Cookie Quote

“I think everybody just ... thought, 'Oh, great cookie, great president — the world is a happy place. Barack's going to fix all the problems and if I have a bite of this cookie it's going to make me feel good,'” Maxfield said." AP

Rodney Maxfield is co owner of Baby Boomers Bakery in Iowa an unofficial headquarters for Obama staff during campaign speaking of a cookie that's become widely popularized by Obama family and staffs affection for their Chocolate Chunk flavor.

Who Else Knew

this was bound to happen sooner or later?

"NEW YORK - A Wal-Mart worker has died after being trampled by a throng of unruly shoppers shortly after the Long Island store opened Friday, police said. Unconfirmed reports said a pregnant woman also miscarried as the crowd rushed in." msnbc staff from wire reports/other sources

It is crazy, absolutely ridiculous how people act on this day and each year it gets worse. I've tried it once- I was afraid of either getting hurt or hurting someone else in self defence. Once I went to a Wal Mart the day after Thanksgiving to get a fishing license, I had never even heard of the sale at this point. I walked to the front of the line to see what time the store would open after being ignored by a couple of crazed looking white trash women- it's a wonder I didn't start a riot. Once I finally got in and took care of getting my license I stopped at one of the bins up front where they had DVDs for some crazy low price. There weren't too many people there as it seemed all the bargains were in the rear. I picked up one movie and some crazy woman said,"I know you didn't just grab that movie away from me!" I wasn't all that interested in it anyway so I said,"Knock yourself out crazy lady." and handed it to her. As I walked away I literally wondered Did that really just happen? As I looked back she still had a crazed, smug smile on her face and was beaming at that movie case like it was her newborn baby that she had waited all her life for, she then looked at me, stuck her tongue out at me, then tossed the movie back in the bin.

A True Story

The End

Fridays Dispatch

• I don't remember advertising encouraging me to by a single product in my life except for Jolt Cola. Their tagline, All the sugar and twice the caffeine of the leading soda brands did something to me.



• Jolt came out when I was living in Tennessee and the only place you you could find it was drug stores, I don't know if it was coincidence or the law based on caffeine content but, it was true at the time.


• A good friend used to say something like,"Ahh, coffee, the elixir of the gods." when we'd drink coffee. What a goofball but, so smart and so funny- we lost touch, I've tried to find him a few times without luck. Need to dig deeper and try again, I miss him a lot when I think of him.



• I can't find it anywhere near where I live now in Texas but, occasionally pick up some of the Jolt gum when I find it.



• Did you know there is such a thing as IV caffeine? It's for spinal headaches after certain surgeries and procedures.



• I feel vaguely good about myself when I hit spellcheck and it comes up No misspellings found.

Thanksgiving Missives

• What are giblets?



• I'm afraid of the answer to that question.



• In my family there was a lady who had dementia who had in the past had been the life of the party when it came to cooking. What a spread she could throw during the holidays. She was encouraged to cook one time when she was past her mental prime to have prepared her last thanksgiving meal. I remember the giblet gravy she made bubbled very vigorously even though it was stone cold and it smelled funny. I tried to tactfully steer her side of the family away from it and they got mad. We parted ways that afternoon and though I never heard anything more about it they must have gotten sick- that pan looked like it was licked clean.



• I've never eaten deep fried turkey.


• To make them look kind of pathetic some show I watched the other day had characters eating Hormel microwave turkey and dressing meals for thanksgiving. That is what I'm having.


• Am I pathetic?

From OPEDnews.com

"I've been listening to Rush Limbaugh the past few days spew lie after lie saying the democrats are responsible for the financial mess we are in....This Son of a b!#@! needs to be attacked with the truth....I found this old story exposing partially the Reagan and Bush administration........Limbaugh needs to be ARRESTED>>>We need to form some campaign on the air to attack these pigs with the truth......"






"QUIT THINKING YOU HAVE TO BE A REPUBLICAN TO BELIEVE IN GOD.........RUSH LIMBAUGH IS AN IMPOSTOR!!! ARREST HIM JUST LIKE HITLER'S PROPAGANDA MINISTERS WERE"

Yikes!

In The Headlines Today

"BAGHDAD - Baghdad authorities killed more than 200 stray dogs on Sunday, the opening day of a campaign to cull dog packs roaming the capital that was prompted by a spate of fatal attacks on residents.
Thirteen people died in August alone in the capital after being attacked by dogs, according to Baghdad's provincial council, which is overseeing the campaign." AP

Yugo Stops Production This Week

The Yugo was born to be joke fodder:

Man to car dealer: "I'd like a gas cap for my Yugo." Dealer: "Sounds like a fair trade." And my personal favorite- Why does a Yugo have a defroster on the rear window?
To keep your hands warm while you push it.

"Of course, Yugo was never a BMW or a Cadillac, but I think most Americans did not know how to appreciate it," said Momcilo Spajic, a proud Serbian owner of a Yugo â one of the nearly 800,000 produced by the Zasava, or Flag, factory since 1980.
"This is driving in its most natural form. You feel every bump, squeak and jolt, and one can enjoy the sweet smell of gasoline and exhaust fumes," he said. Further he says,"No car can replace it." World News Feed At last, he said something we can both agree on.

There are two things I remember about the Yugo: the trim, door handles and window cranks would practically fall off in your hands if you so much as touched them and toward the end of their run in the US real car dealers would give one away with the purchase of a higher end car to get them off their lots.

Actually, there are three things I remember: there was a notorious case of a girl being blown off a bridge in one and falling to her death.

The Yugo started production in 1980 and will be replaced by a Fiat who has acquired the company.

I Rant

The Mars Exploration Rover -MER cost 870 million dollars. I could not be made to believe the space program has cost anything less than a trillion dollars since it started. I know each shuttle mission costs over 500 million dollars. Yet, in our country bridges fall into rivers with people on them. Regions of our southeast ran completely out of water in 2007. Infrastructure in our cities are so old and decayed up to 18% of water treated and piped for delivery is lost in the ground due to leaks. Electrical grids for entire regions teeter on collapse when challenged.

This is not rational nor reasonable and it's not a case of my failing to see the big picture. Man will never live on Mars and if they do it will be as one big gigantic, expensive science project not a self sustaining colony. If we just acted as though we had a modicum of common sense and intelligence and used the talent and money that has been flushed down the toilet for the past forty + years in the space program we'd be fine right here for thousands of years. If we run out of room and resources some day? So what, we had our chance and the future would decide whether we made the most of it or blew our chance. Right now we are blowing it badly.

We have failed ourselves and our children, for what? Bragging rights, cool freeze dried food for camping and Velcro.

Try eating or drinking any of them and tell me the space program was worth it.

Wednesdays Digressions

• The jogger who was bitten by the rabid fox is still headline news. My moms Avon lady when I was a boy had a son who died of rabies. I assume she knew what she was talking about anyway- she told me about it when I brought some mangie stray dog up to the house while she was visiting with mom. She went into gory detail about how the doc was there at their house and they locked him in his room in the final stages and could only listened to him convulse until he went into a coma and died. Could she have been lying about something like that? Good grief, now that I think about it I don't know.


• Headline: "Suge Knight" faces drug and battery charges." What are the odds?


• My new phones charge doesn't seem to last any time at all. My old phone would run down quickly if I used it a lot of course but, also oddly if I didn't use it at all. If I used it frequently but, briefly it could literally last a week or more.


• Still weird!? My son uses the same type phone as I.


• Still don't know what to think about people who wept when Obama won or the folks who seem equally determined to not get over McCain losing.

OJ Verdict In Latest Caper

Simpson could face life in prison for armed robbery, kidnapping and conspiracy among other charges. The verdict came 13 years to the day (Oct. 3) after he was acquitted for murdering Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. Makes me think the prosecutors there in Vegas were making some kind of a big statement like, We want America to know he didn't get away with those murders after all or maybe Let's see if we can provide some kind of grounds for a new trial.

Well, anyway as for the life sentence I'm sure a lot of people feel they'll believe it when they see it.

I sat on this illustration and thoughts for a while hoping for more news to input. I stumbled across the draft and then looked the story back up- nothing really- found an article with pics of his supposed cell but, no real news.

I'll believe it when I see it.

Mondays Missives

• I just read the football huddle was used first by players from a deaf school so their hand signs wouldn't be read.



• The story I read even included the QB's name. I still don't buy it- way too convenient and would have evolved the same without such a cool story. Something huddle-ish would have to happen from the start. The composition and formalities would evolve very rapidly.



• When I was a boy in Decatur TX A friends dad was known for supposedly being orphaned and so without a place to go and not wanting to go to the family members assigned to take him he ran away and went to a home for deaf children and stayed until he was 18. I don't know if it's true or not but, that friend said he'd seen his dad sign with strangers.



• That kids brother went to prison for murder as a teen. He got caught burglarizing a barn and shot the elderly man who confronted him. He was missing an index finger because of sticking his finger in a bicycle chain when he was a little kid. I remember he used to gross us out by sticking his stub up one of his nostrils and making it look like his whole finger was buried up there.



• I listened to the 80's band The Thompson Twins yesterday. Man, we got A LOT of things wrong in the 80's but, not the music.


• It seems like a lot of the women who kill their husbands for insurance or inheritance money they spotlight on those shows were addicted to some type of horse showing/breeding/racing activity.

Absolutely Knew This Would Happen

News browser headline from this evening: American Idol hopeful mocked by Simon Cowell commits suicide. -Daily Telegraph

Next Blog Button Foray

¡Ojalá se quede en una simple broma!(Si la propuesta llega a hacerse en un país lleno de complejos como uno que yo me sé, ¡se aprueba seguro!)

A Better, Safer Option For Our Troops?

I don't know but, man it would be cool.

In Honor Of Veterans Day: A Favorite Picture Or, I Salute Me

Never before published picture of a soldier alone against the enemy and the elements- TA DA, it's me. What happened to that stud? Click for maximum studliness.

More Wall Thoughts

The youngest Vietnam KIA is believed to be Dan Bullock at 15 years old.
The oldest person on the Wall is believed to be Dwaine McGriff at 63 years old.
At least 5 men killed in Vietnam were 16 years old.
At least 12 men killed in Vietnam were 17 years old.
There are 120 persons who listed foreign countries as their home of record.
At least 25,000 of those killed were 20 years old or younger.
More than 17,000 of those killed were married.
Veterans killed on their first day in Vietnam 997 (unconfirmed)
Veterans killed on their last day in Vietnam 1,448 (unconfirmed)
Number of Chaplains on the Wall -- 16
(2 Medal Of Honor)
Number of Women on the Wall -- 8 (7 Army, 1 USAF - 7,484 served)
There are 226 Native Americans on the Memorial.
There are 22 countries represented on the Memorial.
Most common name on the Memorial "Smith" with 667 veterans.
The most casualties for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 casualties.
The most casualties for a single month was May 1968, 2,415 casualties were incurred.
From thewall-usa.com

Vietnam War Memorial Wall Birthdays

At http://thewall-usa.com/index.asp you can search for names on the Wall and one of the options is to search for troops whose birthdays were on the day you are looking at the site. Dear God, if I read it right there are 18 pages of them for Veterans Day and 17 pages of troops who were killed on Veterans Day. Here's the first and one that jumped out at me when I clicked next page.

"ARTHUR LLOYD ADAMS JR

BUH3 - E4 - Navy - Regular Born on Monday, November 11, 1946 From LOVELAND, CO
-->Length of service 2 years His tour began on Feb 15, 1968 Casualty was on Aug 23, 1968In QUANG NAM, SOUTH VIETNAM HOSTILE, GROUND CASUALTY ARTILLERY, ROCKET, or MORTAR Body was recovered Panel 47W - Line 36"

I sit here wearing hearing aids from "artillery,rocket, or mortar" fire. My ears still ring and my head hurts. What if it were me who was reduced to such a cold assessment of my death and a point of curiosity in a web search?

"RICHARD DENNIS BREWER

1LT - O2 - Army - Reserve 1st Cav Division (AMBL) Born on Saturday, November 11, 1944 From BIG SPRING, TX
-->Length of service 6 years His tour began on Feb 21, 1970 Casualty was on May 2, 1970 In , CAMBODIA HOSTILE, HELICOPTER - PILOT AIR LOSS, CRASH ON LAND Body was recovered"

This entry caught my attention for several reasons. I served with 1 Cav just 10 years after the war ended and in fact had several leaders who fought with her in Nam and and Cambodia where his loss occurred. He was from Texas and his bio said he was married and a Baptist. I was raised a Baptist. I was married and had two children when I left for my war.

I guess it's easy to say, why them? Why me? Why did I survive What did his loss do to his wife Where is she? Did he have children? Were they destroyed over their loss of him?

Have I earned the chance he never had?

Missives

What did he have to lose?

What did they?

• It's November 11 Veterans Day and my yard just got mowed. I don't know which is crazier thinking about my wartime service or mowing the yard in what is for all intents- winter.



• Once when I was a kid in the Texas National Guard in Decatur Texas there was a Veterans Day celebration and I was the Soldier, a classmate was the Marine, a friend was the Airman and a co-worker was the Sailor for the start of the parade, music, political bluster etc.



• God, I was 17 when I enlisted- what a kid.


• Lord, I was 40 when I finally fought in a war- what an old man.



• Someone called earlier who I didn't know even knew I had served and wished me well for Veterans Day- nice. Man, that was real nice actually.



• I went because it was my time to go and my country needed me- does anyone think like that anymore?



• I've heard people say,"I'm not going to get myself killed for..." If you wouldn't die for your country, what are you living for ? Really, WHAT WOULD YOU GET KILLED FOR? In the end, it's the man to your left and right anyway and if a person can pass up the opportunity to understand that, I pity you.



• Wonder what the 300,000 plus American men who died in WWII had to live for?



• Warfighting is one of the few timeless things in our history that there is no way to get a grasp on without having been.



• I've seen men vomit from fear before going on a mission to a bad area but, they went and I know who they are and honor them nearly every day in various ways and thoughts. I'm thankful that there are men in this world who know a little of what I'm made of and probably have the same warm thoughts about me from time to time.



• There are people alive in this world because of my service who would have died and I'm proud of that.



• There are people over there whose lives were made better by some personal efforts of myself and others and that will always warm my heart.



• There are also things I think I will take to the grave with me and I doubt that feeling will change.



• You wouldn't understand if I tried.

Mondays Missives

• There was a story years ago that still crosses my mind and fascinates me about a guy who got dropped off by a bush plane in Alaska with tons of supplies but, didn't schedule a pickup. When a plane did circle around him a long time later he just waved at the plane. He later wrote a note to the effect,"I think I just made a big mistake." after seeing on the back of his hunting license? that was the signal for I'm OK. The distress signal was to wave your arms back and forth crossing each other. He shot himself instead of dying from the elements.



• What was he thinking?



• When I want to get a laugh at my own expense I've been known to finish a sentence with,"Or so it has been said- according to the prophecy." Or if offered a food I really don't like I'll refer to it as comida del Diablo- food of the Devil in Spanish. The people who don't matter think this proves all kinds of bad things about me. The people who do matter know I'm just being my goofy self and laugh at and with me- and we don't care in which order.



• Here's my recent scary hospice nurse story: a patient in terminal distress demonstrating extreme agitation was babbling on nonsensically for at least 15 minutes while I was getting orders and meds on board etc. to help him. Fifteen minutes is a long time to have someone haranguing you basically in a language you don't understand but, the perpertrator seems to think you should. (Think getting arrested by the Federales in Cabo during a spring break in the misspent days of your youth.) During this tirade suddenly in a clear, strong voice after a brief pause he said,"What happened to you man? You lost yourself somewhere, somehow."



• Yes, just relating that to you sent the hairs up on the back of my neck- again.

Kinda Funny Kinda Scary