A wise man once said, "If a communist calls you a fascist, you must be doing something right."
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Monday, September 26, 2022
Another Perspective on Climate Change
I've always thought of The Atlantic as a liberal publication, and maybe it is, but this article makes a lot of sense to me.
Friday, September 23, 2022
Olden days
Let me open this post again with a video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzPVqT5vW4M
Most likely I have shown this video before but the dawgs are almost as old as I am and perhaps have forgotten. It happened in 2014 which was not that long ago but I like to think that it captures the attitude of the pre Disneyfication of Wrigleyville.
I returned to Chicago in the late eighties and while the neighborhood had distinctly gentrified, the bars surrounding were still somewhat seedy. There used to be a Byron's in that odd triangular area just outside the ballyard and just as spring training was closing and spring herself, though still a shy, green-gowned, maiden, was closing in on the windy city. We'd settle into a booth with our dogs and then we'd pull out our Cubs schedules and figure out what games we would be attending that summer.
Those Cub schedules, they were ubiquitous in those days. Usually at the liquor store. You'd be paying for your twelve pack of Falstaff, and there would be this little box of Cub schedules printed on some glossy, but not thick, paper with three folds that, tucked into your wallet and pulled out for consultation often, they would last oh, as long as the Cubs were still in mathematical contention which was time enough.
Now they are an app on your phone. I would like to think that rather than because he had taken off his head, what had happened was somebody asked when the Cubs would be playing the Phillies again and while Billy Cub was fumbling in his wallet for his schedule that other guy had pulled out his phone and was thumbing through the screens and that's why he clocked him.
Not a jury in my perfect world would have convicted him.
I like those cadence things, a little bit of poetry to them and a nice cynical ring, I guess a way for the marchers to hang onto a little bit of dignity while being marched all over god knows where.
In a month I will have lived here thirty years, not too far from half of it. The least interesting part of my life but the most comfortable.
Will be leaving for DC on Monday, two weeks later I will be headed to Newark Ohio to see a newly restored Sullivan bank, and two weeks after that I will be getting my other eye fixed.
Probably won't be writing much during those adventures, but I am sure one of the dawgs will step in to pick up my slack.
Thursday, September 22, 2022
Pulling the Plug
I clicked on Uncle Ken's You Tube link and I agree that new space song is pretty lame. For me, the Russian space song did not follow either. Instead, I got "The Top Five Army Cadences". They didn't sound anything like the cadences we used to sing back in my day. Ours were simpler like:
"Ain't no use in going home, Jodie's got your girl and gone. Ain't no use in feeling blue, Jodie's got your mother too."
"Ain't no use in looking down, ain't no discharge on the ground."
"Sergeant, Sergeant, don't feel blue, Frankenstein was ugly too."
"GI beans and GI gravy, GI wish I'd joined the Navy."
"First Platoon's a bunch of WACs, carry Kotex in their packs."
"Sergeant Jones is feeling green, someone pissed in his canteen"
Be that as it may, my screen locked up during the last cadence, and I had to pull the plug and start up all over again. Pulling the plug was my last resort after unsuccessfully trying to shut down with "Control-Alternate-Delete". My first computer had a reset switch in the back, but my current model does not.
We have lived in four places since we got married in 1969. The second one was in Indian River, some 20 miles south of here, but the rest have been near Cheboygan, but not in the city limits. We have been in our current location for 22 years now.
Times gone by
Gentleman, I kid you not.
Jesu H. Christo! We are fast approaching peak Idiocracy. Check out the comments on that YouTube page; quite amusing with many references to the movie Starship Troopers. When the video ended I didn't see any Soviet anthem; the Master Algorithm gave me a monologue from Jimmy Kimmel instead. And when I saw the subject line of the post I was wondering what a Toyota Supra had to do with anything, and now I know.
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Although I have never eaten a mango, I trust the judgement of my esteemed colleague.
A good, ripe mango is wonderfully sweet and juicy but a bit of a production to eat. I suggest viewing a tutorial video before giving it a try because it can get messy. It may be the juiciest fruit I've ever eaten.
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...living a few blocks from Wrigley Field in that seedy neighborhood that it was at the time.
You're not kidding, Uncle Ken. I moved into that area in 1979, well before all the modern Cubs hooplah and rent was cheap. I think the Latin Kings scared a lot of people away. There were no night games and the day games during the work week were poorly attended with the bleachers half full. Tickets were cheap, too.
The neighborhood was nothing like the economic powerhouse it is today, more of a "Mom & Pop" vibe to the area. Some of the bars in the area, and there weren't that many, would only be open during baseball season. Their owners made so much money off of the fans that they could close up shop and move to Florida for the off season. It was great and I'll never forget Franksville, Pete's Freeze, and the Yum Yum Donut Shop.
As I wandered down memory lane I found the obituary of an old pal of mine from a few years back, Floyd the Bartender. Here's a good article about him, giving a good sense of the time and place.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2019/3/15/18313880/floyd-saunders-dead-at-92-wrigleyville-bartender-poured-shots-for-stars-fans
I hung out at the places that are mentioned and knew a lot of the folks in the article, too. A great feeling of community for those who like to hang out, drink, and socialize; a very curious big, happy family. If you liked music you were at ground zero with Tut's, a 4am bar with live music 7 days a week, no cover charge. I made some signs for the owner and I was there more often than I should have been but for a newly divorced guy it was heaven. You want to talk about your Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll? You wouldn't believe it, and I will say no more. But then the Cubs got more successful, more popular, and they put lights in Wrigley Field. There went the neighborhood. My little apartment went condo and I was priced out, forcing me to move out of the area. More bars opened up and over-served fans flooded the area and it just wasn't fun any more.
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Speaking of moving, I see that you guys are well settled, having lived in the same places for decades. Circumstances forced me to move five times since 2001; couple of places went condo and family obligations made other moves necessary. But now I think I'm in my final place and it's all good. As I gaze out the windows of Casa con Queso de Geezer Chateau I can see the tree canopy is beginning to change color as the season is changing.
Easier to see, too, since I had my final cataract surgery this past Monday; both eyes are tuned up with new lenses. A big improvement I'd say but there's still a month of eye drops and more time required before I know how successful the whole process was.
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Was I experiencing this thing going around called mindfulness that I have heard tell of?
Wait, you're just figuring this out now? I though you were hip to it via your many readings of all things philosophical. But better late than never, I say. And as you reminded us of the words of Mr. Natural many years ago, "It don't mean Sheee-it!"
Semper Supra
Gentleman, I kid you not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSV3Q4ztGaA&t=1s
If you stay with youtube the next video will be the soviet space anthem which, for all its bombast is way more dignified.
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Tuesday, Tuesday
I was a little careless unplugging my control center Tuesday morning. After all had I not already taken it apart and put it back together? And of course they did not come promptly at nine, it was more like eleven. And the rug that had looked like a charming rusty red in the photo turned out to be a bland boring brown. But it feels soft to my bare toes, and isn't that what it is all about? And there were a couple tense moments in the replugging, but it all came out fine, and looks so much more ordered than it did previously.
So all is well (nay better, better ordered and softer to the toes) in the House of Uncle Ken.
Except for the thing that prompted me to write this post, that moment of satori, when I was cast adrift of my control center, where I was adrift without the angry squawk of CNN, or the breaking news of the websites. Ok there was the cat on my lap and the heavy tome, but my cat had nothing she wanted to say, and the book was on the nature of religion, which is kind of timeless. Was I experiencing this thing going around called mindfulness that I have heard tell of?
Well sort of
Well that kind of sounds like what was going on. And I tell you, it felt pretty good and good for me. You know that I am a political guy and I think it is the good fight, but is it necessary that I keep up on every little niggling detail, especially since about the only thing I do about it is to shoot my mouth off about it?
Logically no. So hopefully I can enhance my earthly experience to take some time out every day, and just be, well mindful.
But since the guys left with their rug that is soft on my toes behind, I have plugged in everything, even a little excited about the stuff I had missed because of that mindfulness, so I am not so sure that I have learned anything. But is that not the way of the universe?
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