Category: Trials and Tribulations

Whatcha think, Joe was perfect?

Posted on

Bowdler’s Day – July 11

Given that the Puritans and prudes are trying ban any book that has offended at least one person, this Bowdler’s Day is definitely a time to reflect on “what the hell are we doing?”  Have we gone mad?  It has been a while since I have read Fahrenheit 451, but I am betting there are passages in it that would have the namby pambies burning it today. It was banned in apartheid South Africa  and many United States schools back in 1954. Just to name one banned book that is now considered iconic.  I wrote about this extensively in Banned Books, Burned Books.

“Bowdler’s Day is celebrated on July 11, the birthday of the physician and philanthropist who published a censored edition of Shakespeare’s works, Thomas Bowdler. Depending on whom you ask, Bowdler is either a prude or a genius. During his career, he heavily edited Shakespeare’s famous works to make them more family-friendly. He regularly censored violence and intimacy from literature, so that they could be read by more people. These versions were also cheaper than the original editions. Bowdler’s Day is celebrated by students, readers, and anti-censorship activists.”

The above is from website National Today.  To read more about Bowdler’s Day just click More on Bowdler’s Day

And so it should not go.

Posted on

Es una aventura

What prompted the sharing of this anecdote was an exercise I did with one of my Spanish tutors.  He was using a book of exercises that included an anecdote that about a person going to Paris on vacation, arriving at the airport only to realize they had forgotten their passport, causing them to miss their flight.  Due to the delay the rest of their trip plans fell through too.

The idea being to relate a similar anecdote so I orally told him one about the time we arrived for a domestic flight at STL airport, and Señora had misplaced her driver’s license.  Fortunately, after much ado, they let us on the flight.  We had a friend get Robin’s passport from the house and overnight it to us in New Orleans for the return flight.  C’est la vie..laissez les bon temps roule.

Since he also wanted me to practice my writing he assigned me to write another anecdote for my “homework”.  The Spanish version is at the bottom for a couple of you nerds.  Here is the same story in English, but it is not a translation.

Trip of Adventure

For various reasons that are not important to the arc of this story, my ex’s mother gifted her Continue reading “Es una aventura”

Posted on

Home Kitchen and Food Safety Inspection

The following article appeared in HuffPost: 8 Common Kitchen Habits That A Food Safety Inspector Might Fail You For

This reminded me of an incidence in my first bout of matrimonial swamp fever.  Needing a job, any job, I started working for the Arkansas Department of Health as a County Sanitarian (Health Inspector). I said job, any job, because this position entailed some very serious responsibility for the public safety, not only in Continue reading “Home Kitchen and Food Safety Inspection”

Posted on

Cow Pasture Golf

I started golfing in my early 30s.  I will leave it to the you, esteemed reader, to calculate how long ago that was.   In retrospect one of the primary reasons I began this maldito sport was to have a mutual activity to do with my father.  Never a dear or cherished relationship it was improving ever so slightly in this period.

If you know anything about golf you know two very important things. First, it can be and frequently is very addicting.  Secondly, it is Continue reading “Cow Pasture Golf”

Posted on

Article from EatThis.com on Iconic Pizza

An article popped up in my news feed this morning, Two St. Louis pizza parlors make ‘Eat This’ top 10 list. The article linked to an article on Eathis.com, 10 Iconic Pizza Restaurants That Still Serve Old-Fashioned Pies

The original article cited EatThis.com as saying

“Eat This, Not That writer Carly Terzigni calls St. Louis, “One of the pizza capitals of the United States.” She features Imo’s and Pizza A-Go-Go on her list, 10 Iconic Pizza Restaurants That Still Serve Old-Fashioned Pies.”

It was more than a little interesting to me as I had just posted this article on Curmudgeon-Alley.com,  Iconic St. Louis Foods. In it I gave my considered opinion on how really awful St. Louis style pizza is.

Sorry, you are still not going to get me to eat Imo’s Pizza, even if a national website praises it, IMHO, it is totally unappetizing. Yeah, they probably sell a lot of pizza around here, but St. Louis is the last place in North America I would call one of the pizza capitals of the United States. But then opinions are like a***, everyone has one.

And so it goes.

Posted on

Homophone Challenged

That is homophone, not homophobe, you silly goose.

On the off chance that you do not know what a homophone is and did not parse out the Greek – homo meaning same, phone meaning voice or utterance – here is the dictionary definition:

One of two or more words pronounced alike but different in meaning or derivation or spelling (such as the words to, too, and two)

Common examples of homophones include:

      • berry – bury
      • bread – bred
      • lead  – led
      • cell – sell
      • sent – scent – cent
      • flex – flecks
      •  weather-whether
      • guessed-guest
      • band – banned
      • and many, many more

I do not recall having an issue with homophones in Continue reading “Homophone Challenged”

Posted on

Almost an Ace?

Yesterday turned out nicer than they had prognosticated, still a little chilly, definitely a little windy, but no rain.  I decided at the last minute that I would take advantage of the day and play some golf.  Not being nice enough for Lil Blu, I threw my golf clubs into my pick-em-up truck and headed off to the course.  I ended up playing by myself which was okay. I don’t always enjoy my own company, but most of time I find it reasonably acceptable which is more than most folks find my society.

Being early in the golfing season, having done a fair amount of yard work Tuesday, I was a little rusty and more than a little stiff.  I struggled a bit on the front side, but my game started to come around towards the end of that nine.  I arrived at the twelfth hole  after going bogey, bogey, par, par on the last four holes.  That is good for me.  The twelfth hole is Continue reading “Almost an Ace?”

Posted on

After 3 Years – Medicare Success

It only took the freak’n government – well, Medicare – three, count ém… 1… 2… 3… years to find the ‘i’ that they lost.  Perhaps if it had been a capital ‘I’ they could have done it in two years.

For reasons completely unknown to either one of us, Señora’s last name became misspelled in the Medicare system when she became Medicare eligible.  Somehow it went from Weinhaus to Wenhaus.  It was correct in the Social Security’s system, but wrong in Medicare.

No biggie, right? Wrong.  This has caused claims from doctors, hospitals, laboratories, etc. to be Continue reading “After 3 Years – Medicare Success”

Posted on

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    “