I haven’t been paying attention to the national news lately … it is too depressing … so when I happened to see an old newspaper headline saying, “Montana is the first state to ban TikTok,” I was confused and surprised. Confused because at first glance, I thought it meant clocks were being banned, particularly cuckoo clocks. Why would anyone want to ban cuckoo clocks? Surprised because I haven’t seen a cuckoo clock in years.

            I confess, I’m like the sage of Foxboro Bill Belichick who once said he doesn’t do “Earbook or Tweeter.” I now know that TikTok is an app for your phone that allows people to video themselves doing silly things and disseminate their creations across cyber space. For the life of me, I don’t know why anyone would embarrass themselves that way, but it is a brave, new world out there that is passing me by.

            Apparently, the app is very controversial. It is owned by a Chinese media giant ByteDance. Authorities around the world are concerned that the data it collects could be passed on to the Chinese government. Why the Chinese government would care about some 13-year-olds who wrap themselves in bubble wrap and dance the Watusi (I guess that shows my age) while lip-synching a Beyoncé song is beyond me.

            I guess I have not been paying attention for some time. The app was first introduced six years ago, and it is bigger than just teenagers being foolish on camera. You can create your own “brand” on TikTok, which is why even big companies sell their products on the platform. They say it allows them to connect with younger audiences.

            They call it their “social media strategy.” I have one of those … I don’t do social media. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dunkin’ (didn’t they used to sell donuts?), the NBA and The Washington Post are all on TikTok. They say they are trying to reach the Z generation … or is it the X generation? Maybe the Millennials. I can’t keep up. It sure is not the Boomer generation.

            The Governor of Montana said that it is his “priority to protect Montanans from … “communist surveillance.” Good luck with that. Did he hear about those big balloons floating over his state a while ago?

            The advocates for the app say that the new law infringes on the First Amendment Rights of the “hundreds of thousands of people” who use it in the state. ByteDance says their sole purpose is to inspire creativity and bring joy. So Montana doesn’t want their citizens to be creative and experience joy?

            I trust our federal government is on the case. They have already banned the app on all government-issued phones. I don’t know whether to be paranoid or just suspicious. I have already banned it in my house, but the missus does whatever she wants.

            TikTok has over 1,000,000,000 daily users worldwide with 150,000,000 in the USA and growing. Methinks the genie has been out of the bottle for some time.

            Mmmm, it appears that money can be made. A marketing company called Ubiquitous will pay $100 per hour to watch TikTok for 10 hours. My kind of job, sit and stare at my phone. I can do that. Maybe I’ll even create my own brand, wrap myself in bubble wrap and sell cuckoo clocks.

            Editor’s note: Mattapoisett resident Dick Morgado is an artist and retired newspaper columnist whose musings are, after some years, back in The Wanderer under the subtitle “Thoughts on ….” Morgado’s opinions have also appeared for many years in daily newspapers around Boston.

By Dick Morgado

            The Barn Swallow is one of the most active insect and mosquito predators, fortunately well distributed around most of the natural world. It is very common everywhere across the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa, and it patrols the biggest part of the northern hemisphere.

            It ranks in public opinion as one of the most essential, bottom-line benefactors for a healthy environment of insect control. In the fall, all the Swallows migrate to the southern hemisphere.

            As in my illustration, it also ranks as the best, eye-catching flying predation as it swoops and dives, skimming across the water to catch and eat in one graceful motion of predatory flight.

            Across the shoreline of Buzzards Bay, the Barn Swallow favors finding a nesting home under manmade buildings and overpasses, especially under the roofs of horse and cow barns. The coming of Swallows to our shores have always been a natural sign of the arrival of the spring season.

            Under one of the overhead structures, they usually build a cup-shaped nest out of grass and loose feathers, using their own mixture of mud pellets to cement it to the overhead. Over the years, the construction has been known to be repaired again and again over a long tenure.

            The nests survive the passage of time by standing as welcome shelters for their continued return, using the homing instinct like this homecoming phenomena inspired the writing of the popular love song you most remember: “When the swallows come back to Capistrano, that’s the day I pray you’ll come back to me.”

            In nautical literature, ancient mariners painted the arms with tattoos of Swallows as a positive omen of safe return after thousands of miles around the world. In medieval culture, the Swallow was believed to be descended from the eternal spirit of nightingales. Today, the Swallow is depicted on postage stamps in many old-world countries and has been the national bird in Austria since 1969.

            Recognition on a national basis is the highest tribute of public opinion of the Barn Swallow that I have written about and illustrated to earn your recognition and positive evaluation of what has been a normal, common phenomenon that attracts your unexpected attention and understanding.

            What more can I say and illustrate for your entertainment?

By George B. Emmons