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Page A-4 Shelton-Mason County Journal Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020
THESE
Sayings we used to say
ome expressions
not heard much
anymore:
“Might doesn’t
make right” We used
to hear this comment
often in this nation,
mostly referring to
it was confirmed, per-
haps by self-esteem
researchers in Califor-
nia who gathered in
hot tubs after work,
that words can indeed
hurt. This phrase’s
decline has led to an-
the totalitarian gov- other phrase taking its
ernments of the 80- By KIRK place: “You’re project-
viet Union and Nazi ERICSON ing!”
Germany, and the
Japanese government
during World War II. We don’t
hear it so much now. Could it
be because the United States
has the mightiest military?
Or could it be because we now
think might does make right?
“Don’t you know there
are starving children in
China?” This phrase was
intended to make you eat all
your food, but China isn’t fa-
mous for its starving children
anymore. Maybe parents in
the year 2020 could update
the saying: “Don’t you know
there are starving children
in Mississippi, New Mexico,
Louisiana, Arkansas, West
Virginia, Alabama, Kentucky,
South Carolina, Tennessee,
Oklahoma and Texas?”
“A penny saved is a
penny earned” In one sense,
inflation took care of this one,
but it hasn’t been replaced by
a nickel or dime or quarter
earned — perhaps because
saving money isn’t considered
such an act of virtue anymore.
People are pushed to spend,
acquire, desire. In fact, we’re
not even people anymore .—
we’re consumers. Spending in
our economy is what a highly
cafi‘einated drink is to a hu-
man’s metabolism: It jazzes
things up a bit, but when the
crash comes, good luck crawl-
ing out of the wreckage.
“Spare the rod, spoil the
child” This phrase was used
to justify spanking, but the
71970s popularized the idea
that hitting children could
possibly be a bad thing; Many
of us sheathed the rod — if
we even had a rod or sheath.
It should now be, “Spare the
participation trophies, ruin the
child.”
“Sticks and stones can
break my bones, but words
can never hurt me” This is
another phrase that started
to decline in the 19705 after
USPS 492-800
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton—Mason
County Journal, P.O. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584.
Published weekly by the Shelton—Mason County Journal
at 227 W. Cota St., Shelton, Washington.
Mailing address: R0. Box 430, Shelton. WA 98584
Telephone: 360—426-4412
Website: www.masoncounty.com
Sljtltmtllaamflbount
“Green with
envy” The color green
no longer applies to coveting
what others have. Green now
describes items or ways of
thinking that might improve
the chances of humans surviv-
ing on this planet. Perhaps we
need to substitute a new color
into the phrase “green with
envy.” How about “white?”
“Haste makes waste”
We’re all so darn busy now,
who has the time to worry
about waste? It’s haste we
want, and we want it now.
“Our country is a great
melting pot” This metaphor
was discarded when we mostly
discarded the idea that im-
migrants should surrender
their cultural, national and
ethic traits when they enter
the United State's. Replacing
the melting pot image is the
“quilt” or “salad” images, both
of which express the notion
that immigrants retain their
parts while they contribute to
the whole. Seems fair.
“Smoking or nonsmok-
ing?” This question used to
be asked when you entered
a restaurant during the era
of smoking sections. I have
a friend who doesn’t smoke
but Would often ask to sit in a
restaurant’s smoking section
because, he’d explain, “It’s a
better class of people.”
' “A woman’s place is in
the home” This phrase was
on its way out early in my
life, and now it appears as far
gone as three-layer Jell-O and
cheese fondue. Let’s give par-
tial credit to the steel-haired
crusader Phyllis Schlafly, who
likely inspired many women
to leave their homes when she
repeatedly left her home in the
1960s and 1970s to campaign
against the Equal Rights
Amendment.
I Contact Kirk Ericson at
kirk@masoncounty.com.
Association.
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GUEST
Got to get me some of that elbow room
set foot in a movie theater. .
Too much time had passed
since I’d rested my bones in that
well-worn cushion and set my over-
sized drink to one side while an over-
buttered popcorn warmed my lap.
When did you last suck the milk
chocolate off a crispy Whopper before
letting it dissolve in your mouth,
gazing at the silver screen?
Go now with me and let the reflec—
tion of that light radiate our corneas
while the bass pummels our eardrums and
the movie begins.
After months of going without, I just went
to the theater and boy and girls, it was amaz—
ing.
You should go now too.
Despite those teenagers just a few rows
ahead of me, yammering on about their
boyfriends, or the loud chewer 6 feet away,
it was a homecoming. Even those audience
members with their distracting cellphones in
the darkened theater didn’t bother me.
Like a man in the desert, I had grown
hungry and the movies had never tasted this
sweet.
The cinematography was good, the sound
filled my body and lifted my soul and the
story, it moved me, but it was the experience
that satiated the hunger in me. ‘
Let’s make a pact. Let the new normal oc-
cupy the first half 2020.
Let’s move to a new, new normal right
now — a normal where we can s0cially dis—
tance as nature intended.
What a relief to not be packed into a con-
tainment like cattle to the slaughter.
Gimme that 6 feet we didn’t come to the
movies to chat.
Look at me through the safety and secu-
rity of your mask, but don’t talk to me, that’s
not why we’re here.
It’s been far too long since I last
IT'S GOING TO
DE A PARK NOT A
SQUATTER‘S
CAMP, IMAGINE
THAT.
By LLOYD
MULLEN
We’re here to escape the outside
normal and to experience fantastical
new worlds.
For the theater owners, it can’t
be a good business model limiting
capacity to 25 percent, but your 10-
cal bijou faces an even bigger threat
from the Mouse that made them.
And if you continue to stay home
you’re about to say goodbye to the
cinema as we know it.
This week our favorite Disney is
trying to shift the paradigm — Mick-
ey has ditched the silver screen for the LED
in your family room.
It’s easy to spend 50 bucks on date night
at the movies so Disney’s $30 charge might
seem like a bargain, especially if your family
room has family in it.
But what is the true cost of abandoning
public gatherings to watch a show?
If Mickey makes his way to your mantle
say goodbye to cinema as you know it._
Their multibillion dollar team is looking to
pivot and wants to take us all with it.
But that decision, dear reader, is really
ours to make.
Shall we watch our next cinematic movie
from the comfort of a couch or do we step out
of our homes, out of our sweats and into a
world beyond our imagination?
Disney has made the choice easy, for the
pivot.
You may go for their A-film and enjoy a re-
make of the ’90s animated-feature, “Mulan,”
this time from your couch.
Or brave the local cinema for a communal
and hopefully non-COVID experience.
I’m putting on my mask.
I’m filling up my portable hand sanitizer
dispenser and maintaining my Inslee-recomo
, mended 6 feet.
You dOn’t know what you got until it’s
gone. ‘
Publisher/Editor: Tom Mullen
Advertising:
John Lester, General Manager
Front office:
Dave Pierik, Office Administrator
Karen Hranac, Customer Service
Design:
Lloyd Mullen, Creative Director
All regular editorial, advertising
and legal deadlines are 5 pm. the
Monday prior to publication.
Theresa Murray, Ad Representative Delivery:
Jon Garza
Newsroom: David Olson
Justin Johnson, Sports/Outdoors Editor Niel Challstrom
Gordon Weeks, Reporter
Isabella Breda, Reporter
Kirk Ericson, Columnist/ Proofreader
Kirk Boxleitner, Reporter
Shelton-Mason County_Journa/, Inc.
Composing room:
William Adams, Advertising
Design and Technical Support
To submit a letter to the editor,
email justin@masoncounty.com.