Still in jail, but Rule Brittania and another cheer

What's it all about (Alfie)?

Well ...

It's the eighth day since I deactivated my Facebook account in response to a 30-day suspension for so-called "hate" speech.

I'm not going to write again about what happened and why. The only purpose of mentioning it is that whenever I first go to my computer in the morning, Facebook is one of the first websites I visit.

Over the last 10 years, Facebook has been my primary tool for keeping up with friends and family. In fact, with many people, the only contact I have with them is on Facebook.

I'm sort of at a loss where to start.


The only comparison I could make is when I ride in the car. With my injured eye and crossed vision, I'm usually relegated to being a passenger these days. I'm finding that I don't know what to do with my hands when I'm not gripping a steering wheel.

***

There are some countries whose official national anthems aren't even close to being the songs most evocative of their lands.

The first one that comes to mind for me -- perhaps the most egregious -- is Australia, which for many years had "Waltzing Matilda" as its unofficial national anthem. A lovely song, but when Aussies held a nationwide referendum for a national anthem, they selected "Advance Australia Fair."

The U.S. would definitely be on that list. No one will ever convince me that "America the Beautiful" or "This Land is Your Land" wouldn't be a major improvement over "The Star Spangled Banner." Heck, if we really have to have our anthem be about the flag, I'll vote for George M. Cohan's "You're a Grand Old Flag."

Then there's the Motherland. Great Britain's anthem is about a person. "God Save the Queen" (or King when appropriate) sees the monarch as personification of the country. Not nearly as bad as if "Springtime for Hitler" had been the German national anthem, but still ...

A far better anthem would be "Rule Brittania," from a poem by James Thomson with music by Thomas Arne in 1740.

Its two-line refrain is perfect anthem stuff:

"Rule, Brittania, Brittania rules the waves,
"Britons never never never shall be slaves."

Now that's an anthem.

***

Since we're on the subject of music ...

If you're a human being, the odds are pretty good that from time to time, you'll get some sort of tune stuck in your head. Sometimes it'll be a song you really like, but more often than not it will be something annoying.

I don't watch commercial television anymore, but my wife does and sometimes I hear the ads from the next room.

That's how this one got into my head:

"K-a-r-s, cars for kids ..."

Then they give an 800 number and you can donate an old car to raise money for charities benefitting children.

Nice idea, annoying ditty.

***

Ordinarily I would have seen this as a pretty crummy spring. Donald Trump is still president, the Washington Nationals are off to a horrible start and my own health problems are making every day into some sort of torture.

And of course, all this bullshit with Facebook.

Oddly enough, though, there has been something wonderful about this last month.

Virginia won the NCAA basketball title.

It wasn't even considered an upset. The Wahoos were ranked in the top three most of the season, and they finished with a 35-3 record.

I have followed them for more than 50 years, and all I can say is that it was worth the wait.