Gone Traveling

See you in a couple of weeks!

VOL. 3 ... No. 101. April 16, 2025.

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Olá Humpers!

As I mentioned last week, we’re traveling to Portugal soon, and we are bogged down in the minutia of packing for a one-month stay. What does one take for a month? We want to travel light, so we’re thinking a couple of small bags to be checked and two carry-ons.

This would have been simpler in our twenties — probably a backpack or duffel bag with no glasses, contact lenses, medications, phones and chargers, or white noise machines and other sleep aids. We could have slept sitting up back then, or stayed up all night partying with little repercussion the next day.

“30 Things To Pack For A Long Tour,” an article on the Bob Neff Tours website, gave me a hack I’ve never heard of — Duck-Tape-On-A-Pen. That’s where you wrap small pieces of duck tape around your pen in case something breaks. You can fix anything with duck tape.

Sounds good to me. Have you heard of this?

That’s the first time I’ve used the word “hack” to describe a technique.

I ain’t a slangy kind of gal. Just saying “ain’t” gives me feelings of unease — like my high school English teacher is scowling and lowering my grade point.

Hack — in this context — is a word used almost exclusively on social media. I’ve never heard anyone say in real life, “I’ve got a hack for you!”

Most of us would respond, “Why would I want an artist or politician who produces dull and unimaginative work?”

Wait. I guess some of us do want that.

I had to search TikTok to find a definition since this meaning is not yet recognized in most official dictionaries. Hack in this context means a technique or procedure that simplifies a process or makes life easier. There are cooking hacks and cleaning hacks. Duck-Tape-On-A-Pen is a packing hack. You’re welcome.

I feel so cool. So hip. So young and carefree.

Don’t tell anyone I used it, or it will go out of style.

Maybe it’s already passé.

So, my friends, the next time you hear from me I will be in the sunny Algarve region of Portugal. I look forward to learning more about the Portuguese culture and meeting people from all over the world.

As actor/singer/dancer Danny Kaye said, “To travel is to take a journey into yourself.”

That’s a journey I’ve been on for most of my life. I look forward to what I may discover in Portugal.

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On an entirely different note, I have been thinking about the state of our beautiful country. We are being gaslighted by our government. I hate to say that, and I hate to think it. But maybe we’ve always been gaslighted. Certainly, I have learned over the course of my life that what little history I was taught as a child about Indigenous Americans, Black Americans, Asian Americans, and all women was simply not true.

According to Dr. Amanda L. Chase Avera of Middle Georgia State University, “The modern definition of gaslighting is a psychological manipulation technique in which a person tries to convince someone that their reality is untrue. It is a tactic often used by narcissists to gain control of their intended target. Gaslighting tries to create bewilderment, embarrassment, and misconceptions in the victim’s mind. The person performing the gaslighting is attempting to confuse a person into questioning their own beliefs, values, thoughts, and behaviors.

Sound familiar?

If you are warming your hands by the fire of this gaslighting and taking comfort from it, just remember a fire unchecked will eventually spread and engulf everything and everyone in its path.

If even one person is not safe from “administrative errors” that result in kidnapping and deportation without a trial to a notorious maximum security prison in a foreign country, no one is safe.

Our country was founded on a principle of equality and integrity with “justice for all.” While it has never achieved its lofty goals, we — as a people — have made strides in that direction, and we have never stopped trying. Please, let us talk to each other and recognize our shared humanity. Let us not go backward.

Lives are at risk.

Here are Rhiannon Giddens and Paul Simon singing his hauntingly beautiful song, “American Tune” at the Grammy Salute to Paul Simon. Paul allowed Rhiannon to change a couple of lines to better reflect all of us. (She comes on about 2 minutes into this video.) The entire show is fabulous! I recommend you watch it.

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Until next time, my friends . . . Obrigada por lerem a Gazeta do Dia da Hump! (Thank you for reading The Hump Day Gazette!)

Janna

Quote Of The Week:

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. — Mark Twain