Happy Monday, friends from all around the globe!  As you know, I always try to avoid politics and other serious topics on Monday.  It is a tough enough day to get through, back to work, back to school, back to the drudgery with 128 long hours left until Friday evening returns.  Sometimes, being who I am, I struggle to keep it light, yet interesting for the Monday post, but I promised my friend Linda, and she says she looks forward to it.  So, without further ado, here is your sampling of light reading and humour for Monday:

• A crash between two tractor-trailers is rarely something to applaud, but this one was rather an everyman’s dream. Two semis collided on I-95 in Brevard County, Florida, one carrying Busch beer and the other carrying Frito-Lay chips.  “Neither driver was hurt, but you had Doritos and Busch beer all over I-95,” Sergeant Kim Montes, a spokeswoman for the Florida Highway Patrol, told NBC News. “That’s like a Super Bowl commercial right there.”

• Another crash, this one a single-vehicle crash northeast of Charleston, West Virginia, wasn’t quite so … tasty. The spilled cargo this time, rather than beer and chips, was a dog, some live chickens, a jar of marijuana, an AK-47 rifle, a large load of ammunition and altered fireworks.  Sadly, the dog died, the chickens ran around, keeping the highway closed for some seven hours, and the Pennsylvania driver was arrested and held on $25,000 bond.  The police first thought the fireworks were bombs … remember, this is West Virginia we are talking about.

• Do you sometimes get confused when it comes time to tip? Fortunately, the pizza delivery guy and servers at restaurants are about the only occasion I have to tip, and I have that down pat … 10% for bad service, 15% for mediocre service, and 20% for good-excellent service.  (When my new washing machine was delivered recently, even though store policy said not to tip, I did give them a tip: “Don’t vote for Trump”, I said.)  Most people live somewhat more complex lives than I do, so they have to figure out tips for hair stylists, hotel bellhops, taxi drivers, nail painters, etc.  A pet shop owner recently gave a tip to a prostitute, though, that may well be a first:  an exotic monkey named Gooey.  He is so adorable.  Perhaps the man should have communicated with his wife, co-owner of the pet shop, as she reported the monkey stolen to police.

• One of my favourite actors, Morgan Freeman, has a new career … he is now a Beekeeper! “There’s a concerted effort to bring bees back onto the planet. We do not realize that they are the foundation, I think, of the growth of the planet, the vegetation. I have so many flowering things, and I have a gardener too. Because she takes care of the bees too, all she does is figure out, ‘OK, what would they like to have?’, so we’ve got acres and acres of clover, we’re planting stuff like lavender, I’ve got like, maybe 140 magnolia trees, big blossoms,” said Freeman. “I’ve not ever used (the beekeeping hat) with my bees. They haven’t (stung me) yet because right now I’m not trying to harvest honey or anything; I’m just feeding them… I think they understand, ‘Hey, don’t bother this guy, he’s got sugar water here.’”  According to the United Nations, the world’s bees are dying off in record numbers.  When we think of bees, we think of honey … or of painful stings.  But bees are so much more important than stings and honey-roasted peanuts.  It is said that bees are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. Most crops grown for their fruits (including vegetables such as squash, cucumber, tomato and eggplant), nuts, seeds, fiber (such as cotton), and hay (alfalfa grown to feed livestock), require pollination by insects.  Bees are crucial to the food supply, therefore to our very survival.  I give Mr. Morgan Freeman a two thumbs up for what he is doing!

Road sign to town of Hell, Norway, Arctic Circle

Elderly people street sign

The problem with education today.

It’s hard to find good help these days!