With a lame duck Congress basically cooling its collective jets for now, there seems to be room for other news. What follows is a potpourri of information that might have escaped even avid junkies of the latest breaking news, since seemingly half the country hangs on every White House tweet and the other half keeps hoping and praying something and/or anything will topple the current regime.

For those in need of bulletin buffers, here are a few items that might be of interest:

There may very well be a new way for ex-military folks to put their skills to good use. Fortunately, it doesn’t involve shooting anyone or getting shot at. It’s still dangerous, but bullets and bombs are nowhere to be found. It seems the rash of wildfires out west have given rise to firefighting crews made up of veterans.

One report I saw said these are the guys who take on the worst terrain, and liken the conditions they work under to that of combat – minus the aforementioned guns and ammo. That’s not to say the conditions are a whole lot better. With a quickly spreading fire, things can definitely go from bad to worse in a heartbeat. It’s intense work, and as one of the crewmembers pointed out, “It’s like in combat. Just because you’re hungry, tired, and thirsty doesn’t mean the firefight stops.”

Apparently, a lot of the guys like the camaraderie, structure, and chain of command, just as they had in their military service days. War stories are shared with those who can relate. And while the “hotshots” are all male at present, there are plans to recruit female vets too.

In another type of conflagration going on in the world, Britain and the European Union have sealed an agreement pointing toward the U.K.’s departure from said Union next year. You’ll recall British voters decided they wanted out in June of 2016. The vote was about as close as a Florida senate race, so there’s been tremendous pushback on the process from the get-go. So much so that Prime Minister Theresa May might well arise each morning thinking she’s got more opposition than Donald Trump on a daily basis.

The exit (or Brexit, if you will) is going to cost Britain about $50 billion right up front to cover previous E.U. commitments. And it appears there will still be a free-trade area, with citizens of both the U.K. and the E.U. able to travel for vacations and other short jaunts without the need of a visa. One sticky wicket is territorial waters. And the final status of Ireland and Northern Ireland is still in flux. As a matter of fact, in some instances, the negotiators did what most politicians do – kicked the can down the road a bit for others to work out.

There is some really cool news in the space biz. NASA’s newest lander, named InSight, has arrived on the surface of Mars. It’s going to do some digging, literally and figuratively. Scientists think if they can probe about 16 feet down into Mars’ surface, they may be able to read a lot of geological history.

While the probers are just trying to figure out how the planets came to be around 4 ½ billion years ago (give or take a decade), and whether or not Mars actually did contain water at one time and if it still flows underground, the public may well be looking for more. Seeing little Martians running around would probably capture our interest. Such a discovery might even reboot the space industry and return us to the glory days of man on the moon.

There’s more, such as much lower gas prices (in part because the U.S. continues to produce more). And Mexico may be helping with the asylum-seekers by making them wait south of our border until their cases can be heard. There’s baseball news, which is always refreshing in the chill of late fall/early winter. (For Braves aficionadas, fan favorite Brian McCann is back in Atlanta.) And the most popular baby names for the year are Sophia and Jackson.

Finally, did everyone buy something from a small business this week? Yeah, sure, the big guys need your patronage too, but you know most of America works for the Mom and Pop enterprises, right? Keep going to the big boxes, but don’t neglect the corner entrepreneur either.

And have no fear. Things in the news department will soon return to normal. That pleasant tryptophan hangover most of us have been on from our national turkey feast won’t last forever. Enjoy the comparative lull while you can.

 

©MMXVIII. William J. Lewis, III – Freelance Writer