Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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3rd Time is the Charm    

If you have ever studied any human anatomy, you will know we are pretty much the same under the hood.  However, there are a multitude of recorded variations and abnormalities from the standard model.  I once had a physician, a D.O., who would frequently give shots and draw blood himself.  He called the veins in the antecubital fossa – the area where they normally draw blood – in one of my arms, alien veins. He went on to state that only about five percent of the population had my particular venous configuration.  Heaven forbid I should adhere to a convention like bilateral symmetry.

Several years ago I was in a doctor’s office and they needed Continue reading “3rd Time is the Charm    “

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #7,135

yeah I know you did not ask!

I suppose another one you could file under ironic. Certainly something to ponder on.

I was working with one of my Spanish tutors when somehow the subject of George Floyd and Michael Brown came up.  My Mexican tutor who lives in Tijuana told me that in Mexico the American police have the reputation of being brutal.  I had no real argument with that, but said, “and the police in Mexico?” To which he replied, “they are not brutal, simply corrupt.”

What a world we live in when those who should be serving and protecting are frequently doing neither.

And so it goes.

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Matrimonial Log – Star Date 5783.066

“Matrimony… the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Casamiento Segundo, its until-death-do-us-part mission… to explore a strange new relationship… to seek out a new life and new adventures… to boldly go where no sane couple has gone before.”

Almost out of the blue Señora said to me, “You would not make a very good MC on a game show.”

“Oh?,” said I, arching one eyebrow, a perplexed expression crossing my charming, handsome countenance, “why is that?”

“You get annoyed by people too easily,” she went on.

“So you think I am annoyed with you right now,” I echoed, dropping into my best active listening mode and reflecting back to her what I thought she had just said.

“Clearly that is true, my dear, dear sweet man,” Señora commented, only a little sarcastically.

“Well come on down and see if the Price is Right, your turn to spin, vowels are worth double, What is sarcasm, Alex?” for some reason seemed to be the necessary, if absolutely not the appropriate response.

Growing up with four brothers, I became very good at ducking.

And so it goes.

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Day of the Dude – March 6, 2023

Gather round all you Dudes and Dudettes, today is The Day of the Dude, a celebration of our favorite Lebowski Dude,  and one of our favorite movies The Big Lebowski, one of the few movies I actually own.

From the website National Today:

“Day of the Dude is celebrated on March 6 every year to commemorate the North American release of the movie ‘The Big Lebowski’ in 1998. The movie portrays a protagonist with a laid-back attitude to life who chooses simplicity, peace, and happiness. The idea is to enjoy life’s little moments such as bowling or drinking with some friends. The holiday looks to promote ease and simplicity in society. Being able to easily let things go and go with the flow is a big part of the lifestyle. The lifestyle portrayed in the movie inspired the birth of the religion/philosophy known as ‘Dudeism.’”

To read more: Day of the Dude – March 6, 2023

The Dude truly abides.

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I Want To Live by Helen Imagene (Jean) Jones Felfe

This was an easy book to read.  This was a hard book to read.

It was an easy book to read as it was well written.  The first part of the book started off a little slow for me, but persevere, it picks up quickly.  After reading the whole book those initial chapters almost seem written in a different style.  Perhaps that was intentional.  Once I got into the meat of the memoir I found it to be a real page turner.  It was an easy book to read as there was Continue reading “I Want To Live by Helen Imagene (Jean) Jones Felfe”

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Southpaw – I never knew

Once again during my regular regal ruminations I was perusing the book, Dictionary of Word Origins by Jordan Almond when I came across an entry for Southpaw:

“All major league baseball diamonds are laid out so that the batter will face east, thus putting the afternoon sun behind his back and making it easier for him to see the ball. Therefore, when the pitcher faces the batter he’s facing west and his left arm is to the south. So if he pitches left-handed, he’s pitching with his ‘south paw.'”

It makes sense that they would construct ball parks this way – aligned with the compass, but I had never thought about it before.  I had never really considered why left-handed pitchers are called south paws.  I had just heard it all my life and accepted it without thought.

As my son-in-law has informed me a couple times ( I had forgotten the answer from the first time I asked him) that the stadium space in center field without seats, and usually green, is to help the batters see the ball also.

Don’t you feel so  much smarter now…

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #3,726

yeah I know you did not ask!

File this under ironic.

When I first moved in with Señora around 2012 in this St. Louis suburb of Chesterfield (population 49,703), there was a big discussion going on in the media about racial profiling, The city of Chesterfield was listed as one of the most egregious cities in Missouri for profiling of black drivers. A quick search on Google did not bring up any current articles, however.  Chesterfield is 77% white, 13% Asian, and only 3.5% black. Hispanics are 2.9% and the rest vary.

Continuing through the pandemic until now, home deliveries of whatever has become and remains massively popular.  There seems to be delivery vans constantly driving down our street.

The ironic part… the vast majority of the folks driving these vans are exactly the type of persons that the Chesterfield PD was accused of profiling a decade ago. Apparently it is okay if these folks are delivering your goodies and wearing a corporate uniform.

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The Year I Almost Went to The Masters

When I moved back to Oklahoma from Rhode Island I went to work for Coburn Optical.  Their main line of business is the manufacturing of the machines that other companies use to modify lenses to mount in eye glasses.  They also have a division that takes orders to modify and mount lenses.  I was young, still working on my education, and my work experience had been in restaurants, factories and warehouses.  I was a warehouseman there.  I worked there from 1973 to 1976, leaving to move to Oklahoma City to pursue my educational goals.

My father had left his position with Kaman Aerospace and moved back to Muskogee, OK where my mother had been living for a while.  Looking around for a job he found one with Coburn and started there shortly after I left.  He moved up rapidly and after a while was managing the division that prepared lenses for other companies.  Part of his responsibilities involved making Continue reading “The Year I Almost Went to The Masters”

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Family Reunion Time???

I recently joined FamilySearch.org, a genealogy site ran by the Mormons aka The Church of Jesus Christ ofLatter-Day Saints.  It is really a wonderful genealogy tool and free… at least I have not stumbled across anything I need to pay for.

Several genealogy sites/organizations have joined together and are having a RootsTech conference, both physically and virtually March 2nd and 3rd. I have been receiving emails about it with the  snippet above from one coming in yesterday.

While the vast majority of my cousins are wonderful souls, 14,626 might be a little overwhelming! And given my semi-hermit introverted nature, ¡Ay caramba!

The derriere you see running away from the mass of 14,626 is mine. Insert your favorite smiley face here.

And so it goes.

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Word of the Day – Caliche

  • Noun: Caliche
    1.  a mineral deposit of gravel, sand, and nitrates, found especially in dry areas of South America
    2. an area of calcium carbonate formed in the soils of semiarid regions.
  • Synonyms:
    1. hard-pan
    2. stone
    3. dirt
    4. soil
  • Usage:
    1. “Finally, we arrived at a small white frame house with a caliche driveway.”
  • Encountered:
    1.  While reading the pre-publication edition of I Want to Live by Helen Imagene (Jean) Jones Felfe.  Jeanne Felfe has recently finished curating/editing the manuscript of this book that her mother wrote 40 years ago, but that was never published.  Stayed tuned for publication details.

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