October 17, 2011

Since my eyes are beginning to focus again after a visit to my Ophthalmologist (who happens to be named Barber), and since I have a little over an hour until I visit with Elaine at the Health Care Center, I will do my fun thing again, namely reveal some of my inmost thoughts to the world.. that is, to the one or two of you who actually read these blog entries.

1.  Stinkies

Our Representative, Roscoe Bartlett (R:Maryland), has managed to garner a grant of money to try to find a way for farmers to rid themselves of the dreaded stinkbug. These odiferous rascals have been causing havoc with Maryland produce this year.  They also killed my squash and cucumber plants.. and feasted on a lot of my tomatoes.  I'm sure that the money that Roscoe has obtained will help our farmers.  Great job, Roscoe!

For many years,  Representative Bartlett has reigned this Republican enclave, in the midst of Democratic Maryland.  I'm not sure about what he has done to be elected every two years for ages, but I guess it must have been of benefit to his constituents.  My only knowledge about his activity in Congress has been listening to some of his one-minute Republican speeches at the beginning of Congressional Sessions. 

I did try to contact him once to tell him I didn't agree with something he had said in Congress.   Someone from his office wrote me that the Congressman was pleased to see that I agreed with him on the issue.. whatever it was that I can't remember.   I guess they sent me a form of the "bedbug letter," hoping that I would give up and not contact him again.  Well, it worked.

I kind of feel sorry for Representative Bartlett now because the Maryland Democrats are about to Gerrymander his district so that he would have powerful Democratic opposition in the next election. 

2.  Hey, Dude!

I've talked a number of times about the phrases that people use in everyday communication, and how some of them clang in my ears.. such as,  "like" and "I mean, you know".  There are other phrases and words that people use that can let others know when they were brought up, such as:

"23 skiddoo!" ..  popular in the 1920's and early 1930's

"Katey, bar the door!" .. popular in the 1930's and 1940's (I have a friend who is in his '80's that still uses that phrase when he is excited by something....which isn't too often)

"Cool!" .. came into usage by musicians in the 1940's.. and resurfaced in the '60's.. and is used even today, mainly by people under 30.  I have heard people in their 50's and 60's using this word and feel that they should let the younger folks use it.

"Dude!" .. Once again, used by musicians many years ago.  I believe that it popped up into common usage in the 1970's.  Besides it's usage by Michael Moore and other celebrities, it is very popular with folks under 30.  (Recently, at the local hospital, Elaine was being transported by a 24 year old guy named Jordan.  Every few feet, someone would yell at him: "Hey, Dude!")

Of course, I could be wrong about all of this.. but as a curmudgeon, I am allowed to comment on everything, even without doing appropriate research.

3. Alzheimers

The Week magazine mentions a new study by the Mayo Clinic that found it is possible to greatly reduce the chances of developing Alzheimers Disease by lifestyle choices.

a. Become more physically active.
b. Treat depression.
c. Stop smoking.
d. Exercise your brain.

4. Pretty Betty

Good news for us old timers:  Betty White topped Kate Middleton and even Oprah to become the most trusted popular celebrity, according to a recent poll.  At 89... she's still going strong.  I'll bet she joins Bob Hope and George Burns in the Comedians' Centenary Club.

5.  Dick's Book

As I've mentioned before, I'm reading Dick Cheney's book: In My Time.  I'm over half way through and have spent a lot of sleep time with the book in my hands.  BORING!  But that is my opinion.  I lived through all of the events and thought about all of the issues he has brought up.  He tells us why he did some of the things he did.. and I still don't agree with him.   However, from his words and his numerous pretty color pictures, he has always been a dedicated family man, when he wasn't working 20 hour days in the West Wing.  He probably would be a nice guy to have a beer with.  But frisk him first.

That's enough, my hour is up.  See ya!

Quick Local News from September 17, 2011

This blog will  appear periodically and just cover items quickly observed or read in local newspapers within a one hour limit.  This set of items is from the Carroll County (Maryland) Times for Saturday, September 17, 2011.

01.  Religion

(Apologia: Some of you may know my views on religion, and what I write about may or may not be what I personally believe; however, it is what I am very much interested in and concerned about.)

Lou Piel, fellow CLV resident and preacher published a column with the title:  Express God's Love in More Tangible Ways.  Lou says:  "... ask God, through the spirit, to intervene in our lives... so we would accept the responsibility God has given us."

Lou quotes Francis of Assissi: "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace."

He also quotes Jim Robinson: "...if we're free, that means we are responsible."

I like Lou's premise, that we shouldn't sit around waiting for things to happen to us.. we need to get off of our butts and help others..

I also like one phrase of Lou's that tells me a lot about him:  "In the act of creation, no matter how you understand it. (evolution, creationism)..."

I think that I will send Lou an email.

2.  Religion

The Vatican is trying to get a break-away traditional Catholic group to rejoin the church.. but first, they must accept some core church teachings of the current Roman Catholic faith.  The ultra-conservative Society of St. Pius X is opposed to the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council.  That group was founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1969 and split with Rome over some issues, such as the church's relations with Jews and allowing the celebration of the Mass in languages other than Latin.

I believe that the Mass is now allowed to be celebrated in Latin..  I'll have to look further into the Jewish issue.. which may be related to a Bishop who denied the Holocaust.

3.  Inventions and Such

President Obama signed a bill on Friday that overhauled the U.S. Patent system.  The new law was set up to address the almost 700,000 patent application backlog.   It now takes about three years to get a patent.  (The article mentions that Thomas Edison only had to wait for seven weeks to get his photograph patent.. did they mean the phonograph?)

The act  calls for the hiring of almost 2,000 examiners.

Wow!  Republicans went along with this bill!

4.  Religion again

In a letter to the editor, Wayne Butcher of Hampstead writes what may or may not be a tongue-in-cheek statements:  "... a large number of Christians in this country believe the Bible to be historically accurate..."  and:  "Apart from the fact that the Bible definitely teaches that the Earth is little more than 6,000 years old, some simple observations reveal that the Earth is quite young..."

Wayne then gives some examples... as I read them, I do believe that Wayne is pulling our legs.  He either is a reincarnated Voltaire, or a misguided Fundamentalist.  (And "there is nothing wrong with that"... as Seinfeld would say.)

5.  Even more Religion

Robert Wack, who I believe is, or was,  a CLV Board Member, and a member of the Carroll County Common Council, writes about "...yet another back and forth about evolution versus creationism or intelligent design."

Bob believes that both sides of the argument are correct, because they are talking about two different things.  His final paragraph bears repeating here:

"Science is about facts, evolution is science and the theory works, as well as our theories of gravity and electricity.  Creationism  is about feeling and faith, and it too works, but it is not science.  Where science ends, faith begins, and it is on that frontier the two can coexist in harmony."

Good job, Bob.  Let's hope Fundamentalists someday agree with you.

6.  Elder Abuse

As the civilian coordinator of the TRIAD/SALT group in Carroll County, Maryland, I am very much interested in the apprehension and jailing of persons who abuse Senior Citizens.  TRIAD is a group of three interested parties.. Police Organizations, AARP, and interested Senior Citizens.  SALT is an acronym for Seniors and Law-enforcement Together.  We meet regularly to address crimes against our elderly population.

The newspaper mentions a woman who has been charged with embezzling over $100,000 from an elderly woman with Alzheimers, for whom she had legal power.  If true, this is an example of Elder Abuse.  (Of course, being charged with a crime does not mean the person is convicted of a crime.)

According to a probable cause statement mentioned by the newspaper, "... made approximately 3,900 purchases out of the account of (the alleged victim) for ... own personal gain."

How much of this goes on is unknown.  In TRIAD, we try to teach Police and Citizens how to spot and report instances of Elder Abuse.  This is a big subject and we are getting ideas from Ombudsmen and other professionals.  We are also planning to institute bank teller training, so they can be more alert to questionable withdrawals. We meet on the third Thursday of every month at the Westminster, Maryland Senior Activity Center.. at ten am.  Everyone is welcome to attend.

7.  Stink Bugs

Bryan Butler, regional fruit educator for the University of Maryland Extension Service in Carroll County writes that our area was spared a lot of stink bug damage because of the heavy rains and excess vegetation to distract them from produce.  A second generation of the bugs did not appear. However,  a lot of work is still being done on the problem.. as well as the on-going problems with gypsy moths and Japanese beetles.

Well, nobody told our stink bugs that they were not much of a problem.  We had four Earthboxes with zucchini squash, yellow squash, cucumbers, and lots of tomato plants.  Stink bugs destroyed the zucchini and yellow squash plants (after we got a few good sized squash though) and almost destroyed our cucumber plants. (We are still getting some stunted cucumbers.)  After they did their damage there, they began to shove their probiscus points into our tomato fruit.  I now have to pick the tomatoes  while they are still green, before they are attractive to the bugs.. and hope that they ripen in the kitchen. 
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OK.. the hour is up  See you next time.  Meanwhile, visit my website: http://joe-vaughan.com/.

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