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David McElroy

An Alien Sent to Observe the Human Race

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Briefly: Death of Mad magazine is a blow to my memories of irreverent humor

By David McElroy · July 4, 2019

I haven’t bought a copy of Mad magazine for decades, but it still hit me hard today to read that the humor magazine is dead. Although the owners will continue to republish material from the 67-year archives, no new material will be produced, except for an annual year-in-review issue. For teens of my era — almost exclusively guys, in my experience — Mad was a rebellious and subversive influence that broke the rules of our everyday lives. Mad was willing to make fun of pretty much anything, and it was a joyous sense of relief for those of us who felt repressed by a conformist culture around us. It wasn’t always funny, but when it was, it could be brilliant. The biggest single influence on my adult understanding of humor was the movie “Airplane!” but Mad magazine was a close second. Rest in peace, Alfred E. Neuman. It’s finally time to worry.

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Instagram post 2197818212964838980_166421 This was my view along I-459 south of Birmingham Thursday evening as I inched along in traffic on the way home. There has to be a better way to make a living than driving to an office each day. #traffic #rushhour #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2197804368238234979_166421 The trees are finally bare around here, which creates an eerie beauty in the darkness of night. This was from our walk a few minutes ago. #nature #naturephotography #trees #night #silhouette #shotoniphone11 #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2196914976862997522_166421 Here’s are the highest rated photos of 2019 from my cat and dog account at @themcelroyzoo #topnine
Instagram post 2196912693844557604_166421 Here are my most highly “liked” photos of 2019 on Instagram. I find these rankings odd, because there are definitely some different photos I would have judged as better than some of these. #topnine
Instagram post 2194666102198803305_166421 Just before sunset Sunday afternoon, this was the beautiful view through the trees in my front yard. #nature #naturephotography #sky #blue #clouds #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2193971564161507361_166421 Just a few minutes ago, I watched the last of sunset through trees on the horizon. #nature #naturephotography #trees #sky #clouds #sunset #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2193959493323551515_166421 The moon was beautiful through the heavy cloud cover just before sunset Saturday afternoon. #nature #naturephotography #clouds #moon #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2191099055338434111_166421 The sky was beautiful behind my office as I left work Tuesday evening. #nature #naturephotography #sky #clouds #colorful #sunset #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2189615458475600868_166421 There were no clouds to speak of tonight, so sunset was just a background glow on the horizon. #nature #naturephotography #golden #sky #sunset #birmingham #alabama
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Instagram post 2199761161090989881_1489647434 The wait for dinner is agonizing for Thomas. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2199716831861030694_1489647434 Thomas can’t seem to find a spot he likes until he settles on using Molly as a pillow for his head. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #merlin2020 #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2199658403830497024_1489647434 Merlin and the other cats are napping together in an office chair Sunday afternoon. The head you can barely see is Thomas and the mass of gray fur on the right is the back side of Molly. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #merlin2020 #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2199232465363798310_1489647434 The cats never really smile, but Lucy seems to smile enough to make up for all of them. #dog #dogs #dogstagram #dogsofinstagram #cute #cutedog #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #instadog #ilovedogs #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2199199311613667035_1489647434 When the human got home a few minutes ago, it seemed like quite a burden for Thomas to lift his head from his nap to see what was going on. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama #caturday
Instagram post 2199069192526013216_1489647434 Thomas was watching the human closely from an office window as the two-legged one left the house Saturday evening. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
Instagram post 2199016127097778632_1489647434 Thomas gets up to look around a corner to see whether he heard the food bag for dinner. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama #caturday
Instagram post 2198560502807210199_1489647434 Molly couldn’t wait any longer for the rest of us to be ready for sleep. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #greeneyes #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama #caturdayeve
Instagram post 2198528898869062871_1489647434 Lucy has the neighborhood under surveillance from her front yard after a midnight walk. #dog #dogs #dogstagram #dogsofinstagram #cute #cutedog #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #instadog #ilovedogs #birmingham #alabama
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Briefly

I got a note today from a woman who lives on the other side of the country and has a young son: “[Young son] says that we should meet you sometime. He just said of your profile picture that he likes your face. I have shared photos and videos of Lucy and the cats since he was really little.” This made me profoundly happy. I trust the intuitive judgment of children about people. Little ones tend to read character very well. Adults are easy to fool, but it’s much harder to fool children about who you really are. I hope I do get to meet this young man and his mom one day.

I’m in the McDonald’s near my house, sitting near the play area. There’s one little girl — maybe 5 years old — who’s here with her father. He’s about my age, so he’s older than the typical father of a 5-year-old. Even though she’s the only kid here, the girl is giggling and having fun by herself. She periodically cries out, “Daddy, look!” And then she shows off something she thinks is impressive. Then, just a moment ago, she called out very sweetly, “Daddy?” He patiently said, “Yes, sweetheart.” And then she said, “Daddy, I love you so much!” And then she went back to playing as her father looked on with happiness and love.

When I first discovered the idea of unschooling, it was so radical that I had trouble finding people who even knew what it was. Today, the idea is mainstream enough that major media outlets sometimes cover the topic in a favorable way. The Sunday newspaper supplement called Parade had a strongly favorable article about unschooling a couple of weeks ago which explained what it is and how it’s different from homeschooling. It’s less structured. There’s no curriculum. There’s plenty of flexibility. And there are no tests and grades. (Most people today are shocked to learn that testing and grading didn’t exist in schools through history until the last couple hundred years.) If you want your children to think for themselves instead of following the herd mentality that pervades every school I’ve been part of, you owe it to yourself — and to your kids — to consider taking control of your children’s development back from governments. Just because you and I survived institutional schools doesn’t mean it’s the wisest choice. Start by reading the Parade article. It might open your eyes.

In the Birmingham suburb of Hueytown, the Golden Gophers of Hueytown High School had just defeated the Eufala Tigers in the second round of the state playoffs Friday night. It’s not a game that will mean a lot to anybody outside those two communities, but it meant everything to the players and coaches involved. After the game, Hueytown defensive coordinator Trent Campbell was celebrating with his victorious players when he noticed Eufala offensive lineman Dallas Ingram distraught and alone. Campbell left his players to console the distraught Ingram and photographer Dennis Victory caught photos of the pair together. “My reaction was to go see about him, because I’ll see my guys on Sunday and next week and the rest of their high school careers, but that’s a young man we watched on film for a week and studied and he’s a fantastic player,” Campbell said later. “And it wasn’t too long ago when I played my last high school football game and I know what that feeling is and you sort of never forget that. I went to tell him what a great player I thought he was and what a great game I thought they played and I wish nobody had to lose that night because it was an incredible game.” This is what sports at the high school level should be about. Winning is great and winning is fun. But humanity and decency last longer.

I have changed radically about some things over the years, but probably none of those changes have been as great as the ways that I feel about people who are viewed as evil or criminal. When I was young, I was eager to see criminals or foreign political enemies killed. Today, I don’t view such people though rose-colored glasses and I don’t view them as blameless folks who are going to turn their lives around if we just think happy thoughts. But I can’t celebrate the death of anybody, even if he might deserve it in some ways of thinking about it. Even if it’s sometimes necessary to kill someone — and those cases are often debatable — I regret the death of someone who will now never have a chance to discover love and change his life. There are some evil people in this world, but I can’t celebrate their deaths.

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