One of the reasons Ford is in the tank and close to being flushed down:
At the local Ford dealer I bought a replacement battery for a Ford Ranger ($89,00) I asked also to buy a clamp for the neutral (-) post to replace a rusted, broken one, estimated price $3.00. The salesman told me Ford doesn’t supply/sell these and I should go to Pep Boys or some such and buy one. At the local store the only available clamps required me to cut off the end of my cable, strip the wire, and attach the new clamp by compressing or soldering. All of which is, in my case, I considered unnecessary. I went to a second store and bought a clamp and my neighbor helped me modify it to work with the new battery and old cable without cutting the cable etc.
Attention to the little things made Ford great; inattention is going to help sink it.
Thursday, December 28
Thursday, December 21
Person of the Year
There is a dispute about whether a Web log is serious journalism. Those bloggers who simply report personal daily (or occasional) machinations are obviously not journalists in any sense of the word. They are diary writers who have taken to the keyboard much as Queen Elizabeth holds onto the pen and writes her thoughts in longhand. Some bloggers believe writing on current events or persons is a form of journalism if it informs, motivates, agitates, pleases, or simple wakes someone up. This is arguable.
There is the question of follow-up. Bloggers generally don’t. News organizations report matters and keep the public informed with additional articles until the subject peters out. The lost climbers on Mt. Hood are a good example of this. It is has been a daily staple since early December. Other continuing sagas will replace it by New Year’s Day.
Time magazine has given bloggers a shot of chest-pumping adrenaline by naming us (I write on-line, I qualify) “Person of the Year,” a highly dubious honor considering Hitler and Stalin were “persons” in the past. But as Bill Maher might say, “I kid Time” because many of their annual choices over the last 70 years or so have been men and women who truly made a difference in our world.
But does it make any difference to anyone outside our family if I report my wife of 52 years had a stroke complicated by a subsequent fall and is progressing in rehab? (Thanks for all the cards and well wishes; she is touched by the outpouring of love and support.)
Does it matter to anyone when I sound off on things that irritate the devil out of me, or are done in a way I believe could have been done better? What about the good people and accomplishments I encounter and enjoy commenting on? What about when I simply take pleasure in getting something off my chest? (The latter is probably most beneficial to my mental and physical health by lowering my stress level.) A local credit union representative told me earlier today, for example, that the government has ordered new internet security measures for people wanting to access their accounts on line. This trifling with my account happened last night and I was locked out (until this morning). Thousands around the country will likely have this experience in the coming weeks. Good luck. My immediate reaction was what else can you expect from people who screwed up the Iraq adventure?
To my fellow diarists I offer congratulations on being name “Person of the Year.” Let’s not take each other too serious though or let it go our heads in 2007. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
There is the question of follow-up. Bloggers generally don’t. News organizations report matters and keep the public informed with additional articles until the subject peters out. The lost climbers on Mt. Hood are a good example of this. It is has been a daily staple since early December. Other continuing sagas will replace it by New Year’s Day.
Time magazine has given bloggers a shot of chest-pumping adrenaline by naming us (I write on-line, I qualify) “Person of the Year,” a highly dubious honor considering Hitler and Stalin were “persons” in the past. But as Bill Maher might say, “I kid Time” because many of their annual choices over the last 70 years or so have been men and women who truly made a difference in our world.
But does it make any difference to anyone outside our family if I report my wife of 52 years had a stroke complicated by a subsequent fall and is progressing in rehab? (Thanks for all the cards and well wishes; she is touched by the outpouring of love and support.)
Does it matter to anyone when I sound off on things that irritate the devil out of me, or are done in a way I believe could have been done better? What about the good people and accomplishments I encounter and enjoy commenting on? What about when I simply take pleasure in getting something off my chest? (The latter is probably most beneficial to my mental and physical health by lowering my stress level.) A local credit union representative told me earlier today, for example, that the government has ordered new internet security measures for people wanting to access their accounts on line. This trifling with my account happened last night and I was locked out (until this morning). Thousands around the country will likely have this experience in the coming weeks. Good luck. My immediate reaction was what else can you expect from people who screwed up the Iraq adventure?
To my fellow diarists I offer congratulations on being name “Person of the Year.” Let’s not take each other too serious though or let it go our heads in 2007. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Wednesday, November 22
Eating with respect
One day this week I had lunch in an upscale steak house restaurant in North Charleston with another person. A police officer of commissioned rank came in alone and sat down at a table near ours. He was in full police uniform, complete with gun, cuffs, radio, etc. and his commissioned rank on his collar. He had a salad, a beverage and an entree. A couple of members of the restaurant's managerial staff came to his table and spoke with him while he was eating. When he finished he got up and left. He was not given a check, he did not pay and so far as I know did not leave a tip for the waitress who served him.
Several weeks ago I was in a submarine sandwich shop for a bite and looking out the window while eating saw a policeman get out of his cruiser, come in the shop, order a sandwich, chips and a soft drink, PAY FOR IT, and then go back to his cruiser.
Which police officer do you believe I respect the most?
Sunday, November 19
On being alone, temporarily
Around my house I make the coffee in the morning; that is I plug in the pot which my wife usually sets up the night before. This didn’t work on Tuesday because my wife went to hospital on Monday night (she’s doing better, thank you). I managed to find some coffee in a large blue can and made a pot that would warm a submariner’s heart. These past few days have been an eye-opener for me into what has to happen around this house to make it worth living here.
Take clean clothes for example. I looked high and low for the dark grey metal wash pot and scrub board and could not find them. I recall my grandmother and my mother had a set at one time. At the hospital I asked my wife where she kept these and she told me we did not use them because “We have a washing machine.” “How long have we had this?” I asked.
“About fifty-two years. Do you remember when we were on our honeymoon and after about two weeks you let me out of bed one day? Well, I went and bought my first washing machine that afternoon.”
This is pretty good piece of equipment. You have only to put the clothes in and close the door. Some powered soap goes in a small slot behind a little door and you pull the lever and it works automatically. There are no rollers nor wringer to turn. To top it off when the machine finishes you can take out the wet clothes and put them in another machine and it dries them.
Eating has been less of a problem, but also a learning experience. We often eat out in the evening at the cafeteria or one of the restaurants; (we tend to favor steak houses.) I am confident that in a reasonable amount of time my wife is going to be OK so I wanted to avoid the widows with casseroles circling the neighborhood. I went to the cafeteria for lunch one day was pleased to find them open for business. The food in mid-day is better than at night. I had a large, delicious baked salmon and some veggies. Being alone without an eating-habits critic on hand, I also knocked off a dessert; a delicious lemon meringue pie, fresh out of the refrigerator.
All in all it has been a pretty good week, my wife being in hospital notwithstanding. I can make coffee, do the laundry and find a meal in mid-day. I believe this is enough of domesticity for a man my age so this week I intend to concentrate on letting my fingers do the walking thought the yellow pages until I find Maids-Are-Us. Somebody has to do the dusting.
Take clean clothes for example. I looked high and low for the dark grey metal wash pot and scrub board and could not find them. I recall my grandmother and my mother had a set at one time. At the hospital I asked my wife where she kept these and she told me we did not use them because “We have a washing machine.” “How long have we had this?” I asked.
“About fifty-two years. Do you remember when we were on our honeymoon and after about two weeks you let me out of bed one day? Well, I went and bought my first washing machine that afternoon.”
This is pretty good piece of equipment. You have only to put the clothes in and close the door. Some powered soap goes in a small slot behind a little door and you pull the lever and it works automatically. There are no rollers nor wringer to turn. To top it off when the machine finishes you can take out the wet clothes and put them in another machine and it dries them.
Eating has been less of a problem, but also a learning experience. We often eat out in the evening at the cafeteria or one of the restaurants; (we tend to favor steak houses.) I am confident that in a reasonable amount of time my wife is going to be OK so I wanted to avoid the widows with casseroles circling the neighborhood. I went to the cafeteria for lunch one day was pleased to find them open for business. The food in mid-day is better than at night. I had a large, delicious baked salmon and some veggies. Being alone without an eating-habits critic on hand, I also knocked off a dessert; a delicious lemon meringue pie, fresh out of the refrigerator.
All in all it has been a pretty good week, my wife being in hospital notwithstanding. I can make coffee, do the laundry and find a meal in mid-day. I believe this is enough of domesticity for a man my age so this week I intend to concentrate on letting my fingers do the walking thought the yellow pages until I find Maids-Are-Us. Somebody has to do the dusting.
Thursday, November 9
The family business
When the subject "a family business" comes up in polite conversation we ought not to overlook that concept in Congress. Representative John Dingell, D-Michigan, 80-years old, has been in Congress since 1955 when he succeeded his father (also John Dingell) who had served from 1933. Mr. Dingell will likely re-assume his old chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee (he was the chair from 1981-1994), in the next congress.
In related notes, Massachusetts (my birth state) holds a unique place in the House of Representatives. Among states with more than two Representatives only Massachusetts has a solid Democratic membership, 10 seats, and each incumbent was re-elected this week. (The state also has two Democratic Senators.) California has the most seats in the House, 53, with 34 Democrats and 19 Republicans; the Dems picked up one seat in the election. South Carolina has two Democrats and four Republicans, unchanged from the current term.
In related notes, Massachusetts (my birth state) holds a unique place in the House of Representatives. Among states with more than two Representatives only Massachusetts has a solid Democratic membership, 10 seats, and each incumbent was re-elected this week. (The state also has two Democratic Senators.) California has the most seats in the House, 53, with 34 Democrats and 19 Republicans; the Dems picked up one seat in the election. South Carolina has two Democrats and four Republicans, unchanged from the current term.
The American People Have Spoken
DATE: November 8, 2006
MEMO TO: New Democrat Leaders in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives; Democrat Governors in the majority of the States; Democrat Legislatures in the majority of the States, and all other Democrat office holders.
You have a fresh opportunity to govern. Don't f**k it up!
/s/Francis X. Archibald
Thursday, November 2
A joke and no joke
During the final days of World War II, two Germans are in a bomb shelter and it is shortly before noontime. They have been there since mid-evening of the previous night as first British bombers and now American bombers pulverize Germany. One asks, “What will you do after the war?” The other answers, “I will go on holiday and walk around Greater Germany.” “And what will you do in the afternoon?”
In Latvia, the parliament has decided to postpone until March 1, 2007, releasing the names of Latvians who were collaborators (read: spies, informers, tattle-tales, and neighborhood snoops) with the KGB during the 51 years of Soviet occupation (1940-1991). The list, estimated to contain approximately 4,500 names, was to be made public on November 1 and published in the official government newspaper. Husbands, wives, children, extended families, neighbors, bosses, workers, lovers, teammates, drinking buddies, etc. are all waiting to see who was ratting on whom. Critics say the KGB in 1990 sent to Moscow the most sensitive parts of the archive and the complete list with the most important names will never be revealed. Some collaborators have left Latvia; some probably are hoping their files were among those sent to Moscow. Anyone on the list will not be eligible to vote nor hold public office. When similar lists were unveiled in Germany several years ago, it was reported there was much heartbreak, anguish, fear and anger. Some relationships were forever broken.
In Latvia, the parliament has decided to postpone until March 1, 2007, releasing the names of Latvians who were collaborators (read: spies, informers, tattle-tales, and neighborhood snoops) with the KGB during the 51 years of Soviet occupation (1940-1991). The list, estimated to contain approximately 4,500 names, was to be made public on November 1 and published in the official government newspaper. Husbands, wives, children, extended families, neighbors, bosses, workers, lovers, teammates, drinking buddies, etc. are all waiting to see who was ratting on whom. Critics say the KGB in 1990 sent to Moscow the most sensitive parts of the archive and the complete list with the most important names will never be revealed. Some collaborators have left Latvia; some probably are hoping their files were among those sent to Moscow. Anyone on the list will not be eligible to vote nor hold public office. When similar lists were unveiled in Germany several years ago, it was reported there was much heartbreak, anguish, fear and anger. Some relationships were forever broken.
Wednesday, October 25
State of Denial
Letters to the Editor
The Post and Courier
Charleston, SC
(Published October 25, 2006)
The 2003 invasion of Iraq began while I was winding up a two-month tour of South Africa. South Africans I was in contact with, well educated, professional people, asked why the United States had invaded Iraq.
I recalled those early evening discussions while reading State of Denial, Bob Woodward’s 14th book since Watergate and his third book on the war on terror. This insightful, comprehensive and diligently pursued book full of first-hand accounts (and almost 30 pages of source notes) is a tremendous addition to the body of historical knowledge required to answer “why.”
It is even more valuable to understanding what we did right and what was wrong. This tragically incomplete adventure is still an on-going tale, however, and it leaves one wondering, at the end of 2006 and State of Denial, if we are facing a Vietnam-like-ending where it is crazy to stay in and we don’t know how to get out.
I believe, however, after finishing all 560 pages of State of Denial, that if the men and women in Washington at the highest political, military, diplomatic, and intelligence levels who were in charge of this Iraq excursion devoted half the time to solving problems as they did fighting and arguing with each other and buckling under to one man – Donald Rumsfeld – and being afraid to bring bad news to the Oval Office, a “Vietnam-like-ending” would not hang over us.
Wednesday, October 4
You've got mail - responses
Judging by the swift response to yesterday's blog by five friends mail is something on everyone's mind. Here are their comments:
(1) What an interesting undertaking! Sounds quite familiar, but I'm jealous of your personal correspondence. I receive very little any more, sadly. Mostly thank-you notes or invitations. I used to maintain voluminous correspondences with many people--but that was before e-mail. I still have most of those old letters--they're more precious by the year.
(2) Only 4 bills!!!
(3) With the exception that personal correspondence, other than the cards my wife and her sisters, some of Hallmark's most cherished customers, exchange, has been almost entirely replaced by email among our friends and relatives, I think that the proportions would be about the same here. And I really do get dismayed of thinking of all the mailing expense various charities and causes must incur and of how much better those funds could be used.
But at least you're not standing in the mud, dog excrement and cigarette butts that surround our neighborhood stanchion box cluster as you sort it out. as we once discussed before. My favorite mail delivery system was some years ago, when I lived in a small town that had curbside residential delivery and three times a week trash pick-up at the curb. I could scoop out the mailbox and then stand over my trash can without having to ever carry the majority of it indoors.
(4) I could get a hernia carrying out the throw aways.
(5) Archie, this sounds just like the mail I receive.
(1) What an interesting undertaking! Sounds quite familiar, but I'm jealous of your personal correspondence. I receive very little any more, sadly. Mostly thank-you notes or invitations. I used to maintain voluminous correspondences with many people--but that was before e-mail. I still have most of those old letters--they're more precious by the year.
(2) Only 4 bills!!!
(3) With the exception that personal correspondence, other than the cards my wife and her sisters, some of Hallmark's most cherished customers, exchange, has been almost entirely replaced by email among our friends and relatives, I think that the proportions would be about the same here. And I really do get dismayed of thinking of all the mailing expense various charities and causes must incur and of how much better those funds could be used.
But at least you're not standing in the mud, dog excrement and cigarette butts that surround our neighborhood stanchion box cluster as you sort it out. as we once discussed before. My favorite mail delivery system was some years ago, when I lived in a small town that had curbside residential delivery and three times a week trash pick-up at the curb. I could scoop out the mailbox and then stand over my trash can without having to ever carry the majority of it indoors.
(4) I could get a hernia carrying out the throw aways.
(5) Archie, this sounds just like the mail I receive.
Tuesday, October 3
You've got mail
I've been wondering for some time about the breakdown of the mail I receive. The Postman who covers our street looks upon me as one of the stalwarts of his long-range retirement program. In September I decided to keep a record of what came and it held few surprises. There were 25 requests for donations of money to causes far and wide; 29 requests to subscribe or renew magazine subscriptions; 20 offers of new credit cards; 24 pieces of other unsolicited bulk (read junk) mail; four bills; and 18 pieces of personal correspondence. These figures do not include the various magazines and professional journals, weekly, monthly and quarterly which come regularly, nor the newspapers and catalogs which we have requested.
Thursday, September 28
A courageous lady has died
The lady who two years ago declined an abortion despite the danger her pregnancy added to her heart has died this week. (She subsequently gave birth to the baby who is doing well.) In early September, 2006, she had a heart transplant and was struggling to survive.
See my early blog: For those who believe in the sanctity of life .
The funeral for Elizabeth (Lisa) Ramirez Fuerte, age 32, was held Thursday with an 11 o’clock Mass of Christian Burial at Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, Hanahan, SC. She leaves a husband and two children, among her large, loving family of survivors
See my early blog: For those who believe in the sanctity of life .
The funeral for Elizabeth (Lisa) Ramirez Fuerte, age 32, was held Thursday with an 11 o’clock Mass of Christian Burial at Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, Hanahan, SC. She leaves a husband and two children, among her large, loving family of survivors
Monday, September 25
Two photos tell a story
The two photographs in the Sept. 20 paper (The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC) on Page 11A speak volumes about our lack of "national smarts" in foreign affairs. One photo showed all the Iranian seats in the General Assembly occupied while President Bush addressed the body. The second photo showed all American delegation seats empty while the Iranian president addressed the same body.
Doesn't this administration realize what a political coup they have handed the Iranians who will show these pictures around the world and say, "See, the Americans won't even listen to us"?
The administration could have taken the high ground by listening and then refuting the speech. Sure, they could read the remarks or watch the Iranian president on closed circuit TV in their offices, but they would not have handed the Iranians a weapon with which to beat us over the head in talks with China, Russia, France and Germany; all of whom, by the way, have major economic deals in progress with Iran.
(Originally printed as Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC, Sept. 25, 2006)
Doesn't this administration realize what a political coup they have handed the Iranians who will show these pictures around the world and say, "See, the Americans won't even listen to us"?
The administration could have taken the high ground by listening and then refuting the speech. Sure, they could read the remarks or watch the Iranian president on closed circuit TV in their offices, but they would not have handed the Iranians a weapon with which to beat us over the head in talks with China, Russia, France and Germany; all of whom, by the way, have major economic deals in progress with Iran.
(Originally printed as Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC, Sept. 25, 2006)
Sunday, September 24
You can't read that...
If there are any two words at the beginning of a sentence which tick off Americans these are them: “You can’t ……..” We don’t like to be told we can’t do something. As a child, for example, being told we couldn’t go out and play in the rain, or as an adult being told we can’t read something. Which is why free-thinkers, liberal oriented people and a few true conservatives, will observe Banned Books Week, September 23-30. 2006.The BBW, observed since 1982, serves to remind Americans not to take this precious freedom to read what we want, when we want, too lightly least it be taken away. The American Library Association has recorded at least 8,700 attempts to ban books since 1990, when it began to keep an electronic count. Not surprisingly, “offensive language” and “sexually explicit” lead the pack of challenges of what should be on the shelves in public libraries and schools and even bookstores. Political and religious viewpoints also generate attempts at censorship.
Recently we had a parallel attempt at censorship of a film to be shown on network TV dealing with the events of 9/11 and the language of New York firemen. The firemen cussed and cursed as they went about their duties during this horrific event, and this some Bible-belt moralists said made it unsuitable for other Americans to hear. A guest on the Bill Maher show asked why the critics picked on the fireman, “There were 8 million people in New York on 9/11 and every one of them said, ‘what the f**k?’”.
Banned Books Week is a special time for all of us to be vigilant and to resist censorship wherever it rears its ugly head. We are Americans and we can make most of the decisions about our lives and what is good and bad, and all will still be well in the end.
Monday, September 18
For those who believe in the sanctity of life
Two years ago, Lisa Fuerte of Hanahan, SC, had difficulties with her heart during her second pregnancy. It was at the early stages of this pregnancy where her heart became extremely weak. As a result of the complication she spent many days in the hospital. The doctors suggested to her that she consider aborting the child to alleviate the stress on the heart. Being a woman of tremendous faith she knew this was not an option. She put the situation in the hands of God and the child was born premature at twenty-six weeks. Father Edward Fitzgerald had the privilege of baptizing the baby in the Intensive Care Unit. Lisa had a heart transplant at Duke University Hospital in September. She has a long way to go to recovery. There are many expenses for this family and insurance does not cover everything.
Father Fitzgerald is running in Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon (26.2 miles) on December 9. He will run because he is a runner and to assist the Fuerte family. You can help by pledging so much per mile (results available in December) – or easier by simply sending a check to: Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, 1106 Fort Drive, Hanahan, SC, 29406, marked for the Fuerte family.
I have never before used my blog or web site to solicit funds for any person, cause or any thing else. But this is a great story for those of us who believe in the sanctity of life and faith in God and the needs are great and a dollar or more will be a big help. Checks made out to the Church are tax deductible (and marking it for the Fuerte Family will guarantee it goes to help them.) And I believe God will return the blessing to you in some way, some day.
Father Fitzgerald is running in Charlotte Thunder Road Marathon (26.2 miles) on December 9. He will run because he is a runner and to assist the Fuerte family. You can help by pledging so much per mile (results available in December) – or easier by simply sending a check to: Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, 1106 Fort Drive, Hanahan, SC, 29406, marked for the Fuerte family.
I have never before used my blog or web site to solicit funds for any person, cause or any thing else. But this is a great story for those of us who believe in the sanctity of life and faith in God and the needs are great and a dollar or more will be a big help. Checks made out to the Church are tax deductible (and marking it for the Fuerte Family will guarantee it goes to help them.) And I believe God will return the blessing to you in some way, some day.
Friday, September 15
More shower space
I increased the space in a tub/shower today by about 25 percent through the simple expedient of hanging a crescent shower curtain rod in place of the straight rod we have used for years. The extra space comes where you need it up around your torso and shoulders. (We recently experienced a tub/shower with such a rod in a hotel and were greatly surprised and pleased with the effect.) The tub/shower is in one of our bathrooms that is original to the old part of our house where the tub is the customary five foot tub. The rod I selected was made by Creative Specialties International, a division of Moen Company. The rod came complete with installation instructions and ample wall plugs and anchors. It can be fastened into studs, drywall or tile. There were several choices from different manufacturers found on the Internet, but the Moen allowed me to center the new rod wall brackets over the holes left in the sheetrock after I removed the old brackets. Thus repair of the sheetrock, including painting, was not necessary
Wednesday, August 30
Friendship
“Friendship is often an amusement, sometimes an education, at least a reprieve from loneliness, at best a human connection of the highest and grandest kind. Contradiction is implicit in the very nature of modern friendship. F. Scott Fitzgerald said that the sign of an intelligent person is the ability to keep two contradictory ideas in his head at the same time and still function. With friendship, the two contradictory ideas are these: first, friends can be an immense complication, a huge burden, and a royal pain in the arse; and second, without friendship, make no mistake about it, we are all lost.” Epstein, Joseph. Friendship – an Expose. (Houghton Mifflin Co. Boston-New York., 2006, 270 pages, $24.)
Tuesday, August 22
Sports Note
A guy whose wife ran off with his Mercedes, his best friend, the family dog, all the money, and all the booze and grass laying around the house has better prospects than the Red Sox.
Tuesday, August 15
The beat goes on at the Post Office
They are still at “it” at the local Post Office. “It” being a callous attitude toward customers, (AKA: citizens and taxpayers.) Back in June I wrote about this problem (On Improving the Post Office) and yesterday I visited the same place again to mail five flats and see if the service had improved. They were looking good when I walked in, but it all went to hell-in-a-hand-basket quicker than a bodice is ripped from a well-endowed Southern maiden in a romance novel. The line of customers had 12-15 people waiting. Four uniformed clerks were working, and one in street clothes announced a couple of times that if anyone was there to pick up packages or mail to come to end of the counter. She served a couple of people. Then it all broke down. With three people waiting, two clerks closed their stations and commenced to do some kind of paper work important, I assume, to the Postal Service. They did this without checking what the other two clerks might be doing. One was serving a customer with a big carton (it originally held ten reams of office paper) full of large brown envelopes, each one of which had to be individually weighed and a postage sticker printed and posted on it. The other clerk was doing her best to handle all the other customers. Within minutes the waiting line of three customers had swelled to almost 20. When I left the Post Office it was two clerks closed down for paperwork, one continuing to work the box of large brown envelopes and one soldiering on. The person in street clothes had disappeared. Why do they act like this? If they must close down and do that all-fired important paper work, they ought to go in the back room and not stand there ignoring customers. No cell phone usage was noted.
Saturday, August 5
New Police Chief-Former OSI
Gregory G. Mullen, a former special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and Deputy Chief of the Virginia Beach (VA) Police Department, has been selected as the new police chief in Charleston, SC, America’s most historic city. Mullen was selected by Mayor Joseph P. Riley after a nation-wide search and consideration of 137 applicants. Riley interviewed Mullen three times before selecting him “as an agent of change” for a city recently gripped by gun violence.
Mullen worked in Virginia Beach for 21 years, starting in 1985 as a beat cop and working his way up to Deputy Chief. His OSI service preceded his long career in Virginia Beach. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 2002 after 22 years of active and Reserve Service.
Mullen worked in Virginia Beach for 21 years, starting in 1985 as a beat cop and working his way up to Deputy Chief. His OSI service preceded his long career in Virginia Beach. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 2002 after 22 years of active and Reserve Service.
Saturday, July 29
Under cover of darkness
After the sun went down and brought on the dark of night, 230 cheapies in the House of Representatives couldn’t do the right thing and simply increase the minimum wage for the first time since 1997; no these avaricious panderers had to crank in some tax breaks for the richest families in the United States and exempt all estates below $10 million dollars (for a couple) from taxes. The package deal increases the minimum wage to $7.25, up from $5.15. Not many individuals can live on that, much less support a family. (By the way, this same Congress recently voted themselves a pay raise of more than $3,000 annually.)
(The favorable vote included 196 Republicans and 34 Democrats. The “no” votes were Democrats 158, Independent 1 and Republicans 21. Twenty-two did not vote and one voted “present”.)
The estate tax changes will likely cost the treasury an estimated $268 billion over the next ten years, and diminish chances to lower the deficit which grows daily due primarily to costs associated with the war in Iraq. Three Republican members of the South Carolina delegation, Henry Brown, Bob Inglis and Joe Wilson, voted for the legislation. They will soon be home for the August recess and probably bragging how they struck a blow for the common man and senior citizens. They ought to be ashamed to masquerade as fiscal conservatives, which is how they campaigned. It is no wonder they waited until after midnight to cast their votes and slip out of Washington.
The legislation now goes to the Senate where it faces strong opposition from some committee chairmen whose feathers have been ruffled by combining the wage hike with estate tax and private pension reform (employers will have to more fully fund pension plans.) The allure of the minimum wage increase and the pension reforms may be too much for senators to ignore and a majority may hold their noses and vote for the House measure. The rest of us will have to tolerate the smell.
Wednesday, July 19
50th Anniversary of our Church
The official observance of the 50th anniversary of our church, Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, in Hanahan, SC, took place July 18 with the Most Reverend Robert J. Baker, Bishop of Charleston, celebrating Mass at 7 pm. Over 400 people crowded into the church and following the Mass went to the school auditorium for a reception. Father Jerome C. Powers was appointed pastor of the parish on June 15, 1956; early Masses were held in an athletic field clubhouse owned by the Paper Company (Westvaco) and later in a trailer donated by a benefactor. Ground was broken for the church on July 14, 1957 and the first Mass in the church was celebrated by Father Powers on February 23, 1958. Following Hurricane Hugo in 1989, the church had to be re-built, almost from the ground up and today continues its 50-year old role as the spiritual centerpiece of Catholic life in Hanahan. Father Edward W. Fitzgerald is the current and tenth pastor.
Thursday, July 13
Representation by cheapos
A majority of our Congressmen and women have refused to raise the minimum wage again (the last time was nine years ago) but have agreed to take another 2 percent over their current $168,500 for themselves. Is there no shame in this Republican controlled Congress?
For a family of three, the (annual) minimum wage of $10,700, set in 1997, is now more than $5,000 below the federal definition of poverty. In that same time, a lawmaker’s salary rose $31,600— better than 20 percent — while the purchasing power of a minimum-wage earner deteriorated by 20 percent. (From The New York Times editorial, Earning That Congressional Raise, July 13, 2006).
A raise in the national minimum wage to $7.25 per hour would go a long way for the poorest of the poor who struggle daily in this great land of opportunity. In my opinion, the argument that such a raise would break the backs of the small businessman and woman in America doesn't hold water, except in, apparently, this Republican controlled Congress. It is an embarrassment to be represented by such cheapos.
Tuesday, July 11
The Room
The building at 34 East 62nd street in New York which was destroyed by an explosion on July 10 was built in 1882 and was once site of The Room, a secret hideaway complete with a mail slot and an unlisted telephone number. It had no full-time occupant. Access was limited to a select few successful, rich, powerful and patriotic Americans. These were friends, neighbors and confidants of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, both Republicans and Democrats, who kept the President informed on world affairs, carried out intelligence duties for him and delighted in playing secret agent man. It is easy 70 years later to laugh and dismiss these businessmen, bankers, lawyers, and publishers, but in the 1930s and until World War II the United States had no OSS, CIA, DIA or other national intelligence service. (The FBI’s overseas intelligence activities in South America would not come into play until after WWII started.) One of the early visitors to The Room was William Donovan, a Republican lawyer, and contemporary of FDR’s at Columbia Law School. He undertook missions for the President in the mid-thirties, served as Coordinator of Information, director of the Office of Strategic Services, and is remembered today with a life-size statue in the lobby of the CIA headquarters. Members of The Room, it has been reported, gave President Roosevelt, among other things, secret access to banking information and telegraphic communications – similar to two intelligence gathering efforts the current President is catching hell for.
Sunday, July 9
The latest waterfall
Having tried to improve the postal service (see preceding blog), I turned my attention to my pond and its waterfall. Since I built the pond in March 2001, I've had a narrow waterfall in various configurations and earlier this year a daughter-in-law told me about a commercial spillway with a wide (18 inches) throat. This presented two problems: how to position it so the water would drop directly into the pond (and avoid loss of water into the rock and soil) and also camouflage the black plastic appearance. I could not achieve both objectives satisfactorily with the rip rap stone wall I preferred so I built a 20 inch wide spillway using cedar (which should eventually turn grey and blend with the rip rap). I positioned the commercial spillway in the rear of this to regulate the flow of water through the cedar spillway into the pond. The water is pumped from the pond through a Laguna UV sterilizer to suppress algae. To the rear of the pond I cleaned out the brush, laid in some weed suppressant cover and topped this with a layer of cedar chips. The waterfall offers a soothing sound both while sitting on the back porch or sleeping with the window open, and it helps to oxygenate the water for the more than 35 fish in the pond.About the postal service: A supervisor called to say that signs (Please turn off cell-phones) are on order from Washington and another clerk will be called from the back room when the line builds in the service area. We will check on this and report back.
Tuesday, June 20
On improving the Post Office
Recently I visited the local branch of the United States Postal Service. This is one of those 38,000 beleaguered outposts of citizen service that our congress years ago in its infinite wisdom simultaneously put under the control of something called a Board of Governors and washed its hands of the only service in the United States that was (is) more hard-pressed than the DMV. (That is if you don’t count the welfare office in New York.)
Only two counter clerks were working and my wait time was between 20-25 minutes. The clerk who serviced me said another clerk was on vacation, something I could appreciate. What I don’t understand is why one of the 100,000 part-time workers who back up the 800,000 full-time workers couldn’t be pressed into service at our local post office. Look at the numbers: 38,000 post offices, 100,000 part-time workers, an almost three to one worker ratio.
And another thing. Every one of sound mind and body agrees that smokers do not have the right to pollute our air space. During my wait at the post office I had to listen to a blond haired woman in tight jeans and wearing high heels, about 50-55 years old, with a German accent, talk on her stupid cell phone to another female dimwit on the other end and dispense advice on to how to correct, improve and put up with some male dimwit who had the unfortunate luck to be connected somehow to these two female dimwits. She was two customers ahead of me and only stopped talking on the cell phone when she was next to being called to the counter. Cell phone usage in post offices by patrons should be outlawed until the wait time is reduced to two minutes or less.
I have communicated these views to the Postal Service and I am sure they will be on the agenda at the next meeting of the nine-member Board of Governors. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!
Friday, June 16
Weather
Last night on the local news (Charleston, SC) we had a substitute weatherman who said the regular guy was on vacation and the weather would be good for a couple of weeks. This brings up two questions: Did the regular guy arrange the weather to accommodate his vacation schedule and if the weather is going to be good why do we need a substitute weatherman?
Thursday, June 8
Tuesday, June 6
Criminal Activity
When I was a city judge in Hanahan I had authority to issue search warrants and did so upon affidavits by sworn police officers which usually took up less than one page and often related to minor criminal activity. The judge who issued a search warrant on Congressman William J. Jefferson was given an 85 page affidavit from the FBI alleging major offenses. This is not an issue about the separation of powers, it is about possible major criminal offenses and no one - not even a Congressman - ought to be beyond the law. (Published as Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston SC, June 6, 2006.)
Thursday, June 1
THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLE
THE OPIATE OF THE PEOPLEIt is a source of wonder that rising five years into the AFGHANISTAN story, (21st century edition), we find that Allied soldiers lives and nations' treasure, are being expended in a country whose principal contribution to the world was to have been the base HQ and training centre to the terrorists of 9/11; which remains the world's prime source of opiates, and whose citizens are grouped into tribal and religious factions that hate each other - almost as much as they hate foreign soldiers on their soil. The end game from the point of view of the west is to stay until the fledgling democracy is secure, the terrorist threat is no more and, well, hopefully not until they all love one another. Is it just irony to observe that the Taliban government, (pre 9/11) in their final year 2001, under some persuasion no more, from the west, had reduced the poppy harvest to a mere74 tons? Last year with US and NATO forces in country, a new national army and all manner of inspectors and mercenaries tasked with destroying the crop in the ground, the harvest ran out at about 4,500 tons, just 2.4% down on the previous year. It is true that alternative crops have not been forthcoming and that the farmers just have no other crop. That problem needs bigger brains working on a permanent solution than seem currently to be deployed, because the billions squandered on a clearly failed mission might be better used in intervention purchasing to keep the farmers alive, whilst alternative crops are propagated. (Published by Newnations (a not-for-profit company) PO Box 12 Monmouth United Kingdom NP25 3UW Fax: UK +44 (0)1600 890774 enquiries@newnations.com )
Sunday, May 28
Who gave...for the land
Today we pause to recall the sacrifice of all who gave their lives for the land we love and live in; for the men and women who have served and are proudly called veterans and for those serving in our Armed Forces around the world today.
Our family is proud to call Mom and Dad (USAF) and sons Frankie (USMC) and James (USAF) "Veterans." A grandson, Trey Turner is serving in the USMC.
Sunday, May 21
Anne's Kids - Reunion 2006
On Mother’s Day I left my wife and mother of our five children behind and headed off from Charleston to Maine for a reunion with my four siblings. It wasn’t planned that way but my wife opted out of making the trip and I flew off totally oblivious to what was happening in New England. By Tuesday, after almost three days of rain, the papers reported the area was having the third worst rain storm since they began keeping records back somewhere in the middle of the nineteenth century. In our home town of Lowell, MA, about 3,000 people were evacuated from homes along the banks of the Merrimack River. Only the 1936 flood that caused the Merrimack to overflow its banks and put much of Lowell under water was worst than last week's rain storm.
We gathered in Wells Beach, ME, and had a grand time. One brother, coming by car from Staten Island, was unable to get to the reunion because of the weather. He was missed, and we told him by phone that we faulted him for all our youthful misfortunes. Somehow, although he was only three or four, we said he caused an older brother to fall off the top of a bridge across a canal near our home. Similarly, in his absence, he was at fault when a bus threw a board up from the street breaking a sister’s leg. He accepted all this with good humor, although I suspect when he got to yakking it up later with his friends we would be somehow responsible for his youthful injuries and ailments.
I had planned to stop in on a few friends and e-mail acquaintances unannounced but once on the ground in Maine the weather made all that impossible. Maybe some day soon.
This was the first time we got together since our mother died four years ago. Families get caught up in what they do and times passes ever so swiftly, especially, it seems, as people age. I suggested the gathering last December and it turned out to be a happy time for catching up, reminiscing, updating on the kids whereabouts and accomplishments, and discussing future plans. We ate a lot of fresh fish, especially haddock and lobster. Fresh cold water fish is the best eating, I believe, and difficult to come by in South Carolina. My sisters had some fig squares, also not readily found in Charleston, when I arrived and to take home with me. I ate them in the airports at Portland, LaGuardia and Raleigh Durham. None made it to Charleston.
It was a good time for all and although about 12 inches of rain fell on Wells Beach during the storm we minded it not a wit. After all, we four on hand had survived the ’36 flood.
Saturday, May 13
Fantasy (or insanity)
In a moment of fantasy (or insanity) I was attracted to a car ad in The Wall Street Journal today by the price: $3,995 per month. This is for 35 months at 7.75% APR, one final payment of $215,000 with $42,648 down. The car: A Rolls-Royce Phantom offered by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Miami. My wife came into the kitchen where I was reading the paper and sipping coffee and she broke the spell bringing me back to the real world, "the truck needs to be filled up with gas."
Why I'm in the Gulag
Ran across this old Soviet Union joke earlier today: Three guys in the Gulag are talking about why they are there. The first man says, "I came to work five minutes late every day and they charged me with sabotage." The second prisoner says, "I came to work five minutes early every day and they charged me with spying." The third, "I came to work on time every day and they charged me with owning a western watch."
Friday, May 12
Wal-Mart Parking Lot
Add this to your list of strange behavior in Wal-Mart parking lots. Someone apparently bought a pair of shoes, sandals, slippers, or some kind of footwear at the Wal-Mart in North Charleston, SC, and changed into them in the parking lot. Evidence: The saddest looking pair of beat up, worn out tennis shoes were set side-by-side in one of the shopping cart corrals. These shoes had more miles on them than hairs on a gorilla. My late mother thought wearing new footwear out of the store was gauche; what would she think of putting them on in the parking lot.
Sunday, May 7
Red Sox Slugger Breaks Car Window; no arrest
Last night (May 6, 2006) at Fenway Park, Manny Ramirez broke the rear window of a sedan parked on a garage roof across the street from the Green Monster when he belted a tape-measure home run in the fourth inning of a game against Baltimore, according to the Boston Globe this morning. (Photo from http://www.RedSox.com)
Sunday, April 30
A giant has fallen
“He remained optimistic about the ability of government to improve the lot of the less fortunate. ‘Let there be a coalition of the concerned,’ he urged. ‘The affluent would still be affluent, the comfortable still comfortable, but the poor would be part of the political system.’“John Kenneth Galbraith, the iconoclastic economist, teacher and diplomat and an unapologetically liberal member of the political and academic establishment that he needled in prolific writings for more than half a century, died yesterday at a hospital in Cambridge, Mass. He was 97.”
(Excerpted from an obituary by Holcomb B. Noble and Douglas Martin, The New York Times, April 30, 2006, web edition. Photo from the obit is by Brian Snyder/Reuters.)
Sunday, April 9
Other bloggers at work
I was roaming through some blogs this morning when I came across a recipe that began with "1 head of cauliflower" and I instinctively knew it was not for me; another blogger discussed job turnover and recommended management look at the supervisor of any unit with high employee turnover - he/she may be the problem; and then there is a web site HollaBackNYC where people can report and highlight street harassers. My favorite is the lady who was flashed on the subway and who had the chutzpah to take a video phone picture of the flasher, and later put it on the website. The flasher was eventually caught and he reportedly lamented that being reported to the cops was one thing, but being posted on the Internet was unfair.
Friday, April 7
Can take a joke
I certainly don’t want to get all the Catholics in the world, or even in Charleston, upset.
However, I saw a painting recently in the Charleston room at the end of the long hallway on the first floor in The Gibbes Art Gallery that has all the potential for an uprising parallel to the tumult in Islam over those cartoons in the Danish newspaper.
At first glance it appears to be a painting of the late Pope John Paul II, whom I had the supreme pleasure of seeing up close three times while he was among us.
At second glance it is a portrait that looks like the Piggly Wiggly pig. I don’t know what this school of painting is called and I failed to note the name of the artist, but she/he ought to be happy I can take a joke, and I believe John Paul would have smiled himself.
Of course he might have given a penance of one Our Father and one Hail Mary.
(Published as a Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston SC, Apr.5, 2006)
However, I saw a painting recently in the Charleston room at the end of the long hallway on the first floor in The Gibbes Art Gallery that has all the potential for an uprising parallel to the tumult in Islam over those cartoons in the Danish newspaper.
At first glance it appears to be a painting of the late Pope John Paul II, whom I had the supreme pleasure of seeing up close three times while he was among us.
At second glance it is a portrait that looks like the Piggly Wiggly pig. I don’t know what this school of painting is called and I failed to note the name of the artist, but she/he ought to be happy I can take a joke, and I believe John Paul would have smiled himself.
Of course he might have given a penance of one Our Father and one Hail Mary.
(Published as a Letter to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston SC, Apr.5, 2006)
Sunday, April 2
Full bloom
Our back yard is in full bloom today as temperatures soared to almost 85 degrees at noon in Hanahan, SC. "A beautiful day in the neighborhood," isn't that what Mr. Rogers
usually said? (Thanks to the half-dozen readers who correctly identified the source of the quote. I originally credited Captain Kangaroo.)
Saturday, April 1
Water almost ruins bridge run
A four-foot water main (that’s what they call a big one) broke last night in Hanahan a couple of blocks from our house and for more than a couple of hours some 400,000 people in Charleston and the surrounding area were without water. This threatened to put a real damper on the crowd pouring into Charleston for the First Annual Ravenel Bridge Run this morning but the water people got it fixed in good time and all is well. The same people recommend we boil water at least through Sunday morning to be on the safe side. Personally, I have always found in my travels that a double Scotch is sufficient to ward off any contaminants in the local water.
The bridge run is the 29th running of this 10K spring event and the Ravenel Bridge (opened in July 2005) will be the third bridge featured. About 45,500 runners and walkers are registered, although more than half will likely not show, not run/walk nor finish if they do participate. I was an entrant in 2000 in the walkers division and although I enjoyed the experience I have not returned. There is no benefit in the second kick of a mule.
Thursday, March 30
Shoes, runners and lawnmowers
I read recently in The Washington Post on-line edition about a girl who broke up with a guy who opined that her choice of (weird to him) shoes was not appropriate to wear for a job interview. The girl finished her sushi lunch, stood up and told the guy not to call her again. He never did.
In Charleston, SC, the first annual Ravenel Bridge Run (replacing the old Cooper River Bridge run) will be this weekend and some racers from Nigeria will undoubtedly be on hand. They have an unfair training advantage over local runners. The Nigerians train against leopards, the locals work out against guys they meet in bars or at the office.
What are the odds that the two lawnmowers you own will go belly up on the same day within minutes of each other? That happened to me yesterday and I walked up the street and contracted to have my lawn cut regularly during the season. I am expecting a potential buyer to come today and give me some beer money in exchange for the two lawnmowers.
In Charleston, SC, the first annual Ravenel Bridge Run (replacing the old Cooper River Bridge run) will be this weekend and some racers from Nigeria will undoubtedly be on hand. They have an unfair training advantage over local runners. The Nigerians train against leopards, the locals work out against guys they meet in bars or at the office.
What are the odds that the two lawnmowers you own will go belly up on the same day within minutes of each other? That happened to me yesterday and I walked up the street and contracted to have my lawn cut regularly during the season. I am expecting a potential buyer to come today and give me some beer money in exchange for the two lawnmowers.
Monday, March 27
"Complete security" - my view
A friend and former co-worker e-mailed recently that Hutchinson Whampoa Ltd. "is controlled by/part of the Chinese Govt/PLA and is now up for operating/running a US radiation detector at Freeport in the Bahamas. I also believe they operate 2 terminals at the Port of Long Beach, operate terminals at both ends of the Panama Canal, were involved with smuggling illegal weapons about 10 years ago at the Port of Oakland and operate terminals at other ports around the world. What are your thoughts about our 'security'?"
To which I replied: First off, M......, I would have to caveat that I have not been in the loop for 25 years. It has been a long time since I had responsibility for even a small part of the DOD/Air Force/Navy security programs. As a citizen-observer, however, I see "complete security" today as I did throughout my 28 years of investigative/security management service: Impossible to obtain and maintain in our great country with its freedoms, opportunities and challenges. I once told one of our commanding officers, Navy Captain (later Admiral) Dick Curtis, that security was about managing risks. He stood up from the chair in my office and shouted at me that he did not manage risks, he eliminated them. We never did hit it off completely during his tour. Security in a Republic is about risk management and despite some glaring gaffs from time to time, I continue to believe the men and women who do this job on a daily basis do commendable work and we ought to be grateful to them for it.
To which I replied: First off, M......, I would have to caveat that I have not been in the loop for 25 years. It has been a long time since I had responsibility for even a small part of the DOD/Air Force/Navy security programs. As a citizen-observer, however, I see "complete security" today as I did throughout my 28 years of investigative/security management service: Impossible to obtain and maintain in our great country with its freedoms, opportunities and challenges. I once told one of our commanding officers, Navy Captain (later Admiral) Dick Curtis, that security was about managing risks. He stood up from the chair in my office and shouted at me that he did not manage risks, he eliminated them. We never did hit it off completely during his tour. Security in a Republic is about risk management and despite some glaring gaffs from time to time, I continue to believe the men and women who do this job on a daily basis do commendable work and we ought to be grateful to them for it.
Sunday, March 26
Russians in the War Room - Part II
"In 1989 and 1990, after the Berlin Wall fell, we all wanted to light candles and sing 'Kumbaya' and wait for the peace dividends to role in," said James Casey, chief of the Eurasia section of the FBI's counterintelligence division. "But things haven't changed as much as we thought they were going to change in 1989." (“Despite partnership, Russia spying on U.S.,” Douglas Birch, Sun Foreign Staff, The Baltimore Sun, originally published 3/23/2006.)
A friend e-mailed to say that “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” was “Absolutely my all time favorite movie. Scott said it was his all time favorite part. Only Slim Pickens was better in that flick!! -- He had the best part.” (Pickens, movie fans will recall, piloted the American bomber and rode the bomb down waving his cowboy hat after breaking it loose from the bomb bay.)
A friend e-mailed to say that “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” was “Absolutely my all time favorite movie. Scott said it was his all time favorite part. Only Slim Pickens was better in that flick!! -- He had the best part.” (Pickens, movie fans will recall, piloted the American bomber and rode the bomb down waving his cowboy hat after breaking it loose from the bomb bay.)
Saturday, March 25
Russians in the War Room
A report out of Washington today reflects that Russians admitted to the American Central Command collected invasion plans data and passed it to Saddam Hussein before the war began. Because the Cold War has ended we have Russians in the heart of the American Command responsible for planning the Iraq War. The Russians told us early on they would not back any military force against Saddam, so why the hell were they still admitted to the planning rooms? Why were they and any representatives of other countries opposed to the war not asked to leave temporarily?
Hollywood got it right, why can’t Washington? For example, General Buck Turgidson said Russians are basically spies who cannot be trusted and was absolutely correct to express outrage to President Merkin Muffley about one being admitted to the war room.
In case you don’t recall Turgidson, he was the Air Force Chief of Staff (portrayed by George C. Scott, who morphed into Patton in 1970) in the 1964 movie, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”
President Merkin Muffley (one of three characters played by the late Peter Sellers in the film) invited the Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky (Peter Bull) into the American War Room deep in the bowels of the Pentagon to discuss ways to stop the American bomber wing dispatched to destroy the Soviet Union by an utterly mad U.S. Air Force Colonel Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden, who commanded an OSS boat in the Adriatic Sea during WWII).
If Hollywood can get it right, why can’t Washington? Where are the Turgidson’s in this day and age?
Hollywood got it right, why can’t Washington? For example, General Buck Turgidson said Russians are basically spies who cannot be trusted and was absolutely correct to express outrage to President Merkin Muffley about one being admitted to the war room.
In case you don’t recall Turgidson, he was the Air Force Chief of Staff (portrayed by George C. Scott, who morphed into Patton in 1970) in the 1964 movie, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”
President Merkin Muffley (one of three characters played by the late Peter Sellers in the film) invited the Russian Ambassador Alexi de Sadesky (Peter Bull) into the American War Room deep in the bowels of the Pentagon to discuss ways to stop the American bomber wing dispatched to destroy the Soviet Union by an utterly mad U.S. Air Force Colonel Jack Ripper (Sterling Hayden, who commanded an OSS boat in the Adriatic Sea during WWII).
If Hollywood can get it right, why can’t Washington? Where are the Turgidson’s in this day and age?
Wednesday, March 22
Reasons to stay the course
President Bush and a majority of other Republicans, and a large number of Democrats as well, got us into Iraq and now we are riding the tiger. We are damned if we stay and will be damned if we cut and run. The original premises for going to war in Iraq have been shown to be largely bogus and a lot of legislators who voted for the war now complain they got suckered. (On that point, I, as a former State legislator myself, say they should have done their homework before voting.) Many Americans feel the same way. We did not have access to the pre-war intelligence and could only trust our elected leaders. Nevertheless, we got rid of one SOB dictator and started a popular move to democracy. That has to count for something. With all of this, the lead editorial in The Wall Street Journal today (March 22, 2006) identifies the following consequences if we "cut and run before giving Iraqis the time and support to establish a stable, democratic government that can stand on its own."
The U.S. would loose all credibility on weapons proliferation.
Broader Mideast instability.
We would loose all credibility with Muslim reformers.
We would invite more terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
Time and space do not permit reprinting the entire Journal editorial but it may be seen in your local library after today. I will e-mail a copy to you at your request (unless WSJ lawyers tell me to stop). Contact me at archinsc@knology.net. It is worthwhile reading and remembering.
Saturday, March 18
Select extracts from readers' comments on earlier blogs
When I sent the flag as a test of the picture capture capability I heard from a friend who said: Old Glory flies on my newly created flagpole at a home depot parts price of $28 and my very own design. How's that for thriftiness?
Write your own obituary brought four replies: I am sending to you by regular mail two obituaries that I have kept because I couldn't stand to discard them. I agree with you on the subject and feel the same way about the coverage of weddings. I always loved reading about what the bride and her entourage wore and where they held the reception and all that good stuff. My husband fought under Patton but never talked about his experiences. I didn't meet him until after the war. When he died in 1972 I started to piece his military life together and have been a student of WWII ever since. I have put "write obituary" on my list of things-to-do. There are a lot of more intriguing things ahead of it, I must say.
I think it is a great idea. Also, guess I'll always remember (deleted) wanting to write his. I wish I had listened to him.
Thanks. I've been thinking of doing this but have not gotten off the mark yet.
I always want to know cause of death - I think the NYT (The New York Times) does that. Seems we need to know if cancer is felling people, or drunk drivers run into them or something. The NYT says "according to family members ..." or some kind of attribution.
The root canal inspired this on the medical profession: Why can’t we charge for the time we sit waiting on them not only in the waiting room but in the examination room?
“Eight Below” brought forth this from a minister: A member of my church had China cups that were on Byrd’s expedition to Antarctica. (Byrd’s first expedition occurred in 1928-30 and he participated in at least six others until his death in 1957.)
On the Ernest Hemingway exhibit and his suicide there were four reactions: Two e-mails told me of the recent suicides of two young men I did not personally know and the tumultuous affect on survivors.
Also: I've known some suicides where I just had to say, they were so miserable that they couldn't see another way out. But I've known some others that were really an act of violence against those left behind. Who knows?
And, finally: We want to see visit the exhibit. Maybe tomorrow when we are in Charleston.
Write your own obituary brought four replies: I am sending to you by regular mail two obituaries that I have kept because I couldn't stand to discard them. I agree with you on the subject and feel the same way about the coverage of weddings. I always loved reading about what the bride and her entourage wore and where they held the reception and all that good stuff. My husband fought under Patton but never talked about his experiences. I didn't meet him until after the war. When he died in 1972 I started to piece his military life together and have been a student of WWII ever since. I have put "write obituary" on my list of things-to-do. There are a lot of more intriguing things ahead of it, I must say.
I think it is a great idea. Also, guess I'll always remember (deleted) wanting to write his. I wish I had listened to him.
Thanks. I've been thinking of doing this but have not gotten off the mark yet.
I always want to know cause of death - I think the NYT (The New York Times) does that. Seems we need to know if cancer is felling people, or drunk drivers run into them or something. The NYT says "according to family members ..." or some kind of attribution.
The root canal inspired this on the medical profession: Why can’t we charge for the time we sit waiting on them not only in the waiting room but in the examination room?
“Eight Below” brought forth this from a minister: A member of my church had China cups that were on Byrd’s expedition to Antarctica. (Byrd’s first expedition occurred in 1928-30 and he participated in at least six others until his death in 1957.)
On the Ernest Hemingway exhibit and his suicide there were four reactions: Two e-mails told me of the recent suicides of two young men I did not personally know and the tumultuous affect on survivors.
Also: I've known some suicides where I just had to say, they were so miserable that they couldn't see another way out. But I've known some others that were really an act of violence against those left behind. Who knows?
And, finally: We want to see visit the exhibit. Maybe tomorrow when we are in Charleston.
Thursday, March 16
Old Glory
I uploaded this image today to test the process and expect to put some photos on my blog from time to time. For now, a simple salute to Old Glory.
Tuesday, March 14
Write your own obituary
Marilyn Johnson, who also edited three major magazines in her 28 year career as a journalist, has written a book about obits. I haven’t yet read the book, “The Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries” (Harper Collins, $24.95), but she talked about it with Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg of The Wall Street Journal, (online WSJ, March 14, 2006). Ms. Johnson makes the excellent point that obits written in England top the list.
Thanks to the Internet and the time to roam, I have read many obits in English newspapers and have to agree with Ms. Johnson, who says, “They let them go on. And they let them entertain.” Some English obits make fascinating, enjoyable, smiling reading. They bring the dead to life and tell the good, the bad and the ugly. Snide remarks, peccadilloes, failures and successes and whatever else it takes to make the reader aware of whom and what the deceased was is fair game. The writers include journalists, relatives, friends, colleagues, enemies or even the deceased who anticipated his death and wanted the last word.
Here in the United States, and you can see this in your local daily paper, we are accustomed to reading where and when the deceased was born, his ancestors and descendants are listed as are his major life accomplishments. Most obits we read in our local papers are written by Funeral Directors based on information hurriedly gathered up immediately following the death. They are bland and devoid of anything that brings the deceased to life. The directors who write these usually lack the insight to portray the deceased as the hero or the scoundrel s/he was. The family pays to have them printed in the paper, based on the number of column inches.
Some newspapers will have a reporter write an occasional short piece about a dead politician, a business leader, senior church official (especially one convicted of sexual crimes) or an executed criminal. But they leave the rest of the dead alone and to the inadequacies of sorrowing families and funeral directors. Occasionally a letter to the editor will follow an obit by several days, and all of these are complimentary. No one discusses the warts.
What is the solution? Write your obit now and put it away with your funeral papers if you have such a file, or put it where your spouse or significant other will be able to find it if you die. You can study the outline of the obit formula by reading your daily newspaper. Do this for a week or two and then take up pen and paper and go to work. Put down who you were and what you did that makes you proud. If a life incident is everlasting enjoyable or otherwise significant to you, put it down and share it with the readers. Recently, I read obits where the deceased served with General Patton in the glorious march of the Third Army across France, and the relief of beleaguered American troops in the Battle of the Bulge. Now this belongs in an obit. It doesn’t matter if the deceased was a private who only saw General Patton for a few minutes at a time, he was proud to be in that Third Army and people ought to know it a hundred years from now when they look at old obits on yellowing pages, on microfilm or discs or whatever the storage device is in the future. If you love gardening and want to say something about some darn flower, put it down. If you lived your adult life with a same-sex partner go out the same way, put it in the obit. If you made a fortune or lost one, tell the readers. If you bagged a tiger hunting in Nepal but lost its skin in a poker game later, share the agony of victory and defeat. Let posterity know who and what you really were. Write your own obituary
Thanks to the Internet and the time to roam, I have read many obits in English newspapers and have to agree with Ms. Johnson, who says, “They let them go on. And they let them entertain.” Some English obits make fascinating, enjoyable, smiling reading. They bring the dead to life and tell the good, the bad and the ugly. Snide remarks, peccadilloes, failures and successes and whatever else it takes to make the reader aware of whom and what the deceased was is fair game. The writers include journalists, relatives, friends, colleagues, enemies or even the deceased who anticipated his death and wanted the last word.
Here in the United States, and you can see this in your local daily paper, we are accustomed to reading where and when the deceased was born, his ancestors and descendants are listed as are his major life accomplishments. Most obits we read in our local papers are written by Funeral Directors based on information hurriedly gathered up immediately following the death. They are bland and devoid of anything that brings the deceased to life. The directors who write these usually lack the insight to portray the deceased as the hero or the scoundrel s/he was. The family pays to have them printed in the paper, based on the number of column inches.
Some newspapers will have a reporter write an occasional short piece about a dead politician, a business leader, senior church official (especially one convicted of sexual crimes) or an executed criminal. But they leave the rest of the dead alone and to the inadequacies of sorrowing families and funeral directors. Occasionally a letter to the editor will follow an obit by several days, and all of these are complimentary. No one discusses the warts.
What is the solution? Write your obit now and put it away with your funeral papers if you have such a file, or put it where your spouse or significant other will be able to find it if you die. You can study the outline of the obit formula by reading your daily newspaper. Do this for a week or two and then take up pen and paper and go to work. Put down who you were and what you did that makes you proud. If a life incident is everlasting enjoyable or otherwise significant to you, put it down and share it with the readers. Recently, I read obits where the deceased served with General Patton in the glorious march of the Third Army across France, and the relief of beleaguered American troops in the Battle of the Bulge. Now this belongs in an obit. It doesn’t matter if the deceased was a private who only saw General Patton for a few minutes at a time, he was proud to be in that Third Army and people ought to know it a hundred years from now when they look at old obits on yellowing pages, on microfilm or discs or whatever the storage device is in the future. If you love gardening and want to say something about some darn flower, put it down. If you lived your adult life with a same-sex partner go out the same way, put it in the obit. If you made a fortune or lost one, tell the readers. If you bagged a tiger hunting in Nepal but lost its skin in a poker game later, share the agony of victory and defeat. Let posterity know who and what you really were. Write your own obituary
Monday, February 27
The Week (Feb 19-26) in Review
We had some good days and some not so good last week. We had some good friends in for lunch and saw a popular movie. A restaurant manager surprised us, we went to a birthday party for a 90-year old woman, and I had a root canal. Cold weather slowed down work on the renovation of the porch.
We saw Eight Below, the story about Antarctica explorers returning there to recover sled dogs left behind because there was no room on the plane when the people left in a blinding snowstorm. I agree with the movie critics who say the best thing about the movie is (are?) the dogs. Other parts leave you wondering: why don’t viewers see the actor’s breath while they talk out of doors at the bottom of the world. (Football fans will note this occurs frequently in Green Bay.) And as for flying off in that storm in that small plane which sets up the movie, believing it is a stretch. You don’t have to be a dog lover to enjoy this film. It is that good.
I ordered a chocolate cake for dessert while at Sunday brunch and when the waitress asked how it was I told her the cake was old, dry and not moist. The manager came by shortly after and said she had taken the cake off our bill. “I never order desert in a restaurant,” she said, “because it is usually undersized, overpriced and stale.” For this frankness I omit the name of the restaurant. Would not want that manager fired.
The lunch with long-time friends from Columbia, S.C., opened the week enjoyably and the birthday party closed it in the same manner. I told the elderly lady she has a way to go to catch up with our neighbor who is 99 and currently off on a cross-country trip to visit a daughter in Southern California.
As for the root canal, what is there to say other than the Endodonist did a good job on three roots in about 90 minutes with a minimum of pain. I now, emphasis on now, believe my anxiety was worse than the actual event. But, what the hell, I have never been praised by nurses (as has my wife) for being “a good patient.”
We saw Eight Below, the story about Antarctica explorers returning there to recover sled dogs left behind because there was no room on the plane when the people left in a blinding snowstorm. I agree with the movie critics who say the best thing about the movie is (are?) the dogs. Other parts leave you wondering: why don’t viewers see the actor’s breath while they talk out of doors at the bottom of the world. (Football fans will note this occurs frequently in Green Bay.) And as for flying off in that storm in that small plane which sets up the movie, believing it is a stretch. You don’t have to be a dog lover to enjoy this film. It is that good.
I ordered a chocolate cake for dessert while at Sunday brunch and when the waitress asked how it was I told her the cake was old, dry and not moist. The manager came by shortly after and said she had taken the cake off our bill. “I never order desert in a restaurant,” she said, “because it is usually undersized, overpriced and stale.” For this frankness I omit the name of the restaurant. Would not want that manager fired.
The lunch with long-time friends from Columbia, S.C., opened the week enjoyably and the birthday party closed it in the same manner. I told the elderly lady she has a way to go to catch up with our neighbor who is 99 and currently off on a cross-country trip to visit a daughter in Southern California.
As for the root canal, what is there to say other than the Endodonist did a good job on three roots in about 90 minutes with a minimum of pain. I now, emphasis on now, believe my anxiety was worse than the actual event. But, what the hell, I have never been praised by nurses (as has my wife) for being “a good patient.”
Saturday, February 11
Hemingway & Evans
Today I viewed the Ernest Hemingway & Walker Evans exhibit at the Gibbes Gallery here in Charleston. The collection celebrates three weeks the two men spent in Havana in 1933 in close company meeting, talking, drinking and dining. Hemingway loaned Evans $25. He later forgave the loan. During this time Evans entrusted 44 photos to Hemingway who took them to Key West where they stayed in storage for years and passed to a friend after Hemingway shot himself in 1961. From that friend the pictures made their way to the Kennedy Library and eventually to this touring exhibit. Despite the thousands of pictures Evans – one of the great photo-journalists of the 20th century had published in numerous magazines these originals did not appear in any collections of his work.
Hemingway’s suicide by shotgun in Idaho was a severe disappointment. I recall that on the Sunday morning I read of his death I felt he cheated his family, his friends and his fans, of which I was one, and I took it as a personal betrayal. He had always carried himself in life and written as a man’s man. Suicide, I thought at the time when I was thirty years old, was a coward’s way out and unworthy of a man. Some forty-five years later I continue to believe suicide is wrong, but not necessarily “a coward’s way out.”
The exhibit is on tour and will move to another city in late February, early March.
Hemingway’s suicide by shotgun in Idaho was a severe disappointment. I recall that on the Sunday morning I read of his death I felt he cheated his family, his friends and his fans, of which I was one, and I took it as a personal betrayal. He had always carried himself in life and written as a man’s man. Suicide, I thought at the time when I was thirty years old, was a coward’s way out and unworthy of a man. Some forty-five years later I continue to believe suicide is wrong, but not necessarily “a coward’s way out.”
The exhibit is on tour and will move to another city in late February, early March.
Monday, February 6
Madden's Rules
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, insisted that all 15 Security Council members show up to meetings on time: at 10 a.m. Asked recently by a reporter how this was working out, Bolton said, "I took a list of when they came in. We started just before 10:15. I brought the gavel down at 10. I was the only one in the room, though."
Bolton should have given them John’s (as in John Madden) Rules: Show up on time, listen and play like hell.
Bolton should have given them John’s (as in John Madden) Rules: Show up on time, listen and play like hell.
Sunday, February 5
AXIS Information and Analysis (AIA)
AIA is an information agency that unites professionals having years of experience in collecting and analyzing information about Asia and Eastern Europe. AIA's main attention is focused upon those states that represent a threat to regional and international security, as well as upon areas of ethnic and religious conflict. At the same time, AIA follows the events in those countries that are going through political and socio-economic cataclysms.
I am adding AIA to my links page at my website .
I am adding AIA to my links page at my website .
Friday, February 3
Where the Ice Bowl was played
I read today in an AP story about how the pleasant winter weather around the country is coming to an end. The story reported that January past was the warmest on record in Green Bay, Wisconsin. No further details were given. I assume therefore – just based on the mere coupling of “Green Bay” and “winter,” the temperature was probably about 20-25 degrees Fahrenheit.
Thursday, February 2
Shortest interval of time
Wednesday night as I watched the news about all the security precautions being taken in Detroit for Sunday’s Super Bowl, the thought occurred to me that if Osama bin Laden and his fellow terrorists want to see hell-come-to-breakfast on Monday they should do something stupid at the 40th Super Bowl.
Tuesday night while driving to a social gathering, I lived the immeasurable nano-moment George Carlin calls the “shortest interval of time:” that flashing moment between when the traffic light turns green and the guy (Carlin used a different term) behind you blows his horn. Our paths paralleled on the eastbound highway for less than a half-mile when the horn blower pulled his SUV off the highway to use an ATM machine.
The dog situation about which I have written earlier appears to have succumbed to a “mild solution.” A talk with the neighbor resulted in her promise to tether the animal when she lets him out in the morning (the city requires dogs to be on a leash or under control of the owner.)
Click to see the website: http://www.archibald99.com/
Tuesday night while driving to a social gathering, I lived the immeasurable nano-moment George Carlin calls the “shortest interval of time:” that flashing moment between when the traffic light turns green and the guy (Carlin used a different term) behind you blows his horn. Our paths paralleled on the eastbound highway for less than a half-mile when the horn blower pulled his SUV off the highway to use an ATM machine.
The dog situation about which I have written earlier appears to have succumbed to a “mild solution.” A talk with the neighbor resulted in her promise to tether the animal when she lets him out in the morning (the city requires dogs to be on a leash or under control of the owner.)
Click to see the website: http://www.archibald99.com/
Tuesday, January 31
Wife, dog and Exxon
Those keeping up with us on the neighbor’s dog may be pleased to know today’s score. This morning Wife was adjusting a window when the neighbor’s dog, continuing his preference for our lawn over that of his owner’s, assumed the position to do the daily necessity. Wife opened the window and gave a shout as only a mother of five could muster and the dog took off for home. Score: Wife 1, Dog 0.
Most of us cannot comprehend the true meaning of the $10 billion dollar profit Exxon made last quarter, so today we rely on the Wall St. Journal to tell us it is $80,842 per minute during the quarter. Now, does everybody have that straight?
See earlier postings at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com on these and other provocative tales of life.
Most of us cannot comprehend the true meaning of the $10 billion dollar profit Exxon made last quarter, so today we rely on the Wall St. Journal to tell us it is $80,842 per minute during the quarter. Now, does everybody have that straight?
See earlier postings at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com on these and other provocative tales of life.
Monday, January 30
Exxon and the rest of us
I got two electronic alerts via e-mail this morning, both advising that Exxon had reported $10 billion profit in the 4th quarter, exceeding it’s own record profit of $9.2 billion in the 3rd quarter. These profits are from record high oil prices and come at a time when people everywhere, faced with higher heating oil and gasoline prices, struggle to make ends meet. In Massachusetts and a congressional district in the Bronx in New York, a non-profit organization and a Bronx Congressman cut deals with Venezuela’s anti-American leader, Hugo Chavez, to furnish heating oil at reduced rates to the poorest of the poor. What kind of national nonsense is this when the Emperor sits in Washington, his buddies in the oil business reap these kinds of profits, American communities everywhere suffer and an oil-rich dictator thumbs his nose at the U.S. and reaps favorable headlines? Something is wrong with this picture!
Friday, January 27
How to stop a dog from crapping on a lawn
This morning a neighbor’s dog came to my front lawn and took a crap. I saw him as he was leaving. My wife saw him yesterday but he took off before she could get out in the yard to rattle and chase him away. The neighbors let this fat white-with-black-markings dog out in the morning and he roams at will, pausing only to crap in my front yard. I said I would Google this problem and my wife laughed. I put the question “how to stop a dog from crapping on a lawn” and instantly Google returned a hundreds of references. I summoned the wife to view the computer screen and said, “Look.”
It seems our problem is one shared by thousands of people who don’t own dogs but live close to irresponsible dog owners who lack the damn sense to train and or curb their dogs. Some suggestions revealed by the Google search include the mild (talk to your neighbor, put out Crap Away; call the dog police,) to the mad-as-hell (shoot the dog with a stun gun*; tie a nicely wrapped box of dog crap to the dog and send him home; staple a small dog to the neighbor’s door and keep stapling larger and larger dogs until the neighbors get the message.)
Citizens who go through daily life in the suburbs without this problem are generally unsympathetic to the victim and take the attitude “better on your lawn than the bottom of my shoe.”
I will work on this problem and if I achieve a “mild” solution I will share it with you via another blog entry. If I have to go to the “mad-as-hell” basket of ideas, well that’s a different story and it will probably be best to take Ben Franklin’s advice: three can keep a secret if two are dead.
[*A policeman in Round O, South Carolina, used a laser gun this week to subdue a Billy goat.]
It seems our problem is one shared by thousands of people who don’t own dogs but live close to irresponsible dog owners who lack the damn sense to train and or curb their dogs. Some suggestions revealed by the Google search include the mild (talk to your neighbor, put out Crap Away; call the dog police,) to the mad-as-hell (shoot the dog with a stun gun*; tie a nicely wrapped box of dog crap to the dog and send him home; staple a small dog to the neighbor’s door and keep stapling larger and larger dogs until the neighbors get the message.)
Citizens who go through daily life in the suburbs without this problem are generally unsympathetic to the victim and take the attitude “better on your lawn than the bottom of my shoe.”
I will work on this problem and if I achieve a “mild” solution I will share it with you via another blog entry. If I have to go to the “mad-as-hell” basket of ideas, well that’s a different story and it will probably be best to take Ben Franklin’s advice: three can keep a secret if two are dead.
[*A policeman in Round O, South Carolina, used a laser gun this week to subdue a Billy goat.]
Tuesday, January 24
Update to revised blog
Update: If you care to comment on the revised blog you can do so directly at the bottom of the posted blog (i.e. click on : http://www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com/). Sorry I left that important point our earlier.
Revised blog - invitation to critique
This is an invitation to family members to examine my revised blog* and make suggestions/comments. This revision was accomplished over the weekend with help from Patrick. I am working on a mailing list to accompany the blog but I am not there yet. Patrick has set up the mechanics for the list, but, as usual, the devil is in the details. You may create a shortcut to this blog for your desktop so you can return from time to time. I would be interested in knowing if anyone in the family other than me and Patrick has a blog going. Many people put a lot of personal stuff on their blog but mine is tends to be less so.
My web site remains on-line at www.archibald99.com.
*Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site. www.bytowninternet.com/glossary
My web site remains on-line at www.archibald99.com.
*Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site. www.bytowninternet.com/glossary
Repair or replace: a decision made
My all-in-one printer, scanner, copier (Epson Stylus Photo RX600), bought in April 2004, (you guessed it, warranty exhausted) broke last week and I tried the Problem Solving suggestions in the owner’s manual several times. The black and light cyan ink cartridges would not respond when I tried to print, and there were color variations in copying. This week I called Epson service and paid $9.95 for (flat-rate) technical assistance, plus the phone call charges. (A phone number in California was routed to a woman outside Toronto, Canada.) After almost 23 minutes of re-doing what I had been doing on my own nickel without resolving the problem, she gave me the names and numbers of two authorized repair shops, both more than 100 miles distance from Charleston, S.C. The first shop in Savannah, Georgia, had a customer-friendly rep that walked me through the costs of shipping each way (undetermined), assessing ($50, applied to repairs – if made), and repairing the machine (labor $90 per hour, plus parts). We talked over the low cost of a new all-in-one, improvements in the technology since 2004, and the uncertainty of final repair costs. “The numbers aren’t with you,” he said, “but you decide.” I’m going to get a new all-in-one (HP Photosmart 3210).
The Epson will be re-cycled to a local charity which has a special shop for computers and related gear. They keep a couple of workers on payroll who fix such items up and sell them. Maybe they will have good-luck with this all-in-one.
The Epson will be re-cycled to a local charity which has a special shop for computers and related gear. They keep a couple of workers on payroll who fix such items up and sell them. Maybe they will have good-luck with this all-in-one.
Monday, January 23
Movie Diplomacy
Has anyone else noticed that when Germans elect a new Chancellor and he/she makes the obligatory diplomatic call on the occupant of the White House, some American movie channel shows uncut, uncensored and uninterrupted re-runs of The Longest Day and Patton?
Sunday, January 22
Remaking Blog Page
This is a remake of my blog page done on January 22,2006. The Archives on the right of this page cannot be search by the blogger search in the upper left-hand corner as they are from an earlier period when they were not entirely saved on this blogger.com server. They can, however, be examined by clicking on one of the monthly periods. You can return to this page by clicking on the Back button.
Thursday, January 19
Dress Nice
I just saw the Presidents of Iran and Syria standing side-by-side at an airport. The best thing which could be done for these two is to send them on an all-expense paid trip to London or Rome and get them a tailor. Their suits are an embarrassment to management everywhere.
Have a nice day, and dress nice.
#262 (06-02)
Have a nice day, and dress nice.
#262 (06-02)
Saturday, January 14
The Hollywood Cowboy
Despite talk of Oscars for Brokeback Mountain and its actors, I believe that for millions of people like myself the lasting image of the Hollywood cowboy will be John Wayne sitting astride a big horse, six-gun on his hip, rifle laying at the ready across his saddle, pushing a herd of cows across the plain - not two lightweights on a sheep farm falling in love with each other.
#262 (06-01)
#262 (06-01)
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