A Bob's Life: Monday Musings

Monday, June 1, 2026

Monday Musings - June 1, 2026

Southwest 4029 at the Gate
Rochester, NY
May 31, 2026

1. The month changed over while we were asleep last night. Welcome to June! It is the first Monday of the five during the month, but only 30 Mondays remain in the year!

2. Yesterday was another travel day as we flew from Rochester, NY, to Baltimore, MD. I have to admit, I cannot recall flying to Baltimore from the North and I was excited to see different sights along the flight route. I was especially awed by seeing Three-mile Island nuclear power plant just south of the Harrisburg airport. Sitting, as I was, in a middle seat I was not able to capture an image of the plant. It was a short flight, about 45 minutes. I laughed when the crew advised passengers that it was not a "sip and savor" flight. We needed to finish our beverages expeditiously.

3. The Orioles are playing much better of late. They are 7-3 for their past 10 games! They are winning series and actually swept the division leading Rays. Maybe they are finally coming together.

4. Cognitive dissonance. If Iran is truly as defeated as the administration says, why can't it deliver terms to Iran and have them accept them? It is clear that the actual situation is being obfuscated when the President writes something like as follows:

“Iran really wants to make a deal, and it will be a good one for the U.S.A. and those that are with us,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

“The Dumocrats, and various seemingly unpatriotic Republicans, understand that it is MUCH tougher for me to properly do my job and negotiate, when political hacks keep negatively ‘chirping,’ at levels never seen before, over and over again, that I should move faster, or move slower, or go to war, or not go to war, or whatever.” (Raw Story)

Beck in the Wading Pool
Glen Burnie, MD
May 31, 2026

5. We arrived in Glen Burnie yesterday and enjoyed a fantastic afternoon and evening with our youngest grandson and his family. He is a ball of creative energy. I enjoyed helping him down a slide and into the wading pool. It was nice to be out of the cold New York weather and someplace warmer, although we did very much enjoy sitting around the fire pit last evening.

6. Today in History. On June 1, 1980, CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first 24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan.

CNN went on to change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout the day. At the time of CNN’s launch, TV news was dominated by three major networks—ABC, CBS and NBC—and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts.

CNN was the brainchild of Robert “Ted” Turner, a colorful, outspoken businessman dubbed the “Mouth of the South.” Turner was born on November 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and as a child moved with his family to Georgia, where his father ran a successful billboard advertising company. After his father died by suicide in 1963, Turner took over the business and expanded it. In 1970, he bought a failing Atlanta TV station that broadcast old movies and network reruns and within a few years Turner had transformed it into a “superstation,” a concept he pioneered, in which the station was beamed by satellite into homes across the country. Turner later bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and aired their games on his network, TBS (Turner Broadcasting System). In 1977, Turner gained international fame when he sailed his yacht to victory in the prestigious America’s Cup race.