Saturday, November 20, 2004
OUR RATING
It may be a bit too early to determine how we, as a nation, did before, during and after our recent presidential election.
Thus far indication are that most participants in the convoluted events which make up an election of this scale seem to feel it went, on the whole, “very well.”
We are still too close to procedure to eradicate the deep feelings ,man many individuals came to know - possibly for the first time in their voting life. If one is among the winners it is spoken of as a good, well-mannered election. If one is on the losing side it can just as well be spoken of as having been the “nastiest” election we have ever had. We are just now beginning to approach the middle grounds of compromise. If we look a how we are conducting ourselves in other areas of living - fist fights and chair throwing at basketball games; brawls at baseball diamonds, and fine-able endangerments of other drivers in stock car racing. Gross miss-management of corporate groups, scandals in a wide variety. Entertainment “censorship” diversions and affiliates “far”of federal fines and
restrictions. We have criminal trials which have been going on for years, always promising summation but never quite getting there. Compared to all of that miss-conduct and more of such a nature readily available, our election seems to have been a relatively good one.
Accusations came from all sides during the heat of the election which is normal, and most of them were anticipated. The “Swift Boat” segment will probably be remembered as the most striking example of unusual activity. From the very first announcement that John Kerry was to run for the office of President and, hence, for that of Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces, the Viet Nam card was the one to worry about. The entire “Swift Boat” collection was pre-viewed in it full form on C-Span television more than a month before the spots started to appear in certain vital areas. At the time, I was amazed at the lack of interest concern by the Media and by both major political parties. I think, in time, that Viet Nam card segment of the election will stand as the single, most critical incidents. Once underway it was self regenerative and could not be stopped had anyone seriously attempted to do so. Vilifications of the personal conduct of both major candidates came near to getting out of control in the hands of self-proclaimed political pundits.
Again, we came out of it all smelling like the proverbial rose when we compare our way of doing it to that of other nations. I have been in another country during an election time and I have high regard for the American sense of fair-play and decency which prevails when the time is past. The original C-Span “Swift Boat” charges, were actually toned down a bit before they were used in the actual election weeks.
We, again as a nation, seemed to have managed to go about getting it all done this time without another gaudy display of pettiness and self-pity setting forth alleged malfunctions of the procedural mechanism - endless recounts and aberrations designed to thwart the system itself and to make it suspect of gross error.
Ours may not be the a “perfect system” and we should not think
of it being that pristine, but world-wide evidence continues to judge it to be , by far, the best system yet devised by Man to determine what he is thinking at a specified time.
A.L.M. November 20, 2004 [c600wds]
Friday, November 19, 2004
EXCESS.
Do you remember when your parents, grandparents or others reminded you as a child not to get “too smart for your own breeches?”
Certainly, the saying must have originally read as being “too big for”-”too large or cumbersome” for - rather than “too smart for” which is the way I remember it used in my family. Today we tend to conclude they were referring to the physical dimensions of the posterior portions of the human body, but, in truth, the intent was to warn you not “to get to smart-alecky, self-impressed and not to get too smart-assed in our thinking mechanisms for our own good.
It still applies. We, today do not realize it very often but the truth is that we so much more aware of what is going on in the world -far more than Man has ever known before. We have, in a very real sense, come to a point where the average one of us is endangered by being too smart, too knowledgeable, too satiated with facts, figures, potentially existent circumstance and tons of non-essential trivia. We have even developed precise insights into procedures, methods, theoretical processes and programs. We have come to the place where we need to heed the warnings set so obviously before us before we stumble over them and fall.
On a personal level, wouldn't you agree that, because of today's communications systems alone you are so far ahead of ourselves the accumulation and bulk storage that you are forced to back off at times. You are ahead of yourself in so many facets of living. Such as the healthful condition of the physical bodies in which we live and aware of those things which might harm that tentative shell. We expend great effort seeking to determine the proper place of that containers in the whole Cosmos.
Part of the basic problems we face is to negate the false idea that we are all equal. It is entirely probable that we are “created equal”. That is a fine political and social concept but it has little or no application to actual living conditions in the real world. The vast majority of the inhabitants of this Earth are not. The last down the social and economic ladder has even less than that segment who have the least and about whom we express a measure of sometimes sincere religious concern.
Warnings? Some watch for religion-tagged, signs, omens and oddities of Nature. We have an even larger group of people who think of the future as an uncharted mystery realm and they are guided by hosts of spirit beings they alone can see and associate. Some place complete trust in the holy writings which has their approval. There must be scores of such methods - ways in which Man seeks to equate with his Maker. The strong emergence of any one of them can be seen as an indication that a ferment is in progress beneath the surface and that change is pendng.
The success of is, in itself, such a warning. It will take a hundred years or more for us to realize what the coming of The Computer Age has meant to all of us. We are still too close to the trees to see the forest.
A.L.M. November 19, 2004 [c553wds]
Thursday, November 18, 2004
WHEN THE FROST IS ON.
This Fall we have been enjoying a special pie at our house. It goes quickly, once it is un-ovened, cooled a bit, sliced and it is known - while it lasts – by several names.
They look like pumpkin pie; they smell like pumpkin pies, they taste like pumpkin pies making use of the sense of logic with which we are blessed , it can be said that - if something looks like; smells like and tastes like pumpkin pie - it just has to be - well, now! Not too fast there, Buster! The experienced farm folks who raise and bring these things to us when we order pumpkins call them “Squash”. Specifically they often call them “Winter Squash” even though they grow in the Pumpkin Patch right along with the other bright orange globes, balls, nubbins and flattened-out styles If you want “squash” - real squash - Yellow Crook Neck, Patty Pan, Strait Yellow, or other strange-named types, you gotta go up to the vegetable garden where they grow. Squash grow in the garden; pumpkins in the ”Punkin' Patch”.
I have inquired into the matter and I find that we are all wrong. We are actually talking about gourds.
Pumpkins and squash are each types of gourds. We are concerned only with those which are considered to be edible. It might be likened to automobiles. They all do pretty much the same thing,but there are lots of different brands with peculiar characteristics . We choose the one we like best; the one that best meets our income level,our needs and soothes our desires somewhat. Some of the far-out models such as the tricycle DAVIS three-wheeler made in California for a few years,don't get much attention.
I was rather surprised to find that many chefs prefer using squash rather than pumpkin in making Pumpkin Pies. The result is a pie which is less fibrous. smoother and has a soft taste. I have long used the term pumpkin pie in a general sense to include squash pies and sweet potato pies. The creations can be different but it is the butter,spices, sugar and other such “accessories” which actually determine what the final creation is to become in the final moment in the oven.
I though I had settled the pumpkin,but this year also introduced a new note in the discussion which is going to be a doozie. It sounds silly,but I have had people ask me if a pumpkin a vegetable or a fruit? It can't be both. I hold with “veggie” but I think I'll sit this one out and just eat pumpkin pie regardless of its internal construction specifications.
Pumpkin makes a good soup, too,in case you haven't tried it; and the old folks used to enjoy it as a spread for bread - sweet pumpkin pulp with unflavored gelatin added. Good!
A.L.M November 18, 2004 [c486wds]
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
LONG TRIP
I sometimes find it difficult to believe that the French and English - even before our l607 Jamestown and 1620 Plymouth adventures, our unsuccessful 1588 try to set up a colony on Roanoke Island - had flourishing fishing locations on Newfoundland and up the St. Lawrence River in what is today part of Canada. We hasten to add however that they were temporary installations, used for for a season then abandoned,
Those settlements were a part of the gigantic surge of fishing the French,in particular, as well as others, undertook in the early decades of the 1500's. The fishing industry was an important one to maintain European dietary needs and the waters of the Mediterreanian Sea, the North Sea, Atlantic coastal regions were inadequate having been fished intensely for centuries. They found a new and phenomenal commercial source of sigh in the banks south a nd southwest of the land which had come to be know as Newfoundland. There are conflicting accounts of who discovered the island and the commercial fishing paradise along its shores. The area had a good supply of floating icebergs in the early spring when the fishing boats first arrived. Once the fish were found a setting of many sails and banners of several nations began.. Some, based on existing records, attributed the discovery of it all to the Norse, or Vikings, if the story was to be considered as being romantic. There are also claims the St. Brendan, out of Ireland, had discovered the area long before the Scandinavians ever set heel to the rocky shores. Certainly the French developed fishing. They seem to have been dominant, ,although some fearless Bristol England fishermen made the trip more or less regularly.
History books I read make references to the cod fish as having been the mainstay of the fleets success. Other fish are mentioned but one account alludes to them as being considered on for use as bait to ready hooks to catch cod. What also sounds like a “fish story ”is the instance that the cod of that era - the mid 1500's - weighed in at from 150 to 200 pounds per capita. The first time I read that figure I wondered who might be pulling my fin, or just who had made a mistake, how b-b-big and how long ago? The breed was larger, it seems, and it was a favorite to ship back to European markets.
Time was a telling fact on in the fish market of those days, and cod could be handled either “wet”or “dry.” A fleet could, working together, fill several returnees with fresh fish while the others would be stocked with sun-dried slabs of cod, salt-processed on the shores and stored in ramshackle lean-to wharf buildings. With favorable winds the trip back to the Le Harve area of France or the Normandy shore took about three weeks.
The French had one processing advantage over others .They brought their own salt with them - tons of it - from the sun-drying pits which prospered along the south shore of “ The Flemish Channel” back from the tip of Normandy as far as Dieppe.
The profit motive was the driving force behind the unusual venture and heroic efforts at sustaining a major industrial venture for that time. To go that far to fish, especially to some of us, for cod seems bit too much.
We, today, undertake long trips in acquiring certain things we desire, and many think it foolish that we even entertain ideas of importing materials from various bodies in Space.
With Man being what Man is, it has to be tried.
Now is the time for young minds to be pondering on what we might meet within such ventures. I have found one historian who faults the French fishing men of Newfoundland's Grand Banks for not having made use of the icebergs among which they often worked. Simple: a layer of ice; a layer of fish; a layer of ice; a layer of fish – but no on saw it! Refrigerated fish!
If, in your mind, you are planning a “long trip” for our nation, keep your idea box tuned to the “Well, now, it-could-just-be-that -” channel. Nothing is impossible except something which has not been rightly tried.
A.L.M. November 17, 2004 [c720wds]
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
THANKSTAKING DAY
Yes, I realize “giving” is the usual ending for the common word of appreciation. “Giving” seems to have more general acceptance than the opposite concept of “taking". This year, however, we are beset with a particular mix of circumstances which suggests it might be a good time for us to bring out and investigate those many possessions we do, all ready have; things - including deeply imbued holdings-which we, or our forefathers, accepted years ago and have worked hard to make our very own.
Life itself, is one of those treasures. We have it of our parents with God's blessing. This is a gift which obviously varies from one to another of us - some have good health, while others face difficult times. We, though our families, accepted that gift and we have learned to work with it to take it; to hold it close, and to use it to best advantage. If we are properly guided we learn to use it to the benefit of other – rather than merely ourselves.
Safe conduct in the maze of today's problems, may seem more demanding than in the past but we have always faced dangers with courage and fortitude. That is another one of the treasures we have taken to be our own due. The actions of our predecessors long ago determined much of what we believe to be just and good and proper today. It is quite accurate to say that we, today, face world wide problems on a much more immediate perspective. That's true. Wars, as well as the constant ”rumors” thereof, which used to be, primarily, distant, far-off occurrences happening to other people, but today they are with us in a media sense even before they rally start. We are very much aware of the social, ethical or economic wrongs which cause so many conflicts and we have yet to learn to deal with them with them even partial justice and equity.
We have learned a great deal from these riches we have accepted. We have taken such suggestions readily but the skill with which we might apply the principles involved will determine future. It is our basic acceptance of essential, fundamental rules we have taken to heart and mind years ago which will see us through future times of uncertainty, doubts and questioning.
A.L.M. November 16, 2004 [c396wds]
Monday, November 15, 2004
C'MON, TAKE A CHANCE!
Do you remember when we were worried about our culture being taken over by slot machines?
It didn't happen, of course, as so often happens to such dire predictions. Or, can we be sure?
Slot machines of the historic past were assembled from seemingly random accumulations of wheels of weird proportions, levers, cogs, springs, printed numerals and small, peek-in, plastic-glass windows. They grew more versatile since the days of ancient Greece when the Temple to someone-or-other was set up to dispense a spurt of holy water when a monied worshiper slid a drachma or two toward one end of a delicately balanced plane sticking through the wall over a vat of the wet stuff. Later on, the Roman off-shored the technique to the known world of their time.
Instead of simply falling victim to what came to be called the “one-armed bandit” we changed our definition concerning what a slot machine might be.
When you place a simply telephone call to your favorite professional today, what is your resulting experience? You were dozen choices : “Dial 2 if you wish to pay a bill”, Dial 3, if you want to schedule brain surgery” “Dial 5 if our are trying to locate a lost pogo stick.”,or Dial 13,if you are sick.” If you are willing to to wait on line until “one of our well-trained, widely experienced technicians is available. Line #7 comes in automatically and, while you are waiting. waiting, you listen to old tapes of elevator music tape played backwards for innovative mental stimulus.
When you take time from your busy day to self-serve the family van with gas, how can you be sure you will not choose the one pump island out of the twenty-seven offered – the one which bears a small notice “Diesel fuel only”, ”Credit Card only” or “Out-of-Order”.
Your cell phone can be a portion of today's gadgets given to chance . Taking chances seems to be a part of our modern way of life. even if you do not buy lottery tickets, enter contests, and appear on TV game shows, with an intention of becoming wealthy.
Turn on your TV set. Take a chance of something good.
A.L.M. November 15, 2004 [c387wds]
Sunday, November 14, 2004
RELIGIOUS VARIATIONS
It would be normal for us to distrust public opinion polls after our repeated experiences with them in the recent elections, but we are now being presented with even more such polls concerning the plight of our religious life here in the United States. They present a dire picture.
I find it difficult to accept the poll reports shown on TV this morning which in someone reporter views which are said to “prove” that average attendance figures at Roman Catholic churches in America are down to critical points which indicate a time in the near future when numerous churches must be closed for financial reasons.
Such dire predictions are not indicated for this area in which the local catholic church appears to be doing well and has just recently added a second service for Hispanic membership.
One such poll reported this morning shows attendance at church by catholic worshipers to be at around 32-percent with a rate which predicts less than one third w
will be in church within the next few years. The loss is attributed to a large extent, to the exceptionally high cost of literation in payment for widespread costs of sex scandals to diocesan treasurers. Boston, where much of cited millions have been expended is is often cited as an example but it is done without any comparative estimates of potential loss to such a debt in other areas.
We need to be more c cautious in our poll-taking ventures and less trusting of those who do such work. It has been common knowledge in industry and commerce that polls general favor those who pay to have them taken. In days of not-too-old when radio stations vied with each other concerning numerical counts of listeners, it became quickly apparent that the station who paid have the survey taken was the winner.
We have come to place special trust in “exit” polls - as one is so designated when taken as the interviewee is departing the voting booth or building. The polls now being quoted were done, it appears, during the recent election period - a time when answers to any question are deemed to be particularly suspect. My maternal grandfather had a pet aversion to being asked for whom he intended to, or had voted for and his exacting suggestion if or when asked such a question is unprintable. in even the media of today. e was not a dedicated c churchgoer and would,n o doubt,have ,b been disturbed at having been asked about his attendance at such services. If anything, such questioning will get apologetic,.exaggerated or untrue responses. If you survey an area in which your interest concerning types of music preferred, you will find that respondents tend to set themselves up a notch on the quality scales in their responses. In the world of music hour ear will show you how musical entities have been fragmented to such an extent that even those who favor one type are at a loss to describe it or limit and not include half a dozen other associated types.. Religious denominations have, in a very real sense, done the same sort of deceptive re-identification and many people today do not understand what it is they are supposed to be believing. To answer definite questions about it all is not easy. The same fallacies occur in answers to questions concerning church “attendance.”
It seems odd, too, that we are being told catholic worshipers are diminishing we are also being told Protestant groups – especially Fundamentalist tangents - are increasing in number. Much is pre-determined by who is taking the poll. Cults, too, are said to show increased membership.
Catholic problems with sex life are not a new thing. It is a problem has never been adequately considered much less qualified. It will prove to be more of a problem in some times ... in some places ... and it is not an exclusive problem with the Catholic Church, but rather with the church catholic.
This , too, shall pass.
A.L.M. November 14, 2004 [c-683wds]
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