Splashing Through The Mud And The Muck

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Inside my 11/5/51 LIFE magazine is this mostly beige page that reads

FATHER, DAUGHTER AND WATER BUFFALOES SOAK IN INDIA’S MUD-FILLED, BUT HOLY HOOGHLY RIVER

It’s an odd image, no? I’ve never found myself in similar circumstances. I wonder if there are more petite water buffaloes drowning just below the surface?

Interestingly, a 2009 Times of India article confirms the river’s sad state:

For a good part of the remaining section, the river is either made out of bounds by hideous rusting warehouses that are housed on its edge, or inexplicably hidden behind a high wall. The purpose, it appears, is to shield the city from a shame but what actually ought to have been its greatest asset and pride.

Americans are not immune to dirty rivers, either; soapboxie.com calls the Mississippi River “the Colon of America.” That’s a new one on me. The same site doesn’t even list the Hooghly River in the top 10 most polluted rivers. Their winner of the filthiest river on earth (as of May 2016) went to The Ganges River, the most sacred river in Hinduism and the third largest river (by discharge) in the world. In their words,

Many Hindus think the river’s water is so healthful they actually drink it as if it were an elixir. Be that as it may, the importance of the river cannot be overestimated, as it affects the lives of 400 million people who live near it. Unfortunately, people dump their waste into the Ganges as they use it for drinking, bathing and cooking, giving rise to many water-borne illnesses. In fact, people who can’t afford cremation throw corpses into the river. It’s hard to imagine a filthier river than the beloved Ganges.

Yikes! Makes me thankful for cleaned city water that we then push through a whole-house filter and then through another refrigerator filter to give us sparkling water. I’ll drink to that.

Christmas Is Closer Than You Think

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This GE clock radio is pretty dope, and it would look nice on my night stand. The ad says the radio turns your coffee maker and television on. Did they really have that technology in 1951? In any case, I already have a clock radio, and it’s entirely useless. It doesn’t matter if I fall asleep at 11pm or 3am (both of those scenarios happen weekly, btw) because I’m up with the sun or before the rooster crows. My body won’t let me sleep in. Even on the Sundays that I have to be up by 7am to go sing at church, I’m always up before then. But I set it just in case. In fact, I haven’t actually heard the alarm go off in years because I’ve risen and shut it off before it ever meets its hour. And when I arrive to church at 8am, and others are yet tardy half an hour later, they always say their “phones didn’t go off.” Well, perhaps they need to buy a clock radio. One with a plug. Then it will never need charging.