My Time to Waste

I attended high school from fall of 1969 through the spring of 1973.  In that four years, I was shown the movie Why Man Creates two or three times (I’m really leaning towards the three).  It is a strange flick and most of it I only vaguely remember.

I do, however, vividly remember one long sequence.  I do no so much remember what all was in the sequence, but I remember what it looked like.  The conceit was that we are looking at one long continuous sheet of paper scrolling across the frame top to bottom.  As the paper scrolls, a pencil point enters the frame and draws (very quickly) illustrating the history of mankind.

I can still remember the dark ages going by as the pencil draws tall towers with arched shuttered windows.  Then one shutter opens up and a man leans out and says “Egads!!  I’ve invented the zero!”.  Another shutter nearby opens and a man leans out and says “What?”.  The first man responds with “Nothing.  Nothing.”

I am a big lover of puns and I thought that was great.  I’ve always remembered it.  Or did I?

As you can see, the movie does not quite conform to my memory.

The nerve.

I see that I took my favorite “dialogue” from the movie and inserted it into the memorable sequence (the pencil sketching). Then I forgot all about Allah and substituted “Egads!”. Those two things combined gave credit for the discovery of zero to the wrong culture.   This memory persisted even though I knew better regarding where the credit lay.

This makes me wonder about the veracity of my clear memory of writing the song American Pie. I’m sure McLean stole it from me….

I have never been able to drink any beverage with the word tea in the name.  It is difficult for me to not spit tea out.  Horrible, horrible stuff.

But key lime stuff is usually very good.  And Raspberries are fantastic.

So Debby and I were traveling home from out northeast a few years ago and we stopped I don’t know where but I’m thinking it was far west New York near Pennsylvania.

I browsed the preserves.  And there it was:  White Tea Key Lime Raspberry Preserve made by Cherchies in Malvern, PA.  I almost didn’t get it due to white tea being not only in the name, but first!!  On the other hand, it was only $5 (at that time) for 13.5 oz and there was the key lime and raspberry part.

So I bought it.  I’m a bit more adventurous than I used to be.

Outstanding preserves.  Great flavor that is completely different than anything I’ve ever had.  Not just different, but good different. It’s been awhile since I ran out so I can’t be more specific.  But I sure was sorry when I ran out.

I can’t wait to be out that way again.  I’ll be stocking up a bit the next time I find the stuff.

Maybe I’ll even break down and order some one of these days.

I’ve been reading Coming Into the Country by John McPhee.  Yes, I’m thirty three years behind the times.

On page 37 and going around the corner to 38, McPhee and companions are in the Alaskan wilderness:

Breakfast in the frying pan–freeze-dried eggs…Nobody’s skin is going to turn brown on these eggs–or on cinnamon-apple-flavored Instant Quaker Oatmeal, or Tang, or Swiss Miss, or on cold pink-icinged Pop-Tarts with raspberry filling.  For those who do not believe what they have just read, allow me to confirm it: in Pourchot’s breakfast bag are pink-icinged Pop-Tarts with raspberry filling.  Lacking a toaster, and not caring much anyway, we eat them cold.  They invite a question.

Oh good!  McPhee sees it too.  A question is indeed invited!  He continues:

To a palate without bias–the palate of an open-minded Berber, the palate of a travelling Martian–which would be the more acceptable, a pink-icinged Pop-Tart with raspberry filling (cold) or the fat gob from behind a caribou’s eye?

Wait.  That’s the invited question?  Yeah, sure, it is an interesting question, but it sure as heck is not the question that I was thinking about as he confirmed the presence and eating of the pink-icinged Pop-Tarts with raspberry filling.

You are preparing to go into the Alaskan wilderness for an extended period of time and you pack Pop-Tarts?!

And I’ve got to believe that the unbiased palate would prefer food (the fat gob) over manufactured crap (Pop-Tarts), though I suspect I would seek a third option.

But that’s just me.

Senator Kennedy has requested that the Massachusetts legislature and governor move to change the law regarding how a vacant Senate seat is filled.  Kennedy’s interest is due to his own serious health issue and the precarious nature of health reform legislation in the US Senate.  Health reform has been one of Kennedy’s top concerns his entire career.

Noam Scheiber over at The New Republic thinks it would be a bad idea for Massachusetts to change the law.

Scheiber thinks that Kennedy’s vacant seat after his death would increase the likelihood that health reform legislation would pass.

… it would be suicidal for the GOP to filibuster the culmination of the last Kennedy brother’s lifelong crusade.

I see two problems here.  I’m not convinced it would be suicidal for the GOP to do that (though possibly).  More importantly, I doubt the GOP would see it that way.

Further, I don’t see what difference it would make if Kennedy’s seat was filled by the governor’s appointment or not.  If the GOP did believe it suicidal to “filibuster the culmination of the last Kennedy brother’s lifelong crusade” why would the seat being filled change that calculation?

Scheiber goes on to say:

I suspect the coverage of Kennedy’s death would silence healthcare reform critics and boost proponents in a way that netted at least a couple of wavering moderates–so clearing the 51-vote threshold wouldn’t be a problem. Heck, you might even see Utah Republican (and longtime Kennedy friend) Orrin Hatch back in the reformist camp.

This may very well be true, but again, I don’t see how the governor naming someone to fill the vacant seat disrupts this all that much.  An addition of a couple of moderate votes would be helpful to get to 60.

Finally, Scheiber is assuming that Kennedy is concerned about what will happen after his death.  It could be that Kennedy is prepared to resign the moment Massachusetts makes the appropriate change in the law.  Kennedy might be at the point where he now knows he will never be on the floor of the Senate again, but also knowing his vote (read:  his replacement’s vote) will be needed.

I can see an argument that Massachusetts should not change the law based on the idea that laws should not be altered for political expediency.  The Massachusetts law used to allow the governor to appoint someone to a vacant Senate seat but the legislature changed it when there was a faint hope that Kerry would vacate the seat to become President and the Massachusetts governor at the time was a Republican.  Not that I would be persuaded in this particular case by such an argument, but it is a good one (and should have been heeded the first time around).

This year Hawaii celebrates fifty years of statehood.

This year, Public Policy Polling found that six percent of Americans do not consider Hawaii to be part of the United States.  And four percent are not sure.

Ten percent of Americans are not sure of Hawaii’s status as a state.

I have seen several of Leno’s Jaywalking segments demonstrating that there are plenty of people who are unaware of what most of us consider to be common knowledge, but ten percent?  Surely the sample size was too small or some other factor skewed the results.  I just have a hard time with ten percent.

Why?

Because Hawaii and Alaska are the easy states.   When learning about the states back in grade school, Hawaii and Alaska were the easiest to remember.  There they were set apart from the other forty eight states, each in its own little box, looking nothing like each other.  After learning your own state  wasn’t Hawaii and Alaska next?

I understand that there are people who cannot name the fifty states.  Most of my life I could not do it myself.  Today I can.  But I made a point of correcting the deficiency.  (Don’t ask me about capitals!)   I do not see it as a problem that there are Americans (probably lots of them) who cannot name the fifty states.

But that ten percent cannot correctly identify that Hawaii is part of America when asked?   Yikes!

In my post the other day, Hunger, I admitted to spending all my money on comic books and Coca-Cola.

I should have included cigarettes. I don’t smoke now, but I was a pack a day smoker then. I don’t remember for sure, but I think I still had cigarettes even though I had no food.

So now you know the whole truth (at least until I remember more).

Yes, I still write checks.

I wrote a check for groceries yesterday. The clerk had me fill out the check completely. Then she ran it though the register, had me sign a receipt the register printer out, and gave me back my voided check with my receipt, the money being electronically removed from my account.

Why do I have to fill out the check?

A couple of years ago, Walmart was not yet doing the electronic check, but they were offering the option of the register filling out the check as opposed to the customer filling out the check. The customer was asked to sign the check and then the clerk would run it though the register. Presumably this saved time. On a couple of occasions, I suggested that I would sign the check after it was filled out. Both times the clerk responded negatively and repeated that I needed to sign the check first.

Why do I want to sign a blank check and hand it over? Sure, they let the customer look at it after printing, and I can understand that it might save time, but if a customer objects to signing it first, why wouldn’t they accommodate that?

Nothing to do with a check, I stopped at a gas station for gas the other day. I was going to pay cash. I pushed the button to choose “pay inside” and waited for the machine to process. And waited. Well, thirty seconds. Then the voice comes over the intercom to say that if I am not paying by card at the pump I have to prepay.

Why is there not a sign on the pump? I know it is just thirty seconds, and it is not like I don’t have the time to waste….

Today seems to feature a short video of Congressman Barney Frank responding to a town hall attendee asking about the Nazi policies in the health care reform.

Frank responds to her with a dismissive insult. It is funny. And, yes, I would not argue with the statement that she deserved the response she got. From what I’ve seen around the internet, lots of Democrats are giddy with delight over Frank’s response.

I’ve been watching the “highlights” from various town meetings for a couple of weeks or so. Lots of shouting from people who are against health care reform. Not discussion, but disruption. I understand how frustrating that can get. People yell out stuff based on lies and no opportunity to explain how they are wrong is allowed.

Frank gets the rare case of a citizen asking a belligerent question in a civil manner. She asks the question and then she stops talking. Frank could actually take a minute and explain why her assumptions are incorrect. He could explain how the Nazi comparison makes no sense. But no, he is dismissive and insulting.

To be clear, I seriously doubt that there is anything that Frank could have said to change how the woman feels about the issue. But it is possible that a few people would see the video of the exchange and learn something.

As it is, the video simply justifies the antics that have taken place previously (with more to come, no doubt). Why not shout down the opponent when the opponent is only going to indulge in insults.

It probably makes no difference, but it would be nice if some Democrat actually explained why health care reform is not leading us down the road to a fascist state (and why there was never any plans for death panels that would pull the plug on grandma….and….)

Yesterday I slept late.  Late even for me.  So I ate a late, light breakfast and made it through most of the afternoon without thinking about food.  By suppertime I was hungry.  I could feel the emptiness of my stomach.  I was reminded of the first time in my life that I felt hunger.

I was 21 years old.

I had stayed at Indiana University in Bloomington for the summer to take a couple of classes.  I believe the dorms were all closed for the summer so I sublet a trailer and spent what amounted to a mostly miserable summer.  I took a couple of classes, but I did not get a job so I was dependent on money from home.

I should point out that the U.S. Post Office routinely scanned the mail from my parents to me.  If the scan revealed a check to be in the envelope, then the letter was shelved for a few days before delivery.  When no check was present, the letter arrived in my mail box the day after it was mailed.  I know this makes me sound like a conspiracy nut (which I’m not despite my belief that Oswald did not act alone) and a bit paranoid (but when everyone is out to get you, you won’t care what you sound like either).

Anyways, checks always seemed to take awhile.  Added to that was the problem that I spent my money poorly.  I blew it on, gulp, comic books and Coca-Cola.  There, I’ve admitted it.  Sad but true.  I have boxes of comic books in the garage to prove it.   Don’t worry, I already gave the few that had any value to my son.

Anyways, I was dimly aware that I managed my money poorly, so I tried to delay asking for money as long as possible.  At one point that summer, I went though my money quicker than usual and so I delayed the call home longer than usual.  And just to keep the roll going the Post Office shelved the letter longer than usual.

I ran out of food.

If you’ve read this far, it is probably not a surprise to you that I grew up in a reasonably well to do household and that my existence had been somewhat pampered (in spite of the part time job throughout high school) up to that point.  As a result, I had no clue that I could have found some one willing to feed me (at least, I assume that is true).

The only edible thing left in the trailer was Cool Whip.  I ate that.

I was beginning to feel a bit weak and I dreamed of stacks of pancakes, of which I am not all that fond.

And I thought about how I had never experienced hunger before.  Sure, I had used the word, but only in the sense that it seemed everyone used the word:  it’s been three or four hours since I ate so it is time to eat so I am hungry.  That was all the word meant to me, that it was time to eat.

After a few days, the check arrived and I still had the strength to buy groceries.   For some reason, the urge to eat pancakes had passed, so I spared myself that.

And despite yesterday, I have never felt true hunger since.

Knock on wood.   (I always hit my knuckles on my head with that phrase since one can never be sure of the composition of objects that once upon a time were reliably wooden.  I do not doubt the woodenness of my head).

I first blogged that Indiana congressman Mike Pence was considering running for President in 2012 on June 17.

Congressional Quarterly picked up on my posted the idea on July 13 (as I already noted).

And now The New Republic also posts the idea (though with the caveat that he was not likely to win).

I notice today that Pence’s blog has now been completely taken down.  “This website has been disabled“