This place was created near the end of the twentieth century just for the heck of it..
Friday September 29, 2000
Goodbye to September, 2000. The year keeps whizzing along. There You Have It will take the weekend off and see what's up on October 2.
Meanwhile one of my predictive stories, the one last Friday when I had the fat lady sing, is being delayed. Is it just a delay, or could I have been wrong? Could I have been wrong about any others?( see Sept. 11) Goodness gracious. Better not be so!
Wednesday September 27, 2000
So my Red Sox will be officially out of the AL East flag race with just one more loss or one more win for the hated Yankees. But as I said the other day they were out a few days ago. So no need to let the lady sing here again. As an oldtimey fan though, I have always enjoyed listening to those late September meaninless games when there were just a few fans in the park, the weather was rotten, and we were getting ready for the long off-season. The final games this year will be in Tampa. They will not really fit the profile. But they will have to do. Now these 1941 September game had real meaning. Read about The Splendid Splinter's career here and here.
And in keeping with my mood today---don't ask--- here are a couple of places for you to look at if you feel like it. Arianna's sort of let's have sort of a revolution site. Yeah, she does seem a bit simplistic, but...
And this blasphemous, (Attention! attention! attention! for the first time in the history of this site, I have self-censored. The site that was here has been deleted and this public service site has been linked in it's place) but not too, site that for some reason hits my funny bone. I know, I know it's really stupid and not even very well done. But ...
If any one wants to see the original blasphemy that was there go here.
Tuesday September 26, 2000
Today, I did my usual thing and got up to make and have my coffee, read The Hartford Courant, and watch some C-SPAN and after that have a nice easy non-political day. So what does the Courant assault me with. First of all, they have on the front page, the front page mind you a picture that is at least 112x12 inches, I didn't measue it, it could even be bigger. And what is it a picture of you might ask. It's this and the story of some guy who survived a truck crash. The front page story. Then I am assaulted with this full half page spread of a bunch of nearly naked androgynous lookiing fools and an idiot female model looking as bored as she is boring. Tell me my day wasn't off to a good start.
The newspaper did have one story that was actual news and sort of important. It was this story about funding the attempt to restore The Everglades.But the Courant didn't link so I am using the NY Times story, which by the way is on it's front page. ( I hope you have your times internet membership like I admonished some time ago)
Monday September 25, 2000
As I said the other day, the debates between Gore and Bush are coming soon. At the time, I thought that they might actually have some meaning. Legitimate meaning. But watching the polls swing over ten points back and forth every week or so, I now am convinced that the debates may well influence the election, but for all the wrong reasons.
The campaign has been going on for over a year. The actual issues, the supreme court, privatization of fundamental programs, expanding Medicare with a true drug component, school vouchers, the huge tax cuts, all of these and more have been debated back and forth by Al Gore and the Bush surrogates. If the voters haven't made up their minds based on the issues, or on the fact that Bush is simply a front for the wackos, they never will. Instead they will vote for whoever seems to be the most amusing and nice. That is what the debates will be about. And ain't that a shame. ( look around and on this site under multimedia, you will find "ain't it a shame" a mistitled link to an mp3 of this classic) Good title for a song, but a lousy reason to elect a guy to be the POTUS.
However, as naive as it may be I am sticking to my flat out prediction the Gore will win because I still can't believe that more than half of those of us who will actually vote could vote for Bush. It simply can't happen
Six more Mondays till Election Day. I am going to try like the dickens to restrict my political baloney-fat and wisdom to these six Mondays, except for a crack or two from time to time. It's like quitting smoking though.
Friday September 22, 2000
OK. That's it. I know that they still have a mathematical chance not only for the wild card, (which on it's face is just plain silly, the wild card concept that is) but for the actual division. But, and this is it for the season, she has sung. So listen and wait till next year. Speaking of next year, somehow this nut case Everett has got to go. He still gives me the creeping willies. A bad and scary guy.
Politics remains boring today and the endless polls are taking the fun out of it. But stupid stuff lke this still gets my attention.
Here is a website that is interesting and another that is about the work of a photographer that I should have known about but didn't until recently.
Time for a few days off.
Thursday September 21, 2000
I guess the worst thing about the Red Sox seaon is that there are probably only 11 games left to it. No, she hasn't quite sung but the Boston Globe reported that as early as Tuesday, she was seen somewhere in Fenway and she had her sheet music bag with her. Today The Globe said "... and the hill became the Himalayas".
So politics seem to be some sleep walking mode waiting for the Olympics to end and for the debates--more on this silly subject later--which will be sqeezed into a fortnight or so around the probably Red Sox less ( therfore nearly as meaningless as the Olympics) baseball playoffs and World Series.
So instead of baseball, politics, wisdom, or baloney-fat, today I will question the absurdity of one of the modern expressions that I hear far to often, "out of the box" as in let's find someone who can think "outside of the box" . On it's face it's an oxymoron. Thinking is, or should be, by it's very nature outside of the box otherwise it's just following directions, trends, rules, other people's ideas,---well you get the idea. So I typed in "out of the box" into my trusty IE5.5 address bar and look at what turned up as the first choice. And this was the ninth choice.What does this all mean? Not much.
Wednesday September 20, 2000
So I guess I am not the only former Olympics junkie to bite the bullet this year. Seems that lots of folks are not watchng. Now I may have to reconsider if I want to keep my iconoclastic attitude going. Just joking...
Jumping from that to this. Here is the announcement story that the "special prosecuter" will begin his and the rest of the wackos last desperate plan to finally get Hillary and Bill. They will say in essence that there is no provable evidence of crimes or perjuries or much else, but so what, Hillary and Bill are real liars and bad guys anyway even if we can't begin to prove it.
I get all sputtery when I try to contain my rage and talk about this so here is Joe Conasons more articulate and calmer take.
And I know that this place is beginning to be very boring. I will get over it.
Tuesday September 19, 2000
Yeah, yeah, I know that this stuff is better addresed elsewhere, but there was a newspaper story in my morning paper that had the following headline. "Did You Hear The One About Germs? They Did" So naturally I was drawn to it. The article essentially talks about recent studies that imply that certain dangerous bacteria like E.coli and salmonella manage to communicate with one another ( the scientists actually call it quorum counting) to determine when there are enough of them to guarantee sucess befor they begin to attack whatever they are coing to attack. Well, this is someting; and I wanted to link you to this story so you could get as all weird and afraid as me about this science fiction sort of news. I couldnt find any links to the news article, but I did find this abstract of a paper published in the National Journal of Science which was the newsman's source. Well, one of them anyway. So there you have it. You are warned.
Now back to the stuff that usually is found here. Bush's planners recently re-invented his campaign's official slogan. They call it Real Plans For Real People and they have Bush running around the country towing so-called real people to say how they will benefit from the various Bush schemes. The "oh-so smart folks" forgot to do one thing though. Look here. Gosh in heaven, those folks are just about as stupid as their boss. The Gore oh-so smart folks have won again. By the way they also hijacked realplansforrealpeople.net also. this is more material in the "don't you just love it" catagory
And now it's time to catch up on these. They keep coming fast and furious.
Monday September 18, 2000
And with just 50 days to go before the election of the man who will name at least two members of the Supreme Court, I am hearing and forced to repeat a phrase that has been ringing over and over in my head this morning. The phrase is, "and now, hopscotching the world for headlines...". Did John Cameron Swayze use that back in the fifties when he was the first of the big time network news anchors? You know, back in the days when some of the best actual news reporting was getting started on network news. I simply can't remember.
So while hopscotching around a little today anyway, I found this article which asks a question that I answered the other day.
And then in a sort of deja vu like way ( remember when they were just staring in with the Whitewater baloney--in 1992 before the election) I found this "story" in one of the extremist of the extreme wacko internet newssites today. It reminds me in an eerie way that the wackos are already gearing up for a Gore victory and will have in place lots of jinned, or is it ginned up stuff for the next Ken Starr like character that they will create. It's funny because I heard this one talked about this morning on C-SPAN and the callers there are generally informed by the latest line out of the proaganda mills of the right. So they are ready.
And I will end with this link to yet another guy who seems to be getting paid to say stuff that I said days earlier for nothing. Sigh!
Friday September 15, 2000
All the talk about hypocrisy lately is beginning to bug me. Sure, all the politicians do their share of hypocritical pandering to groups that they decry and whine about when they are pandering to us, the voters who will elect them. And it seems to me that the voters, "The American People" who are the targets of much of the pandering are the real hypocrites. We spend a lot of time asking our politicians to clean up Hollywood and TV, but we don't really mean for us for gods sake just for the rest of them. We are certainly able to watch a little smut and a little gore, and a little sleaze and even a little porn and not be influenced, but it's the other who need to be protected. By using this kind of argument we can have the issue to use whenever we want and we can have our junk too. Heaven forbid that they try to prevent us from whatever we want. Just stop the others.We do the same about dope, booze and all the rest of our little vices.
Now talking about smut, my first exposure was when I used to sneak into my Uncle Tony's parlor and dig out his reel type True-Vue and look at his "special" reels.My favorite was one that featured this Grand Lady. Now if Bush, or any GOP er could find a way to get this kind of stuff back instead of all the modern c--p that gets us all bent these days I'd even vote for him.
Thursday September 14, 2000
This morning my local newspaper had a large special insert about The Olympics which are about to get started in Australia. But they have already started I guess. Which is among the reasons that I have lost just about all interest in following or watching much about them this year.They seem to be all about highly paid or "sponsored" athletes trying to win prizes so that they can get even more money from sponsors via the endorsement route.
And who wants to watch a sporting event on tape delay. What is this baloney. So Australia is not in our time zone. They still ought to show the events live, and if anyone is interested they can watch. Isn't the point of these competions to see who wins? Tape delay kind of kills the suspense.
As an old--and very bad-- high school track and field man, I used to revere in the Games, especially the "real olympics" which was of course track and field. Now the whole thing, even including track and field has become a giant ho-hummer. Too bad. Mostly for me, since I miss the old excitement and thrill.
A very good and patient guy, Ken Dow, has answered my request for help from the folks at userland.com , to fix my broken Timeshots site. I can almost understand what he said and I may be able to fix it so it works. We'll see.
Wednesday September 13, 2000
You would have thought the someone among the people who surround the hapless GOP standard bearer would have thought to take him aside somewhere yesterday and give him a quick course on how to say subliminal and perhaps even try to give him a short sentence that would lead one to believe that he might even know what the word means. But they didn't. Instead they gave me, and hopefully plenty of others yet another chance to ride this guy even more. And we thought that Quayle was the ultimate gift from the GOP.
Now some of the smart guys who write for this intelligent, but wacko nevertheless, magazine are trying to give advice to a candidate who has the brains of sawdust, and to his people who appear to be a little dense too. I am loving this more every day. Wonder what Babs and Poppy think?
Simply because I like it, here is a site for you to look at. I am a fan of collections of old glass plate photographs. Years ago I bought a small box of them too. They were not as interesting as these.
And then there is this proof that what goes around comes around; or is it the other way around?
Tuesday September 12, 2000
As if to reinforce my flat out prediction yesterday, the discovery of yet another silly and juvenile stunt by the Bush folks provides me with another example of why Bush is defeated. Not only are Bush and his sidekick "Big Time" acting like jerks, so are their media consultants. What's he going to do when he debates Gore? Stick his tongue out at him?
OK. So even the Pope's spinners can do the semantics dance.
Aint this fun?
Monday September 11, 2000
I would like to talk about the Red Sox----they are just about finished---, but I won't. Then there is that stuff about the Devil and the Pope that is all over some other web-sites today. That I would love to talk about, but I won't. Even the Bobby Knight story is screaming for me to make a comment or two, but again, I won't.
But wait! as they say on all the infomercials, here is what I will talk about this morning. With the election still 57 days away counting today and the day itself, and the pundits and polls saying "boy oh boy, do we ever have a horse race", I am predicting that Gore will win. Period and end of story.
And here is one of the reasons. I refuse to believe that anywhere near half of those of us who will take the time to vote eight weeks from now could be hoodwinked into thinking that George W. Bush is even halfway up to the job. So forget about the polls, deliver yourselves from the anxiety of a Bush presidency. It will not happen. Take it to the bank. It's over.
And am I relieved!
Friday September 8, 2000
Today is the 70th anniversary of the first "Blondie" comic strip drawn originally by Chic Young . The strip in all of today's papers--well at least the papers that carry the strip-- has as one of it's panels an original piece from the first year. I thought it was interesting, so here it is.
I also found this news item from todays Times newsletter to be of some interest. I hope you all have the Times links working. If not, it's an article about a new Mayan discovery in Guatemala.
And a caller to C-SPAN this morning, one of the few who wasn't on to vent some oversimplified wacko position on something, this caller talked about The Great Storm in Galveston Texas one hundred years ago today. When the caller was a kid, he knew a storm survivor and told a story about it. So I learned something and you can too if you feel like it. In case you want more here is CNN's link too.
Oh, one other thing. There has been much less (so far) baloney about this than I expected. Could I have been wrong?
Thursday September 7, 2000
Boy oh boy, wait till the extremists on the right see this. What do you think they will conjure up from this chance encounter. And at the dreaded UN too. The Devil and his disciple.You decide which is which.
Meanwhile here are two takes on Elian's first day of school the other day. Take one from the good patriots at www.newsmax.com which is now frequently quoted by the un-biased C-SPAN and the second from The Washington Post (if the link is still alive) which the wackos think of as the devils own journal. These should have been referenced here a few days ago, but I forgot.
And speaking of forgetting, it's hard to remember that the Red Sox are still in the hunt albeit barely. It is time for them to put a string together and get this over with one way or another. There I have all but admitted that I have lost a lot of interest in this season. Phewww. That takes a load off of my mind. Confession really is good for ones soul or psyche or whatever you want to call it.
With 61 days to go I still will not call the election. But I promise I will make a firm and final call soon. Getting bored with that a little too. What's happening?
Wednesday September 6, 2000
So, technology you say. I have had what seems to be a quarterly adventure with the Cox@Home "help" line and their vaunted level II service which is actually the Excite@Home group of custumer service dudes and dudettes---I resort to the funny talk since most of the folks who answer the phones are from California and in California and the@Home techies really do talk like that. Anyway, after being told that my cable modem was fried, that the wires coming into my house were faulty, that my software was messed up and having at least three of the referenced dudes actually say well, "I am rolling a truck" to fix your problem despite my pleading not to do that, ( you would understand why if you ever had a guy from the local cable company come over to fix your problem) I got a call from some local guy from Cox Communications which has a big service center right down the street from me and he said we think we fixed the problem you reported for the past few days. It was not your modem, your connections,your software, or anything else. It was our equipment and we apologise and we will credit you a month for your trouble.
Meanwhile I will let Queen Maureen speak for me --politically--again today. Read this. Pretty good stuff.
And the wackos are getting all bent up over the big doings at the UN this week. New World Order scary stuff like this, and this. Besides the devil Castro himself will be bespoiling our land this week Check out this from a while back and worry.
Also, if I am permitted a personal note, today there was all this and, most important, it is my grandsons birthday! ( he is 5 years old today)
Tuesday September 5, 2000
The political year begins now. This George W. shows a few more symptoms every day as to why he should not be trusted with any truly important job let alone being the POTUS. The babble talk last week when he tried to talk about his tax plan. The silly TV ad that tries to "poke fun" at Gore. The so-called whispered aside. Here is a summary by a very conservative writer who, at least on this issue agrees with me.
Of all these problems, I think the babble that comes out when the frat boy tries "adult talk"--- like trying to explain anything to do with what he thinks they have in mind for him to say is his policy---that problem is the most revealing of his , well, his plain old stupidity.
And so were off. Sixty three days to go! Stay tuned.
Friday September 1, 2000
It has finally happened. For a very long time, I would have a feeling of anticipation and eagerness hit me around the middle of August, and peak around now to Labor Day. I think it was tied to school days long ago and reinforced by those college days, also a long time ago. You know September 1 was more like the real new year than New Years Day.The feelings stayed with me.Then sometime during the past few years they must have faded because this year I can't even reinvoke them. They are gone. Too bad.
Here is a site that is an announcement of another new project of the Smithsonian Institute and the Library of Congress.. While you are there, and I urge you to visit the site, download and play the very powerful and moving first recorded version of We Shall Overcome. Or just try it here( if I have linked to it properly)
And not without some connection, good riddance to these wackos. Don't you think so too?