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!



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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?"

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