TGIF 12/8/17

So it seems almost inconceivable that we haven't shared a TGIF moment in three weeks, but that appears to be the case!  Shame on me, and apologies to you.

Let's dive in with a little entertainment -- real entertainment - coming out of Washington, a place not necessarily known for this kind of entertainment.  Here's what happened, according to our friends Rachel Martin and David Green on NPR's Morning Edition:

RM:  All right, so we're going to lighten things up a little bit. In the hallowed halls of the US Senate, it is common practice to quote history's great orators when making your point - Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Gandhi. 

DG: Right. And then came a banking committee hearing on Tuesday. Senator Sherrod Brown of the great state of Ohio rose to speak out against a piece of legislation whose very title promised three things, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act.

 SB: As Meat Loaf used to sing, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. But this bill doesn't even meet the Meat Loaf minimum.

There was more. Senator John Neely Kennedy (R-LA) chimed in.

JNK: Meat Loaf also said there ain't no Coupe de Ville in the bottom of a Cracker Jack box. In other words, we live in the real world. 

Next to enter? Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC).

TT:   In that same song, he said, baby we can talk all night, but that ain't getting us nowhere. So I'm looking forward to processing the amendment.

Was that it? Oh, no - Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) chimed in.

Meat Loaf also said, life is a lemon and I want my money back. So on behalf of all the consumers who got the short end of the stick from Wells Fargo and Equifax, I want to have a bill to make sure they get their money back.

So, how did this all end? Chair Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Tim Scott (R-SC) dove in, but it was Rachel Martin (from the studio) who had the last laugh.

MC: I guess I'm going to have to go learn a little more about Meat Loaf.

TS: No, Sir, you don't have to.

RM: You, Senator Tim Scott, took the words right out of  my mouth. 

After everything that's gone on this week, they all deserved that little bit of fun, don't you think?

The fun was, well, more than slightly different, though, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where a new and very different version of Frosty the Snowman last night.

Frosty needs a hat to come to life, and that's exactly what happens when a certain iconic red cap floats through the air and lands on his head:

#MAGA, now who wants to deport some dreamers? Look at these hands, do they look small to you?

The clip is short (thankfully).

And, not in a funny "haha" vein, but more in a funny 'that's curious" vein, Pope Francis is in the news again. Not for anything having to do with Donald Trump, something much more pontifical.
According to this BBC report, he wants to change the Lord's prayer.

His concern is with the "lead us not into temptation" part, which he suggests should be changed to "do not let us fall into temptation." The reason?  God would not lead someone to sin.

Do not let me fall into temptation because it is I who fall, it is not God who throws me into temptation and then sees how I fell.  A father does not to that, a father helps you to get up immediately.

He noted that the Roman Catholic Church in France is using the alternate language, and similar language should be used around the world.

Interesting, isn't it? After all this time, someone wants to rethink the Lord's Prayer.

And here in the US of A, we're trying to prepare for a rash of originalists on the Court, refusing to consider that gun laws written in the age of muskets can be revisited, and waking up every day with a president who thinks that as long as everyone has money, they'll miraculously love their neighbor and racism will disappear.

Last: I built a wall at work this week between two charitable events at work where people could win baked goods in one raffle and gift baskets in a different raffle at the far end of the room.  After there was confusion on which tickets went to which event, I decided to physically separate the two events by building a big, beautiful wall, made out of chairs and tables.

My wall failed; it was physically breached by bake sale fans who coveted the baskets. Which made me chuckle, again not funny haha, but different funny. If I couldn't convince people to 'stay on their own side' in something as inconsequential as a raffle, how will we convince people to do so with something as consequential as freedom?

TGIF, indeed.