Post #400: Our Twelfth Year: Reflecting With The Reckoner & The Squawker

 

<Meanwhile, back in some alternate universe...
Strange Adventures #52, DC Comics,
"Prisoner Of The Parakeets," 1950>*

Reckoner's Note: As readers will know, we periodically stop to take stock, look back on where we've been, and hopefully, get a glimmer on where we're going. Still, it's amazing to think how we're still going strong, when most blogs seem to have the lifespan of a mayfly, or just quietly fade away, once the creator's attention span finds some other diversion.

When The Squawker and I started this venture back in 2012, we didn't have any great plans or expectations -- just a way to state whatever crossed our minds, without having to deal with the usual tedious social fallout that often accompanies it. Hence, our alternate identities (Batman- and Robin-style). 

We do things differently around these parts, though. We've never really tried to chase the headlines of the day, or even the hour -- with so much turbulence, it all changes at lightning speed, anyway, so we've chosen to comment more strategically on events that seem particularly relevant (such as our "Tomorrow And Tomorrow And Tomorrow Creeps" series, for instance).

But, as I noted for post #300, we've managed to expand on our original remit, with posts delving into classic punk 'n' garage records, digital feudalism, food insecurity, gentrification, pay to play culture, the slings 'n' arrows of daily life (minus the outrageous fortune), and a fair dose of our own outsider art, photography 'n' writing, all delivered with the deeply personal perspective that you've come to expect.

Three whole months have already come 'n' gone, or so it seems, in the blink of an eye. We never intended to let that much time slip by, without posting, but there were so many things going on -- from art projects, to inspections, job hassles, and preparing for the taxman -- that we had to deal with those first, as they came up. Real life is funny and tedious like that, at the same time.

In fact, that's where this particular conversation comes, taped on the road, as we were traveling to an art-related activity. "Hell, why not?" I asked Squawker. "We're gonna be sitting in the van for a half hour, at least, so we're not going anywhere, right? What better time or place?" With that, we started our chat, and soon, we were off to the races.

<"They Clawed It Back, And Then Added To It">

THE RECKONER: Post #400, what goes through your mind? It's been 12 years since you started this blog, and then, I got on board.

THE SQUAWKER: Well, the thing I'm worried about is, everything got economically worse, and more oppressed. But they never fix anything, to make it do better. They just decide to bill you for more things that make your life harder.

Ever since COVID, they did pass out the money, and some say, “That raised the inflation,” but I think they're just taking advantage. C'mon, we're barely making it, and food is too expensive, and it's so crappy. I'm worried about being really poor, and homeless.

RECKONER: Well, it seemed like they decided to claw back the money, with all the greedflationary stuff that's going on right now.

SQUAWKER: Yeah, they clawed it back, and then added to it, you know what I mean?

RECKONER: Basically. But when you started Ramen Noodle Nation, what was your original idea? I don't know that you ever told me.

SQUAWKER: I wanted poor people to talk about what their life was really like. When you think about it, there was nowhere we could actually talk about what it's like being poor.

<"The Reckoner:
21st-Century Self-Portrait,
Picasa Style" (2021)>

<"I Think It's My Persistence">

RECKONER: So how do you feel about this whole blog has turned out?

SQUAWKER: Oh, yeah, I think the blog has turned out good. We were able to explore different issues, and talk about things that a lot of people don't talk about – in terms of poverty, and how easy it is, to end up in down and out.

RECKONER: Are you surprised we've been able to keep it going this long? Because most of them don't last anywhere near this long.

SQUAWKER: I think it's my persistence – as long as Google keeps up the platform, too.

RECKONER: Right.

SQUAWKER: Maybe I'm just one of those determined people that likes to write, and get their message out there, while I'm still alive.

RECKONER: Well, I think it was one of the things that helped you become a better writer, certainly.

SQUAWKER: Yeah, I agree with that. I've started writing poetry, and things like that – I wrote a 'zine/book, and things like this. So I've had my other projects.

RECKONER: Yeah, and I don't think a lot of that probably would have happened, if you hadn't been doing that.

<"Greatest Huts, Take I": Our Top 10 Posts>

<"If You Don't Have Money, 

You're Supposed To Go Shut Up">

SQUAWKER: Yeah. But if you think about it, poor people have no voice in American culture. It's like, if you don't have money, you're supposed to go shut up. And now, the news, all the media, everything is for the rich, or the upper middle class. Well the middle class is suffering too, and shrinking fast. In the land of the haves versus have-nots, the have-nots don't have a voice anywhere. You can't really even talk about what's going on.

Maybe if you live in a small town, or you go the the inner city, and most of your neighbors share your economic status, but it's not true for us. We live in a place where most people have more money than us.

RECKONER: Well, and if you look at the way everything is reported – the economy is largely reported from the perspective of how the rich are doing, like with the stock market, or some of the other things that they obsess about.

SQUAWKER: Yeah, if you think about it, they only care about the haves. Actually, if you think about it, it's prevalent now, where they almost act like poor people don't exist. I've seen that in the liberal world – where they act like there's no such thing as certain groups of people who are poor. They focus on poverty in the inner-city which is of concern too, but they cancel out rural America, they ignore the realities of blue-collar workers.

And then, disabled? Oh, man. Well, you got people who are homeless, because they've got to live on $900 a month – the SSDI people make a bit more, but if you have huge medical bills, it's very hard to save money.

RECKONER: Well, and then, of course, there was the clipping you posted on your timeline, about the exponential increase in homelessness, and rent.

SQUAWKER: I think there's a lot more homeless people now.

RECKONER: Well, I think the story that I saw said, about half of all Americans can't afford rent.

SQUAWKER: Rent's gotten so expensive. I saw a statistic the other day that said, of all renters, over 50 percent are paying more than 30 percent (of their income) for rent.

RECKONER: Cost-burdened – that's the term for it, that I learned, doing one of my transcripts the other week. That's quite a lot of people at the moment, so...

SQUAWKER: I think they're ruining the quality of life with everything, if you don't have money to do stuff, or socialize, or eat out. They've made life a lot more lonely, because you need money to go everywhere. Just leaving your apartment costs money.

There's fewer free "third spaces" today. What's left the park or library? You go, “Where can I go to hang out?” Even if you go to church, and I'm talking liberal or conservative, you'd better be able to pony up a little bit of money for the basket.

RECKONER: Well, as you've said, "Church costs money." That's one of the issues with it.

SQUAWKER: Yeah. Now, some will give out food, and stuff. But I've noticed, that for years, most people receiving all the charity aren't members of the church. They can't afford the clothes, or tithes/dues to be there. Some have to work weekends. Well, there was one decent church I was in, where there was some in-house food, but that was a church in a working-class community. So the mentality, I think, is different.

<Our Greatest Hits, Take II: Posts #11-20>

<"The Extreme Other Side 

Works Against Community">

RECKONER: So, is there anything that you'd like to see included on the blog, that we're not doing? Or do you think we're hitting all the high points, or all the obvious areas? If we revisit this by post #500, what do you think will have happened, by then, with it?

SQUAWKER: Maybe we need more articles on how to survive if you're poor. Also, there needs to be more questioning of the elitism of the left, and how they have left behind a lot of people who are poor, and have no money. I know your beliefs are different, but I think both parties have become too much (into) supporting the oligarchs, and giving them money, and ignoring the every day life of the common man.

RECKONER: Well, except one outcome will be a lot worse than the other, because you have one party that is more and more committed to obliterating the so-called democratic experiment. And I just don't know how we would recover from that, if people were foolish enough to give them another shot at it.

SQUAWKER: Well, even I worry about Project 2025, and how it would affect poor people. I'm angry at the left, but I'm angry at the right, with all their bootstrap garbage. They're not exactly understanding of the reality of poor people, either.

RECKONER: I would say that the mask has fallen off, with a clang, and a thud. Because there was a certain point, maybe right through the 2010s, where even the more extreme members of the right sort danced around the subject, a little bit. The Tea Party wing was more willing to stick within established boundaries.

In other words, they were just obsessed with getting enough power to do what they wanted, Whereas, with the Trumpers, it's, “Burn it down, blow it up. Overthrow the government, if necessary. Do what it takes to squash the other guys into the ground.” That's the worrying part, to me, about all this.

SQUAWKER: Well, that's one worrisome thing, about all the extremes. I think the political climate in America has gone very extremist, and I don't know – I don't have much hope. I know too many wealthy liberals who are telling the world, "the economy is doing wonderful!" as many people can't afford rent and food.

There's too many greedy people who are ruining this place, and the whole idea of the self-reliant American, leaping over everybody, is ruining this place. No one thinks about the quality of life for anybody anymore. It's getting worse here.

RECKONER: Well, that idea is mostly a mirage, I think. And it's a beautiful myth – “the rugged individualist.”

SQUAWKER: It might work against them. I don't like Communism, either, but I think there's a point where the extreme other side works against community, or having a society that functions for everyone.

RECKONER: But I've found, basically, is that even most of the so-called rugged individualists had somebody behind them, that made it possible for them to do what they did.

SQUAWKER: Yeah.

RECKONER: That's the part that I think doesn't quite hold up. I mean, as I like to tell people, “Yeah, there's this whole thing with John Dillinger, and the wooden gun” – but guess what? The new consensus on that episode is that he basically paid his lawyer to smuggle it in there to him

Not to take away from what did – because it took a lot of acting, and front, to pull that off – but still, by all accounts, it wasn't quite what it appeared to be.

Well, I guess we'll have to see what happens with post #500, if we're doing it in some type of exile – I hate thinking that way. I deeply resent thinking that way. Any last words, before I sign off?

SQUAWKER: Yeah, that's fine – we've got to find this place.


Links To Go: How We Started (And How We Continued)
The Reckoner's Introduction To Ramen Noodle Nation:

https://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2012/02/reckoners-introduction-to-ramen-noodle.html

The Squawker's Introduction To Ramen Noodle Nation:
https://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2012/02/squawkers-introduction-to-ramen-noodle.html

Post #300: Eight Years Of Ramen Noodle Nation
(The Reckoner & The Squawker Look Back):
https://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2020/06/post-300-eight-years-of-ramen-noodle.html

Strange Adventures (Alec Trench Comics):
"Prisoner Of The Parakeets":
https://alectrenchcomics.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/prisoner-of-the-parakeets/

(*Reckoner's Note: The above image omits the female parakeet's line, "Here's your new pet, dear!" In researching this image, I found that this particular issue of Strange Adventures marked DC's first science fiction title, and went through three reprints, including a '70s one, with the caged hero snarling: "Let me out of here, you birdbrains!" Presumably, having him cry out, "Help! Help!" wasn't deemed in keeping with the more cynical, more aggressive ethos of a different era.)

<YourChildhoodRuined.Com>

(All other images by: The Reckoner)

Post #300: Eight Years Of Ramen Noodle Nation (The Reckoner & The Squawker Reflect)

<The Reckoner:
21st Century Self-Portrait

(Picasa-Style, 2012)>

Reckoner's Note: There's a saying I've often heard in my travels, I'm not sure of its provenance, but it runs along these lines: "A year in clubland is a lifetime."  We've probably heard many, many variations on this phrase, but it's easy to forget how temporary and transitory our life experiences often end up. 

Think about it. Bands tour with one, two or (in some cases) no original members, long after the glory days run their course. Beloved stores go belly up, amid whispers and rumors. Favorite clubs close up shop. Friendships founder over threadbare or nonexistent pretexts. Jobs dry up without warning. Newspapers and magazines wind down, after exhausting their reasons for being. Political parties carry on without their founders. We may not care to admit it, but that date stamp on our forehead is often closer than we realize.

Blogs are no different. When we started Ramen Noodle Nation in 2012, we had no great expectations, beyond chronicling our own mounting frustrations with the American system, and its increasingly one-sided division of spoils. Like many blog founders, we figured that, after a year or two, the whole experience would run its course, and we'd move on to other creative pursuits.

That hasn't happened. 

Although sociopolitical commentary remains at the dark, snarky heart of Ramen Noodle Nation, our themes have broadened, as our focus has broadened. At various times, the Squawker and I have tackled classic punk records, as well as the digital sweatshop, food insecurity, pay to play culture, and the realities of bringing home the political revolution, to name a few -- all driven by a purely personal slant, as only we can do it.

Along the way, we've also taken time to celebrate outsider art and writing, whether it's our own efforts in those categories, or somebody else that we want to highlight...which just goes to show, that we aren't always in a dark mood here at Ramen Noodle Nation Towers, where the crows and the ravens don't mind keeping us company.

We're still going strong, which means, in short, that this experience is still doing something for us. We hope you feel the same way. The Squawker and I recently sat down to discuss these, and other developments -- the highlights follow below, along with a few of our greatest hits. Here's to the next 300 posts, then. --The Reckoner & The Squawker

<"We Only Had $5 Between Us">

RECKONER: The reason I wanted to do this with you is because, I just suddenly realized – in looking at the number of posts, this would be number 300. I thought, “Well, usually, people do something or other...”

SQUAWKER: I never did on mine, but...

RECKONER: Well, it seemed appropriate, so...

SQUAWKER: All right. I don't even know what number of posts I'm on. I think I have a thousand (laughs).

RECKONER: In the case of this particular effort, what was it that made you want to do it, to begin with, when we started, back in 2012? Because if I recall, you kind of started it, and then, I sort of chimed in, once you got into a groove?

SQUAWKER: It was kind of my idea, because I was talking about doing a book – I actually wanted to write a book with you, about being poor, and falling down the ladder of American society. Because I had always struggled in adulthood, and I was raised upper middle-class, and I had no idea what was waiting for me.

Though, in my case, disability kind of threw me off the ladder, rather than falling down from my own lack of effort, or so. But I remember saying to you, “Hey, let's write a book on being poor in America,” and then, I thought, “Hey, why don't we do a blog on it?”

But I came up with that name (Ramen Noodle Nation). Because when I was poor, I always had to eat all these damn Ramen noodles (laughs), remember?

RECKONER: That's where you got it from?

SQUAWKER: Yeah. Remember, in Chicago, there was one day, we had $5 to eat the whole day, and we only had $5 between us. And I had to go and buy two of those Ramen noodles to eat. Then I could eat tuna fish – I wasn't allergic to it yet – and I made Ramen noodles and tuna for dinner.

RECKONER: Yeah, and I remember when you were working at that crappy job of yours, you'd give me, I think it was, a fiver every day, or for the days you were working?

SQUAWKER: Yeah (laughs).

RECKONER: I thought, “OK. I've got just got enough to get that one really cheap brand of pizza, and I can get, maybe, a two-liter or two to go with it.”

SQUAWKER: Yeah, and that's all you could get.

RECKONER: That would be my dinner in that era.

SQUAWKER: Remember, they used to let me eat at work, but they got annoyed if I ate too much there.

RECKONER: Yeah.

SQUAWKER: So really, all I could ever get was a sandwich. It's not like I could make myself a complete meal. I could get away with making myself an egg sandwich in the morning, before the kids were awake, or eating a turkey bologna sandwich. And those kids, they were skinny, but they never bought them really good food there. It was all just really processed, and cheap stuff, and it wasn't really good at all.

RECKONER: Yeah, the thing I remember about that era the most was, “Eat everything you can now, because this is going to have to last you for awhile, till the next time.”

SQUAWKER: Well, I found out later that your metabolism actually gets worse if you're on a feast or famine (type of diet), if you're one of those people. Some people, if they have less food the whole day, they'll lose weight, but I have the kind of metabolism, where if I starve all day, and then, finally food comes in, the metabolism's dropped down, I gain weight. That's what happens to people, easily.

RECKONER: Yeah, well, nobody gave a shit, that was the problem. And so, it was what it was.

SQUAWKER: Yeah.

<"I Wanted To Provide A Voice">

RECKONER: All right, so that's where we got the title from – then, what were you were trying to do? Since you started by yourself, and I joined in, at a certain point?

SQUAWKER: I guess I wanted to provide a voice for people who were poor. Everyone's always like, “Shut up.” No one wants to listen. And then, when you're out in society, you always have to pretend like everything's great. You know what I mean? You have to hide how poor you are, as much as possible, and I thought, “Well, what would it be like to actually have a website, where people talk about what it's like to be poor?”

Now, of course, if you're poor in America – well, this may not be true forever now, because America seems to be collapsing – but poverty in America has different levels. When we lived in Chicago, we were very near the lowest level, but we weren't at the homeless level.

RECKONER: Right.

SQUAWKER: The homeless level is the worst. And we were maybe at the step above homelessness. But here, while we've had money problems and struggles, we at least have stable housing, we've been able to keep cars running. That's another level of it, where you're up a little bit. Like in Chicago, we couldn't even afford the bus, we had no medicine, we only had total, base level charity medical care – living in fear.

Back then, you couldn't even sit in a park, without worrying. Here, it's pretty safe in this park, and we live in the town this park is in. We don't have to worry about anybody coming up to mug or rob us.

RECKONER: “Accosted,” I believe, is the police term for it.

SQUAWKER: Yeah (laughs). I mean, we could probably sit here for four or five hours, and be left alone. Maybe the cops would come by, if you sat out here too long. But you know what I mean.

RECKONER: After dark, maybe.

SQUAWKER: Yeah, after dark. No one cares, so... Generation X and below are falling down the ladder. No one even lets us talk about (our experiences). It's like, “Baby Boomer this, Baby Boomer that.” We never even get to hear about anybody else's reality.

<"There's No One To Talk To...">

RECKONER: OK, so, given the fact that now, suddenly, almost a decade of this has gone by, how do you feel about what you've done? Do you feel it has accomplished that goal you set out to achieve?

SQUAWKER: I think we did succeed, as far as content, but I do wish it had been able to get more traffic.

RECKONER: Well, I don't know, it's improved over the last few years. I think that has a lot to do with the way things are, of course.

SQUAWKER: Yeah. Get more readership out there, and things like that.

RECKONER: Because, remember, it's hard to get people to think about these things, when things are deemed to be okay – it's when it all falls apart, that, suddenly, it becomes more noticeable to people.

SQUAWKER: That's one thing about being poor in America. There's no one to talk to about it. It's like, there's no one I can really call up and talk to, about the reality of my life. That's the worst part of it. I can find people online.

I mean, right now, as long as I keep the rent paid, and other bills, I don't care, but it's like, before, when I was in those positions, no one wanted to hear it. There was always so much, just silencing through it all.

RECKONER: Okay. So is there something you'd still like to do, that you haven't done yet? And if so, what?

SQUAWKER: I'd like to get more guest bloggers in here, and tell their stories.

RECKONER: Yeah, I've had that same thought, too.

SQUAWKER: I also think, maybe we should provide some voices, in terms of how coronavirus might affect lives. We're actually in a better position, because I get a disability check, and you work from home, so you know, there's at least little bit coming in every week, though you lost a lot of your newspaper freelance work, but we could survive. But I wonder about all of these people who are gonna become homeless.

<"Everybody Wants The Same Amount Of Money">

RECKONER: Right, because I believe all the temporary mortgage and rent exemptions are about to be lifted in three weeks, or something (like that)? I think I read that somewhere.

SQUAWKER: While we've paid our rent on time every month, how many of these people have three or four months worth of rent piled up, and then, they got the next month's to pay? I mean, it just seems insane to me, that they expect people to pay all these bills, and they aren't making any money.

And I noticed that everybody wants the same amount of money, and even the cable company raised their prices on us, during a global pandemic. “Oh yeah, your bill was 160, but now it's going to be 220 a month.”

RECKONER: Yeah, I feel fine about what we're doing, and I've tried to develop some other themes, like the stuff about food insecurity, and the creative class, and such.

SQUAWKER: I do think we're gonna be having a Great Depression, especially if they're not able to stop the virus. If you think about it, all the social discourse has basically been destroyed, and everybody that decides to say, “To hell with it,” they're all taking a gamble with their lives, immediately.

RECKONER: That's very true.

SQUAWKER: So that's not the environment where everybody wants to go out to eat, and spend money, and have the economy humming. I mean, even we eat out a little bit, at cheap places we want to (have) stay in business. I don't feel like eating inside restaurants yet.

RECKONER: There was a consultant in a news story who put it beautifully – and his answer was something along the lines of, “You can throw as much money at me as you want. But that doesn't mean I'm going to take a vacation, or go on an airplane.” And I suspect that's the mood that a lot of people may be in, even if they had money.

SQUAWKER: Yeah. Well, I've been hospitalized before, for lung problems, and I suffer a disability where I don't have normal breathing capabilities – and I think a lot of people who've never been sick, they don't take this into consideration.

RECKONER: Well, I think the other fascinating thing, to me, about this, is – people never really thought about how everything was so intertwined. Because your ability to pay rent is directly intertwined, to your ability to earn money, or what little money you get, to pay it. And once that's taken away, there goes that money. There goes all those things that you used to take for granted.

SQUAWKER: Oh, one thing they're not talking about is, with medical care – most people who have decent jobs, they get all their medical care through their employer. But now, all the jobs are gone, all the medical care is gonna end.

And of course, we still have two fools that are against Medicare For All. I know a lot of people are voting for Biden are only doing so, because they think the Orange Demented Sociopath is gonna be the death of us all. They don't like Biden. Biden is kind of being forced on us, and while he has shown concession to a couple of things, he's not Bernie.

RECKONER: Well, who could be, though? We want to build from that, because he's not going to be around forever.

<"People Just Don't Have The Connections...">

SQUAWKER: The American lifestyle is kind of screwed up, too, and many people have figured that out. We all live in our own little boxes, and people just don't have the connections and community that they used to have anymore. Me and you, we've found community in a few places – but it's either been short-lived, based on this club, and this club – we've found it in the UU Fellowship that we have now. But even that's been stripped down, by coronavirus.

Sometimes, I wonder about my life. It's been like, a collapse life. I get sick and disabled in my late twenties. I have the economic bottom fall out. I have no medical care, it takes years to get diagnosed. We live in Chicago, try to make it there, and don't have it work out there, partially because of my health.

Then we move to this little boondock town in the middle of nowhere, and even that place, while it seems stable when we move there, it falls apart in 2004, with the few factories they had.

RECKONER: Because, if I remember correctly, there were three major employers that closed. I think there were a thousand jobs went out, between the three of them – that's what I remember. And all of a sudden, you had abandoned houses, blocks of them, and businesses closing, left and right.

SQUAWKER: Yeah. I remember, we had all these restaurants close, that had all these people leaving town. That place could get depressing, because, remember, we left Chicago to be there – and these people still saw big cities as dream life, and they hated the town. They were always saying, “This town sucks, why the hell did you ever move here?” And I was thinking, “Well, my life in Chicago was even worse, with all the crime.” And I wanted to settle there for life, and it's like, I just didn't get to. There was nothing to depend on anymore.

I don't think the center's even holding in American society – we could be collapsing. I know you don't agree with this, but I do believe that there could be a full societal collapse soon.

RECKONER: Well, there'd be a few more things that would have to happen – because, typically, if you look back at the ones (collapses) that have happened, there were several different knock-on effects that had to take place. They will, I think, at some point throw more money at it. They have already done it once or twice, and I don't think they're going to be avoiding that a third or fourth time, even.

Because, as I've said, the people that are deemed to be in jeopardy will want to take something back home, to show the folks back home: “OK. It wasn't everything you wanted, but you got something.”

SQUAWKER: Yeah.

RECKONER: People will tend to cling to that idea of, “Well, something...”

<"They Gave Us A Penny (Oh, Gee, Thanks...)">

SQUAWKER: I question capitalism. I don't believe in the capitalist system anymore. Which, I know, anyone who's a Boomer – a lot of conservative Boomers, they're all ready to get out the smelling salts when you talk that way. But they have to realize, this system isn't working for most people anymore.

I know I'm disabled, I'm kind of out of it, but the jobs, for the people I know, who are working – and I remember my years, where I had to piece together four and five part-time, crummy temporary jobs. Even the full-time ones I got here and there, they never lasted forever. It wasn't because I was fired, it was often because the money ran out, or they cut back business.

What do you think, though, of all these efforts to consider a whole new system? We're old, so I doubt we're gonna enjoy the benefits, but if people were able to turn things around, at least, maybe the young here, today's Millennials and down, would be able to at least enjoy a different type of life.

RECKONER: I'm old enough to remember the days when banks competed on the interest rates they would give you.

SQUAWKER: Yeah, I remember that. I remember having little savings accounts, when I was young – like Kid, and Teenager – and I had 3% (interest), and you actually could watch your money grow, if you left it alone. And we know that doesn't happen anymore. Even used to get a few dollars a month added to our bank accounts.

RECKONER: Actually, you know what we got, not too long ago?

SQUAWKER: What?

RECKONER: A penny.

SQUAWKER: That's sad (laughs).

RECKONER: When I went to look at the account the other day –

SQUAWKER: They gave us a penny. Oh, gee, thanks (laughs).

RECKONER: It's always been one cent, or two cents, yeah. I always laugh about that, because I thought, “Well, we've certainly come a long way from what you just described.”

SQUAWKER: Oh, wow.

<Feast Or Famine, Boom Or Bust>

RECKONER: That's one of the things we've sort of gotten into. It's all or nothing, basically. Feast or famine, boom or bust.

SQUAWKER: Well, that's how this society is, either for the very rich, or, “Forget the poor.”

RECKONER: The biggest thing, I think, that needs to happen, is – if they're going to pass anything, they need to pass ways that people could actually create wealth for themselves. Because, as I've said, Annie's Adjunct Army isn't going to be able to do that. Not on a part-time wage.

Well, let's wrap this up in a neat little bow.

SQUAWKER: Okay.

RECKONER: What do you hope to see for the next 300?

SQUAWKER: Well, I think we should explore, maybe, more coronavirus (themes), and surviving – where things could go – one thing I've thought about writing about is talk about the intersection of, intersectionality, of economic justice, and other forms of it, such as racial justice, disability rights, different issues like that, that I wanna explore.

RECKONER: All right. Well, here's to the next 300, or whatever it ends up being.

SQUAWKER: All right.

Links To Go
How We Started
The Reckoner's Introduction To Ramen Noodle Nation:
https://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2012/02/reckoners-introduction-to-ramen-noodle.html

The Squawker's Introduction To Ramen Noodle Nation:
https://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2012/02/squawkers-introduction-to-ramen-noodle.html

Our Top 10 (Most Read) Posts:
Baby Boomer Dad:
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2012/08/baby-boomer-dad.html

Flat Wage USA: The More Things Change, 
They More (Fill In The Blank):
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2014/04/flat-wage-nation-more-things-change.html

Get Rich Or Pound Sand:
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2012/02/get-rich-or-pound-sand.html

How Things Have Changed Since The 1980's:
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-things-have-changed.html

Peter Tosh: A Lifetime Of Trick Language:
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2012/09/peter-tosh-lifetime-of-trick-language.html

Poverty Level Republicans (You Gotta Love 'Em):
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2014/07/poverty-level-republicans-you-gotta.html

Punk Rock Art Photos: "Dead Malls Don't Talk Back":
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2019/09/punk-rock-art-photos-dead-malls-dont.html

Taylor Swift Sleeps In Satan's Pocket
(So Satisfy Your Artistic Soul Anyway, OK?):
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2017/04/anti-discmakers-post.html

The College Degree Glut: Did Our Ancestors
Know Something We Didn't?:
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-college-degree-glut-did-our.html

Those Who Believe Those On Welfare Are LAZY:
http://ramennoodlenation.blogspot.com/2012/07/those-who-believe-those-on-welfare-are.html

Unseen Skit #2: "Flags Of Unknown Nations"

 

<If the US ever invades, here's one obscure ensign you might see on the six 'clock news:
Flag of the Venezuelan National Guard, 
 or Fuerzas Armadas de Cooperacio

("Armed Forces of Cooperation"): catchy, eh?>

<https://www.crwflags.com>

Picking up from my last post ("Unseen Skit #1: Academic Distraction"), here's my other contribution to the sketch comedy world. As I've mentioned, I wrote both of those efforts for a comedy show that a friend suggested as a possible new outlet.  It all sounded promising, until the usual show biz upheavals overtook the program, and scuttled our momentum. Hell, I never even made it to one writer's meeting. 

Anyway, just read the last post for details, which I'm not rehashing here. Like my other skit, "Academic Distraction," I've made some changes to improve the flow. I cut jokes about the Egyptian and Tunisian flags, which reflects the original time frame when "Flags" was written (January 28, 2011, as the Arab Spring was breaking out in North Africa, generally, and both those countries, in particular). Those jokes rambled on for a page, an eternity in TVland, so you're not missing anything there. I know I'm not.

I also tightened and polished a few lines here or there, but otherwise, you're reading about 80 percent of what I came up with originally. Now that I've dusted them off my desk -- where they've sat undisturbed for nearly a decade -- and had a chance to read them objectively, I'd honestly consider "Academic Distraction" the sharper, more focused effort.

That makes sense, because I wrote "Flags Of Unknown Nations" first, if I recall correctly -- it has a good premise, and some good lines, but definitely needed more polish to make it into a killer skit. Still, I enjoyed the experience, even if I never actually saw the finished product. I learned a good lesson: writing comedy isn't as simple as people often like to make out. 

I'm reminded of a quote by some high profile comedian (whose name escapes me, alas), that comedy is like math. It works or it doesn't, only the audience doesn't forgive if you get the answer wrong. Nobody wants the "Saturday Night '80" experience, when excruciating silences often greeted the crappy jokes that its cast struggled to deliver. 

Charles Rocket, in particular, suffered most -- not only from his notorious f-bomb outburst that brought him and his fellow castmates down, but his unimpressive turn on "Weekend Update," where he often came across like a wooden Indian, despite having worked as a news anchor. Go figure, eh?

Anyway, make up your own mind: "Flags Of Unknown Nations" follows below. Even so, I wouldn't mind taking another crack at the sketch comedy world, though it probably won't hurt if you take me to lunch first...and if you pick up the check, I definitely won't stop you. Producers, take note! --The Reckoner
  

VOICEOVER

(CUE: Pretentious orchestral theme in background.)

Some people collect coins. Others yearn for stocks or stamps. Here at Blindsided Broadcasting, we're after memorabilia from countries that just slide right off the front page radar. Yes, it's time again for: Flags...Of...Unknown...Nations!

(CUT TO: ANNOUNCER at desk, holding newscast script.)

Hi,I'm Mea Culpa, and without further ado, let's run down this week's favorite unknown nations. Our first flag is...Tuvalu!

ANNOUNCER gestures at empty screen behind him/her.) C'mon, let's get a bit quicker on the draw here! (TUVALU's flag appears.) Right, that's more like it.

Boasting a mere 11,298 residents and 10 square miles, Tuvalu is slowly sinking under the Pacific Ocean, thanks to its never-ending series of environmental pressures, like bleached coral, shrinking fish populations, and an unstable shoreline...no comeback for Tuvalu on this show, I'm afraid. 

Blame it on those pesky computer models, right? Right! And now, let's hear it for...Iceland!

 

(ICELAND's flag appears onscreen.)
 

(CUT TO: ANNOUNCER at desk.)

 ANNOUNCER

Best known as the home of Bjork -- that funny woman who sings to fax machines -- nobody paid much attention when Iceland's banking system collapsed in 2008, until its furious government jailed all of those executives it held responsible!

In the US, they took home $800 million that they didn't have to give back. Just goes to show, what happens in Iceland, stays in Iceland. 

And now, least but not least, with a population of 10.2 million, a universal healthcare system, and the third largest pop music market after America, and Japan, let's hear it for this fast rising up and comer -- Sweden!

(SWEDISH FLAG appears onscreen.)

 

(IRATE MAN storms onto set,
 waving a clipboard,

impatiently gesturing for
 ANNOUNCER to stop.) 

 PRODUCER

Mea, what the hell are you doing? We went over this last week -- Sweden's hardly an unknown nation! You can't sneak your politics into this show, and get away with it!

ANNOUNCER

(Shrugs off PRODUCER's tirade, and rattles back into his script.)

Although it's given us great crime novelists like Steig Larsson, and Henning Mankell, Sweden's found plenty of other ways to stand out in the global crowd: no death penalty, an 80%-plus unionization rate, three weeks' paid vacation, plus eight weeks' maternity leave, none of which are found in the US...let's hear for this week's favorite unknown nation...Sweden!

(CUE: Canned applause.)

(PRODUCER slams clipboard on desk.)

 PRODUCER

Boy, when you screw up, you really screw up. How many times have I told you -- stick to the script, stick to the script?

(ANNOUNCER gets up from behind desk, and stands in front of PRODUCER.)

ANNOUNCER

Well, I'm afraid that's all the time we have this week for "Flags Of Unknown Nations." Don't forget to click the link on your screen at home, and vote for your favorite off the grid or obscure country. 

PRODUCER

(Facing camera): Don't worry, and don't bother, because we'll have someone else sitting behind this desk next week. Right, Mea?

ANNOUNCER

(Pulling a gun from his suit coat)

Not if I can help it. You haven't given me a day off all year, I'm still waiting on that raise, and this is the only prime time hosting gig I get. I might as well be living in Tuvalu!

PRODUCER

Is that thing loaded? (ANNOUNCER nods.) Wow, all the time I've known you, Mea -- I never took you for a Second Amendment freak.

ANNOUNCER

(Points gun at PRODUCER.)

Well, things have changed. And they're going to change here -- staring with that vacation. And that raise.

(Turning to camera:) Well, that does it for this week's edition of "Flags Of Unknown Nations." I've got some business to discuss with my boss here.

But remember, if we're not covering your country, you're perfectly unknown, as far we're concerned...so you just might show up here.

(CUE: Pompous orchestral music. PRODUCER begins to slowly back away from desk, as he drops his clipboard, and breaks into a run, with ANNOUNCER chasing him in circles around desk.

(FADE OUT.)