friends Archives - Curmudgeon Alley

2014/12/052014/12/05

Opinion Bombs

I have friends of color. I have a couple black friends with ties to Ferguson. I have white friends. I have friends, who are conservatives and others that are liberals. When I say friends I mean real and/or Facebook. To all of the above I could substitute the word friend with relatives. I mention this because in my Facebook feeds I get multiple opinions on the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases. What has struck me most strongly is that there seems to be a strong dichotomy that is tending to break down along lines of color and position on the political spectrum. People are not so much discussing the situation as throwing opinion bombs at each other.

There was one posting on the Michael Brown case with a lot of reinforcing comments to the posters opinion of Michael Brown being a criminal. What struck me so vividly was the way the posters and commenters saw blacks. They were definitely “others”. They were a group separate from them, and something to be feared. Last time I looked we were all humans and we all bleed red.

I’m not the first to notice this phenomenon, that we do not discuss issues anymore. Continue reading “Opinion Bombs”

2014/11/09

Overheard at a party

Overheard at a party.

First young man says, “I am friends with Joe So-and-so.”

Second young man asks, “Real friends or Facebook friends?”

2014/06/072014/06/07

Suggestion Needed: 12 Step Program

I need some advice or a recommendation. I have been looking for a 12 step program or perhaps a way to do an intervention. Wikipedia listed several, none of which seem to fit the need. There is a list at the end of this appeal

The group I am looking for probably has initials along the line of SPA or perhaps CPA aka Smart Phone Anonymous or Cell Phone Anonymous. This is not for me, but for my significant other, Robin.

Generally, in relationships with addicts there is a triangle of interactions. There is the addict, there is an enabler and there is a rescuer. Frequently the enabler and rescuer is the same person switching roles. Robin, being somewhat technology challenged, has several enablers in her life. I will confess to being an enabler by programming various functions on her smart phone for her. Her kids fulfill this role also. I would ask Sarah to help rescue her mother, but I believe she should be in SPA also.

Robin’s phone went belly up a while back, and it was like watching an alcoholic going through the DTs. I thought briefly that I was going to have to take her to emergency room Continue reading “Suggestion Needed: 12 Step Program”

2014/05/142021/07/27

Almost Inspiring

We spent two days canoeing the Buffalo National River last weekend. We camped overnight in a semi-wilderness between the two days. This river is absolutely beautiful place, if you ever get a chance to float it, you should jump at the opportunity.

While we were canoeing the first day we were lapped by two men. The fellow in the back of the canoe had a prosthetic left arm that went almost to his shoulder. I said lapped, what I really meant was that they blew by us.

We stopped later in the day to visit Hemmed-in Hollow waterfall. It is advertised as the highest waterfalls between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains. It was not flowing dramatically the day we were there, but seasonally probably it is quite impressive.

As Robin and I were sitting there admiring the fall and watching folks, our gentleman with the prosthetic arm came up. He was with 3 companions, all in their thirties. Many folks float rivers as a beer drinking exercise. Such was the case with these four. It was the one-arm gentleman’s 40^th birthday, and the float trip was in honor of that.

The fellow with the mechanical arm recognized us from the river and came up and introduced himself as Tim S. One of his companions was standing there also. Tim wanted to know what we thought about a one- armed man canoeing. I mentioned how I use to know a fellow with two prosthetic legs who was a pretty decent golfer. His friend mentioned that Tim golfed also.

At that point Tim launched into the story of how he had lost his arm. His friend wandered off, probably having heard the story multiple times. Most of the rest of our group came up at this point just in time to hear Tim’s story. Tim works for a pyrotechnic company that travels around the country putting on firework shows. There was an accident Continue reading “Almost Inspiring”

2013/06/262013/06/26

My Girlfriend Attempts to Poison Me

A 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”

2011/06/062021/01/17

Faces on Meth, A Disturbing Reality

Note: At the bottom of this post you will find a link to view the Faces of Meth.

If you are walking at night and come to the edge of the cliff, the smart thing to do is turn around. If you take another step the result is not likely to be good. Many drugs fall into the same category. To start taking some drugs is like walking up to that cliff edge, only the results are not so veiled. There have been many folks that have gone before you that have crashed and burned on the rocks below.

In the early 70s I lived in Rhode Island. I was single, and occasionally would party with a group of folks. Usually it was beer drinking and some pot. I had an ambivalent relationship with pot. Sometimes it made feel nice and mellow. Sometimes, though, it made me feel depressed and paranoid. I can achieve depression all by my lonesome, and feeling paranoid is no fun. At some point I decided that I did not like rolling the dice with unsure results. So I quit smoking pot. One evening before I quit, I went to visit my party friends. I walked in the house and they were all sitting around the coffee table. Upon the table were needles, a tourniquet, and other heavy duty drug paraphernalia. Continue reading “Faces on Meth, A Disturbing Reality”

2010/12/152023/04/06

Frances Ginsberg – A Special Lady That Will Be Missed

Whenever I picture Fran entering a room, it is this presence riding in on the wings of an aria. Perhaps it was from being on stage all those years, she just filled whatever the space was with energy and a love for life.

Her life was a lot like the operas in which she performed — a series of crests and troughs. I suppose in many ways that could describe any of our lives. Fran just lived her life on a larger stage. She had had a successful opera career on two continents, alternating between Milan and New York for the last 25 or so years. Unfortunately, that has all come to an end.

She returned to Saint Louis 3 years ago to be treated for stage 4 ovarian cancer. While she was there she reacquainted herself with many old friends, including Robin with whom she had been a close neighborhood and school friend. Robin likes to tell the story about the time they entered a talent contest together and did not even place. Robin still feels bad to this day as she is sure she is the reason. I am thinking Fran got over it.

The treatment seemed to be a success and Fran went back to Italy for a while. She had a relapse and returned to St. Louis for more treatment. Again the cancer seemed to go into remission. She returned to New York this time, but only to have the cancer return. Continue reading “Frances Ginsberg – A Special Lady That Will Be Missed”

2009/02/232010/01/05

Paradise Now

I had read or heard about this Arabic language movie, and I was very interested so I bought a copy. Just as an aside, I told a coworker and friend that I had purchased the film. He is Egyptian and the movie had a special interest for him. We made a night of it, his wife and mother prepared a traditional Egyptian dinner and we watched the movie with his wife and his parents. He sent the kids to their rooms, although now I do not believe that to have been necessary.