BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  APR 28, 2025 

Pondering the gravity and sometimes depravity of political events over the past four months has been exhausting. They have been too discombobulating to dwell on for very long.

To protect your sanity, sometimes it is better to just let the mind wander to things a little lighter that don’t require much cognitive activity. Let your mind flow freely through the randomness of life around you.

For example, this spring, as in every spring, I think about why nature produces so much pollen, why it is yellowish green, and why certain pollen affects some people more than others? Isn’t it odd that someone named Johnson is allergic to johnsongrass? I am.

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When you’re outside in the spring smelling flowers and freshly cut grass, do you ever ask yourself: which letter is silent in the word ‘scent’? By the way, don’t smell the flowers if you have allergies.

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There is always good diversion in those “you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me” news stories. Here’s one for current and future parents:

Last March a four-year-old Wisconsin boy called 911. He told the dispatcher that his mother was being bad and that she should go to jail. Police who responded discovered that his mother—shame on her—had eaten his ice cream. However, he had already decided he didn’t want his mother to go to jail, he just wanted some ice cream. The officers brought him some the next day.

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Trivia is also a good distraction from life’s imponderables. Here’s a little trivia quiz:

• What builds strong bodies 12 ways? 1. Orange juice; 2. Cod liver oil; 3. Flintstone vitamins; 4. Wonder Bread.
• Do you wonder where the yellow went… 1. When you use Lady Clairol; 2. When you use Tide; 3. When you clean your tub; 4. When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.
• What NFL quarterback did a TV commercial wearing women’s stockings? 1. Joe Montana; 2. John Elway; 3. Kenny Stabler; 4. Joe Namath
• What do M&Ms do? 1. Make your tummy happy; 2. Melt your heart; 3. Come in different colors; 4. Melt in your mouth, not in your hand.
• The Javelin was produced by which automaker? 1. Ford; 2. Chevrolet; 3. Chrysler, 4. American Motors.
• Augusta is the capital of which state in the US, which is also the country’s largest supplier of blueberries? 1. Georgia; 2. Arkansas; 3. Michigan; 4. Maine.

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If you would like a deeper dive into randomness, ponder these thoughts, the first from the Greek philosopher Aristotle: “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” It applies today.

Or for current times this from Mark Twain: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.”

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Have you ever kicked back, opened a bottle of Sam Adams lager and wondered who Sam Adams was?

Samuel Adams was a radical Bostonian patriot and Founding Father, who signed the Declaration of Independence and helped write the Articles of Confederation. Some say he was a scoundrel; some say a celebrity, some say a hero. He came from aristocracy but was not good with money. He did have exceptional skills at oratory and writing that he used with great success to inflame the passions of the colonists against the British. He fought against unjust taxation and plotted opposition to the Stamp Act. He helped instigate the Boston Tea Party. After the Boston Massacre, Adams organized a funeral march in protest. He was, some say, revengeful, dishonest, conspiratorial and a skilled rumor monger. He was also a Massachusetts state legislator, Lt. Governor, and Governor and later a member of Congress. Now you know.

Now that you know, you may have another lager. You’re welcome

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I was gazing up at the night sky recently, as I often do, surveying what can only be described as the awe-inspiring panorama of the galaxy. It looks like a black background with thousands of pinholes letting light through.

I’ve been curious about one particularly bright star that shows up over the western sky even while the sun is still peaking over the horizon. Then I wondered if it could be a planet. One night while contemplating that possibility, there, in the blink of an eye, was a shooting star leaving its blue tail across the darkness. If not a shooting star, then I suspected it could be a comet or just a meteorite flung loose from an asteroid. Maybe a space ship from another galaxy.

Another Sam Adams helped me come up with another possibility. It probably wasn’t any of those celestial events, but just a large chunk of space junk entering the atmosphere. I’ve read that there are about 23,000 large pieces of junk zipping through space at 15,000 miles per hour, threatening satellites, releasing unwanted chemicals and creating a growing threat to earth. Since nations launched thousands of satellites into space, without every cleaning up behind them, that makes sense.

I would suggest then that before President Donald Trump sets off to plant the American flag on Mars, he ought to get assurances from Elon Musk that his space ship won’t run into a a cluttered field of debris, maybe even getting hit by a side panel from one of Musk’s rockets. You just never know about the unintended consequences of what you do, do you, Mr. President?

(Sorry, I lost my head there for a second and got political).

There is no end to random thoughts, once you let yourself be captive of them. It’s good to stop thinking about politics for a while, relax with family and friends or just alone, have a laugh or two, play some trivia and spend more time with Sam Adams.

It is also good for a more civic state of mind.

Trivia Answers: The answer to the trivia quiz is #4 for all questions. I collected this content from a number of sources, ranging from social media, trivia emails, newspaper articles, and other sources, including my feeble imagination.