Aging John Cleese and Tom Jones

I saw a couple of entertainment stories today that touch on aging and raise me out of my wheelchair to shake my cane and cackle, "We all do it!" But when you're famous and more susceptible to having your personal business broadcast around the world, there might be some more slightly troubling aspects to it.

One story had to do with John Cleese having a younger girlfriend, in her 40s but claiming to be in her 20s, discussing their sex life and her thoughts on it. Some of her thoughts centered on his age, probably uncomfortable for him to hear about. They have broken up, maybe over stuff like this.

The other story I didn't look at, but saw the headline, was on Tom Jones letting his hair go gray, no longer coloring it. So he's getting old. Both John and Tom at in their late 60s, not exactly ancient, but maybe they feel like it, looking at the news.

As far as John Cleese goes, he's never had a sexy guy image over the years. So he really has nothing to fret about especially, at least you wouldn't think so. He's been a comedy genius, that's it, and he really ought to be far enough out of the public eye that no one should care if he's older. But if you're famous, and in the public eye at all (he's been in recent movies), and you're trying to date much younger women, some of this is likely to happen.

As for Tom Jones, he definitely did have a sexiest guy in the world image over the years. No one's ever thrown underwear at me, except my wife, saying, "Carry these upstairs!" Or mad in our room, "Can't you pick up your shorts?!" But Tom Jones had the undies and plenty of them, maybe with hotel keys sewn to the elastic, I don't know. So the fact that he's getting old -- up in Adam Chandler territory -- might be a big deal to him and the media. But he has no alternative, so why worry about it?

Tom Jones letting his hair go gray might be a great coping strategy. Don't deny it, you're old. Who isn't? It happens to all of us. Let the old image go, and make your image exactly what you are.

Jerry Springer

It's great to see Jerry Springer's still on. Someone mentioned it to me in the last month and I was glad to hear he was still going. Then today, while messing with the cables on my TV, trying to make the picture come in better, his show came on and I watched it. It's been probably five years since I saw this.

He has the same format and the same basic show going, which today was entertaining but not as good as it might have been. Just like I remember, it was the confessions of various cheating partners, then confrontations with the other woman and any other parties who might be relevant to the situation. A few times it descended into the (very necessary) scuffle. One ended up with two men shirtless but somehow both maintained the presence of their tie. So that was nicely formal.

The participants are the same old losers the show has long been known for, and their tawdry, two bit affairs, magnified on TV for that one hour, as if anyone really cares. We don't care, we just want to see you spill your lust or anger and fight.

Anyway, I approve, to a certain point. But it takes a lot to really titillate, and this was pretty mild. There may be every shape of romantic triangle and rectangle, but when you get down to it, it's pretty much all the same.

In other news, while I was working on the cables, it was right at the time that Maury's show was wrapping up. I was amazed not only to see IT was still there too, but that his theme hasn't changed in at least five years. He's still doing DNA paternity tests. Is that all he does? How do people stay interested in that forever? It has to be the build-up stories of course.

Illinois' Former Governor

Blagojevich is now out, the vote being 59-0 in the Illinois state senate to oust him. Pretty much unanimous.

I haven't followed it faithfully. But I watched a few minutes tonight when he was live on David Shuster's program, a cut to a press conference outside a house. He wasn't admitting much and still seemed defiant, even while realizing that he was out. But he vowed to fight for people, whatever that means. He's trying to portray himself as some kind of hero.

I personally wouldn't care about him that much, but it was unfortunate that he had to detract from Obama in the days after the election. I think that's enough to kick him out for.

It was interesting that they not only kicked him out but also voted to disqualify him from holding any public office in Illinois ever again. So that's a real vote of no confidence. Next time, keep your nose clean.

Peanut Butter Is The New Spinach

How come it seems like when it comes to recalls it's always one thing at a time? I wouldn't say you never hear of two things at once, but it seems like it. It's like nature attacks; it's either sharks or killer bees, never both.

Now we have killer peanut butter, or whatever, maybe peanut butter that makes people break out in a rash. Of course there's always a problem with peanuts, which I think started with Jimmy Carter, since I never heard of it before. You see it on labels that the ingredients in this package were processed in a plant that also processes peanuts. So beware or you might die.

And I love peanut butter. Not love love in the sense that I have it a lot. But when I eat it I love it. Like in oatmeal or on a sandwich occasionally. What can go wrong with peanut butter? Probably overheated or the oil sat on a shelf and spoiled.

Food companies, get it right! This is ridiculous.

Crazy Existence

People getting in trouble. How hard is it just to stay home, mind your own business, and remain free? This has been a day of "law enforcement" stuff for me, being in court with an acquaintance, being at the police department for some community business, and being at the jail, to hobnob and confer with the sheriff on related matters.

Court was interesting. It's kind of the nickel and dime level, at least when I was there. It's serious stuff some of the folks are charged with, but if they comply with a few terms they're dealt with in a fairly generous way. It could be worse, of course, with repeat offenses.

Being back at the jail -- I've visited before a time or two -- it reminds me, as though I needed reminding, how nice it is to be out and free. There they are, seen on the video screens especially, milling around in their orange uniform, watching TV, talking on the phone, and just sitting around. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard just to behave. But what's just a minor argument, say, between mates for us, might be a knife fight for them.

I reviewed the official crime statistics for the year, and there are crimes in practically every category. Homicides, I don't think there were any. But everything from sexual assault to vandalism to burglary, theft, you name it. Someone's out there making these crazy choices.

Just driving home at the end of this day, I'm scrupulously driving the speed limit, stopping at stop signs, the whole thing. I'd hate to be hauled back out there, this time as a guest! "Hey, didn't we just see you!"

I Restrained Myself

Yesterday the Deal of the Day at Amazon, for MP3s was The Animals' Greatest Hits, actually called The Best of the Animals. It's an old album, 1966, used to be MGM Records. It could be that the collection on Amazon was an expanded edition since I don't remember very many albums from 1966 that had 18 songs on one record.

It was only $1.99, which is a good deal by anyone's standards. And I restrained myself from buying it. Barely, but I did it. I feel like my credit card has enough charges on it this month and to relieve myself of the added pain, even if it's only $1.99, I decided ... bite the bullet, don't buy anything else. Now, whether I can manage that everyday, that's a different story. Who knows what they might have tomorrow? Maybe I shouldn't look.

I saw it today, some hip hop classic that I'm not interested in, the Phar Syde or something like that. It's also $1.99. I didn't even check it out, since I'm sure if I didn't buy the Animals I'm not likely to buy the Phar Syde!

Last week or maybe the week before one of the "deals" was a 99 cent-er by the Go-Go's, which I got. That's a great deal. But this week, I don't know if I would've bought it.

How To Stop Accumulating Books

One of the wikiHow "How to do it" things of the day was "How to Stop Accumulating Books."

This is a subject of great interest to me, since I'm about buried in books and compact discs (not literally). I have a bunch and keep accumulating more, especially CDs. But this is about books.

I read through it earlier this morning so I'll have to review it ...

OK, here's a sentence from it: "You're a book hoarder. How do you stop the insanity?"

Some of the steps include:

1. Cull your existing collection. - This has to do with giving your books to the library, to charity, or book lovers. That's a good idea. Except I don't suppose the library wants people's books, especially, since they want to order what they want. If I gave my books and then saw them sitting on their dime table the next day, that would be offensive. Philanthropists deserve better.

2. Sell your books. They suggest Amazon and Half.com. Of course there's eBay. But that's a lot of work, I mean a lot of work. Then you have dissatisfied customers. There's all the work of grading everything, describing it. I'd rather see it on the library's table, except for the potential money you could make.

Skip to 4. Make a rule that you will read X number of books before buying another one. Wow, if I had that kind of restraint I wouldn't be buried in books. Plus, that one is only really relevant when you're buying new books for $24.95 apiece. Then you want to read it through, or at least not buy as many. But when you get them at thrift stores for 50 cents or a book sale for a dime or a garage sale for a dime for the box, you don't always have the luxury of waiting till you've read X number of books. The time to get them is now.

Skip to 8. Use the library. Check out books there. Yeah, please. The library's selection is worse than my own, at least for topics that I'm interested in. They generalize, they have a lot of crap ... I mean a lot of crap. Of course the library where you live might be a huge library or a university library, in which case the crap/non-crap ratio is different.

Here's some advice from the article:

If you are a person who likes to pen notes directly in a book, you might find it hard to find people who will buy or take a book that has been written in. Three things you can do: learn to make notes elsewhere so you can reference them without the book, jot things down on mini post-it notes and stick them in the pages, or just limit what books you write in and keep them. One thing you can do is scan the page and write your note on that and keep it in a file. Yes, there are laws against this, but only if you copy the entire book. Copying a page here and there isn't an issue especially if it is for personal use. There is nothing wrong with the practice of writing in a book so long as you understand that others will not want it afterward.

Very bad idea. If you're getting rid of the book, you don't really care if anyone wants it or not. For instance, if you're giving it to the library or to a book sale. Yes, if you're trying to sell it on Amazon you want it to be in as nice a condition as possible. But there's no way in this life or any life to come that I'm going to be copying pages of books and putting the copies in files and then getting rid of the book. If it's that important to you, keep the book.

Anyway, it's not really true that if you write in a book no one will want it afterward. I have lots of books that people have written in, and some of the margin notes are fun to read. I have a really old copy of some of Emerson's essays and I like seeing the things that the owner from 100 years ago circled and marked and made notes about. I have a book somewhere by Teilhard de Chardin, a cheap paperback, where someone had a strenuous knock down drag out debate with Teilhard that he never had to see. That's kind of fun.

Will I stop accumulating books? I think I've already slowed down in recent years. I'm pickier. But I do have lots of books that I don't really need or want, and when spring gets here, some of them will definitely be going somewhere. One good sign of a book you don't especially need is if it's in the basement in a box or plastic tote.

Get A Bank Account!

There's a commercial that I find very aggravating. It is for Wal-mart, their check cashing service for people who are apparently too stupid to have a bank account.

It features a couple. Both seem to have a job, because they talk about cashing their "checks." It seems they have discovered that Wal-mart only charges $3 to cash a check, meaning they get to keep more of their money and are able to save up to $200 a year. They use this hard earned savings to buy more of the things they want, including a laptop computer.

OK, the obvious question for this "money saving" couple would be ... why don't you get a bank account and not pay fees at all? And don't tell me there aren't any banks in the area. If there's a Wal-mart in the area, there's going to be banks too.

It's just plain stupidity.

Peeing On Poop

This is another dog post. I'm fascinated by the behavior of dogs. I don't understand it. But I suppose dogs have their own wiki page, if I'm ever curious enough to look it up. I like to observe it, though.

The whole thing of dogs going out and being interested in one another's butts, one another's poop and pee, is something that must be endless in its implications. We know dogs are territorial, and that territory has something to do with boundaries. So their bowel and eliminatory functions carry at least a double duty. What precisely, I don't know.

It's aggravating in many ways for me, being less removed (apparently) from the instincts. When it's cold out I just want the dog to pee or poop, not to make it a scavenger hunt for the biggest, boldest, brightest dog who's been in the neighborhood before. I believe in the doctrine of 'any old port in a storm,' but if I left it to the dog, usually, we'd be searching for just the perfect spot till we froze into statues and broke in half from the strong wind.

Yesterday, she was nosing around in the snow. So here we are, nosing, nosing, nosing. I'm glancing around trying to be patient. Nosing, nosing. Finally I yelled, "Come on!" Ooops, that slipped out, since any kind of impatience on my part threatens her ability to go at all. "Good girl."

Something I do, and I know this is socially the right thing to do, is to pick up the poop and take it home for proper disposal. Not everyone does, including neighbors who go by on Rascals, or others who don't have any excuse except that they're clods. So there's a lot of poop in the neighborhood, ranging from fresh and vital all the way to dessicated and rotting. In my walks, several times a day, I see it all.

These little piles aren't all bad news, though, because it gives my dog something to study in her never ending search for a decent place to go to the bathroom. Now, remember, I always clean up after my dog. But today she took a royal pee right on top of some other dog's royal poop, leaving a yellow circle on top of that nastiness. I'm thinking, if someone looks out their window right now, it will look like my dog did the poop and that I didn't clean it up. But they won't say anything to me, allowing me the chance for a realistic defense; they will simply share it among themselves and perhaps to friends.

Obama, Clinton, Biden

It's remarkable how far everything's come since the early days of the primaries and the pre-primary debates. We had three of the top officials in the present government competing against one another, and now they're on stage together, working in harmony.

Biden never seemed to have much of a chance to do much toward getting the presidential nomination. It seemed like a waste of time really to have him competing at all. But he did. And even though he didn't win a thing, he still came out more or less on top.

Clinton and Obama were the big story, like a steel cage death match between the two. It was a great division in the Democratic party. Clinton was expected to win -- I thought she would -- I was on her side. But Obama never seemed to make mistakes, never seemed to do anything that would turn people away from him. Clinton was a lot more over the top, or the blogs made it seem that way. Every little thing she did was blown up as an example of the Clintons being racist and terrible in other ways. Which I thought was false.

Obama was a great guy. I saw him in one of his campaign stops and was very impressed.

In the debates, then, they were definitely at each other's throats and it was a nasty thing. So it's hard to believe that it's all come around as it has. There they are, one big happy family.