an induction cooker, since they prefer to cook outside over a grill. He removed the dinette booth and table because that gave them more room for their kids to play. There were a lot of other “improvements” that were all very poorly done and looked ugly.
If that’s not bad enough, they are also asking over $12,000 more than Kelly Blue Book on the rig. Her justification for that is that it is not an everyday, off the lot RV, it’s completely customized. She said her husband put thousands of hours worth of work into it and his time has to be worth at least $100 an hour. Someone once said there’s a sucker born every minute, and if you wait long enough one of them might cross your path.
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Longtime reader Pat Dugand sent me an e-mail yesterday wondering if I might consider addressing the state of our media in a blog post. Pat wondered what I thought of today’s reporters and journalists, based upon my own background in the newspaper business. Pat added that at one time the news was a noble profession, but it seems to have failed. Since I stopped writing my Bad Nick blog several years ago, I have tried to stay out of politics, especially here in this blog. And let’s face it, today the news is all about politics. I agree that both sides have their own agendas, and I don’t agree with either of them.
But honestly, folks, this is nothing new. Way back in 1897, when artist Frederic Remington sent a message to his boss from Cuba saying that that “there will be no war,” William Randolph Hearst cabled back: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” Sure enough, a year later the Spanish-American War was going.
From long before I opened my first newspaper when I was just a pup, people have either praised or cursed the news media, depending on what they were talking about that day, and how the reader felt about it. Years ago, the high school principal in a town where I owned the newspaper was busted for selling drugs on campus. I was tipped off to what happened and broke the story. While many parents were thrilled that I did so, the man’s friends in the community, many of them very influential people, complained about yellow journalism and the hatchet job I had done on a “good man.”
I guess it’s easier when you’re a small town newspaper publisher doing your own thing, as opposed to being a network reporter trying to keep your bosses happy. It’s one of the reasons I have owned my own businesses for most of my life instead of working in a newsroom where opinions outweigh the truth. It just seemed to work out better that way. I have been told that I do not play well with others.
I have never seen the country more polarized than it is right now, and I do blame the constant barrage of news stories that are more opinion than fact. I know family members who no longer speak to each other because they disagree about politics or religion, or whatever. Recently I’ve experienced a heartbreaking division with one of my best friends because we don’t seem to be able to see eye to eye on certain things. The way it’s going, I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to mend our fences, but I hope so.
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In other news, as I reported in yesterday’s blog, I started my next Big Lake book on Sunday, knocking out a little over 3,000 words, and was back at it again yesterday and did another 7,200 words. The story is moving right along, although I realized yesterday that with the direction it is taking, my original title of Big Lake Dispensary may have to change. I’ll know more as the storyline progresses.
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Also in yesterday’s blog, I mentioned that several reviews posted for my new book, The Road To Wrinkle Ranch, were not showing up on Amazon. A few of them trickled in yesterday, some that I was expecting and a couple of others as well. But at least three still have not shown up. Maybe today?
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And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. This one came from my friend Joyce Space, who told me someone she knows took it while hiking in Mexico.
Thought For The Day – I didn’t mean to push all your buttons. I was looking for the Mute.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
I think I probably know who your good friend is. I read his blog too. He must be terrified about COVID-19 and feels totally put of control. He is trying so hard to justify his position/hope that it isn’t nearly as dangerous and that there are valid treatments for it. I have the same problem with a closet friend who is an avid Trump supporter who will not even admit that Trump tells lies. It is a shame that we can’t have normal back and forth talks about the issues.
We do a lot of genealogy research. In many of the old newspapers (late 1800s and forward) there are chatty little columns about each community. It mentions what people are doing and there was a “reporter” in each community. But what is important is that in going through these newspapers it is clear that even then newspapers had a slant. There were Democrat newspapers and Republican newspapers. And the editor of the newspaper slanted the news articles as well as his editorials to his political view. And some of them got down right nasty. So I guess there is nothing new under the sun.