Cheney's Fear

Cheney "fears" the U.S. troop pullout from Iraq cities and the handing over of sovereignty to the Iraqis, that somehow would service heretofore will have been in vain if we ever leave. I can spell perpetuity without looking it up!

Of course the old twerp "fears" any kind of progress over there, since his whole legacy is one of fear. He was there for eight years stoking the fires of fear around the world, constantly dangling certain death over our heads here in America if we didn't go along with every harebrained criminal plan he and that servile moron Bush concocted.

Dick treasures being the scary Darth Vader character that's always in the shadows about to jump out at us.

Well, guess what, you scurve, we were actually doing all right before you and Bush invaded Iraq. Iraq wasn't coming to get us. And we'll do all right when we finally get out of there.

Thank goodness Cheney isn't in office anymore, because he would have us in these quagmires forever and a day, if not longer.

150 Years

Bernie Madoff got 150 years for whatever scheme it was that he did.

That would be a killer to hear. The judge says, "150 years," and you have to think ... Wow.

I don't know what the actual terms are, like if he gets out in five or six years for good behavior or something. But if it's the case that he has to be in prison forever, that would be a real drag for him. Or for me if I had to hear that.

Fortunately I try to keep my nose fairly clean. And if I had the idea to cheat people out of several billion dollars, I think I would think again. Because to my way of thinking, eventually someone's going to notice.

Prison. What a life.

To think, you have one shot at life. 70 years, maybe 80 if you're lucky. That's it. Then to screw it up so royally that you get a term that is over two lifespans long. That is really screwing it up.

Why not just be fairly honest and enjoy your life? Come on.

Christine McIntyre

I never really paid any attention to Christine McIntyre, of Three Stooges fame. I guess I've seen her before numerous times, especially in "Micro-Phonies," the Stooges film with her in it that I've seen the most.

The thing is I haven't dwelt on the Shemp years that much, since I never had the films from then and didn't see them on TV in any systematic way. But now that I have the DVDs of the full series (so far), I started seeing Christine McIntyre in several episodes in a row and decided to look her up.

Plus, and what really spurred me on, there was a celebrity question in the newspaper supplement, like "What can you tell me about Christine McIntyre from the Three Stooges?" (Whenever I see these newspaper supplement questions, I always think, Don't they have the internet where these people live? And assuming they do, how is it they're smart enough to write a letter, stamp it, and get it to the newspaper guy?)

But in this case it was a helpful question, because I looked her up and was glad to see she has her own Wikipedia page. That filled in some of the details. Also I saw her tombstone at the Find A Grave site. So that's cool.

Christine died in 1984. She retired from show biz in the mid '50s, after her contract ran out. She was hired by Columbia to star in their short films, and ended up in quite a few Stooges' films.

She's not just there either, she's funny and does a great job, and they had her working, all kinds of crazy physical comedy with Moe, Larry, and Shemp. (Her Curly films I'm thinking were few.)

An Enterprising Governor

Early today I saw an article somewhere that said the famous trade mission that Gov. Sanford went on to Argentina last year wasn't even on the original itinerary, but that he personally suggested they go there. Now we know why.

I can't remember the details, but it said something about Argentina, that somehow they were being excluded from these kinds of trade deals, whereas Brazil (the only place on the original itinerary) was was under a different policy, allowing them. Yet the Governor suggested going to Argentina.

One thing to say about the Governor, the guy's got guts. I can't even imagine myself having that kind of guts, to be the governor of a state, and to take an entire trade delegation to a foreign country, where I will disappear to have an affair with a woman of that country! You would think there'd be some kind of security detail on a U.S. governor. Press or someone.

Michael Jackson Coverage

I heard the cable news channels are going nuts over the Michael Jackson coverage. Of course. They're such idiots.

I haven't actually been watching. I literally see a minute here or there.

It's so predictable. We need to make a list of celebrities who can expect wall to wall coverage. Like who?

There's big bucks in death.

The Day In Death

Larry King didn't know what to do today. First, of course it was to be a tribute to Farrah Fawcett, until it was all trumped by the death of Michael Jackson.

Farrah Fawcett, or as we first knew her, Farrah Fawcett Majors, was very beautiful. Like everyone of a certain age, I remember the famous poster of her from 1973. I never had a copy of it personally but I remember seeing it all the time.

She's been in the news lately as being very ill, but there was good word from her people that her family was able to be with her, etc., and things were going OK on that front. So it wasn't a surprise, but still very sad news to hear she died.

Then Michael Jackson. I've been ambivalent about him in recent years especially. I never really kept up with his music, although I did own the "Thriller" album at the time, and a few other things, various 45s. And I have a couple CDs by him around somewhere. They had the "Dangerous" CD at a thrift store I go to a couple days ago, and to save money I didn't get it. I wish I would've. But I was sort of wishing that before he died. When I went back yesterday it wasn't there anymore, nor was the CD I was hoping would still be there, one of his sister Janet's, the "1814" album.

Michael's been around forever. I remember when the Jackson 5's first album came out in '69.

I was definitely surprised to hear he died ... or at first the rumor, pretty much confirmed reports.

Never Been To Argentina

Well, I never been to Argentina,
But I think I'd like to go there.
'Cause the girls in Argentina,
are the best for an af-fair.
Oh, Argentina ... at the cantina,
What did it matter
To Gov. Mark Sanford?

Well, I never been down south, no,
But I really like Herb Alpert,
'Cause his music is so dreamy,
And his covers are whipped creamy,
Oh, Tijuana ... someday I'm gonna,
I gonna go there, I'm gonna live there.

No, I've never gone to Bra-zil,
'Cause no one has ever asked me.
If I can I hope that I will,
And the ladies there won't pass me.
I want a date there,
I cannot wait here,
The chicks are plenty,
There must be many. I hear there's many.

Sci-at-i-ca

(Sung to the tune of "The Israelites" by Desmond Dekker and the Aces) --

Get up in the morning, feeling the back pain,
and I'm hoping I'll feel good again,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, sciatica.

Feeling Fat

Well, I ate a big plate of Mexican food tonight, eating out. I actually restrained myself when it came to the last, potentially four or five bites plus the refried beans, thinking I'd be too bloated up to go swimming.

I'm not enormous but I'm not thin anymore. I need to get thinned down if I'm going swimming, so I don't have kids standing around going, "Let's watch this guy in case he cannonballs!"

Hopefully it'll never get so bad that they'll be predicting a belly flop before I leave the board. How would that work exactly? You're standing at the edge of the low dive (in this case), and the front of your abdomen is hanging down and touching the water.

The Fog Of After-Meal Lethargy

I wrote yesterday about profound rib lethargy after eating too many ribs. A big overload. But I didn't eat any dinner last night, then no breakfast today. (I could've eaten breakfast but was busy at the time.)

Now I've had lunch, some ham and beans, and am suffering the fog of this lethargy again, a completely unwelcome feeling. I always seem to forget it's going to happen till it does. Not that I wouldn't have eaten, but maybe I didn't need to clean my plate.

I have a few things that need to be done today ... so I don't have the option of going to sleep for a prolonged time. Maybe I'll try 25 minutes.

[25 minutes later] OK, that worked. I dozed off very fast, and now I'm up for everything.

Suffering Rib Overload Lethargy

I'm getting somewhat better. But let's say close to an hour ago, I was feeling extremely tired.

I usually get that way right after a big meal. I think it's some kind of natural reaction where your belly says it needs all the enzymes your body can spare, so your brain goes wanting and gets tired. Couple that with the fact that I had a challenging intellectual task to perform which was absolutely necessary. That makes me tired too.

Now that task is done, and time is stretching farther out from when I ate, I feel like I'm getting my second wind. But I could still take a serious nap, and just might. Now that I think of it, I got to bed an hour late last night, so I only got seven hours sleep, and I need eight.

Today I grilled racks of baby back ribs. I'm usually such a cheapskate when I go to the grocery store. But yesterday I saw some of these being grilled at a grocery story and knew I would eventually need some. "Eventually" came less than 24 hours later. I went to the meat counter and got a couple of them, one for me and one for the other resident of this house. I believe this is the first time I've ever done this.

Then I thought, surely this big full rack is big enough to stretch out over two meals, since ribs is one of the few foods that is good as leftovers. But when it got right down to it, that plan went out the window because I just kept eating till I had devoured the entire rack. I'm almost ashamed to say it because it sounds extremely wanton. I had my mouth all smeared with KC Masterpiece sauce plus the natural juices of the ribs, accompanied by some Bush's baked beans [If Jay Bush's dog Duke would like to call me with the recipe, I won't sell or give it to anyone else.]

Oh, so I felt a mixture of extremely good and extremely overloaded. The lethargy arose in me like a mighty force. And I was looking to get my challenging intellectual task done but really felt no energy to do so ... until it was about half over. Then the pieces started falling into place, giving me the renewed energy to still be sitting here writing about it all these minutes later. Who knows what else I could accomplish?

Me, me, me, it's all about me. And my two enormous plates of ribs.

The New Pepsi Logo

Here's a fascinating document. How is the new Pepsi logo like the magnetic fields around the earth? They put a lot of thought into this logo, as well as all the past logos.

Lost One To Mold

I lost a nice record set today to mold, mildew, the stuff of being against the basement wall.

I have a good dehumidifier down there but it must not be strong enough to handle every challenge.

Anyway, I brought up a box of records (45s) and the one on the end was destroyed. This is very unfortunate since it wasn't just a record, but an envelope of a jukebox album. And if one record is destroyed the whole set is a loss. Darn. Too bad it wasn't just some junk on the end!

Now I think all the records need to come up ... and since there isn't really a decent place to put them, under my bed maybe will be the place.

Dead But Not Forgotten

Pretty good epitaph, huh?

Daddy's Mornin' Coffee

I keep thinking of the song "Forty Miles from Poplar Bluff," as recorded by Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, the part about "Daddy's mornin' coffee came from old leftover grounds." I think of it whenever I'm making coffee.

I know a little about what it is to be poor. But not dirt poor. But to have to be using old leftover grounds, that has to be pretty low. I think I was asking the last time I wrote about this, Where'd he get the grounds good in the first place ... in order for them to be leftover?

In some of my consideration of this pressing question, I'm thinking maybe his neighbors or kinfolk took a mighty good pity on Daddy, and thus saved their used coffee grounds, giving them to him or maybe setting them outside their door for someone in the family to come by and pick up. In which case, if I'm the Daddy, I say, "I think I can get by without coffee ... because this is ridiculous."

Or maybe there's a cafe there with a kindly waitress and/or owner who saves up their coffee grounds for him. And, you know, think about it, if you had the total coffee grounds a cafe would go through in a day, even if they were left over you'd probably be able to get one more good pot of coffee out of the total amount.

Today I'm happy to report that I don't have to find out. I made a fresh pot of coffee. And I must hit the POST button now and have a sip before it gets cold.

Crows

A big old crow is lord of the manor till a little bird says he's not. There must be a hundred tiny eyes watching every crow that strays into the neighborhood.

The Grand Canyon - Blu-Ray Disc

We got a Blu-Ray player, I can't remember when, maybe five or six months ago. And that day we bought some discs, a couple of them being discs about U.S. national parks.

One we watched and I wrote a little blog about it, which looks like it was back on January 24, was about Yellowstone and Grand Teton. The other was about the Grand Canyon, and somehow this set unopened till today. We have company, and he's interested in such things, so we watched it. It also has a second program that was watched but I missed that part.

The one on Grand Canyon is the same format, the same kind of documentary as the Yellowstone one. Which means real good, but there's nothing about it that would make you want to sit for multiple viewings, if you have only average interest in such things like me.

The Grand Canyon definitely looks like a wonderful place, speaking as someone who's never seen it and maybe never will. And even if I went to see it, I might get the Chevy Chase tour of it and have to move on quickly. Or ... even if I went to see it, I know I wouldn't see the whole thing, since it's vast. I guess I didn't know it was so big. But the Colorado River goes through there around 250 miles. And people take boating trips through there that takes them 18-19 days to accomplish.

That would be more time than I would want to spend on a boat with people. Especially since I didn't see any Porta Potties along the side and I don't know what they're doing. Everything for me comes down to where you're supposed to go to the bathroom. I don't know why they didn't address that issue in the program. Wouldn't almost everyone be curious? Are people just peeing against the mountain?

Plus it looks like you'd be paying a fortune for the accommodations, etc.

The Blu-Ray picture is nice and clear. I never really got into the whole Blu-Ray experience that much since we got the player back in January. I don't think it's especially worthwhile to buy discs to have setting around to watch a time or two. And I've never been one for watching the same shows over and over.

The Cheater

Someone was telling me about the "Forensics Files" show a few weeks ago, over a month ago I guess. About an episode of a guy from the Bob Kuban and the In-Men group of the '60s.

The only song I ever knew by them was "The Cheater," but studying out the issue a couple times in the last month or so reveals that they had other songs.

The "Forensics Files" show replayed today and I happened to see about 25-30 minutes of it, about how the singer from the group, Walter Scott, was killed and his body was found in a cistern well. That's pretty gruesome.

One of the things they said, someone claimed that they had gone to a psychic who told them he was in cold water standing still next to something red. So it worked out, if that was true, just like that. The house three feet from the cistern had a big red door.

The guy whose house it was and whose wife died suspiciously and who also just happened to marry the singer's widow and who also happened to build a big heavy flower stand on top of the cistern in the dead of winter (the singer went missing around Christmas) said he didn't know anything about it. According to the show he's in prison now.

Adam Lambert - Rolling Stone

I haven't been buying Rolling Stone, lo, these many years. A few times, once in a while. But now two weeks in a row, since they've featured two of my favorite people, Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert.

(I like the new format, by the way. Smaller, it's easier to handle and keep in nice condition in case you like to save things, like I do.)

It was a good story. It was interesting to read about his climb to the top. But it makes me wonder why it was so hard for him to be a smashing success without American Idol. He's not exactly a dime-a-dozen kind of guy.

Very nice picture on the front. I like the butterfly and the snake. It lets us know what is of such interest to everyone. There's lots of things to know about Adam. But it's just great to know he's so comfortable being himself and that he has all this confidence now.

It's also interesting to see which American Idol contestant made the cover of Rolling Stone. He clearly was the star this year and should've been the winner. But he says he didn't care about that. He's more gracious about it than I am. I'm still ticked.

Lady Gaga Cover

I bought the Rolling Stone with Lady Gaga on the cover. I love her and her CD and thought this was a stunning picture. Plus I'm interested in reading what's inside, very much so, but I haven't had a chance yet. Too busy.

The bad thing about the cover is I felt a little funny buying it. I show up at the cash register and I have this magazine that looks like (what it looks like), and I'm thinking this could look bad. There's an old guy in the line right behind me, who incidentally almost ran into me in the aisle and said "Sorry, sir." So I'm a "sir" to an old guy. In the line I'm thinking he's thinking "Sir" here is gettin' himself a girly magazine. Because what does he know about Rolling Stone?

Anyway, it's a great picture.

Domestic Terrorists

I hope the Obama administration is doing enough, and plans to do enough, to keep us safe from terrorism. The overseas kind and the domestic kind.

Because it's obvious that each one leads to the same thing, senseless death because of ideology and various sick thought processes.

Maybe some of those policies that got put into place in the Bush administration, like phone tapping and all that, will yield some good clues for investigators to try to break up some of these right wing cell groups before they strike.

Ahh, those were the days, huh? I never thought Bush had it right about the overseas terrorists, that they wanted to terrorize us because "they hate our freedom." Domestic terrorists seem like maybe they actually do hate our freedom.

More Porter Wagoner

I want to mention that I also recently got a CD by Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, a collection of songs from some of their RCA albums together. I saw one of these LPs just recently at Goodwill. I believe it was the "Porter Wayne and Dolly Rebecca" album, which I've never had. I didn't buy it at Goodwill either because it was in terrible shape. (Although not quite as bad as what this Lynn Anderson LP looked like:)

Someone really did a number on that one, mangling up her face and eyes, and what looks like a big old tongue sticking right up her nose. Whoever did this also changed the title to "Pig Girls Don't Cry." (It wasn't me who did any of this ... I just report the news.)

Anyway, the song I want to comment about, from the Porter and Dolly CD, was originally from the LP I mentioned, "Porter Wayne..." And that song is "Forty Miles from Poplar Bluff."

I was listening to this CD while driving and I really liked the song "Forty Miles from Poplar Bluff." I listened to it twice, then the beginning a few more times just to make note of the lyrics.

The opening probably should be, "I never had a pair of shoes that weren't old hand me downs, and daddy's mornin' coffee came from old leftover grounds." The contention is over the word "grounds," since it sounds like Porter leaves off the "s," and the various lyrics sites on the internet, who perhaps are using a common file, also make it "old left over ground."

But be that as it may, it doesn't make any difference to my point. My point is that daddy was so doggoned poor that he had to have his mornin' coffee from leftover grounds? Where did he get the coffee in the first place? Was the local cafe throwing out their coffee grounds and daddy was there with a bucket to hurry them home?

I don't mind these old country songs making everyone poor as dirt, but that is so poor I don't know what could beat it. Maybe brushing his teeth with used toothpaste? Or recycling shampoo? If you're using leftover grounds to make coffee, maybe you should just forget drinking coffee and drink water instead.

Porter Wagoner

I've had a couple run ins with the late Porter Wagoner in the last couple days.

Saturday I got a nice condition Porter Wagoner album, a couple records of his greatest hits. The label is RCA, but it's one of those Specials Products issues that they must've sold on TV. The cover is a plain Adam VIII jacket, no frills.

I listened to Side 1 and it was pleasant enough. Nothing so spectacular that you go Wow!

I used to watch Porter's show, a half hour show, syndicated, a real plain performance show. Dolly Parton of course was on this show.

My other run in with Porter was when I was at the exercise place and turned the TV on (with the sound down) to one of those Time Life infomercials for a DVD set of Grand Ole Opry performances. It just kept going on and on, showing snippets and there were a few guest interviews in between. At least one of these was with Porter Wagoner. And I was thinking, Didn't he die?

He had some wild suits.

The Lady Of The Lake

On one of my blogs a month or so ago, I said that I was reading "The Lady of the Lake" by Sir Walter Scott, not to be confused with "The Lady of the Lake" in the King Arthur lore or the cute lady by the lake that I saw walking today.

I wanted to announce it -- as a matter of great pride, frankly -- that I managed to get the entire thing read. I know how to read, one. OK? I do know how. But I don't do that much reading, at least historically. I've been very faithful to read the first five pages of practically everything, and if it weren't for me, most bookmark companies would be out of business by now.

Be all that as it may, I did -- I repeat, I did manage to get this entire work by Walt Scott read.

At first I looked it up on Wikipedia to get my bearings. But after that, I was able to figure it out OK, for the most part. Some of the geographical references didn't mean much to me, and some of the poetic language is obscure, but I kept at it. There was two or three weeks in there when I wasn't keeping up with it. But then one day I decided, I'm up to the 5th Canto (out of 6), why not just give it a couple days of serious slogging and see what might happen?

So ... a big gold star for me. Seriously, I might go to Walmart, get myself some poster board and a container of gold stars, and do some serious reading. It was very motivational for me as a kid in Sunday School, memorizing verses and getting a gold star; now that I'm an adult and can afford all the gold stars I want, I could award myself multiple gold stars for things that are fairly difficult, like this "Lady of the Lake" work. It's surely a 10 star piece. Or six at the very least, one for each canto.

It was good, too. Some places were rough going, but for the most part, I give it from four to six stars, maybe up to 10.

My memory isn't that great. But it starts off with this guy separated from his mates. He's out on the hunt and ends up in what seems like a mystical fairyland. That's the impression you get at first. There's a woman, whose father turns out to be a guy banished from a particular realm. There's an old soothsayer kind of guy, who foretells things and interprets the signs of the times, etc. There's competing Scottish clans, heroes, battles, people in disguise, etc.

It's definitely worth reading. But you need to do what I did, look it up on Wiki first and get your bearings.

Accidental Killing

It's a bad feeling to kill something, like today, when a rabbit ran out in front of my car on the highway. I went [swerve] but it didn't do any good. And so there's a dead rabbit that was cast into the ditch.

I felt bad about it most of the rest of the way home. Plus I was trying to avoid dumb birds that are on the road all the time. Sheesh.

If I'm an animal I'm out in nature, sitting by a tree or a stream. Not hanging out on concrete.

Symposium

I learned the word "symposium" in 9th grade. The English teacher was teaching about it, the ancient Greeks getting together to discuss stories or plays. Then we needed to have our own symposium, as ninth graders, and discuss whatever we were reading.

I looked it up today. She should've taught us this, that it's a word that comes from these parts, "syn" and "pinein," which would be "together" and "to drink," with the "po" seen more clearly in the word "potable." The Greeks got together and drank while they talked over the theater or whatever the subject was.

I so much wish I would've learned more in school and would've known some of this stuff at the time. But I sat there bored like everyone else.

Phone Alarm

I have a phone alarm that I don't like hearing. It's actually not as bad when I'm not expecting it. But when I know it's going off in a couple minutes, like just now, I dread the whole experience of anticipating it.

The fact is, though, that it's easier to just let it go off than it is to turn it off before. It's very helpful for those times that I would forget an appointment. But annoying for those times I remember. Which is most of the time.

Exercise

I need to go exercise. I missed last night. I'm tired tonight, but that's a dangerous groove to fall into. Or maybe I'll call it a rut.

I don't want to get a big belly, any bigger than this. I had everything under control for a while. Then I backslid.

If I showed up to buy a girdle, they'd be going, "We can't manage the impossible."

So I must ... must ... and I resolve that I will ... go do the treadmill and all that.

World's Tallest Man

In order to be the world's tallest man you need to be officially measured. So there's one guy who's probably the world's tallest man, at 8' 5". But he refused to be measured.

That leaves the second tallest man as the world's tallest man, at 8' 1", a guy from China.

The previous world's tallest man, until the second tallest man became the world's tallest man, was 7' 9".

Cleaning The Cat Box

It's a nasty job but I still have to do it.

I think our cats must be pooping horizontally. I try not to be gross, but the Johnny bag starts out white. What's the deal? Is their digestive system driven by turbines?

The litter gets to be a mess, scooped out, but still messy after about a week. So I've been regularly getting a new bag of litter and changing the whole works about that often.

Right after changing it, that's the only time I put my hand in it, to smooth it out. (Shhh, I'm trying to do it quietly so they won't come running and mess it up right away.)

We ought to give the cat species a gold star for being so adept at going in a cat box. That's for sure. But do they really have to go so often?