Maybe we should just chill
Does it seem like the world is going crazy? Lots of people have been able to overlook that stresses of everyday life and even the threats and just keep doing their relaxed thing. Here are three examples of people that are either very dedicated to their goals or really out of touch for what the media is telling us.
For nearly a week, Paris and other cities around the French capital have been enjoying massive continuous protests over the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old delivery driver. There have been about 4500 police in riot gear roving the city center confronting the ethnic protestors with tear gas, pepper spray and Billy clubs. The rioters have responded with rocks, bottles and burning piles in the streets. In the midst of all the protests, one mystery man has gone viral – not because he threw a Molotov cocktail at police but, rather, for eating a sandwich. This eight-second clip, taken from what is believed to have been a Parisian street, shows a man in the midst of a literal riot, with police in full riot gear on one side and protesters on the other. But even closer to the flames is the sandwich-eater — sitting on a bench in the middle of both groups, appearing completely unbothered, with one leg casually crossed over the other as he takes a bite. Naturally, the Internet weighed in on their new favorite hero. “The Frenchest thing you’ll see today.”
You know crime is at high point in most major cities and robberies and carjackings and even murders are everyday events. The women in the video seem to be very blase’ about the robber that tried to attack them while they waited for their appointment in a nail salon in Atlanta. The unidentified man entered and yelled, “Everybody get down!” No one moved, the video shows. The suspect demanded the patrons get on the ground and surrender their money. The man, who had a small crossbody bag covering his hand as if to conceal a weapon, turned to three women sitting by the door and instructed them to empty out their pockets and give him their money. Again, no one moved. The man then strolled over to a male employee at the desk and loudly demanded, “Where’s the money?” “Hello?” the employee said, speaking to someone on the telephone. One of the women stood up, walked out the front door with her hands in the air and told the man that she doesn’t have any money. The poor fellow made a couple more threats to the sitting women who ignored him. He gave up and walked out empty handed, Dragging his macho ego behind him.
You know everyone in New York city is very busy and they are always in a hurry. They are very used to competing with hundreds of others for space on the sidewalks, streets and even in the crosswalks. Last week just after 8 a.m. at Seventh Avenue and 30th Street, in the commuting corridor from Penn Station to Chelsea tech offices, two 30-something men began punching each other. They had their fight in the crosswalk of a major artery stopping four lanes of traffic. The two stand a foot or so apart, sparring with each other as if this were an MMA fight in the middle of the avenue.
A woman dressed in neat professional clothes — black skirt just above the knee, pale-blue summer jacket, gray curled coif, perfectly adjusted K95 mask — cuts through the fight scene as she crosses the street, close enough to one of the combatants to nearly brush him. The fight is in full view, but she keeps her head down. Bystanders gathered, watched and the video here recorded with their phones as two men engaged in the deadly street fight. As one of the men brandishes his knife at his opponent, another pedestrian in business-casual office wear — baby-blue shirt, dark jacket — also hurries through the crosswalk, head resolutely down. Finally another woman in medical scrubs — and medical mask — crosses the avenue right between the two fighters. She stops, apparently to tell them to knock it off. But when they don’t, she too, just keeps moving.
Maybe you are too tense.
Color me Oblivious
People treat me like a god!
They ignore me until they need my help.
My wife has been addicted to Netflix lately and has started to ignore me…
…So I went ahead and renewed the subscription for another 10 years.
A teenage girl brought her new boyfriend home to meet her parents. They were appalled at his spiky hair, pierced nose, tattoos and a bad attitude. Later, the parents pulled their daughter aside and confessed their concern. “Honey,” the mother said, “he doesn’t seem very nice.”
“Of course he is,” the daughter replied. “If he wasn’t nice, why would he be doing 500 hours of community service?”
Because I often have to catch a predawn bus to get to my job, I was concerned that I wasn’t always visible to the bus drivers in the darkness. So I attached a reflector to my lunchbox and put on a jogger’s vest, it was bright orange and had small flashing lights. The first morning wearing my new gear, the bus zoomed past but then stopped. I ran to catch up with it and as I boarded, I asked the driver, “Didn’t you see me?” “I saw you,” he replied, “but I thought you were a road sign.”
July 11th Birthdays
1965 – Cassi Davis, 1954 – Mindi Sterling, 1956 – Sela Ward, 1986 – Chloe Melas
1991 – Connor Paolo, 1971 – Justin Chambers, 1990 – David Herrde, 1935 – Giorgio Armani