Saturday, December 06, 2003
POMP?
I watched the formal opening of the English House of Lords on C-Span this week.
I was most impressed.
Others, I found, were not so moved. They were of the opinion that it was all a mess of pomp and circumstance which was meaningless to anyone in touch with the modern world. One harked all the way back to early Red Skelton days without realizing how old it sounded, saying “That's about as interesting as watching paint dry, isn't it?”
There is quite a bit of ceremony included in the observation, but if one considers it in an historical sense, each little thing has special meaning. Even the heavy robes some were wearing. If you have ever been in cathedral type building for hours you know how cold it can get. Nature's caverns maintain a steady temperature-what is is? -fifty-seven degrees, but man's architectural “caverns” call for robes, long johns or coats of some sort. I have never heard it mentioned, but it is logical that the wearing of wigs and headgear may have stemmed from the same natural condition. A bare pate is uncomfortable and a wig covering or a head gear unlike a crown would be appreciated.
In context,you will find that the majority of the people parading are wearing modern business suits. A tradition is apparent there because all the men wore fore-in-hand ties of blue. I saw one exception, a rather rotund man wearing a blue suit and a blue suit covering much of his front but with a tie of faded fire-engine red with some brown decorations. Who knows? That one man may well have - in expressing his individualism - started a whole new tradition for the ceremony which opens the House of Lords.
C-Span does a commendable job in bringing us programs of this nature. Another outstanding example was recent address by Tom Brokaw at a Press Club gathering honoring him. One would think that public radio and public television might lead the way in such programming, but they seem to be set in favor of re-running of old U.S. and British shows with commercial positions filled with emotional pleas for funds.
This heritage thing, for another moment....
British traditions are very much a part of our own. It may be because I have always lived in Virginia which was very much Royal Colony and part of the British Empire at one time, that I am more aware of our English heritage than many may be. I have lived and visited in England, as well, which make it my logical home away from home.
A.L.M. December 5, 2003 [c447wds]
Friday, December 05, 2003
DOERS
There are many men who want to see a thing done and one among them does it.
What makes such a person take action? What is special about his, or her, make-up that would cause them to differ from others about them?
I have often wondered about great inventions and discoveries; about the fact that many other men must have had the identical idea; actually thought of it years before, but never did anything about it. Certainly. Columbus was not the first to imagine there could be a way to the other side of wherever he was at the moment. He was not the only one to have some idea about the world being round ...certainly not flat. The idea returned again and again to his mind until he did something about it. He acted, even though he did not understand, it now appears, and, furthermore, never really came to know for sure that he had discovered a totally new continental expanse rather than touching on the edge of Orierntal lands others had told about having visited.
Could it be a quality that touches on the supernatural? I rather doubt that, because everything else we do is - except having life within us - can be plotted out in a logical, understandable manner. It could be a quality often called being "stubborn" which is, usually, viewed with scorn, but which could have a redeeming value if it is the spark which enlarges into a flame of dedication to get a thing on the road to development and completion. There may also be a link with another word which was, I think, devised from scraps of languages H. W. Fowler had left over fifty years ago when he did his thing of taking the English language apart and sorting the pieces of it in to linquistic bins and shelves for our better use. That word is one my mother used to urge upon us when we were lazy. To get along in this competative world, to meet both educated and non-educated smart-alecks you're going to come up against you must have, she decreed, something called "stickability"...or "stick-to-a-tive-ness"- the common guts which enable you to stick at a thing until it is absolutely, stone-cold done!
Very often simply little ideas come to us and are dropped without see the gold they contain. Think how often ancient man must have noticed that the cockleburr type of vegetation affixed itself to his clothing before someone took that simple idea and made a paper clip for office use and Velcro cloth for disappearing act magicians and now for everyone. Somebody watched a beaver build a dam. Someone with a glint in his eye and grease in his elbows saw the basic principle of ou labor saving evises in Nature and emulated such action mechanically.
This is about the time I usually kick myself! Here I am writing about it, instead of doing some of it myself!
Your case could be just as hopeless...sitting here reading about it.
Do you realize we are both holding up the advancment of civilization?
A.l.M. December 4, 2003 [c599wds]
Thursday, December 04, 2003
IN CHARGE
One of the truly great thrills which comes to most American boys and girls is the official certifiation allowing them to take over the sole control of a bucket of bolts on a public highway and to be repectively called a "driver."
Until one acheives that level in society, he or she is still a kid.
In some marvelous manner that little piece of plastic made into a card to be carried about and displayed, a name, an address and some statistics can set one apart from all others.
I think most of us remember those days when we were lerning to drive, but not quite to the exam point. It was a job my father undertook with both of us older boys and, then, by the time my younger brother and two sisters became of driving age it was a subject taught in high school. For various reason - some of them sound and others based on fears of failure - parents did not want to be the one required to teach their children to drive. Little Junior, smart as he was, of course, never seemed to be "mature" enough to take on responsibiltiies associated with driving. That applied to the family car and even more so to the jalopy he wanted so urgently.
Farm kids, I always felt, had a special advantage, because their driving skills were put to use at a far younger age. The farm was commonly low on hands to do all the work required, and it seemed completely logical that the young boys and girl present could be the one to sit on the tractor and keep it going at a slow pace which other necessary work was being done by the farmer. Pretty soon it seemed just as logical to ask the kid to "bring the truck around" from wherever it had been parked. I knew farm kids who were driving tractors, cars and trucks before they were in school. Of course, much of that might be said to have been "against the law", but legal law and common sense ae both often twisted into some odd shapes when focused by need.
My Dad instructed me. He did a good job, I have long realized he did so with a calm confidence which was remarkable. His comments were always positive , he never scolded or yelled as I have seen and heard others do. After all these years, I have realized how he was able to do it all so well.
Skip back a few decades. It was in the Fall of the year 1924 that Dad bought his first car. That was the year he was thirty-four years of age. It was a Ford "touring car", black, of course, because that was the only color of car Henry made in those days. It had a printed door on the driver's side with a "luggage" rack on the outside running board to hold tools and a tire patching kit with glue.
Dad bought the car. The saleman showed him how the things worked; they drove the car across town and back to the garage where the sales person dismounted and Dad drove the car home for us to see. Others, I find, learned to drive in pretty much the same way by trial and error during the next few weeks.
A.L.M. December 3, 2003 [c720wds]
Wednesday, December 03, 2003
CHOICES
I rarely have to search for a topic upon which to write.
I devised a system years ago which keeps me supplied with a regular supply of partly written column ideas.
Initially I worked it in small notebooks but,in time, they became cumbersome because used notes remained in place. I switched to a loose leaf arrangmwent of half-sheets of used copy paper fitted to a small clipboard. I keep three such boards in active use at all times. One is at bedside and used most of all. There is another which I keep in the side door shelf of the family van for travel time and waiting use. The third clipboard is mobile inthe sense that it is sometimes at my workplace, other times it moves to the dining room, near the TV set, or to the bathroom on occasion. Sharpened pencils are with each clip board and I always keep a pencil or pen nearby.
The clipboard system worked well for me me but it does have some drawbacks. One is that I have trouble reading my own handwriting after it "cools" a bit. And,the stack of notes gets taller and taller,and it becomes difficult to seek out any one from all the others for re-working or additions. So, I have recently,extended the system to include "Notes To Me #1,2,3 etc" in the form of small floppy disks. They are filed as "idea - tobacco juice"...."idea-Onion skin..."idea - supersonic silliness" etc. They are earlier to bring up a page and add a bit to them as time allows. I set aside a portion of my work week simply to search and revise such starter stuff. If one gets fat, or if I simply feel I want to write about that subject, I move it to my desktop and write from there.
I also have a stack of scapbooks I contrived many years ago plus three or four yards of shelves holding large post binders filled capacity with thousands of pages such as this. Oh, yes...one more thing. Be sure to include the family in all of this. The writing pads I keep at those places are for family use, as well. The response has been affirmative for me. They are used by the telephone for notes; they are in demand when the grandchldren visit and need paper on which to draw or color, even used to make up grocery lists and,more recently as christmas gift lists - left at a spot where others will be sure to see it.
By encouraging others to use the clip boards they have gained family approval as acceptable clutter around the house.
A.L.M. December 2, 2003 [c461wds]
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
WIND WOES
Power from the wind!
It is a wealth we keep putting off.
For as long as I can remember, science has been setting forth the rather sensible idea of using nature's winds to produce much needed electrical energy supplies, and, after after a sudden, encouraging spurt of activity and even the construction of some rotors at likely sites, the chronic protesters come out of wherever it is they lie in wait. They put a stop of such projects before they can be completed.
The environmentalist freaks have successfully curbed all wind
power generation development by insisting that the spinning wheels might kill migratory birds. They refuse to even consider the fact that the bird population of Earth has survived the existence of thousands of windmills which have existed previously.
The eco-no-no persons are not alone in opposition. There seems to be a rather general malaise among many of the public at large and especially among politicians. They refuse to believe that any plan as simple as the development of wind power lacks glamor and pizz-zazz which they associate with grand concepts.
Our future is “ blowing in the wind.” As of now, we continue to falter an d shy away from taking any serous steps to bring such changes about to benefit . On the land, and at sea opportunity awaits us. It may well be that a stray albatross, sea gull or humming bird might collide with one of our windmills having just narrowly missed a tall ship and a jet airliner .There are scores of people who now operate windmills and sell power to their local power producers electrical firms in addition to meeting their own needs. The idea has been proved in what my be called “back yard”operations. It is past time we develop it to our mutual advantage it nationally.
A.L.M. December 1, 2003 [c318wds]
Monday, December 01, 2003
FRAMED
Invitation for us to try to “play that Hollywood role” are awaiting us in the seemingly infinite selections of eyeglass frames now showing at our local mall.
There was time, and not too long ago, when you wore glasses with a thin wire binder around the glass and over the ears; celluloid frames were av available, or you could pay a bit more and wear rimless glasses with gold or silver ear grabbers.
Now, they are yours in a splendid array of all shapes, sizes, colors and materials including metals, plastics, alloys, precious metals studded with jewels, as well as the plain old nothings. You have a choice of colors, too - the entire known spectrum plus some designer creation choices. Holiday motif glass frames are yours, too, such as two orange colored pumpkins for Halloween wear – clear glasses for day wear at the office, and smoky lens ones for evening wear when you let the kids go along while you trick-or-treat throughout the neighborhood and try to appear discretely incognito.
One curious aspect of frame selection is one which closely associates with acting careers, either on the big screen or on TV. If you are in such a situation. you must choose the right glasses to keep people from recognizing you in public while you pay press agents and publicity experts to get more people to recognize you on sight.. This usually demand extra dark glasses – the darker the better.
Glamor glasses have increased in size in some areas. There are now circular or per-shaped lens glass or plastic lens styles which start at the hairline, and descend to the upper lip on each side of the nose. Lever-like strips reach for the the general area of the ears for support.
“Granny “glasses are popular with some of the older hippie types featuring lower half lens and simple wire frames. One wonder when the pince-nez style will return with metal pincers to hold plain glass in place an a colorful ribbon dangling down to be affixed to lapel or dress fringe. Much depends on the the revival of the twang the human voice acquires when the nose is pinched shut tightly while speaking. That is a style, as yet, untouched by the frame fashioning folks, but, in time, it , too, will be included.
After all, it is just good, common sense for us to take good care of our eyesight, is is not?
A.L.M. November 30, 2003 [c421wds]
Sunday, November 30, 2003
WORK-A--DAY STATS
President Martin Van Buren, on March 31, 1840 - one day day ahead of April Fools Day - placed his signature on an executive order which established a ten-hour work day for all government employees.
I have no concrete evidence at hand which would tell me that government workers put in more than ten hours per day prior to the ruling by Van Buren but there must have been sufficient reason to set such a limit at the time. Holding a government job has long been associated with the concept of less physical effort than that demanded by other forms of employment.
It might well have been that some folks, when first hearing of the presidential ordered, may well have taken it to be a Fool's Day prank, but it stuck an brought about some endless changes in the structure of our national and state governments.
Iy could have been a reward of a sort handed out by the Presdent to make government work more attractive. Or, it could possibly have been a political do-dad applied to pressure a specific point of that era when the Industrial Revolution was beginning to revolve throughout the land. On thing, for sure, is that one thing, for sure, is that set up a cycle change which has not stopped even today.
People today often take the attitude that to ”get a government job”, is the same thing as retiring with full pay. Holding a government office is often seen as their version of achieving heaven on Earth. A ten hour day in our time is considered to be an imposition. We are seemingly on the verge, quite often these days, of emulating some of our European brethren in setting up a four or five-day work week, with hours per day well below any ten.
If you happen to live on any major highway leading into or out of Washington, DC., you can gauge holiday traffic starting with an early closing time at Federal offices on Friday at afternoon and the rush of traffic returning to the District Tuesday night. Week ends become l-o-ong ones when "sick days" and other special modern innovations are added to official holidays.
Martin Van Buren started tinkering with established work hours work in 1840 and it hasn't stopped changing ever since.
A.L.M. November 29, 2003 [c402wds]
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