Walking My Way Back Home

Living in Oregon has made me notice walking a lot more than I did in the past. In my former home, New Orleans, it was often too hot to walk "for fun" or exercise. But Oregon has a good walking climate. It's more often cool or mild outside than it is uncomfortable. I see people walking in my neighborhood every day. Since I live on a small mountain walking is big here. When I retrieve my morning newspaper at 4 or 5 am it isn't unusual to see joggers or walkers already doing their thing.

I have noticed different ways people walk. Just as there are no two identical finger prints there here is no single way to walk. A walker might stroll, stumble, use a fast pace gait, walk with a smile or frown, walk in a straight line or wall on an angle. Some ;people walk and are happy to do it and others are walking reluctantly. You can see a grimace on their face that says) "I'm only doing this for the exercise". 

Then there is how age affects how we walk. Small children have trouble walking for any length of time. They naturally turn their walk into a run. Maybe it's because they are excited about life so much more than we older ones.  So they want to make their walk anything but boring. Women walk with dignity, like a ballet dancer moves. Men walk like a ballet dancer that has two left feet.  Bouncy walkers are annoying. They are showing off how well conditioned they are. They are not a pretty sight when walking. And oldies walk carefully, sometimes painfully. They often appear that they will fall and break a hip. Sadly some do.

Most people walk better when they do it alone. Walking hand in hand can be injurious to the walkers. They are not attentive when they walk holding hands. But one good thing about walking in a group is that the walk seems shorter and easier, given that the walkers are conversing and not thinking about how far they must still walk. That applies except when you are walking in a group protest . Protest walks are stressful and tiring. I have no idea how to caricature people who walk dogs. Really the dogs walk the people more than the former. I see a lot of people who walk dogs be dragged along by their pets.

Besides it being their form of transportation from one place to another or as exercise, people walk for many reasons, but perhaps the largest one is because it gives them separation from the routine, and  time to think about things apart from distractions. We appreciate our surroundings, those pretty tress and flowers we ignore when driving by in a car for instance, a little more when we walk. Next time you walk take a look at others who are also walking. You'll see a lot more than their locomotion.

Too Many Recipes

I keep seeing more and more cooking recipes in my newspaper and on line. Maybe this is the 'Age of the Recipe'. On the whole people have always liked and shared recipes among themselves. But in the age of instant information it seems the recipe is away of one upping the other person. That's because today's recipe is often unrecognizable to most of us. Whereas in former times one pork recipe, for example, was similar to the next, now we have the most weird versions of the same dishes.

This year's magazine web site or newspaper recipe for cooking that pork often has a list of ingredients, so rare, that the cook would practically have to break and enter someone's rare ingredient store to find what's in the dish.  Want to make a trendy dessert, add aceroli (it's a rare fruit). Today's mushroom omelet recipe is likely to insist you use enoki mushrooms. Where would I find that? You think a mushroom omelet would be inedible if a more common mushroom were substituted? I should ask a French chef that one. On the other hand, I have no desire to be attacked  by a chef who is wielding a meat clever.

You get the idea. Today's recipes have a multitude of trendy and rare ingredients, which may or may not affect the taste of the recipe when constructed.  But I guess the people who write those recipes need to make them weird in order to make them look interesting enough for the publication to buy and use them in their magazine, newspaper or on their web site. I am suspicious enough to think those recipe writers are probably never themselves using any of those ingredients when they cook. In fact, I suspect they probably consist on a hamburger and french fry diet. They probably dine at Mc Donald's.

Many of the new, proliferating and useless recipes I see are diet or......horrors...."health food" recipes. I always close the publication in disgust when I see those. The notion that quinoa, chia seeds and the rest of those foul tasting, new age, food fouling substances will never pass my lips. Yet, because they see themselves as enlightened if they use bad tasting ingredients when cooking, some people love to cook with those kinds of ingredients. If you see any of those folks in a kitchen and are offered an opportunity to sample their food creations, just smile and say you just ate fast food pizza for lunch. If you are lucky, the cook will have a heart attack that will render them unable to ever cook again.

New recipes are fun, but only is they are created with real ingredients and taste good. Everything else is just a rancid basket full of chia seeds.

Negative Reporting

There's an awards show for TV shows called the Emmy Awards. I don't watch such things because I don't watch TV series ( I only watch TV news, sports and infrequently I watch movies). But newspapers are headlining their coverage of that award show with such headlines as '8 worst dressed on the Emmy red carpet' and 'What the Emmys Awards got wrong'.  I did not read the substance of those kinds of reports but find such journalism to be the norm today. Today our news is a "gottcha enterprise".

The negative is in and the positive hard to find in newspaper and news video mediums. Even social media sites like Face book accentuate the negative. Perhaps it is merely a reflection of the mean spirited/cold view humans have of their world today. We all seem to want to rant (I do it here often enough), complain and protest even trivial matters. I wonder why our era is the restless one.

Could it be the disconnect we feel to society today, the society so large, so private and special interest, technologically centered,  is the result of our estrangement from a core culture and values?  Those who do not belong or do not want to belong often strike back with negative energy.  Those instead of a headline that might have read "8 best dressed on the Emmy red carpet' we got the "worst story" for that TV award report.   Maybe it is an attempt to destroy or muddy the waters in which we are not wading.

The brain handles positive and negative information in different hemispheres. Negative emotions generally involve more thinking, and the information is processed more thoroughly than positive ones. So maybe being a little negative isn't totally bad.  Science says that humans tend to ponder more about unpleasant events and use stronger words to describe them than we do with happy ones. It is often said that leaping toward the critical is human nature.  Is it not true that bad emotions, bad parents and bad feedback have more impact than good ones. Maybe those newspaper editors understand that bad impressions and bad stereotypes are quicker to form and more resistant to disconfirmation than good ones.

But it surely would be a nicer world if we all were more positive about our experiences.

Send In The Clowns

Recently in the state of North Carolina police reports have surfaced of a person or persons dressed as a clown who attempted to lure small children into a forest by promising candy and other sweets. Yuk!  It' one thing to try to molest kids, but the idea of dressing like a clown to do it is over the top and another injurious assault on the image of clowns.  The fact is, many of us do not like clowns. Even kids find them creepy. Studies have shown that very few children today like clowns. They are seen as unfamiliar figures that come from a different era. To most kids today they just don't look or act funny. Instead they just look and act odd. That make-up and those clown outfits they wear does not endear one to a clown. It's not a contemporary look.

My own view of clowns does not fit that idea. I have no negative feelings or any feelings at all about clowns. To me they have always seemed to be people  dressed strangely who work a little too hard in order to make me laugh, often without success. I don't fear or dislike them, I just don't see what is funny about them or what purpose they serve beyond a lame warm up act for those small traveling circuses we all saw as children. Perhaps my current old age matters in this, as I grew up in the time when clowns were a normal circus act and when clowns appeared on kid TV shows regularly ('Bozo the Clown' was a long running kind hearted TV show clown loved by most kids). Too, I don't ever remember my own daughter fearing or disliking clowns when we made so many trips to the circus when she was a little girl.

Clowns, as pranksters, jesters, jokers, and tricksters have been around for ages. They have appeared in almost all cultures. (but I can't imagine an ISIS clown today)  But that former clown perception has changed now. I wonder if Hollywood has made the clown into an evil or scary figure. Countless movies have been made in recent years that show the clown as creepy, even murderous. How about the bizarre clowns in 'KIller Clowns From Outer Space', 'It' (Stephen King's book about demons disguised as clown who attack children), or 'Clownhouse' (a film about escaped mental patients masquerading as circus clowns who terrorize a rural town)? That's just a few films that make clowns scary. Google the subject and you will find more.

Psychologists say that a vicious circle of clown fear has been created by showing so many creepy clowns. More scary clowns means diminished opportunities to create good associations with clowns, which creates more fear of the clown. More fear gives more credence to scary clown images, and more scary clown images become the norm.  I guess we should accept the new clown image and stop fearing it. Perhaps we could change that old Judy Collins hit song title to "Don't send in the clowns".   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L6KGuTr9TI

Dying Kmart

Once an old favorite and now a largely ignored one, Kmart, is gasping for breath as it's holding company Sears (also in trouble of failing) announces more closures of K Mart stores. I rue the death of K Mart as it has been a part of American culture and low cost shopping since it's founding in 1962. The Kmart of old was the Wal mart of today, the quintessential replacement of the old time department store. It gave quality goods at low prices. Who could forget the rambling of the Dustin Hoffman autistic savant character, Ray, in the film repeating over and over to Tom Cruise that in order to buy underpants "got to go to Kmart" in order to get them. For Only Kmart sold the best underpants.

I like Kmart and still visit one of the few remaining stores here in Portland. I know the merchandise is dated and I hear the K mart jokes. But I feel nostalgic when in the store at the same time that I notice the lesser quality of its often dated goods, the thin crowd of shoppers and the unkempt look of a business not able to hire enough employees to keep it eat and clean. But I buy things there because I like the offerings, especially the throwback items. Maybe an old timer like me still appreciates Kmart because he likes being able to purchase the same outdated clothes or shoes always worn and still desired.

I miss the standard greeting Kmart gave to all who walked threw its doors, "Welcome to Kmart"! It always seemed that they meant it and wanted me there for more reasons than spending money. And every Kmart shopper remembers the  announcement in the store that came every few minutes. "Attention Kmart Shoppers", the voice announcing the sale of the moment that was only to last a matter of a few more minutes. "Our Blue Light Special today is....."  Shoppers everywhere in the store would descend as directed to the sale item area of the Blue Light special. (And there really was a revolving blue light shining at the sale area)  Middle aged women in tennis shoes at a Blue Light sale are like a special forces strike against an enemy.

I have bought so much at Kmart during my life, for myself, my daughter and just about everyone else in my life who needed something and wouldn't sneer that it came from Kmart.  Kmart had it all. My parents passed down to me their love for Kmart, because when growing up we had Kmart stores everywhere.  It was the go-to store then,  as Wal mart is now. Wal mart should send a thank you note to Kmart for inventing to concept of the low-cost, everything you need outlet.  For some years now, broken by Wal mart and modern shopping preferences that have made Kmart a dinosaur, Kmart has been spiraling downward while looking emptier and shabbier. Yet, even in it dying days, it still has the ambiance of what made it special to so many. It was a friendly, no, it was a comforting place. The sterility of most of today's stores is such than those who never shopped at Kmart will never understand that.

Every time K mart sheds a few dozen more stores, I remember what Kmart was and what it meant to me. And it also reminds me of what is to come, more favorites holding funerals for a style of merchandising that is almost extinct.  Yet, somehow today's sterile shopping experience, the one click method, will never be a fun as was Kmart. Even when Kmart ultimately dies, it will still be with me. Oh well, it was a great ride while it lasted..

Phony Drugs

The latest sham of miracle drugs is Cogniq. The so called "Viagra for the brain" is yet another phony drug that claims to  give you supreme focus, concentration, boost your working memory, put you in a good mood, and be free of side effects. Hmmm I could sure use that. But sadly those kinds of attributes are the product of genetics and how one trains his or her mind during the course of life. In fact, Cogniq is a mix of ordinary supplements like ginkgo, St. John's Wort,  bacopin, vinpocetine, acetyl l-carnitine, phosphatidylserine, glutamine and even caffeine.  The claims are bogus, the drug a waste of money, and yet it is selling big time because ...well..stupid people will believe anything.

Why do people think there is a miracle pill to make them smart? I think it's because that believe it are stupid. The makers of Cogniq have created a number of web sites than mimic. real ones to promote their product. One for example, is a close address of cnn.com. There, allegedly, physicist Stephen Hawking is interviewed by a CNN reporter. Hawking is quoted as saying that Cogniq is going to "change humanity". It quotes trendy celebrity who allegedly claim they use it and it makes them "twice as smart". In reality, none the claims are real. Cogniq is another expensive waste of money that the gullible are quick to rush.

Cogniq is just one of many phony drugs that humans spend billions on each year. The drugs are a false hope that replace the very real way humans can improve themselves, through hard work and study. So I say to heck with those medications. Why ,we need is a stupid pill. Yep! I know most of us are already fairly stupid. But just think how orderly society would be if we gave the stupid pill to those in society who are dangerous because of their faults. The Kardashian family could be medicated out of our lives! Wow! That alone makes the stupid pill worthy.

We already have medications that dull or damage the brain. Remember the lobotomy procedures that literally killed tissue in the brain?  Of course the problem is how do we convince people to take a stupid pill? How about making it part of  a cell phone app. Most people are addicted to those idiotic apps. They could be convinced that the stupid pill is the next PokemonGo. By dumbing down humanity we can create a real stupidity world-wide, as opposed to the cell phone, reality TV, air head celebrity stupidity that so many today embrace. Down with brain power and more power to stupidity!

When The Saints Go Marching Out

Mother Theresa, the Albanian nun whose work to feed the hungry and comfort the dying in India became the foundation of a new religious order and earned her a Nobel Peace Prize,  was named a saint on Sunday by Pope Francis. It's good news in a world of more sinners than saints. It's not easy to be named a saint. According to the Catholic Church rules, a man or woman must be credited with two miracles to be considered for sainthood. In 2002, the Vatican ruled it was a miracle when an Indian woman was cured of stomach tumors after praying to Mother Teresa. And in December, Pope  Francis declared Terera's part in the healing of a Brazilian man suffering from multiple brain tumors a second miracle.

Like everyone theses days, even Mother Teresa has some critics. But is it not refreshing to know that some humans can endure such sacrifice for the welfare of others? This age of empty headed, do nothing, celebrities needs saints, particularly saints most of us agree are worthy of the title. We are supposed to emulate the saints, strive to be like them. But in reality, most of us can't do so. Being a saint is a special condition, and most human have neither the will power or ability to be one. Thus, saints are ideals. Boy do we need ideals today.

The church says saints are supposed to be models for our behavior and be people we pray to when in need. Patron saints are chosen as special protectors or guardians over areas of our life. I remember my mother dearly believed in St. Christopher, the patron saint of safety. She used to put a St. Christopher medal in her car for protection and carried the medal aboard airplane flights. When the church declared St. Christopher no longer a saint, my mom never wavered and kept her belief in him. The patron saint areas can include occupations, illnesses, churches, countries, causes, anything that is important to us. Hmmmm Maybe I need a patron saint of the rant, since I rant here so often.

Few Catholics today even attend church, much less pay attention to saints. More often, in a crisis such as a terminal illness or some other severe challenge to life and safety, people turn to saints. Because humans need both faith and hope, they seem to need saints, humans who excelled in the spiritual, to motivate them to achieve their own dreams and meet their needs.. And that is a good thing for all of us.

911 Fifteenth Anniversary

This September 11th weekend was the 15th anniversary of the 911 terrorist attack on those New York twin towers.  Besides the symbolism of the massacre of innocent civilians in the name of religion it left some other legacies for the U.S and more importantly for Islam. If the assassination of President John Kennedy in 1963 was the "end of innocence" in the world, the 911 attack might be called the beginning of the war between Islam and every other belief system in the world.

I think one result of the attack was to forever stain the image of Muslims and the Muslim religion. It's not fair that so much of the world sees Muslims negatively, given the attack and other subsequent terrorist attacks are perpetrated by only the extremist sects of Islam or by people claiming to be Islamic when attacking non Muslims or Muslims of mainstream belief. But that stain might have been avoided had Muslims not been silent, failing to condemn terrorism by members of their religion, after that attack and many of the recent ones. Ironically, the Islamic terrorists have done more to destroy their religion in the eyes of non Muslims and non radical ones, that they have harmed others in their terrorist attacks.

I think that in the future Muslims will greatly regret their silence after the attacks. It gave many non Muslims the impression that all Muslims give tacit approval of the attacks. Silence in the face of injustice is as bad as the injustice itself. If Muslims are to ever retake their religion form the fanatics who have stolen it, they will have to muster the courage to not only speak out against terrorism but also be proactive in turning in and fighting against Islamic extremism.

If Muslims allow the west alone to crush the terrorists they will lose the trust of westerners and non Muslims everywhere. But it appears that most Muslim states that are capable of defeating the Islamic extremists have no desire to do so. Nations like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia act in complicity with the terrorists, giving sanctuary and financial backing to them. Everyone sees that.  The world will not easily forgive that, and instead expects mainstream Muslims to fight  the extremists instead.  So far, there is no indication that Islam will clean its own house.

I suspect that in another 15 years the enmity between the Muslim world and the non Muslim world will be the same.  The world will be worse of because of that.

National Pizza Day

We had a double holiday on September 5th. Most people know that is Labor Day, but it was also National Cheese Pizza Day. I have been happily retired for many year so Labor Day is not appealing. I don't want to honor workers. I just want to not be one of them. And Pizza Day? Well, I am one of those who can take or leave pizza. Maybe it's because that grocery store frozen pizza and most of the fast food pizza sold doesn't do it for me. Real pizza though, when simple and constructed of quality ingredients, is delicious. On National Pizza day you are supposed to eat a pizza authentic style. That is, no toppings on your cheese pizza. In maters of pizza I do think simplicity and fine ingredients are best.

A quick history of pizza gives kudos to the Italians, the inventors who seem to be the masters of good food.  If I could eat in any country I would pick Italy, where passion for and knowledge of good food is a birthright. Pizza first appeared in the 10th century, in a Latin manuscript from Gaeta in Central Italy. Essentially, it was a flat bread with a few toppings that was cooked at high temperature in a bread oven. And it was originally peasant food. But modern pizza was invented in Naples, Italy. Anyone who has eaten pizza in Italy knows that simplicity is what it is about. In Italy pizza has few toppings. Most pizzas there are made of  just the dough, a small dollop of tomato sauce, cheese and basil. That's it.  But elsewhere in the world today pizza is so varied it's hard to recognize. That's probably why it has become extraordinarily popular in most areas of the world.

I remember the best slice of pizza I ever ate was purchased from a street vendor in Moscow, Russia just after the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Who would expect pizza perfection from an Arbat market vendor? But when I saw the swarm of Russians around the seller I gave it a try. (Not a big risk because most Russian food is awful anyway) I got my slice breaking Russian law by slipping the vendor payment in dollars rather than rubles. He was pleased to get the dollars and there was no arrest and jail for either he or me, but that slice was divine. The lesson learned was to expect good and bad pizza anywhere. Hmmm Maybe that guy was an Italian in disguise.

Anyway, I fear most of the world that is new to pizza only knows it from the substandard American pizza chains one can find anywhere. (Is that Pizza Hut chain more entrenched in China than the U.S.? It seems so, as it is everywhere there) The quality of those places is low, but for a person who has not had authentic pizza it  must seem tasty, given the axiom that all pizza has redeeming value. But there is good pizza to make at home or eat in those upscale restaurants that do it the right way by cooking it in brick ovens. Have I touched your tummy? Are you hungry yet for pizza?

Reactionary Behavior Toward European Refugees

One thing about that invasion of Western Europe by Syrian and other Mid East refugees the past year or so we see is the old "buyer's remorse" syndrome. What was initially a trendy, emotional, feel good action is now seen by many of those Western European nations and citizens as a bad idea. Now they say, why should Europe take in huge numbers of people who will never have the desire or who will actually assimilate into the culture and laws of their new home? Maybe refugees impacted by a civil war should be temporarily resettled safely and quickly in nations located adjacent to the civil war, countries more in line with the profiles of the immigrants.

Too late! And now many places in Western Europe have started to deport large numbers of them (they make Donald Trump's claim that he can deport every illegal immigrant into the U.S. almost seen possible). The Europeans also have become less than welcoming toward those Syrian refugees. Discrimination against, rather than welcoming is the more common mode in Germany, France, Scandinavia and other resettlement places. It reinforces some axioms of immigration; 1) never allow too many immigrants at once, for that hinders assimilation and 2) never allow immigrants in who are not capable of assimilating, not willing to assimilate, and not able to offer something for their new country besides accepting the fruits it offers to the immigrant him or her self.

And now we see mean spirited behaviors against the immigrants by Western European nations and populations, Germany, for example, may soon ban full face veils worn by Muslim women in certain circumstances, the latest instance of a European nation restricting Muslim fashion. The German Interior Minister said in a televised speech that a full veil “does not belong in our cosmopolitan country.  We agree that we reject the burqa (a full-body covering), we agree that we want to introduce a legal requirement to show one's face in places where it is necessary for our society's co-existence at the wheel, at public offices, at the registry office, in schools and universities, in the civil service, in court,”
Really? I thought Germany was democratic. Would those Germans be so accepting of such a ban if the German government n banned, say the dirndl and all other traditional German outfits? And in France, a nation not known for welcoming outsiders of any kind, a number of seaside towns, including Cannes, banned the Burkina  (a full body swimsuit). At least four women have been fined for wearing Burkina in Cannes since the ban was introduced  this month. Hmmm I wonder what the reaction in cannes would be if nude bathing were banned there?

When the mayor of Leucate, Franc  announced a ban on the Burkina this week. he said that “It is about respecting the principle of secularism, This is the public domain, and (the Burkina) is an ostentatious religious sign.” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said  Wednesday that the Burkina were “not compatible with the values of the French Republic,” but he refused to introduce a nationwide ban. France already has a nationwide ban against full face veils, as does Belgium. Some cities in Spain and Italy also have such bans. Many of those were implemented after the Islamic fanatic attack in Nice in July.

But there are also many Europeans opposed to this kind of  legislation. Their view is that to legislate against Muslim cultural habits that have no harmful affect on anyone in those nations is a counterproductive and can actual engender more reasons for Islamic hate attacks as a result.  Stigmatizing a whole group of people who you said were welcome to live and become citizens of your nations, and are also under threat from terrorism, is well...a kind of mini terrorism itself

Cultural Death Spiral

Some random observations regarding what I noticed the past few days, in order to further make the case I rant from time to time- that culture and civilization are dying in the United States and most other places in the world.  You do notice how culture has devolved into a lowest common denominator? If not look at; music (rap, hip hop, teen noise as the norm), communication (people not engaging in thought provoking conversation, but rather, texting and tweet non sequitors about "nothing", most often in nearly illiterate form), film (forget "art films" that made us think beyond the obvious, now we have violent, special effect driven, story line absent pabulum),  etiquette (what is the norm for manners today? Why, it's "though shalt worship thy cell phone and the me first agenda). I could go on, but no need. I already feel the venting I have done here makes me feel better.

Observation number one is the political bumper sticker I saw yesterday. It defines our current political situation, that being that politics is so corrupt, PC, and out of touch with reality  that the voter feels no desire or hope it will ever again normalize. The bumper sticker said, 'Hillary For Prison. 2016'  I like it! That a thorough moral reprobate and phony will be elected as the next U.S. President says a lot about the decline of the U.S.  I do hope Hillary is served justice and finds a prison cell soon enough.

Then there was the shirt I saw (second time for this one) in a Ross store. The employee in charge of watching for shoplifters had the employee short that said 'Loss Prevention'. Those uniforms used to say what they meant, 'Theft Protection', but this ia a politically correct world, one in which language is altered to  push the agenda of not "hurting feelings" by speaking the truth.

A third observation is from my local newspaper, The Oregonian. The article revealing our cultural decadence said that A 17-year-old student at South Eugene High School in Oregon was surprised over the weekend during the shooting of her senior photos along the Willamette River: A naked man suddenly emerged from the brush behind Jillian Henry. But she wasn't outraged or offended. Instead, Jillian posted  the naked shot with the caption "love my senior pics 😊," on  the venue that may most reveal how culture has been replaced with insignificance, Twitter. Her post stirred more than  75,000 retweets and 150,000 likes in the first two days it was posted. Somehow I suspect that the idiots who were supportive of the naked guy and his photographer are not the best educated citizens on this planet.

I'll let those three state my case that as rule, the world is in trouble with this self immolating behavior that is becoming the norm. Face it! A dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness as accepted fact, bad manners, and  a lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, and of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot. May we R.I.P......