Would Biden eliminate windows, abolish suburbs?

Well, so much for that.

We absolutely can't elect Joe Biden president.

He wants to abolish windows. And the suburbs, for goodness sake.

Next thing you know, Biden will go after white bread and Kool-Aid.

Before you decide life is hopeless and decide to take your own life, calm down a little.Biden hasn't said he will do any of these things. America's favorite fabulist, Donald Trump, claims these will be the result of some of Biden's policies.

Never enough friends to start throwing them away

"Nothing is more important than friendship. Not fame. Not money. Not death."
-- BANG THE DRUM SLOWLY

There is a scene in the movie "Tombstone" when an acutely ill Doc Holliday leaves his sickbed to help Wyatt Earp in a gunfight Earp can't win alone.

Turkey Creek Jack Johnson asks, "Doc, you oughta be in bed, what the hell you doin' this for anyway?"

Holliday responds, "Wyatt Earp is my friend."

'Free college' could be a very good thing for America

"Free college? What a crazy idea!"

If you live in the U.S., you have almost certainly heard people saying that. You may even have said it yourself.

"Hey, nobody gave me free college."

"Hey, I had to pay for my own college. Why should they get it for free?"

Well ...

Shortly after the turn of the 20th century -- 110-115 years ago -- the fairly standard level of education for many people was finishing the eighth grade. They learned to read, write (penmanship, not creative writing) and do simple mathematics.

Then they went on to apprenticeships to learn trades, or clerkships to become attorneys, bankers or other such white-collar jobs.

Eighth grade was enough for most people. My grandfather Paul Kindinger (b. 1895) had an eighth grade education and he was a police officer for 20 years and was police chief of his small town for 12 years from just before Pearl Harbor into the early '50s.

Different times require new solutions for new people

Another time, another place

Different times?

Different places?

Maybe, but the truly sad part of it all is that we are different people than we were 70-80 years ago.

We have heard the so-called "Greatest Generation" praised so much it's almost painful, and it is not my intention to do that here.

They were different, though. Mostly because they had to be. When you grow up during the Great Depression and the Second World War, you learn quickly there are things you have to do and things you have to do without.

When there's no money for food, you go hungry. Or you get in line for bread or soup. And given the way you were brought up, you feel somewhat guilty over not being able to support yourself.

If we don't make things better, they'll just get worse

The uncertain future

"On the day Trump leaves office, we’ll still have a younger generation with worse life prospects than their parents had faced."
-- DAVID BROOKS, New York Times"

David Brooks might be the closest thing we have to a philosopher among modern newspaper columnists.

The talk about one generation not having it as good as the previous one has been around for a while.

In fact, my late father who was born in 1926, often said his generation had it much easier than ours in several respects. He essentially worked for one employer -- the U.S. government -- for his whole life.

Uncle Wiggily a fond memory from a long time ago

1949 edition.

Sometimes memories come from the strangest places.

It has been many years -- maybe even half a century -- since I have given any thought to Uncle Wiggily.

There aren't a whole lot of cultural things still around that I would honestly say were before my time.

In 1910, a writer named Howard R. Garis published the first Uncle Wiggily story in the Newark News. Between then and his retirement in 1947, he published more than 15,000 stories about the long-eared rabbit in that newspaper.