Saturday Afternoon

If The Internet has taught me nothing — and I readily admit that's possible — it's that some people get angry when you don't like something they like or when you like something they don't. I can kinda understand when it's something like me liking Kamala Harris and them liking Donald Trump. After all, the vote in California might be so close that my one vote (for some reason, I only get one) might cause her to win the state, thereby denying its 54 electoral votes and therefore the Presidency to Donald.

But some folks in my e-mailbox and online forums get really upset when my tastes don't line up precisely with theirs on matters where mine don't make a bit of difference to their lives. It's well known that I think cole slaw is the single most repulsive thing anyone could possibly put in their mouths and this bothers some people who love it as if I'm about to make it illegal and get it banned. This is not likely to happen and, believe me, I've tried. Lord, how I've tried.

Someone is really, really upset with me because I have a low opinion of the 1966 Marvel Superheroes Cartoons. And someone else is really, really, really bothered that I don't love all those old movie serials about heroes like Captain America. The latter accused me of not respecting the creative genius of Captain America's creators, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, even though I pointed out that they didn't like that serial either. Maybe he thinks that Joe Simon and Jack Kirby didn't respect the creative genius of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.

I think some people need to learn to live in a world where other people have other opinions. Some others — or maybe some of the same people — need to learn to live in a world where others have different skin colors or religions or maybe don't even conform to certain rigid ideas about genders. Life is so much easier when you don't let differences make you furious.