Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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War and Peace

warpeaceI knew very little about War and Peace before I read the book except it written b a Russian Leo Tolstoy and it was very long.  It is long, about 1300 pages in paperback.   By comparison the Harry Potter box set is 4167 pages with the print admittedly larger. I think the majority of us have read all the Harry Potter books.

This is not an attempt to review such a classic, but perhaps some impetus for someone to read this worthy book.

It is an historical novel.  It uses the fortunes of several folks to move the narrative forward.   It is a love story, but certainly not in the vein of Jane Austen.  Tolstoy brings the characters alive to point that you do care what happens to them.  Will Natasha marry the Prince?  Will Princess Mary ever find happiness?  How long will Count Bezukhov put up with his wayward wife?  Will the Rostovas go bust before the novel ends?  I had to remind myself it was normal for those times.  I found it a little creepy that  30 and 40 year old men were chasing the main love interest of the story,  16 year old Natasha.  Apparently if you were not married by the time you were 17 or 18 your were an old maid.  People were not so worried about marrying for love, but in making a match that increased the family’s finances.

It is a history of Russia from about 1800 to 1813 or so.  The epilogue goes past those dates.  It is the story of Bonaparte’s invasion into Russia and the Russian response.  Continue reading “War and Peace”

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My Girlfriend Attempts to Poison Me


poisonousA few years back Robin and I signed up to take field class on identifying edible mushrooms in Missouri.  I ended up with a  conflict and could not make the class, but Robin went.  She came back that Saturday evening with a bag full of edible wild mushrooms and a chest full of excitement.

About a week later she decides to go mushroom hunting on her own in a local park, Faust Park, which has several heavily wooded acres.  She comes home again with a chest full of excitement and bags full of wild mushrooms.  However, this time she did not have an expert teacher with her, and she did not really know what she had.  She spread her bounty upon newspapers on the bar between the kitchen and the eating area.  I had loaned her my mushroom identification book so she was hoping to identify what she had gathered. Continue reading “My Girlfriend Attempts to Poison Me”

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Dissed by a Little Rascal

In the early 70’s my father’s job took him overseas again.  My mother and my three youngest siblings went with him.  ShirleyJeanRickert2This left me living alone in Rhode Island.  A fourth brother was living in Oklahoma.  My cousin’s husband had recently graduated college with an art degree.   He found work in a regional theatre company in Springfield, MA.  Being Okies (less in my case, more in her case) and relatives living in the East we would visited occasionally.

Her husband Steve worked as a set designer for the theatre.  Also at the theatre was a former member of the comedic series Our Gang (also known as The Little Rascals), Shirley Jean Rickert.  She worked as the theatre’s secretary, and she would occasionally act.

One of my visits was just after successfully opening of a new play.  Someone was putting on a party for the production crew.  My cousins dragged me along to this party.  I say drag as I am still not much on parties, and at that point in my life I was painfully shy.  Ms. Rickert was there. Continue reading “Dissed by a Little Rascal”

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Insurance Companies: Not Price Fixing, But Just As Bad

Name a product you must have if you own a home. If you said homeowner’s insurance give yourself a pat on the back. Even as a renter it is a wise idea to have renter’s insurance to protect losses from burglary, fire, etc.

greedNow name the one thing you should not do with these policies. If you said make a claim give yourself another pat on the back.

I live with my girlfriend who owns her house outright. She has been with the same insurance company for many, many years. I will not name names as I have come to learn these companies are vindictive. Just as an aside my girlfriend is financially stable, has been employed steadily for the last 25 years as a teacher, and has a good credit rating.

Several years ago due reasons beyond her control there a sewage backup that ruined practically everything on the first floor and the basement of her house. The company graciously took care of everything. Continue reading “Insurance Companies: Not Price Fixing, But Just As Bad”

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The War on Drugs Has Unacceptable Costs

massincarceration_20110617_0
Click to see in larger size

This outrages me. If I was a person of color I would be beyond outrage. Then you add onto the statistics the fact that we are spending more on incarceration than we are spending on higher education while we are importing skilled labor because supposedly we do not have the skill sets in the U.S.A.

We have our priorities wrong on so many fronts.

The graphic is from the ACLU website

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Ann Wagner, Global Warming Denier…Be scared, very scared

Okay I know that Senators and Congress folks really do not read a sliver of the email they get, but this is pretty outrageous.  I went onto Congresswoman Ann Wagner’s site to ask that she not support the Keystone Pipeline project for causes-of-global-warmingenvironmental reasons.  They force you to choose a subject so I chose Climate Change.

This is the form letter I got back.  It is one of the scariest things I have read in a long time.  The only place that climate change is being debated is within Republican circles and only then because big money wants to continue to make big money at everyone else’s expense.  The percent of scientist that are in agreement on global warming being caused by humans is almost unanimous.  Either this woman is an idiot who cannot understand basic science, such an ideologue that she refuses to face hard evidence, or so enamored with her position as a  high and mighty Congresswoman that she is going to go along with the party line to remain so.  No matter what the reason she scares the living snot right out of my body.  The fact that we continue to elect idiots like this does not speak well for our country.

Just as an aside she never once addressed the main subject of my email, the Keystone Pipeline.  Now there is responsive public service.

I am including the whole text of her form letter response.  Read it with the lights on.   It is indeed a horror story of complete and utter stupidity.

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Dear Citizen Rush,Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding climate change. I appreciate your views on this issue and welcome the opportunity to respond. Continue reading “Ann Wagner, Global Warming Denier…Be scared, very scared”
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TicketMaster… a cynical, jaded company

Manager Peabody Opera House
1400 Market St.
St. Louis, MO 63103

Dear Sir/Madam:

I found out Emmy Lou Harris is coming to the Peabody Opera House.  Both my girlfriend and I were as excited as we are both huge, huge fans of hers.

I started looking into buying tickets and at first blush they did not seem too bad.  Then I realized I would have to buy them from TicketMaster, who in my humble opinion is one of most jaded, cynical companies in America.   I looked into buying them directly from the Peabody Opera House box office, and I discovered this was not an option.  So I bit the bullet and went online to purchase tickets from this evil, evil company.

I chose two $37 seats.  A $3 facility charge per ticket was added, and then a $9.20 convenience charge.  My $37 ticket was now up to $49.2.    Next they wanted to charge me to deliver the tickets to me, including an outrageous charge of $2.50 for me to print them myself????? But they were not done yet.  As I was checking out they added a $4.25 order processing fee.

There were 2 or 3 points in the whole processed I was so angered by the process that I nearly just closed the browser, but I did want to make my girlfriend happy.

Part of the thrill of going to these events is the anticipation.  After the ticket purchase process I have a bad taste in my mouth, and frankly feel violated.  My anticipatory fever has evaporated.

There really should be another option for buying your tickets beyond TicketMaster.  Failing that they should have a face value that includes all these additional charges so purchasers do not feel raped after the process. 

Sincerely,

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These folks seem to have a monopoly on ticket sales in just all the markets I am aware of.   Why don’t we bust up monopolies like we used to.  Oh I forgot, our politicians are bought and paid for by these folks