Battle of the Hat-fields

​So, I go to McDonald’s once a week, religiously. Why would such an apparently discerning dude like moi commit such a culinary peccadillo? you might ask. Simple. Boulder’s 10 Tesla Super-chargers are just across the parking lot, and even with their speedier chargers, it still takes at least 40 minutes to fill the Model 3 up. What am I going to do? Sit on the sidewalk? Of course, I could also go to the nearby Starbucks, just another two minutes’ walk. But I’m cheap, and you just can’t beat the 86-cent senior coffee or tea, i.e., why spend two or three bucks more for a marginally better beverage?

There are some surprising non-economic benefits of visiting the Golden Arches too. For instance, I get to practice my Spanish. ?Por que? Turns out nearly all the workers there—in Trader Joe speak, “the crew”—are Hispanic. I can even wear my “Cuba” cap there with impunity. Maybe they think I am not a gringo. Nope. Probably not. But I digress, sort of.
         
Today I did wear my paradoxically colored red-white-and-blue cap, the colors of the Cuban flag, with the name of that country prominently stitched on it. With my senior tea in hand, I sit down. Across the way, in the People’s Republic of Boulder no less, I spot an older white guy, heavy and with a permanently furrowed brow, sporting a “Trump 2020” cap. I want to go over and say, “What the f--- are you thinking?” But old as he may be, I’m older and smaller. So my better angels prevail. The English major in me, however, notes the irony of our two contrasting hats facing each other, his flacking the Trumpster and mine advertising the forbidden land of Fidel et. al. Go figure!
         
With the first Democratic debate going on as I write these words in late June, I see the formidable phalanx of old white guys, their buddies, and their loyal wives or partners that Joe, Bernie, or (I hope) Liz will have to take on. The Trump voters may not be thinking much, but they do vote. So right now, it’s not !Que vive Cuba! but !Que viven los Estados Unidos!
Bye for now,