It is my understanding that, when the US took all that land from Mexico, the Mexicans who were living on it became American citizens. I suppose that, if any of them wanted to remain Mexican citizens, they would have had to move to what was left of Mexico, but I don't know if any of them did. Those people are all dead now, but their descendants, being born in the US, are still American citizens. I was not counting any of those people as Mexicans when I said that most of the Hispanics in Arizona are not supposed to be there.
Actually, I don't know what percentage of the Hispanics currently in Arizona are there illegally, but there must be a lot of them because the State of Arizona incurred the wrath of the PC crowd when they tried to enforce the immigration laws a few yeas ago. I think they ended up being forbidden to do that by the Supreme Court, who determined that immigration laws are the exclusive domain of the federal government. Arizona argued that, since the feds weren't enforcing the laws like they were supposed to, Arizona had the right to do it for them, but the court did not agree. Now we have a president who is actually trying to enforce those laws, but it remains to be seen if the courts will let him do his job.
Although I don't follow it as closely as you guys do, I am aware that new stuff about that Russian thing is coming out every day. It's hard to tell, though, because the new stuff sounds a lot like the old stuff: One of Trump's people talked to some Russians. What's illegal about that? We are not at war with the Russians, and I'm sure that lots of people who were not working for Trump have talked to Russians over the years without being investigated. Well, there was that hacking business but, last I heard, it had not been proven that the hackers even were Russians or, if they were, that Trump's people had anything to do with it. If something like that turns up in our local news media, I certainly will pay attention. I am relying on you guys to tell me if it turns up on Fox or CNN because I don't have time to watch that stuff.
Thursday, August 31, 2017
hill of beans, mountain or molehill?
Single guys, especially single guys who have been single for a long time, have a problem. When Beagles comes up with some tomfool idea he has the hypothetical wife to tell him that is the stupidest thing she has ever heard and then he can drop the idea, but Old Dawg and myself we just keep plowing along in our tomfoolery.
Sheriff Joe won many elections, but he lost his last one. As far as the Mexicans not supposed to be there, Arizona was part of Mexico until the Americans came there with their guns and took it away.
As far as the Hilary investigations not going anywhere, there turned out to not be much there there and the reps dropped it like a hot potato once they won the election. As far as the Russian investigations going nowhere, there is plenty of there there, new stuff is popping up like microwave popcorn every week, but I guess you don't notice that if you are just paying attention to the weather.
You can travel to Canada with a spiffy enhanced driver's license if you travel by land or sea, but not if you are flying, and not if you have a DUI on your record.
Speaking of which, flying, not the DUI, I have to remember to print out my boarding pass this morning. I will be flying to Kansas City early tomorrow morning for a semi annual visit with beer drinking buddies in Rolla in the middle of the show me state. I'll be missing my Friday and Monday postings.
Getting back to the hill of beans, which amounts to, I guess, a Trumpendectomy (I wonder if the media will pick up this term, it has a ring no?), Beagles may be on to something. I am sure the regular reps would love to do it, but are too scared of the deplorables to do it. Roger Stone and Jim Bakker are threatening an insurrection if they try it. Not that either of these guys amounts to a hill of beans, but there is that drip drip thing.
Some guy for the Heritage Foundation was just on the radio talking about the upcoming tax reform battle and he said that Trump will be taking a more activist role in this battle. Inasmuch as Trump in his activist role chiefly insults and threatens the republican congress I am sure they are thrilled. As far as how the revenue lost by slashing corporate taxes the answer is closing loopholes and trickle down. Let the games begin.
Sheriff Joe won many elections, but he lost his last one. As far as the Mexicans not supposed to be there, Arizona was part of Mexico until the Americans came there with their guns and took it away.
As far as the Hilary investigations not going anywhere, there turned out to not be much there there and the reps dropped it like a hot potato once they won the election. As far as the Russian investigations going nowhere, there is plenty of there there, new stuff is popping up like microwave popcorn every week, but I guess you don't notice that if you are just paying attention to the weather.
You can travel to Canada with a spiffy enhanced driver's license if you travel by land or sea, but not if you are flying, and not if you have a DUI on your record.
Speaking of which, flying, not the DUI, I have to remember to print out my boarding pass this morning. I will be flying to Kansas City early tomorrow morning for a semi annual visit with beer drinking buddies in Rolla in the middle of the show me state. I'll be missing my Friday and Monday postings.
Getting back to the hill of beans, which amounts to, I guess, a Trumpendectomy (I wonder if the media will pick up this term, it has a ring no?), Beagles may be on to something. I am sure the regular reps would love to do it, but are too scared of the deplorables to do it. Roger Stone and Jim Bakker are threatening an insurrection if they try it. Not that either of these guys amounts to a hill of beans, but there is that drip drip thing.
Some guy for the Heritage Foundation was just on the radio talking about the upcoming tax reform battle and he said that Trump will be taking a more activist role in this battle. Inasmuch as Trump in his activist role chiefly insults and threatens the republican congress I am sure they are thrilled. As far as how the revenue lost by slashing corporate taxes the answer is closing loopholes and trickle down. Let the games begin.
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Canine Confusion
Uncle Ken seems to have gotten his dogs mixed up. In his last post, he attributed to me some things that Old Dog said and vice-versa. He got it straight in his last paragraph, so maybe he finally came to his senses. Don't feel bad, I understand that a certain amount of memory loss is normal at our age. My hypothetical wife and I get by because, together, we have the memory of one person. I don't know what to tell you single guys.
Our two local TV news channels basically recycle Friday's news on Saturday, Sunday, and sometimes even Monday. The only thing that changes is the weather report, which is the main reason I watch the news anyway.
I have read several times that Sheriff Joe is really popular in Arizona. Well, maybe not with the Hispanics, but most of them aren't supposed to be there anyway.
I still think that this Trump-Russian thing isn't going to amount to a hill of beans. They're just going to talk, talk, talk about it until Trump leaves office. That's what happened to Hillary's email thing, we haven't heard much about it since she lost the election. It never ceases to amaze me how the media get all excited about something and then, one day, you notice that you haven't heard about it lately, and you can't remember when was the last time you did.
Michigan has a new thing now, and all the states are supposed to get it eventually. It's called "real ID", which means, I guess, that our old IDs were all fake. It's an optional thing, when you renew your driver's license you can fill out a form and show them your birth certificate and they put a star in the corner of your new license. At some future date, you will need this if you want to fly anywhere in the country, but it won't get you into Canada. For that you will still need a passport or an enhanced driver's license. The old fake IDs will still be good for everything else. I doubt that I will ever fly again, but I got it anyway because it's free.
Our two local TV news channels basically recycle Friday's news on Saturday, Sunday, and sometimes even Monday. The only thing that changes is the weather report, which is the main reason I watch the news anyway.
I have read several times that Sheriff Joe is really popular in Arizona. Well, maybe not with the Hispanics, but most of them aren't supposed to be there anyway.
I still think that this Trump-Russian thing isn't going to amount to a hill of beans. They're just going to talk, talk, talk about it until Trump leaves office. That's what happened to Hillary's email thing, we haven't heard much about it since she lost the election. It never ceases to amaze me how the media get all excited about something and then, one day, you notice that you haven't heard about it lately, and you can't remember when was the last time you did.
Michigan has a new thing now, and all the states are supposed to get it eventually. It's called "real ID", which means, I guess, that our old IDs were all fake. It's an optional thing, when you renew your driver's license you can fill out a form and show them your birth certificate and they put a star in the corner of your new license. At some future date, you will need this if you want to fly anywhere in the country, but it won't get you into Canada. For that you will still need a passport or an enhanced driver's license. The old fake IDs will still be good for everything else. I doubt that I will ever fly again, but I got it anyway because it's free.
pardon me boy, is that the planet Nibiru?
I just followed the lead of Old "The Factual Scourge" Dog.on the number of characters in Twitter. I just knew it was a small number.
I'm not usually impressed with those stats like if you laid every raindrop head to tail you could form a chain to the Andromeda galaxy and back, but Beagles' Niagara Falls image impressed me. Nine months, and to think Niagara Falls is estimated to be 12,000 years old, where has all that water gone? Oh, the Atlantic Ocean, never mind.
Yar (I'm getting fond of the expression), "News dump," may be going the way of the buggy whip. Back in the day, you'd hear from Uncle Walt (not related) at five and then you wouldn't know much of what was going on in the world except for short snatches of radio news as you drove to the bar or to the beach until that fat Sunday paper hit your doorstep, and even then you would be distracted by the flood of adverts and the magazine and the funny papers, and wouldn't really get back into the swing of things until you opened your Sun-Times as you rode the Archer Express Monday morning.
Anymore we have our cable news and our electronic devices, but still most people tend to turn their news ears elsewhere over the weekend, CNN starts airing things like the story of Princess Di, Trump rarely tweets. I noticed that Trump said that he tweeted that he pardoned Sheriff Joe at that time to get more media coverage because of the flood, but who knows about what he says or why,
Like why pardon Sheriff Joe? I think most Americans don't like the guy so what does he gain? And he hasn't even been sentenced, or appealed it yet. If I thought Trump was smart enough it may well have been as Beagles and many pundits have speculated a signal to his cronies that they can lie their asses off on the stand because like mercy, the Trumpian pardons will not be strained and will falleth like the gentle rain. In any case it certainly has that effect.
And I think Beagles is right to compare the Newtownian physics of Watergate to the quantum foam of Trumpocalypse (not quite the term I want, but better than the bland Trumpgate) and, as someone who decries the 'new' science he shows an uncanny understanding of quantum foam, well as good as anybody, which is to say nobody.
I think in that smoke-filled (I believe the current situation has caused many a rep to take up the cig, and the bottle, and the glue rag, and what the hell crack cocaine) room the name of the White Shadow comes up more than once, if only they could somehow plug him into that black maw without bringing down the wrath of the deplorables, still holding steady alas at 35, so until then, like Harvey, nothing moves.
Googling apocalypse to make sure I spelled it right I came across this. Maybe Trump can pardon us all before this happens. https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/4347578/the-apocalypse-will-happen-within-a-month-when-a-mysterious-planet-called-nibiru-smashes-into-earth-doom-monger-claims/
-----
Well shit, I just published all that and went back to see if it turned out ok (sometimes there is an odd space indention that appears when you publish) and I noticed those ellipses (-----) that are the pride and joy of Old Dog. Well shit. I guess I didn't catch the factual scourge in a falsehood. Damn. And now I understand the deft definition of quantum foam. Very well Lads, carry on. And be careful of Nibiru.
I'm not usually impressed with those stats like if you laid every raindrop head to tail you could form a chain to the Andromeda galaxy and back, but Beagles' Niagara Falls image impressed me. Nine months, and to think Niagara Falls is estimated to be 12,000 years old, where has all that water gone? Oh, the Atlantic Ocean, never mind.
Yar (I'm getting fond of the expression), "News dump," may be going the way of the buggy whip. Back in the day, you'd hear from Uncle Walt (not related) at five and then you wouldn't know much of what was going on in the world except for short snatches of radio news as you drove to the bar or to the beach until that fat Sunday paper hit your doorstep, and even then you would be distracted by the flood of adverts and the magazine and the funny papers, and wouldn't really get back into the swing of things until you opened your Sun-Times as you rode the Archer Express Monday morning.
Anymore we have our cable news and our electronic devices, but still most people tend to turn their news ears elsewhere over the weekend, CNN starts airing things like the story of Princess Di, Trump rarely tweets. I noticed that Trump said that he tweeted that he pardoned Sheriff Joe at that time to get more media coverage because of the flood, but who knows about what he says or why,
Like why pardon Sheriff Joe? I think most Americans don't like the guy so what does he gain? And he hasn't even been sentenced, or appealed it yet. If I thought Trump was smart enough it may well have been as Beagles and many pundits have speculated a signal to his cronies that they can lie their asses off on the stand because like mercy, the Trumpian pardons will not be strained and will falleth like the gentle rain. In any case it certainly has that effect.
And I think Beagles is right to compare the Newtownian physics of Watergate to the quantum foam of Trumpocalypse (not quite the term I want, but better than the bland Trumpgate) and, as someone who decries the 'new' science he shows an uncanny understanding of quantum foam, well as good as anybody, which is to say nobody.
I think in that smoke-filled (I believe the current situation has caused many a rep to take up the cig, and the bottle, and the glue rag, and what the hell crack cocaine) room the name of the White Shadow comes up more than once, if only they could somehow plug him into that black maw without bringing down the wrath of the deplorables, still holding steady alas at 35, so until then, like Harvey, nothing moves.
Googling apocalypse to make sure I spelled it right I came across this. Maybe Trump can pardon us all before this happens. https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/4347578/the-apocalypse-will-happen-within-a-month-when-a-mysterious-planet-called-nibiru-smashes-into-earth-doom-monger-claims/
-----
Well shit, I just published all that and went back to see if it turned out ok (sometimes there is an odd space indention that appears when you publish) and I noticed those ellipses (-----) that are the pride and joy of Old Dog. Well shit. I guess I didn't catch the factual scourge in a falsehood. Damn. And now I understand the deft definition of quantum foam. Very well Lads, carry on. And be careful of Nibiru.
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Pardon me
Where did you guys hear that the text limit of Twitter was 44 characters? I thought it has always been 140 characters and, after reading a few tweets myself, that figure looks about right. But I'm not on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or any of those other social media platforms and I don't do any texting on the phone. Email is okay, and participation in a few user groups is about as far as I go with all this immediate info stuff. My needs are simple.
-----
Houston certainly has a problem. I've heard about their lack of zoning laws but I had to look a little further; no zoning laws in a big city strikes me as strange. But it has worked for them, I guess. There are some limitations regarding liquor sales and strip clubs and their proximity to schools, minimum lot sizes for certain businesses but otherwise, anything goes. It's not uncommon for a high-rise building to pop up in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
But I wonder how the rainfall from Harvey will impact the area with it's crazy building practices. Will a deep, solid foundations cause other smaller buildings to be swept away? An unbelievable amount of water has fallen, and it's still coming down. The New York Times had a little blurb which Uncle Ken can appreciate since he surely noticed the amount of water falling over Horseshoe Falls during his recent trip. The amount of water that Houston has endured is equal to a 9 month output of Horseshoe Falls, 24/7. Or to put it another way, imagine a cube more than two miles on a side. It's that much water. Hoo, boy.
-----
"News Dump" is another expression that I didn't notice enter the common lexicon. A news dump is when a significant item of interest is made public at a time when it may pass unnoticed by the news media. Late Friday is a good time for this, as is a time when a bigger story is grabbing the headlines, such as a major weather event like a hurricane. Last Friday was the perfect time for Trump's news dump announcing the pardon of Sheriff Joe; late on a Friday while Houston was getting hammered. Yet, the media still picked up on it, and there are some troublesome implications of that pardon.
Sheriff Joe wasn't convicted for racial profiling, he was in contempt of court, a misdemeanor with only a six month sentence. When you accept a pardon you are admitting guilt, and this presidential pardon is a major smackdown of the federal judiciary system. Some pundits have mentioned that pardons may be issued for folks not yet charged, but the lawyers are still yammering about that possibility. That pardon sends a particular signal that any of Trump's pals who may be in trouble need not worry, he'll take care of them as long as they continue to be loyal. This could fall under the umbrella of "obstruction of justice" but I am not a lawyer, and I wonder if Mueller can find a way around this. All of his subpoenaed witnesses could claim the fifth, be found in contempt of Congress, and walk away scot-free with a pardon already in hand.
This is worse than Watergate, the coverup of a third-rate burglary. I don't know about quantum foam, but Watergate was a simple matter of connecting the dots. It is different today, the dots are fuzzy and they extend in the third dimension, maybe even the fourth.
Another interesting facet of the pardon is that it occurred when Congress was not in session. How fortuitous! I would wager that there is much backroom discussion going on right now between all the Congressfolk, and they're not using Twitter, email, or cellphones. I, for one, welcome the return of the smoke-filled room.
-----
Houston certainly has a problem. I've heard about their lack of zoning laws but I had to look a little further; no zoning laws in a big city strikes me as strange. But it has worked for them, I guess. There are some limitations regarding liquor sales and strip clubs and their proximity to schools, minimum lot sizes for certain businesses but otherwise, anything goes. It's not uncommon for a high-rise building to pop up in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
But I wonder how the rainfall from Harvey will impact the area with it's crazy building practices. Will a deep, solid foundations cause other smaller buildings to be swept away? An unbelievable amount of water has fallen, and it's still coming down. The New York Times had a little blurb which Uncle Ken can appreciate since he surely noticed the amount of water falling over Horseshoe Falls during his recent trip. The amount of water that Houston has endured is equal to a 9 month output of Horseshoe Falls, 24/7. Or to put it another way, imagine a cube more than two miles on a side. It's that much water. Hoo, boy.
-----
"News Dump" is another expression that I didn't notice enter the common lexicon. A news dump is when a significant item of interest is made public at a time when it may pass unnoticed by the news media. Late Friday is a good time for this, as is a time when a bigger story is grabbing the headlines, such as a major weather event like a hurricane. Last Friday was the perfect time for Trump's news dump announcing the pardon of Sheriff Joe; late on a Friday while Houston was getting hammered. Yet, the media still picked up on it, and there are some troublesome implications of that pardon.
Sheriff Joe wasn't convicted for racial profiling, he was in contempt of court, a misdemeanor with only a six month sentence. When you accept a pardon you are admitting guilt, and this presidential pardon is a major smackdown of the federal judiciary system. Some pundits have mentioned that pardons may be issued for folks not yet charged, but the lawyers are still yammering about that possibility. That pardon sends a particular signal that any of Trump's pals who may be in trouble need not worry, he'll take care of them as long as they continue to be loyal. This could fall under the umbrella of "obstruction of justice" but I am not a lawyer, and I wonder if Mueller can find a way around this. All of his subpoenaed witnesses could claim the fifth, be found in contempt of Congress, and walk away scot-free with a pardon already in hand.
This is worse than Watergate, the coverup of a third-rate burglary. I don't know about quantum foam, but Watergate was a simple matter of connecting the dots. It is different today, the dots are fuzzy and they extend in the third dimension, maybe even the fourth.
Another interesting facet of the pardon is that it occurred when Congress was not in session. How fortuitous! I would wager that there is much backroom discussion going on right now between all the Congressfolk, and they're not using Twitter, email, or cellphones. I, for one, welcome the return of the smoke-filled room.
text not pictures (which are not worth a thousand words)
When I first went on fb I was surprised that I was only able to leave short messages. Well you can go further but after four or five lines your comments end with a see more that can be clicked on to reveal the rest of the message. I suppose this is fb's way of saving space on your feed, but note that you can put a pithy (stupid) statement in a big square of some color and take up the space of twenty-five lines and that is perfectly fine. These one line flashes of wisdom, three seconds of thought reveals that they are just stupid word games. There I have said it.
Knowing how irritating that text limit was on fb when I heard that Twitter had only 44 I presciently predicted that this will never last, just a flash in the pan like Windows was in the clear and reasonable world of DOS.
Like the quantum foam of politics these days I do not understand the popularity of Twitter. My nephew's girl friend followed Lady Gaga and every time Lady Gaga wanted to tell the world how she liked her eggs the girlfriend would get a beep on her phone and she would know instantly! I guess that's the thing, knowing instantly. A dinosaur like me doesn't know what Trump has tweeted until he hears it on the radio or sees it on one of his political sites. This can be minutes, sometimes even hours after the actual event, whereas the hip and with it Trumpist (or anti Trumpist) knows it the minute it hits cyberspace and therefore they have more time to react and change their lives accordingly.
At the risk of offending Old Dog who deigns not to participate in the stoopid world of fb, even more irritating than tweeting are videos. It used to be they were just there and if you wanted to watch them you clicked on them, but then they just started playing on their own. I did a little internet research and found some setting that would keep them from doing that, but now that doesn't always work, especially on news or politics sites. And now there are certain articles on my political sites that are video only, you can't read them if you wanted to. You would think they could hire somebody at minimum wage to transcribe it into text, but I guess they figure who wants to read when you can just listen.
See back in the days before disks and hard drives, main frames have some similar device, rotating drums when last I was in computer school, data was stored on tapes. If you are looking for a particular item on a tape you have to read the whole damn thing until you get to it. If you have a disk you have some kind of index and you can go right to the item. This saves a lot of time. This is the way I feel about videos, I have to watch the whole damn thing go get what I want to know whereas if I am reading something I can scan through the paragraphs and find what I want and if I have to backtrack to check on some fact that is much easier than backtracking the tape.
Knowing how irritating that text limit was on fb when I heard that Twitter had only 44 I presciently predicted that this will never last, just a flash in the pan like Windows was in the clear and reasonable world of DOS.
Like the quantum foam of politics these days I do not understand the popularity of Twitter. My nephew's girl friend followed Lady Gaga and every time Lady Gaga wanted to tell the world how she liked her eggs the girlfriend would get a beep on her phone and she would know instantly! I guess that's the thing, knowing instantly. A dinosaur like me doesn't know what Trump has tweeted until he hears it on the radio or sees it on one of his political sites. This can be minutes, sometimes even hours after the actual event, whereas the hip and with it Trumpist (or anti Trumpist) knows it the minute it hits cyberspace and therefore they have more time to react and change their lives accordingly.
At the risk of offending Old Dog who deigns not to participate in the stoopid world of fb, even more irritating than tweeting are videos. It used to be they were just there and if you wanted to watch them you clicked on them, but then they just started playing on their own. I did a little internet research and found some setting that would keep them from doing that, but now that doesn't always work, especially on news or politics sites. And now there are certain articles on my political sites that are video only, you can't read them if you wanted to. You would think they could hire somebody at minimum wage to transcribe it into text, but I guess they figure who wants to read when you can just listen.
See back in the days before disks and hard drives, main frames have some similar device, rotating drums when last I was in computer school, data was stored on tapes. If you are looking for a particular item on a tape you have to read the whole damn thing until you get to it. If you have a disk you have some kind of index and you can go right to the item. This saves a lot of time. This is the way I feel about videos, I have to watch the whole damn thing go get what I want to know whereas if I am reading something I can scan through the paragraphs and find what I want and if I have to backtrack to check on some fact that is much easier than backtracking the tape.
Monday, August 28, 2017
The Twitter Generation
FDR was the first president to make effective use of radio to get his points across to people, and I believe that JFK was the first one to make similar use of television. Trump will likely go down in history as the first president to do the same thing with social media. Not just any social media either, Twitter! Of all the different social media options out there, why do you suppose he chose Twitter? I have never been to that site, but I understand that postings are limited to something like 44 characters each. The first time I heard about it I thought it was a stupid idea that wouldn't last for long, but it did. Maybe it's because people have shorter attention spans nowadays, having grown up on 30 second news bites, 20 second commercials, and sitcom dialogs that consist largely of smart alecky one liners.
The dumbing down of America has been going on for some time now, but is that the cause or the effect of the short attention span, or are they both flip sides of the same coin? Who started this trend anyway? Was it the Russians, back in the days of the Cold War? That seems to be about the time it started, but there were other things going on in those days, so it might be just a coincidence. Maybe nobody did this to us on purpose, maybe it was the track that human evolution spontaneously took. After all, cognitive intelligence hasn't been around long enough, in evolutionary time, to establish that it is a survival advantage. I understand that cock roaches have been on the planet longer than humans, and they're not very smart. They say that dinosaurs weren't very bright either, but that's compared to us. They were probably the smartest creatures on Earth in their day, and that didn't save them.
The dumbing down of America has been going on for some time now, but is that the cause or the effect of the short attention span, or are they both flip sides of the same coin? Who started this trend anyway? Was it the Russians, back in the days of the Cold War? That seems to be about the time it started, but there were other things going on in those days, so it might be just a coincidence. Maybe nobody did this to us on purpose, maybe it was the track that human evolution spontaneously took. After all, cognitive intelligence hasn't been around long enough, in evolutionary time, to establish that it is a survival advantage. I understand that cock roaches have been on the planet longer than humans, and they're not very smart. They say that dinosaurs weren't very bright either, but that's compared to us. They were probably the smartest creatures on Earth in their day, and that didn't save them.
rain, foam, and soapy water
One morning in Austin I was on my way to work when it started raining. Dang I should probably have taken my umbrella. And then it started raining harder and then harder still, and eventually I ended up on some stranger's front porch. The guy came up to the window and stared at me, and I shrugged and gestured towards the rain coming down in sheets and he walked back into his house. Well a thunderstorm I thought, they pour hard for maybe ten minutes and then they are down to sprinkles and sometimes the clouds part, and sometimes there is even a rainbow. But ten minutes passed and it was coming down harder than ever. I walked back home and the sidewalk was ankle deep in water with a strong current. It wasn't a hurricane, but Houston had had one and this was what was left of it when it washed up the shore.
I'm trying to follow what is happening in Austin now. I remember when I first moved there there were this big bridges above these tiny trickles of streams way down in the gully. Geez I thought what a waste of space, why don't they fill it in. After the first big rain I realized why they let those little trickles roam free. I remember seeing photos of Austin in times past when the Colorado River somewhat regularly overflowed its banks. Now it's all dammed up, but you know, water, like even us great apes, has to follow the law of gravity.
Weird shit is indeed going on. Just a year ago, maybe a little more, politics was like Newtonian physics. The laws were clear, every action had an equal and opposite reaction. The reps and dems were like opposing magnetic poles and we knew how to read their waves. Some pundit would explain something on my beloved Sunday shows, and I would sit back and think spot on and then things would unfold they way they were expected to.
But now it is more like a quantum foam. Worse than a quantum foam, we don't know what exactly a quantum foam is, but we know how it works, this current political shit, I don't think anybody knows how it works. I wrote that analysis about Trumpism yesterday, and I thought it out as hard as I could, but in the end, I had to shrug, or maybe something else. I could well be wrong. Who knows? Nobody that's who.
Some of the cars of the chrome and fin era were butt ugly, but I prefer that to the bland unspotted Lady Bugs that prowl the streets today. I'm glad Old Dog noticed that you don't see people in the alleys and driveways washing their cars anymore. because this hadn't occurred to me. Now that I think about it I miss it. All that splashing and soap and leaning over at odd angles, kind of sexy. Whatever happened to bikini car washes?
I'm trying to follow what is happening in Austin now. I remember when I first moved there there were this big bridges above these tiny trickles of streams way down in the gully. Geez I thought what a waste of space, why don't they fill it in. After the first big rain I realized why they let those little trickles roam free. I remember seeing photos of Austin in times past when the Colorado River somewhat regularly overflowed its banks. Now it's all dammed up, but you know, water, like even us great apes, has to follow the law of gravity.
Weird shit is indeed going on. Just a year ago, maybe a little more, politics was like Newtonian physics. The laws were clear, every action had an equal and opposite reaction. The reps and dems were like opposing magnetic poles and we knew how to read their waves. Some pundit would explain something on my beloved Sunday shows, and I would sit back and think spot on and then things would unfold they way they were expected to.
But now it is more like a quantum foam. Worse than a quantum foam, we don't know what exactly a quantum foam is, but we know how it works, this current political shit, I don't think anybody knows how it works. I wrote that analysis about Trumpism yesterday, and I thought it out as hard as I could, but in the end, I had to shrug, or maybe something else. I could well be wrong. Who knows? Nobody that's who.
Some of the cars of the chrome and fin era were butt ugly, but I prefer that to the bland unspotted Lady Bugs that prowl the streets today. I'm glad Old Dog noticed that you don't see people in the alleys and driveways washing their cars anymore. because this hadn't occurred to me. Now that I think about it I miss it. All that splashing and soap and leaning over at odd angles, kind of sexy. Whatever happened to bikini car washes?
Sunday, August 27, 2017
You Got the "Blowing" Part Right
I have never experienced a hurricane, but I have narrowly missed a couple of tornadoes. The first one was in the suburb of Evergreen when I was still in high school. I was riding my bicycle to a gun shop on 95th Street where I used to hang out, and I noticed there was lots of glass in the road. When I got there my friend told me that a small tornado had passed through just minutes before. It went right down the middle of 95th and sucked the front windows out of a number of businesses, including the gun shop.
The other one was the Oak Lawn tornado of March, 1967. I had recently gotten out of the army and was staying at my parents' new place in Palos Park. I set out down Southwest Highway one evening to visit somebody in the old neighborhood. I ran into a traffic jam and could see the flashing lights of emergency vehicles up ahead. I figured there must have been a wreck, so I turned down a side street to drive around it. Not being familiar with the side streets of Oak Lawn, I picked one that didn't go through, so I turned off that one to find one that did. A couple blocks away I was stopped by a tree that had fallen across the road, so I made another turn. Then I encountered this guy wearing a Civil Defense hard hat, so I stopped to ask him what was going on. He told me that I wasn't supposed to be there, I agreed, and asked him how to get out of there. He gave me directions and told me to keep going and not come back. "Nice friendly town!" I mused. I found out about the tornado later, and learned that the authorities had cordoned Oak Lawn off because all the gawkers were clogging up the streets so that the emergency vehicles couldn't get through. Soon after that, they brought in the National Guard and wouldn't let anybody into Oak Lawn unless they lived there. I seem to remember that it was several weeks before they opened the town up again, and there was still wreckage to be seen. My relatives in New Buffalo, Michigan told me that little pieces of Oak Lawn kept washing up on the beach all that summer.
Although I don't follow the news as much as you guys do, I am interested in what you have to say about current events. I am more interested in issues than I am in personalities, so I don't always know who you are talking about. Sometimes my curiosity is piqued and I look one of them up, but there are so many of them that, if I looked them all up, I wouldn't have time to do anything else.
The other one was the Oak Lawn tornado of March, 1967. I had recently gotten out of the army and was staying at my parents' new place in Palos Park. I set out down Southwest Highway one evening to visit somebody in the old neighborhood. I ran into a traffic jam and could see the flashing lights of emergency vehicles up ahead. I figured there must have been a wreck, so I turned down a side street to drive around it. Not being familiar with the side streets of Oak Lawn, I picked one that didn't go through, so I turned off that one to find one that did. A couple blocks away I was stopped by a tree that had fallen across the road, so I made another turn. Then I encountered this guy wearing a Civil Defense hard hat, so I stopped to ask him what was going on. He told me that I wasn't supposed to be there, I agreed, and asked him how to get out of there. He gave me directions and told me to keep going and not come back. "Nice friendly town!" I mused. I found out about the tornado later, and learned that the authorities had cordoned Oak Lawn off because all the gawkers were clogging up the streets so that the emergency vehicles couldn't get through. Soon after that, they brought in the National Guard and wouldn't let anybody into Oak Lawn unless they lived there. I seem to remember that it was several weeks before they opened the town up again, and there was still wreckage to be seen. My relatives in New Buffalo, Michigan told me that little pieces of Oak Lawn kept washing up on the beach all that summer.
Although I don't follow the news as much as you guys do, I am interested in what you have to say about current events. I am more interested in issues than I am in personalities, so I don't always know who you are talking about. Sometimes my curiosity is piqued and I look one of them up, but there are so many of them that, if I looked them all up, I wouldn't have time to do anything else.
Blowing in the wind
Have either of you guys been through a hurricane? Back in the day, a hurricane in the Pacific was called a typhoon, and we had two of them during my time on Okinawa. It was really something, nothing much to do except hunker down, wait it out, and mop up all the water that was blown in through the closed windows. The only precautions I recall were tying things down if they were outside, and covering the equipment that was inside. We were told not to go outside, but we did it anyhow just to see what it was like, and it was amazing. But we only stepped out a few feet from the door because the wind would literally blow you away. I don't recall a lot of crap being blown about, though there might have been. A few minutes outside was enough. I thought it was impressive that we got two feet of rain in 24 hours, but those poor folk in Texas are getting six inches of rain an hour, which is scary. There was hardly any flooding and I never saw much mud; Okinawa is a coral island and the water drained away as quickly as it fell. The coolest part of the experience was when the eye of the typhoon passed over, eerily still and quiet until the main storm resumed. A day or two later it was like nothing happened, but I imagine the guys in WWII have different tales to relate, being stuck in pup tents and all, and those guys in the caves shooting at you.
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So I'm thinking that trying to understand the issues of the day is an exercise in futility except for the relief that comes from venting one's opinion. Weird shit is going down and we are in the peanut gallery, cheering or booing as the case may be. Time to move on to other things and go on with our lives as best we can, if we can.
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Cars. Can't stop thinking about them since Uncle Ken mentioned his opinion on the styling and I am torn. I think I mentioned at the last seminar I attended that exterior styling doesn't matter much once you are inside and driving it, perhaps a moot point. Cars of today may be bland, but very few are what I would call butt ugly. In fact, there are quite a few good looking ones but they seem to be more expensive than the consumer-grade polished turds that the common folk are driving. Ferraris and Porsches still look good to me.
One thing about modern cars is that they look much easier to wash and wax than the fin-festooned vehicles of yesteryear, with few of those intricate nooks and crannies to try and clean. But with today's paints and finishes I'm not sure if cars even need washing anymore. I didn't try too hard to keep my cars clean except for the glass; always liked to see where I was going and replaced the windshield wiper blades frequently. There is a benefit to washing a car and that is to see the little scratches, developing rust spots, or other possible problem areas. But I don't see folks washing their cars in the alley on Saturday mornings anymore. Maybe they all go to car washes to run them through those big brushes. I should have given more effort to the care and maintenance of the exteriors but I didn't know as much as I thought I did. I should have sought the wisdom of the elders, but it's too late for that now and, as an elder of today, I fear that any wisdom I may have is sadly irrelevant. At least I won't be baffled if I have to use a dial telephone.
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One thing I noticed as I watched some old movies is that men's clothing fashion hasn't changed much. Except for the short time in the 60s and 70s, in the days of leisure suits, Nehru jackets, bell-bottoms, and paisley shirts men's clothes have stayed pretty much the same. T-shirts, blue jeans, khakis, flannel shirts, and lace-up shoes have proven timeless. I think Crocs have come and gone. I'm not sure but I haven't seen anyone wearing them lately.
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So I'm thinking that trying to understand the issues of the day is an exercise in futility except for the relief that comes from venting one's opinion. Weird shit is going down and we are in the peanut gallery, cheering or booing as the case may be. Time to move on to other things and go on with our lives as best we can, if we can.
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Cars. Can't stop thinking about them since Uncle Ken mentioned his opinion on the styling and I am torn. I think I mentioned at the last seminar I attended that exterior styling doesn't matter much once you are inside and driving it, perhaps a moot point. Cars of today may be bland, but very few are what I would call butt ugly. In fact, there are quite a few good looking ones but they seem to be more expensive than the consumer-grade polished turds that the common folk are driving. Ferraris and Porsches still look good to me.
One thing about modern cars is that they look much easier to wash and wax than the fin-festooned vehicles of yesteryear, with few of those intricate nooks and crannies to try and clean. But with today's paints and finishes I'm not sure if cars even need washing anymore. I didn't try too hard to keep my cars clean except for the glass; always liked to see where I was going and replaced the windshield wiper blades frequently. There is a benefit to washing a car and that is to see the little scratches, developing rust spots, or other possible problem areas. But I don't see folks washing their cars in the alley on Saturday mornings anymore. Maybe they all go to car washes to run them through those big brushes. I should have given more effort to the care and maintenance of the exteriors but I didn't know as much as I thought I did. I should have sought the wisdom of the elders, but it's too late for that now and, as an elder of today, I fear that any wisdom I may have is sadly irrelevant. At least I won't be baffled if I have to use a dial telephone.
-----
One thing I noticed as I watched some old movies is that men's clothing fashion hasn't changed much. Except for the short time in the 60s and 70s, in the days of leisure suits, Nehru jackets, bell-bottoms, and paisley shirts men's clothes have stayed pretty much the same. T-shirts, blue jeans, khakis, flannel shirts, and lace-up shoes have proven timeless. I think Crocs have come and gone. I'm not sure but I haven't seen anyone wearing them lately.
Friday, August 25, 2017
through the looking glass
When I worked for the state I had two different bosses who were different kinds of liars. Dennis was the first one. Everything he said was aimed towards advancing his cause. If you asked him what the weather was he would do an instant calculation and would give you the answer that would best serve his interests. He had this thin affable veneer, like he was this casual regular guy, like that plastic foam they put over the metal skeletons of robots to look like skin, so it took awhile to figure out what he was all about.
Polly on the other hand was not calculating, she believed whatever she said. She was a natural born liar like Bill Clinton. Her lies mostly served her interest, but sometimes she would go on with it just for the hell of it, just to see what would come out of her mouth. She was a fast talker and when you first met her you thought she was some smart cookie. She would juggle around facts and figures so fast you would think she was on top of things and knew more than you did. You would think she was so smart that you couldn't keep up with her, but after awhile you realized that what she said didn't really make sense, and then you wouldn't believe anything she said.
Dennis was aware of Objective Reality and he would talk his way around it, but Polly had no concept of OR or maybe she just didn't believe in it because she was so good at it she thought she could bullshit her way through anything.
Trump, of course is a Polly type. Most likely he was a spoiled brat and a bully growing up and once he got into his business he surrounded himself with yes men of absolute loyalty, so as far as he knows he has always been right so anybody who said otherwise must be a liar, must be fake news.
Dennis was the typical politician who we all kind of hate and Polly was a person, who if you hadn't yet figured out was a lying sack of shit, you thought she was really sharp.
The regular Republicans didn't like Trump, but they thought that he would be a useful tool. They witnessed his rabid crowd and thought that they could use this energy to push through their agenda. If they could harness him to their wagon, they could ride like the wind. But Trump cannot be harnessed and his rabid crowd doesn't care a fig for the regular republicans and are loyal only to him.
Now it seems like they are thinking they can work around him, let him rant and rave in the white house while they go about go about their legislative business, but they are traveling down a mountain pass and Trump is the big boulder by the side of the road that you never know when it is going to come crashing down on you.
I don't know about that pee thing. It just doesn't seem likely to me, but this is a crazy world now and anything could be true in this mad new looking glass world. And I wonder even if the tape exists and could be shown would it make any difference to his followers.
Polly on the other hand was not calculating, she believed whatever she said. She was a natural born liar like Bill Clinton. Her lies mostly served her interest, but sometimes she would go on with it just for the hell of it, just to see what would come out of her mouth. She was a fast talker and when you first met her you thought she was some smart cookie. She would juggle around facts and figures so fast you would think she was on top of things and knew more than you did. You would think she was so smart that you couldn't keep up with her, but after awhile you realized that what she said didn't really make sense, and then you wouldn't believe anything she said.
Dennis was aware of Objective Reality and he would talk his way around it, but Polly had no concept of OR or maybe she just didn't believe in it because she was so good at it she thought she could bullshit her way through anything.
Trump, of course is a Polly type. Most likely he was a spoiled brat and a bully growing up and once he got into his business he surrounded himself with yes men of absolute loyalty, so as far as he knows he has always been right so anybody who said otherwise must be a liar, must be fake news.
Dennis was the typical politician who we all kind of hate and Polly was a person, who if you hadn't yet figured out was a lying sack of shit, you thought she was really sharp.
The regular Republicans didn't like Trump, but they thought that he would be a useful tool. They witnessed his rabid crowd and thought that they could use this energy to push through their agenda. If they could harness him to their wagon, they could ride like the wind. But Trump cannot be harnessed and his rabid crowd doesn't care a fig for the regular republicans and are loyal only to him.
Now it seems like they are thinking they can work around him, let him rant and rave in the white house while they go about go about their legislative business, but they are traveling down a mountain pass and Trump is the big boulder by the side of the road that you never know when it is going to come crashing down on you.
I don't know about that pee thing. It just doesn't seem likely to me, but this is a crazy world now and anything could be true in this mad new looking glass world. And I wonder even if the tape exists and could be shown would it make any difference to his followers.
Thursday, August 24, 2017
Play ball
When Uncle Ken mentioned the bit of rain during his eclipse observation I was thinking, wasn't the ability to control the weather one of those things that was predicted many decades ago, along with the flying cars? At least the weather predictions are getting more accurate and we have a little more time to prepare for big events, like that hurricane headed to the gulf coast of Texas. Not a lot of fun coping with rainfalls of 20-30 inches, as has been forecast.
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The "dueling Trumps" notion has been discussed by some of the pundits recently, with some nicely edited clips demonstrating the difference between the Teleprompter Trump and the Spontaneous Trump. Reading the transcripts is revealing; the teleprompter version is reasonably coherent but the spontaneous version is all over the place, almost nonsensical. You can tell his prepared written statements were created by someone else, maybe a group effort from his staff, but he doesn't like those. Funny thing is that he actually thinks his own speeches are good, the best, even if they are gibberish to the ears of anyone else. He is redefining the concept of delusional.
It is all getting a little ho hum, but I still can't look away.
Me neither. Coverage of Trump has been a gold mine for the cable news networks. I don't expect it to last; there is increasing chatter that he will resign rather than face all the indignities of further Russian revelations. So far, none of the information in that dossier has been disproved and one of the guys responsible for the dossier recently testified for ten hours in front of one of the intelligence committees, supplying 40,000 pages of documents. That's an awful lot of source material to dig through and will take some time. Maybe that "pee tape" will finally surface on YouTube.
With any luck, Pence will be dragged into this and it will be a whole new ball game.
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The "dueling Trumps" notion has been discussed by some of the pundits recently, with some nicely edited clips demonstrating the difference between the Teleprompter Trump and the Spontaneous Trump. Reading the transcripts is revealing; the teleprompter version is reasonably coherent but the spontaneous version is all over the place, almost nonsensical. You can tell his prepared written statements were created by someone else, maybe a group effort from his staff, but he doesn't like those. Funny thing is that he actually thinks his own speeches are good, the best, even if they are gibberish to the ears of anyone else. He is redefining the concept of delusional.
It is all getting a little ho hum, but I still can't look away.
Me neither. Coverage of Trump has been a gold mine for the cable news networks. I don't expect it to last; there is increasing chatter that he will resign rather than face all the indignities of further Russian revelations. So far, none of the information in that dossier has been disproved and one of the guys responsible for the dossier recently testified for ten hours in front of one of the intelligence committees, supplying 40,000 pages of documents. That's an awful lot of source material to dig through and will take some time. Maybe that "pee tape" will finally surface on YouTube.
With any luck, Pence will be dragged into this and it will be a whole new ball game.
Clouds got in our way.
The St Joe eclipse was at best a disappointment. I'd been watching the weather reports for days and they were iffy, 30 to 40 percent cloudy, possible showers, but the day itself dawned hopefully, mostly clear, some scattered clouds, just enough to make it interesting I thought. But as the day progressed the clouds increased and grew thicker. Still there was hope as we dragged our folding chairs and eclipse glasses and pop and cookies and chips out to the parking lot by the ballfield in park across the street. Scattered clouds but not that thick and it looked like there was a clear patch headed for the center of the sky. And then there was just a teeny little bite out of Old Sol and then, then the clouds moved in. Well shit, but still there was that clear spot in the sky moving towards the sun, but then it wasn't anymore, and then it was hopeless, and then. just for the hell of it it, started raining. Drove us back to Ruby's back porch where it got dark enough I suppose, but not like midnight it seemed, and then straightaway it brightened and then there was a hole in the clouds and you could see a bright sliver of the sun like a crescent moon and then five seconds later that was gone, and we went inside to watch it go across the USA like a Chevrolet, most all the other spots had pretty good weather and there were giggling weather girls and avuncular science guys oohing and aahing while Ruby and I looked at each other, well shit.
Old Dog says he is not in love with the sound of his own voice to the extent of spouting out to hear what he has to say like that is a bad thing. And he has a lot more trust in a five minute conversation clearing up anything than I have. I love conversation as much as the next blowhard, but when you write you have to think and that is why I love the Beaglestonian.
I don't think demonstrations accomplish that much. They do give their followers a sense of solidarity. I suppose contacts are made. If you have a good turnout it makes your side look stronger. People who are on the fence may be swayed. But overall not that much.
But I don's subscribe to the belief that they are manufactured by shadowy groups. The people that are marching are doing it because they want to and they believe in their cause.
And now we have the dueling Trumps teleprompter Trump and ranting Trump and tweeting Trump one after another. It is all getting a little ho hum, but I still can't look away. The Trump/McConnel split seems to me is where the action is, but I've been wrong before.
Old Dog says he is not in love with the sound of his own voice to the extent of spouting out to hear what he has to say like that is a bad thing. And he has a lot more trust in a five minute conversation clearing up anything than I have. I love conversation as much as the next blowhard, but when you write you have to think and that is why I love the Beaglestonian.
I don't think demonstrations accomplish that much. They do give their followers a sense of solidarity. I suppose contacts are made. If you have a good turnout it makes your side look stronger. People who are on the fence may be swayed. But overall not that much.
But I don's subscribe to the belief that they are manufactured by shadowy groups. The people that are marching are doing it because they want to and they believe in their cause.
And now we have the dueling Trumps teleprompter Trump and ranting Trump and tweeting Trump one after another. It is all getting a little ho hum, but I still can't look away. The Trump/McConnel split seems to me is where the action is, but I've been wrong before.
Wednesday, August 23, 2017
Still in the center ring
I don't think there is one central authority that organizes and funds protest demonstrations.
I don't disagree but I think there are many "puppet masters" pulling the strings. My guess is that there are some big money guys who like to play the game of social manipulation to, eventually, make more money or gain more power. I don't think they care one way or the other about the issues involved as long as it furthers their financial interests. It can't be a coincidence that for every demonstration there is usually another group counter demonstrating. I find it fishy, especially when you see so many commercially produced protest signs, T-shirts, and caps. Maybe I'm reading too much into this and there is simply a booming cottage industry in the production and sale of "protest paraphernalia," capitalism at it's best.
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I understand that he used to host a TV show where all he ever did was fire people, so maybe he thinks that's what he's supposed to do now.
He needn't bother. There are enough people bailing out on their own that he won't be left with anyone except for a handful of generals, family members, and the crew from Goldman Sachs.
I wonder how long the Republican Party will continue to put up with Trump as he is obviously not a party loyalist. It's like he is pandering solely to an imaginary third party of his true believers and doing nothing for anyone else. It's far too early for him to be campaigning for reelection in 2020, but there it is. He loves the adulation of his crowds, especially when he goes off topic and ignores the teleprompter. This circus is not leaving town.
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It was interesting to see that Trump, in addition to leaning on Comey and Sessions to stifle the Russian investigation, is pissed at Mitch McConnell for not doing more to help him out of that jam. It's almost as if he has something to hide.
I don't know about you guys, but I have seldom required the services of a lawyer. If I heard that I was under investigation for something I would probably shrug my shoulders and carry on as usual. Why hire a lawyer before you are in legal trouble unless you are in a beef with someone else? It doesn't make sense to me but it would be a different story if I knew I did something that wasn't quite legal. The statute of limitations is a good thing, and I'll say no more except that alcohol may have been involved.
I don't disagree but I think there are many "puppet masters" pulling the strings. My guess is that there are some big money guys who like to play the game of social manipulation to, eventually, make more money or gain more power. I don't think they care one way or the other about the issues involved as long as it furthers their financial interests. It can't be a coincidence that for every demonstration there is usually another group counter demonstrating. I find it fishy, especially when you see so many commercially produced protest signs, T-shirts, and caps. Maybe I'm reading too much into this and there is simply a booming cottage industry in the production and sale of "protest paraphernalia," capitalism at it's best.
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I understand that he used to host a TV show where all he ever did was fire people, so maybe he thinks that's what he's supposed to do now.
He needn't bother. There are enough people bailing out on their own that he won't be left with anyone except for a handful of generals, family members, and the crew from Goldman Sachs.
I wonder how long the Republican Party will continue to put up with Trump as he is obviously not a party loyalist. It's like he is pandering solely to an imaginary third party of his true believers and doing nothing for anyone else. It's far too early for him to be campaigning for reelection in 2020, but there it is. He loves the adulation of his crowds, especially when he goes off topic and ignores the teleprompter. This circus is not leaving town.
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It was interesting to see that Trump, in addition to leaning on Comey and Sessions to stifle the Russian investigation, is pissed at Mitch McConnell for not doing more to help him out of that jam. It's almost as if he has something to hide.
I don't know about you guys, but I have seldom required the services of a lawyer. If I heard that I was under investigation for something I would probably shrug my shoulders and carry on as usual. Why hire a lawyer before you are in legal trouble unless you are in a beef with someone else? It doesn't make sense to me but it would be a different story if I knew I did something that wasn't quite legal. The statute of limitations is a good thing, and I'll say no more except that alcohol may have been involved.
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Protest Demonstrations
The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees "the right of he people peaceably to assemble". I'm not sure if protest demonstrations were what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote that, but the courts have interpreted it, along with the freedom of speech, to apply. The intent of a protest demonstration is to draw public attention to a cause and persuade people to support it. I don't know about everybody else but, ever since the 60s, it has had the opposite effect on me. When I see something like that on TV, it makes me want to oppose the cause, not support it. It seems to me that protesters are trying to exert influence beyond their numbers. I suppose it's better than resorting to violence to make your case, but a peaceful protest can easily turn violent, either accidently or on purpose.
I don't think there is one central authority that organizes and funds protest demonstrations. Back in the 60s, I used to blame it on the Commies, but now I think they were just opportunists trying to turn existing social unrest to their own advantage. There must be some kind of organization behind each demonstration, but I think it's unlikely that it's the same organization each time. We should ask Uncle Ken when he gets back, he probably would know more about that than I would. He used to be a Hippie, you know.
I have not even been tryin to keep up with the comings and goings of the Trump entourage. I understand that he used to host a TV show where all he ever did was fire people, so maybe he thinks that's what he's supposed to do now.
I don't think there is one central authority that organizes and funds protest demonstrations. Back in the 60s, I used to blame it on the Commies, but now I think they were just opportunists trying to turn existing social unrest to their own advantage. There must be some kind of organization behind each demonstration, but I think it's unlikely that it's the same organization each time. We should ask Uncle Ken when he gets back, he probably would know more about that than I would. He used to be a Hippie, you know.
I have not even been tryin to keep up with the comings and goings of the Trump entourage. I understand that he used to host a TV show where all he ever did was fire people, so maybe he thinks that's what he's supposed to do now.
That's entertainment
I have long believed that all those demonstrators, no matter what their cause, are more than a little funny in the head.
I'm not sure about that, but I think they are easily manipulated. How are those events organized, and where do they find the participants? They may think they are supporting a worthy cause but I doubt there is any real effect or positive gain from their efforts. And who is funding all this nonsense? There are wheels within wheels, and somebody is paying for it. The Koch brothers? George Soros? The Mercer family? The banking "Gnomes of Zurich?" Oh, it could be anybody, I suppose. Could be some of Putin's money is behind the demonstrations, or a small chunk of the Google billions. Unless we follow the strings we will never know who is pulling them.
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Speaking of following strings, there hasn't been much news about any of the ongoing investigations, except for an item I mentioned to Uncle Ken at the last seminar. One of Mueller's top notch investigators from the FBI has left the team. He wasn't transferred back to his old FBI position as a lead investigator but was given a job in HR, Human Relations. This is not an upward or lateral transfer. They stick guys in HR when they don't know what to do with them or there is some issue to resolve, kind of like a holding company. One of the more interesting theories I've read states that it may involve leaks to Rudy Giuliani last year, and could possibly have something to do with Comey's ill-timed announcement last October regarding Hillary Clinton. Peter Strzok is the agent in question, and the wheels keep turning.
Then we have the departure from Team Trump of Carl Icahn, noted billionaire and weasel, just before a revealing article was published that outlined his efforts to strike a special deal for his financial advantage.
Washington, D.C. is no longer a center of government; it has become an Entertainment Mecca. I'ts like following a real-time Sopranos or House of Cards, and anything can happen. All that is lacking is a villain lurking in the shadows, just waiting for the chance to tie a fair young maiden to the railroad tracks. But give it time.
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The next eclipse is in April, 2024, and the path is much closer to Chicago and Cheboygan but I'm not making any plans yet.
I'm not sure about that, but I think they are easily manipulated. How are those events organized, and where do they find the participants? They may think they are supporting a worthy cause but I doubt there is any real effect or positive gain from their efforts. And who is funding all this nonsense? There are wheels within wheels, and somebody is paying for it. The Koch brothers? George Soros? The Mercer family? The banking "Gnomes of Zurich?" Oh, it could be anybody, I suppose. Could be some of Putin's money is behind the demonstrations, or a small chunk of the Google billions. Unless we follow the strings we will never know who is pulling them.
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Speaking of following strings, there hasn't been much news about any of the ongoing investigations, except for an item I mentioned to Uncle Ken at the last seminar. One of Mueller's top notch investigators from the FBI has left the team. He wasn't transferred back to his old FBI position as a lead investigator but was given a job in HR, Human Relations. This is not an upward or lateral transfer. They stick guys in HR when they don't know what to do with them or there is some issue to resolve, kind of like a holding company. One of the more interesting theories I've read states that it may involve leaks to Rudy Giuliani last year, and could possibly have something to do with Comey's ill-timed announcement last October regarding Hillary Clinton. Peter Strzok is the agent in question, and the wheels keep turning.
Then we have the departure from Team Trump of Carl Icahn, noted billionaire and weasel, just before a revealing article was published that outlined his efforts to strike a special deal for his financial advantage.
Washington, D.C. is no longer a center of government; it has become an Entertainment Mecca. I'ts like following a real-time Sopranos or House of Cards, and anything can happen. All that is lacking is a villain lurking in the shadows, just waiting for the chance to tie a fair young maiden to the railroad tracks. But give it time.
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The next eclipse is in April, 2024, and the path is much closer to Chicago and Cheboygan but I'm not making any plans yet.
Monday, August 21, 2017
We Got Nothing
The eclipse was a bust in Beaglesonia too. We had hazy sunshine, so we should have seen something, but we did not. I finally turned on the Weather Channel to see if I had the time wrong. They have been running a message on the bottom of the screen all week telling about it. It was almost 3:30 when I checked, the message was gone, and the eclipse was over and done. They had people stationed all along the totality line, and I watched a couple of them doing recaps of the event. Carbondale, Illinois was supposed to have the longest period of totality, something over two minutes, but Jim Cantore said that the clouds rolled in just in time to block the view, and rolled out again as soon as it was over. Maria LaRosa was in one of the Carolinas and she had a perfect view. Our local weather guy on the evening news showed a film clip of the Mackinac Bridge taken at the time the eclipse was supposed to be happening. It was overcast and a little foggy there, but he said it should have gotten discernably darker, and it didn't. We were supposed to get 75% coverage, and I don't think we got anything close to that.
I have long believed that all those demonstrators, no matter what their cause, are more than a little funny in the head. Of course I have only seen them on TV, so I don't know how they act when the camera is not on them. It looks to me like they are trying to work themselves into a frenzy with all that chanting, and no good can come of that. There is always a risk of mass hysteria whenever people are gathered together like that, so you would think they'd want to exercise some kind of discipline. Staging a counter demonstration is also just asking for trouble. People demonstrate because they want to draw attention to their cause, so it would seem that the best way to minimize that would be to ignore them. Anything you do to draw more attention to them is playing right into their hands.
I have long believed that all those demonstrators, no matter what their cause, are more than a little funny in the head. Of course I have only seen them on TV, so I don't know how they act when the camera is not on them. It looks to me like they are trying to work themselves into a frenzy with all that chanting, and no good can come of that. There is always a risk of mass hysteria whenever people are gathered together like that, so you would think they'd want to exercise some kind of discipline. Staging a counter demonstration is also just asking for trouble. People demonstrate because they want to draw attention to their cause, so it would seem that the best way to minimize that would be to ignore them. Anything you do to draw more attention to them is playing right into their hands.
Cloudy reality
Maybe Uncle Ken will return with a spellbinding tale of the eclipse, but in Chicago we had a big bag of nothing. It was overcast with enough clouds that made it impossible to tell that anything was going on and it didn't look much darker at the maximum coverage. You know how it gets a little darker when it's going to rain? It was like that. I took a quick peek and saw a crescent slice of the sun through the clouds, but that was about it,
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The US Navy's 7th Fleet in the Pacific has not been having a good year. So far this year one ship has run aground and three others have collided with other ships. Don't they have guys on deck keeping watch anymore? I'm amazed at how easily those military vessels are getting banged up and suffering so much damage. The latest victim was a guided missile destroyer; Destroyee is more like it.
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One of the problems I've always had with Trump is the way he plays it fast and loose with the facts and how often he is caught in outright lies. He could be factual and we'd never know it, so this recent item is worth mention. During last weekend's fracas in Virginia with the marching Nazis and Klansmen, Katie Couric had a crew from The National Geographic covering some of it. Some of her guys got splattered with urine, and it wasn't from the Alts-Right folks. There were also also reports of balloons filled with feces being lobbed about, not what you would expect from peaceful counter-demonstrators. So maybe Trump was right and some of those non-Nazi types were itching for some kind of confrontation. Why else would you cover your face, wear eye and head protection, and carry a club? The piss and shit must have been optional.
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The US Navy's 7th Fleet in the Pacific has not been having a good year. So far this year one ship has run aground and three others have collided with other ships. Don't they have guys on deck keeping watch anymore? I'm amazed at how easily those military vessels are getting banged up and suffering so much damage. The latest victim was a guided missile destroyer; Destroyee is more like it.
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One of the problems I've always had with Trump is the way he plays it fast and loose with the facts and how often he is caught in outright lies. He could be factual and we'd never know it, so this recent item is worth mention. During last weekend's fracas in Virginia with the marching Nazis and Klansmen, Katie Couric had a crew from The National Geographic covering some of it. Some of her guys got splattered with urine, and it wasn't from the Alts-Right folks. There were also also reports of balloons filled with feces being lobbed about, not what you would expect from peaceful counter-demonstrators. So maybe Trump was right and some of those non-Nazi types were itching for some kind of confrontation. Why else would you cover your face, wear eye and head protection, and carry a club? The piss and shit must have been optional.
Sunday, August 20, 2017
No Big Deal
I saw a solar eclipse back in 1963 when I was working on a pig farm in Alaska. It wasn't total, maybe 75%, which is what they are predicting for our location this time. We were warned not to look at it directly, but we snuck a few quick glances. I thought the reaction of the wildlife and the farm animals was more interesting than the eclipse itself anyway. They had a few horses there, and some pigs of course, and they all went to sleep as soon as it started to get dark. The wind went down, the birds stopped singing, and the mosquitoes came out to play, just like it was a regular evening. About a half hour later, when it started to get light again, the farm animals woke up. I thought they looked confused, but they soon got over it and went about their business, and so did we.
Then there was another one back in the 70s or 80s. This time it was a cloudy day, and they were only predicting around 50%. I wasn't too excited about it, but I did plan to observe my dogs' behavior. Unfortunately I fell asleep in the recliner and missed most or it. It was still a little dark when I woke up, and I thought that I had slept the day away, but then I remembered the eclipse. I don't plan on sleeping through this one, but I didn't get any of those magic glasses or make one of those pinhole boxes. Maybe I'll just watch it on television.
I don't know anything about Kid Rock, but I heard that he was running for the senate. Well, why not? I would like to see us elect a Republican, any Republican, but I would be surprised if that happens. The Democratic incumbent is a nice lady and I have never heard anything bad about her. Our other senator, a newbie Democrat, won the last election in spite of our state going to Trump. We also have a Republican governor and Republican majorities in both houses of the state legislature, but both of our US senators are Democrats. The US congressman from our district is a Republican, but I don't know about the other districts.
Then there was another one back in the 70s or 80s. This time it was a cloudy day, and they were only predicting around 50%. I wasn't too excited about it, but I did plan to observe my dogs' behavior. Unfortunately I fell asleep in the recliner and missed most or it. It was still a little dark when I woke up, and I thought that I had slept the day away, but then I remembered the eclipse. I don't plan on sleeping through this one, but I didn't get any of those magic glasses or make one of those pinhole boxes. Maybe I'll just watch it on television.
I don't know anything about Kid Rock, but I heard that he was running for the senate. Well, why not? I would like to see us elect a Republican, any Republican, but I would be surprised if that happens. The Democratic incumbent is a nice lady and I have never heard anything bad about her. Our other senator, a newbie Democrat, won the last election in spite of our state going to Trump. We also have a Republican governor and Republican majorities in both houses of the state legislature, but both of our US senators are Democrats. The US congressman from our district is a Republican, but I don't know about the other districts.
Carrying on
Well, I know where I'll be tomorrow around noon: checking out that eclipse. It's not going to be the complete experience of totality that Uncle Ken will be enjoying, but it should still get noticeably darker according to the simulator at Time.com. For the folks in Cheboygan more than half of the sun will be blocked so it might be worth a look-see. I'm not fiddling with any fancy glasses as I am a pinhole enthusiast, but all bets are off if it's cloudy. It takes more than two and a half hours for the moon to do it's thing so I'll have plenty of time.
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Uncle Ken has complained about us "dawgs having nothing to say about anything." He's right, sort of. I'm not in love with the sound of my own voice to the extent that I will spout off for the sake of saying something, anything. Some things require thought and reflection, other things are not worthy of discussion, and very few things can be discussed at length. That is a shortcoming of a written forum such as this; a five minute conversation can resolve issues that may take days in a written, back and forth, dialogue. And more than once I have lost the original train of thought as I contemplate other issues in the well written missives.
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I wanted to avoid the topic of the political and social shenanigans of the day, but I can't resist this one as it is in Mr. Beagles' bailiwick. I see that Robert Ritchie, AKA "Kid Rock," is contemplating a run for the senate in Michigan as a Republican. Any thoughts on this?
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Uncle Ken has complained about us "dawgs having nothing to say about anything." He's right, sort of. I'm not in love with the sound of my own voice to the extent that I will spout off for the sake of saying something, anything. Some things require thought and reflection, other things are not worthy of discussion, and very few things can be discussed at length. That is a shortcoming of a written forum such as this; a five minute conversation can resolve issues that may take days in a written, back and forth, dialogue. And more than once I have lost the original train of thought as I contemplate other issues in the well written missives.
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I wanted to avoid the topic of the political and social shenanigans of the day, but I can't resist this one as it is in Mr. Beagles' bailiwick. I see that Robert Ritchie, AKA "Kid Rock," is contemplating a run for the senate in Michigan as a Republican. Any thoughts on this?
Friday, August 18, 2017
Carry on Gentlemen
I guess I have always liked globes well enough, they have a nice presentation and they are fun to spin, but they just aren't very big, so if you are looking for Cedar Rapids, a very nice little town, you are never going to be able to find it. I like an atlas. Even though I have been paging through them all my life I can always while away an hour or two just paging through them and I am not even talking about specialty atlases, like WW II or ancient civilizations. And I like the those little dots that illustrate where the corn of the world is grown or where the people of French descent live in Chicago. If I am thinking of buying a history book I first page through it for maps and if it doesn't have any I put it back on the shelf.
Of course there is very little water as a percentage of the Earth's mass, but then there is not that much crust as a percentage of the Earth's mass either. We are living on the skim of a very hot pudding. Prompted by the intellectual inquiry of the Beaglestonian (keep on scourging Old Dog, I know I tend to play a little fast and loose with boring facts to make my point, which I like to think is the greater truth, but you know us poets) I discovered the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole in the Earth at just under five miles, barely a quarter of the depth of the crust and they had to stop because it got too damn hot.
I don't doubt that we have an anti missile defense sort of thing. I doubt that it works. Oh it might work in the sense that if they do some kind of experiment on a sunny day where they know where the other missile is coming from, and maybe in an actual missile attack it can knock down a few, but in a real attack plenty of missiles are getting through. I doubt that the good folks of Guam rest easy knowing that THAAD is there. Beagles' time bending warning to the guy on the dune is a more practical defense than any THAAD assemblage.
What is it with Beagles and cannibalism? Since none of us Beaglestonians can trace our ancestry back to the civility of the Roman Empire, likely our ancestors were eating each other in some form a couple thousand years ago. Internet research does not give a clear picture of when us white guys stopped eating each other, but you know if the three of us were in a boat in the middle of the ocean with no fishing pole, the first of us to fall asleep would likely become supper. so it goes.
There are tales of Micronesian head hunters but were the Indonesians and Malaysians taking part in that?. Well who knows. They did shut down Beagles' favorite social networking site, so clearly they are capable of anything. Let me just say for the record that I am sure they are all fine upstanding people and that there is very little meat to be had in the annals of Beaglestonia.
Were we talking about Midnight Express in the Institute, or was that Old Dog and me in a seminar?It's been a while since I have seen Old Dog in a seminar. At any rate it is sitting in my machine now and I will be watching it Saturday night, but I won't be able to report on it until next Thursday because I will have been off watching the moon eating the sun. Weather forecasts are iffy. What can you do? Carry on Gentlemen.
Of course there is very little water as a percentage of the Earth's mass, but then there is not that much crust as a percentage of the Earth's mass either. We are living on the skim of a very hot pudding. Prompted by the intellectual inquiry of the Beaglestonian (keep on scourging Old Dog, I know I tend to play a little fast and loose with boring facts to make my point, which I like to think is the greater truth, but you know us poets) I discovered the Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole in the Earth at just under five miles, barely a quarter of the depth of the crust and they had to stop because it got too damn hot.
I don't doubt that we have an anti missile defense sort of thing. I doubt that it works. Oh it might work in the sense that if they do some kind of experiment on a sunny day where they know where the other missile is coming from, and maybe in an actual missile attack it can knock down a few, but in a real attack plenty of missiles are getting through. I doubt that the good folks of Guam rest easy knowing that THAAD is there. Beagles' time bending warning to the guy on the dune is a more practical defense than any THAAD assemblage.
What is it with Beagles and cannibalism? Since none of us Beaglestonians can trace our ancestry back to the civility of the Roman Empire, likely our ancestors were eating each other in some form a couple thousand years ago. Internet research does not give a clear picture of when us white guys stopped eating each other, but you know if the three of us were in a boat in the middle of the ocean with no fishing pole, the first of us to fall asleep would likely become supper. so it goes.
There are tales of Micronesian head hunters but were the Indonesians and Malaysians taking part in that?. Well who knows. They did shut down Beagles' favorite social networking site, so clearly they are capable of anything. Let me just say for the record that I am sure they are all fine upstanding people and that there is very little meat to be had in the annals of Beaglestonia.
Were we talking about Midnight Express in the Institute, or was that Old Dog and me in a seminar?It's been a while since I have seen Old Dog in a seminar. At any rate it is sitting in my machine now and I will be watching it Saturday night, but I won't be able to report on it until next Thursday because I will have been off watching the moon eating the sun. Weather forecasts are iffy. What can you do? Carry on Gentlemen.
Thursday, August 17, 2017
US Gots THAAD
Uncle Ken seemed skeptical the other day when I mentioned that the US has a working anti missile missile. His skepticism was understandable, since they have been talking about that since we were kids, and even I was surprised to find out that they finally did something about it. The only information I had was a brief mention of it in our local newspaper, and they have been wrong before. Well today there was another mention of it in our paper, but this time they gave it a name: Terminal High Altitude Air Defense, THAAD for short. The Wiki article about it is titled "Terminal High Altitude Area Defense" but, if you search under "THAAD", it will take you there. It seems this thing has been deployed since 2008, but I had never heard of it.
I read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" some years ago. I remember the part that Uncle Ken told us about, and it made sense to me. I don't remember whether or not this was in the book, but another reason that Columbus discovered America instead of the other way around was that the indigenous Americans didn't have access to horses. The "wild" horses they have out west today are actually feral horses, being descended from domestic stock brought over by the Spanish. I understand there were paleo horses running wild in North America in pre-historic times, but they were extinct before the Indians got here. We tend to think of horses today as a luxury item but, for much of recorded history, they did all the work that is now done by tractors, trucks, and bulldozers, as well as private automobiles. Once the Indians got their hands on some horses, they became some of the finest horsemen in the world, but it was too late.
Uncle Ken may remember that I told him, some years ago, that a bunch of Indonesians bought my favorite social networking site and turned it into a commercial marketplace. I was indignant that the rest of us had been forced into exile by a bunch of heathen savages who, last I heard, were still running around the jungle naked and eating each other. Now he tells me that they have become the fourth most populous nation on Earth, and that, Malaysia, another cannibal kingdom, had the tallest building in the world for awhile. Last I heard, that distinction was held by Dubai, which isn't much of an improvement. I don't think they have ever eaten each other but I have heard that they are particularly fond of their camels. Make of that what you will.
I read "Guns, Germs, and Steel" some years ago. I remember the part that Uncle Ken told us about, and it made sense to me. I don't remember whether or not this was in the book, but another reason that Columbus discovered America instead of the other way around was that the indigenous Americans didn't have access to horses. The "wild" horses they have out west today are actually feral horses, being descended from domestic stock brought over by the Spanish. I understand there were paleo horses running wild in North America in pre-historic times, but they were extinct before the Indians got here. We tend to think of horses today as a luxury item but, for much of recorded history, they did all the work that is now done by tractors, trucks, and bulldozers, as well as private automobiles. Once the Indians got their hands on some horses, they became some of the finest horsemen in the world, but it was too late.
Uncle Ken may remember that I told him, some years ago, that a bunch of Indonesians bought my favorite social networking site and turned it into a commercial marketplace. I was indignant that the rest of us had been forced into exile by a bunch of heathen savages who, last I heard, were still running around the jungle naked and eating each other. Now he tells me that they have become the fourth most populous nation on Earth, and that, Malaysia, another cannibal kingdom, had the tallest building in the world for awhile. Last I heard, that distinction was held by Dubai, which isn't much of an improvement. I don't think they have ever eaten each other but I have heard that they are particularly fond of their camels. Make of that what you will.
Alt-Right-Delete
The International Date Line can really mess with your head. When we flew to Okinawa from Travis AFB in California, we took off on a Tuesday and landed at Okinawa's Kadena AFB about 18 hours later, but it was Thursday. Wednesday just magically vanished and we felt we were missing something. But returning to the US we took off from Kadena at 11 on a Saturday morning and landed at Travis at 10:30 on the same Saturday morning. I felt like a time traveler, with a very intense sensation of jet lag. Weird.
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I like globes better than maps as they give an accurate representation of the way the planet looks, with the countries the correct relative size, but even that can be a little deceptive. We look at a globe and think, Wow! Look at all that water! Indeed, more than 70% of the planet's surface is covered in water but relative to the planet's size there is very little water. If you scale the Earth down to a 12" sphere, the total amount of water, including oceans, rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers would equal less than a half an ounce, not much more than to cover it with a thin film. Strange but true, if I can believe the Vsauce channel on YouTube , which I think I can. It agrees with USGS images I've seen depicting the relative amount of water we have on this ball of dirt.
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I apologize to Uncle Ken for being such a "Scourge" but I am sometimes perplexed. His lofty prose soars betwixt artistic license and objective reality and it's not easy for me to always discern where one ends and the other begins. Ah, well; it keeps me on my toes.
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And how 'bout that Trump? What a brilliant tactician! In less than hour the other day he completely diverted all attention from North Korea, Venezuela, the Russians, and made great progress in unifying the country, Congress, and the media. Mostly against him, but never mind, his great brain and silver tongued eloquence is sure to put a good light, the best light, on everything.
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Happy eclipse chasing, Uncle Ken.
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I like globes better than maps as they give an accurate representation of the way the planet looks, with the countries the correct relative size, but even that can be a little deceptive. We look at a globe and think, Wow! Look at all that water! Indeed, more than 70% of the planet's surface is covered in water but relative to the planet's size there is very little water. If you scale the Earth down to a 12" sphere, the total amount of water, including oceans, rivers, lakes, and underground aquifers would equal less than a half an ounce, not much more than to cover it with a thin film. Strange but true, if I can believe the Vsauce channel on YouTube , which I think I can. It agrees with USGS images I've seen depicting the relative amount of water we have on this ball of dirt.
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I apologize to Uncle Ken for being such a "Scourge" but I am sometimes perplexed. His lofty prose soars betwixt artistic license and objective reality and it's not easy for me to always discern where one ends and the other begins. Ah, well; it keeps me on my toes.
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And how 'bout that Trump? What a brilliant tactician! In less than hour the other day he completely diverted all attention from North Korea, Venezuela, the Russians, and made great progress in unifying the country, Congress, and the media. Mostly against him, but never mind, his great brain and silver tongued eloquence is sure to put a good light, the best light, on everything.
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Happy eclipse chasing, Uncle Ken.
Indonesians, what's with them?
Jared Diamond who wrote Guns, Germs, and Steel, an excellent book about how Western Civ became the top dog, points out similarly how much of the the southern hemisphere is covered with water, and even when we have a sizeable continent it is linear in a north south direction rather than east west. In the large land mass of Eurasia you can travel thousands of miles and you will encounter mountains and raging rivers but the temps will remain the same, whereas going north south there will be a wide variance in temps and hence there wasn't as much contact between ancient people there and useful plants and animals weren't exchanged.
How about that Oceania? I was just about to point out that Malaysia was the fourth most populous nation in the world, but being the scholar (though not enough of a scholar for certain other experts) that I am, I double checked and it's Indonesia which is the fourth most populous nation. Talk about being an American.
Malaysia, I guess I had my head turned by those Petronas Towers which stole first place from the toddling town. Well what is the difference between the 4th and the 41st biggest countries in the world? Damned if I know. How come Indonesia never built any towers? They don't even crack the top 50? What the hell are they doing there? Who knows? I am an American.
I got a little dizzy with Beagles' time traveling, but then I get confused twice a year when we go on or off daylight savings time. I understand it well enough at first, but as I start to think about it I get confused, and finally I just rely on spring forward and fall back repeated by rote with no attempt at understanding.
Eclipses too can be kind of confusing. It's best to think of them as a sandwich with the sun being the top slice of bread and the Earth being the meat for Lunar and the Moon being the meat for Solar. For you vegetarians make that a cheese sandwich, but not that awful American cheese, an extra sharp cheddar will do just fine.
Speaking of which, I will be traveling to St Joseph Missouri where Ruby Dew lives to witness the event. Uh oh, the Yahoo weather forecast right now is cloudy with a twenty percent chance of thunderstorms. Well at least it will get dark. Anyway I will be posting tomorrow, but not again until next Thursday, so you guys carry on.
How about that Oceania? I was just about to point out that Malaysia was the fourth most populous nation in the world, but being the scholar (though not enough of a scholar for certain other experts) that I am, I double checked and it's Indonesia which is the fourth most populous nation. Talk about being an American.
Malaysia, I guess I had my head turned by those Petronas Towers which stole first place from the toddling town. Well what is the difference between the 4th and the 41st biggest countries in the world? Damned if I know. How come Indonesia never built any towers? They don't even crack the top 50? What the hell are they doing there? Who knows? I am an American.
I got a little dizzy with Beagles' time traveling, but then I get confused twice a year when we go on or off daylight savings time. I understand it well enough at first, but as I start to think about it I get confused, and finally I just rely on spring forward and fall back repeated by rote with no attempt at understanding.
Eclipses too can be kind of confusing. It's best to think of them as a sandwich with the sun being the top slice of bread and the Earth being the meat for Lunar and the Moon being the meat for Solar. For you vegetarians make that a cheese sandwich, but not that awful American cheese, an extra sharp cheddar will do just fine.
Speaking of which, I will be traveling to St Joseph Missouri where Ruby Dew lives to witness the event. Uh oh, the Yahoo weather forecast right now is cloudy with a twenty percent chance of thunderstorms. Well at least it will get dark. Anyway I will be posting tomorrow, but not again until next Thursday, so you guys carry on.
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Geography Can be Fun
South Pacific may refer to:
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- Australasia, a region of Oceania, including New Zealand, Australia, Papua New Guinea and neighbouring islands
- Sub-equatorial Oceania, a region centered on the islands of the southern Pacific Ocean
- South Pacific Ocean, the southern part of the Pacific Ocean, usually the area south of the equator
It seems that the term "South Pacific" can refer to more than one thing. If you want to be specific, you should say "South Pacific Ocean", because some islands north of the Equator are often said to be in the South Pacific, but not in the South Pacific Ocean.
Speaking of imaginary lines: I got to wondering today how Kim was able to react to my blog post so quickly. I'm pretty sure that Korea is on the other side of the International Date Line, which means it's tomorrow over there when it's today over here. So, if I post something today, Kim could read it tomorrow, but since tomorrow is today from his perspective, he thinks that I posted it yesterday. Therefore, it would seem possible for Kim to read my post a day before I actually posted it. His reaction to my post, if it happens today for him, happened yesterday for us, making it appear that his reaction immediately followed my post of yesterday for us, which is today for him. I hope that makes sense to you guys because I'm starting to confuse myself.
Speaking of the Equator. Did you know that only 10% of the world's population lives south of the Equator? Our local TV news featured that fact on their quiz of the day some time ago. I didn't believe it at first, but then I got to thinking how Africa and South America get skinnier the farther south you go, with their fattest parts right around the Equator. Furthermore, most of Asia and all of Europe are north of the Equator, and a lot of people live there. Another thing is that on a flat map of the world, called the Mercator Projection, the extreme northern and southern regions look larger than they really are, giving the impression that more people live there than really do.
South East Asia, where Vietnam is, used to be called "French Indo-China", although I don't suppose the locals ever called it that.
South East Asia, where Vietnam is, used to be called "French Indo-China", although I don't suppose the locals ever called it that.
South Pacific, Shmouth Pacific
Huh? You are betraying an ignorance of geography if you think Okinawa is in the South Pacific. The island of Guam, being north of the equator, isn't in the South Pacific, either.
That Old Dog, quite the factual scourge when he wants to be huh? I suppose in these days of fake news we need somebody to point out factual errors, but is he being (characteristically) way to picky? Perhaps, let us investigate the pertinent facts.
When I was using the term South Pacific I was referring, of course, to the beloved musical, movie, and album from the movie. Not that I have seen the play or the movie, but my parents owned the album so I have heard the music, and the album cover, though not as lewd as the paperback covers of the day, did feature a couple ladies, scantily clad enough to draw my young man's attention.
Internet research reveals that the whole thing was taken from Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, one of which tales which made its way into the musical/movie/album involved an affair between an American guy and a Tonkinese woman, by which I'm sure they mean the Bay of Tonkin, and back in the day when we hardly knew about Vietnam it is likely what we called the whole country Tonkin. And Vietnam is north of the equator, and Guam is just barely north, and Okinawa, well I knew Old Dog was somewhere out there but I wasn't sure where. You know how it is, when the other guy, and not you, are talking, mostly what you hear is blah, blah, blah.
Summing up, it's kind of Michener's fault. And secondly, just because an island is north of the equator does that mean it's not south? Isn't that whole part of the country where Old Dog drove his nookie wagon called The South, even though even Key West is far north of the border? And thirdly, I'm an American, I'm not supposed to know this stuff. And now let's just wash that issue right out of our hair.
He finally named them as the main culprits but it was like pulling teeth and you could tell his heart was not in it.
Indeed it turns out that that was indeed the case, I try to watch CNN every waking hour, but there are times in the day when I am away from the tv, and so I came back from some errand yesterday afternoon and switched it on, and there was a replay of His Orangeness storming like a trooper, ranting and railing and waving his orange mane, and yelling, and accusing, and blood coming out of his eyes, and likely his wherever, though the less thought to that the better.
That terrible onus of having to say the Nazis and the KKK were bad people had clearly been boring in on him since he, the smartest guy in the world, had been forced to do it by a bunch of pipsqueaks, and now he was breaking free.
What is it with him and the alt-right? (Looking it up to see if that hyphen is required I discovered that there is an alt-right haircut, just saying) It's not like they are sitting on money bags like his rich buddies. In fact his rich businessmen are sidling away from him (Don't stand, don't stand, don't stand so close to me). Maybe even though he was born into opulence what he really wants to be is just a good ol boy, hanging out at Joe's Bait Shop and telling lies to all the other Good ol boys.
The science fiction I was thinking of was like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clark, Robert A Heinlein and all those magazines with the lurid covers which only occasionally featured scantily clad women. We hard core science fiction fans looked down our noses at Bradbury, too fantasy, too mainstream.
And the good news is that Beagles has put the kibosh on the guy on the dune, and now is the cock of the walk throughout the north Pacific, which is really not that far from the South Pacific, and now CNN can wash that Kim right of its hair, and consider how those amber strands would look straying from beneath a white hood or one of those cool helmets with the spike on top (Which I know, Scourge, is WW I, but I am being poetic).
That Old Dog, quite the factual scourge when he wants to be huh? I suppose in these days of fake news we need somebody to point out factual errors, but is he being (characteristically) way to picky? Perhaps, let us investigate the pertinent facts.
When I was using the term South Pacific I was referring, of course, to the beloved musical, movie, and album from the movie. Not that I have seen the play or the movie, but my parents owned the album so I have heard the music, and the album cover, though not as lewd as the paperback covers of the day, did feature a couple ladies, scantily clad enough to draw my young man's attention.
Internet research reveals that the whole thing was taken from Michener's Tales of the South Pacific, one of which tales which made its way into the musical/movie/album involved an affair between an American guy and a Tonkinese woman, by which I'm sure they mean the Bay of Tonkin, and back in the day when we hardly knew about Vietnam it is likely what we called the whole country Tonkin. And Vietnam is north of the equator, and Guam is just barely north, and Okinawa, well I knew Old Dog was somewhere out there but I wasn't sure where. You know how it is, when the other guy, and not you, are talking, mostly what you hear is blah, blah, blah.
Summing up, it's kind of Michener's fault. And secondly, just because an island is north of the equator does that mean it's not south? Isn't that whole part of the country where Old Dog drove his nookie wagon called The South, even though even Key West is far north of the border? And thirdly, I'm an American, I'm not supposed to know this stuff. And now let's just wash that issue right out of our hair.
He finally named them as the main culprits but it was like pulling teeth and you could tell his heart was not in it.
Indeed it turns out that that was indeed the case, I try to watch CNN every waking hour, but there are times in the day when I am away from the tv, and so I came back from some errand yesterday afternoon and switched it on, and there was a replay of His Orangeness storming like a trooper, ranting and railing and waving his orange mane, and yelling, and accusing, and blood coming out of his eyes, and likely his wherever, though the less thought to that the better.
That terrible onus of having to say the Nazis and the KKK were bad people had clearly been boring in on him since he, the smartest guy in the world, had been forced to do it by a bunch of pipsqueaks, and now he was breaking free.
What is it with him and the alt-right? (Looking it up to see if that hyphen is required I discovered that there is an alt-right haircut, just saying) It's not like they are sitting on money bags like his rich buddies. In fact his rich businessmen are sidling away from him (Don't stand, don't stand, don't stand so close to me). Maybe even though he was born into opulence what he really wants to be is just a good ol boy, hanging out at Joe's Bait Shop and telling lies to all the other Good ol boys.
The science fiction I was thinking of was like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clark, Robert A Heinlein and all those magazines with the lurid covers which only occasionally featured scantily clad women. We hard core science fiction fans looked down our noses at Bradbury, too fantasy, too mainstream.
And the good news is that Beagles has put the kibosh on the guy on the dune, and now is the cock of the walk throughout the north Pacific, which is really not that far from the South Pacific, and now CNN can wash that Kim right of its hair, and consider how those amber strands would look straying from beneath a white hood or one of those cool helmets with the spike on top (Which I know, Scourge, is WW I, but I am being poetic).
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Beagles Speaks - Kim Backs Down
With Windows 10 there is a checkerboard display that comes up when you click on the "start" button down in the lower left hand corner. Each one of the squares is a short cut to news, weather, sports, and a bunch of other stuff. I usually check the weather report before signing off for the night, just to see if it's different from the one I'm going to see on The Weather Channel, which I always view before going to sleep and upon waking up in the morning. (I know, I should get a life, but who's got time for that?) As I was checking the weather, I noticed something in the "news" square about Kim backing down from his threat to nuke Guam, so I clicked on that and read the whole article. It seems the Red Chinese threatened to cut off their shipments of coal and food to North Korea, but Kim said that had nothing to do with it. The only logical explanation, then, is that Kim must have read my blog post and realized that we are done playing games with his regime. Invoking the spirit of Douglas MacArthur certainly didn't hurt either. Okay, that's settled. What's next on the agenda?
My experience with chickens seems to indicate that they indeed can be conditioned to display certain behaviors on cue. We had an aggressive rooster once who needed to be put in his place. When he advanced on me in a threatening manner one day, I grasped my unzipped jacket with both hands and flapped it like a pair of wings while crowing and stamping my feet. The rooster got the message and never bothered me again. The unintended consequence was that the hens seemed to think that I was the new cock of the walk. Whenever they saw me coming, they would shuffle their feet and squat, just like they did when the rooster approached them. I never took them up on their offers, and they eventually gave up on me, but it looked bad for awhile there. My hypothetical wife, being confident of my fidelity, was mildly amused, but I'm glad that nobody from the paper mill found out or I would never have heard the end of it.
I never was much of a science fiction fan. I used to watch Star Trek, but I don't have any of it on DVD. I have read "1984", and watched part of a movie version of "Brave New World". I didn't see the end because I had to go in to work, but my hypothetical wife told me how it turned out. I saw an old animated version of "Animal Farm" when PBS ran it s a classic. Those kinds of books are called "dystopian novels", being the opposite of utopian novels.
Speaking of cars:
A well dressed middle aged woman asked a young supermarket bag boy to help her load her groceries into her car. As they walked through the parking lot, the woman told the handsome lad, "You know, I have an itchy pussy." Without hesitation, the boy replied, "You'll have to point it out to me ma'am, all those Japanese cars look alike to me."
My experience with chickens seems to indicate that they indeed can be conditioned to display certain behaviors on cue. We had an aggressive rooster once who needed to be put in his place. When he advanced on me in a threatening manner one day, I grasped my unzipped jacket with both hands and flapped it like a pair of wings while crowing and stamping my feet. The rooster got the message and never bothered me again. The unintended consequence was that the hens seemed to think that I was the new cock of the walk. Whenever they saw me coming, they would shuffle their feet and squat, just like they did when the rooster approached them. I never took them up on their offers, and they eventually gave up on me, but it looked bad for awhile there. My hypothetical wife, being confident of my fidelity, was mildly amused, but I'm glad that nobody from the paper mill found out or I would never have heard the end of it.
I never was much of a science fiction fan. I used to watch Star Trek, but I don't have any of it on DVD. I have read "1984", and watched part of a movie version of "Brave New World". I didn't see the end because I had to go in to work, but my hypothetical wife told me how it turned out. I saw an old animated version of "Animal Farm" when PBS ran it s a classic. Those kinds of books are called "dystopian novels", being the opposite of utopian novels.
Speaking of cars:
A well dressed middle aged woman asked a young supermarket bag boy to help her load her groceries into her car. As they walked through the parking lot, the woman told the handsome lad, "You know, I have an itchy pussy." Without hesitation, the boy replied, "You'll have to point it out to me ma'am, all those Japanese cars look alike to me."
Keep calm and carry on
Any photos of that Chevrolet, or of the nooky wagon?
No photos readily at hand. I may have something buried in the archives but none of the cars specifically; they would be lurking in the background and it's not really worth the trouble. I don't know where to begin looking for all that old stuff.
-----
Why do you suppose so many cars nowadays are drab and monochromatic, mostly ranging from white to silver/gray to black? Nary a bright color to be seen, to say nothing of those two-tone pastel paint jobs of yore. I'm sure the factories offer other color choices but the public seems to suffer a lack of imagination. Maybe they're just trying to blend in with all the other anonymous jelly beans but it must be a pain to find your car in a crowded parking lot. Hardly any bright blues, reds, yellows, or greens anymore but pickup trucks seem to be somewhat more colorful. Maybe the pendulum will start swinging the other way, to the glory days of the Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. That would be swell, in my humble opinion.
-----
First item on the agenda: What are we going to do about North Korea?
Not much, I guess. Latest reports are that the North Koreans are backing off with their rhetoric. As crazy as Kim Jong-Un may seem, he showed good sense and blinked instead of continuing the insane march to Armageddon.
I don't think North Korean missiles are reliable enough to pose any threat, but the possibility that they've developed a warhead small enough for a missile is troubling. Instead of using it themselves they might simply sell it to another party, a terrorist faction perhaps, and let them do the dirty work. This does not seem to be beyond the realm of possibility. Any warhead small enough for one of their missiles is probably small enough to fit in a delivery van, assuming it can remain undetected during transport across our borders. Quite a chilling thought if you think about it. If small boats and planes, loaded with hundreds of pounds of drugs, can sneak into the US, why not a small nuke?
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Maybe I'll let Old Dog settle this one, he has been in the South Pacific after all.
Huh? You are betraying an ignorance of geography if you think Okinawa is in the South Pacific. The island of Guam, being north of the equator, isn't in the South Pacific, either.
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Sorry, keep losing my train of thought...back to the North Korea topic. Except for sanctions the US has done nothing for the last sixty years or so, correct? That policy has served us well, and should continue. There is enough of a US military presence in the area that it is not in the best interests of North Korea to act haphazardly. The North Koreans have been tweaking Uncle Sam's beard for a long, long time, and will continue to do so. Kim Jong-Un is ruthless but he isn't stupid, and he is playing Trump like a cheap violin, knowing his own relatively empty threats will elicit an outrageous response from the Golfer in Chief. Trump is involved in a game of political intrigue he is ill prepared to play. And since he eschews the advice and counsel of wiser heads and, instead, spouts off with the first thing that pops into that muddled brain of his, circumstances may not improve in the short term. In the long term, I think things will be fine but we may have already gone crazy before then.
Any major conflict will, I think, be unintended or accidental. World War I comes to mind with the assassination of a relative nobody snowballing into a tragic avalanche of warfare because of the many convoluted alliances. The US has many political and economic alliances, but does it have any friends willing to go the distance? I think not. With Trump in charge we are on our own.
-----
And speaking of His Orangeness, it appears that he is trying his hardest to get tossed out of office, being too proud and arrogant to do the right thing and resign. Case in point, his initial statement after the "rally" in Virginia where that lady was killed. He could have immediately denounced the KKK and Nazis by name, but no, instead he shifts the blame to "many sides." Another off the cuff remark that makes one think, WTF? He finally named them as the main culprits but it was like pulling teeth and you could tell his heart was not in it.
He would have very little to lose (aside from possible legal issues involving financial improprieties) by being dumped. In his return to the life of tasteless opulence and wheeling and dealing, he could claim that he did his best but the lying media and swamp rats of Washington wouldn't let him do his job. Not his fault, he tried. Whatever happens, he will leave quite a legacy but, as has been said, we get the leaders we deserve. But we don't deserve this, do we?
-----
Did you guys read science fiction in your youth?
Oh, sure, and still do but mostly listen to podcasts. Science fiction has been terrible in predicting the future, though, but was always a pleasant diversion. Once in a while there were some good ideas presented, not with the technical stuff but with changes in society. Are stories like 1984, Brave New World, or Fahrenheit 451 science fiction or social commentary?
One of the reasons I liked watching the TV series Babylon 5 was that, despite the aliens, space ships, and other futuro-gizmos, it dealt with culture, religion, and politics. Alliances come, alliances go, and it was fascinating to see how they played out. The series was much grittier than the polished optimism of Star Trek; folks actually used the bathroom. Urinals of the future didn't change much from what we have now.
No photos readily at hand. I may have something buried in the archives but none of the cars specifically; they would be lurking in the background and it's not really worth the trouble. I don't know where to begin looking for all that old stuff.
-----
Why do you suppose so many cars nowadays are drab and monochromatic, mostly ranging from white to silver/gray to black? Nary a bright color to be seen, to say nothing of those two-tone pastel paint jobs of yore. I'm sure the factories offer other color choices but the public seems to suffer a lack of imagination. Maybe they're just trying to blend in with all the other anonymous jelly beans but it must be a pain to find your car in a crowded parking lot. Hardly any bright blues, reds, yellows, or greens anymore but pickup trucks seem to be somewhat more colorful. Maybe the pendulum will start swinging the other way, to the glory days of the Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. That would be swell, in my humble opinion.
-----
First item on the agenda: What are we going to do about North Korea?
Not much, I guess. Latest reports are that the North Koreans are backing off with their rhetoric. As crazy as Kim Jong-Un may seem, he showed good sense and blinked instead of continuing the insane march to Armageddon.
I don't think North Korean missiles are reliable enough to pose any threat, but the possibility that they've developed a warhead small enough for a missile is troubling. Instead of using it themselves they might simply sell it to another party, a terrorist faction perhaps, and let them do the dirty work. This does not seem to be beyond the realm of possibility. Any warhead small enough for one of their missiles is probably small enough to fit in a delivery van, assuming it can remain undetected during transport across our borders. Quite a chilling thought if you think about it. If small boats and planes, loaded with hundreds of pounds of drugs, can sneak into the US, why not a small nuke?
-----
Maybe I'll let Old Dog settle this one, he has been in the South Pacific after all.
Huh? You are betraying an ignorance of geography if you think Okinawa is in the South Pacific. The island of Guam, being north of the equator, isn't in the South Pacific, either.
-----
Sorry, keep losing my train of thought...back to the North Korea topic. Except for sanctions the US has done nothing for the last sixty years or so, correct? That policy has served us well, and should continue. There is enough of a US military presence in the area that it is not in the best interests of North Korea to act haphazardly. The North Koreans have been tweaking Uncle Sam's beard for a long, long time, and will continue to do so. Kim Jong-Un is ruthless but he isn't stupid, and he is playing Trump like a cheap violin, knowing his own relatively empty threats will elicit an outrageous response from the Golfer in Chief. Trump is involved in a game of political intrigue he is ill prepared to play. And since he eschews the advice and counsel of wiser heads and, instead, spouts off with the first thing that pops into that muddled brain of his, circumstances may not improve in the short term. In the long term, I think things will be fine but we may have already gone crazy before then.
Any major conflict will, I think, be unintended or accidental. World War I comes to mind with the assassination of a relative nobody snowballing into a tragic avalanche of warfare because of the many convoluted alliances. The US has many political and economic alliances, but does it have any friends willing to go the distance? I think not. With Trump in charge we are on our own.
-----
And speaking of His Orangeness, it appears that he is trying his hardest to get tossed out of office, being too proud and arrogant to do the right thing and resign. Case in point, his initial statement after the "rally" in Virginia where that lady was killed. He could have immediately denounced the KKK and Nazis by name, but no, instead he shifts the blame to "many sides." Another off the cuff remark that makes one think, WTF? He finally named them as the main culprits but it was like pulling teeth and you could tell his heart was not in it.
He would have very little to lose (aside from possible legal issues involving financial improprieties) by being dumped. In his return to the life of tasteless opulence and wheeling and dealing, he could claim that he did his best but the lying media and swamp rats of Washington wouldn't let him do his job. Not his fault, he tried. Whatever happens, he will leave quite a legacy but, as has been said, we get the leaders we deserve. But we don't deserve this, do we?
-----
Did you guys read science fiction in your youth?
Oh, sure, and still do but mostly listen to podcasts. Science fiction has been terrible in predicting the future, though, but was always a pleasant diversion. Once in a while there were some good ideas presented, not with the technical stuff but with changes in society. Are stories like 1984, Brave New World, or Fahrenheit 451 science fiction or social commentary?
One of the reasons I liked watching the TV series Babylon 5 was that, despite the aliens, space ships, and other futuro-gizmos, it dealt with culture, religion, and politics. Alliances come, alliances go, and it was fascinating to see how they played out. The series was much grittier than the polished optimism of Star Trek; folks actually used the bathroom. Urinals of the future didn't change much from what we have now.
punting to Old Dog
Oh geez, can't we continue to discuss the Skinnerian behavior therapy on chickens? I remember there was a guy on Maxwell Street who had a dancing chicken. Couldn't we talk of teenage trips to find bargains on supposedly stolen merchandise? Or cars, and their evolution from landlocked airplanes to crazy rocket ships and then their dismal descent into fridges on wheels and hence to their current status of faceless sunflower seeds? Breathe there a man with soul so dead that it isn't stirred by the sight of a bare ankle or a soaring fin above a ruby red tail light shooting fire, ready to haul the glittering, chrome crusted hunk of metal to Mars? What of the gossamer images of the future revealed in the Sunday funny papers? Did you guys read science fiction in your youth?
Apparently not Beagles. He had North Korea and Kim Il Sung and Douglas MacArthur on his mind. You know researching this on wiki I couldn't remember his first name, only General, but General MacArthur took me straight to him. I would guess Beagles would have preferred war with Red (When it really was RED) China. Of course that wouldn't have been as big a problem as the pinkos thought it would be, just win a couple victories and the only red we would see is the rose petals that a grateful populace would have strewn at the feet of our troopers, and then we could easily bring back universally beloved Chiang Kai Shek from his doughty outpost in Formosa.
Actually a lot of people at the time were for MacArthur, Truman's popularity dipped to like twenty-two percent, but we are probably better off with that corn-cob egomaniac gone. Has their ever been a good movie about this?
You know I have trouble with the Kims, so I went to wiki.
Kim Il-Sung
is number one
Kim Jong-Il
is next on the hill
Kim Jong-Un
now stands on the dune
Further, it is called the Mount Paektu Bloodline, and it is written into their constitution that that bloodline will lead the People's Republic eternally.
I think Beagles is getting his information about our super anti-missile missiles from those articles I used to read in the Sunday funny papers about the flying cars and rocket packs that we also don't have. Likewise our ability to make short work of North Korea militarily, Wait a minute, is Beagles claiming that a few nuclear weapons shot at the USA is like no big deal?
My solution is to cross our fingers and hope nothing happens, which is only a good strategy in light of the alternatives. Maybe I'll let Old Dog settle this one, he has been in the South Pacific after all.
Apparently not Beagles. He had North Korea and Kim Il Sung and Douglas MacArthur on his mind. You know researching this on wiki I couldn't remember his first name, only General, but General MacArthur took me straight to him. I would guess Beagles would have preferred war with Red (When it really was RED) China. Of course that wouldn't have been as big a problem as the pinkos thought it would be, just win a couple victories and the only red we would see is the rose petals that a grateful populace would have strewn at the feet of our troopers, and then we could easily bring back universally beloved Chiang Kai Shek from his doughty outpost in Formosa.
Actually a lot of people at the time were for MacArthur, Truman's popularity dipped to like twenty-two percent, but we are probably better off with that corn-cob egomaniac gone. Has their ever been a good movie about this?
You know I have trouble with the Kims, so I went to wiki.
Kim Il-Sung
is number one
Kim Jong-Il
is next on the hill
Kim Jong-Un
now stands on the dune
Further, it is called the Mount Paektu Bloodline, and it is written into their constitution that that bloodline will lead the People's Republic eternally.
I think Beagles is getting his information about our super anti-missile missiles from those articles I used to read in the Sunday funny papers about the flying cars and rocket packs that we also don't have. Likewise our ability to make short work of North Korea militarily, Wait a minute, is Beagles claiming that a few nuclear weapons shot at the USA is like no big deal?
My solution is to cross our fingers and hope nothing happens, which is only a good strategy in light of the alternatives. Maybe I'll let Old Dog settle this one, he has been in the South Pacific after all.
Monday, August 14, 2017
Back to Business
Okay, enough of this idle chit-chat, let's get back to business. First item on the agenda: What are we going to do about North Korea? Of course, if MacArthur had been allowed to finish the job back in the 50s, North Korea wouldn't even be on the map today. This is not hindsight, everybody said so at the time. Well, maybe not everybody, but lots of people, okay some people. Actually, I was pretty young in those days, but I seem to remember hearing somebody say that, maybe it was my father, and that was good enough for me. I also remember reading, years later, that MacArthur was kind of a prick. I understand that Kim character is also a prick, and we've got a prick in the White House now, so maybe it's an idea whose time has come.
One option is to wait and see if that Kim character is actually going to do anything, or if he is just tweaking Uncle Sam's beard. I understand that North Korea and other third world countries agreed not to develop nuclear weapons a long time ago, and that they were paid handsomely for it. With inflation and all, maybe Kim just wants to extort more money out of us. My first instinct is to say "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!", but bribery might be cheaper in the long run than nuclear Armageddon. The thing is, though, if Kim gets away with that, then every tin horn dictator in the world is going to want a piece of the pie. One thing I learned in school is that, if you give a bully what he wants, he and others will come back for more again and again. Sometimes you need to take a stand, even if you get your ass kicked. My experience with bullies is that it doesn't matter so much if you win or lose, as long as you fight back.
It might not be nuclear Armageddon anyway. I understand that our guys have finally developed the anti missile missile after talking about it for decades. If that's true, maybe they can shoot down those missiles before they hit Guam. It would be nice if they could shoot them down while they're still over North Korea so most of the fallout will land there, but I don't know if they have the ability to do that. Even so, just because they fire a few nuclear weapons at us, doesn't mean we have to respond in kind. North Korea isn't such a big country, our guys could probably devastate it with conventional weapons in short order. Of course, just because they can do it doesn't mean they will do it. Where is MacArthur when we need him?
One option is to wait and see if that Kim character is actually going to do anything, or if he is just tweaking Uncle Sam's beard. I understand that North Korea and other third world countries agreed not to develop nuclear weapons a long time ago, and that they were paid handsomely for it. With inflation and all, maybe Kim just wants to extort more money out of us. My first instinct is to say "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!", but bribery might be cheaper in the long run than nuclear Armageddon. The thing is, though, if Kim gets away with that, then every tin horn dictator in the world is going to want a piece of the pie. One thing I learned in school is that, if you give a bully what he wants, he and others will come back for more again and again. Sometimes you need to take a stand, even if you get your ass kicked. My experience with bullies is that it doesn't matter so much if you win or lose, as long as you fight back.
It might not be nuclear Armageddon anyway. I understand that our guys have finally developed the anti missile missile after talking about it for decades. If that's true, maybe they can shoot down those missiles before they hit Guam. It would be nice if they could shoot them down while they're still over North Korea so most of the fallout will land there, but I don't know if they have the ability to do that. Even so, just because they fire a few nuclear weapons at us, doesn't mean we have to respond in kind. North Korea isn't such a big country, our guys could probably devastate it with conventional weapons in short order. Of course, just because they can do it doesn't mean they will do it. Where is MacArthur when we need him?
toaster ovens, chickens, automobiles, and Judy O'Grady
I guess the toaster oven and the computer are, as Rudyard Kipling (to inject a little poesy into Beaglestonia) like the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady Are sisters under their skins So, seeing that her sister had lost her connection. the toaster oven, much like Lassie when Timmie was floundering in the well, acted up to get the attention of the carbon units, so that the problem was solved. Perhaps now Beagles could return the favor by googling how to fix a toaster oven that doesn't always come on.
When I was the computer whiz at my state agency turning the computer off and then on again (unplugging was too much work) was what I referred to as the high tech solution. I suppose if I had a little more clout in the organization I could have had the user cluck like a chicken while I did that.
There used to be, maybe still are though I can't recall seeing them, chickens that performed complicated operations, playing the piano, maybe tic tac toe, at like the county fair. They were taught this by stimulus/response, behavior rewarded by a kernel or two of corn. Dignified scientists in crisp white lab coats, pockets stuffed with pens would set up it up so that the kernels were issued randomly and the chicken thought whatever they had done at the time caused the corn to drop, and ended up inducing all sorts of wacky behavior from the chickens. Scientists, even in crisp lab coats, just want to have fun.
That 1940 Chevrolet is a handsome car. I think cars looked the best about this time, they had just dropped that boxy look with the flat radiator with the headlights stuck to either side, too close together to look like eyes, and now the whole thing is sheathed in smooth sheet metal. The grill takes on a swept back look like the nose of a plane parting the air, and look at those wide fat front fenders, big enough to hold a headlight which tapers nicely into it. Surely a car that could easily win the heart of Judy O'Grady, or the Colonel's lady, or the mother of the Old Dog.
Any photos of that Chevrolet, or of the nooky wagon?
I have been googling through automobiles, doing the image search every five years. 1930 they still looked boxy, 1935, they are a little smoother, 1940 they look great, 1945 the rear is smoothing but they still have that pointy nose, 1950 they are more rounded, the nose is receding into the front end, but the bumper is grinning large, 1955 they are just beginning to take on that wild appearance, 1960 they are crazy man, crazy, 1965 they are losing that crazy chrome and are all smooth and low and flat, 1975 their front ends are looking aggressive again, 1980 they are beginning to look like refrigerators on wheels, which they will continue to do for the next ten years until they decide to look like pumpkin seeds which they will continue into the present time.
When I was the computer whiz at my state agency turning the computer off and then on again (unplugging was too much work) was what I referred to as the high tech solution. I suppose if I had a little more clout in the organization I could have had the user cluck like a chicken while I did that.
There used to be, maybe still are though I can't recall seeing them, chickens that performed complicated operations, playing the piano, maybe tic tac toe, at like the county fair. They were taught this by stimulus/response, behavior rewarded by a kernel or two of corn. Dignified scientists in crisp white lab coats, pockets stuffed with pens would set up it up so that the kernels were issued randomly and the chicken thought whatever they had done at the time caused the corn to drop, and ended up inducing all sorts of wacky behavior from the chickens. Scientists, even in crisp lab coats, just want to have fun.
That 1940 Chevrolet is a handsome car. I think cars looked the best about this time, they had just dropped that boxy look with the flat radiator with the headlights stuck to either side, too close together to look like eyes, and now the whole thing is sheathed in smooth sheet metal. The grill takes on a swept back look like the nose of a plane parting the air, and look at those wide fat front fenders, big enough to hold a headlight which tapers nicely into it. Surely a car that could easily win the heart of Judy O'Grady, or the Colonel's lady, or the mother of the Old Dog.
Any photos of that Chevrolet, or of the nooky wagon?
I have been googling through automobiles, doing the image search every five years. 1930 they still looked boxy, 1935, they are a little smoother, 1940 they look great, 1945 the rear is smoothing but they still have that pointy nose, 1950 they are more rounded, the nose is receding into the front end, but the bumper is grinning large, 1955 they are just beginning to take on that wild appearance, 1960 they are crazy man, crazy, 1965 they are losing that crazy chrome and are all smooth and low and flat, 1975 their front ends are looking aggressive again, 1980 they are beginning to look like refrigerators on wheels, which they will continue to do for the next ten years until they decide to look like pumpkin seeds which they will continue into the present time.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Star struck
There's a lesson to be learned from Mr. Beagles' latest internet mishap: get a toaster oven. I'll have to look into that, just in case.
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I thought the discussion on cars was interesting, I was just surprised that neither dawg cared much what they looked like. Well Old Dog gussied his up into a southern belle nookie wagon.
Hmmm...don't think either of us mentioned what we thought of the cars' looks, one way or the other. But since you brought it up, I thought the '67 Fairlane was a fine looking ride with clean lines, and the best looking of the lot, followed by the Imperial. There's no accounting for taste, is there?
I wouldn't describe the Ranchero as a "nookie wagon" but it sometimes worked out that way, and reminds me of one car I forgot to mention, a 1940 Chevrolet Special DeLuxe Coupe. There was a girl I was seeing in Alabama, quite a sweet young thing, and all I'll say is that she was above the age of consent, which was 13 at the time. Anyhow, when I went to see her I always passed this house that had this car in the yard with a "For Sale" sign and finally I stopped and made a few inquiries. I found out the price was about $200, and the car actually ran if you had a good battery. The body was very good, interior not bad, but it needed a brake job and new wiring, which I took care of with the help of a few of my buddies. The plan was to give it to my father, this was the same year and model car he had when he married my Mom after the war.
Drove it around town for a while until I got out of the army and headed north, straight through to Cleveland to see a buddy of mine from Okinawa. Couple of days later I headed to Chicago but just short of the Indiana border it starting to peter out to the point it barely ran. Made it to a service station and found out a piston collapsed. Not good, I'm thinking. So I call Dad up and see if he could rent a tow bar and come and get me; didn't tell him what I was driving except it was "bigger than the Ranchero." He shows up many hours later and was amused with the tale despite what a pain in the ass it must have been for him to bail out his newly discharged son.
The trip home was uneventful and we pushed the car into the garage, where it sat for many years. It would have been easy enough to replace the engine as just about any GM straight-six engine from the last few decades would have dropped right in. Ol' Pop got as far as pulling the top and bottom end off the engine but that was it. I don't think he cared whether or not it got running, just thinking about it gave him pleasure.
Whenever the garage door was open, some lookie-loos would always stop and ask about it, whether or not it was for sale. After nearly twenty years of sitting and gathering dust (the car, not Dad) he got an offer he couldn't refuse but asked my permission to sell it, anyway. I said sure, it's yours, do what you want with it. So he sold it and gave me half the dough, which I tried to refuse but he insisted. I learned long ago not to argue with him.
One more thing about that car. In order to move freely to and from base you had to have it registered with the proper bumper sticker: red numbers for enlisted men and blue numbers for commissioned officers. I think that's how it worked; maybe the numbers were black and the lettering was blue or red. Anyhow, one of my housemates was an MP and he hooked me up with a special bumper sticker which could have gotten him in a lot of trouble, but never did. As far as anyone knew, that car belonged to a 2-star general; no numbers, just stars. Even had my initials on it. We got quite a few laughs out of it, as you can imagine.
-----
I thought the discussion on cars was interesting, I was just surprised that neither dawg cared much what they looked like. Well Old Dog gussied his up into a southern belle nookie wagon.
Hmmm...don't think either of us mentioned what we thought of the cars' looks, one way or the other. But since you brought it up, I thought the '67 Fairlane was a fine looking ride with clean lines, and the best looking of the lot, followed by the Imperial. There's no accounting for taste, is there?
I wouldn't describe the Ranchero as a "nookie wagon" but it sometimes worked out that way, and reminds me of one car I forgot to mention, a 1940 Chevrolet Special DeLuxe Coupe. There was a girl I was seeing in Alabama, quite a sweet young thing, and all I'll say is that she was above the age of consent, which was 13 at the time. Anyhow, when I went to see her I always passed this house that had this car in the yard with a "For Sale" sign and finally I stopped and made a few inquiries. I found out the price was about $200, and the car actually ran if you had a good battery. The body was very good, interior not bad, but it needed a brake job and new wiring, which I took care of with the help of a few of my buddies. The plan was to give it to my father, this was the same year and model car he had when he married my Mom after the war.
Drove it around town for a while until I got out of the army and headed north, straight through to Cleveland to see a buddy of mine from Okinawa. Couple of days later I headed to Chicago but just short of the Indiana border it starting to peter out to the point it barely ran. Made it to a service station and found out a piston collapsed. Not good, I'm thinking. So I call Dad up and see if he could rent a tow bar and come and get me; didn't tell him what I was driving except it was "bigger than the Ranchero." He shows up many hours later and was amused with the tale despite what a pain in the ass it must have been for him to bail out his newly discharged son.
The trip home was uneventful and we pushed the car into the garage, where it sat for many years. It would have been easy enough to replace the engine as just about any GM straight-six engine from the last few decades would have dropped right in. Ol' Pop got as far as pulling the top and bottom end off the engine but that was it. I don't think he cared whether or not it got running, just thinking about it gave him pleasure.
Whenever the garage door was open, some lookie-loos would always stop and ask about it, whether or not it was for sale. After nearly twenty years of sitting and gathering dust (the car, not Dad) he got an offer he couldn't refuse but asked my permission to sell it, anyway. I said sure, it's yours, do what you want with it. So he sold it and gave me half the dough, which I tried to refuse but he insisted. I learned long ago not to argue with him.
One more thing about that car. In order to move freely to and from base you had to have it registered with the proper bumper sticker: red numbers for enlisted men and blue numbers for commissioned officers. I think that's how it worked; maybe the numbers were black and the lettering was blue or red. Anyhow, one of my housemates was an MP and he hooked me up with a special bumper sticker which could have gotten him in a lot of trouble, but never did. As far as anyone knew, that car belonged to a 2-star general; no numbers, just stars. Even had my initials on it. We got quite a few laughs out of it, as you can imagine.
Saturday, August 12, 2017
When All Else Fails, Pull the Plug
Microsoft sent me some updates Thursday night as I was signing off. I let them run until they were done and the computer shut down, then I turned off the monitor and went to bed. When I came back on Friday, there was no internet connection. As I said before, this happens sometimes, but it usually comes back in a matter of minutes. This time, however, it was still down after several hours. I asked Cortana about it, and she directed me to a diagnostic thing, but all it could come up with was "Ethernet doesn't have a valid IP configuration." I still don't know what an Ethernet is, I'll have to look that up one of these days. Suspecting that one of those downloads had changed my settings, I found a thing that reset the settings back to what they were before, but that didn't solve the problem. It was getting late by this time, so I gave up and watched TV for awhile to clear my head. I finally decided that, if it wasn't back tomorrow, I would have to call somebody.
We have a toaster oven that has been kind of glitchy lately. Sometimes the heat doesn't come on until we turn the timer off and back on again. If that fails, we bang and beat on the unit until it starts. This morning, after I had successfully made my toast, the unit failed to work for my hypothetical wife in spite of her performing the usual resuscitation ritual. We have previously agreed to buy a new toaster oven one of these days, but then the old one would work for awhile and we would forget about it. My hypothetical wife finally made it work by unplugging the unit and then plugging it back in. A simple low tech solution that we have found to be successful in the past with various electrical appliances.
Her success inspired me to try the same tactic with my internet connection problem. I didn't unplug everything, just the satellite modem, because that seemed to be where the problem lay. When I saw that the little blue lights were blinking, which means that it's searching for the satellite signal, I went to the screen and found a message asking me if I wanted to make my computer accessible to other devices in my network. The only other devices I have are the mouse, monitor, and printer, so I didn't see how that could cause a problem. Anyway, the message recommended clicking "yes" unless you were using a public computer, so I clicked "yes". The little internet warning icon changed from yellow to red a few times, and then I was asked the same question again, so I clicked "yes" again. Then the internet connection was restored good as new.
The more I think about it, I think I was right about one of those downloads causing the problem. I had never gotten that message before, so that must have been one of the updates. I suppose that necessitated restarting the modem, and it would have been nice if I had gotten that message, but I didn't. Good thing my hypothetical wife had that trouble with the toaster oven or I would have called tech support, where they undoubtedly would have directed me to "Just pull the plug, stupid!", or words to that effect.
We have a toaster oven that has been kind of glitchy lately. Sometimes the heat doesn't come on until we turn the timer off and back on again. If that fails, we bang and beat on the unit until it starts. This morning, after I had successfully made my toast, the unit failed to work for my hypothetical wife in spite of her performing the usual resuscitation ritual. We have previously agreed to buy a new toaster oven one of these days, but then the old one would work for awhile and we would forget about it. My hypothetical wife finally made it work by unplugging the unit and then plugging it back in. A simple low tech solution that we have found to be successful in the past with various electrical appliances.
Her success inspired me to try the same tactic with my internet connection problem. I didn't unplug everything, just the satellite modem, because that seemed to be where the problem lay. When I saw that the little blue lights were blinking, which means that it's searching for the satellite signal, I went to the screen and found a message asking me if I wanted to make my computer accessible to other devices in my network. The only other devices I have are the mouse, monitor, and printer, so I didn't see how that could cause a problem. Anyway, the message recommended clicking "yes" unless you were using a public computer, so I clicked "yes". The little internet warning icon changed from yellow to red a few times, and then I was asked the same question again, so I clicked "yes" again. Then the internet connection was restored good as new.
The more I think about it, I think I was right about one of those downloads causing the problem. I had never gotten that message before, so that must have been one of the updates. I suppose that necessitated restarting the modem, and it would have been nice if I had gotten that message, but I didn't. Good thing my hypothetical wife had that trouble with the toaster oven or I would have called tech support, where they undoubtedly would have directed me to "Just pull the plug, stupid!", or words to that effect.
Friday, August 11, 2017
Mighty blowhards propelling The Beagle
I'm not complaining about you dawgs going on about something I'm not interested in like, oh, ice cream making machines. By the way how is that all going, haven't heard a word since, I believe last winter, Well I do complain about it, sort of, but that just gives me something to say. What I am complaining about is you dawgs having nothing to say about anything. I mean how can a Beaglestonian have nothing to say? It doesn't sound right, doesn't sound natural. Doesn't a forum for reasonable discussion among reasonable people translate to guys who like to shoot their mouths of about anything at anytime? That's what I thought I was signing onto when I began my Voyage of the Beagle.
I thought the discussion on cars was interesting, I was just surprised that neither dawg cared much what they looked like. Well Old Dog gussied his up into a southern belle nookie wagon. I would sure like to hear more stories about that. Is there any chance that a photo remains from those long ago days of glory? Well back in the day it was rare to have a camera around. It was sort of a special event when you got your picture taken.; Nowadays people take what, fifty photos a day, half of them of themselves. What happens to those photos? Surely people don't have like five years of photos in their phones. Well maybe they do, what do I know? But surely they can't spend much time looking at each individual one or that's all they'd do all day;
I'm kind of for eating bugs. Practically speaking it makes a lot of sense. Not that I have ever eaten one, Not that I wouldn't. We showed the Beginning of the End where giant grasshoppers attack Chicago here at Marina City lately. I scrambled about to pick up some fried grasshoppers to go along with the show, googling Mexican and African grocery stores. I found one who listed them but they were out when I called. I could have gotten them on the web of course but I only had a couple days before the movie.
I had a friend in Texas who used to quote a line from some movie or book, which went , "Why be poor and stupid, when you can drink and be rich and smart?" I know for a fact that I am far more witty the more beer I have drunk, and contrary to what that fake news article that Old Dog quotes says, it does not stop at one beer, but goes on deep into the night. Of course that's only as long as I have somebody listening to how witty I am. When I get home alone (not owning a camo nookie wagon) I get bored with myself pretty quickly and go to bed.
These stories of our armed forces in Germany during the cold war, make me a little glad that the Russkies didn't launch a sneak attack across the border. Of course their army was surely just as stupid and drunk all the time to boot, but maybe vodka, unlike beer, just keeps those creative juices going.
Well we're still here this morning. But I'm glad to be living where I am and not in Guam.
I thought the discussion on cars was interesting, I was just surprised that neither dawg cared much what they looked like. Well Old Dog gussied his up into a southern belle nookie wagon. I would sure like to hear more stories about that. Is there any chance that a photo remains from those long ago days of glory? Well back in the day it was rare to have a camera around. It was sort of a special event when you got your picture taken.; Nowadays people take what, fifty photos a day, half of them of themselves. What happens to those photos? Surely people don't have like five years of photos in their phones. Well maybe they do, what do I know? But surely they can't spend much time looking at each individual one or that's all they'd do all day;
I'm kind of for eating bugs. Practically speaking it makes a lot of sense. Not that I have ever eaten one, Not that I wouldn't. We showed the Beginning of the End where giant grasshoppers attack Chicago here at Marina City lately. I scrambled about to pick up some fried grasshoppers to go along with the show, googling Mexican and African grocery stores. I found one who listed them but they were out when I called. I could have gotten them on the web of course but I only had a couple days before the movie.
I had a friend in Texas who used to quote a line from some movie or book, which went , "Why be poor and stupid, when you can drink and be rich and smart?" I know for a fact that I am far more witty the more beer I have drunk, and contrary to what that fake news article that Old Dog quotes says, it does not stop at one beer, but goes on deep into the night. Of course that's only as long as I have somebody listening to how witty I am. When I get home alone (not owning a camo nookie wagon) I get bored with myself pretty quickly and go to bed.
These stories of our armed forces in Germany during the cold war, make me a little glad that the Russkies didn't launch a sneak attack across the border. Of course their army was surely just as stupid and drunk all the time to boot, but maybe vodka, unlike beer, just keeps those creative juices going.
Well we're still here this morning. But I'm glad to be living where I am and not in Guam.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Go Ahead On
We had this sergeant in the army, I don't remember his name, but he was my boss for awhile, I don't remember how long. One of my duties was to drive the Fire Direction Control van for our 81 MM mortar section. Although we called it a van, it was actually a 3/4 ton pickup truck with a homemade plywood windowless camper on the back. They actually made a steel box for that purpose, but we didn't have them in Berlin, so somebody had given my predecessor permission to build this box out of scrounged materials. It was an ungainly vehicle, slower than the rest of our trucks, but we liked it. Anyway, this sergeant used to ride with me when we went to the field.
My job title was Fire Direction Controller. I was supposed to have an assistant and a truck driver, but we were short handed so I did all three jobs for awhile. Eventually they gave me an assistant, and I barely got him trained before I went home on a 30 day leave. His name was Jimmy, and I jokingly referred to him as "my men", even thought there was only one of him. One thing I had to warn Jimmy about was the peculiar habit this sergeant had of saying "Go ahead on." no matter what it was he wanted you to do. We'd come to a road junction, I'd say, "Which way Sarge?", and he'd say "Go ahead on." Then I would have to ask him, "Go ahead on which way?" Then he would either say, "Go ahead on straight, go ahead on left, or go ahead on right." One time we were on a rough road so I started to slow down. The sergeant said "Go ahead on", which I assumed meant to go faster, so I went faster.
"What are you, nut's? You're going way too fast for this road."
"I know, but you said 'Go ahead on'."
"Well of course I meant 'Go ahead on, slow down'."
I am not making this up!
Anyway, Jimmy cured the sergeant of saying "Go ahead on." while I was home on leave. They came to a "T" in the road, Jimmy asked which way, the sergeant said "Go ahead on", and Jimmy drove that ungainly truck straight across the road, through the ditch, and out into the bumpy field. I don't think Jimmy mentioned that I had explained the "Go ahead on" command to him, which turned out to be a good thing, because that sergeant never said "Go ahead on." again.
The reason I'm telling you guys this story is so that you'll know what I mean when I say you should go ahead on and write whatever you want in your posts. If I don't always respond, it doesn't mean that I'm mad at you. If I am mad at you, I will say so in no uncertain terms. I certainly read all of your posts. If I don't respond, it just means there is nothing I want to say about the subject at the moment, maybe tomorrow.
I've been trying to get more information about that "Meeting of Minds" show, since watching it on You Tube has raised a few questions. Here's what I've gotten so far: A total of 24 episodes were made for TV between 1977 and 1981. Only about half of them are currently on You Tube, posted by private citizens from their own recordings, and not in any particular order. Some VHS copies were made back in the day, but they have become collector's items and are now quite pricey. The sons of Steve Allen own the copyright and have shown no interest in putting the show on DVD. Too bad, they sure don't make shows like that anymore.
My job title was Fire Direction Controller. I was supposed to have an assistant and a truck driver, but we were short handed so I did all three jobs for awhile. Eventually they gave me an assistant, and I barely got him trained before I went home on a 30 day leave. His name was Jimmy, and I jokingly referred to him as "my men", even thought there was only one of him. One thing I had to warn Jimmy about was the peculiar habit this sergeant had of saying "Go ahead on." no matter what it was he wanted you to do. We'd come to a road junction, I'd say, "Which way Sarge?", and he'd say "Go ahead on." Then I would have to ask him, "Go ahead on which way?" Then he would either say, "Go ahead on straight, go ahead on left, or go ahead on right." One time we were on a rough road so I started to slow down. The sergeant said "Go ahead on", which I assumed meant to go faster, so I went faster.
"What are you, nut's? You're going way too fast for this road."
"I know, but you said 'Go ahead on'."
"Well of course I meant 'Go ahead on, slow down'."
I am not making this up!
Anyway, Jimmy cured the sergeant of saying "Go ahead on." while I was home on leave. They came to a "T" in the road, Jimmy asked which way, the sergeant said "Go ahead on", and Jimmy drove that ungainly truck straight across the road, through the ditch, and out into the bumpy field. I don't think Jimmy mentioned that I had explained the "Go ahead on" command to him, which turned out to be a good thing, because that sergeant never said "Go ahead on." again.
The reason I'm telling you guys this story is so that you'll know what I mean when I say you should go ahead on and write whatever you want in your posts. If I don't always respond, it doesn't mean that I'm mad at you. If I am mad at you, I will say so in no uncertain terms. I certainly read all of your posts. If I don't respond, it just means there is nothing I want to say about the subject at the moment, maybe tomorrow.
I've been trying to get more information about that "Meeting of Minds" show, since watching it on You Tube has raised a few questions. Here's what I've gotten so far: A total of 24 episodes were made for TV between 1977 and 1981. Only about half of them are currently on You Tube, posted by private citizens from their own recordings, and not in any particular order. Some VHS copies were made back in the day, but they have become collector's items and are now quite pricey. The sons of Steve Allen own the copyright and have shown no interest in putting the show on DVD. Too bad, they sure don't make shows like that anymore.
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