Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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The Republican Party… as it formerly was

Heather Cox Richardson is an historian and a professor at Boston College.  She also puts out a news letter (more or less daily) that generally relates current events to historical trends – among other things. I will confess to not reading everyone of her newsletters, but I read many.

Today’s topic was the Republican Party.  It has not always been the Tea Party infused lackey of corporations and the excessively wealthy, for much of its history it cared about the common individuals and sought to use government to do social good.  Her April 6, 2021 newsletter starts out:

“I spent much of today thinking about the Republican Party. Its roots lie in the immediate aftermath of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in spring 1854, when it became clear that elite southern slaveholders had taken control of the federal government and were using their power to spread their system of human enslavement across the continent.

At first, members of the new party knew only what they stood against: an economic system that concentrated wealth upward and made it impossible for ordinary men to prosper. But in 1859, their new spokesman, Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln, articulated a new vision of government…”

The whole article can be read here:  Letters from America – April 6, 2021 It is well worth the time it takes to read it. If you like that sort of thing, it is a good newsletter to subscribe to.

Keep well.

 

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Word of the Day – Phratry

  • Noun: Phratry

    1. a kinship group forming a subdivision of a Greek phyle
    2. a tribal subdivision specifically : an exogamous group typically comprising several totemic clans
  • Synonyms:
    1.  sept
    2. lineage
    3. kinfolk
    4. pedigree
    5. blood line
  • Usage:
    1. “You people call yourselves a ‘family’ but the grouping is a phratry.“
  • Encountered:
    1. While reading Robert A. Heinlein’s Citizen of the Galaxy.

To see more Words of the Day, visit this link: Words of the Day

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #9,786

yeah I know you did not ask!

In 2005 the Country and Western artist Toby Keith had a big hit with the song, As Good as I Once Was.  In case you were off the planet then, here a link to a video of the song: As Good as I Once Was

The story line of the song is that a  gentleman is in a bar and twin girls try to pick him up for a threesome.  He then utters the catch line of his song, “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once As I ever was“.

I am aware it is just a song and probably not autobiographical, but… At the time the song came out, Toby Keith would have been around 44.  I saw recently that Toby will be turning 60 this year, by some reckonings, a senior citizen. I imagine that he is still singing the song in concerts, given his senior citizen status, perhaps he should revise his famous line to this: “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once As I ever was… SOMETIMES“.

 

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Mars and Venus — Whatever Country

I was Skyping with my young Mexican tutor who lives in Honduras this morning.   He told me the following joke:

¿En qué se parecen las mujeres y las canciones en inglés?
Yo tampoco lo entiendo, pero me gustan los dos.

Or in English:

How are women and songs in English alike?
I don’t understand either, but I like them both.

Seems like male / female relationships are the same in whatever culture the two genders exist.

 

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #4,845

yeah I know you did not ask!

After much gnashing of teeth, after much scrutinizing of checking  accounts, after accepting that she would not be 21 again, Señora bit the proverbial bullet and bought herself hearing aids.

This purchased has wrought an unexpected change in my life. In the past when we had a cross transaction I was wont to mutter some reply under my mustache, knowing that it was very unlikely that she would hear my utterance, thus avoiding fueling whatever fire was raging.  If she noticed my lips moving, and asked what I said, I would disingenuously reply, “That I love you.”  That is no longer an option. I know this to be true as I was in my man cave upstairs talking back to a balky computer when from the kitchen downstairs I heard her ask, “What did you say dear?”

Hopefully I am not too old a dog to learn a new trick, and can avoid being taken to the pound.

Let me see, how many cliches did I manage to get into three short paragraphs…

Keep well.

 

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Rev. Joe buys a blow-up doll

In any workplace with one or more persons, you are likely to encounter one or more “characters”.  My first job in Information Technology was with a large national manufacturing concern at their Ft. Smith, AR plant, at that time their administrative offices were also there. For reasons unclear, hopefully not dark and mysterious, there dwelt more than the normal allowance of characters at the plant and offices, perhaps a birds-of-a-feather phenomenon.

One such character was Jon, a computer operator who had worked  there for many years.   Jon did not achieve his character-hood for his activities at work, but for his personal life.  He had been married 7 or 8 times, no one was quite sure, Continue reading “Rev. Joe buys a blow-up doll”

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Jeanne Chats with a Former Nun

 I have a friend, Jeanne Felfe,  who writes novels and short stories.  She also works with other authors to edit their work and aids them in bringing their books to the self-publishing marketplace.

Today on her blog, Jeanne interviewed, Shirley Anderson, a newly published former nun who she termed an absolute delight. Shirley has lived quite the adventurous life, and shared some of wonderful stories in her memoir, Poverty, Virginity & Love.

To read the complete interview follow this link: Jeanne’s interview with Shirley Anderson.