Should I be concerned? Señora sent me this cartoon the other day…
Rev. Joe Uncovers an International Conspiracy
Señora and I are friends with a couple, Harry and Susan, who live a little north of Chicago. A few weeks ago they drove down to visit their son in Springfield, IL, and afterwards they passed a couple days in the St. Louis area to visit with us and Susan’s sister. We had dinner with them one night on our patio and dinner the next night at her sister’s house. After dinner each night we passed many agreeable hours on our patio gabbing and partaking of water and sunlight that nature had graciously turned into the pleasant and pleasing beverage called wine.
On the night we ate dinner at our house we were having a bit of a problem with flies. I started talking about wanting to get one of those guns that shoots salt in order to hunt down flies. A week or so after their visit, there arrived an unexpected package Continue reading “Rev. Joe Uncovers an International Conspiracy”
Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #3,935
yeah I know you did not ask!
I’m frequently perplexed as to whether the human race is advancing or not. One area where we seem to be going backwards is in written communications. There are a few reasons for this, but big ones are platforms such as Twitter that only allow 256 – up from 128 –characters per posting and texting. Both promote the use of abbrvs. and acronyms, LOL. They also encourage the use of emojis, those ubiquitous smiley faces and other such small cartoons used as shortcuts for emotional content.
My text app has recently exploded with various emojis and other small images. I type in beer and a picture of a mug of beer appears. I type in disrespectful and a scowling, purplish face appears, and so many more.
Pretty soon we will eliminate all cascades of letters symbolizing various concepts in favor of the new hieroglyphics. King Tut and his Egyptian cohorts would be so proud.
Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #1,191
yeah I know you did not ask!
It strikes that the new Republican slogan might be: “Death to America” while utilizing the American flag in any number of disrespectful manners.
Well maybe not “Death to America”, but surely “Death to American Democracy.”
Pockets
I took The Wee Dog, Princess Lily, for a stroll tonight a little after dark-thirty. Being the middle of September, the evenings are beginning to get a little nippy, so I grabbed a light jacket that I had not had on in a while. As Lily and I were strolling down the sidewalk I stuck both my hands in the pockets of the jacket and discovered some items there in. In the right pocket was the small plastic bag familiar to all urban dog owners, colloquially referred to as poop bags. In the left pocket I found a paper mask that has become so fashionable and controversial during this pandemic. As is my wont, I begin to reflect on these items as I walked.
The poop bag was a reminder to me to never say never, as I had more than once, emphatically stated that I would never pick up dog feces, using it as one of my arguments as why we did not need a dog. However, if you have a dog in an urban / suburban environment it is only good manners to clean up your dog’s doings. When I was still working Continue reading “Pockets”
Before I was born
I was speaking with one of my Spanish tutors, Micaela, this morning. Mica lives in a small jungle town in Ecuador, but she has a good internet connection. She is around 30 and an excellent conversationalist. We been working together for more than 2 years and have a friendly relationship. For my part, I always enjoy our hour together every couple weeks, and she seems to do so also.
I sent her a few pictures of Cannon Beach in Oregon, then asked her is she remembered the movie Goonies, it being an extremely popular movie in its day, and having scenes in the movie set at Cannon Beach. Even though American movies and television programs are very popular there, she did not remember this movie .
I sent her a link to the IMDB page for Goonies. After looking at the page, she said, “Oh that movie was made in 1985 – before I was born!”
Grumble, grumble, gripe, gripe… got to love this getting old…the human race marches on.
PBS Video of Interview with the last survivor of the Samuel B Roberts
This is the ship that Paul Henry Carr served on and died on… Paul Henry Carr was my mother’s brother, and for many years there was a US Navy missile frigate on active duty that borne his name.
Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #5,834
yeah I know you did not ask!
Watching TV this weekend while visiting a friend in Mississippi there were a brazilian advertisements for personal injury lawyers. When you look up the meaning of ambulance chaser the phrase personal injury lawyer is a prominent part of the definition. I began to wonder does anyone go to law school planning on being a personal injury lawyer? It seems me like such a cynical line of work, it is hard to imagine starting their education of law with such an outlook.
And so it goes.
Quote About Masks
I don’t like wearing masks.
Do I wear masks, hell yes. Why? First because I do not want to get COVID. I am vaccinated, but I could still contract or carry COVID. Secondly, I want to protect other people, even those do not think they need protecting or want to be protected. Thirdly, I am trying to make a statement about what is the right thing to do.
In this week’s edition of the local free alternative newspaper, Riverfront Times, there is a quote about masks that I absolutely love:
Masks are a metaphor for selflessness. During a pandemic they should be a symbol of community and national sense of duty, much like rationing was at the outbreak of World War II. ~~ Editorial by Ray Hartman, Faisal Khan’s Well-Aimed Middle Finger
Absolutely, freaking YES!!!
Soy un comediante
There are a couple skills that a person needs when they start a language learning journey, but that are not mentioned in the syllabus. One is that you need to accept making lots of mistakes and the other is that you need to be able to laugh at yourself. It took me a while to realize this. Self-deprecating humor is my forte, but it is difficult accepting the making of errors, partly because I am a bit of a perfectionist, ask anyone who has programmed behind me, partly because I could not laugh at myself about those mistakes, partly because I hate feeling stupid in front of someone else, it is bad enough in front of yourself. It is the last that has flattened my Spanish learning curve, but I am somewhat more accepting of my foibles now.
I read an article on language learning sometime ago, and one of their theories was that it took 10,000 Continue reading “Soy un comediante”