Welcome
- December 8, 2019
- Remembering Slim Pickens
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One of those ubiquitous character actors of my early existence was Slim Pickens. Louis Burton Lindley Jr began in rodeo and became a staple of the various westerns which were characteristic of that era. Two of those roles I remember most fondly were characters in Blazing Saddles and Dr Strangelove.
Slim Pickens
June 29, 1919 – December 8, 1983
Louis Burton Lindley Jr aka Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer turned film and television actor. During much of his career, he played mainly cowboy roles and is perhaps best remembered today for his comic roles in Dr Strangelove and Blazing Saddles.
He passed on this day in 1983 of complications from surgical intervention for a brain tumor. I can still hear his very characteristic voice on occasion and when I encounter him in a old western I am thrust back in time to my childhood to those old days when I had no cares in the world.
I remember the first time I saw Dr Strangelove and his riding the nuclear weapon to the ground after release from the bomb bay. It inspired various thoughts which have ultimately contributed to my "outside of the box" attitudes regarding life and technology.
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- December 7, 2019
- Pearl Harbor Day 2019
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Today is Pearl Harbor Day aka National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. It is the annual observance in memory of those 2,403 killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on this day in 1941. It was declared a national observance in 1994 and is one of those occasions where we fly the National Flag at half staff til sunset in memory of our honored dead.
It was on this day in 2001 that my father was laid to rest at Clinton United Methodist Church in Salley, South Carolina and as such the day has had an increasingly sad meaning to me since that time.
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- December 5, 2019
- Krampusnacht 2019
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There was a late addition to my Christmas holiday observance ... Krampus. He is a figure from central European folklore who punishes children who have misbehaved while Saint Nicholas rewards those who were well behaved over the previous year.
He manifests as a horned goat looking demon and the several movies I enjoyed regarding his character were quite shocking to behold.
Krampusnacht
While the Feast of St Nicholas is celebrated on December 6 Krampus Night or Krampusnacht goes down on the previous night of December 5.
The wicked hairy devil appears on the streets — and is sometimes in the company of St Nick and often times alone. Krampus visits homes and businesses. Krampus handles all of the bad children bestowing coal and the Ruten bundles (birch branches) with which he sometimes swats the children as well.
Krampuslauf
It is customary to offer a Krampus schnapps, a strong distilled fruit brandy. I suppose a nice stiff alcoholic beverage gets him all warmed up and ready to bestow the evenings punishment.
Krampuskarten
Images of Krampus may be found on many different postcards and candy containers.
I wish you a happy Krampusnacht and I hope you are in the group of good children whom he will bypass altogether.
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- December 4, 2019
- My Daddy
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My Daddy passed away on December 4, 2001.
He was not a wimpy sort of man who accepted the consequences of his lifestyle diseases with dignity up to that moment we realized he had reached the point beyond which he did not wish to go.
Though immensely painful we were forced to remove him from life support because that was what he wanted and he was given a morphine sulfate protocol to prevent oxygen starvation and he passed this earthly existence some 28 hours later.
You could see his life leave slowly over time imparting a softness to his features and those moments gave me my only opportunity to hold his hand, tell him what a good daddy he was, and how much I loved him.
He was brought home to lay in repose and was interred in the place he chose in accordance with his wishes.
Though I don't experience it 24-7 anymore, I still have episodes of profound grief to this day.
You should be good to your parents because unless you're a total clod you never know just how badly conscience may fill you with regret if you're not.
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- December 2, 2019
- Cultural Wasteland
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Looking over various videos has left me wanting for something that isn't that schlock residue of the progeny of our generation of burger flippers cultivated in the leftist muck of the public education system.
Perhaps I'm just on the wrong end of history but the day hip hop lyrics and their forced meter and rhyme scheme coupled with imagery which can only be characterized as 21st century drug culture is simply more than I care to bear.
And then there is the nepotism of the children of various performers whose fifteen minutes has already gone by ... supposedly imparting their imagined talent to those blank expressioned wailing shaven head miscreant emancipated minor offspring.
Anyway when I see the heads of their audience swaying to and fro like they actually enjoy that nothingness it leaves me with few hopes for the future.
Recalling interactions with my father he likewise had generational issues. I attributed them all to the culture in which he was raised compared to that in which I found myself being dragged from navy town to navy town hoping to find that never to be attained nirvana ...
However, he had his crosses to bear as do I. Those who follow likely will cause consternation among some from which they arise.
I suppose it's all in the circle of life and it's completion is fraught with those pitfalls associated with growth ... and sometimes a total lack thereof.
We blame the millennials. The millennials blame the boomers. I for one decline to accept any blame for I succeeded where so many of you have failed. 'Tis absolutely no satisfaction however.
I would have preferred never learning of the deep state, shadow government and evil democratic party who would take the wealth of the world for their own use and have the worker pay the shirker and worse.
Like I said, we all have our crosses to bear.
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- December 1, 2019
- December Arriveth
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Yeah, we have an 80 percent chance of precip this first day of December. However, the meterological people say this will be liquid and not that powder I would prefer. Mom says it's because February is when we are most likely to get our coldest weather of the season.
So here we are deep in the holiday season. Christmas is a scant three weeks away. I don't have anything in the way of plans going on. My usual holiday handouts will be replaced by that RF and Ultrasound cavitation machine I've had my eye on for the past year or so. It would seem that my spot reductions are taking priority in my old age.
Just want to shape up and get busy with that little girl I've been chasing of late but it may be all for naught inasmuch as she comes off as worse in the way of damaged goods than I ever imagined myself as being.
But it's okay ... it will either happen or it won't and I'm not mincing any words or losing any sleep.
Happy holidays aren't here yet but I can see them off in the distance at this juncture !
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- November 30, 2019
- I Remember Tiny Tim
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When I was a kid there was a bizzare performer named Tiny Tim who rather took the Tonight Show by storm and became both a household name and iconic juke box musician with his high falsetto and ukelele accompanyment.
Herbert Butros Khaury
aka Tiny Tim
American Musician, Musical Archivist
April 12, 1932 – November 30, 1996
It was later that I came to understand his knowledge of what were the (very) oldies at that point in my life. While I thought his life was quite dramatic and theatrical to a fault ...
Herbert Butros Khaury, known also as Herbert Buckingham Khaury known professionally as Tiny Tim, was an American singer and ukulele player, and a musical archivist.
He is best remembered for his cover hits "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" and "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight", which he sang in a high falsetto voice.
Some of his later selections were more on the barritone side of range and these appealed to me less than his upper range material.
He passed on stage before his audience on November 30, 1996 while playing a gala benefit hosted by the Women's Club of Minneapolis.
Two days prior he had suffered a heart attack and ignored strong medical advice to cease performing with multiple lifestyle disease vectors in play.
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- November 29, 2019
- Remembering Don Cheadle
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A number of things will trigger a blog entry from me. One of those is a performance which affects me profoundly. In 1997 I watched a movie called "Rosewood" which was a dramatization of a racist lynch mob attack on an African-American community in Florida circa 1923.
The criminal element in the town led to the murder of way too many good people for nothing. The one redeeming white person in the thing was Jon Voight as John Wright, who helped those oppressed victims escape the lyinchings which were running rampant.
Don Cheadle as Sylvester Carrier escaped the murders by riding in the coffin of his Aunt Sarah portrayed by Esther Rolle and Ving Rhames portrayed Mann, who escaped by virtue of his savvy and superhuman strength.
At the end, when the Don Cheadle character was collecting his thoughts regarding his escape and the heavy price paid for that deliverance he was weeping for Aunt Sarah who was a sweet person who harmed no one.
That moment caused me to cry with him and I tried to remember that it was all theater and I shouldn't be so tender in my thoughts, especially given the callous nature of my lifestyle otherwise ...
Existing in a technical college environment will make you that way. What a horrible place it was.
So from that time in my life I have been able to relate to Don Cheadle as a thespian and a person and I will consider watching anything in which he may be performing because of the effect Rosewood had on me and that callous streak I carried for so long.
Donald Frank Cheadle Jr was born November 29, 1964 and his career has been that of actor, author, and director. He brings a humanity to his roles that cannot be ignored by anyone who has faced adversity in their existence.
Today is his birthday. Happy birthday to you !
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- November 28, 2019
- Thanksgiving 2019
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- November 25, 2019
- Hating on Commercials
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I just reopened my subscription to Philo. I'm already chapped yet again over the commercial to program ratio. So I'm left in this eternal streaming stress leaving me wanting to find the offices of Philo and choke the entire company.
At least I don't have to watch any sports.
It's infuriating to the point that I intentionally boycot those advertisers to which they subject me. There's a lot of stuff I won't consider buying anymore because I make a list of those purveyors of commercial interruptions so that I can make those mental notes required to ENSURE they don't get my money.
My one biggest beef with the ridiculousness of commercials on streaming television is the irrelevance. Most of those commercials I endure are for businesses I don't patronize because I'm no where near them. For example I am deluged with crap from the Raleigh Durham area of NORTH Carolina while I am in the midlands of SOUTH Carolina. Can I get a DUH?
The ONE most infuriating commercial is Tom Steyer's 2020 Presidential Campaign. This democrat so-called progressive baboon has simply run his course with my patience even though I even agree with some of that he has presented. Nobody makes me endure their commercials beyond my level of tolerance then benefits from my patronage. Nobody. If they want to reconsider their ridiculous commercial to program ratio, perhaps I will reconsider as well. However ... I'm not holding my breath.
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- November 24, 2019
- Evolution Day 2019
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When I was a kid I explored the work of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. There are a number of people in my past who have voiced concerns that evolution is contrary to religious canon.
My personal views are inclusive of evolution due to that strong scientific background which permeates my existence and the methods of the almighty are mysterious and the timeframes subject to intepretation in the traditions of men.
Evolution Day marks the anniversary of the initial publication of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin on November 24, 1859.
These celebratory events have been held for over a century, but the specific term "Evolution Day" for the anniversary is much newer and was coined sometime prior to 1997.
Evolutionary biology is the thrust of the festivities as are Darwin's contribtions to science.
This is not "Darwin Day" which is a separate observance held on the anniversary of his birth on February 12.
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- November 23, 2019
- Reflections of Domestic Gawds
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With Halloween past almost a month now we're well into my personal holiday season.
I notice many of the stores are in full Christmas decor as a marketing ploy and indeed, things progress steadily toward the yuletide despite the rigors of work and my other activities of daily living.
Today is Saturday. This is that day I have set aside for getting some of those house chores done which escape me during the work week.
I strip down the bed linens and wash them when I have two sets in the basket.
I spray the mattress, pillows, and bed frame with either a mild disinfectant spray or tea tree oil. Both permeate the house a good while afterward with tea tree oil lasting several days often times well into the next week.
I relocate a few pieces of furniture and some rugs from the kitchen and get the Roomba going in the kitchen and living room. The new battery runs the thing a good four hours and it does a pretty good job with adequate maintenance.
You have to blow it out and periodically wash the brushes and so forth and this gets done each Saturday.
Then I hit the kitchen counters and dust the living room, take my work duds to the cleaner in Dutch Square.
Sunday I'll have at the bedroom, the bathroom, and the back hall with the Roomba. I kick off the tidy whities in the washer then dry them upon my return from visiting Mama. The Roomba really does a good job under the bed frame with the dust bunnies and such. The furniture relocation is much more involved on Sundays because I want the Roomba to run unimpeded.
So with the advent of Sunday afternoon the bulk of the cleaning has been accomplished. It all is quite domestic but it makes me feel better to have reasonably tidy, cleaned, and orderly quarters.
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- November 22, 2019
- JFK November 22 1963 Dallas TX
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- November 21, 2019
- Happy Birthday Chiefie
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