It is Sunday, March 26 and there are only 274 days until Christmas.  It’s time to start watching the seasonal movies that we love so much and never actually watch during the season.  Today we remember the birthdays of Elisabeth of Nassau, Betsy Perk and Curtis Sliwa.  On this day in 1804 the Territory of Orleans was organized into the Louisiana Purchase, in 1886 the first cremation in England was performed and in 1926 the first lip-reading tournament was held in America.  In Bangladesh it is Independence Day, in Lesotho it is Arbor Day, in Alaska it is Seward Day and in the US it is National Nougat Day and National Spinach Day.

I had the opportunity to be out and about this past week and there are several issues I want to address.  One of the things is skinny jeans.  Now understand that this is my opinion, but I do not think that skinny jeans look good on anyone.  If you are skinny enough to actually wear them, they make you look even skinnier and not in a good way.  Again that is just my opinion, but look at some of the people that wear them.   They put the jeans on and all they do is enhance the fact that the person has no legs to speak of.  

Now go to the flip side and put those jeans on someone who is not skinny, like myself.  If I wore skinny jeans there are a number of questions people would ask – is he kidding?  How did he get them on?  Does he have to go into the bathroom every so often to open them and let the blood run down to his feet?  What made him think they looked good?  I think we should stick with original fit or relaxed fit and be happy with that.  Why do we always have to take something and mess with it until we have hit ridiculous?

Another thing I noticed is something I have mentioned before.  Men going out wearing sweatshirts, gloves, caps - and shorts.  I realize that it is, according to the calendar, spring, but when the temperature is 35 and the wind is blowing at 25 to 30 mph, you might want to hold off on jumping into the spring wardrobe.  I saw one guy wearing a heavy jacket, hoodie sweatshirt, shorts and sandals.  Talk about confused!  What made it worse was he had his hair pulled up into a man bun.

And that brings me to my next topic – the man bun.  I have seen a number of men with them and I cannot help but wonder what the deal is.  How does a guy get up in the morning, take his long hair, pull it up into a bun on the top of his head, look at it and think it looks good?  Pull it back into a pony tail if you need to, but not into a ball on the top of your head.  If your hair looks that bad, wash it or cut it.  What makes it look stranger is that, generally, the thing is the size of a golf ball, so it isn’t like it is a long flowing head of hair.  It is just some long hair that could use some shampoo and a brush.  Okay, I have vented on style and am ready to move on.  

You may have guessed that I am not a big fan of many of today’s trends.  I have a hard time understanding why they are necessary.  The other evening I saw one that continues to puzzle me.  It has nothing to do with fashion, but is still strange.  I saw two women out walking and one was pushing a stroller.  They were older and at first I thought they were taking a grandchild for a walk.  As I got closer I realized that they had a dog in the stroller.  This is not the first time I have seen this and I cannot help but wonder what the deal is.

Generally, when you take a dog for a walk, there are only a couple reasons for it.  One reason is that the dog needs to go to the bathroom and rather than having to keep cleaning the rug, you take it out.  The other reason is that the animal has been cooped up in the house all day and you just want to give it some exercise and fresh air.  When you put the dog in a stroller, neither of those things is accomplished.  If you are pushing the dog in a stroller, how does it go to the bathroom?  Does it hold up a paw to let you know it has to go?  Do you hook up a leash, take it out, let it go and then back it goes into the stroller?  It might be getting some fresh air, but no exercise.  

I decided to investigate this a little further and found that there is a huge variety of pet strollers.  They range in price from as low as $20 to over $250.  You can get the All Terrain Extra Wide, the Folding Cart Carrier or one that allows your pet to “enjoy a leisurely promenade or a long hike” or one where “pets get the royal treatment” while you push them around.  They show a number of strollers where the owner is jogging while pushing the stroller.  Why can’t the dog run with you?  Or, why can’t you take the dog for a quick walk before you go jogging?  I would think that would be better than buying a stroller for $250.  But again that is just my opinion.

This week our fact tells us that there are 70 million sheep in New Zealand, where the human population is 4 million people.  New Zealand, where the men are men and the sheep are nervous.