Dexter's Views

December 8, 1980

2011-12-08T09:11:00.000-05:00

There is no death-date outside of my parents’ that I wake up to like I do on this date, full alert, no cobwebs in my head, no…it’s December 8th, and I know I am heading straight to YouTube and Iceberg Radio and i-Tunes for the morning. There is no day except 9-11 I remember like December 8, 1980 where I can recall almost every movement I made the entire day, from the radio report, the talking with work friends, and the immediate post-work drive down I-69 to a record store in Time Corners, Fort Wayne, where I bought a vinyl “White Album”.
John Lennon, murdered, December 8, 1980.
http://youtu.be/qp9dc9im3-M

Documentary examines George Harrison

2011-10-05T08:40:00.000-04:00

Documentary examines George Harrison

Thanks...July is so over

2011-08-02T02:01:00.000-04:00

August will be better.

a painful tail, er... tale!

2011-07-30T01:54:00.000-04:00

I also was hit by an errant ball once.
Back in the 1990s the Toledo Mud Hens still played at the old racetrack in Maumee at the fairgrounds, which years ago had been converted into a baseball stadium.
It is only 70 minutes from home, so I attended games sporadically.
One Sunday I had organized a family outing at the place, Ned Skeldon Stadium it was called.
Everyone drove in from different directions, and I was standing outside the gate waiting for the families to converge and we could all go in together.
The games were broadcast and I had my radio on because everyone was late. I remember it well…Frank “The Cat” Catalanotto fouled one over the grandstand roof…I heard a WATCH OUT! and I covered my head, sort of figuring out the baseball might be heading my way , as I had heard that Frank had fouled one over the roof…just then a sharp pain…I had been hit square in the butt!
There was a bicycle posse out there, kids who patrolled the area to get those foul balls, and a kid got my baseball.
Yes, everyone showed up just after this, and I told my tail, er …tale. heh heh
I don’t think they believed my story, except my wife, because I showed her my bruised cheek. And no, she did not kiss it to make it better. Of course not. :)

Rivethead by Ben Hamper

2011-07-29T08:23:00.001-04:00

When I was done with the army and heading to school at what is now IUPUFW I think,and illness caused me to lose my part time job and I couldn’t devise a way to live on no money, I set my sights on getting into a union plant instead, and a year later was hired into a UAW factory. I never even tried any temporary foreman jobs but I jumped at every union job I could get, and I served a long time as a shop steward and I was a local trustee for two terms also.
Also, I couldn’t get enough of the history of US labor, and I read everything I could find on the Reuther brothers and all the histories of the great labor movement . It was heady stuff to me, but I must report I was so far left , so in tune with the spirit of the early days, I was alone, except for one other young up-and-comer, who ended up being an international rep for the union .
With my background then, I want to tell you about my favorite worker-book, by a former worker in Pontiac named Ben Hamper.
Michael Moore put Ben on the cover of Mother Jones magazine during the very short stay Moore had out there.
After much critical acclaim , Ben’s story of life on the assembly line became a book called “Rivethead”.
To read it today would be awkward; much has changed since the book was published. Things just are not done like they were done in Ben’s time on the line. However, as a historical look at the assembly lines of the 1980s, this is the book for you to read.
http://www.amazon.com/Rivethead-Tales-Assembly-Ben-Hamper/dp/0446394009/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311917665&sr=1-1#reader_0446394009

drill baby drill...into my head!

2011-07-26T10:01:00.002-04:00

Ever since I was a small child until I was a middle aged adult , it was COMMUNISM COMMUNISM COMMUNISM , every day, drilled into my head by schools, media, and friends and acquaintances as well as strangers . Communism was bad and we were all to rally to send ourselves or our loved ones anywhere it took to smash communism, which was bad.
Bad things were "communistic".
Well, when I was a kid I loved Robin Hood, and when, as an adult, I read about communism and found it to be a wonderful concept, just like Robin Hood.
Well! My friends were totally appalled ! "Yes, it looks good on paper, but..." and "it won't, can't ever work in the USA..."

Then just like the monsoon rain instantly stopping in Vietnam, communism dropped from the vernacular. When was the last time you even heard the word?

Terrorism became the watchword as well as the catchword. Terrorism was why George Bush 43 emptied the US Treasury to bomb and kill thousands of Iraqi citizens and innocent children, we were told. Rumsfeld had proof, Colin Powell vouched for the presence of phantom-weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and the war continues, this war based on total lies, as the USA is now totally a bankrupt nation.
Afghanistan is another crazy war that is squeezing every last planeload of cash out of US treasure stores.

So let us review: Communism , we were told, was defeated by Ronald Reagan or some such story. In reality, Communism kicked our ass and handed it to us by throwing us out of Vietnam in complete disgrace to the USA.

Terrorism got us to give all our money to it, to fight it until we have nothing left to fight with; terrorism won also.

What will be next; what word will inspire us to drive ourselves to the poor house?

2011-07-23T15:06:00.002-04:00

How's the heat? Today, it's the humidity. I am sick of it.

Bottles and Bottles of Water

2011-07-09T13:29:00.002-04:00

I may have purchased two bottles of water in my lifetime. I do buy soda in bottles but then I save the bottles and rinse them and use them as water bottles for years afterwards.
I also have a real water bottle used for tap water only.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Is the economy sound enough to allow most people to buy water in throw-away bottles which are used once and thrown away? At least the bottles in sports arenas are nicely recycled.
Still, plenty of water bottles are being thrown around on streets and onto sidewalks.
Not good.

2011-07-07T16:06:00.002-04:00

My brother is an avid cyclist, and he and his cycling friends, as well as our mutual boyhood friend who by chance ended up being neighbors with my brother, all have bicycle computers.
I guess they need them, but damn, does a recreational and go-to-the-store cyclist need a damn computer on his bicycle?
Back to my Luddite ways, I know, but I embrace computers and cell phones and now e-readers, and that is quite enough.
I take a relaxing ride of five or eight miles to get away from the computer for a while.

I am back

2011-07-05T17:08:00.001-04:00

Yes, it has been a long time, but we'll get this thing back on the rails and rolling.

Lions v. Bears

2010-09-13T03:19:00.002-04:00

I was disappointed when the referees disallowed Johnson's catch yesterday. That rule must change .

2010-09-12T00:04:00.001-04:00

I have despised the New York Jets since the Bruce Coslet coaching days of 1990-93, but now, with Hard Knocks revealing a little bit of Rex, it's hard not to love this team.
HAPPY NEW YEAR> NFL fans, may all your teams shine, because mine (Lions and Browns) won't.

2010-09-11T12:44:00.003-04:00

I am still not numb yet; watching the msnbc coverage , real-time synched , as the second plane smashed into the North Tower still is horrific, just minus the shock of seeing it live nine years ago. I knew it was aggressive terrorism instantly, before a word was said. Later that day, the late Peter Jennings did his very best journalistic work...he was great, hour after hour, and most radio and TV folks did, but Jennings was the glue that held me together.
I was 650 miles away from NYC that day, but it seemed like my neighborhood. It was awful.
I wish I could write how I felt after Osama / Usama bin Laden had been captured and executed, but instead George Bush 43 pressed another direction, until he got Saddam Hussein hanged.
So there we are, still fighting in Afghanistan all these years later, and we haven't even chased bin Laden in years, given him a free pass, forgot about him (at least Bush said he never even thinks about OBL, and he said that years ago.)

Big game today in South Bend

2010-09-11T02:01:00.002-04:00

Once more the Wolverines travel to South Bend, and again it is supposed to rain, but it just can't rain any harder than it did in 2008.

I am worried that this big tight end , Rudolph, may kill a few Wolverines when he blocks. This kid is big and he belongs in the league that pays well...oh yeah...
Coach Brian Kelly will have his troops ready; I like Kelly, and I really think this will be a classic ND / M game.

2010-09-11T01:43:00.000-04:00

BEAT NOTRE DAME..GO WOLVERINES!

Vietnam - A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall

2010-03-20T15:39:00.001-04:00

LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum

2009-12-14T12:49:00.001-05:00

The Monster Mash Music Video

2009-10-30T14:13:00.001-04:00

Making the U2 set so big that it's invisible -- latimes.com

2009-10-22T01:18:00.001-04:00

Making the U2 set so big that it's invisible -- latimes.com

Posted using ShareThis

John Prine, Sam Stone

2009-04-13T23:39:00.001-04:00

More troops to Afghanistan , I suppose....

Iggy Pop／Goran Bregovic - In the Death Car

2009-03-28T02:12:00.001-04:00

we're alive...

Conflict

2009-03-22T02:41:00.002-04:00

I attended a two-room rural schoolhouse in Indiana in the mid 1950s. This year a few of are organizing a reunion for any and all who attended that school and the other two township country schools.
We picked a day in June and began making plans.
We reserved a shelter house and mailed out invitations and are going to publish a bulletin in the local papers.
We planned for food.
And then I found out my granddaughter's high school graduation in that same weekend in Las Vegas!
I was told the graduation was the FOLLOWING week.
A victim of bad information.
Now what?

Bruce Springsteen - The Wrestler (Full Song)

2009-03-22T02:33:00.001-04:00

Take a listen...great story here in this song....

bob dylan - love minus zero/no limit (newport 65') 13/16

2008-09-08T02:15:00.001-04:00

David Bowie - Changes

2008-04-28T02:09:00.001-04:00

Time may change me...

Forty Years Since Lorraine left Us Dazed

2008-04-04T01:41:00.000-04:00

I remember a bulletin being read on television the evening of forty years ago. I lived close enough to Detroit in 1967 to pay attention to the bloody riots there that year.
After Dr. King was murdered , and the cities broke out into more fire and bullets, I wondered what kind of a world was out there for my generation. Vietnam raging, a presidential administration about to crumble, and I was wondering not if, but when, the draft board was going to snatch me.
It's amazing , the strides African Americans have made since Dr. King was taken from all of us.
There are still miles to go before the march to freedom and equality ends.
How nice it would be to see a grey haired Dr. MLK , age 79, preach one more sermon.
I only saw him "live" on television, and a friend of mine , as a kid, marched withe Dr. King in Selma.
My memories live on, though, stronger today, as we mark the 40th anniversary of his murder at The Lorraine Motel in Memphis , TN.

2008-03-31T02:14:00.002-04:00

David Gilmour Marooned

2008-03-27T17:57:00.001-04:00

best ... ever

R.E.M.- Man On The Moon Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction

2008-03-14T19:40:00.001-04:00

If you believe they put a man on the moon...

Once in a Lifetime

2008-03-13T18:16:00.001-04:00

"How do I work this?"

John Hiatt - Master of disaster

2008-03-12T18:19:00.001-04:00

A tribute to John McInsane-McCain.

The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God

2008-03-12T17:44:00.001-04:00

Happy St. Paddy's!

Winter Cycling, or waiting, and waiting....

2008-03-06T21:21:00.003-05:00

I think I recall a column about winter cyclists. It seems the tone was one of respect for those who had to get around, probably because of no choice , or no car, or maybe the buses weren’t convenient.
I thought about that column today when I saw the video of the bomber who cycled into NYC’s Times Square, walked around a bit, and threw a bomb and left. I don’t know just what he was trying to accomplish, but he woke some people up, high above, in sleepy beds.
I applaud his method of transportation while I condemn the act of bombing. I don’t really laud him because New York City doesn’t get much snow anymore.
Here, we always had a few hard cores, including me, who kept sturdy bikes around and we rode in all kinds of weather. Now a few must have gotten too old to negotiate that patch of ice or that hill of plowed snow in the bike lane.
Still, every winter, a few of us would be out. Until this winter.
Even I have given it up this year, it’s been two months since I even rode a block. When I get in the van to mail a letter now, I never see any of the old winter cyclists out.
But now I notice a new breed, a few people out on bikes in the snow! Thinner, younger folks, not too much younger, but younger. They’re on multi-speed thin-tire bikes, even, and mountain bikes. There are just a few , but the winter cyclist lives again! But I can’t stand it any more. I bought a new bike (to add to my collection and make the number 13) Saturday and I am going to ride it tomorrow no matter what the weather is.
After all, as Ho Chi Minh wrote:
GOOD DAYS COMING

Everything changes, the wheel
of the law turns without pause.

After the rain, good weather.

In the wink of an eye

The universe throws off
its muddy cloths.

For ten thousand miles
the landscape

Spreads out like
a beautiful brocade.

Gentle sunshine.
Light breezes. Smiling flowers,

Hang in the trees, amongst the
sparkling leaves,

All the birds sing at once.

Men and animals rise up reborn.

What could be more natural?

After sorrow comes happiness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~[so wrote Uncle Ho]

Lost , and found if you are lucky

2008-02-21T16:23:00.001-05:00

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Billfolds. I could write a book…I have found a few…one was stuffed with big cash . A friend had just been paid for his side-job as a cabinet maker. He only took cash for that work. It literally was several thousand dollars, but I didn’t count it…I just pulled the I.D., I knew him. He bought me a jug of bourbon and 2 cases of beer.
I found one while cycling in rural Ohio. It was a purse, no cash, just a billfold in it, full of all kinds of credit cards and I.D.s.
I called the lady…she lived in Royal Oak MI. She was so happy…until she asked me about the cash. She said “I had three hundred dollars in there!” She had lost it or had it stolen while at an I-75 rest stop by Findlay. Whoever stole it or found it kept the dough and chucked the rest into a ditch, many miles away. I took the time and expense to mail it to her, but she was an ungrateful human being.
The last one was a ragged , worn leather billfold, found on the floor at a Wal*Mart. It was stuffed with what was most likely a cashed paycheck. Easy solution: don’t even look at the I.D.—take to store security, like I did last summer when I found a pitiful billfold with a guy’s state I.D. and a couple cards in it. It was in the street a block from my house—straight to cop station—they wanted me to fill out forms and all that, which I refused to do. I just said if they don’t want to take it to the person I would do it, and walked out.
My personal nightmare was in 1986. I had exited Comiskey Park after Opening Day. I was boarding the 35th St. train to the Loop and as I stepped in I felt a brush …even though I had my wallet in my front pocket,I had been pickpocketed.I stepped backwards and started screaming at a kid who was scurrying away. It’s an art form. The thieves pass the stolen wallet back and forth so it’s 3 card monty figuring it out.

I caught up with the kid and he acted innocent and pointed at a young man as the thief, and I screamed at him, and felt bad as he was innocent. Then a lady was waving my wallet around saying “Did someone drop this?” I thanked her…the little bastards had taken my cash ($118), my Amtrak ticket ($37) and my library card, but I got my drivers license and credit cards back. I was actually very lucky. I had to buy a new Amtrak ticket to get home.
But it ruined me for a long time. For years, I kept essentials in a lock-box and only carried what I needed for that day…if I didn’t need gasoline, I would not carry my card…if I was walking or cycling, no driver’s license…if I wasn’t shopping, no credit cards left the lock-box. If I wasn’t shopping, no cash except a little coinage. I was paranoid to the max. I am still very careful and always have all essential information about my cards and all I.D. on a server-file so if I lose stuff, I can get right to replacing it.

In the Air tonight LIVE- phil collins

2008-02-19T03:22:00.001-05:00

One of the greatest songs in history Do you know what it's about?
Let me know...post a comment.

Who are you?

2008-02-15T01:30:00.000-05:00

It's going to be a tough race, but 4 more years of Bush-like foreign policy cannot come to fruition. McCain must be defeated.
Obama is perceived as a weakling by a lot of working class repugs , because he spouts off about "bringing the troops home."
However, his promises look like Swiss cheese, containing all kinds of "but-ifs..."
He also is on record from as far back as 2003 as being extremely iron-fisted in regards to Iran.(Even though that speech has mysteriously disappeared from the internet.)
Everyone with an inkling of awareness knows Obama is a fierce supporter of the war in Iraq, voting straight-Bush ever since he came to Washington.
Clinton is about the same...damn nearly exactly the same.
McCain thins all Americans are NOT concerned we have become the goddamned policeman of the world, with armed bases the globe over.
He vows to keep US forces in Iraq forever.
But...no sense worrying, because, after all, the voters wanted Bush over Kerry, and they have him.
They ridicule and force great candidates like Kucinich and Richardson out ...men who had a clear vision as to the ills and needed reforms to this land.
For many, Hillary and Obama are giving us promises in which the differences won't affect us, so it is a popularity contest.
Do you want a crazy old bastard like MccCain, a woman, or an Afro-American?
The last two are OK with me, but the old Arizona lunatic can't be elected ... please! PLEASE?

Love Day

2008-02-14T20:47:00.001-05:00

I am a native Hoosier…DeKalb County. I was visiting an army buddy in St. Louis a year after we had been sprung…he was going to Missouri, Columbia campus and I was taking courses at “The Stench”, in those damn trailers they used as classrooms. IPFW was a fun place.
Anyway, we hit some bars by the river … Muddy Waters was one place, and everyone drank Busch beer. Not Budweiser…Busch.
As the rowdiness kicked in, one called another a “hoosier.” This was an attention grabber..”I ain’t no goddam hoosier, you blankety-blank!!”
So I piped up, “I’m a Hoosier!”
All eyes turned towards me and smirks and tiny little head shakes unnerved me.
My buddy, Bill, said “you’re no hoosier…a hoosier is a greaser-dumb ass who can’t do anything right.” As in, “damn! You damn-straight hoosiered THAT up!”
It was later on I discovered the history of “Hoosier”…I am sure you folks know all the stories…but not a lot of Indiana residents know that in St. Louis a hoosier is the WORST thing one can call another.
As a kid I grew up around KY-TN refugees who left the hills for northern Indiana factory dollars.
We were taught to shun them and call them hillbillies. And to be called a hillbilly was the ultimate insult we fired at our comrades.
Mom would have none of it…we had some KY natives living in a rental house a mile away as neighbors…they had about six kids and the old man kept getting fired and the kids were hungry about half the time, I suspected.
One older boy worked baling hay one day and was lugging a large can of baked beans home.
I remember Mom asking what he had in the bag as he trudged the road…
‘a can of beans! I love beans…we can’t afford them but we’re havin’ ‘em for supper tonight!’
Ok…I know…sounds like bullshit…but I am fairly ancient…we had an outside privy and our SCHOOL had an outhouse too!
I went to a 2-room school, eight grades, two rooms.
One day Mom had a weiner-roast…chips…oh yeah, BEANS!…buns, relish, ketchup, mustard…Pepsi Cola.
Big deal, right? She invited the “hillbillies”.
The joy in those kids’ eyes and the “thank yous” from that bunch of sweet children…well, I’m tearing up now…it was such a tender moment, I had the pastor tell the story at Mom’s funeral a few years ago. “I wish you was MY mother.” And that is a direct quote from one of those little boys.
Happy Valentine’s Day.

A Long Time Ago...

2008-02-11T02:03:00.000-05:00

My first apartment when I got back from the army was the upstairs of an old brick house on West Washington Street in Fort Wayne. I was living on the GI bill which was inadequate, of course, so I had a part time job, too…still, very frugal I was. I ran into this kid who was selling Kirby sweepers for a living and we were inquiring about the same place…it was a different time…we just decided to share the rent so we wouldn’t have to live under a bridge…then I talked an old high school buddy into moving in, too…ah! My rent then was a manageable $41.66 a month!
This salesman was an 18 year old kid who had friends who were some kind of weed dealers. I came home one day and he had his friends there, and they were cleaning a big duffel bag of weed! I told him later, calmly, I didn’t care if he smoked it …whatever…but he just couldn’t use the apartment as a clearing house for enough weed to send us all to the pen !
Anyway, when they left that day this kid must have swept the floor and got some seeds. We had a live flower growing in a flower pot. He must have planted the seeds there.
When they grew a little , he told us about it…I just let it go…what harm ?
One day I came home and the old lady landlord was in there snooping through our stuff!!
She had a feather dust-mop in her hand and told me she was “cleaning”. Right!
The kid’s little marijuana plants were maybe 8 inches high and I knew she had seen them.
That was it. No more of that stuff. No trouble, just paranoia for a long while. I got mono and had to move back with my folks for a month to recuperate, and I lost the apartment. The kid went into the US Air Force and hopefully away from drugs.
My buddy got married and lives in a farm house now.
And I had two marriages, a daughter, a career, and now I walk dogs and blog all day.

McCain on the Rise

2008-02-10T02:15:00.001-05:00

Huckabee is becoming the big story now...old mo' is on his side.
To me, and I have never cast a repugg vote, I find this much more intriguing.
For one thing, McCain commands attention when he delivers a TV speech, but I usually think it's Dr. Evil on the tube.
Then to further confuse me, Dr. Evil WAS on the tube earlier on a cable channel...one of those Mike Myers movies.
I watched both HRC and later Obama last night giving their speeches...just pure boilerplate re-hashing...not worth watching anymore.
The McCain / Huckabee partial love-fest is more entertaining...Dr. Evil Strangelove vs. The Second Coming Incarnate. Fascinating.
I highly suspect that McInsane was watching Austin Powers opponent, Dr. Evil, for pointers...while Huckabee was watching Fat Bastard and cheering when Fat Bastard went all-Jared and lost all that weight on the Subway diet.
But...I gotsta know...does Huckabee's skin sag like that?

--
It's a Sad and Beautiful World

Comfortably Numb with David Bowie

2007-11-18T17:34:00.001-05:00

This is just a GREAT video. Enjoy, expand your screen size ...and your mind.

9-11 + 6

2007-09-11T01:38:00.000-04:00

I was visiting Mom at her home and my younger brother told me a plane had hit. I turned on Peter Jennings and reports , reports from alleged eye witnesses, said “small Cessna-type aircraft.” I stayed glued to the TV and saw live TV of the second plane…shock…I stayed until the second tower collapsed and went home…lines already forming at gas stations as panic set in. I got home and turned on Peter Jennings and stayed with it all day, drifting in and out of sleep as I worked all night long. I’ll always remember that day and my companion that whole day, ABC’s Jennings. He was great. I miss him , even though I was a Dan Rather news-watcher usually.Six years later and bin Laden is making videos to terrorize our mind. Unfortunately, he was/is not a one trick pony. What will he orchestrate next?To me, Bush is a criminal as well for not pursuing him. By now he should have been caught , tried, and executed. But Bush does not care. His mind is on biking trails and low-fat hot dogs…most likely day-dreaming through briefings of the “progress ” in al-Anbar province, asking where “they” , the ones really in charge, will send him next. “Did you say Austria or Australia?”“Oh, yeah…oh well!” [ slobberers hot dog bits and bread crumds down his chest.]Kids that were not yet born when 9-11 occurred are starting first grade. Much has passed. And Bush has let bin Laden go free all this time. He could not care less. But some of us remember

Nighhawk With No Diner

2007-09-06T03:54:00.001-04:00

I just got back from a short early morning bike ride…nobody around ‘cept the big rig trucks passin’ thru and the morning paper delivery people…all done by cars now—when I was a kid it was done with bicycles and a large canvas bag wrapped around the handlebars. Kids still deliver the local paper by bikes in the afternoons, but the early papers outta Fort Wayne & Toledo are delivered by nimble old folks jumping outta their ancient Oldsmobile station wagons and 1979 Ford Econoline vans.
This early hour is also used by the soda machine people. Apparently there are two vendors who service these machines…once I saw the two almost come to blows over something…I guessed it was over territory…one had set in a machine in the other’s territory.
This town used to be at least a little lively; within a few blocks from home I could find coffee and conversation at 4:00 A.M at three different places…now all are closed or have restricted their hours severely. Just west of me a couple blocks was the newsstand…last month the guy shuttered it…no time to take care of business , he’s a cop who got promoted, so he shut it up.
I have looked into the possibility of taking it over, but , of course, always obstacles—in this case the building rent is about what I could make selling magazines and coffee and pancakes!

Moody Blues - Tuesday Afternoon (1970)

2007-07-30T17:42:00.001-04:00

Tuesday Afternoon ---Moody Blues

Tour de France

2007-07-28T15:59:00.000-04:00

I got up at 7:30 , made a pot of coffee, fried some bacon and watched the time trials. My man Cadel Evans couldn’t make up the 1:50 he needed to claim the maillot jaune, so with the great showing that Levi Leipheimer put forth, and Alberto Contador staying up by 23 seconds , he claims the yellow jersey for 2007. Tomorrow’s champagne run into Paris is the culmination of a great Tour de France; I enjoy this event more each year, and only regret backwards; I just wish we had TV coverage of this event back when Bernard Hinault was tearing up the French countryside. We only got decent TV reporting when Greg Lemond was peaking 18 years ago, but this modern daily live coverage just mesmerized me, and I had time to actually watch probably 90% of it live, and the rest on tape. What a show! The drug problems? I can’t help that, and it did little to diminish my love of this great sports event. This concludes my writing of the 2007 TDF. Congratz to Levi for his stage win today,and congratz to Alberto Contador for his seemingly certain win on the Champs Elysee tomorrow. Fin.

U2 - Bloody Sunday

2007-06-01T15:08:00.001-04:00

so long ago...as fresh as yesterday...

JOE BIDEWELL - CHELSEA HOTEL end song

2007-05-31T02:00:00.001-04:00

That venerable hotel on 23 Street in NYC....

One Crappy Audition Tape Does Triple Duty

2007-05-31T01:01:00.001-04:00

The disaster was a fallen tree on his fence! LMAO!

Show Boat (1936) - Part 3 of 17

2007-05-23T01:36:00.001-04:00

classic americana

Pete Seeger on Carl Sandburg

2007-05-22T19:07:00.011-04:00

Hey Jude

2007-05-22T19:07:00.009-04:00

the beatles - HELTER SKELTER

2007-05-22T19:07:00.003-04:00

Tom Waits - I Don't Want To Grow Up

2007-05-22T19:03:00.005-04:00

Swing low,sweet chariot by Paul Robeson

2007-05-22T19:03:00.003-04:00

rolling stones-beast of burden

2007-05-22T19:02:00.003-04:00

never, never, NEVER !

Freddy Cannon - Palisades Park

2007-05-22T18:55:00.005-04:00

...that's where the girls are!

Elvis Presley - How Great Thou Art

2007-05-22T18:55:00.001-04:00

I hear the rollin' thunder

STRANDED

2007-05-22T18:43:00.001-04:00

The Belfast Cowboy

cars, no! bicycles, si !!

2007-05-22T01:42:00.000-04:00

So whatever DID happen to the electric car? Eighty bucks to fill up my car today...and another eighty-one bucks to re-hab my old Specialized bicycle...it's pedal power every possible chance I get...that car can stay parked as much as possible. The bicycle is the most perfect invention ever, and the S.U.V. the most damned. Get your bike off the hooks, take it to a bike shop and get it ready to go, buy a helmet, and leave that gas-guzzler sit!

lou Reed - Satellite Of Love

2007-05-18T00:33:00.001-04:00

...I watched it for a little while
I like to watch things on TV

Simon and Garfunkel

2007-05-10T04:32:00.001-04:00

This Boy - The Beatles

2007-05-10T04:25:00.007-04:00

Girl

2007-05-10T04:25:00.005-04:00

you go

Captain Chicago: Episode I

2007-05-10T04:24:00.001-04:00

ahhhh, first of the day!

Tom Waits and Bono recite Bukowski

2007-05-10T04:17:00.001-04:00

beyond the watch...

The Beatles - A Day in the Life

2007-05-10T03:49:00.001-04:00

Gil Scott Heron - In The Bottle

2007-04-22T14:19:00.001-04:00

The Father of Hip Hop was HUGE in opening avenues for the following generation.

Free Watermelons, Waterloo, Indiana

2007-03-13T03:03:00.000-04:00

In the summer of 1963, Harvey Wells, Waterloo Chief of Police, pulled over a truck loaded with watermelons for an infraction of the law. The truck was on the street just west of the cop station.
The driver was arrested or abandoned his load, and the truck sat there, and the boys who hung around Hamilton's Rexall Drugs didn't miss a lick.
The boys decided a watermelon would taste pretty good on a hot day, and somebody crawled up into the truck and took a prize melon. Then another boy did the same..then ALL of them, some under cover of darkness, likewise claimed a piece of the bounty.
I said I wanted no part of stealing a watermelon or anything else. I was called a "chicken" for my lack of courage.
Well by God! I was no coward OR a chicken! I'd show them. As soon as Harvey drove off in the patrol car, I sprung into action; I climbed that trailer and plucked a fine watermelon! How proud I was of my boldness!
I took my prize home and right away mom said, "Where did you get that watermelon?"
"Well, a truck broke down and..."
Mom was so disappointed in me that she called Harvey and turned me in for the theft. I was lower than snake belly at that moment.
Harvey told her that if I return the melon he wouldn't file charges...I know that Harvey knew every kid was taking a melon and nobody , especially Harvey, cared.
So I took my watermelon back to the truck and my buddies watched as Harvey Wells, Waterloo Police Chief, watched me nicely lay my prize back into the truck.
In the middle of the night, some kids went into the truck and smashed nearly all the watermelons onto the street ... I noticed them when I arrived at 4:45 A.M. to fold my Journal-Gazettes for my route.
Darn kids, anyway!
I learned a valuable lesson, though: don't always follow your peers!

Lyle Lovett - Flyin' Shoes (Townes Van Zandt Tribute)

2007-03-11T00:57:00.001-05:00

A Tribute

2007-03-09T12:31:00.000-05:00

Senator Schumer was nearly ripped in two on "Imus in the Morning" today.

Schumer avidly defended himself from Imus' onslaught by saying he had paid many visits to NY vet-centers.

Imus has been nailing the heart of the matter this week...the US governmentt shows CONTEMPT for the wounded that become a burden.

Did people think Ron Kovic was joking when his excellent book "Born on the Fourth of July" hit the newsstands 30 years ago? It was a Tom Cruise-starring movie, too.

It exposed the deplorable conditions in a Brooklyn VA hospital...there was no outcry by ANYONE then. These conditions have been stagnantly unattended for decades...it's not just the current generals who are to blame.

Military protocol is based on the chain of command. Complaining about anything is career killer.

This will blow over and patches will be applied. And by the next war it will be sad and decrepit again.

The wonderful care some vets receive does not make up for all the shortcomings in the VA system.

Rockin' in the Jungle Clearing

2007-03-07T18:02:00.000-05:00

Introduction by my brother:
This little piece by my younger brother, Dexter ben al-Dogg of War, a Viet Nam veteran, was apparently inspired by a recent Internet hoax involving Capt. Kangaroo, Mr. Rogers and Lee Marvin.

--Brother Miles

The night we threw our M16s down

I was in the war that the US was in more than a generation ago, Vietnam. Bloody it was, and I saw my share of action.
One night a firefight broke out ---we were ambushed, and many were getting shot with small arms, AK47s and M16s.
They had us retreating , and we heard a commotion in between bursts of fire.
We had stumbled onto a USO show.
Alvin Lee and his band, Ten Years After, were entertaining. The Vietnamese must have been awed at the sound...soon they quit shooting and started whooping it up.
I realized what was happening and took off my bandolier and my helmet and stood up and waved at the opposing soldiers.
They waved back and we joined up and strolled up closer to the stage. One of our guys offered up some toke to the Viets and we all kicked up our heels and toe-tapped as Alvin played his amazing licks.
When the show ended we and our new friends back-slapped and laughed back to the place where the fighting had ceased.
We gave them our Chiclets and C-Rations and they gave us a pass from killing us.
Now this story is true and I should know, as I was the one who started the whole thing off, our night kickin' and jammin' with Alvin Lee and the Viet Cong. Rockin' and Rollin' was better than killin'.

We had noticed Lee Marvin, Bob Keeshan, and Fred Rogers in the crowd, and the Man-in-the-Moon smiled down and winked a nod of approval.

Townes Van Zandt in Heartworn Highway

2007-02-24T19:11:00.001-05:00

Townes Van Zandt

Happy Birthday Mister Lincoln

2007-02-12T02:08:00.000-05:00

Our sixteenth President is 198 today. God Save the Republic.

AL GORE , PLEASE CLAIM YOUR DESTINY !

2007-02-10T14:53:00.000-05:00

Just think back to 2003...Kerry was not a real contender... nobody gave him a chance; he was rudimentarily dismissed on Meet The Press and all the talk shows...and he charged ahead and won the nomination.

Hillary Clinton, again today, made it CLEAR she would have invaded Iraq, just HANDLED it differently . I did not see the questioner who told her that people like him would never vote for her unless she admitted the WAR was a mistake, and that SHE had messed up by voting for it. I , likewise, could never vote for a loose cannon like her.

Now, Al Gore, dismissed by many as a dinosaur, long buried by history, is receiving attention again.

The clarion call is sounding. I hear it.

RUN, AL, RUN!!!

Americans , press and public alike, praised Jimmy Carter as a "fresh" president, and turned on him en masse and threw him out resoundingly for an old has-been B movie actor who was HATED by progressive Californians for his backward views. They wanted a mature figure in the White House.

Obama would be chewed up by the press, dismissed as a lightweight (which would be correct) and easily defeated by the GOP in 2012.

We need Al Gore to step up and receive his destiny, as President of these United States. If Obama's so "real", he can mature and be ready to run in 2016, ensuring the White House until 2024, when I can take my dirt nap, content with the nation, and safe from the "world".

And Who Will Be Held Accountable?

2007-02-09T15:54:00.000-05:00

I cannot get the image out of my mind...I was a forklift driver for many years, anyway.In this day of articles in the media and constant encouragement of using plastic...a cashless society...why was it necessary to bundle stacks of 100 dollar bills on pallets and forklift them onto cargo planes bound for Iraq...12 BILLION dollars, to start.Of course when it got there it quickly slipped through the cracks...and last night on the Nightly News Waxman was shown questioning officials "wha-hoppen"
"Loose accounting measures in the Iraqi treasury offices", was the answer.Will these people that sent 12 billion TAXPAYERS' dollars to be stolen immediately by Iraqi "friendlies" be held accountable?NO, is the short answer, and also the complete answer.12 billion dollars paid into the US Treasury by hard working Americans , just given away, stacked on pallets and filling up a cargo plane, mysteriously disappearing.And after this, we still have Americans supporting this war, confident "we" are wining this war, willing to give hundreds of billions more to who-knows-who?...so troops can be sent out on helicopters with virtual bullseyes on them, to be slaughtered, and troops sent out on patrol amorless, with thin steel and plastic to protect them from IEDs of ever-increasing strength. This is what supporting the troops means to the warmongers. In case you didn't know, it's time to CUT AND RUN !!

A Great Hero

2007-01-18T03:14:00.000-05:00

One of the United States' best-known World War I heros was Edward "Eddie" Rickenbacker (1890-1973), a member of the 94th Aero Pursuit Squadron. His feat of 26 confirmed victories in air-to-air combat was unsurpassed, earning him the nickname "Ace of Aces." Congress also awarded him the Medal of Honor for his leadership and bravery.We need more like him today.He was from Columbus, Ohio.

And We're Doing Well...Is That Right?

2007-01-06T20:09:00.000-05:00

How well are we doing? A temp agency calls in 20 workers to stack pallets to fill an order and that's considered "20 new jobs for the economy."
The next week or month the workers, who have no medical benefits and are building no wealth or pension credits, are let go.
A sign in the local hospital reads that no one can be refused basic medical emergency care if s/he has no money to pay. Maintenance check-ups and preventive dental care? Sorry.
Thousands of blue collar jobs are being eliminated...,there are NO JOBS like there were for people who want to work and need a medical plan and a wage large enough to make a mortgage payment and fuel and finance a reliable vehicle. Workers who had ascended to the middle class via good union jobs are now being evicted from their homes and having their five-year-old trucks repossessed due to the fact they are members of the Great Working Class of the US.
For a generation now the writing's been on the wall: get an education and/or specific trade-training or be condemned to poverty for a lifetime.
I was in the last class of an Indiana rural two-room school before it was abandoned and the farm kids bused to the town school. Then my high school class was the last before massive consolidation plans shuttered the place.
I was in Vietnam as a soldier when ground ops were yielding to an all-out air war.
And I retired as the union plant I worked in was starting to ship machines and contracts to Mexico for cheaper labor. Now the plant in which I toiled for several decades is a shell of it's glory days, awaiting word of permanent closing. My eldest daughter lives a mile from a Ford plant that will close permanently next year, throwing hundreds more out into the wonderful world of "get mine."
Changes, changes, and more changes.
How is this helping the worker who needs a competitive income? It doesn't. My children are all university grads with post-grad degrees and are surviving by working long, stressful hours in the professional medical fields.
They can't complain However, many millions for whatever reason are still in the Great American Working Class. Their status is usually volatile if not downright shaky. When they fall through the cracks , it's all bad.
I'm writing all this to point out that the economy is not really all that strong. It's complicated and the solution varies for each individual .... many certainly have the ability and /or guidance to "pull themselves up..." A good many can't find the door that's open, however, and grow weary and sick knocking on all the doors of rejection.

Nostalgia for Pipes and Matches

2007-01-03T01:07:00.000-05:00

In 1970 I was wearing army olive drab and enjoying life at Fort Ord ,California, near Monterey & Cannery Row. I ate that stuff up ...the local history of the old days on Cannery Row and the tide pools...and vowed to return as a civilian and live there.
Instead, I ended up in Indiana wearing polyester double knits and smoking a pipe like all those Watergate lawyers and defendants...it seemed as though all American men were smoking tobacco pipes that year. I asked my wife tonight, after seeing a particularly touching photo of Jerry Ford smilingly smoking his pipe, how long it has been since she saw a man smoking a pipe outside of TCM movies....she said YEARS AND YEARS!! Same for me...and my pipes gather dust in my den, still on my desk, after 20 years of dormancy!!
I must be waiting for the second coming of John Mitchell to get inspired to go buy some tobacco and matches!
As far as Watergate goes, I still occasionally think of Senator Sam Ervin of North Carolina...he was a rock.

A Good Man is Gone

2006-12-27T01:42:00.000-05:00

President Gerald R. Ford has left us. He was a great man, and if we thought he made a mistake by pardoning Nixon, we can overlook that for now. Rest in peace, President Ford. You were honest and open and a credit to your grateful nation .

SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT

2006-12-24T00:59:00.000-05:00

[TEXT FROM GOOGLE ENTRY:" THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE"]
During World War I, in the winter of 1914, on the battlefields of Flanders, one of the most unusual events in all of human history took place. The Germans had been in a fierce battle with the British and French. Both sides were dug in, safe in muddy, man-made trenches six to eight feet deep that seemed to stretch forever.

All of a sudden, German troops began to put small Christmas trees, lit with candles, outside of their trenches. Then, they began to sing songs. Across the way, in the "no man's land" between them, came songs from the British and French troops. Incredibly, many of the Germans, who had worked in England before the war, were able to speak good enough English to propose a "Christmas" truce.

The British and French troops, all along the miles of trenches, accepted. In a few places, allied troops fired at the Germans as they climbed out of their trenches. But the Germans were persistent and Christmas would be celebrated even under the threat of impending death.

According to Stanley Weintraub, who wrote about this event in his book, Silent Night, "signboards arose up and down the trenches in a variety of shapes. They were usually in English, or - from the Germans - in fractured English. Rightly, the Germans assumed that the other side could not read traditional gothic lettering, and that few English understood spoken German. 'YOU NO FIGHT, WE NO FIGHT' was the most frequently employed German message. Some British units improvised 'MERRY CHRISTMAS' banners and waited for a response. More placards on both sides popped up."

A spontaneous truce resulted. Soldiers left their trenches, meeting in the middle to shake hands. The first order of business was to bury the dead who had been previously unreachable because of the conflict. Then, they exchanged gifts. Chocolate cake, cognac, postcards, newspapers, tobacco. In a few places, along the trenches, soldiers exchanged rifles for soccer balls and began to play games.

It didn't last forever. In fact, some of the generals didn't like it at all and commanded their troops to resume shooting at each other. After all, they were in a war. Soldiers eventually did resume shooting at each other. But only after, in a number of cases, a few days of wasting rounds of ammunition shooting at stars in the sky instead of soldiers in the opposing army across the field.

For a few precious moments there was peace on earth good will toward men. All because the focus was on Christmas. Happens every time. There's something about Christmas that changes people. It happened over 2000 years ago in a little town called Bethlehem. It's been happening over and over again down through the years of time.

This week, Lord willing, it will happen again.

The Draft, Past and Future

2006-12-20T13:19:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I agree, sometimes I get irritated when people say the all-volunteer force is superior to the combined RA-US United States Army. RA was the regular army and US was our designation, which we had to scream upon entering the Basic Training mess hall. The US label meant DRAFTEE.
After training, the only difference was the intense complaining we had to endure from the RA guys, because they were in for 3 or 4 years and we were in for two years.
in Vietnam, the RA guys sort of envied us, because we were all the same, except most of us could leave the Army after our one year tour and they had to go to Germany or wherever for at least another year.
Without the draft, I would not be the same person. I would not have been able to spend nearly a year near Monterey, California nor had the experience of living in a war zone in Vietnam.
I did feel cheated when I came back and the people that avoided the service had a jump start on life, maybe a couple years towards a bachelors degree or two years seniority in the union down at the auto plant, but those things even out in the course of time.
You folks know that WBushCo is not my favorite president. It's all his fault we need more troops for this 'The Surge'. We needed guys to sacrifice themselves in the jungles of Vietnam and the factories and construction companies were raided and the young men given M-16s (weapons) and sent to do their best.
In spite of my opposition to conscripted service, in spite of my opposition to WBushCo's folly in Iraq, if a military draft comes to be, a lot of young people will be afforded an opportunity they otherwise would miss, and that is seeing firsthand how really rotten this country's foreign policy in regards to unjust invasions is.

Hillary doesn't fit the "bill".

2006-12-19T02:24:00.001-05:00

HRC is an Iraq hawk. Her view of that invasive war started by a unilateral pre:emptive strike is one of a cheerleader.
Like millions of Americans, I was shocked and awed when Osama bin Laden was given a pass to roam from cave to internet-able cave at will, as Bush for reasons now easily surmised and proven, committed American blood and dollars to an insane invasion of Iraq, dissing his daddy's program of not unleashing the Big Dog named TERROR onto the people of "The Region".
No, THIS idiot had to listen to Cheney and Kristol and Wolfowitz and Perle and all the rest of those damn Kool-Aid pushers.
Lately he seemed he was interested in "listening."
Yeah, with cotton in his ears!
HRC has yet to get with the program. If she was elected she might keep troops in Iraq her entire eight years in office!
The Iraq war is such a huge deal to me and millions of others, we cannot bring ourselves to vote for Hillary. I used to LOVE the thought of her being president, but she is one of "them" , not one of us.
Dennis Hopper once described the 1960's as being divided into two distinct groups, "us", and "them".
In this case, it's not too simple a way to describe my feelings: Hillary IS one of them. She is a hawk who sat on a bench in The Green Zone in Baghdad with Biden and McCain telling us all was well in Iraq.
She may have enough support to get elected but many of us see her for what she is, and we want nothing to do with her...and it's a damn shame, because I would love to see a sensible democrat woman in the office at 1600 Penna Avenue. Hillary doesn't fit the "bill".

Neil Young - Long May You Run

2006-12-15T22:19:00.001-05:00

A Tribute To My 1969 VW Microbus, "Rebekah"

Bush's Fitting Memorial

2006-12-15T18:18:00.000-05:00

For this current president, who can barely communicate and again yesterday misspoke Iran for Iraq , having a library to commemorate his presidency is unfathomable.
Someone should commission a designer to draw up a fitting Bush monument...similar to the Wall in DC...but instead of a descent and then a climb up outta that hell, just burrow that monument straight into the ground. On the sidewalk , maybe chocolate candy vendor stands, all empty and the shelves stocked with IED explosives. Same for the flower vendor stands...have them riddled by car parts from a suicide bomber.
Have some photos of dead Iraqis and people hung from bridges, and torturing marines tormenting Iraqi prisoners, and Ms. England pointing at someone's package.
A gallery of videos should be available, one showing Nicholas Berg's head rolling...have you seen those videos? Quick work , but you can't be squeamish.
We SHOULD have a lasting monument to George W. Bush. A continually descending walk, at 45 degrees straight into the ground would be fitting.
I can't let the American people off the hook here, the ones that voted Bush back into office. This war has been a certifiable disaster since 2003, or before, even. Bush is your boy. If you finally see the light, it's your duty to scream your heads off telling how you came to see the light, and demand that we...CUT AND RUN ! ! ! !

2006-12-11T01:13:00.000-05:00

Have you heard WBush these past few days? After his head-down muttering when seated with Lee Hamilton and James Baker, he went off like before...using those same words in the report to return right back to "stay the course", only calling it "Going forward in Iraq", about a hundred times.

Now "bloodbath" has entered the US pols' vocabulary. It'll be a "bloodbath" if the US leaves Iraq too quickly.

The "reality" is we have lost...even STAUNCH invader-supporter Tom Friedman of NYTimes has said it, on Imus last week.

It is NOT a simpleton's chant to say "Cut and Run".

It's the best option, is what it is, and I'll say it every day.

The Vietnamese straightened up their mess we left them and Iraq will, too...even though I am in the growing camp that is starting to believe there IS NO IRAQ ANYMORE...it's evolved into a killing field with so many differences amongst Shiia and Sunnis and Kurds that if it ever calms down Iran and Syria will have redefined the borders without any Western influence.

It's really time to pull the US and Halliburton out of there and start developing alternate energy sources.

It's also time to quit covering Bush's behind...he's the one responsible for the Iraq mess, and it's time to CUT AND RUN and let the pieces fall where they may and let the residue fall directly on the head of this idiot president who has ruined the outlook the world has on the US.

Founders of a Movement, Bill W and Dr. Bob

2006-12-10T00:11:00.000-05:00

These two men in the photograph in this post are the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. The fellow on the left is Dr. Bob. The other guy, Bill Wilson, gave Dr. Bob some bottles of beer to steady his nerves before Dr. Bob performed an operation. That last beer was Dr. Bob's last drink. The date was June 10, 1935. The principles of this program have saved several million souls from lives of uncomprehensible demoralization due to the mental obsession and physical allergy to beverage alcohol. It's in the phone book if you need it, or know someone who might.

An Unexpected, Unwelcome Snowstorm in Iowa

2006-12-09T13:21:00.000-05:00

I have just about decided to buy a Taurus for my "dog car."
I'll never forget a trip I took in early November, 1995, from Ohio to Omaha. An old soldier acquaintance of mine invited me to a dedication of a new Vietnam Veterans memorial statue in Omaha. I coupled the trip to visit "Field of Dreams" in Iowa.
I only wore sneakers...who knew what was in store for me?...
I approached Des Moines, road clear, making excellent time. Then , way off in the distance, the sky looked weird. Here it came! As I drove westward I came closer, and then was in it...it was like someone was throwing bucketfuls of slush on my windshield, and it didn't let up at all. Within minutes I saw about fifty cars in the ditch...this was not good! The temperature kept dropping and freezing the roadway and then it turned to a fierce all-snow storm, the wet kind that builds quickly. I was going about ten mph , and barely ably to see the road and keep the car mobile. I stopped for gas and stuck my sneaker in a foot of snow. The gas station guy had already provided shelter for many who had gone off the road for the night...but I pressed on. clear across Iowa...near dawn the next day I made it to a Holiday Inn and didn't even call the guy in Omaha....I got a room and slept for six hours. I did call the man and we attended the ceremony and checked out "Old Omaha" or whatever they called their mall-like downtown. I had a heckuva huge steak and couldn't get enough hot coffee. It was early November and ten degrees and windy as a March day.
Now when I go anywhere in the winter I take GORP and a thermos of coffee and a couple drinking- water bottles with me. Maybe a jar of peanut butter and a sleeve of saltines. Just in case.
The car I was driving was my brand new 1995 Ford Taurus. While many , most, in fact, of the cars went into the ditch that day, or just gave up, that Taurus held the road...I have been praising that car for years now. Of course I traded it off many years ago but now I am thinking of just getting another Taurus....they are obsolete now, so I better act quickly.

Thank You Ed Hamilton of Hotel Chelsea Blog for this:

2006-12-02T00:16:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving From Montana
We heard them come in late last night; several people checked into the transient room next door and all had to go to the shared bathroom in the hallway, one after another. The next morning I met the last of them as he was clearing out, a thin man in his late thirties dressed in rugged winter gear with a Afghani hat and carrying a green army duffle bag. He said he was from Montana, which (maybe) would explain the getup, and that they had driven thousands of miles in 33 hours to get to New York. “Sounds peaceful,” I said, meaning Montana, not the drive. They had one more night in New York, he said—though not, apparently, in the Chelsea—and then it was back on road, back to Montana. (Maybe they came to see the Macy’s parade.) “I know this building has lots of history,” he said. “You have no idea,” I replied and took that opportunity to hand him a blog card. “Come here,” he said, leading me back into the transient room, “I want to show you a letter I left on the desk here.”
Ever the suspicious New Yorker, I thought, Oh shit, it’s going to be one of those goddamn chain letters and now I’m going to be cursed if I don’t send it to a hundred people. Instead, he had left a pen, a stamped envelope and a notepad with a note on it that said: “Write that letter today. You know which one I’m talking about. You’ll feel better if you do.” “That’s nice,” I said, thinking, hell, nobody from New York would ever think to do that, we’re all too selfish, too caught up in our own lives. The man said he had checked into a hotel several years back and had seen a note just like this sitting on a desk, and that it had led to a bout of soul searching with the end result that he had sat down at that desk and written a long, and long-overdue letter to his father (he left the details to the imagination). Since then, he said, whenever he checks out of a hotel room he always leaves the note and the rest of the stuff.
He asked if the maid would leave the note and I said yes, though actually I wasn’t quite so sure; it was just that I didn’t want to say no, since it was such a touching gesture in such a God forsaken place as this that I didn’t want him to take it back. For the next few hours I listened for the maid and when I heard her rustling around over there I rushed over just in time to see her closing the pen up in the notepad and getting ready to take it away. She said she didn’t know what that was about, but I told her she was supposed to leave the things and I believe she did.
Oh, one more thing: I told the guy that I had just been to my cousin’s wedding in Montana this summer, though I couldn’t remember the name of her town. Now I remember. So in case your reading, guy from Montana, it’s Lewistown. (Ed Hamilton)

Honest! I didn't do it...I don't even like doughnuts!

2006-11-27T01:24:00.000-05:00

Did you ever buy a sack of doughnuts for the family, but they declined to eat but one little doughnut apiece , leaving ten fragrant pastries in the white bag...just sitting there...and you have an assortment of teas to brew, and well, maybe you make tea or coffee several times a day, and every time you say..."these doughnuts are small...ONE MORE WON'T HURT!", and so by the bewitching hour, the last doughnut is gone; wife ate one, visiting daughter ate half of one, and you, you unrelenting raider of the doughnut sack, yes, you, of the repetitively chanted eminent domain mantra, "WHO'S GONNA KNOW OR CARE ANYWAY!"..., mentally screaming 'carpe diem' , and then it turns to 'carpe doughnut!', as the bag lies there, violated, ripped, crumbs in the bottom, the contents ravished, the day done.

And you go to your chamber and write in your diary, "...I ate a piece of dry toast and went to bed."

JFK

2006-11-22T02:15:00.000-05:00

I'm old enough to remember this date in history, like most of the people in my age group.

Mostly I remember the headlines of The Journal-Gazette, the morning paper out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. JFK was welcomed by enthusiastic throngs at Love Field , Dallas , Texas.

The ensuing events of November Twenty Second , Nineteen Sixty Three changed my generation of USA children forever. I finally visited JFK's gravesite on my high school senior trip in 1967. It was a moving experience . ~Dexter

The Old 283rd Dustoff out of Nha Trang, Viet Nam

2006-11-21T00:44:00.000-05:00

Five blocks west and one block north of me sits the local hospital's heliport. Here being so "stuck in the sticks", helicopter ambulances fly low over my house frequently, at all hours. Scarcely one passes o'erhead that doesn't flash me back to memories of the 283rd Dustoff crew that serviced Camp McDermott , just outside Nha Trang, in 1970 and 1971. While I have written of my misadventures of suturing and maybe mentioned that my primary duty there was working in a small ward helping GI's ward off the terrors of drug addiction and insanity, I haven't said much about the "secret duty" of the corpsmen of the 575th Medical Detachment. Occasionally, in the middle of the night , a call would come in, not to us per se, but to the helicopter crew that kept a Dustoff chopper parked on the heliport adjacent to our Quonset hut that was the dispensary. They usually had a full crew on hand, but sometimes , in that crazy place...the medic had wandered off in pursuit of pleasures of varied nature. So they came to the dispensary and asked for volunteers. Someone always volunteered. The whirling machine took off and always returned , sometimes with alarming quickness. The medics that went with the helicopter crews many times had had no experience in these endeavors. The "typical" flight roared off to a place where a firefight had taken place , and frequently was still going on. The medic was given a helmet so he could hear the talk from the pilot to the ground . A combination of smoke grenades and flares showed the pilot where the LZ was . The trick was landing that machine, picking up the wounded soldiers and getting airborne and moving quickly. We had an outstanding pilot, a warrant officer named B. A short squat man who looked more like a farmhand than a pilot, this man could FLY that sucker!!!! I got so I would volunteer to fly with him whenever I could...that way I would get my share of flying done and not get stuck with some of the newer men being rotated in to fly the helicopters. How many pilots could you expect to survive with when frequently the helicopter blade made contact with the jungle canopy at the edges of the clearings we had to land in!! For me, W.O. B was the ONLY one!! The man was an amazing pilot! What would the medic on a Dustoff op do? Mostly, get familiar with compress bandages and iv bottles. The iv bottles were of utmost importance; if we were out of plasma we would use blood "volume expanders", which was just fluid to maintain blood pressure . Usually, the wounded men would be in Cam Ranh , delivered expertly by Mister B or counterpart , alive, and hopefully destined to live, within twenty minutes or so. Amazing! Like I said, this was not my regular job, and the flights are mainly just a blur in my mind, as everything happened so FAST! While Mister B flew at what seemed like extremely high altitudes after picking up the wounded , the 40 mile ride back to Nha Trang from Cam Ranh was flown very low...right along the coast just above the beach line. I seems like when we left Cam Ranh it took only fifteen minutes to get back to the Quonset hut in Nha Trang. Mister B wasn't only a helicopter ambulance man. I do remember with great clarity the time he told us of when he flew gunships and in a battle from the air to the ground he and his men killed a great many Vietnamese soldiers. I don't believe I had ever sat like that in a calm setting and heard a man tell so matter-of-factly how he and his crew mates killed so many men so rapidly. It kind of stunned me, and the coolness of his demeanor while telling us still is fresh in my mind. I was 21. Mr. B was 24. I still have a little knife with the insignia of the 283rd Dustoff on it....

2006-11-19T18:35:00.000-05:00

2006-11-19T18:22:00.001-05:00

Is it poisonous?

2006-11-19T18:22:00.000-05:00

When we lived in "TheCrackerbox", a small Indiana rural house my folks rented in the late 1940's and early fifties, snakes were everywhere! We would walk down the hill to neighbors in the summertime when the tar was all melty and snake carcasses would be smashed into the tar , LOTS of snakes. Snakes were all over our yard, mostly garters. The fields were full of blue racers, and frequently we would bale one up into the hay wagon, sometimes almost dead...but sometimes NOT ! Those heads with all those teeth creeped me out. When we moved to a farm house I have vague recollections of Queenie, a German Shepherd, and our dog Rusty, a medium terrier/collie (or SUMTHIN') fighting over a large blue racer, each dog pulling an opposite end. Snakes were rarely seen when we moved into housing in and later near Waterloo, Indiana. I have never seen a snake in Bryan, Ohio.The last snake I hit was a blue racer, 21 years ago on the way to work. I hit it just so...it was hit by both front tires...yes , so I was right when I was a kid...they DO get that big. Normally the birds (lots of turkey vultures around here) would have eaten it or drug it away in nine hours time, but I noticed i twas still on this little-used country road as I returned, so I took a look...crushed head and tail ,and I think it was a blue racer or maybe some sort of bull snake...I ain't no snake expert, after all !
After I got out of the army my friends would come back from Michigan with mushrooms in May. I got the "bug" and had instant success in1976 when we found nearly an entire station wagon full of large yellow morels near Johannesburg. The next year we were coming back from dropping off our kids in Grand Haven at their grandparents' marina on the Grand River. Somewhere in the piney woods I decided to go pick mushrooms! Now what I am about to tell may sound like"a story"...but I COULD NOT TAKE FIFTY STEPS WITHOUT SEEING SNAKES. Medium sized snakes that looked like sticks on the ground! They were infesting that woods by the thousands, I suppose! I got the heck outta there and never went back! Near Kalamazoo by a railroad track I tried again...days yield: one dried-up mushroom and fifty snakes! ~Dexter

Dad was Swindled, by Colorado Bob's Standards!

2006-11-19T02:15:00.000-05:00

Colorado Bob's post about a place in which he lived and paid five dollars a month reminded me of my first home, in 1949 and the early fifties. We called this rural Indiana home "The Crackerbox."
It featured an outhouse with a bag of lime and a resident snake that lived in the newspaper insulated walls.
We heated with an oil space-heater and Mom cooked with electricity.
We had one cold water spigot in the house.
We heated kettles of water and bathed in wash basins.
Dad was a salesman and gone a lot , and Mom was stuck there out in the country with no car.
My brother and I played in a big yard that contained gooseberry bushes, plum and apple trees, and a vegetable garden.
All was well...until one day...
Floyd the landlord came and told Dad he had to raise the rent.
Dad was paying fifteen dollars a month. Dad was prepared to hear Floyd say he needed twenty dollars a month.
"Is seventeen-fifty alright?"
"Sure, Floyd" , said Dad.
If only Dad had known about the cost of rent in Colorado...

Private John Block and The Unknown Factor

2006-11-18T22:38:00.000-05:00

It is very close to being 37 years ago, exactly, when Private John Block's father died suddenly. I knew Private John Block as well as I knew any of the other trainees at the US Army school at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where they ran thousands through a ten-week course which would guarantee we would then be able to save the lives of our wounded comrades in Viet Nam . Private John Block was called out of morning formation and told the bad news, and within a few minutes a Jeep was there to take him to the airport on emergency leave. I remember the shudder that seized my torso as I imagined how I might react to such an event. I was not ready to lose my parents, and this event may have been my first basic grasping at a philosophy which mandates appreciating life to the fullest, and even if I couldn't be near loved ones at every turn of the page of life, I could still appreciate the fact they were still around. I could phone and write , stay in touch. I was fortunate because my parents were around for many more years. Private John Block returned after a few days to the training routine. We were all excited in a concerned , life-and-death-serious manner, when our assignments came to us after training was through. Whoops of joy went up as one small contingent received orders for Panama. Elation was in the air when a sizable number of soldiers were told they were headed for Germany. My friend who slept in the top bunk above me was sent to Philadelphia's recruiting station. Japan. England. Thailand. Outposts hither and yon we were scattered to...then the roll call started, and platoon after platoon after platoon received the same orders: report to Oakland Army Base. Light groaning murmurs of disappointment wafted through the ranks, and only one WHOOP !...this being from a young man whose home was in the East Bay Area and it did not register on him that Oakland Army Base was this huge jumping-off point for Viet Nam. Me? I got the best deal of my life; I was assigned to Monterey , California, and stayed there for ten months before being handed my one-way ticket to Oakland Army Base and the great beyond . Private John Block...where does he fit into the conclusion? I don't know if he was devastated at his father's death and just didn't care about himself anymore, or was so terrified of going to Viet Nam, or somehow thought he was getting a great deal, but Private John Block and a few others sort of donated their bodies to the Army for experiments to be performed on them! This was by invitation only, and the ones that accepted got a pass on Viet Nam. I asked John about it and he said he would be testing malaria prevention and "other projects". I always wondered about Private John Block and if he ever got out of the test-labs alive or was sacrificed to develop a better malaria prevention tablet or shrapnel resistant body armor. It is a strange and beautiful world. ~ Dexter

Woe-verines

2006-11-18T19:37:00.000-05:00

It happened. Lately it has been a rarity for the Michigan football team to beat the Ohio State Buckeyes. More of the same occurred today as the Buckeyes won again. The score being close, 42-39, makes it no easier to take, as number one in the nation was on the line.
Will the Wolverines get a rematch since the two teams were so good? I am not counting on it.
It would be nice to see Notre Dame get a shot at Ohio State...

Grease, Well Done...Bravo!!

2006-11-18T01:25:00.000-05:00

We drove to Maumee , Ohio tonight to see my granddaughter in her school play, "Grease".
I hadn't seen a school play in years. The differences are immediately noticeable; they perform in a brand new auditorium, and they use individual headset/microphones to be heard. I had to keep remindng myself that these were kids only about twelve to fourteen years of age. They were really good.
Afterwards, our party of five went to see my other granddaughter who was working in a nearby restaurant. She waited on us and that was a first. She has to work because she gets her driver's license in a week.
It seems such a short time ago when we were coming home from a Williamsburg vacation and got word she was born...now she's driving a car.
Grandkids grow up faster than your own children.
As an old friend used to say, "tempus, it sure do fugit!"

Different Wars

2006-11-16T23:38:00.000-05:00

Whether you saw a TV documentary of the history of the Harley Davidson Company or read Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels you got the same information. Motorcycle groups formed after World WarII from veterans who felt ill at ease with society; they didn't fit in, and were more comfortable around like-minds . I suspect a lot of these vets felt they had seen too much for a young man; maybe they had killed or witnessed war atrocities or maybe felt guilty or shameful at some things they had done. Maybe they were shell-shocked and were experiencing nightmares. Beer and motorcycles took the edge off.
Many more came back from WWII and bought tract housing and got good jobs...many thousands took advantage of a great GI Bill and used the benefits to obtain degrees from universities. Many clammed up and would not talk of the war, even to their wives.
These are the stereotypical vets that we remember , many of us had family members that fit this mold.
History books don't mention any vets who came home trying to find an audience to hear them tell of the D-Day Dodgers, for example, who drank vino in southern Italy and skipped Anzio.
My late work-friend, Merlin, told us of his days in Korea, freezing day after day,counting the days...warding off frostbite of interminable days-on-end.
Vietnam came along and I grew up with it, and with perfect timing was drafted and sent to California for a year after training. I saw and listened to many returning vets . The older non-commissioned officers laughed at me when I told them I had not been over yet, telling me I'd get to respect "Charlie". I worked in the fort hospital and made frequent trips to the Navy air field near Monterey to bring back army soldiers to the fort hospital for rehabilitation, which was mostly spent in a hospital bed. Many of these guys told me '"Don't go!" . They told me what a mess they had witnessed in Vietnam...two years after the 1968 Tet Offensive had demoralized the war effort. A fellow soldier disappeared one day. I was supposed to work with him on the hospital ward and he did not show up. A month later word trickled back that he had had his parents send him money and he had made his way to Sweden. Another guy shot half his hand off to avoid going. I went.
When I came back I was a bubbling cauldron of hate for our policy in Vietnam. I spent a few years protesting and talking to high schools classes, just expressing my views of the war .
What I'm writing about is support for our troops in Iraq and other outposts.
Many times when soldiers are interviewed they are very loyal to Geroge Bush's policy of invading Iraq. Even when wounded horribly , losing both legs even, they are waiting only for the day when they can go back to Iraq.
I have spoken out against the invasion of Iraq when it became eminent Bush was taking us there. The soldiers and all military personnel are volunteers.
The U.S. has been involved in this war for longer than we were in WWII.
Abu Ghraib prison torture and the murder of Iraqi citizens has been in the news a long time.
I contend the U.S. presence has already sparked a civil war but the government continually says it's not...close, but no civil war.
Bush has backed down..brought in James Baker and Bob Gates, but still vows to win in Iraq.
Most of the troops apparently support him...even having given their legs and arms , they yearn to go back and finish the job, whatever they and Bush think that might be.
Support the troops? To do what?
When I came home I was cursed and shunned by crude civilians and many that counted, like employers and bankers. That was the support of THIS troop I received. And I deserved no better. That war was horrible. This war is horrible. Can we NOT support the Iraq war and still support the troops that support the war effort and want to defend it to their deaths?

Tea, too

2006-11-16T01:49:00.000-05:00

I rarely drink tea when out, as we don't have any tea houses here in town and trying to get a decent cuppa in a coffee shop or restaurant is hard if not impossible. My grandma was a tea lover back in the 1950s. She drank Lipton green tea, and loaded it with many teaspoons of sugar. She was the kind of person that was a wonderful cook but ate like a bird, preferring her tea. She made it one cup at a time and always had that water kettle on the stove.
Mother was also a tea lover. My older brother says she was influenced by Arthur Godfrey's radio ads. Godfrey pushed Lipton tea and Mom listened. She preferred black tea, and we always had that around. I started drinking black tea at an early age...coffee was verboten.
I had tea around as an adult but rarely even thought about drinking it, especially when I was out searching for beers of the world and that perfect single malt scotch and the finest Kentucky bourbon. After I had sampled and drank all the beer and whiskey I could stand , I spent more time finding out about coffees and teas. When I got back into regular tea drinking, I bought some cheap herbal teas. Not bad, but after drinking alfalfa tea I switched to Earl Grey tea, and English Breakfast teas.
I read some articles about tea, how the paper tea bags contain only what is referred to as "dust", and the finer teas must be brewed using whole leaves. I see Lipton has a new bag style...triangular. Mom used to have metal tea bags and would also buy loose tea and put it into these metal things and steep the tea that way. I have much more to learn about the fine teas that are available now. These days I have discovered Stash brand, very good green and black chai, and a mediocre plain green tea. It's cheap, but good on a cold November night in Ohio.

2006-11-15T16:35:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com