Memorable days.....

“Those were the days, my friend,
we tho’t they’d never end......”

I’ve always said that time flies whether you have fun or not.....’n you don’t get do-overs......
T’day is November 29 ‘n I just heard that Cuzzin Richard died....his daughter, Tracy, called to tell me. He lived not too far from me but I hadn’t heard from him or spoken to him for about two years....I haven’t seen him in longer than that. Not my decision but his. He withdrew from the family a long time ago.
About three weeks ago, Reba Warnock Dameron died.
I guess she’d been sick for a little while but I hadn’t heard so it came as a shock. Reba ‘n I were close in high school and she was Richards first wife. Well, so far as she was concerned, she was his only wife but there were a couple more.
I tried to call him but got a disconnect ‘n didn’t know how to reach him.
Aunt Bill ‘n Uncle Fred lived down the street from us when we lived in Beattyville. ‘N for a few years, we were more like brothers than cousins. Roaming the alleys of Beattyville ‘n the riverbank or crawling around the honeysucle covered hills. He was a year ‘n a half older’n me, give or take, ‘n a year ahead of me in school. Bigger’n me but kind’a uncoordinated, we learned to swim at about the same time. Bob Dameron (older brother) was a good athlete (basketball mostly, where we grew up) and the coach eyed Richards height as we grew. I think he ended up about 6’2” but he couldn’t run....so the coach had him skipping rope. He got pretty good at that but if you ain’t got the eye hand thing naturally, you pretty much ain’t gonna get it.
Bob was a good athlete, a fighter. And popular. Richard was aloof, standoffish. Nobody picked on him because Bob would’a kicked their butt so he never had to fight like I did. Not that he couldn’t. He fought with me ‘n he was big enough that he could’a whipped me but he never did. Probably would have had to ‘cause I wouldn’t quit but Aunt Bill stopped it ‘n made me go home....in my teens I changed schools ‘n we didn’t much hang out t’gether after that.
He didn’t live very far from here, couple miles I guess ‘n I only heard from him once in a while, Xmas card mostly with no return address.....I always figured that some day he’d show up on my front porch ‘n decide that he wanted t’be part of the family again...would’a been alright with me.
I never expected him to die so soon or so suddenly. I never expected Reba to go so soon or suddenly either. Heck, maybe when I go, it’ll come as a surprise to me. I’d guess that wouldn’t be so bad.

Best wishes.....

For ever’body that might be wonderin’ about son Dave, he left India last week ‘n went to Australia for a couple days before flying back to the States.....he got in SF late Tuesday ‘n has been coping with jet lag since....at any rate, we were certainly glad that he wasn’t anywhere near Mombai (Bombay, f’r oldtimers)....”India is a large country” sez Dave, “It’s like 9/11 was here. For the most part, India is a very safe country.”
‘Course, those of us who only know those foreign countries by what we see on the telly are forced to sit ‘n wonder when we know that people we know are anywhere near danger. Like, when there’s fires ‘n or flooding in southern California....friends back east always want’a know if that’s happening close to where we are...use’ta be someone would say, “We’re gonna go to Disneyland, maybe we’ll come ‘n see you.”......not knowing that Disneyland is 8 to 10 hours away from Sacramento..
Ahhhwellll....
The turkeys are baking, the pies are baked ‘n the rest of the ‘fixin’s’ are getting....fixed....the sun is peeping thru the cloud layer ‘n we’ve got a lot t’be thankful for on this Thanksgiving Day....
Best wishes to ev’ryone.....

Thanksgiving surprise.......

Surprise! Surprise! or so Gomer Pyle use’ta say.....The California Legislature failed once again t’do anything other than what they allus do.....which mainly consists of taking their paychecks, their per diem, ‘n all the gratuties they c’n grab off while sitting on their butts complaining about the ‘other’ party......
It’s a good thing they ain’t the U.S. Congress or the ‘hull darn country ‘ud be in trubble.....oops! My bad! The ‘hull darn country is in trubble ‘cuz the Congress ain’t any better than the California Legislature......One ain’t any better than the other one....
I wuz gonna say that one thing we c’ud be grateful for is that when the Legislature comes back, there’ll be a bunch of new people to sit around ‘n do nothing ‘n maybe, that’s the best we c’n hope for....(the premise being that a do-nothing Legislature won’t cost us as much as one that actually does stuff)....
Ah well....Thanksgiving is almost upon us ‘n we should prob’ly be grateful for what we got....’n if we’re truthful about it, s’far as family goes, we all got it pretty good....There’s a sappy, saccharine song from days gone by called, “Count your blessings”.....’n even tho’ my choice lost the presidential race, most of my kids choice won so, I s’poze that’s alright.....’n Dave made it back to California in time for Thanksgiving dinner which means I get t’do the bbq turkey thing ‘n I s’poze that’s alright too.....’n the weather guys say it’s gonna be dry this week ‘n I know that’s better than wet outside even if t’is a little chilly....well, chilly for us but would be positively balmy for those of the family that are stuck in the ‘cold weather belt’ back east.....
Ah well, tomorrow is another day if we’re lucky.....’n even if we’re not, the day after is (wait for it)....TURKEY DAY!

Change t'believe in......

"The world is the same, you'll never change it,
as sure as the stars shine above....."

I saw on the evening s’news where some of them smarter than the average bear Democrat pundits are calling for Bush & Cheney to resign immediately so that President Elect Obama c’n begin saving the world.... It was Chris Matthews, I think, that was feeling something in his jeans ev’ry time Obama spoke....I dunno if he tho’t up this idea all on his lonesome or maybe he had help....
Maybe the Dems are operating on the assumption that since stupidity got us into a mess, more stupidity will be sure t’get us out......I’ve been studying on the Democrat Party ‘n the Republican Party ‘n it’s my belief that each one of ‘em is worse than the other......
And as far as this bailout goes.....if the Bush bailout works, it’ll become the Obama bailout....’n the additional bailout that Obama is talking about....if it don’t work, it’s just one more example of the failed Bush policies.....
O....’n this New Deal that’s coming....Well, lemme just tell you about that.....Y’see, I was born during FDR’s second term ‘n I grew up a Democrat...The Depression was a big part of my life ‘n I was told that FDR saved our butts by introducing his ‘New Deal’....No more Republicans, no more Hoovervilles....do away with the breadlines ‘n soup kitchens, prosperity is just around the corner, two chickens in every pot, pennies from heaven ‘n blue skies forever.....
‘Cept it was all a fairytale....the New Deal didn’t work ‘n neither did any of the other political solutions, Democrat or Republican......what brought us out of the depression was Hitler, Mussolini ‘n Tojo....World War II, the big one (according to Dobie Gillis’ paterfamilias)...
When we geared up for war, we went back to work ‘n out-manufactured everyone....we built ships ‘n airplanes ‘n tanks ‘n all the assorted war materiels that the world needed to break the Axis.....
So, it didn’t really take a lot of bailouts to save the world during the last great depression....all we had t’do was kill off maybe a hundred million people ‘n create a little order out of chaos.....
During the 1800’s Great Britain had a problem with Ireland....They called it their ‘Irish’ problem...they solved it by starving over a million people to death and forcing the evacuation of half the remaining population of Ireland....just a matter of creating a little order out of chaos.....
Some things never change...

Idlers vs lazy bums.....

Blowing leaves ‘n cleaning gutters on an almost sunny Sunday afternoon.........Boy! It don’t get much better, do it?
‘Less’n, of course, you have more tomorrows ahead of you than yesterdays behind you in which case, almost anything c’n be better than yardwork, housework, all that gotta do it t’get by work...
There’s an old Irish saying that “work is the curse of the drinking class”....I dunno what old Irishman said that but it’s a pretty sure bet that he was of a class known as ‘Idlers’....Idlers have lots more time on their hands than drunks, y’see....Drunks devote a lot of time ‘n tho’t to booze...the anticipation of the next drink, the regret of the last drink, the unsettled time inbetween drinks....it takes time ‘n effort t’be a drunk while Idlers.....well, the whole secret t’being a world-class Idler is t’do nothing at all....’n that’s all the effort it takes.....
Once upon a time I had aspirations of being an Idler....I just cudn’t make it stick somehow....I’d be idling really well....lost in a reverie ‘n something would come along ‘n I’d be off ‘n doing it....’n that kind’a defeats the whole purpose.....
To be a really good Idler, a world-class Idler, I s’poze... you’d have t’be born to it.....wanting t’be an Idler just ain’t enuff...for almost all of us, something’ll come along that you just feel like doing ‘n next thing y’know, you’re not idling, you’re busy doing something.....
It don’t have t’be anything really important, y’know....it c’n be something as simple as deciding to take a little walk, maybe go for a swim...maybe get sidetracked by a pretty girl.....maybe get sidetracked by an almost pretty girl or even by an ugly girl....anyways, the point is if you get sidetracked for almost any reason, you’re not a real Idler....you c’n still be a lazy bum but that don’t have the same cachet....gesundheit!

Various 'n sundry......

Turkey day is comin’....
it’s comin’ ‘round de bend,
‘n I ain’t had no turkey
since.....
well, last year t’be precise
’n I was doing chemo then....

Chemo, of course, don’t do a heckuva lot for a bodys appetite ‘n it don’t matter if it’s a holiday or not......
Anyways, it’s Friday nite ‘n the start of the weekend before Thanksgiving......Millyrose is gettin’ antsy already
planning a menu, no doubt...’n wantin’ the house t’be just so ‘n wash all the dishes that we don’t use except on holidaze....Dave is comin’ home for Thanksgiving...last we heard, he was in Australia ‘n lookin’ t’get his flight moved up....looking forward to seeing him ‘n listening to his tales of “The Adventures of Another Dave Smith”...
When we first came to Sacramento, I was the third David Smith in the Sacto phone book...now there’s at least forty ‘n that ain’t counting the unlisted or the ones who only have cells......maybe we should have a club...Nah!
So, it’s five in the AM ‘n one’a the things about getting older is the number of times you get up during the nite to go to the bathroom (euphemism for pee)...Rusty the Poodl’us Minor is getting older along with me.....I’m not sure how old he is but I’m thinkin’.......8 or 9, I’ve never been able to get a handle on that dog years thing....
anyways (sigh) he’s been getting me up two to three times a nite to let him out (better than him going in, doncha know ‘n besides if I get up with him, I might as well go also)...Willie just raises his head ‘n looks at us...no way is he gonna get up in the middle of the nite but then he’s a young fella ‘n he don’t hafta....
I wasn’t really asleep anyway...was just lying there wond’ring about various ‘n sundry....insomniacs do that, y’know...toss ‘n turn wond’ring about the various ‘n sundry things of life....

Ol whatsisname....

"Here lies Ozymandias, King of Kings!"

Life is fleeting 'n too soon over so we must make the most of what we have when we have it. Don't sweat the small stuff 'n ev'rything is small stuff.....The value of a Liberal Arts education is learning how to rationalize lifes disappointments.....
Sonuvagun! It’s Friday again ‘n so long as we keep having Fridays, God’s in His heaven ‘n all’s right with the world.....or so I’ve heard stated.
The sun is shining, temp is rising (inta the 60’s, I’m told) so I’ll get in my swim later t’day....I like it when the sun hits at least a little of the pool....T’day is a ‘cardio’ day which means I have t’spend time upstairs in the gym.... stationary bike, ellipitical thingy, ‘n maybe the watchamacallit...the treadmill.....Senior moment, I guess..just cudn’t think of the name of the darn thing.....
Too bad life doesn’t come with do-overs....it’s a lot more fun when you’re young enuff that you don’t need to exercise.....when you c’n run or swim just for the heck of it....ah well, I ‘member growing up ‘n swimming in ‘The River’.....(we had the hills ‘n the river).....Dave told in his blog about visiting Varanisi in India ‘n the River Ganges...
it’s considered a ‘holy’ river in India ‘n people go there (when they c’n afford it) to burn their dead ‘n dump the ashes so they c’n go to Nirvana...’cept, the thing is.... y’see.....children, pregnant women, holy men ‘n animals are considered ‘pure’ enuff that they don’t have t’be burned in order to get into Nirvana so their bodies get dumped whole into the ‘holy’ river....along with all the sewage from one of the oldest cities on the Indian sub-continent...anyways...there was a show on one of the myriad channels that teevee affords us t’day that showed a group traveling around the world a’la Dave except they get t’do it with money ‘n more comfort...
They showed on film what Dave described in his blog...the body of a baby floating in the river, a dead cow floating, people bathing, swimming, drinking ‘n playing in the river......
Anyways....back in my way back when days, we (the denizens of Beattyville) played ‘n fished in the Ohio River which was also used as a sewer by every community that was built on or near the river or any creeks that flowed into it....(YUCK!...sensibilities have changed over the years) Cleaning up the environment has got t’be a good thing.....there’s just too darn many people in this world t’day to go on fouling our own nest any longer.....
The economy is a big problem ‘n Obama is not going t’be able to fix it...McCain wouldn’t have been able to fix it either...as a matter of fact, it’s a problem that is so big that it’s unfixable.....but, not to panic....everyone has problems that are too big for them to fix...the only thing y’can do is fix the problems that you can ‘n let providence take care of the rest....

Just when you tho't....

it wuz all over......

“I don’t give a damn about a greenback dollar,
spend it fast as I c’n........” Kingston Trio

So, is Obama the new Lincoln or the new F.D.R.....if he’s the new F.D.R.....well, the problem is the old F.D.R. didn’t do too well getting us out of the old depression.....it took a world war t’do that.....
‘N if he’s the new Lincoln, who’s he gonna ‘manicipate....
the Gays? Gavin Newsome already proclaimed that on national television....'n speaking of the esteemed Mayor of Sodom by the bay, all he needs t’do now is stick his head in a toilet and flush it ‘n keep repeating it ad infinitum ad nauseum...Hopefully, he’ll have flushed his gubernatorial aspirations as well....
On the gay marriage thing.....I personally don’t really care what other people do s’long as they don’t dance on my toes..
I don’t favor or deplore ‘gay’ marriage ‘n given the divorce rate in this country, I’d think most people should mind their own bidness ‘n take care of their own marriages....
That said, after watching the truly obscene demonstration of intolerance ‘n bigotry of the less than truly gay community, I find myself rooting for the Moral Majority...of which I’m not sure is either moral or in the majority but that’s a ‘hull ‘nother story.....
The Republican party is tearing itself apart but not to worry, they have four years to pull themselves t’gether again....but all the King’s horses ‘n all the King’s men cudn’t put McCain t’gether again...Pore Ol John...I blame those private schools his parents sent him to...had he gone to school up the hollow like I did, he’da known better than to let a gal do his fighting for him...not that Sarah didn’t do a good job...she did, but it never looks good for a guy t’hide behind a gal...even one that c’n skin out a moose......

Anybody's guess.....

I’ve been told that the best thing about ‘old age’ is that it don’t last too long.....offhand, I can’t say that I agree totally with that statement...the problem, as I see it, is that ‘old’ age is finite....it has a definite end altho’ a lot of people think of it as a transition.....I mean, you transition from childhood to adolescence to young adult and ‘middle’ age until you get to ‘old’ age....’n where y’go from there is anybody’s guess....
Mortality weighs heavy in the wee hours of the morning, when it seems like ever’one else is asleep...I know I ain’t alone...that there are a lot of kindred souls out there in the dark staring at computer screens or televisions or just twiddling their thumbs...ransacking the fridge or maybe just staring blankly into the nite.....
Here in old Fair Oaks, the damn roosters are complaining...prob’ly over the SacBee delivery person...I remember when the papers were delivered by kids on bicycles in the afternoons...Back in the good old days, that was almost always the case...at least it was for most of the country...most of the country at that time being outside of the cities.....Cities, at least in the movies, had large populations ‘n newspapers were always rushing out extra editions to corner kiosks where people were waiting to get the very latest news......But not where I lived.....The very latest news where most of us lived then was in the form of ‘gossip’ and the newspapers came in the afternoon, delivered by the paperboy, usually via bicycle tho’ not always.....Brothers John ‘n Jim delivered the Portsmouth Times around South Portsmouth with Jim getting the easy part of the route (well, he was younger) ‘n John taking the outlying customers....it was two-lane blacktop from the end of the bridge (the Ulysses Grant Bridge that spanned the Ohio) all the way thru So. Ports...it was a dangerous road, narrow with hardly any shoulders, snaking along t’wixt the hillside ‘n the railroad...it’s a wonder more pedestrians weren’t run over tho’ I don’t recall a lot of people being hit by cars...
‘Course, during the war years, there weren’t a lot of cars on the road, gas ‘n tires being rationed like they were....anyways, John ‘n Jim didn’t deliver the papers during the war years...Richard Noel delivered the Times in Beattyville when we first moved there...he was older’n me but I tagged around with him thru the streets ‘n alleys....He cut his foot on his bike pedal ‘n died of the dreaded lockjaw...You never hear of lockjaw anymore... nor polio though I knew several people who had that also....I never knew anyone who had to live in an iron lung but the March of Dimes was a major charity then dedicated to eradicating polio...most of the diseases of my childhood seem t’be pretty much gone now tho’ with the influx of immigrants you just never know what’s gonna pop up on the evening news.....
Oh, and big Bob Savage passed away, peacefully I hear, surrounded by his family...

Gettin' old.....

ain’t for sissies.....part two:

Big Bob Savage is dying....he has cancer ‘n a blood clot in his leg ‘n it’s a toss-up which’ll get him first....
He’s in hospital ‘n the Dr. asked if he wanted t’be resuscitated if he had a heart attack from the blood clot...his reply was “why wouldn’t I want t’be resuscitated?”.....
Some miscommunication there, I suppose....his cancer is so advanced that there’s little hope but he evidently hadn’t understood that....
I c’n testify that people usually only hear what they want to hear....when my oncologist told me that my cancer had progressed to stage four, I didn’t hear that at all....
Millyrose heard it but not me....I was much too focused on the fact that I had cancer in the first place.....I expect that’s where Bob’s mind has taken him....
It’s okay to ask for miracles ‘n sometimes people return from the brink.....mostly, I believe that an easy transition is what most people actually pray for...
‘Course, Bob Savage is a big man...he may have been praying for a hospital bed large enough to fit him...most things are made for medium-size people ‘n when you’re oversized or undersized, it’s a life-long problem....
He has a big, old house in Virginia....a three story brick mansion that he remodeled to fit himself....his kitchen counters were so high that Millyrose had to stand on a footstool to work at them....
I sat with my Dad while he was dying ‘n Bob will have his wife and children with him.....I don’t think anyone can ask for much more.....

Gettin' old.....

ain’t for sissies.......

or so saieth an older friend......I laugh ‘n agree with her but since I seem t’be in a state of total denial, it can’t possibly apply t’me....
‘Course, ev’ry time I look around, the ranks are thinning..
Reminds me of the first twenty mile hike with full pack I took in basic training....We trudged thru the New York State night, about a hundred and fourteen of us as I recall.....’n I kept slowin’ down ‘n moving farther back in the column....from my vantage point at the rear, I cudn’t help but notice that the ranks were thinning...that the carryall (military terminology for a stake-side truck with canvas tarp) kept stopping to pick up those lesser souls that, for one reason ‘n another, fell by the wayside..
My buddy, Denver ‘Bud’ Mullins was one of the first...we were marching side by side in what they termed, route step.....when he stepped in a hole...his hands were hooked inside the straps of his pack ‘n he went face down like he’d been poleaxed....which in a way, he had.....his helmet tipped forward ‘n cracked him across the bridge of his nose ‘n that was the end of his hike.....
We’d only marched a few miles at the time ‘n I helped him into the back of the carryall....he was bloody awful cheerful about it when I staggered in at the end to find him sitting there with a big grin on his face.....
It was summertime ‘n we’d just got out of high school, good old McKell High.....we weren’t doing much of anything.....well, heck! There weren’t a lot of jobs t’go around....or more aptly, there weren’t any jobs t’go around....not then, not around South Shore, at any rate....
Bud ‘n I ‘n Sonny Thompson (Leon to his parishioners) had got some beer ‘n we went fishing out on Shultz Creek.....wasn’t really any fish in Shultz at that time, not to speak of anyway....basically, it was just an excuse to hang out ‘n drink our beer on a warm afternoon....
Sonny was older ‘n was able to buy beer legally 'n now that I think on it, quite possibly with malice aforethought, so I blame him for what happened that afternoon...we should'a been happy, just an idle, carefree summer afternoon but Leon hadda carefully steer our innocent ‘n under-achieving conversation around to matters military.....’n it all ended with the three of us joining the USAF....no wonder Leon went into the church business.....he had a lot to atone for......

Who'll stop the rain.....

Who’ll stop the rain.....
not I, said the fly...
nor me, said the flea......

Speaking of things the world will little note nor long remember...
When a spokesperson for a California Stateworkers union opined that the almost 80 million dollars that the State would save by cutting two holidays wasn’t “enough to make a difference”....it reminded me that a once upon a time Congressman, Senator Everett Dirksen, famously stated that, “a million here and a million there and pretty soon, you’re talking real money.”
We get similar reactions from every agency that is facing cuts, that cutting their particular budget won’t be enough to make a significant difference.
Except, we got into this budget mess by spending a million here and a million there until we’re now facing a 15 billion (that’s billion with a B) dollar deficit.
And the way to get out of it is by cutting a million here and a million there....
Herbert Hoover was elected President in 1928. Good times in 1928. Then came ‘29 and the stock market crashed. Hoover was considered to be smart and astute and a failure. He’s consistently ranked as one of our worst Presidents by virtue of having been in office when the economy tanked.
FDR got credit for leading the US out of “The Great Depression” but the truth is the New Deal tactics didn’t work. Between Hoover and Roosevelt, they managed what should have been brief downturn in the market into ten years of massive unemployment. Eventually the market corrected itself and with the advent of World War II, entered a fifty year era of prosperity.
But bubbles burst. T’is the nature of the beast.
This huge buyout (the 700 billion plus) engineered by the White House and Congress amounts to nationalization of our banks, our industries and our manufacturers. The politicians who think they know how to get us out of this mess are the self-same politicians that got us into the mess in the first place.
California, the ubiquitous ‘they’ say, is where it happens first..... and the California Legislature is gonna push the state into bankruptcy....the state is facing something like a 22 billion dollar a year deficit and no matter how Arnie begs, the legislature remains obdurant....with neither the Republicans nor the Democrats willing to compromise at any level.....someone, I disremember who, once famously said, “How General Motors goes, so goes the nation.”......Quite possibly, how California goes is the blueprint for the nation....the future looks bleak and, as Pogo once wisely opined, “I have seen the enemy and he is us.”
Who’ll stop the rain...
not I, said the fly.....
nor me, said the flea......

Trouble with Liberals......

“The trubble with the dang liberals ain’t so much that they’re ignorant, it’s just that they know so much that ain’t so.”

Now, I’d just like t’point out that I didn’t make up that little bit of philosphy. It’s been credited to Ronald Reagan but Ronnie stole a lot of lines from movie scripts and scriptwriters stole from anyplace they could....I like Will Rogers but he stole a lot from Mark Twain ‘n Ol Sam stole from lots of people. Ol Sam was an ‘eddicated man’ in a relatively un-eddicated era so he didn’t bother with attribution in a ‘hull lot ‘o cases.....Well, it’s a fact of life that writers steal from wherever they can ‘n most of them only admit it when they absolutely have to....theys tell themselves they’re only paraphrasing....
‘Course, there’s a lot of writers who for one reason or another, didn’t copywrite their work....’n whoever gets the copywrite, gets credit whether they created it or not.....’n they call it ‘plagirism’.....‘n it’s a crime, usually with little or no punishment..mostly 'cuz they don't get called on it.....
Now, politicians ain’t above a little plagirism now ‘n then...take our ‘esteemed’ vice President elect Biden who has been guilty of plagirizing the speech of another man who actually stole the gist of it from someone else in the first place......gets confusing, don’t it? That’s why there’s little or no punishment....Well, that 'n the fact that people kind'a expect politicians t'do stuff like that......
John Kennedy, who gets undeserved credit for being one of our ‘greatest’ Presidents...took credit for being the author of a book that he didn’t actually write ‘n the most famous line from one of his speeches, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” was plagirized....(or was it just paraphrased)
First off, lemme say that I’m just so durn tired of the election that I can’t hardly stand to turn on any news show right now on the off chance that sumbody, sumwhere, is still runnin’ for office ‘n I don’t think that I c’n take it.....
‘N in the second place, well heck! There ain’t no such a thing as ‘second place’....’ceptin’ maybe in horse races ‘n that ain’t the same thing at all....”Shoot fire” as my old man used t’say, “horse players die broke but ev’rybody dies.”
‘N in the third place, we got ourselves 535 incompetent Congressmen (women).....sum of who has got t’be part of Obama’s posse which means we got sum new up’n coming crooks.....’n it ain’t just ‘dem Dems, y’know....it’s ‘dem Republican’ts too.....’n ‘dem Independents ‘n Greeners ‘n all the rest of ‘em.....You know who I mean, the Orwellian animals who think they were created just a little more equal than the rest of us......
Do I sound bitter? I sound bitter, don’t I? I don’t mean t’be bitter....It ‘s just that sometimes it’s hard t’find the punchline....
Sabatini said (‘n it was the best line in the ‘hull darn book) in the potboiler, ‘Scaramouche’....”He was born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.”


..

Great pretender

“I play the game......”

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary t’get your butt kicked, it also becomes necessary to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, ‘n start all over again.....(ain’t it wunnerful how old pop songs just ‘pop’ inta your mind..c’d it be that’s really why they call ‘em ‘pop’) .....Nah! I don’t think so either....
I heard that song at an early age but I also learned how t’get my butt kicked at an early age...I believe you learn more from losing than y’do from winning but somehow I never learned how t’be a good loser...Oh, I learned how to paste a smile on my face ‘n pretend but it was a fake smile...inside, where it really mattered, I wasn't smiling.....
Inside, where it really mattered, I was seriously pissed ‘n I carried my losses around for a long time....I come from a clannish people ‘n I bear grudges.....’N I was a long time growing up ‘n figuring out that the least amount of hate is far too heavy a load to carry... ‘n carrying heavy loads will break a body down ‘n make you old before your time....hating ain’t a good thing!
If you watch television, as most of us do, you see hating in action every day....the gay marriage thing here in California is a really good example...’n the opposing sides have come face t’ face on the evening news.....(the media reminds me of schoolkids on the sideline egging on two young people who didn’t really want to fight in the first place)...’n what is gonna come out of the ‘hull thing is hard feelings ‘n grudges ‘n a long time healing.....
Way down south, they’ve had a long, hard time getting over the war to end northern aggression (Heck! It’s only been 140 years but who’s counting).....’n this past election season has been the most divisive since the one that preceded that war so it’s hard t’say just how long it’s gonna take for ev’ryone to play ‘kiss ‘n makeup’.....
I guess we’re all gonna have t’do what kids do ‘n just put a smile on our faces ‘n pretend that we're doing well......

"They're writing songs......

...but not for me"

I’ll be frank.....I ain’t at all happy about the election... I don’t like losing....never did altho’ I’ve certainly had a lot of experience at it ‘n one thing I c’n say for sure is that it never gets easier....I’d like to blame John McCain for losing but that won’t help....’n I ain’t gonna blame George for it either....I know he’s unpopular but the people who voted for Obama because they dislike George Bush should learn how to read....’n it don’t do any good to tell ‘em that Bush ‘n Cheney ain’t responsible for them getting wet from standing in the rain. Folks, I got news for ya.....Obama, Pelosi ‘n Reid ain’t gonna hold an umbrella for you either....you’re gonna continue to get wet until you smarten up enuff to get yourself out’a the rain.....Nah! Obama won the election using the tried ‘n true strategy of the Democrat party.....Divide ‘n conquer using class warfare....promise the working class, the recent immigrant, ‘n the rebellious young that you’re gonna take from the rich ‘n give to the poor...Wall Street nabobs become King John ‘n the nobility, George Bush becomes the Sherrif of Nottingham ‘n Obama is Robin Hood riding to the rescue.....it’s the same tactic the Democrats always use ‘n this time the magic worked....fortunately, it doen’t alway...

All American......

"After the ball is over......"

Remember when we were all Americans.....Has it been so long ago that we’ve forgot?
I recall when I was a boy, I was a Kentuckian ‘n I teased brother John ‘cause he was born in Ohio...it still upsets him that Mom ‘n Dad were visiting Dad’s parents in Ohio when he was born...
I can’t recall anyone identifying themselves as anything-American....
The population wasn’t as large then but the country itself was pretty much the same size.....well, the lower 48 at least. We added Alaska ‘n Hawaii which turned out t’be a good thing for Sarah Palin....
But going back a couple hundred years, anyone born in this country was considered t’be an American....’n anyone who immigrated here from any other place in the ‘hull world ‘n could take a citizenship test ‘n become an American....’n millions of people did just that....
I don’t know just when we began identifying each other as hyphenated Americans ‘n I don’t think it matters much long as the hyphen goes before American ‘n not after....
If you want t’be African-American or Arab-American or Irish-American, that’s okay with me. If you stay off my toes, I’ll sure try ‘n stay off yours....
I purposefully left off referring to American Indians as Native American because it’s my belief that anyone born here is a ‘native’ American...
As opposed to a ‘naturalized’ American who, common sense should tell you, was born somewhere other than this p’ticklar country. ..
Like the Governator....Arnold was born in Austria but he’s as American as apple strudel. I suppose that in some realm of imagination, y’might refer to him as an Austrian-American but you might want to make sure that you were smiling when you did it....
Now, I’ve made no secret that I believe the Democrat Party’s strategy of class warfare is a bad thing...the fact that they been doing it since Tammany Hall don’t make it right.....
And tho’ it has evidently been a successful strategy for the Obama campaign, first against Hillary ‘n then against the Republicans, it still don’t make it right....
Once upon a time, Americans believed that it ‘didn’t matter whether you won or lost, but how you played the game.’ Perhaps that was never really true, Perhaps winning is all important. No matter the cost. Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead. There’s no such thing as second place....
Of course, the bad thing about an all-out war is that no one wins. Everybody loses. And this campaign has split the country right down the middle to a degree not seen since the great Civil War...
Ah well, there was a time when we were all.....just Americans....
And if that’s too damn sappy for you, why you can just go piss up a rope.

Eek....Egreck....Zed.....

or how I learned to stop worrying ‘n love the bomb! (O heck, that’s been used before.) There’s a line in Dr. Strangelove that asks what use is a doomsday machine if no one knows about it....Just wondering....has nuthin’ t’do with rest of this post.....

And for those of you who might be unfamiliar with the Alphabet de Francais....eek, egreck, zed....translates at X, Y ‘n Z.....the end of the alphabet and in this case, the end of the mother of all campaigns.....
Unfortunately, in this case ‘n I ain’t checked lately, how much does La Streisand weigh now....’n when Fat Barbra sings, will that signify the end of the Obama campaign that has so definitively split the USA.....
T’will be innarestin’ t’see if the country can ever unify again....Red ‘n blue combine t’make purple, which just happens t’be a very ‘in’ color this election year.....purple is s’pozed t’be a ‘royal’ color, Queenly, I imagine ‘n yeah, for those who might wonder, that was a slur. Sumtimes, I just get mean.
The ‘hull country has been so divided by this campaign that ya just gotta wonder what it’s gonna be like after.....y’know, day after tomorrow.....like, Wednesday....that’s assuming that the votes will have all been counted (what’a you wanna bet there’ll be less votes than voters...or versa vise).....It’s a possibility that Obama c’d very well win the popular vote ‘n lose the electoral vote....wouldn’t that be a kick in the....pants? Can’t y’just hear all the Dems screaming....not only the ones who screamed about George stealing the election twice but all those screaming fanatics around the world that believe that Obama is the 2nd coming.....’n if he is, then there’s a ‘hull lotta people better look out ‘cuz Obama seems t’be really big on payback...on t'other hand, Obama's been like the Charles Durning character in "Best little whorehouse...." He's very expert at 'doin' a little sidestep' so no one really knows what he stands for.....
But, there I go again...just can’t seem to quit bitchin’ ‘n whinin’........
C’est fini, mon Dieu ‘n about time sez I......
“They seek him here,they seek him there,
Those Frenchies seek him ev’rywhere.
Is he in Heaven, Is he in Hell,
That demmed elusive Pimpernel.”

What ev'ryone knows......

Leonard Pitts is an extremely erudite columnist who just happens to be an Obama supporter....that he happens also to be black is, I’m sure, of no particular consequence. He would no doubt support Obama if Obama was white. (I mean, who wouldn’t support a brilliant young white man with similar credentials.)
A poor boy with a single mother who handed him off to her own parents to raise; a smarter than average child who attended a number of diverse schools; a graduate of Harvard Law, etc. etc....a community organizer, a member of the Chicago Democrat machine, Illinois State Senator and, movin’ on up, junior senator to the U.S. Congress and on his way to becoming one of the youngest, most inexperienced Presidents ever. And he’s black. With a funny name.
Still, I’m sure that color has nothing to do with Leonard Pitts support for Obama. That might be construed as racist and everyone knows that Blacks (African Americans, Negroes, and a long time ago, People of the colored persuasion) simply can’t be racist. Only whites can be racist. And are. All whites. Even the ones that don’t wanna be. Like Bill Clinton, this country’s first ‘black’ President.
Or like so many American whites who, justifiably or not, carry the guilt of the white hypocrisy that created the system that created slavery in the first place.
(Has Snopes.com ever got around to debunking that urban myth?)
Ah well, Leonard Pitts is very good with words but I’ll remind him that those who deniy reason cannot be conquered by it.

November........

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
Its cloud illusions I recall...

Making six cups of coffee gives me two mugs....eight gives me three.....it’s a no-brainer to figure out that as the weather turns cooler, I’m gonna have t’make twelve cups just to kickstart myself.....
So I’m thinkin’ that I only had three cups of coffee this morning but since my fav’rite mug evidently holds more than two but less than three (you figure it out, too complicated f’me this early in the day)......anyways, what it is, dieticians come unglued if you tell ‘em that you drink eight to twelve cups of coffee on a daily basis... I had one tell me once that I should only eat half of a banana....I tried it, but then I ate the other half as well...couldn’t tell any difference......
T’other day, she told me that eating a large pear was the equivalent of eating two slices of bread.....with or without butter, I don’t know, I didn’t ask her....
I like bread ‘n I s’pect that I could eat a couple slices no problem, especially with a cup of coffee (or two) altho’ normally I would toast the bread ‘n add a dollop or two or three of butter....(maybe apple butter, I like apple butter, it’s a comfort food for me) but I like pears also...especially Bartlett pears when they’re in season....
S’funny if you come to think on it, when I was younger I used to really enjoy having stuff like pears or strawberries p’tickly when they were out of season... When I was a boy, only rich people could afford out of season stuff but times changed....store freezers are stocked with all kinds of stuff no matter the time of year....’n for the most part, pretty reasonably priced...but the funny thing is...I almost never buy stuff out’a season anymore...
I kind’a like looking forward to stuff comin’ into season....like strawberries...not in the stores but when y’can buy them right out’a the fields....they are so good fresh-picked that you can’t hardly get enuff of them (at least for a couple weeks).....
Teevee movies are the same way....years ago I bought a bunch of movies so that I c’d play ‘em anytime I wanted...then I found out that I didn’t want to play them, I preferred to wait until the powers that be decided to program them.....like the faux scary pics they program around Hallowe’en ‘n the sugarplum fantasies of Xmas...
I think it has t’do with getting older...a time for ev’ry season kind’a thing...’n it’s just possible that the weather, the change of season thing, is making me pensive.....
Years ago, way back in my way back when time, I used to take my shotgun ‘n wander the hills and the riverbank...I never really shot anything tho’ I suppose I tho’t that was my intention at the time...anyhow, way back then, I wrote a poem.....not a very good poem but thankfully a short poem....not quite sure exactly how it went but something like this:

November...
The air is crisp ‘n clear,
the hills are brown ‘n sere,
‘n I lay in the dry grasses,
dreaming......

Now, I told you it wasn’t very good but at least it was short....
And I gotta tell ya....T’day is the first day of November, 2008 ‘n there ain’t anything crisp ‘n clear about it...not here in northern California anyways.....it’s raining, a steady downpour from sodden skies...well, shoot fire, (as the old man used t’say) we need it. After two years of drought ‘n increased population using more water than any time in history, we’ve a severe water shortage to add to our list of trubbles here in the golden state....ah, the price of paradise.....
Back in the 80’s, son Dave gave me a fly rod ‘n I took up fly fishing for awhile...It’s a grand sport whether you catch fish or not ‘n I used to take my dogs ‘n walk down to the American ‘n spend an hour or so casting.....I never caught anything ‘n when the price of a fishing licence got too high, I gave it up....But I figured out why I used to take my gun ‘n go wand’ring ‘round the hills ‘n the riverbank.....
“Ommmmm........”

No resolution....

Okay! I’ve had enuff.....I’m officially tired of this never-ending election.....The Obama lunacy that dominates the television and newspapers has gone on far too long....The Obama candidacy has been a disaster for the United States.....not ‘might be’ or ‘will be’ but ‘is’ the most divisive since that most uncivil War between the States....
Obama has run the most racist and negative campaign on record.
I don’t know the person or group of people behind his candidacy. For all I know, for all any of us might know, Obama himself may just be a front man. He is indeed, a man of mystery, a ‘Jay Gatsby’ character that for all the public knows has been cut from ‘whole’ cloth.
What we do know is that this endless campaign has sown the seeds of discord that threaten the very fabric of our society.
Once upon a time, there was a shot heard ‘round the world that signified the birth of the grand experiment that has been America. History will mark the start of the twentyfirst century as the beginning of the end of that experiment and Obama, not as a Messiah, but as a modern Nero, a harbinger of impending doom.
The strategy of divide and conquer is working far too well to the detriment of our country and will not end with the election no matter who the elector. There is no resolution in the coming election; no winner in this internecine conflict....only chaos.