We've been plagued by field mice invading our garage. I have been setting traps and have caught and killed 3 of them. Elaine says that she heard the last trap snap and the little helpless mouse cry "eee" "eee" for a few minutes. I wish that she had not told me that. I will have trouble sleeping tonight.
But apparently I'm not the cruelist American these days. The Nation magazine for October 17, 2011 has a piece labeled Cruel America. Let me give you a few excerpts from that article.
Brian Williams asked Texas Governor Rick Perry if the recent execution of 234 people in Texas bothered him. Rick replied: "If you come into our state... and you kill... one of our citizens... you will be executed." A listening crowd applauded enthusiastically.
A petition signed by more than 600,000 people was presented to the Georgia parole board trying to save Troy Davis from execution. Mr. Davis was convicted of murder two decades ago and the conviction was rendered doubtful by new evidence, including the recantation of seven of the original nine witnesses. The parole board ignored the petition and Mr. Davis was executed.
Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul what medical response he would recommend if a person who opted not to have health insurance entered into a coma and died. Ron answered: "That's what freedom is all about: taking your own risks." So, the man's death was his own problem, and society should let such people die? Someone yelled: Yeah! and a listening crown cheered.
A few years ago, the Bush administration secretly ordered the torture of terrorism suspects. Recently, both former President George W. Bush and former Vice-President Dick Cheney publicly endorsed that action.
More than 2 million Americans are incarcerated. This is the highest proportion per capita in the world!
What the hell is going on in this wonderful Country of mine?
...........................................................................................................................................
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Saturday, November 26, 2011
The Day after Black Friday 2011
Well, it looks as though people have finally decided that it is useless to save their money in the bank for almost zero interest, and have given it to department stores instead. Yesterday, at the height of Black Friday, I drove by WalMart, Target, Belk's, Sears, and Kohl's.... all of their parking lots were filled, and this is in Carroll County Maryland, where conservative folks normally are very careful with their spending.
Or.. maybe, as I mentioned in a prior blog entry, this year, folks believe that the Aztec calendar is right and the world will end in 2012... therefore, they can charge as much as they like now and never have to worry about paying for it. Whatever is the reason, I have never seen people so excited.
Carroll County is a great place to live. Beautiful countryside to enjoy and probably the safest County in Maryland, if not in the Nation. The people who have lived all their lives here are either devout Conservative Republicans, or Democrats who changed affiliation to allow themselves to be elected to public office in the County, a Republican bastion in Democratic Maryland.
This may change now that Representative Roscoe Bartlett has seen his district gerrymandered. Soon, we will probably be represented in Congress by a Democrat. For one, I will miss listening to Mr. Bartlett make his 5 minute speeches before the Congressional sessions get underway. I will also miss his Office's notes to me that he is glad that I agree with his point of view.. which I have never done.
In this County there is a great newspaper that I love. It is the normally quite liberal Carroll County Times. However, the newspaper does post letters and articles representing all sides of vital questions, and I find that very refreshing. As an Independent voter, I want to learn as much as I can about what each side says about an issue.
So.. having said all that, I now want to gently pick on the Carroll County Times.. but just on page one of their issue for Friday, November 26, 2011.
01. Weather: SUNY
I know we are not in New York State so SUNY does not stand for State University of New York... what does it stand for? I asked Elaine, and, of course, she knew the answer. The prediction is for sunny weather, but not too sunny.. rather SUNY. And the prediction was right.. early this morning, the sun was brightly shining, and it got cloudy as the day went on. It was SUNY. I like it!
02. Beautiful shoppers
The newspaper has an interesting front page color photo by staff photographer, Dave Munch. It shows three, maybe four, beautiful young ladies with brown coats, grabbing bargain boxes at Target in Westminster, Maryland. This picture should be picked up by the news services and broadcast around the Nation to show what kind of good-looking folks we have in this County.
I hope that the picture was not staged.. that is, I hope that Dave did not grab some "upscale" blondes from Reisterstown or Pikesville and have them pose for his purposes. Whatever.. I think it is a good advertisement for the "great lifestyle" represented by the beautiful people in Carroll County.
03. Poor Bambi!
The headline for a page one article says: "Deer season off to strong start". Today starts the two-week deer firearm season.. during which up to 50,000 deer are expected to be ""harvested." Just today, the toll should reach 15,000 deer killed by rifles and shot guns.. which, Brian Ireyler (Maryland Deer Project Leader) says "...are our most efficient weapons. They also have the most impact." (my underlines)
Don't get me wrong, I realize that the deer population is out of control, and they are starting to gobble up home-owners' shrubbery.. I would hope that the meat is made available for eating by the hunter or by the homeless. Can the meat be eaten if the deer is shot with a shotgun? Do they just aim to shoot off its head? I'm sorry, since I have never been a hunter, I am ignorant of all this.
At the age of 16, some of my friends asked me to go "coon hunting" with them. I had a bad cold and couldn't go. During the hunt, one of my 16-year old friends accidentally shot and killed another of my 16-year old friends. I decided that I would not become a hunter.
In a lighter vein, I would like to point to other words attributed in the article to Mr. Ireyler: "This weekend are the biggest days of the year." (my italics)
04. Happy Anniversary!
In 2011 we are celebrating 100 years of the Carroll County Times. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have that wonderful newspaper to devour each and every day of my life. I hope that they stick around for another hundred!
.....................................................................................................................................................
Or.. maybe, as I mentioned in a prior blog entry, this year, folks believe that the Aztec calendar is right and the world will end in 2012... therefore, they can charge as much as they like now and never have to worry about paying for it. Whatever is the reason, I have never seen people so excited.
Carroll County is a great place to live. Beautiful countryside to enjoy and probably the safest County in Maryland, if not in the Nation. The people who have lived all their lives here are either devout Conservative Republicans, or Democrats who changed affiliation to allow themselves to be elected to public office in the County, a Republican bastion in Democratic Maryland.
This may change now that Representative Roscoe Bartlett has seen his district gerrymandered. Soon, we will probably be represented in Congress by a Democrat. For one, I will miss listening to Mr. Bartlett make his 5 minute speeches before the Congressional sessions get underway. I will also miss his Office's notes to me that he is glad that I agree with his point of view.. which I have never done.
In this County there is a great newspaper that I love. It is the normally quite liberal Carroll County Times. However, the newspaper does post letters and articles representing all sides of vital questions, and I find that very refreshing. As an Independent voter, I want to learn as much as I can about what each side says about an issue.
So.. having said all that, I now want to gently pick on the Carroll County Times.. but just on page one of their issue for Friday, November 26, 2011.
01. Weather: SUNY
I know we are not in New York State so SUNY does not stand for State University of New York... what does it stand for? I asked Elaine, and, of course, she knew the answer. The prediction is for sunny weather, but not too sunny.. rather SUNY. And the prediction was right.. early this morning, the sun was brightly shining, and it got cloudy as the day went on. It was SUNY. I like it!
02. Beautiful shoppers
The newspaper has an interesting front page color photo by staff photographer, Dave Munch. It shows three, maybe four, beautiful young ladies with brown coats, grabbing bargain boxes at Target in Westminster, Maryland. This picture should be picked up by the news services and broadcast around the Nation to show what kind of good-looking folks we have in this County.
I hope that the picture was not staged.. that is, I hope that Dave did not grab some "upscale" blondes from Reisterstown or Pikesville and have them pose for his purposes. Whatever.. I think it is a good advertisement for the "great lifestyle" represented by the beautiful people in Carroll County.
03. Poor Bambi!
Don't get me wrong, I realize that the deer population is out of control, and they are starting to gobble up home-owners' shrubbery.. I would hope that the meat is made available for eating by the hunter or by the homeless. Can the meat be eaten if the deer is shot with a shotgun? Do they just aim to shoot off its head? I'm sorry, since I have never been a hunter, I am ignorant of all this.
At the age of 16, some of my friends asked me to go "coon hunting" with them. I had a bad cold and couldn't go. During the hunt, one of my 16-year old friends accidentally shot and killed another of my 16-year old friends. I decided that I would not become a hunter.
In a lighter vein, I would like to point to other words attributed in the article to Mr. Ireyler: "This weekend are the biggest days of the year." (my italics)
04. Happy Anniversary!
In 2011 we are celebrating 100 years of the Carroll County Times. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have that wonderful newspaper to devour each and every day of my life. I hope that they stick around for another hundred!
.....................................................................................................................................................
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
You Turkey!
I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to post to any of my blogs. Since I feel an obligation to continually feed my thoughts to thousands of followers (lol as my grandkids say), I will do a quick one today.
01. Thank you, Grover!
As some of us expected, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reform failed to come up with an agreement to reduce $1.2 trillion in Government spending. As an Independent, I am free to say anything at all about the two parties.. and it is clear as a bell to me that the Republican Party's unwillingness to compromise on money issues is killing our Country. The people who are most able to contribute monetarily to government coffers are not paying their fair share, while the rest of us poor slobs slowly lose our savings.
Today, I found out that an IRA of mine matured automatically for the astronomically powerful rate of .0069% and the teller told me that if the maturity had waited until today, it would have been even lower. I guess I should be happy that these low rates ensure that we will not have inflation.
02. Putty Putty!
Great news! Do any of you ladies have a flat butt? Well, if so, there is a person in the Miami area who will fill your buttocks with cement, mineral oil and flat-tire sealant. And it will only cost $700!
03. OOPS!
Tom Zirpoli writes a column in the Westminster, Maryland Carroll County Times newspaper. Today, he mentioned how one of the GOP candidates told a PBS interviewer that the U.S. should take steps to keep China from becoming a nuclear power. (China "got the bomb" in 1964.)
04. You go, girl!
A fed-up senior citizen who had waited two hours for an interview with a communications representative, (only to find that he had sneaked out the back door to avoid her).. went home and came back with a hammer and proceded to destroy the office. She had come in to complain that her new expensive phone service did not work and nobody in the company was listening.
She received a fine and a restraining order... and, I'll bet, a feeling of satisfaction.
05. Shop til you croak!
On the Diane Rehm show today, a large panel of shopping experts and authors talked about the Black Friday phenomena and its impact on our country. Some stores have moved Black Friday up to Thanksgiving evening at 8PM. Many feel that this will destroy the Thanksgiving holiday.
My feeling about this is that some people love to shop. Let them! Also, some folks lead kind of dull lives and like the excitement of shopping at 3AM for super bargains.. or at least for "loss leaders".. you realize, of course, that this is all designed to get you into the store where you will buy a lot of other stuff you may not need. This is good for business and our economy.
Some people also believe that some kind of Aztec calendar predicts the demise of the Earth in 2012.. so they may as well chalk up all the debt they can on their Visa cards, since they will not have to pay up when they are dead.
06. Does a flush beat a full-house?
World Toilet Day took place on November 19, 2011. Hardly anyone in the US noticed. However, around the world the toilet situation is very important. Out of the 8 billion humans on our planet, almost 3 billion do not have any kind of toilet facility. Try to imagine what life is like in the slums of certain cities with millions of inhabitants.. where the streets run with excrement. "Gardez l'eau!"
07. Adopt a Platoon!
Frances Kane, a concerned grandparent of a U.S. Ranger stationed in Afghanistan, has institued a program whereby donations of goods are collected in the Carroll County area and mailed to platoons in war zones, where certain everyday goods are not readily available. These goods are passed to soldiers who use them for personal necessity, and some is given by the soldiers to Afghan children for goodwill.
The biggest personal need is.. guess what... wet wipes.. Toilet paper is in short supply or not existent in Afghanistan and the soldiers love to get the little packages of wipes that they can easily carry in their backpacks.
08. While we are still on the subject of toilets..
The Japanese are marketing facilities that combine the functions of a toilet and a bidet. Perhaps this obviates the necessity for toilet paper. We'll see.
Did you know that the word bidet comes from the Old French word for "to trot".. and that somehow relates to how you are supposed to straddle a bidet. Oh.. you didn't know about bidets... sorry.. why don't you visit the following site:
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Bidet
My hour is up.. I hope I haven't shocked anyone's sensibilities. All of this reminds me of what an engineer once said about the human body:
"How come the Master Engineer decided to locate a place of intense pleasure right next to a waste disposal system?"
...........................................................................................................................
01. Thank you, Grover!
As some of us expected, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reform failed to come up with an agreement to reduce $1.2 trillion in Government spending. As an Independent, I am free to say anything at all about the two parties.. and it is clear as a bell to me that the Republican Party's unwillingness to compromise on money issues is killing our Country. The people who are most able to contribute monetarily to government coffers are not paying their fair share, while the rest of us poor slobs slowly lose our savings.
Today, I found out that an IRA of mine matured automatically for the astronomically powerful rate of .0069% and the teller told me that if the maturity had waited until today, it would have been even lower. I guess I should be happy that these low rates ensure that we will not have inflation.
02. Putty Putty!
Great news! Do any of you ladies have a flat butt? Well, if so, there is a person in the Miami area who will fill your buttocks with cement, mineral oil and flat-tire sealant. And it will only cost $700!
03. OOPS!
Tom Zirpoli writes a column in the Westminster, Maryland Carroll County Times newspaper. Today, he mentioned how one of the GOP candidates told a PBS interviewer that the U.S. should take steps to keep China from becoming a nuclear power. (China "got the bomb" in 1964.)
04. You go, girl!
A fed-up senior citizen who had waited two hours for an interview with a communications representative, (only to find that he had sneaked out the back door to avoid her).. went home and came back with a hammer and proceded to destroy the office. She had come in to complain that her new expensive phone service did not work and nobody in the company was listening.
She received a fine and a restraining order... and, I'll bet, a feeling of satisfaction.
05. Shop til you croak!
On the Diane Rehm show today, a large panel of shopping experts and authors talked about the Black Friday phenomena and its impact on our country. Some stores have moved Black Friday up to Thanksgiving evening at 8PM. Many feel that this will destroy the Thanksgiving holiday.
My feeling about this is that some people love to shop. Let them! Also, some folks lead kind of dull lives and like the excitement of shopping at 3AM for super bargains.. or at least for "loss leaders".. you realize, of course, that this is all designed to get you into the store where you will buy a lot of other stuff you may not need. This is good for business and our economy.
Some people also believe that some kind of Aztec calendar predicts the demise of the Earth in 2012.. so they may as well chalk up all the debt they can on their Visa cards, since they will not have to pay up when they are dead.
06. Does a flush beat a full-house?
World Toilet Day took place on November 19, 2011. Hardly anyone in the US noticed. However, around the world the toilet situation is very important. Out of the 8 billion humans on our planet, almost 3 billion do not have any kind of toilet facility. Try to imagine what life is like in the slums of certain cities with millions of inhabitants.. where the streets run with excrement. "Gardez l'eau!"
07. Adopt a Platoon!
Frances Kane, a concerned grandparent of a U.S. Ranger stationed in Afghanistan, has institued a program whereby donations of goods are collected in the Carroll County area and mailed to platoons in war zones, where certain everyday goods are not readily available. These goods are passed to soldiers who use them for personal necessity, and some is given by the soldiers to Afghan children for goodwill.
The biggest personal need is.. guess what... wet wipes.. Toilet paper is in short supply or not existent in Afghanistan and the soldiers love to get the little packages of wipes that they can easily carry in their backpacks.
08. While we are still on the subject of toilets..
The Japanese are marketing facilities that combine the functions of a toilet and a bidet. Perhaps this obviates the necessity for toilet paper. We'll see.
Did you know that the word bidet comes from the Old French word for "to trot".. and that somehow relates to how you are supposed to straddle a bidet. Oh.. you didn't know about bidets... sorry.. why don't you visit the following site:
http://www.wikihow.com/Use-a-Bidet
My hour is up.. I hope I haven't shocked anyone's sensibilities. All of this reminds me of what an engineer once said about the human body:
"How come the Master Engineer decided to locate a place of intense pleasure right next to a waste disposal system?"
...........................................................................................................................
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Sunday November 6, 2011
Things have been a little hectic lately, and I haven't been able to do my "quick" online bit.. however, I'll try to catch up... so, now you've been warned.
1. What's going down, or on?
Like all good senior citizens, the first thing I check in the morning newspaper is the obituary section. If I don't see my name there, I can relax for another day. However, today, something is not right. The paper, which normally lists several deceased Carroll County (Maryland) people daily, most of whom are usually in their late eighties or nineties, lists only five persons, and all of them "young"!
The ages for these deceased persons are: 69, 69, 58, 56, and 49. All of these persons died in Carroll County. I find this very unusual, and a bit disturbing.
I'm reminded of an interview with an elderly Carroll County resident:
Interviewer: " How old are you?"
Senior Citizen: "95."
Interviewer: "Wow! Have you lived here all of your life?"
Senior Citizen: "Not yet."
Now, that Carroll County citizen lived in a Maryland place called Taneytown. Taneytown, perhaps named after ill-famed Supreme Justice Taney, is pronounced TAWNEYTOWN. Everybody in Carroll County knows that, but out-of-towners don't.
Once I gave my much beloved Aunt Marjorie from Massachusetts a drive through the Carroll County countryside and as we passed through Taneytown, I told her that we were in Taneytown (tawneytown); she said, "No. The sign says Taneytown (tayneetown)." She didn't seem to want to believe me, so I said: "Let's stop at that business over there, and we can ask them to clarify things for you."
We walked into the business, and I asked the young clerk at the counter: "Please tell my Aunt the name of this place." She immediately replied: "Burger King!"
2. Andy's gone!
But an older person has passed away and will be missed by millions of Americans. I've written about him several times in my blogs and have always admired his wit. I'm talking of course about Andy Rooney, who just retired a month ago at the age of 92. I was hoping he would reach the magic age of 100, just as other clever humorists like Bob Hope and George Burns did. To pay homage to Andy, I will search out my copy of a book he wrote and reread it and think once again about the human condition, as he saw it.
3. Flee when flu flies!
Could those young deaths that I mentioned above be attributed to the flu? Probably not.. I don't think that it has appeared in this area yet. Of course, there are precautions to be taken against getting the flu.. the main one is getting a flu shot. It amazes me that some young people do not think it is necessary to get the shot.
The Carroll County Times (Maryland) conducted an online poll to see if people plan to get a flu shot. 48% of those polled said they would get the shot; 52% of those polled said that they would not get the shot. This is unbelievable to me. I'm assuming that the people polled were mostly young persons, because, in my experience, not many Carroll County people aged 70 or older even own a computer or a smart phone, and besides, the young think that they are going to live forever.. I guess that is why I see so many young people smoking.
Let's hope that another epidemic like the one during World War I, that killed millions, never breaks out. But, I, myself, would rather be safe than sorry, so I will continue to get flu shots, and I will strongly suggest to my family members and friends to do the same, because I don't want to see their names in the obituary section when I do my daily checking.
4. Round and round we go.
There are two musical moments when my bodily control disappears and my tear ducts start to ooze. One is at the sound of Rodolfo's "MIMI!" at the end of La Boheme; the other is during the singing of "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the end of Carousel.
I love my Netflix hookup and needing a good cry, I asked them to send me a disk of the movie version of the musical comedy Carousel. They also sent me a separate disk of related information, in which I was surprised to find out that the musical was based on a work by the Hungarian dramatist and novelist, Franz Molnar (Ferenc Neumann) 1878-1952. On the separate disk was a copy of Liliom, a 1934 film version of the 1909 Molnar play, by the same name. Carousel's story line adhered mainly to that of the movie, which was in French, and starred, of all people, Charles Boyer, as Liliom, the character that became Billy Bigelow. The movie had Boyer singing a little, but it was not a musical like Carousel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liliom
I highly recommend this two disk set of Carousel and it's related material. Or, if you don't want to cry, just find and listen to the soundtrack and the great Rodgers and Hammerstein music. Enjoy!
1. What's going down, or on?
Like all good senior citizens, the first thing I check in the morning newspaper is the obituary section. If I don't see my name there, I can relax for another day. However, today, something is not right. The paper, which normally lists several deceased Carroll County (Maryland) people daily, most of whom are usually in their late eighties or nineties, lists only five persons, and all of them "young"!
The ages for these deceased persons are: 69, 69, 58, 56, and 49. All of these persons died in Carroll County. I find this very unusual, and a bit disturbing.
I'm reminded of an interview with an elderly Carroll County resident:
Interviewer: " How old are you?"
Senior Citizen: "95."
Interviewer: "Wow! Have you lived here all of your life?"
Senior Citizen: "Not yet."
Once I gave my much beloved Aunt Marjorie from Massachusetts a drive through the Carroll County countryside and as we passed through Taneytown, I told her that we were in Taneytown (tawneytown); she said, "No. The sign says Taneytown (tayneetown)." She didn't seem to want to believe me, so I said: "Let's stop at that business over there, and we can ask them to clarify things for you."
We walked into the business, and I asked the young clerk at the counter: "Please tell my Aunt the name of this place." She immediately replied: "Burger King!"
2. Andy's gone!
But an older person has passed away and will be missed by millions of Americans. I've written about him several times in my blogs and have always admired his wit. I'm talking of course about Andy Rooney, who just retired a month ago at the age of 92. I was hoping he would reach the magic age of 100, just as other clever humorists like Bob Hope and George Burns did. To pay homage to Andy, I will search out my copy of a book he wrote and reread it and think once again about the human condition, as he saw it.
3. Flee when flu flies!
Could those young deaths that I mentioned above be attributed to the flu? Probably not.. I don't think that it has appeared in this area yet. Of course, there are precautions to be taken against getting the flu.. the main one is getting a flu shot. It amazes me that some young people do not think it is necessary to get the shot.
The Carroll County Times (Maryland) conducted an online poll to see if people plan to get a flu shot. 48% of those polled said they would get the shot; 52% of those polled said that they would not get the shot. This is unbelievable to me. I'm assuming that the people polled were mostly young persons, because, in my experience, not many Carroll County people aged 70 or older even own a computer or a smart phone, and besides, the young think that they are going to live forever.. I guess that is why I see so many young people smoking.
Let's hope that another epidemic like the one during World War I, that killed millions, never breaks out. But, I, myself, would rather be safe than sorry, so I will continue to get flu shots, and I will strongly suggest to my family members and friends to do the same, because I don't want to see their names in the obituary section when I do my daily checking.
4. Round and round we go.
There are two musical moments when my bodily control disappears and my tear ducts start to ooze. One is at the sound of Rodolfo's "MIMI!" at the end of La Boheme; the other is during the singing of "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the end of Carousel.
I love my Netflix hookup and needing a good cry, I asked them to send me a disk of the movie version of the musical comedy Carousel. They also sent me a separate disk of related information, in which I was surprised to find out that the musical was based on a work by the Hungarian dramatist and novelist, Franz Molnar (Ferenc Neumann) 1878-1952. On the separate disk was a copy of Liliom, a 1934 film version of the 1909 Molnar play, by the same name. Carousel's story line adhered mainly to that of the movie, which was in French, and starred, of all people, Charles Boyer, as Liliom, the character that became Billy Bigelow. The movie had Boyer singing a little, but it was not a musical like Carousel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liliom
I highly recommend this two disk set of Carousel and it's related material. Or, if you don't want to cry, just find and listen to the soundtrack and the great Rodgers and Hammerstein music. Enjoy!
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