Its 85 degrees and sunny.. very pleasant. I brought in another red tomato from our deck.. that makes 6 so far, I think. That's probably already more than we ever got before.. thanks to my daughter, Diane of the Green Thumb, who gave us 3 of the plants. All of the flower plants she gave us are blooming as well. I'm anxious to see her house right now.. I'll bet it is covered with beautiful flowers of all kinds.
01. *Rogue Cows still on the loose
Two of the cows that "jumped ship" are still missing. Both are 500 to 600 pound heifers in running shoes. I asked Elaine to look for fatter than usual deer when she checks out the back yard in the evening. Meanwhile, a motorist said that a cow hit him last night and then got up and raced off, apparently not too badly hurt.
02. Oh Oh, there goes the Dow again...
Somewhat based on the lousy predictions for Corporation profits, the market took a big hit today and is now down in 16,500 territory, not a nice place to be if I want to be a millionaire again. What goes up must go down... how about .. what goes down, has to go up? I hope.
03. Crime .. Label Matching
Robert Lord (26) was stopped by police for driving on a suspended license and was asked if he had a wallet or weapons in his pockets. "The Lord" said that he did not and to prove it pulled out a bag from one of his pockets.. on it was appropriately labeled: "DOPE."
By the way, I would like to know how the police knew about his license problem without pulling him over first. Was this part of the license scanning software features in cruisers? Did the software assume who the driver of the car was? I'll have to bring that up at our next TRIAD meeting with Police representatives.
04. I was wrong
Yesterday, I mentioned "doobies" in relation to Hodge Podge Lodge... I was mixed up. "Doobies" were good children seen through Miss Rhea's magic mirror on Romper Room, another favorite TV show of my children. By the way, Miss Rhea (Feiken) still looks good at the age of 130.
05. A Poet in our Midst
Our next door neighbor, Steve Malin, is a poet of some repute. He has had his poems published in many journals and anthologies. He is giving a reading of some of his works tomorrow. I signed up to attend, but then found that I had a previous commitment. I was able; however, to obtain a copy of
Steve's latest book of poems. His poems paint pictures in my mind. I like them. Remember that name.. you'll be hearing more about him in the future.
06. A Portuguese German?
The Vereinsnachrichten Newsletter for the German Society of Maryland mentioned that John Philip Souza, who wrote those amazing marches, was raised by his German immigrant grandmother and mother. His Portuguese father wasn't around when J.P. was a child. (I've often wondered if my father was German or Portuguese, since I learned that he probably was not Italian as I always thought.)
07. Crime .. Unauthorized Recycling
The large metal gates at Battle Acre Park on North Point Road in Baltimore County have been stolen to sell for drug money. Also, metal parts on cemetery monuments have also been pried off to sell.
08. Crime .. Mergenthaler .. Forgotten Inventor
The Director of the German Society of Maryland, David Crosby, visited Mergenthaler Vocational High School (Mervo) in Baltimore to see the statue of Ottmar Mergenthaler that once graced that campus. It is missing. Perhaps it has been melted down for its metal. Its perhaps just as well, questioning some teachers and students, nobody now even knows who Mr. Mergenthaler was, and what he did that was notable.
Ottmar Mergenthaler invented the linotype machine. From the first printing press in 1439 until Mr. Mergenthaler invented the linotype machine in the 1880's, all type had to be set by hand. Mergenthaler revolutionized the printing industry with a typewriter-like machine to set type, thus creating modern printing. It is a shame that he is now all but forgotten in the Baltimore area.
09. *Roger Angell .. Baseball
I wrote about Mr. Angell's wonderful autobiographical piece in the latest New Yorker magazine. At the age of 93, he is about to get an award for being a great baseball writer over the years.
One of Roger's claims to fame is that he wrote the world's longest palindrome. I'd really like to see that. I'm sure my brother Joe knows about that one and can fill me in.
10. Lost and Found
Manhattan residents were recently surprised to find a Mason and Hamlin grand piano resting on the shore under the Brooklyn Bridge. Nobody has claimed it yet, or offered to move it to a better location. The BBC Music magazine has speculated that the ghost of George Gershwin may have had it laid there... remember his song: "There's a boat that's leavin' soon for New York...".. possibly a clue.
11. Longevity
Talking about George Gershwin, always makes me think about the great lyrics in Porgy and Bess.. for instance:
"Now Methuslah lived nine hundred years,
Yeah, old Methuslah lived nine hundred years.
But what use is livin' when no woman will give in,
To no man what's nine hundred years?"
12. Mr. Vice President!
Talking about "old timers," Jim Hightower writes about Dick Cheney (pronounced chenny, not chainy now) and has this to say in the latest Progressive Populist newspaper: "... they ("warmongers") never got close to being in (a war). Cheney, you might recall assiduously avoided serving in Vietnam by getting not one or two draft deferments, but five of them! He later explained that he 'had other things to do.' Yet, without a twinge of conscience, he's now lambasting Obama for not dispatching other people's loved ones into the fiery vortex of Iraq's Sunni-Shia civil war."
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