Sometimes there are just too many interesting news items circulating at one time, and as I bounce from headline to headline, reading one after another, they form a cacophony in my mind that won’t quiet down until I’ve written something about each one.

But — while fascinating to me — I have to admit that they’re not all earthshakingly important to everyone. And there are just so many hours in a day, and so many megabytes in an iPad, and I wind up playing the “Eenie, Meenie, Miney” game I wrote about yesterday. And the result is . . .

Well, it’s taken me a while — and a good bit of therapeutic Haagen-Dazs — but I’ve finally convinced myself that there may be a way to break this self-destructive pattern. So, welcome to:

“Bits ‘n’ Pieces”

. . . wherein I toss some headlines at you, with a brief — very brief — descriptor, and let you decide which ones are of sufficient interest to you to delve further into the news for the details on your own.

Can I do it? Well, that remains to be seen, doesn’t it? I mean, I am known to be rather verbose at times.

Oh, who am I kidding? I don’t know when to shut up (or to stop writing). Words are my friends. But sometimes more is just more, and . . .

And there I go again. So now, it’s on to the first “Bits ‘n’ Pieces.” Let’s see how it works out.

*. *. *

Secret Service detains man for incident involving security detail for Harris’ stepdaughter. Actually, just someone who got caught doing damage to license plates on two parked Secret Service vehicles. The Vice President’s stepdaughter wasn’t in either car, no one was hurt, the perp was caught. No story here.

See? This is working out really well. Next . . .

Scientists reveal new details about ‘screaming’ Egyptian mummy’s life and death. Interesting story with lots of details about the process of mummification in ancient Egypt, and some theories but no conclusion as to why she appeared to have been screaming. So, not really a story here either.

This is great. Onward and upward . . .

Russia pulled back weapons shipment to Houthis amid US and Saudi pressure. Great ending to earlier post on “Putin and the Houthis.” Enough said.

That’s three. We’re on a roll!

EU warns Hungary over easing of visa rules for Russians. Hmm . . . Viktor Orban again. Might actually want to do a little follow-up on this one.

Oh, well, that won’t take long. No problem.

Who were the Russian prisoners released in swap for Paul Whelan, Evan Gershkovich? Now, that’s a very good question. I’d really like to know more about them, so will probably leave this for tomorrow.

Oh-oh. I’m beginning to sense trouble here . . .

Children of undercover Russian spy couple only learned their nationality on flight to Moscow. Oh, this is a good one! It seems the young girl — she appears to be a pre-teen — didn’t even know who Vladimir Putin was when he greeted them at the airport, and . . .

Oh, crap! I need to look into this. And the Wall Street Journal had a fantastic article on Evan Gershkovich, but it’s quite long and will take some time to digest. So I’d better get started.

Well, can I help it if things just keep happening?!! I think I did pretty well for the first time: three out of six. Most baseball players don’t bat .500.

See ya tomorrow . . .

Brendochka
8/3/24