A better way to settle differences, face to face, with no touching, in public

In light of all of the awful goings-on around America, I have an idea.

My thought is to return to an idea and “thing” that began in the 1860s during Queen Victoria ‘s reign in England. The years that Queen Victoria ruled became known as the “Victorian era” and prudish thoughts persisted for years.

The Victorians were very strict when it came to young couples, especially when they were courting. Couples were supervised at every turn while they were together never left alone for a moment.

This gave birth to the tete-a-tete, an S-shaped sofa devised by the French, on which two people can sit face to face and chat.

The tete-a-tete was also called the gossip’s chair, courting bench, and the kissing bench.

Conversations became more private and made a perfect place for couples to sit close to each other without touching.

I propose that the government invest heavily in tete-a-tetes and place them in every town in the country. People who have a problem and want to air their grievance could make an appointment with the mayor, police chief or any person affected and both could sit in the tete-a-tete.

I think sitting down facing each other outside in comfort ... where people can see you ... might make it possible to more calmly discuss the problem. Someone might serve a cup of tea or coffee and perhaps civility might return.

Yelling and screaming never gets the message across. It just makes it worse. Watching the events on television in cities across our country should make us all horrified. Children are seeing all of this. Coupled with the quarantine we are all going through makes it even worse. We certainly don’t want them to grow up and think this turmoil is how we need to deal with things.

Backyard vacation

Would you like the latest rage in your yard?

Small steel tanks commonly used for watering animals, called a “stock tank,“ have become a highly desired item for your backyard. Bring your vacation to you. Public pools are closed and not everybody lives near the ocean or a lake, so some clever people came up with the idea.

You can see how some have tricked out their tank on Instagram. The most popular tank is about 8 feet wide and 2 feet deep. You just need a flat spot for your pool.

Go to tankandbarrel.com, for a filter go to intexcorp.com, and for DIYers to learn more, go to stocktankpool.net.