Frazz by Jef Mallett for April 13, 2023

I watched my grandkid courtin’ his now wife. They spent a lot of time with their heads together… looking at one of their phones or the other, and quite often, both.

Emoji ?

Not to mention all of the “friends” that you’ve never met.

I’ve met several people online that I’ve come to count as friends, so…?

Folks are only strangers until the introductions.

Jesus used to eat with the worst sinners. See Matthew 9:10-12 and maybe watch Bill Murray in St. Vincent.

Need 2 cell phones because my blue-eyed girl has a medical problem and we need to maintain contact when I am away. Fortunately so far, we have not had an emergency, so other than occasional spam the phone just serves to make my jacket sag on one side. Gets used about once a month, if that. House phone is used for all other calls. Really miss that excellent little Kyocera flip that just made calls. Basic functionality at a low weight.

But I see parents who are more engaged with their online friends than their children. Not surprising then, that when groups of teens appear to be together, they actually are not because they are using their cells. It’s what they learned from their parents.

I remember as a kid that my grandparents wouldn’t use, or let us use, their phone unless it was an emergency. Much later, I bought my first “cell” phone in case of an emergency. Now, we only talk to real people if it is an emergency.

The statement still holds, though. Who you associate with online still says something about you.

The company we all keep is Koch Industries, which keeps buying elections in our post-Citizens United spending free-for-all.

I spent ten years working in retail. I’ve had my fill of human interaction. Everyone can stay on the other side of this screen!

The question remains:

If a good person keeps company with a bad person, does that make the good person bad because of keeping bad company?

Or does it make the bad person good because of keeping good company?

These whippersnappers with their Twooter and TicTac! Why in my day, I’d harness the buggy and go to the General Store and sit around the pickle barrel with Jebediah and Cletus. That’s how you socialize!

I am sure I have several patients who prefer Zoom/Teams meetings because someone in the Pack or Clowder will be in the camera showing off their fur, face or tail end while we’re in the middle of an appointment. Odinsdottir, our big black floof of a Norwegian Forest cat has been known to sit on the desk and stick her face right into the camera. Sometimes the abyss stares back.

Sad commentary on the American youth. My generation watched TV a lot though.

Twas early last December, as near as I remember, I was waltzing down the street in tipsy pride. When my feet, they made a stutter, I landed in the gutter and a pig came up and lay down by my side. As I lay there in the gutter, thinking thoughts I dare not utter, a lady passing by was heard to say, “You can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses.” and the pig got up and slowly walked away.

A thought to give us all pause, Frazz.