Elaine and I watched the Slum-dog Millionaire movie last night. I enjoyed it immensely; Elaine thought it was "so-so". Because the area of my right ear is still numb from my carotid surgery, I am not able to wear my high-tech hearing aid. Because of the numbness, if it fell off of my ear I would not notice it.. and I can't afford to lose a $2,000 device. So, because I felt that there would be Indian accents that I couldn't hear properly, I put on the English sub-titles.
I needn't have bothered. Mysteriously, the main characters had hardly any Indian accents at all. Some Hindi words were used, but these were translated as said on the edge of the screen.
Were the speaking parts dubbed? I assume they were, since 20th Century Fox was the producer. They know how to entertain.. (and manipulate) and they definitely did not want any viewer to not understand what was being said.
The slum-dogs of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) were a lot like the street kids of New Bedford, where I grew up. The slums, of course, were different.. at the worst, our slums were castles compared to those in Mumbai. We would never have allowed the garbage mountains to accumulate like those shown in the movie. But, we kids in New Bedford were Urchins and knew how to survive by "hook or by crook", just as those did in Mumbai.
Instead of begging from the general public, we kids begged from the thousands of sailors that filled New Bedford during WWII. These young service men were suckers for a kid's lament. We got lots of dimes from them. Enough to pay for plenty of movie tickets and junk candy.
Also, we were chased a lot by store owners and the police. Luckily, I was never caught. I can't say the same for some of my friends.
The movie was supposed to be "true to life" and seemed to be that way until the end.. when the Bollywood stuff took over. The cast all began to sing and dance in an unrealistic manner.. but one that I like. Of course, this meant that realism was no longer in effect.
The views of Mumbai were spectacular. It is a city of 19 million people. Slums are disappearing as new high-rises sprout up. But what has happened to the people who cannot afford the high-rises?
Years ago, I read a Look magazine article about the future of big cities. They projected that eventually there would be massive mile-high apartment buildings, each holding up to 300,000 people. In between these buildings would be extensive gardens and parks. However, whenever I think about the future of cities, thoughts of "Soylent Green" come to mind. and scare the hell out of me.
........................................................................
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Stuff to do
Auntie Mame sez: "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death."
How true. How many people do you know work all day at dull jobs and then sit themselves in front of a TV set and eat and drink themselves into oblivion as they watch stupid stuff.? Come on! Lots of exciting things are going on... lots of things to do.. get with it ... get up off your dead butts and get moving.. bend your mind.
Instead of TV:
Read a book.
Make love to your spouse.
Draw a picture.
Do a crossword puzzle.
Surf the Internet.
Send an email to a friend.
Text, if you know how.
Print a picture from your PC.
Call up a relative.
Plan your day tomorrow.
Pay a bill.
Sign up for a day trip.
Look out the window at the stars.
Pet your dog or cat.
Check on the genealogy of your family.
Get on Facebook and look for a friend from High School.
Put an entry on TWITTER.
Connect with a relative you haven't heard from for years.
Write a blog.
Write a book.
Play checkers.
Play solitaire.
Play blackjack.
Play poker.
Take a nap.
Learn to cook.
Cook a steak.
Bake brownies.
Check your blood pressure.
Check your blood sugar.
Try on old clothes and throw away stuff that doesn't fit anymore.
Wash the kitchen floor.
Clean the garage.
Pump iron.
Walk around the block.
Stand on your head.
Shine your shoes.
Say "Hi" to your neighbor.
Take brownies to your neighbor.
Read the bible.
Join a club.
Go shopping.
Read the classics.
Memorize a poem.
Hang a picture.
Hang a wind sock.
Water your plants.
Plant some flowers.
Plant some vegetables.
Eat a little chocolate.
Drink 2 glasses of red wine.
Take your pills.
Vacuum the rug.
Wash the floor.
Do you see? There are so many things to do.. as Robert Louis Stevenson or maybe Lewis Carol said: " The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."
......................................................................................................................................................................
How true. How many people do you know work all day at dull jobs and then sit themselves in front of a TV set and eat and drink themselves into oblivion as they watch stupid stuff.? Come on! Lots of exciting things are going on... lots of things to do.. get with it ... get up off your dead butts and get moving.. bend your mind.
Instead of TV:
Read a book.
Make love to your spouse.
Draw a picture.
Do a crossword puzzle.
Surf the Internet.
Send an email to a friend.
Text, if you know how.
Print a picture from your PC.
Call up a relative.
Plan your day tomorrow.
Pay a bill.
Sign up for a day trip.
Look out the window at the stars.
Pet your dog or cat.
Check on the genealogy of your family.
Get on Facebook and look for a friend from High School.
Put an entry on TWITTER.
Connect with a relative you haven't heard from for years.
Write a blog.
Write a book.
Play checkers.
Play solitaire.
Play blackjack.
Play poker.
Take a nap.
Learn to cook.
Cook a steak.
Bake brownies.
Check your blood pressure.
Check your blood sugar.
Try on old clothes and throw away stuff that doesn't fit anymore.
Wash the kitchen floor.
Clean the garage.
Pump iron.
Walk around the block.
Stand on your head.
Shine your shoes.
Say "Hi" to your neighbor.
Take brownies to your neighbor.
Read the bible.
Join a club.
Go shopping.
Read the classics.
Memorize a poem.
Hang a picture.
Hang a wind sock.
Water your plants.
Plant some flowers.
Plant some vegetables.
Eat a little chocolate.
Drink 2 glasses of red wine.
Take your pills.
Vacuum the rug.
Wash the floor.
Do you see? There are so many things to do.. as Robert Louis Stevenson or maybe Lewis Carol said: " The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."
......................................................................................................................................................................
Fortune Telling
Do you believe in fortune tellers? I'm not sure if I do or not. If you have a few minutes, let me tell you some of my experiences .. one of them I think is amazing.
My beloved Aunt Marjorie once worked as a waitress in a tea shop in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Marjorie usually took me to work with her and the shop owner and customers didn't mind because I was such a cute little rascal...!!! (I was 4 years old.)
The shop owner also employed a fortune teller to read the tea leaves left in the cups. One day, the fortune teller told Marjorie that she saw something about me in the dregs of my aunt's tea cup.. she wouldn't tell her what that was and Marjorie was worried. A couple of days later, the teen-aged son of the owner, who was extremely jealous of the attention I was being given at the shop, told Marjorie that he was going to shoot me with his rifle. He warned her that he would kill her too if she told his mother. (I overheard this and was very scared.)
Of course, Marjorie related this to the fortune teller's reluctance to tell her my fortune, so she believed that this kid meant to do me deadly harm. Marjorie did not tell the boy's mother what he had said, but she did quit the job. For a couple of years after that she was very wary when she went out and was overly-protective of me. And then, one day, she got word that the boy had used his rifle to blow his own brains out. I can remember the feeling of relief I felt, as young as I was. Marjorie must have been relieved as well, because when I started Kindergarten, I was allowed to walk the 8 or 9 blocks to school without a chaperone. (At this point, my son should ask: "Was that 5 miles uphill to school and back, during raging blizzards?")
My son's mother was brought up in a French-speaking community in the north end of New Bedford and was also allowed to walk to school alone and play outside without fear. (It was a different time then.) At one time, her mother (my future mother-in-law) enrolled her in piano class. Twice a week, she would go to a local music store for lessons. However, she never learned to play more than a few basic tunes because the teacher didn't speak French and would rather let her sit at the store window with her and watch the gypsies who also had a store across the street.
She found the gypsy fortune tellers very interesting and as soon as she learned English she and a friend would have their fortunes told on a regular basis. This continued for many years. She never told me what the fortune tellers told her. Her mother, who spoke fluent English as well as French, was a life-long customer of the gypsies, and once told me and her daughter what had been recently foretold. See if you think this is amazing... it is perfectly true.
Just before my late wife and my wedding in 1957, my future mother-in-law told my fiance and me what a fortune teller had just told her.
"I see that you will be taking a long trip in the future to visit your daughter and her new baby in Baltimore, Maryland."
When we heard that we laughed and laughed. That fortune teller must be crazy.. Baltimore? We lived in Massachusetts and we knew that somewhere down south there was a place called Baltimore. I had read Mencken's classic American Language books and I knew about his involvement in the Scope's "Monkey Trial", and I knew that he lived in Baltimore. I had also, of course, heard about the famous Johns Hopkins Hospital (after all, Johns Hopkins was born in Massachusetts.) But.. having a baby in Baltimore in the future.. this was laughable.
However... four years later, in October 1961, my mother-in-law did take a trip to visit her daughter and her new baby in Baltimore, Maryland! Now.. isn't that amazing?
Over the years, I have read and studied fortune telling and recognise that there are tricks that "oracles" utilize to make people think that they can foretell the future. I have tried some of those tricks for fun with my friends. Part of the act is paying attention to the little things that people say and convey with body language. Besides, being an empath as I am, is helpful.
Once, at the Social Security Administration, my Branch Chief talked to me about a problem he was happening. We had a lot of weird people "working" in our Branch and he was having trouble relating to them. He had noticed that I seemed to get along well with all of them and he wanted to know the secret. I found him a book titled "People Reading" and I could see him studying it at his desk. (People reading is an art practiced by fortune tellers.)
He did achieve a modicum of success through his efforts and most of his charges shaped up for him. However, one of his test cases could not take the new close chummy scrutiny and one day disappeared. The Branch Chief did not want this to be a failure and kept the guy "on the books" for months, hoping that he would reappear. (Those of you who worked in SSA when I did will know who we are talking about.) The miscreant was spotted once on a New York subway, but ran away when approached.
So, what I am trying to convey is that fortune telling is mostly scam.. when you visit them, you are being "read" by your body language and casual utterances. Some predictions will also be made far into the future, because the fortune teller will have gone on to other venues by that time. Don't be scammed.. save your money. Unless you don't mind and want to have some fun in a drab life. Just be aware that fortune telling is "buncombe" as Mencken would say.
However... how the hell do you explain the Baltimore prediction?!
My beloved Aunt Marjorie once worked as a waitress in a tea shop in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Marjorie usually took me to work with her and the shop owner and customers didn't mind because I was such a cute little rascal...!!! (I was 4 years old.)
The shop owner also employed a fortune teller to read the tea leaves left in the cups. One day, the fortune teller told Marjorie that she saw something about me in the dregs of my aunt's tea cup.. she wouldn't tell her what that was and Marjorie was worried. A couple of days later, the teen-aged son of the owner, who was extremely jealous of the attention I was being given at the shop, told Marjorie that he was going to shoot me with his rifle. He warned her that he would kill her too if she told his mother. (I overheard this and was very scared.)
Of course, Marjorie related this to the fortune teller's reluctance to tell her my fortune, so she believed that this kid meant to do me deadly harm. Marjorie did not tell the boy's mother what he had said, but she did quit the job. For a couple of years after that she was very wary when she went out and was overly-protective of me. And then, one day, she got word that the boy had used his rifle to blow his own brains out. I can remember the feeling of relief I felt, as young as I was. Marjorie must have been relieved as well, because when I started Kindergarten, I was allowed to walk the 8 or 9 blocks to school without a chaperone. (At this point, my son should ask: "Was that 5 miles uphill to school and back, during raging blizzards?")
My son's mother was brought up in a French-speaking community in the north end of New Bedford and was also allowed to walk to school alone and play outside without fear. (It was a different time then.) At one time, her mother (my future mother-in-law) enrolled her in piano class. Twice a week, she would go to a local music store for lessons. However, she never learned to play more than a few basic tunes because the teacher didn't speak French and would rather let her sit at the store window with her and watch the gypsies who also had a store across the street.
She found the gypsy fortune tellers very interesting and as soon as she learned English she and a friend would have their fortunes told on a regular basis. This continued for many years. She never told me what the fortune tellers told her. Her mother, who spoke fluent English as well as French, was a life-long customer of the gypsies, and once told me and her daughter what had been recently foretold. See if you think this is amazing... it is perfectly true.
Just before my late wife and my wedding in 1957, my future mother-in-law told my fiance and me what a fortune teller had just told her.
"I see that you will be taking a long trip in the future to visit your daughter and her new baby in Baltimore, Maryland."
When we heard that we laughed and laughed. That fortune teller must be crazy.. Baltimore? We lived in Massachusetts and we knew that somewhere down south there was a place called Baltimore. I had read Mencken's classic American Language books and I knew about his involvement in the Scope's "Monkey Trial", and I knew that he lived in Baltimore. I had also, of course, heard about the famous Johns Hopkins Hospital (after all, Johns Hopkins was born in Massachusetts.) But.. having a baby in Baltimore in the future.. this was laughable.
However... four years later, in October 1961, my mother-in-law did take a trip to visit her daughter and her new baby in Baltimore, Maryland! Now.. isn't that amazing?
Over the years, I have read and studied fortune telling and recognise that there are tricks that "oracles" utilize to make people think that they can foretell the future. I have tried some of those tricks for fun with my friends. Part of the act is paying attention to the little things that people say and convey with body language. Besides, being an empath as I am, is helpful.
Once, at the Social Security Administration, my Branch Chief talked to me about a problem he was happening. We had a lot of weird people "working" in our Branch and he was having trouble relating to them. He had noticed that I seemed to get along well with all of them and he wanted to know the secret. I found him a book titled "People Reading" and I could see him studying it at his desk. (People reading is an art practiced by fortune tellers.)
He did achieve a modicum of success through his efforts and most of his charges shaped up for him. However, one of his test cases could not take the new close chummy scrutiny and one day disappeared. The Branch Chief did not want this to be a failure and kept the guy "on the books" for months, hoping that he would reappear. (Those of you who worked in SSA when I did will know who we are talking about.) The miscreant was spotted once on a New York subway, but ran away when approached.
So, what I am trying to convey is that fortune telling is mostly scam.. when you visit them, you are being "read" by your body language and casual utterances. Some predictions will also be made far into the future, because the fortune teller will have gone on to other venues by that time. Don't be scammed.. save your money. Unless you don't mind and want to have some fun in a drab life. Just be aware that fortune telling is "buncombe" as Mencken would say.
However... how the hell do you explain the Baltimore prediction?!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
/Burning Questions for July 25th 2009
While listening to a few NPR Saturday morning shows, some questions popped into my head:
01. Does the newly-developed EATR robot really fuel up on human flesh?.. and wouldn't that be one way to get rid of excess body fat?
02. Will "pole-dancing" (some call "lateral dancing") become a valid Olympic sport?
03. Where would a chicken hide under the hood of a car? One recently took such a ride.
(A number of years ago, my kids and I stopped at a gas station 3 miles away from our house. As I lifted the hood to check the oil, a white cat popped out and began to purr. I guess that was to tell us that she had had a nice ride. The cat belonged to a neighbor who was pleased to get her back, even though she needed a scrubbing to get the grease out.)
04. What happened to the original video of the Apollo-11 flight?
For those that think that it never happened, I would refer you to our friend, Al Lister, who examined all the specs for the rockets and made sure that they were followed exactly. He knew these astronauts personally and was a great source of flight information. I believe that he also was presented with a moon rock.
05. What is the purpose of the little ball on top of a flagpole?
06. What ever happened to Moe Berg, the baseball player who spoke 7 languages?
07. Why do "free" burials for veterans cost $16?
08. Why did Governor "Big Arnie" Schwartzenegger open a video to Californians by examining a giant knife?
(When my son and I were deep into weightlifting and bodybuilding, Big Arnie was our hero. Nobody... before or after.. has ever had such massively well-developed muscles. The "Austrian Oak" was handled by Canadian Joe Wieder and won every major body-building award .. most of them several times. )
There is a popular story about Arnold. He had bought a new red convertible and stopped at an outside phone booth to make a call.. he left the motor running and some guy jumped in and was about to drive it away.. however, the guy apparently wasn't too knowledgable about stick-shift cars and this delayed him enough that Arnie was able to bound out of the booth, reach into the car, pick the guy up, and crush his head... I wonder if this really happened.. I know that I would not want to get Arnold mad at me, even today.
09. What does the biblical phrase "The Visitation" refer to?
Of course, I should know this. My religious friends might help me out here. There is a wonderful painting by Peter Paul Rubens named "The Visitation". He painted it in 1613.
10. Will the "bark-to-Japanese" translation device be marketed in the US?
Some dogs in Japan are now "bow-lingual".
11. What ads will be shown on the moon? (I guess they will only appear when there is a full moon.)
12. When will Nora, the piano-playing cat make an appearance at Baltimore's Lyric Theatre?
13. Why did undercover cops for two different North Carolina police units arrest each other for drug possession?
14. Why did Kelly Hildebrand marry Kelly Hildebrand? How will they name their kids?
15. Why didn't anyone bid on the Watergate complex in a recent auction?
16. Was the Taco Bell dog assassinated?
Well, now I have given you and me lots of stuff to look up with Wikipedia and Google.
.............................
01. Does the newly-developed EATR robot really fuel up on human flesh?.. and wouldn't that be one way to get rid of excess body fat?
02. Will "pole-dancing" (some call "lateral dancing") become a valid Olympic sport?
03. Where would a chicken hide under the hood of a car? One recently took such a ride.
(A number of years ago, my kids and I stopped at a gas station 3 miles away from our house. As I lifted the hood to check the oil, a white cat popped out and began to purr. I guess that was to tell us that she had had a nice ride. The cat belonged to a neighbor who was pleased to get her back, even though she needed a scrubbing to get the grease out.)
04. What happened to the original video of the Apollo-11 flight?
For those that think that it never happened, I would refer you to our friend, Al Lister, who examined all the specs for the rockets and made sure that they were followed exactly. He knew these astronauts personally and was a great source of flight information. I believe that he also was presented with a moon rock.
05. What is the purpose of the little ball on top of a flagpole?
06. What ever happened to Moe Berg, the baseball player who spoke 7 languages?
07. Why do "free" burials for veterans cost $16?
08. Why did Governor "Big Arnie" Schwartzenegger open a video to Californians by examining a giant knife?
(When my son and I were deep into weightlifting and bodybuilding, Big Arnie was our hero. Nobody... before or after.. has ever had such massively well-developed muscles. The "Austrian Oak" was handled by Canadian Joe Wieder and won every major body-building award .. most of them several times. )
There is a popular story about Arnold. He had bought a new red convertible and stopped at an outside phone booth to make a call.. he left the motor running and some guy jumped in and was about to drive it away.. however, the guy apparently wasn't too knowledgable about stick-shift cars and this delayed him enough that Arnie was able to bound out of the booth, reach into the car, pick the guy up, and crush his head... I wonder if this really happened.. I know that I would not want to get Arnold mad at me, even today.
09. What does the biblical phrase "The Visitation" refer to?
Of course, I should know this. My religious friends might help me out here. There is a wonderful painting by Peter Paul Rubens named "The Visitation". He painted it in 1613.
10. Will the "bark-to-Japanese" translation device be marketed in the US?
Some dogs in Japan are now "bow-lingual".
11. What ads will be shown on the moon? (I guess they will only appear when there is a full moon.)
12. When will Nora, the piano-playing cat make an appearance at Baltimore's Lyric Theatre?
13. Why did undercover cops for two different North Carolina police units arrest each other for drug possession?
14. Why did Kelly Hildebrand marry Kelly Hildebrand? How will they name their kids?
15. Why didn't anyone bid on the Watergate complex in a recent auction?
16. Was the Taco Bell dog assassinated?
Well, now I have given you and me lots of stuff to look up with Wikipedia and Google.
.............................
Friday, July 24, 2009
A Spectacular Day!
It's a little cool after some big thunderstorms passed through. Elaine is watching World War II on TV.. lots of blood and guts being splattered around. The movie is about the Navajo code-talkers who did great work in the war, by communicating in their native language, which I've read is only decipherable by one caucasion. One of my friends in the Air Force was called "chief" and was a code-talker. I saw this man, with a chest full of medals, get busted by a young second lieutenant because he was one minute late arriving at a troop ship in New York. I have lots of stories about Chief, which I will write either as a book or as a blog.
Today, I finished my Income Tax!!!!!!! I probably could have squeezed out a few more deductions, but enough is enough.... ! Now it's time to work on Elaine's tax, which is also very complicated.
Yesterday, I began to see a darkening in my right eye, and Elaine saw a bubble in my left eye. Oh, Man! What the devil is aging doing to our bodies? I immediately thought that I was going blind and pushed to get an eye exam moved up to today. The Opthalmologist said that the bubble is caused by my allergies and the darkening is just macular degeneration increasing. Overall, my eyesight is 20-20... with both eyes open, that is. Nothing to worry about, but he did ask me to see a retinologist (sp?) to make sure that my macular degeneration is "dry" and not "wet".. if it is wet, I would have to have immediate laser surgery to stop the leak from my macular. Like I said... kind of.. the devil is attacking our bodies as we get older, especially those of us who have not lived an exactly pure life.
After the exam, I got to wear sun-glasses and pretend I was a movie star. I wonder if I still have the sun glasses that I won in a black jack game in the service from a Baltimorean who was cheating. I probably told the story before, but here goes again. I was watching this guy (let's call him Willy) winning constantly at blackjack. One day I noticed that some of the cards I held had half moons carved in them... just in the low cards.. 2's and 3's and 4's.
Then I noticed that Willy was making the marks with his long fingernails. Armed with this information, I got into the game and eventually took all of his money. All he had left to play was his pair of designer sun-glasses. I won them too, and I know I've told this before.. but Willy was so mad at me that he discharged his 45 at the crypto van where I worked until he got it all out of his system. Then we became friends again.
I don't want to gross you out, but let me tell you about the evenings when Willy wasn't gambling. Willy had the ability to break wind at will and a local German taxi driver liked that and would ferry Willy the 20 miles to Nuernberg and back whenever Willy wanted him to. At Nuernberg, Willy had some girls and men who would pay him for his services in a different manner. So, Willy really did not need any money to go out on the town, drink and carouse. Quite a character. (Oh, did I tell you that Willy was an Air Policeman?)
Well, the Code-talkers are helping to recapture Saigon from the Japanese and some medals are being handed out, so the movie should be over soon. I don't like to watch WWII movies because what is depicted is not the way it happened, or so I've been told by friends of mine who were in it. Most of the time it was pure boredom.. with periodic total chaos. Just like everyday life.
When will human beings learn to be human beings? Last nite I listened to a presentation about Marylanders in the Civil War. There were Marylanders on both sides and they even fought against each other at Gettysburg. However, there was one time when humanity showed itself. After the fighting, both groups met and helped take care of their wounded.
I'm still reading Carl Sandberg's books about Abraham Lincoln. I still find his writing disjointed, but very interesting. It is strange to me, but not surprising, to find that the politicians then were a lot like the politicians today... backstabbing, lying, stealing.. etc. It's a wonder that our country survives. President Lincoln stands out as a beacon of humanity compared to those around him, like Salmon Chase, who praised Lincoln to his face and then wrote to everybody who would listen about how dumb and bad for the country he was. But, Salmon wanted in the worst way to be President. He did not make it, but he did get some distinction.. by appearing on the $1,000 bill (I think.. I haven't seen many of those babies.)
Well, to top off the day, I cooked up salmon pinwheels... salmon and crab. With baked potato and corn on the cob. It was delicious if I do say so myself. Perhaps I should try for a slot on Iron Chef. Of course, it would not have been as delicious as it was if it wasn't for the India Pale Ale that accompanied it.
Many years ago, the British invented India Pale Ale so that beer would not spoil by the time it reached India from Britain. The taste, in my estimation, is sublime.. and far far far different than the watered-down light beer that brewers think we dumb Americans drink. I see people in liquor stores loading up on light beer and I feel like telling them to try "real beer" instead.
....................................................
Today, I finished my Income Tax!!!!!!! I probably could have squeezed out a few more deductions, but enough is enough.... ! Now it's time to work on Elaine's tax, which is also very complicated.
Yesterday, I began to see a darkening in my right eye, and Elaine saw a bubble in my left eye. Oh, Man! What the devil is aging doing to our bodies? I immediately thought that I was going blind and pushed to get an eye exam moved up to today. The Opthalmologist said that the bubble is caused by my allergies and the darkening is just macular degeneration increasing. Overall, my eyesight is 20-20... with both eyes open, that is. Nothing to worry about, but he did ask me to see a retinologist (sp?) to make sure that my macular degeneration is "dry" and not "wet".. if it is wet, I would have to have immediate laser surgery to stop the leak from my macular. Like I said... kind of.. the devil is attacking our bodies as we get older, especially those of us who have not lived an exactly pure life.
After the exam, I got to wear sun-glasses and pretend I was a movie star. I wonder if I still have the sun glasses that I won in a black jack game in the service from a Baltimorean who was cheating. I probably told the story before, but here goes again. I was watching this guy (let's call him Willy) winning constantly at blackjack. One day I noticed that some of the cards I held had half moons carved in them... just in the low cards.. 2's and 3's and 4's.
Then I noticed that Willy was making the marks with his long fingernails. Armed with this information, I got into the game and eventually took all of his money. All he had left to play was his pair of designer sun-glasses. I won them too, and I know I've told this before.. but Willy was so mad at me that he discharged his 45 at the crypto van where I worked until he got it all out of his system. Then we became friends again.
I don't want to gross you out, but let me tell you about the evenings when Willy wasn't gambling. Willy had the ability to break wind at will and a local German taxi driver liked that and would ferry Willy the 20 miles to Nuernberg and back whenever Willy wanted him to. At Nuernberg, Willy had some girls and men who would pay him for his services in a different manner. So, Willy really did not need any money to go out on the town, drink and carouse. Quite a character. (Oh, did I tell you that Willy was an Air Policeman?)
Well, the Code-talkers are helping to recapture Saigon from the Japanese and some medals are being handed out, so the movie should be over soon. I don't like to watch WWII movies because what is depicted is not the way it happened, or so I've been told by friends of mine who were in it. Most of the time it was pure boredom.. with periodic total chaos. Just like everyday life.
When will human beings learn to be human beings? Last nite I listened to a presentation about Marylanders in the Civil War. There were Marylanders on both sides and they even fought against each other at Gettysburg. However, there was one time when humanity showed itself. After the fighting, both groups met and helped take care of their wounded.
I'm still reading Carl Sandberg's books about Abraham Lincoln. I still find his writing disjointed, but very interesting. It is strange to me, but not surprising, to find that the politicians then were a lot like the politicians today... backstabbing, lying, stealing.. etc. It's a wonder that our country survives. President Lincoln stands out as a beacon of humanity compared to those around him, like Salmon Chase, who praised Lincoln to his face and then wrote to everybody who would listen about how dumb and bad for the country he was. But, Salmon wanted in the worst way to be President. He did not make it, but he did get some distinction.. by appearing on the $1,000 bill (I think.. I haven't seen many of those babies.)
Well, to top off the day, I cooked up salmon pinwheels... salmon and crab. With baked potato and corn on the cob. It was delicious if I do say so myself. Perhaps I should try for a slot on Iron Chef. Of course, it would not have been as delicious as it was if it wasn't for the India Pale Ale that accompanied it.
Many years ago, the British invented India Pale Ale so that beer would not spoil by the time it reached India from Britain. The taste, in my estimation, is sublime.. and far far far different than the watered-down light beer that brewers think we dumb Americans drink. I see people in liquor stores loading up on light beer and I feel like telling them to try "real beer" instead.
....................................................
Thursday, July 23, 2009
A great day! My Dell laptop is back and even though Dell said they had to fix four problems, they retained my files and a cd-rom stuck in the drive. Also, the Dow is headed back up to 9,000!
Today I go to get a Shingles shot. Quite expensive, but those of us who had Chicken Pox as kids are susceptible to Shingles as we get older. This is an extremely painful disease. I can still remember my Grandfather suffering with the pain for almost a year. Sometimes the pain can last for the rest of one's life. (One of my friends is suffering from Shingles right now and as an empath I can feel her excrutiating pain whenever I talk to her.) I am the Shingles Shot Guinea Pig.. if I don't have side-effects from the shot, maybe Elaine will get it.
For years I have toyed with the idea of writing a book about some of my experiences. (yes.. I have had some experiences, you disbelievers) At the moment, the plan is to just write about my experiences in the Baltimore area.. from arrival in the city, to entry into Carroll Lutheran Village.. with emphasis on my time at the Social Security Administration. Also, lots of family stuff to help future Vaughan genealogists. It will probably be the most boring book ever written, but what the hell!
In the "Genealogy Gang" that meets in the Village, each of us has made a presentation about their life. We had about 45 minutes to an hour to do so. My time ran to over an hour, and I never did get past the years before I entered the Air Force. So you see, I have a lot to talk about.. now, whether it is interesting or not.. that is another story. If I get another chance to talk to the group, I will cover my time in the service, then my time in Boston, at the University and in the 38 jobs that I held while in school, and then the Baltimore part. (I may have to supply pillows for nodding heads.)
With my laptop back, I once again have access to a Dell home page, which I like because I can set up views of the titles of email from 8 of my email addresses and also have instant access to my MSN account. Now I have a universe of about 900 messages to look at. I do notice that the old "bugaboo" is back... that is, some of my dear and trusted friends and relatives are starting to forward to me erroneous and vicious "garbage" messages. (I thought that this all ended when 2009 started.) I wish that the people who forward this stuff would analyse what the messages say. Is it showing an underlying prejudice against some group or race or type of person? I now do not open forwarded messages unless the title clearly states that it is not "dumb" stuff. I just ask that those who want to forward such dribble, THINK first.
I have a subscription to what is now XM/SERIUS (sp?) and I listen to it when I am driving. Usually I just listen to XM 151 (Laugh USA) which is a "clean joke" station, and as I have said many times before, if you have to stick some scatalogical thought or phrase into your joke to try to get a laugh from a person with an 11 year old mentality, you are not a real comedian. Yesterday, I switched to some of the talk shows and was completely grossed out by some of the lies being spewed by a couple of these guys. Come on! Do you really think that Americans are so dumb as to believe any of this crap? .... But... sadly, as evidenced by the comments of some of the people who called in to CSPAN this morning... some Americans do believe these lies, when just a small amount of checking, even on the Internet, would show them the truth.
Good news for readers. Barnes and Noble has announced that they have 700,000 books that can now be downloaded to iPHONES or iPOD Touch, and next year they will be coming out with an e-reader. Amazon's Kindle has access to only 300,000. Now, if only we could download some of those books directly to our brains so that it will not be necessary to take all that time to read them. ;0)
I have always thought that I would much rather have a nice paper book to hold and read rather than a computer screen to look at. But recently I went out to the site where you can read Moby Dick online. In my library, because I am a cetology cukoo, I have five different editions of Moby Dick, probably one of my favorite reads. I was able to read all of Chapter One again, but on my PC screen and it was wonderful. The print was large and easy on the eyes and I enjoyed traveling back to New Bedford again with my "brother" Ishmael.
Speaking of Ishmael.. my brother Joe and I are email pals again and I am enjoying his stories of youthful activity. He's an interesting guy, if I do say so myself.
.......................................
Today I go to get a Shingles shot. Quite expensive, but those of us who had Chicken Pox as kids are susceptible to Shingles as we get older. This is an extremely painful disease. I can still remember my Grandfather suffering with the pain for almost a year. Sometimes the pain can last for the rest of one's life. (One of my friends is suffering from Shingles right now and as an empath I can feel her excrutiating pain whenever I talk to her.) I am the Shingles Shot Guinea Pig.. if I don't have side-effects from the shot, maybe Elaine will get it.
For years I have toyed with the idea of writing a book about some of my experiences. (yes.. I have had some experiences, you disbelievers) At the moment, the plan is to just write about my experiences in the Baltimore area.. from arrival in the city, to entry into Carroll Lutheran Village.. with emphasis on my time at the Social Security Administration. Also, lots of family stuff to help future Vaughan genealogists. It will probably be the most boring book ever written, but what the hell!
In the "Genealogy Gang" that meets in the Village, each of us has made a presentation about their life. We had about 45 minutes to an hour to do so. My time ran to over an hour, and I never did get past the years before I entered the Air Force. So you see, I have a lot to talk about.. now, whether it is interesting or not.. that is another story. If I get another chance to talk to the group, I will cover my time in the service, then my time in Boston, at the University and in the 38 jobs that I held while in school, and then the Baltimore part. (I may have to supply pillows for nodding heads.)
With my laptop back, I once again have access to a Dell home page, which I like because I can set up views of the titles of email from 8 of my email addresses and also have instant access to my MSN account. Now I have a universe of about 900 messages to look at. I do notice that the old "bugaboo" is back... that is, some of my dear and trusted friends and relatives are starting to forward to me erroneous and vicious "garbage" messages. (I thought that this all ended when 2009 started.) I wish that the people who forward this stuff would analyse what the messages say. Is it showing an underlying prejudice against some group or race or type of person? I now do not open forwarded messages unless the title clearly states that it is not "dumb" stuff. I just ask that those who want to forward such dribble, THINK first.
I have a subscription to what is now XM/SERIUS (sp?) and I listen to it when I am driving. Usually I just listen to XM 151 (Laugh USA) which is a "clean joke" station, and as I have said many times before, if you have to stick some scatalogical thought or phrase into your joke to try to get a laugh from a person with an 11 year old mentality, you are not a real comedian. Yesterday, I switched to some of the talk shows and was completely grossed out by some of the lies being spewed by a couple of these guys. Come on! Do you really think that Americans are so dumb as to believe any of this crap? .... But... sadly, as evidenced by the comments of some of the people who called in to CSPAN this morning... some Americans do believe these lies, when just a small amount of checking, even on the Internet, would show them the truth.
Good news for readers. Barnes and Noble has announced that they have 700,000 books that can now be downloaded to iPHONES or iPOD Touch, and next year they will be coming out with an e-reader. Amazon's Kindle has access to only 300,000. Now, if only we could download some of those books directly to our brains so that it will not be necessary to take all that time to read them. ;0)
I have always thought that I would much rather have a nice paper book to hold and read rather than a computer screen to look at. But recently I went out to the site where you can read Moby Dick online. In my library, because I am a cetology cukoo, I have five different editions of Moby Dick, probably one of my favorite reads. I was able to read all of Chapter One again, but on my PC screen and it was wonderful. The print was large and easy on the eyes and I enjoyed traveling back to New Bedford again with my "brother" Ishmael.
Speaking of Ishmael.. my brother Joe and I are email pals again and I am enjoying his stories of youthful activity. He's an interesting guy, if I do say so myself.
.......................................
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Quick News for a July 2009 Day
Some news to wake up to on a sunny hot July day.
01. Some English folks have complained that school children at recess are laughing too loudly!!
02. Head-to-toe burka-clad male Afghan terrorists are killing innocent people. (If caught, perhaps they should be helped physically to become the women they are imitating.)
03. A plumber in Pennsylvania rescued 7 ducklings from a drain they were stuck in. (Good news for a change.)
04. Somebody got hit by lightning and it cured their heart arhythmia.
05. A 15 year old was hit and killed on the side of a road by a drunken driver.
06. A couple of Republicans are in agreement on a plan to develop a health plan for the Country.
The two have never really agreed on anything before. (Maybe that it is just my understanding)
07. Counterfeit $20 bills are showing up in Carroll County.. this happens usually after carnivals take place.
BTW.. if you get a chance, watch the movie The Counterfeiter. Amazing movie that will remind you of how beastly the German SS was in WWII. It is a great story of survival in a time that allowed very little survival by brutalized people.
08. A friend of mine was named Lion of the Year. A nice organization. I like the titles of their officers: "Lion Tamer" "Tail Twister" Cute.
09. The market is up to above 8900! Keep it up!
10. GM's Camaro is beginning to get big press. I haven't seen it, but I'm told it looks like no other car today and looks more like 1950's cars.
11. F-22 funding may pass today and earn a veto from President Obama.
That's enough, got to go to Social Security. I need to get a new pass before the current one expires at the end of the month.
I just cut up a cantalope that a new neighbor presented us with yesterday. She was returning the favor.. last week I brought them a bunch of my "famous" brownies with walnuts. Let me know if you want me to make some for you. I unabashedly say that they are the best I have ever tasted.
01. Some English folks have complained that school children at recess are laughing too loudly!!
02. Head-to-toe burka-clad male Afghan terrorists are killing innocent people. (If caught, perhaps they should be helped physically to become the women they are imitating.)
03. A plumber in Pennsylvania rescued 7 ducklings from a drain they were stuck in. (Good news for a change.)
04. Somebody got hit by lightning and it cured their heart arhythmia.
05. A 15 year old was hit and killed on the side of a road by a drunken driver.
06. A couple of Republicans are in agreement on a plan to develop a health plan for the Country.
The two have never really agreed on anything before. (Maybe that it is just my understanding)
07. Counterfeit $20 bills are showing up in Carroll County.. this happens usually after carnivals take place.
BTW.. if you get a chance, watch the movie The Counterfeiter. Amazing movie that will remind you of how beastly the German SS was in WWII. It is a great story of survival in a time that allowed very little survival by brutalized people.
08. A friend of mine was named Lion of the Year. A nice organization. I like the titles of their officers: "Lion Tamer" "Tail Twister" Cute.
09. The market is up to above 8900! Keep it up!
10. GM's Camaro is beginning to get big press. I haven't seen it, but I'm told it looks like no other car today and looks more like 1950's cars.
11. F-22 funding may pass today and earn a veto from President Obama.
That's enough, got to go to Social Security. I need to get a new pass before the current one expires at the end of the month.
I just cut up a cantalope that a new neighbor presented us with yesterday. She was returning the favor.. last week I brought them a bunch of my "famous" brownies with walnuts. Let me know if you want me to make some for you. I unabashedly say that they are the best I have ever tasted.
Monday, July 20, 2009
A Vaughansday Two Hour Adventure
10:00 am My Vaughansday adventure for July 20, 2009, began when I met Ray Hartland at the Westminster Senior Activity where he had art works on display. In my estimation, Ray is a fantastic artist, especially in oils. He has also been the President of the Carroll County (Maryland) Artists Guild for three years. I was a member for a couple of the years but had never met Ray.
SEGUE: I joined the Guild because I had seen a display of cartoons among the oils and prints on display at the Carroll Theater. The cartoons were the work of a guy who had worked for me some years before at Social Security. He had not been very happy working with computers so I arranged with Personnel to offer him a job in my home town's SS District Office. He eagerly accepted the job, I wished him well, and I haven't seen him since.
A couple of years later, I went back to my home town and visited the District Office to see how he was making out there. The office manager said: "Who?" "Nobody by that name works here." Apparently, he never showed up and disappeared somewhere in the massive Social Security beaurocracy.
When I saw his display, I decided to join the Guild and get to see him again and learn how his "career" has progressed.. and besides, I thought his cartoons were very well done. In addition, being a kind of caricaturist, I felt that I might fit into the Guild, as he did. However, before I could get to see him, he disappeared again. After joining the Guild and viewing some of their art work, I decided that my work did not rise to their level, so I did not renew my membership.
END OF SEGUE
10:15 am After boring Ray with my stories, I bought a beautiful giclee print of an oil painting of a still-life with red apples and dark tea pot.
SEGUE: Giclee is pronounced GEE'CLAY and is a print of an original prepared in a special printer that holds true to the original and supposedly lasts for 25 years. The print can be put on canvas and it is extremely hard to tell the print from the original.
END OF SEGUE
Elaine and I have been arguing about furniture and art work for the house for three years now, which is why our house is a "work in progress". I hope she will like this print and we can hang it on the wall. (It has the color to match the furniture.) If not, I will take it down to my basement cave and hang it where I can look at it every day. It is good!!
10:30 am I arrived at the Toyota service office in Westminster. On the third of July I received a summons from a Policeman to have a light fixed. The summons told me to have it done.. not for me to replace the light bulb myself. When I had had this situation in the past, the dealerships have soaked me for a service charge, so I expected it now. However, the service manager had a guy come out and stick a bulb in while I waited and only charged me for the bulb ($3)! That's another great thing about living in Westminster.
Also, while I waited for the ten minutes in the new shiny waiting room in the new shiny Toyota dealership, I speed read a Time magazine with an interesting article about Michael Jackson' s life and plastic surgery. Lots of things I had never realized before, if we can trust Time.
10:40 am I walked into the new shiny Toyota new car display area and was immediately accosted by a new shiny saleslady. She seemed disappointed when I was that I just wanted some brochures. But I did ask her about the roominess of a new shiny Toyota Venza. Not as much as I would like to have. I took away brochures for the Highlander, the Avalon, the Sequoia, and the Sienna. My 2002 Camry is still running fairly well, but lots of funny noises and rattles and mysterious dents are telling me that I may need to spend a bunch of money soon. Maybe its time to go in debt for a new car again.. Hmmm.
10:50 am Entrance into one of the local department stores looking for some new clothes. They advertise 30% off just for walking in, 30 to 50 % if you use the mailer coupon, and an additional 30 % off if you use their credit card. Figuring all that in.. if I buy something from the clearance rack, they will have to give me some money.
Unfortunately, they don't carry dress slacks (we call them pants) that fit me unless I want to get the kind that has an expandable waist (made in Pakistan). I have some of those and they keep falling apart. My waist of 46" (gasp!) is too large for any of their lines of clothes. Besides, they don't alter leg lengths, so if I want the pants to fit my short little legs I have to pay an extra $7 a pair to a tailor.
So, I gave up on pants and tried shirts.
Why do dress shirts (made in Thailand) cost so much? Is this inflation? No shirt should cost more than $1.98, just like I paid for my shirts in 1952. You can tell that I haven't bought any shirts for a while. I'll be damned if I'll pay $38 for a shirt! I'll stick to my old stuff, thank you.
11:15 am Time for WalMart. Why is it that you have such a hard time finding a parking spot at this store while hardly anybody is parked at the other department stores. Elaine says their prices are better, but I don't see it that way. Then again, I am a man.
I bought a small stapler. (made in China) I am tired of using staplers that don't completely connect at the back of a document. I also bought a 12" wooden ruler (made in China) to complement my other one, so I don't have to keep track of just one.
In the parking lot, an old man (almost as old as me!) in a giant SUV was eating and drinking and throwing his wrappings out the window. Being disgusted, but not being as civic-minded or brave as Elaine's daughter who accosted a lady throwing a "used" magazine out of her car window, I gave him a dirty look and moved on as he took a big slug of some kind of alcoholic drink.
11:45 am I deposited two Netflix returns in the drive-by mail box. The two movies were:
Desparaux. About some kind of cartoon mouse with big ears. Elaine loved it.. I escaped to the basement.
Inherit the Wind. A Classic! About the Scopes "Monkey Trial". Gene Kelley was ok as an obnoxious H. L. Mencken, but didn't have the Baltimore Bard's style or wit. Spencer Tracy was excellent as was Frederick March. However, the movie can never show how truly crazy the world was in 1927. (and probably still is)
11:55 am Dell computers called me and said that my laptop has been fixed and will be delivered shortly by Fed-EX. Yay!
So.. this was my two hour adventure for today. I had a lot of fun and look forward to the next time my "keepers" take off my chains and let me roam.
SEGUE: I joined the Guild because I had seen a display of cartoons among the oils and prints on display at the Carroll Theater. The cartoons were the work of a guy who had worked for me some years before at Social Security. He had not been very happy working with computers so I arranged with Personnel to offer him a job in my home town's SS District Office. He eagerly accepted the job, I wished him well, and I haven't seen him since.
A couple of years later, I went back to my home town and visited the District Office to see how he was making out there. The office manager said: "Who?" "Nobody by that name works here." Apparently, he never showed up and disappeared somewhere in the massive Social Security beaurocracy.
When I saw his display, I decided to join the Guild and get to see him again and learn how his "career" has progressed.. and besides, I thought his cartoons were very well done. In addition, being a kind of caricaturist, I felt that I might fit into the Guild, as he did. However, before I could get to see him, he disappeared again. After joining the Guild and viewing some of their art work, I decided that my work did not rise to their level, so I did not renew my membership.
END OF SEGUE
10:15 am After boring Ray with my stories, I bought a beautiful giclee print of an oil painting of a still-life with red apples and dark tea pot.
SEGUE: Giclee is pronounced GEE'CLAY and is a print of an original prepared in a special printer that holds true to the original and supposedly lasts for 25 years. The print can be put on canvas and it is extremely hard to tell the print from the original.
END OF SEGUE
Elaine and I have been arguing about furniture and art work for the house for three years now, which is why our house is a "work in progress". I hope she will like this print and we can hang it on the wall. (It has the color to match the furniture.) If not, I will take it down to my basement cave and hang it where I can look at it every day. It is good!!
10:30 am I arrived at the Toyota service office in Westminster. On the third of July I received a summons from a Policeman to have a light fixed. The summons told me to have it done.. not for me to replace the light bulb myself. When I had had this situation in the past, the dealerships have soaked me for a service charge, so I expected it now. However, the service manager had a guy come out and stick a bulb in while I waited and only charged me for the bulb ($3)! That's another great thing about living in Westminster.
Also, while I waited for the ten minutes in the new shiny waiting room in the new shiny Toyota dealership, I speed read a Time magazine with an interesting article about Michael Jackson' s life and plastic surgery. Lots of things I had never realized before, if we can trust Time.
10:40 am I walked into the new shiny Toyota new car display area and was immediately accosted by a new shiny saleslady. She seemed disappointed when I was that I just wanted some brochures. But I did ask her about the roominess of a new shiny Toyota Venza. Not as much as I would like to have. I took away brochures for the Highlander, the Avalon, the Sequoia, and the Sienna. My 2002 Camry is still running fairly well, but lots of funny noises and rattles and mysterious dents are telling me that I may need to spend a bunch of money soon. Maybe its time to go in debt for a new car again.. Hmmm.
10:50 am Entrance into one of the local department stores looking for some new clothes. They advertise 30% off just for walking in, 30 to 50 % if you use the mailer coupon, and an additional 30 % off if you use their credit card. Figuring all that in.. if I buy something from the clearance rack, they will have to give me some money.
Unfortunately, they don't carry dress slacks (we call them pants) that fit me unless I want to get the kind that has an expandable waist (made in Pakistan). I have some of those and they keep falling apart. My waist of 46" (gasp!) is too large for any of their lines of clothes. Besides, they don't alter leg lengths, so if I want the pants to fit my short little legs I have to pay an extra $7 a pair to a tailor.
So, I gave up on pants and tried shirts.
Why do dress shirts (made in Thailand) cost so much? Is this inflation? No shirt should cost more than $1.98, just like I paid for my shirts in 1952. You can tell that I haven't bought any shirts for a while. I'll be damned if I'll pay $38 for a shirt! I'll stick to my old stuff, thank you.
11:15 am Time for WalMart. Why is it that you have such a hard time finding a parking spot at this store while hardly anybody is parked at the other department stores. Elaine says their prices are better, but I don't see it that way. Then again, I am a man.
I bought a small stapler. (made in China) I am tired of using staplers that don't completely connect at the back of a document. I also bought a 12" wooden ruler (made in China) to complement my other one, so I don't have to keep track of just one.
In the parking lot, an old man (almost as old as me!) in a giant SUV was eating and drinking and throwing his wrappings out the window. Being disgusted, but not being as civic-minded or brave as Elaine's daughter who accosted a lady throwing a "used" magazine out of her car window, I gave him a dirty look and moved on as he took a big slug of some kind of alcoholic drink.
11:45 am I deposited two Netflix returns in the drive-by mail box. The two movies were:
Desparaux. About some kind of cartoon mouse with big ears. Elaine loved it.. I escaped to the basement.
Inherit the Wind. A Classic! About the Scopes "Monkey Trial". Gene Kelley was ok as an obnoxious H. L. Mencken, but didn't have the Baltimore Bard's style or wit. Spencer Tracy was excellent as was Frederick March. However, the movie can never show how truly crazy the world was in 1927. (and probably still is)
11:55 am Dell computers called me and said that my laptop has been fixed and will be delivered shortly by Fed-EX. Yay!
So.. this was my two hour adventure for today. I had a lot of fun and look forward to the next time my "keepers" take off my chains and let me roam.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Twitter Posts 07/17/09
A TWITTER visit can bend your mind. Here are some of the things I encountered on a visit there tonight:
01. A Kansas City auto dealer is offering an AK-47 with every truck purchase!
02. The Pope broke his wrist. (Now how will he write encyclicals?)
03. Judge Sotomayor got through her ordeal by being boring. This was a great strategy, in my opinion. (It has served some of us well for years).
04. Walter Chronhite died at age 92. Another American Icon is gone!
05. New Senator Al Franken asked Sotomayor if she remembered a Perry Mason mystery where Perry loses a case. She didn't remember. Neither did Al.
I seem to remember a case where Hamilton Berger won over Perry Mason. I think it might have been: The Case of the Deadly verdict. ........From season 7.
06. I thought that I was hearing things today.. I heard a Republican Congressman praising Massachusett's own, Barney Frank.
07. DC's former mayor and current councilman, Marion Berry, is back in the news. He swears that he did not give a plush job to his girl friend.
08. The famous Watergate Hotel will be auctioned off!
09. Starbuck says: "Looking into Ahab's eyes cons a fearful exercise. An abyss of fire ice, colder than an inferno, a frozen hell".. by TwitterFon (and probably not Melville). From_the_Pequod Twitter site.
10. Headline: Croc shoe company stumbles during recession. (Elaine won't like that.)
How about all that??!
01. A Kansas City auto dealer is offering an AK-47 with every truck purchase!
02. The Pope broke his wrist. (Now how will he write encyclicals?)
03. Judge Sotomayor got through her ordeal by being boring. This was a great strategy, in my opinion. (It has served some of us well for years).
04. Walter Chronhite died at age 92. Another American Icon is gone!
05. New Senator Al Franken asked Sotomayor if she remembered a Perry Mason mystery where Perry loses a case. She didn't remember. Neither did Al.
I seem to remember a case where Hamilton Berger won over Perry Mason. I think it might have been: The Case of the Deadly verdict. ........From season 7.
06. I thought that I was hearing things today.. I heard a Republican Congressman praising Massachusett's own, Barney Frank.
07. DC's former mayor and current councilman, Marion Berry, is back in the news. He swears that he did not give a plush job to his girl friend.
08. The famous Watergate Hotel will be auctioned off!
09. Starbuck says: "Looking into Ahab's eyes cons a fearful exercise. An abyss of fire ice, colder than an inferno, a frozen hell".. by TwitterFon (and probably not Melville). From_the_Pequod Twitter site.
10. Headline: Croc shoe company stumbles during recession. (Elaine won't like that.)
How about all that??!
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Vaughan's Day July 16, 2009
Those of you who have worked their way through James Joyce's Ulysses (I know, I know, you only read Molly's soliloquy) are acquainted with Bloom's Day. Although Leopold Bloom was basically a boring nobody, his day was filled with all kinds of activity. So was it today for Joe Vaughan. If you are easily bored, you may want to skip this blog... but if you do, you will miss a great insight at the end.
Early this morning I prepared three sets of brownies that I had baked before bed last night. One set for my TRIAD meeting today, one set for my son, Chris, who had complained that I never make him any, and one set for the people who have just moved in next to us. (With my luck, they will be diabetics.)
I prepared for my TRIAD meeting by gathering together all of the scam information that I had clipped or composed during the month since the last meeting. The meeting went very well in spite of the fact that I was 10 minutes late... so, to compensate, we went 10 minutes over. Actually, at these meetings, nobody wants to leave when they are over, because there is so much scam material to cover.
Today, one of the members showed me an official letter she had received, along with an official looking water-marked check for $3,751.22. The letter told her that based on her standing in the community, she had been chosen to receive the check. To earn the check, she was told to investigate WalMart. To go to that store and write down what she saw in a report format.
She was told to mail her report to a certain address along with her answers to a few questions, such as: Name, Address, Age, SSN (Social Security Number), Bank, Banking Number....etc... you get the picture. They didn't even want any of the check back when she cashed it.. why would they.. the check will bounce, and the scammers will have enough information to clean out her bank account and sell her SSN. I told her to take the letter and check to the States Attorney's Office.
Prior to the TRIAD meeting, a new wheelchair was delivered for Elaine. She will probably not have to use it for very long, but the old one is falling apart. This one is the same make as the old one, but lots of upgrades have been made in five years. The main thing is that it is much sturdier.. (but a bit heavier.. good exercise for Elaine's arms and my hernia.) I tried to get the deliverer to accept back the old one.. nope. We get to keep it.
The TRIAD meeting is held at the Westminster (Maryland) Senior Activity Center.. and today they were having an exhibit of local artists' works. (I used to belong to the Artists' Guild that put on the exhibit. I need to get back to "art"! I was extremely well impressed by one artist's still-lifes.. Raymond Hartland is his name and I'll bet that he will be honored because his work is GOOD!
After TRIAD, I networked a bit and then went to the Westminster Library to check out their "playaway" collection. Playaway is "books on tape" but in a much smaller media.. the "tape" is mini and has a built-in rechargable battery. One plugs earphones into the little package and listens to a complete book read by a melifluous voiced reader. Today they only had fiction available. I will visit them online and order some non-fiction books from them. (Not many libraries have gotten into "playaway" yet. Carroll County's library is the most used library in Maryland because they try to keep ahead of the curve in technology and service. My son spent a lot of time working there and getting them plugged into the computer age.)
At one pm I went to a so-called "Ice Cream Social" in my village, where I submitted a story for the literary magazine. It was about a trip that my son and I took a few years ago. Last night I spent some time getting the story down to 400 words from about 900. I think that was good exercise for me. The title of the story is Wake Up Time... or another title could be: The Perfect Squelch. I like the story, of course, and will publish it also as a blog entry.
After turning in my story, I was presented with a very delicious ice cream sundae. That's all the payment that I need.
Now for the Insight part:
When I left the house this morning, I had a schedule book, newspaper clippings, brownies, a story to submit and some note paper.
When I returned home this afternoon, I had accumulated the following items:
A copy of the Carroll County Times.. one headline: Students stitch Underground Railroad Quilts.
A "Playaway" how-to guide.
Farm Notes newsletter from the Maryland Cooperative Extension.
A schedule of Maryland Agricultural Fairs and Shows for 2009 thru Spring 2010.
An ad for the Maryland Wine Festival to be held in September at the Carroll County Farm Museum. The poster shown on the ad is a direct "steal" from Alphonse Mucha posters.. the ones with the beautiful zapftig ladies. Very well done!
A brochure about library facilities entitled: Read.
An online reference guide to the library.
Tips on managing a library account.
A how-to brochure on how to use a personal library card.
A schedule of July programs by the Carroll County Bureau of Aging.
The Carroll County government newsletter. Headline: Waste Options Considered.
The Carroll County government newsletter: Headline: Planning.. on Pathways Draft.
Brochure: Fish for Dinner?
Food stamp information.
Brochure: Use Common Sense to Spot a Con.
Brochure: Safer Seniors
Brochure on AARP's Driver Safety Program. (I was an instructor in this program for 8 years.)
Booklet: Outsmarting Crime.
GSA Consumer Information Catalog.
Calendar showing when Maryland grown fruit and vegetables are available.
Newsletter for the Maryland Homeowners' Association, Inc.
Baltimore City Paper "Big Music Issue".. (I'm hoping they will have something within its 104 pages about Emily and Mat's Mobtown Studio.)
Plus Junk Mail and bills for Elaine and me.
INSIGHT! Most of the stuff that we want to import into our lives each day is not that important and should not even be picked up or looked at. (We waste hours of our life trying to read it all.. and then we must make decisions on what we read.)
Early this morning I prepared three sets of brownies that I had baked before bed last night. One set for my TRIAD meeting today, one set for my son, Chris, who had complained that I never make him any, and one set for the people who have just moved in next to us. (With my luck, they will be diabetics.)
I prepared for my TRIAD meeting by gathering together all of the scam information that I had clipped or composed during the month since the last meeting. The meeting went very well in spite of the fact that I was 10 minutes late... so, to compensate, we went 10 minutes over. Actually, at these meetings, nobody wants to leave when they are over, because there is so much scam material to cover.
Today, one of the members showed me an official letter she had received, along with an official looking water-marked check for $3,751.22. The letter told her that based on her standing in the community, she had been chosen to receive the check. To earn the check, she was told to investigate WalMart. To go to that store and write down what she saw in a report format.
She was told to mail her report to a certain address along with her answers to a few questions, such as: Name, Address, Age, SSN (Social Security Number), Bank, Banking Number....etc... you get the picture. They didn't even want any of the check back when she cashed it.. why would they.. the check will bounce, and the scammers will have enough information to clean out her bank account and sell her SSN. I told her to take the letter and check to the States Attorney's Office.
Prior to the TRIAD meeting, a new wheelchair was delivered for Elaine. She will probably not have to use it for very long, but the old one is falling apart. This one is the same make as the old one, but lots of upgrades have been made in five years. The main thing is that it is much sturdier.. (but a bit heavier.. good exercise for Elaine's arms and my hernia.) I tried to get the deliverer to accept back the old one.. nope. We get to keep it.
The TRIAD meeting is held at the Westminster (Maryland) Senior Activity Center.. and today they were having an exhibit of local artists' works. (I used to belong to the Artists' Guild that put on the exhibit. I need to get back to "art"! I was extremely well impressed by one artist's still-lifes.. Raymond Hartland is his name and I'll bet that he will be honored because his work is GOOD!
After TRIAD, I networked a bit and then went to the Westminster Library to check out their "playaway" collection. Playaway is "books on tape" but in a much smaller media.. the "tape" is mini and has a built-in rechargable battery. One plugs earphones into the little package and listens to a complete book read by a melifluous voiced reader. Today they only had fiction available. I will visit them online and order some non-fiction books from them. (Not many libraries have gotten into "playaway" yet. Carroll County's library is the most used library in Maryland because they try to keep ahead of the curve in technology and service. My son spent a lot of time working there and getting them plugged into the computer age.)
At one pm I went to a so-called "Ice Cream Social" in my village, where I submitted a story for the literary magazine. It was about a trip that my son and I took a few years ago. Last night I spent some time getting the story down to 400 words from about 900. I think that was good exercise for me. The title of the story is Wake Up Time... or another title could be: The Perfect Squelch. I like the story, of course, and will publish it also as a blog entry.
After turning in my story, I was presented with a very delicious ice cream sundae. That's all the payment that I need.
Now for the Insight part:
When I left the house this morning, I had a schedule book, newspaper clippings, brownies, a story to submit and some note paper.
When I returned home this afternoon, I had accumulated the following items:
A copy of the Carroll County Times.. one headline: Students stitch Underground Railroad Quilts.
A "Playaway" how-to guide.
Farm Notes newsletter from the Maryland Cooperative Extension.
A schedule of Maryland Agricultural Fairs and Shows for 2009 thru Spring 2010.
An ad for the Maryland Wine Festival to be held in September at the Carroll County Farm Museum. The poster shown on the ad is a direct "steal" from Alphonse Mucha posters.. the ones with the beautiful zapftig ladies. Very well done!
A brochure about library facilities entitled: Read.
An online reference guide to the library.
Tips on managing a library account.
A how-to brochure on how to use a personal library card.
A schedule of July programs by the Carroll County Bureau of Aging.
The Carroll County government newsletter. Headline: Waste Options Considered.
The Carroll County government newsletter: Headline: Planning.. on Pathways Draft.
Brochure: Fish for Dinner?
Food stamp information.
Brochure: Use Common Sense to Spot a Con.
Brochure: Safer Seniors
Brochure on AARP's Driver Safety Program. (I was an instructor in this program for 8 years.)
Booklet: Outsmarting Crime.
GSA Consumer Information Catalog.
Calendar showing when Maryland grown fruit and vegetables are available.
Newsletter for the Maryland Homeowners' Association, Inc.
Baltimore City Paper "Big Music Issue".. (I'm hoping they will have something within its 104 pages about Emily and Mat's Mobtown Studio.)
Plus Junk Mail and bills for Elaine and me.
INSIGHT! Most of the stuff that we want to import into our lives each day is not that important and should not even be picked up or looked at. (We waste hours of our life trying to read it all.. and then we must make decisions on what we read.)
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
A Real Cool Grannie
Anne Arundel County (Maryland) has ruled that it is not illegal to put a dead body in a freezer. Recently, an 83 year old grandmother was found on top of the frozen broccoli in a family freezer. She had died a few weeks earlier and the family decided to keep her "on ice" until they worked out the details of her funeral. This reminds me of several things.
For years, during the Winter, Alaskan women have been putting their dead husbands into snow drifts in their back yards to keep them handy for when the Spring thaw comes and the Social Security Field Rep visits. This is the "Proof of Death" that is necessary for them to file for Survivor's Benefits. (Some of my fellow workers at the Social Security Administration told me that this is absolutely true.)
My son is always kidding me (I hope!) that when the time comes, he will pick out a nice big ice floe to put me on, just like the eskimos do.
What to do with old folks is becoming a massive problem as our aged population soars. There are several options (besides the ice floes and freezers).
The aged (with money to keep) can stay in their homes and apartments until they die. The problem is, before they die, they may become unable to care for themselves, at which time they may go to live with relatives (if they have any), become residents at Nursing Homes, or have helpers come into their homes to help them (and in many cases, help themselves.)
The aged (with some money to give away) can go to live in a 55 and older community without assisted living. When they can't manage, they will have to find an assisted living facility that will take them in (and many will "take them in.") (I've found that people in these types of communities believe that they will never need help.)
The aged (with extra money to give away) can go to live in a 55 and older community with assisted living. In which case, when they can't manage, they will be able to get help for all of their normal needs. However, when they need medical help, they will have to find a Nursing Home. (I've found that people in these types of communities believe that assisted living will be all the help that they will ever need.)
The aged (with a lot of money to give away) can go to live in a Continuing Care Facility where Independent Living is automatically followed by Assisted Living, followed by Nursing Care, followed by a pine box. Some of these facilities will keep you even if you run out of money.
The aged (without money) can become homeless and look for heat-emitting sidewalk grates to sleep on until they die and go to a pauper's grave.
Thank God for Social Security. Most Senior Citizens now have some form of income. Before Social Security the average old person had nothing, and had to rely on the goodness of relatives or churches. However, even today many old people have to be very frugal with their income, often cutting prescription pills in half to make them last longer.
I've written this mainly to draw your attention to the decisions that must be made in our rapidly aging society. Hopefully, I have made you reconsider your own decision to let old Uncle Charlie finish out his days on a melting mass of ice or as a cryogenic specimen in someone's basement.
For years, during the Winter, Alaskan women have been putting their dead husbands into snow drifts in their back yards to keep them handy for when the Spring thaw comes and the Social Security Field Rep visits. This is the "Proof of Death" that is necessary for them to file for Survivor's Benefits. (Some of my fellow workers at the Social Security Administration told me that this is absolutely true.)
My son is always kidding me (I hope!) that when the time comes, he will pick out a nice big ice floe to put me on, just like the eskimos do.
What to do with old folks is becoming a massive problem as our aged population soars. There are several options (besides the ice floes and freezers).
The aged (with money to keep) can stay in their homes and apartments until they die. The problem is, before they die, they may become unable to care for themselves, at which time they may go to live with relatives (if they have any), become residents at Nursing Homes, or have helpers come into their homes to help them (and in many cases, help themselves.)
The aged (with some money to give away) can go to live in a 55 and older community without assisted living. When they can't manage, they will have to find an assisted living facility that will take them in (and many will "take them in.") (I've found that people in these types of communities believe that they will never need help.)
The aged (with extra money to give away) can go to live in a 55 and older community with assisted living. In which case, when they can't manage, they will be able to get help for all of their normal needs. However, when they need medical help, they will have to find a Nursing Home. (I've found that people in these types of communities believe that assisted living will be all the help that they will ever need.)
The aged (with a lot of money to give away) can go to live in a Continuing Care Facility where Independent Living is automatically followed by Assisted Living, followed by Nursing Care, followed by a pine box. Some of these facilities will keep you even if you run out of money.
The aged (without money) can become homeless and look for heat-emitting sidewalk grates to sleep on until they die and go to a pauper's grave.
Thank God for Social Security. Most Senior Citizens now have some form of income. Before Social Security the average old person had nothing, and had to rely on the goodness of relatives or churches. However, even today many old people have to be very frugal with their income, often cutting prescription pills in half to make them last longer.
I've written this mainly to draw your attention to the decisions that must be made in our rapidly aging society. Hopefully, I have made you reconsider your own decision to let old Uncle Charlie finish out his days on a melting mass of ice or as a cryogenic specimen in someone's basement.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Summer Thoughts 01
As I sit here finishing my morning coffee, and before I must get ready for meetings, errands, and chores, I am thinking about a few things that please, sadden, confuse, or upset me; for instance:
There is another giant zucchini growing on our back porch.. also two tomatoes showing red. We have already harvested three zukes and four little cukes. This pleases me.. even though I must carry 5 gallons of water each day to offer to my green plants. But they are appreciative.
Tomorrow, Bastille Day, is the 9th anniversary of the death of Elaine Langlois Vaughan. She was 63 years old when she died and should have normally had 24 more years of life in which to watch her beloved grandchildren mature and have families of their own. This saddens me.
Conservative Senators are gearing up to try to discredit Ms. Sotomayor during the Confirmation process. This confuses me. In my mind, she is the ideal candidate to help make the Supreme Court more representative of the U. S. population because she is a woman and an Hispanic. How could any Senator be against this.. besides, if they are too mean to her, they would probably kiss their reelection plans goodbye.
Last night, I opened a can of expensive cat food and found that it was moldy inside. This upsets me. I will be taking it back to the store, together with all of the other cans by the same company. I will ask them to check their stock and notify the company. By "them" I mean the store manager. My tuxedo cat is suffering from hyperthyroidism and if I had not examined the food before feeding it too him, who knows what effect it might have had on him.
Yesterday, we hung a pink rose plaque on the front side of the house. On the bottom, we will be placing our house numbers. Pink is Elaine's favorite color and this plaque pleases her and me. At the same time, we hung her butterfly windsock from the gutter. Now we have a good weather instrument. If it is stretched out sideways, we know the wind is blowing; if it is hanging straight down, we know the wind is calm; if it looks wet, we know it is raining; if it is white, we know that it is snowing.
Our service men are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, this saddens me. Also, the "news" just anncounced that the CIA lied to Congress about a secret program. The news also says that the secrecy was requested (ordered?) by the Vice President. The Constitution was written in such a way that the Executive Branch's actions would be tempered by interaction with the Legislature and the Judiciary. Violations of that procedure should be dealt with sternly, in my opinion.
Man's inhumanity to man continues to confuse me. Why do some people continue to act like animals? Fathers murdering their families. Drive-by shooting. Five-year olds being hit with bullets fired by seventeen-year olds. etc etc Just pick up the paper for any day of the week. And the churches try to curb this inhumanity, but I don't think they succeed. I remember when I was working.. on Monday, those folks who had gone to church on Sunday were very pleasant and tolerant.. but as the week grew older, these same folks reverted back to their old grouchy and prejudicial ways.. but then, maybe it was because it was Government work, and maybe, just maybe, it was me who was the grouchy one.
Finally, there is something that really upsets me. I received word on Saturday that my Uncle Allen had a stroke that day and was being rushed 50 miles away to Boston. Allen is my last living Uncle and is 89 years old. He has survived heart attacks and open heart surgery and I expected him to live to be 105. When he was a lot younger, he was called Popeye, because he was one tough son of a gun. I grew up in the same household as he did and he treated me like a brother.. and I think of him as a brother and also as a kind of father image. So, I am waiting for word now and I hope that his stroke was a mild one. Something that he can overcome.
................
There is another giant zucchini growing on our back porch.. also two tomatoes showing red. We have already harvested three zukes and four little cukes. This pleases me.. even though I must carry 5 gallons of water each day to offer to my green plants. But they are appreciative.
Tomorrow, Bastille Day, is the 9th anniversary of the death of Elaine Langlois Vaughan. She was 63 years old when she died and should have normally had 24 more years of life in which to watch her beloved grandchildren mature and have families of their own. This saddens me.
Conservative Senators are gearing up to try to discredit Ms. Sotomayor during the Confirmation process. This confuses me. In my mind, she is the ideal candidate to help make the Supreme Court more representative of the U. S. population because she is a woman and an Hispanic. How could any Senator be against this.. besides, if they are too mean to her, they would probably kiss their reelection plans goodbye.
Last night, I opened a can of expensive cat food and found that it was moldy inside. This upsets me. I will be taking it back to the store, together with all of the other cans by the same company. I will ask them to check their stock and notify the company. By "them" I mean the store manager. My tuxedo cat is suffering from hyperthyroidism and if I had not examined the food before feeding it too him, who knows what effect it might have had on him.
Yesterday, we hung a pink rose plaque on the front side of the house. On the bottom, we will be placing our house numbers. Pink is Elaine's favorite color and this plaque pleases her and me. At the same time, we hung her butterfly windsock from the gutter. Now we have a good weather instrument. If it is stretched out sideways, we know the wind is blowing; if it is hanging straight down, we know the wind is calm; if it looks wet, we know it is raining; if it is white, we know that it is snowing.
Our service men are still in Iraq and Afghanistan, this saddens me. Also, the "news" just anncounced that the CIA lied to Congress about a secret program. The news also says that the secrecy was requested (ordered?) by the Vice President. The Constitution was written in such a way that the Executive Branch's actions would be tempered by interaction with the Legislature and the Judiciary. Violations of that procedure should be dealt with sternly, in my opinion.
Man's inhumanity to man continues to confuse me. Why do some people continue to act like animals? Fathers murdering their families. Drive-by shooting. Five-year olds being hit with bullets fired by seventeen-year olds. etc etc Just pick up the paper for any day of the week. And the churches try to curb this inhumanity, but I don't think they succeed. I remember when I was working.. on Monday, those folks who had gone to church on Sunday were very pleasant and tolerant.. but as the week grew older, these same folks reverted back to their old grouchy and prejudicial ways.. but then, maybe it was because it was Government work, and maybe, just maybe, it was me who was the grouchy one.
Finally, there is something that really upsets me. I received word on Saturday that my Uncle Allen had a stroke that day and was being rushed 50 miles away to Boston. Allen is my last living Uncle and is 89 years old. He has survived heart attacks and open heart surgery and I expected him to live to be 105. When he was a lot younger, he was called Popeye, because he was one tough son of a gun. I grew up in the same household as he did and he treated me like a brother.. and I think of him as a brother and also as a kind of father image. So, I am waiting for word now and I hope that his stroke was a mild one. Something that he can overcome.
................
Saturday, July 11, 2009
July 11, 2009 Breaking News
News of vital interest from several Saturday sources:
01. British firefighters answered a call from a lady who excitedly said that her TV was on fire. She had just bought a new HD set and was watching a news picture of a burning building. Firemen put out the fire by changing the channel for her.
02. Church attendees are now being encouraged to text message their friends during church services if they like what is going on and the spirit moves them.
03. A recent study learned that pigeons can tell good art from bad. The birds were given examples of both types of art (in the studiers' opinions) and found that the birds pecked mainly on the "good" art. (Maybe the examiners were studying the wrong ends of the pigeons.)
04. Another study showed that cockroaches get fat from eating unhealthy food.
(Who pays for these studies?)
05. Afghanistan's only pig (see prior blog) has now been freed and allowed back in the Afghan zoo.
06. Methodist Bishops have agreed to cut their pay. (!)
07. Casey Kasem retired after 40 years. (Recently I turned on an XM music channel and the DJ sure sounded like the Kasem I remember from years ago. Guess what, it was him. So then I thought that it was a rebroadcast from long ago. Nope.. it was him today.. I think that his distinctive voice has not changed in 40 years.)
08. General Motors has exited from bankruptcy. Does this mean that my GM stock is worth something afterall? If so, I need to rescue my shreded certificates and glue them back together.
09. A New Jersey brewery is naming its beers after exits on the New Jersey Turnpike. "Exit 11" is coming out this month.
10. Iran's Achmmedenijahd (or whatever) tried to kill a fly like President Obama did during a video presentation.. he failed miserably, but Iranian press reports will probably say that he killed it, and did it much faster than Obama.
11. Scotland Yard installed mini-cams on police helmets. They have worked well, except that a few have caught fire. (Peter Sellers and Benny Hill would have loved this one.)
Finally.. for those who listen to Old Time Radio on WAMU-FM on Sunday evenings, Ed Walker, the host, has been nominated to the Radio Hall of Fame. If you are so inclined, you can vote for him at www.wamu.org.
Also, if you want to add fun to your day, you could add www.twitter.com/waitwait to your visits.
Adios!
01. British firefighters answered a call from a lady who excitedly said that her TV was on fire. She had just bought a new HD set and was watching a news picture of a burning building. Firemen put out the fire by changing the channel for her.
02. Church attendees are now being encouraged to text message their friends during church services if they like what is going on and the spirit moves them.
03. A recent study learned that pigeons can tell good art from bad. The birds were given examples of both types of art (in the studiers' opinions) and found that the birds pecked mainly on the "good" art. (Maybe the examiners were studying the wrong ends of the pigeons.)
04. Another study showed that cockroaches get fat from eating unhealthy food.
(Who pays for these studies?)
05. Afghanistan's only pig (see prior blog) has now been freed and allowed back in the Afghan zoo.
06. Methodist Bishops have agreed to cut their pay. (!)
07. Casey Kasem retired after 40 years. (Recently I turned on an XM music channel and the DJ sure sounded like the Kasem I remember from years ago. Guess what, it was him. So then I thought that it was a rebroadcast from long ago. Nope.. it was him today.. I think that his distinctive voice has not changed in 40 years.)
08. General Motors has exited from bankruptcy. Does this mean that my GM stock is worth something afterall? If so, I need to rescue my shreded certificates and glue them back together.
09. A New Jersey brewery is naming its beers after exits on the New Jersey Turnpike. "Exit 11" is coming out this month.
10. Iran's Achmmedenijahd (or whatever) tried to kill a fly like President Obama did during a video presentation.. he failed miserably, but Iranian press reports will probably say that he killed it, and did it much faster than Obama.
11. Scotland Yard installed mini-cams on police helmets. They have worked well, except that a few have caught fire. (Peter Sellers and Benny Hill would have loved this one.)
Finally.. for those who listen to Old Time Radio on WAMU-FM on Sunday evenings, Ed Walker, the host, has been nominated to the Radio Hall of Fame. If you are so inclined, you can vote for him at www.wamu.org.
Also, if you want to add fun to your day, you could add www.twitter.com/waitwait to your visits.
Adios!
Friday, July 10, 2009
A True Comedian
This afternoon I finished a book that my son, Chris, had lent me. The title is: I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This! (and Other Things That Strike Me as Funny) by Bob Newhart. Bob is my age, and has been doing stand-up, TV Sit-Coms, movies and Voice-Overs since the 1960's.
Bob's first album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, became the first comedy album to go to #1 on the Bilboard charts. In all, he had a total of eight comedy albums.
I was surprised to learn that he hosted The Tonight Show 87 times!
My family watched every episode of The Bob Newhart Show on TV from 1972 to 1978 and then Newhart from 1982 to 1990. One of the most remarkable TV moments I've ever seen was the final show of Newhart, when Bob wakes up in bed with Emily from The Bob Newhart Show and says that he has had a dream (the Newhart show). I thought that was a classic touch. The idea came from Bob's real wife, Ginnie, in a moment of true genius.
Bob's routines are being resurrected on XM Radio Channel 151 (Laugh USA) and are wonderful to hear again. Especially the one about the discovery of tobacco. Bob says in his book that when he did that bit he was actually a chain smoker. A short time later he quit cold turkey.
Remember some of the characters on Bob's shows?
"Hi, my name is Larry. This is my brother, Darrell. And this is my other brother, Darrell."
Neurotic Mr. Carlin? "I only had one problem this week. Yesterday I was possessed by the devil." Dr. Hartley says: "Okay, go with that, Mr. Carlin."
Wife Emily, who was one of the most beautiful actresses in television, Suzanne Pleshette.
Bob has lots of stories to tell about his friend, Don Rickles. (I didn't know that Don Rickles had any friends. )
Bob talks about other comedians that I want to do more research on:
Joe Frisco, who did the "Jewish Charleston" and is famous for his comedic stutter.
Jimmy Edmundson, who was called Professor Backwards, who was supposed to be a famous tightwad.
W.C. Fields, one of my all-time favorites. His routine as a memory expert is a classic.
Laurel and Hardy, who I have followed for years. When I was in Cologne, Germany, I spent a lot of time in the movie theaters watching Dick und Duenne (Fat and Skinny) do their schtick. The Germans loved them and laughed and laughed at their antics, even though the dialogue was in English.
Peter Sellers.. you know, Doctor Strangelove and The Pink Panther. Nobody.. I mean nobody.. could take his place as Inspector Clouseau.. not even Steve Martin! XM Radio's Laugh USA is playing some of Sellers' routines from the Goon Show of many years ago. One routine that I like has him playing an Indian Doctor singing with his Nurse.. if you can hear it, you will love both the melody and the words.
All in all... Bob Newhart's book is a fast and pleasant read that will cause you to have many belly laughs and put a constant smile on your face.
Bob's first album, The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, became the first comedy album to go to #1 on the Bilboard charts. In all, he had a total of eight comedy albums.
I was surprised to learn that he hosted The Tonight Show 87 times!
My family watched every episode of The Bob Newhart Show on TV from 1972 to 1978 and then Newhart from 1982 to 1990. One of the most remarkable TV moments I've ever seen was the final show of Newhart, when Bob wakes up in bed with Emily from The Bob Newhart Show and says that he has had a dream (the Newhart show). I thought that was a classic touch. The idea came from Bob's real wife, Ginnie, in a moment of true genius.
Bob's routines are being resurrected on XM Radio Channel 151 (Laugh USA) and are wonderful to hear again. Especially the one about the discovery of tobacco. Bob says in his book that when he did that bit he was actually a chain smoker. A short time later he quit cold turkey.
Remember some of the characters on Bob's shows?
"Hi, my name is Larry. This is my brother, Darrell. And this is my other brother, Darrell."
Neurotic Mr. Carlin? "I only had one problem this week. Yesterday I was possessed by the devil." Dr. Hartley says: "Okay, go with that, Mr. Carlin."
Wife Emily, who was one of the most beautiful actresses in television, Suzanne Pleshette.
Bob has lots of stories to tell about his friend, Don Rickles. (I didn't know that Don Rickles had any friends. )
Bob talks about other comedians that I want to do more research on:
Joe Frisco, who did the "Jewish Charleston" and is famous for his comedic stutter.
Jimmy Edmundson, who was called Professor Backwards, who was supposed to be a famous tightwad.
W.C. Fields, one of my all-time favorites. His routine as a memory expert is a classic.
Laurel and Hardy, who I have followed for years. When I was in Cologne, Germany, I spent a lot of time in the movie theaters watching Dick und Duenne (Fat and Skinny) do their schtick. The Germans loved them and laughed and laughed at their antics, even though the dialogue was in English.
Peter Sellers.. you know, Doctor Strangelove and The Pink Panther. Nobody.. I mean nobody.. could take his place as Inspector Clouseau.. not even Steve Martin! XM Radio's Laugh USA is playing some of Sellers' routines from the Goon Show of many years ago. One routine that I like has him playing an Indian Doctor singing with his Nurse.. if you can hear it, you will love both the melody and the words.
All in all... Bob Newhart's book is a fast and pleasant read that will cause you to have many belly laughs and put a constant smile on your face.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Laptop, jokes, birds and other stuff..
I had a nice long 2 hour talk with some Indian guys working for Dell. They had me take my laptop apart a bit and do some tests. Unfortunately, nothing was determined, so they have arranged for FED EX to pick up my laptop and send it to DELL for fixing. At least I now know that the problem is not with the hard drive. Luckily, I am still within the warranty period.
This is the first PC that I have had that I could not fix myself.
Elaine and I were telling jokes this morning. I remembered my first joke: Question: Why does a cat walk across the street with its tail up in the air? Answer: So the cars can see its license plate.
(I know, its not great, but what do you expect from an eight-year old?)
Elaine made up a new joke: Question: "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Answer: " She forgot her cell phone."
Uggg!
Elaine and I like to watch the birds outside of our bowed window, here in Maryland. Once a week, I fill five bird feeders and one finch feeder, and a suet holder. Usually, it takes a complete week for the birds to empty the feeders. However, this week, everything has gone in four days! Why?
We like to watch yellow finches eat thistle seed. I had thought that yellow finches were only here for two weeks and then went on to Maine. Apparently I was wrong because they have lingered here for a couple of months. Beautiful birds that are a delight to watch.
Other birds we have seen this week: Red wing blackbirds.. which we thought only populated marsh lands. Well, here they are.
Also, mocking birds, sparrows, starlings, woodpeckers, crows, house finches, mourning doves, etc. Apparenty, next to the side of the house, under some bushes, baby sparrows have come into existence. It is fun to watch them take their first flights, prodded by their mama. If their flights are not as long as she feels necessary, she butts them in the rear end to get them to take off again.
The heavy rains of a month ago washed away the mulch along the sides of our house. In this environment, residents are not supposed to move mulch or do weeding. We are supposed to write up "pink slips" to trigger maintenance to work. However, in our bad economy, some maintenance activity has been curtailed. But.. since our monthly fee has gone up this month, I feel that we should not be losing out on our perks. The Village has a large surplus held for "a Rainy Day".. hey! Isn't this a rainy day??
The Market had been going up for a few weeks, but now it has taken a down-turn again. Who knows what tomorrow may bring. Let's hope that the recession has bottomed out.
It looks like medical problems will keep us from visiting New Bedford this year. It took years for my leg wounds to heal, and now Elaine has foot wounds that are not healing properly. We will be visiting doctors every day this week.
Our garden is going well.. in fact, one of the zucchinis seems to grow a few inches every day. We also have about 30 green tomatoes growing on the vines. Every morning I deliver 5 gallons of water to the plants!
Am I a great farmer or not?!
This is the first PC that I have had that I could not fix myself.
Elaine and I were telling jokes this morning. I remembered my first joke: Question: Why does a cat walk across the street with its tail up in the air? Answer: So the cars can see its license plate.
(I know, its not great, but what do you expect from an eight-year old?)
Elaine made up a new joke: Question: "Why did the chicken cross the road?" Answer: " She forgot her cell phone."
Uggg!
Elaine and I like to watch the birds outside of our bowed window, here in Maryland. Once a week, I fill five bird feeders and one finch feeder, and a suet holder. Usually, it takes a complete week for the birds to empty the feeders. However, this week, everything has gone in four days! Why?
We like to watch yellow finches eat thistle seed. I had thought that yellow finches were only here for two weeks and then went on to Maine. Apparently I was wrong because they have lingered here for a couple of months. Beautiful birds that are a delight to watch.
Other birds we have seen this week: Red wing blackbirds.. which we thought only populated marsh lands. Well, here they are.
Also, mocking birds, sparrows, starlings, woodpeckers, crows, house finches, mourning doves, etc. Apparenty, next to the side of the house, under some bushes, baby sparrows have come into existence. It is fun to watch them take their first flights, prodded by their mama. If their flights are not as long as she feels necessary, she butts them in the rear end to get them to take off again.
The heavy rains of a month ago washed away the mulch along the sides of our house. In this environment, residents are not supposed to move mulch or do weeding. We are supposed to write up "pink slips" to trigger maintenance to work. However, in our bad economy, some maintenance activity has been curtailed. But.. since our monthly fee has gone up this month, I feel that we should not be losing out on our perks. The Village has a large surplus held for "a Rainy Day".. hey! Isn't this a rainy day??
The Market had been going up for a few weeks, but now it has taken a down-turn again. Who knows what tomorrow may bring. Let's hope that the recession has bottomed out.
It looks like medical problems will keep us from visiting New Bedford this year. It took years for my leg wounds to heal, and now Elaine has foot wounds that are not healing properly. We will be visiting doctors every day this week.
Our garden is going well.. in fact, one of the zucchinis seems to grow a few inches every day. We also have about 30 green tomatoes growing on the vines. Every morning I deliver 5 gallons of water to the plants!
Am I a great farmer or not?!
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Sarah
Sarah Palin: The big news is that she has resigned as Governor of Alaska. The big question is WHY? I think that most politicians would say that if she had further political ambitions, she should have at least stayed until her current term was up, otherwise she could be accused of having a very small amount of political experience, and was a quitter.
I believe that we will hear about the real reason in a few days. As an Independent voter, I can pick on all candidates and I found her to be a "turn-off" and the wrong running mate for McCain. I'm sure she is a very nice person, but her "Caribou Barbie" characterization will probably live with her for some time to come. I hope that her reason for resigning is not a health problem.
I believe that we will hear about the real reason in a few days. As an Independent voter, I can pick on all candidates and I found her to be a "turn-off" and the wrong running mate for McCain. I'm sure she is a very nice person, but her "Caribou Barbie" characterization will probably live with her for some time to come. I hope that her reason for resigning is not a health problem.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Lucky and our first Zuke
My laptop stopped working and the only thing that is working quickly on my desktop is blogspot.com, so I will do another blog, Today I will talk about my Tuxedo Cat, Lucky (alias Luciano, Houdini, de Tuxedo) and also about our first Zuke.
I think that it is Larry the Cable Guy who tells about his dog that has only three legs, is blind and deaf. His name is "Lucky".
Well, my cat "Lucky" is also not so lucky right now. He has hyperthyroidism and is pulling out all of his fur. He looks like he has male pattern baldness. Some parts of his body have no fur and Lucky walks around with fur hanging out of his mouth.
When he was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, the vet gave us a liquid to give to the cat. Lucky did not like that and after he chewed up my arm pretty badly we gave up on the liquid. The vet gave us some pills instead and Elaine found a wonderful thing in her effects.. its called a "pill popper". I grab Lucky and hold his paws while Elaine "pops" a pill down his gullet. It works.
Every morning I get out the vacuum cleaner and suck up the black fur deposited all over the house. Some of it embeds itself in the cheap wall-to-wall rug that we mis-ordered before we moved in.
Did I tell you about the derivation of Lucky's names? (All my cats have been named Lucky as far as I'm concerned even if other people in the house have given them other names. My late spouse called my prior cat "damn cat!" Elaine calls this cat "Kitty Kitty".)
I used "Luciano" because when I got him, his crying sounded like Pavarotti. I used "Houdini" because he learned to open locked doors. "De Tuxedo" is of course a name given to all black and white cats that look like they are preparing to go to a wedding.
Lucky has a companion: Su-Zee. I'm sure I have talked about this Siamese fireball before.
Yesterday, we picked our first zucchini from our balcony garden. It was about 5 inches long and we cut it up and mixed it into scrambled egg, as a mini-melange. Elaine ate some slices raw beforehand and said that it was the best she had ever tasted. The melange was delicious and we are looking forward to more zukes. There certainly are plenty of flowers on the plants. Elaine's daughter, Emily, says that you can fry up the blossoms. We'll have to try that.
Our tomato plants are all starting to burst forth with little tomatoes.. even our hanging tomato plant holder has a few flowers. For some reason, we are not having as good luck with the hanging holder as some of our neighbors. I look at their holders and I see large amounts of greenery hanging down. We have a few light green twiggs with brown leaves. Maybe I will pull the thing apart and put in a new plant, if I can find one now that tomato plants are being pulled because of the "blight."
Next year, Elaine wants to ask the Village for a small plot of land on which to plant some corn. So, in my old age I will become a farmer again. What about that "old rocking chair" time?
I think that it is Larry the Cable Guy who tells about his dog that has only three legs, is blind and deaf. His name is "Lucky".
Well, my cat "Lucky" is also not so lucky right now. He has hyperthyroidism and is pulling out all of his fur. He looks like he has male pattern baldness. Some parts of his body have no fur and Lucky walks around with fur hanging out of his mouth.
When he was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, the vet gave us a liquid to give to the cat. Lucky did not like that and after he chewed up my arm pretty badly we gave up on the liquid. The vet gave us some pills instead and Elaine found a wonderful thing in her effects.. its called a "pill popper". I grab Lucky and hold his paws while Elaine "pops" a pill down his gullet. It works.
Every morning I get out the vacuum cleaner and suck up the black fur deposited all over the house. Some of it embeds itself in the cheap wall-to-wall rug that we mis-ordered before we moved in.
Did I tell you about the derivation of Lucky's names? (All my cats have been named Lucky as far as I'm concerned even if other people in the house have given them other names. My late spouse called my prior cat "damn cat!" Elaine calls this cat "Kitty Kitty".)
I used "Luciano" because when I got him, his crying sounded like Pavarotti. I used "Houdini" because he learned to open locked doors. "De Tuxedo" is of course a name given to all black and white cats that look like they are preparing to go to a wedding.
Lucky has a companion: Su-Zee. I'm sure I have talked about this Siamese fireball before.
Yesterday, we picked our first zucchini from our balcony garden. It was about 5 inches long and we cut it up and mixed it into scrambled egg, as a mini-melange. Elaine ate some slices raw beforehand and said that it was the best she had ever tasted. The melange was delicious and we are looking forward to more zukes. There certainly are plenty of flowers on the plants. Elaine's daughter, Emily, says that you can fry up the blossoms. We'll have to try that.
Our tomato plants are all starting to burst forth with little tomatoes.. even our hanging tomato plant holder has a few flowers. For some reason, we are not having as good luck with the hanging holder as some of our neighbors. I look at their holders and I see large amounts of greenery hanging down. We have a few light green twiggs with brown leaves. Maybe I will pull the thing apart and put in a new plant, if I can find one now that tomato plants are being pulled because of the "blight."
Next year, Elaine wants to ask the Village for a small plot of land on which to plant some corn. So, in my old age I will become a farmer again. What about that "old rocking chair" time?
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
The State of Comedy Today
What has happened to comedy? I believe that the test of a comedian's worth is how he or she can tell a joke or a humorous story without resorting to off-color material. Anybody can be funny to an eleven year old audience with fart jokes. It takes a competent funny person to appeal to an audience of adults. with intelligent funny material.
I have a group of stand-up comedians that I admire and I always try to view or hear their routines whenever I can. Therefore, recently I heard an announcement for a "humor night" on one of the TV stations. The program would consist of five or six stand-up comedians doing their bits. Two of the comedians were to be my favorites, John Pinette and Kathleen Madigan. I immediately set up my DVR to tape the show, in case I missed it.
When I viewed the tape I was surprised at what I saw. First, there was a sophomoric routine by Martin Short.. extremely unfunny, unless you were ten years old. Then there were 5 minute skits by several comedians. Tom Papa tried to be funny... he failed miserably. Greg Geraldo, who I have heard on XM radio as a funny guy.. seriously bombed. A couple of other guys also bombed.
But, I had set up to tape the show because I would be able to see two of my favorites: Kathleen Madigan and John Pinette. Kathleen was a disappointment. Not like her routines that I look forward to on XM radio's Laugh USA. (But still, I will keep my link to her facebook and twitter accounts.)
John Pinette was kind of funny, but not at his best. Not one : I say "nay, nay" during the bit.
Martin Short was, how should I say this delicately, LOUSY!
I was very disappointed. But, I will not give up on my favorites, Madigan and Pinette. Surely, their routines were cut down to fit into the show's time frame. They had to be.. they are much funnier than they showed themselves on this show.
While we are on the subject, let me make a prediction... Conan will bomb. Sorry.. but I feel that Conan is not a funny man.. not as funny as Jay Leno and definitely nowhere as funny as Johnny Carson or Jack Paar or Steve Allen. The Tonite Show has survived for years because some of the writing was funny.. but (in my opinion) Conan's writers are "out to lunch".
Since the writers' strike, Leno's monologues suffered from a dearth of funny material. If he didn't have Paris or Michael or some Senator or other to make fun of, he would not have anything to say. We did like his "Headlines" schtick. If his show contained nothing but that, he would have been good. Unfortunately, he also had pretty young "airhead" stars to interview.. most of whom could not carry on an intelligent conversation.
Why can't the Tonight Show go back to the Jack Paar mode.. where everything was live and it was exciting to watch... you never knew what was going to be said next.. !!!
Oh well, perhaps we should just learn to be senior citizens and go to bed at 9 pm. Or, at least, watch our netflix movies instead of wasting our time with late network shows.
I have a group of stand-up comedians that I admire and I always try to view or hear their routines whenever I can. Therefore, recently I heard an announcement for a "humor night" on one of the TV stations. The program would consist of five or six stand-up comedians doing their bits. Two of the comedians were to be my favorites, John Pinette and Kathleen Madigan. I immediately set up my DVR to tape the show, in case I missed it.
When I viewed the tape I was surprised at what I saw. First, there was a sophomoric routine by Martin Short.. extremely unfunny, unless you were ten years old. Then there were 5 minute skits by several comedians. Tom Papa tried to be funny... he failed miserably. Greg Geraldo, who I have heard on XM radio as a funny guy.. seriously bombed. A couple of other guys also bombed.
But, I had set up to tape the show because I would be able to see two of my favorites: Kathleen Madigan and John Pinette. Kathleen was a disappointment. Not like her routines that I look forward to on XM radio's Laugh USA. (But still, I will keep my link to her facebook and twitter accounts.)
John Pinette was kind of funny, but not at his best. Not one : I say "nay, nay" during the bit.
Martin Short was, how should I say this delicately, LOUSY!
I was very disappointed. But, I will not give up on my favorites, Madigan and Pinette. Surely, their routines were cut down to fit into the show's time frame. They had to be.. they are much funnier than they showed themselves on this show.
While we are on the subject, let me make a prediction... Conan will bomb. Sorry.. but I feel that Conan is not a funny man.. not as funny as Jay Leno and definitely nowhere as funny as Johnny Carson or Jack Paar or Steve Allen. The Tonite Show has survived for years because some of the writing was funny.. but (in my opinion) Conan's writers are "out to lunch".
Since the writers' strike, Leno's monologues suffered from a dearth of funny material. If he didn't have Paris or Michael or some Senator or other to make fun of, he would not have anything to say. We did like his "Headlines" schtick. If his show contained nothing but that, he would have been good. Unfortunately, he also had pretty young "airhead" stars to interview.. most of whom could not carry on an intelligent conversation.
Why can't the Tonight Show go back to the Jack Paar mode.. where everything was live and it was exciting to watch... you never knew what was going to be said next.. !!!
Oh well, perhaps we should just learn to be senior citizens and go to bed at 9 pm. Or, at least, watch our netflix movies instead of wasting our time with late network shows.
New Bedford
I've written a lot about New Bedford, but I don't think that I've included web addresses. So here goes:
The New Bedford Whaling Museum .. Without a doubt, the best museum in the world dealing with the whaling industry, the famous City of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and the current preservation of cetaceans. Visit this site and take all of the tours and I am sure that you will want to visit New Bedford and the Museum on your next vacation.
Most people think about New Bedford (if they think about it at all) as the home of the famous "Big Dan" case. But that is only one part of New Bedford's history.
01. It was the richest city in the United States for many years.
02. It was where the Lizzie Borden trial was held.
03. It is the biggest fishing port on the East Coast and probably in the whole U.S.
04. Herman Melville worked there and was inspired to write Moby Dick there.
05. The famous painter Albert Pinkham Ryder lived there.
06. Frederick Douglass took the "Underground Railroad" to New Bedford and worked in the whaling industry there.
07. Major Roberts wrote his parliamentary procedures manual (Robert's Rules of Order) while stationed in N.B.
08. The richest woman in the world lived there and made her money from the whaling industry. Hettie Green, the so-called "Witch of Wall Street".
09. Joe Vaughan grew up there.
10. For many years it was the Textile capitol of the U.S., until cheap labor lured the industry to the southern part of the country.
11. etc etc etc
Visit the website for the museum and browse the features. You will like it.
http://www.whalingmuseum.org
If you do have an interest in the whaling industry, you might also like to visit
The Nantucket Massachusetts Whaling Museum ..
While in no way as large or inclusive as the New Bedford museum, it is very interesting to visit. Some people think that the whaling industry was centered in Nantucket.. not so. New Bedford deserves that honor. But.. it is a very interesting place to visit, and its also a wonderful place to live if your income tops one million dollars a year.
http://www.nha.org/sites/index.html
Now, if you have gotten this far, I'm sure you will love this site.. this is where you can read the whole novel Moby Dick online.
http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/moby/
Finally, here is the address of the blog for a wonderful place in Melbourne, Australia.
http://whitewhaletheatre.wordpress.com
I may as well sign this edition of my blog with one of my nom de plumes that seems appropriate.
AHAB
The New Bedford Whaling Museum .. Without a doubt, the best museum in the world dealing with the whaling industry, the famous City of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and the current preservation of cetaceans. Visit this site and take all of the tours and I am sure that you will want to visit New Bedford and the Museum on your next vacation.
Most people think about New Bedford (if they think about it at all) as the home of the famous "Big Dan" case. But that is only one part of New Bedford's history.
01. It was the richest city in the United States for many years.
02. It was where the Lizzie Borden trial was held.
03. It is the biggest fishing port on the East Coast and probably in the whole U.S.
04. Herman Melville worked there and was inspired to write Moby Dick there.
05. The famous painter Albert Pinkham Ryder lived there.
06. Frederick Douglass took the "Underground Railroad" to New Bedford and worked in the whaling industry there.
07. Major Roberts wrote his parliamentary procedures manual (Robert's Rules of Order) while stationed in N.B.
08. The richest woman in the world lived there and made her money from the whaling industry. Hettie Green, the so-called "Witch of Wall Street".
09. Joe Vaughan grew up there.
10. For many years it was the Textile capitol of the U.S., until cheap labor lured the industry to the southern part of the country.
11. etc etc etc
Visit the website for the museum and browse the features. You will like it.
http://www.whalingmuseum.org
If you do have an interest in the whaling industry, you might also like to visit
The Nantucket Massachusetts Whaling Museum ..
While in no way as large or inclusive as the New Bedford museum, it is very interesting to visit. Some people think that the whaling industry was centered in Nantucket.. not so. New Bedford deserves that honor. But.. it is a very interesting place to visit, and its also a wonderful place to live if your income tops one million dollars a year.
http://www.nha.org/sites/index.html
Now, if you have gotten this far, I'm sure you will love this site.. this is where you can read the whole novel Moby Dick online.
http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/moby/
Finally, here is the address of the blog for a wonderful place in Melbourne, Australia.
http://whitewhaletheatre.wordpress.com
I may as well sign this edition of my blog with one of my nom de plumes that seems appropriate.
AHAB
Monday, June 29, 2009
I Need to Hurry before it's too Late!
I own this wonderful book: 2,001 Things to do Before You Die by Dane Sherwood. Its all about what the title says. I went through the whole book today to see if I have done any of the suggestions. I was surprised to find that I have done exactly 650 of the 2,001 suggestions.
However! There are still 1,351 things that I need to do before the Grim Reaper comes to take me off this "mortal coil".. I thought that I might jump randomly through the book and list some of the things that I might (or might not) try to do.
Ride a boxcar for a couple of days.... How the devil could you do this today? Times have changed since hoboes were able to slide open a boxcar door and sneak inside. I think the doors are all hydraulic now and controled by computer. Well.. I'll go down to the train siding and check it out. Even if I can sneak in, could I ride along for a couple of days? Probably not. Who would feed my cats and water my flowers and vegetables?
Bottle your own preserves... I think that I might be able to handle this one. Does preserves mean only fruit? If so, I'll have to buy some at the market. If zuchini counts, I will have some of those from my deck earthbox (tm). I have 4 growing so far at 4" and I hope they will at least grow to one foot each. I'll have to learn how to put zukes in bottles.
When my son was 6 years old he planted a garden and when the zukes were a little slow, I bought an 18" one at the produce stand and stuck it under the leaves for him to find the next morning. He seemed to be very surprised and happy; however, a few months ago he confessed that he knew I had tried to fool him, but he did not let on because he thought it might hurt my feelings.
Watch a drive-in movie naked.. This will be very hard to fulfill. There is only one drive-in movie left in the Baltimore area. I wonder if it counts that when I was a new (not nude) driver, I went to drive-in movies in just a bathing suit during the hot summer?
Sky dive... I almost did this a couple of years ago. As I may have mentioned, Elaine is a sky-diver. She has abandoned perfectly good planes on several occasions. Once, I accompanied her to the Maryland Eastern Shore so that she could jump and one of the other jumpers didn't show up.. I was asked and tempted (for about 2 minutes).. and I am glad I didn't give in.
These guys jump from at least 2 miles up in the air.. down to a circle in the middle of a farmer's field. At this location, the farmer is not too happy if they miss their mark and trample some of his crop. He has been known to point a shotgun menacingly at miscreants. This whole schtick is not for me. The guys (mainly) who do this seem to be inspired by the lady who runs the show "flashing" them as they take off. There is a whole weird sub-culture here that I do not want to get involved with. (Elaine gave it up when she had to have surgery after one of the "pushers" hurt her knees agressively pushing her out of the plane.)
Two of my friends had a sky-dive experience. Jim was a parachuter in some war or other. He is a little guy. His friend, John, had never been in a plane. John is a great big guy.
One day, while roaring drunk, Jim talked John into going sky-diving. The only place where they could get a plane to take them up was the Woodbine Airport. Well, this is a kind-of flat place in a large farm field, where contented cows graze. Jim and John got parachutes somewhere and took off in a piloted aircraft of dubious safety.
When Jim, in his drunken haze, thought that they were high enough to jump (a couple of hundred feet) he told John to jump. John instantly sobered up and refused. Undaunted, Jim pushed John out of the plane. John did not know how to open his chute.. but it was too low for it to open anyway.
John was very lucky. He landed on a cow! It broke his fall and he survived. The cow died. John was in body casts for months. John and Jim still managed to get drunk regularly and John never did get mad at Jim for pushing him out of the plane.
Take a Chinese cooking class... During the 8 years that I have known Elaine, she has taught me to cook many things and I am still learning. Today she gave me some tips that made my scrambled eggs plate into a work of art. Yesterday I was able to make a dinner of pork chops, baked potatoes and squash. It was outstanding if I do say so myself.
I have a disk with one million recipes on it and I will search for some Chinese recipes to make. I think that I can handle most any recipe now. For years I bought HooMe brand New Bedford style chop suey. You can only buy that in New Bedford or Fall River, Massachusetts. I had a lot of boxes of the mix in the pantry at my old house... but when I got ready to move I found that it had gotten rancid! I was quite upset. I'll have to stock up next time I get up to NB.
Race in the Iditarod... Unless the world turns upside down, I will never get to Alaska, and never race in the Iditarod with Sarah Palin's husband. (A couple of my friends are visiting in Fairbanks right now and they just experienced a 5.0 earthquake. Not much damage but scary as hell.)
Face everyone else in an elevator... What a great idea! I will definitely try this. My half-brother, Joe, told me that he likes to stare at the back of someone's head in an elevator. He swears that when he does that, the person turns around. (Yes, I have a brother named Joe)
Watch an autopsy... Sorry, gang.. this will never happen!
Wear a milk mustache in a "Got Milk" ad... I kind of did this one.. when my daughter worked for Cysco Foods, I helped out at a Food Fair. I got people to come to the booth to get their picture taken with a milk mustache. I had mine done too and if I can find it, I will post it to the blog.
Stand in as a double... As I have mentioned before, with my hairy face, I have been compared to Earnest Hemingway, Wilfred Brimley, Captain Ahab and Santa Claus. So I could probably sit in as a double for any of those folks. ;0)>
Basta!
However! There are still 1,351 things that I need to do before the Grim Reaper comes to take me off this "mortal coil".. I thought that I might jump randomly through the book and list some of the things that I might (or might not) try to do.
Ride a boxcar for a couple of days.... How the devil could you do this today? Times have changed since hoboes were able to slide open a boxcar door and sneak inside. I think the doors are all hydraulic now and controled by computer. Well.. I'll go down to the train siding and check it out. Even if I can sneak in, could I ride along for a couple of days? Probably not. Who would feed my cats and water my flowers and vegetables?
Bottle your own preserves... I think that I might be able to handle this one. Does preserves mean only fruit? If so, I'll have to buy some at the market. If zuchini counts, I will have some of those from my deck earthbox (tm). I have 4 growing so far at 4" and I hope they will at least grow to one foot each. I'll have to learn how to put zukes in bottles.
When my son was 6 years old he planted a garden and when the zukes were a little slow, I bought an 18" one at the produce stand and stuck it under the leaves for him to find the next morning. He seemed to be very surprised and happy; however, a few months ago he confessed that he knew I had tried to fool him, but he did not let on because he thought it might hurt my feelings.
Watch a drive-in movie naked.. This will be very hard to fulfill. There is only one drive-in movie left in the Baltimore area. I wonder if it counts that when I was a new (not nude) driver, I went to drive-in movies in just a bathing suit during the hot summer?
Sky dive... I almost did this a couple of years ago. As I may have mentioned, Elaine is a sky-diver. She has abandoned perfectly good planes on several occasions. Once, I accompanied her to the Maryland Eastern Shore so that she could jump and one of the other jumpers didn't show up.. I was asked and tempted (for about 2 minutes).. and I am glad I didn't give in.
These guys jump from at least 2 miles up in the air.. down to a circle in the middle of a farmer's field. At this location, the farmer is not too happy if they miss their mark and trample some of his crop. He has been known to point a shotgun menacingly at miscreants. This whole schtick is not for me. The guys (mainly) who do this seem to be inspired by the lady who runs the show "flashing" them as they take off. There is a whole weird sub-culture here that I do not want to get involved with. (Elaine gave it up when she had to have surgery after one of the "pushers" hurt her knees agressively pushing her out of the plane.)
Two of my friends had a sky-dive experience. Jim was a parachuter in some war or other. He is a little guy. His friend, John, had never been in a plane. John is a great big guy.
One day, while roaring drunk, Jim talked John into going sky-diving. The only place where they could get a plane to take them up was the Woodbine Airport. Well, this is a kind-of flat place in a large farm field, where contented cows graze. Jim and John got parachutes somewhere and took off in a piloted aircraft of dubious safety.
When Jim, in his drunken haze, thought that they were high enough to jump (a couple of hundred feet) he told John to jump. John instantly sobered up and refused. Undaunted, Jim pushed John out of the plane. John did not know how to open his chute.. but it was too low for it to open anyway.
John was very lucky. He landed on a cow! It broke his fall and he survived. The cow died. John was in body casts for months. John and Jim still managed to get drunk regularly and John never did get mad at Jim for pushing him out of the plane.
Take a Chinese cooking class... During the 8 years that I have known Elaine, she has taught me to cook many things and I am still learning. Today she gave me some tips that made my scrambled eggs plate into a work of art. Yesterday I was able to make a dinner of pork chops, baked potatoes and squash. It was outstanding if I do say so myself.
I have a disk with one million recipes on it and I will search for some Chinese recipes to make. I think that I can handle most any recipe now. For years I bought HooMe brand New Bedford style chop suey. You can only buy that in New Bedford or Fall River, Massachusetts. I had a lot of boxes of the mix in the pantry at my old house... but when I got ready to move I found that it had gotten rancid! I was quite upset. I'll have to stock up next time I get up to NB.
Race in the Iditarod... Unless the world turns upside down, I will never get to Alaska, and never race in the Iditarod with Sarah Palin's husband. (A couple of my friends are visiting in Fairbanks right now and they just experienced a 5.0 earthquake. Not much damage but scary as hell.)
Face everyone else in an elevator... What a great idea! I will definitely try this. My half-brother, Joe, told me that he likes to stare at the back of someone's head in an elevator. He swears that when he does that, the person turns around. (Yes, I have a brother named Joe)
Watch an autopsy... Sorry, gang.. this will never happen!
Wear a milk mustache in a "Got Milk" ad... I kind of did this one.. when my daughter worked for Cysco Foods, I helped out at a Food Fair. I got people to come to the booth to get their picture taken with a milk mustache. I had mine done too and if I can find it, I will post it to the blog.
Stand in as a double... As I have mentioned before, with my hairy face, I have been compared to Earnest Hemingway, Wilfred Brimley, Captain Ahab and Santa Claus. So I could probably sit in as a double for any of those folks. ;0)>
Basta!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Has the News gotten Better or Worse?
As is often the case in 2009, the news is particularly depressing. Entertainment icons leaving us; Women being killed protesting in Iran; Governors messing around in South America; Parents of sextuplets divorcing; Swine flu cases increasing.... Was the world always this way? I have a collection of old newspapers and I like to look at them from time to time to see if the world has improved since then. (What do you think?)
The following items were included in the Sunday February 21, 1937 issue of the New York Times. This was the birthdate of the late Elaine Langlois Vaughan.
01. General Motors employees went back to work last week after a six-week sit-down strike.
Senator LaFollette reported that from 1934 to 1936, General motors spent 839 million dollars for detective services. He said that it was spent so the company could keep abreast of the labor situation.
02. President Roosevelt threw his "shock troops" into the campaign to drive through Congress his plan to change the Supreme Court by adding a justice for every present member past 70 who refused to retire.
03. In Great Britain, Neville Chamberlain called upon Europe to choose war or peace. He promised either a one and one-half billion pound rearmament budget for Britain or a move for a mutual assistance pact for the Nations of Western Europe.
04. Hitler ordered the election of a National Synod which would draft a new constitution for the German Evangelical Church. This was a victory for Nazi "German Christians" and creation of a church dictatorship by Hitler's religious advisor, Rev. Ludwig Mueller.
05. In Japan, Yukio Ozaki, a noted liberal, denounced the recent anti-Communist pact with Berlin and expressed amazement that Japan could "shake hands" with a country like Germany.
06. Clothes-horse German General Hermann Goering supposedly changes uniforms several times a day. It is rumored that a thief once stole 37 of his uniforms and he never even missed them.
07. Work progressed on the plan to bring the 200 separate Protestant sects in the United States under a central organization called "The Church of Christ in America."
08. The "handsomest Governor in America" Paul V. McNutt of Indianapolis, pushed by some to become a candidate for President, was appointed High Commissioner to the Philippines by Roosevelt. (To get him out of his way?)
09. Miss Jane M. Hoey of New York became head of the Bureau of Public Assistance.. this was the office charged with administering Federal funds for the aged, blind and dependent children.. some parts of which became the current SSI (assistance for the aged, blind and disabled ineligible for regular Social Security.) Miss Hoey said that her office helps provide assistance for one and one-half million persons and will ultimately cost 200 million dollars per year. (A little bit under estimated of course.)
10. Ten thousand youngsters were asked to give their movie preferences. The order was: 1: G-Men (read FBI or similar); 2: Mysteries (Charlie Chan?) ; 3: Child stars (Shirley Temple); 4: Musicals (New Faces of 1936; Fred and Ginger); 5: Gangsters (Dillinger; Bonnie and Clyde); 6: War. (It doesn't say if the survey was given to boys and girls, but if it had been given to all boys, War would have had a higher order I'm sure.)
11. New York State Senator McNaboe sponsored a bill to compel the display of American flags, three feet by four, in all classrooms; it was defeated.
When I first entered school back in the late 1930's and early 1940's, we saluted the flag that was on a pole in each classroom by giving a kind of Nazi gesture, with the arm pointed upward at an angle as though we were about to say: "Heil Hitler".. as we got into WWII, the arm salute was changed to a palm on the heart gesture.
12. Japan dropped it's minimum height restriction for a soldier from 5 feet 1/2 inch to 4 feet 10 1/2 inches. The American Army's standard is 5 feet 4 inches.. but it can be lowered 1/2 inch in "exceptional cases." Recently, a 6 feet 10 inch recruit showed up and caused supply officers to have to order an extra long bed.
13. The original manuscript of "Old Mother Hubbard" has been discovered in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It dates from 1804 when it was invented by Sarah Catherine Martin. The names are now also known for the writers of "Mary had a little lamb" and "there was a little girl, who had a little curl..".. but people still want to know who wrote : "Hush-a-bye baby", "Twinkle, twinkle, little star", and "Little drops of water." (This was, of course, long before Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia.)
ok 13 is enough for now.
The following items were included in the Sunday February 21, 1937 issue of the New York Times. This was the birthdate of the late Elaine Langlois Vaughan.
01. General Motors employees went back to work last week after a six-week sit-down strike.
Senator LaFollette reported that from 1934 to 1936, General motors spent 839 million dollars for detective services. He said that it was spent so the company could keep abreast of the labor situation.
02. President Roosevelt threw his "shock troops" into the campaign to drive through Congress his plan to change the Supreme Court by adding a justice for every present member past 70 who refused to retire.
03. In Great Britain, Neville Chamberlain called upon Europe to choose war or peace. He promised either a one and one-half billion pound rearmament budget for Britain or a move for a mutual assistance pact for the Nations of Western Europe.
04. Hitler ordered the election of a National Synod which would draft a new constitution for the German Evangelical Church. This was a victory for Nazi "German Christians" and creation of a church dictatorship by Hitler's religious advisor, Rev. Ludwig Mueller.
05. In Japan, Yukio Ozaki, a noted liberal, denounced the recent anti-Communist pact with Berlin and expressed amazement that Japan could "shake hands" with a country like Germany.
06. Clothes-horse German General Hermann Goering supposedly changes uniforms several times a day. It is rumored that a thief once stole 37 of his uniforms and he never even missed them.
07. Work progressed on the plan to bring the 200 separate Protestant sects in the United States under a central organization called "The Church of Christ in America."
08. The "handsomest Governor in America" Paul V. McNutt of Indianapolis, pushed by some to become a candidate for President, was appointed High Commissioner to the Philippines by Roosevelt. (To get him out of his way?)
09. Miss Jane M. Hoey of New York became head of the Bureau of Public Assistance.. this was the office charged with administering Federal funds for the aged, blind and dependent children.. some parts of which became the current SSI (assistance for the aged, blind and disabled ineligible for regular Social Security.) Miss Hoey said that her office helps provide assistance for one and one-half million persons and will ultimately cost 200 million dollars per year. (A little bit under estimated of course.)
10. Ten thousand youngsters were asked to give their movie preferences. The order was: 1: G-Men (read FBI or similar); 2: Mysteries (Charlie Chan?) ; 3: Child stars (Shirley Temple); 4: Musicals (New Faces of 1936; Fred and Ginger); 5: Gangsters (Dillinger; Bonnie and Clyde); 6: War. (It doesn't say if the survey was given to boys and girls, but if it had been given to all boys, War would have had a higher order I'm sure.)
11. New York State Senator McNaboe sponsored a bill to compel the display of American flags, three feet by four, in all classrooms; it was defeated.
When I first entered school back in the late 1930's and early 1940's, we saluted the flag that was on a pole in each classroom by giving a kind of Nazi gesture, with the arm pointed upward at an angle as though we were about to say: "Heil Hitler".. as we got into WWII, the arm salute was changed to a palm on the heart gesture.
12. Japan dropped it's minimum height restriction for a soldier from 5 feet 1/2 inch to 4 feet 10 1/2 inches. The American Army's standard is 5 feet 4 inches.. but it can be lowered 1/2 inch in "exceptional cases." Recently, a 6 feet 10 inch recruit showed up and caused supply officers to have to order an extra long bed.
13. The original manuscript of "Old Mother Hubbard" has been discovered in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It dates from 1804 when it was invented by Sarah Catherine Martin. The names are now also known for the writers of "Mary had a little lamb" and "there was a little girl, who had a little curl..".. but people still want to know who wrote : "Hush-a-bye baby", "Twinkle, twinkle, little star", and "Little drops of water." (This was, of course, long before Google, Yahoo and Wikipedia.)
ok 13 is enough for now.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The Third Eye
I'm sure that everyone has now heard about the reconstructed Stonehenge in Georgia. It boggled my mind when I visited the Stonehenge in England. Lots to think about there. There is some tie-in with Rosicrucianism, in some people's minds. I belonged to the Rosicrucians when I was in my late teens and really "got into it" for a while.
I spent a lot of time trying to focus blood flow on my "third eye".. i.e., the pineal gland. I even bought a crystal on a chain to dangle and stare at for long periods of time. (I know.. you might say: "Get a life!" Well I did have a "life" then.. lots of it, but mysticism filled a bit of that time.) I did have some fun with my crystal when I was in the service in Germany.
At one time, at our mountain-top Air Force "retreat", a new guy showed up. A "wise guy" who thought that the world revolved around him and that he knew more about anything than anyone else. In a word.. he was OBNOXIOUS! He had to be taken down a peg.
My buddies and I decided on a plan. In our barracks we slept in double decker bunks. I slept on the bottom of one and the wise guy slept on the top bunk.
I hung my crystal from the springs of the top bunk. Wise guy asked some of the men, "What's that thing that Vaughan hung from my springs?" They told him it was my "gazing crystal".. which I used to increase my hypnotism prowess. WG said: "Ha Ha BS!" But the men told him that it was true.. Joe Vaughan had the power to gaze into that crystal and then hypnotise anyone to do anything he wanted them to do. WG laughed again, but not quite as loudly.
I made a point of gazing into my crystal whenever WG was in the vicinity. Meanwhile, the men told him that one of my powers was to hypnotise people in their sleep. WG was getting quite interested and a little scared by then. In fact, he began to sleep a lot less and became a lot less belligerent, especially when I was nearby. In time, he decided not to be quite as much of a pain and even began to be friendly towards me. When the group decided that he had somewhat reformed, I made a big show of giving up hypnotism and pretended to throw away my crystal.
WG and I did become friends, but I never let him know that the hypnotism bit was a gag.
For a while I did study hypnotism and also sleep learning. I hooked up earphones to my Grundig tape recorder every night and listened to language tapes while I slept. I don't know if it did any good, but I did reach a point where I could think in German and understand French a little better than before. (I did some of this sleep learning later at Boston University and I do think it helped me learn languages, especially spoken Russian.)
Speaking of extra eyes.. have you ever seen the movie: Reflections in a Golden Eye? I think that this is one of the best movies ever made. It's a psychological marvel.. starring Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando. I've seen it several times and each time I see things in it that I hadn't noticed before. Isn't that one of the characteristics of a classic? If you use Netflix, order the movie.. you will be glad you did.
Incidentally, speaking of Netflix.. we have a number of movies set up on Roku.. so we can watch whenever we want to.. and over and over if we want to. One of the movies is another phychological marvel.. a play that has been adapted to the screen and one that won lots of awards for Elizabeth Taylor... Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? I've watched the first ten minutes three times now.. Liz and her co-star, Richard Burton have a fantastic interplay of lines. I may finish watching the whole movie sometime soon.
I love to segue.
I spent a lot of time trying to focus blood flow on my "third eye".. i.e., the pineal gland. I even bought a crystal on a chain to dangle and stare at for long periods of time. (I know.. you might say: "Get a life!" Well I did have a "life" then.. lots of it, but mysticism filled a bit of that time.) I did have some fun with my crystal when I was in the service in Germany.
At one time, at our mountain-top Air Force "retreat", a new guy showed up. A "wise guy" who thought that the world revolved around him and that he knew more about anything than anyone else. In a word.. he was OBNOXIOUS! He had to be taken down a peg.
My buddies and I decided on a plan. In our barracks we slept in double decker bunks. I slept on the bottom of one and the wise guy slept on the top bunk.
I hung my crystal from the springs of the top bunk. Wise guy asked some of the men, "What's that thing that Vaughan hung from my springs?" They told him it was my "gazing crystal".. which I used to increase my hypnotism prowess. WG said: "Ha Ha BS!" But the men told him that it was true.. Joe Vaughan had the power to gaze into that crystal and then hypnotise anyone to do anything he wanted them to do. WG laughed again, but not quite as loudly.
I made a point of gazing into my crystal whenever WG was in the vicinity. Meanwhile, the men told him that one of my powers was to hypnotise people in their sleep. WG was getting quite interested and a little scared by then. In fact, he began to sleep a lot less and became a lot less belligerent, especially when I was nearby. In time, he decided not to be quite as much of a pain and even began to be friendly towards me. When the group decided that he had somewhat reformed, I made a big show of giving up hypnotism and pretended to throw away my crystal.
WG and I did become friends, but I never let him know that the hypnotism bit was a gag.
For a while I did study hypnotism and also sleep learning. I hooked up earphones to my Grundig tape recorder every night and listened to language tapes while I slept. I don't know if it did any good, but I did reach a point where I could think in German and understand French a little better than before. (I did some of this sleep learning later at Boston University and I do think it helped me learn languages, especially spoken Russian.)
Speaking of extra eyes.. have you ever seen the movie: Reflections in a Golden Eye? I think that this is one of the best movies ever made. It's a psychological marvel.. starring Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando. I've seen it several times and each time I see things in it that I hadn't noticed before. Isn't that one of the characteristics of a classic? If you use Netflix, order the movie.. you will be glad you did.
Incidentally, speaking of Netflix.. we have a number of movies set up on Roku.. so we can watch whenever we want to.. and over and over if we want to. One of the movies is another phychological marvel.. a play that has been adapted to the screen and one that won lots of awards for Elizabeth Taylor... Whose Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? I've watched the first ten minutes three times now.. Liz and her co-star, Richard Burton have a fantastic interplay of lines. I may finish watching the whole movie sometime soon.
I love to segue.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Sunday Musings
I love to learn interesting things from NPR Sunday shows: Such as:
01. A new search engine has been developed in Israel for the use of Orthodox Jews who want to input in Hebrew and also avoid pornographic sites. It's called KOOGLE!
02. Conservative Episcopal churchpeople, still angry about the ordination of a gay bishop, are on the verge of seceding and forming another "church". This is the history of Christianity, isn't it? As each "church" becomes older, people split off from it and form a new "church"... like Roger Williams did in Rhode Island. It is a "life cycle"..( I read a book about this phenomenon recently, but I'll be darned if I can recall it's title. ) This situation is a bit different I think.. usually the more liberal break off from the more conservative.
03. AARP had a Spelling Bee Contest! This was a little different than the one I mentioned yesterday, won by a 9 year old girl. This was won by a 64 year old man! Her winning word was LAODICEAN, his was WOAD. He also could be considered a "ringer" because 40 or more years ago he had been a runner-up in a Spelling Bee for younger folks.
I'm always amazed at the fact that AARP can get involved in things like Spelling Bees and has lost interest in much more important functions like supporting TRIAD, which is concerned with protecting senior citizens from criminal exploitation. I have devoted many years of my life to AARP, so I feel that I am eligible to criticise it when I feel like it.
04. This is the 50th anniversary of the visit to the U.S. by Nikita Kruschev. He finagled a tour from the State Department. To commemorate his visit... kind of... Peter Carlson has written a book about the visit. He includes some comic newspaper headlines of the times, including "K BLOWS TOP", which became the book's title.
I remember (since I'm one of those "old guys") when Nikita took his shoe off at the U.N. and banged it on the table. He famously yelled: "We will bury you!".. which he later qualified by saying that of course he didn't mean "with a shovel".
While in the U.S., everywhere he went he said that what he saw was not as good as it was in the USSR. However, he did find one thing that he was greatly interested in: Railroad Station lockers. Apparently, in the USSR, people have to check things with an attendant, and wait in long lines to do so. He liked the idea of being able to stick your things in a hole in the wall and keep it locked with a key that you control.
I'm told that Nikita was very upset that he did not get to see Disneyland!
Old Nikki must be rolling over in his grave, now that the U.S. has buried the USSR.
01. A new search engine has been developed in Israel for the use of Orthodox Jews who want to input in Hebrew and also avoid pornographic sites. It's called KOOGLE!
02. Conservative Episcopal churchpeople, still angry about the ordination of a gay bishop, are on the verge of seceding and forming another "church". This is the history of Christianity, isn't it? As each "church" becomes older, people split off from it and form a new "church"... like Roger Williams did in Rhode Island. It is a "life cycle"..( I read a book about this phenomenon recently, but I'll be darned if I can recall it's title. ) This situation is a bit different I think.. usually the more liberal break off from the more conservative.
03. AARP had a Spelling Bee Contest! This was a little different than the one I mentioned yesterday, won by a 9 year old girl. This was won by a 64 year old man! Her winning word was LAODICEAN, his was WOAD. He also could be considered a "ringer" because 40 or more years ago he had been a runner-up in a Spelling Bee for younger folks.
I'm always amazed at the fact that AARP can get involved in things like Spelling Bees and has lost interest in much more important functions like supporting TRIAD, which is concerned with protecting senior citizens from criminal exploitation. I have devoted many years of my life to AARP, so I feel that I am eligible to criticise it when I feel like it.
04. This is the 50th anniversary of the visit to the U.S. by Nikita Kruschev. He finagled a tour from the State Department. To commemorate his visit... kind of... Peter Carlson has written a book about the visit. He includes some comic newspaper headlines of the times, including "K BLOWS TOP", which became the book's title.
I remember (since I'm one of those "old guys") when Nikita took his shoe off at the U.N. and banged it on the table. He famously yelled: "We will bury you!".. which he later qualified by saying that of course he didn't mean "with a shovel".
While in the U.S., everywhere he went he said that what he saw was not as good as it was in the USSR. However, he did find one thing that he was greatly interested in: Railroad Station lockers. Apparently, in the USSR, people have to check things with an attendant, and wait in long lines to do so. He liked the idea of being able to stick your things in a hole in the wall and keep it locked with a key that you control.
I'm told that Nikita was very upset that he did not get to see Disneyland!
Old Nikki must be rolling over in his grave, now that the U.S. has buried the USSR.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Miscellaneous Nonsense
Some bloggers are upset that President Obama karate-chopped a fly during a video'd session. Also, some animal-rights organization are sending him some traps so that in the future he can capture flies and put them outside alive. I thought about this as I crushed a mean-looking 2" long spider this morning.
I would rather not kill any living creature, which is one reason why I have never wanted to be a hunter. I was more of a gatherer. (See that new movie: Year One) When I was a teen-ager, I studied Hindu mysticism and was impressed with the fact that some holy men wear mouth masks in order not to breath in any insects and become the cause of their demise.
I've read that our skin is covered with layers of living creatures.. bacteria. Are we not killing them whenever we rub our aching knees or shoulders? Are we not killing ants and other small living creatures as we walk through a meadow? Don't our agents kill crabs, bulls, mackrel, shrimp, etc, etc.
Survival of the fittest. I guess at this point of time on earth, humans are the fittest predators. It certainly wasn't always that way. Although some people don't believe it, humans were not around for the millions of years that dinosaur-like creatures ruled the planet.
And what about the Golden Rule? Would we like to be crushed by a giant spider? I guess we have to maintain a reasonable middle-of-the-road approach to all of this. We should not knowingly kill if it can't be helped. And, yes, I will try to catch an insect in the house and try to let them loose outside.. or at least flush them unkilled down the toilet bowl where they at least have a fighting chance of survival if they can swim.
Segue: I learned today that some baby flaminos in a zoo are scared by pink hand-puppets that their keepers made for them to help them learn how to feed. By the way, baby flamingos are grey.
Another thing that I learned is that a nude soccer game was interrupted in New Zealand by a "streaker". Do you remember "streakers" from decades ago? You guessed it.. this "streaker" was fully clothed.
At this year's spelling bee championships, a young lady won by spelling the word: LAODICEAN.
Holy cow! When I heard this, I searched my memory for this word. I had heard it used in church years ago, I thought.
I looked the word up and found that it means: lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics.
The word comes from Paul's epistle to the Colossians. He wanted his buddies in the church there to let the Laodiceans know that they should be paying more attention to what he had been teaching about Christ. (Those damnable Laodiceans just were not interested. they would rather be paying more attention to acquiring worldly possessions and doing a lot of sinning.) The word was also used in Revelations. (If you are into Bible lore, you might have some fun tracing the origin of the Laodiceans and where they fit into the scheme of things during Paul's time. When I went to the Baptist summer camp and became a "Royal Ambassador" for two weeks, most of my time was spent inside a cabin studying the "Life of Paul." You might want to think about where Christianity would be today if it wasn't for his salesmanship.)
The newspaper articles that I read about the spelling bee started out: "The Indian-American girl, Kanya Shivashankar won..." Why do we have to use these hyphenated tags in the U.S.? Obama is called the first African-American President. Sotomayor is called a Spanish-American or a Puerto-Rican American.. etc. Aren't we all just-plain "Americans?" Right now, I am trying to find out who my biological father was. For most of my life, I thought that he was an Italian-American (his parents emigrated from Italy years ago.) Since my mother was a Mayflower descendant, should I have been labeled: Joe Vaughan, the Italian-Yankee-American? One of my cousins could be called then a Czech-Yankee-American.
And then, of course, there are Native-Americans. They were immigrants too... since their ancestors reportedly came here over the Bering Straight. We are a nation of "minorities". We are a "melting pot".. and isn't it great to be living in such a diversified country? When we lived in Randallstown, Maryland, our neighbors were of many derivations. Just in our small place called Sonya Court, there were people with Jewish, English, Italian, German, Scottish and Yankee backgrounds. We all got along real well and had fun together. The best part I thought was that we could take part in many of the ethnic celebrations that took place.
Ain't life great!
I would rather not kill any living creature, which is one reason why I have never wanted to be a hunter. I was more of a gatherer. (See that new movie: Year One) When I was a teen-ager, I studied Hindu mysticism and was impressed with the fact that some holy men wear mouth masks in order not to breath in any insects and become the cause of their demise.
I've read that our skin is covered with layers of living creatures.. bacteria. Are we not killing them whenever we rub our aching knees or shoulders? Are we not killing ants and other small living creatures as we walk through a meadow? Don't our agents kill crabs, bulls, mackrel, shrimp, etc, etc.
Survival of the fittest. I guess at this point of time on earth, humans are the fittest predators. It certainly wasn't always that way. Although some people don't believe it, humans were not around for the millions of years that dinosaur-like creatures ruled the planet.
And what about the Golden Rule? Would we like to be crushed by a giant spider? I guess we have to maintain a reasonable middle-of-the-road approach to all of this. We should not knowingly kill if it can't be helped. And, yes, I will try to catch an insect in the house and try to let them loose outside.. or at least flush them unkilled down the toilet bowl where they at least have a fighting chance of survival if they can swim.
Segue: I learned today that some baby flaminos in a zoo are scared by pink hand-puppets that their keepers made for them to help them learn how to feed. By the way, baby flamingos are grey.
Another thing that I learned is that a nude soccer game was interrupted in New Zealand by a "streaker". Do you remember "streakers" from decades ago? You guessed it.. this "streaker" was fully clothed.
At this year's spelling bee championships, a young lady won by spelling the word: LAODICEAN.
Holy cow! When I heard this, I searched my memory for this word. I had heard it used in church years ago, I thought.
I looked the word up and found that it means: lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics.
The word comes from Paul's epistle to the Colossians. He wanted his buddies in the church there to let the Laodiceans know that they should be paying more attention to what he had been teaching about Christ. (Those damnable Laodiceans just were not interested. they would rather be paying more attention to acquiring worldly possessions and doing a lot of sinning.) The word was also used in Revelations. (If you are into Bible lore, you might have some fun tracing the origin of the Laodiceans and where they fit into the scheme of things during Paul's time. When I went to the Baptist summer camp and became a "Royal Ambassador" for two weeks, most of my time was spent inside a cabin studying the "Life of Paul." You might want to think about where Christianity would be today if it wasn't for his salesmanship.)
The newspaper articles that I read about the spelling bee started out: "The Indian-American girl, Kanya Shivashankar won..." Why do we have to use these hyphenated tags in the U.S.? Obama is called the first African-American President. Sotomayor is called a Spanish-American or a Puerto-Rican American.. etc. Aren't we all just-plain "Americans?" Right now, I am trying to find out who my biological father was. For most of my life, I thought that he was an Italian-American (his parents emigrated from Italy years ago.) Since my mother was a Mayflower descendant, should I have been labeled: Joe Vaughan, the Italian-Yankee-American? One of my cousins could be called then a Czech-Yankee-American.
And then, of course, there are Native-Americans. They were immigrants too... since their ancestors reportedly came here over the Bering Straight. We are a nation of "minorities". We are a "melting pot".. and isn't it great to be living in such a diversified country? When we lived in Randallstown, Maryland, our neighbors were of many derivations. Just in our small place called Sonya Court, there were people with Jewish, English, Italian, German, Scottish and Yankee backgrounds. We all got along real well and had fun together. The best part I thought was that we could take part in many of the ethnic celebrations that took place.
Ain't life great!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Drugs
Yesterday was an interesting one for me. In the morning I traveled to Annapolis, Maryland for the quarterly TRIAD/SALT meeting. TRIAD is an organization consisting of three parts: Police Departments (Mainly Sheriff's Offices), AARP, and senior citizens doing things to ensure that our older citizens enjoy a scam-proof life. SALT stands for the "councils" under TRIAD (Seniors And Law-enforcement Together). I am the civilian coordinator for Carroll County TRIAD.
The main topic of this quarterly meeting was Elderly Abuse resulting from drug-related activity. We watched a film provided by the Office of the Vermont Attorney General. We saw surveillance footage of care-givers doing some unbelievable things.
For instance, a care-giver at a Hospice facility actually removed a pain patch from a dying patient, sucked on it to get a high, and then put it back on the patient.
A care-giver took pills from a bottle with drugs that were supposed to be given to a terminally ill person.
A nurse asked a patient if his pain was bearable... when he said "yes", she took the pills he was supposed to get.
There were other equally gross situations. These people were caught because a family member questioned why pain was not being relieved for their loved one. There must be other situations that have never been caught.
This film should be given wide distribution. Toni Katz of the Maryland Attorney General's Office is showing the film to Ombudsmen in all of the 27 Maryland Counties and I will be asking her to bring the film to the TRIAD Conference that Carroll County will be hosting in October 2009.
When Elaine had her first knee operation, she had to be in the hospital for a number of days, so her usual prescription pills had to be given to her by a nurse. On the first day, the nurse handed her all of her daily pills and told her that she had to take them all at the same time. This would have been very bad for Elaine because certain pills have to be given once in the morning and once in the evening. To take them at the same time could be extremely dangerous.
Elaine refused to take them at the same time and had to almost physically fight with the nurse to get her to give in and separate the pill taking time. The nurse was not happy about this.
About 8 years ago, a family friend went into the hospital for observation concerning a rather minor physical complaint. She, like Elaine, had to have several prescription drugs. As she lay there in bed, a so-called social worker came to see her and said that she had looked at the list of pills that our friend took and called her a "drug-addict" and said that she had to report her to the police. Our friend, who was not that ill, dropped dead the next day.
Ms Katz gave us a lot of information about the drug scene. She reminded us that we should not leave drugs around the house, in full view. Senior Citizens are probably all guilty of that. However, we should realize that visitors (and even Grandchildren) could possibly have a drug or money problem. An unguarded bottle of oxycontin might be an overwhelming temptation.
Also... what should one do with pills that are no longer needed? Ms Katz says: Don't flush! Crush! and mix them with kitty litter if you have it. Cover it and put it into the garbage can for pickup. (If people flush pills, we could end up with a Bay filled with "high" fish.)
While we are on the subject of drugs, remember that cattle ingest lots of drugs.. to make them grow bigger.. to make them mature earlier.. and when we eat the big hamburger, could we also be ingesting the drugs that they ingested.. just a little while later? Why do we have such big fat kids these days? Medical records indicate that some young teen-agers already have clogged arteries.
Are other meats any better?
I hope I haven't depressed you too much today.
The main topic of this quarterly meeting was Elderly Abuse resulting from drug-related activity. We watched a film provided by the Office of the Vermont Attorney General. We saw surveillance footage of care-givers doing some unbelievable things.
For instance, a care-giver at a Hospice facility actually removed a pain patch from a dying patient, sucked on it to get a high, and then put it back on the patient.
A care-giver took pills from a bottle with drugs that were supposed to be given to a terminally ill person.
A nurse asked a patient if his pain was bearable... when he said "yes", she took the pills he was supposed to get.
There were other equally gross situations. These people were caught because a family member questioned why pain was not being relieved for their loved one. There must be other situations that have never been caught.
This film should be given wide distribution. Toni Katz of the Maryland Attorney General's Office is showing the film to Ombudsmen in all of the 27 Maryland Counties and I will be asking her to bring the film to the TRIAD Conference that Carroll County will be hosting in October 2009.
When Elaine had her first knee operation, she had to be in the hospital for a number of days, so her usual prescription pills had to be given to her by a nurse. On the first day, the nurse handed her all of her daily pills and told her that she had to take them all at the same time. This would have been very bad for Elaine because certain pills have to be given once in the morning and once in the evening. To take them at the same time could be extremely dangerous.
Elaine refused to take them at the same time and had to almost physically fight with the nurse to get her to give in and separate the pill taking time. The nurse was not happy about this.
About 8 years ago, a family friend went into the hospital for observation concerning a rather minor physical complaint. She, like Elaine, had to have several prescription drugs. As she lay there in bed, a so-called social worker came to see her and said that she had looked at the list of pills that our friend took and called her a "drug-addict" and said that she had to report her to the police. Our friend, who was not that ill, dropped dead the next day.
Ms Katz gave us a lot of information about the drug scene. She reminded us that we should not leave drugs around the house, in full view. Senior Citizens are probably all guilty of that. However, we should realize that visitors (and even Grandchildren) could possibly have a drug or money problem. An unguarded bottle of oxycontin might be an overwhelming temptation.
Also... what should one do with pills that are no longer needed? Ms Katz says: Don't flush! Crush! and mix them with kitty litter if you have it. Cover it and put it into the garbage can for pickup. (If people flush pills, we could end up with a Bay filled with "high" fish.)
While we are on the subject of drugs, remember that cattle ingest lots of drugs.. to make them grow bigger.. to make them mature earlier.. and when we eat the big hamburger, could we also be ingesting the drugs that they ingested.. just a little while later? Why do we have such big fat kids these days? Medical records indicate that some young teen-agers already have clogged arteries.
Are other meats any better?
I hope I haven't depressed you too much today.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
How I Built my Classical Record Collection
Before CD's and other new-fangled musical media, there were long-playing record albums. I had a very large collection of classical records, and the collection did not cost me a cent. How did you do that, you might ask. I'll tell you.
There was a very talented family living near us in Massachusetts. Their main interest was in classical music and some of them played in symphony orchestras in the Boston area. At the time of this story, they were living in a massive Victorian mansion with a wide wrap-around porch. They moved there suddenly when creditors got too close to them at their old address.
(In the family were an uncle A, an aunt B, two nephews C and D, and one niece E, all very cultured, well-educated people of Portuguese descent.)
At the new house, they had one large front room that they reserved for music. In that room were only two things: a beautiful black grand piano (that they all played wonderfully well) and a monstrous record player.
One day at their new house they decided to get some classical record albums to play on the record player. A joined a classical record club that offered 10 free albums as an inducement to join. A then was eligible to nominate B to be a member. A got another 10 free albums when B joined, and B got his free 10 albums. B then nominated C.... etc etc. After a while they all were members and had started to amass a pretty sizable record collection without paying a cent, except for postage.... I don't think at the time that one had to pay for shipping... but that wouldn't have mattered because they would not have paid anyway.
After the family used up all normal possibilities for free albums they decided to try a clever gimmic. Some people of Portuguese descent have a couple of last names that they can use legally. For this story I will say that their usual last name was Lopes, and they sometimes used Freitas as another last name. So, once the family had used up all the possibilities for Lopes, they did the same thing for Freitas.
Before the family could receive more than the first few sets of records, they disappeared without a trace. Apparently, their creditors found out about their new home and were closing in on them. Even the grand piano and record player were gone from the front room.
My mother-in-law was good friends of the family and went to visit them a day or two after they disappeared and found on the front porch, stacks of classical record albums. She talked to the mailman and was told "Help yourself, they are non-returnable."
My mother-in-law was more of a Country Music fan than a classical fan but she knew of my love for the classics, so, she called me up and asked if I would help get all those albums off the porch. I thought she meant maybe two or three albums... it was more like 50. And the next day there were more albums.. and the next day... and the next day... Contact with the record company was unsuccessful, so I helped myself to a marvelous collection. Lots of duplicates were distributed around town.
You have to know, at this time, the late 1950's the music scene was still "different" in New England from that in other parts of the Country. For instance, when a teen-ager drove by with his car radio blasting away, the piece playing might be Beethoven's Fifth and not an Elvis song. So, it was not hard to get rid of the classical duplicates.
I still have a lot of those albums today and nobody has ever heard again of the family that I mentioned.
There was a very talented family living near us in Massachusetts. Their main interest was in classical music and some of them played in symphony orchestras in the Boston area. At the time of this story, they were living in a massive Victorian mansion with a wide wrap-around porch. They moved there suddenly when creditors got too close to them at their old address.
(In the family were an uncle A, an aunt B, two nephews C and D, and one niece E, all very cultured, well-educated people of Portuguese descent.)
At the new house, they had one large front room that they reserved for music. In that room were only two things: a beautiful black grand piano (that they all played wonderfully well) and a monstrous record player.
One day at their new house they decided to get some classical record albums to play on the record player. A joined a classical record club that offered 10 free albums as an inducement to join. A then was eligible to nominate B to be a member. A got another 10 free albums when B joined, and B got his free 10 albums. B then nominated C.... etc etc. After a while they all were members and had started to amass a pretty sizable record collection without paying a cent, except for postage.... I don't think at the time that one had to pay for shipping... but that wouldn't have mattered because they would not have paid anyway.
After the family used up all normal possibilities for free albums they decided to try a clever gimmic. Some people of Portuguese descent have a couple of last names that they can use legally. For this story I will say that their usual last name was Lopes, and they sometimes used Freitas as another last name. So, once the family had used up all the possibilities for Lopes, they did the same thing for Freitas.
Before the family could receive more than the first few sets of records, they disappeared without a trace. Apparently, their creditors found out about their new home and were closing in on them. Even the grand piano and record player were gone from the front room.
My mother-in-law was good friends of the family and went to visit them a day or two after they disappeared and found on the front porch, stacks of classical record albums. She talked to the mailman and was told "Help yourself, they are non-returnable."
My mother-in-law was more of a Country Music fan than a classical fan but she knew of my love for the classics, so, she called me up and asked if I would help get all those albums off the porch. I thought she meant maybe two or three albums... it was more like 50. And the next day there were more albums.. and the next day... and the next day... Contact with the record company was unsuccessful, so I helped myself to a marvelous collection. Lots of duplicates were distributed around town.
You have to know, at this time, the late 1950's the music scene was still "different" in New England from that in other parts of the Country. For instance, when a teen-ager drove by with his car radio blasting away, the piece playing might be Beethoven's Fifth and not an Elvis song. So, it was not hard to get rid of the classical duplicates.
I still have a lot of those albums today and nobody has ever heard again of the family that I mentioned.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
I Love Junk Mail.. the Secret is Out
I have had a Post Office Box for some years. It's set up to handle most of the junk mail that I love to get. Many years ago, my house mailbox was inundated with massive amounts of mail each day. When my wife threatened to leave me if I didn't get rid of it, I decided to start using a post offiice box. I began changing my address for the welcome junk mail to the post office box in 1980 or so, and since then it has worked out very well. Over the years, some junk has penetrated my system and comes to my current address, but in the main, only a small amount makes it through.
Most of my junk mail shows a code letter as my middle name.. I'll explain that in a minute.. And over the years mis-spellings and flat-out errors have contributed sometimes weird and unusual names. To illustrate this, let me give you a look at my post office box mail for today, June 9th, 2009:
Mail for J.R. Vaughan (The R normally shows mail offers for "adventures", trips, tours, etc)
01. A booklet from National Geographic about expeditions that they are trying to fill with people with a few dollars.
02. A survey from the Republican party. (I guess they think they know what the R stands for.)
Mail for J.T. Vaughan (The T was set up when I took a subscription to Time magazine.)
01. An offer for a subscription to AFAR magazine. (Travel)
02. An offer for Fast Company magazine.
03. An offer for Inc. magazine.
04. An offer for Fortune magazine.
05. An issue of Fortune magazine.
Do you see how the magazines stick together and pass on address information to each other? And note that these magazines are geared to upper income customers.
That is all of the coded items I got today, but let me tell you my secret: Many years ago, before I set up the post office box, I decided that I would like to learn how mailing lists are developed and passed around. At the time, I subscribed to Advertising Age (I can't afford it right now.. their subscription rates are obscene).. and learned a bit, but I decided to find out first hand. So, I began seeking junk mail.. Whenever I sent for something, I would give my name a middle initial (I was not given a middle initial at birth so I am free to make up my own.)
The first item I sent for, I gave the initial A; the second B; etc., you get the picture. Sometimes the letter was closely related to the item sent for, as in the case of T above. One of my most active mailing initial is M.. I had sent for something about Mozart. That was long ago, and I still get mail with that initial for all kinds of musical offers or information.
So now you know my secret. The rest of my mail today was rather mundane:
Mail to Joe Voughan: (Misspelled years ago and still people are using the address today): Information about the Cumberland County, Maryland Playhouse.
Mail to our Neighbors (at the PO Box).. Not much thought there : Money Mailer and of course, Bed, Bath and Beyond. How could your neighbors live squeezed into a little POBox?
All the rest of today's mail is sent to me either as Joe, Joseph, J.,.. with no initial. Somehow, the address providers must have cleaned up the files. This mail offers shoreline rentals in New Jersey, free vacations if you buy a certain hearing aid, opportunity to give a gift annuity to the Arthritis Foundation, group travel opportunities (it even mentions the Charles W. Morgan whaling ship that I played on as a kid), a free wallet and stick-up lights if I buy some clothing, a book about false diabetic information, and a bunch of other stuff of a similar nature.
Once, I gave a Toastmasters speech, the title of which was: I Love Junk Mail. I told everyone about my mail coding system and talked about mailing lists and gave them examples of the mail I get every day. On the next Toastmasters meeting day, I was greeted by my fellow members with bags of their junk mail, which they took great pleasure in giving to me. (I didn't let them know it, but they could not have given me a gift I enjoyed more.
Most of my junk mail shows a code letter as my middle name.. I'll explain that in a minute.. And over the years mis-spellings and flat-out errors have contributed sometimes weird and unusual names. To illustrate this, let me give you a look at my post office box mail for today, June 9th, 2009:
Mail for J.R. Vaughan (The R normally shows mail offers for "adventures", trips, tours, etc)
01. A booklet from National Geographic about expeditions that they are trying to fill with people with a few dollars.
02. A survey from the Republican party. (I guess they think they know what the R stands for.)
Mail for J.T. Vaughan (The T was set up when I took a subscription to Time magazine.)
01. An offer for a subscription to AFAR magazine. (Travel)
02. An offer for Fast Company magazine.
03. An offer for Inc. magazine.
04. An offer for Fortune magazine.
05. An issue of Fortune magazine.
Do you see how the magazines stick together and pass on address information to each other? And note that these magazines are geared to upper income customers.
That is all of the coded items I got today, but let me tell you my secret: Many years ago, before I set up the post office box, I decided that I would like to learn how mailing lists are developed and passed around. At the time, I subscribed to Advertising Age (I can't afford it right now.. their subscription rates are obscene).. and learned a bit, but I decided to find out first hand. So, I began seeking junk mail.. Whenever I sent for something, I would give my name a middle initial (I was not given a middle initial at birth so I am free to make up my own.)
The first item I sent for, I gave the initial A; the second B; etc., you get the picture. Sometimes the letter was closely related to the item sent for, as in the case of T above. One of my most active mailing initial is M.. I had sent for something about Mozart. That was long ago, and I still get mail with that initial for all kinds of musical offers or information.
So now you know my secret. The rest of my mail today was rather mundane:
Mail to Joe Voughan: (Misspelled years ago and still people are using the address today): Information about the Cumberland County, Maryland Playhouse.
Mail to our Neighbors (at the PO Box).. Not much thought there : Money Mailer and of course, Bed, Bath and Beyond. How could your neighbors live squeezed into a little POBox?
All the rest of today's mail is sent to me either as Joe, Joseph, J.,.. with no initial. Somehow, the address providers must have cleaned up the files. This mail offers shoreline rentals in New Jersey, free vacations if you buy a certain hearing aid, opportunity to give a gift annuity to the Arthritis Foundation, group travel opportunities (it even mentions the Charles W. Morgan whaling ship that I played on as a kid), a free wallet and stick-up lights if I buy some clothing, a book about false diabetic information, and a bunch of other stuff of a similar nature.
Once, I gave a Toastmasters speech, the title of which was: I Love Junk Mail. I told everyone about my mail coding system and talked about mailing lists and gave them examples of the mail I get every day. On the next Toastmasters meeting day, I was greeted by my fellow members with bags of their junk mail, which they took great pleasure in giving to me. (I didn't let them know it, but they could not have given me a gift I enjoyed more.
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