I have once again received an email with a video link to “The Story Behind ‘The Star Spangled Banner’- Our National Anthem.” This makes possibly the sixth or seventh time I’ve gotten that message, and while it makes a nice, patriotic tale as told by the narrator, it is so flawed as to be worse in the telling than if it had not been produced at all.
We have enough problems with history being revised and embellished, that we don’t need another fairy tale telling of what was truly a great battle. Therefore, I am going to enumerate and disprove the untrue “facts” given in the above video.
For obvious reasons, I will not share the link to that terrible piece of trash, so I’ll have to trust that you have watched it at least once, or that you will soon have the opportunity to do so. My advice to future would-be-viewers is, “Don’t bother.”
I found several separate instances where the unnamed and unaccredited narrator made partly or totally false statements regarding the Battle of Fort McHenry. I’ve enclosed the true facts in parentheses. Here they are, fiction and fact:
1. The title of the song is The National Anthem. (No, the title is Star Spangled Banner, and it wasn’t made our National Anthem until 1931 anyway)
2. The battle was fought at Fort Henry. (The correct name is Fort McHenry)
3. The battle was fought between the British and the American Colonies, implying that is was a Revolutionary War battle. (This battle, part of the War of 1812, was fought 38 years after the “colonies” became The United States of America)
4. There were hundreds of prisoners on the British ship. (There was only one prisoner, Dr. William Beanes, a prominent surgeon captured at Washington, D. C. in a prior battle)
5. Lawyer Key was the “one man” sent to negotiate a prisoner exchange. (There were two lawyers, Francis Scott Key and John Stuart Skinner, and there was no “exchange”, only the release of Dr. Beanes, procured by written statements from British soldiers attesting to his medical treatment given impartially and freely)
6. There was an ultimatum given about lowering the flag as a sign of surrender. (The lowering of a flag is always understood as a sign of surrender, but there is no record of any ultimatum being given)
7. There were hundreds of British ships in the battle. (There were only 16 ships, and some were not even warships, but smaller ketches)
8. There were women and children in the fort. (There were no women or children, only a fighting force of 1,000 men under command of Major George Armistead)
9. The flag was never lowered. (Actually, the smaller storm flag, which flew during the entire bombardment was lowered after the battle and replaced with a 30 X 42 foot flag, which became the storied “Star Spangled Banner”)
10. Mr. Key reported to the prisoners throughout the night on the status of the flag. (That is patently false, since there was only one prisoner, Dr Beanes)
11. Volunteers held the flag up, died supporting it and those bodies eventually kept the flagpole upright. (Wonderful story, but there is no record of any such actions)
12. When the narrator recited the first verse of the Star Spangled Banner, he used the wrong word, “...for the land of the free.” (The correct phrase is, “Oh, say, does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?)
What the narrator missed out on entirely was the casualty count of the Battle of Fort McHenry. The Americans lost 4 killed and 24 wounded, while the British, in sea and ground action, lost 330 killed, wounded or captured. I guess that doesn’t make for as neat a story as the one he spun.
For reference, you can use your preferred search engine to point to The Battle of Baltimore, or The Battle of Fort McHenry, but I can point you to this link: http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/warof1812/p/ftmchenry.htm
Now, please stop forwarding that horrendous video. It is a lie, and we already have enough of those circulating on the Internet and email circuit.
Ordering "Regular" Coffee
December 25, 2010
I am departing from my usual custom and publishing two columns this week. The reason is that I skipped a week back in August while Judy and I were on the road. I owe you a column, and I just happen to have a topic ready.
I’m sure you’ve all seen those messages that contain a quiz on your vocabulary usage to determine from what part of the country you hail. I know I’ve seen it about a hundred times. At the end you get to see what part of the country each expression represents.
I’ve taken the quiz a couple of times, just to see if I’ve “adapted” to my present southern surroundings, but I keep coming out mostly a Yankee. I never picked up the term “sack” to replace “bag”, for instance, among other quaint expressions. Also, I pronounce “aunt” like the tiny insect, leaving the ‘U’ silent.
Well, the other day I was in my favorite McDonalds for some senior coffee, and the guy in front of me in line placed his order for coffee, “regular”. Of course the woman behind the counter looked puzzled and repeated the word “regular” with the inflection of a question. Then she politely asked if he wanted cream and sugar in his coffee. His response was, “Yes”.
Now, I understood perfectly what he was asking for, but then, I come from a far north heritage where the norm for ordering coffee with cream and sugar is “regular”. It was only after I left Buffalo for Omaha, Nebraska that I learned that the word was not at all understood in other regions of America.
What made the whole episode memorable is that the guy who was ordering his coffee “regular” looked to be a Hispanic. I wanted to ask him where he learned it, but my wife says I’m too forward and I talk too much—she’s right, you know—so I let it pass.
Some of you who are also from the Northeast will dispute my claim that people use that term to refer to coffee with everything in it. However, in my teens I worked at Decco Restaurants in Buffalo, and that was always the way people ordered it there, “regular”.
I challenge anyone to go into any restaurant in Western New York and order coffee “regular” and see what happens. Of course, if you don’t drink your coffee with both cream and sugar, you better not order it that way.
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Grounded and Immobilized
I celebrated my 72nd birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I really got a big surprise on that day that had nothing to do with presents.
I had a singing engagement with the chorus that evening, so I dressed in full tuxedo with red vest and green tie—very Christmassy—and was preparing to drive to the venue.
Sitting in my car with the key in the ignition, my vision suddenly went blurry and I got very lightheaded. Within a few seconds, and with no warning whatsoever, I felt a jolt in my left shoulder that literally knocked me back into my seat. Just as suddenly, I was again clearheaded and really alert.
I knew exactly what had happened, but not the reason why it had occurred. My ICD defibrillator had given me what is termed “a therapy.” It is supposed to give me a warning before it activates in the form of a series of beeps. On this occasion it took action so fast that the warning was overridden.
Needless to say, I didn’t go to my engagement that evening, and I was on the phone to my cardiologist that following morning. We did a remote data dump—one of the wonders of modern technology—to determine that my heart was performing normally again, and scheduled an office appointment.
I won’t bore you with details, but the end result is that I am forbidden to drive for six months. For at least that length of time I will be dependent on others to transport me to whatever functions and errands I have to attend.
For a person who loves to travel this is like a prison sentence. There are several activities that I will just have to give up, such as my weekly Spanish class. Other people will have to take me to necessary appointments.
My choral activities present a particular problem, since my wife is not a fan. I cannot expect her to attend rehearsals or performances with me, nor can I call on her to drive me to board and committee meetings. I can foresee some real issues with that part of my life.
Try as I may, I’m having a difficult time keeping my spirits up, and I really appreciate the burden I’m placing on other people to chauffeur me around. Now my hope is that I will get a reprieve after the mandatory six months.
I know that my ICD has proven its worth with this one therapy, but I certainly hope it doesn’t have occasion to repeat the performance, because that will probably ground me permanently—still a better solution than the alternative “grounding”.
I had a singing engagement with the chorus that evening, so I dressed in full tuxedo with red vest and green tie—very Christmassy—and was preparing to drive to the venue.
Sitting in my car with the key in the ignition, my vision suddenly went blurry and I got very lightheaded. Within a few seconds, and with no warning whatsoever, I felt a jolt in my left shoulder that literally knocked me back into my seat. Just as suddenly, I was again clearheaded and really alert.
I knew exactly what had happened, but not the reason why it had occurred. My ICD defibrillator had given me what is termed “a therapy.” It is supposed to give me a warning before it activates in the form of a series of beeps. On this occasion it took action so fast that the warning was overridden.
Needless to say, I didn’t go to my engagement that evening, and I was on the phone to my cardiologist that following morning. We did a remote data dump—one of the wonders of modern technology—to determine that my heart was performing normally again, and scheduled an office appointment.
I won’t bore you with details, but the end result is that I am forbidden to drive for six months. For at least that length of time I will be dependent on others to transport me to whatever functions and errands I have to attend.
For a person who loves to travel this is like a prison sentence. There are several activities that I will just have to give up, such as my weekly Spanish class. Other people will have to take me to necessary appointments.
My choral activities present a particular problem, since my wife is not a fan. I cannot expect her to attend rehearsals or performances with me, nor can I call on her to drive me to board and committee meetings. I can foresee some real issues with that part of my life.
Try as I may, I’m having a difficult time keeping my spirits up, and I really appreciate the burden I’m placing on other people to chauffeur me around. Now my hope is that I will get a reprieve after the mandatory six months.
I know that my ICD has proven its worth with this one therapy, but I certainly hope it doesn’t have occasion to repeat the performance, because that will probably ground me permanently—still a better solution than the alternative “grounding”.
Saturday, December 11, 2010
A Good Stimulus Package
Well, President Obama is in hot water with his party for caving to the Republicans on the extension of the Bush tax cuts. Now Congress is rewriting the bill to try to make it more appealing to both parties.
In the spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation, I’m going to propose a totally different tax package that could provide long-lasting relief from our current economic woes. It would be a two-step program, and I offer it to either party in Congress, though I already know which one would endorse it and which would not.
There is an unknown element in this package; the amount is indeterminate. The reason for this is that nothing we do is static. Any program that effects changes in behavior has that unknown element in it. Change in behavior is what any stimulus is intended to promote, so the cost is solely dependent on how much behavioral change takes place.
Okay, here’s the plan…
Step one: Put a 6-month moratorium on collection of personal income tax from everyone.
You might think that those at the upper end of the income scale should be exempted, but it is impossible to determine what constitutes “the upper end.” A person living in rural mid-America with an income of $100,000 could be considered rich, while a counterpart living in New York City or Los Angeles would justifiably laugh at the notion that they are wealthy.
That is only one of a host of reasons why means testing is silly. Besides, The wealthy people in our society are bigger spenders, and spending is what the stimulus is supposed to stimulate.
There is another reason why we cannot and must not exempt anyone from the tax moratorium. I want everyone to get used to not having any income tax withheld from his or her paycheck. It will make step two easier to enact.
Step two: Repeal the 16th Amendment, and institute the Fairtax.
What politicians in opposition to the Fairtax always fail to tell their constituents is that the 23% add-on to the price of everything you purchase replaces all of the current federal taxes that are levied in over one hundred ways including the dreaded income tax. In Fact, it also replaces the other income taxes that masquerade under the title, “payroll tax.”
Can you even imagine what your paycheck would be if the income tax and payroll tax were not withheld? It could add 30% more to your take home pay, and that in itself would more than compensate you for the 23% increase in prices. But that isn’t the end of it.
The base price of most items would fall. The taxes collected up the line before the product comes to market are also gone, so it will make it less expensive to produce and some of that difference will be passed on to the consumer. Those who have studied the effects of implementation of the Fairtax state that the reduction would be about 22%. If so, the prices should remain about what they are now, even with the 23% Fairtax added on.
Now, there is one more factor in the Fairtax that would come into play. You are currently given a reduction in your income tax liability for personal exemptions and deductions. The Fairtax has a built in “prebate” that compensates everyone for those same exemptions and deductions.
You would receive a check or a direct deposit each month based on the number of people you support. The more dependents, the higher the prebate., so the 23% tax you pay on everything—up to a reasonable minimum amount—would actually be refunded to you even before you pay it. I’ve seen estimates that the minimum monthly payment would be about $500 for a single person with no dependents.
Imagine that! Not only would you have a paycheck with no withholding, but you would also get at least $500 per month from the government. If you have some dependents, it would be considerably more than $500.
What could you possibly use all that extra cash for? Maybe to pay off some of those credit card bills? Or possibly to purchase some of those items you’ve put off buying for lack of funds? You might use it to pay down your mortgage, or to buy that replacement car or bigger house you’ve always wanted.
The fact is this stimulus would do more to help get our economy back on track than all of that prior stimulus money combined.
I know that I’m not the first to suggest a tax cut as a stimulus, but I’ll wager that there aren’t many who have combined it with the opportunity to institute a whole new system of taxation that makes 66,000 pages of the Internal Revenue code obsolete while leveling the playing field so that everyone pays their fair share of tax.
In the spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation, I’m going to propose a totally different tax package that could provide long-lasting relief from our current economic woes. It would be a two-step program, and I offer it to either party in Congress, though I already know which one would endorse it and which would not.
There is an unknown element in this package; the amount is indeterminate. The reason for this is that nothing we do is static. Any program that effects changes in behavior has that unknown element in it. Change in behavior is what any stimulus is intended to promote, so the cost is solely dependent on how much behavioral change takes place.
Okay, here’s the plan…
Step one: Put a 6-month moratorium on collection of personal income tax from everyone.
You might think that those at the upper end of the income scale should be exempted, but it is impossible to determine what constitutes “the upper end.” A person living in rural mid-America with an income of $100,000 could be considered rich, while a counterpart living in New York City or Los Angeles would justifiably laugh at the notion that they are wealthy.
That is only one of a host of reasons why means testing is silly. Besides, The wealthy people in our society are bigger spenders, and spending is what the stimulus is supposed to stimulate.
There is another reason why we cannot and must not exempt anyone from the tax moratorium. I want everyone to get used to not having any income tax withheld from his or her paycheck. It will make step two easier to enact.
Step two: Repeal the 16th Amendment, and institute the Fairtax.
What politicians in opposition to the Fairtax always fail to tell their constituents is that the 23% add-on to the price of everything you purchase replaces all of the current federal taxes that are levied in over one hundred ways including the dreaded income tax. In Fact, it also replaces the other income taxes that masquerade under the title, “payroll tax.”
Can you even imagine what your paycheck would be if the income tax and payroll tax were not withheld? It could add 30% more to your take home pay, and that in itself would more than compensate you for the 23% increase in prices. But that isn’t the end of it.
The base price of most items would fall. The taxes collected up the line before the product comes to market are also gone, so it will make it less expensive to produce and some of that difference will be passed on to the consumer. Those who have studied the effects of implementation of the Fairtax state that the reduction would be about 22%. If so, the prices should remain about what they are now, even with the 23% Fairtax added on.
Now, there is one more factor in the Fairtax that would come into play. You are currently given a reduction in your income tax liability for personal exemptions and deductions. The Fairtax has a built in “prebate” that compensates everyone for those same exemptions and deductions.
You would receive a check or a direct deposit each month based on the number of people you support. The more dependents, the higher the prebate., so the 23% tax you pay on everything—up to a reasonable minimum amount—would actually be refunded to you even before you pay it. I’ve seen estimates that the minimum monthly payment would be about $500 for a single person with no dependents.
Imagine that! Not only would you have a paycheck with no withholding, but you would also get at least $500 per month from the government. If you have some dependents, it would be considerably more than $500.
What could you possibly use all that extra cash for? Maybe to pay off some of those credit card bills? Or possibly to purchase some of those items you’ve put off buying for lack of funds? You might use it to pay down your mortgage, or to buy that replacement car or bigger house you’ve always wanted.
The fact is this stimulus would do more to help get our economy back on track than all of that prior stimulus money combined.
I know that I’m not the first to suggest a tax cut as a stimulus, but I’ll wager that there aren’t many who have combined it with the opportunity to institute a whole new system of taxation that makes 66,000 pages of the Internal Revenue code obsolete while leveling the playing field so that everyone pays their fair share of tax.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Divine Intervention?
A strange thing happened last weekend during the Pittsburgh Steelers/Buffalo Bills game,
The Bills managed to tie the game and send it into sudden-death overtime. Then, when it appeared that the hapless Bills would finally beat their jinx this season and win the game, a wide receiver named Steve Johnson caught and then dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the end zone.
The Steelers then went on offense and drove down the field, kicking a field goal to win the game.
After the game, Mr. Johnson sent a Twitter message, a tweet. Here is what it said: "I Praise you 24/7!!!!!! And this how you do me!!!!! You expect me to learn from this??? How???!!! I'll never forget this!! Ever!!! Thx tho..."
In case you live on a different planet than I do, or you are a modern day Rip Van Winkle, you’ll already know that the tweet was addressed to none other than GOD. I wasn’t even aware that God had a Twitter account, but apparently Steve Johnson believes he has a direct line to Him.
I didn’t get to watch the game on television, but I read that Steve also dropped 4 other passes in that game. This occurred in a season where he has been a fantasy player and probably the most renowned player on the Buffalo Bills squad. That he blames his dropped pass on God is, I guess, understandable if blasphemous.
Now, some would call me misguided, but I was born and raised in Western New York, and the Buffalo Bills have always been my favorite team. Heck, I even attended their first regular season home game against the Denver Broncos in old War Memorial Stadium, a.k.a. the Mud Bowl.
I moved away from Buffalo in 1976, so I’ve only followed the Buffalo Bills from afar since then. But in a lot of ways I have to agree with Steve Johnson that some of the fortunes of the Buffalo Bills have been guided by divine intervention.
Or maybe it’s the other way around; maybe old Lucifer is the culprit. How else can I explain a team that has accomplished the records the Bills have, and yet they’ve never won a Super Bowl?
The game-losing fumble last Sunday is definitely not the first time that misfortune has struck the Bills. There was the missed chip-shot field goal that cost them the win in Super bowl XXV. There was the sack and fumble by Jim Kelly in Super Bowl XXVII that led to the 52-17 Dallas rout. Then there was that 75-yard kickoff return in the playoff game with the Tennessee Titans that took away the Bills’ chance to go to Super bowl XXXIV.
Oh, I could probably list dozens of strange plays that have plagued the Bills over their entire 50-year history. However, it took a guy named Steve Johnson to actually blame God for the whole mess. I don’t think I’ll go that far, but I sure wish the team would someday prove themselves like they did in 1964-65 in the old AFL.
The Bills managed to tie the game and send it into sudden-death overtime. Then, when it appeared that the hapless Bills would finally beat their jinx this season and win the game, a wide receiver named Steve Johnson caught and then dropped a perfectly thrown pass in the end zone.
The Steelers then went on offense and drove down the field, kicking a field goal to win the game.
After the game, Mr. Johnson sent a Twitter message, a tweet. Here is what it said: "I Praise you 24/7!!!!!! And this how you do me!!!!! You expect me to learn from this??? How???!!! I'll never forget this!! Ever!!! Thx tho..."
In case you live on a different planet than I do, or you are a modern day Rip Van Winkle, you’ll already know that the tweet was addressed to none other than GOD. I wasn’t even aware that God had a Twitter account, but apparently Steve Johnson believes he has a direct line to Him.
I didn’t get to watch the game on television, but I read that Steve also dropped 4 other passes in that game. This occurred in a season where he has been a fantasy player and probably the most renowned player on the Buffalo Bills squad. That he blames his dropped pass on God is, I guess, understandable if blasphemous.
Now, some would call me misguided, but I was born and raised in Western New York, and the Buffalo Bills have always been my favorite team. Heck, I even attended their first regular season home game against the Denver Broncos in old War Memorial Stadium, a.k.a. the Mud Bowl.
I moved away from Buffalo in 1976, so I’ve only followed the Buffalo Bills from afar since then. But in a lot of ways I have to agree with Steve Johnson that some of the fortunes of the Buffalo Bills have been guided by divine intervention.
Or maybe it’s the other way around; maybe old Lucifer is the culprit. How else can I explain a team that has accomplished the records the Bills have, and yet they’ve never won a Super Bowl?
The game-losing fumble last Sunday is definitely not the first time that misfortune has struck the Bills. There was the missed chip-shot field goal that cost them the win in Super bowl XXV. There was the sack and fumble by Jim Kelly in Super Bowl XXVII that led to the 52-17 Dallas rout. Then there was that 75-yard kickoff return in the playoff game with the Tennessee Titans that took away the Bills’ chance to go to Super bowl XXXIV.
Oh, I could probably list dozens of strange plays that have plagued the Bills over their entire 50-year history. However, it took a guy named Steve Johnson to actually blame God for the whole mess. I don’t think I’ll go that far, but I sure wish the team would someday prove themselves like they did in 1964-65 in the old AFL.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Moons and Planets
(Note: I originally published an expanded version of this column back in February of 2006. Therefore, even though we are not currently under a full moon it still has its own relevance. At least, I think it is interesting even at this time.)
We are currently under a full moon. It got me thinking about all the troubles we have when the moon is full. Oh, you don’t believe all that astrology stuff? Well, I can positively state that there is a very good reason for all the superstition surrounding the full moon.
In my many years in the airline industry, there were always strange happenings when the moon was full. My airline, American, even had a reference page in the computer titled simply “Moons” where all the dates of full moons were listed.
It was common knowledge among ground service people and pilots and flight attendants that when the moon was full, there were bound to be some odd things happening. Customers were more apt to complain, delays were more prominent, baggage was more likely to get misrouted or lost and communications were less reliable, mainly in the form of computer outages.
When I worked at the ticket counter—we actually had a staff of people at the counter in those days instead of those machines you encounter nowadays—we always knew that a full moon was imminent, even if it wasn’t visible due to cloud cover. The behavior of some of our passengers was weird during those times, especially those who were “white knuckle flyers.” Customers were more demanding and argumentative. Voices were raised in situations where people normally would be rational and patient. And there were always problems with reservations being dropped or cancelled for no apparent reason.
In that same AA informational page labeled “Moons” there is also reference to another event that seems to screw up communication and travel. The reference is to times when the planet Mercury is retrograde. Three times a year Mercury appears to be moving backwards for periods of about two weeks. When the planet appears to go forward again, it is said to be Mercury Direct. It has to do with the fact that the Mercurial year—its trip around the Sun—is 88 days long, while ours is 365 days. All of the planets exhibit the retrograde effect, but only Mercury does it that often.
Think of two trains on parallel tracks going in the same direction at different speeds. As the faster train passes the slower one, the slower train appears to be going backwards with respect to the faster one. Well, that is what the planetary retrograde effect is. When Mercury is retrograde it has an effect on activity here on the Earth. And when it occurs in conjunction with a full moon, you can just imagine the increased effects.
I didn’t give you this astronomy/astrology lesson for nothing. While I was doing my research for the column I came across a Web site that gave me a whole new outlook on what went wrong in the Presidential Election of 2000. We all know there are dozens of theories out there, but this one could be the grand prizewinner. The real problem with the 2000 election was that we had Mercury Retrograde and it was exactly at the end of its cycle (the worst time) on November 7, 2000. In other words, the election outcome was in the stars—or in this case, the planets.
Other Mercury Retrograde Examples:
· Titanic sinking, April 15, 1912 – communication confusion delays rescue, causing more deaths
· John F. Kennedy-Richard Nixon election, November 8, 1960 – confusion about winner in close election
· John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s plane crash, July 16, 1999 – pilot inexperience causes confusion about plane’s instrument panels
· John McCain’s campaign event on October 8, 2008 – calling his supporters “My Fellow Prisoners”
· Barack Obama’s presidential oath on January 20, 2009 – Barack Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts misspeak the oath, causing them to re-do it the next day
There are likely many other instances where either a full moon or Mercury Retrograde came into play in historical event and outcomes. Isn’t it fascinating?
We are currently under a full moon. It got me thinking about all the troubles we have when the moon is full. Oh, you don’t believe all that astrology stuff? Well, I can positively state that there is a very good reason for all the superstition surrounding the full moon.
In my many years in the airline industry, there were always strange happenings when the moon was full. My airline, American, even had a reference page in the computer titled simply “Moons” where all the dates of full moons were listed.
It was common knowledge among ground service people and pilots and flight attendants that when the moon was full, there were bound to be some odd things happening. Customers were more apt to complain, delays were more prominent, baggage was more likely to get misrouted or lost and communications were less reliable, mainly in the form of computer outages.
When I worked at the ticket counter—we actually had a staff of people at the counter in those days instead of those machines you encounter nowadays—we always knew that a full moon was imminent, even if it wasn’t visible due to cloud cover. The behavior of some of our passengers was weird during those times, especially those who were “white knuckle flyers.” Customers were more demanding and argumentative. Voices were raised in situations where people normally would be rational and patient. And there were always problems with reservations being dropped or cancelled for no apparent reason.
In that same AA informational page labeled “Moons” there is also reference to another event that seems to screw up communication and travel. The reference is to times when the planet Mercury is retrograde. Three times a year Mercury appears to be moving backwards for periods of about two weeks. When the planet appears to go forward again, it is said to be Mercury Direct. It has to do with the fact that the Mercurial year—its trip around the Sun—is 88 days long, while ours is 365 days. All of the planets exhibit the retrograde effect, but only Mercury does it that often.
Think of two trains on parallel tracks going in the same direction at different speeds. As the faster train passes the slower one, the slower train appears to be going backwards with respect to the faster one. Well, that is what the planetary retrograde effect is. When Mercury is retrograde it has an effect on activity here on the Earth. And when it occurs in conjunction with a full moon, you can just imagine the increased effects.
I didn’t give you this astronomy/astrology lesson for nothing. While I was doing my research for the column I came across a Web site that gave me a whole new outlook on what went wrong in the Presidential Election of 2000. We all know there are dozens of theories out there, but this one could be the grand prizewinner. The real problem with the 2000 election was that we had Mercury Retrograde and it was exactly at the end of its cycle (the worst time) on November 7, 2000. In other words, the election outcome was in the stars—or in this case, the planets.
Other Mercury Retrograde Examples:
· Titanic sinking, April 15, 1912 – communication confusion delays rescue, causing more deaths
· John F. Kennedy-Richard Nixon election, November 8, 1960 – confusion about winner in close election
· John F. Kennedy, Jr.’s plane crash, July 16, 1999 – pilot inexperience causes confusion about plane’s instrument panels
· John McCain’s campaign event on October 8, 2008 – calling his supporters “My Fellow Prisoners”
· Barack Obama’s presidential oath on January 20, 2009 – Barack Obama and Chief Justice John Roberts misspeak the oath, causing them to re-do it the next day
There are likely many other instances where either a full moon or Mercury Retrograde came into play in historical event and outcomes. Isn’t it fascinating?
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Merchandise Return Policy
There is a special day next week, and I want to address that in this column. No, I’m not referring to Thanksgiving, and I won’t publish the gravy recipe for the fourth time (Hint: You can find it in the archives to the left side. The day I mean is called “Black Friday” and it signals the start of the holiday shopping season.
Personally, I wouldn’t shop on that day, but a lot of people apparently do so. Therefore, it makes this a good time for some advice on shopping.
This might be one of those columns you will want to forward to your family and friends. That is really quite easy to do, either by sending them the URL, or if they don’t like to open links or attachments, by simply copying the text and pasting it into your email. I don’t care whether or not you give me credit for the column, but I hope you will.
I received an email from a buddy this week that related an incident where a GPS unit was purchased at a big electronics store. It turned out to be less than satisfactory to the buyer, so he returned it with his receipt for a refund. Here is a shortened version of what then occurred:
· There was a 15% restocking fee assessed against the refund—in this case $45.
· Since the item cost over $200, no in-store refund was given.
· Even though the item was purchased for cash, the corporate headquarters would have to issue a check in 7-10 business days and mail it to him.
· If he wanted to purchase a replacement GPS immediately, he would have to start all over again with cash, check or credit/debit card.
When he complained to the clerk that he was never informed about the return policy when he bought the item, the response was what you would expect. The clerk advised him that “It is clearly printed on the back of your receipt.”
He asked to see the manager, and was given pretty much the same treatment, but was provided the phone number for the corporate office. He left the store in a very bad mood.
When he got home, he called the corporate office. The response from there was only a little better. He was promised a $45 gift card to use on a future visit to the store. He told the representative what he could do with the gift card, and promised that he would never shop at that store again.
Okay, there is a moral to the story.
Whenever you plan to purchase a big-ticket item, go online first and check out the refund policy of the store. The big chains all publish their refund policies on the Internet, but it is up to you to look at them before you buy.
In some cases, you might decide not to even go to that chain store due to the published policy. Restocking fees would be an excellent reason to boycott, since it is a silly and superfluous charge in the first place. Some stores seem to have a restocking fee that goes all the way up to 25% of the purchase price for certain items. If that becomes a reason not to shop a particular chain, and if you want to advertise the policy via your email contacts, maybe you can affect a store boycott that will cause them to change the policy.
If nothing else, you will at least alert your family and friends to what you consider an unfair business practice. They can then make their own decisions on whether or not to shop at that store.
Here’s another way of dealing with returns. If you are not sure of the specific item that will please your gift recipient, give them a gift certificate instead. Let them choose which brand and model to buy and avoid the return/refund dilemma altogether. There is nothing wrong with giving a gift certificate as long as you are certain that it will be used.
You’ll notice that I never named the chain or the store in this column. That is because I want you to take charge and do your own research on the subject. There are several stores that publish some pretty unfair refund policies, but it is up to you to find out before you patronize those stores.
Just remember that clichéd phrase, “Caveat emptor!” which translates to “Let the buyer beware!”
Personally, I wouldn’t shop on that day, but a lot of people apparently do so. Therefore, it makes this a good time for some advice on shopping.
This might be one of those columns you will want to forward to your family and friends. That is really quite easy to do, either by sending them the URL, or if they don’t like to open links or attachments, by simply copying the text and pasting it into your email. I don’t care whether or not you give me credit for the column, but I hope you will.
I received an email from a buddy this week that related an incident where a GPS unit was purchased at a big electronics store. It turned out to be less than satisfactory to the buyer, so he returned it with his receipt for a refund. Here is a shortened version of what then occurred:
· There was a 15% restocking fee assessed against the refund—in this case $45.
· Since the item cost over $200, no in-store refund was given.
· Even though the item was purchased for cash, the corporate headquarters would have to issue a check in 7-10 business days and mail it to him.
· If he wanted to purchase a replacement GPS immediately, he would have to start all over again with cash, check or credit/debit card.
When he complained to the clerk that he was never informed about the return policy when he bought the item, the response was what you would expect. The clerk advised him that “It is clearly printed on the back of your receipt.”
He asked to see the manager, and was given pretty much the same treatment, but was provided the phone number for the corporate office. He left the store in a very bad mood.
When he got home, he called the corporate office. The response from there was only a little better. He was promised a $45 gift card to use on a future visit to the store. He told the representative what he could do with the gift card, and promised that he would never shop at that store again.
Okay, there is a moral to the story.
Whenever you plan to purchase a big-ticket item, go online first and check out the refund policy of the store. The big chains all publish their refund policies on the Internet, but it is up to you to look at them before you buy.
In some cases, you might decide not to even go to that chain store due to the published policy. Restocking fees would be an excellent reason to boycott, since it is a silly and superfluous charge in the first place. Some stores seem to have a restocking fee that goes all the way up to 25% of the purchase price for certain items. If that becomes a reason not to shop a particular chain, and if you want to advertise the policy via your email contacts, maybe you can affect a store boycott that will cause them to change the policy.
If nothing else, you will at least alert your family and friends to what you consider an unfair business practice. They can then make their own decisions on whether or not to shop at that store.
Here’s another way of dealing with returns. If you are not sure of the specific item that will please your gift recipient, give them a gift certificate instead. Let them choose which brand and model to buy and avoid the return/refund dilemma altogether. There is nothing wrong with giving a gift certificate as long as you are certain that it will be used.
You’ll notice that I never named the chain or the store in this column. That is because I want you to take charge and do your own research on the subject. There are several stores that publish some pretty unfair refund policies, but it is up to you to find out before you patronize those stores.
Just remember that clichéd phrase, “Caveat emptor!” which translates to “Let the buyer beware!”
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Travels With Tom-Tom
My wife and I went up to Chattanooga last week. I didn’t need a GPS to get there, but I took it with me anyway, since I planned a little side trip on our way home.
I got my GPS about three years ago, and on my first trip using it we wound up on a farmer’s field instead of at our hotel, so I have never completely trusted the unit. However, I used the GPS last year on my Northwest trip, and it performed beautifully.
Then I used it again this year on my trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and on my trip to Hells Canyon in Oregon. Again it did a good job of getting me around.
So when I decided to route us across Tennessee and North Carolina and down into the mountains of Northern Georgia, I figured it would get us there okay.
Well, it proved me wrong, and it made an approximate 5-hour trip into a 9-hour odyssey.
When I programmed the trip from Chattanooga to Tallulah Falls in, the GPS unit wanted to route me down to Atlanta on I-75, then up I-85 and I-985 to get there. Now, that might have been the shortest route time wise, but what fun was that? I wanted to see the wild country.
I took a more direct route across the mountains. Well, that was a big mistake.
Do you recall the movie Deliverance with Burt Reynolds and John Voigt? Well, we weren’t by the Caloosahachie River, but the Ocoee River looks like the one they used in the movie. Thank God we didn’t have any breakdowns, but we sure did get lost a few times. I kept looking for the snaggle-toothed hillbilly and the banjo playin’ kid.
First, I had to go “off route” to get the GPS to recalculate. Fortunately, my GPS doesn’t have that annoying voice that says, “ree-calc-u-lating.” Second, Judy can’t stand the voice commands anyway, so she mutes the sound.
Even so, once we went off route, the GPS screen kept pointing arrows at me to reverse direction. When it finally did a reroute to conform to the direction we were headed, it still didn’t like my choices, and continued to give me updates.
At one crossroads I turned the way the GPS directed, and was immediately off the map. We wound up executing three loops around the same roads before we got back on the right track according to the GPS. Then we went off route again on an open stretch of road—try that one—and finally pulled over at a gas station and general store in a little crossroads called Brasstown.
There was what appeared to be a dead possum hanging by its tail over the door, so Judy refused to go in with me. Come to think of it, I don’t know what possessed me to go in myself. I think the gas pumps were the old-fashioned crank type. There was one of those large mouth jars on the counter with some pink hardboiled eggs in it, too—probably pickled years ago.
I took my maps in with me and asked the owner for directions to Tallulah Falls. Of course, he had no idea where that was, so I showed him on the Georgia map—we were in North Carolina, by the way. He then gave me some directions, which his wife wrote down for me, based on one of their “Sunday trips in the country”. (What the heck did he think Brasstown is?)
It won’t make any sense, but the fellow got into some homespun tale about his last trip to “that state below Georgia.” I started to volunteer the state’s name, Florida, but he said his wife does not allow him to use the “f-word” so he refers to it only as “the state below Georgia”—I swear I didn’t make that up. Needless to say, I didn’t ask why.
Well, we got back under way and after several more near misses, including seeing a sign at another crossroad pointing to “Brasstown” after we had made two turns already, we arrived at the town of Clayton. GA. That was where we finally picked up the correct route down to Tallulah Falls. It took four-and-a-half hours to go the 170 miles from Chattanooga, and we got to our destination at about 1:30 in the afternoon.>
Tallulah Falls was a nice place to visit and we even went on to another waterfall that is on the campus of Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa, Georgia. Even that was an adventure—I had to walk through the college bookstore and out a back door to get to the waterfall—but we made it home to Augusta late in the afternoon.
What could have been an easy 5-hour drive from Chattanooga to Augusta became a full day of driving and used just about a full tank of gas. But what a fun trip it was! I took lots of pictures, too.
I got my GPS about three years ago, and on my first trip using it we wound up on a farmer’s field instead of at our hotel, so I have never completely trusted the unit. However, I used the GPS last year on my Northwest trip, and it performed beautifully.
Then I used it again this year on my trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and on my trip to Hells Canyon in Oregon. Again it did a good job of getting me around.
So when I decided to route us across Tennessee and North Carolina and down into the mountains of Northern Georgia, I figured it would get us there okay.
Well, it proved me wrong, and it made an approximate 5-hour trip into a 9-hour odyssey.
When I programmed the trip from Chattanooga to Tallulah Falls in, the GPS unit wanted to route me down to Atlanta on I-75, then up I-85 and I-985 to get there. Now, that might have been the shortest route time wise, but what fun was that? I wanted to see the wild country.
I took a more direct route across the mountains. Well, that was a big mistake.
Do you recall the movie Deliverance with Burt Reynolds and John Voigt? Well, we weren’t by the Caloosahachie River, but the Ocoee River looks like the one they used in the movie. Thank God we didn’t have any breakdowns, but we sure did get lost a few times. I kept looking for the snaggle-toothed hillbilly and the banjo playin’ kid.
First, I had to go “off route” to get the GPS to recalculate. Fortunately, my GPS doesn’t have that annoying voice that says, “ree-calc-u-lating.” Second, Judy can’t stand the voice commands anyway, so she mutes the sound.
Even so, once we went off route, the GPS screen kept pointing arrows at me to reverse direction. When it finally did a reroute to conform to the direction we were headed, it still didn’t like my choices, and continued to give me updates.
At one crossroads I turned the way the GPS directed, and was immediately off the map. We wound up executing three loops around the same roads before we got back on the right track according to the GPS. Then we went off route again on an open stretch of road—try that one—and finally pulled over at a gas station and general store in a little crossroads called Brasstown.
There was what appeared to be a dead possum hanging by its tail over the door, so Judy refused to go in with me. Come to think of it, I don’t know what possessed me to go in myself. I think the gas pumps were the old-fashioned crank type. There was one of those large mouth jars on the counter with some pink hardboiled eggs in it, too—probably pickled years ago.
I took my maps in with me and asked the owner for directions to Tallulah Falls. Of course, he had no idea where that was, so I showed him on the Georgia map—we were in North Carolina, by the way. He then gave me some directions, which his wife wrote down for me, based on one of their “Sunday trips in the country”. (What the heck did he think Brasstown is?)
It won’t make any sense, but the fellow got into some homespun tale about his last trip to “that state below Georgia.” I started to volunteer the state’s name, Florida, but he said his wife does not allow him to use the “f-word” so he refers to it only as “the state below Georgia”—I swear I didn’t make that up. Needless to say, I didn’t ask why.
Well, we got back under way and after several more near misses, including seeing a sign at another crossroad pointing to “Brasstown” after we had made two turns already, we arrived at the town of Clayton. GA. That was where we finally picked up the correct route down to Tallulah Falls. It took four-and-a-half hours to go the 170 miles from Chattanooga, and we got to our destination at about 1:30 in the afternoon.>
Tallulah Falls was a nice place to visit and we even went on to another waterfall that is on the campus of Toccoa Falls College in Toccoa, Georgia. Even that was an adventure—I had to walk through the college bookstore and out a back door to get to the waterfall—but we made it home to Augusta late in the afternoon.
What could have been an easy 5-hour drive from Chattanooga to Augusta became a full day of driving and used just about a full tank of gas. But what a fun trip it was! I took lots of pictures, too.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
On Borrowed Time
I got another one of those Power Point slide show presentations this week that gave advice to senior citizens on how to enjoy the autumn of their lives. I read it, even though I’ve seen the same or similar messages many times. And I once again mentally nodded in agreement with the message.
We all live on borrowed time, but it becomes clearer and shorter as we get into our 60s and 70s. Myself, I’ve been on borrowed time for over thirty years. I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease in September of 1980. My cardiologist scheduled me for a coronary bypass, which he performed in October of that year. That was the beginning of a long line of hospitalizations and procedures for me.
I had a massive coronary infarction (heart attack) while staying at a hotel in Frederick, Maryland on the day after Christmas in 2005. I was transported by ambulance to a local hospital and then by helicopter to Washington Medical Center, where a team preformed a balloon angioplasty. I suspect that I “died” several times that night, but they brought me back.
I could trace my “borrowed timeline” even further back to 1941, when I was two-years-old. At that time, I was down for a nap in my second floor bedroom, but I stood up in my crib and somehow wound up falling out of the window, landing headfirst on the concrete driveway below.
I suffered a fractured skull, and the doctor who treated me in the hospital said that the only thing that saved my life was the window screen. I landed on that screen and apparently that narrow cushion of air was enough to break my fall before I hit the pavement.
There are probably not very many people who can recount the times they were at the brink of death and were brought back to enjoy many more years of quality life. For me, I don’t recall that early incident—we seem to lose most memories prior to age five—but I can remember in detail the two other times when I was a heartbeat away from eternity.
When the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to my door and ask if I’ve been born again, I can honestly say, “Yes, I have.” It has a different meaning from what they infer, but it does shorten the conversation.
One thing my experiences have sharpened is my appreciation for doing whatever I can do. Call it my bucket list if you want—I borrowed that from the recent movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan freeman--but I try to experience lots of what I love, and one of those is travel.
I don’t mind telling you that when I took my solo trip across America to Seattle and back last year, I fully expected it to be my last trip. Because of that attitude, I really worked as many places and sights into the itinerary as I could. In the fifteen days I was on the road, I visited about 40 places, and it was a tremendously rewarding trip.
Since that trip in June of 2009, I’ve taken five more trips. The last one this past week, when my wife and I went to Chattanooga to finally see the attractions that we had seen advertised on barns and billboards most of our lives—Rock City and Ruby Falls. (They were both worth the trip and the admission fees, as was the third one, the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway)
Most of you have been able to vicariously share my travels by way of my daily journals, and I will probably continue to write and send them out. However, I want to encourage you to get out there and make your own bucket list.. As I said at the outset, we are all on borrowed time, so whatever it is that “floats your boat” by all means do it!
We all live on borrowed time, but it becomes clearer and shorter as we get into our 60s and 70s. Myself, I’ve been on borrowed time for over thirty years. I was diagnosed with coronary artery disease in September of 1980. My cardiologist scheduled me for a coronary bypass, which he performed in October of that year. That was the beginning of a long line of hospitalizations and procedures for me.
I had a massive coronary infarction (heart attack) while staying at a hotel in Frederick, Maryland on the day after Christmas in 2005. I was transported by ambulance to a local hospital and then by helicopter to Washington Medical Center, where a team preformed a balloon angioplasty. I suspect that I “died” several times that night, but they brought me back.
I could trace my “borrowed timeline” even further back to 1941, when I was two-years-old. At that time, I was down for a nap in my second floor bedroom, but I stood up in my crib and somehow wound up falling out of the window, landing headfirst on the concrete driveway below.
I suffered a fractured skull, and the doctor who treated me in the hospital said that the only thing that saved my life was the window screen. I landed on that screen and apparently that narrow cushion of air was enough to break my fall before I hit the pavement.
There are probably not very many people who can recount the times they were at the brink of death and were brought back to enjoy many more years of quality life. For me, I don’t recall that early incident—we seem to lose most memories prior to age five—but I can remember in detail the two other times when I was a heartbeat away from eternity.
When the Jehovah’s Witnesses come to my door and ask if I’ve been born again, I can honestly say, “Yes, I have.” It has a different meaning from what they infer, but it does shorten the conversation.
One thing my experiences have sharpened is my appreciation for doing whatever I can do. Call it my bucket list if you want—I borrowed that from the recent movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan freeman--but I try to experience lots of what I love, and one of those is travel.
I don’t mind telling you that when I took my solo trip across America to Seattle and back last year, I fully expected it to be my last trip. Because of that attitude, I really worked as many places and sights into the itinerary as I could. In the fifteen days I was on the road, I visited about 40 places, and it was a tremendously rewarding trip.
Since that trip in June of 2009, I’ve taken five more trips. The last one this past week, when my wife and I went to Chattanooga to finally see the attractions that we had seen advertised on barns and billboards most of our lives—Rock City and Ruby Falls. (They were both worth the trip and the admission fees, as was the third one, the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway)
Most of you have been able to vicariously share my travels by way of my daily journals, and I will probably continue to write and send them out. However, I want to encourage you to get out there and make your own bucket list.. As I said at the outset, we are all on borrowed time, so whatever it is that “floats your boat” by all means do it!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
American Exceptionalism
A miracle took place recently while the world watched. In Chile, 33 miners, trapped in a collapse that occurred way back in August, were rescued and reunited with their loved ones. Live television coverage was provided during the final stages of the rescue operation, but little was said in Washington about the near tragedy.
I wanted to write a column about the Chilean mine rescue, but another writer said it better than I could have. Therefore, I’m going to publish her column in lieu of my own meager efforts to memorialize those who played so important a part in the ”Miracle in Chile.”
While the White House may not believe in American exceptionalism, I do. And I'm thinking there's a whole bunch of people in Chile that would agree.
Regarding the mine rescue, did you know: The guy that designed the rescue module was a NASA Engineer? The Drill was made by Schramm Inc. from Pennsylvania? The Drill Bits were made by Center Rock, Inc. located in Berlin, Pennsylvania?
The lead driller Jeff Hart and his team are from Denver, Colorado. They are on loan from the US Military in Afghanistan where they are drilling water wells for our Forward Operating Bases. He spent the next 33 days on his feet, operating the drill that finally provided a way out Saturday for 33 trapped miners. "You have to feel through your feet what the drill is doing; it's a vibration you get so that you know what's happening," explained Hart.
Hart was called in from Afghanistan, "simply because he's the best" at drilling larger holes with the T130's wide-diameter drill bits, Stefanic said.
Standing before the levers, pressure meters and gauges on the T130's control panel, Hart and the rest of the team faced many challenges in drilling the shaft. At one point, the drill struck a metal support beam in the poorly mapped mine, shattering its hammers. Fresh equipment had to be flown in from the United States and progress was delayed for days as powerful magnets were lowered to pull out the pieces.
The mine's veins of gold and copper ran through quartzite with a high level of abrasive silica, rock so tough that it took all their expertise to keep the drill's hammers from curving off in unwanted directions. "It was horrible," said Center Rock President Brandon Fisher, exhausted after hardly sleeping during the effort.
Fisher, Stefanic and Hart called it the most difficult hole they had ever drilled, because of the lives at stake.
"If you're drilling for oil and you lose the hole, it's different. This time there's people down below," Stefanic said.
"We ruined some bits, worked through the problems as a team, and broke through," Hart said. "I'm very happy now."
Miners' relatives crowded around Hart on Saturday, hugging and posing for pictures with him as he walked down from the rescue operation into the tent camp where families had anxiously followed his work.
"He's become the hero of the day," said Dayana Olivares, whose friend Carlos Bugueno (wa)s one of the miners stuck below.
In a different day and age, Jeff Hart would be the most famous American in our country right now. He would be honored at the White House. Schoolchildren would learn of his skill and heroism. But because Jeff Hart works in an industry currently being demonized by (insert name for the clowns currently running our country) more people in Chile will celebrate this symbol of American greatness than in America itself.
- Michelle Malkin
Did you know these facts? I didn’t.
I wanted to write a column about the Chilean mine rescue, but another writer said it better than I could have. Therefore, I’m going to publish her column in lieu of my own meager efforts to memorialize those who played so important a part in the ”Miracle in Chile.”
While the White House may not believe in American exceptionalism, I do. And I'm thinking there's a whole bunch of people in Chile that would agree.
Regarding the mine rescue, did you know: The guy that designed the rescue module was a NASA Engineer? The Drill was made by Schramm Inc. from Pennsylvania? The Drill Bits were made by Center Rock, Inc. located in Berlin, Pennsylvania?
The lead driller Jeff Hart and his team are from Denver, Colorado. They are on loan from the US Military in Afghanistan where they are drilling water wells for our Forward Operating Bases. He spent the next 33 days on his feet, operating the drill that finally provided a way out Saturday for 33 trapped miners. "You have to feel through your feet what the drill is doing; it's a vibration you get so that you know what's happening," explained Hart.
Hart was called in from Afghanistan, "simply because he's the best" at drilling larger holes with the T130's wide-diameter drill bits, Stefanic said.
Standing before the levers, pressure meters and gauges on the T130's control panel, Hart and the rest of the team faced many challenges in drilling the shaft. At one point, the drill struck a metal support beam in the poorly mapped mine, shattering its hammers. Fresh equipment had to be flown in from the United States and progress was delayed for days as powerful magnets were lowered to pull out the pieces.
The mine's veins of gold and copper ran through quartzite with a high level of abrasive silica, rock so tough that it took all their expertise to keep the drill's hammers from curving off in unwanted directions. "It was horrible," said Center Rock President Brandon Fisher, exhausted after hardly sleeping during the effort.
Fisher, Stefanic and Hart called it the most difficult hole they had ever drilled, because of the lives at stake.
"If you're drilling for oil and you lose the hole, it's different. This time there's people down below," Stefanic said.
"We ruined some bits, worked through the problems as a team, and broke through," Hart said. "I'm very happy now."
Miners' relatives crowded around Hart on Saturday, hugging and posing for pictures with him as he walked down from the rescue operation into the tent camp where families had anxiously followed his work.
"He's become the hero of the day," said Dayana Olivares, whose friend Carlos Bugueno (wa)s one of the miners stuck below.
In a different day and age, Jeff Hart would be the most famous American in our country right now. He would be honored at the White House. Schoolchildren would learn of his skill and heroism. But because Jeff Hart works in an industry currently being demonized by (insert name for the clowns currently running our country) more people in Chile will celebrate this symbol of American greatness than in America itself.
- Michelle Malkin
Did you know these facts? I didn’t.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
When Decency Ends
Rush Limbaugh made an issue of a column written by David Brooks in the New York Times yesterday, so I read the column myself to see what gave him cause to make such a fuss about it. Limbaugh thought it was shallow and nonsensical.
After reading Mr. Brooks’ column, The Flock Comedies, I decided to revise my own column for this week. I had one all ready to go, but this subject has been on my mind for a while, especially after I viewed a couple of sitcoms that featured a similar theme. That theme was masturbation.
I am not writing this from a religious standpoint, and those of you who know me well are aware that I am anything but a religious person. No, I’m opining over the lack of decency we are seeing these days on TV and in the other media.
Perhaps you’ll call me a prude, but I don’t think that discussion of masturbation between mixed sex groups—or for that matter, between same sex groups—is appropriate, realistic or the least bit funny. In other than a sex education class, or a psychiatrist’s office, I don’t think it is a topic for conversation. Period!
I won’t dignify the shows by naming them, but the topic was not only talked about openly by the loving couple, but also by their co-workers and other close friends. Of course there was the usual canned laugh track to make it appear to be comical. I guess that if you put a laugh track on a non-humorous, unrealistic conversation enough times, some people are going to believe it really is funny.
Well, I for one, don’t! I think it is a symptom of the degradation of our society that we can take a private and personal matter and make it seem to be an everyday topic around the drink cooler or in the bar or restaurant.
I don’t want you to misinterpret me. I am not naïve, and I’m not waging war against the act, only against the portrayal of it as a topic for sitcom humor. If that makes me a prude, then so be it. It still bothers me to hear people use foul language in mixed company, too.
When decency ends, respect ends with it, and we have little enough respect for each other as it is without exacerbating the lack of it.
You might want to read The Flock Comedies in the New York Times 10/21 edition for yourself. I obviously made a connection with it.
After reading Mr. Brooks’ column, The Flock Comedies, I decided to revise my own column for this week. I had one all ready to go, but this subject has been on my mind for a while, especially after I viewed a couple of sitcoms that featured a similar theme. That theme was masturbation.
I am not writing this from a religious standpoint, and those of you who know me well are aware that I am anything but a religious person. No, I’m opining over the lack of decency we are seeing these days on TV and in the other media.
Perhaps you’ll call me a prude, but I don’t think that discussion of masturbation between mixed sex groups—or for that matter, between same sex groups—is appropriate, realistic or the least bit funny. In other than a sex education class, or a psychiatrist’s office, I don’t think it is a topic for conversation. Period!
I won’t dignify the shows by naming them, but the topic was not only talked about openly by the loving couple, but also by their co-workers and other close friends. Of course there was the usual canned laugh track to make it appear to be comical. I guess that if you put a laugh track on a non-humorous, unrealistic conversation enough times, some people are going to believe it really is funny.
Well, I for one, don’t! I think it is a symptom of the degradation of our society that we can take a private and personal matter and make it seem to be an everyday topic around the drink cooler or in the bar or restaurant.
I don’t want you to misinterpret me. I am not naïve, and I’m not waging war against the act, only against the portrayal of it as a topic for sitcom humor. If that makes me a prude, then so be it. It still bothers me to hear people use foul language in mixed company, too.
When decency ends, respect ends with it, and we have little enough respect for each other as it is without exacerbating the lack of it.
You might want to read The Flock Comedies in the New York Times 10/21 edition for yourself. I obviously made a connection with it.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Asian Stinkbugs
I was up in Maryland last weekend, and I was introduced to a phenomenon that we don’t yet have here in Georgia. However, on doing some research, I found that it has spread across the most of the northern United States. It is what we have to call a pestilence, because it is a huge infestation of bugs.
The big news lately is the spread of bedbugs, but that is not what I am referencing. No, I found the Asian stinkbug, more commonly known as the brown marmorated stinkbug. They are, as the old saying goes, “thick as flies” up there.
I hate to pick on Asia, but it appears that the bedbugs and the Asian stinkbugs both came from Asia, probably hitching a ride on clothing or other goods being shipped to the United States. I can’t believe that it was a planned and purposeful invasion, but it certainly does present some huge problems at a time when it is the last thing we need.
In case you have never seen one of these critters, this is what they look like. They are about 1/2 –inch long, and unfortunately, they have wings. They are good fliers.
While the bedbugs will bite you and might carry disease (unproven, so far) the stinkbug is just a pest, and I guess it produces a noxious odor, which gives it its name. I didn’t get a chance, thank God, to experience the “stink,” but I was assailed by the little monsters with their hooked feet that cling to clothing and skin. Believe me, they are nasty.
The spread of the stinkbugs is as insidious as that of the bedbug. Both are able to hide in cars and clothing. They are both very prolific, and can reproduce in short cycles, so even if you don’t have any infestation yet, you can expect one shortly. I suspect we helped by driving back here in our minivan. We found two stinkers in the car on the way home, so who knows how many more were along for the ride?
The reason I am relating this to you at all is that there are apparently some treatments you can use to rid yourself of the brown marmorated stinkbug. While temperatures above 130 degrees can kill the bedbug, the stinkbugs are susceptible to soapy water and some chemicals. I won’t even attempt to tell you which ones, or how to treat for them, but you can do some research on Yahoo, or Google, or Bing to learn the best methods.
You had better be prepared, because it looks like the stinkbugs are coming, and they are up in Maryland by the millions.
The big news lately is the spread of bedbugs, but that is not what I am referencing. No, I found the Asian stinkbug, more commonly known as the brown marmorated stinkbug. They are, as the old saying goes, “thick as flies” up there.
I hate to pick on Asia, but it appears that the bedbugs and the Asian stinkbugs both came from Asia, probably hitching a ride on clothing or other goods being shipped to the United States. I can’t believe that it was a planned and purposeful invasion, but it certainly does present some huge problems at a time when it is the last thing we need.
In case you have never seen one of these critters, this is what they look like. They are about 1/2 –inch long, and unfortunately, they have wings. They are good fliers.
While the bedbugs will bite you and might carry disease (unproven, so far) the stinkbug is just a pest, and I guess it produces a noxious odor, which gives it its name. I didn’t get a chance, thank God, to experience the “stink,” but I was assailed by the little monsters with their hooked feet that cling to clothing and skin. Believe me, they are nasty.
The spread of the stinkbugs is as insidious as that of the bedbug. Both are able to hide in cars and clothing. They are both very prolific, and can reproduce in short cycles, so even if you don’t have any infestation yet, you can expect one shortly. I suspect we helped by driving back here in our minivan. We found two stinkers in the car on the way home, so who knows how many more were along for the ride?
The reason I am relating this to you at all is that there are apparently some treatments you can use to rid yourself of the brown marmorated stinkbug. While temperatures above 130 degrees can kill the bedbug, the stinkbugs are susceptible to soapy water and some chemicals. I won’t even attempt to tell you which ones, or how to treat for them, but you can do some research on Yahoo, or Google, or Bing to learn the best methods.
You had better be prepared, because it looks like the stinkbugs are coming, and they are up in Maryland by the millions.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Smoking and Health Isses
I’m going to start this column with a disclaimer: I do not advocate, nor do I encourage smoking. I know from personal experience that it is easy to become addicted and difficult to break the addiction. Probably the reason for that is that it is both habit and addiction. You have to break both the addiction to nicotine and the habit of oral stimulus to succeed.
Further, I have no conclusive proof for what I believe to be true of smoking. Maybe the federal government should use some of those boondoggle grants to fund a study on the topic. Lord knows, they fund enough other goofy studies.
Okay, enough on that… Here is the “Kline Theory on the Cessation of Smoking and the Onset of health Issues.”
Those of us who have smoked cigarettes for any length of time and in any quantity of a-pack-a-day or more, and have subsequently quit smoking, have developed health problems within a year or so of quitting. I find that disturbing, and I attribute it to immune system breakdown that follows the cessation. (Examples to follow) Therefore, I postulate that there is a correlation between the two, and that either:
1. Nicotine addiction stimulates the immune system, or
2. Nicotine withdrawal suppresses the immune system.
Either way, it is almost a sure thing that a person who smoked and then quits will suffer some debilitating health problems shortly thereafter. These range from arthritis to cardio-vascular disease, to—the reason you quit in the first place—cancer. There may be others, but those are the ones I know about.
I quit smoking due to an eight-week seminar held by SmokeEnders, an entity that might no longer exist. That was on March 6, 1980. In September of 1980 I suffered chest pains and was hospitalized and catheterized. The diagnosis was coronary artery disease. I have had a coronary artery bypass, six angioplasties and two stents, a ICD/pacemaker implant and a coronary ablation in the thirty years since that event.
It would take too much space and open too many old wounds to detail the rest of the cases of people I know, or knew, who quit smoking only to be plagued by health issues a short time later. However, there are over a dozen instances I can think of where the two were directly related. Some have resulted in continued disability, while others were fatal.
The key factor in my theorizing about the causal effect of quitting smoking and the onset of disease is that I cannot think of a single case where a smoker I know gave up the habit and didn’t develop some health issues. You might conjecture that maybe they got that way due to age alone, but even younger quitters seem to have the syndrome, if I can call it a syndrome.
Think about the people you know who also have been smokers and quit, only to get sick soon afterwards of an apparently unrelated cause. It isn’t always cancer that is caused by smoking, you know. That and emphysema are only the culprits the American Cancer Society targets.
So, what’s the moral of the story? I don’t want to leave you with no hope for smokers you might know, or for yourself, if you are a smoker. Here is the remainder of my theory: If you are a smoker, or you know someone who is, and you haven’t developed a long-time, heavy habit, by all means quit. I don’t think it applies to the casual smoker. If longevity and high use are established, then I recommend that you don’t quit altogether, but cut your usage to fewer than a pack per day. Find a substitute that works equally well to suppress your addiction and your habit.
Of course, the best prevention is not to ever get started with smoking. I sure wish I hadn’t.
Further, I have no conclusive proof for what I believe to be true of smoking. Maybe the federal government should use some of those boondoggle grants to fund a study on the topic. Lord knows, they fund enough other goofy studies.
Okay, enough on that… Here is the “Kline Theory on the Cessation of Smoking and the Onset of health Issues.”
Those of us who have smoked cigarettes for any length of time and in any quantity of a-pack-a-day or more, and have subsequently quit smoking, have developed health problems within a year or so of quitting. I find that disturbing, and I attribute it to immune system breakdown that follows the cessation. (Examples to follow) Therefore, I postulate that there is a correlation between the two, and that either:
1. Nicotine addiction stimulates the immune system, or
2. Nicotine withdrawal suppresses the immune system.
Either way, it is almost a sure thing that a person who smoked and then quits will suffer some debilitating health problems shortly thereafter. These range from arthritis to cardio-vascular disease, to—the reason you quit in the first place—cancer. There may be others, but those are the ones I know about.
I quit smoking due to an eight-week seminar held by SmokeEnders, an entity that might no longer exist. That was on March 6, 1980. In September of 1980 I suffered chest pains and was hospitalized and catheterized. The diagnosis was coronary artery disease. I have had a coronary artery bypass, six angioplasties and two stents, a ICD/pacemaker implant and a coronary ablation in the thirty years since that event.
It would take too much space and open too many old wounds to detail the rest of the cases of people I know, or knew, who quit smoking only to be plagued by health issues a short time later. However, there are over a dozen instances I can think of where the two were directly related. Some have resulted in continued disability, while others were fatal.
The key factor in my theorizing about the causal effect of quitting smoking and the onset of disease is that I cannot think of a single case where a smoker I know gave up the habit and didn’t develop some health issues. You might conjecture that maybe they got that way due to age alone, but even younger quitters seem to have the syndrome, if I can call it a syndrome.
Think about the people you know who also have been smokers and quit, only to get sick soon afterwards of an apparently unrelated cause. It isn’t always cancer that is caused by smoking, you know. That and emphysema are only the culprits the American Cancer Society targets.
So, what’s the moral of the story? I don’t want to leave you with no hope for smokers you might know, or for yourself, if you are a smoker. Here is the remainder of my theory: If you are a smoker, or you know someone who is, and you haven’t developed a long-time, heavy habit, by all means quit. I don’t think it applies to the casual smoker. If longevity and high use are established, then I recommend that you don’t quit altogether, but cut your usage to fewer than a pack per day. Find a substitute that works equally well to suppress your addiction and your habit.
Of course, the best prevention is not to ever get started with smoking. I sure wish I hadn’t.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
The Proposed Transaction Tax
I always try to avoid politics and religion in my columns, but every so often there is a collision between one of those topics and another subject, which I want to address. This is one of those instances, so I will warn you up front that there is a political aspect to this column. Therefore, those of you whom I know would be offended are invited to stop here and go on to something more pleasing to you.
However, if you have read this far, I want to warn you that everyone will be impacted by the legislation in a very negative way, and you really should learn about it before it becomes the law of the land. If we are to stop its passage, we need every concerned citizen to join the cause.
There has been a lot of traffic on the e-mail circuit about a proposed 1% transaction tax that Congress is likely to pass in the “lame duck” session between November and January. Some claim that the transaction tax is just a rumor, an urban legend to scare people into voting out the present majority.
I would agree with that assessment if I didn’t have living proof that the Speaker of the House was questioned about it publicly, and stated (her exact words), “I think the idea still has great merit.” My proof? http://tinyurl.com/24dn5ud. Some things you can fake, but this isn’t one of those.
The latest message I received has a final line that I assume is the opinion of one of the forwarders. “Some will say aw its just 1%… Remember that once they pass it they can raise it at will.”
I strongly disagree with that statement. A 1% tax on every single transaction is HUGE.
First of all, every dollar that passes through your possession is two transactions, one to earn it and one to spend it. And that is only your tax. The entity that gives you the money, whether by check, cash, or direct deposit is also taxed at 1%. The entity that you give the money to is also taxed at 1%. So every dollar is actually taxed at 4% each time it is transferred to you and from you.
It is a fact of business life that the employee or consumer ultimately pays the business tax through less income or higher fees, so we have to double the tax every time you transact any business whether it is income or expense.
Here is an example of how much that 1% tax can grow:
You receive a payment of $1,000 from your employer. From that amount, $10 is deducted from you and another $10 is deducted from your employer—2 transactions.
You only have a net of $990. It is also probable that your actual pay should have been $10 higher, but your employer passed the transaction tax on to you in lost wages.
You deposit the $990 in your checking account. You only get credit for $980.10—that is, if your bank will eat the $9.90 tax they have to pay. If they don’t, your checking account will show a deposit of $971.20.
Are you following me so far?
You later decide to make an ATM withdrawal of $200. Well, you get the full $200, but your checking account shows a withdrawal of $204—that is, if the bank doesn’t charge ATM fees.
You write a check for $120 to the cable provider. Your account is depleted by $121.20. The cable company has probably already added the transaction tax to your bill, so you actually got billed $1.20 more for your service than you would have otherwise paid.
I could go on and on with this, but I think I can summarize your transaction taxes on that $1,000 earned income after you only spent $320 of it.
Let’s see, you lost $20 when you got paid, another $18.80 when you deposited the money, still another $4 when you used the ATM, and $2.40 when you paid your cable bill. That adds up to $45.20. By my reckoning, that means that you paid a transaction tax of 4.52%, and you still have bills to pay and food, gas, clothing and other staples to buy.
Do you see where this is going?
It is completely possible that your transaction tax on that $1,000 could be as high as the number of transactions make it, possible exceeding 10%. And none of that is deductible on your income tax forms. Oh yes, it also does nothing to reduce your income tax and payroll tax that is deducted from the wages to get that $1,000 in the first place.
"Now, tell me again that it is “only 1%.”
(Welcome to the Tea Party)
However, if you have read this far, I want to warn you that everyone will be impacted by the legislation in a very negative way, and you really should learn about it before it becomes the law of the land. If we are to stop its passage, we need every concerned citizen to join the cause.
There has been a lot of traffic on the e-mail circuit about a proposed 1% transaction tax that Congress is likely to pass in the “lame duck” session between November and January. Some claim that the transaction tax is just a rumor, an urban legend to scare people into voting out the present majority.
I would agree with that assessment if I didn’t have living proof that the Speaker of the House was questioned about it publicly, and stated (her exact words), “I think the idea still has great merit.” My proof? http://tinyurl.com/24dn5ud. Some things you can fake, but this isn’t one of those.
The latest message I received has a final line that I assume is the opinion of one of the forwarders. “Some will say aw its just 1%… Remember that once they pass it they can raise it at will.”
I strongly disagree with that statement. A 1% tax on every single transaction is HUGE.
First of all, every dollar that passes through your possession is two transactions, one to earn it and one to spend it. And that is only your tax. The entity that gives you the money, whether by check, cash, or direct deposit is also taxed at 1%. The entity that you give the money to is also taxed at 1%. So every dollar is actually taxed at 4% each time it is transferred to you and from you.
It is a fact of business life that the employee or consumer ultimately pays the business tax through less income or higher fees, so we have to double the tax every time you transact any business whether it is income or expense.
Here is an example of how much that 1% tax can grow:
You receive a payment of $1,000 from your employer. From that amount, $10 is deducted from you and another $10 is deducted from your employer—2 transactions.
You only have a net of $990. It is also probable that your actual pay should have been $10 higher, but your employer passed the transaction tax on to you in lost wages.
You deposit the $990 in your checking account. You only get credit for $980.10—that is, if your bank will eat the $9.90 tax they have to pay. If they don’t, your checking account will show a deposit of $971.20.
Are you following me so far?
You later decide to make an ATM withdrawal of $200. Well, you get the full $200, but your checking account shows a withdrawal of $204—that is, if the bank doesn’t charge ATM fees.
You write a check for $120 to the cable provider. Your account is depleted by $121.20. The cable company has probably already added the transaction tax to your bill, so you actually got billed $1.20 more for your service than you would have otherwise paid.
I could go on and on with this, but I think I can summarize your transaction taxes on that $1,000 earned income after you only spent $320 of it.
Let’s see, you lost $20 when you got paid, another $18.80 when you deposited the money, still another $4 when you used the ATM, and $2.40 when you paid your cable bill. That adds up to $45.20. By my reckoning, that means that you paid a transaction tax of 4.52%, and you still have bills to pay and food, gas, clothing and other staples to buy.
Do you see where this is going?
It is completely possible that your transaction tax on that $1,000 could be as high as the number of transactions make it, possible exceeding 10%. And none of that is deductible on your income tax forms. Oh yes, it also does nothing to reduce your income tax and payroll tax that is deducted from the wages to get that $1,000 in the first place.
"Now, tell me again that it is “only 1%.”
(Welcome to the Tea Party)
Saturday, September 25, 2010
The Road Not Taken
I use a line for a Robert Frost poem as the title for this column, because it fits so well with what we all do from time to time. That is, we choose a path and it might or might not be the right one to take, but we never know what the alternative may have produced. In this instance, as you’ll see, I took both paths, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I would have missed had I not done so.
I flew to Portland, Oregon last week to complete the sightseeing I missed on my auto trip last year. My main objective was to visit Hells Canyon, which straddles the Oregon-Idaho border. That entailed my driving clear across Oregon from Portland to the town of La Grande, a 250-mile trip via I-84. My hotel for the first night was in La Grande, and much of the driving was after sunset. However, the most scenic part along the Columbia River Gorge was during daylight hours, and the scenery was gorgeous (if you’ll pardon the pun).
Driving along I-84, you hug the Columbia River most of the way, and you see towering cliffs alongside the highway on the Oregon side, while the Washington side has huge hills topped by lots of wind generators. There is traffic visible on the Washington side, but it is mostly up on the hillsides away from the river.
I decided to drive back from my eastern Oregon visit on the opposite side of the gorge to see what the Oregon side would look like from there. Since the drive would be all in the daylight, I determined to cross well upriver from Portland to see as much as possible.
Crossing at the town of Umatilla, I started along Highway 14. It isn’t an interstate road, and has only two lanes and opposing traffic all the way, but the speed limit is 65, and there isn’t nearly as much traffic. Especially lacking are the huge 18-wheelers, though there are some of them. I was able to maintain a good pace, and the scenery from the elevated roadway was impressive.
What I didn’t even suspect was the sights that would be visible on the Washington side. There are several large wineries where you can stop and sample wines, and some have full service restaurants as well. The vineyards are huge and dot the hillsides, though none of this was visible from I-84.
Further along Highway 14, there was a sign pointing to the left that said, “Stonehenge.” I had to investigate that, and it turns out that there is a full-sized replica of that famous old stone monument in England. This one was built by a early 1900’s millionaire named Sam Hill as a monument to the men of Klickitat County who gave their lives in WW I. This Stonehenge isn’t all crumbling like the original. It is made of concrete and it has the same calendar aspect of its namesake. It also has plaques with the names and dates of the 13 men who are immortalized there. Sam Hill is buried down the hill from Stonehenge, but the gravesite isn’t easily accessible, and is nothing to look at.
Stonehenge wasn’t the only thing Sam Hill built above the Columbia Gorge. He built an entire town, which he named Maryhill in honor of his daughter, a loop road that is said to be the first paved road in America, and a mansion called (appropriately) Maryhill. That building is still preserved today as a museum of art, and is well worth a visit. It sits on the bluffs about two miles from Stonehenge and overlooks the river. On clear days, you can also get a wonderful view of Mount Hood from both landmarks, too.
My GPS system wanted to route me down the hill from Stonehenge to the Sam Hill Memorial Bridge and across to I-84, but I would have missed the Maryhill Museum and a lot more of the road and tunnels along the Washington side, so I turned off the GPS and followed my own course. I’m glad I did, too, because I was afforded great views of those cliffs over on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, which are also topped by some hills that sport the wind generators as well.
All in all, I could have spent the entire day and then some just exploring the sights along Highway 14 on the north side of the Columbia River Gorge. It was an experience and I’m certainly glad that I took that road as well as the interstate highway.
I flew to Portland, Oregon last week to complete the sightseeing I missed on my auto trip last year. My main objective was to visit Hells Canyon, which straddles the Oregon-Idaho border. That entailed my driving clear across Oregon from Portland to the town of La Grande, a 250-mile trip via I-84. My hotel for the first night was in La Grande, and much of the driving was after sunset. However, the most scenic part along the Columbia River Gorge was during daylight hours, and the scenery was gorgeous (if you’ll pardon the pun).
Driving along I-84, you hug the Columbia River most of the way, and you see towering cliffs alongside the highway on the Oregon side, while the Washington side has huge hills topped by lots of wind generators. There is traffic visible on the Washington side, but it is mostly up on the hillsides away from the river.
I decided to drive back from my eastern Oregon visit on the opposite side of the gorge to see what the Oregon side would look like from there. Since the drive would be all in the daylight, I determined to cross well upriver from Portland to see as much as possible.
Crossing at the town of Umatilla, I started along Highway 14. It isn’t an interstate road, and has only two lanes and opposing traffic all the way, but the speed limit is 65, and there isn’t nearly as much traffic. Especially lacking are the huge 18-wheelers, though there are some of them. I was able to maintain a good pace, and the scenery from the elevated roadway was impressive.
What I didn’t even suspect was the sights that would be visible on the Washington side. There are several large wineries where you can stop and sample wines, and some have full service restaurants as well. The vineyards are huge and dot the hillsides, though none of this was visible from I-84.
Further along Highway 14, there was a sign pointing to the left that said, “Stonehenge.” I had to investigate that, and it turns out that there is a full-sized replica of that famous old stone monument in England. This one was built by a early 1900’s millionaire named Sam Hill as a monument to the men of Klickitat County who gave their lives in WW I. This Stonehenge isn’t all crumbling like the original. It is made of concrete and it has the same calendar aspect of its namesake. It also has plaques with the names and dates of the 13 men who are immortalized there. Sam Hill is buried down the hill from Stonehenge, but the gravesite isn’t easily accessible, and is nothing to look at.
Stonehenge wasn’t the only thing Sam Hill built above the Columbia Gorge. He built an entire town, which he named Maryhill in honor of his daughter, a loop road that is said to be the first paved road in America, and a mansion called (appropriately) Maryhill. That building is still preserved today as a museum of art, and is well worth a visit. It sits on the bluffs about two miles from Stonehenge and overlooks the river. On clear days, you can also get a wonderful view of Mount Hood from both landmarks, too.
My GPS system wanted to route me down the hill from Stonehenge to the Sam Hill Memorial Bridge and across to I-84, but I would have missed the Maryhill Museum and a lot more of the road and tunnels along the Washington side, so I turned off the GPS and followed my own course. I’m glad I did, too, because I was afforded great views of those cliffs over on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, which are also topped by some hills that sport the wind generators as well.
All in all, I could have spent the entire day and then some just exploring the sights along Highway 14 on the north side of the Columbia River Gorge. It was an experience and I’m certainly glad that I took that road as well as the interstate highway.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Airborne Again
After eight years of non-flying, I finally decided it was time to try it out again. It wasn’t fear of flying after 9/11—I did fly in January of 2002, but I just got tired of winging it, and wanted to enjoy road travel. As you know, Judy and I do a lot of that.
If you never worked for an airline, then it is difficult for me to describe the joys of NRSA travel. On my first attempt out of Dallas I was able to watch the flight I was standing by for depart the gate without me. However, I did manage to get the very last seat on the next departure a mere four hours later.
My seat for the flight from Dallas to Portland, Oregon was 33F, a window seat right next to the engine nacelle on the MD-80. It wasn’t noisy, and there was a neat aspect to it. On taxi out to the runway I noticed that there were a lot of dragonflies, and it was really cool to watch them buzz along unsuspecting and get sucked into the engine. Wow, they really gain speed on the way in!
I am also happy to report to you that the ingestion of dragonflies does not disable or in any way affect the operation of the MD-80. They seem to pass right through. Unlike that US Air flight that Captain Sullenberger had to ditch in the Hudson River after the bird strike, our aircraft was completely unsullied (unsullenbergered?) by the encounter with the dragonflies.
I am writing this column at 32,000 feet above the Rockies en route to Portland, where I will rent a car and drive across Oregon to see Hells Canyon, the sight that I missed on last year’s road trip. However, I won’t be doing the loop trip. The road is washed out part way around, so I’ll have to do a “U” trip instead, but I anticipate that it will be great. I have the whole day to do the 500-mile trek, though I may cut part of it out if what I saw from the air on the way over really is snow up in the passes.
If the weather holds, I also intend to drive up to Mt. Saint Helens from the south to see it from where Spirit Lake used to be. It is now called Windy Ridge, and that ought to be interesting if it lives up to its name.
For some of you I will create my usual journal with photos. This time I’ll probably do it after I return home, so you won’t see it for a week or so. Stand by…
If you never worked for an airline, then it is difficult for me to describe the joys of NRSA travel. On my first attempt out of Dallas I was able to watch the flight I was standing by for depart the gate without me. However, I did manage to get the very last seat on the next departure a mere four hours later.
My seat for the flight from Dallas to Portland, Oregon was 33F, a window seat right next to the engine nacelle on the MD-80. It wasn’t noisy, and there was a neat aspect to it. On taxi out to the runway I noticed that there were a lot of dragonflies, and it was really cool to watch them buzz along unsuspecting and get sucked into the engine. Wow, they really gain speed on the way in!
I am also happy to report to you that the ingestion of dragonflies does not disable or in any way affect the operation of the MD-80. They seem to pass right through. Unlike that US Air flight that Captain Sullenberger had to ditch in the Hudson River after the bird strike, our aircraft was completely unsullied (unsullenbergered?) by the encounter with the dragonflies.
I am writing this column at 32,000 feet above the Rockies en route to Portland, where I will rent a car and drive across Oregon to see Hells Canyon, the sight that I missed on last year’s road trip. However, I won’t be doing the loop trip. The road is washed out part way around, so I’ll have to do a “U” trip instead, but I anticipate that it will be great. I have the whole day to do the 500-mile trek, though I may cut part of it out if what I saw from the air on the way over really is snow up in the passes.
If the weather holds, I also intend to drive up to Mt. Saint Helens from the south to see it from where Spirit Lake used to be. It is now called Windy Ridge, and that ought to be interesting if it lives up to its name.
For some of you I will create my usual journal with photos. This time I’ll probably do it after I return home, so you won’t see it for a week or so. Stand by…
Saturday, September 11, 2010
A Modest Proposal
(See My Weekly Wisdom Column of April 25, 2009 – Go Green!)
Okay, you’ve finally convinced me that global warming really does exist. We really do need to do everything we can to conserve energy and develop new green technology to save Mother Earth.
I am going to propose some radical steps that we should have taken long ago. I don’t have any hard facts to back up the energy waste, or in this case, the savings. However, I have seen some of the statistics that others use to justify the use of the new CFC light bulbs. I have read that we waste huge amounts of energy and spew tons and tons of carbon into our atmosphere merely by leaving our computers and television sets running 24/7—albeit in “sleep” mode.
Now I have thought of two other wastes of power with the attendant spillage of carbon into our fragile environment. Here they are.
First, we have to stop broadcasting late night TV. Shows like The Tonight Show, Late Night with whoever replaced Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live. And all those hardcore and softcore pornography films that always seem to be shown late at night have to go. It not only wastes tons of electricity, but it also pollutes our airwaves with a lot of filth.
I suggest that we go back to a format for all stations where they play the National Anthem of whichever country originates the broadcast, and put that wonderfully nostalgic “test pattern” back on immediately after the local nightly news, sports and weather. That stays on for five minutes and then it’s “Nighty-night.”
Just think of all the electricity we would save be limiting broadcasting to 18 hours a day instead of the present 24/7.
Now, if you enjoy the late night shows–and I guess a lot of us do–then I say they put them on earlier in the evening so we can all enjoy them. After all, we all wax nostalgic over the earlier generation of television shows, like “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Your Show of Shows,” “Texaco Star Theater,” “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and many more. They used the same theme as these modern-day late night shows, and everybody loved them. Let’s get them back!
My second proposal is even better than the first. It not only will save precious fuel, but will also get rid of some pretty obnoxious people and plots. It ties in with the first proposal, too.
We have to give up movies!
Well, maybe not all movies, but how about we stop making “B-grade” films. That would eliminate about ninety percent of the junk that is shown these days. If a film is really good, it could be produced as a DVD or Blue Ray film and sold in stores immediately upon release. The tendency is to do just that about two months after they hit the theaters anyway.
Some of the more controversial movies, horror flicks and chick flicks and other genres, seem to become boring after about an hour, so why not produce them for some of these rogue TV stations that show junk and old reruns now? (Nothing past 11:30 PM though) Producers should be able to limit the length to one hour by editing and cutting out all the crap they currently include.
Taking away the large screen movie theater would not only give us a better class of films, but it would keep all those cars and SUVs and such off the roads at night. Home entertainment is the way of today, so nobody should be forced to drive to a theater and pay exorbitant rates to see a picture.
There is the added benefit of all the gasoline we can save. And there are a lot of second-rate actors that would have to work for a living instead of giving us their poor performances.
Just think! We can actually bring back the “good old days” at the same time we conserve on energy and save the planet by putting my two proposals into effect. We might even change the moral tone of our society too.
Okay, you’ve finally convinced me that global warming really does exist. We really do need to do everything we can to conserve energy and develop new green technology to save Mother Earth.
I am going to propose some radical steps that we should have taken long ago. I don’t have any hard facts to back up the energy waste, or in this case, the savings. However, I have seen some of the statistics that others use to justify the use of the new CFC light bulbs. I have read that we waste huge amounts of energy and spew tons and tons of carbon into our atmosphere merely by leaving our computers and television sets running 24/7—albeit in “sleep” mode.
Now I have thought of two other wastes of power with the attendant spillage of carbon into our fragile environment. Here they are.
First, we have to stop broadcasting late night TV. Shows like The Tonight Show, Late Night with whoever replaced Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live. And all those hardcore and softcore pornography films that always seem to be shown late at night have to go. It not only wastes tons of electricity, but it also pollutes our airwaves with a lot of filth.
I suggest that we go back to a format for all stations where they play the National Anthem of whichever country originates the broadcast, and put that wonderfully nostalgic “test pattern” back on immediately after the local nightly news, sports and weather. That stays on for five minutes and then it’s “Nighty-night.”
Just think of all the electricity we would save be limiting broadcasting to 18 hours a day instead of the present 24/7.
Now, if you enjoy the late night shows–and I guess a lot of us do–then I say they put them on earlier in the evening so we can all enjoy them. After all, we all wax nostalgic over the earlier generation of television shows, like “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Your Show of Shows,” “Texaco Star Theater,” “The Colgate Comedy Hour” and many more. They used the same theme as these modern-day late night shows, and everybody loved them. Let’s get them back!
My second proposal is even better than the first. It not only will save precious fuel, but will also get rid of some pretty obnoxious people and plots. It ties in with the first proposal, too.
We have to give up movies!
Well, maybe not all movies, but how about we stop making “B-grade” films. That would eliminate about ninety percent of the junk that is shown these days. If a film is really good, it could be produced as a DVD or Blue Ray film and sold in stores immediately upon release. The tendency is to do just that about two months after they hit the theaters anyway.
Some of the more controversial movies, horror flicks and chick flicks and other genres, seem to become boring after about an hour, so why not produce them for some of these rogue TV stations that show junk and old reruns now? (Nothing past 11:30 PM though) Producers should be able to limit the length to one hour by editing and cutting out all the crap they currently include.
Taking away the large screen movie theater would not only give us a better class of films, but it would keep all those cars and SUVs and such off the roads at night. Home entertainment is the way of today, so nobody should be forced to drive to a theater and pay exorbitant rates to see a picture.
There is the added benefit of all the gasoline we can save. And there are a lot of second-rate actors that would have to work for a living instead of giving us their poor performances.
Just think! We can actually bring back the “good old days” at the same time we conserve on energy and save the planet by putting my two proposals into effect. We might even change the moral tone of our society too.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Strange Coincidences
We are now back home in Augusta after our 13-day, 5,600-mile, 15-state trip. No, we didn’t get to do all the activities I had planned, but we did at least two that were not on the itinerary, the Wyler Aerial Tramway in El Paso, and the Civil War Battlefield in Vicksburg, Mississippi.
I do have a few reflections on the trip, things I learned and strange coincidences.
I found a town that I don’t think I could live in, Springdale, Utah. It is completely surrounded by towering cliffs. I don’t know the height of them, but I figure it is about 1,500 feet, and they are pretty much straight up. If you ever want to feel claustrophobic, just go to Springdale. It is also the western entrance to Zion Canyon, so it gives a pretty good preview of what you will see in the park
I learned at Vicksburg that the city was surrendered to General Grant on the 4th of July in 1863. That just happens to be the exact day Gettysburg was successfully defended by the Army of the Potomac under General Mead. That was a crushing blow to the Confederate Army, even though there was no communication in those days that would have conveyed the results between those diverse combat units. Being a Civil War history buff, I should have known those facts, but I confess that I didn’t know until I visited Vicksburg.
Some of the strange occurrences that we encountered:
1. Way up on Mount Evans in Colorado I followed a car with a Ray Laks license plate holder. I approached the driver in the parking lot at the summit and learned that he was from Western New York where I grew up.
2. In Kanab Utah at the Comfort Inn, the desk clerk said she was from New York. It turned out that she grew up in a neighboring town to the one where I grew up.
3. We had several library books downloaded on my MP3 player. The setting for one was the Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan, where I had been on my last trip in June.
4. Another book on my MP3 was set in a fictional town in Columbia County, Georgia, where I currently live. We had no idea that these fictional books were set in those places, but it made listening a lot more interesting.
5. When we stopped for the night at a motel in Capitol Reef National Park, there was a panel truck with Kentucky plates parked next to us. The truck had signage on the side reading, “Cumberland Lake Boat Movers.” Cumberland Lake, Kentucky was another one of the places I visited on the trip to Michigan.
It always amazes me when I find points of convergence in faraway places, so these five chance events were kind of stunning.
A couple of other facts about the trip:
I tried to keep track of our expenditures for gasoline, but I lost track after a few days. I do know that we only paid over $3/gallon once in Torrey, Utah ($3.39 for regular), but most of the time, gas was around $2.75, and we did get it once for $2.39.
Our hotels cost just under $900, but we did use two reward nights. I do have to admit that some of our hotels were less than desirable, but we did stay at a couple that were first class, too.
My Golden Eagle pass was great, as it got us free admission to all national parks, of which we visited ten. If you take a trip like this one and are not old enough (62) to buy the Golden Eagle pass, at least purchase the annual pass for $80. It will pay for itself when you get to your 4th park or monument.
Our entire 13-day trip cost us under $2,000, and that’s pretty good, considering how much we saw and did.
For those of you to whom I sent the daily trip journals and pictures, I hope you enjoyed them, and felt like you were experiencing the same sights with us. For those who didn’t participate, let me know if you would like to see them, and I’ll send them along via email. There are nine days worth, and I think they came out very nicely.
I do have a few reflections on the trip, things I learned and strange coincidences.
I found a town that I don’t think I could live in, Springdale, Utah. It is completely surrounded by towering cliffs. I don’t know the height of them, but I figure it is about 1,500 feet, and they are pretty much straight up. If you ever want to feel claustrophobic, just go to Springdale. It is also the western entrance to Zion Canyon, so it gives a pretty good preview of what you will see in the park
I learned at Vicksburg that the city was surrendered to General Grant on the 4th of July in 1863. That just happens to be the exact day Gettysburg was successfully defended by the Army of the Potomac under General Mead. That was a crushing blow to the Confederate Army, even though there was no communication in those days that would have conveyed the results between those diverse combat units. Being a Civil War history buff, I should have known those facts, but I confess that I didn’t know until I visited Vicksburg.
Some of the strange occurrences that we encountered:
1. Way up on Mount Evans in Colorado I followed a car with a Ray Laks license plate holder. I approached the driver in the parking lot at the summit and learned that he was from Western New York where I grew up.
2. In Kanab Utah at the Comfort Inn, the desk clerk said she was from New York. It turned out that she grew up in a neighboring town to the one where I grew up.
3. We had several library books downloaded on my MP3 player. The setting for one was the Leelanau Peninsula of Michigan, where I had been on my last trip in June.
4. Another book on my MP3 was set in a fictional town in Columbia County, Georgia, where I currently live. We had no idea that these fictional books were set in those places, but it made listening a lot more interesting.
5. When we stopped for the night at a motel in Capitol Reef National Park, there was a panel truck with Kentucky plates parked next to us. The truck had signage on the side reading, “Cumberland Lake Boat Movers.” Cumberland Lake, Kentucky was another one of the places I visited on the trip to Michigan.
It always amazes me when I find points of convergence in faraway places, so these five chance events were kind of stunning.
A couple of other facts about the trip:
I tried to keep track of our expenditures for gasoline, but I lost track after a few days. I do know that we only paid over $3/gallon once in Torrey, Utah ($3.39 for regular), but most of the time, gas was around $2.75, and we did get it once for $2.39.
Our hotels cost just under $900, but we did use two reward nights. I do have to admit that some of our hotels were less than desirable, but we did stay at a couple that were first class, too.
My Golden Eagle pass was great, as it got us free admission to all national parks, of which we visited ten. If you take a trip like this one and are not old enough (62) to buy the Golden Eagle pass, at least purchase the annual pass for $80. It will pay for itself when you get to your 4th park or monument.
Our entire 13-day trip cost us under $2,000, and that’s pretty good, considering how much we saw and did.
For those of you to whom I sent the daily trip journals and pictures, I hope you enjoyed them, and felt like you were experiencing the same sights with us. For those who didn’t participate, let me know if you would like to see them, and I’ll send them along via email. There are nine days worth, and I think they came out very nicely.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Great Tips for Corn on the Cob
I almost let this one get by me, but it is still timely, because I saw again today that corn on the cob is selling for 33 cents an ear. The suggestions I am presenting are from two sources. The first comes directly from The Rachel Ray Show on Food Network. And the second is from my daughter-in-law.
It is barbeque season again—at least it is here in Georgia—and most of us can’t wait to fire up the grill and cook outside on the patio. Among the side dishes we all enjoy is that perennial favorite, corn on the cob. I love it, but I always felt guilty about slathering all that butter on it. It was not an easy task to butter up an ear of corn either. The butter migrates to the bottom of the ear and falls off before it can melt in.
There is an alternative that you can use to your heart’s content, and it will most likely be a lot healthier for you than butter or even butter substitutes. I'll get to that in a moment, but first I have some preparation tips for the corn shucker.
When you’re ready to shuck the corn—some markets will let you do it in-store and provide a trash barrel for you to discard the greens—get yourself a rubber band to perform the task you always hated to do, getting rid of the corn silk that clings to the kernels after shucking.
Twist the rubber band once or twice and loop it between your thumb and index finger. Holding the ear of corn straight up, slide the twisted rubber band vigorously up and down while turning the ear. It will pick up those stray threads of corn silk and remove them in no time. Voilá! You have a clean ear of corn and no silk to get in your teeth.
When you buy the ears of corn in the produce section of your market, pick up a lime or two. A good plan is to buy one lime for every two ears of corn. Try to get the standard limes about 2 inches in diameter, not key limes.
When you have shucked and roasted, boiled or microwave-heated your ears of corn and are ready to eat them, cut the limes in half. While squeezing the lime half vigorously, run it over the ear of corn while turning the ear. Make sure you see the juice running down into the kernels. Then add pepper and salt to taste and start munching.
You are going to be pleasantly surprised, because the limejuice is a great substitute for butter, enhances the corn taste and is a lot less messy. No more butter stains on your clothing, and it is oh, so much more healthy for you.
If you’re really economical, you can probably get enough juice from the lime to coat two ears per half, but limes aren’t that expensive; I paid 25 cents for the last one I bought.
Try these neat and healthy tips the next time you have corn on the cob, and I think you’ll thank me for it.
It is barbeque season again—at least it is here in Georgia—and most of us can’t wait to fire up the grill and cook outside on the patio. Among the side dishes we all enjoy is that perennial favorite, corn on the cob. I love it, but I always felt guilty about slathering all that butter on it. It was not an easy task to butter up an ear of corn either. The butter migrates to the bottom of the ear and falls off before it can melt in.
There is an alternative that you can use to your heart’s content, and it will most likely be a lot healthier for you than butter or even butter substitutes. I'll get to that in a moment, but first I have some preparation tips for the corn shucker.
When you’re ready to shuck the corn—some markets will let you do it in-store and provide a trash barrel for you to discard the greens—get yourself a rubber band to perform the task you always hated to do, getting rid of the corn silk that clings to the kernels after shucking.
Twist the rubber band once or twice and loop it between your thumb and index finger. Holding the ear of corn straight up, slide the twisted rubber band vigorously up and down while turning the ear. It will pick up those stray threads of corn silk and remove them in no time. Voilá! You have a clean ear of corn and no silk to get in your teeth.
When you buy the ears of corn in the produce section of your market, pick up a lime or two. A good plan is to buy one lime for every two ears of corn. Try to get the standard limes about 2 inches in diameter, not key limes.
When you have shucked and roasted, boiled or microwave-heated your ears of corn and are ready to eat them, cut the limes in half. While squeezing the lime half vigorously, run it over the ear of corn while turning the ear. Make sure you see the juice running down into the kernels. Then add pepper and salt to taste and start munching.
You are going to be pleasantly surprised, because the limejuice is a great substitute for butter, enhances the corn taste and is a lot less messy. No more butter stains on your clothing, and it is oh, so much more healthy for you.
If you’re really economical, you can probably get enough juice from the lime to coat two ears per half, but limes aren’t that expensive; I paid 25 cents for the last one I bought.
Try these neat and healthy tips the next time you have corn on the cob, and I think you’ll thank me for it.
Marshmallows
This week I visited an unusual farm. It was so unique and so incredible that I just had to share my experience with you. You see I went to a marshmallow farm.
I bet you thought, as I used to, that marshmallows were processed and made of sugars and corn syrups and stuff like that. But really, they are grown here in Grovetown in our famous marshes. That’s why they’re called marshmallows, of course. I never knew that.
The marshes in Grovetown are perfect for growing the marshmallow plant. They used to be mangrove swamps, hence the name “Grovetown.” When the mangrove trees died in a blight, the swamps were drained and the marshes remained with lots of nutrients and nitrogen, a great combination for growing the marshmallow plants.
What does a marshmallow plant look like? Well, you might think they would look like cotton plants, with little marshmallows on stalks that you harvest like tomatoes or, well, like cotton. But, oh no, they grow like pumpkins and squash. They grow real big, so big that you can only harvest one at a time.
The raw marshmallows have to be divided up into their smaller ones that you buy in the store. But that isn’t as difficult as it would seem. The big ones can be pulled apart into individual cells and dried out form those perfect little spheres you toast on a stick by the campfire. If left a while longer, the marshmallows shrink into the tiny ones we call mini-marshmallows, the ones you put into hot chocolate.
I didn’t get to see the harvest, because they aren’t quite ready, but that will take place in a few weeks, and then there will be the annual Marshmallow Festival, a whole weekend of celebrating and eating the sweet little things.
Now, about this time, you’re probably as skeptical as I was about the existence of these “marshmallow farms.” Well, I can understand that. Therefore, I took a picture of the marshmallows still growing in the field to prove they are genuine.
Do you believe now???
I bet you thought, as I used to, that marshmallows were processed and made of sugars and corn syrups and stuff like that. But really, they are grown here in Grovetown in our famous marshes. That’s why they’re called marshmallows, of course. I never knew that.
The marshes in Grovetown are perfect for growing the marshmallow plant. They used to be mangrove swamps, hence the name “Grovetown.” When the mangrove trees died in a blight, the swamps were drained and the marshes remained with lots of nutrients and nitrogen, a great combination for growing the marshmallow plants.
What does a marshmallow plant look like? Well, you might think they would look like cotton plants, with little marshmallows on stalks that you harvest like tomatoes or, well, like cotton. But, oh no, they grow like pumpkins and squash. They grow real big, so big that you can only harvest one at a time.
The raw marshmallows have to be divided up into their smaller ones that you buy in the store. But that isn’t as difficult as it would seem. The big ones can be pulled apart into individual cells and dried out form those perfect little spheres you toast on a stick by the campfire. If left a while longer, the marshmallows shrink into the tiny ones we call mini-marshmallows, the ones you put into hot chocolate.
I didn’t get to see the harvest, because they aren’t quite ready, but that will take place in a few weeks, and then there will be the annual Marshmallow Festival, a whole weekend of celebrating and eating the sweet little things.
Now, about this time, you’re probably as skeptical as I was about the existence of these “marshmallow farms.” Well, I can understand that. Therefore, I took a picture of the marshmallows still growing in the field to prove they are genuine.
Do you believe now???
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Dying Intestate
This week I am going to write about something that many (most?) people avoid. We are all alive for a limited time, and no one knows when his or her time is up. Yet we all seem reluctant to discuss and plan for our eventual demise.
I don’t know your financial situation, nor do I want to know it. Some of you might think you don’t have enough assets to have to make a will, so you might quit reading right here. However, just because you haven’t saved anything and don’t own very much, it is still possible that you have considerable “wealth.”
If you are employed, you likely have some form of group term life insurance through your employer. Most good companies provide at least an amount equal to two times your annual income free of charge with options to purchase more insurance at group rates.
If you own, or hold a mortgage or a loan on property, a house, a car, a boat, a motorcycle, then you probably have some form of life insurance on the balance you owe. Some credit card companies require that you have insurance on unpaid balances.
In short, there are many assets that you hold that only come into play upon your death, so you may be richer than you think you are. You had better not stop reading until you reach the end of the column.
Regardless of how much money, property or insurance you have accumulated, everyone needs some kind of a will. Even if you don’t own a lot, you should document what assets you want to go to each of your heirs when you die.
When there are children or multiple life partners—unfortunately, multi-marriage and multi-divorce have become a common experience—lack of a last will and testament are almost certain to cause feuds or lawsuits when a person dies.
If you die intestate—that means “without a valid will”—your property must pass through a process called probate. The court will decide who gets what, and it won’t necessarily be the person or persons whom you would have chosen.
For instance, if you are married and have children, regardless of their ages, and you die without executing a proper and legal will, your property will likely be divvied up in equal amounts among your wife and children. If the children are not at least 18-years-old (in some states, 21-years-old) the money will be held in trust and will not be available to your surviving spouse to help raise them.
In some cases, other relatives may inherit your assets, such as parents or siblings. Some of us would prefer that no assets go to certain people, but without a valid will the courts will decide in their favor. Oh yes, some of those assets will surely go to lawyers and others whom you never intended to receive it. That is what probate is all about.
Leaving aside the issues of property and insurance, a person who dies intestate leaves his or her children at the mercy of the courts. If both spouses die and no guardian has been designated in a will, the minor children become wards of the state. Children may be turned over to grandparents, aunts or uncles, but not necessarily according to your wishes.
If heirs are minor children of a former marriage, and the other natural parent is still alive, Absence of a valid will could entitle that parent to claim the children over the claim of the stepparent. Divorce is in and of itself a critical reason to have a will for all the same reasons given above.
After reading all of this, if you believe that none of this affects you, because you come from a long-lived family, think again. In this world, we could go at any time. Age and family history have nothing to do with it.
When I was younger, I sold life insurance, and we had a saying that we always quoted to our prospects: “Save like you’ll live to 100, but insure as though you’ll die tomorrow.” That applies to making a will just as much. Don’t let anything keep you from making a will to satisfy your wishes for your assets and care of dependents rather than letting some stranger decide for you.
It will probably cost you anywhere from a hundred to a thousand dollars to have a good will drawn up—on the low side if you don’t have a lot of assets—but it could save your heirs thousands of dollars in fees and taxes, and it will give you immediate and lasting peace of mind.
I don’t know your financial situation, nor do I want to know it. Some of you might think you don’t have enough assets to have to make a will, so you might quit reading right here. However, just because you haven’t saved anything and don’t own very much, it is still possible that you have considerable “wealth.”
If you are employed, you likely have some form of group term life insurance through your employer. Most good companies provide at least an amount equal to two times your annual income free of charge with options to purchase more insurance at group rates.
If you own, or hold a mortgage or a loan on property, a house, a car, a boat, a motorcycle, then you probably have some form of life insurance on the balance you owe. Some credit card companies require that you have insurance on unpaid balances.
In short, there are many assets that you hold that only come into play upon your death, so you may be richer than you think you are. You had better not stop reading until you reach the end of the column.
Regardless of how much money, property or insurance you have accumulated, everyone needs some kind of a will. Even if you don’t own a lot, you should document what assets you want to go to each of your heirs when you die.
When there are children or multiple life partners—unfortunately, multi-marriage and multi-divorce have become a common experience—lack of a last will and testament are almost certain to cause feuds or lawsuits when a person dies.
If you die intestate—that means “without a valid will”—your property must pass through a process called probate. The court will decide who gets what, and it won’t necessarily be the person or persons whom you would have chosen.
For instance, if you are married and have children, regardless of their ages, and you die without executing a proper and legal will, your property will likely be divvied up in equal amounts among your wife and children. If the children are not at least 18-years-old (in some states, 21-years-old) the money will be held in trust and will not be available to your surviving spouse to help raise them.
In some cases, other relatives may inherit your assets, such as parents or siblings. Some of us would prefer that no assets go to certain people, but without a valid will the courts will decide in their favor. Oh yes, some of those assets will surely go to lawyers and others whom you never intended to receive it. That is what probate is all about.
Leaving aside the issues of property and insurance, a person who dies intestate leaves his or her children at the mercy of the courts. If both spouses die and no guardian has been designated in a will, the minor children become wards of the state. Children may be turned over to grandparents, aunts or uncles, but not necessarily according to your wishes.
If heirs are minor children of a former marriage, and the other natural parent is still alive, Absence of a valid will could entitle that parent to claim the children over the claim of the stepparent. Divorce is in and of itself a critical reason to have a will for all the same reasons given above.
After reading all of this, if you believe that none of this affects you, because you come from a long-lived family, think again. In this world, we could go at any time. Age and family history have nothing to do with it.
When I was younger, I sold life insurance, and we had a saying that we always quoted to our prospects: “Save like you’ll live to 100, but insure as though you’ll die tomorrow.” That applies to making a will just as much. Don’t let anything keep you from making a will to satisfy your wishes for your assets and care of dependents rather than letting some stranger decide for you.
It will probably cost you anywhere from a hundred to a thousand dollars to have a good will drawn up—on the low side if you don’t have a lot of assets—but it could save your heirs thousands of dollars in fees and taxes, and it will give you immediate and lasting peace of mind.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Hands-Only CPR
It is time for me to repeat a column that I first published over two years ago, and one that is vitally important to me. The topic is Hands-only CPR.
I received a message from one of you over the weekend concerning a “new” method of performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and while I already am familiar with the technique, it is apparently still unknown to some people.
Then I was watching some back episodes of the game show, Jeopardy! from my DVR player and one of the clues given by Alex Trebek concerned CPR. The clue as read was, “It calls for two breaths for every ten chest compressions.” It bothered me that Mr. Trebek was broadcasting the incorrect, outdated method for performing CPR to a huge television audience.
The combination of those two incidents in less than a week inspired me to revisit my column from April of 2008 and republish it this week. Since I am one of those people who carry the risk of sudden cardiac arrest, I cannot pass up the opportunity to enlighten as many potential lifesavers as possible. I hope you will spread the word too.
(Actually, I am not a candidate for CPR, because I now have an implanted cardiac device, called an ICD. It will kick in whenever my heart has several irregular beats, or when the natural pacemaker in my heart quits or fails to work properly. My condition is so critical that I cannot wait for lifesaving techniques to be applied.)
For those who are at less known risk, or those who have no medical history of cardiac problems, the chance of a cardiac event requiring CPR is currently about thirty percent. In other words, one out of every three of you will probably require CPR. That also means that another thirty percent will have occasion to administer it to someone else. And that someone else is quite likely to be someone you know and love, a family member. That being the case, it pays to know how and when to do it.
There has always been some aversion to performing CPR. The main reason is that it has always required both chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breathing. Aside from the possibility of same sex administration, we all seem to have some reluctance to get up close and personal with strangers. That has lead to a lot of missed opportunity and delays in performing CPR.
When I learned CPR and became qualified in the 1970s, the procedure called for a 10/2 ratio of compressions to breaths if performing one-on-one. If two people were present, the ratio changed to 5/2, but either way, there was no way to keep an even rhythm. The one-on-one ratio was changed in the 1990s to 20/2, but it still wasted about 10-15 seconds to change positions and do the mouth-to-mouth. Those seconds were critical.
In actual experience, it was found that the stricken person tended to gasp during chest compressions, so some air was being inhaled even without mouth-to-mouth. Also, the lungs are never completely collapsed, so oxygenation of blood was not really an issue.
The hands-only CPR not only keeps a steady rhythm to the compressions, but it also removes the objectionable part of the procedures that has frequently prevented CPR from being performed. In my opinion, it will likely cause a much higher incidence of recovery from sudden cardiac events.
The new hands-only CPR requires the rescuer to perform continuous chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute. That compares to a rate of 30-40 compressions per minute with an irregular rhythm in the former CPR technique. The survival rate is likely to go up with the new guidelines.
Hands-only CPR
If someone collapses, stops normal breathing and is unresponsive to shaking, here are the steps you should take:
· First, have someone call 911 and summon help, if a phone is handy.
· Put the person on the floor face up.
· Place one hand atop the other in the center of the person’s chest.
· Lock your elbows so that your arms are straight from shoulders to hands
· Push hard and fast, 100 compressions a minute.
· If there is another person with you, take turns. It is hard work.
· Continue compressions until paramedics arrive to take over.
(Source – American Heart Association)
If the person on whom you are performing CPR regains consciousness or shows signs of a return of heartbeat and breathing, you may quit your efforts, but do not move them and stay ready to begin again. Do not allow the victim to sit up, but make them as comfortable as possible.
There is a Website where you can learn more about hands-only CPR and even get some online training. Just click on the link here for the American Heart Association. Then be sure to read the links within that page. Other links can be found at the following sites, and the last among them actually provides some step-by-step training.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/01/BAJ8VTF35.DTL
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/01/health/main3984803.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3984803
http://medicine.arizona.edu/spotlight/learn-sarver-heart-centers-continuous-chest-compression-cpr
I received a message from one of you over the weekend concerning a “new” method of performing cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and while I already am familiar with the technique, it is apparently still unknown to some people.
Then I was watching some back episodes of the game show, Jeopardy! from my DVR player and one of the clues given by Alex Trebek concerned CPR. The clue as read was, “It calls for two breaths for every ten chest compressions.” It bothered me that Mr. Trebek was broadcasting the incorrect, outdated method for performing CPR to a huge television audience.
The combination of those two incidents in less than a week inspired me to revisit my column from April of 2008 and republish it this week. Since I am one of those people who carry the risk of sudden cardiac arrest, I cannot pass up the opportunity to enlighten as many potential lifesavers as possible. I hope you will spread the word too.
(Actually, I am not a candidate for CPR, because I now have an implanted cardiac device, called an ICD. It will kick in whenever my heart has several irregular beats, or when the natural pacemaker in my heart quits or fails to work properly. My condition is so critical that I cannot wait for lifesaving techniques to be applied.)
For those who are at less known risk, or those who have no medical history of cardiac problems, the chance of a cardiac event requiring CPR is currently about thirty percent. In other words, one out of every three of you will probably require CPR. That also means that another thirty percent will have occasion to administer it to someone else. And that someone else is quite likely to be someone you know and love, a family member. That being the case, it pays to know how and when to do it.
There has always been some aversion to performing CPR. The main reason is that it has always required both chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breathing. Aside from the possibility of same sex administration, we all seem to have some reluctance to get up close and personal with strangers. That has lead to a lot of missed opportunity and delays in performing CPR.
When I learned CPR and became qualified in the 1970s, the procedure called for a 10/2 ratio of compressions to breaths if performing one-on-one. If two people were present, the ratio changed to 5/2, but either way, there was no way to keep an even rhythm. The one-on-one ratio was changed in the 1990s to 20/2, but it still wasted about 10-15 seconds to change positions and do the mouth-to-mouth. Those seconds were critical.
In actual experience, it was found that the stricken person tended to gasp during chest compressions, so some air was being inhaled even without mouth-to-mouth. Also, the lungs are never completely collapsed, so oxygenation of blood was not really an issue.
The hands-only CPR not only keeps a steady rhythm to the compressions, but it also removes the objectionable part of the procedures that has frequently prevented CPR from being performed. In my opinion, it will likely cause a much higher incidence of recovery from sudden cardiac events.
The new hands-only CPR requires the rescuer to perform continuous chest compressions at a rate of 100 per minute. That compares to a rate of 30-40 compressions per minute with an irregular rhythm in the former CPR technique. The survival rate is likely to go up with the new guidelines.
Hands-only CPR
If someone collapses, stops normal breathing and is unresponsive to shaking, here are the steps you should take:
· First, have someone call 911 and summon help, if a phone is handy.
· Put the person on the floor face up.
· Place one hand atop the other in the center of the person’s chest.
· Lock your elbows so that your arms are straight from shoulders to hands
· Push hard and fast, 100 compressions a minute.
· If there is another person with you, take turns. It is hard work.
· Continue compressions until paramedics arrive to take over.
(Source – American Heart Association)
If the person on whom you are performing CPR regains consciousness or shows signs of a return of heartbeat and breathing, you may quit your efforts, but do not move them and stay ready to begin again. Do not allow the victim to sit up, but make them as comfortable as possible.
There is a Website where you can learn more about hands-only CPR and even get some online training. Just click on the link here for the American Heart Association. Then be sure to read the links within that page. Other links can be found at the following sites, and the last among them actually provides some step-by-step training.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/04/01/BAJ8VTF35.DTL
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/01/health/main3984803.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_3984803
http://medicine.arizona.edu/spotlight/learn-sarver-heart-centers-continuous-chest-compression-cpr
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Environmental Nightmares
I have to preface this column with a disclaimer… I am not anti-environment, and I do not like what air and water pollution does to dirty up our environment. I regard the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a terrible thing, and I am truly glad that BP was finally able to stop the oil flow and maybe will be able now to seal the well entirely.
Having written that, I will now proceed to blast the media and yes, some of my friends and correspondents for hyping things up to a level of panic in the streets. Three incidents, including the oil spill, are the subject of my scorn.
This past week I received three separate e-mail messages telling us that our seafood, especially the seafood that comes from foreign sources, is poisonous to us and, “…an environmental nightmare.”
Now, the fact that seafood happens to be the culprit in both cases might be partly due to the media speculation about how the Gulf oil spill is going to render our homegrown seafood inedible for decades. That is, if there can actually be any recovery from this disaster to where seafood will still exist in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, the seafood that was written about was not from anywhere near the Gulf, it was from Asia, a favorite part of the world for us to pick on these days. Yes, the bad stuff was catfish from Vietnam (who can’t hate the Vietnamese) and shrimp from India.
After reading about all the chemicals, industrial and human waste, piscicides, pesticides and antibiotics that are in the water where the seafood is “farmed,” I got the idea that even a single bite of catfish or shrimp might have the same effect as a bite from a rattlesnake. We could all be dead within the hour!
Now I’m going to get to the good part. I don’t know about you, but I continue to hear that now that the leak is plugged, they’re having trouble finding any oil to clean up. I learned today that the total marshland that has oil in it is 350 acres. And some of that is already showing signs of natural recovery. (The Gulf Coast loses about 1,500 acres of marshland annually to natural causes)
Again, I don’t want to insult your intelligence, but did you know that tilapia, one of my favorite seafoods, lives mainly on the waste material from other fish. Yes, they eat poop. Damn,they sure taste good though, don’t they?
Mother Nature has a solution for most of what we consider disgusting that turns the bad into something good. Bacteria in the seawater actually eat that oil almost as fast as it leaks. Digestion uses other bacteria to break down chemicals, and other nasty things in food—our own included—to filter out bad things and keep in good things. That is how we grow and thrive.
If you just stop and think about it for even a moment, those Vietnamese and Indians also eat the same seafood, plus a lot of other foods we consider worse, and how many millions of them are dying every day?
Oh, one other thing… I used the term “Mother Nature” a politically correct and non-offensive label, but some people prefer “God.” “Allah,” “Buddha” or any of a thousand other appellations referring to a “higher power.” I leave it to you to say who performs the miracles that keep life on this tiny orb going, but something does.
Having written that, I will now proceed to blast the media and yes, some of my friends and correspondents for hyping things up to a level of panic in the streets. Three incidents, including the oil spill, are the subject of my scorn.
This past week I received three separate e-mail messages telling us that our seafood, especially the seafood that comes from foreign sources, is poisonous to us and, “…an environmental nightmare.”
Now, the fact that seafood happens to be the culprit in both cases might be partly due to the media speculation about how the Gulf oil spill is going to render our homegrown seafood inedible for decades. That is, if there can actually be any recovery from this disaster to where seafood will still exist in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, the seafood that was written about was not from anywhere near the Gulf, it was from Asia, a favorite part of the world for us to pick on these days. Yes, the bad stuff was catfish from Vietnam (who can’t hate the Vietnamese) and shrimp from India.
After reading about all the chemicals, industrial and human waste, piscicides, pesticides and antibiotics that are in the water where the seafood is “farmed,” I got the idea that even a single bite of catfish or shrimp might have the same effect as a bite from a rattlesnake. We could all be dead within the hour!
Now I’m going to get to the good part. I don’t know about you, but I continue to hear that now that the leak is plugged, they’re having trouble finding any oil to clean up. I learned today that the total marshland that has oil in it is 350 acres. And some of that is already showing signs of natural recovery. (The Gulf Coast loses about 1,500 acres of marshland annually to natural causes)
Again, I don’t want to insult your intelligence, but did you know that tilapia, one of my favorite seafoods, lives mainly on the waste material from other fish. Yes, they eat poop. Damn,they sure taste good though, don’t they?
Mother Nature has a solution for most of what we consider disgusting that turns the bad into something good. Bacteria in the seawater actually eat that oil almost as fast as it leaks. Digestion uses other bacteria to break down chemicals, and other nasty things in food—our own included—to filter out bad things and keep in good things. That is how we grow and thrive.
If you just stop and think about it for even a moment, those Vietnamese and Indians also eat the same seafood, plus a lot of other foods we consider worse, and how many millions of them are dying every day?
Oh, one other thing… I used the term “Mother Nature” a politically correct and non-offensive label, but some people prefer “God.” “Allah,” “Buddha” or any of a thousand other appellations referring to a “higher power.” I leave it to you to say who performs the miracles that keep life on this tiny orb going, but something does.
Friday, July 23, 2010
The Century Plant
(I originally published this column five years ago yesterday, but I wasn’t on this blog site, and many of you probably weren’t on my mailing list back then. I was living in El Paso, so it was quite easy to get the pictures. That area has thousands of the plants.)
This week I have a desert plant to show you that is quite amazing. If you have never lived in the Sonoran or Chihuahuan Desert, you probably have not seen this plant in its full splendor. It is called the Century Plant, or Agavacaea Americana. The reason for its common name is due to the growth cycle of the cactus. It only blooms once, and while it doesn’t take 100 years for the bloom to form, it does take a long time.
The Century Plant spends 10, 15, sometimes up to 25 years preparing for its grand finale. During that time, the leaves grow to a height of 4-6 feet, 6-8 inches across at the base, with sharp serrated edges and a spike at the end. The plant can reach a diameter of six feet. It is not a plant you would want to run into.
After the long and slow growth of the leaves, the appearance of the stalk is quite rapid. It shoots up out of the center of the plant in a matter of weeks to a stunning height of 20-25 feet. Some have grown to 40 feet. The stalk is more like a tree trunk, since it usually has a diameter of 4-6 inches.
Once it has attained its full height, it gets branches with a huge flower pod at the end of each one. The yellow or orange flowers take another two or three weeks to reach full bloom, during which time they attract bees and hummingbirds.
When the flowers eventually fall, the seedpods are left to propagate new plants. However, the Plant grows so rapidly in those few weeks that it virtually kills itself. Almost from the time the stalk starts to shoot up, the leaves begin to turn brown and shrivel. The stalk, having no support anymore, falls to the ground within a short period of time. In fact, many of the plants never make it to full bloom, because they tend to be top heavy and susceptible to wind. When they do topple, they sometimes take out surrounding bushes or small trees.
The Century Plant is truly a spectacular plant of the Southwestern American desert. They are used as ornamentals in many yards. I hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of it.
This week I have a desert plant to show you that is quite amazing. If you have never lived in the Sonoran or Chihuahuan Desert, you probably have not seen this plant in its full splendor. It is called the Century Plant, or Agavacaea Americana. The reason for its common name is due to the growth cycle of the cactus. It only blooms once, and while it doesn’t take 100 years for the bloom to form, it does take a long time.
The Century Plant spends 10, 15, sometimes up to 25 years preparing for its grand finale. During that time, the leaves grow to a height of 4-6 feet, 6-8 inches across at the base, with sharp serrated edges and a spike at the end. The plant can reach a diameter of six feet. It is not a plant you would want to run into.
After the long and slow growth of the leaves, the appearance of the stalk is quite rapid. It shoots up out of the center of the plant in a matter of weeks to a stunning height of 20-25 feet. Some have grown to 40 feet. The stalk is more like a tree trunk, since it usually has a diameter of 4-6 inches.
Once it has attained its full height, it gets branches with a huge flower pod at the end of each one. The yellow or orange flowers take another two or three weeks to reach full bloom, during which time they attract bees and hummingbirds.
When the flowers eventually fall, the seedpods are left to propagate new plants. However, the Plant grows so rapidly in those few weeks that it virtually kills itself. Almost from the time the stalk starts to shoot up, the leaves begin to turn brown and shrivel. The stalk, having no support anymore, falls to the ground within a short period of time. In fact, many of the plants never make it to full bloom, because they tend to be top heavy and susceptible to wind. When they do topple, they sometimes take out surrounding bushes or small trees.
The Century Plant is truly a spectacular plant of the Southwestern American desert. They are used as ornamentals in many yards. I hope you enjoyed reading about and seeing pictures of it.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Be Careful What You Wish For
“Be careful what you wish for.” I’m sure we’ve all heard that warning from time to time, and I think it applies in the circumstance I am about to address.
The have been an inordinate amount of e-mail messages lately calling for a constitutional convention to add a 28th amendment to The United States Constitution. It takes three-quarters of the states, 38 in all, to call for the convention, and there are apparently 35 states that have called for it so far.
In case you live in the dark, the proposed 28th amendment—it doesn’t get capital letters until it becomes law—calls for Congress to only pass laws that apply equally to the senators and representatives in that august body as well as the citizens they seek to impose those laws upon. In other words, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
I don’t pretend to be a scholar when it comes to our constitution. Heck, I admit that I couldn’t rattle off the first ten amendments, known as The Bill of Rights, and I’ll wager that none of you could do it either.
I do know that this isn’t the first instance when there has been a hue and cry for a constitutional convention, but I seem to recall that there was a flaw in the procedure. Correct me if I’m wrong, and I hope you can, but when you convene a constitutional convention, you don’t just open the floor for new amendments; the whole document is open for re-interpretation, revision and repeal.
That means that those of us who are fearful of losing our First Amendment rights to free speech, or our Second Amendment rights to bear arms, or any of the rights in the other 25 amendments are in danger of losing some of those rights in the ensuing convention.
I want you to think about that the next time you get one of those mailings that requests you to petition your state representatives and governors to ratify the state’s demand for a constitutional convention.
We may get a lot more than a 28th amendment, and I don’t think we’ll like it one bit.
The have been an inordinate amount of e-mail messages lately calling for a constitutional convention to add a 28th amendment to The United States Constitution. It takes three-quarters of the states, 38 in all, to call for the convention, and there are apparently 35 states that have called for it so far.
In case you live in the dark, the proposed 28th amendment—it doesn’t get capital letters until it becomes law—calls for Congress to only pass laws that apply equally to the senators and representatives in that august body as well as the citizens they seek to impose those laws upon. In other words, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
I don’t pretend to be a scholar when it comes to our constitution. Heck, I admit that I couldn’t rattle off the first ten amendments, known as The Bill of Rights, and I’ll wager that none of you could do it either.
I do know that this isn’t the first instance when there has been a hue and cry for a constitutional convention, but I seem to recall that there was a flaw in the procedure. Correct me if I’m wrong, and I hope you can, but when you convene a constitutional convention, you don’t just open the floor for new amendments; the whole document is open for re-interpretation, revision and repeal.
That means that those of us who are fearful of losing our First Amendment rights to free speech, or our Second Amendment rights to bear arms, or any of the rights in the other 25 amendments are in danger of losing some of those rights in the ensuing convention.
I want you to think about that the next time you get one of those mailings that requests you to petition your state representatives and governors to ratify the state’s demand for a constitutional convention.
We may get a lot more than a 28th amendment, and I don’t think we’ll like it one bit.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Road Trip Rage
I recently completed another of my road trips, this one to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I had company on the trip, one of my fellow barbershop singers, and we had a good time and saw lots of great sights.
I could tell you about the trip in general, but I am doing that in a separate reference, so I’ll just say that the UP is a wonderful place to visit if you like lighthouses and waterfalls and forests.
No, this is my bitch session, and the topic is hotel accommodations.
I am a member of Wyndham Rewards® and Choice Privileges®, so I use hotels in those two chains for all of my stays. On this occasion I used Wyndham more than Choice, and I’m sorry that I did. The hotels proved to be less than expected, and the prices weren’t in line with the service.
I try to select hotels with a hot tub, because I feel that the ones with that amenity are of higher class than the “bunk and breakfast” ones. For that reason, I selected Baymont Inn for several of the nights.
The second night out, we stayed at a Baymont Inn that had been in the AmeriHost family of motels. I had stayed at several of those when AmeriHost was still in business, and they were of good quality. This one, however, had been taken over by Wyndham about two years ago and had been allowed to deteriorate horribly. The bed linens were torn and shabby. I took a shower after my hot tub, and found myself standing ankle deep in water by the time I finished. The tub drain was clogged. Yech!!!
We stayed at a Days Inn in Marquette, Michigan for two nights. The first night we didn’t arrive at the hotel until 11 PM, so I had no opportunity to use the hot tub or any other facilities. However, the second night we arrived back early enough. I looked forward to the hot tub, but when I got into the pool area I found the hot tub crowded with screaming kids.
A trip to the front desk to complain was met with the explanation that the hot tub in the pool area was for kids. There was a separate room with only a hot tub on another level, and it was for adults. I started through the pool area to the ramp up to the adult hot tub, only to be followed by a family of the same kids who had been in the first one.
I turned and left the room for another trip to the front desk, lodged my complaint, and then went to my room. A half-hour later I went back to the hot tub, and finally had my soak in peace and quiet. My buddy, Tom, who had remained in the pool area, said the kids were pretty intimidated by my rant, and left soon after I did.
On another note, I looked at the bill after I checked out and was down the road, only to find that I had been charged $1.50 per night for the in-room safe that I never used. The bill said that I could have had the charge removed, but why should the onus be on me to reverse a charge for a service I never opted for in the first place?
Needless to say, I am preparing a letter to the corporate headquarters of Wyndham Hotels to lodge a formal complaint and possibly withdraw any further reservations. I’ve built up quite a number of reward points, but they aren’t much good if the hotels don’t deliver what they promise.
I admit that I am cheap in that I won’t pay over $100 per night for any hotel, and some would say that “you get what you pay for”, but I still think that $100 should get decent accommodations for the night, not some flea-bag hotel with lousy bed sheets and poor or missing services.
There, I’ve got that off my chest!
I could tell you about the trip in general, but I am doing that in a separate reference, so I’ll just say that the UP is a wonderful place to visit if you like lighthouses and waterfalls and forests.
No, this is my bitch session, and the topic is hotel accommodations.
I am a member of Wyndham Rewards® and Choice Privileges®, so I use hotels in those two chains for all of my stays. On this occasion I used Wyndham more than Choice, and I’m sorry that I did. The hotels proved to be less than expected, and the prices weren’t in line with the service.
I try to select hotels with a hot tub, because I feel that the ones with that amenity are of higher class than the “bunk and breakfast” ones. For that reason, I selected Baymont Inn for several of the nights.
The second night out, we stayed at a Baymont Inn that had been in the AmeriHost family of motels. I had stayed at several of those when AmeriHost was still in business, and they were of good quality. This one, however, had been taken over by Wyndham about two years ago and had been allowed to deteriorate horribly. The bed linens were torn and shabby. I took a shower after my hot tub, and found myself standing ankle deep in water by the time I finished. The tub drain was clogged. Yech!!!
We stayed at a Days Inn in Marquette, Michigan for two nights. The first night we didn’t arrive at the hotel until 11 PM, so I had no opportunity to use the hot tub or any other facilities. However, the second night we arrived back early enough. I looked forward to the hot tub, but when I got into the pool area I found the hot tub crowded with screaming kids.
A trip to the front desk to complain was met with the explanation that the hot tub in the pool area was for kids. There was a separate room with only a hot tub on another level, and it was for adults. I started through the pool area to the ramp up to the adult hot tub, only to be followed by a family of the same kids who had been in the first one.
I turned and left the room for another trip to the front desk, lodged my complaint, and then went to my room. A half-hour later I went back to the hot tub, and finally had my soak in peace and quiet. My buddy, Tom, who had remained in the pool area, said the kids were pretty intimidated by my rant, and left soon after I did.
On another note, I looked at the bill after I checked out and was down the road, only to find that I had been charged $1.50 per night for the in-room safe that I never used. The bill said that I could have had the charge removed, but why should the onus be on me to reverse a charge for a service I never opted for in the first place?
Needless to say, I am preparing a letter to the corporate headquarters of Wyndham Hotels to lodge a formal complaint and possibly withdraw any further reservations. I’ve built up quite a number of reward points, but they aren’t much good if the hotels don’t deliver what they promise.
I admit that I am cheap in that I won’t pay over $100 per night for any hotel, and some would say that “you get what you pay for”, but I still think that $100 should get decent accommodations for the night, not some flea-bag hotel with lousy bed sheets and poor or missing services.
There, I’ve got that off my chest!
Friday, July 2, 2010
More Unintended Consequences
I was in a public restroom in one of those interstate rest areas recently with a busload of teenagers and I overheard one boy say to another, “Shun the paper towels and save a tree.”
My first reaction was, how thoughtful of him. But then I reconsidered, because that cliché is being drilled into our kids’ thinking, and it is not necessarily accurate. I wasn’t quick enough to speak my second thought, but it did get me to thinking about it in light of our present economy and the overall indoctrination of today’s youth.
The paper industry, and the lumbering industry that supports it are both very earth-friendly. Big companies like Weyerhauser and International paper employ methods to recycle and to replenish the forests. Why wouldn’t they? Lumber is a crop, and just like any other crop, it has to be planted, nurtured and harvested with a future crop replacing the one we use.
The myth that our forests are clear-cut is just that, a myth. For every tree that is cut down, another two or three are planted in the same land, and they are cared for to ensure that there will be a future crop, albeit the cycle is not an annual one like there is with the food crops.
The fact that new forests are being planted to renew the product cycle is evident to anyone who takes the time to travel to the places in America where the lumber industry practices. And those replanted forests provide jobs for many more people than those who harvest the trees.
For every lumberjack, the brawny brute we picture as the “culprit” in killing our forests, there are probably three others whose work is to develop new breeds of fast-growing trees, planting and inspecting the new growth, and determining where more trees can be planted and harvested to keep the soil and the ecosystem healthy.
Speaking of Weyerhauser, on my trip to the Northwest last year I visited Mount St Helens, and all of the forests replanted to replace those blown down in the 17-mile-radius blast area were courtesy of Weyerhauser. They have been replanting with noble spruce trees since the volcano erupted in 1980. There are tens of thousands of trees growing.
So, if I were to hear that remark about shunning paper to save a tree, I would challenge it with my own cliché, “Use the paper and save a job”.
My first reaction was, how thoughtful of him. But then I reconsidered, because that cliché is being drilled into our kids’ thinking, and it is not necessarily accurate. I wasn’t quick enough to speak my second thought, but it did get me to thinking about it in light of our present economy and the overall indoctrination of today’s youth.
The paper industry, and the lumbering industry that supports it are both very earth-friendly. Big companies like Weyerhauser and International paper employ methods to recycle and to replenish the forests. Why wouldn’t they? Lumber is a crop, and just like any other crop, it has to be planted, nurtured and harvested with a future crop replacing the one we use.
The myth that our forests are clear-cut is just that, a myth. For every tree that is cut down, another two or three are planted in the same land, and they are cared for to ensure that there will be a future crop, albeit the cycle is not an annual one like there is with the food crops.
The fact that new forests are being planted to renew the product cycle is evident to anyone who takes the time to travel to the places in America where the lumber industry practices. And those replanted forests provide jobs for many more people than those who harvest the trees.
For every lumberjack, the brawny brute we picture as the “culprit” in killing our forests, there are probably three others whose work is to develop new breeds of fast-growing trees, planting and inspecting the new growth, and determining where more trees can be planted and harvested to keep the soil and the ecosystem healthy.
Speaking of Weyerhauser, on my trip to the Northwest last year I visited Mount St Helens, and all of the forests replanted to replace those blown down in the 17-mile-radius blast area were courtesy of Weyerhauser. They have been replanting with noble spruce trees since the volcano erupted in 1980. There are tens of thousands of trees growing.
So, if I were to hear that remark about shunning paper to save a tree, I would challenge it with my own cliché, “Use the paper and save a job”.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Disrespect
When I was up in Maryland visiting my son and his family two weeks ago, I went to a swim meet in which my granddaughter and grandson were enrolled. (We don’t compete anymore, as that suggests winners and losers—but that is material for another column.)
The event was held at a public swimming pool in Columbia, Maryland, and there were about 100 adults there, and also 150 juveniles between the age of 4 and 18 years.
To start the meet the emcee played a recording of The Star Spangled Banner and made the usual announcement about standing to honor the nation. This was on a Saturday, two days before Flag Day, so people should have had an extra awareness of the spirit of the National Anthem.
When the song began, I stood and placed my right hand over my heart as is customary, although I sometimes salute the flag in the military fashion, a practice that has recently been recommended for any veterans.
I looked around and was shocked to see that only abut a half-dozen other adults and not a single child was following tradition. Most stood with hands at their sides, a few did take off their hats, and some continued talking and visiting with their neighbors.
The action was so out of place that I stood even taller and at attention, and I moved my hand to the salute for the last phrase just to emphasize the sad situation. No one else responded to my cue.
It is truly sad that we have lost our moral and patriotic compass to a point that we don’t even honor our traditions, our flag, or our National Anthem anymore.
http://www.usflag.org/uscode36.html#171
Of course, it doesn’t help that we have a chief executive who sets the example by also refusing to place his hand over his heart during the playing of The Star Spangled Banner. In fact, he even holds press conferences with no American Flag displayed.
I hope that, if you are one of those who has forgotten or neglected the protocol for the playing of our National Anthem, or if you know someone who has lapsed into the bad habits of so many, you will educate them and set the example on the upcoming day of celebrating our independence.
With that admonition, I wish you a happy and safe Independence Day, which falls on Sunday this year, even though you will probably have Monday off. Celebrate it on the actual day if you can. It is a significant day in our history and deserves our respect.
PS: Remember to thank our military personnel for their service, too.
The event was held at a public swimming pool in Columbia, Maryland, and there were about 100 adults there, and also 150 juveniles between the age of 4 and 18 years.
To start the meet the emcee played a recording of The Star Spangled Banner and made the usual announcement about standing to honor the nation. This was on a Saturday, two days before Flag Day, so people should have had an extra awareness of the spirit of the National Anthem.
When the song began, I stood and placed my right hand over my heart as is customary, although I sometimes salute the flag in the military fashion, a practice that has recently been recommended for any veterans.
I looked around and was shocked to see that only abut a half-dozen other adults and not a single child was following tradition. Most stood with hands at their sides, a few did take off their hats, and some continued talking and visiting with their neighbors.
The action was so out of place that I stood even taller and at attention, and I moved my hand to the salute for the last phrase just to emphasize the sad situation. No one else responded to my cue.
It is truly sad that we have lost our moral and patriotic compass to a point that we don’t even honor our traditions, our flag, or our National Anthem anymore.
http://www.usflag.org/uscode36.html#171
Of course, it doesn’t help that we have a chief executive who sets the example by also refusing to place his hand over his heart during the playing of The Star Spangled Banner. In fact, he even holds press conferences with no American Flag displayed.
I hope that, if you are one of those who has forgotten or neglected the protocol for the playing of our National Anthem, or if you know someone who has lapsed into the bad habits of so many, you will educate them and set the example on the upcoming day of celebrating our independence.
With that admonition, I wish you a happy and safe Independence Day, which falls on Sunday this year, even though you will probably have Monday off. Celebrate it on the actual day if you can. It is a significant day in our history and deserves our respect.
PS: Remember to thank our military personnel for their service, too.
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