As the late radio broadcaster Paul Harvey may have asked, have we outsmarted ourselves?
Seems that the "better living through chemistry" mantra of fifties TV commercials has finally come home to roost -- in our lungs. If hazardous particles generated by untamed forest fires around the world aren't bad enough as we all breathe in dead animals, burning home chemicals and a multitude of unknown substances converted into poisons by the flame, the mere contents of our homes provide enough long-term illness and death possibilities to affect everybody. Bonus: If you're nuts, that is, in professional terms, crazy, don't lose sight of this one, for the physical damage is real and it is big and unyielding and the moths in your hair are already coughing and choking atop your head in bed.
The weird little thing about the "70,000 club" is its self-suicidal effect. As we take in breaths (and there's really no choice here, blame the autonomic nervous system), we essentially stab our lung tissue with micro-particles of stuff that shouldn't be there, potentially setting us on the road to organ demise and death via our own unstoppable efforts -- suicide by design. There was a time when the hairs in our noses provided an effective barrier to many natural carbon-based particles and other substances of the earth. But now our lives are ruled by routinely deteriorating plastics found in generous amounts just in our homes, to include carpets, toys, sofas, chairs and a wealth of plastic-based items found everywhere.
Two or three years ago, I contacted an internationally familiar soft drink company when they replaced their soda caps with a different kind of plastic. As I opened a bottle one day, I immediately notices an odor of deteriorating plastic from the cap and the smell itself burned my nostrils. I discovered that all the bottles in the package were sealed with the identical caps, and after feeling thoroughly nauseated I phoned the corporation to inform them of the problem. I'm sure they received lots of input because it wasn't long before the company returned to the original cap.
I mention this just as one drawback to plastic, the substance which now rules our lives and is found in virtually everything we use and take for granted every day. Maybe we should have taken notice when we found those old briefcases, devices or smaller items becoming a bit sticky after years of use, as they literally began rotting before our eyes. I think deterioration is a better word because plastic does have a certain life span, even if some forms of it lasts thousands of years. Yet, deterioration of the here and now is the immediate dilemma, and while there are apparently certain bacteria suitable for "eating" plastic back into a petroleum state, there may be no viable solution to the widespread plastic disaster mounted atop so many other environmental disasters already in play.
In the meantime, all we can suggest is that you enjoy that refreshing bottle of water you just pulled out of the refrigerator -- along with thousands of mini-particles of plastic swimming within. And should you happen to rank among those who hear voices in their heads, instructing them to perform strange tasks, at least your mind doesn't need to fret over reality.
American Eagle, Sydney Sweeney and zombies: Mix together a good company, a beautiful young woman and a word misunderstood and abused by a moronic crowd which probably wouldn't know a dictionary if it fell into their soup, and you get the current controversy. Truly, the useless, generally left-leaning idiot class lacking anything but the ability to organize in the streets and roost on the Internet like a school of zombies needed something to protest and they found it.
Animals on the attack and deservedly so: In recent days we've seen multiple shark attacks, a whale which appeared to be intent on flipping a boat over, and a young boy grabbed by an aquarium octopus that left sucker impressions all over the kid's arm as staff members removed the octo with some difficulty (the critter was apparently "energized" by the boy encounter, whatever that means). I don't know -- maybe sea creatures are starting to figure out that we use their home as a toilet.
