Random Thoughts from Other Random Thoughts…

Delving into the minds, and decorating ideas, of others provides endless fascination. If it would not result in arrest, breaking into houses of strangers and gathering ideas for furniture arranging, fabric choice and whether to drape would fill endless amounts of my time. I simply do not have the ability to sit in a room and not wonder if there is a better spot for the armoire. It’s a gift.

The minds of others is quite another matter. News, events and information have never been so readily available and yet a vast cohort of Americans think so little of a free press (depending on the day, that could be a misnomer, non?) that they pay little heed to news of the day. Internet exploration to the rescue. Came across this little gem and am delighted someone took the bull by the horns.

There is a site called Happy Place. Buried within the memes, ecards and general funnies, there is an offering, “5 Things You Should at Least Pretend to Know About Today.” Within, the reader finds the five biggest trending news items of the day. Brilliant? Wish I’d thought of it. Not all the offerings are rocket science but it could at least get the most empty headed amongst us up to speed and out of celebrity sighting as actual news.

For those under thirty who don’t remember, real news used to be a big boring bowl of stuff you needed; like war updates and casualties, laws passed, unruly weather and deaths of real heroes–those who made their mark not a boatload of money. Nary a celebrity weight gain in the bunch. In fact, celebs were considered pretty much what they are–undereducated people getting paid way more money than they should for pretending to be other more interesting people.

So, although the news in “5 Things” isn’t super intellectual, it does at least recognize a person might want to walk the planet knowing about something other than Rob Kardashian’s fat level. What are the five things for today, you say?

Steve Ballmer, of Microsoft fame, buys the Clippers for two, with a b, billion dollars. Way to make a dent in the deficit my friend.

Donald Sterling was found mentally unfit, prompting his wife to take the reigns and sell the team out from under him and his racist rants. Seems the wife is the one with the brains. She does what any girl should do when an asshat husband is running around with some dim witted jezebel.  Call a doc friend, have hubby declared unstable and collect 1 billion for your troubles. Smart girl.

Bruce Willis and Demi Moore’s daughter paraded around Manhattan topless in protest of Instagram’s policy on nudity. Children of celebs have to do something besides work to get noticed.

The CDC announced that 2014 boasts the largest outbreak of measles in the past two decades due to a decrease in childhood vaccines. Thanks Jenny McCarthy, Kristin Cavallari and Holly Robinson Peete for endangering the lives of every kindergartner. Robinson Peete’s dad was on Sesame Street a million years ago. Did she never learn about the people in her neighborhood?

Quentin Tarantino may or may not be hooking up with Uma Thurman. And he has a thing for feet.

One other thing happened. Lena Dunham posted a picture of blood seeping through her underwear causing us to wonder if we would now be subjected to her periods as well as her nudity. She explains that her dog bit her in the hind quarters and her friend took a pic.

Somewhere in small town America, a mother is telling a child, “Some things are private darling.” Oh, wait, we’re not in Kansas anymore.