Boulder, Colorado is a liberal enclave if ever there were one, between the head-for-the-mountains University of Colorado, the swami spiritual Naropa Institute, and the geological layers of hikers and hippies-turned-techies and flush craft beer and herbal tea companies..
The Boulder Book Store is perhaps the emotional epicenter of the town—not a single Ann Coulter best-seller in sight—and there I noticed this big display of oval stickers and rectangular magnets marking 01/20/21, "Trump's Last Day—Not soon enough!"
Pretty to think so.
Maybe it is.
And maybe it isn't.
My people have a term, a kina hora, which translates roughly as "evil eye." Not in the sense of placing a curse so much as knocking on wood. The idea roughly behind, "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched."
Or, for those slow on the uptake: Trump might get re-elected. Then his last day would be 01/20/25. Not soon at all. That could happen. It's not only possible; it's probable—the president has an advantage, historically, and, say what you will, that asshole is president, and his herd of credulous dupe followers shows no sign of disillusionment.
Recognizing the fact, that the deck is stacked against our country being delivered from the hands of its shame any time soon, is key to the Democrats' chances. Over-confidence was part of the galaxy of errors that led to Hillary Clinton's defeat. We should try not to reproduce her blunders, though this sticker, like so much going on right now, is not a cause for hope.
I didn't buy one, but I got in line to buy some Belize chocolate.
"How long have you been selling those?" I asked the clerk, gesturing toward the display.
"Since the beginning," she said, somewhat cryptically.
"I hope the date's correct," I observed. She didn't take the bait, but only looked at me, uncomprehendingly.
Trouble.
Considering his rotten diet, his extreme obesity & lack of exercise [he actually believes that each person has a limited amount of exercise they can have in a lifetime & he believes has exceeded that] that date may be even sooner than that!
ReplyDeleteAs one of those overconfident Hillary fans, to be consistent (foolishly perhaps) I have to say that I'm not so much worried about whether Trump will get reelected, but whether he will go quietly on 1/20/21.
ReplyDeletejohn
If he does not go quietly on 1/20/21, he will need to be removed, by any means necessary. And our current Cold Civil War will immediately heat up and explode into Version 2.0--which will begin the following day. Unfortunately, "Civil War Version 2.0" is not a video game. If only it were.
DeleteMy mother spoke only Yiddish until she started school at five...so she was very fluent in the "mama loshen" (mother tongue) and said things like 'kina hora' quite frequently. She would see somebody's little kid on the street, or as a guest somewhere, and she'd say "What a beautiful child...kina hora!" I had NO idea what that meant....or that it was an "anti-hex"...I thought it merely meant something that had to do with either looks or size or glowing, robust health. Until well into adulthood, I was unaware that my previous generations believed in "the evil eye"...I thought that crazy stuff was for the superstitious Italians (the malocchio), not the enlightened Jews.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Leo Rosten in "The Joys of Yiddish" the term literally translates to "no evil eye"...as in "May no evil eye harm him." It is often said, wrote Rosten, when one praises another's child, or by the mother when she hears praise of her offspring. The forces of darkness are believed to covet any bright, beautiful, talented child...hence "kina hora" is chanted to protect the young.
Who knew that Jews do such hoodoo? This one didn't...for a very long time.
I lived in Boulder during its hippie heyday (1971), not long after I was out of college. I'm not surprised the clerk, who was probably a student, didn't get the message. When it comes to understanding their elders, college kids are often not the brightest crayons in the box. More to the point, a lot of them simply tune out older people. It's as if they think we're all merely "geezers" who have either lost our minds...or worse...no longer have anything relevant to say.