Play ball! (The Major League Baseball GM meetings begin this week, meaning that free agent players will be getting contracts that will instantly make them financially secure for life even if they never play an inning. Is this a great country or what?)

I’m sorry! The Thanksgiving/ 43rd wedding anniversary disruption of yesterday threw off my Friday-dar, and I only just now realized that I owe readers an open forum. Judging from the activity on Ethics Alarms the past two days, it’s going to be a sparsely attended event, but you all have surprised me before.

To get you revved up to post on important or intriguing, ethics matters, here is an actual comment I just kicked out of moderation:

Hey everyone! Just stumbled upon an incredibly interesting blog about the potassium content in bananas! If you’ve ever wondered “how much potassium in a banana,” this article breaks it down in a simple and informative way. Check it out and enhance your knowledge on the benefits of this potassium-packed fruit!

You should see all of the sincere letters I get from people who will pay to have articles printed in Ethics Alarms on topics having no conceivable connection to the topic of the blog who have obviously never read a single post.

Never mind. Go crazy. Or rather, “Go bananas.”

Yesterday was the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi attack on the Jewish community that launched the Holocaust. I found mention of the event rather muted compared to past years; maybe it was my imagination. However, it seems to me that the news media would have been doing its job to make a special point of reminding the public of “The Night of Broken Glass” (which would more accurately be called, “The Night of Brutalized Jews). May be then more Americans would understand why that catchy chant that begins “From the river to the sea” is just a bit more chilling to Jews than “Hey hey, ho ho, LBJ has got to go…”

But that’s just what I’m thinking about. What are YOU thinking about in the mad, mad, mad, mad world of ethics?

I’m almost afraid to see what you come up with today…

My sister traditionally ends our phone conversation by suddenly blurting out—lately the impetus has been the prospect of a Presidential contest between Biden and Trump—“Everything’s going to Hell!” and hanging up. I am constitutionally disinclined to be that pessimistic (unlike some who comment here of late), but boy, I sure could use some good news beyond the ACLU deigning to protest a judge muzzling a major political candidate that her pals disapprove of.

Here’s my latest Ethics Alarms worry: increasingly, my story sources are demanding paywall fees. Most of the formerly free bloggers have moved to substack and subscription newsletters. The New York Post, CBS, NBC and others hit me with a block asking for ad-blockers to be disabled, then don’t remove the block until I’ve disabled the ad-blocker and refreshed three times or more. CNN has joined the group that make it difficult to copy text. Now The Blaze is going full subscription. I pay for the digital versions of the Washington Post and New York Times, but as we all know by now (I hope), they can’t be trusted.

I can only be Scarlet O’Hara for so long, but I guess I’ll worry about that tomorrow…

Enough bitching from me: Over to you, Clarence…

And it’s about time, too. The last OF was unusually spare, and this has been a lively, if ugly seven days since.

Elucidate and illuminate!

[Notes on that clip: 1. The “Howdy Doody Time” theme was sung to the melody of “Ta-ra-ra-Boom-dee-ay,” one of many traditional American songs that kids used to be taught and now never are. I was going to write a musical revue containing songs like that (“There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” and “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here!” among others) for my old theater company, but for various reasons it never happened. They are all infinitely superior to “Imagine.” 2. You’ve heard that voice singing the creepy Rice Crispies march. before. Who is it, and what famous song did he sing?]

An administrative note: I know WordPress’s pointless and gratuitous “improvement” of its comment registering system is confusing. But it does work: I spent an hour last week with a “Happiness Engineer” who tested it out with me. I’m sorry for the frustration and inconvenience: from my end, new glitches from WP innovations are a daily feature of writing the blog, so believe me, I feel your pain.

Coming attractions: the rest of the disturbing and perplexing Trevor Bauer saga; the significance of Biden’s second German Shepherd banishing; the education apocalypse, and D.C.’s Black Lives Matter-lovin’ mayor suddenly deciding that police are necessary after all. Lots of other issues rattling around, but as long as you don’t scoop me (or Curmie, who has a guest post coming) on those three, write about any ethics matter you choose.

Ready…on your mark…get set…GO!