This is the end of Day Eight without glasses or, rather, without contact lenses. I've worn contacts since tenth grade, but I stopped wearing them last week to let my eyes get adjusted to "normal" in preparation for cataract surgery.
I'm wearing glasses made for my extreme myopia. They make everthing look small. Hold up a magnifying glass and look through it, and you'll see what I mean. Everything looks farther away than normal. My legs are longer, my feet are smaller. Crossing a street (on foot), I pay close attention to approaching cars. Women look about two sizes smaller, which is not a bad thing. I don't dare drive a car any time soon. In this traffic, I'd have a rear-ender before getting downtown.
Everything seems to be paying me special deference. The vertical lines of a door frame bow out as I walk through it. In a library, the ends of book shelves curve away from me as I approach. Looking down, curbs and steps seem to flatten out. None of this is good.
It is good that I'm a touch typist, but if I don't go back and correct my typos it would look like my spell checker went berserk and tried to convert my writing into a foreign language. I considered leaving my typos uncorrected here, just for laughs, but I'd look totally illiterate.
My optometrist said my brain would adjust to these glasses. I'm not sure I want it to. I should have the eye surgery in August and then I can send these glasses where I'll send my old contact lenses -- off to the land fill. There are organizations that collect old specs but I seriously doubt anybody could wear mine. On second thought, maybe I should donate them in case there's another poor soul out there with eyes as bad as mine.
Another good thing is that our county's bus system, as bad as it is, will let me get to and from my eye doctor's office in a reasonable time. This is remarkable because our bus system won't let me get to work in less than an hour and a half, for a trip that takes 25 to 30 minutes to drive. The bus system's routes make no sense. My kids will remember where the Bayside Bridge is. When constructed, it became the missing link in a major north-south artery. There is not one county bus that crosses that bridge. Not one. The bridge carries thousands of drivers daily, some of whom would rather ride a bus than pay four bucks a gallon for gas, but you can't get there from here.
How did I get onto that rant about the bus system? It distracts me from my current situation, stumbling around like Mr. Magoo. His problem was that he refused to wear his glasses. Mine is that they only "sort of" work. But this, too, shall pass.
One more good thing (hey, that's the third good thing here) is that I've rediscovered walking. The Safety Harbor Library is a 45-minute walk and I could probably do it faster. I've been there twice in a week. I plug my iPod into my ears and bop along, hoping for no rain.
That's all the good stuff I can stomach for this epistle. Tomorrow I'm going back to work for the first time in a week -- not that I really want to, but I don't want them to think they can get along fine without me.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
dem amazin' Rays
I've had a love-boredom relationship with baseball all my life. Growing up in Clearwater, the Spring Training home of the Phillies, I tried hard to be a Phillies fan. I saw Robin Roberts pitch. I got a cap with a funny-looking P glued to the front. The P eventually peeled off and so did my interest in baseball.
Fast-foward a long, long time. When our kids were little they started collecting baseball cards, featuring players I'd never heard of. We started watching games on TV, and when a player I never heard of came to bat, we all checked to see if we had his card. My interest in baseball began to perk up.
I bought a history of the rules of baseball and learned that the game goes 'way back. If you could resurrect your great-grandfathers and take them to a game, the game would look to them a lot like it did back when. Soldiers played baseball during the Civil War. The National League was started in 1876, the year Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were wiped out by the Indians.
I decided the history of baseball was more interesting than current events starring the Phillies and our hometown team, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays' franchise is going into its eleventh year and for ten years, they never had a winning season.
Until this year. Boy, this year! At the moment, they are the winningest team in Major League Baseball. If they hold on to their lead tonight against the Red Sox (5-2, top of the ninth), they will be 1 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox.
Can the Rays make it to post-season play? Sure they can. Even a blind old hog can find an acorn now and then. But this year they have the talent to surprise everybody.
Fast-foward a long, long time. When our kids were little they started collecting baseball cards, featuring players I'd never heard of. We started watching games on TV, and when a player I never heard of came to bat, we all checked to see if we had his card. My interest in baseball began to perk up.
I bought a history of the rules of baseball and learned that the game goes 'way back. If you could resurrect your great-grandfathers and take them to a game, the game would look to them a lot like it did back when. Soldiers played baseball during the Civil War. The National League was started in 1876, the year Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were wiped out by the Indians.
I decided the history of baseball was more interesting than current events starring the Phillies and our hometown team, the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays' franchise is going into its eleventh year and for ten years, they never had a winning season.
Until this year. Boy, this year! At the moment, they are the winningest team in Major League Baseball. If they hold on to their lead tonight against the Red Sox (5-2, top of the ninth), they will be 1 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox.
Can the Rays make it to post-season play? Sure they can. Even a blind old hog can find an acorn now and then. But this year they have the talent to surprise everybody.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
stormy Monday, and Tuesday, and . . .
Driving to work on Monday, I started thinking about the lyrics to "Call it Stormy Monday:"
They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad.
Wednesday's worse, . . .
I couldn't remember the line about Thursday (which is, "Thursday's also sad") and it was too far from Friday to see the eagle getting ready to fly.
The summer weather pattern has started up in Florida and we are having stormy Mondays every day of the week, which is fine by me except I ought to mow the lawn twice a week to keep up.
Some miscellaneous gripes before heading down the River of Steel to work:
Our governor's honeymoon is over. Now that he's a semi-serious V.P. candidate, the nature of his political whoreness has become painfully obvious. He's advocating drilling for oil in the Gulf, off the Florida coastline, which nobody here wants to see. Yesterday he announced a Big Deal with U.S. Sugar to buy lots of swampland for a couple billion dollars, which is being touted (or pimped) as a conservation measure. The state is laying off workers, crimping on its criminal justice system, and cutting back on vital social services, but it seems we have a water management district that is rolling in cash and doesn't know where else to spend it.
Locally, we have a Big Business (no, not the Rays, yet) that is threatening to leave town if the city and county don't come up with a bag of economic incentives. There's a secret deal cooking. This will be another exercise in government subsidies by people who otherwise call themselves "conservatives."
Further south, a young man lost his left arm to an 11-foot alligator in a canal. He survived because he's strong enough to keep hold of a cable despite the alligator's subjecting him to four or five "death rolls." On national TV this morning, he said he's grown up with alligators and they've never bothered him before, but he's noticed they have become more competitive, that is to say, more aggressive and more likely to become man-eaters, in the last few years because Florida is up to its ass in alligators. We have a surplus of the slithery reptiles because the animal rights advocates have been buying up about two-thirds of the annual permits for 'gator catching and not using them. So, we have more of the protected critters occupying a smaller and smaller habitat, and they've lost their fear of humans.
I could go on, but somebody might miss me at work. I don't want to miss seeing the eagle fly on schedule.
They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday's just as bad.
Wednesday's worse, . . .
I couldn't remember the line about Thursday (which is, "Thursday's also sad") and it was too far from Friday to see the eagle getting ready to fly.
The summer weather pattern has started up in Florida and we are having stormy Mondays every day of the week, which is fine by me except I ought to mow the lawn twice a week to keep up.
Some miscellaneous gripes before heading down the River of Steel to work:
Our governor's honeymoon is over. Now that he's a semi-serious V.P. candidate, the nature of his political whoreness has become painfully obvious. He's advocating drilling for oil in the Gulf, off the Florida coastline, which nobody here wants to see. Yesterday he announced a Big Deal with U.S. Sugar to buy lots of swampland for a couple billion dollars, which is being touted (or pimped) as a conservation measure. The state is laying off workers, crimping on its criminal justice system, and cutting back on vital social services, but it seems we have a water management district that is rolling in cash and doesn't know where else to spend it.
Locally, we have a Big Business (no, not the Rays, yet) that is threatening to leave town if the city and county don't come up with a bag of economic incentives. There's a secret deal cooking. This will be another exercise in government subsidies by people who otherwise call themselves "conservatives."
Further south, a young man lost his left arm to an 11-foot alligator in a canal. He survived because he's strong enough to keep hold of a cable despite the alligator's subjecting him to four or five "death rolls." On national TV this morning, he said he's grown up with alligators and they've never bothered him before, but he's noticed they have become more competitive, that is to say, more aggressive and more likely to become man-eaters, in the last few years because Florida is up to its ass in alligators. We have a surplus of the slithery reptiles because the animal rights advocates have been buying up about two-thirds of the annual permits for 'gator catching and not using them. So, we have more of the protected critters occupying a smaller and smaller habitat, and they've lost their fear of humans.
I could go on, but somebody might miss me at work. I don't want to miss seeing the eagle fly on schedule.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Father's Day
When Shakespeare wrote that "the good [that men do] is oft interred with their bones," he never met my father. Dad left a good name that was remembered long after his death, even back in the small Kentucky town he came from. When I wish I had someone to talk to about a problem, I can think of him and what I believe he would tell me, and I'm comforted.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
a whole new view of things is coming up
In about four weeks, daily living will get very interesting for me.
Between now and then we have one Rays game to go to (if not more), a mini-trip back to Palm Beach County to see sights we haven't seen in years, and a trip to Boston for the Fourth of July, the birthdays of two people close to our hearts, and a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.
When we get back, it will get really interesting. I will take out the contact lenses I have worn since tenth grade -- well, not the exact same lenses, of course -- which replaced glasses I began wearing in the first grade. I may as well flush the contact lenses down the toilet because I don't plan to wear them ever again. Instead, I will allow my eyes at least three weeks to get accustomed to their normal (lousy) shape, and then I'll go in for cataract surgery.
Yep, that's the kind of surgery for old people, and for people like me who develop cataracts. I've been expecting this for eight or nine years, ever since my ophthalmologist told me I was beginning to develop cataracts, but I figured it would happen in five or ten more years -- you know, when I become an old guy. That good doctor has since passed on to his reward but another doctor in his office has told me that I am now a candidate for the procedure. (That's a code word that means the insurance will pay for it.)
My optometrist put it to me bluntly: One eye is 20-40, the other is 20-70, and he can't make lenses that will do any better for me. The cloudiness in my left eye? That's not caused by a dirty, oily, greasy contact lens, which was my theory. It's caused by a cataract which will do nothing with the passage of time but get worse.
The clincher was this: Since I know I'm going to have it done sooner or later AND I know I will be able to see better afterwards . . . why wait?
I had no good answer. Back to see my ophthalmologist again. Now we are serious. I had several questions, one of which was (and I don't want to insult you, doctor, but) can it be done over if something goes wrong, such as putting the wrong artificial lens in the wrong eye, or I'm seeing 20-100 when I come out of it? Answer: Yes, there are several possible ways to deal with such problems, one of which is replacing the bad lens. Another could be Lasik surgery to fine-tune the results.
So, I'm sold. I'd do it tomorrow if we could. Instead, I'm to wear eyeglasses to get around for a week, then see him again, then see him again two weeks after that. He does surgeries on Mondays so it could be the first or second Monday in August when he does the left eye, and another two weeks before the right eye. Meanwhile, I'm Mr. Magoo without the glasses and a guy looking through binoculars, turned the wrong way, with the specs on.
Assuming all goes well, I should be "normal" before Labor Day, whatever that means. My eyes haven't been normal since I was in kindergarten.
Between now and then we have one Rays game to go to (if not more), a mini-trip back to Palm Beach County to see sights we haven't seen in years, and a trip to Boston for the Fourth of July, the birthdays of two people close to our hearts, and a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.
When we get back, it will get really interesting. I will take out the contact lenses I have worn since tenth grade -- well, not the exact same lenses, of course -- which replaced glasses I began wearing in the first grade. I may as well flush the contact lenses down the toilet because I don't plan to wear them ever again. Instead, I will allow my eyes at least three weeks to get accustomed to their normal (lousy) shape, and then I'll go in for cataract surgery.
Yep, that's the kind of surgery for old people, and for people like me who develop cataracts. I've been expecting this for eight or nine years, ever since my ophthalmologist told me I was beginning to develop cataracts, but I figured it would happen in five or ten more years -- you know, when I become an old guy. That good doctor has since passed on to his reward but another doctor in his office has told me that I am now a candidate for the procedure. (That's a code word that means the insurance will pay for it.)
My optometrist put it to me bluntly: One eye is 20-40, the other is 20-70, and he can't make lenses that will do any better for me. The cloudiness in my left eye? That's not caused by a dirty, oily, greasy contact lens, which was my theory. It's caused by a cataract which will do nothing with the passage of time but get worse.
The clincher was this: Since I know I'm going to have it done sooner or later AND I know I will be able to see better afterwards . . . why wait?
I had no good answer. Back to see my ophthalmologist again. Now we are serious. I had several questions, one of which was (and I don't want to insult you, doctor, but) can it be done over if something goes wrong, such as putting the wrong artificial lens in the wrong eye, or I'm seeing 20-100 when I come out of it? Answer: Yes, there are several possible ways to deal with such problems, one of which is replacing the bad lens. Another could be Lasik surgery to fine-tune the results.
So, I'm sold. I'd do it tomorrow if we could. Instead, I'm to wear eyeglasses to get around for a week, then see him again, then see him again two weeks after that. He does surgeries on Mondays so it could be the first or second Monday in August when he does the left eye, and another two weeks before the right eye. Meanwhile, I'm Mr. Magoo without the glasses and a guy looking through binoculars, turned the wrong way, with the specs on.
Assuming all goes well, I should be "normal" before Labor Day, whatever that means. My eyes haven't been normal since I was in kindergarten.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Charlie Chan
I've been hanging around with a low grade fever and a touch of bronchitis for a couple of days. I went to work today and will go tomorrow on the theory that spreading the germs will allow them to leave me sooner. Meanwhile, I've been watching Charlie Chan movies.
Charlie Chan had a aphorism for every situation, whether it was his honorable son-in-law calling from the hospital to report on the status of Charlie's about to become a grandfather, or advice to his Number One or Number Two sons, or a retort to a police officer who wanted to move too hastily.
Naturally, using Google, you can find them all. Here are a few of my favorite Charlie Chan aphorisms from the two movies I saw tonight and a couple I want to see:
Magnifying female charms very ancient optical illusion. (Charlie Chan at the Circus, to his Number One son)
One ounce of experience worth ton of detective books. (Charlie Chan at the Circus, to his son)
Ancient ancestor once say, "As mind is fed with silent thought, so should body absorb its food." (Charlie Chan in Honolulu)
Opinion like tea leaf in hot water - both need time for brewing. (Charlie Chan in Honolulu)
Waiting for tomorrow waste of today. (Charlie Chan in Egypt)
Charlie Chan had a aphorism for every situation, whether it was his honorable son-in-law calling from the hospital to report on the status of Charlie's about to become a grandfather, or advice to his Number One or Number Two sons, or a retort to a police officer who wanted to move too hastily.
Naturally, using Google, you can find them all. Here are a few of my favorite Charlie Chan aphorisms from the two movies I saw tonight and a couple I want to see:
Magnifying female charms very ancient optical illusion. (Charlie Chan at the Circus, to his Number One son)
One ounce of experience worth ton of detective books. (Charlie Chan at the Circus, to his son)
Ancient ancestor once say, "As mind is fed with silent thought, so should body absorb its food." (Charlie Chan in Honolulu)
Opinion like tea leaf in hot water - both need time for brewing. (Charlie Chan in Honolulu)
Waiting for tomorrow waste of today. (Charlie Chan in Egypt)
Friday, June 06, 2008
swing and a miss
Rays pitcher James Shields takes a swing at Coco Crisp after Crisp was hit by a pitch and charged the mound. June 5, 2008, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Rays, again
When I foolishly predicted the Cubs and the Rays would meet in the World Series this year, I said the Red Sox were the only team to keep the Rays out of it.
The Rays just finished a series in Boston and got swept, again. The team that beat the Red Sox at home can't keep it together at Fenway, although they do seem able to hold their own in brawling. (Note to coaches: Please teach the Rays how to connect with their punches).
Meanwhile, the Cubs still look good. They are 9-1 in their last ten games.
New prediction: Cubs and Red Sox in the World Series. One team with a curse, one with a broken curse. This will be the Series that should have occurred in 2003.
The Rays just finished a series in Boston and got swept, again. The team that beat the Red Sox at home can't keep it together at Fenway, although they do seem able to hold their own in brawling. (Note to coaches: Please teach the Rays how to connect with their punches).
Meanwhile, the Cubs still look good. They are 9-1 in their last ten games.
New prediction: Cubs and Red Sox in the World Series. One team with a curse, one with a broken curse. This will be the Series that should have occurred in 2003.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
more Rays, Cubs
Further evidence that nobody reads this blog: A few days ago I predicted that the Rays and the Cubs will be in the World Series this year, for the first time since 1945 (Cubs) or since forever (Rays). Nobody has responded (such as by saying, "are you nuts, or what?").
Of particular interest, the Cubs and Rays continue their winning ways, proving that this blog does not have the effect that Sports Illustrated covers have had on athletes' careers.
As of this morning, the two teams in MLB with the best win-loss percentages are the Cubs and the Rays. Only two teams have won 8 of their last 10 games - the Cubs and the Rays.
This happy dream could end over the next three days, when the Rays play the Red Sox. They are 3-3 against each other. They each swept the other in their home stadiums (stadia?).
In two weeks, the Cubs come to St. Petersburg for three interleague games. You can guess where I'll be for at least one of those nights.
Speaking of Sports Illustrated, does anyone out there have the issue with the comic-book cover, showing a Rays player swinging a Yankees player around over his head? If so . . . how much do you want for it? I might be interested . . . at our local Borders book store they sold out within 45 minutes of that issue's hitting the stand.
Of particular interest, the Cubs and Rays continue their winning ways, proving that this blog does not have the effect that Sports Illustrated covers have had on athletes' careers.
As of this morning, the two teams in MLB with the best win-loss percentages are the Cubs and the Rays. Only two teams have won 8 of their last 10 games - the Cubs and the Rays.
This happy dream could end over the next three days, when the Rays play the Red Sox. They are 3-3 against each other. They each swept the other in their home stadiums (stadia?).
In two weeks, the Cubs come to St. Petersburg for three interleague games. You can guess where I'll be for at least one of those nights.
Speaking of Sports Illustrated, does anyone out there have the issue with the comic-book cover, showing a Rays player swinging a Yankees player around over his head? If so . . . how much do you want for it? I might be interested . . . at our local Borders book store they sold out within 45 minutes of that issue's hitting the stand.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
post-script
Having set myself up for lifetime ridicule (see below: Rays and Cubs in the World Series this year - is he serious?), I had to check on the Cubs last night to see if they could keep up with the Rays. They were behind the Dodgers 1-0 until the bottom of the ninth when they tied it up, and then they won in the tenth inning. Very impressive, guys! That left the win-loss percentage for the Cubs and the Rays tied at the top among all MLB teams. It was good to see Lou Piniella win although it was a tough loss for the Dodgers.
Naturally, the Rays dropped their game with the White Sox tonight. I'll have to check tomorrow's paper to see who's standing where after today's games.
It's a long season. We shall see . . .
Naturally, the Rays dropped their game with the White Sox tonight. I'll have to check tomorrow's paper to see who's standing where after today's games.
It's a long season. We shall see . . .
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
almost spoke too soon, and a modest prediction
Even as I was saying how good the Rays are this year, they were getting bombed by the Texas Rangers. I got home late, turned the game on, and the score was 7-4 Texas. Then it became 8-5 Texas. Then a Texan hit a grand-slam homer and it was 12-5 Texas. Ouch.
Even with that loss, the Rays were tied with the Cubs for the best winning percentage in major league baseball as of this morning. The Cubs!
But this afternoon the Rays came back and won, 5-3. Their percentage is back up to .604 with 32 wins and 21 losses. The Cubs, with 31 wins and 21 losses, play tonight.
The Rays! The Cubs!
The Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908 (yes, folks, exacly one century ago) and have not appeared in the World Series since 1945. I might have heard that game on the radio but I wasn't old enough to walk.
The Rays have been around for ten seasons plus this one, and for ten seasons they have smelled like really old fish. They've never finished a season with a winning record.
You might remember how, in 2003, there was a brief moment when it looked like the Cubs and the Red Sox could have gone to the World Series. That would have been good for baseball, and good for the country. It never happened. The Red Sox had to wait another year. Cubs fans are still dying from old age while waiting.
Prediction: In 2008, the World Series will be between the Rays and the Cubs. You read it here first. Only the Red Sox have the ability to keep the Rays from going that far.
Even with that loss, the Rays were tied with the Cubs for the best winning percentage in major league baseball as of this morning. The Cubs!
But this afternoon the Rays came back and won, 5-3. Their percentage is back up to .604 with 32 wins and 21 losses. The Cubs, with 31 wins and 21 losses, play tonight.
The Rays! The Cubs!
The Cubs have not won the World Series since 1908 (yes, folks, exacly one century ago) and have not appeared in the World Series since 1945. I might have heard that game on the radio but I wasn't old enough to walk.
The Rays have been around for ten seasons plus this one, and for ten seasons they have smelled like really old fish. They've never finished a season with a winning record.
You might remember how, in 2003, there was a brief moment when it looked like the Cubs and the Red Sox could have gone to the World Series. That would have been good for baseball, and good for the country. It never happened. The Red Sox had to wait another year. Cubs fans are still dying from old age while waiting.
Prediction: In 2008, the World Series will be between the Rays and the Cubs. You read it here first. Only the Red Sox have the ability to keep the Rays from going that far.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
who ARE these guys?
Long-suffering fans of the Tampa Bay Rays - or at least those who haven't been to a game this season - are reading but having trouble understanding this morning's news: The Rays are number one in the American League East. They are also number one in major league baseball, with the highest win-loss ratio of all MLB teams - or, they are as I type this.
I'm still a Red Sox fan but these guys, barely ahead of the Red Sox (but way ahead of the Yankees) have captured my attention. They are fun to watch, too.
Traditionally, the Rays have faded quickly after the All Star break. We'll see how good they look in August.
I'm still a Red Sox fan but these guys, barely ahead of the Red Sox (but way ahead of the Yankees) have captured my attention. They are fun to watch, too.
Traditionally, the Rays have faded quickly after the All Star break. We'll see how good they look in August.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
odds and ends
I haven't done this lately. Here are odds and ends not worth an entry by themselves:
I got a "survey" in the mail from Howard Dean, the Democratic National Party chairman. It's all made up to look official, with "registered" something-or-other in three places on the envelope and a cover letter from Dean asking for money. They were beginning to teach public opinion surveying when I was a government major at FSU, and I remember enough to recognize a bogus survey when I see it. I'm sending it in, though. I'm telling them what I think about the DNC's not seating the Florida delegates and the Democratic candidates ignoring Florida except to come in for fund-raisers. I'm proud to have omitted obscenities and profanities. They won't read it anyway, after seeing no check fall out of the envelope.
Obama and Hillarious are in Florida today. I wish them well but where have they been all during this campaign? I'm a Democrat the same way Will Rogers was a Democrat ("I don't belong to an organized political party. . ."). I'll hold my nose and vote Democratic in November because nobody can afford to pay me enough to vote for John McBush II.
Speaking of Bush, the man Garrison Keillor calls the "Current Occupant" now has 243 days left in office, or a little less than 35 weeks. Most babies conceived in the past two to seven weeks will be born with a Democrat in the White House.
On a somewhat brighter note, they've autopsied a man whose body was being guarded by a gator and concluded that he drowned with no assistance from the gator. This came too late to save the gator, however. You can read about it here:
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/5/18/349430.html
This news came a couple of weeks after a professional golfball retriever was attacked by a gator at a golf course but fended him off, after gouging him (the gator) in the eye and telling him Bobby Bowden was on the next green with a couple of FSU football players carrying gigs and a big rope. Just kidding about Bowden and the FSU players. The golfball retriever wears a wet suit and a Scuba tank, which makes the job somewhat harder for the gator.
Sometime this summer I will be undergoing eye surgery -- cataract surgery. I've worn glasses since the first grade and contact lenses since tenth grade, but my vision in one eye is getting cloudy and the acuity in both eyes is not good. At some point I will have to take the contacts out and wear glasses for several weeks. I haven't worn glasses since I went to ROTC summer camp 40-plus years ago. My new glasses resemble the bottom of the glass I'm drinking out of as I type this. Wearing them is going to require a lot of time to get used to them, because everything looks a mile away. I'll keep you posted.
I got a "survey" in the mail from Howard Dean, the Democratic National Party chairman. It's all made up to look official, with "registered" something-or-other in three places on the envelope and a cover letter from Dean asking for money. They were beginning to teach public opinion surveying when I was a government major at FSU, and I remember enough to recognize a bogus survey when I see it. I'm sending it in, though. I'm telling them what I think about the DNC's not seating the Florida delegates and the Democratic candidates ignoring Florida except to come in for fund-raisers. I'm proud to have omitted obscenities and profanities. They won't read it anyway, after seeing no check fall out of the envelope.
Obama and Hillarious are in Florida today. I wish them well but where have they been all during this campaign? I'm a Democrat the same way Will Rogers was a Democrat ("I don't belong to an organized political party. . ."). I'll hold my nose and vote Democratic in November because nobody can afford to pay me enough to vote for John McBush II.
Speaking of Bush, the man Garrison Keillor calls the "Current Occupant" now has 243 days left in office, or a little less than 35 weeks. Most babies conceived in the past two to seven weeks will be born with a Democrat in the White House.
On a somewhat brighter note, they've autopsied a man whose body was being guarded by a gator and concluded that he drowned with no assistance from the gator. This came too late to save the gator, however. You can read about it here:
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2008/5/18/349430.html
This news came a couple of weeks after a professional golfball retriever was attacked by a gator at a golf course but fended him off, after gouging him (the gator) in the eye and telling him Bobby Bowden was on the next green with a couple of FSU football players carrying gigs and a big rope. Just kidding about Bowden and the FSU players. The golfball retriever wears a wet suit and a Scuba tank, which makes the job somewhat harder for the gator.
Sometime this summer I will be undergoing eye surgery -- cataract surgery. I've worn glasses since the first grade and contact lenses since tenth grade, but my vision in one eye is getting cloudy and the acuity in both eyes is not good. At some point I will have to take the contacts out and wear glasses for several weeks. I haven't worn glasses since I went to ROTC summer camp 40-plus years ago. My new glasses resemble the bottom of the glass I'm drinking out of as I type this. Wearing them is going to require a lot of time to get used to them, because everything looks a mile away. I'll keep you posted.
Monday, May 05, 2008
gas tax pandering
The politicians who advocate a federal gas tax holiday can't be serious - can they? Does Hillary really believe the gas companies won't turn around and raise the price of gas if they have to pay another tax? How do you spell "pandering?"
The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. If you are paying $3.50/gallon, that's 5.25% of the total, and as prices go up, the percentage drops. That would short-change the federal government by some $9 billion, which wouldn't normally break my heart except this money is supposed to go to road and bridge maintenance and replacement. Did you know that the U.S. national debt is already 9.35 TRILLION dollars? Check this out: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
5.25 percent is chump change. How'd you like to save about 15 percent without crippling the federal budget, and without worrying about the "holiday" coming to an end?
Saving 15 percent (or 52.5 cents/gallon if you are paying $3.50/gallon) is easy.
S. L. O. W. -- D. O. W. N.
I don't mean become a slowpoke, and I don't mean become the guy who crawls along while traffic backs up and road rage mounts. I do mean, don't speed. No jack-rabbit starts. Take it easy. Keep the passing lane open, but stick to the speed limit or a little less. Let all those SUV's and pick-up trucks go by.
If you drive 10 mph faster, your fuel consumption drops 4 mpg. Or, slow down by 10 mpg and your mileage will get 4 mpg better. If you are getting 24 mpg driving fast, getting 28 mpg is a 16.7 percent improvement.
Those are test results and "results may vary," but you get the point. My car was getting 33 or 34 mpg until the last fill-up, and then it was only 31.94 mpg. I think I've spent too much time driving with the hammer down, and I'm going to be more conscientious about my speed. Better mileage means stopping for gas less often and spending less on fuel over the long term. That would beat this silly gas tax holiday idea.
The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. If you are paying $3.50/gallon, that's 5.25% of the total, and as prices go up, the percentage drops. That would short-change the federal government by some $9 billion, which wouldn't normally break my heart except this money is supposed to go to road and bridge maintenance and replacement. Did you know that the U.S. national debt is already 9.35 TRILLION dollars? Check this out: http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
5.25 percent is chump change. How'd you like to save about 15 percent without crippling the federal budget, and without worrying about the "holiday" coming to an end?
Saving 15 percent (or 52.5 cents/gallon if you are paying $3.50/gallon) is easy.
S. L. O. W. -- D. O. W. N.
I don't mean become a slowpoke, and I don't mean become the guy who crawls along while traffic backs up and road rage mounts. I do mean, don't speed. No jack-rabbit starts. Take it easy. Keep the passing lane open, but stick to the speed limit or a little less. Let all those SUV's and pick-up trucks go by.
If you drive 10 mph faster, your fuel consumption drops 4 mpg. Or, slow down by 10 mpg and your mileage will get 4 mpg better. If you are getting 24 mpg driving fast, getting 28 mpg is a 16.7 percent improvement.
Those are test results and "results may vary," but you get the point. My car was getting 33 or 34 mpg until the last fill-up, and then it was only 31.94 mpg. I think I've spent too much time driving with the hammer down, and I'm going to be more conscientious about my speed. Better mileage means stopping for gas less often and spending less on fuel over the long term. That would beat this silly gas tax holiday idea.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Dioner Navarro tags one
A week ago, the Rays looked great against the Red Sox. They aren't looking so hot this weekend at Fenway. C'est la guerre. I took this from the upper deck.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
catching up
A few notes to catch up on some odd topics:
OK, so Hillary won in Pennsylvania, despite my prognostication to the contrary. She was ten points ahead going in and ten points ahead at the end, and all that sound and fury didn't signify much. She's still treading water. If Obama can shake loose from that lunatic minister who appears devoted to sinking Obama's candidacy, he will win.
I think it would be only fair for a lunatic NOW leader to resurrect the Equal Rights Amendment over the next few weeks. By lunatic I mean strident and obnoxious, the kind who would love Hillary to death by conjuring up all the old Uppity Women fears that some people still have. My wife was a NOW member and we were disappointed the Florida Legislature wouldn't ratify the ERA, but that was 30+ years ago. It is time to trot out those ERA demons again, like the fear of unisex bathrooms. Believe it or not, that was an actual "talking point" by ERA opponents. If that were to happen now, Hillary would hate it.
I'm glad she's still a contender. I think the party ought to make its decision at the convention, not months ahead of time. This infuriates the former "news" media, which should now be called the entertainment media, because they want their talking-head pontificators to preside over the selection process. I don't smoke but I'm not a delegate either, so I say, let 'em decide in smoke-filled rooms like they have for two hundred years.
Changing subjects: My daughter in California is now paying $3.999999 cents a gallon for gasoline. It's no mere coincidence that the gas prices are going up just as the federal tax rebate checks are going out in the mail. How clever that the U.S. oil cabal, who have friends in high places in Washington, jacked up the prices in time to siphon off the tax rebate checks. This is clumsier than a direct subsidy from Washington but just as effective, and it is better than having those federal rebate checks going to the Chinese suppliers of goods at Wal-Mart. (My check will go back to the bank account from which I paid my income tax this year. You can't get more patriotic than that.) Prediction: Gas prices will stabilize and come down after the rebate checks have been spent to pay off gasoline credit cards.
Changing subjects again: I just dropped a bundle on a new Nikon digital single-lens reflex camera, and a telephoto lens. The telephoto has an image stabilization feature that works nicely. From the upper deck at the Tropicana Dome, I shot some pictures of various Rays and Red Sox pitchers and batters . . . available light, hand-held telephoto . . . and stopped not only the batters but the ball in mid-flight. In one shot, I got the ball as it made contact with the bat, or vice versa. I'll post that photo here, later.
Speaking of the Rays: They now have a winning season going for them, which they've never had so "late" in the season during their miserable franchise history. They swept the Red Sox 3-0 here, then took the Orioles 2-1 in Baltimore. Now they face the Red Sox again, in Bahston, and we'll see what kind of team they really are. I think they are a VERY good team this year. Their infield is near-perfect, their batters score when they need to, and the pitching staff finally has the talent to win.
I'm happy to see the Rays beat the Red Sox because it happens so seldom. Just as long as the Red Sox stay ahead of the Yankees.
OK, so Hillary won in Pennsylvania, despite my prognostication to the contrary. She was ten points ahead going in and ten points ahead at the end, and all that sound and fury didn't signify much. She's still treading water. If Obama can shake loose from that lunatic minister who appears devoted to sinking Obama's candidacy, he will win.
I think it would be only fair for a lunatic NOW leader to resurrect the Equal Rights Amendment over the next few weeks. By lunatic I mean strident and obnoxious, the kind who would love Hillary to death by conjuring up all the old Uppity Women fears that some people still have. My wife was a NOW member and we were disappointed the Florida Legislature wouldn't ratify the ERA, but that was 30+ years ago. It is time to trot out those ERA demons again, like the fear of unisex bathrooms. Believe it or not, that was an actual "talking point" by ERA opponents. If that were to happen now, Hillary would hate it.
I'm glad she's still a contender. I think the party ought to make its decision at the convention, not months ahead of time. This infuriates the former "news" media, which should now be called the entertainment media, because they want their talking-head pontificators to preside over the selection process. I don't smoke but I'm not a delegate either, so I say, let 'em decide in smoke-filled rooms like they have for two hundred years.
Changing subjects: My daughter in California is now paying $3.999999 cents a gallon for gasoline. It's no mere coincidence that the gas prices are going up just as the federal tax rebate checks are going out in the mail. How clever that the U.S. oil cabal, who have friends in high places in Washington, jacked up the prices in time to siphon off the tax rebate checks. This is clumsier than a direct subsidy from Washington but just as effective, and it is better than having those federal rebate checks going to the Chinese suppliers of goods at Wal-Mart. (My check will go back to the bank account from which I paid my income tax this year. You can't get more patriotic than that.) Prediction: Gas prices will stabilize and come down after the rebate checks have been spent to pay off gasoline credit cards.
Changing subjects again: I just dropped a bundle on a new Nikon digital single-lens reflex camera, and a telephoto lens. The telephoto has an image stabilization feature that works nicely. From the upper deck at the Tropicana Dome, I shot some pictures of various Rays and Red Sox pitchers and batters . . . available light, hand-held telephoto . . . and stopped not only the batters but the ball in mid-flight. In one shot, I got the ball as it made contact with the bat, or vice versa. I'll post that photo here, later.
Speaking of the Rays: They now have a winning season going for them, which they've never had so "late" in the season during their miserable franchise history. They swept the Red Sox 3-0 here, then took the Orioles 2-1 in Baltimore. Now they face the Red Sox again, in Bahston, and we'll see what kind of team they really are. I think they are a VERY good team this year. Their infield is near-perfect, their batters score when they need to, and the pitching staff finally has the talent to win.
I'm happy to see the Rays beat the Red Sox because it happens so seldom. Just as long as the Red Sox stay ahead of the Yankees.
Monday, April 21, 2008
election day in Pennsylvania, thank God
Tomorrow is election day in Pennsylvania. I really look forward to seeing the results.
I have much more confidence in the voters of Pennsylvania than I have in any of the political talking heads of the "news" media. All they've talked about for weeks is the significance of comments about people who "cling" to their religious beliefs, their guns, and their disdain for people not like them.
What does it mean to "cling?" If you wake up in the morning and thank God for allowing you to make it through another night, if you pray a dozen times a day for minor miracles such as an open parking space in front of the courthouse when you are about to be late for a hearing, or for a safe flight to North Carolna and return, you are clinging to a religious belief.
Is there anything wrong with that? No. Absolutely not.
The same can be said for "clinging" to the belief that you can defend yourself with a gun. If you believe that you can find it when you need it, load it, put a round in the chamber, release the safety, aim it, and not shoot yourself in the foot or shoot a neighbor or a family member while trying to shoot a bad guy. . .go ahead. Believe what you want. Cling to that belief. It's as American as the coonskin cap and the Kentucky long rifle.
The disdain for people not like you is human nature. Just remember that we have a Constitution that is predicated on the idea that all men, and women, are created equal, and don't actually do anything stupid. Others have likely looked upon you with disdain, too.
Back to Pennsylvania. I was at dinner with fellow book club refugees, five of us, and I was the only one predicting that Obama will edge Hillary out tomorrow. My guess was, by five percent.
We shall see. I can hardly wait.
I have much more confidence in the voters of Pennsylvania than I have in any of the political talking heads of the "news" media. All they've talked about for weeks is the significance of comments about people who "cling" to their religious beliefs, their guns, and their disdain for people not like them.
What does it mean to "cling?" If you wake up in the morning and thank God for allowing you to make it through another night, if you pray a dozen times a day for minor miracles such as an open parking space in front of the courthouse when you are about to be late for a hearing, or for a safe flight to North Carolna and return, you are clinging to a religious belief.
Is there anything wrong with that? No. Absolutely not.
The same can be said for "clinging" to the belief that you can defend yourself with a gun. If you believe that you can find it when you need it, load it, put a round in the chamber, release the safety, aim it, and not shoot yourself in the foot or shoot a neighbor or a family member while trying to shoot a bad guy. . .go ahead. Believe what you want. Cling to that belief. It's as American as the coonskin cap and the Kentucky long rifle.
The disdain for people not like you is human nature. Just remember that we have a Constitution that is predicated on the idea that all men, and women, are created equal, and don't actually do anything stupid. Others have likely looked upon you with disdain, too.
Back to Pennsylvania. I was at dinner with fellow book club refugees, five of us, and I was the only one predicting that Obama will edge Hillary out tomorrow. My guess was, by five percent.
We shall see. I can hardly wait.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
baseball season
I love the beginning of baseball season. Spring training is the surest sign that Spring is in the air, and once the season starts you can count on a newspaper headline such as the following:
"NY Yankees unearth buried Red Sox jersey from new stadium"
You can see the whole story below, but the gist of the story is that a construction worker buried a Red Sox jersey in a service corridor in the new Yankees Stadium, and they had to use a jackhammer to get it out from under two feet of concrete. It was a #34 jersey for David "Big Papi" Ortiz.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-yankees-cursefoiled&prov=ap&type=lgns
"NY Yankees unearth buried Red Sox jersey from new stadium"
You can see the whole story below, but the gist of the story is that a construction worker buried a Red Sox jersey in a service corridor in the new Yankees Stadium, and they had to use a jackhammer to get it out from under two feet of concrete. It was a #34 jersey for David "Big Papi" Ortiz.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-yankees-cursefoiled&prov=ap&type=lgns
Monday, March 24, 2008
Monday, March 03, 2008
Baptist church, Louisville, circa 1950
In an earlier phase of my life I was a Southern Baptist. In this photo, I was attending Vacation Bible School at the tender age of 6, more or less. I thought I knew the name of the church but, as it turns out, I was wrong. I'll post this here in hopes that somebody, somewhere, might recognize it. The architecture is unusual for a Baptist church but you have to admire the window.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
9 trillion is a BIG number
A few days ago I said the national debt is $9 trillion. That's $9,000,000,000, I said.
It occurred to me this morning that I was off by a factor of one thousand. $9,000,000,000 is a mere nine billion dollars.
Nine trillion of anything is actually 9,000,000,000,000, and an alert reader pointed that out (see below).
I wish I could claim to have done that just to see if anybody is actually reading this blog. I'm glad to see somebody is.
It occurred to me this morning that I was off by a factor of one thousand. $9,000,000,000 is a mere nine billion dollars.
Nine trillion of anything is actually 9,000,000,000,000, and an alert reader pointed that out (see below).
I wish I could claim to have done that just to see if anybody is actually reading this blog. I'm glad to see somebody is.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Sadie Hawkins Day
I wasn't kidding about Sadie Hawkins Day (see below). It always puzzled me that Al Capp didn't associate it with Leap Day or Leap Year, but it worked.
Sadie Hawkins Day
Originally uploaded by galbr8th
Leap Day!
This is a "free day" we get once every four years, so make the best of it! It ought to be a national holiday so we could sleep in, or get up early to go fishing or skiing, or wait for something magical to happen, like the one day every hundred years when the Scottish village of Brigadoon reappears.
But, no. It will be just another day at work for most of us, an imperfect way to make the calendar coincide with the time required for the Earth to encircle the Sun.
Consider this: We have presidential elections every Leap Year. We have the Summer Olympics every Leap Year. I was born in a Leap Year but, thankfully, not on Leap Day, or else I'd have had a lifetime of confusion and joking about when to celebrate my birthday (the correct answer should be: every Saturday night).
One quaint custom associated with Leap Day is that this is when a woman may propose marriage, and a variation is that she may do so on any day of a Leap Year. This reminds me of Sadie Hawkins Day, which became a feature of Al Capp's "Li'l Abner," and if you don't know who that was, just look up Sadie Hawkins in Wikipedia. In Tarpon Springs, FL, where we once lived, they celebrated Sadie Hawkins Day with a street dance downtown. For boys like me, Sadie Hawkins Day was a scary thought. Now that I'm older and somewhat wiser, I think it should be revived.
But, no. It will be just another day at work for most of us, an imperfect way to make the calendar coincide with the time required for the Earth to encircle the Sun.
Consider this: We have presidential elections every Leap Year. We have the Summer Olympics every Leap Year. I was born in a Leap Year but, thankfully, not on Leap Day, or else I'd have had a lifetime of confusion and joking about when to celebrate my birthday (the correct answer should be: every Saturday night).
One quaint custom associated with Leap Day is that this is when a woman may propose marriage, and a variation is that she may do so on any day of a Leap Year. This reminds me of Sadie Hawkins Day, which became a feature of Al Capp's "Li'l Abner," and if you don't know who that was, just look up Sadie Hawkins in Wikipedia. In Tarpon Springs, FL, where we once lived, they celebrated Sadie Hawkins Day with a street dance downtown. For boys like me, Sadie Hawkins Day was a scary thought. Now that I'm older and somewhat wiser, I think it should be revived.
Monday, February 25, 2008
federal tax refund blues
One of these days I'll be getting one of those federal tax refunds. According to Prez Bush, who has only 47 weeks left in office, we are supposed to give the national economy a big shot in the arm by. . . uh, rushing out to spend it. Yes, we can all go to Wal-Mart or one of the other big chain retailers and load up our shopping carts with more products made in China.
Yessiree, that will do the old economy a lot of good.
My first thought was to put it in the savings account, the one from which I withdrew money last year to pay my federal income tax bill. That will give my personal economy a small shot in the arm.
My second thought was to use it to pay my dentist, my dermatologist, and the plastic surgeon who removed a couple of "skin tags" from my face. (Never let a dermatologist get near you with a scalpel in hand.) I might have money left over to apply towards a new pair of contact lenses. None of those good doctors are Chinese. On the other hand, they might rush out and spend my money at Wal-Mart, or to repair their Mercedes or BMWs.
No, I am going to search diligently for American-made products sold by Americans. I almost had a heart attack a few months ago when I found an American-made pruning tool on sale at Sears. And, I just bought a new blazer, made in Chicago by Hart Schaeffner and Marx, the oldest American clothing maker. (Never mind those German-sounding names.)
You can see that I'm already well down the road to giving the American economy a shot in the arm.
What I cannot figure out is, how can we spend six gazillion dollars a month on an overseas war, send refund checks to taxpayers, and promise "no new taxes?" Oh, right. It's an election year, time for the politicians to perform sleight of hand behind blue smoke.
p.s. The national debt is now $9 trillion. That's $9,000,000,000. Enjoy that refund check.
Yessiree, that will do the old economy a lot of good.
My first thought was to put it in the savings account, the one from which I withdrew money last year to pay my federal income tax bill. That will give my personal economy a small shot in the arm.
My second thought was to use it to pay my dentist, my dermatologist, and the plastic surgeon who removed a couple of "skin tags" from my face. (Never let a dermatologist get near you with a scalpel in hand.) I might have money left over to apply towards a new pair of contact lenses. None of those good doctors are Chinese. On the other hand, they might rush out and spend my money at Wal-Mart, or to repair their Mercedes or BMWs.
No, I am going to search diligently for American-made products sold by Americans. I almost had a heart attack a few months ago when I found an American-made pruning tool on sale at Sears. And, I just bought a new blazer, made in Chicago by Hart Schaeffner and Marx, the oldest American clothing maker. (Never mind those German-sounding names.)
You can see that I'm already well down the road to giving the American economy a shot in the arm.
What I cannot figure out is, how can we spend six gazillion dollars a month on an overseas war, send refund checks to taxpayers, and promise "no new taxes?" Oh, right. It's an election year, time for the politicians to perform sleight of hand behind blue smoke.
p.s. The national debt is now $9 trillion. That's $9,000,000,000. Enjoy that refund check.
Friday, February 22, 2008
aaahh, the weekend
Let's hear it for weekends. Over the past few weeks I have labored over the defense of a code enforcement board decision, the defense of the denial of a high-rise hotel, and a response to a motion to dismiss our complaint against a cable company. I will spare you the details, but there was a point early in January when everything appeared to be due at the same time and I was feeling borderline panic. Then I saw that it was not that bad - one item was due two weeks ago and it got done on time. The others were due the end of this week but another lawyer did nearly all the work on one of them, leaving me time to work on the other. By noon today I was ready to put my feet on my desk and, if I was allowed to keep a bottle of Scotch in my office, pour myself one. Now I will look good, bad or indifferent depending upon the whim of a judge who may have come to work after a bad breakfast and a fight with his or her spouse.
I'm looking at a weekend that is unseasonably warm. To my children and relatives-in-law in Boston and Philadelphia, eat your hearts out. There are only two times a year when I feel motivated to do gardening work, and the Spring gardening bug has bit me . . . in February, when they are still digging bodies out of the snow in other parts of the country. Tomorrow I will get out and do a little gardening work, unless it rains. [Pause while praying for rain.]
We have a critter living in the walls of our house. It left calling cards in a bathroom closet, so we (that is, I) cleaned out the stuff that was stored on the floor of the closet and our exterminator put down two traps. We (that is, I) also put back in place the board that covers the opening where a plumber can access the bathtub fixtures. This morning, something was making a big racket inside the closet but it wasn't a critter stuck to the traps. The board was still in place. Whatever it was had to be bigger than your average mouse or rat to make so much noise trying to dislodge the board, like maybe a possum or a 'coon. I'm afraid I may have to get my father's old .380 automatic and shoot the beast. The last time he used it, he shot a pocket gopher that was tearing up his front yard. I'm not sure I want to use it inside the house, though. It will make a helluva mess. If I could rent an anaconda or a rat snake, I'd turn it loose inside the walls of the house but if I do that, I will be living alone.
Apparently it is part of a man's job description to deal with rodents, from trapping or poisoning them to removing their carcasses. Women don't do this. They may deliver babies but they don't exterminate rodents. That's an overgeneralization - old farm women may do it, and grizzled old Marine Corps sergeants of the female variety may do it, but not your average housewife.
Aaahh, Spring in Florida. Hurricane season is just around the corner. It doesn't get any better than this.
I'm looking at a weekend that is unseasonably warm. To my children and relatives-in-law in Boston and Philadelphia, eat your hearts out. There are only two times a year when I feel motivated to do gardening work, and the Spring gardening bug has bit me . . . in February, when they are still digging bodies out of the snow in other parts of the country. Tomorrow I will get out and do a little gardening work, unless it rains. [Pause while praying for rain.]
We have a critter living in the walls of our house. It left calling cards in a bathroom closet, so we (that is, I) cleaned out the stuff that was stored on the floor of the closet and our exterminator put down two traps. We (that is, I) also put back in place the board that covers the opening where a plumber can access the bathtub fixtures. This morning, something was making a big racket inside the closet but it wasn't a critter stuck to the traps. The board was still in place. Whatever it was had to be bigger than your average mouse or rat to make so much noise trying to dislodge the board, like maybe a possum or a 'coon. I'm afraid I may have to get my father's old .380 automatic and shoot the beast. The last time he used it, he shot a pocket gopher that was tearing up his front yard. I'm not sure I want to use it inside the house, though. It will make a helluva mess. If I could rent an anaconda or a rat snake, I'd turn it loose inside the walls of the house but if I do that, I will be living alone.
Apparently it is part of a man's job description to deal with rodents, from trapping or poisoning them to removing their carcasses. Women don't do this. They may deliver babies but they don't exterminate rodents. That's an overgeneralization - old farm women may do it, and grizzled old Marine Corps sergeants of the female variety may do it, but not your average housewife.
Aaahh, Spring in Florida. Hurricane season is just around the corner. It doesn't get any better than this.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Happy Chinese New Year!
Taken in San Francisco, not China, and taken in October, not this month - but happy new year anyway!
Monday, January 28, 2008
"TSA tester slips mock bomb past airport security"
Just when I thought it was safe to fly again. This happened at MY AIRPORT, the one my wife and I use, the one my children use whenever they come home for a visit:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/28/tsa.bombtest/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/28/tsa.bombtest/index.html
Sunday, January 27, 2008
In memory of Bobby Fischer
It's hard to remember nowadays how much attention the world paid to a chess tournament in 1972, when a kid from Brooklyn went up against the chess champion of the USSR and won. The cold war was still "hot" and the US was still in Viet Nam. Americans, who mostly don't play chess, got caught up in a 21-game tournament that ran for two months, with Fischer making demands for more money and the removal of a TV camera, and engaging in what Spassky complained was "psychological" warfare. That's Fischer on the right in this photo. Spassky, on the left, was the product of a Soviet system that groomed championship chess players and rewarded them well.
Sadly, Fischer went 'round the bend as he got older, dying of kidney failure on January 17. I'd rather not remember him as the anti-Semitic, anti-American recluse that he became. I'd rather remember him as the kid who took on the USSR and beat them at the chessboard.
Obama wins -- in South Carolina!
A new day is dawning in American politics.
You'll see that worn-out cliche more and more between now and November, but this is one cliche that happens to be true.
Barack Obama pulled in 55 percent of the vote, routing Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. This is big news, but not because he is from Illinois, and not because South Carolina people still tell stories about Sherman's infamous march to the sea as if it happened last year.
This is huge because he is the first black candidate for President to be taken seriously. Yes, we aren't supposed to vote for or against a candidate because of the candidate's race, or gender, or religion. But many voters do. You would have expected many South Carolinians to have voted for John Edwards because he is a photogenic white guy who was born in South Carolina . . . but Edwards placed a poor third with 18 percent, winning only his home county.
Obama inspires a lot of people but don't take my word for it. Believe Caroline Kennedy, who wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece: "I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them . . . But for the first time, I believe I have found a man who could be that president - and not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."
You'll see that worn-out cliche more and more between now and November, but this is one cliche that happens to be true.
Barack Obama pulled in 55 percent of the vote, routing Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. This is big news, but not because he is from Illinois, and not because South Carolina people still tell stories about Sherman's infamous march to the sea as if it happened last year.
This is huge because he is the first black candidate for President to be taken seriously. Yes, we aren't supposed to vote for or against a candidate because of the candidate's race, or gender, or religion. But many voters do. You would have expected many South Carolinians to have voted for John Edwards because he is a photogenic white guy who was born in South Carolina . . . but Edwards placed a poor third with 18 percent, winning only his home county.
Obama inspires a lot of people but don't take my word for it. Believe Caroline Kennedy, who wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece: "I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them . . . But for the first time, I believe I have found a man who could be that president - and not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans."
Thursday, January 24, 2008
farewell to the "A-Train"
Mike Alstott, a six-time Pro Bowl player and a big favorite with Bucs fans for eleven seasons, announced his retirement from the game this week. Those of us who thought he was underutilized by Jon Gruden even before his neck injury are sad to see him go.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
one year, and counting down, for George W. Bush
As of tonight, January 20, 2008, the term of George W. Bush as President of the United States has exactly one year remaining . . . that's 365 days, if my little count-down computer has factored Leap Day into the equation correctly.
That's 366 days too many. I want him out of office yesterday.
It isn't just Dubya who bothers me as much as his circle of cronies and friends - the "Neocons" - who have been the puppet masters since he was elected.
Americans and the world have had to tolerate the Bush Administration for seven long years. Having to tolerate another year with the Bushies in office makes me envy the UK's Parliamentary system, where they can vote the rascal out with a "vote of no confidence." Would that work here? It might, but it assumes a certain level of competence in Congress and a desire to do the right thing for the nation regardless of political party dogma, all of which has been conspicuously lacking.
One more year.
That's 366 days too many. I want him out of office yesterday.
It isn't just Dubya who bothers me as much as his circle of cronies and friends - the "Neocons" - who have been the puppet masters since he was elected.
Americans and the world have had to tolerate the Bush Administration for seven long years. Having to tolerate another year with the Bushies in office makes me envy the UK's Parliamentary system, where they can vote the rascal out with a "vote of no confidence." Would that work here? It might, but it assumes a certain level of competence in Congress and a desire to do the right thing for the nation regardless of political party dogma, all of which has been conspicuously lacking.
One more year.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
hey, let's go to a movie
Time was, movies were a great escape. Comedies, musicals, the cowboy who always got the girl at the end, car chases in which only the bad guys crashed and burned, or the occasional James Bond spy thriller were just what you needed to disappear for a few hours and re-emerge with a lighter step.
In the last two days we've seen "Atonement," which left me depressed after the surprise ending caught me totally off guard, and "Sweeney Todd," which left my skin crawling.
"Sweeney Todd" is a dark 19th-century edition of "Devil in the White City" meets "Soylent Green" in London, with the main character played by Jack the Ripper, and with all the brightness and cheer of "Phantom of the Opera."
There is no disputing that Johnny Depp is a fine actor, and he should win an award for this one. In his next movie he should portray Vlad the Impaler, or maybe the Vampire LeStat.
I can't believe they released "Sweeney Todd" four days before Christmas. It would have been a good Halloween movie, but I agree with Garrison Keillor's comment that it was a long two hours and you get tired of the color gray after awhile. For him, the high point was after the movie when a tall woman (he could tell, by the size of her feet) wearing a long black coat emerged from a stall in the men's room and walked purposefully out. His column became a plug for correcting the inequities in men's and women's public bathrooms (the latter always being too small) and a plea for architects to forget their love of symmetry, go back to the drawing boards, and do the right thing for women. Otherwise, he predicts, the line between men's and women's bathrooms will be erased and men will have lost the last male preserve. Speaking as a guy who has stood lookout while my favorite lady avoided the ridiculously long line to the women's bathroom, I agree wholeheartedly.
But, back to the movies. I need a good escape, something along the lines of "Run Silent, Run Deep," in which Clark Gable teaches the crew how to take out an enemy tanker, then take out the approaching destroyer with a bow shot followed by a rapid descent ("DIVE, DIVE"). Now, that's my idea of great escape. Literally.
In the last two days we've seen "Atonement," which left me depressed after the surprise ending caught me totally off guard, and "Sweeney Todd," which left my skin crawling.
"Sweeney Todd" is a dark 19th-century edition of "Devil in the White City" meets "Soylent Green" in London, with the main character played by Jack the Ripper, and with all the brightness and cheer of "Phantom of the Opera."
There is no disputing that Johnny Depp is a fine actor, and he should win an award for this one. In his next movie he should portray Vlad the Impaler, or maybe the Vampire LeStat.
I can't believe they released "Sweeney Todd" four days before Christmas. It would have been a good Halloween movie, but I agree with Garrison Keillor's comment that it was a long two hours and you get tired of the color gray after awhile. For him, the high point was after the movie when a tall woman (he could tell, by the size of her feet) wearing a long black coat emerged from a stall in the men's room and walked purposefully out. His column became a plug for correcting the inequities in men's and women's public bathrooms (the latter always being too small) and a plea for architects to forget their love of symmetry, go back to the drawing boards, and do the right thing for women. Otherwise, he predicts, the line between men's and women's bathrooms will be erased and men will have lost the last male preserve. Speaking as a guy who has stood lookout while my favorite lady avoided the ridiculously long line to the women's bathroom, I agree wholeheartedly.
But, back to the movies. I need a good escape, something along the lines of "Run Silent, Run Deep," in which Clark Gable teaches the crew how to take out an enemy tanker, then take out the approaching destroyer with a bow shot followed by a rapid descent ("DIVE, DIVE"). Now, that's my idea of great escape. Literally.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
music from the 80's
In collecting music for my iPod I've discovered, to my surprise, that the music I like best is not the music from the 60's but the music from the 80's. Don't ask me why. There's no accounting for personal taste, whim or caprice. "It has a good beat and you can dance to it."
Here's a great video compilation of snippets from the music videos of the 80's featuring the top hits for each year of that decade. Ten minutes for ten years and worth almost every second of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TddFnTB_7IM&feature=related
Here's a great video compilation of snippets from the music videos of the 80's featuring the top hits for each year of that decade. Ten minutes for ten years and worth almost every second of it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TddFnTB_7IM&feature=related
Monday, December 31, 2007
a happy new year to all of us
We are having a "safe and sane" New Year's, which means we didn't truck down to St. Petersburg as we have in the past. Instead, we had Thai take-out after watching FSU look better than expected against Kentucky, and now the Auburn-Clemson game is on.
Kentucky? In a bowl game? Playing football? And winning against FSU? Football is usually what they play waiting for basketball season to start. I can't say they looked great, but they were good enough to fend off a last-minute surge by FSU to hold onto their lead. FSU looked good enough to keep the wolves away from Bobby Bowden's front door for another year.
This has been a good year for us. We are still employed, and enjoy the work. We've had some highlights during the year to look back on. We have some major tasks to deal with in the next 4 to 6 weeks that won't be fun -- but if it was easy they wouldn't need us.
In case you have lost count, there are 55 weeks left in George Bush's occupancy of the White House. This time next year we will know who the next White House tenant is and at this point I (almost) don't care who it will be.
I could go on, but it's time to get back to the ball game. May 2008 be a good year for you, and for all of us, all around this small world.
Kentucky? In a bowl game? Playing football? And winning against FSU? Football is usually what they play waiting for basketball season to start. I can't say they looked great, but they were good enough to fend off a last-minute surge by FSU to hold onto their lead. FSU looked good enough to keep the wolves away from Bobby Bowden's front door for another year.
This has been a good year for us. We are still employed, and enjoy the work. We've had some highlights during the year to look back on. We have some major tasks to deal with in the next 4 to 6 weeks that won't be fun -- but if it was easy they wouldn't need us.
In case you have lost count, there are 55 weeks left in George Bush's occupancy of the White House. This time next year we will know who the next White House tenant is and at this point I (almost) don't care who it will be.
I could go on, but it's time to get back to the ball game. May 2008 be a good year for you, and for all of us, all around this small world.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
I'm definitely ready for a Christmas break
I'm remembering the Christmas break in college, when you'd take your last final for the quarter, drive or get a ride home, and collapse until New Year's.
I'm at that point now. I'm writing this at 1:00 a.m. because I just finished a home plumbing repair job and want to sit in a quiet house for a few minutes, knowing the job is done. Never, ever, start a plumbing job in the evening, after shutting off the water supply to the house. Never on a Friday evening. Never on the last Friday before Christmas, when your average plumber would respond to a call for help by telling me to take two aspirin and call back on January 2.
December has been one of those "joys of home ownership" months. Everything in the house seemed to come unglued or the wheels fell off. In no particular order:
The gas grill leaked gas from the hose that connects the regulator to the burners. Solution: A new tank, because the valve on the old one was defective, plus a new hose and regulator.
The pool pump, which sounded like a bucket of bolts anyway, began emitting a high-pitched whine, undoubtedly irritating the neighbors. Solution: New pump motor, which I installed myself, and a $109 repair job for a guy to come out and fix an air infiltration problem (which isn't totally fixed yet).
The fridge seemed to have a mysterious, random leak leaving small puddles of water every few days. I pulled it out to look behind it, got out the vacuum sweeper to clean up the crud that was under it . . . and the vacuum sweeper motor burned up. Solution: New vacuum sweeper. (I shoved the fridge back in place and it hasn't puddled since.)
The bathroom shower had a small drip, which brings me down to tonight. I should have saved this for January and made it a New Year's Resolution but, no, we are leaving for Boston and I didn't want it dripping while we were gone. A handle was corroded and stuck to a valve stem and I broke the stem. Solution: Not merely new washers, but new valve stems, seats, and handles to boot.
Problem saved for a New Year's Resolution: How to remove the old seats and put in the new ones. One of those tools you buy and then use once every eight or nine years is a seat removing tool. Mine didn't fit and neither did two versions bought from Lowe's, which will be returned to Lowe's tomorow.
I take a perverse pleasure in doing odd jobs around the house. What I do for a living can take months or years before anyone can see results and it doesn't get my hands dirty. When I see that a pool pump motor that I installed works and doesn't emit green sparks, or the shower doesn't drip after spending entirely too much time on it, I get Job Satisfaction. I love it.
I mowed the lawn this afternoon, too. December 21, and I'm out mowing the lawn. For Christmas, all I want is a bowl of egg nog to drink with my shoes off. I'm ready for a break.
I'm at that point now. I'm writing this at 1:00 a.m. because I just finished a home plumbing repair job and want to sit in a quiet house for a few minutes, knowing the job is done. Never, ever, start a plumbing job in the evening, after shutting off the water supply to the house. Never on a Friday evening. Never on the last Friday before Christmas, when your average plumber would respond to a call for help by telling me to take two aspirin and call back on January 2.
December has been one of those "joys of home ownership" months. Everything in the house seemed to come unglued or the wheels fell off. In no particular order:
The gas grill leaked gas from the hose that connects the regulator to the burners. Solution: A new tank, because the valve on the old one was defective, plus a new hose and regulator.
The pool pump, which sounded like a bucket of bolts anyway, began emitting a high-pitched whine, undoubtedly irritating the neighbors. Solution: New pump motor, which I installed myself, and a $109 repair job for a guy to come out and fix an air infiltration problem (which isn't totally fixed yet).
The fridge seemed to have a mysterious, random leak leaving small puddles of water every few days. I pulled it out to look behind it, got out the vacuum sweeper to clean up the crud that was under it . . . and the vacuum sweeper motor burned up. Solution: New vacuum sweeper. (I shoved the fridge back in place and it hasn't puddled since.)
The bathroom shower had a small drip, which brings me down to tonight. I should have saved this for January and made it a New Year's Resolution but, no, we are leaving for Boston and I didn't want it dripping while we were gone. A handle was corroded and stuck to a valve stem and I broke the stem. Solution: Not merely new washers, but new valve stems, seats, and handles to boot.
Problem saved for a New Year's Resolution: How to remove the old seats and put in the new ones. One of those tools you buy and then use once every eight or nine years is a seat removing tool. Mine didn't fit and neither did two versions bought from Lowe's, which will be returned to Lowe's tomorow.
I take a perverse pleasure in doing odd jobs around the house. What I do for a living can take months or years before anyone can see results and it doesn't get my hands dirty. When I see that a pool pump motor that I installed works and doesn't emit green sparks, or the shower doesn't drip after spending entirely too much time on it, I get Job Satisfaction. I love it.
I mowed the lawn this afternoon, too. December 21, and I'm out mowing the lawn. For Christmas, all I want is a bowl of egg nog to drink with my shoes off. I'm ready for a break.
Friday, December 21, 2007
happy anniversary, Mom and Dad
December 21 would have been their 66th wedding anniversary. I'm very grateful that they met and married. Otherwise, I'd have a hard time explaining myself.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
missing persons report
This is is among my parents' collection of old photos that I've been trying to decide what to do with. To make a long story short, I've found this family thanks to Google and the Internet, and I'm sending the original to the boy's cousin, who will give it to him. I'll not mention their names to protect their privacy but one huge clue was that I knew the city they came from. After the war they went back home and raised their family. I wouldn't have found them except that their synagogue's newsletter from several years ago is still on line to be found by snoops like me. Don't you love those smiles?
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
"Clearwater City" -- the worst place to retire?
The following is from America On-Line's "Finance" page, in which they list the 13 worst places to retire. The worst place? Read on:
Clearwater City, Fla.
Too Many Fellow Seniors
This Tampa Bay area hamlet has the highest percentage of seniors of any U.S. city. This 'graying' of Florida in general, has caused many retirees to change their mind and leave, fleeing the bland culture, extreme weather and high real estate and homeowner's insurance prices of Florida.
Hmmph. For openers, there is no hamlet named "Clearwater City," although there is a city named the City of Clearwater. We have a Dade City, a Panama City, even a Florida City, but not a Clearwater City by that name. When I see a blunder like that, I have to ask, do they have any clue what they are talking about?
Having lived in the City of Clearwater (off and on) since 1955, I have as much right to knock my home town as anybody, and I have done so, but let's be fair. Clearwater was a small town until the 1960's, a nice place on the Gulf to grow up and then raise a family. As it grew over the past 40 years it never pretended to be another Tampa or even another St. Petersburg, which used to have a reputation as the place to retire and listen to your arteries harden as you sat on their green benches.
Too many seniors? If your idea of retirement is to hole up in a condo populated by people of your generation who have nothing to do but sit around and bitch about everything, that's a problem. Personally, I've met a lot of people older than myself, mainly through our Methodist church, and I can tell you they are a lively bunch of positive-minded people who would make great neighbors.
If you want culture, meaning the performing arts or the fine arts, you can go to several venues in the Tampa Bay area including our own Ruth Eckerd Hall. If "bland culture" means bland architecture and plain-vanilla Midwestern social values, we plead guilty, but so does every other city and town on Florida's Gulf Coast.
Extreme weather? It gets hot in the summer, but we never see 100-degree days or even temps in the high 90's. It ain't the heat, it's the humidity, which is why God created air-conditioning on the Eighth Day. In the winter, we rarely see a "hard freeze," which is what the strawberry and citrus growers call it when it drops below 32º F. for more than a few hours.
High real estate and homeowner's insurance prices? This is the only part of the piece that has any validity but none of it is unique to Clearwater. The real estate market is in the tank and prices are high, but that's a national problem. The state legislature is too deep in the pockets of the industry to make any headway on homeowner's insurance, but these problems are common throughout Florida.
In short, I've lived here for 29 of the past 52 years and will probably retire here unless I hit the Florida Lottery, and even then I'm not sure I'd blow the money on an expensive home somewhere else.
Clearwater City, Fla.
Too Many Fellow Seniors
This Tampa Bay area hamlet has the highest percentage of seniors of any U.S. city. This 'graying' of Florida in general, has caused many retirees to change their mind and leave, fleeing the bland culture, extreme weather and high real estate and homeowner's insurance prices of Florida.
Hmmph. For openers, there is no hamlet named "Clearwater City," although there is a city named the City of Clearwater. We have a Dade City, a Panama City, even a Florida City, but not a Clearwater City by that name. When I see a blunder like that, I have to ask, do they have any clue what they are talking about?
Having lived in the City of Clearwater (off and on) since 1955, I have as much right to knock my home town as anybody, and I have done so, but let's be fair. Clearwater was a small town until the 1960's, a nice place on the Gulf to grow up and then raise a family. As it grew over the past 40 years it never pretended to be another Tampa or even another St. Petersburg, which used to have a reputation as the place to retire and listen to your arteries harden as you sat on their green benches.
Too many seniors? If your idea of retirement is to hole up in a condo populated by people of your generation who have nothing to do but sit around and bitch about everything, that's a problem. Personally, I've met a lot of people older than myself, mainly through our Methodist church, and I can tell you they are a lively bunch of positive-minded people who would make great neighbors.
If you want culture, meaning the performing arts or the fine arts, you can go to several venues in the Tampa Bay area including our own Ruth Eckerd Hall. If "bland culture" means bland architecture and plain-vanilla Midwestern social values, we plead guilty, but so does every other city and town on Florida's Gulf Coast.
Extreme weather? It gets hot in the summer, but we never see 100-degree days or even temps in the high 90's. It ain't the heat, it's the humidity, which is why God created air-conditioning on the Eighth Day. In the winter, we rarely see a "hard freeze," which is what the strawberry and citrus growers call it when it drops below 32º F. for more than a few hours.
High real estate and homeowner's insurance prices? This is the only part of the piece that has any validity but none of it is unique to Clearwater. The real estate market is in the tank and prices are high, but that's a national problem. The state legislature is too deep in the pockets of the industry to make any headway on homeowner's insurance, but these problems are common throughout Florida.
In short, I've lived here for 29 of the past 52 years and will probably retire here unless I hit the Florida Lottery, and even then I'm not sure I'd blow the money on an expensive home somewhere else.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Christmas, 1979
One thing Christmas does for you is bring back memories of childhood, hopefully happy memories. Here, our twins, who were four-and-a-half at the time.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
thanksgiving
We spent Thanksgiving with our son and daughter-in-law in Pennsylvania, where he's started dental school and she's holding down two jobs, one of which furthers her career as a chemist. The other is a fine place to raise some extra cash and take advantage of the employees' discount on some very nice stuff although most of it is "chick" stuff (Anthropologie). We were joined by a daughter who now lives in Boston. It was good to have half of our offspring and half of our two children-in-law (what a horrible-sounding term) with us.
They cooked a 20-pound turkey for the five of us, and about five side dishes and three pies. We had to buy a third seat on the airplane so the two of us could fit in on the flight home. Just kidding, but an empty third seat would have been nice. Fat chance, on a Thanksgiving weekend.
The weather was refreshingly cold, but damp, and the fall leaves hadn't all gone. We hiked a trail a short distance to a covered bridge and back, visited Amish country, saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, strolled through the Reading Terminal Market, and of course tried some Philly steak sandwiches (at Rick's - the "works"), and visited Valley Forge.
The last time I saw Valley Forge was during a Boy Scout National Jamboree, too many years ago to even think about it. That's where the American Revolution nearly died. 12,000 soldiers went in, 6,000 came out. 2,000 died, but they've found only one grave. The rest either deserted or their enlistments ran out and they went home. But, in the springtime, the ranks of the American army grew and they were turned into soldiers, not just a ragged band of "embattled farmers." The war slugged on for another three years and you know how the story turned out.
Thansgiving conjures up thoughts of family, food and friends, but I have to admit that this year I was thinking about those barefooted guys who were not summer soldiers or sunshine patriots, and feeling very thankful for their legacy.
If they hadn't succeeded, we'd all be speaking English.
They cooked a 20-pound turkey for the five of us, and about five side dishes and three pies. We had to buy a third seat on the airplane so the two of us could fit in on the flight home. Just kidding, but an empty third seat would have been nice. Fat chance, on a Thanksgiving weekend.
The weather was refreshingly cold, but damp, and the fall leaves hadn't all gone. We hiked a trail a short distance to a covered bridge and back, visited Amish country, saw the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, strolled through the Reading Terminal Market, and of course tried some Philly steak sandwiches (at Rick's - the "works"), and visited Valley Forge.
The last time I saw Valley Forge was during a Boy Scout National Jamboree, too many years ago to even think about it. That's where the American Revolution nearly died. 12,000 soldiers went in, 6,000 came out. 2,000 died, but they've found only one grave. The rest either deserted or their enlistments ran out and they went home. But, in the springtime, the ranks of the American army grew and they were turned into soldiers, not just a ragged band of "embattled farmers." The war slugged on for another three years and you know how the story turned out.
Thansgiving conjures up thoughts of family, food and friends, but I have to admit that this year I was thinking about those barefooted guys who were not summer soldiers or sunshine patriots, and feeling very thankful for their legacy.
If they hadn't succeeded, we'd all be speaking English.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
simplicity
"Simplicity is knowing when less is too little and more is too much. Simplicity = Sanity."
I found that statement in a YouTube movie, which you can see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGHgu0ZYYZc
I've become a teacher of legal writing, at least to the extent of presenting papers to local government lawyers on the topic of writing land development regulations. A primary objective of legal writers is to make what you write understandable. If something can be misunderstood, it will be, especially if it suits someone's purpose to appear confused. Write clearly. Brevity is the essence of clarity.
I don't know the source of the quotation, above, but I'd like to use it if I revise my paper on legal writing. Knowing when to stop writing and start chopping surplusage from your sentences is an important task for any writer.
For example, knowing when to stop writing this blog entry is important.
Like, right here would be a good time to stop . . . right after I go back and cut out a few unnecessary words . . . OK, I'm done now.
I found that statement in a YouTube movie, which you can see here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGHgu0ZYYZc
I've become a teacher of legal writing, at least to the extent of presenting papers to local government lawyers on the topic of writing land development regulations. A primary objective of legal writers is to make what you write understandable. If something can be misunderstood, it will be, especially if it suits someone's purpose to appear confused. Write clearly. Brevity is the essence of clarity.
I don't know the source of the quotation, above, but I'd like to use it if I revise my paper on legal writing. Knowing when to stop writing and start chopping surplusage from your sentences is an important task for any writer.
For example, knowing when to stop writing this blog entry is important.
Like, right here would be a good time to stop . . . right after I go back and cut out a few unnecessary words . . . OK, I'm done now.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
the "dead cat bounce"
I heard an expression today that I've never heard before, not being an avid follower of the stock market until recently.
It seems that Wall Street made a dramatic jump by nearly 320 points today after four days of falling prices. The expression, "dead cat bounce," is being used as part of a question. The question is, was today only a temporary rise in what is otherwise a falling market? Was today an example of a "dead cat bounce?" ("Even a dead cat will bounce if dropped from high enough.")
Until recently I could not have cared less about such things. Some of us children of the 50's and 60's grew up thinking that retirement was going to be out of the question because we'd never live so long. Thanks to the Cold War, Khrushchev's threat to bury us, images of the mushroom cloud, the Berlin Wall, Viet Nam, and the prospect of gasoline selling for as much as a dollar a gallon (yes, chillun, it's true . . . I once bought gas for 13.9 cents a gallon in Perry, Florida, where they knew how to run a gas war), the future looked awfully bleak. Doing our duck-and-cover drills at Tarpon Springs Elementary School, we joked that if the Russians fired their ICBM's at MacDill Air Force Base, they'd miss and hit us instead. Har-de-har.
Then it dawned on many of us that we might actually live so long as to become a burden on our children, and we took new interest in 401 plans, defined-benefit plans versus defined-contribution plans, annuities, and the cost of health insurance -- all those old-folks worries. The question of whether today was just a "dead cat bounce" has real meaning . . . not as exciting as Huck Finn's cure for warts, but more meaningful.
It seems that Wall Street made a dramatic jump by nearly 320 points today after four days of falling prices. The expression, "dead cat bounce," is being used as part of a question. The question is, was today only a temporary rise in what is otherwise a falling market? Was today an example of a "dead cat bounce?" ("Even a dead cat will bounce if dropped from high enough.")
Until recently I could not have cared less about such things. Some of us children of the 50's and 60's grew up thinking that retirement was going to be out of the question because we'd never live so long. Thanks to the Cold War, Khrushchev's threat to bury us, images of the mushroom cloud, the Berlin Wall, Viet Nam, and the prospect of gasoline selling for as much as a dollar a gallon (yes, chillun, it's true . . . I once bought gas for 13.9 cents a gallon in Perry, Florida, where they knew how to run a gas war), the future looked awfully bleak. Doing our duck-and-cover drills at Tarpon Springs Elementary School, we joked that if the Russians fired their ICBM's at MacDill Air Force Base, they'd miss and hit us instead. Har-de-har.
Then it dawned on many of us that we might actually live so long as to become a burden on our children, and we took new interest in 401 plans, defined-benefit plans versus defined-contribution plans, annuities, and the cost of health insurance -- all those old-folks worries. The question of whether today was just a "dead cat bounce" has real meaning . . . not as exciting as Huck Finn's cure for warts, but more meaningful.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Kevin Coster, the musician - who woulda thunkit?
The other night I went to the park for the unveiling of the new look for the Tampa Bay Rays (see below).
One of the main features was a performance by Kevin Coster and his band.
Right, I thought. He'll play a few chords, sing along with a band in a monotone, and collect a huge fee for appearing.
Well, guess what? He and his band play a righteous, foot-stompin' brand of rock and roll. With the fancy high-tech stage setup and lighting, it wasn't always easy to figure out who was singing what and who was playing what, but the overall effect was . . . where can I buy one of their CDs? I couldn't find one of their tunes on iTunes. And, I see he is suing a promoter for failing to promote their albums, asking for millions in damages.
Note to my children: If you are looking for a Christmas idea, this is a tip. Here's another tip: I bought one of the good-quality "on-field" TB Rays baseball caps. Now I need a good quality Red Sox cap (hat size 7 5/8). As one of my observant daughters reminded me recently, I bought the cheap version in Boston some years ago, and I can't have my new TB cap looking better than a Red Sox cap.
One of the main features was a performance by Kevin Coster and his band.
Right, I thought. He'll play a few chords, sing along with a band in a monotone, and collect a huge fee for appearing.
Well, guess what? He and his band play a righteous, foot-stompin' brand of rock and roll. With the fancy high-tech stage setup and lighting, it wasn't always easy to figure out who was singing what and who was playing what, but the overall effect was . . . where can I buy one of their CDs? I couldn't find one of their tunes on iTunes. And, I see he is suing a promoter for failing to promote their albums, asking for millions in damages.
Note to my children: If you are looking for a Christmas idea, this is a tip. Here's another tip: I bought one of the good-quality "on-field" TB Rays baseball caps. Now I need a good quality Red Sox cap (hat size 7 5/8). As one of my observant daughters reminded me recently, I bought the cheap version in Boston some years ago, and I can't have my new TB cap looking better than a Red Sox cap.
The Official Site of the Tampa Bay Rays
The Rays (no longer the Devil Rays) have a new look. Check it out:
The Official Site of the Tampa Bay Rays: News
The Official Site of the Tampa Bay Rays: News
Thursday, November 08, 2007
just hobbling around
Last week I went to a conference in Nashville. One of the entertainment events was a softball game, so I signed up in advance and took my old glove.
How dangerous can slow-pitch softball be, played by a bunch of middle-aged lawyers?
Heh. It seems that these guys play softball frequently and seriously. One of them has played every week for 35 years with seven other members of his high school baseball team.
So I'm standing on first base, feeling good about hitting into short center field and driving in two runs. Short center is where the ball has always gone for me, man and boy, my whole life. I can't pull it into left field and I've never hit it over the fence but I can usually get a good single.
The batter after me was the once-a-week player I described above. He hit into deep right field . . . an inside the park homer except I'm in front of him. He's a faster runner but he was too smart to pass me. I thought he was going to carry me in. I felt like the road runner, wheels spinning, but no traction on the ground. As I'm approaching third base I felt the unmistakable twinge of a pulled hamstring, also known as a torn hamstring, and I hobbled home with the batter right behind me.
That was a week ago. I've been hobbling around with an Ace bandage from hip to knee and a fairly dramatic bruise on the back of my thigh.
I've been saying to myself all summer that I need to start walking/ jogging/ running but the weather was too danged hot. Now that the weather is cooling off, I definitely need to start walking/ jogging/ running but I'm going to have to wait another 5-6 weeks while my hamstring gets back to normal, and then it will be slow going.
Getting old isn't hell. Being soft and out of shape definitely is.
How dangerous can slow-pitch softball be, played by a bunch of middle-aged lawyers?
Heh. It seems that these guys play softball frequently and seriously. One of them has played every week for 35 years with seven other members of his high school baseball team.
So I'm standing on first base, feeling good about hitting into short center field and driving in two runs. Short center is where the ball has always gone for me, man and boy, my whole life. I can't pull it into left field and I've never hit it over the fence but I can usually get a good single.
The batter after me was the once-a-week player I described above. He hit into deep right field . . . an inside the park homer except I'm in front of him. He's a faster runner but he was too smart to pass me. I thought he was going to carry me in. I felt like the road runner, wheels spinning, but no traction on the ground. As I'm approaching third base I felt the unmistakable twinge of a pulled hamstring, also known as a torn hamstring, and I hobbled home with the batter right behind me.
That was a week ago. I've been hobbling around with an Ace bandage from hip to knee and a fairly dramatic bruise on the back of my thigh.
I've been saying to myself all summer that I need to start walking/ jogging/ running but the weather was too danged hot. Now that the weather is cooling off, I definitely need to start walking/ jogging/ running but I'm going to have to wait another 5-6 weeks while my hamstring gets back to normal, and then it will be slow going.
Getting old isn't hell. Being soft and out of shape definitely is.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
post-election blues, city style
My fair city (the one I work for) had an election yesterday. At stake were four of the eight city councilmember seats.
We've had this grumbling of the citizens, a taxpayer revolt, building up for months now. With half of the city council seats at stake, you'd think we would have had a high voter turn-out.
Not so. Would you believe only 9 percent of the 156,146 registered voters . . . a record low . . . bothered to take the few minutes required to go vote? The margin of victory was only 257 votes in one race and 611 votes in another race. The final outcome in one of the races hung in the balance until nearly midnight.
As it turned out, two "outsiders" who are critical of the mayor's fiscal policies got elected. That may be good news to disgruntled voters but the 91 percent who stayed away from the polls can claim no credit for the results. If any of them are not happy with the results they can share the blame.
One solution to the problems of our government at all levels - federal, state, and local - is to vote the rascals out. We don't do that. (In our case, the two "outsiders" who got elected were not running against incumbents.) Maybe we deserve what we get.
Ridiculous.
We've had this grumbling of the citizens, a taxpayer revolt, building up for months now. With half of the city council seats at stake, you'd think we would have had a high voter turn-out.
Not so. Would you believe only 9 percent of the 156,146 registered voters . . . a record low . . . bothered to take the few minutes required to go vote? The margin of victory was only 257 votes in one race and 611 votes in another race. The final outcome in one of the races hung in the balance until nearly midnight.
As it turned out, two "outsiders" who are critical of the mayor's fiscal policies got elected. That may be good news to disgruntled voters but the 91 percent who stayed away from the polls can claim no credit for the results. If any of them are not happy with the results they can share the blame.
One solution to the problems of our government at all levels - federal, state, and local - is to vote the rascals out. We don't do that. (In our case, the two "outsiders" who got elected were not running against incumbents.) Maybe we deserve what we get.
Ridiculous.
Monday, November 05, 2007
63 weeks
If you are reading this on Monday, November 5, count ahead 441 days. That will bring you to January 20, 2009, which will be George W. Bush's last day in office.
441 days = 63 weeks.
That sounds like a long time, and it is. You can't hold your breath that long, and 63 more weeks with Dubya in office is 63 weeks too long. But time flies whether you are having fun or not. Sixty-three weeks will glide slowly by like clockwork, or in this case maybe like a plateful of stuffed jalapenas passing through every inch of your digestive system, but both the time and the jalapenas will pass. Dubya will enjoy two more Christmases in the White House but only one more Halloween. For the rest of us, that may seem like 441 more Halloweens until he packs up and moves to Texas or wherever, but the time will come.
441 days = 63 weeks.
That sounds like a long time, and it is. You can't hold your breath that long, and 63 more weeks with Dubya in office is 63 weeks too long. But time flies whether you are having fun or not. Sixty-three weeks will glide slowly by like clockwork, or in this case maybe like a plateful of stuffed jalapenas passing through every inch of your digestive system, but both the time and the jalapenas will pass. Dubya will enjoy two more Christmases in the White House but only one more Halloween. For the rest of us, that may seem like 441 more Halloweens until he packs up and moves to Texas or wherever, but the time will come.
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