Right Livelihood Archives - Curmudgeon Alley

2024/03/072024/03/08

Internet Littering

My Daddy’s folks are from Kentucky. My Mama’s folks are from Oklahoma. Our childhoods were passed overseas or on the east coast, always around a Navy or Marine base. My father was first in the Navy, and then he went to work for Kaman Aerospace. I mention this as a frequent summer trip was back to Kentucky and/or Oklahoma. This was in the 50s and 60s. Initially there were no Interstates. Even later when the Interstates were under construction it was still a hodge-podge of Interstates and two lane roads. These were long, slow trips, not uncommonly in bumper to bumper traffic on two lane roads not always in the best repair. Heaven forbid if there was an accident. It would back things up for hours. Air conditioning in a car, surely you jest.

Vivid Childhood Memory

A vivid memory that implanted on my very young Continue reading “Internet Littering”

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2023/09/062023/09/06

The Black Hole…Karma?

So… just desserts – karma – or just bad execution? But either way the video cracked me up… but it does make you think. Sorry.

One common theme or fantasy is what superpower a person would want and what they would do with it. Frequently the superpower is the ability to fly like Superman, but not infrequently it is the ability to be invisible. Then the question becomes what to do with your invisibility.

I watched a YouTube video in Spanish of a person doing interviews in the street about the question of superpowers. It seemed like a lot of folks who chose invisibility had ideas on how to use their invisibility that were less than ethical.

I will have to admit with some of the jobs I have had, I would not have been too far behind this guy into the safe… ethical or not.

My post from February 2020 on this theme: My Superpower

It is tough be human… and so it goes.

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2022/12/19

Kudos to Missouri American Water

Friday evening along about 1900 hours a neighbor called my wife reporting that we had a new water fountain in our front yard, but in all likelihood it was not going to make her happy. Sure enough she was right on both accounts. About six or seven feet in from the sidewalk towards our house was an impressive gusher of water. From the volume and force I was reasonably sure it was a water main break of the line that transverses across our front yard, but I had a vague fear it was not, that it might be our service line. I began to have visions of dollar bills flowing out of our bank account quicker than from the hands of a drunken sailor on his first shore leave in six months.

If I had thought a minute longer I would called the water company, but my first impulse was to call Continue reading “Kudos to Missouri American Water”

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2021/10/13

It’s a toss up, IMHO

2020/07/222022/10/15

The Unintended Lesson – Revisited

I wrote the article below a little over 20 years, and I wanted to re-share this story today.

In all of our lives there are hopefully a few individuals that have made a big impact. My Uncle Dutch and Aunt Peggy were two such people. When, as a teenager, I was having a lot of problems at home, they took me in for a while. They helped firm up my rudder that was wobbling terribly. My uncle passed away today at the age of 92 after living what I would call a good and meaningful life. God bless you, Uncle, and godspeed on your new journey.

My Uncle Dutch is not a tall man, and he has what we affectionately call a Buddha belly. I know that he was skinny once upon a time. I have seen pictures of him when he was young and in the Navy, but that is not the Harry Dodd I know. He is elderly now, with white hair, and it is hard for me to not think of him in a suit and tie. The first thing that you will probably notice about my Uncle is his smile. While he doesn’t smile all the time, it is certainly there more than it isn’t. And it is the type of smile that just lights up his whole face.

He is married to my mother’s sister. Now that I am older, I recognize her as kind, gentle, woman. Continue reading “The Unintended Lesson – Revisited”

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2020/03/23

Heather Booth: The most influential women you never heard of…

Heather has been married to my wife’s cousin for over 40 years. I met Paul and Heather at a Booth family reunion a few years back. I will have to admit I was a little overwhelmed with all the new people I was meeting for the first time. I do remember how proud my wife was of her two cousins.

The film is only an hour long, but details the incredible life of activism of this driven woman. Perhaps someday we will have a society that respects and supports all of us. Until then we need people like Heather Booth to fight the Dark Side.

The film is available on two sites that I know of:

HEATHER BOOTH: CHANGING THE WORLD from Women Make Movies on Vimeo.

And if you are impatient like us and cannot wait more than 2 days for a package and have Amazon Prime it is available there too.

Watch it on Amazon Prime

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2014/01/16

I have an idea, you have an idea…now we have two ideas

George Bernard Shaw once said, “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea as well, and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

I actually heard this term used a few days ago on a radio show. Two authors were debating. One accused the other of an ad hominem argument. Later in the debate the meaning became clearer. I’m not sure why, but something made me think of it today.

Definition of AD HOMINEM Continue reading “I have an idea, you have an idea…now we have two ideas”

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2011/11/162023/02/01

A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter

2011/08/242018/12/24

Guardians of the Future

The saying is, “Children are our future.” The meaning is obvious. The children are the next generation that will carry on the human species. Our hope as parents and as a specie is that the next generation will better, have it better, increase the humanities knowledge , among many other things.

Children do not grow to functioning positive members of a society without some guidance. Parents provide (hopefully) a large part of this guidance. Other significant guiding forces in young lives are teachers. Without teachers, formal and informal, where would any of us be as people? I can just about guarantee that everyone reading this can relate a story about someone who has taught them something or modeled behavior. Frequently the impact of this is carried with the person the rest of their life.

We seem to be in a period of vilifying teachers within our education system. We seem intent in denying them retirement, fair pay and decent working conditions. We are asking them to do more and more with less and less. We expect results this year that are stellar and next year are stellar plus. Many teaching jobs have turned from teaching to paper work and preparing for standardize tests. The burn out rate is high, and we seem to prefer it that way as it keeps young people coming into the system at the bottom of the pay scale. Add to that the not so subtle process of privatizing education in this country. At one level I am clueless why anyone would want to work in this mess. But I am very glad there are, and that many of those feel called and dedicated to guiding the next generation.

Below is a link to an article praising those who teach. In the article was a wonderful little Rudyard Kipling snippet.

“No printed word, nor spoken plea can teach young minds what they should be.
Not all the books on all the shelves – but what the teachers are themselves. ”

Teaching: The Greatest Responsibility and Opportunity

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