A little old lady was walking down the street dragging two large plastic

garbage bags behind her. One of the bags was ripped, and every once in

awhile, a $20 bill fell out onto the sidewalk.

Noticing this, a Policeman stopped her, and said, "Ma'am, there are $20

bills falling Out of that bag."

"Oh, really? Darn it!" said the little old lady. "I'd better go back and

see if I can find them. Thanks for telling me officer.."

"Well, now, not so fast," said the cop. "Where did you get all that

money? You didn't steal it, did you?"

"Oh, no, no", said the old lady. "You see, my back yard is right next to

the football stadium parking lot. On game days, a lot of fans come and

pee

through a knot hole in the fence, right into my flower garden. It used

to really tick me off. Kills the flowers, you know.

Then I thought, 'why not make the best of it?' So, now, on game days, I

stand behind the fence by the knot hole, real quiet, with my hedge

clippers. Every time some guy sticks his pecker through my fence, I

surprise him, Grab hold of it and say, 'O.K., buddy! Give me $20, or off

it comes.'

"Well, that seems only fair," said the cop, laughing. "OK. Good luck!

Oh, by the way, what's in the other bag?"

"Well, you know", said the little old lady, "not everybody pays."

In June 2015 I flew my 172 from New Hampshire to Ohio to visit my Mom living with my brother before continuing on to Kansas.  I stayed a couple of days taking care of her giving brother and his wife a short break.  For me this was unusual time of year to go to Kansas I usually went in Sept.  Gut feelings told me to go early this year, called Steve, my brother, and set it up with him.  After getting to Kansas with my sister we were checking the farm a couple of days later  Steve called with the news Mom had just died, she was 99.   A wave of both sadness and happiness swept over me as I was able to see her before she went.   Steve took care of things on his end as Lois and I took care of things in Kansas to bring her back home and the funeral.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-12-15/harvard-college-sees-early-applications-drop-17-from-last-year

Parody on a commercial about giving a puppy to someone for Christmas as it is a 15 year commitment?

To skip the Salvation Army bit go to 1 minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFE6SNXoZuE

Off the subject a little.  In 1978 I was an ATC instructor working at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS.  At this time we usually had 3 o4 Iranian students in every class. I also did some flight instructing at the base aero club and sometimes flew a Cessna 206 for some shrimp boats chasing parts and whatever else they needed.  One Friday night I got a call from the boat scheduler asking if I would be interested in a flight to an airport near Atlanta that night.  When I arrived at Gulfport airport I found 3 Irainian female students that had been in my class a few months before.  They remembered me and we had a good talk.  They had just graduated and wanted to defect to America.  During the flight they told me that things were going to hell in a handbasket back in Iran and they knew it would not be good for women and minorities.  About 6 months later the Shah abducted and we know what happened next.  I dropped them off at a small airport southwest of Atlanta, there were people there to meet them, gave them a good welcome.  One lady sat up front with me very interested in the instruments, communications and navigation.  I often wondered what has happened to them.

About 6 months ago I noticed my SS payments were arriving a day, sometimes 2 days, early.  It has been that way since then.  I receive it on the 3rd Wed of the month.  I didn't know if it's just my financial institution or widespread.

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/11/02/first-they-came-for-the-statues-now-they-are-coming-for-the-bird-names-n589388