By MONTE DUTTON

For the first time in short-term memory, no World Cup game was scheduled for Wednesday. The world will survive.

We are back at war with Iran. I think the world will survive. It’s so easy to overreact. It just seems like Vietnam.

Let me express an unpopular view. I’m against term limits in Congress. A legislative body needs a mix of the experienced and the exuberant. More of our problems stem from inexperienced firebrands than obstinate veterans.

America needs a Mamdani and an AOC. They represent well the citizens of New York. Neither could be elected in the Carolinas. Jim Jordan of Ohio could not be elected in San Francisco. Most people are somewhere between those extremes, and most politicians are. The Graham Platners pass in the wind.

For better or worse, we get what we vote for. I remember assholes when assholes weren’t cool.

Enough of the politics.

Last week I saw a man whose haircut puzzled me. His hair was parted all the way around, then gathered in a bun in the middle of his head. How could a man make that circular part? Does he live in a hall of mirrors? Does he leave it bundled up when he washes his hair?

I’m sure there’s a simple answer, but it eludes me.

My first North Carolina trip to the laundromat was Wednesday. I met a sailor about to return to his assignment in Bahrain. Another man and I had a discussion over whether it was better to buy at Walmart or order from Amazon. He was a mechanic. I should have gotten his name. I’m liable to need him.

Now that the USA has flamed out of the World Cup, who has my rooting interest? England, I think. I have mostly English blood. In general, though, sports brings out the populism in me. Other than my favorite teams and the schools that gave me schooling, I prefer the underdog in, well, most everything.

Wellpilgrim.com takes its name from John Wayne, who liked the phrase, and the Kris Kristofferson song “The Pilgrim: Chapter 33, Hang on, Hopper.” The title of the site comes from my favorite song, Michael Burton’s “Nightrider’s Lament.”

If you’d like to contribute to the site, I can be reached at Adventure Village #6, 15 Adventure Ridge Road, Brevard, N.C.    28712.

I’d appreciate it if you’d consider buying one or two or five of my books, which are available on Amazon and at other bookseller site. Two novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audible versions.