Demanding Prisoners

Did you hear about the eleven inmates in the Westchester County jail in New York? They filed a federal civil rights lawsuit saying that they are losing their teeth and suffering pain because they aren't allowed dental floss. Haha Thugs in prison demanding dental floss as a "constitutional right". They are asking for $500 million dollars of damages because even though they brush three times a day, tongue and gums included, they still get cavities and suffer bleeding gums, constant dental work for temporary fillings, and mental anguish. The suit says that when cavities develop, inmates are given only temporary fillings, which eventually fall out and lead to tooth loss or chronic pain. Inmates are denied crowns and root canals, it says.

Hmmmm Instead of knocking other people's teeth out while committing their crimes, the prisoners want to keep all teeth in mouths. But the prison says it can't give them floss because the floss can be used as a weapon, but they may try to find an alternative to floss that is safe. I wonder if floss is really so crucial as they claim. In some prisons the inmates have used dental floss and abrasives (including tooth powders) for cutting up prison bars to make 'shank' weapons out of metal bed frames. Maybe they could feed them a liquid diet as an alternative. Haha

If this suit is a successful maybe the inmates could sue for a few more things that are part of their "constitutional " rights. How about?

1) guns to shoot the mice (and anyone else) that they see in their cells
2) steak and lobster for dinner so they won't be protein deficient
3) cigarettes and lighters to help them relax their mental state
4) personal TV's in each cell in order see the latest porno channels to educate the inmate about safe sex
5) maids to clean the cells so that dust won't clog the inmate's lungs
6) personal masseuses to tone the muscles of the inmate so he will be crime ready when released
7) weekend passes into town, particularly to banks, so the inmates can better integrate into society on release

Uh, I think that if the floss and these other demands are met I will apply for a room at that Westchester prison...

Thank Goodness For Autumn

While at a grocery store today I saw the first bins of Halloween pumpkins teeming with round orange delights, a sign that one of my favorite times of the year is lurking. In recent days I have seen other signs that autumn too. The rumble of school buses in the morning and afternoon and the look of the trees, ironically, looking more alive in red, orange and yellow than when in green. The early morning cold settled in a couple of weeks ago, just as it does every mid September here. No matter how warm the day may be now, each morning starts with some shivers as I retrieve my daily newspaper from the dark lawn outside my front door.

I think I love the fall so much because of the rituals I practice each time it comes to me. Buying that pumpkin today, for example, alerts me that it will soon be time to make or buy pumpkin desserts to nourish the newly born autumn days. My mother was a practitioner of holiday/season worship. The decor of her home always fit the season, and I have learned to enjoy the same ritual of decorating today, even the crazy part that includes placing candy corn in a dish to provide fall nourishment to anyone who passes by. Though with Jane gone now I have less excuse to dress the house with autumn decorations, I still do it for myself and for the warm memories it will provoke in me of my childhood autumn days.

I already bought some Halloween candy and treats for the kids who will demand them while trick-or-treating on Halloween night. The Halloween decorations, costumes, and foods all about in stores now make it hard not to do so. And even those garish commercial establishments like Starbucks give a fall nudge to me. Every September or October, while in a seemingly hypnotic state, I indulge in a Starbuck's Pumpkin latte to remind me of the glories of the season. And I have to find a good pumpkin muffin at a bakery too. Can't brew my pumpkin coffee without one of those.

Kids are even more aglow than usual at autumn. I am not sure why because they also have the dreaded look of "do I have to go to school today" on their faces? I do remember the fall activities of my own youth and they verify what an author once wrote. He said that as long as we have memories we never get old. I feel sad for any adult who doesn't get excited by a holiday or doesn't have warm childhood memories of those days. Don't they realize that we adults have permission to be children again at Halloween time? We can run through a corn maze, crave a pumpkin, eat a candy apple, wear a silly costume and even upstage the children while doing it.

I wish you a happy autumn, and hope you allow yourself the joy of being a child again this fall.

First Names

Someone I met for the first time yesterday asked me if I wanted to be called 'James' or 'Jim'. English language first names are quite adaptive, probably because we Americans are an informal people. Though my formal name is James, my most commonly used adult name is Jim and my childhood name was 'Jimmy'. Well, actually, some people still call me Jimmy, and others prefer either James or Jim. It matters not to me what they call me, but I think it would be helpful to stick to one of those (and 'Jim' is most often used, so I'll go for that). When they start calling me all three I know it must be be proof that I am schizophrenic.

A problem with finding and sticking to one English language first name is that some people don't fit either the formal or informal versions of their first name.  No one, for instance. would call the late author Ernest Hemingway, "Ernie".  It doesn't fit because it doesn't sound intellectual enough.  But comic Chris Rock probably would not seem so funny if we called him 'Christopher' Rock. It sounds like the name of a scientist or surgeon.  Just think if Donald Trump were known as 'Donnie' Trump. It would make him seem more like a pro boxer rather than a....err...whatever that guy is. And who would want to go to 'Walter' Disney World'. It wouldn't be the same place.

Then there are people who need a middle name or initials to go with their first name in order for their image to be complete. T.S. Eliot, H.G. Wells, Martin Luther King,  Ralph Waldo Emerson, for example, would be unrecognizable if  they were known as Thomas Eliot, Herbert Wells,  Martin King or Ralph Emerson. Others create an image by dropping their given first name altogether and substituting something singular. 'Whoppi Goldberg', 'Snoop Dog',  and 'Lady Gaga' come to mind.

Then there are people who hate their names so much they call themselves by one entirely different and new name. 'Cher' and 'Madonna', and 'Bono' are a few we all know well. But then, some celebrities are so proud of their given first names they use it exclusively. We would have a hard time recalling the last names of those single named people. 'Beyonce' , 'Kobe' 'Prince' and 'Shaq' are a few of those.

I like to give people nicknames, and most of them like it too. Sometimes we get a nickname and it sticks to us for life. Nicknames give us a special position in the world, make us distinct. Even when the nicknames are less than flattering, they eventually become endearing. How about 'Magic' Johnson, 'Meatloaf' (Marvin Aday), 'Mr. T' (Lawrence Tero), 'Queen Latifa' and 'Sting' (Gordon Sumner)?  Uh, if you have any nicknames for me I request that you make it civil. No vulgarity, please.

Hateful Muslim Protests

It's interesting to see those crazy Muslim factions rioting and carrying out tantrums again against the U.S. Israel and some other western nations that dare to practice freedom of expressions...err..freedom of anything. Many clerics in their mosque sermons in the Mideast are urging their congregations to "defend their faith", by denouncing the obscure movie that an American citizen posted on  line, 'Innocence of Muslims'  that denigrated the Islamic image of Muhammad. What a crock it all is.

It's the same perverted Islamic mentality that calls Americans "devils", that shouts "death to America" and that promotes and practices violence against non Muslims simply because they are "infidels" rather than Muslims. In fact, that film has nothing to do with the alleged outrage of extremists. It's simply an excuse and a vehicle that allows extremist, fundamentalist and terrorist Muslim organizations to more easily take over the governments in those recently liberated dictatorial Arab nations. Fact is, there is a vacuum in the governments in many of the 20 or more countries with angry, illiterate, unemployed, desperate Muslims who are rioting against weak their newly weakened Muslim states. By using that movie as an excuse,  it is helping the crazy factions move closer to taking control of the legal governments in some those nations.

What's different about these riots than some of the more recent ones is that there is not now a dictator head of state or string government in the countries. In the past such riots were stifled by the legitimate government organizations, who put them down quickly and often violently. Now, in their weakened and with the military undecided about what to do, there may be an end to the democratic movements of last spring in some of the Arab states and replacement of them with Iranian style theocratic dictatorships. Al-Qaida has already called for more attacks on U.S. embassies  to "set the fires blazing". Further, it said that, "What has happened is a great event, and these efforts should come together in one goal, which is to expel the embassies of America from the lands of the Muslims."

Perhaps the west should explain to Muslim nations in clear terms, accompanied by a new policy of no more western money for any Arab state that violates the rights of a foreign embassy on Muslim territory, that Muslims must respect the rights of non Muslims. If I were the President of the U.S. I would, for instance, immediately issue a formal and public statement to Egypt that there would be no more foreign aid from the U.S. (Egypt receives more than $2 billion dollars each year from the U.S., the highest amount given to any nation) until the perpetrators of the Embassy attack were arrested and tried, and until guarantees were made that Egyptian police would not simply stand and watch the "protesters' act out, but instead would protect the American Embassy per the agreements all nations make with each other to do so.

To the crazy Arabs in the region I would state clearly that, "The American democratic system embraces freedom of expression. This includes criticizing your religious head or any other. As a sovereign and free nation we do not censor our citizens to mollify your desires, nor do we suspend constitutional rights when your feelings are hurt by our free expression." Allah Akbar to that.

Cursing The Neighbors

Everybody is destined to have a bad neighbor or two. If you live long enough that loud, inconsiderate, rude neighbor will show up in your driveway or on your lawn. I suspect there is little one can do to change that kind of lout. But one woman in Rhode Island had a unique way of getting back at the kind of neighbor who drives his truck over your flower bed or changes the oil in his truck on your sidewalk. She is accused of training her cockatoo to cuss at her neighbors, thus violating an animal noise ordinance that covers human vulgarity but says nothing about birds cursing out obnoxious neighbors.

Lynne Taylor is accused of training the bird, Willy, to utter expletives at the hated next door neighbors, who just happen to be Lynne's ex-husband and his girlfriend. The neighbors, Kathleen Melker and Craig Fontaine, say they have been subjected to repeated curses from the bird, at one point for 15 minutes at a time. Katherine says cockatoo Willy calls her a "whore". Hmmm How does Kathleen know the bird is talking to her? I mean, if she weren't a whore she wouldn't.... never mind. But given that Kathleen is the lady who stole away Lynn's husband Craig, that bird Willy may be smarter than most humans.

And now the local court will have to determine if the bird's mouth is an extension of Lynn's. Until it does, the judge has issued a restraining order to keep the bird and Lynn separate from the neighbors she hates, which makes me wonder if the cursing bird also hurls profanity at it's teacher (Lynn). I wonder if that judge will make the bird testify at the trial. If so, it could be a dirty day in court for everyone.

To Tax Or Not To Tax Lap Dancing

You know how so many say that dance is a high art form? It surely is. But what about lap dances? Hmmmmm As a male I dare not give an opinion, since we males think anything on a woman that jiggles and is sexy is at least a borderline art movement. Anyway, why I bring this subject up has to do with a legal issue that concerns defining lap dances. Is it equal to other dance forms or not? And if it is, should governments give tax exemptions to bars that offer lap dances?

No one would confuse a strip club with the Bolshoi Ballet, but according to a lawyer in New York state, what the lap dancers do there is art and therefore, the strip clubs are entitled to the same tax exemption other performances enjoy. The lawyer, W. Andrew McCullough, who is an attorney for an Albany, New York strip joint, told the New York State of Court of Appeals on Wednesday that admission fees and lap dances at the club should be freed of state sales taxes under an exemption that applies to "dramatic or musical arts performances." Well....I surely would rather have a lap dance done to me than a ballet performance.

Further, the lawyer suing for the strip club to get lap dance tax breaks says that the the state of New York is not qualified to make distinctions between lap dancing (no tax breaks at present) and other dance forms (they all get the tax breaks). His claim is that to deny lap dancing is art would be a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of expression. But then, the lasts time I looked it took a lot more training and skill to do the other dance forms that to lap dance.

The lawyer for the state that wants the judge to deny tax breaks for lappers says that nobody would visit the strip club if the dancers didn't remove their clothes. He also argued that the exemption applies to "choreographed" performances, and what the strippers do when lap dancing doesn't qualify as art. Hmmmm Maybe they should just tax the ballet and the other untaxed dancing performances. I'm sure all the lawyers and the judge wouldn't mind a nice lap dance to celebrate that compromise.

To Treat Or To Surrender

One of my longest term E mail friends (who I have been writing to since 1998) just wrote that her father had died. He had been sick with a serious cancer for more than a year, and I knew his prognosis would lead to an early death. But she fought the disease with him for all that time, trying nearly every treatment in hospitals with doctors and non standard treatment venues with non certified physicians, both standard and herbal. I never fully understood it all when she wrote to me about them. And I often asked myself, "Why does one pursue such expensive and painful treatments when they have such a slight chance of even extending a dying person's even a few more months?"

The business of cancer treatment is a curious one, built on false hopes and promises. There are a multitude of super expensive drugs that dying patients rush to pay for. But almost all of them do no more than ensure the patient an even shorter life or more painful death (from the treatments themselves). Often the most successful medicines extend a life for a few months, ensuring the patient dies with a mountain of debt and no no inheritance to pass to loved ones. But hope does spring eternal in many. Perhaps human nature more often compels one to fight even when odds tell the futility and pain of the fight.

Since I have not been afflicted with a terminal cancer, I can not state with surety that I would do otherwise and accept death. but my experience with terminal cancers in my own family has instructed me it is most often foolish to "take the treatment" and that exiting without a fight my be more comforting to the mind and the body than tortuous pseudo treatments. But I think that if I were afflicted would not fight against large odds.

Sometimes the patient has no option and has the treatment or no treatment question answered for him or her. A young dying parent for instance, feels obliged to fight in order to be with his or her child. And then some of us are deluded when faced with death into denying our own mortality. They fight because they never accept death from a cancer as a real possibility. This age of almost medical miracles in which medicine can do some things, but far too few to save us from the disease, has also given us the great dilemma of trying to determine when to fight and when to surrender, when to accept and when to deny. Sigh... for the mind the treatment really can be more deadly than the affliction.

We Are Electronic Robots

I think it's getting harder to "do nothing" these days, and that's more than nothing to worry about. We have too many things to do, both responsibilities delegated to us or those we give to ourselves. We have to many things in this material age, many of them "connected" electronically. I often wonder if we really have to see if robots will take control of humans, because in a some ways the electronics have already done that.

The connected world in which we live means we have too many relationships to start and maintain, too many devices to use, and as a result, too little time to simply sit, think and evaluate the world and our relationship to it. It might be why people are so impatient today. We drift from one thing to another, most of those experiences being confined to a shallow level. We don't even realize anymore that simply sitting on a bench and gazing into nature, the best way to "do nothing", doesn't happen much anymore. And we are less human because of it.

There is no time now to think deeply, read deeply, question deeply, because our electronic stimuli today is present and immediate centered. When I read books that are set in the pre computer/electronic age I find myself envying the simpler and more defined lives of those who contained within the books. It makes me remember my own childhood days of simplicity and yearn for more of those. But how can we escape the electronic bubble?

It's almost normal today to spend the day so busy in our electronic centered activities that we have not one single serious thought or selfless deed. No wonder society is more callous today. We have become electronic robots, driven by condition and response live Pavlov dogs to every bell tone we hear. We jump into our electronics because we can hide in them and pretend we are living life rather than actually doing it.

I wish the world would darken its electronics for just one day. What a shock it would be to those who have never lived in a world apart from them. What a chance we would have to make a choice, whether to live with out electronics or with the opportunity to simply "do nothing" once in awhile.

GPS Units

The GPS unit that I use on my car to help me avoid getting lost more than I would otherwise here in Portland broke the other day. At least I think it broke. Who knows about electronics today. When one small component goes bad (I suspect those components are made to break sooner than later since electronic device companies make most of their money today by selling new models of the same junk we buy from them) we are told to throw it out and buy a new device. Allegedly, planned obsolescence is good for the economy.

Making cheap products that won't last may be good for the economy, but it is not for my already tenuous mental condition. It frustrates me when I purchase an electronic device that is either too complicated, too filled with un necessary features or too unreliable to last. As an example, take the GPS unit I mentioned. I bought that more than 2 years ago, my first GPS ever because when I lived in New Orleans I already knew where every road was and did not need an electronic lady inside a GPS recalculating for me when I took the roundabout way. Sometimes I prefer to look at pretty scenery instead of arriving at my destination 5 minutes earlier. GPS units are built on the assumption that the driver wants speedy, not aesthetic driving. But I am not a robot and sometimes find too much efficiency to be inhuman.

What happened to my old GPS was that the lighting on the display was too dull, very hard to read. Evidently, the computer chip developed a defect in that because one day when I turned on the GPS I couldn't see the screen well enough to use it. I went through the GPS menu settings and checked the display screen lighting controls, but they did not respond to any changes I made. So, since I was still in the dark when using my GPS, I went on line and tried to find instructions to remedy the problem. You guessed it. I found nothing and decided to surrender to the GPS planned obsolescence theory by buying a new one. Gee, they don't even pretend any more that I can fix instead of replacing a broken electronics device. Sigh...I long for the old fix-it shops, the ones with the old man who charged a pittance and who could fix anything you brought to him.

After doing research on line about the latest GPS units I found that there were plenty more than necessary to choose from, but I bought a highly rated one that was a low price GPS unit but absent the "features" that nerds so love in their devices. Success! Unlike techies, I look for the product that is easiest to use and has the fewest features. I don't want a GPS that plays music, salts my fish or lets me chat with someone in Mongolia. I just want guidance while driving to the Portland destination I am trying to reach. Of course, this puts me in the minority of GPS buyers, because consumers today seem to want as much variety as possible in their electronic products. They are addicted to gadgetry.
Well, I installed the GPS and it works fine (for now). I wonder what electronic gadget will break next. Sometimes I feel like recalculating.....

No Sex Protest

Finally, the ladies of the world may be organizing for power...the smart way.  It seems that little Togo, another African nation like Liberia, the one that first started to use the tactic (successfully) in 2003 is showing the ladies that the way to control men is through the ultimate female power....that being the power to withhold sex until the men do as the ladies wish.

Togo Female opposition leader Isabelle Ameganvi said that sex could be a "weapon of the battle" to achieve political change in that country. She and the ladies want the dictator, President Faure Gnassingbe out of office so they have called for all the Togo ladies to abstain from sex with their men for one week as a means of instituting government reforms, and hopefully ousting the Pres. "If men refuse to hear our cries we will hold another demonstration that will be more powerful than a sex strike," she said. Hmmmm Is there a more powerful weapon?

Togo has been run by the Gnassingbe family for more than four decades, and just recently the dictator instituted an election system designed to keep himself in power.  The no sex strike is supposed to motivate men who are not involved in the politics of Togo to pursue its goals, which include an end to the system allowing unlimited presidential terms. I guess the men are keeping their pants on for the time being and hoping they can take them off later.

Evidently, Togo ladies think that the male brain is located in the lower half of their bodies. They may be right. At least thehookers in Togo can  make more money from the upswing in business from males who do think from below the waist. I wonder if this could start a trend everywhere. Just imagine a wife asking the husband if he took out the garbage pail as instructed. " Not yet, Dear"....Oops! No sex today for you, buddy!" What power women would have. Those guys would either have to obey their ladies or find an alternative, perhaps a new gay lifestyle or the local VD infected hooker. Not so appealing.... I suspect you ladies would have men on their knees everywhere.

We may have a world run by a no sex policy. Hmmmmm Now that's real political activism.

Alfred Hitchcock

I always say, "They don't make films like they used to" when people ask me why I dislike so many of the movies made in this film age of special effects, excess and lack of substance. I wonder why film goers seemed to be so pleased with mindless special effect violence when attending those films. The challenging story line itself has become nearly extinct. Exploding heads, blood and gore are what movie audiences define as "horror"

This month marks the mystery/horror film director Alfred Hitchcock's 113th birthday. Old Alfred's classic movies and his fantastic late 50's early 60's TV series still run today on many cable channels because they were always filled with depth and made....dare I say it in this age of fluff....they made the viewer think before and after the film concluded. Predictability was an aspect Hitchcock never displayed. Hitchcock once did a survey that concluded that according to moviegoers, the most frightening noise in films was a police car siren, followed by the crash of a road accident, cracklings of a burning forest, far galloping horses, howling dogs, the scream of a stabbed woman and the steps of a lame person in the dark. I guess today none of those things matters. Special effects have taken the place of imagination.

If one watches the classic of black and white horror films, starting with the first Frankenstein and Dracula films of the 30's the singular feature of those films is there was never any blood shown, and most violence was suggested. We would see Frankenstein, for example, place his hands on the throat of the victim but never beyond that. The camera quickly left and we were required to imagine what happened. Is there any greater fright than what an imagination brings forth? I think not. Hitchcock always used suggested horror and the result was that everyone had a differing view of just how scary was the film and each analyzed it in a personal way. Today's horror films are overt, obvious, and for me.....boring. Anyway, I salute the great Hitchcock with some of his characteristic humor, as in the quotes below.

Quotes from the Late Great Director Alfred Hitchchock

"I never said all actors are cattle; what I said was all actors should be treated like cattle."

"Television is like the American toaster, you push the button and the same thing pops up every time."

"Television is like the invention of indoor plumbing. It didn't change people's habits. It just kept them inside the house."

"The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder."

"The paperback is very interesting but I find it will never replace the hardcover book -- it makes a very poor doorstop."

"I understand the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm."

"When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, 'It's in the script.' If he says, 'But what's my motivation?' I say, 'Your salary.'"

Beloit University Mindset List

The annual Beloit University Mindset List of entering college freshman is out. Since Jane is a freshman, these are the things she and her classmates view as their world, a whole lot different from older generations. Members of this year's freshman class, most of them born in 1994, are probably the most united generation in history, and they despise being separated from contact with friends (using media of all sorts to be constantly "in touch"). They prefer to watch television everywhere except on a television, they never saw an airline "ticket" before, or a set of encyclopedias and never use their car radios since they have ipods and other personal music players.

So we of other generations are to peruse the Beloit Mindset list below to make ourselves aware that we must view the 2016 generation differently, including communicating with them on their world view terms. Maybe so, but I refuse to acknowledge Justin Bieber or some of the other irrational icons of their generation. Of course this is an oversimplification and Beloit cautions us to use the Mindset list for fun not as a guideline. Surely, knowing my own 2016 generation daughter doesn't subscribe to much on the list.

One thing for sure is that this generation and the succeeding Mindset ones will see more changes and faster changing than any previous one. I grew up in a generation of stability, so much so that if a mindset list for my college freshman year were composed it would have been fairly consistent with several previous generations. The faculty at Beloit is supposed to be reminded of this when teaching generation 2016, to not use outdated references and language. Take a look at the list below and see how far away from generation 2016 you are. It surely helps bring into focus the concept of a generation gap.

The Mindset List for the Class of 2016

For this generation of entering college students, born in 1994, Kurt Cobain, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Richard Nixon and John Wayne Gacy have always been dead.

1. They should keep their eyes open for Justin Bieber or Dakota Fanning at freshman orientation.
2. They have always lived in cyberspace, addicted to a new generation of “electronic narcotics.”
3. The Biblical sources of terms such as “Forbidden Fruit,” “The writing on the wall,” “Good Samaritan,” and “The Promised Land” are unknown to most of them.
4. Michael Jackson’s family, not the Kennedys, constitutes “American Royalty.”
5. If they miss The Daily Show, they can always get their news on YouTube.
6. Their lives have been measured in the fundamental particles of life: bits, bytes, and bauds.
7. Robert De Niro is thought of as Greg Focker's long-suffering father-in-law, not as Vito Corleone or Jimmy Conway.
8. Bill Clinton is a senior statesman of whose presidency they have little knowledge.
9. They have never seen an airplane “ticket.”
10. On TV and in films, the ditzy dumb blonde female generally has been replaced by a couple of Dumb and Dumber males.
11. The paradox "too big to fail" has been, for their generation, what "we had to destroy the village in order to save it" was for their grandparents'.
12. For most of their lives, maintaining relations between the U.S. and the rest of the world has been a woman’s job in the State Department.
13. They can’t picture people actually carrying luggage through airports rather than rolling it.
14. There has always been football in Jacksonville but never in Los Angeles.
15. Having grown up with MP3s and iPods, they never listen to music on the car radio and really have no use for radio at all.
16. Since they've been born, the United States has measured progress by a 2 percent jump in unemployment and a 16 cent rise in the price of a first class postage stamp.
17. Benjamin Braddock, having given up both a career in plastics and a relationship with Mrs. Robinson, could be their grandfather.
18. Their folks have never gazed with pride on a new set of bound encyclopedias on the bookshelf.
19. The Green Bay Packers have always celebrated with the Lambeau Leap.
20. Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
21. A significant percentage of them will enter college already displaying some hearing loss.
22. The Real World has always stopped being polite and started getting real on MTV.
23. Women have always piloted war planes and space shuttles.
24. White House security has never felt it necessary to wear rubber gloves when gay groups have visited.
25. They have lived in an era of instant stardom and self-proclaimed celebrities, famous for being famous.
26. Having made the acquaintance of Furby at an early age, they have expected their toy friends to do ever more unpredictable things.
27. Outdated icons with images of floppy discs for “save,” a telephone for “phone,” and a snail mail envelope for “mail” have oddly decorated their tablets and smart phone screens.
28. Star Wars has always been just a film, not a defense strategy.
29. They have had to incessantly remind their parents not to refer to their CDs and DVDs as “tapes.”
30. There have always been blue M&Ms, but no tan ones.’
31. Along with online viewbooks, parents have always been able to check the crime stats for the colleges their kids have selected.
32. Newt Gingrich has always been a key figure in politics, trying to change the way America thinks about everything.
33. They have come to political consciousness during a time of increasing doubts about America’s future.
34. Billy Graham is as familiar to them as Otto Graham was to their parents.
35. Probably the most tribal generation in history, they despise being separated from contact with their similar-aged friends.
36. Stephen Breyer has always been an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
37. Martin Lawrence has always been banned from hosting Saturday Night Live.
38. Slavery has always been unconstitutional in Mississippi, and Southern Baptists have always been apologizing for supporting it in the first place.
39. The Metropolitan Opera House in New York has always translated operas on seatback screens.
40. A bit of the late Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, has always existed in space.
41. Good music programmers are rock stars to the women of this generation, just as guitar players were for their mothers.
42. Gene therapy has always been an available treatment.
43. They were too young to enjoy the 1994 World Series, but then no one else got to enjoy it either.
44. The folks have always been able to grab an Aleve when the kids started giving them a migraine.
45. While the iconic TV series for their older siblings was the sci-fi show Lost, for them it’s Breaking Bad, a gritty crime story motivated by desperate economic circumstances.
46. Simba has always had trouble waiting to be King.
47. Before they purchase an assigned textbook, they will investigate whether it is available for rent or purchase as an e-book.
48. They grew up, somehow, without the benefits of Romper Room.
49. There has always been a World Trade Organization.
50. L.L. Bean hunting shoes have always been known as just plain Bean Boots.
51. They have always been able to see Starz on Direct TV.
52. Ice skating competitions have always been jumping matches.
53. There has always been a Santa Clause.
54. NBC has never shown A Wonderful Life more than twice during the holidays.
55. Mr. Burns has replaced J.R.Ewing as the most shot-at man on American television.
56. They have always enjoyed school and summer camp memories with a digital yearbook.
57. Herr Schindler has always had a List; Mr. Spielberg has always had an Oscar.
58. Selena's fans have always been in mourning.
59. They know many established film stars by their voices on computer-animated blockbusters.
60. History has always had its own channel.
61. Thousands have always been gathering for “million-man” demonstrations in Washington, D.C.
62. Television and film dramas have always risked being pulled because the story line was too close to the headlines from which they were ”ripped.”
63. TheTwilight Zone involves vampires, not Rod Serling.
64. Robert Osborne has always been introducing Hollywood history on TCM.
65. Little Caesar has always been proclaiming “Pizza Pizza.”
66. They have no recollection of when Arianna Huffington was a conservative.
67. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome has always been officially recognized with clinical guidelines.
68. They watch television everywhere but on a television.
69. Pulp Fiction’s meal of a "Royale with Cheese" and an “Amos and Andy milkshake” has little or no resonance with them.
70. Point-and-shoot cameras are soooooo last millennium.
71. Despite being preferred urban gathering places, two-thirds of the independent bookstores in the United States have closed for good during their lifetimes.
72. Astronauts have always spent well over a year in a single space flight.
73. Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive baseball games played has never stood in their lifetimes.
74. Genomes of living things have always been sequenced.
75. The Sistine Chapel ceiling has always been brighter and cleaner.

Written Language

I like to write anything. Letters, E mails, poetry..... I even once wrote a book (unpublished) long forgotten and probably deservedly so. But I was thinking after I read an E mail from someone I know very well but from whom I rarely communicate by use of the written word, that I was stuck at the thought of just how differently we communicate when we write as opposed to when speak.

Someone once said that writers should write and speakers should speak. I have found many examples of that from my own observation, both from my personal acquaintances and from strangers . I remember the great author Truman Capote, so forceful and brilliant in his written works and so mousy when he spoke. In my own case it is far easier for me to write than to speak, as I never have trouble with the written word but sometimes lack confidence when speaking. "What do I say"?, is often a question when I speak but is never when I write. It's always easier to find words to write.

Unlike when I write something down, when I talk I always think about my words and constantly want to take the sentence or phrase back and redo it. When I taught English I always told my students that their writing had to be far superior to their speech because with written communication they had time to go back and "clean up" the messy parts. But it's odd that many more people today speak more understandably than they write when conveying their thoughts or ideas. I think it is because the electronic mediums are so oral and visual that we develop the spoken word skill to a far greater degree than we did in times when there was no electronic communication. Are there any "soft spoken" humans around today? If so, they are dinosaurs.

Too, when we communicate something to others we are greatly influenced by the method we use we impart the communication. That's why some writers can't write as well when using electronic modes of transcribing (typing on the computer) as when using the old fashioned pen and paper technique. We do think differently when expressing our ideas via different modes. In my case, film does very little to stimulate my brain. But when I read the written word I am lifted much higher and understand and think more deeply about what I read. Allegedly, all that has to do with our individual learning styles.

If we go back to pre electronic medium times and read the letters of simple people who lived then, they seem remarkable for the clarity, for the use of the language and for how moving their expressions were. Today we more often get the "lol" or " What's happening" mindless slang. I suppose the electronic age has killed much of the old formal written language and replaced it with informal slang. But does it matter? We all still seem to communicate and understand each other well enough. But for me, probably because of my age and background, using written language the more comfortable way.....and I am glad it is that way.

The Wrong Voters

I saw a poll today that says that 90 million eligible voters will sit out the November Presidential election between President Obama and challenger Mitt Romney. That's almost half of all registered voters. A lot of it is the fact that politicians lie and abuse the voters so much that some of the electorate feels it matters not which candidate or party wins. There is also the horrible lie, lie, lie campaign both candidates are conducting this year. Romney tells voters that Obama is a liar, a wasteful spender of tax money and a complete failure as president. Obama says that Romney hates the poor, and will be president only to big business. I have yet to see any positive campaigning from either side , and neither has or is likely to give any specific platform (for fear of offending a segment of the voters).

But one aspect of this non participation is good. That is, a whole lot of the 90 million who will not vote are uneducated about much (including the election) and tend to vote only for the candidate who promises to give them the most "free stuff". Despite the noble cause of having all citizens vote, it probably isn't a good thing for everyone to vote. If the uninterested, uninformed and unqualified decide to take away their own vote it might be good for democracy in the end. The fact that many of the 90 million feels they are "too busy" to vote (I guess they have to use the time to watch reality TV and play with their electronic devices?) or say it doesn't matter whether they vote, only reinforces the idea that some people are just too stupid to receive a ballot.

I am more and more struck each year I live by how polarized and uninformed voters here are becoming. They get their information from less than credible sites- blogs, rumors, the internet and word of mouth. Perhaps this is further proof that while society has more information at hand and than ever before, many of its members tend to seek the lowest level of sources of information (what amuses them) and to shun the more important.

Well, I give thanks that rabble won't vote. I distrust their judgment and suspect they are more like leeches than concerned citizens, only interested in the next entitlement the politician hands out.

Obese States

I just read one of those who's fattest articles. This one is the annual compilation of the 50 U.S. States, ranking them from the one with the most obese per capita to the one with the least. The number one fattest state is Mississippi and my former home, Louisiana is the second most obese. I guess when I left for Oregon the rankings it put Mississippi in first and Louisiana dropped to second.

Anyway, Arguably the best food in the U.S. is found in Louisiana, which has consistently great food everywhere in the state, and yes...it is "unhealthy" in that fat, that great natural food so often demonized today, is found in a lot of the servings. Mississippi, Louisiana's neighbor, also great food and follows the fat is not bad mantra. Looking at the states listed as being the least obese doesn't make me hungry. I guess those skinny, hungry places don't know what they are missing. Colorado is the slimmest, followed by Hawaii and Massachusetts.

I think it must be hard to find a good meal in those three. Coloradans are nice people, but they prefer lean, tough buffalo to beef steak. And in Hawaii, everything revolves around boring pineapple. As for Massachusetts, the favorite food is clams. Yuk! How boring. Oh, my present state of Oregon is right in the middle of the fat rankings. I am not surprised. the food here is bland and unexciting, so mid level seems right. I do notice m any fatties in Portland itself and think they must over-eat out of habit, not for the mediocre tastes they get here.

I wonder why the government department, The Center For Disease Control and Prevention, issues this statistic. I can guarantee the people of Louisiana are upset only that they were number two fattest behind Mississippi, not because the government thinks they are obese slobs. In Louisiana and Mississippi having so many fat residents shows the people there love their food and that it is special. The best cooks are fat, and the most content eaters the same. We know that carrying extra fat raises the risks of diabetes and other diseases. But having good food is worth the risks.

Gee, I wish I could find a fried Milky Way candy bar here in Oregon......

Olympic Observations

Ok, it's over now and I enjoyed watching the Olympics. I think I will sum up the recent Olympics with Olympic Game observations and give you the opportunity to, ignore them, agree with or refute them. These have come to me as I have watched (too much) of the competition during the first week of the Games. The side shows at the Olympics are always interesting to me because the Games are really more about human drama than about sport. The range of emotions I observe inside the competitors appear to include just about every one a human could have, both good and bad.
One good one is the fact that most of the losing competitors are quite gracious publicly about their defeat. They rarely blame others and when interviewed after losing almost always praise the winner rather than making excuses for their own performance. I attribute that to the fact that they are so successful in their endeavors. Losing to the greatest competitors is probably not very devastating to an elite athlete. No excuses are needed because the losers train just as hard and have the same kind of elite talent as the winners. They all realize that the old axiom of sportsman ship "you can't win all the time" is true, and so they accept losses more graciously than, say the recreational player on a playground. Too bad we can't all feel that way in life outside the Games.

A negative observation I have is the fact that cell phones have take over the Olympic life as much as they have in life outside them. Athletes "tweet" constantly and carry their phones everywhere except the playing fields. And the fans in the stands are mesmerized by their phones. During one event I watched in which the TV cameras focused on the crowd, I saw at least 50% of the spectators with their heads down reading or texting on their phones and ignoring the competition. So the Olympics do mirror the same cell addiction we see in our ordinary days. It's sad.

Another thing that I am seeing and like about the games is how the games help break down prejudices and superiority complexes that are so often found in human. How wonderful, for example, when the athlete from the nondescript country who is given no chance of wining a gold medal, beats the bigger and sometimes overly prideful American, Chinese or Russian athlete. This reminds us to not pre judge or label individuals or to predispose expectations for them. The turtle and the hare exists in the Olympic games.

A bad aspect of the Games is the flag waving, mindless nationalism represented in the "how many medals did WE win" mindset of too many who watch them. I have observed that the countries with the least amount of freedom wave their flags most. The government uses the Games as away of convincing their citizens that their corrupt political system must be better, since it produces so many champion athletes. In a democratic society only the most un thinking person could make that connection, and democratic systems do not wave that phony banner as a matter of policy. But in nations in which people are propagandized and taught to think of themselves only as being a part of their nation rather than a distinct separate entity, it is a common tool. That's why, China for example, spends billions of dollars developing athletes at the earliest of ages in state run sports schools, and why China always wins so many medals in sports that are not popular. The government trains athletes to compete in those since the competition is less and the probability of winning the event is greater.


One final positive observation (and then I'll shut up) is that the Olympics give every person everywhere a common unifying event to focus. It is the catharsis for us every four years that we need so badly. In the Games there is much less of politics, of hate, of lies. The Games are are the toy we get every few years, and that is probably the greatest benefit of them.