GOOD VERSUS EVIL HODGEPODGE!

     A pleasant good morning, world! I hope all is well in your little piece of the planet today. The forces of good and virtue (Red Sox) are making a foray into the home environs of the Evil Empire (Yankees) for three games beginning tonight, well last night, since you're reading this on Wednesday. GO SOX!
     As I type this it is a beautiful day in the Granite State. The sky is cobalt blue and the temps are just right, that is, not too cold and not too warm. 
     If you are reading this, then it must be Wednesday and you already know there is a new Hodgepodge. I hope that you enjoy your day and I hope that you enjoy the Hodgepodge. Thank you, Joyce, for another edition.

1. What are your ingredients for a perfect Saturday?

      A perfect Saturday consists of: (1) Sleep in late; (2) Go out for breakfast or brunch; (3) Read the newspaper; (4) Watch and score a Red Sox game; (5) Go to a nearby lake with SWMBO and the Littles to fish a little, walk around a little and have a picnic lunch. 

2. What skill do you wish more people took the time to learn?
     The one skill I would like for people to learn is how to communicate effectively! Learn to read and comprehend what they read. Learn to write coherent sentences that are grammatically correct. Learn to speak in whole and coherent sentences.
     Should the forgoing be too unrealistic then LEARN TO DRIVE, PEOPLE! That is all!

3. What's something you ate as a child you can't stand now as an adult?
     That is easy...Liver & Onions. You cannot force me at gunpoint to eat Liver & Onions today! They pretty much had to force me to eat it at gunpoint when I was a child.

4. Something parenting has taught you? If you're not a parent tell us one important lesson you learned from your own parents.
     Patience and perseverance are two things being a parent has taught me. I am not saying that I learned, only that I was taught.

5. Share a favorite quote or saying about mothers or motherhood.
     "Mother's love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible."—Marion C. Garretty. Full disclosure, I searched the internet and found this quote but that doesn't make it less true.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 
     I am troubled by the rising tide of assaults on our right of free speech. Our colleges and universities were at one time places where there was unfettered expression of ideas, no matter how inane, obnoxious or offensive they may be.
    However, today colleges and universities have safe spaces, trigger warnings, speech codes, violent and destructive protests against certain types of speech.
     What happened? When did we as a nation go from "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it" to "You can't say that because it is offensive, racist, sexist, xenophobic, etc." We must return to the former and soundly reject the latter. 
     Remember Patrick Henry and the clarion call of his rousing speech in support of the secesstion from Great Britain "I know not what course others may take but as for me GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!" 
     Where do you stand on this issue?