Clamp on Picnic Table Canopy

Every once in a while you see a great idea and say, "wow." I had a "wow" moment today while looking at the on-line Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. It is a picnic table canopy. Here is the on-line description:

The Clamp On Picnic Table Canopy.

This portable canopy clamps to any rectangular wooden table and provides up to 75' sq. of shade. The unit's adjustable bracket clamps latch onto picnic tables, the three-piece frame sets up in seconds, and the canopy simply slides over the frame. The canopy tilts 20º in either direction, adjusts up to 9' high, and locks into place at the desired position. Made from a durable polyester fabric, the canopy filters the sun's UV rays and provides reliable shelter from rain. The powder coated steel frame, high impact injection molded connectors, and rip-stop canopy ensure years of reliable use. The entire unit folds to fit into the included duffel bag. Minor assembly. Fits tables 4' to 10' wide. Open: 58" H x 90" W x 120" L. (27 lbs.)
Item 11679
$129.95
Please allow 1-2 weeks for delivery.

Makes me wish I had a picnic table out in my backyard!

Spare me your "mercy"

I believe most people today are like myself; poorly informed about gladiators. When I visited the Rome Colosseum a few years ago I found it much smaller than I had imagined in my mind. After all what I know about gladiators I learned from the silver screen and actors like Victor Mature, Kirk Douglas and Russell Crowe, all of whom vanquished large animals and brutes bigger than themselves, won their freedom and made off with some busty woman.
Thus, I was intrigued when I saw a headline in the local paper about a possible gladiator graveyard being uncovered in England. The article reported new forensic evidence suggests bones belonged to gladiators. It cited men larger than the average Roman, arm-muscle stress indicating possible weapons training at an early age, and carnivore marks on bones, all suggesting an arena connection. It was a shock to read that gladiators were often beheaded as an "act of mercy after suffering horrific injuries during their fights." You would hope they would have been given some hemlock or a tainted mushroom.

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(Published June 5, 2010)

Letters to the Editor
The Post & Courier
Charleston, SC

Dear Sir

It was inspiring to read about the 830 students who graduated from MUSC into the health care field last week. I wish them all a lifetime of career satisfaction as they attend to the medical needs of their patients.
I recently sent a one-paragraph to a doctor whose name I omit out of courtesy. If the 830 were smart enough to graduate, they ought to be smart enough to get this message:

"Dear Dr. Name Omitted

"Today, Thursday, May 20, 2010, I arrived at your office with my wife, Mary Archibald, at 10:35 for a 10:50 appointment. At 11:30 we were still waiting in the outer office with the prospect of being there at least another hour. Two other patients had gone into the inner office ahead of us and neither had come out. A third patient was also ahead of us in the outer office. During this wait a drug rep came, was admitted to the inner office and left after about twenty minutes. Another person came delivering three large bags (it looked like lunch). All this time Mary was in her wheel chair. I know when she is tiring and the likelihood of another hour’s wait was obviously going to be too much for her. (I had picked her up at Franke’s Skilled Nursing unit at 10:15.) We left."

Sincerely,

/s/ Francis X. Archibald

(From my blog.)

Where to play the game

Moderate weather fans were thrown a bone this week when the NFL announced the 2014 Super Bowl will be played in New Jersey.
On cue came the cries of the purists who believe that weather ought not to play a role in determining the outcome of the game. Since the first game was played back in 1968 the league has always chosen a warm climate – California, Florida, New Orleans, Atlanta - for the game.
The decision to play in New Jersey where the forecast for game day in 2014 is temperature in the low thirties, strong winds, and maybe snow, was in part a reward for the new stadium in New Jersey.
All of this is much ado about nothing. To really even things out for having favored warm weather teams these past 43 years the league should put the game in Green Bay.
Remember the NFL championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys played on the frozen tundra on December 31, 1967, when the pre-game wind-chill was minus 70 degrees? By kickoff time knowledgeable weather men in Green Bay were on the plane to the Fijis. The stout-hearted were in Lambeau Field.
With a little over four minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Bart Starr started the Packers on a drive to the end zone 68 ice covered yards away.
Did the weather influence the game? Green Bay fans say, nah: ‘both teams had to play in the same conditions.’ Dallas fans respond: ‘that’s like saying the swimmer and shark were equal since they were both in the water.’
When Starr dove into the South end zone with 13 seconds on the clock his winning touchdown created one of the most memorable moments in NFL history for the Packers, Starr and the fans.
This is what football is all about. Regular season games are played in warm climates, moderate (for football anyway) places like New Jersey and Pittsburgh, and then where real men get tested: Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The Super Bowl ought to get the same billing.
(From my blog.)

Woody Woodpecker is alive and well

Yesterday while walking from the dining room to my apartment building I heard a woodpecker. I paused and look up in a tree but did not see him. I took a few steps and heard him again and I stopped and looked. I thought he wants me to see him. After a minute or so I spotted him about 30 feet up the side of a tree. He commenced his rat-a-tat-rat-a-tat-rat-a-tat pecking as I stood there watching and listening. Then he moved about 90 degrees to a new position on tree but hit a soft spot and though his beak was moving in and out, or up and down, there was no noise. He flew away and I walked on to my apartment.
(From my blog.

Matterhorn – A tale of courage and survival

It has been a long time since a novel was so compelling I hated to put in down and yearned to pick it up again as soon as I could. This is "Matterhorn." It has nothing to do with that fabled mountain in the Swiss Alps which attracts professional climbers every summer. It is a story about a hill in Vietnam that a company of Marines took, abandoned, and re-took in 1969.

 

I picked up this novel about the same time I was watching the ten-part HBO series "The Pacific," the heroic struggle of the United States Marines during World War II. I was struck by the similarities in both wars.

 

The author, Karl Marlantes, a graduate of Yale University and a Rhodes Scholar, served as a Marine in Vietnam. He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation medals for valor, two Purple Hearts and ten air medals. He brings to this first novel a wealth of first-hand experience about men in war. One wonders if Matterhorn is more auto-biographical than imaginary. In any event it ranks very high among the tales told of the Vietnam experience which I have read over the years. Marlantes says he worked on this, his first novel, for thirty years.

 

This gritty tale has been widely praised and nit-pickingly criticized. Some thought it over-written; others get hung-up on little things like explaining the military lingo in the narrative despite a glossary of weapons, technical terms, slang and jargon, in the back of the book. I did not find this distracting. To the contrary, it helps the uninformed understand immediately without having to flip back and forth.

 

The one thing I believe comes straight at you is the oft told tale about why men fight as they do in battle. They aren't fighting down on the ground in Vietnam for some noble purpose laid down by politicians back home (stop the spread of Communism) or by senior officers way behind the lines (body counts are a measure of progress); they are fighting for their lives and the man at their side.

 

The perspective of the "snuff" (a young Marine of low rank) is always going to be different from that of the career senior officers, "lifers" – quite often a derogatory term implying one who puts career, military rules and decorum above the welfare of the troops. In between these two groups are the young 2^nd lieutenants who live and die with the snuffs but are charged by their seniors to lead them to fight.

 

The battalion commander drinks too much for anyone in charge of troops and is quick off of the mark to find fault and suspect the worst. Marlantes gives us hope at the regiment and division level. The future is not addressed in the novel, but it is reasonable to expect that very shortly an officer's fitness report will put the battalion commander out to pasture.

 

In Vietnam this hierarchical system worked as it has for two-hundred years. It never is pretty, but the job gets done and young Americans rise to the occasion over and over again.

 

It is not going to happen but every American ought to read this tale and imagine himself in the First Squad, First Platoon. Matterhorn will not be a novel you will quit on half-way through. To do so would be deserting the boys in the sweltering mountains and jungle of Vietnam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why Youth Join al-Qaeda

The recent bombing attempt in Times Square has renewed questions about what motivates young people to join violent extremist groups. In a new Special Report, United States Institute of Peace Senior Fellow Col. John M. "Matt" Venhaus examines how the terrorist group al-Qaeda recruits young people, who signs up and why, and ways to prevent al-Qaeda from growing its ranks.
Read the Special Report
Click on the Download Now link beneath the image of the report (on the USIP site) or read the summary on the opening page.
(From my blog.)

Shopping at The Pig

In the days when Jesus trod the earth many men drank wine from goatskins. The richer ones had urns which they sometimes filled with water and we all know what happened at that wedding feast. Later on came bottles and real corks, most of which came from Portugal. Enterprising people took this a step further and introduced plastic corks. Time moves on and wine today is being sold in cardboard boxes equal to four 750 liter bottles. It is claimed the wine will stay fresh for a month after being opened. (I guess this is a natural progression to being able to have dog food delivered to our doors.)

If you pass on the wine in the cardboard box, as I did after picking up some apples and bananas at The Pig in Seaside Shoppes, watch yourself at the register, or better yet check the register receipt. I shopped on Saturday. My bill came to over $12. After putting the food away at home I looked a bit closer at the receipt and thought that was a lot of money for three items (I also bought some cow's milk). The apples cost $8.74. WHOA, wait a minute. I didn't buy that many. I got out the scale I use to weigh kilos of coke (that's an attempted funny, don't call the DEA) and had about 20 ounces of apples. Having learned elementary math at the hands of Miss Seed in the Hugh J. Molloy school, I returned to The Pig. The customer service rep weighed the apples and gave me a refund of $5.66. I asked what he intended to do about the scale and register where I checked out and he said "they are OK. The checkout girl probably leaned on the scale" and he would speak to her about it. And since my cash back was over $5 would I please sign the chit he put before me.

How the government spends some of your money

At one time or another we all wonder about how the government is spending our money. A portion of that money goes to maintaining and operating the FBI in Washington, across the country and in some foreign lands where we have embassies. One way to get an idea of what you are receiving for your money is to go to www.fbi.gov/ and look in the left hand column. You will find links to receive daily e-mail updates from the Bureau covering activities throughout the country and you can submit your e-mail address for press releases from the Columbia, SC, office (or other field offices in areas you are interested in). The daily e-mails come bullet-like with a summary of the issue and a link to the details. I have looked at these for a few weeks now and find them as interesting as any news magazine I read. One category of crime that surprises me is "public corruption" which gets much attention from the Bureau because of its effect on citizen respect for government, as well as betrayal of public trust for money or other favors. (Corrected copy.)

How not to dress for a flight

Michael Lombardi runs a financial investment in New York and threw a personal gripe into a recent e-mail that hit home with me and I want to pass it along:

“My gripe today may be a silly one, but I want to share it with my readers anyway.
“Back in the 1950s, 1960s and even for the majority of the 1970s, men would wear suits to work, women would wear dresses.
“(Remember The Dick Van Dyke Show or The Lucy Show. The men would come home from work in suits and wear them around the house until they went to bed, while women would wear dresses.)
“Putting work and the office aside, people originally dressed up to go onto an airplane. As a frequent traveler, I've become quite disgusted (sorry for the hard words) about how people dress on an airplane these days. I don't want to sit next to someone (male or female) who is wearing
“flip flops on a plane. Nor do I want to sit next to a man wearing short pants and an undershirt or a woman wearing a tank top, shorts and sun glasses.
“Sure, society has changed and dress today is much more casual. And while I don't expect people to get "dressed up" to go onto a flight, I do expect people to have respect for the way they present themselves and for their fellow passengers. I'm all for being ‘comfy’ on an airplane, but I have a big problem with people dressing as if the plane is a stepping stone to the beach or the gym.”

(From my blog.)

Sovereign Citizen Movement

Sovereign citizens "believe that even though they physically reside in this country, they are separate or 'sovereign' from the United States."They believe they don't have to pay taxes, can ignore the courts and thumb their noses at practically every organ of government federal, state and local. The FBI has released a summary of this movement in the United States and I found it interesting to say the least. They have even gone so far as to create their own license plates, some of which are shown in an FBI photo.
(From my blog.)

Madam Speaker…

Gavin Newsome, Mayor of San Francisco

According to news reports House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the Republican Party’s top target, but the only way they can kick her out of the speaker’s office is to take control of the Congress in November.

Mrs. Pelosi got 72 percent of the vote in her District in 2008. San Francisco is her home base and the mayor of that city by the sea said on Bill Maher’s show a couple of weeks ago that his city already has a health plan in place which mirrors the bill passed by the Congress in March which has stirred up so much opposition in the GOP.

The main reason they have betting windows at race tracks is because people disagree on who is going to win. As of now, I believe Mrs. Pelosi will be with us as Speaker of the House in the 2011-2012 term. Political buffs stayed turned.

(From my blog.)

10 Ways Health Care may affect your taxes

This is a link to Market Watch, a respectable and reliable source of information concerning finances at all levels. It outlines how the recently enacted Health Care legislation may affect your and my taxes.
(From my blog.)

hh gregg – research before you go

Two or three times a week there is an insert in the local paper touting low prices at hh gregg, appliances and electronics. This may not always be the case. Today at the local store I bought a Free Agent/Go Dock to hold my external disc drive for $19.99.

A short time later I was in the Best Buy store and found the same product for $4.99. I bought one there also and later returned the first one to hhgregg.

I am not sure how you explain such a price differential but it obviously pays to have some idea of what something costs before you shop.

(See my complete blog.)

Cleaning the refrigertor

Anjali Athavaley wrote in the fourth section of The Wall Street Journal, February 24, 2010, (“Why Won’t Anyone Clean Me?”) about how most Americans clean their refrigerators only once or twice a year and how refrigerator manufacturers are trying to make their new appliances a weapon in the fight against dirty kitchens.
It came as a shock to me that most Americans actually clean their refrigerator twice a year. I have been in my Man Cave for two years and have not cleaned my refrigerator once. During the 55 or so years my wife and I shared a home I am sure she cleaned our refrigerator regularly, at least I never found reason to complain. Of course, when you have five children at home there not much food that lingers long enough in a refrigerator to resemble “science projects” or cause bacteria problems. (My wife now lives in a nursing home and I am in my second period of bachelorhood, the first being the time between when I left home to enter the Air Force and when I married.)
A cleaning service comes to my apartment weekly and does the necessary, but things like refrigerators are a special service and separate arrangements must be made. My good intentions to get this done seem to disappear in the time it takes to close the refrigerator and put the task out of sight. After reading Miss Athavaley’s article this morning I was determined to get in there and “clean and sanitize.” I put on some old pants and shoes and went to work.
First, I emptied all the food out of the refrigerator and stacked it on the counter and stove top in the kitchen. I don’t keep a lot of food as I take most of my meals in the dining room of the retirement community where I live, or I eat elsewhere. (Occasionally, falling back on “the kindness of strangers.”) As I pulled each item I gave it the smell test and looked it over carefully for signs of something that might cure the H1N1 virus.
Then I commenced to take out all the shelves, compartments and humidity controlled containers. I washed each of these pieces in the kitchen sick with hot water and detergent and as I did so I put them on towels I had laid out on the dinette table and leather sofa to air dry. It surprised me how easily all these parts came out and it later surprised me even more that they all went back in.
When it came time to restore the food I carefully noted the advice in the article and put the condiments on the door shelf (the warmest part of the refrigerator and not the place for the milk carton). I only have one potato, an apple and three oranges that are likely to spoil if they are still around on Labor Day but I put them front where I will see every time I open the door. I looked at the “use by dates” and chucked a couple of items into the trash.
All in all it was not a time consuming task, nor something beyond a man with only a Masters degree in international relations. I did the job in about an hour and took some pictures as I went along in case I am compelled to prove that I cleaned my refrigerator during the 21st Century. I suspect that when some congress person(s) read the article there will be an attempt to create a refrigerator police force. Such is the way of life.
(From my blog.)

Duke, we miss you

I can hardly wait for May to arrive. AMC and other movie channels usually run a month long tribute to John Wayne by showing his movies over again. The Duke died in 1979 so many of these films are dated and you know the outcome. The Duke is always the good guy and right away you can spot the bad guys. This desire for a nostalgic moment (or month of such moments) is propelled by the two last films I have chosen to watch.

One was Lorna’s Silence: the story of an Albania girl who enters into a sham marriage to a Belgian drug dealer to get Belgium citizenship so she can get a license to open a snack bar. At the end she is running for her life and hiding in a cold shack in a forest somewhere between Belgium and Albania laying on a simple wooden bench and whispering to the non-existent child she imagines is in her womb.

The second film is Shutter Island, the Scorsese film which took in the most money at the box office this week. In this one a US Marshal arrives at an asylum for the criminally insane on this island off the coast of Boston to investigate the disappearance of an inmate – or a patient, as the staff likes to refer to them – and winds up quietly heading for a lighthouse on the island where the doctor and staff will perform a lobotomy on him.

Let’s just say these films were not my cup of tea and I like the simpler world of the Duke.

  

Marsh walk, Mt Pleasant SC

This is a link to some pictures I took today at the recently opened Mt Pleasant marsh walk near the Water Works Department on Rifle Range Road. There is also a dog park which has two fenced areas, one for large dogs and one for small dogs. Along the way to the marsh we met some people and dogs enjoying the warmer weather and the great view from the marsh. Parking is close by the entrance to this site. It is on a driveway between the Water Works and the new Mamie Whiteside school under construction. It makes a nice outing.

(Click on the above link to see the pictures).

(From my blog.)

Health care died in 2010

The sweeping improvement to health care in America envisioned by the Obama administration a year ago is dead. Its lengthy life killed it.

 

President Obama and his advisors looked back at the fate of President Clinton’s health initiative. President Clinton sent his wife up to Congress with a detailed master plan. When it arrived it hung there like a piñata at a Cinco de Mayo festival in a Juarez saloon where three kinds of people waited to bash it: the nearly drunk, the drunk and those who couldn’t even hang on to the floor. To avoid a similar fate, the new administration’s reasoning went, let’s allow Congress to write a bill around some goals advanced by President Obama. Well, that hasn’t worked either.

Having taken over the government in 2009, the really liberal Democrats in Congress (who never face serious Republican challenges back home) drafted a bill with every wish and wet dream idea they ever had in it. The Democrats from states where they depended on Republican cross voting to get elected balked at some of these ideas, not that they weren’t good. They were just too risky for some Democrats. Meanwhile, the Republicans got together and decided they would not support anything – even a 21st Century version of the miracle of the loaves and fishes – not even if they could put their hand into Jesus’ side.

 

Over in the Senate the Democratic majority that could push a proposal through dithered too damn long and then the great Liberal Lion, Ted Kennedy, died. What could have been the strongest voice for health care reform was silenced. The one man who might have brokered a deal, as sick as he was, with a few Republicans was gone from the Senate scene.

Then the seat held by Senator Kennedy was given to a Republican by the Massachusetts voters and the chances for health care reform began to really slide down hill. In the end, the proponents wanted and expected too much, the administration plan to let the Congress draft the bill has turned out to be a mistake and the refusal of the Republicans in Congress to come to the table in any collegial manner finally scuttled the whole idea of imaginative health care reform. If anything comes out in 2010 it will be a watered down version of the great dream. The 35 million uncovered Americans will remain uncovered. There may be tinkering around the edges but in the long run insurers will make more money and consumers will pay higher premiums.

(From my blog.)

Goodbye Charlie, Thanks for your work

Charlie Wilson, a 12-term congressman from Texas, has died at the age of 76. While he was in Congress he was a one-man dollar resource assault team against the Soviets in Afghanistan. There is a book and later a movie, Charlie Wilson's War, which tell the story of how an obscure playboy congressman (Tom Hanks played Wilson) from Texas single-handedly got the Congress to funnel millions of dollars to the mujahideen and Afghan "freedom fighters" to fight and ultimately defeat the Soviets during the 1980s. Some say now that weapons funded by Wilson and the CIA are being used against us in Afghanistan, but that is Monday-morning quarterbacking. The fact is that Wilson's efforts led to the defeat of the Soviets and forced them to give up in Afghanistan. It had the unintended consequence of awaking dreams and visions of Islam, but that not ought to be held against Charlie.

If you haven't see the excellent movie it is available on DVD at most of the usual outlets and is occasionally seen on movie channels. With Wilson's death you might look for it to be re-run several times over the next week or two.

The book, written by George Crile, is similarly available at most of the usual outlets. It is a fascinating read. I actually saw the movie first and then bought and read the book. The story is that compelling.

Charlie Wilson is the only outsider ever recognized by the CIA as "honored colleague." He was truly one of the good guys.

Sanford saga

Letters to the Editor
The Post & Courier
Charleston, SC
Dear Sirs:
Drucilla Barker, director of women and gender studies at USC, hit the nail on the head regarding Jenny Sanford's book on her life, failed marriage and divorce from the governor.

This sadly miserable tale, like a few others involving rich celebrities in recent years, continues to play out only because of the wealth and resources available to Mrs. Sanford.

There are thousands of women, and some men, across this country who divorce every year because of infidelity and other reasons and we hear little or nothing from them or about them, only the statistics about the divorce rate.

Through the Internet, for example, I learned that for the 12 months ending in April 2009, 34 percent of marriages ended in divorce. Enough of the Sanfords.

/s/ Francis X. Archibald 

(Published February 10, 2010)

(This is from my blog.)