Irony at One Police Plaza

The Merriam and Webster dictionary gives several definitions for irony, but the following definition works for the ensuing anecdotes.  Irony – 1): incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result (2): an event or result marked by such incongruity. 

Recently I had to go to downtown Memphis to One Police Plaza, not its real appellation, but perhaps it should be.  Part of the complex is 12 stories high, but the overall impression is one of a gray depressing bunker.  Continue reading “Irony at One Police Plaza”

Am I a 3 eyed Martian?

Here is another reason I worry about this country. These folks are dangerous and harmful to this country. If they believe what they say, they have serious mental problems. My belief is that they do for the ratings which is really for the money that ends up in their pockets, or to put it succinctly GREED. And it is greed is what has driven this country to the brink of economic depression.

This not sane, considered debate about policies and the direction this country needs to take. It is rabble rousing and propaganda for profit. And if that is love of country I am a 3 eyed Martian.

Truck Stops

Have you been in a truck stop or Interstate travel center lately? Anymore these places have TVs all over the place, and they are almost always tuned to FOX News. I worry deeply for this country.

Undereducated / Uneducated Americans

I have taken a more circuitous educational path than most folks.  My career road has perhaps been even more tortured.  Now factor in that I have lived in ten states and one foreign country.  One of the advantages of such meanderings is that I have studied in several different fields, seen many types of jobs and industries, and I have been exposed to a wide range of people.  

I do not see myself as atypical, but sometimes I wonder.  I work in a technical field, computer programming.  Most of the folks I work with are college educated, and many are very smart.   What does surprise me is the narrowness of their knowledge and world view.  The folks discussed below are smart and successful in their fields, but the following anecdotes do illustrate my point. 

I have an Indian co-worker that related to me a story about his birthday which is on the same day as Mohandas Gandhi.  Continue reading “Undereducated / Uneducated Americans”

Ribbon of Highway Endless Skyway: Tribute to Woody Guthrie

woodytributeI’ve had this CD a while, and I have listened to it a couple times.  Those times had been when there were other distractions going on, so I was not really paying that much attention to it.  I was definitely not paying attention to Bob Childers narration.

I recently took a road trip and listened to both CDs all the way through with out interruption.  Most of the music I knew and was familiar to me. Woody’s prose that was narrated was new to me.  I came away with a new and deeper appreciation of the music of Woody Guthrie and of Woody Guthrie as a man.

It did get me to wondering how Woody would be received in the Oklahoma of today.  Would he have the same iconic stature Continue reading “Ribbon of Highway Endless Skyway: Tribute to Woody Guthrie”

Is this racist?

I don’t like this man. And at the same time I sometimes feel like we see racism where it ain’t.

Howard Cosell (not old enough to remember who this is?) lost his job over a “monkey” remark.

I can see this clip as racist, or given my opionion of Washington in general I can see it as a statement of the reality of the place.

What do you think?

 

Glenn Beck refuses to define ‘white culture’

This man can dissemble with the best of them.   I could make some more comments, but watch the video.  He pretty much makes an idiot of himself.    It is so sad to think that FOX is the number 1 cable news outlet, and this jerk has the most popular show on that propaganda machine. 

Red Heads and Lime Green VWs

When I think of  my Aunt Gayle I think of a big, lop-sided smile and red hair.  Her hair had been many colors through her life, but mostly it was red.  Folks who knew her called her a lady.  She always presented herself perfectly coiffed and perfectly dressed.  Her manners were in the same mode, but she was as earthy as my father was prudish.  I say earthy, but more in a matter of fact Mother Nature sort of way.  It was a refreshing combination.

Her online handle was Sewing Mama.   She had always sewn, but in the later part of her life she discovered quilting.   She was very good at it, and was widely acknowledged as being so.  She obviously enjoyed the process and the recognition. Continue reading “Red Heads and Lime Green VWs”