April

There's something about April being the cruelest month. T.S. Eliot, "The Wasteland."

Which I've read numerous times and never really got that well. But more and more of it. It's episodic and pieced together. I believe I read it was heavily edited down by Ezra Pound.

Anyway, April is in another famous poem: "30 days hath September, April, June..." You're missing a day as opposed to "all the rest" (except February), so that qualifies you to be singled out, or clumped in with the other shorties.

Think of all the people whose birthdays would have been on April 31, had there only been one. The potentiality of that is zero, which is mindblowing.

Who Goes Home Tonight?

American Idol, down to the final five. And after tonight, down to the final four.

I hope Allison makes it through. The one I guess would need to go, if not her, would be Matt. He does a nice job but when you've got this few of people to choose from, it could be virtually anyone. Except Adam. Better not be him!

I say Matt because he was already the low vote getter one time. The potential is there that his fan base isn't so huge.

But Simon said he was fearful for Allison tonight. So that might carry some sway with the people who vote. We shall see!

Just let Adam win and no one will get hurt.

Songs Of The Rat Pack

The theme on American Idol is going to be Songs of the Rat Pack.

For Adam that means, probably, having a spiffy suit on, a thin tie, his hair pushed back, trying to look like a '60s lounge singer. Maybe he won't be predictable, which would be nice.

But really, as much of a fan as I am, I hope he doesn't have to "make it his own," you know, by taking a song that one of the Rat Pack did and twisting it in such a way that it's barely recognizable. Whatever. I expect it to be good.

We're down to five contestants now. At some point don't they start singing more songs than one? Maybe that's tonight.

Waterboarding

Waterboarding ... I can't even stand to watch it on TV, all the demonstrations they have of it on the news channels. Please. This is worse than watching shots when they have a medical report.

I would rather not see any kind of unpleasantness, thank you very much.

That being said, obviously I would hate to undergo this form of torture myself personally. I'm talking about getting shots. And waterboarding would be terrible too.

Annoying Synapses

I saw a thing somewhere, a flier or maybe it was a TV ad -- yes, I guess it was a TV ad -- about depression. They had it illustrated like this, that the synapses in your brain were little ovals floating around and there were these energetic connectors between them.

When the connectors were minimal or falling off in number, the poor synapses didn't know what to do, so they became depressed. Rather, it'd be that your mind needs whatever activity they're doing to have its normal feeling. When the connectors were falling off, brain activity went into a funk, or something.

But whatever the medicine is for this restores or re-energizes them or counterfeits them well enough that your mind gets by. Like crutches for walking but it's all mental.

My mentality is very poor today, but I don't have any kind of medicine for such things. It's just a matter of suffer it -- and maybe enjoy it if I can -- and hope it gets better. It will.

And Then There's Maude

That was a cool show, Maude. I wonder what it'd be like to watch it now. Maybe it wouldn't be so good, like maybe dated.

But anyway, it was a show that I actually watched quite a few times. I don't remember any lines or plots though.

Bea Arthur passed on, aged 86.

The Smothers Brothers At The Purple Onion

The other day I got this LP at Goodwill, "The Smothers Brothers At The Purple Onion." Maybe that's not the precise title, but that's basically the name of it.

I've had Smothers Brothers albums before. They're enjoyable, especially if you grew up listening to their comedy stylings on records or especially on TV. They were funnier on TV, with the various facial expressions that both Dick and Tom made.

As for this particular album, I listened to the whole thing today while doing other stuff. So it buzzed by pretty quickly. It's enjoyable, again in the terms I stated above. For someone who didn't already know about them to listen to it, it probably wouldn't be that enjoyable.

I love Tommy Smothers, of course. But the act that he does of over-explaining something in a pompous/dumb way is way overdone on the album. It's very funny, that part of their act. But it goes on too long on this album. There are definitely some very funny aspects to it, like the boatmen going down by the docks and picking up oars.

They have a couple of non-comedy songs on the album, which are nice too.

KFC Follies

Had another bad experience at KFC. LOL.

How long have they been a restaurant chain? 50 years? You'd think they would've perfected everything by now. But there's always these troubles there. Instead they have a worse system of taking your order than Subway, which of course is terribly bad.

Maybe it's just the help, but she didn't seem to have options, like someone else coming over to help customers. The guy ahead of us -- and there was only one -- took well over five minutes to decide precisely what he wanted. No exaggeration. What comes with the xxxxx meal? All kinds of questions. Then when he finally got it figured out, and it seemed that the clerk knew what he wanted, she had to rush around back there with the others to make his order. Finally they have it in sacks and are handing it to him and thanking him. When, wouldn't you know it, he had ordered some other things too that they either didn't hear or missed.

I was standing there trying not to seem perturbed, because I don't want the guy looking at me funny. But I was with someone else so I asked her to order for me and went and sat down. I really didn't want to cause any kind of eye-rolling scene or let my griping be manifest. So I'm sitting over there by the wall, and they're charging the guy for the missed food and rushing around to get it. By now there's been a lady behind us for a while and two other parties have come in the door. They can't even shut the door. There's getting to be a slight build up.

We ordered something very basic, very easy. And the clerk asked a couple times about the details. It was very easy, since it was exactly what was on the picture. But it's better to be right than wrong, so that was OK.

The food was OK. The grilled chicken, nothing to get excited about. The potatoes and the cole slaw, excellent. The chicken wing I had looked like it came off a little banty hen. So I don't know if they haven't been feeding their chickens, or maybe the chickens put their order in and never get their grain. They're still backed up at the barn door when the butcher shows up.

KFC never ceases to amaze me. I was looking at the buffet stuff, and they've had the same pattern all these years. Like they're afraid someone's going to eat their food and cost them money. Now they have grilled chicken. But the sign on the glass says you can have it "by request." They did the same thing a few years ago with rotisserie chicken. As soon as they have something new it bothers them to think someone will eat it if they put it within reach. So it was amusing to see nothing really has changed.

I've always had a theory over the years -- seriously -- that as stingy as they are at KFC, it's like they have a subliminal tape playing while you're eating that says, "You're full, you're very full." Then when you get to the door it switches over and says, "Come again soon. Come again soon." It's a very funny way of doing business, and I've never noticed another restaurant that does it like they do.

Would the Colonel himself put up with this? I doubt it. Of course he stayed home and made his own chicken!

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire

Regis is coming back to Millionaire. Isn't that something?

It's been 10 years -- Wow -- since the show was a phenomenon in the U.S. Then ABC decided to broadcast it non-stop and it was Millionaire every waking minute. We'd turn it on in the middle of the night and they were still going. It became absurd. Next thing you knew, we'd had our fill.

But now -- in part thanks to Slumdog Millionaire -- it's time to bring it back. And we'll see. I think the article says it will be on for 11 nights.

By the way, the movie Slumdog Millionaire, had some interesting bits. Like the host and the contestant back at the urinals together. Is that one of the things that a contestant could hope for (or fear), having to pee with Regis?

Apology Time

The latest guy to call Rush Limbaugh "an entertainer," Rep. Todd Tiahrt (Republican, of course, from Kansas), is now apologizing. Someone asked him if Rush was "de facto leader of the GOP." And Tiahrt said, "No, no, he's just an entertainer."

A Tiahrt spokesman said Tiahrt was only trying to defend Rush against the suggestion that he could be blamed for the GOP’s troubles. "The congressman believes Rush is a great leader of the conservative movement in America -- not a party leader responsible for election losses," the spokesman said. "Nothing the congressman said diminished the role Rush has played and continues to play in the conservative movement."

I haven't heard anything that phony since that time when John McCain said, "The fundamentals of our economy are strong," he later came out and said what he was referring to was American workers as being the fundamentals of the economy, and of course you can't badmouth American workers. I'm like, "Wow, that lie's both flimsy and sleazy!"

But as for Tiahrt, another brave Republican speaks his mind and goes crashing to a flaming wreck, all to appease Rush Limbaugh.

Sniffing Dogs

Here's a good picture of President Obama shaking paws with the first dog of Mexico, President Felipe Calderon's golden retriever.

You have to wonder what kind of security they have when he's jetting around the world, meeting every species of human and animal. I hope it's good.

We know they have bomb sniffing dogs. But if he sees very many more dogs he'll probably see a lot of dog sniffing dogs. I know I see a lot of that when dogs are together.

Stationery Vs. Stationary

In one of my articles today, I used the word "stationary" a couple times, as relating to something that doesn't move. I always have to run it through my mental warehouse up there to make sure it's not supposed to be "stationery" with an E. I think, No, stationery with an E is for writing paper.

Fortunately for me, since I have enough mental clutter, I don't have any kind of spelling trick that helps me remember this. I just remember it as a thing should be remembered. So I got it right. Then I was at an event, a place today, and there was a table that had a basket marked, "Stationary," meaning the writing paper in the basket. I looked at it and thought, hmmm, did I get it wrong?

But no, I knew I had it right ... although there was that five second period of doubt.

Here's two words that shouldn't be confused, and I hope I have them right without looking them up. "Collectable" and "collectible." I drive by antique stores, flea markets, and see that they have "collectables" for sale and I think that can't be right. Something in my mind says it's the "IBLE" that's the noun and the "ABLE" that's the adjective.

So if I see just the opposite, "collectibles for sale" I think, yep, they got it right.

Maybe use The Rule of The Dogfood. It's Kibbles and Bits, not Kabbles and Bats.

Teabaggers

Who are all these hideously stupid teabaggers outraged with supposedly high taxes? Didn't anyone tell the dweebs that taxes actually went down under Obama?

It's an odd thing to suddenly be up in arms about "the guv'ment and them blasted revenooers." Since the rate went down since the last guy who served (wrong word) as president, it seems like the yahoos would've been upset back then. But no.

It's kind of funny, really. These people didn't even believe in protesting a few years ago. Love it or leave it! Now they're being led by the nose by Fox Noise and the right wing commentariat. Who are upset that we have a black man for president. And who have nothing better to do than to root for the failure of the country they supposedly love so much. That would be the ones who don't hate America so much that they want to secede from the union.

So there they are out there with their idiotic teabags, throwing them on the White House lawn and bringing everything to a halt while the Secret Service checks it out for a potential threat. Must've been nobody told them not to do that. Or they didn't understand the rules. Wouldn't be surprised!

Republicans can be nasty boogers. And that's the truth.

Mind Race

My mind has been running at all speeds today. Really racing early on, as I thought on numerous issues, religion and society issues mostly. It was like one of those duck shooting games at the carnival. I had many arguments, good arguments, in my mind on various dimensions of these issues, and it was bang bang bang, hitting them all.

I knew better than to try to write them down, because it'd be a crazy mess of stuff. Then like a wearing down machine -- plus due to the fact that I've had other tasks, some very mindless -- everything slowed down. Till now, I'm getting tired, and everything is at a trickle, except for my clear memories of the whole thing.

It's been a week, really, that's run the gamut with ups and downs. Today a lot of it came in to focus, especially early on. But I don't think I've got it right now. When you've got it -- those rare occasions -- you know.

The Save

Saving Matt Giraud on American Idol seemed like an empty gesture to me. There seems to be little danger of him going on to win. He will likely be eliminated again sooner rather than later. It seemed like they just wanted to use the save, maybe out of popular demand for a feel good moment.

He got the lowest number of votes fair and square, let him go home. But rules are rules and if they wanted to save him, well, OK. Big deal.

In other American Idol news, I downloaded the Adam Lambert track from iTunes, "Born To Be Wild," and it's good ... but not as good as the live performance. Not quite as wild. And wild is good.

Republicans Twittering Away Credibility

There's a great article today by Gloria Borger, CNN. She writes about how the Republicans are twittering their criticism of President Obama, in real time during real time crises, like the pirate standoff.

Newt Gingrich was openly lambasting Obama of weakness even while he was heavily engaged in getting the pirates killed and the captain of the ship freed. Then Gingrich went on, after the shooting was over, to give Obama half-hearted praise. Like he would've been happier if the captain had been killed. This is how traitorous the Republicans are these days. Right wing wackos.

Borger says,

Here's the problem: If Republicans can't allow that the president did his job well in this unambiguous case, why should we believe their complaints about anything else? If they can't pat him on the back for this one, why should we even listen to their arguments about the budget, about health care, about energy?

True, true, true. But, you see, they're hoping for a bad outcome. If you die you're useful grist for the Republicans' mill. They're not looking out for the well being of the country.

Simon Cowell

No, no, no, we want him to stay around. The big bad news of the day is that it might be Simon Cowell's last year on American Idol.

Somewhere in the article linked to they say it might have something to do with contract negotiations, getting him more moolah probably. Well, pay it, whatever it takes.

He's one of the definite bright lights on the show and I don't want to see him gone anytime soon.

Passenger Lands Plane After Pilot Dies

Link. The passenger had piloting experience but not on a plane this size. They talked him down while the actual pilot was still strapped in the adjoining seat. Whoa.

My own piloting experience is minimal, nonexistent actually, being all on Microsoft Flight Simulator. My guess is the real thing would be harder than the simulator, and for big planes the simulator (in my opinion) is pretty hard.

I was trying to fly a commercial jet on there once and land at Omaha, but I kept overshooting it. I was out over the middle of Nebraska, then the middle of Iowa, all over the place and never could get the thing down right.

It was kind of weird looking, since it must have been set in such a way that you couldn't actually crash and die. Every time I crashed, not on purpose, mind you, it would just bounce off the fields and I'd be up in the air for another 30 or 40 miles.

I had an easier time of it flying a small plane to the South Pole. But I had to set it to make time go by faster, because it's quite a distance. I'm going up and down quickly but maintained it at more or less a level place. I got there, saw the big old white cliffs of the South Pole, landed it and quit the game. Too far to fly back.

Michelle Obama In Paradise

The First Lady is digging and planting a garden, and good for her. I hope they get some great produce from it and are able to eat for many a day through their efforts, maybe laying in some supplies afterward for the next long winter. They can go down to the White House beet cellar and get another can of green beans and have enough to make it through to spring.

Gardens are great. I should get out and till the soil and put in some tomatoes (at least). I might just do it. Don't think I won't. I could.

I needed to look up something about "paradise" a while ago, actually trying to verify that my spelling of "paradisaical" was correct [It was, but do you think I could do it again here? Took me four false starts. It's one of those words you can't think of too much before spelling it.] Getting to an online dictionary site, I see that paradise is a word with an involved etymological history.

It seems that in the old Iranian language Avestan they had a noun (pairidaeza) that literally meant "a wall enclosing a garden or orchard." It was the wall. The site goes on to say: "Zoroastrian religion encouraged maintaining arbors, orchards, and gardens, and even the kings of austere Sparta were edified by seeing the Great King of Persia planting and maintaining his own trees in his own garden." Then Xenophon, hanging out with the Persians, wrote in his histories about their paradeisos, not referring to the walls but to their parks and orchards. Later this word was used in the Greek translation of Genesis to refer to the Garden of Eden, then passed on in English.

But please, Michelle, keep the Republicans far away from your garden. The last time we got a snake anywhere near Paradise ... well, we haven't heard the end of it yet.

Aquarium Watch

We got a new light fixture for our aquarium. The old one fizzled out in stages. Sometimes it'd work, then a week would go by when it didn't work, then it'd work again a couple days, like that. Finally, as the end of these things usually goes, it didn't work period.

So we improvised with a stand up light fixture, beaming light in from the side. This worked well enough to keep the fish from becoming blind mutants but not really well enough to enjoy looking at the fish. Too many weird shadows. If one fish got too close to it everyone else was in the shadows. Plus you the viewer are staring into that weird light from the side.

Now we have a brand new fixture, beaming from above, and it's a vast improvement. It brings out the colors of the fish in a nice way and makes it enjoyable looking again. I was looking in and the place seems to be crawling with life. Lots of activity is going on in there.

Tax Season

I got my income taxes filed for the year. It took me the morning and I don't even do anything complicated.

But when it comes to taxes, I like to have it right. I don't really trust myself when it comes to this stuff, so I double- and triple-check everything, forwards and backwards. It takes a while. Plus I had to search for some papers and figures that I didn't have right there at hand and that took a while.

It's not complicated, I just want to get it right. It's such an unpleasant task, though, which is why I more or less wait till the last minute. It's good to put my copy in the book and put the book away until next year.

A Box Of Papers

In my (perhaps) never ending quest to digitize my life, to cut down on old paper I carry around and to scan it or photo it into my computer ... take a breath ... I went through another box today. It's not as bad as all that. I don't have hundreds of boxes, just some boxes of stuff.

This was a box from the '90s, so there were papers from the positions I held in the '90s. Some of it brought back important memories, including a list of some of my old associates. I haven't seen any of them in over 10 years. It's a lot of irrelevant stuff to what I'm doing now, but it's still going to be nice to have it stored away somewhere where I can find it. In case I'm saying "Who was that one guy? What was his name?"

In the box were cards from relatives, friends, etc. A few old yellow legal pad notebooks with various ideas and thoughts I had at the time. Some financial statements, a couple canceled checks, some eBay paperwork from sales made. I shredded all that. There's nothing in any of that I'm ever going to need.

There's interesting things and there's things I don't know exactly what to do with. But it'll all be processed at least one more time before it goes to the shredder.

End Of The Competition

Well, it was the end of the competition for Scott McIntyre on American Idol.

He wasn't my favorite by a long shot but he really did some amazing things for a guy who can't see. Just close your eyes and try walking around the house. There he was on a big stage, having to negotiate a whole complex world and he did it in a great way.

It was sad to see him go, but, hey, the competition gets down to a few people and everybody has to essentially "lose" except the ultimate winner. So ... if not this week, then maybe next, but eventually for sure.

By the way, I liked the hair the way it originally was a lot better than the "new look."

Good Grief, Minnesota

Minnesota. The endless Norm Coleman vs. Al Franken Senate race.

The essential point is this, Al Franken won the race but the Republicans -- certifiable scoundrels, each one -- are dragging their feet. Appealing forever, to the Supreme Court and beyond, if there is any beyond.

You wouldn't think it'd take this long to get one stupid election accomplished, but thanks to the sore losers in the Republican party -- who don't actually believe in democracy -- we may never see the end.

Today, though, assuming there will be an end, it potentially is closer than it was. They opened what are supposedly the last absentee ballots, and Al Franken picked up 100 and some more votes out of it than Coleman. So, going by memory, that means he wins by 312 votes.

But, alas, it's not over yet, because Coleman apparently has endless appeal options, and of course the loser will exercise each one of them, dragging it out beyond reason.

How strange it is, to go back to the day after Election Day, when Coleman was saying Franken should simply concede then. And Coleman even said he would concede, were he in Franken's position. Liar.

Kim Jong Il's Imaginary Rocket In Space

Beep, beep, beep ... calling North Korea ... your great leader is a lunatic.

Being a "lunatic," though, is related to being crazy as it pertains to the moon. It's tugging at the fluids in your brain, raising the tides of weird emotions, perhaps making you howl at random passing objects. Being a lunatic in this sense is the closest this dweeb is ever going to get to the moon!

We just had the North Korean Rocket Launch, which quickly proved the old adage about what goes up must come down. In this case, it went up -- there it goes -- and it came down ... in the ocean. Plop, fizz, sink.

But the North Korean government is telling their people that it went into orbit "at one go." Here's Kim Jong Il's quote: "It is a striking demonstration that our scientists and technicians developed both the multistage carrier rocket and the satellite with their own wisdom and technology 100 percent and accurately put the satellite into orbit at one go."

What an idiot.

Sunday News

How do they get away with not having the news on Sunday? How did they arrange it so nothing ever happens on Sunday?

MSNBC even threw news under the bus on Saturday. As far as they're concerned, if it happens on Saturday it didn't happen.

The news might go the way of the postal department, which wants to cut down mail delivery by a whole other day. Like Tuesday.

But life, you'd think, doesn't wait for particular days to happen! Like this North Korean rocket launch. So what? You know how to launch a rocket. We were launching rockets when we were little kids! Also had rubber band, balsa wood planes. We didn't make an international incident out of it.

North Korea has to be the most ridiculous country on earth. What's their problem precisely? Hello?

Murder For Hire

I was just watching one of the weekend documentary shows on MSNBC, eating my dinner and enjoying the foolish antics of people trying to have their spouses or lovers murdered.

It was an interesting show. I came in late but got the gist of it in the last 40 minutes or so. They set up hidden cameras, whether in a van or in a motel room somewhere, then let the person hang him- or herself. The first person I saw was a woman, maybe I saw two, I don't remember. One was quite brazen, trying to set up the hit while she was in jail. Since they tape and record everything you say and do in jail, that might not be the smartest move.

A few of them, the perp was in a vehicle, and they're just casually discussing what they want done. Then when they pay, the police come swooping in to arrest them.

One interesting thing was a guy who showed the way he sets up a motel room for one of these sessions.

Oh, I remember another one involving a woman. She wasn't happy with her husband of three months. And he had lots of life insurance, stocks/bonds, and some other source of income which would all be hers ... if only. So she arranges a hit with this undercover cop. They swoop in to arrest her, and the narrator says the husband was trying after that to get her out. Then the weird thing is he died three months later of a heart attack, meaning had she just waited a few months all the moolah would've been hers anyway!

Donated Some Books

I have it firmly in mind, probably because of spring, that I need to do some downsizing. I wrote about my clutter a few days ago and someone actually commented, telling me they would sell it for me. I don't want to do that.

Today I looked at it again and it was all still there. Plus, there's a place going to have a book sale for a worthy cause, coming up. So I loaded up three empty boxes and hauled them over. Must have been a couple hundred pounds. I'm never going to get to these books anyway. And some of them were even books I bought at the same book sale last year. Still in the box.

It looks good to see the empty space. But I still have lots more to get rid of. There were some in those areas that I spared. Including an old Boy Scout manual. In case I need to learn how to do a knot, which I don't know many of. Also a falling apart paperback called "The Hoods" by Harry Grey. Looks like one of those good old pulp novels from the '50s.

Downsizing is going to be nice ... as long as spring cleaning fever holds out.

My Charter

Every few months I need to come up with My Charter. What do I hope to accomplish in writing this blog called [whatever it's called].

Is it just something I do to keep my fingers busy, to keep my hands off the street at night? Yes, in a way. Otherwise I'm twitching them, fidgeting them, trying to over clean the pores on my face. That can be too much. You might get skin cancer.

I think charter is the word that would be accurate there. They have charter schools, which means, I really don't know. They're chartered with a particular mission, I would guess. Like the mission to teach art or science. That's their goal.

My charter: Essentially to keep my fingers busy and to keep my hands off the street at night. Also to entertain the masses who never come here. It's a cul de sac. A dead end. The last resort.

But it does have a charter.

Play That Funky Music White Boy

I missed seeing the original performance last night by Adam Lambert, doing the old disco era hit, "Play That Funky Music, White Boy." Do you suppose it has the comma that precedes the vocative? I dunno.

But I saw it on You Tube, maybe 10 or 12 times today. It's a killer, for sure. Never been my favorite song, but few are. I love anything that Adam can kill on. The high pitched screams, or whatever you call them, all sound great.

I'm only for him in this contest. Nobody else. Everyone else can eat dust and like it.