As y’all know, I’m fond of talkin’ about my way back when time.....Like when Sonny Bono & Cher Sarkisian got together and morphed into ‘The Sonny & Cher Show’.... seems like the whole durn country just cudn’t get enuff of Sonny & Cher.....but comedy duos come ‘n go & Sonny & Cher went.....well, at least Sonny went.....Cher never did quite go away....she hung on & on, getting progressively scarier as the years passed.....Now please don’t misunderstand me....I luv Cher.....it’s hard not to luv an icon & Cher is definitely an iconic figure.......& when I see an old Sonny & Cher on late nite cable, I laugh just as much as I did the first time......
In case you hadn’t figgered it out, I luv Sonny & Cher best in their time & place......& I’m gettin’ awful tar’d of the Barack & Hillary show....seems like they been singin’ the same song f’rever & ever.....the beat goes on & on & on ‘til you long for Mollie to say, “T’ain’t funny, McGee!”
I’m prob’ly too political in my latest blogs but, y’see, it’s the only game in town....
Cancer is just too durn depressing to talk about if it ain’t the only thing on your mind.....since I don’t got it no more, I don’t like to think about it.....’n the most I hear about it now is someone dying.....I’m waiting for ‘The Bucket List’ to make it to teevee so I c’n see it again....it wasn’t so great the first time that I’d be willing to pay to see it again but when it shows up on teevee, I’ll TIVO
it & fast-forward thru the commercials.....
It’s Friday....Millyrose let me sleep in this AM......we’ve been to Costco, the Folsom Outlet stores & ordered a new pair of ‘spec’s for Millyrose......I have to go for an eye check purty soon & I’ll be getting some new ‘spec’s for my own self.......maybe some rose-colored ones so I’ll be able to view the election process in a more favorable light........’Course, for the extremists on the left & the right......”there are none so blind as those who will not see.”................Justin Other Smith
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Life's a carousel.........
John McCain sez he’s a Republican. But, y’know, I ain’t so sure. He just might be a Democrat in disguise. Joe Leiberman sez he’s a Democrat but I ain’t too sure about that either. At any rate, what they are, both of ‘em are the closest thing to Democrats that we have on the political scene at the moment. God knows that Hillary and Barack claim to be Democrats but the Democrat party they represent doesn’t bear a whole lot of resemblance to the Democrat party that I grew up with....Of course, I gotta admit that today’s Republican party doesn’t look an awful lot like the Republican party of my way back when time either......
But now that I think about it.......there ain’t much that looks like what it used to way back when......
Cars are all different, streets are different....Heck, even the houses look a lot different than they used to....People are different.....a lot more languages being spoken t’day......Heck, going to Costco is like going to the tower of Babel......y’never know what you’re gonna hear....
Race has raised its head big-time in our Presidential primaries.....Jeremiah Wright is big news now....running his mouth about being a black man in a white America...I c’n understand that kind of talk.....it’s the rest of his rant that I couldn’t stand..... but it got me to thinking that just about all the whites that condoned slavery along with the actual slave-owners and the slaves not only died off a lotta years ago....so that it’s darn near impossible to find a slave or slave owner in this country, unless you count some of the recent immigrants who come from countries where slavery is still a fact of life, and they think they can carry on here just as tho’ they were back wherever they came from.....does that make any sense? Anyway, when we find them keeping slaves here, we arrest them and free the slaves ‘cause we only have economic slaves in this country......Anyhow, most of the white inhabitants of America came here after the Civil War so they never owned slaves anyway......’Course, it was all that white immigration after the Civil War that helped destroy the Indian people.....fighting the tide, the Indians were, and that never works......so the gov’t put ‘em on reservations to save them......but keeping them on reservations turned them into 2nd class citizens which kept them out of the mainstream which insured their status as 2nd class citizens.....Now there were some, of course, who simply assimilated and became reg’lar ol Americans....Heck, an awful lot of ‘em brag about being part Indian.....A lot more of them talk about it now that Indian gaming has made a lot of millionaires, but jumping on the bandwagon has always been a part of the American way of life so I guess you can’t blame ‘em......wooden horsie and a brass ring.....Justin Other Smith
But now that I think about it.......there ain’t much that looks like what it used to way back when......
Cars are all different, streets are different....Heck, even the houses look a lot different than they used to....People are different.....a lot more languages being spoken t’day......Heck, going to Costco is like going to the tower of Babel......y’never know what you’re gonna hear....
Race has raised its head big-time in our Presidential primaries.....Jeremiah Wright is big news now....running his mouth about being a black man in a white America...I c’n understand that kind of talk.....it’s the rest of his rant that I couldn’t stand..... but it got me to thinking that just about all the whites that condoned slavery along with the actual slave-owners and the slaves not only died off a lotta years ago....so that it’s darn near impossible to find a slave or slave owner in this country, unless you count some of the recent immigrants who come from countries where slavery is still a fact of life, and they think they can carry on here just as tho’ they were back wherever they came from.....does that make any sense? Anyway, when we find them keeping slaves here, we arrest them and free the slaves ‘cause we only have economic slaves in this country......Anyhow, most of the white inhabitants of America came here after the Civil War so they never owned slaves anyway......’Course, it was all that white immigration after the Civil War that helped destroy the Indian people.....fighting the tide, the Indians were, and that never works......so the gov’t put ‘em on reservations to save them......but keeping them on reservations turned them into 2nd class citizens which kept them out of the mainstream which insured their status as 2nd class citizens.....Now there were some, of course, who simply assimilated and became reg’lar ol Americans....Heck, an awful lot of ‘em brag about being part Indian.....A lot more of them talk about it now that Indian gaming has made a lot of millionaires, but jumping on the bandwagon has always been a part of the American way of life so I guess you can’t blame ‘em......wooden horsie and a brass ring.....Justin Other Smith
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
a good enuff day.....
There’s an article in ‘The Bee’ this AM about the high & rising cost of treating cancer. It says that the cost of chemotherapy is going to rise at least 15% this year; And the newest, most effective drugs are the most expensive. Well, no kidding. Drug companies are in business to make a profit.
Well, everyone essentially understands profit and loss; business makes a profit or they go out of business. But how much profit is fair? Should the market determine the price of an item? Want or need? If you manufacture a product that people want, you should be able to charge whatever the market will bear. But suppose you manufacture a product that people need? Does the price then become a moral dilemma? Should it be whatever the market will bear or should it be sold for the lowest possible price that allows for a minimum profit?
How does society decide who lives and who dies? Do wealthy people live while poor people die? Stupid questions, right? Rhetorical. Of course society decides who lives and who dies. It always has. And wealthy people have access to better medical care. So maybe in the future we should adopt the Vulcan greeting.....Live long and prosper only change it to Prosper and live long.
My friend Marvin & his wife, Jeannie, have been in Calif for a couple weeks. They stopped by today (their last day) to take Millyrose & me to lunch....Carmelita’s, of course......the food wuz good, the Dos Equis was cold..... good beer.....Wikipedia calls it “a german beer made by a 3rd world brewery”......whatever.......the sun was shining, gentle breezes & beer for lunch.....a good enuff day.....
Justin Other Smith
Well, everyone essentially understands profit and loss; business makes a profit or they go out of business. But how much profit is fair? Should the market determine the price of an item? Want or need? If you manufacture a product that people want, you should be able to charge whatever the market will bear. But suppose you manufacture a product that people need? Does the price then become a moral dilemma? Should it be whatever the market will bear or should it be sold for the lowest possible price that allows for a minimum profit?
How does society decide who lives and who dies? Do wealthy people live while poor people die? Stupid questions, right? Rhetorical. Of course society decides who lives and who dies. It always has. And wealthy people have access to better medical care. So maybe in the future we should adopt the Vulcan greeting.....Live long and prosper only change it to Prosper and live long.
My friend Marvin & his wife, Jeannie, have been in Calif for a couple weeks. They stopped by today (their last day) to take Millyrose & me to lunch....Carmelita’s, of course......the food wuz good, the Dos Equis was cold..... good beer.....Wikipedia calls it “a german beer made by a 3rd world brewery”......whatever.......the sun was shining, gentle breezes & beer for lunch.....a good enuff day.....
Justin Other Smith
Saturday, March 22, 2008
In the way back when........
Memory is a funny thing. If you reminisce with an old friend about shared memories, you’ll find that you both recall the same things, only different. You may find yourself recounting a vivid memory that actually belonged to someone else. Or worse, never happened at all. If someone told you a story when you were young, and told it to you often enough, chances are you’ll remember it not as a story but as an experience.
Ronald Reagan, as President, recited a number of remembered stories that apparently only happened in movies. And they weren’t necessarily his movies. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that unless you use an acquired memory as an excuse for....., I dunno, starting a war or sending someone to jail. I mean, if you’re going to start a war or send someone to jail, it should be a ‘real’ memory rather than a fictional one.
My dad told lots of stories about when he was young. He told me. He told my brothers. He told my children. He told them innumberable times. And he expanded on them over the years which is where I prob’ly picked up the habit.
I used to tell people that I was practically perfect in every way. That I had only one flaw and it was a very minor flaw. A teeny flaw. So small and insignificant that it was barely noticeable. The smallest of imperfections and I only mentioned it in passing because I didn’t want to mislead anyone. It could only have been a birth defect that caused me have the slightest tendency to exaggerate.
I undoubtedly inherited it from my father and it seems to have caused a tiny blip in the memory bank of my mind. I would have told everyone much sooner but, I forgot. Justin Other Smith
P.S. Ain’t Spring a wunnerful time o’ year?
Ronald Reagan, as President, recited a number of remembered stories that apparently only happened in movies. And they weren’t necessarily his movies. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that unless you use an acquired memory as an excuse for....., I dunno, starting a war or sending someone to jail. I mean, if you’re going to start a war or send someone to jail, it should be a ‘real’ memory rather than a fictional one.
My dad told lots of stories about when he was young. He told me. He told my brothers. He told my children. He told them innumberable times. And he expanded on them over the years which is where I prob’ly picked up the habit.
I used to tell people that I was practically perfect in every way. That I had only one flaw and it was a very minor flaw. A teeny flaw. So small and insignificant that it was barely noticeable. The smallest of imperfections and I only mentioned it in passing because I didn’t want to mislead anyone. It could only have been a birth defect that caused me have the slightest tendency to exaggerate.
I undoubtedly inherited it from my father and it seems to have caused a tiny blip in the memory bank of my mind. I would have told everyone much sooner but, I forgot. Justin Other Smith
P.S. Ain’t Spring a wunnerful time o’ year?
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Right Thing to do........
In the old west, cowboys used to say, “If you can’t do it from the back of a horse, it ain’t worth doing.”
The horse was such a status symbol, a real cowboy would mount up just to cross the street. Things haven’t changed much. In this twenty-first century, modern westerners feel much the same way about our cars. We drive to places where we go walking for exercise.
Try leaving your car parked for a month except for genuine need. You’ll find it’s harder than giving up cigarettes. Everywhere you look, you’ll find antismoking crusaders urging you to quit smoking. But where are the anti-automobile zealots? You might as well give up Mom and apple pie. Not driving is definitely un-American.
It doesn’t matter that the automobile, specifically the internal combustion engine, is probably responsible for more death and long term damage in a year than all of tobaccos sad history.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not advocating smoking instead of driving. I’m not even recommending a return of the horse and buggy. That raises environmental issues of a whole ‘nother spectrum.
What I am suggesting is that in order to achieve a healthier and less expensive lifestyle, we should moderate our use of (gasp) THE AUTOMOBILE.
For example, if you walk to the store, you’ll not only save on fuel, you’ll spend less because you must carry it home. If you ride the bus to work and so inform your insurance carrier, they should reduce your premium. Your car will last longer and need fewer tune-ups and you won’t have to replace your tires as often.
Of course, you already knew that. It’s just that you’ve become so addicted to your automobile that you long ago gave up counting the mind-boggling cost of simply owning an automobile.
If you’re like most Americans, you’ll have to borrow to buy a new car. And whatever the price says, $12 to $17,000 for the lowest priced new cars, it’s going to cost you several thousand dollars more. Medium priced cars go for $20 to $30,000 and even higher additional costs. Tax, license and insurance on so-called luxury cars make them prohibitive for the average wage earner.
Of course, you can buy used and save thirty percent on the initial price of a new car. But you’ll pay a higher loan rate and increased maintenance costs.
All that is without mentioning the elephant in the room. The only predictable thing about fuel is that it’s going to go higher. The less we buy, the higher the price. Gotta maintain that profit line, y’know. ‘Course, that is getting us into high finance which is way beyond my level of sophistication.
I guess we could just park our cars next to the exercise equipment stored in our garages and use them all as coathangers.
If you’re a car owner, don’t ever laugh at the ostrich with his head in the sand because we car owners certainly have our heads stuck somewhere.
The horse was such a status symbol, a real cowboy would mount up just to cross the street. Things haven’t changed much. In this twenty-first century, modern westerners feel much the same way about our cars. We drive to places where we go walking for exercise.
Try leaving your car parked for a month except for genuine need. You’ll find it’s harder than giving up cigarettes. Everywhere you look, you’ll find antismoking crusaders urging you to quit smoking. But where are the anti-automobile zealots? You might as well give up Mom and apple pie. Not driving is definitely un-American.
It doesn’t matter that the automobile, specifically the internal combustion engine, is probably responsible for more death and long term damage in a year than all of tobaccos sad history.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not advocating smoking instead of driving. I’m not even recommending a return of the horse and buggy. That raises environmental issues of a whole ‘nother spectrum.
What I am suggesting is that in order to achieve a healthier and less expensive lifestyle, we should moderate our use of (gasp) THE AUTOMOBILE.
For example, if you walk to the store, you’ll not only save on fuel, you’ll spend less because you must carry it home. If you ride the bus to work and so inform your insurance carrier, they should reduce your premium. Your car will last longer and need fewer tune-ups and you won’t have to replace your tires as often.
Of course, you already knew that. It’s just that you’ve become so addicted to your automobile that you long ago gave up counting the mind-boggling cost of simply owning an automobile.
If you’re like most Americans, you’ll have to borrow to buy a new car. And whatever the price says, $12 to $17,000 for the lowest priced new cars, it’s going to cost you several thousand dollars more. Medium priced cars go for $20 to $30,000 and even higher additional costs. Tax, license and insurance on so-called luxury cars make them prohibitive for the average wage earner.
Of course, you can buy used and save thirty percent on the initial price of a new car. But you’ll pay a higher loan rate and increased maintenance costs.
All that is without mentioning the elephant in the room. The only predictable thing about fuel is that it’s going to go higher. The less we buy, the higher the price. Gotta maintain that profit line, y’know. ‘Course, that is getting us into high finance which is way beyond my level of sophistication.
I guess we could just park our cars next to the exercise equipment stored in our garages and use them all as coathangers.
If you’re a car owner, don’t ever laugh at the ostrich with his head in the sand because we car owners certainly have our heads stuck somewhere.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Just to be American......
I wrote this eight years ago......been buried ever since.......
This year I get to be 62 years old. I don't think that's so old anymore. Except when I talk to young people. I remember when seems to be in a lot of my conversations with young people. I remember events that they've only heard about and that's if they paid attention in their history class.
I remember W.W.II. I remember paper and tin can drives and Victory Gardens. I remember the maps on the front page of the newspapers. I remember ribbons in the windows or on the doors signifying a son or husband in the service and I remember the wreaths when someone was notified that their son or husband had been killed in action. There were no KIA's or MIA's in W.W.II. No euphemisms for death.
There was great sorrow for those who would not return. But there was pride that those lives had been given in a just cause. I remember how proud I was to be American. I knew that being born American was one of the best things that could happen to a person. Just to be American was to be envied all around the world. Just to be American was to be welcomed in every corner of the world. Well, almost every corner of the world. Those corners of the world where people were struggling to be free. To those people, just being American was a dream, to come to America, to live and work in America. To be American. Just to be American.
And no matter how or when we came, we are Americans and in my heart I know, with all our flaws, our inherited prejudices and our fears, this is still a country where all of us, every creed and color, every mongrel one of us can stand together and take pride in being American.
And I am not deaf or blind. I hear the complaints about the invasion of Asians and South Americans and eastern Europeans. How 'they' are living on the largesse of 'our' welfare system, how 'they' are taking 'our' jobs, how 'they' are taking over 'our' communities. And I know that most people are just complaining for the sake of complaining because that is exactly how we all came to be Americans.
But there are other people out there. People who do more than complain. Real people who burn churches and synagogues, people who hate for reasons known only to themselves and not always then. People who attack and often kill other people for no other reason than they are black or white or Jew or Moslem or gay or straight or maybe green or purple.
And these people are Americans too. Despicable Americans certainly. Cowardly and obscene Americans surely. But Americans nonetheless. And they are as necessary to our society as everyone else. For in order to be good, we must have evil to overcome. Overcoming the old-world evils, the tribal hatreds and blood feuds of the countries of our parents origins is what makes America unique. We are all Americans. The bond that makes us strong, the bond that makes us just Americans.
This year I get to be 62 years old. I don't think that's so old anymore. Except when I talk to young people. I remember when seems to be in a lot of my conversations with young people. I remember events that they've only heard about and that's if they paid attention in their history class.
I remember W.W.II. I remember paper and tin can drives and Victory Gardens. I remember the maps on the front page of the newspapers. I remember ribbons in the windows or on the doors signifying a son or husband in the service and I remember the wreaths when someone was notified that their son or husband had been killed in action. There were no KIA's or MIA's in W.W.II. No euphemisms for death.
There was great sorrow for those who would not return. But there was pride that those lives had been given in a just cause. I remember how proud I was to be American. I knew that being born American was one of the best things that could happen to a person. Just to be American was to be envied all around the world. Just to be American was to be welcomed in every corner of the world. Well, almost every corner of the world. Those corners of the world where people were struggling to be free. To those people, just being American was a dream, to come to America, to live and work in America. To be American. Just to be American.
And no matter how or when we came, we are Americans and in my heart I know, with all our flaws, our inherited prejudices and our fears, this is still a country where all of us, every creed and color, every mongrel one of us can stand together and take pride in being American.
And I am not deaf or blind. I hear the complaints about the invasion of Asians and South Americans and eastern Europeans. How 'they' are living on the largesse of 'our' welfare system, how 'they' are taking 'our' jobs, how 'they' are taking over 'our' communities. And I know that most people are just complaining for the sake of complaining because that is exactly how we all came to be Americans.
But there are other people out there. People who do more than complain. Real people who burn churches and synagogues, people who hate for reasons known only to themselves and not always then. People who attack and often kill other people for no other reason than they are black or white or Jew or Moslem or gay or straight or maybe green or purple.
And these people are Americans too. Despicable Americans certainly. Cowardly and obscene Americans surely. But Americans nonetheless. And they are as necessary to our society as everyone else. For in order to be good, we must have evil to overcome. Overcoming the old-world evils, the tribal hatreds and blood feuds of the countries of our parents origins is what makes America unique. We are all Americans. The bond that makes us strong, the bond that makes us just Americans.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
ain't easy being green......
I know that sometimes I’m judgemental....I really don’t mean to be....I like to think that I’m a rational, even-minded person & that I’m capable of making fair assessments of people & events........That said, I admit to being a conservative......I hold, and I don’t remember who said it, “that he who is not liberal in his youth has no heart, but he who is not conservative when he’s older has no brain.”
Obama gave a pretty good speech, (I wouldn’t have expected anything less, ack’shully).....but, he didn’t explain why he & his wife, not to mention his children, spent 20 years investing in & maintaining a relationship with an ignorant racist like the so-called Rev. Wright. I hate to call the demagogue Wright a Reverend.....it’s a false title.....his rant about past injustices was not designed to call attention & start a dialogue.....his rant was angry & mean & meant to divide....and all the people in his congregation heard him & understood what he was saying.....& yes, Barack & Michelle Obama heard him & did not denounce him publicly or privately & therefore, evidently agreed with him. AND THAT REASON ALONE is reason enough for Obama’s candidacy to fail.
And in a way, that’s too bad. Electing a semi-black man like Obama to the Presidency would go a long way toward healing the racial divide in our country. I s’pect when we get enuff persons of ‘mixed race’ that the racial divide will get so confusing that we’ll just give up and recognize that ‘a person’s a person, no matter how small.’ Or as Kipling phrased it about the Irish, ‘the Colonel’s lady and Rosie O’Grady are sisters under the skin.’ There just has to come a time when everybody realizes that there is only one race of humanity.
The human race is all the same species regardless of color. White, black, brown, red, yellow or green, we’re all the same. Oh wait! We don’t have any green people except on March 17 when everyone is a little green.
Obama gave a pretty good speech, (I wouldn’t have expected anything less, ack’shully).....but, he didn’t explain why he & his wife, not to mention his children, spent 20 years investing in & maintaining a relationship with an ignorant racist like the so-called Rev. Wright. I hate to call the demagogue Wright a Reverend.....it’s a false title.....his rant about past injustices was not designed to call attention & start a dialogue.....his rant was angry & mean & meant to divide....and all the people in his congregation heard him & understood what he was saying.....& yes, Barack & Michelle Obama heard him & did not denounce him publicly or privately & therefore, evidently agreed with him. AND THAT REASON ALONE is reason enough for Obama’s candidacy to fail.
And in a way, that’s too bad. Electing a semi-black man like Obama to the Presidency would go a long way toward healing the racial divide in our country. I s’pect when we get enuff persons of ‘mixed race’ that the racial divide will get so confusing that we’ll just give up and recognize that ‘a person’s a person, no matter how small.’ Or as Kipling phrased it about the Irish, ‘the Colonel’s lady and Rosie O’Grady are sisters under the skin.’ There just has to come a time when everybody realizes that there is only one race of humanity.
The human race is all the same species regardless of color. White, black, brown, red, yellow or green, we’re all the same. Oh wait! We don’t have any green people except on March 17 when everyone is a little green.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Skybluepink in the morning.......
It’s a luv’ly day for saying, “It’s a luv’ly day.”
This time change thing.......this daylight savings time..... this idiotic jumping back & forth on the clock......why do we do it? It might have made sense (maybe) at some time in the past but it strikes me as just plain dumb t’day......makes a body wonder just how many dumb things we do just becuz they've always been done.......I recall way back when I wuz just a lowly peon in the USAF, I was required to type a number of reports in duplicate & triplicate & occasionally more, copies going to God knows how many people who were then required to note & file & keep for a specified period of time before disposing.......one report in p’ticklar, I had to make a dozen or more copies....Now, this was a time before copiers were standard equipment in most places, so I had to use carbon paper & hit the keys of the typewriter really hard so that all the copies were legible.......didn’t work real well.....& as I was a somewhat less than competent typist, I did a lot of erasing....(it was also the age before white-out)....It was a struggle....
a losing struggle.....& one day I snapped & quit making that p’ticklar report.....I had no idea what I was gonna say when I got called on the carpet for not doing the report....didn’t matter to me at the moment...I just quit doing it......AND NOTHING HAPPENED!.......nobody noticed...the world didn’t end......& I didn’t have to stand there wondering which side of my face was gonna get slapped by the nameless bureaucracy.....I wondered then what would happen if everyone just stopped making reports that no one ever read.....I bet you’re wondering if there’s a point to all this.......Well, Obama kind'a stumbled & he's been taking heat so his supporters have been trying to hit back.....they don't have much to hit with except Bill.so they've been wondering who contributed how much to Bill Clintons library & what favors he might owe in response & I wuz wondering what average citizen actually gives a damn about Presidential libraries anyway.......
So.....in the Obama/Clinton thing.....who’s rubber & who’s glue?????............Justin Other Smith
This time change thing.......this daylight savings time..... this idiotic jumping back & forth on the clock......why do we do it? It might have made sense (maybe) at some time in the past but it strikes me as just plain dumb t’day......makes a body wonder just how many dumb things we do just becuz they've always been done.......I recall way back when I wuz just a lowly peon in the USAF, I was required to type a number of reports in duplicate & triplicate & occasionally more, copies going to God knows how many people who were then required to note & file & keep for a specified period of time before disposing.......one report in p’ticklar, I had to make a dozen or more copies....Now, this was a time before copiers were standard equipment in most places, so I had to use carbon paper & hit the keys of the typewriter really hard so that all the copies were legible.......didn’t work real well.....& as I was a somewhat less than competent typist, I did a lot of erasing....(it was also the age before white-out)....It was a struggle....
a losing struggle.....& one day I snapped & quit making that p’ticklar report.....I had no idea what I was gonna say when I got called on the carpet for not doing the report....didn’t matter to me at the moment...I just quit doing it......AND NOTHING HAPPENED!.......nobody noticed...the world didn’t end......& I didn’t have to stand there wondering which side of my face was gonna get slapped by the nameless bureaucracy.....I wondered then what would happen if everyone just stopped making reports that no one ever read.....I bet you’re wondering if there’s a point to all this.......Well, Obama kind'a stumbled & he's been taking heat so his supporters have been trying to hit back.....they don't have much to hit with except Bill.so they've been wondering who contributed how much to Bill Clintons library & what favors he might owe in response & I wuz wondering what average citizen actually gives a damn about Presidential libraries anyway.......
So.....in the Obama/Clinton thing.....who’s rubber & who’s glue?????............Justin Other Smith
Sunday, March 16, 2008
A better swimmer.........
I hosed off the porch & gave the Matrix a lick & a promise.........‘Sa brite, sunshiny day with a coolish north wind ‘n my fingers feel like they durn near froze up on me....all a matter of perspective, I guess......I grew up in a land that had a winter, temps getting down around zero once in a while, & I spent a winter in Wyoming back in the time when I was making the transition from a tadpole to a gangly young frog, so I know that t’ain’t really cold here......’course what it is, is that memory tends to blank out the unpleasant & intensify the more peasurable moments of youth.....for most people. Some people are just the opposite ‘n their mem’ries gotta be just awful to live with......I can’t imagine life being so unpleasant that some people look forward to shuffling off this mortal coil.....someone recently asked me if I hadn’t had hard times in my life as tho’ that were reason enuff to look forward to the end. My reply was that the hard times made the good times only that more precious......In the movie, The End, Burt Reynolds plays a man who, diagnosed with a seminal illness, decides to kill himself...
however, after swimming out to sea, he changes his mind and swims back to shore while praying to God to make him a better swimmer.......works for me.
Justin Other Smith
however, after swimming out to sea, he changes his mind and swims back to shore while praying to God to make him a better swimmer.......works for me.
Justin Other Smith
Saturday, March 15, 2008
good ol daze..........
Ah, it was pretty this morning....sunshine & puffy clouds..
...’n more clouds....’n clouds........’n the sun went away, hiding behind a grey sky........the temp, which had looked as tho’ it was headed into the 60’s, stopped, reversed, & settled in the ‘50s.
I remember the ‘50s......a young man I used to know sed to me that he would have liked to been around back then, that it must have been a fun era, all those muscle cars & cheap gas......I told him, “It was fun, but scraping up 50 cents to buy 2 gallons of ‘cheap’ gas was hard t’do.” And those muscle cars got the same kind of mileage that they get today. Big ‘ol motors w/4 barrel carbs & they got 14 mpg.....sumtimes more.....I think the Hummer gets around 12 to 14 mpg but they excuse it by quoting size & power.....I don’t think it weighs more than a 98 Olds & prob’ly ain’t any more powerful......
For that same 50 cents y’could’a bought a hamburger & coke for you & a date.....’course you wouldn’t have been able to leave much of a tip but 10% was considered an adequate tip way back then.......
If I had taken a date to the movies in South Shore back then, it would have cost me about 70 or 80 cents to get in, 10 cents for a large popcorn & 10 cents for a soft drink.....after the movie, we might have gone to the Triangle where a 12 oz bottle of Pepsi cost a dime & french fries were about 20 cents.......maybe cost a buck & a half for a date......more if we’d gone to Portsmouth....
not much money but two bucks was hard to come by..... back in the good ‘ol daze.......Justin Other Smith
...’n more clouds....’n clouds........’n the sun went away, hiding behind a grey sky........the temp, which had looked as tho’ it was headed into the 60’s, stopped, reversed, & settled in the ‘50s.
I remember the ‘50s......a young man I used to know sed to me that he would have liked to been around back then, that it must have been a fun era, all those muscle cars & cheap gas......I told him, “It was fun, but scraping up 50 cents to buy 2 gallons of ‘cheap’ gas was hard t’do.” And those muscle cars got the same kind of mileage that they get today. Big ‘ol motors w/4 barrel carbs & they got 14 mpg.....sumtimes more.....I think the Hummer gets around 12 to 14 mpg but they excuse it by quoting size & power.....I don’t think it weighs more than a 98 Olds & prob’ly ain’t any more powerful......
For that same 50 cents y’could’a bought a hamburger & coke for you & a date.....’course you wouldn’t have been able to leave much of a tip but 10% was considered an adequate tip way back then.......
If I had taken a date to the movies in South Shore back then, it would have cost me about 70 or 80 cents to get in, 10 cents for a large popcorn & 10 cents for a soft drink.....after the movie, we might have gone to the Triangle where a 12 oz bottle of Pepsi cost a dime & french fries were about 20 cents.......maybe cost a buck & a half for a date......more if we’d gone to Portsmouth....
not much money but two bucks was hard to come by..... back in the good ‘ol daze.......Justin Other Smith
Friday, March 14, 2008
Passing moments.....
HAPPY B’DAY, DAVID........Turning 38 may seem like a normal course of events for you as that’s the way life is s’pozed to go.....everyone gets older one day at a time....
But it sure don’t seem like that to your mother & me.... it’s more like a warping of the space/time continium, first you’re here.......then you’re there.....& and all the days inbetween so blurred that looking back, looking back, I see snapshot moments & wonder where the time went......I’m pretty sure that time moves along at a constant speed and that it’s the same for everybody but it doesn’t always seem that way......time flies when you’re having fun & drags interminably when you ain’t.....all a matter of perception...like the importance we humans ascribe to moments in our lives....and a lot of the stuff that we tho’t was important at the time just faded into obscurity while the truly important events of our lives loomed ever larger & clearer with each passing day.....
Justin Other Smith
But it sure don’t seem like that to your mother & me.... it’s more like a warping of the space/time continium, first you’re here.......then you’re there.....& and all the days inbetween so blurred that looking back, looking back, I see snapshot moments & wonder where the time went......I’m pretty sure that time moves along at a constant speed and that it’s the same for everybody but it doesn’t always seem that way......time flies when you’re having fun & drags interminably when you ain’t.....all a matter of perception...like the importance we humans ascribe to moments in our lives....and a lot of the stuff that we tho’t was important at the time just faded into obscurity while the truly important events of our lives loomed ever larger & clearer with each passing day.....
Justin Other Smith
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Enuff is too much sumtimes..
About the blogs I write & a recent comment about one of them being too deep........I don’t believe that I’m a p’tick’ly deep thinker.....I mean, I bleeve that purty much what y’see, is what y’get with me....’n if you don’t understand what I’m saying in some of these blogs, maybe it’s ‘cause I’m not really saying anything, I’m just nattering on about something that caught my attention..
For example, concerning ADD.....(attention deficit disorder, for the uninitiated).....I’ve just been thinking that an awful lot of the kids that were so diagnosed are now of driving age and the rest of us have to share the streets & highways with a bunch of young people who can’t keep their minds focused on their telephone calls, let alone their driving.....
Christine Ferraro is accused of being a racist ‘cause she remarked that Obama wouldn’t have been taken as a serious candidate if he were white.....I think she’s prob’ly right & he’s only gone as far as he has becuz of his race.....Jerry Brown (remember him) was about Obamas age when he tried & he was a charismatic & eloquent proponent of change but was brought down by the nickname, “Governor Moonbeam.”......maybe there is something more to Obama, but he certainly hasn’t disclosed it yet.......
Eliot Spitzer is out of a job (big surprise)....maybe he c’d run for veep, he ain’t doing anything else at the moment..
good thing for him that he’s rich ‘cause being unemployed during a recession is a bummer.......on the proverbial other hand, it is prob’ly worse being out of a job during boom times.....If y’can’t get a job when ever’body else is working, you’re just a trifler.....
Oh yeah! Gas prices have reached record setting highs & will prob’ly go higher....perfect timing for our Dem Legislature to reccommend a tax increase to pay for more bread & circuses.......
Enuff already............Justin Other Smith
.
For example, concerning ADD.....(attention deficit disorder, for the uninitiated).....I’ve just been thinking that an awful lot of the kids that were so diagnosed are now of driving age and the rest of us have to share the streets & highways with a bunch of young people who can’t keep their minds focused on their telephone calls, let alone their driving.....
Christine Ferraro is accused of being a racist ‘cause she remarked that Obama wouldn’t have been taken as a serious candidate if he were white.....I think she’s prob’ly right & he’s only gone as far as he has becuz of his race.....Jerry Brown (remember him) was about Obamas age when he tried & he was a charismatic & eloquent proponent of change but was brought down by the nickname, “Governor Moonbeam.”......maybe there is something more to Obama, but he certainly hasn’t disclosed it yet.......
Eliot Spitzer is out of a job (big surprise)....maybe he c’d run for veep, he ain’t doing anything else at the moment..
good thing for him that he’s rich ‘cause being unemployed during a recession is a bummer.......on the proverbial other hand, it is prob’ly worse being out of a job during boom times.....If y’can’t get a job when ever’body else is working, you’re just a trifler.....
Oh yeah! Gas prices have reached record setting highs & will prob’ly go higher....perfect timing for our Dem Legislature to reccommend a tax increase to pay for more bread & circuses.......
Enuff already............Justin Other Smith
.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Utopia........
There was a land beyond the sea, a land that existed in legend, a magical land that ancient stories referred to as Utopia. It stretched from sea to shining sea, a magnificent land of primeval forests, of mountains and meadows, of prairie and desert; of wild rivers teeming with fish, and birds, so many they blotted out the sun; there were fantastic beasts of all shapes and sizes.
The humans that lived in Utopia were few. They were hunters and gatherers, travelling with the seasons. Content in a land of plenty, they lived lightly upon the land.
And to the land of Utopia, this land of legend came a race of men; adventurers, explorers, seekers of the wild, dreamers seeking fame and fortune, and found a land that surpassed their dreams.
In this Utopia they found that which had eluded the old civilizations. In their struggle, they found unity. And in unity, they found equality. The one thing that set them apart form the rest of humanity that inhabitied all the other countries of the world, a unique and abiding belief in the unity of themselves and of their new land, their Utopia.
They lived and loved and worked and played just like people everywhere; they had prejudices and disagreements and differences of opinion and they fought and died and in general, pretty much carried on like people everywhere. Which is to say that they lied and cheated one another every chance they got. Their courts were full of dissembling lawyers and crooked judges and Justice, being blind, was often sold to the highest bidder. So, as I stated, they were pretty much just like peope today.
This Utopia existed on the concept of equality of man; that all Utopians were created equal in the eyes of the Law; no matter that actual practice often differed completely from that belief; no matter that reality seemed a total contradiction of that concept; Utopians steadfastly believed that they alone kept the torch of equality burning through the darkest night.
Over the years, the Utopians were tested many times. And true to the adage that that which does not kill, makes one stronger, the Utopians survived every test, every assault on their blessed concept of freedom and equality. Tempered by the fires of dissent, they grew stronger and more powerful until they stood like a colussus supreme.
And all the peoples of all the world envied them. And wanted to be Utopians. But even Utopia has limits and there came a day when there was simply no room at the inn. Those who had managed to become insiders fought to keep the outsiders at bay. And to keep the outsiders out of Utopia, the insiders decreed that only Utopians could be equal before the law.
And found the only thing that had been necessary to tumble the colossus was the tinest crack in the foundation.
Equality before the law means equality for all. Especially the idiot fringe. Justin Other Smith
The humans that lived in Utopia were few. They were hunters and gatherers, travelling with the seasons. Content in a land of plenty, they lived lightly upon the land.
And to the land of Utopia, this land of legend came a race of men; adventurers, explorers, seekers of the wild, dreamers seeking fame and fortune, and found a land that surpassed their dreams.
In this Utopia they found that which had eluded the old civilizations. In their struggle, they found unity. And in unity, they found equality. The one thing that set them apart form the rest of humanity that inhabitied all the other countries of the world, a unique and abiding belief in the unity of themselves and of their new land, their Utopia.
They lived and loved and worked and played just like people everywhere; they had prejudices and disagreements and differences of opinion and they fought and died and in general, pretty much carried on like people everywhere. Which is to say that they lied and cheated one another every chance they got. Their courts were full of dissembling lawyers and crooked judges and Justice, being blind, was often sold to the highest bidder. So, as I stated, they were pretty much just like peope today.
This Utopia existed on the concept of equality of man; that all Utopians were created equal in the eyes of the Law; no matter that actual practice often differed completely from that belief; no matter that reality seemed a total contradiction of that concept; Utopians steadfastly believed that they alone kept the torch of equality burning through the darkest night.
Over the years, the Utopians were tested many times. And true to the adage that that which does not kill, makes one stronger, the Utopians survived every test, every assault on their blessed concept of freedom and equality. Tempered by the fires of dissent, they grew stronger and more powerful until they stood like a colussus supreme.
And all the peoples of all the world envied them. And wanted to be Utopians. But even Utopia has limits and there came a day when there was simply no room at the inn. Those who had managed to become insiders fought to keep the outsiders at bay. And to keep the outsiders out of Utopia, the insiders decreed that only Utopians could be equal before the law.
And found the only thing that had been necessary to tumble the colossus was the tinest crack in the foundation.
Equality before the law means equality for all. Especially the idiot fringe. Justin Other Smith
So there..........
What you got to do is imagine that a shopping cart is a chest of drawers on wheels.......& everywhere you go, why you take all your belongings with you. Why, you’re as free as the wind. You’re not tied to a mortgage. You don’t spend your evenings in front of a teevee & you never have to slave over a hot stove. If you’re a guy, you don’t have to shave anymore. You don’t have drycleaning bills & you don’t have to wonder what you’re going to wear tomorrow. Nobody is going to hassle you about unpaid bills & income tax is no problem. It’s no wonder that reg’lar, hardworking folk envy your freedom. Why, they just ain’t got the guts to let ever’thing go & embrace life on the street.
At least, that’s what I was thinking after someone near & dear told me that homeless people were homeless thru choice. Yessir! Opt for the freedom of the road & forget your worries.
Prob’ly the same kind of reasoning makes our prisons so popular. They are so overcrowded that there must be a waiting list to get in. I s’pect that the inhabitants of our prisons are much happier than the rest of us. They have all their needs taken care of by the rest of us. All they must do is sleep & eat, play sports & watch television. They don’t even have to think for themselves. Talk about the good life.
Speaking of vacation spots, wonder how life without Fidel is going to be down there in Cuba, ‘cause I’m pretty sure Raul is gonna be a ‘hole ‘nother kind of ballplayer.
On the homefront however, the game is politics. But, it ain’t politics as usual. Will Roger said he wasn’t a member of an organized party, he was a Democrat. I was a Democrat for a long time. Well, heck, I was born into a Democrat family in a Democrat county in a Democrat state. I didn’t know until I was grown that my Mother was a closet Republican and I ain’t saying that I was ashamed of that fact but I didn’t broadcast it. I don’t quite know how I ended up being a Republican myself but I don’t brag about it. ‘Course, I wouldn’t brag about being a Democrat this year. It’s almost embarrassing just watching the Democrats. It ain’t really a war ‘tween Dems, it’s more of a ‘police action’.......like the thing in Korea where we’ve now had troops since 1949. That, of course, is in reference to the Dems yelling about McCains remark that we might have troops in Iraq for a hundred years. Well, we’ve had troops in the Phillipines for more than a hundred years. And as far as the American Indians are concerned, we’ve occupied ‘their’ country for over 400 years.
‘Course, it ain’t really ‘their’ country, is it? It’s our country & our includes them for they are us. Or we are them. I think it might’a been Pogo who said, “we have seen the enemy and he is us.” The one really great thing about the US of A, the thing that sets us apart from almost every other country that has ever been, the thing that makes us unique is that we are all, every one of us, Americans. Whether we are white or black or brown or red doesn’t make any real difference. Heck! We could be polka-dotted & still be Americans. Entitled to fight & squabble among ourselves, to spit in each other’s eyes, to quarrel & call names as much as we want. That, by God, is our constitutional right.
So there!..........Justin Other Smith
At least, that’s what I was thinking after someone near & dear told me that homeless people were homeless thru choice. Yessir! Opt for the freedom of the road & forget your worries.
Prob’ly the same kind of reasoning makes our prisons so popular. They are so overcrowded that there must be a waiting list to get in. I s’pect that the inhabitants of our prisons are much happier than the rest of us. They have all their needs taken care of by the rest of us. All they must do is sleep & eat, play sports & watch television. They don’t even have to think for themselves. Talk about the good life.
Speaking of vacation spots, wonder how life without Fidel is going to be down there in Cuba, ‘cause I’m pretty sure Raul is gonna be a ‘hole ‘nother kind of ballplayer.
On the homefront however, the game is politics. But, it ain’t politics as usual. Will Roger said he wasn’t a member of an organized party, he was a Democrat. I was a Democrat for a long time. Well, heck, I was born into a Democrat family in a Democrat county in a Democrat state. I didn’t know until I was grown that my Mother was a closet Republican and I ain’t saying that I was ashamed of that fact but I didn’t broadcast it. I don’t quite know how I ended up being a Republican myself but I don’t brag about it. ‘Course, I wouldn’t brag about being a Democrat this year. It’s almost embarrassing just watching the Democrats. It ain’t really a war ‘tween Dems, it’s more of a ‘police action’.......like the thing in Korea where we’ve now had troops since 1949. That, of course, is in reference to the Dems yelling about McCains remark that we might have troops in Iraq for a hundred years. Well, we’ve had troops in the Phillipines for more than a hundred years. And as far as the American Indians are concerned, we’ve occupied ‘their’ country for over 400 years.
‘Course, it ain’t really ‘their’ country, is it? It’s our country & our includes them for they are us. Or we are them. I think it might’a been Pogo who said, “we have seen the enemy and he is us.” The one really great thing about the US of A, the thing that sets us apart from almost every other country that has ever been, the thing that makes us unique is that we are all, every one of us, Americans. Whether we are white or black or brown or red doesn’t make any real difference. Heck! We could be polka-dotted & still be Americans. Entitled to fight & squabble among ourselves, to spit in each other’s eyes, to quarrel & call names as much as we want. That, by God, is our constitutional right.
So there!..........Justin Other Smith
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Slo blogging.........
Haven’t blogged for awhile.....unusual for me t’ have nuthin’ to say but I guess, sumtimes ever’body has to shut up.......at least, temporarily......lessee.....got a new ‘puter.....a new Imac.....lot bigger screen, slightly different keyboard......thinner, so it feels funny.......
Frances came to visit for a couple days.....driving her l’il blue Fit.....S’a Honda & a little smaller than the Matrix but styled pert near the same.......
She & Millyrose wanted to go to Thunder Valley for the buffet lunch.....nice buffet, if you like buffets.....the only buffet I ever cared for was Jimmy’s Margaritaville
.....his cheeseburger in Key West was pretty ok too......
I guess w/this new ‘puter, I’ll be able to post a foto on my blog (soon as I figger it out)....& if I c’n decide whether or not I want my bald-headed picture t’ be seen by anyone curious enuff to check out my blog.......
later......Justin Other Smith
Frances came to visit for a couple days.....driving her l’il blue Fit.....S’a Honda & a little smaller than the Matrix but styled pert near the same.......
She & Millyrose wanted to go to Thunder Valley for the buffet lunch.....nice buffet, if you like buffets.....the only buffet I ever cared for was Jimmy’s Margaritaville
.....his cheeseburger in Key West was pretty ok too......
I guess w/this new ‘puter, I’ll be able to post a foto on my blog (soon as I figger it out)....& if I c’n decide whether or not I want my bald-headed picture t’ be seen by anyone curious enuff to check out my blog.......
later......Justin Other Smith
Monday, March 3, 2008
Leaps & bounds.........
watching the dogs this morning.......Trudy, when she runs, not so often anymore but some days, anyway when she runs, she flows.......looks like Lassie coming to the rescue or sumthin..... hair streaming behind her & you can ‘t see her legs moving......Rusty, on that proverbial other hand, is just a poodle.....and a miniature poodle at that....he leaps and bounds, or he hunkers down & runs when he chases the DC from the yard.......he’s a little ambivalent
about the DC anyway.....often he ignores them completely.....
I guess it’s Spring...feels like it......altho’ the ubiquitous ‘they’ say that we’re due for more rain & snow during the month of March.....whatever(shrug).......Yogi Berra said, “Predicting anything is tough, especially the future.”
I think the pollsters & pundits are finding that statement to be true as Hillary & Barack seem to be neck & neck down the stretch.....Some of ‘em seem to have given up altogether & are making predictions about the coming general election.....they all seem to have annointed McCain as the inevitably defeated (make the sign of the cross here) Republican........Pore Ol Huckleberry! Thy name is not quite legend.....not quite up there with Perot, let alone Nader........
Speaking of Ralph...he helped kill off the execrable Chevy Corvair....Unsafe at any speed, he called it........Pore ol dumb me....I once took a Corvair Spyder convertible down Winding Way (before all the stop signs & traffic) at about 70mph.......& I tho’t it was fun.
‘Course it was prob’ly just that a lot of things were more fun before I became this old stick in the mud.......
Ahhh! Youth ain’t wasted on the young.....it just don’t stick around long enuff.........Justin Other Smith
about the DC anyway.....often he ignores them completely.....
I guess it’s Spring...feels like it......altho’ the ubiquitous ‘they’ say that we’re due for more rain & snow during the month of March.....whatever(shrug).......Yogi Berra said, “Predicting anything is tough, especially the future.”
I think the pollsters & pundits are finding that statement to be true as Hillary & Barack seem to be neck & neck down the stretch.....Some of ‘em seem to have given up altogether & are making predictions about the coming general election.....they all seem to have annointed McCain as the inevitably defeated (make the sign of the cross here) Republican........Pore Ol Huckleberry! Thy name is not quite legend.....not quite up there with Perot, let alone Nader........
Speaking of Ralph...he helped kill off the execrable Chevy Corvair....Unsafe at any speed, he called it........Pore ol dumb me....I once took a Corvair Spyder convertible down Winding Way (before all the stop signs & traffic) at about 70mph.......& I tho’t it was fun.
‘Course it was prob’ly just that a lot of things were more fun before I became this old stick in the mud.......
Ahhh! Youth ain’t wasted on the young.....it just don’t stick around long enuff.........Justin Other Smith
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Luv'ly day.......
Saturday, 1st of March .....luv’ly Spring-like day......got the door open, soft breeze, sirens in the distance..... Heck! There’s almost always sirens in the distance & the traffic noise sounds like rushing water....helps to soften the incessant crowing of those darn chickens....
But ya get used to it......when I was boy in Beattyville, we lived next to the railroad track.....after awhile the trains rushing by became just background noise.....I experienced my first earthquake in Japan.....I was sitting in the barracks, a huge two-story building about 50 yards from a railroad track.....there was a train passing & the bldg was shaking when it dawned on me the trains in Japan were much smaller than I was used to & it wasn’t the train that was shaking the bldg......end of 1st earthquake story & ain’t ya glad?......
Anyway, it’s a luv’ly day for saying, “It’s a luv’ly day!.......
Hope it is for you too........Justin Other Smith
But ya get used to it......when I was boy in Beattyville, we lived next to the railroad track.....after awhile the trains rushing by became just background noise.....I experienced my first earthquake in Japan.....I was sitting in the barracks, a huge two-story building about 50 yards from a railroad track.....there was a train passing & the bldg was shaking when it dawned on me the trains in Japan were much smaller than I was used to & it wasn’t the train that was shaking the bldg......end of 1st earthquake story & ain’t ya glad?......
Anyway, it’s a luv’ly day for saying, “It’s a luv’ly day!.......
Hope it is for you too........Justin Other Smith
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