Welcome to a new live-stream, reality show, available on HBO Mini – Haircuts at House Parties in Highland Park.

Watch as six neighbors rotate hosting the discretionary income hijinks in their backyards, with a different local tonsorial artist each week (competing for the end-of summer Sweeney Todd Award), in an excuse to get together and have someone run his/her/its hands through their hair.

Each cut will be accompanied by a carefully selected wine and cheese combination, recommended by an online college, home economics graduate (whose degree is starting to look better) bagging at the local Trader Joe’s, and pretentiously described in unintelligible detail at the event by a guest, now otherwise out-of-work, incredibly desperate, five-star restaurant sommelier,

Each coiffure also will be shaped to coordinate with the design of the backyard garden, as explained by a lonely horticulturist from the nearby botanical gardens.

If that weren’t enough, the gathering will serve as a celebrity roast, with those waiting their turn in the chair making increasing snide remarks about the person going under the scissors, holding the viewers on the edge of their seats, as attempts at humor lapse into nasty allegations of infidelity, property encroachment, and tax evasion.

 

I thought it might make life more interesting (it doesn’t take much these days – I often rely on a sprinkling of crushed red peppers, using it like pixie dust, though, unfortunately, flight has not yet been attained) if I started speaking with an accent other than my own (as opposed to my previous idea of learning a nonexistent language), and change it each day.

But it occurred to me, after several days of concentrated thought, that I have no one with whom to speak, so I decided I should use two different accents every day, so that I can converse with myself, and satisfactorily represent both sides of the discussion (after obtaining a conflict waiver) without confusing myself any more than necessary.

With enough discipline, I can keep this up for well over two months (by which time I will have ingested enough hand sanitizer to ensure that I’ll never get COVID-19 and can, therefore, fearlessly start attending all-night raves) without having to learn another language, as there are, according to LingoHut, 160 distinct English dialects throughout the world.

As a side benefit, I may someday be able to work carnivals (subject to the CDC Considerations for Traveling Amusement Parks and Carnivals), accurately guessing people’s hometowns, and even neighborhoods, in a manner not seen since Professor Henry Higgins.

Following the dramedy of sports during Covid-19 is much more interesting than the games that haven’t been played might have been. Take, for example, the recent news about the NBA player who was photographed at a gentleman’s club after having been permitted to leave the league’s Orlando bubble for “personal reasons”. It doesn’t get more personal than that.

I, months ago, gave up on any dreams of socializing, in any manner, but have developed a craving for other forms of sustenance, namely one kind of food or another. And, though I’m pretty sure I’m not pregnant, based on researching Web MD, the urges are strong, and yesterday, I may have finally hit rock bottom.

Relying upon the wisdom of Phil Connors that “anything different is good” I bought, and actually ate, a fake milk vegan soft serve (made in a lab using genetically engineered yeast programmed with DNA to produce the same proteins found in cow’s milk, by scientists who might otherwise have spent their time curing cancer), covered with morsels that in shape and coloring, but I assure you not taste, resembled chocolate chips.

At least, unlike the basketball player, I wore a mask while making my purchase, and so should be safe from being outed on social media (since no one outside China actually reads this blog), though, unfortunately, Amazon only carries stomach pumps for fish and horses.

While on my daily walk, I was struck by an obvious opportunity to create a profitable business to support myself when Social Security goes bust, and also do some good. To those ends, I have established the ASPCFM – the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Face Masks.

Everywhere I go, there are perfectly good, discarded masks on the ground. I rescue them, gathering them up while wearing gloves I purchased from Amazon’s hazmat collection, with the intention of giving the masks new homes.

I’ve opened a pop-up mask shelter in a space recently vacated by a now out-of-business merchant. I thought about getting a lease, but determined that there are enough vacant commercial spaces that I can move around as needed when rousted and not have to pay anything.

I wash the masks three times, because everything comes in threes, and then put them up for adoption. Because the older ones are harder to place, if I can’t find one a new owner within three weeks, I send it to China to be repackaged as new and sold to the U. S. government. which doesn’t actually put the masks into use, but rather stockpiles them in 3×3 crates in a warehouse in an aisle behind the Ark of the Covenant.

You may have thought that Apple shut down stores for the safety of its employees and customers, but I believe it was because of a new secret project that required all hands on board to hit the market as quickly as possible.

Be prepared for the new iMask. No, not the one that squash players use to protect their eyes. (There are estimated to be over one-and-a-half million squash players in the United States, all of whom live within a fifteen minute drive of an Ivy League University.

And no, not the one with limited features conceived months ago as a joke by graphic designer Justin Ciappara.

The new iMask will come equipped with all the features of the latest iPhone, enabling you to make calls without removing it. Texts, email messages, and apps that need a visual interaction, like the new x-ray app, aptly named iSpy, will feed into your new iGlasses, Apple’s long-awaited response to Google Glass.

But the iMask is also much more. Upon command, it can take your temperature, and the temperature of anyone within six feet of you. This feature caused some delay, as early tests revealed an inability to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects, and who really needs to know the temperature of furniture, except officials in the five states that still offer the option of execution via the electric chair.

The iMask is a great gift iDea as it also has a self-locking device that prevents the wearer from removing it when it detects any body heat within six feet.

I was starting to worry that I might be losing my sense of taste, but then I remembered that my cooking has always been tasteless.

I should have known it was a fake COVID-19 testing site when they asked me for my social security number and mother’s maiden name, neither of which, fortunately, I knew.

Another advantage of wearing your face mask at all times – you don’t have to worry about the spinach that’s been stuck between your two front teeth for three weeks, when you last remembered to floss.

It’s hard to have an imagination in a vacuum, or so I would imagine, if I could.

Apparently, if you don’t drive your car for an extended period of time, it may not start. I fear that that same lesson may apply to my brain.

I’m organizing my life by making a long list of things to do someday when I have less time to do them. Is it procrastination if you have no intention of ever taking action?