CFOP – Consideration for Other People

My mother had a unique and characteristic method of passing on values, morals, correct behavior – I am not quite sure how to categorize what she was attempting to do.  She had a library of canned routines that were triggered by the conduct of, first of us boys, and then later by grandchildren.  I theorize that she was utilizing the marketing method of repeated hearings to drive home a point. She was not above turning these chastisements into little ditties.  I do not have fond memories of her educative method, quite the contrary.  I did not see then Continue reading “CFOP – Consideration for Other People”

Alcohol was involved

I stopped in Quick Trip, a convenience store, the other day.  Going up to the counter with my purchases, the cashier rang them up and told me the price. As I was swiping my debit card he repeated the the price in Spanish.

“¿Hablas español?,” I replied as his accent was not very Latino although he appeared to be so.  The reality is that many 2nd or 3rd generation Latinos only speak English.

To which he responded, “Para nada.”  Basically saying, “not really.”

He then went on to tell me that his father was Mexican and his mother was Greek. Adding that there was a very good chance that much alcohol was involved in their meeting!  Then he mentioned something about being raised by foster parents, and wanting to learn his paternal language.

I encouraged him in his endeavor, adding that it was a beautiful language.

There is a short story in there somewhere.

And so it goes.

More Genealogy Silliness – Presidents

What triggered this latest round of silliness was that I was watching a Wondrium (formerly Great Courses) course, America’s Founding Fathers. On the class about one of my early idols, Thomas Jefferson, it mentioned that his mother was Jane Randolph. The brother just younger than me is named Paul Randolph.  The Paul is after our Uncle Paul of USS Carr fame.  I am not recalling the provenance of his middle name right now, but my father’s side of the family will occasionally use the family name of one branch or another for a middle name.  For instance, my father’s middle name was Marrs.   All this started me wondering about a connection to Jane Randolph and sent me to FamilySearch.org, the genealogy site ran by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints aka the Mormons. Stayed tuned.

A few thoughts before I delve deeper. 

First, this blog posting will most likely be of more interest to the handful of my relatives that read my blog.

Secondly the Mormon genealogy site is very well administered.  I am sure that the Mormon portion is meticulous in its research. The portion open Continue reading “More Genealogy Silliness – Presidents”

Quote of the Day – Socrates

“True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.” ~~ Socrates

For some reason Sargent Schultz of Hogan’s Heroes comes to mind…

People with overwhelming certainty about any number of things, scare the bejeebers our of me. I have very few things that I see as black or white.  Most things, for me, fall in the gray zone. I tend to see too many ‘ifs’, ‘ands’ and ‘buts’.

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Matrimonial Log – Star Date 5783.108

“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.”

Señora recently acquired a new phone. Right now the phone is a bit annoying as it has a notification sound  that, for all the world, to me, sounds like “ruh roh”. Clearly I spent far too much time watching Scooby Doo with my kidrens when… well,  when they were kidrens way back in the last century.  This “ruh roh” sound is probably on multiple applications,  However, messing around with her phone ranks right up there with getting into her purse. It is something I avoid doing as I consider both very personal items. That, and  gawd only knows what I might find.

The other night it was late, the lights were out, and Señora and I were being, shall I say, more than a little feisty. A little while into our canoodling, an application on her phone started in with notifications.  “Ruh roh” it kept saying, over and over. At first it was barely impinging on my semi-crazed  hormonal state (fully crazed fled years ago), but after eight or ten times, it became hard to ignore.

As it continued with the “ruh rohs” I began to feel like her phone was judging us.  Was it bothered by feisty seniors?  Her phone might be a super Christian for all I know.  The Apostle Paul and St. Augustine espoused sexual congregation only, only  in marriage, and even then solely for the purpose of procreation.  It would, indeed, be a miracle – and a disaster – if Señora and I were to procreate.  Perhaps the phone was pulling a 1984 and Big Brother was being judgmental about what we were doing.   I basically felt like there was a hypercritical third party in our matrimonial bed adjudicating our nocturnal activities. The hormonal part of me wanted to grab the device and fling it into silence, but then I remembered what we had paid for it.

Funny time of life when logic and caution prevail over hormones – ruh roh.

And so it goes.


Which reminds me of a joke from my biochemistry class (again last century):

How do you make a hormone?

Don’t pay her!

Now days the college chemistry professor would probably be in deep water for telling such an un-woke joke.  Oh well…

Matrimonial Log – Star Date 5783.107

“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.”

Señora has a habit of lying in bed in the mornings, drinking her coffee, and working puzzles from the New York Times on her phone.  She was doing so this morning as I was buzzing around getting ready for my Spanish class on Skype.

Suddenly she jumped out of our matrimonial love nest, loudly exclaiming, “I am running late. I have an appointment for a massage in just a few minutes.”

I unwisely replied, “You have a habit of that.  It just drives me nuts to be running late.”

Señora responded to my injudicious comment with, “I’m going to get there on time, and you are altogether nuts anyway.”

When will I ever learn? In the ongoing drama of our matrimonial repartee, I always end up as the bottom.

And so it goes.

Rotor Craft on Mars

Today’s news had a story about NASA’s rotor craft, helicopter by any other name, making its fiftieth flight on Mars: Ingenuity Soars: NASA’s Mars Helicopter Aces 50th Flight – “We Are Not in Martian Kansas Anymore”

There have been stories about this craft since even before it arrived on Mars. These stories always make me think of my father who was a technical representatives for helicopters for Kaman Aerospace.  I could see him as being utterly fascinated by a helicopter flying on another planet, especially one with practically no atmosphere.

I could also see him trying to get stationed on Mars to provide technical assistance for the craft!  Yeah, I know, he was no Matt Damon.

There is no way to verify now, but Continue reading “Rotor Craft on Mars”

Word of the Day -Solipsist

  • Noun: Solipsist
    1. Philosophy The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified.
    2. The view that the self is the only reality.
    3. Absorption with oneself without consideration for the needs and desires of others: a self-indulgent memoir that revealed the author’s solipsism.
  • Synonyms:
    1. egoism
    2. self-containment
    3. subjectivity
    4. egocentricity
    5. ipseity
    6. narcissism
    7. self-absorption
    8. self-reliance
    9. autonomy
    10. singularity
    11. uniqueness
  • Usage:
    1. “’EA and BA meat on the same haul as Solipsists Anonymous but those guys act like no one else is in the building.'”
  • Encountered:
    1.  This was a comment to my blog posting, Homophone Challenged. I knew the meaning of the word as an adherent of the philosophy of Solipsism. But reading the comment I wondered if it might have another definition.  Sure enough… it is a high brow way of calling someone a selfish mofo.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #4,831

yeah I know you did not ask!

At times, it is so very, very hard being a sarcastic SOB.

I was filling out a medical form, and even though it was a computerized form that could have been carrying redundant information from section to section, it was not.

One question it kept asking, besides my name, DOB, etc., was sex.  It got where it was all I could do to not put “Yes, and often please.” But I kept reminding myself that it was a very tired, old joke, even by my standards.

Why they had not provided a drop down box with the two options – male, female – is beyond me.  A free form text box seemed to be exactly the wrong option for gathering an either/or piece of data .  Perhaps they were trying to be “woke”. It just struck me as stupid programming.


On a related note…

A while back a doctor asked me, “Do you drink?”

“Sure,” I replied, “Scotch neat with a splash of water, otherwise I will take whatever you are drinking.”

Apparently that was an inappropriate response in a medical setting.

And so it goes.