A couple observations as I slowly emerge from the fog of about a week of the South Arkansas crud or whatever it is that has been making rounds. What somebody wrote a few years ago is true. When you get a nasty cold, drink plenty of liquids, take some type of cold and sinus medication, get plenty of rest and you will be over it in about a week. Alternatively, just put up with it and you will be over it in about a week. After wimping out and going to the doctor yesterday, it does seem that either the worst is over thanks to his dispensation of modern medicine or Mother Nature saying, "See, I told you to give it a week and you would be better."
The second observation is that I just received a good lesson in when you have been wrong, accept it, lick your wounds and move on. Just stay wrong. Do not compound it by trying to invent some wiggle room. That is what I did when I made my predictions for 2016. One of them was that the New England Patriots would win the Super Bowl. A couple of weeks ago after the Patriots lost in the playoffs, I acknowledged that I had blown that prediction, and I should have just left it at that. But, no, I had to go ahead and say, in effect, OK, there's still the Super Bowl so kind of hedging my bet I predicted the Carolina Panthers would win it. Therefore, I got two wrong in one.
On the other hand, it looks like my prediction about North Korea succeeding in thrusting itself into the news through provocative acts seems to be on the mark, but I suppose that's an easy call with a country run by a goofy dictator. On the other other hand, my record in political prognosticating seems to be in danger of being consistent. Being bad. This goes all the way back to childhood when I thought Adlai Stevenson could defeat Dwight Eisenhower for president. I guess I was impressed that Stevenson might be regular folks because he was photographed during the campaign wearing a shoe with a hole in the sole.
Then, still not in adulthood, I was convinced that Richard Nixon would defeat John F. Kennedy.
Well now that I am well on the other side of adulthood, I have not learned my lesson to keep my mouth shut about these kinds of things. Because, despite my prediction that the Republican Party would do everything it can to derail Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention, it looks like he has not burned out as many had predicted and could sustain the momentum right through the convention. I also predicted that Hillary Clinton would benefit from the Republican infighting and go on to become the first woman president. Now it appears she could have her own troubles on the way to the Democratic nomination and if she does manage to get back in the lead, enough baggage has been accumulated to weigh down her chances of being elected. So, am I hedging my bets again like it looked like I was trying to do on the Super Bowl? Nope, it's too late for that but I will sneak in a little addendum to that particular prognostication. That being that nothing unexpected happening between now and the nominations will surprise me because, with the mix of personalities in the field, there are enough little landmines that could go off to derail any front-runner.
All right, already, enough about my dumb old predictions and politics, right?
Right, that's all I will be boring you with about the predictions, at least, for quite some time. However, even if I can resist keeping my keyboard quiet about politics, which I will not be able to for long, there won't any stopping the news overload on that front until after November. So, what else is there? Oh, yeah, Kanye West says Bill Cosby is innocent. Well, that should take care of that. If a singer with an over-inflated ego declares such a guy innocent, why try to let a court of law settle the issue? Seriously, the developments about Cosby came about as a great disappointment to me. While I was never a fan of the "I Spy" television series, and occasionally watched the later "Bill Cosby Show" with the Huxtables, I most enjoyed his humorous monologues on records. In addition, his children's Saturday morning cartoon show, "Fat Albert and the Gang," did live up its premise, "If you aren't careful, you might learn something." Nevertheless, a legacy of a lifetime of good entertaining sure seems to being wiped out by an equally long time of bad, cruel and illegal behavior.
Finally, are you as ready as I am for winter to over and done? Sure, as winters go, this has been a relatively mild one with several unseasonably warm, almost hot spells, but enough of the teasing. We get a week of balmy weather and then a week of brrr freezing temperatures at night and chilly days. Come on, let's hit the 70s mark and bring out the grills.
(Jim Edwards writes this column for the Banner-News. Contact him at [email protected])