Saturday, January 11, 2003
TRUE WEALTH
It is the wealth a man shares that are his true worth - his riches.
This is the “bread” from which true nourishment is obtained for his mental, physical and sensory well-being.
This is also the “love” he natively holds deep within his very soul which can find expression in so few other ways.
This is element of “exchange” which make him an interactive entity with all others of his kind for mutual betterment.
For individuals and nations to collect and endlessly accumuate quantities of coinage, of knowledge, territory, gadgetry - of any such holdings, and keep such posession at all times to themslves is to be working toward the construction of their own hollow tomb where they will be placed by people who will no longer remember them with joy and wqhohave no rerson, whatever, to regret their having been taken away.
It is so very easy for us to harp on the history Man which shows only his special excellence as related to others whom he may have deemed to be of a lesser position. Man's evolvment has been a slow process. He has learned much about himself and his associates, and, I think, if you look closely at his major steps forward they have been time-after-time, dependent on his ability and willingness to co-operate with others and to share his acquired knowedge, his sensual abilities, and his wealth.
It isn't difficult forus to see this in other nations and in other individuals. It is not so easy to discern the same qualities, or the lack of them, in our own individual lives.
To go the full lenth of his interesting and demanding journey can be difficult as well as reqarding. Learning self-management seems to be the secret and sustianing material if you want tobuild such a structure withinour lifestyle. Be sure, for instance, that you know where you are going. A great many people - far too many- have no idea what their goals might be. Any attemts to get there are futile and largely a wasteful spinning of undirected wheels.
Keep such goals reasonable is also a good starting point. Molehills can prove to be as challenging to the beginner as hills and mountins do to experinced people who set out seriously to cope with life's problems. Some scoffers hold that we must redistribute wealth to improve the world's economic and social balance. Far more important is to concenrate on the need for the common wealth to be shared rather than reallocated in some arbitrary manner.
A.L.M. January 10, 2003 C-430wds]
Friday, January 10, 2003
CURTAIN CALL
I have had a shower without the luxury of having curtains all around. I am not in favor of everyone going to that economical style unless one has suitably heated water precisely and plentifully supplied to the expertly-holed overhead bucket and no wind blowing. Such make-shift showers are cold at all times. I remember such inundations only as a military misery.
We have plastic shower curtains where we live at the present time. We have them because they were here when we bought the place ten or twelve years ago. I doubt if they would have been our choice had we been able to be selective when we moved in. Each is made up long sheets of plastic, perhaps, and quarter of an inch think, set upright in six-inch widths and made so they fold together at either end like an accordion's bellows.
The rascals can pinch, too, if given the chance to do so and one learns to get in and out with attentive movements and caution. They can be noisy, too, which is another reason they have been been marked for replacement for years. They ratchet along like a stick being dragged across a picket fence. They have proved to be very durable, however, , and the only fault with them, I think, is that one of the little plastic knobs which are used to drag it to the end has given up it's roots and departed to dowel heaven as of several years ago.
So, there has been no sense of urgency about getting rid of them. I do know, for a fact, however, that material has been purchased from which fabric shower curtains will be fashioned. One set will be blue, to match the ceramics of the tub-shower, the other green, to comply with the décor demanded by it's walk-in shower enclosure. That's the way we tell them apart when we have grandchildren in.
All that re-do, however, might take some time.We have curious situation in our household in regard to new fabrics. They arrive ,usually from a special sale of some sort, and once they get stashed away with other sewing supplies and materials.”Thereby hangeth the rub!” a tailoring-mind bard might say, because the latest acquisition may be hidden under a still newer one an older one which has been moved about a bit to make room.
I'm certain the pleated, plastic partitions will go, in time, but the new curtains are being held up in the Design Department somewhere, waiting, perhaps, for the juncture of the proper zodiac signs. In the meantime, we are stuck with the stickers because they do jam and the bottom edge now and then, or at the top - or both at the same time.
They are “Old-Fahioned-Mod", I'd say, if there is such a designation.
Come to think of it! Who was it who got shot in the shower years ago on ”Dynasty”? Our curtains are just right in case somebody wants to re-do that closing episode of a long-ago TV season.
A.L.M. January 9, 2003 [c515wds]
Thursday, January 09, 2003
NEW WORDS
We all like to discover and start using new words.
I recall a time when people working in the entertainment world used which was, to mean, at least, a new way to let it be known they were going “on vacation” or planned to “take a few days off” and we, at home, always envied them such trips and chances to “get away from it all.”
I don't remember where I first read the term or heard it, but I think it was in the “Coming and Going” section of “Advertising Age” a trade paper I read with regularity at the time. I found that personalities were, instead of vacationing “going on hiatus”. Pretty soon I started hearing it in radio. If people where planning to be away for a time, they were “taking a hiatus” or going on one. I used to right along in the press releases I wrote for the firm at the time.
Then, suddenly “hiatus” was gone. It was beaten to death by overuse.
New words can cause trouble, too.
Our city had just completed an election and this, too, happened years ago.
We woke up on morning to find we had a new Mayor. He was a proverbial “new broom” and shortly after election he headed up a city wide campaign to get citizens to clean up their property to make our community “a better place to live in” - as the new Mayor put it.
To kick the campaign off he asked for time on the air and we granted it willingly as a public service. He arrived only a moment ahead of the scheduled air time He was seated at a table at once in a small “news” studio. He had a prepared script in hand. We went to the Main Control Room which was on the other side of a large gx;lass window in front of him. The announcer was going to introduce the Mayor from the console.
After the turning of knobs called "pots"; the switching of on-and-off microphone toggles the Mayor greeting one and all with a fine, cheeerful “Good Morning” and in classic "Cheerful-Charlie" tones. He invited them to join with him in starting the Clean Up campaign. He was cheerful, he was talkative, and we felt it was going to go very well, indeed, far better than we had expected. He turned, then,.to the readinog his speech.
“We can all be proud of the many beautiful streets we have in our fine city,” he began ,”But, I but I have noticed one thing about them – maybe you have seen it, too they are filled with “deb -riss.”
The good mayor hit that new word with fervor and pride, too. He did so with his very best arm-swinging gesture of declamation. He emblazoined "DEB-ress" on the air waves in all of it's distinctive newness! We cringed. We gearzed he would use it again...maybe even more than that! He did. I know he hit it dozen or more times and we took the usual method of trying to get him to change. A note was a printed in large block-letters and held against the window which he faced. It read: "DEBRIS = DEH-BREE" Knowing that he might not lookup to see the warning, we hand-carried a copy of the note around to the studio and the placed it in front of him. HE glanced at thenote,s miled and thanks he curior and us for reminding him to mention the prime need which was to get rid of the deb-riss which was cluttering our streets!
We agonized through the remaining portion of the deluge.
Having said your new word once, refrain, if you can, from using it for a while. And, by all means, learn how to how to pronounce it before you do either.
He made a good enough Mayor, too, by the way. He was a real, fine back-slapper. His "New Broom City Wide Clean-Up" campaign was also a success.
A.L.M. January 8, 2003 [c671wds]
Wednesday, January 08, 2003
GENRE TV
Years ago, probably in the late '40's or early 50's, we in TV and radio when through a brief phase of a term designating news stories of a certain type as being “Actualities”.
The term was used mainly by radio school students and their teachers. It covered any out-of-of studio activity, and was used primarily by those whotlughtof themslves as being the "creative" side of radio. Engineer-types continued to call them ”remotes” for they were simply news stories done from the site of the event. The term “Actualities” seemed to lend and academic dimension to the not-unusual job a broadcaster was expected to do on occasion . In some ways, by using the term it lent a feeling of intense reality to the doing thereof. The new name did not catch on and faded quickly into the ozone.
It was, for a short time, an “in” word.
We are now in a phase of television programming which reminds me of that term and of the people who favored it. "Reality" is the theme now and, if possible, the word ”virtual” must be used in conjunction with it. It came to the forefront when we borrowed the idea from the British and CBS did the thing called “Survivor”. The have been a score of imitators and copiers using a variety of names which have strayed pretty far afield of the concept of realism per se.
The false note in it all has been the fact that much of the realism was faked from day-One. Such far-out shows run through all of the scary routines quickly and new and more alluring excesses are required to keep them alive. One-by-one each show of this type has degenerated to steadily passing through being tiresome, disgusting, repulsive, and shocking. Few subjects have been avoided entirely and viewers were asked to believe it IS happening before their eyes and squeeky-clean honest all the way. They have been a continuing insult to the intelligence of the viewers and that has allready been judged to be about as low as it can get anyway by critics and survey makers.
I am among those who have not keep track of what the average home viewer's “age” is supposed to be at the moment, but I am assuming it has remained in the general area of twelve as it was said to be many years ago. Twelve - and falling. When we think about it, of course, we – most of us - are well above such such an average. The surveys, we feel, are all skewed because of the number of kids watching.
Don't take that too seriously, however. There are a host of TV watchers out there, who have never noticed how convenient it was to Gilligan and his friends to get marooned on an isolated island with a complete TV production crew, props studio and food for all and in direct communication with anywhere to keep the episodes coming in for years. They are the same people who are waiting for the networks and the Federal authorities to reveal that the “Six Million Dollar Man” was real but they had to keep it a secret that he had been built with all those tubes and circuits inside, so other nations could not find out we were so far ahead.
We, more elite in intellect, do not seem to understand how anyone could take these virtual reality shows, to be anything other than are. I can appreciate that much, but the producers also expect people to expect to believe them for what the pretend to be.
A.L.M. January 7, 2003 [c571wds]
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
GARB
Clothing... the proper choice thereof... can make or break a man.
That seems to be true when you glance back at history. Think of a famous man or woman and you see them in a certain, characteristic garb.
The day before yesterday, and, no doubt next week, when you think of Yasher Arafat-head of the P.L.O. you will picture him wearing on of his fancy hats which have become his trademark even though thousands of other short, stubby, Arabic men wear the same type of hirsute hider on their head. Imagine Arafat without his headgear. Let's say and alien wind blew up suddenly and swissssshhh!...there he stood without his snood! Would you even recognizer him be his pate bald and shiny or curly-haired, or sleekly oiled down? No doubt about it, the hat makes the man in his case.
Do you find it difficult to picture Harry S. Truman dressed in anything other than a finely tailored, double-breasted suit? I do, maybe some casual clothing in a relaxed ,informal setting such as backyard barbecue with Bess and the neighbor from next door.He will have a hat handy, too.
Think back a bit more. Ben Franklin can only be envisioned wearing small-lensed, bi-focal eyeglasses and tight, knee-length breeches. His shirt will have fluffy collar and cuffs, too.
In France...Old Nappy is always seen in uniform. In his pre-St. Helena career as well as in the pre-Elba re-run, Bonaparte had more fancy dress uniforms than Imelda Marcus, of late Philippines fame, had shoes.. He had his portrait done with every change of underwear and, being new, and perhaps, overly starched by the royal laundress, it itched a bit and he is shown with his fingers inside the chest area - scratching. Some historians say he had a stomach ulcer and a bit of pressure in the bread-basket area brought him a moment of relief which enabled him to smile for the portrait taker or maker, as the case may have been.
George W. Bush looks natural in a work jacket or in sports shirt and slacks. Al Gore looked uncomfortable and even awkward when unsuited and in casual wear. Look over the increasing corps of candidates now forming in all sections of the country side. Pick and choose which clothing style you think would prove to be most suitable in an Oval Office or Air Force One settings.
Try to determine now which little, insignificant quirk of appearance will most likely be picked up by political cartoonists in the next twenty months or so which will become a parade mark for your favorite candidate.
A.L.M. January 6, 2003 [c442wds]
Monday, January 06, 2003
PALINDROMES
I had no idea there were so many of them!
I have always thought of these linguistic puzzle-like oddities as something about as easy to find as real four-leaf clover specimens. I remembered only a few and among them was “Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba” which probably drove Old Nappy to the brink more than once.
Imagine my surprise when I turned the problem over to Internet and found bales and bundles of them in seven different languages. Eskey Blackwood gave me several pages of them, ranging from short ones such as: “Evil Olive,” “Step On No Pets,”
“Oh, No! Don Ho!” and “Dammit, I'm mad!” as well some longer ones which stretch
all the way across a page.
There was a tagged one half way down the list – an appended note which said “Click here for some amusing variations.” I think I've seen few of those and the next time I chance upon the page I might click on that item to see if it is “printable” or not. I suspect that's what the “amusing variation” might be. Before I do, I'll work on it a while. The items read: “A man, a plan, a canal – Panama!”
I have already found there is little reason for me to try to memorize these word puzzles. My memory isn't at all that it used to be. For instance, I wrote “seven” languages, didn't I? Now I find there are eight languages involved, but I have enough to keep me more than busy with just English listings alone.
I went on to yet another list of “well-known” palindromes and this one brought forth several pages of fine print listings. It includes most of the previous selections, of course, plus many more. I find myself wondering if our language can possibly, be read backward and become a second language we didn't realize we had so reasdily available.
I'm particularly glad I hit upon this collection of lines which can be read both ways - forward and backward with meaning. That's just the sort of thing I really need now that we are just twenty-some months away from national elections. It may just happen to be this is the key we have needed for so long which will enable us to know what politicians actually say when they say what they say. It does not, necessarily, have to mean what you thought it was supposed to mean. It may be that the office aspirant has mastered the art of palindroming and can speak “with forked tongue” as tribesmen used to say by which they may well have meant “both ways” or “double talk.” Try spelling “with forked tongue” backward in your favorite native tongue or dialect and let me know if it means anything sensible.
A.L.M. January 5, 2003 [c474wds]
Sunday, January 05, 2003
UP, UP AND AWAY!
Do you detect a change in the interest and attitudes of those concerned with rebuilding he “Ground Zero” area in New York?
There was, not too many months ago, a rather loud and clear condemnation by voice from many people who seemed to care very much about what becomes of the site. No more skyscrapers!
For the most part, they seemed to have viewed any restoration of the area undertaken to be, not only a building, or buildings of viable commercial possibilities, but also as a visible memorial to the memory of the thousands of people who died there on September 11, 2001. I remember,too, that many of those people suggesting ways to memorialize those lives did not favor building another “tallest building in the world” skyscraper.
I suppose most of that vote against more tall buildings came from a romantic group rather than those with practical knowledge of what city property is worth and how it can best be used by society. All of the recent plans for replacing the Towers seem to be staying with the tall building text. One by one, the Memorial garden concept has been set aside and has become smaller and smaller. One plan makes them into rooftop plots and terraces.
I can appreciate and understand where each side is “coming from” and I think I have some idea of where they are going, as well. On the whole I applaud the interest being taken in the project. I disagreed strongly with those who insisted that the entire area be transformed into a tree-packed, bush-bud-and-bouquet laden memorial park. That's coming too close to trying to apply “Back to Wilderness” programs to the nation's leading urban site.
I can also understand the element of fear which comes to mind when people envision new attacks on any skyscraper which might be built. They see it as an open invitation of additional terrorist attacks. It will take some time for us to work through these hesitations. I think we shall, eventually, see another structure or structures there designed in keeping with the skyline of New York City and .perhaps it will, tower higher than man has ever built before.
A vital part Americanism was hurt many years ago when we found we could no longer lay claim to having the highest office building in the world. Perhaps you you saw the present title-holder on the New Year' Eve in the early shows from Indonesia – lit up in fantastic glory! Many who did simply ignored any spoken claim to it being the world's tallest. Most Americans have not yet admitted that we no longer have the world's tallest building.
The urge is still there. We want it. And much of he thinking and planning of a structure for the Ground Zero site is founded on such a desire to excel, once again, as a nation.
The theme of the future will be up, up and away with fears of failure.
It is in the mind of many that anything less than the best and tallest would stand for our fear of Terrorists, rather than for our memory of lives lost on that tragic date in 2001.
We did not stop building ships because our enemies sank our best.
A.L.M. January 4, 2003 [c554wds]
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