Saturday, October 11, 2003
October 11, 2003
W.S.L.
The three letters “W. S. L.” are looming larger in our future with every day that passes.
They remain unseen because we do not, as yet, mark manufactured goods made in China and several other foreign nations with an informative, qualifying second line which reads:”With Slave Labor.”
Our current hypocritical stance is something to be ridiculed and changed if only to save our self-respect. Adding those words to Made in China credits could change our lives in many subtle ways.
There is no urgent need to actually print the letters on manufactured imports Made in China, but it is past time for American citizens to be told what we are doing each and every time we purchase such products. To make the idea common knowledge is essential. People will grasp its importance and come to know what the letters means.
Gradually the people will see it and would relate the letters to the words they are meant to signify - "with slave labor." The idea is to impress upon buyers in a meaningful way that they are buying a product made in China by slave labor standards even while they agitate against any such such manufacturing by other nations while we blatantly accuse them of using slave labor. We vilify American firms selling such products made at sub-standard wage levels in Mexico, Central America, Korea, South America India, and Tiawan. We castigate individuals who own such firms most unfairly since we continue to buy from a communist state where the products are often monopolies with all earnings going to supply the needs of such entities as the China's armed forces. Or other subversive branches of the captive society. They rely on our purchases to fund their armed forces through an elaborate system of industrial monopolies “owned” by the units taking all profits. I don't recall what the specific product line it is which supports the Chinese army, but it may well be that every time we buy a pair of shoes which are marked "Made In China" we are supporting the armies which may someday be used against us.
Not too many years ago, products made in China were of inferior quality. That no longer applies and it is not at all unusual to find them to be superior. We have exported not only the right to make an item, but the know-how which enables them to excel in efficiency as well. The notable disparity is in the fact that we have not exported high pay for workers. The industries flourishing overseas, pay their workers only a small fraction of what it costs in the United States. We sustain that situation when we buy products made in those lands.
Right now the important point may well be that we should not “blame” other nations for the situation in which we find ourselves. The real problem is in our own will to maintain stricter standards of personal and group conduct. The solution will be found at home - rather than abroad.
a.l.m. October 10, 2003 [c508wds]
October 10.2003
WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT LIFE?
We hear far too much complaining this days.
A little bit of it might be normal and even a good thing. That may be one way of inviting change, when things are dull or amiss, but to allowing it to become the center of our lives. Being unduly critical and viewing everything with a negative or argumentative attitude, seems to me to be totally wrong.
I'm being "critical" right now, you might point out, and I say to you – you are right. It rubs off on all of us.
Some of it might be attributed to the world of commercialism in which we live, I suppose. We are constantly being bombarded by claims for this or that product or service and the natural tendency, after a few learning experiences, is that what is being said is simply not true - inaccurate, if you wish to soften it a bit. We are placed on the defensive from the moment we hear the words of the offer being spoken or flashed on the screen in front of us. We tend to say "No" before we take time to even consider the offer and we start listing reasons for our position, too.
Such thinking tends to undermine social conduct, too. Nothing irks me more that to pick up the phone when it rings and find yet another sales pitch being thrown my way. I know we are in the midst of legal ways to bar this unauthorized entry into our homes, and I have signed up for such a screening. The unctuous tone of the voice asking if I am me and in nine cases out of ten mispronouncing my name and/or doing crass harm to the name of the small town in which I happen to live, strikes me as being wrong and I go on the defensive immediately. I am, normally, a polite person but I find it easier as time goes on; simply to interrupt what they are pitching my way with: "I don't believe we are interested in that right now, Thank you for calling. G'bye." I still try to be formally polite but it comes hard for me. That "thank you for calling" bit is a genuine, unvarnished lie of the worst sort, but it is sort of a Band Aid to cover the blemish of my interruption. Sometimes I think: "Well, he or she is just doing their job." and I sorta feel sorry for them, and tote a weight of guilt around with me for the rest of the day for being rude.
Sometimes I think people watch television manly to find fault with it. Notice how many people talk back to their TV screens as they watch and much of what they say is negative by nature. They like to feel they could do better at whatever the performer is attempting to prove he or she can do well.
Even the most calloused politician, talking on a TV screen, would cringe if he could hear what is actually being said to or about him or her by millions of viewers. They would sulk away and give up political life forever if the knew what so many people actually think of their efforts. Think about that for a moment, How do you rate in that particular setting?
We must constantly be on the alert to positive elements concerning our viewing, reading, or listening. We do not have to take the bad with the lousy.
A.L.M. October 9, 2003 [c545WHAT'S GOOD ABOUT LIFE?
We hear far too much complaining this days.
A little bit of it might be normal and even a good thing. That may be one way of inviting change, when things are dull or amiss, but to allowing it to become the center of our lives. Being unduly critical and viewing everything with a negative or argumentative attitude, seems to me to be totally wrong.
I'm being "critical" right now, you might point out, and I say to you – you are right. It rubs off on all of us.
Some of it might be attributed to the world of commercialism in which we live, I suppose. We are constantly being bombarded by claims for this or that product or service and the natural tendency, after a few learning experiences, is that what is being said is simply not true - inaccurate, if you wish to soften it a bit. We are placed on the defensive from the moment we hear the words of the offer being spoken or flashed on the screen in front of us. We tend to say "No" before we take time to even consider the offer and we start listing reasons for our position, too.
Such thinking tends to undermine social conduct, too. Nothing irks me more that to pick up the phone when it rings and find yet another sales pitch being thrown my way. I know we are in the midst of legal ways to bar this unauthorized entry into our homes, and I have signed up for such a screening. The unctuous tone of the voice asking if I am me and in nine cases out of ten mispronouncing my name and/or doing crass harm to the name of the small town in which I happen to live, strikes me as being wrong and I go on the defensive immediately. I am, normally, a polite person but I find it easier as time goes on; simply to interrupt what they are pitching my way with: "I don't believe we are interested in that right now, Thank you for calling. G'bye." I still try to be formally polite but it comes hard for me. That "thank you for calling" bit is a genuine, unvarnished lie of the worst sort, but it is sort of a Band Aid to cover the blemish of my interruption. Sometimes I think: "Well, he or she is just doing their job." and I sorta feel sorry for them, and tote a weight of guilt around with me for the rest of the day for being rude.
Sometimes I think people watch television manly to find fault with it. Notice how many people talk back to their TV screens as they watch and much of what they say is negative by nature. They like to feel they could do better at whatever the performer is attempting to prove he or she can do well.
Even the most calloused politician, talking on a TV screen, would cringe if he could hear what is actually being said to or about him or her by millions of viewers. They would sulk away and give up political life forever if the knew what so many people actually think of their efforts. Think about that for a moment, How do you rate in that particular setting?
We must constantly be on the alert to positive elements concerning our viewing, reading, or listening. We do not have to take the bad with the lousy.
A.L.M. October 9, 2003 [c545wds]wds]
Thursday, October 09, 2003
MUNG {W.E.L Series}*
For years the word "mung" has had only one meaning for me. As a crossword puzzle worker, I learned long ago that a four-letter word for "bean" was going to be either "lima" or "mung."
Now, however, as a result of computer enlightenment, I find that it has meant a great deal more than that for some years and ranks high among thousands of words I have not known.
I certainly should have come across the military usage of the term which designtes that gastonomic treat featured in GI mess halls worldwide commonly referred to as "SOS". It was an ad-lib recipe dreamed up by desperate army cooks who found themselves without anything other than meat scraps and the makings for gravy of a sort. It could vary from base to base base. I emember it being called "S.O.S/" and less offensive "C.O.C.",but never did I hear it called "mung" . It ties in rather well with the acronym source (one view), however, and may have come into being since the era of WWII, or some other wartime era.
It is used as a sort of jargon, of course, and it dates from around 1960. It is said to have originated relative to something being destroyed either maliciously or by accident. It means "to destroy" . It seems to equate with "Destroy after expiration date" we fiud on medication continers. It is suggested we examine the terms scribble, mangle, trash, and nuke.
I have been mispronouncing the word, as well, I find. It is not "mung-hung", but, rather more cultured in sound as "muhng" or "muhnj". The spelling "mung"" is at fault in the same sense as the spelling of the word "kluge", I am told. (which I will also have to investigate as a result of all this disclosure.
The final comment concerning word deals with the bean of which I knew, or thought I did. Actually the Chinese foods we eat do not use the bean but only the sprouts thereof, so I was off base there as well. "Mung" is the real name of the bean, it seems, so it pre-dates the other usages, I suppose. We tend to enlarge upon the intent of such words as technology advances, too.
The word is now referred to as a "hacker" term as well. It is said to have orignated a in 1958, the year Peter Samson, who compiled a TMRC lexicon thought it originated as an onomatopoeic sound word emulating the noise made by a relay spring (contact) being twanged.
Remember: it is spelled "mung", pronounced "muhnj" and it means a great deal more than a crossword "bean" - just exactly what is still up for grabs, however.
{W.E.L Series - Our Wonderful, Ever-expanding English Language!}
A.L.M. October 8, 2003 [c487wds]
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
PRETENSE
There seems to be more pretending in the manner in which we dress today than in any other aspect of our living.
We all do some extent, of course, live portions of our lives in emulation of the actions of others. That can be both good and bad, if you reflect upon it just a moment, based on a attempt to replicate the conduct of the saints - both great and small - who have gone before us.
We have a basic inclination, it seems, which leads us to follow the example of others, and we may not have a clear picture of what makes up the true and total personality of the the individual, or group. We are modeling after at that point our lives when we decide to follow a path set by others. The "saint" we select might be, in truth, far from deserving such a designation. He or she, in their time and place, may have been far from what we think it to have been.
When someone asked singer Tony Bennett how he could become famous again-and-again, he is reported to have said: ”I think I can become famous all over again, because I wear a tie. You have got to be different!.”
Dress is perhaps the most obvious area of pretense in our present era. Very often we blame freakish clothing styles, hairdos and habits on "the advertising world", but they, in turn, blame it on Hollywood which sets our standards far more than we realize. Other break it down to TV and other factional features of our entertainment world. We seem to find it easy to forget that much of the “pop” world today is a one of fantasy and make-believe and, start wearing the most freakish hairstyle we can find, or revert to an ancient one because some star or the big or little screen has had one as a part of a particular role he or she played. It is not only the young people who make a habit of appearing sloppily dressed. Adults, too, go out of their way to do so to attract attention with strange hair configurations, off colors in hair and every item of clothing they might choose to don.
It could be said we are living in a time of "disreputable" dress. When trouble surfaces in our schools, someone is sure to attribute it to kids wearing expensive designer jeans and exotic shoes and slovenly crowds of them shuffling through crowded corridors, many of them lugging gigantic backpacks filled with a week's supply of who-knows-what. The boys and many girls wear extremes - ultra loose pants dragging the ground and over sized sweat shirts and ragged looking canvas/plastic footwear - or skin tight jeans or shorts. Just about every such TV film segment features a dozen or so super-skinny girls wearing min-short shorts and tight tops. Viewers ares usually subjected to at least one low angle crotch shot in ever such sequence which packs a visual comment on sex problems in the schools.
We dress as others do and have become one, big, non-descript blob of nothingness. Everyone is trying to look like everyone else. Individual traits are discouraged.
A.L..M October 7, 2003 [c514Wds]
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
SEASHORE MUSEUM – PRIVATE
If I lived on the edge of one of the great oceans or seas, I would like try to do exactly as a friend of mine has done - start and maintain a private Seashore Museum.
You are the sole owner, the Curator of the artifacts shown as well as heading up every job - including that of “Acquisitions Department.”That would be “the fun job”and other duties would be “work” if you are to run a well-managed, documented place with a worthy collection.
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Among the initial items collected will probably be seashells and kindred natural findings. You can fill shelves and cabinets quickly with just those. There will be selections of seaweeds - edible and non-edible. Don't overlook the photographic wing of the establishment, either. Take good pictures of, jelly fish designs from boat side floating so delicately on the still water.. A display of those alone can change walls and ceilings into star like showplaces. You will need a good tape recorder,too. As you v view your treasures. A premium can be the sounds of the surf of gulls and other shore birds and the swish of an offshore breeze through dried growths; the crack and roll of lightning and thunder when the storms arrive - which they will, to once gain, be held as hostage in the form of photographs and tapes.
Other items you will acquire, in time, will include: one half of a coconut palm seed shell from somewhere, assorted bottles - large, medium, and small and often softly tinted with some color. Bottles with messages contained therein are rare are a bit “common” or “corny” - mostly aqua-legend in nature. You can collect driftwood, of course, for decorations and arty additions to foyers and furnishings.
You will come across a host of items which will incite the disapproval of the Acquisitions committee re: junk. That will include pieces of roofing materials, sections of fishing vessels and equipment, channel markers for marking driveways borders, curbs and flower bed corners am plastic wrappers of many shapes and kinds. You will also have on display a few light bulbs which floated in from some festivity afar.
You will find it impossible trying to explain the history of some items ...a chunk of scrap iron, for instance, but one can assume it may have been attached to float-able wood at one time which has long-since since rotted. There will be be some land-based items, too, such as a selection of arrow heads possibly used in attempts to kill fish or shore birds. Here will be shards of crockery, cooking utensils of various kinds other debris from scores of clam bakes, picnics and other such beach festivities.
You can have miles of museum strung together if you even half-way work at it.
Put it all together and it spells “Junque.”
A.,L.M. October 6, 2003 [c502wds]
Monday, October 06, 2003
SOME OLD WORRIES AND CARES.
If you think today's international problems are too complicated , come with me back to March 26, 1941 - a date picked at random. Here is a transcript of my TOPIC entry for that date sixty-two years ago.
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“COMMENT – March 26, 1941
Today Yugoslavia is a member of the Axis. Somewhat of a Junior partner, but neither the less a member of a sort. She has not exactly given the go-ahead signal to Hitler, but she has indicated that certain lengths he might wish to go are all right and admits through such concessions that she is sufficiently pliable enough to be taken over as soon a troops and “citizens” are lodged within the gates and in control of key positions.
Norway was won from within and it should not be too difficult to take over Yugoslav in a like manner. He may face some opposition in the ethnic diversity of the area. Native, unified Norwegians, failed to see the Nazi “writings on the wall” . The Serb portion will, perhaps, but Croats, and others, may prove to be troublesome.
Prince Paul was, no doubt, asked by President Roosevelt and other leaders of the Democratic countries to support the cause of Greece in refusing to allow the Germans to cross his land. He holds fast at the moment .Two days or so from now, it may be more difficult to stop German troops from exercising what they are calling their right of passage as they occupy Yugoslavia 'to preserve peace and restore order.'
I do not doubt that much of the internal disturbances within the area are instigated by Nazi-paid factions, or by people speaking out in a warped sort of new-found “wisdom” (not unlike our own Col. Charles Lindberg) who speak Hitler's language in the unwitting guise of ”peace” rather than “destruction” rot.
The term “strike” used to relate to baseball games. Now, it is the final word in relations between business and the worker. Right now, over much of our nation workers are striking in the defense industries and demanding more pay and rights. The Ford Motor Company's lawyers called the CIO the “Communist Labor Organization” because of their heavy communist-oriented membership. Won't all of that fit nicely in the history books of the future? Brother Earl Browder is in jail - as of yesterday - but at the same time he must be laughing up his crooked sleeve.
Another leading topic of the day ls news has been the signing of the aid to Britain - a “Lease-Lend” bill by President Roosevelt. He is finding out, as many other president have before him, that they way to get action from the legislative body is to go fishing. The bill had to be flown down to FDR for his seal of approval because he was fishing off the Florida coast. One wonders how we will supply Great Britain with munitions if our industrial plants stay on strike.. It is not bottle-necks holding us up right now - it's horses-necks.”
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We had plenty to worry about even in those pre-Pearl Harbor days, August 26, 1941. We made a way through them and we will survive our present troubles, as well. Some of them willl ,in time, seem to have been rather trivial.
A.L.M. October 5,, 2003 [c595wds]
Sunday, October 05, 2003
...AND BY....
Every year there is a danger that few really worthwhile books might not receive the recognition and acclaim they deserve.
For example, may I call your attention to the annual “Occupational Handbook”published by the U. S. Government. I find,on checking, that I did a review of this useful volume in 1970 which had absolutely no affect whatsoever on the sales thereof. At that time it cost $4.29 in soft cover. At almost 800 pages that was about $2.07 per pound. It was the yearly handiwork of the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Statistics.
I had been disturbed by the absence of any written paean of praise several job categories. True enough, I must admit, the book lacked zip, zowie, zing, zap as well as bang and verve. It was dull reading throughout, at best - not just in random spots!
The title was an elongated killer to start with but its worthy purpose was to set forth, in alphabetical order, the complete list of occupations to which a person might aspire to undertake as a life's work. Each article developed the nature of the work involved, the geographical extent of employment in the field, working conditions, and average earnings one might expect. Parents and teachers found it to be an excellent aid in guiding their charges into occupational fields promising both aesthetic and economic enrichment.
May, I, however, not as a critic, but as a friend of the editors; as one eager to assist in such a worthy work, point out the absence of two well-established fields of endeavor to which any re-blooded, cholesterol-correct American boy or girl (F.E.P.C.) might aspire.
The first occupation, which should inserted in the R.O.T. l59.148 area as being associated with Radio/Television Announcers. It concerns a specialty which has come about through the practice of what is called “piggy-backing” or extended or multiple sponsorship for radio/TV productions. I refer to the unique and highly demanding talents of the “connective announcer” who joins the two conflicting commercial messages together without antagonizing the listener/viewer; without distracting in any way from the climactic fervor of the initial message, or diminishing in the slightest the traumatic insistence of the second piggy-backed proclamation.
He distinctive, non-intrusive role as the “Connective Announcer” has gone unheralded because the speaker is never allowed to be seen; never voices his or her name (FEPC) and is never thanked by on mike/camera personnel. His prime value lies in his being heard by not seen. Training demands comprehensive study of the words “Now.” and “By”to sooth the feeling is second who feels his should be first, and the first sponsor who feel slighted by being so far from the entertainment section of the program.
Above all, he must not let the viewer realize that he will by double chunks of taped commercials from that point on. The next time you are watching TV, take note if the special tones of that voice which inserti: “...and ...by!” You will agree it demands a tremendous sense of precise timing, confidence, stability, fervor, charm and downright sneakiness.
I also want to suggest, also, you add another occupational category to your fine list -.that of “Pin Putter”in subsequent editions.
A “Pin Putter” is be man or woman (FEPC) when men;s dress shirts are being packaged. The trained specialist manages to conceal pins in places the average man would never consider. Skilled operative are in demand. They're getting scarce, too, since many have followed the skirt makers to overseas locations
Now, take this new shirt I've just bought. I've managed to find every last pin in it ...ouch!
A.L.M. October 4, 2003 [c661wds]
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