Historical Summer 2025 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Our Dear President Trump has been taking lots of heat lately for his insensitive comments about how his tariffs might reduce how many pencils or dolls that children will get for Christmas.
His attitude is that if those items haven’t made it across the ocean, kids can’t get ‘em and so what; it’s pure and simple. Lord knows I’ve been critical of Trump in the past and with good reason.
He has earned all of my criticisms and more.
He continually makes bad decisions, poor appointments, foolish statements, and offensive Tweets.
The man is consistent; you have to give him that.
His lack of knowledge and inability to empathize make him an easy target. And I am all for shooting at easy targets.
But in this case, I think Trump has received undue criticism.
In his own fifth-grade way, he was trying to say that we Americas over consume. You could say that we consume too much, more than is needed. (In fact, I just said it.) My observations affirm this.
There seems to be a lot of people who love to eat at smorgasbords, for example. XL shirts are the norm.
My guess is those same people have more pencils than they could ever use and, yep, as kids they received too many dolls, pencils, clocks, and clothing. Not being hindered by empathy, Trump was simply trying to encourage people to tighten their belts a bit, literally and figuratively. It’s a bit like Marie Antoinette’s comment about the people who could not afford bread. “Let them eat cake,” she purportedly said, certainly not meaning to appear insensitive in her carriage window. You know, if Marie was alive today, she would have been a commentator on FOX news and Trump would have her in his cabinet. Alas, I know first-hand the issue of overconsumption. It’s easy for me to write about it while wearing my XL shirt, because I have too much of just about everything.
My much always needs to be preceded by “too,” says my wife. Candidly – please don’t share this column with her – she’s wrong.
I mean, I’m a clock collector and how could a person possibly have too many clocks? It’s not as if I use them to tell time; that’s what my watch does. Rather, they’re collectible knick-knacks. How many is too many? More, can there be too many? Well, as I sit typing in my second-floor study, I pause to count the number of clocks in this room… It turns out that there are only sixtyfour clocks in my study (not counting the clock on my computer or my wristwatch). You might think sixty-four is a lot, but it’s not when you consider the range of clocks that surround me.
There are probably twenty or so wooden clocks, nicely carved figures or frames surrounding a clock.
But my specialty is electric statue clocks from the 1930’s or 40’s, you know, metal figures aside a clock face. Or maybe the clock is within the figure. How cool is that?
I have a clock that features a statue of Lincoln, FDR, and Washington standing together. It’s next to a clock aside a bullfighter and a bull. Nearby there are clocks that feature a lighthouse, a princess wagon being pulled by four horses, an elephant, a fireplace, a propellor, an eagle, a train, and so on. Oh yeah, none of these clocks are plugged in, much to the disappointment of Ameren. Throughout the rest of our house, there are fifty or so more clocks (my wife would say more than that). OK, maybe it’s closer to a hundred or so more clocks.
I have so many clocks because I’ve been collecting them for years. Fortunately, they were cheap when I bought them. I’m not sure whether it’s a reflection of the changing culture or my taste, but they’re even cheaper now. That’s OK, I didn’t buy them for investments. Wise man that Hawkeye is, he has been buying Melania Trump bitcoins.
My overconsumption isn’t limited to clocks.
I also collect salt & pepper figurines.
I have quite a few steamships with one smokestack for salt and the other for pepper.
I also have a tiny airplane with two bombs under its wings, yep, you guessed it, one for salt and one for pepper.
But I don’t have more than 20 or so of these. For a while, I collected ties, yeah, the kind that men used to wear. At my peak, I had several hundred ties – not an exaggeration – and I wore a different tie to work every day.
But the world has changed and ties have gone out of fashion. Thank goodness that electric statue clocks and salt and pepper figurines are still the rage. So let’s ease up a bit on President Trump. Given his capacity, it’s clear that he is doing the best that he can. And while he’d never admit an awareness of his personal shortcomings, it’s obvious he knows them. Why else would he continually appoint people who are even more clueless or nefarious? Give him credit for that!
I need to go now.
While counting my clocks, I noticed a number of pencils in my study.
Now I haven’t used a pencil in ages but that doesn’t mean I have enough. Pencils are smaller than clocks so there’s always room for more.
I am going to buy some pencils now before the tariffs kick in. Maybe I’ll see Marie Antoinette getting some cake – or on FOX news.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2025.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2025_06.pdf, printed page(s) 8; PDF page(s) 8.
