01/03/2026
The old old man in 1973.
It was in the hardware store. A customer was complaining about his crazy ass employee with an attitude. Something about capitalism. The kid was maybe 17 but knew the way of the world and informed his employer that he was a capitalist pig.
Someone in the little crowd said "What's wrong with people these days?"
The old, old, and I mean old man at the edge of the crowd spoke up and said "Power tools."
The guys looked at him like he was crazy.
"Yes," he said, "power tools. Takes half the time now to build things. That leaves more idle time. That's when people, not only young whippersnappers but grown-ups too, have more time to think but nothing really important to think about. And then they start going crazy thinking up all sorts of stuff!"
I think about that when I hear talk about going to a four-day work week, 6-hour days, 3-month pregnancy leaves for men. No frigging wonder there are people who believe that Spanish is sexist, that there are several genders, that next year we will run out of oxygen in the atmosphere, that the Holy See is allegedly ready to roll out the red carpet to space alien visitors, and that people are so easily hypnotized into believing that they were sexually abused as a child.
Yep, it's that Milwaukee sander, that Rockwell circular saw, and that Black & Decker impact drill.
