One of my favorite movies - heck it’s probably among everyone’s favorites - is 1987’s “The Princess Bride.” Good guys, bad guys, memorable characters and a happy ending.

Sigh.

One of the more memorable exchanges is when the character Inigo Montoya, played by Mandy Patinkin, calls out his boss Vizzini on the repeated use of the word ‘inconceivable.’

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means,” Montoya quips.

I thought of that more than once over the past couple weeks.

Perhaps you have heard that former President Donald Trump’s trial for paying hush money to an adult film actress is underway?

Well, actually, paying her is not really the issue. Money changed hands.

Where that money came from is much more at the heart of the matter. Campaign finance, political intrigue...it’s a whole thing.

If you haven’t heard about the former president’s situation, my condolences to your family on your recent passing.

However, a dozen jurors and a few alternates managed to convince both prosecuting and defense attorneys that they were open minded and had no bias in the matter?

Inconceivable.

At a time in our world which, at its best, is a broad array of shades of purple, we are more brightly blue and red than ever before.

Perhaps a juror or jurors foresee a book or at least a podcast payday in the future and sold it with enough conviction to slip past and be seated on this jury.

But no bias? Nope. Not buying it.

Before we leave the trial, I need to touch on the fact that the former president evidently dozed off during jury selection.

Yep, been there, done that.

During my tenure in Hot Springs, I attended a handful of court proceedings, motions hearings and a couple of trials. And while the storylines in each case were very interesting, the actions in the courtroom were not.

During a break in one trial, a defense attorney wandered past as I was reading a book, ironically about an attorney.

“Riveting stuff, huh?” he quipped.

“The book or the trial?” I asked with a grin. “The book is one of my favorites. The trial….nah.”

I opined that rather than take juvenile troublemakers to a prison (ala “Scared Straight”) perhaps the authorities would be better served by having those same people attend a day of procedures in a courtroom.

“It’s not like on TV,” I said. “That’s for sure.”

I absolutely understand why Mr. Trump dozed off. Still, when I got sleepy in court, I wasn’t the defendant.

Perhaps he should find a good book (or maybe books. I understand there are likely more hours inside a courtroom in Mr. Trump’s future) to occupy himself.

One in the W column!
Every day, I get inundated with emails regarding a wide variety of clickbait items, noting South Dakota’s ranking in this category or that one. For instance, one could this week read about how one in three in the state are ill-prepared for an impending natural disaster, how Boho is the most popular design aesthetic in the state or that 45% of all South Dakotans change their job each year.

Generally, the state and its residents are not cast in a positive light.

So it was refreshing to learn, via the Travel and Leisure website that South Dakota is the best place in the U.S. to retire, thanks to its affordability, our Midwestern friendliness, natural landscapes, and lack of an income tax.

Boo-yah!