The True Cost of Freedom

We went to hear a Jewish refusenik named Natan Shcharansky talk this evening. I don't want to sound irreverent to a genuine hero, but he did sound just like  MYRON COHEN. And, since he had exhibited such individual courage in standing up to the entire Old Soviet Union almost by himself, I expected him to be at least 10 feet tall, but he was about the same height as Woody Allen. Although his speech was inspiring listening to it did come at a cost, of $54.00 for a pledge to the sponsoring agency, who brought him to speak to us. For that we got the speech and two sugar cookies.
The funniest part of the evening's speeches came when one of our US Senators spoke to the audience via a prerecorded segment, during which he said he would have rather been with us in person, but the work of the US Senate kept him in Washington. 
Since the work of the US Senate is too be deadlocked, and get nothing done, he could have at least used a different excuse for not attending in person.

My Ten Commandments of Fowarding

1.Thou shall not forward anything that self- proclaims its a Warning, or its important, or must be read, or has gone viral.

2.Thou shall check all forwards with snopes.com, before forwarding.

3.No forwards of cute, heartbreaking or beautiful, or "you must see" pictures.

4.If thou must forward,  forward no more than one forward per week.

5.No more than one forward per week to any one person on your email list.

6.Thou shall not ever encourage or reward or acknowledge anyone who forwards anything to you.

7.If thou breaks any of these commandments thou shall have all email accounts closed and be forced to do all communications via pen and paper via the USPS.

8. Before forwarding anything thou shall take a deep breath, and and repeat the following phrase at least ten times: " Is this really necessary for anyone to read or watch or view?"

9. Before forwarding anything, Thou shall ask thyself the following question:

" Would Moses have forwarded this?"

10. Finally and most important of all Thou Shall never forward anything that is posted on YouTube. if your recipients can't figure out how to waste their own time on YouTube, thou shall not enable them.

I'm BACK

It has been brought to my attention that I have not been blogging enough. So here goes. Where we have been, we have been in Costa Rica for 10 days on a bus tour. Believe me, we had no idea of ever going to CR, but once we got there we could see why this country is so high on tourists and especially Eco-tourists must see lists. The country seems to be about 25% national park and 25% unpaved roads and 25% corporate agriculture, 25% citizens, 25% one really large capital city, and about 100% really interesting things to see. So, if you want to see something like the Amazon, like South America, like all of Central America, but different go see Costa Rica, and make sure you drink lots of their local rum, it will make your sightseeing even better. 

What else has been going on, there seems to be a Presidential Election this year, although for the life of me I don't understand why any "normal" person would want to put themselves through what presidential candidates and incumbents have to go through to be elected POTUS. Which means all we given a choice to vote for, are "abbynormal" candidates.

Enough for now, I promise to try to write every day but I don't promise to keep my promise.

 

Chili's Burgers Ruined For The Rest of My Life

One day last week while driving back from CA to OR, we stopped in a Chili's for a quiet gourmet burger. While eating, another group of people walked in to partake of the same gourmet food. As they sat I noticed that one of the booth occupants was waring a baseball cap. I like to wear baseball caps, so I tend to look them over as I see them. I also like to see them worn as baseball players wear them, bill front, not bill in the back, not bill on the side, bill in the front. The way nature intended them to be worn. The cap I saw that night in Chili's had been modified so that the logo of the cap was offset to the right. Which meant that the wearer could get the same goofy effect of wearing the bill to the side while not having to spend the effort to turn the cap sideways. As a further affront to the Laws of Nature, this cap logo (the NY Yankees) was all the wrong colors and sized wrong.
That cap ruined my gourmet Chili's burger. I will never again be able to look at a Chili's burger without seeing that logo burned into it.

Growing Up In Brooklyn

Before we moved to the Brigham Park Cooperative Apartments on Brigham Street we lived on McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn, I don't remember the number. What I do remember is that there was an elevated subway line that ran on McDonald Ave, and beneath the "El" (short for elevated) ran a trolley car line. I can remember coming home from Public School and playing out in front of our apartment house, and watching the trolley cars go by. As boys will be boys we would place things on the tracks like rocks and bottles to watch the trolly car wheels crush the objects. Of course our parents strictly forbid this practice but we did it anyway. One day someone came up with the bright idea of placing a coin on the tracks to see what the trolley car would do to the coin. Someone, eventually came up with a penny which we placed on the tracks. It was flattened like a pancake by the trolley car. It seems that we could have predicted this result but as kids it was more fun and more " naughty" to actually use real money -- a penny. This was 1950 when a penny was actually worth more than a glass bottle. I can also remember we wanted to try a nickel, but no one could figure out how we were going to get our hands on that kind of fortune.

Part 2 of My First Date with my STBB

As you may remember,I was on a blind date with my STBB, and one other couple, and we were playing pool. After either allowing the other couple to win, or just playing badly, we decided to get something to eat. Parenthetically, I should note that it was on this date that I basically decided two things. One, I had wasted a great deal of time and money bowling, during my high school and college years, when in fact I should have spent all that time and money learning the game of pool. As I got older It turned out that its much more common to play pool than it is to bowl, unless of course your are of polish extraction, of which I am not. Anyhow, the two couples left the pool hall and as near as I remember it, I suggested we go to Nathan's in Coney Island NY. This was geographically desirable and it was a cheap way to end a blind date, at least that's what I thought it was. Little did I know that my date was going to order Lobster Rolls, the most expensive thing on the menu at Nathan's. Anyhow, we went to Nathan's and I spent more on food than I ever expected, and my mind was made up about the second thing I needed to decide on this date. It seems that I decided I was going to marry my date. Looking back, I'm not sure that I actually made that second decision, or somehow my mother and future mother in-law, whom I had not yet met, made the decision for me. In any case it was the best decision I ever made ( or was made for me), because not only did I get my STBB but I also got my best friend for life.

My First Date With My "Soon To Be Bride" The First Installment.

Many, many, many years ago either my friend or my future wife's friend, I can't remember which, arranged a blind date for me with my " Soon To Be Bride". incidentally for purposes of protecting the innocent ( Me) I shall refer to her as the STBB (Soon To Be Bride) from now on in this blog, and maybe in my current life as well. Anyhow after this blind date was arranged someone, my STBB always says it was me, decided we should double date, and go shoot pool and then go out to eat. First you should know that in the middle 1960's, the time many, many, many years ago of which I write, had decreed that shooting pool was now "cool". Prior to our blind date many new sanitized pool halls had opened with their express market targets being girls, women, and others of the female sex who up until the invention of magenta colored pool tables would never even think of looking into, much less walking into a Pool Hall. Anyway once society had made it permissible for dates to go into pool halls, off we went the double date, me and my STBB. From, what I can remember the time in the pool hall went well, no blood or other bodily fluids was shed, and everyone on the double date and the other people already in the selected Pool Hall all remember to act like it was socially acceptable to be in the pool hall instead of how they would have acted before magenta pool table covers. To the best of my knowledge no written record exists recording the scores of the pool games we played, but I am reasonably certain that as a practitioner of the art of dating I would have allowed my STBB to win. With such subtlety, that she and her girlfriend would never have known they were being allowed to win. On the other hand they might have just beaten my friend and I outright, but my male ego does does not allow me to recognize that possibility.