Monday, July 28, 2014

Taneytown; Social Security; Privacy; Genealogy; Marriage; GOP Whip; Mr. Yoo; Social Engineering; Opera Loss; DNA Search; Hotels; Electricity; Holocaust

Nice day.. not much sun and a little rain... lots of strong wind, but comfortable.  Our tower fan died, so I bought another one at WalMart today.  You know.. I went  to WalMart with a long list, some of which I had tried to get in other places because I don't think much of WalMart.  But.. I was able to get everything on the list.. that is the allure of that store.. they have everything and the prices aren't too high usually. 


01.  Taneytown, Maryland


(The Life and Times Section of the Carroll County Times has some interesting articles this week.)


Taneytown's 10 year old museum is celebrating their anniversary with free ice cream.  My fellow former Commission on Aging colleague with a remarkable name, Fairy Flickinger, is the chair woman for the museum, which is closed to give it time to be made handicapped accessible.


I had always thought that Taneytown was named after Chief of the Supreme Court, Roger Taney, who helped make the Dred Scott Decision the reason why the US had "Separate but Equal" facilities for many years.  Instead, it was named for Raphael Taney, who laid out the map of the town in 1754.


02.  Social Security .. Information?


Donna Engle, retired lawyer wrote what is, in my opinion, the most confusing article about married and divorced Social Security benefits that I have ever tried to read.  If you want "the straight poop", take a trip to the local Social Security office and talk to one of their experts.


In the mean time.. if  you insist on using the web to find out the amount of benefits  you may be entitled to, try these sites mentioned today by the Wall Street Journal:


AARP.ORG                               Search for "Social Security Calculator"


BEDROCKCAPITAL.COM     Search for "SSANALYZE"


FINANCIALENGINES.COM   Search for "For Individuals"  or "Retirement Readier"


TROWEPRICE.COM                Search for "Social Security Benefits Calculator"


But.. I still think that a visit to an SS office is the best bet for getting legitimate information.


03.  Short Depressing Note


Carroll County Times Editor, Jim Lee says: "We are being observed, tracked and analyzed by a variety of sources and at a much deeper level than most of us probably know."


04.  Genealogy .. 1890 Census Information


Mary Ann Ashcroft (Mimi) informs us that even though the 1890 U.S. Census information was lost to a fire in 1921, there was another census taken that year.  It enumerated surviving Civil War soldiers, sailors, marines and their widows, a surprising lot of them for being 25 years after the end of hostilities.  This "census" survived for Carroll County and Maryland in general. (I'll have to find out if it is still available for Massachusetts.)


05.  The Carroll County Family Status


Sadly, across from the smiling faces of newly engaged couples shown in the Carroll County Times,  and the names of 89 couples applying for Carroll County marriage licenses in June 2014, are the names of 75 couples getting divorce decrees in the same month.


06.  New GOP Whip


Representative Scalese, the new Republican Whip in Congress, is known as a Tea Party member and he was interviewed Saturday on CSPAN.  The Representative showed his ability to dodge all tough questions asked of him.. and not once did he answer a direct question.  Boy is he good.


He did say his  goals for this year were:


Replace Obamacare.
Raise the Medicare age to 67.
Raise the Social Security age to 70.


07.  *Mr. Yoo again


Recently deceased Mr. Yoo, built scores of cabins and had a marble-lined art gallery added to the ferry Sewol.  This made the ship top-heavy.


08.  And We're Movin' On Up!


A new development on the Upper East Side of Manhattan will be marketed to both affluent folks and working stiffs.  The rich people will live in three million dollar apartments and have a nice guarded entrance while the "less rich" will live in $1,000 per month apartments with a rather less luxurious entrance.  Some call this "a brand of distasteful social engineering."


09.  Opera World Mourns a Big Loss


Carlo Bergonzi, famous operatic tenor died last week in Milan at the age of 90.  Mr. Bergonzi was considered the foremost Verdi tenor of his time.  He sang 300 times with the Metropolitan Opera in New  York.


Carlo was a short, tubby kind of guy.. he said that to make  up for his lash of dashing physique, he let his voice help him to act so well that nobody noticed that lack.


It was not widely known, but Mr. Bergonzi spent three years in a German concentration camp for his anti-Nazi activity.  He weighed 80 pounds when rescued.


10.  CSI in Europe


Italian police took DNA samples from 22,000 citizens and finally got a match.  Would we do that in the U.S.? And if we did, would it trigger a lot of privacy law suits.  (By the way, I am reading the CSPAN book about the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Roberts says very strongly during an interview that the United States is different from all other countries because we are a nation of "laws!")


10.  The Funny Paper .. Hotels, by the Rich and Famous


a.  Gilbert Gottfried: "I always wish the hotels were like they are in movies and TV shows where if you're in Paris, right outside your window is the Eiffel Tower.  In Egypt, the pyramids are right there. In the movies, every hotel has a monument right outside  your window.  My hotel rooms overlook the garbage dumpster in the back alley."


b.  George Carlin:  "In some hotels they give you a little sewing kit.  You know what I do?  I sew the towels together.  One time I sewed a button on a lampshade.  I like to leave a mark.


c.  Garry Shandling  (I really do not like this guy, but I think that his remarks here are a lot funnier than his usual stuff.)  "Here's a little tip from me to you as an experienced traveler.  Wake up calls are the worst way to wake up.  The phone rings.  it's loud.  You can't turn it down.   I leave the number of the room next to me, and it just rings kind of quiet, and you hear a guy yell, 'What are you calling me for?'  Then  you get up and take a shower. It's great."


11.  The Funny Paper .. Punishment


Chuck Shepherd mentions a case from 1989.. "... convicted South Carolina murderer Michael Godwin won his appeal to avoid the electric chair and serve only life imprisonment.  In March, while sitting naked on a metal prison toilet, attempting to fix a TV set, the 28  year old Godwin bit into a wire and was electrocuted.


12.  A humorous Holocaust book?


This book sounds like a winner to me.  Its about a guy who forges Holocaust survivor accounts to obtain reparation money from Germany.  It doesn't sound funny, but reviewers say it is hilarious. The book is called A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman, and is $8.99 as a Kindle download.


............................................................................................................





No comments: