A Very Funny Clip March 21, 2008January 5, 2017 SUBPRIME James Musters: ‘This video was posted on YouTube last October. I think you linked to it. In retrospect it is quite prophetic. Time for people to see it again. If the comics knew what was coming, and named Bear Stearns by name, how come the market did not figure it out earlier? And watch this one. Both were posted last October.’ ☞ Who could forget that clip? And, yes, it’s even more painfully funny today. iPHONE #4 Mike Gavaghan: ‘The problem you had where you could only hear audio on your iPhone when the headphones were plugged in is, apparently, a fairly common problem. Sometimes, the iPhone simply doesn’t recognize that the headphone plug has been removed. It happened to me, and it’s probably going to happen to you again – even on your replacement phone. When it happened to me, I was fortuitously sitting next to a fellow iPhone user (at jury duty, of all places). It happened to him once, and he showed me how he was taught to fix it. Rapidly insert and remove the headphone jack a couple times. I did that twice and, voila!, I could hear through the earpiece again!’ ☞ Proving once again that the real Genius Bar is my readership – I should have consulted you (collectively) first! OKLAHOMA Last Friday I posted a 17-year-old’s letter to an Oklahoma state legislator who had said she believed people like me and Charles posed more of a threat to America than terrorists. Two responses: Jeff Cox: ‘My wife and I wanted to buy a house in Las Vegas, but we could buy a bigger house in Oklahoma and save enough money to visit Las Vegas twice a year for the rest of our lives. As a consequence, our house is still gaining value. I’d like to say Oklahomans have more sense than the people paying too much in Las Vegas and California, but then our lawmakers say something stupid about terrorism and homosexuality. Please know only a few of us are that ignorant. I don’t know why we elect those few. For laugh value, the best Oklahoma lawmaker story in my memory was about 25 years ago, when one lawmaker pushed another, knocking him down, in an argument over who would appoint the chaplain for a coming session.’ Mary Rainier: ‘Your column was forwarded to me by the director of my son’s gay youth support group (rosmy.org). I was compelled to write to Representative Kern [as follows].’ Representative Kern, . . . I am so lucky to be the mother of an 18 year-old gay son who is the joy of my life. He is smart, funny, nurturing and dynamic. I have been asked if I could change Corey to be “normal” would I do so. I answer, “he is completely normal and NO! I would not change a thing.” He is perfect the way he is. Sadly, he lives in a world where terrorism is a real threat, but even more so, ignorant people in positions of power are an even greater threat to him and other young people like him. I thought that Virginia was a state with such narrow-mindedness embedded in its laws and history, but I came to realize that the “heartland” of America also has its share of backward thinking. Here, my son has found the help and support he needs from his family and a wonderful support group in Richmond that works to send young leaders into the world where they can be defined by their words, actions and content of their character, not just by their sexuality, as you have so sadly done to them. They are not one-dimensional beings, but real people with much to offer including the love they will one day share with their same-sex partners. I was shocked to hear that you are an educator and you and I are in the same field charged with opening young minds to ideas of hope, self-worth and respect for others. I am ashamed that someone with your lack of Christian values is allowed to call herself one. Sadly, Ms. Kern, you and your fellow haters, along with terrorism, are one of the greatest threats we have to America and I wish Tucker, who wrote the letter about his mother sadly dying in the Oklahoma bombing, the very best as he and my wonderful son are the future and with them I can only trust that they will teach their children the Christian values of love, faith, hope and charity, regardless of their religion or sexual orientation. I sign off as “Mother to one and teacher to many,” Mary Rainier Librarian T. C. Walker Elementary Gloucester, Virginia ☞ What a fine sentiment for a Good Friday.