75 years leaves a lot to be covered | Mann Overboard

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As if my 75th birthday didn’t make me feel old enough, I recently received a list of albums that were released 50 years ago. Brace yourself for this partial list: 

“Exile on Main Street,” Rolling Stones; “Harvest,” Neil Young; “Sailin’ Shoes,” Little Feat; “Thick As a Brick,” Jethro Tull; “Eat a Peach,” The Allman Brothers; “Never a Dull Moment,” Rod Stewart; “All The Young Dudes,” Mott The Hoople; “Talking Book,” Steve Wonder; and “Eagles.” 

“I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now,” Mr. Dylan, I beg to differ. 

— We were living in Québec in 1972, and Montreal was a great place to be. No Nixon, no draft, rare marijuana busts. Plus, my rock-critic job allowed me to interview many of the musicians above in those carefree, cannabinated days. 

Draft dodging? Not me. But … I never met any other American in Montreal who WASN’T in Canada to beat the draft. I was exempt because of a polio leg, and I spoke French, and I’d fallen in love with Montreal. 

My affection for Québec was rekindled recently with the news that La Belle Province wants to tax residents who are unvaxxed. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose father was the PM when we lived in Canada, has said he also likes the idea. 

More than one in four of all Canadians, in a recent poll, also said they liked the taxing plan, and 37 percent want to deny publicly-funded healthcare to the unvaxxed. 

I’m fed up with the clueless antivaxxers who are tying up our hospitals and staffs with preventable COVID cases. Many Leader readers I’ve spoken with share my disgust with these heedless public-health menaces. 

Nationally syndicated columnist Froma Harrop wrote recently, “In the U.S., rage at the unvaccinated now hogging intensive-care beds has come out in the open.” She also noted that French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he wanted to “piss off” French citizens who won’t get vaccinated by banning them from public places. Great idea. “Macron feels it’s politically safe to join rising public anger at the minority that keeps the pandemic going,” she added. 

Harrop also noted the all-too obvious, that “the great majority of those needing hospitalization are unvaccinated.” 

“The vaccinated majority,” she adds, “is rapidly losing interest in the fate of the unvaccinated — and that’s putting it diplomatically. The latter may be irresponsible, ignorant, selfish, mentally unbalanced. Or a combination of the above. We just feel sorry for the innocents around them.

Locally, we all owe our stressed-out, shortstaffed, and dedicated Jefferson Healthcare staffers a load of thanks. What they’ve had to go through because of the unvaxxed is almost unbelievable. 

— The New Yorker’s Andy Borowitz offers a headline on Florida’s churlish anti-vax guv: “DeSantis Betting That Republicans Want a Stupider Version of Trump.” 

— Middle Age Riot on Twitter: “I’m old enough to remember when Republican politicians could denounce Nazis without alienating their base.”

— We go from life-saving vaccinations to lifeguards: The Y, which runs the pool here, is still looking for a few good men and women. Its next lifeguard certification course is a fast, five-day class that runs from March 7-12. Registration closes Feb. 26, and you get a free swim…to prove you CAN swim. It’s a cool job, sitting down while getting paid. (That’s exactly what this couch tuber did for years, as a newspaper TV critic). 

So, we swimmers need you. Course costs $75, but there are scholarships available. Please call Kate Henninger at 360-504-0535 for info. 

— Has anyone else gotten hooked on Wordle? The addictive word game has drawn millions of players this year. I’ll give it five minutes every morning, and that’s it. After all, I also have to set aside time to play the anagram game Jumble. And sudoku? Sorry. That way lies madness.

— Finally, Larry “Bubbles” Brown is one of the funniest comics around today. His latest gem: “”There are so many things I can’t do I seriously think my age has exceeded my IQ.” 

(PT humorist Bill Mann has been a columnist at four major metro  dailies and USA Today. Newsmann9@gmail.com.)