Forget MAGA -- Focus on MATA

Have you noticed that towels don’t seem to absorb water any more?  Pick up a cold drink from the countertop and try to wipe away the ring of water.  What happens?  You smear the water across the surface.  My wife and I complain all the time about how modern towels can’t absorb water.

Bath towels that are heavy, plush and soft bother me.  These are the towels that seem to be least absorbent.  They’re so thick, I can’t get them into narrow places, such as behind my ears.  And they’re heavy so it takes effort to pick one up and move it around, so I end up working up a sweat.  Such towels are good for:

• decorating
• lining the dog bed
• gifting to people whom you don’t really like

My preference is a cheap, plain, white, 100% cotton towel that I can wash in hot water to get out all the oils that prevent absorption.  I like them because they're light weight and a bit scratchy.  And they absorb really well.

I don't use fabric softener because it coats the towel with a film that repels water.  See for yourself.  Lay a towel on a flat surface and drip water onto it.  The water will form a bead, then a puddle, indicating the towel is hydrophobic.¹

Advice abounds on the Internet about not using fabric softener on bath towels.² I see the same advice even on the bottles of fabric softener itself as shown below. (Note that most towels are made from terry cloth.³)

I’m convinced that if we just had towels that can absorb water, we will make America great again.

So, MATA -- Make Absorbent Towels Again!

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¹ https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hydrophobic
² https://duckduckgo.com/?q=why+no+fabric+softener+on+some+clothes&ia=web
³ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrycloth

Forget MAGA -- Focus on MEGA

When I was a boy, my shoes and sneakers never wore out.  Sure I would outgrow them when I was in elementary school, but by the time I was a fully-fledged teenager my feet stopped growing, and I wore the same footwear.  In fact, I still can fit into the same shoes, sneakers and boots that I wore in high school.¹  So the only things that needed replacing were the shoelaces.

Remember how shoelaces broke?  I do.  It would be a big inconvenience.  It would happen just as I was getting ready to leave the house to go somewhere important, not when I was stepping outside just to kick or throw some ball around.

These days I never have to replace the laces.  Why is that?  Are laces now made from a superior material?  Perhaps.

But perhaps not.  I think the reason is that the shoes would break before the laces did.  Right?  Have you noticed that sneakers don't have eyelets anymore?  They don't even have holes for the laces!  Instead, they have a loop of slightly elastic fabric through which to pass the laces.  What flimsy garbage!

I'm convinced that if we bring eyelets back, we will make America great again.

So, MEGA -- Make Eyelets Great Again!

¹ I have/had a pair of hiking boots that I wore every day in high school.  (I imagined that I was Aragon; in fact I almost bought a cloak.)  Thirty to forty years later I'd wear these boots occasionally.  The "have/had" arises from a recent purging my wife did of "all this old stuff on the porch."

A Change to Independence Day

It's the morning of Independence Day in USA.  As I watch bicycles cycle by, I dread tonight's inevitable displays of fireworks.  Of course they won't start until darkness pervades, when I'm ready to go to bed.  This will be at 9pm in my area.  (The sun will set here at 8:29pm ¹).  However, in the northern-most places, sunset may occur 90 minutes later ², at 10pm.  Imagine waiting until 10:30pm for fireworks!  Or worse, trying to get a good night's sleep for an early appointment the next day.

Then there's the issue of moonlight.  A full moon can detract from the intensity of a fireworks display.

Therefore I propose moving Independence Day to the day of the first New Moon in January.  Yes, let's celebrate the Fourth of July in January!

This year the New Moon occurred on January 29, and the sun set here at 5:00pm.³  So you might go to see fireworks, go out for dinner and then go to bed at the decent hour of 9:00pm!

Even in the southern-most part of the US, sunset occurred at about 6:00pm on January 29 ⁴, making a 6:30pm fireworks display a nice convenience.

The added benefit is that we'll have something to look forward to right after Christmas!

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¹ https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/springfield-ma?month=7&year=2025
² https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/@5689178?month=7&year=2025
³ https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/springfield-ma?month=1&year=2025
⁴ https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/usa/key-west?month=1&year=2025