Rein on All Fronts
By Charles Rein

Now we'll skip the heavy news topics and choose something from the unbelievable Wackadoodle news file. Heard of this?

It now appears millennials are concerned with something called the "Sunday Scaries."

Only in America could this factitious panic attacks make it into our national news!

According to a LinkedIn survey, 80 percent of professionals say they experience the Sunday Scaries, with over 90 percent of Millennials and Gen Z reporting they feel it.

A KOST 103.5 FM article mentions how Scary Sundays in turn create BBM- Bare minimum Mondays. These workplace trends are where "employees do the least possible work on Mondays to avoid burnout during the remaining workdays."

Fortune.com  expresses the opinion that, "The Sunday Scaries are real." The term entered the Urban Dictionary in 2009. Their website states it "refers to anxiety about the upcoming workweek. It is also called the Sunday blues, it leads to a variety of symptoms, like a racing heart rate, irritability, restlessness, looming negative thoughts, an upset stomach, headaches, and sweating."

According to KOST 103.5 FM, examples of these practices include "attending only important meetings, starting Monday with a self-care routine, and taking a break from checking emails. Bare minimum Mondays are similar to 'quiet quitting,' where employees do the least work required to stay employed."

I'll quote humor columnist Dave Berry, "I am NOT making this up." To me, this feels the equivalent of my last two weeks of high school: when we as students, jokingly got infected by a "made up disease" affecting 17 year olds, about ready to graduate. It was an imaginary disease called 'Senior-itis.' Even if you didn't skip classes completely, when you showed for school, you were a slow moving, lethargic, inactive student-sort of a walking dead zombie. But we ALL knew senioritis was fake! Now, are SCARY SUNDAYS on the way to being an official diagnosed mental health disease? I feel like shouting "Imaginary diseases are NOT real diseases!"

That's why I enjoy this character portrayed in a popular Netflix comedy-drama series 'Cobra Kai.' Set 34 years after the 1984 film, 'The Karate Kid', it begins in 2018. An early episode is titled 'Strike First.' We find blond Johnny Lawrence, the former karate bad boy, now middle aged and recently fired as a handyman. Desperately needing to pay his bills he opens his own dojo, a Karate school. So, pulling up his big boy pants, uh make that pulling up his Gi (pronounced ghee) Johnny enrolls teenage Miguel, his first official student. After receiving an unexpected training punch, Miguel, gasps and explains "I have asthma." whipping out his inhaler.

Sensei Johnny shouts, "Not anymore!" Flinging away the inhaler, he forcefully explains, "We do not allow weakness in this dojo. So you can leave your asthma and your peanut allergies and all that made up bulls&%t outside!"

Long story short is no one cries; no one dies. Adversity builds character. Suck it up, Buttercup. That's Karate Sensei Johnny Lawrence's philosophy, not only for Karate but for life.

That's why this Cobra Kai tv show is priceless. Johnny is a character with real backbone, willing to stand up and say, "That's just stupid! I'm not buying what you're shoveling!"

National Senior Citizen day is August 21, but the national month for seniors is May. One such seasoned individual - an up and coming comedian is 71 years young!

Brad Upton is a 'well preserved' not a pruney comedian and his jokes target those under 30 as "the dumbest people I've met in my life! Not personally, just as a group."

"I know they're dumber than people my age. When I was growing up we didn't have any child proof caps. You dropped a coke bottle it didn't bounce... it shattered.
Our parents let us play with guns and knives and fireworks... You know what happened to the dumb kids? They didn't make it."

There's a lot of truth to Upton's comedy. He's living proof for seniors, "You're not old. You're vintage." Recommend googling him on youtube.

I'd hire someone with wrinkles. Give me someone who's lived through earthquakes, fires, difficult bosses, learned to overcome these difficulties called life.

So this month let's honor our parents, grandparents, even the cranky old person who yells at the TV, saying, "All this news is crap!!"

These Baby Boomers haven't been paralyzed by the so called Sundays Scaries. Instead they've lived their lives as accountable and responsible even through the toughest of times.

Let's focus on honoring their diligence, their persistence, their "my word is my bond" attitude.

Just let me get a quick nap in first.