It has not been a good year for Francis Scott Key. At top is the Key Bridge, part of which collapsed in March after being struck by a container ship. The harbor is open again but it will be a while before the bridge is repaired. Ingrid Andress was widely planned for what many have called the worst rendition of the Star Spangled Banner ever at Monday night’s Home Run Derby. Andress has confessed to being drunk during the performance and checked herself into rehab the next day. I expected her to double down and tell all of her critics where they could go but she has admitted to having a problem and is doing something about that instead. It is only right that we wish her well.

We were watching The Apple Dumpling Gang and I Google it to see what year it was released. One of the search results returned this warning. Parental warnings used to be about language or sexual situations but this G rated Disney movie from 1975 promotes traditional gender roles and apparently we need to be warned about that. Disney characters used to be straight. You’ve been warned.

I was duped by A.I. The picture above purportedly shows a comfort mower exhibition from 1957. But look closely at the hands:

He has too many fingers on one hand, possibly none at all on the other, and the steering wheel goes through his hand. Hands and fingers, sometimes even arms and legs, are tell-tale signs that A.I. is mostly artificial and not quite intelligent yet. Note: that’s not exactly the same picture I shared two weeks ago but they were both part of the same story. If you go back and look at my post, notice that the steering wheel is not completely round and the one hand you can see is not holding the wheel, just kind of hovering near it.

That banana is perfectly ripe to be eaten at breakfast, perhaps with a bowl of cereal or cut up into oatmeal or yogurt. What they are calling “the BBQ” is what we would call a grill; by we I mean people that know the difference between making barbecue and grilling outside. And finally, WHAT?!? I’m gonna chalk it up to a wacky Aussie thing.

“Hey mate, throw another nanner on the ba’bie.”

I realized last week there were some celebrity deaths that deserved mentioning but I was running short on time. What is going on? Lou Dobbs (78) and Bob Newhart (94) both passed on Friday. James Sikking (90) Richard Simmons (76) and Shannen Dorherty (53) all passed on the 13th. Going a little further back Ruth Westheimer was 96, Shelley Duvall was 75, and Benji Greogory was only 46 years old. If that name doesn’t ring a bell he was the kid on Alf back in the 80’s. He and his assistive dog Hans both died of heat stroke inside a car in June.

And finally, without saying anything political, let me suggest we as Christians everywhere pray for Joe Biden. Whether or not he stays in this race is up to him and that is, in and of itself, a problem. I believe in his particular state of cognitive decline that he cannot see what the rest of us see. We all have a parent or grandparent that was allowed to drive longer than they should have, or lives alone when it is probably unsafe to do so, because it’s hard to put your foot down and give ultimatums to someone that always had parental authority. In Biden’s case we’re not talking about taking Grandpa’s keys, there are legal and even constitutional considerations because he holds the most powerful office in the world. He needs to make a decision that is best for his health and safety and for a moment I would like us to focus on that consideration.