A Little Foolishness can't Hurt

April Fools! There, I said it. Now you can relax and not worry about me playing any stupid April Fool jokes. You ever wonder how April Fool's Day came about? So do many others. There seems to be much dispute about it's origin. In fact, there are a number of explanations for it, the most popular one being that it started when the Gregorian calendar was adopted in 1582 that moved New Year's Day from April 1st to January 1st. In France, those who did not know about the change (communication was much slower in those days) and still celebrated the new year on April 1st were derided as being "fools". Personally, I think the French look foolish most of the time, calendars aside.

Many other theories about how April Fool jokes became a universal passion are just as convincing as that one. I think it maters not as to origination. In fact, something like an April Fool joke day must be an inevitability. Humans need to laugh. They also need to laugh at others. April Fool's pranks, those harmless and fun stunts are a good way for people to release tension. The great theologian, Martin Luther, once wrote that "If you are not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go." I agree with Luther (though I doubt any heaven would let me in anyway).

Laughing is probably what keeps us from weeping, so how could any reasonable person object to a reasonable Aril Fool prank. Throwing someone's cell phone it a garbage dumpsite is not reasonable. Hiding it for a few minutes is. I would suspect reasonable people play reasonable April Fool jokes and unreasonable ones do not.

A problem with April 1st is that many people don't take serious matters seriously. I don't want to have a heart attack or die on April 1st (though dying then might great timing because it would catch others off guard). Hmmm If on April 1st some babe or hunk you have dreamed about forever tells you he or she must have you and only you in bed what do you think...uh, ok, that obviously has to be an April Fool joke. It would never happen to me. But on April 1st there are borderline events that could be interpreted as funny that yet might be real ones.

This is the dilemma of April 1st. How should we react to events that seem a little unusual? We don't mind being the butt of April Fool jokes, but we also would feel stupid to be tricked by one or to think something said or done in seriousness is in fact a joke. Maybe the best strategy on April 1st is to just lock oneself inside the house and turn off all the electronic communications.

Uh...as you can see, I didn't take my own advice here. What a cruel joke to play on you.

No Immigration Restrictions Anywhere

The U.S. Census bureau last week released census figures that reports that the Hispanic population of United States is now more than 50 million. And it also said the growth in the Hispanic population accounted for almost half this country's population increase in the last 10 years. During the time, the number of Hispanics grew 43 percent. Uh..and those are just the "legal" Hispanics here. Add another 10 to 20 million who are here illegally and one can see the invasion is out of control. Unlike most other immigrant groups, after arriving in the new land many Hispanics prefer to keep their own language and culture. So in a sense, there is becoming a second nation within a nation among those who do not care to assimilate after arrival.

But the U.S. isn't the only industrial nation being over-run by people who come without asking or getting permission. All over Europe there continues to be a mass immigration of poor, uneducated, and culturally foreign immigrants that are making Europeans see changes in their countries that they do not like to view. Too the cost of social welfare programs to support those new immigrants is helping to bankrupt many European countries.

This illegal influx of job seekers from Eastern Europe, Asia, South America and Africa is causing chaos for many Western European governments. Spain's government, for example, has called the level of immigration there "unacceptable". Spain has long been a target of illegal immigrants from North Africa due to its relatively easy access from Morocco. It's similar to the invasion the U.S. gets from Mexico in that most who come use the system more than they contribute to it, given limited education and skill levels of the newcomers.

While the influx of badly educated, low skilled and unsuitable (criminal, drug dealers, gang members, and other social deviates ) into the U.S has been unprecedented during the past 50 years, the European influx is wrecking the economies and causing social problems there. The largest segments of Europe's immigrants are from Muslim countries. They assimilate even less than the United State's Hispanic group, Those insular Muslim communities in Europe are already long past the point of being merely troublesome, already having become an outright danger to the European governments. It has been a long time coming, but some Europeans are finally getting to the point of having had enough of people entering without being invited. More and more Europeans are finally beginning to speak out. But just like in the United Sates, Europe’s politically correct attitudes and platitudes are hard to overcome.

One could examine every Western European nation and find in each a multitude of exasperation there with the inability to stop the immigration that is wrecking their nations. But one example of panic among the established residents right now is in Italy. The Libyan civil war and other African upheavals are sending hordes to Italy. At Lampedusa, the island off of Sicily where most illegals who arrive by boat are held for processing, more than 3,000 new migrants have arrived in the last three days alone on the island that has a total population of 5,000 residents. Lampedusa lives off tourism and fishing, both of which are threatened by the human invasion.

The residents are fed up with the invaders and with their government's unwillingness to stop the invasion. Local Lampedusa fishermen yesterday pulled the migrants' seized boats across the harbor to block any more refugee boast from landing. It was symbolic, but an indication of the worry there. Islanders knocked over garbage bins along the roads and several women chained themselves together, shouting that the migrants should no longer be brought to shore. Islanders have sent their children to relatives who live elsewhere due to the stench of the garbage left by the vast numbers of migrants in the fields. Lampedusa has forever been despoiled and is a microcosm of what is happened to many nations themselves.

And what does the Italian government have to say about it all? It is asking other European countries to take "their share of the hordes". Good luck on that one. Italy is likely to become Africa's dumping ground just as the U.S. is Mexico's. At this time in most western industrial countries, the consensus world is that any person, possessed of any character and background, has an inalienable right to live where he or she wishes without any reason other than want.

There is no political will to protect the legal inhabitants of nations by enforcing immigration policies that ensure the safety and prosperity of the legal residents, and as a result, western nations are killing not only their cultures and stability but bankrupting themselves. One wonders if the fall of the west will open day be traced to this pen door policy.

Latest Priest Molestation Judgement

Another priest molestation settlement was announced to day. The reason I mention this one (there seems to be one everyplace where people have the right to sue) is that the incidents happened right here in the Oregon and Washington area. is Under terms of the agreement, the province will pay $48.1 million and its insurer will pay $118 million. Not surprisingly, the lawyers will be the big winner in the case of child molestation's here because 40 percent of the settlement will go toward attorneys' fees. In the world of litigation the lawyers are the biggest molesters of all.

There are also other clergy molestation's (most were sexual, but a few were allegations of beatings and other physical abuse) cases not covered by this suit that will further make the church ask the flock to pay for their priests deviant behavior.

Along with agreement for making the the payment to the accusers the church tried to cover it's behind with a statement saying it was not really at fault because only some priests can't keep their pants on when around their smallest church members show up for spiritual guidance. "We reach out to the Jesuits who have been innocent through all of this. Those who were the abusers clearly need to be sanctioned, but the majority of religious, Jesuits and others, are not charged or in any way involved."

Nothing like denial to cover any possibility of the church feeling any of the guilt that it passes on to its members within the catholic liturgy and practices the church demands of members. I think one thing Catholics are still wondering about is why their church does not come clean and admit guilt and systemic complicity in covering up abuse by their clergy. In the vast majority of cases of these allegations world wide, the church simply transferred those priests accused of the charges and did not report them to local police for investigation of their alleged criminal behavior, (the "if I am a priest I am immune from prosecution" policy). As a result, church membership and donations to the church by members have fallen dramatically in recent years.

So far more than $500,000,000 in priest abuse claims have been paid by the Catholic Church and the figure could reach 1 billion in total. What is glaring about this entire problem is that the Catholic Church had no specific policy for dealing with abusive priests, more often it simply pretended the abuse did not exist. There is a pattern because even today it still practices the avoidance policy, admitting to the abuses only when forced to do so by public allegation, litigation or physical evidence.

In a sense the Church just wants the allegations to just "go away". Yet as they continue to stonewall and evade about the molestation's, the only disappearing act is in the number of adherents sitting in church pews. Fewer and fewer are continuing their affiliation with Catholicism.

OMG Is Now Official

OMG! If you know the meaning of that exclamation, you probably won't be shocked that OMG is the latest entry into the famed Webster English dictionary (OMG already made it into the Oxford Dictionary in 2010) version 2011. It seems that OMG has been used often enough, long enough in speech and in varied citation references to be declared official. That is essentially the criteria of whether or not a new entry makes it into a dictionary. Thus, even idioms as silly as that one become recognized as off limits to English teachers' red pens when they are grading student homework papers.

OMG may seem to be something a Valley Girl teen coined on line, but it's actually not originally a tech term. It was first used in 1917 in a long published letter written by a famed British admiral, not by Paris Hilton or used the same way it is used (over used) today. But there were some other Internet inspired expressions given the stamp of approval by Webster this year .

How about, LOL, IMHO, and BFF? It's enough to make one learn another language. My favorite new entry for the year is the non tech appellation, "muffin top". Webster defines it as "a protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers. I prefer that to what we all know a muffin top is, old fashioned stomach flab. Please call me muffin top, not fatty.

Well, the nature of English is such that it must continually add even the silliest of words. An English dictionary evolves because the language is an amorphous one, one that adds frequently in order to stay vibrant. Unlike some other languages that are closed (French, for example), English does not discriminate on origin and welcomes new contributions from everywhere. The English vocabulary is one of the toughest to master because there are more words contained in it than any other language on earth. OMG!

What's interesting about the inclusion of OMG and other acronyms is that they are not really words. They are acronyms, or phrases or words...OMG..I am confused as to what they are. And this year a new type of "word" was added to Webster. It's that crazy heart symbol we all see on chat sites. Webster's Dictionary has now posted the little red symbol for a heart as a new "word".

OMG! I am confused and should probably ask Webster to please redefine one of it's long standing entries, "word". What exactly is a word? I will LOL if you try to define that one.

Ok Day

Guess what day it was Friday? It was the annual OK Day in the U.S. I think we are supposed to celebrate OK by saying OK allot. But everyone already says it too much. The whole subject of an OK day is not OK for me, I am confused. I am, not even sure where the work OK came from. I was a taught in school that OK came from a U.S. Presidential campaign in 1840 in which political supporters of a candidate, Martin Van Buren, formed OK from Van Buren's nickname "Old Kinderhook But that's just one theory. Here are some more claims for the start of our overuse of OK.

-It's an Old English acronym for 'Orl Korrect'.

- That in the American Civil War large blackboards would list the number killed each day. If none were killed the blackboard would read OK (zero killed)

- Another theory is that OK (or "Okay" as Americans say it) comes from the Scottish "auch aye", which means "ah yes

- That OK was born 172 years ago in the Boston Post newspaper of March 23, 1839, when the editor created humorous abbreviations. He wrote in the middle of a paragraph, "o.k. - all correct (Thus, why we celebrate OK on the March date)

- That ok comes from when the ships would return from sea. The French would say "au quai" which translates to "at the dock". The French!!! I refuse to believe the French contributed anything that significant to the world.

-That OK came from a Swedish production line worker named Olaf Knutssen. Every time he checked an assembly line product that was good he would stamp his OK initials on it.

There are more theories, but I will spare you the torture if it is OK with you. I think OK is probably the most spoken word, worldwide. It's universally understood and that may make it the most important word in any language. Ergo, we have a OK day to honor it. We are supposed to say OK even more than we normally do (but I hope not more than a teenager says "you know") It's all OK with me, and I am using OK often here in the spirit. You'll have to wait until March 23rd of next year since you missed OK day this year.

OK is good for us because it is a non offense word. People write OK on documents to mark their approval and we nod our heads or speak OK to express assent to something or just to say we're listening. It's also a great way to shorten or end a conversation. Just say OK and walk away. No one ever thinks anything of it when you do that. I bet you are hoping right about now that I say OK and shut up. That's OK with me....

Elizabeth Taylor

It's been a week since Elizabeth Taylor has died. I think most who knew her films and her life story are saddened because Elizabeth Taylor did it all....both naughty and nice. She had eight marriages and seven divorces, four children and a brood of grandchildren, more than 100 roles in movies, at least 70 hospitalizations/operations, several life threatening illnesses including the removal of a brain tumor, and two trips to the alcohol/drug abuse rehab.

Yet it was all done with grace and humor, a far cry from the typical "movie star" celebrity of this generation, who are frequently mean spirited, dysfunctional, spoiled and downright unpleasant to observe. Liz Taylor once said about herself that , "One problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues." Liz had many. Her personal life's plot twists that captivated so many, but in a fun way. Liz Taylor was always in love with somebody, often to many men and married men. She claimed to be blinded by passion. But it wasn't the kind of ugly passion that we see in today's "stars".

Think Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, and many more who are far from lovable in their naughty exploits. the death of Liz Taylor brings us closer to the death of the fun Hollywood and continued growth of the mean spirited and boring tinsel town Hollywood. While Liz Taylor had compassion for all and made sacrifices to support AIDS victims, the pathetic Michael Jackson, charities of all sort, today's star is too self obsessed to notice anything except him or herself in a mirror.

I remember years ago taking my mom to see Elizabeth Taylor in a play that was touring in New Orleans. Not being a huge fan of Liz Taylor I was interested in seeing her performance, but my mom had a child-like adoration for Liz Taylor the person, not the actress. She saw Taylor as a woman who lived life broadly, sometimes naughtily, but always with grace and enthusiasm. I think she and many others admired Taylor for that and perhaps envied her too. I didn't understand it then, but I do now.

Surely, Taylor wasn't the best role model in the world, given her many escapes that strayed from what is the norm. But she never was mean spirited, self absorbed or malicious. She never had an unkind word for or about anyone, even those she disliked or who disliked her, and she showed that being beautiful on the outside doesn't imply one must become ugly on the inside.

Elizabeth Taylor did what few humans can ever bring themselves to do. She lived her life the way she wanted and never worried about how society would view her. And through it all she never engendered any hate from those who watched her show, either on screen or off.

Turkey Burgers Are Coming

Carl's Jr., the fast food restaurant that sells huge hamburgers that popular here on the west coast made an announcement today that is intriguing. It's the introduction of the turkey burger. That's a 480 calorie burger as opposed to their huge 1400 calorie Monster hamburger. The only fast food that I eat here in Portland is Carl's Jr. burgers (I get the "small" one and that is almost too big to eat). I sometimes get one at lunch if near a Carl's Jr. outlet (they are all over the city).

The burger there is tasty, uses high quality beef and is the least expensive of all the fast food burger places. But today carl's Jr. will become the first national fast-food chain to add turkey burgers to its permanent menu. Hmmm Can anyone make a turkey burger anything but dry? There's not enough fat in turkey to make a burger that is moist...unless they add various fatty condiments and toppings to the burger. Loaded with turkey skin and fat in order to make them vaguely edible, I think we will see more than that dry ground turkey on a Carl's Jr. bun. By the time the mayo, bacon, and the bun are slapped on, the turkey burger is no nutritionally better than a beef burger, but it could be a nice guilt relief when chowing down on one.. T Would that not defeat the purpose of selling the "healthier" turkey sandwich.

Carl's Jr. says it isn't suddenly food and health conscious, but that since people are asking for such things as turkey burgers Carl is giving it to them. It's probably a publicity stunt because I doubt many people will do more than try one once, and then head back to the artery clogging Carl's Jr. hamburger. In matters of fast food, taste trumps health for all but the truly heath food devotees (who don't eat in places like Carl's much anyway).

Ok, this subject is stupid and a waste of time for you because you don't eat fast food burgers. But adding this sandwich to fast food menus is a sort of test about whether people really are as concerned with "healthy choices" as are the food police that seem to look over my shoulder when I order that Carl's Jr. hamburger. I say the turkey burger will sell about as fast as one can sell ice to an Eskimo.

But wait! There is one good aspect to the new Carl's Jr. turkey burger. Ads for the Carl's Jr., turkey burger will feature the former Miss Turkey from last year’s Miss Universe pageant.... in a bikini. Now that's mouth watering!

Silly Warning

Here's the dumbest newspaper headline of the day- "Will Japanese cars track radiation back to the U.S.?" Haha I'm not kidding. They really do think their readers are that stupid. Oh, the nonsense that will be thrown at consumers as the result of the nuclear accident in Japan will in many cases defy imagination. Nissan Motors actually did release a statement saying that it's cars aren't nuclear, and the article that told about this latest "fear" claims that the other Japanese car makers will do the same.

Nissan said it has started "this week to initiate the monitoring of vehicles made in Japan for any traces of radioactive material. Looking ahead, we will continue to implement all appropriate measures to reassure the public that all products from our company remain within globally accepted safety standards and until we are confident that any risk of contamination is completely removed."

My God! Only an idiot would think that Japanese cars or other products sold abroad would be filled with radiation. Apparently, the sellers think we are idiots. I hope they are not correct. Run for cover!! Fact is, the sun is hitting the earth with more radiation daily than that which is leaking from the Japanese reactors. Even if one were so uninformed to think that Japanese cars will be contaminated with radiation, that person would have to believe all cars are contaminated, given almost all cars made today have Japanese made components.

The fact that manufacturers have to reassure us about a nonexistent radiation concern shows the information overload effect today. We live in an age of a constant informational barrage. Some of the info is false or exaggerated, but that can still turn into urban myth if we are not careful to discern what we see and read. As media outlets compete to be the most attended to, they report more and more silly items, as in the case of the irradiated Japanese automobile. And there will always be many outlets to report such nonsense.

The public today tends to gather its news without discrimination, favoring trendy news sources and accepting whatever they read or see as being truth. This encourages even major media markets to report idiocy, as in the case of the glowing Japanese autos. Anyway...Haha I always did want a HOT Japanese car. Now I guess I can get one easily.

High Energy Drinks

Do your retail stores sell those "energy drinks"? They are everywhere here, particularly in convenience stores at gas stations and other spots where impulse buying is going to happen. The energy drinks are yet another fad and are basically high caffeine/sugar drinks that make people think they are more energetic by giving a slight "lift from the sugar and caffeine. The physical lift from them is probably less than the psychological one, but in the end they are another manifestation of the drug culture in which we live.

The most popular of them is the Red Bull drink, but the shelves are lined with them and they promise everything from a quick lift to increased sexual stamina. Americans seem to want a quick fix drug treatment for much of their desires. The medical community says there are links between caffeine in energy drinks, high blood pressure, increased alcohol consumption and even addiction among young people.

But no one seems to worry about it very much. There have been reports of people, including teens, with serious medical problems after consuming energy drinks are on the rise. For that group even the mildest of lifts can be a problem. The caffeine in energy drinks can lead to dehydration and caffeine makes insulin rise, which contributes to obesity.

But I wonder if those kinds of energy drinks ( drugs) really have enough effect to make a person spend money and risk medical complications. I doubt they are much more than a placebo. They surely show our fascination with drugs. I never take any over the counter medications, would not drink any of the energy drinks, and resist any prescription medications if possible. It might be that doing so has helped me be illness free almost entirely during my life.

I would like to read a study or to that deals with chemical ingested by people. I suspect that they may find that the more chemicals injected that are alleged to trick the body to do something the user wants, the more the body can react with symptoms of illness and other complications.

I guess for most, those drinks are not better or worse than the morning cup of coffee and donut. But they are expensive and when overused can cause problems. They also set the tone for the "drugs are great" mentality that encourages people to assume less responsibility for their own health. I'll stick to a donut and coffee. They taste better and come side effect free.

Silly Warning

Here's the dumbest newspaper headline of the day- "Will Japanese cars track radiation back to the U.S.?" Haha I'm not kidding. They really do think their readers are that stupid. Oh, the nonsense that will be thrown at consumers as the result of the nuclear accident in Japan will in many cases defy imagination. Nissan Motors actually did release a statement saying that it's cars aren't nuclear, and the article that told about this latest "fear" claims that the other Japanese car makers will do the same.

Nissan said it has started "this week to initiate the monitoring of vehicles made in Japan for any traces of radioactive material. Looking ahead, we will continue to implement all appropriate measures to reassure the public that all products from our company remain within globally accepted safety standards and until we are confident that any risk of contamination is completely removed."

My God! Only an idiot would think that Japanese cars or other products sold abroad would be filled with radiation. Apparently, the sellers think we are idiots. I hope they are not correct. Run for cover!! Fact is, the sun is hitting the earth with more radiation daily than that which is leaking from the Japanese reactors. Even if one were so uninformed to think that Japanese cars will be contaminated with radiation, that person would have to believe all cars are contaminated, given almost all cars made today have Japanese made components.

The fact that manufacturers have to reassure us about a nonexistent radiation concern shows the information overload effect today. We live in an age of a constant informational barrage. Some of the info is false or exaggerated, but that can still turn into urban myth if we are not careful to discern what we see and read. As media outlets compete to be the most attended to, they report more and more silly items, as in the case of the irradiated Japanese automobile. And there will always be many outlets to report such nonsense.

The public today tends to gather its news without discrimination, favoring trendy news sources and accepting whatever they read or see as being truth. This encourages even major media markets to report idiocy, as in the case of the glowing Japanese autos. Anyway...Haha I always did want a HOT Japanese car. Now I guess I can get one easily

Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor has died. I think most who knew her films and her life story are saddened because Elizabeth Taylor did it all....both naughty and nice. She had eight marriages and seven divorces, four children and a brood of grandchildren, more than 100 roles in movies, at least 70 hospitalizations/operations, several life threatening illnesses including the removal of a brain tumor, and two trips to the alcohol/drug abuse rehab.

Yet it was all done with grace and humor, a far cry from the typical "movie star" celebrity of this generation, who are frequently mean spirited, dysfunctional, spoiled and downright unpleasant to observe. Liz Taylor once said about herself that , "One problem with people who have no vices is that they're pretty sure to have some annoying virtues." Liz had many. Her personal life's plot twists that captivated so many, but in a fun way. Liz Taylor was always in love with somebody, often to many men and married men. She claimed to be blinded by passion. But it wasn't the kind of ugly passion that we see in today's "stars".

Think Charlie Sheen, Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, and many more who are far from lovable in their naughty exploits. the death of Liz Taylor brings us closer to the death of the fun Hollywood and continued growth of the mean spirited and boring tinsel town Hollywood. While Liz Taylor had compassion for all and made sacrifices to support AIDS victims, the pathetic Michael Jackson, charities of all sort, today's star is too self obsessed to notice anything except him or herself in a mirror.

I remember years ago taking my mom to see Elizabeth Taylor in a play that was touring in New Orleans. Not being a huge fan of Liz Taylor I was interested in seeing her performance, but my mom had a child-like adoration for Liz Taylor the person, not the actress. She saw Taylor as a woman who lived life broadly, sometimes naughtily, but always with grace and enthusiasm. I think she and many others admired Taylor for that and perhaps envied her too. I didn't understand it then, but I do now.

Surely, Taylor wasn't the best role model in the world, given her many escapes that strayed from what is the norm. But she never was mean spirited, self absorbed or malicious. She never had an unkind word for or about anyone, even those she disliked or who disliked her, and she showed that being beautiful on the outside doesn't imply one must become ugly on the inside.

Elizabeth Taylor did what few humans can ever bring themselves to do. She lived her life the way she wanted and never worried about how society would view her. And through it all she never engendered any hate from those who watched her show, either on screen or off.

Not Much St. Patrick's Day In Portland

This is my first St. Patrick's Day holiday away from New Orleans. It's a different feel here in Portland because the Irish presence in this city is far less than in New Orleans. I like Portland, but the atmosphere is so much different than New Orleans. When I left New Orleans after Mardi Gras I read about two big St. Patrick Day parades in the city scheduled a few days after that I have seen quite a few times. There is no St. Patrick Day parade here in Portland, and if there was one it would be far too sedate for me. Where else in the world except New Orleans do the float riders in a St. Patrick's Day parade throw the ingredients for a full Irish dinner to the spectators? Nowhere, I suspect. And many of those Irish parade riders have imbibed enough alcohol to make tossing a cabbage a dangerous event for those not paying attention.

New Orleans also has St. Joseph's Day parade and Portland, like most cities in the U.S. not only hasn't one but doesn't know what St. Joseph's Day is. The New Orleans St. Joseph's Day parade is the three days after St. Patrick's Day. No, those Italian New Orleanians don't throw meat balls and spaghetti to the spectators. but the marching groups in the parade do kiss as many women along the route as they can reach.

I'm also not seeing any of the Italian fig and other special cookies that are pervasive in New Orleans this time of the year. Fig trees abound in New Orleans, thanks largely to the Sicilian Italian immigrants who brought their fig tree variety to New Orleans when they immigrated en masse in the 1800's. They seem to grow very well in New Orleans and figs are easy to find.

And there are no St. Joseph's food altars on display in Portland. To my knowledge, only New Orleans and New York City have those. Those altars are placed in both churches and homes for public display, with all the food donated the next day to nursing homes and charities. Each altar gets blessed by a priest and presided over by a statue of St. Joseph. A stalk of lily blossoms, votive candles and a lace tablecloth are typically used to decorate the feast table are filled with beautiful and often elaborate foods, including meatless dishes such as stuffed artichokes, pasta and fish, as well as breads, cookies, pastries, cakes and other delicacies all supposedly to show thanks to St. Joseph for having so much to eat all year. It's quite beautiful to see. I guess instead, here in Portland I can look at the billboards advertising pizza specials.

I wonder if they pinch in Portland on St. Patrick's Day if you forget to wear something green? They do that in New Orleans. I should wear that T shirt I have that says- "Don't Pinch Me, I'm Wearing Green Underwear". Any pretty lady is welcome to inspect my underwear if she doesn't believe me. Fat guys should forget even challenging whether I have green underwear.

My daughter doesn't like corned beef, cabbage, lamb, shepherd's pie, any of the traditional Irish dishes. I think I'll take a holiday from cooking an Irish dinner and just feed her take-out pizza this year. After all, St. Joseph was Italian. Does that qualify as a religious gesture?

'May your pockets be heavy-
Your heart be light
And may good luck pursue you,
Morning, noon and night.'

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Little Brains Being Captured By Electronics

Want an example why the culture of the old world in which we have lived is dying. I just read a news blurb from an educational non-profit research group that approximately 80% of children between the ages of 0 and 5 use the Internet on at least a weekly basis in the United States. The little ones are becoming robots, I think. The days of running outside and playing, learning the natural world seem to be a distant thing of the past for most children. I wonder if childhood as it has been defined in the past is disintegrating as small children engage in "adult" activities as much or more as the traditional childhood ones.

If the little ones do not have enough of the experiences of childhood, will they be different as adults than we are? Teens have already been altered by their electronic/techno addiction and are far different from kids of previous generations. But now the smallest of kids are trading their Barbie dolls and sports games for i phones and computers. Will missing those unique and imaginative kid learning /play experiences make the next generation a more robotic and less creative one?

This study also shows that TV is the main activity of kids, with video the biggest attraction for them. Most small children today spend at least three hours a day watching television, and television use among preschoolers is the highest it has been in the past eight years. Of the time that children spend on all types of media, television accounts for 47% of it. No doubt heavy TV watching encourages other electronic media use, including the internet.

I remember being told by pediatricians to not let my daughter watch a Tv until after age two, as it interferes with normal brain development at that age. Yet, often parents today use the Tv as a baby-sitting device, invading the small brains of their infants and toddlers with a medium beyond their understanding.

Is all the electronic media use by undeveloped brains good or bad? I do not know, but think it will definitely make this generation different from those of the past. One absolute essential for small children is heavy socialization with peers. yet small kids today are forsaking much of that in favor of phones, TV, the internet and other electronic devices. I have noticed that even when small kids are "playing" with each other, they are often more engaged with their electronics than with other kids. The smallest kids parallel play that way in the earliest years, but it disappears when they learn socialization skills. Now the parallel play is extended years beyond the old level.

Kids are learning to relate to their electronics faster and better than to other humans. I find that a little disturbing. Do you?

Krewe Of Tucks

I am back from New Orleans and Mardi Gras....tired and trying to get organized here again but had a great trip back. I took some Bourbon Street Mardi Gras costume pictures, mine included, so when I have time to upload them I can show you some of them.As always, the food was great in New Orleans. I can't imagine many places with better food. Mardi Gras was fun and it was nice seeing familiar people and places again. I'll write some things about it later after I upload the photos and when I have the time to do so. Now, just something about the Mardi Gras parades.

The crowds this year were the biggest ever for Mardi Gras, given the late time of the year (warmer weather, college spring break etc. .makes for more travelers). I saw three parades this time, each different and in deferent locations. But one that is typical, and that I watched (one actually participates in parades in New Orleans, not merely watches them) is the Krewe of Tucks.It's typical of carnival organizations and most things in New Orleans because it started from a nonsense idea by the most unlikely of persons.

Loyola University students started this parade in the late 60's. The"krewe"' takes its name from Friar Tuck, an uptown pub where two college students drink allot (it's near their campus) and decided to create their own parade after unsuccessfully trying to become white flambeaux carriers (The flambeaux carriers were originally slaves and free men of color parading, twirling and fooling around in robes. Before floats were lighted with electricity it was a way of providing light for the floats to be better seen. Flambeaux carriers are rare now but are true performers who dance and put on terrific shows for the crowds who often throw spare change as tips.). See below a photo so the old style flambeaux carriers.

From there Tucks gradually grew into a full sized, well financed (all parades are private enterprises paid for by krewe members). The Krewe of Tucks parade is always a parody of something either serious or non consequential. This year, for instance, the theme was " iTucks, What's APPening", making fun of the addictive property of all the technology people seem enamored.

Here were some of the float titles in the parade: Farmville, Tweet This( it had a huge bird mindlessly tweeting on his phone), I Have No Bars, Byte Me, and Green Eggs and Spam. The techno title was tied in with some non tech point made by each float.

This year's Tuck's king waved a toilet brush scepter and the krewe themes throws were all toilet related.... miniature squirting toilets, plungers and Tucks-stamped toilet paper rolls. I caught a toilet plunger and there is a photo below from the local newspaper of someone else who caught one and who is putting it to good use.I saw this parade along historic St. Charles Avenue, the beautiful old oak lined avenue of mansions and charm. There were hundreds of thousands of viewers for Tucks (and for each of the other parades during Mardi Gras) and many had tents with barbecue pits along the parade route. It gets so crowded on St. Charles, and real estate on the parade route is so prized, families (illegally) rope off sections along the route 24 hours or more before the parades roll, often getting up in the middle of the night to stake out their plots.


The "stuff" along the route that people place includes the barbecue pits, mini kitchens, portable toilets, lawn chairs, stacks of coolers and rows of ladders for children to stand on to get up above the heads of parade watchers. It's like no other parade route in any other place.Tucks is the non traditional type of parade. The floats are not elaborate and the costuming and bands are unconventional. I like this type of parade as well as the garish super krewe parades. The unconventional types probably give more of the character of New Orleans, while the fancy ones will give you the oh and ah effect.

Anyway, I think you should one day see Mardi Gras parades and experience carnival as they do it in New Orleans. I can promise one thing, that it will be different from anything else you have ever seen.

Last Meal Choices

What would you choose to eat if you had only one more meal to eat (just a hypothesis, I am not sending the executioner to put you in the electric chair)? If you said, "Why would he ask that?", you probably don't like food enough to be interested. if so, I feel sorry for you. Good food is one pleasure that all humans can enjoy with high intensity. I think it is good to search out those special meals whenever possible. Thus, what would your last meal be. (If you chose too many vegetables in it. I will say a Novena for your lost soul).

It's sad to think that some day we probably will be having a last meal at a very old age, and that most probably we won't enjoy it as much as we would now! If old and decrepit, the taste acuity, even my ability to breathe and swallow could be compromised enough to make the most heavenly tastes seem bland. That being the case, I think we should always strive to enjoy a last meal every day while we still can enjoy it lest I miss out on the chance to savor the tastes.

I am betting you probably choose some food item for your last meal, that was a memory of your childhood, and in the very least you choose something that is locally available. People who chose a generic last meal.."I just want a steak or noodles", might not have the appreciation for food as those who have a more specific choice.Too, when was the last time you allowed yourself to have your favorite meal? The food people today, and the diet wackcos have convinced many of us that eating should be a spartan, tasteless experience that is done only to serve "good nutritional purposes". But I think that if we make nutritious, balanced choices most of the time, the body's cravings for the rich and favored foods we crave must be satiated. To not feed our passions is to die slowly each day.

My last meal choice would be a New Orleans style Shrimp Po Boy. Sweet deep fried Louisiana shrimp with only light mayonnaise on the famed Leidenheimer's German/French bread. It's simple and heavenly. My side item is a steaming bowl of Seafood Gumbo made with a dark roux and filed with seafood and served with plenty of rice. For dessert, an apple Hubig pie ( it's a local version of pocket pies with an ethereal crust from a recipe a German immigrant brought to New Orleans more than 125 years ago and cooked on the same machinery and with the same ingredients as done 125 years ago ). To finish off my last meal I would grab a New Orleans style snowball, spearmint in flavor with creamy vanilla ice cream in the middle.

It's simple fare, and part of the food of my upbringing, and I hope I'll have many more last meals like it in the years ahead.

Too Many Mean Comments On Line

I have concluded that commentary on the Internet is a whole lot more mean spirited than off line. Anyone today with Internet access and a bad attitude can take to the Web to attack friends acquaintances or total strangers. I think the supposed anonymity of the Internet gives the fools and mean spirited types more reason to be cruel.

It's so bad that web sites for memorials to the deceased report constant vicious comments submitted at the a site about a departed loved one. Fortunately, most of those comments are censored before they make it on line. Legacy.com, a national memorial site, estimates that almost 5% of its almost 1 million "guest book" posts each month have to be blocked, either for reasons of old fashioned meanness. I haven't found any statistic that charts mean spirited comments on mainstream site pages, but one would think it would be a far bigger figure than the 5% that exists at a memorial site. Suffice to say, that such commentary reflects a more mean spirited population today.

Many web sites now require the person commenting to register, ending some of the anonymity that emboldens some to be mean or vulgar toward another person on line. Most of the news sites do that now, but still people are often unkind or crude when posting a remark that disagrees with another posted remark, the person who made it, or about the subject matter of the commentary.

In a free society we don't have the right to not be offended. But in a free society that is educated much of that should be eliminated naturally. The educated person knows the distinction between a nasty disagreement and a simple disagreement, and further, he or she less frequently mistakes the two when posting comments. But in our age of immediacy and shallow thought it seems we have fewer of that type posting on line.

That I can be ugly to another person because I have the anonymity of stating my comment is not a rationalization that I should do it. Why is that so hard for so many people to understand today? Good character does not make room for mean or vulgar spirtidness. Good ideas do not come from the vulgar, and proving your idea right or wrong isn't a contest in which the nastiness must be the most right.

New Villain In The Arab World

Quite a bit of that "Changes Are Coming' sounds like my rants. Maybe some one has been secretly reading the rants I send to you. The times are a changing in the Muslim states. All the recent protests and government changes in Muslim countries have indicated that fundamentalist Islamic rule is no longer the glow it used to be for Muslims. And the latest example are some quotes made by Libya's Moammar Gadhafi vows as he futilely tried to fight on against protesters in Libya. Take a look at these quotes from Gadhafi and see the common thread...

"Libyan youth will not follow "agents of foreign intelligence and Muslim fundamentalists."
"If you won't follow Gadhafi, who would you follow -- someone with a beard? Impossible."
"We reject to be ruled by followers of bin Laden."
"I will not let Libya be like Fallujah," (a reference to the Iraqi city that was taken over by al-Qaeda)

One glance and the reader sees that it is not the usual whipping boy "western imperialists" "The United States dogs", "The CIA" or "agents of the west" who get blamed for toppling the thug Gadhafi. No, the blame falls on the fundamentalist Muslims and the warning is to beware that replacing the awful Gadhafi might bring on an even more awful Muslim theocracy in his place. Even in Muslim countries the demon now is fundamentalist Islamic rule.

Is this not the best news to come out of the revolutions in the Mid east and Africa? When the mind set changes in the very places where fundamentalism seethes with hate, the hate and accompanying delusionsal thought and practice will be even more quickly extinguished. Bombs don't kill terrorism as fast as ideas do. Though Gadhafi has been on the outs with many of the fundamentalist groups for some time, that an Arab leader would so clearly disparage them is cause for rejoice everywhere in the world.

Hmmm Maybe we should "praise Allah" for the recent revolutionary events in that region of the world.

Man's Mind Versus Machine Mind

That contest between the two top Jeopardy (a game of the recall of facts) contestants of all time and a computer called 'Watson' that was built specifically to see who is the real champ of information recall, brings up quite a few questions. The main being the long time, "Are computers smarter than people"? Watson won easily, but it was, after all, just quick recall of facts. It should be no surprise that a computer (created and programmed by man, more specifically, by an IBM team of 25 scientists in three years time) would recall faster than a human brain. Fortunately for mankind, intelligence is more that than regurgitation of factual information.

While computers can calculate and construct, they cannot decide to create. So far, only humans can. And that is the distinction between man and machine. Humans think, emote, and create. machines only think (and only the way they have been programmed to do so). Humans have the kind of intelligence that writes poetry and music, falls in love, sacrifices for loved ones, behaves enigmatically and on and on. Humans are interesting, machines are reliable but predictable and un exciting (Haha unless one is a cell phone addict and has crossed the boundary and is unable to distinguish humanity from his or her phone).

So given all of that humans are surely "smarter" than their created machines. The intelligence humans possess is a different kind than can (at least for now) be programmed into machines. It is self contained in each human and not one dependent on outside connections as computers are. This is why the variation in intelligence levels among humans is far greater than what is found in computers. Machine intelligence varies from computer to computer very little.

What Watson really proves to us is that humans are still the more important intelligence on earth. All the computers in the world can't create the love a parent has for a child, for instance. And if one ever did it would have ceased to be a machine anymore

Man's Mind Versus Machine Mind

That contest between the two top Jeopardy (a game of the recall of facts) contestants of all time and a computer called 'Watson' that was built specifically to see who is the real champ of information recall, brings up quite a few questions. The main being the long time, "Are computers smarter than people"? Watson won easily, but it was, after all, just quick recall of facts. It should be no surprise that a computer (created and programmed by man, more specifically, by an IBM team of 25 scientists in three years time) would recall faster than a human brain. Fortunately for mankind, intelligence is more that than regurgitation of factual information.

While computers can calculate and construct, they cannot decide to create. So far, only humans can. And that is the distinction between man and machine. Humans think, emote, and create. machines only think (and only the way they have been programmed to do so). Humans have the kind of intelligence that writes poetry and music, falls in love, sacrifices for loved ones, behaves enigmatically and on and on. Humans are interesting, machines are reliable but predictable and un exciting (Haha unless one is a cell phone addict and has crossed the boundary and is unable to distinguish humanity from his or her phone).

So given all of that humans are surely "smarter" than their created machines. The intelligence humans possess is a different kind than can (at least for now) be programmed into machines. It is self contained in each human and not one dependent on outside connections as computers are. This is why the variation in intelligence levels among humans is far greater than what is found in computers. Machine intelligence varies from computer to computer very little.

What Watson really proves to us is that humans are still the more important intelligence on earth. All the computers in the world can't create the love a parent has for a child, for instance. And if one ever did it would have ceased to be a machine anymore.

Falling One By One

Another President's Day has come and gone. President's Day is one of those holidays that people notice only if there some major event related to a democratic government with a freely elected president. We have had a fair share of good presidents the past few years. Bill Clinton was surely an effective and positive president. And we have had the worst types too, as in George Bush Jr. But forget our presidents for a moment because president's day has made we in the U.S. more aware of what we don't have, the thugish dictatorship that is found in so many nations world wide.

This President's Day it was amazing and wonderful to see the protests and demands against the dictators of so many Arab nations in Northern Africa and the Mid east. Has the fall of Mubarak in Egypt become the catalyst for the until now passive citizens of Islamic nations to finally declare to their dictators that using a religion, Islam, as a pretext to control an entire population isn't going to play anymore. The Dominos seem to be falling, and with each one that does collapse the world has more freedom and is a safer place than before. With the replacement of a dictatorship and the implementation of a more representative government Islamic terrorism also loses some of its constituency.

I doubt that the fundamentalist extremism of the Islamic terrorist will make much sense or have much appeal to people who also see a real future and freedom to act in their own countries. al Quida and the like must be in distress at what is happening in the Arab world. For too long the Islamic dictators have protected and abetted the renegade terrorist groups. Removing those dictators can't be a good thing for Fundamentalism.

The Internet and other communication modes that bring information quickly and are much more free from censorship may have condemned the ignorance of extremism to take its place in the intensive care ward. It's almost inevitable that a people who see a more free, more affluent, more opportunity oriented and better lifestyle in democratic nations displayed every day would finally say "enough" to their antideluvian dictaorships. It's a goof imitation of the fall of the old Eastern European is dictatorships in 1989. See how they fall , one by one. How glorious for all of humanity.

I'm not announcing the death of dictators in the Muslim world, but surely what will eventually replace the long reigning thugs will be a more democratic and representative that will give Arabs who live in those countries a reason to reject extremism. Perhaps one day countries like Egypt will have their own President's Day celebrations to remember their own past democratic leaders.

Painting Auction

I was on line the other day to purchase one more painting to place on the wall here at home (Since I moved to the new house I decided to give some of my paintings a rest and put up a few new ones). This site is a Goodwill thrift site that auctions the best of items people donate to it.

You would be shocked at how valuable some things are that are donated to charity. Often people don't understand the value or they are just tired of something of value and decide to donate it. I have found some nice paintings on the site.

Well, I book marked two paintings that I liked there and did research on them to see if the artist is famous and whether his paintings are valuable. In the case of one, the art work looked very much like that that of the famous artist, Winslow Homer. It was signed in print as H O M E R. Most of Homer's paintings sell for more than one million dollars! He is considered one of America's greatest artists. So I was skeptical that this Homer was the famous one.

After looking on line at the painting and comparing it to known Winslow Homer paintings, I saw that the art work being auctioned looked exactly the same and the subject matter was as familiar as real Winslow Homer paintings. But the signatures on most of the Winslow Homer paintings were in script. They did not match this printed one...until..I found one signature on a painting of his that was in print that "somewhat" resembled the Homer signature on the painting auctioned at the site.

Was it the Homer of fame or not? I am not an art appraiser so I have no idea. I waited to place a bid the last 30 minutes of the auction (It was to it end two days later). When I returned to the auction site at that time to bid I notice the bid was still the same as the one I originally saw, a small price of $33. So, I guessed the painting as not an original Winslow Homer after all.

But as the last 30 minutes of the sale for this painting wound down, two bidders started bidding on it wildly. First $150 then $750, then the other bidder posted a price of $1500 and on the bidding war went. I loved seeing it. By the time the auction for the painting needed, in the last 3 seconds one of the two bidders won the painting with a bid of $24,225! No doubt those two wildly bidding persons were art dealers or experts who judged the painting to be an original Winslow Homer oil on canvas.

Dealers always use that site to find valuable paintings at bargain prices. It was fun to watch and be reminded that there are jewels that might be found without much cost at one of those auctions.