Jenny Lawson used a Mitch Hedberg joke

I read Jenny Lawson’s Broken (in the best possible way) with a few notes I took last summer:
“The deepest chapter title ever: Anxiety Is a Lost Watch I Never Saw."

But on page 189, Jenny Lawson used a Mitch Hedberg joke.

Mitch Hedberg said, ‘An escalator could never break. They can only become stairs.’

Lawson wrote, ‘I didn’t say my toothbrush was broken. I said my electric toothbrush was broken. Because now it’s just a toothbrush. Like when escalators are broken they are still broken escalators. If you called to say that your escalator was broken the escalator repair people wouldn’t say, ‘It’s not broken. They’re stairs now.’”

I wouldn’t say this joke theft was intentional because the wording was different. Hedberg had a reputation for one-liners, and Lawson wrote a blog about an argument she and her husband had about her broken electric toothbrush.

Brokenness was a strange theme for the book because it played on this philosophy that brokenness or imperfection is beauty. I also met a new friend from a volleyball team with a tattoo that says, “Imperfection is beauty.” Lately, my community volleyball career had a losing streak (in the best possible way) last summer. The most recent team we played against was actually five minutes late. We didn’t mind, but the referee thought he was in the Olympics and almost made that team forfeit. That team ended up beating us – all four rounds – but getting our scores at double digits always felt like a win, no matter how big of losers we were.

Gavin Glen Johnson
Superior, Wisconsin

Trump’s thousands of mistakes

Chuck Bracken of Cannon Falls, Minn., wrote last week that he believes in UFOs and he brought up Don Trump of Mara Lago, Fla., into his discussion. He seems to be blaming Joe Biden for every problem. Everyone makes mistakes, but his hero Trump has made thousands of mistakes 1917-2021 in words and deeds. About the only thing I agreed with on him is that China is dumping too much all over the world with a lot of stolen technology from us and other countries.

I  am volunteering at Lutheran Mission to Seafarers, serving international sailors who come to Duluth/Superior Ports. Couple of weeks ago a Chinese captain told me their products at Best Buy are much cheaper than in China.

Last week a Dutch sailor was surprised how low our gasoline prices are. He told me they pay $10.70 per gallon. Yes, our gas and other consumer goods have increased, but government and politicians do not control nor determine prices, because we have free enterprise. Though, government does have some affect on them.

Unfortunately because of low prices, we have been spoiled and too many families have five vehicles or two to three at least. Duluth/Superior have mass transit that people could use more. Federal, state and local governments subsidize our buses et cetera, but I see some are even running empty.

We must change to save our environment and lives. We also waste by throwing away too much, especially plastic and other refuse. United States have fewer than 5% of world’s population, but we create half of world’s garbage!

Mike Jaros
Duluth, Minnesota

What about WLM?

BLM, BLM, BLM, Blah, Blah. What about WLM?

George Floyd got a monumental square named for him. Are you kidding me? George Floyd was a recidivist with 23 charges – three burglaries, three car thefts, multiple illegal trespassing, cocaine and alcohol addiction, two violent home invasions, three armed robberies, dealing with fentanyl and meth, beating four victims senseless, being arrested constantly. I’m sure with many more charges he never got caught with. And his family got rewarded $27 million. What? Of course he shouldn’t have died, but honor him? Honor him? How ghastly. His very last crime was trying to pass a counterfeit $20 bill. He should have been in prison. He would at least be alive, and law-abiding citizens would be safe. Recidivists (mostly) violent felony crimes should be in prison. Why wasn’t he?

Two points here:

Prison (judicial system) had him roaming the streets. Why?

Minnesota should not had paid $27 million. Do we have that much of a surplus to waste in Minnesota?

Lyn Breitung
Solon Springs, Wisconsin