Circuses, But No Bread for You

  

 im ein kemach ein Torah 
(If there is no bread, there is no Torah, Avot 3:17)

And when I have broken the staff of your bread,
ten women shall bake your bread in one oven,
and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight:
and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied 
--Leviticus 26:26

____________________

I'm back at the hotel where, last week, I was privy to the incessant drone of the news feed in the common room, as unaffected yet relentless as the spiel of the Costco greeter in the film, "Idiocracy" ("Welcome to Costco;  I love you"). In equal measure it consisted of:

--The Cleveland Three: three women held captive for a decade by apparently a lone man, a neatly tied up ball of evil from which was also recently cut the Tsarnaev Bros., Saddam, Moammer and Osama bin Laden (our very own Stalins and Adolfs -- que fabuloso!)

--The guilty verdict of the boyfriend-murderin' Jody Arias, replete with news reports worried about those who had been following the Arias trial on social media for the last year or so, much as they had been transfixed by the Casey Anthony trial before it; there will now be a gap in their lives, it seems

--A limousine erupting into flames on a freeway in California

--An unfortunate woman shot in the head with a spear from her husband's spear gun (How could it have happened! Who could've imagined!)

Today, it is Angelina Jolie's breasts -- same-same, sadly.  Adding to the inanity was the repeat footage of an errant golf ball into a body of water (being as there was a golf tournament going on in Jacksonville, this most average of United State's cities as reported by America's most average paper, USAToday.) The shot seemed to symbolize . . . something.

I was here having my broken wrist set, an injury which was the endpoint of an odd 10 days: telephone knocked out for a week, followed by DSL out in 33 states for days. The IT guy who kindly visited when my computer failed to re-sync yesterday said my lack of connectivity was unique.

Road Warrior of connectivity I remain, typing with one hand when a connection offers itself, and oddly not displeased with my limited access; it is an enforced detachment, but much of what is online really doesn't deserve viewing time. How little of what we are fed is important. Maybe this is divine intervention to allow for some perspective.

Postings will be limited over the following few weeks as my wrist heals; there will be occasional postings. Please feel free to use this space as an open forum and comment as you see fit.

Oh, and a USAToday news flash: the excruciatingly middling Tom Hanks (aka "Everyman") and Sandra Bullock have been named by the most middling paper as the Most Trusted Americans by Middle Americans.

And so it goes.  Good night, and good luck.