“Life moves pretty fast,” as Ferris Bueller says — and the arrest of Scottie Scheffler seems an eon ago. But it was two and a half weeks ago. And I have a comment on it at the beginning of my Impromptus today. I have a slew of other issues as well, including grubby politics and the English language (which can be grubby itself but which is glorious overall).

Let’s have a little reader mail:

Jay,

In your column, you bring up the whole “U.S. flag upside down” thing. I agree that everyone doing this is acting like a child, but every time I see a picture like the one from the Heritage Foundation, I’m reminded of an amusing (to me, anyway) anecdote.

In the mid ’80s, I was an Air Force Security policeman stationed at an SAC base in the Northeast. One of our duties was to lower/raise the base flag at retreat and reveille.

On one overnight shift, we had a newbie airman, and he had flag duty that morning. He raised the flag a bit early (around 0400) and called in, “Police 5 to Base: Flag duty finished.” Ten minutes later, the flight chief came on the radio:

“Police 1 to Police 5, you copy?”

“Police 5, I copy, Police 1.”

“Police 1 to Police 5, why have you put the base under duress?”

(Dead air . . .)

“Police 1 to Police 5, no one else has noticed. Fix it, then report to the desk.”

The airman got an a**-chewing, of course, but never made a mistake like that again. (No, I was not Police 5, thankyouverymuch.)

Maybe one more letter, in response to an Impromptus the other week:

We must be related, Jay. My 1992 Saturn was the best car I ever owned (until I started buying Toyota); I racked up 230,000 miles on that Saturn. The reason I bought the car (my family all worked at “Ford’s”) was their commitment to quality and the no-haggle price. I don’t want to haggle over a can of beans at the grocer. Why haggle over a car? I don’t understand.

Before I continue with the reader’s letter, I should explain the “Ford’s.” In Michigan — and my correspondent is from Michigan — we all say, “He works at Ford’s” (or “out to Ford’s,” if you really want to be “authentic”). We Michiganders are big apostrophe-essers, as I have detailed in columns before.

Anyway, he continues,

As for “Thank you for your service”: My wife and I are on the road all the time for work. We regularly eat at restaurants. When they were all closed four years ago, I realized how privileged we were, and are. So I say, “Thanks for being here,” or, “Thank you for helping me,” to almost any person, cashier, waiter, home-service provider, etc.

It’s my recognition that there are way too many people who won’t work, and I want to thank those who do. More often than not, the thanks leads to interesting conversations with the good people who are there for us all.

Speaking of thanks: Thank you to all readers and correspondents.