Sunday, October 28, 2007
Ann Coulter � Redux.
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Friday, October 26, 2007
Advance death plans
I am also preparing a memorandum that will list those people and agencies to be called to, for example, stop pension payments from the state of Florida, stop deducting life insurance premiums. I will also list bank accounts, credit cards, etc, that can be accessed on-line, with the necessary user ID and password.
It's not fun to plan for dying -- but it's a sign of being a grown-up. It's also time to review our wills and such. If we do this correctly, our kids will be spared some anguish and isn't that what we are supposed to do?
Monday, October 22, 2007
Common Ground: Book Explores the Future of American Politics
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Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Lord Timothy Dexter, a Genius, an Eccentric of just simply Nutty as a Fruit
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Monday, October 15, 2007
Passive Smoking and the Efforts to Protect our Children.
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Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Cremation - A New Beginning
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Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Carrabba's Italian Grill: Not the Usual Chain restaurant
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Sunday, October 7, 2007
Rossi�s in Elfers, Florida, is a fine Italian restaurant
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Sunday, September 30, 2007
Cremation is the Beginning!
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Michael Vick � the Other Shoe Drops
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Thursday, September 20, 2007
The Potty Police and Other Excesses
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Monday, September 17, 2007
The Senator and the Men�s Room
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Wednesday, September 5, 2007
The next Inauguration Address.
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Petitioning the Government. Anyone listening?
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Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Abortion quandaries abound.
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Monday, September 3, 2007
Victims and Heroes; Confusing them Devaluates the Greatness of the Latter.
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Doggie Bliss or the Helmsley Attorney Financial Relief Act of 2007
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Tuesday, August 28, 2007
New novel by Daniel Silva: Survival of Jews not assured by others.
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Sunday, August 26, 2007
Baggy pants � Teen Rebellion or Indication of a Lost Generation.
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Wednesday, August 8, 2007
The Ten Commandments, school prayer and the end of civilization. Part II
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Tuesday, August 7, 2007
The Ten Commandments, school prayer and the end of civilization. Part I
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Monday, August 6, 2007
Letter to Governor Charlie Crist
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Monday, July 30, 2007
Moxie: �You�ve Got Spunk . . . I Hate Spunk�
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Sunday, July 29, 2007
How to Win the War against Terrorists Without Losing Everything � Part III
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Terror, Iraq and the Future; How Do We Fight and Win? � Part II
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Iraq: Same old, Same old
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Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Democrats Must Appeal to Emotions, not Issues
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Wednesday, July 4, 2007
The states are making progress in allowing medical marijuana.
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Presidential obstruction of justice!
“I didn’t vote for him,” an American once said, “But he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”
That—on this eve of the 4th of July—is the essence of this democracy, in 17 words. And that is what President Bush threw away yesterday in commuting the sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
The man who said those 17 words—improbably enough—was the actor John Wayne. And Wayne, an ultra-conservative, said them, when he learned of the hair’s-breadth election of John F. Kennedy instead of his personal favorite, Richard Nixon in 1960.
“I didn’t vote for him but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”
The sentiment was doubtlessly expressed earlier, but there is something especially appropriate about hearing it, now, in Wayne’s voice: The crisp matter-of-fact acknowledgement that we have survived, even though for nearly two centuries now, our Commander-in-Chief has also served, simultaneously, as the head of one political party and often the scourge of all others.
We as citizens must, at some point, ignore a president’s partisanship. Not that we may prosper as a nation, not that we may achieve, not that we may lead the world—but merely that we may function.
But just as essential to the seventeen words of John Wayne, is an implicit trust—a sacred trust: That the president for whom so many did not vote, can in turn suspend his political self long enough, and for matters imperative enough, to conduct himself solely for the benefit of the entire Republic.
Our generation’s willingness to state “we didn’t vote for him, but he’s our president, and we hope he does a good job,” was tested in the crucible of history, and earlier than most.
And in circumstances more tragic and threatening. And we did that with which history tasked us.
We enveloped our President in 2001.And those who did not believe he should have been elected—indeed those who did not believe he had been elected—willingly lowered their voices and assented to the sacred oath of non-partisanship.
And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and shaped it to a razor-sharp point and stabbed this nation in the back with it.
Were there any remaining lingering doubt otherwise, or any remaining lingering hope, it ended yesterday when Mr. Bush commuted the prison sentence of one of his own staffers.
Did so even before the appeals process was complete; did so without as much as a courtesy consultation with the Department of Justice; did so despite what James Madison—at the Constitutional Convention—said about impeaching any president who pardoned or sheltered those who had committed crimes “advised by” that president; did so without the slightest concern that even the most detached of citizens must look at the chain of events and wonder: To what degree was Mr. Libby told: break the law however you wish—the President will keep you out of prison?
In that moment, Mr. Bush, you broke that fundamental com-pact between yourself and the majority of this nation’s citizens—the ones who did not cast votes for you. In that moment, Mr. Bush, you ceased to be the President of the United States. In that moment, Mr. Bush, you became merely the President of a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republican Party. And this is too important a time, Sir, to have a commander-in-chief who puts party over nation.
This has been, of course, the gathering legacy of this Administration. Few of its decisions have escaped the stain of politics. The extraordinary Karl Rove has spoken of “a permanent Republican majority,” as if such a thing—or a permanent Democratic majority—is not antithetical to that upon which rests: our country, our history, our revolution, our freedoms.
Yet our Democracy has survived shrewder men than Karl Rove. And it has survived the frequent stain of politics upon the fabric of government. But this administration, with ever-increasing insistence and almost theocratic zealotry, has turned that stain into a massive oil spill.
The protection of the environment is turned over to those of one political party, who will financially benefit from the rape of the environment. The protections of the Constitution are turned over to those of one political party, who believe those protections unnecessary and extravagant and quaint.
The enforcement of the laws is turned over to those of one political party, who will swear beforehand that they will not enforce those laws. The choice between war and peace is turned over to those of one political party, who stand to gain vast wealth by ensuring that there is never peace, but only war.
And now, when just one cooked book gets corrected by an honest auditor, when just one trampling of the inherent and inviolable fairness of government is rejected by an impartial judge, when just one wild-eyed partisan is stopped by the figure of blind justice, this President decides that he, and not the law, must prevail.
I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.
I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.
I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.
I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.
I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but to stifle dissent.
I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.
I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.
I accuse you of handing part of this Republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.
And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to Grand Juries and Special Counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.
When President Nixon ordered the firing of the Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre” on October 20th, 1973, Cox initially responded tersely, and ominously.
“Whether ours shall be a government of laws and not of men, is now for Congress, and ultimately, the American people.”
President Nixon did not understand how he had crystallized the issue of Watergate for the American people.
It had been about the obscure meaning behind an attempt to break in to a rival party’s headquarters; and the labyrinthine effort to cover-up that break-in and the related crimes.
And in one night, Nixon transformed it.
Watergate—instantaneously—became a simpler issue: a President overruling the inexorable march of the law of insisting—in a way that resonated viscerally with millions who had not previously understood - that he was the law.
Not the Constitution. Not the Congress. Not the Courts. Just him.
Just - Mr. Bush - as you did, yesterday.
The twists and turns of Plame-Gate, of your precise and intricate lies that sent us into this bottomless pit of Iraq; your lies upon the lies to discredit Joe Wilson; your lies upon the lies upon the lies to throw the sand at the “referee” of Prosecutor Fitzgerald’s analogy. These are complex and often painful to follow, and too much, perhaps, for the average citizen.
But when other citizens render a verdict against your man, Mr. Bush—and then you spit in the faces of those jurors and that judge and the judges who were yet to hear the appeal—the average citizen understands that, Sir.
It’s the fixed ballgame and the rigged casino and the pre-arranged lottery all rolled into one—and it stinks. And they know it.
Nixon’s mistake, the last and most fatal of them, the firing of Archibald Cox, was enough to cost him the presidency. And in the end, even Richard Nixon could say he could not put this nation through an impeachment.
It was far too late for it to matter then, but as the decades unfold, that single final gesture of non-partisanship, of acknowledged responsibility not to self, not to party, not to “base,” but to country, echoes loudly into history. Even Richard Nixon knew it was time to resign
Would that you could say that, Mr. Bush. And that you could say it for Mr. Cheney. You both crossed the Rubicon yesterday. Which one of you chose the route, no longer matters. Which is the ventriloquist, and which the dummy, is irrelevant.
But that you have twisted the machinery of government into nothing more than a tawdry machine of politics, is the only fact that remains relevant.
It is nearly July 4th, Mr. Bush, the commemoration of the moment we Americans decided that rather than live under a King who made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored them—or commuted the sentences of those rightly convicted under them—we would force our independence, and regain our sacred freedoms.
We of this time—and our leaders in Congress, of both parties—must now live up to those standards which echo through our history: Pressure, negotiate, impeach—get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.
For you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task. You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed. Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.
Resign.
And give us someone—anyone—about whom all of us might yet be able to quote John Wayne, and say, “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Grandchildren as friends!
Adam is nearly 16 and still has a habit of tormenting his younger brother, Aaron, but my wife assures me that this will pass! I certainly hope so!
Later we picked up the other grandkids at the airport and had dinner with them. They all said that they wanted to visit us during the next few weeks. Joshua is one of the most intelligent person I know, his sister Stephanie is smart,beautiful and charming and a delight. Jake,the third of the crew, is smart as a whip, funny and totally super.
I am so flattered that they want to visit us; I cannot wait.
Next year, if all goes well,we will all go on a cruise together. I am SO into this trip, I can hardly wait.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Grandparents' rights to visit and spoil the granschildren
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Saturday, June 16, 2007
Living Wills and other discussions of end-of-life decisions
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Tuesday, June 12, 2007
A Solution to Dependence on Oil: Extract Ethanol from a Weed Everyone Hates
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Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Carrabba's Italian Grill: Not the Usual Chain
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Barack Obama - Where Did He Come From? What Does He Believe?
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Lenny's Restaurant in Clearwater, Florida: Best Breakfast in Town
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Friday, May 18, 2007
We've Come a Long Way? New and Nicer Ways to Kill the Bad Guys
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Giles Corey, Victim of the Salem Witch Hunt, Had a Unique Death
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Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Update: Bernie Ellis and the "Save Bernie's Farm" Effort
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Does Correcting Gender Dysphoria Make One a Different
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Sunday, May 13, 2007
Medical Marijuana II - Doctors' at Risk?
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Thursday, May 10, 2007
A Warning to Alimony Recipients in Florida
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Tuesday, May 8, 2007
How to Dress a Dog - Regional Preferences in Toppings for Your Hot Dog
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Monday, May 7, 2007
Living Together Before or Instead of Marriage is Probably a Bad Idea
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Marijuana for Medical Use - a Federal Crime
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Friday, May 4, 2007
Part I: Wars Are Neither Efficient nor Effective in Fighting Ideas
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Free Gifts to Doctors May Be Bad for Your Health
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The History and Mystery of Toilet Paper
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Thursday, May 3, 2007
My In-box Runneth Over with False Threats and Warnings
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Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Comparative Religion Should Be Taught in Schools? Because of Our Enemies
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Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Doctors and Lawyers Duke it Out
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Daniel Silva's Newest Book is a Winner
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Homeowners Have a Responsibility for the Safety of Visitors
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Tattoos, Body Art and Too-Casual Outfits in the Corporate World
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Sunday, April 29, 2007
Success at Associated Content? Probably Not for Me!
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Being King of the World Can Be a Burden
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Saturday, April 28, 2007
Newly Discovered Lobe in Women's Brains Determines Fashion Taste
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My writing at Associated Content not very successful
In any event, as of this morning, my statistics show that I have written a total of 80 articles, have an aggregate of 18,900 page views, or an average of 233 per article. Two of the articles have in excess of 1000 "views" and I guess that's OK since 9/24/06 when I started. I still send missives to the local papers, the Tampa Tribune, a not-too-good paper, poorly written and devoid of news, and the St. Petersburg Times, which is far better. I submit periodic writings to the latter's opinion/blog site.
I envy those people who can make a living out of this craft. I wish I had started writing many, many years ago.
I'm keeping busy and meeting, through AC and this Blog, all sorts of nice people.
Friday, April 27, 2007
A Letter to My Employer, Jackson Hewitt Tax Services, or to Yours
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Thursday, April 26, 2007
Everyone Who Could Vote, Does and Will!
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Killing for Pleasure?
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Florida Ban on Homosexual Adoption Born of Bias and Ignorance
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Florida's State Song Needs Replacement. . . Now
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Quotas on admission to universities can be exclusionary or beneficial
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Wednesday, April 25, 2007
You're Fired! Pitfalls in the Firing of an Employee
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Tuesday, April 24, 2007
The Bush Administration's Disdain for Governance Leads to Folly
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Friday, April 20, 2007
Discussions with Vigor but Not Rancor!
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Charlie Kaiser, You are (or were) evil
I remember very little of my childhood, most memories having been lost or blocked or whatever. The few fragments of memory that remain are, for the most part, unhappy ones. In any event, Charlie was in my cabin at Camp and every night and afternoon, whenever the idea occurred to him, he would torment me, hitting, name calling and totally abusive; he would rip the comic books my parents had sent in a package, he would incite others to join in. The worst thing was that others did participate until I was lefty crying and humiliated.
Other boys from my home town lived in nearby cabins and they did nothing to support me. I hated each and every one and had fantasies about hurting or scaring them all. Of course. I did nothing and just felt the pain.
I know that the counselors and camp owners were aware of my torment but no one came to my aid, no one told the world that Charlie was an total worthless bastard.
So I'm going to say it and admit that I hope Charlie roasts in Hell.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Trip to Connecticut
So much for trying to do good; we froze.
We flew into Hartford early Friday afternoon and picked up our rental car. It was equipped with one of the fancy navigational systems. It is a good thing I depended on good old fashioned maps and not the gizmo because I couldn't get the darn thing to work. It was surely smarter than I.
We arrived in Trumbull and the hotel was fantastic. One thing though. On Saturday morning we went to the motel's dining room for breakfast. There was a buffet in operation and, from my experience down south and a lot of places, the buffet was (I thought) complementary. It turns out that the charge was nearly $15/person. I guess that I am a hick in the big city. Good eggs, though!
The host and hostess were wonderful, treating us as old members of the family. The service was great; the young lady who was the subject to all of this, was poised, articulate and a delight. Rebecca is a person with strong ethical and philosophical beliefs (she will not eat and food from an animal that must be slaughtered; she is a sincere Vegan). What was remarkable and much appreciated and admired by me is that she was able to articulate her beliefs beautifully. I do not go along with her (I love steak and hamburgers) but totally respect her sincerity and honesty. The kid is remarkable. I already said that, but she's worth the duplication!
Saturday night, we sat by the fire in the lobby of the Marriott, Joan sipping a Kahlua and I an Irish whiskey. I really could get used to this.
Sunday morning, we awoke to the sight of snow. It was falling at quite a rate, even if it didn't stick. And it was cold. Very cold. After a brunch at their home, we started to return to the Hartford airport. The airport was only an hour or so away and our plane didn't leave for nearly 7 hours. It was too windy and cold to sight see and, being Easter Sunday, there wasn't too much that was open anyway. So we sat at Bradley airport in Hartford from 1 PM to take off. By the time we got back to Tampa, it was 10:30 and exhaustion overtook us.
My job at Jackson-Hewitt is winding down, tax season ends next week. If I am not chosen to work part-time over the summer, I'll be devoting more time to Associated Content.
I sort of enjoy this blog stuff -- even if it's like the sound of a falling tree when no one is there to hear the crash!
Monday, April 9, 2007
This is about who gets to keep an engagement ring if the marriage is called off.
Joan and I have just returned from Connecticut -- where I froze -- to attend the Bat Mitzvah of our friends' granddaughter, Rebecca. The young lady was poised, lively and very, very talented. More about this later on.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Changing types of articles on Associated Content
We are going to daughter Wendy's home this evening to enjoy/celebrate the Seder. But when tomorrow comes, I'll start!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
The end of March
This week I also participated in a market research study relating to health insurance and was paid $75 for this two-hour study. Wow.
My work at Jackson-Hewitt Tax Services is winding down as we come to the end of the tax season. The people with whom I have worked are all top-notch and it's been great fun. Next week, I am to have a telephone interview for a future position in Management and am looking forward to this. Meanwhile, the working with and for a diverse group of people, workers and customers, has done much to keep me busy and (may I say it?) young.
Next Monday, Joan and I will be traveling to Sarasota for a family Seder with kids and grandkids. I truly look forward to this.
I'll be back after the Seder and interview to add to this diary.
Monday, March 26, 2007
So proud of my grandchildren
For example, Joshua who is one of the most intelligent people I know; Stephanie, who is, I am told, smarter; Jake who astounds me with his wit, brains and probably is the brightest kid in his family (except for the baby who may outshine them all). Then there's Adam, an accomplished musician at 15, playing in adult orchestras and bands. His one flaw, as I see it, is that he enjoys his clarinet playing classical music and does not yet appreciate Artie Shaw. Brother Aaron is learning his way. He is the athletic one of the family and plays soccer like a pro. Then there's Zack and Morgan who, being in Texas far away, we don't know as well. Bur I do know that Zachary is a delight and Morgan, my e-mail correspondent, can charm her way anywhere.
I don't tell them enough how special each and every one is. That will have to end here.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Disappointed and hurt
As I have said, I do some writing for Associated Content. Thus far, since last September, I have had 74 articles published, dealing with politics, restaurant and book reviews, history and, occasionally, attempts at humor. I do this to fight lethargy and old age, but also for the ego gratification. And I get paid.
Payment is determined in large measure by the number of "page views" each article receives or is likely to receive. The formula are complex, but essentially, the more people who "click" on the article, the more I get paid.
Thus far I have had over 14000 "page views", which isn't bad. Except that practically none of these views are by my children or grandchildren or relatives.
When our children have wanted or needed something in the past, whether it was money or babysitting services or whatever, we never hesitated, never put off the response because we were too busy to bother. Yet when I ask our children to please look at my writings, they all say that their lives are just too busy. One daughter and her husband have refused several requests to allow their 15 year old access to my articles, but they will not remove the block! This is notwithstanding the fact that neither I nor Associated Content would publish porn or anything else that would be inappropriate for a 15 year old.
At the top of each article is a rating grid whereby a reader can give the piece 1 to 5 stars. If the aggregate rating is high, then the piece may be highlighted in the home page, thus gathering more potential readers and "page views".
At the very least, one would hope that the children would tell me that they have read the articles. Nope. They won't even show that courtesy. I would settle got a "white lie" and a comment that the "old man" is prolific -- if not intelligent!
And that hurts me, greatly.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Search for the 3 carrot ring!
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Check out my other writings.
I ask that any readers of these musings take at look at
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/20932/jim_stillman.html
and put any comments there or on this blog. Meanwhile, I will try and have the Jackson-Hewitt folks consider me for full-time work, maybe teaching over the summer. I know that I would hire me!
Meanwhile, all remains quiet in Lutz, florida.
Monday, March 19, 2007
72 and counting
I look back on my life and wish I could do things over. I really screwed up a lot of things and missed a bunch of stuff, too. I have really no memorizes of growing up; except for a few episodes, all is a blank. It wasn't until I was in my 50's that I went through some therapy and became straitened out.
If I could do it over, I would have spent a lot more time with my fantastic children. I would have enjoyed fatherhood in all its aspects. I would have gotten to know my sister much better; we were not together when I was growing up but there were opportunities that were, I'm sure, missed.
I would have much more fun in high school and college, not be so afraid of girls as strange creatures.
I cannot relive the past, so what to do?
I resolve to spend the next years of my life being with and getting to know children and grandchildren and, indeed, wife. I will tell them all how much they are loved. I will tell them that they are the reason for living and I can't wait to see how it all comes out.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Discussions with vigor but not rancor!
I have been submitting material to Associated Content over the past five or six months. I have written on a number of topics that caught my interest. Some of these were on people and folklore about whom I was introduced many years ago, Hannah Dustin, a lady who, in 1697, was kidnapped by Indians from her home in Haverhill, Massachusetts, escaped and scalped a number of the persons holding her, and Lord Timothy Dexter, a gentleman from Revolutionary days who was certainly eccentric, possibly a genius and possibly just nuts.
Some of my scribbles have been on restaurants I frequent and enjoy, a VW Beetle that I think is cool, life in a Geodesic Dome and such. I am pleased to note that the vast majority of comments were complimentary and supportive.
Then I wrote a number of articles that, admittedly, were controversial, topics about which I felt strongly while acknowledging that others held contrary views. The whole point of Associated Content, I believed was to provide a forum for opposing viewpoints where intelligent and articulate people could challenge each other’s ideas in a responsible manner.
Instead, I have been bombarded with vitriolic and ad hominem attacks that seem totally out of place in a forum for rational discourse. For example, I had written an article suggesting that those who were energized and aroused by the act of killing had a value system with which I disagreed. My article was not anti-hunting; it did object to the idea of getting enjoyment from the act of killing. Comments to this article included terms such as “retarded”, Completely ignorant”, “liar”, condescending wimp” and “idiot”. One writer challenged my masculinity and called me a “quiche eater”. (Actually, my wife’s quiche is quite tasty, but that’s another story.) Only a handful of commentators challenged my opinions directly. Most just ignored my main thesis: if a person is hunting for the “sport” and not to primarily put food on the family’s table, hunting with a camera would be just as rewarding.
Then, I became bothered by the state of Florida’s considering the issuance of a license plate bearing the Confederate flag. My article generated twenty-one comments, thus far, including those that called be “absolutely ignorant”, “trash” and accused me of “making up quotes”. As to the latter charge, my article quoted the Vice President of the Confederate States and cited where his speech could be found.
But all of this doesn’t matter. What does matter is that many of us seem to be able to discuss, even argue, points of view without name calling.
What ever happened to, “I disagree with your opinion, but we can still respect each other”? Voltaire is supposed to have said ,"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
A plea: could we please return a note of civility to our discourse, both on this site and in our everyday lives.
I am not certain if anyone reads these thoughts in this space. Maybe it's like the proverbial tree in the proverbial forest making the proverbial noise. I'd really appreciate comments added here or on my page at Assocuated Content. Otherwise I'll just keep talking in the forest!
Saturday, March 17, 2007
My wife has her eyes on a new car.
The Purchase of a New Car is a Humbling Experience.
By the way, is there anyone out there who is reading this stuff?
Saturday, March 10, 2007
About me.
I am a 72 year old (in a couple of weeks) living with my wife in Lutz, just north of Tampa, Florida. We had lived in New York where I was -- and still am, albeit in "retired status" -- a member of the New York Bar. We became sick and tired of cold weather and snow and two-hour commutes and moved to Florida some 39 years ago, making us natives. I became an attorney for a land company which, through no acts of mine, decided to become bankrupt when people balked at buying suspect land.
I then went to work with the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitatiove Services and, later, with the state Department of Revenue, where I stayed for just under 25 years before retirement.
I am spending that retirement writing occasional articles for Associate Content, doing a lot of reading, some travel and really enjoying 14 grandchildren.
During the past months, I have taken a job with Jackson Hewitt Tax Services and, for a part time job, it's pretty neat. Nice people, nice managers and a bit of extra money.
Next year, if all goes well, wife, Joan, and I will be taking 4 children, spouses and all 14 grandchildren on a cruise to celebrate our 50th anniversary. That should be fun and provoke a few blog entries.
Looking for a three-carrot ring
OK, enough of the philosophy! If someone is out there, I need help.
I have been accused of many things, being an incurable romantic is not one of them! If one can discern an ulterior motive in my search, so be it.
Some 50 years ago I was in the Newark (NJ) airport, preparing for a flight to Florida to visit the person whom, I was determined, would eventually be my wife. I was still in law school at the time and we knew that the formal engagement would be delayed as she lived in Florida and I was a student in New York. There was no way that I could afford a ring at that moment, but I wanted to make an impression.
Somehow it didn’t seem enough to be fashionably attired in the manner of the day, tweed jacket, shirt and tie and Bermuda shorts with knee-length socks. (For a brief time in the 60’s, I had a Nehru-type jacket and, also, a turtle-neck shirt which I wore with a sport jacket and medallion! As long as I am baring my soul, there was, also, the period of the leisure suit.)
In any event, while killing time and strolling among the stores at the airport, I saw the answer to my prayers: funny, sentimental, inexpensive and guaranteed to impress my soon-to-be-fiancée. Did I say, inexpensive?
At the counter was a rack of toy rings, gold colored and adjustable, with three orange carrots on the top. The carrots were about 3/8 “ in length, orange with a green leafy top. They sat proudly on top of the band and had a degree of elegance. The cost was, as I recall, 59 ¢. There was another version, with four carrots, at a slightly added cost, but I felt that a three-carrot ring was just the perfect gift.
I purchased the ring, went to Florida, and was immediately given assurance that, in lieu of a three-karat ring, my gift was more than satisfactory.
(Lest anyone, females especially, be concerned, when we were finally formally engaged, the ring was full of karats.)
Sometime in the past half-century, the ring has been lost. I have, over the past several years searched E-Bay, Google and all of the major and minor search engines, obtained the names and addresses of toy and novelty importers, dealers, and wholesalers, in the United States, Great Britain, China and Australia. I have written organizers of fairs and trade shows and operators of flea markets throughout the country and in western Europe. All in all, I have sent 275 e-mails and letters, looking for this ring. I have found similar rings, with carrots 1 - ½ inch in length that are attached at one end to the ring and some that are more elaborate and are “embedded” in the top of the ring itself; but the ring I am seeking has three small plastic carrots affixed to the top of the ring.
(I have been added to the mailing lists of many unsavory groups, but that’s another story.)
I want, no, need, this ring. We will have been married 50 years in 2008 and, from my past experience, it is never too early to search for a suitable and sentimental gift!.
If anyone can direct me to any vendor or source for this item, I would greatly appreciate your kindness and gladly share a celebratory glass of champagne!
So how about it, possible readers. Can someone help?More about the loss of a common core of knowledge
The full results will be published on Associated Content when they are all compiled, but the preliminary results are scary. So far, none of the teachers and darn few others knew who were the combatants in the US War of 1812; most people said that the "face that launched a thousand ships" was that of the Mona Lisa; and a substantial number of young adults didn't know when World War II started, ended or who the allies were fighting.
I don't want to be the crotchety old man wailing about "kids today", but damn it, we have lost a generation and it's going to get worse.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Our children are deprived of a common general knowledge
Today, our educational system is test oriented, there is no independent reading and our children's knowledge of the "olden days" extends five or ten years at most.
I have a feeling that the problem is that teachers do not have the common societal knowledge thjat used to be pervasive. I am circulating a short questionnaire among people age 18 - 40 and will publish the results. I'm afraid that they will confirm my worst expectations.
I'll post more later.