I saw a headline in LATEST NEWS on CNN’s Homepage a few minutes ago: Millions paid in NYC firefighter bias case. I’m going to keep this short because you can easily read the full article here – and it isn’t long.

The article starts right out saying it is about bias based on race relating to an entrance exam for firefighter training. Then, a few lines down, I read this: The lawsuit alleged that the exams had little to do with firefighting and instead focused on cognitive and reading skills. (The boldness is mine.)

I said I’d keep it short, so here is my opinion. An entrance exam is NOT a test of what you are going to be studying; it is a test of your ability to comprehend what you are going to be taught. And hasn’t literacy (reading) been a top goal of government and private groups?

Okay, that’s it.

Okay, a couple of hours ago – or maybe three – I was getting ready to send news of this package. I’d typed the post title and then I realized if I did not rummage through a box of old papers, I would never do it. So I left this message as a draft and when I came back, I saw I had a new email waiting . . . from LZP himself.

Three things arrived; two are pictured here. The bug will be featured tomorrow.

Some at The Leaning Cow folks are uncertain about this:

And then there is this interesting and potential addition to the menu:

Watch for our review tomorrow of The Gummy Haggis which will include the Robert Burn’s poem on the back of the book. And, yes, we will digest the material about the aforementioned bug.

It is raining and windy, and so a day for a fire to fill the house will the aroma of woodsmoke. I think if I could come up with a fabric softener that would make my pillowcases smell as if they were dried in the sun and an air freshener that was of aged woodsmoke, I would be able to open a place in the mall where you could “Rent a Nap” by the hour. You might not want to nap, just lie there in your cubicle lit with a flickering hurricane lamp and enjoy the smells.

Or,  I could go into the “Rustic Bedroom Package” that could be installed in homes. It says safety and comfort to me. Perhaps somewhere people like the sound of a low TV and parents voices  through a door left partly open  and the sound of New York traffic making it through a window. I could expand my business – different options for different reminders of comfort and belonging.

Ah, but back to today and  a fire. Maybe we need to get two fires going; we do have lots of wood since the winter was so mild. A fire in the den and one in the basement and the cheery smell and feel of air carrying the wood-burning ambiance throughout sounds good to me.

You know, I think I’ll just go start the fire in the basement right now.

See ya.

No, none of the regulars eating foldovers and sipping cures here is diving into any Alan Greenspan/John Maynard Keynes pool. Newfie just happened to mention how so many Yankee Candle offers are showing up in our email. She pays attention to candle, dontcha know, being from Newfoundland and all that. (Sorry, Newf, just a little jokie. You know, about Newfoundland having its very own time zone and it being on the half-hour when everyone else is on the hour.)

But, anyway, the candles. If you pay attention, Yankee Candles are not much more expensive then those at Walmart – assuming you buy them at “sale prices” and I do. The regular price of a large jar is $25.99, but more and more often, they go on sale for Buy one, get one free. I love the semi-annual sale when I can buy six for what works out to be $11.50 a piece.

I like the flickering light and the scent of my personal favorites, such as Macintosh and Peach. However, there is no way around it – you are burning money. And I won’t spend $25 buckaroos for that on a regular basis.  I let well-off people do that. However,  I suspect they are holding off a little now as well, because not only are the candle sales becoming more frequent, but this time all scents are included – according to the email.

Relax, Der Bingle, I’m not buying any more.

However, I do recommend these at this price:

I turned down the thermostats awhile ago . . . because it is sunny and 52 degrees. Tomorrow, the weathermen are estimating a high in the low 60’s. Gosh! It’s getting so hot. Well, not really, since we didn’t exactly have any drawn-out, ice inside the windows and time to put another rug against the bottom of the door COLD.

So far, this has been a winter to make wimps out of us. I hope I am not jinxing us into ice storms and cold spring rains.

Please let us have a good spring and coolish summer because the Grandma up to Scott Town house is being eyed by tree trimmers and roofers. And painters? I liked the hidden away Miss Haversham look, but Der Bingle and others pointed out that nature was eating it up.

I am also considering not having my hair colored for awhile – heck, I’ll be sweating and dirty and it will be stuck under a ball cap. Maybe I’ll decide I won’t get it done until I become more fit. Perhaps I am feeling the stirrings of going natively rustic.

There must be something in the air today; I am considering going out and breathing really, really deeply. The results could be scary. I could take some jars out and fill them with today’ air to save for a day when I am in a down and out, put your face in the nachos mood.

I need to calm down; it’s not time to slam the screen door yet.

I’m bracing myself for next weekend – Daylight Savings Time, dontcha know? Yes, one week from today at this time, it won’t be this time. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAA.

Oh, God, I’m losing it.

I’ve been reading a book on my Kindle about the Collyer brothers in Harlem. They packed their house with trash and junk and probably some valuable stuff, too. Homer and Langley. They both died in 1947 – March, it was. This is what happened:For years Homer had been bed-bound, or more accurately, pallet-bound because he was severely rheumatic and blind. Langley took care of all his needs.

BUT, with all that junk in the house, there were only paths and tunnels, some of which were booby-trapped as security precautions. Langley accidentally tripped one and was crushed to death; Homer died of starvation on his pallet close by.

I don’t know the exact words, but the author said the family was a little odd.

Franz Lidz is the author of Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers, New York’s Greatest Hoarders, An Urban Historical. It was a special deal yesterday and cost me a dollar, not the normal price of seven dollars, plus..

There is hope for me!!!!!! I can still walk through my house . . . well, I do have to climb in some rooms.

I’m usually fairly good when it comes to finding things on the Internet; but when I wanted to show my grandkids a picture of what we (Grandpa and I) used for writing paper in the early 1950’s, I couldn’t easily locate a picture. Not that I won’t keep looking, but I think I’m going to have to go through some of my father’s things to see if one of the things he saved from my childhood was written on that paper.

What originally got Der Bingle and I thinking about the paper was a conversation in the past about bread. Bear with me, please, the connection makes sense. You see Der Bingle and Quentin pay attention to eating healthy bread, and, from my unbiased view, it appears their idea of healthy bread is a dense slab of fiber. It takes a lot of chewing, and, in fact, they refer to some of it as “twig bread.”

OKAY. RIGHT HERE SOMETHING WENT WRONG.

There should be more paragraphs; I wrote them. I wrote about the barely processed paper we were given in early school years and mentioned that Der Bingle told Quentin we had “to write around the chunks of wood” that were embedded in the sheet. Then I added more about the really fat pencils we had to use.

I was going to hit publish, but Summer came out and I went for “Save Draft” and, apparently, what later showed up was NOT all she wrote. I don’t want to fool with it this morning, so I just threw out the gist of the original paragraphs.

I don’t know – maybe the gist is the geist of my thoughts yesterday.