Ah, life on the seashore . . . the smell of the salt air, the roar of the pounding surf, the cries of the soaring gulls . . .

. . . and the crashing of the 443-foot-long container ship running aground in your front yard.

Well, that doesn’’t happen every day. But that is how Johan Helberg of Byneset, Norway, was awakened on Thursday morning. Actually, he didn’t hear the ship at all; it turns out that he’s a very sound sleeper. But his neighbor, Jostein Jorgensen, was awakened around 5:00 a.m. by the sound of a vessel approaching unusually close to shore. He looked out the window, saw the ship racing toward land, and ran outside shouting to his neighbors . . . perhaps something on the order of, “The containers are coming! The containers are coming!” . . . much like Paul Revere warning of the approach of British troops, only in Norwegian.

Still, Helberg slept. He didn’t hear the banging at his door, either. It was only when his neighbor rang his phone that he finally awakened.

“I went to the window and was quite astonished to see a big ship. . . . Five metres further south and it would have entered the bedroom. I didn’t hear anything,” Helberg told the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. [Francesca Gillett, BBC News, May 23, 2025.]

Luckily for everyone, the ship missed the house by a distance of about 26 feet, and no one onboard or ashore was injured. The shipping company sent a tugboat to try to pull it free, but without success. Then a salvage company tried to refloat it at high tide, but the ship remained stubbornly stuck.

The latest word from the owners of the big new eyesore on Trondheim Fjord is that geotechnical investigations will be required before another attempt is made to move the load. In the meantime, the neighborhood has 16 temporary residents, a really big tourist attraction, and a hell of a tale to tell their friends.

And so ends another idyllic day at the shore.

I do love a good news story where no one was killed or maimed . . . don’t you?

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/24/25

The other day, I posted a tribute to the late George Wendt, who was best known for his years of acting in the role of the lovable Norm Peterson on the TV sitcom Cheers. I wrote that, just a few days earlier, I had begun streaming the early episodes of the show, which had been one of my favorites back in the ‘80s, and I was struck by the coincidence in timing. But was it precognition on my part? No . . . of course, it wasn’t.

Or was it? I’m now beginning to wonder, because last night — one of those nights filled with multiple, disconnected, weird dreams that somehow remain disturbingly clear long after you’re awake — one of my dreams involved a psycho serial killer who, whenever he heard the name of the ex-girlfriend who had dumped him, had an uncontrollable compulsion to murder someone. His weapon of choice: a very large, Crocodile Dundee-type of knife. In my dream, I even saw him chase down, slaughter and debone a bicyclist. I then ran and ran through this strange city until I found a couple of police officers, and the knife-wielding lunatic was subsequently apprehended. All’s well that ends well . . . right?

But that’s not the strange part. Around noon today, I received one of those frequent news flashes on my phone. This one read: “Twelve injured in Hamburg knife attack as woman arrested.” [Sofia Ferreira Santos, BBC, May 23, 2025.]

Now, that’s just too spooky!

There are differences, of course. In my dream, the killer was a man, not a woman. But in today’s inclusive, LGBTQ+ environment, that hardly matters.

The main distinction was that, in my dream, the police officers I approached were speaking Russian, not German. That, of course, was weird enough; but at least I really do speak Russian. It would have been even stranger if I’d been conversing with them in German, since I only know about a dozen words in that language, including ja, nein, bitte, danke, and the ever-popular and oh-so-useful dummkopf and schweinhund. With that limited vocabulary, I would have been hard pressed to describe a homicidal maniac with a huge knife chopping up a guy on a bike, much less give them directions to the scene of the grisly crime. Imagine running up to a couple of cops, obviously distraught, and shouting, “Yes, no, please, thank you, stupid pigdog.”

That would not have ended well.

*. *. *

But, aside from the psychological implications of my nightly nightmares, I’m beginning to have some concerns as to whether I might actually be foreseeing upcoming events. Real life has become scary enough without knowing in advance, for example, what Elon Musk is going to come up with next.

I can’t imagine what a psychoanalyst would have to say about my nocturnal adventures, and I’m not sure I want to know. But tonight, I plan to try thinking happy thoughts before I fall asleep, in the hope that that they’ll find their way into my dreams.

Perhaps I’ll start by conjuring up a whole new administration in Washington . . . much like the one from The West Wing . . . and work my way up to an end to war. By next week, I should have solved all of the world’s problems.

You can thank me later.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/23/25

If I were telling an old, corny joke, it might begin: “A priest and a rabbi walked into a bar . . .”

But this picture isn’t a joke, corny or otherwise. It was a moment from real life . . . the sort of moment that makes you feel, just for a while, as though there might be hope for mankind after all.

It is not yet known whether Pope Leo XIV will become the new mediator of the (hopefully) upcoming negotiations between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin. But I can’t think of anyone better qualified — more objective, diplomatic, apolitical, or peace-loving — for the job of bringing an end to the horrific war in Ukraine.

This one picture — seeing the expressions on the faces of those two good men — makes me feel something I haven’t felt in a long while: a sense of optimism.

Here’s hoping it will last.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/23/25

“Bully pulpit: A public office or position of authority that provides its occupant with an outstanding opportunity to speak out on any issue.” – Oxford Languages

It is a term originally coined by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, by which he referred to the office of president as an excellent platform from which to promote an agenda . . .

. . . not a stage from which to humiliate other world leaders and dignitaries, thus displaying one’s own ignorance, cruelty, and psychotic need to be king of the hill.

And yes, I am referring to the two recent displays of viciousness aimed at Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, in well-rehearsed, perfectly-orchestrated harangues before the cameras of the world’s premier news media.

No doubt the Oval Office has, over the past couple of centuries, been the scene of many a contentious meeting. But they were not played out in front of the mass media for the entire world’s population to witness. And I daresay, no previous president would have stooped so low as to degrade and humiliate a counterpart from another nation, just because he could.

It takes the smallest of men to lord his advantageous position over those less fortunate — in these two cases, one whose country is being demolished in an unjust war, and another who hoped for a reset in relations by clarifying what he says are false accusations against his government.

The details of both ambushes have been amply presented in the media; and frankly, to repeat them here would simply nauseate me even more than I already am. I could not be more horrified or more disgusted by Donald Trump’s treatment of President Ramaphosa if he had forced that gentleman to strip to the waist and flogged him with a cat o’ nine tails.

Once again, I have to ask: How long are we, the American public, going to allow this administration to continue circumventing our laws, ignoring our Constitution, dishonoring our allies, desecrating our most sacred institutions, and destroying our credibility as a nation, before we take legal steps to put a stop to it?

And once again, I use this — my “bully pulpit” — to remind the members of Congress and the Justices of the Supreme Court that the solution to our problems rests in your hands. One man could not have wreaked so much havoc without support . . . your misguided, misplaced, unconscionable support.

Now, it is up to you to reawaken your consciences, do your jobs, and fix it . . . before it’s beyond repair.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/23/25

Today’s headlines brought a number of juicy choices as possible subjects for my blog. It also brought on a major case of “I-wish-I-were-a-clown-fish-so-I-could-hide-in-a-coral-reef” syndrome.

Just look at these news items:

• Two Israeli Embassy staff members are shot and killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C.;

• Trump’s Oval Office ambush of South African President Ramaphosa (complete with films and fake documents) seems to be part of a trend;

• The Defense Department cleared the way for acceptance of a luxury jet from the government of Qatar that will potentially cost billions of dollars to be retrofitted for use as Air Force One;

• The White House has revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students;
• The Supreme Court deadlocked in a decision, effectively blocking creation of the nation’s first religious charter school;
• A private plane crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, resulting in multiple deaths, injuries, and destruction of property.

*. *. *

There was more, but I found that I couldn’t deal with any of it today; it’s just too much. Maybe tomorrow. Meanwhile, I’ll just do this . . .

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/22/25

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “nihilism” thus:

• a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless.
• a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths;
• a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility;
• (capitalized) the program of a 19th century Russian party advocating revolutionary reform and using terrorism and assassination.

Other definitions are, simply, “total rejection of established laws and institutions,” and “anarchy, terrorism, or other revolutionary activity.”

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Russia was the birthplace of the first nihilist movement. One need only read the works of such Russian authors as Dostoevsky, Turgenev, and Chernyshevsky . . . or the 19th-century poet Vladimir Pecherin, who famously wrote:

“How sweet it is to hate one’s fatherland and eagerly anticipate its annihilation, and to see in the destruction of one’s fatherland the dawn of worldwide rebirth.”

It is that quotation — paraphrased by the character of Dante in the film version of John Le Carre’s The Russia House — that brings to my mind the similarities of those pre-revolutionary days in Russia and today’s political climate . . . not only in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, but, terrifyingly, also in Donald Trump’s vision for America.

Think about the hatchet job he and his administration have done in just four months on our legislature, judiciary, military, media, beloved cultural institutions, environmental and health agencies, international relations, and the most basic tenets of the U.S. Constitution itself.

And then tell me whether you hear echoes, not only of the lead-up to the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, but to the growth of Hitler’s Nazi party in 1930s Germany as well.

Perhaps I’ve read one (or several) too many volumes of Russian history and literature. But I’ve also read far too many recent news stories not to see a parallel.

And it’s keeping me awake at night.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/22/25

It hardly seems possible for one person to win the award twice in such a short period of time, but fair is fair. With the rampant epidemic of stupidity in Washington, the field should be wide open; but Kristi Noem — current head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — still leads the pack . . . for today, at least, or until the next indecipherable mouthful of mush issues forth from the Oval Office.

Already famous for carrying $3,000 in cash in her purse around Washington, D.C., and not holding onto said purse while dining in a Capitol Hill restaurant, she has now further displayed her lack of mental acuity by stating — nay, by insisting — that the definition of that most basic of Constitutional rights, habeas corpus, is the polar opposite of its actual meaning.

During a Senate hearing on May 20th, Noem was asked by Senator Maggie Hassan: “What is habeas corpus?” To which the woman in charge of our nation’s security replied:

“Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country.” [Rex Huppke, USA Today, May 20, 2025.]

No, you didn’t misread that — those were her actual words.

Fortunately, Senator Hassan knew better, and offered the following correction:

“Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.” [Id.]

But that wasn’t a sufficient clue for Noem to keep her mouth shut. Instead, she continued:

“President Lincoln used it. I support habeas corpus. I also recognize that the president of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not.” [Id.]

Well, she did get one thing almost right: Lincoln did suspend (not “use”) habeas corpus during the Civil War. And therein lies the difference between Lincoln’s suspension of the provision and Trump’s proposed “use” of it. Article I of the Constitution makes it clear that only Congress has the right to suspend habeas corpus . . . and only “when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion [i.e., war] the public Safety may require it.” [Id.]

May I further point out to Ms. Noem that we, the United States, are not at war. We have not been invaded, nor have we declared war upon another country. There has been no rebellion (not since the attempted one on January 6, 2021, when Trump’s MAGA friends stormed the Capitol . . . but that’s a whole other story).

Noem needs to wake up and smell the lies. Trump would subvert the Constitution for his own purposes . . . in this case, to justify his illegal deportation of immigrants without due process. And she, along with her fellow lemmings in the administration, would blindly follow him anywhere in order to keep their jobs.

So yes, she gets the Golden Dunce Cap Award for this week. Our government, and our tax dollars, at work.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/21/25

It happens to everyone now and then: you dream about someone you haven’t seen in years, and the next day you bump into that person on the street. Or you have a sudden taste for bouillabaisse, and your sister calls to tell you a new French bistro just opened nearby. And, for just a minute, you wonder whether you might — just possibly — have second sight.

The truth is, you probably don’t. I’m sure I don’t. And I know there are such things as true coincidences. But sometimes, something that is undoubtedly just that — a coincidence — can feel a little eerie. And that’s what happened to me yesterday.

This past weekend, I was looking for something different to watch on TV — something light and cheerful — and I stumbled across one of my favorite old TV sitcoms: Cheers. I watched a couple of episodes, beginning with the very first one, and found myself back in the 1980s with Sam and Diane and Coach and Carla and Norm and Cliff. And for the next three days, I watched a couple of episodes each day, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of being back in those years when life seemed lighter.

And yesterday, when I heard the ring tone of a news report hitting my phone, and I saw that George Wendt — who played Norm on Cheers — had passed away, for that one brief moment I thought, just maybe . . .

Nah! . . . Who am I kidding? I’m not psychic.

But I did feel a little strange . . . and terribly sad. Because 40 years ago, those characters were almost real to me, and to a lot of people. Along with the casts of The Golden Girls, M*A*S*H, Hogan’s Heroes, Murphy Brown, Newhart, and a raft of others, those people were as familiar to us as our own, real-life friends. They weren’t the villains, serial killers, or psychotics of today’s films; they were good people, fallible but decent, and we wanted to be part of their improbable, fictitious lives.

Quite simply, they made us smile, and feel good. And that is something that has become all too rare today.

So, here’s to you, George Wendt. I’m sure that somewhere in that great barroom in the sky there’s a bar stool and a draft waiting for you . . . and everyone will know your name.

R.I.P., Norm.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/21/25

“So many wars, so many shapes of crime …
Unholy Mars bends all to his mad will;
The world is like a chariot run wild.”
– Virgil

On the very first day after the much-touted phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, which Trump hailed as a successful step toward the immediate beginning of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Putin’s forces launched more than 100 drones into Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force reported damage on the ground in four regions. [David Brennan, GMA, May 20, 2025.]

I initially called that phone conversation to be, at best, a tie between the two. Trump had said direct talks between Russia and Ukraine would begin immediately, but waffled when he said it was time for the U.S. to step back and leave the negotiations to the two warring parties; Putin had promised nothing but a memorandum of talking points to be prepared for presentation to Ukraine; and Trump had optimistically predicted that limitless, mutually-beneficial trade relations would soon be resumed between the U.S. and Russia — which was what the lifelong deal-maker really wanted in the first place.

But even that limited result turned out to be illusory. Without a single day’s relief, Putin — who had taken the call, not from the Kremlin, but from the lovely Russian resort of Sochi on the Black Sea — returned to business as usual: blasting the life out of the Ukrainian people.

Trump had spoken recently of the possibility that Putin might have been “tripping” him all along, and threatened more severe sanctions if he felt that still to be the case after their one-on-one talk. But once again, he failed to follow through, accepting Putin’s terms without receiving so much as a promise of a temporary ceasefire.

I was wrong: that call did not end in a tie. It was yet another total embarrassment for Trump.

And this is what I’d like to know:

When will Donald Trump get it through his thick skull that Vladimir Putin is by far the shrewder politician, and has not only been “tripping” him for years, but nailing his hide to the wall? Will he ever realize that Putin does nothing without a self-serving reason and a fool-proof end game already worked out? And if Trump does figure it out, will he have the guts to admit it and follow through with appropriate action?

“Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”
– Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2

But this is not a chess game; the future of the world rests on a final resolution. And the world is running out of time.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/20/25

First came Romania, where a month of political uproar ended yesterday in a win by the liberal, pro-EU mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, with 53.6% of the vote.

Following the annulment of last year’s presidential race due to claims of Russian interference, hard-right nationalist candidate Calin Georgescu was disqualified, and new elections were scheduled.

Dan’s opponent in this month’s race — far-right AUR party leader George Simion — won the first-round vote earlier this month, and was expected to follow through with a second-round victory as well.

But Romanians, eager for a change, put their faith in Dan, who campaigned on promises of fighting corruption and maintaining support for neighboring Ukraine, saying:

“I want to choose the pro-European way. It’s the only way. It’s really important.” [BBC, May 19, 2025.]

And no one is more aware of the importance of this outcome than Romania’s other neighbors, Moldova and Ukraine. Moldova’s President, Maia Sandu, said that “Moldova and Romania stand together, supporting one another and working side by side for a peaceful, democratic, and European future for all our citizens.” [Id.]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had this to add: “For Ukraine, as a neighbour and friend, it is important to have Romania as a reliable partner.” [Id.]

Good news for most of Europe, indeed.

*. *. *

To make the day complete, Poland — already in the capable hands of Prime Minister Donald Tusk — also gave the largest number of votes in its first presidential election round to liberal Mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski. However, with only 31.3% of the vote, and a 29.5% share going to conservative Karol Nawrocki, a second round will be held on June 1st. [Adam Easton, BBC, May 19, 2025.]

*. *. *

Of course, no election, anywhere in the world, would be complete without follow-up comments from the fun bunch in the Kremlin. And they did not disappoint yesterday, either.

Needless to say, Vladimir Putin was less than pleased with Romania’s choice of West-friendly Dan. His spokesman, the irrepressible Dmitry Peskov, had this to offer:

“We know the story of the candidate who had the best chance of winning. Without bothering to find any justification, he was simply forcibly removed from the race.” [Reuters, May 19, 2025.]

Oh, Dima . . . have you never heard the adage about people in glass houses throwing stones?

Of course, Russia has previously denied any role in Georgescu’s campaign, accusing Romanian authorities of political manipulation.

*. *. *

And then, oddly, into the picture stepped multi-billionaire Pavel Durov. You may remember him as the Russian-born founder of the Telegram messenger app, who holds multiple citizenships (Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates, and Saint Kitts and Nevis). He left Russia when the Putin government pressured him to release confidential information on clients of his first successful venture, VKontakte (VK), and has been dividing his time mainly between France and the UAE.

But Durov got into similar difficulty with the French government over some of his, shall we say, less savory Telegram clients. He is currently under investigation, and unable to leave France.

Well, not a lot has been heard from him for a while, until recently, when he accused French intelligence of “pressur[ing] him to suppress voices supportive of hard-right [Romanian] runner-up George Simion, who had pledged to end military aid to Ukraine.” [Reuters, May 19, 2025.]

Despite denials by France’s foreign intelligence service, the Kremlin’s Peskov said:

“The fact that European countries, France, Great Britain, Germany, interfere in the internal affairs of other countries is not news.” [Id.]

To which I can only respond:

“Good one, Dima!”

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/20/25