This post contains amazing insights and poignant commentary on two completely unrelated topics.

Ready?

Here goes!

1.

Do you know what expression perplexes
me more than most things that perplex me?

A person of color.

It is the
politically correct way of referring to human beings who are not of
the Caucasian race, and, to be perfectly honest with you, I really
don't get it.

Back in the day,
when I was a kid, black people were referred to as “colored
people”.

Then
came The Enlightenment of
the sixties, and we were told that that label was racist and offensive to black folks. The proper term then
became “African American.”

Perhaps “African
American” was too long and wouldn't fit into the little, blank
space on government forms for “Race”. So it got changed again.

Nowadays, the
proper “label” is “person of color.”

My
question is, “What in the hell is difference between colored
person and person of
color?I guess the word color is offensive when it is a straight adjective, but not when it is the
object in a prepositional phrase that is being used as a adjective.

Wow! Race relations
are just too convoluted and nuanced for this man's feeble mind to
grasp!

ALSO,
a black person is not,
in fact, a colored person or a person of color! Scientifically
speaking, black is the absence of color!

Actually I am a person of color! I have gray hair, tan skin, blue eyes and red
lips. THAT'S color! Shit, it's Technicolor, in fact!

How
about this? How about we just stop trying to pigeon-hole ourselves
and others by color or non-color? How about if we are all just persons?

How about that?

It just makes things so much easier!

2.

Just brought my kitchen into the twenty-first century!

Got water on the door!

ICE too! (Crushed and cubes!)

Welcome to the Brave New World of refrigerator doors with plumbing!

Before, all you ever had to do to get a refrigerator up and running
was roll it to the spot that you wanted it, and plug it in. Now, you
need an electrician, a plumber and an IT consultant to get the thing
“on line.”

On line?

Uh-huh: On line!

Never had a black (colored?) refrigerator before! Until the
last one, every refrigerator I ever owned was white! (The last one
was yellow.) But now, we've got a black one, simply because we really
didn't want another white one, and we are not enamored enough with
stainless steel to warrant an extra $250.00 for the shiny veneer.

The exterior surface of the new fridge is textured to hide
fingerprints. (Not for nothing, but where does the “D” come from
here? There is no “D” in the noun, refrigerator, but
there is in the shorter version, fridge.)

You know, I never even worried about fingerprints on
refrigerators before!

In the olden days, the freezer was on the top, and the refrigerator
was on the bottom. Now, you can get the appliance completely upside
down – the freezer on the bottom. (Not quite sure why that is
better.)

OR you can get one that is . . . are you ready for this????? . . . SIDE
BY SIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I swear to GOD!!!!) The freezer runs from top to bottom on the left, and the refrigerator
runs top to bottom on the left.

Our
new one is a side-by-side model. And there's a really
good reason for
that...because that's what Mary wanted, that's why. Okay with you?

It was delivered yesterday while I was at work.

When I came home, I felt like Jed Clampett of The Beverly
Hillbillies, learning “the simple pleasures of the hills of
Beverly.”

I approached the appliance with glass in hand, and pushed on the
lever that is on the right inside the little alcove on the door.

WATER!!!!!

I giggled, looked in wonder at my half-full glass, and pushed again!

More water!

And then I tried the other lever, the one on the left, and . . .

ICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Crushed or cubed!!!!!!!!)

Amazing!

Water in the door.

Wwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllll
doggies!!!!! What will they think of next?????