One of the flags Governor Bentley removed.

Secretary of State John Merrill, widely speculated to want to be Governor or perhaps Lieutenant Govenor Merrill, spoke at a Confederate Memorial Day event and according to a Montgomery Advertiser story, took a shot at the "liberal media", saying they do "not understand our southern heritage and are not interested in what motivates us to be different and special."

"Part of that “difference” he said, is the way people in Alabama respond quickly to natural disasters such as tornadoes and floods.
“We don’t wait on the federal government to come and take care of us,” he said. “We take care of ourselves. That’s what we’ve been taught to do.”

While he also seemed to criticize Governor Bentley's action last year in removing four confederate flags...and the flagpoles too...he later said his comments were misunderstood, and he was not being critical.

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Not too long ago, a too good for us 20 something off-air co-worker (now moved on) made a snide remark to me at a news meeting about the relatively simple small cell phone I carry. He asked if I lost it among the change in my pocket.

Ha ha ha. Are you here all week?

No. I do not lose the phone because it is smaller than a paperback. (Look that up on your smart phone. Or ask Surly.)

And I am also able to have an actual conversation with a live human (not him) without checking my electronic umbilical cord every five seconds. I have a longstanding dislike for IProducts that goes back to their insulting marketing campaigns that may have appealed to fifteen year old geeks but were akin to General Mills calling people who eat a different cereal stupid and how could they not see the brilliance of Cheerios?

I am not a Luddite. (Ask her about that too.)

I have been a computer owner longer than I was not....and longer than he had been alive. I was "online" before color and photos were part of messaging/emailing. But enough.

Here's a Wall Street Journal column that expresses the joy of a phone without a zillion apps to help you make it through your cluttered day. The headline: