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LITTLE THINGS

You can experience of wonderful sense of accomplishment when you re-discover how much you can help others in need
by doing things for their betterment.

Due to illnesses in recent months, we have found it to be not easy for us to express our gratitude for the countless friends and neighbors - even few outright strangers we had not known before - have been doing things on our behalf. We continue to find it difficult to show proper gratitude and in appreciation of all in their giving or time , effort and true appreciation for such personal gifts.

When we moved a year we, purposely selected a house with much less yard to keep "up" as the expression goes, while keeping the grass down is a common chore. To deal with that we kept our riding mower. Our daughter Barbara enjoys riding the machine as do our grand children when visiting. There's a small area about two-car size front of the house; a bit larger grassy area in the back and side stripe are every bit of six or feet wide.
Barbara had minor surgery on her elbow and she wore a white supporting bandage on her right arm for a week or so.That was sufficient notice to cause the young man who mows the large lawn of the large Covenant Community Church to included our yard in his mowing work. He uses on of those those stand-and-ride super rigs and it takes perhaps two passes to do our hard as well as the grass covered borders of the church parking lot and joining our scrape of land borders the church's parking lot. He also returns to
which overflows into the car-parking area when it gets too full.

Foodstuffs and phone calls have also been abundant;notes, letters and cards, too - have been frequent and most welcome.

Right now, while we are marking the second anniversary of the Katrina flood emergencies is an especially appropriate time to give some special thought and serious attention to the ways in which might allay much of the pain and suffering. Many such conditions never make the news headlines or excite political or governmental actions other than idealized talk with little genuine actions to combat the basic evils. Much is to be led and even accomplished by concerned individuals and the groups into which they so easily form to build stamina, strength and confidence.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net [c415wds]
8-30-07

 
JOBS

As you get a few more years you must ,sometimes, "take stock" now and then and wonder it, perhaps,you may have been more successful in some other line of work.

I rather doubt that many of us born during the years following Word Year I. Our years of employment in so many cases, coincided with the rigors brought about by the Great Depression many boys and girls had to accept pretty much what they could get. Prior to that, I recall parents determining, in too many cases, perhaps, that their son was going "to study law",or "be a medical doctor" or lead his generation in some industrial firm; a commercial business of some sort or active in investment or banking fields in such a manner as to provide a cushiony income for his family. Careers for girls were often concerned with the proper match making needed to make such successful family units a sure thing. Young women were, however, showing more and more interested in entering various fields of business with career ambitions in mind.

Parents were, as a rule quite active in seeking the proper employment area for there sons and daughters.
During the less prosperous times the parental push was to properly launch a son or daughter into lucrative fields of work at executive levels rather than a common worker status. The current condition of rising educational cost has made it necessary for many parent to extend or facilitate added support. Once the youth is in possession of a diploma, he or she often does well to land a debt-paying "job" while awaiting the dreamed of "position." Very often that becomes his or her career choice.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net [c295wds] 8-22-07

 

DIVERSITY NOW

There is probably no better time for us to observe the many ways in which we are different - one from another - than Election Time.

That is one of the few time in which are asked to state some indication of our feelings openly and show how we feel about certain subjects which are of which are mutual concern to all of us. We tend to see single subjects in rather strange, mystifying lights and realize we each have individual personalities which cause us to be in disagreement with friends and family.

Days, weeks and months such as we are presently living within present us with choices which, when decided by our actions, are critical the very life of our nation. We are choosing leaders who will be called upon to make proper choices for our nation to walk the the best paths. Some ways will promise potential good while other may place us all in danger. It is important that we, during this election period in particular making much more detailed demand on voters to commit themselves on themes, philosophies, of widely extended and re-defined situations we have avoided in the past. Excessive off-shore suicide by American industry, manufacturing, business, plus various desecration of the Arts and Culture. You are to take part in this national re-construction. You are being called upon to cast your strength and courage into a host of activities relative to fundamentals of our national way of life.

As yet, in its "primary" phase, it seems evident that we voters are going to be asked if we, for instance, can accept a woman as president; a black man, or someone who adheres to a religious faith other than ones on
the so-called approved list or the "None" route. You will be asked how you feel about continuing the "wars" currently in progress or seeing them expanded into new areas. Obfuscations on moral matters and educational concerns are apparent at every level of our society.

Yet remaining in the "Convention's stage" the yet to be designated "smoke-filled rooms" await us as a critical point in our ship-of-state design and construction where so many seemingly pacesetting campaigns have been adjusted and modified in the past to be workable in the voting booths of our nation.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@.comcast.net [c398wds] 8-7-07.

 


ONE BY L’AMOUR

It seems to me that I have been reading so-called “western novels” written by Louis L’Amour all my life.

His prolific pen, along with that of Zane Grey, account for a sizable chunk of such literary production for the larger part of our generation.

I finished one such book this morning - one called “The Broken Gun”. It drifted into my zone with a box of twenty-seven other plus some Grey. They came to me assort of an inheritance. The original owner received copies of "westerns" at Christmas season and on most birthdays. That was the genre we read in our youthful years of discovery and we saw at the grand daughter passed them along to me - twenty seven of them, I think, and, as a I read them, they will be cycled to other family members or friends. They are each inscribed as having been received on his birthday or Christmas Day l998 and the "Wild West" movie was in again on TV and in new films.

A common theme in many of such novels is about the threat of a family falling apart or facing ruin and the need of a younger son to prove himself worthy to defend the family honor from factions. That's the plot of "The Broken Gun" and it could have happened in almost section of the country. It is told about an area in which and author knows the people he writes about first-hand and with all their natural traits active.

For too long, perhaps, we Americans have tended to shift all such books to and authors such as Louis L' Amour have improved them in many ways. They are, in truth, very much like the romance novels written for women, but they have become more virile and like. It is time for readers to scan some of the older ones and to follow through by reading the newer ones on the news stands today. There are quite a few differences.

They are better than the re-runs of re-runs facing you on TV.

Andrew McCaskey amccsr@comcast.net 4-2-07 [c402wds]

 
TOO MUCH OF

I remember an expression which used to be in favor with a great many people who where, at times, critical of others who lived a prosperous, active interesting life style yet seemed never to be content or satisfied with their pathway - however splendid it seemed to others.

We used to hear a motherly, loving, generous mother who could be critical of rich relatives or friends as a warning to her children of letting desire become a prime guide to life accomplishments "She, He or They..." "was") ("were") often scorned some what when they seemed to be spending money and time in frivolous living; say, a two-weeks cruise in the Carri bean area, or a longer trip among the Greek Island. They were point out as being someone who was having too much of good thing!

I have heard it used against persons who are, by their inquisitive nature, permanent students - always attending classes of some sort of class in or out of a formal college setting. Many of them had too much of a good thing and it was sure to lead them to utter ruin. I think most of us could cite a situation of that nature where the most learned individual in the community; the richest or the one with too much of anything - such as too many children - was said to be a target of such a critical analysis.

The philosophy kept us, I suppose, from becoming lottery ticket addicts, from chasing the pay-off nags or dogs at the nearby or far away pits, ovals or tracks where super-rich persons are created with reported regularity. Your trips to Las Vegas could cause you to be such a pointed-out person. Just show up and win too many prizes at your local, church Bingo "party for a worthy cause" if you would like to feel a flight of such a flight of darts of damnation. We see and hear the expression in action in political life today - in society in general sense, in religious aspects and in business and industry. Failure seem to stem from Congress people when too many good things come their way .

It is an interesting sidelight on our native culture to see the lesser winners on the "good" selecting "American Idol" become the ones who win out as entertainment worthies. Give even a potentially good talent the glare of too much good publicity and ruin is assured.

Too much of a good thing can prove to be costly.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 3-3-07 [c432wds]

 
MIL. ED.

It just may be that the “high tech” knowledge has, over the years, been rather slow in getting a firm foothold in our military groups.

Among the technical papers I have among a collection of such writings I have saved is a half-page, typewritten, mimeographed sheet which detailed “DIRECIONS FOR CONNECTING STANDARD TELEPHONE”.

I quote the entire missive so you can get a good grasp on the fundamental method of instruction used by the army back when the telephone was "in."

"1. CONNECT:
Red wire from telephone to red wire of telephone line. Yellow (or white) wire from telephone to yellow wire of telephone. Green (or black or blue) wire from telephone to green wire of line.
If your telephone does not ring when your number is called, reverse the red wire from telephone green wire of line, and connect the green line (or black or blue) wire from telephone to red wire of line.

IF THE ABOVE DOES NOT WORK, THEN:
CONNECT: Yellow (or white) wire of telephone to the red wire also of telephone. Connect these two wires to red wire of telephone line. Connect green(or black or blue) wire of telephone to green wire of telephone line. ( The yellow wire of the telephone is not used.)

If you are unable get the telephone to work as per above instructions , return phone to: TELEPHONE ENGINEEERING COMPANY, SIMPSON,PA. 18407. Give also the markings on bell from inside of your original telephone and the state the name of the manufacturer."

Certainly, that qualifies as a "colorful" piece of technical writing. and I have to say how grateful I am that was never called upon on install many telephones using such guidance.

Business, industry and our military services all need qualified technical writers today. The proper functioning of a product is of the secret of prosperity in that it retains old customers and develops new ones.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 2-24-07 [c335wds]

 
NEW WAYS

Some years ago, I recall, I needed a blotter and said so urgently. I had spilled a bit of art-coloring on the desk surface.

My fellow worker, young and innocent, in the ways of office routine, looked puzzled and quickly replied: "What you need is a paper towel!" She turned away and promptly returned with several paper towels and hurriedly wiped way the stains.

"There!" She said proudly. "Like new! You didn't hurt a thing. It won't show at all." She glossed over the area with a clean towel and held it up to reassure me.

I had no idea she, and most of the other young workers in the area, would not know what I had meant when I demanded a "blotter."

I, suddenly, realized they were gone! Blotters no longer exist in offices anywhere today.

Not too ago the blotter was an essential part of the office setup, along with rubber bands and thumb tacks. We used pen and ink for many office jobs before typewriters and, then, ball point pens came into style. The blotter was usually about the size of a dollar bill - which was a tad larger than those in use today, as well. Most would have been, oh, perhaps 8-1/2 by 4 inches, as I recall. They were mainly made of a thin sheet of very absorbent paper covered with a slicker sheet on which advertisements were printed. Most towns had small print shop which specialized in such advertising, match book covers, calendars, key chain tags of heavy cardboard and a stock of signs for utility purposes.

I have seen the working side of some blotters take on a design of reversed writing in blue, red and black which formed a pattern such as Jackson Pollock, the painter, might well have been proud. But the use of the blotter went out of existence with Penmanship, I suppose. The pencil, for some reason, was always there and it has been vastly improved but the fact that its work could be so easily erased and edited made it useless in keeping company books and other records.

Occasionally, the stained blotter would turn up as clue in detective stories. The sleuth and present a written confession from the vile criminal.

There must be, somewhere, a museum of blotter designs. They had other not-intended uses, as I remember. I have used them as bookmarks and know of others and during the days of the Great Depression I can remember them being used as inner shoe soles where a hole had developed. If any blotters exist today the must be treated as curios more-and-more as the years go by.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@.comcast.net 2-23-07 [c448wds

 
LIFE'S CONTRASTS

Unless he or she choose to make it so, no one's life need be completely “blah.”

Much of what our lives turn out to be can be cataloged as being "acquired" rather than "native". If you find your advancing years weighting more toward the dull side you must remember who may have engendered much of such a fault.

We should expect contrasts and changes on our lives as part of normal growth leading toward to better conditions. Rather than any attempt to quell them; trying to prevent history from happening, is wind mill you tilt against with unlimited futility.

Changes are going to come into your life regardless of what you may do, and you need to be prepared, in a way, as they arise. You need
to be prepared to activate them properly, as well and as soon as they arrive.

I think of this situations so often during the month of June when our newspapers seem to almost overflow with specifics concerning engagements and weddings. Many of them are based on promises made one to the other.

Promises, I feel, are properly shared - not given.

Turn to any other page in the same newspaper reporting all those wedding reports and you will find l - far too easily, that promises, agreements, binding words, and such are not listed among merits in newsworthy events of the day. Promises are not exactly what one might call "negotiable securities". They are treasures to be shared with your future progeny not your immediate "now" of your. You are not the sole person on Earth who has creation-given plans, hopes, hopes ,intents - aims and aspirations. Your share in their leaps forward, too.

It is your lifetime job to glorify your Creator. If you should choose to make all of life your very own you make it a "task", a deviant duty of-a-down-bound type, a weird worship of a false God - almost totally of your own making.

Share your many blessings.

Life in such a manner that you can stand in front of a mirror; look into your mirrored eyes and say - aloud : "I am what I am!". If you find you have to close your eyes to get away from that examination spot -some changes are in order. Now.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 2-20-07 [c392wds]

 
RETURN TRIP

Even with all of the countless nostalgia magazines and papers now appearing on news stands and make positive favoring a return of our national culture base we seldom see any more photographs or at work showing letters from readers and correspondent asking what has become become of them. To many Americans the "barns" early settler's built to store their native-grown wealth in whatever particular phase of the burgeoning economy they chose to compete.

More and more barn were built when we were a growing nation barns of many styles of many of occupationally specialized barns were built in just about every section of the nation. They were often symbolic of how the world was to be led to see the success an individual seemed to have made of his holdings. The number and size of barns a man could afford to build told the world of that time who had the money in- hand and was willing to spend it to enhance his social standing. That's one way in which the barns have become such fine story-tellers describing how human lives were both helped and harmed over many years...living, loose-ends poorly tied, and entire dreams of large family groups - men, women and children - entire generations
- forever destroyed.

Very often, today you can learn a great deal more about how a man lived by visiting his barns rather than his house. The home environment reflected some of elements and sentiments of other members of farm family of those days. It was larger, more comprehensive group than we might find it to be today although that, too, can be fantasized in even more colorful ways today.

The one barn with which I have had a close relationship was a more practical one as was the family farm on which it was located. The barn was, to me, of the finest types of such structures in this Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. It had both English and Germanic features in it, as did the family who lived in the nearby, native-made brick brick home nearby. It could have been said the barn had "just grow'd" there - like Lil' Eva in"Uncle Tom's Cabin". It was built of coherent pieces over years of dreaming and planning and the total cost - a remarkably styled bridge barn a dream realized by farmer Irving Driver when he was just a lad. I have the paper on which he liked the total cost of materials and of labor hired at less than five hundred dollars. I might have been a good thing that he died before the boom of the wreaking rig took it away from us - the old 1844-'45 brick house, as well, to make room for the housing development in which we, as some of his descendent's, now live.

It's foolish, some people would tell you, to waste your time even thinking about a building which is no longer in existence. That barn on I. D. Driver's old "Lofton Farm" just west of Weyers Cave, Virginia, on the historic Keezletown Pike, was a dream a young farm boy brought to practical perfection in his own lifetime.

What kind of structure are you building today in which you might plan to store your accomplishments and achievements for others who follow you? Yes, and for those who will stand in their shoes! Those buildings we used to call barns are disappearing fast these days; getting more and more scarce. Where and how are you saving the good things of your life? There are far more of them, too, than you have thought there could be. Build big. Build to preserve such wealth for others, not to brag about having it.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 2-17-07 [c628wds]

 
ABSENT WITH LEAVE

A vacation can be a good thing.

I have taken a few days from these in recent weeks and I like to think they are happening because of my "advancing age level" bringing widely accepted "slow down!" notices - some of them, purposely turned in my direction. I can take a hint. I am not one of those persons who needs to be beaten over the head with a wide board to be reminded o take better care of myself.

I've been told to "get more sleep." Playing it sly, I try to comply. I, immediately find how difficult it can be to shift from a well-established habit of arising at six o'clock each morning to a "more civilized hour". Years of office schedules taught me that I had to get up by six to get my outside "farm" chores done, feed my face, shower, shave and hie myself off on the daily commute.

That travel-time routine served often as a personal "quiet time" - both early morning and, again in a kind of "Thank You, Lord", or ,"Now, what do I try to do next?"
session as the sun seeped into the colorful strip along the western edge of the world.
The advice, now that I think about it, was largely: "Sleep on it!" I usually did. I found that as television programming declined it was far easier to lop an hour or so from one's evening
plans than morning.

And - I must, at least, mention another inroad which has been taken on my way of doing whatever it is I am not, at that moment, doing "correctly." This new-found trait of "going to sleep early" became..."always sleepy"..."sleeping his life away!" ..."can sleep standing up!"..."sleeps too much" was the point of packaging me up for two nights of "sleep studies" at a nearby snore center. I, more or less, flunked. I haven't been invited back and hope that condition might continue.

Meanwhile...back as the keyboard - I will be writing erratically. I still write daily but I do so in long-hand emulating J.K. Rawlings, no doubt. If my keyboard happens to be out of it's usual whack I depend on long-hand writing. It can be said that is is just a matter of typing those scribblings...right? Partly. My handwriting (now that I am said to be aged) has changed somewhat and not for the better, I will concede.

Typing my hand-written copy is not all that difficult. The translation from some form of ancient Urdo street language seems to be somewhat more troubling. A soon as I get my bits and bytes back, I'll fill in the holes.

Okay? Time for a short nap on this end.

Andrew McCaskey amccsr@comcast.net 2-13-07 [c470wds]

 
WITHOUT HATE

Is it possible for Man to live in times of war and not to hate his enemies?

Our religious faith demands that we “love our enemies” and, I suppose, other faiths set forth a like urging. Fortunately or unfortunately there are several useful definitions of the term “love”.One such use,in particular, can be used to justify some rather cruel patterns of demonstrated “love”. The domineering Father of fictional families - and far too many in real life – is often shown as a vicious tyrant who beats his wife and children with the strap he ,normally, uses as a belt during his steadier moments. Often. As he does so while proclaiming his love for each one of them. He beats them to drive out the sin which is condemning them to endless shame and agony. He cites precedent showing how previous believers had been made to suffer before they won through to blessing untold!

Any time of War is a time when it is not at all difficult for one to learn to hate.

Right now is a special time because so many people have not yet decided to approve of the idea that the present, unusual conflicts in which we are engaged are, indeed, to be called “wars”. They do occupy a place “outside the envelope” used to contain definitions of usual warfare, but the victims – nearly four thousand of them in the Twin Towers tragedy alone. Our basic principles of life have been denied. Each, added day we spend trying to decide petty points to define “war” our men and women – whom we have placed in harm’s way are dying or being maimed.

It is a common tactic to some groups to stress this idea of urging peace above all else...including our integrity, honor and common sense. I am sure we can sustain our good concepts of good wishes to the many “peoples” led astray by their amok leaders.

Think back over the times we have been asked not to hate our enemies: "Do not let yourself hate the British during our Revolutionary War; the Native Americans, the French, the English ,England again in 1812 who actually burned our capital city. Then ,how about the pirates off of Tripoli or the members of own families during our Civil War, Mexicans on each end of it, and the Spanish as a new century of fears came to be. Then, "Kaiser Bill's" Germany and Hitler's tragic re-run of the whole mess, aided and abetted by Russian, Slavs and others by names out of the of the Balkan Mountain area and the Japanese on the other side of the Pacific rim. That's a pretty long list, for a bare four hundred years. It could be even longer by including those little wars Panama, Granada, Whiskey, and a few familial set-taos in the Appalachians and other areas from time to time.

Hate was an active part of each of them.

I have been amazed at how much dislikes endure, too. If you look for them, you can find remnants almost anywhere. Maybe it is time we issue some proclamation or writ or bulls..whatever it might require to soften, delineate or legally obscure our present definition of "war" to allow "hate" to exist.

After all, the abiding strength of the Christian faith has been the ability of adherents to hate all sin.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 2-11-07 [c574wds]

 
THE OTHER WAY
We are, being American, often accused of somewhat piously claiming that we always give fair and equal treatment to everyone concerning our political differences.

Most individuals who have never taken a meaningful role in a major election would, I think, agree with that statement and see our participation in political affairs more as if it were a sportsmanlike interlude in our normal activities, rather than a dog-eat-dog , life-or-death confrontation.

I have been in a foreign country during a major election period and I can be pursued ed to agree it is not a pleasant time to be around persons who, otherwise, meet average criteria for being worthy friends and associates.

I witnessed to people to be understanding, fair, loving, appreciative human beings upon which one might depend in social and in business affairs. In politics? No.

With us, I thing, we are convinced we are willing participants in a series of meetings, demonstrations, innings, quarters or turns or whatever terms we might wish to use to describe our actions as to both quality and quantity, a time.

I have never, really, come to understand how an individual ,of his desires, so places the finer elements of living at jeopardy by entering into a political confrontation of any large size or scope. Certainly sufficient evidence exists at ,or near, the point of entrance for such an extravagant departure from saner pathways. To put all that one has gained at such risk is not exactly a recommendation concerning personal management, much less , any attempt to do so for an entire nation of people such as yourself.

The affirmative view can take over if you promise to run a clean campaign in the race ahead. You feel that, if you are proper, an opponent will be forced to accept such a level of conduct for his own actions. Anyone who believes that could be
the case is far to busy tracking down astronauts asking why they brought back moon
dust and rocks from the Moon rather than some of that good, usable green cheese!

We have many possible candidates in the field at the moment. Dark Horses" are reported to be stomping around in the backwoods, too. All - save one - will be going home. Years from now a few of them will insist they could have made it had they just been given give half a chance. Some will tell of how much better they could have done than he actual winner had done. In their view, that's where our future candidates come from - because some people believe events which never happened can be those of our future.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 2-10-07 [c455wds]

 

Wanton Winds

It does not seem proper to speak of "high" winds when we are viewing the intense devastation wrought by malicious, uncontrolled tornado- style winds which pounded the middle portion of the State of Florida this past week-end.

We tend to associate tornado type storms exclusively to Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma and other parts of what we call "Tornado or Cyclone Alley." There are many types of such storms, too. They do not follow set p;patterns or put on the same wild stunts a every place they choose to visit. The can come in complex packages too. A number of vicious storms can be grouped within a large 'some times rather slow-moving cover cloud.. We have witnessed such a compound set of storms - each pounding away on its own hellish course under, over, beside, within or wrapped around others of the same style.

The usual rule books can be set aside. As each such storm descends it may well impede one already in place or it can assist in the destruction under way. The path of the cannot be estimated; torn, as it may be, between two or more dominant influences.

Such combination storms can be even more devastating than Single ones. The debris you see after the storms have passed will have, literally, been torn to shreds and smaller pieces will have been thrown far from their original placement. Such storms afford less time for study and evaluation. They have some characteristics of single storm but when they do move their path is even more erratic.

Due to the warmer climate found in Florida it is only natural they might favor architecture which, many of us in other geographic areas might call "flimsy". The house trailer as been a favorite mode of household for a long time from a simple box-with-mattress on wheels, to elaborate exaggerations of the same concept today. Not all of Florida , however, is sub-standard. Builders have learned a great deal from hurricane studies of the past, and much progress has been made. I noticed one church pictured on TV this last week built thirty years ago to "withstand winds up to 150 m.p.h.". The only comment was a super-imposed card showing that the official wind velocity the previous Friday night had been "155 m.p.h!
Very little of the church remained.

Right now, at a time when large areas of Central Florida are available for new construction we have a special oppotunity to see that the building which is done are in tune with tempests which are likely to strike at any time. The prospects of a steady real estate growth here are different from those we encountered along the Gulf coast. Many of these were "second" homes and retirement "Get-a-ways. One such owner when interviewed concerning his rather complete loss said: "I've got another one just as good, or better on a lake
in Michigan!" He, and others, are looking for profitable real estate opportunity rather than new homes in which to live. They are going to be constructing home to sell to thousands of people - such as you and me - people who have never lived in Florida and think they could enjoy years of serene retirement in "The
Sunshine State!"

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 2-6-07 [c590wds]

 
KEY WORD

Most certainly the one word which is going to control so much of the current presidential election in which we are currently becoming involved. The actual "forthcoming" voting event is set for well in toward the end of 2008.

The key word, it seem, is going to be: "elect-ability."

That seems to be the critical term in use at the moment. One's ability to get a majority to favor their views. It tells us it may be more important to affect a "landing" in the political area as a prelude to the actual campaign or the office at stake. It is being given attention at two levels: conventions where party people make the nomination and name a candidate they can be assured will prove to be best at pulling votes to their party's banner. Only after that choice is made do the actual voting citizens - usually just a bit over one-half of our eligible voter population - will take part in the choice to be made.

This question of just who can be nominated with real confidence in their ability to garner in majority votes in the national election.

Imagine yourself to be a V.I.P. in the coming Democratic Party convention. You realize, by this time, that it is no longer a monolithic organization but that you may well be- as are the others - a member of a group - even a minority segment. within what you may think of as being a firm entity with immutable guidelines.

Take, for instance, tonight's poll favorites. There's Hillary Clinton - Senator, New Yorker- with undertones of Chicago and Ozark elements, perhaps, and she is very much a former First Lady with an ex-President as sidekick and manager. Is the Democratic Convention ready to name a woman as their main candidate? You have watched her moving gradually to the political center and admired her skill in doing so, but will the public buy such a modification? It is important to remember, too, that the name used f now is "Hillary", but the ballot will hit them with the cold word "Clinton."

The others, quickly and then I'm going out and sit on my limb. Barack Obama - Senator, capable, eager,a good speaker, a people person and, obviously one we will,hear from in the future. The fact that is black does not disturb me, but I a not at all sure of the attitude of the nominating panel nor of that of the voters. I don't think they are quite ready to accept an Afro-American in the nation's top office.

I think we can skip the others...with one exception. That brings me to my very own, personal opinion: If the nominating group has courage enough to name him and commonsense enough to support Senator John Edwards (D) of South Carolina when he names Senator Joe Lieberman (I)of Connecticut as his Vice-Presidential running mate..their problems are on their way o being solved, at at least, lessened in severity.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net 2-1-07 [c513wds]

 
REEL WRONG

We have been in a struggle of a sort for some months concerning our favorite TV shows, and in, not just one, but two categories.

One has been the so-called "reality" shows making various forms forms of danger and risk more acceptable in the American home. The other kind of a TV show is any which gives away large chunks of money or fame-and-fortune as a moo la gartering sideline. Both so-called "reality" shows and those decked-out to offer ways to give away large chunks of moo la which would enable the participant to purchase paradise on their own.

We have worried purple tizzy new realms of danger less peril witless wanderings into other culture to enjoy eating worms and other such tribal delicatenesses TV show producers have decided that the best way to improve TV viewing is to swing a pendulum over a pit and see how far we can stretch it before it snaps. This is an especially interesting avenue of exploration because one would think producers might seek out writers, or entire schools of capable writers and encourage to write some original program material.

In recent years our TV seasons have have started off with brawny blustering s extolling a "new" show which is, you are not supposed to notice seems to be "very much like" one running recently in England. It's a mistake to decide anything that does well in London will do extremely well here. Such buyers, when they come across a vendor will accept the new out of his own ignorance. We, as viewers, have been in some interesting situations. Remember when "Dallas" was all the rage? People were upset when a player was shot to death in his shower. Now, decades later, there is a rumor they are going to say it was all a dream and bring the show back again. By saying the final show long they can bring the show back? Conan Doyle, they contend, did it, in a way, when he had Sherlock Holmes and his rival Dr swept over the edge of a high waterfall and crush each other to death on the sharp rocks below. It was just "elementary" to have Sherlock solving cases once again.
I remember the last gasps of The "Amos 'n Andy" show on radio how Andy was accused of murder and the 7 PM episodes dragged it on-and-on until they found it was all a dream, Andy woke up and all was well again. The series died on radio and when revived to try TV a bit late racial irritations of that era gave it..."Beulah",
and "Stepin Fetchit" ....all the big heave ho!

We have in case after case revised TV shows from England and ad re-hashed them for American audiences. Several did well, but are mere shadows now. Others sank quickly and quietly in oblivion.

One way used to jump-start older creations is to pay generous packets of hard cash to American writers, plus others from England for that matter, for them to write truly new material for TV use. The reality shows of many formats in been successful for a time. Some arrive in feeble condition at local re-work labs to be resuscitated by gimmicks which are added to make them more attractive to state-side viewers.

"Millionaire"," Surviver","Idol" and "Dancing With the Stars" are among those which have done well. Their success causes producers and network officials to become even more committed to bringing more-and-more second-hand newness to our TV screens.

"Reality" is - currently - fantasy.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 1-31-07 [c623wds]

 
QUALITY ASSURANCES

By all means,one should make every normal preparation against being thrust before critical eyes in ill-mannered actions - albeit unintended and socially uncouth conduct - or in verbal statements, when in attendance at the Opera.

These basic rules are binding,of course,with all types of opera. Lovers of opera are, for the most part, I have found, persons who sometimes are given excess involvement with the highly emotional scenes being depicted so intensely dramatically and transcending perfection itself at times as actors-singers combine their artistic talents to present drama which can truly be called "grand". Such a powerful emotionally surge can cause persons in attendance to,for the moment, to dis-remember where they are and cause the utter aloud some crude localisms in an effort to show appreciation for and enthusiasm regarding the climactic peak attained; the absolute epitome of the superior thespian skills in speech - in song and dance.

It is so very easy to let statements and plaudits of admiration for sterling performance to use common, trite and tired words from the mundane circumstances we know at home.

Promise me, before next Opera season get underway, at you will, visit our local library and seek out a small volume titled "Fowler's Dictionary of Usage of the English Language." If you might find yourself listening to a fine lady singing a favorite of yours and, when she finished he treatment of the musical selection you bring your palms together forcefully and bellow: "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!"
You are happy, content enthused as are the others about you.

Not so had you read Fowler's concerns with such moments of adulation. There is a proper protocol. If the singer be a male - one praises his singing with a spoken: "Bravo!" When a lady sings: "Brava!"and if multiple members of the entire company are presented a proper admirer shouts: "Brav-e!!"

I step aside in something akin to shame for I, too, have fallen short of dictionary directions. The opera itself was real posh.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net 1-30-07 [c352wds]QUALITY ASSURANCES

By all means,one should make every normal preparation against being thrust before critical eyes in ill-mannered actions - albeit unintended and socially uncouth conduct - or in verbal statements, when in attendance at the Opera.

These basic rules are binding,of course,with all types of opera. Lovers of opera are, for the most part, I have found, persons who sometimes are given excess involvement with the highly emotional scenes being depicted so intensely dramatically and transcending perfection itself at times as actors-singers combine their artistic talents to present drama which can truly be called "grand". Such a powerful emotionally surge can cause persons in attendance to,for the moment, to dis-remember where they are and cause the utter aloud some crude localisms in an effort to show appreciation for and enthusiasm regarding the climactic peak attained; the absolute epitome of the superior thespian skills in speech - in song and dance.

It is so very easy to let statements and plaudits of admiration for sterling performance to use common, trite and tired words from the mundane circumstances we know at home.

Promise me, before next Opera season get underway, at you will, visit our local library and seek out a small volume titled "Fowler's Dictionary of Usage of the English Language." If you might find yourself listening to a fine lady singing a favorite of yours and, when she finished he treatment of the musical selection you bring your palms together forcefully and bellow: "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!"
You are happy, content enthused as are the others about you.

Not so had you read Fowler's concerns with such moments of adulation. There is a proper protocol. If the singer be a male - one praises his singing with a spoken: "Bravo!" When a lady sings: "Brava!"and if multiple members of the entire company are presented a proper admirer shouts: "Brav-e!!"

I step aside in something akin to shame for I, too, have fallen short of dictionary directions. The opera itself was real posh.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net 1-30-07 [c352wds]

 
THINGS TO COME

I have hear it said that wise merchants does all he can to cause the buyer from taking actual physical possession of his purchase immediately upon terms made by mutual agreement. It is insisted that anticipation of such an acquisition plays a larger role in business than we might imagine. The suit which has been tailored exactly to your measurements will seem to be of exceptional value if you have to wait a while to don it. If you are buying a new car, you get a good feeling telling friends about your carefully planned purchase.

Few of us like "to buy off the shelves" spite of our seeming preference at times, for haste. There is a strange sense of satisfaction to be found when your realize you can make that car salesman, for instance, "earn his salary for the day" by getting him to recount for you all the many advantages you can enjoy with the possession of the specific model of car your are trying so desperately to convince yourself you can afford to own and operate. A shoemaker produces a fine pair of shoes overnight, but he holds them the best part of the week before delivery because he feel sure the new owner's appreciation of such hard-to-find footwear is to be used once more in his favor.

Certainly a small child anticipates a large chunk of joy to come his way his way during holiday seasons, his or her birth-day-week-or-month. Your wife looks forward to a scheduled perm appointment at her beauty salon, or a food sale at the local grocery store.

We are all impressed with the attention we get from others, aren't we? We look forward to more, even better days, weeks and months. Anticipation of rewards may play a part in it at times,but we like to feel we area part of the civilized - but abused by strife warfare, murder, mayhem and massive mounds of of mis-understandings.

How can we learn to enjoy some anticipation of better living, more love; less of hate's heat...more sincere mentions of things we can anticipate for tomorrow.

It is not true, as we were told today, by the lady being lauded as the leader of the Poll Packs, that the question of ending "the war" is "Mr. Bush's problem."

Do you find yourself anticipating what could - even "might" come about if we show such contempt for our national unity. Anticipation, improperly schooled, can become fear.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net 1-29-07 [c435wds]

 
PAST TWO HUNDRED YEARS

A truly good book comes along now and then and, if you have any interest or concern with the New Hope, Virginia area of Augusta County - even if yours is about the nearby Battle of Piedmont during the Civil War - a new,"must-have" volume is now available.

The title is lengthy as is oft times true of a new history book tracing the "past two hundred years" of events, circumstances and popular reactions which make up "The History of New Hope, Virginia."

You will find find yourself being appreciative of the work of,a least,four persons as you read this book: The writers - Owen Early Harner and Wayne Edward Garber and Jennifer Wood and Nancy Sorrells,layout artists at Lot's Wife Publishing, Staunton,Virginia who did the cover and the photo layouts which highlight accounts, lists, official records, newspaper clippings and family snapshots which bring each story a bright intimacy which may have been muted - even lost - had they not been included.

There is no possible way in which writers, editors, compilers, collectors, organizers and summarizers of this sort of information about a community can possibly say "thank you" to all who helped bring it all together. They fear the very real possibility that someone may be overlooked.

If you want to know just how individuals and families who lived in the area during the early years, you can start with their homes,if you wish, some still standing even though they have been somewhat modified. The Kerr house,the first known settlers in the area, was constructed in part during the eightieth century. The early days of the community can be best be re-lived, perhaps,by our approximating the conditions under which we suppose they could have lived what they have to live with. We, today, are quite hard on our predecessors without realizing it as we continue to see them having benefits they never had available.

We often read books of this nature to find out what it was most evident about the manner in which people existed. We have some of the same problems today in different, more modern guise, but we read such accounts of the relatively, small battle at Piedmont-New Hope with a rather vague thought in mind that we may find,in re-living past circumstance among our own kind,to avoid such disasters in our future.

Some of these people,for me, have been kids I have had in my Sunday School Classes many years ago at Augusta Stone Presbyterian Church; and some of us grew old together in Adult Study groups. I am "kin" to a number of them through the families of both my first and second wives. I know some of these people of the New Hope area as relatives,too,through our children and grandchildren as well. I have actually lived some of the events recorded.

Thank you - Wayne Garber and Owen Harner. Thank you, too - Lot's Wife, Staunton, Va.

To all: "Well done!

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net 1-28-07 [c515wds]

 
TUBE TALK

We have many types of tubes with us today. Some take us our highways and rail roads through mountains and under lakes, and in larger cites we often ride sub-level networks of underground tunnels fitted out with amazing comforts.

The tube concept is with us in industry and commerce, as well , and serves us domestically in more ways than we can keep a count of realistically.

There is a plant down in the Tennessee area which is unique in the ways it is seen by local residents. People living nearby see large vans loading and departing daily for destinations all over the country - large steel boxes, too, filled and ready to be taken to leading seaports to be stacked on freighters for overseas use. They witness this busy activity of products being transferred to where they are needed. Never do they ever see any raw materials entering the plant to be processed into some manufactured item. There are no incoming trucks. other than an assortment of various types of smaller vehicles delivering office supplies, cafeteria requirements, vending machine supplies, and other things it takes to keep a plant of that size in operation and in full production.

The product made at the plant was a plastic made with water from the nearby river plus chemicals made by the parent company. Everything required to manufacture their product - large blocks and sheets of a foamed plastic used in construction work and in various specialty projects requiring insulation qualities. All of the chemicals were delivered to the plant's tall silos - really upright tubes - through pipelines from the firm's Chemical Division Center.

Many people saw a plant shipping a product with no incoming raw materials coming in. It was, of course, more of an illustration of how the collapsible tube came to be is a vital part of our way of life. The main use today, I suppose. is the common use of such a tube is our toothpaste, shaving cream, lotions of many kinds, beauty aids, medications , an artist's colorful tubes of paints in a wide array of colors

They were not around at all until after September 11, 1856 when an American artist who was earning a living of a sort painting houses and signs more than doing portraits, landscapes and still-life studies. Upon insistence of a friend of his by the name of Samuel Morse - who you will know to have been an inventor - John Goffe Rand was urged to write the description of something he felt we all needed.

"... a metallic vessel so constructed as to collapse with slight pressure and thus force out the paint or other fluid confined therein through proper openings for that purpose and which openings may be afterward closed air-tight, thus preserving the paint or other liquid remaining in the vessel from being injuriously acted upon by the atmosphere".

Thus it was was that the collapsible became a part of our present day culture.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 1-27-07 [c506wds]

 

GHANDI - TEACHER?

Mahatma Ghandi, when he gave up his post as President of the Indian National Congress in 1933, he set forth some of his ideas about how his nation should go about educating the class people then known as "The Untouchables".

The very name sets for us a broad, distorted and deceptive picture for us concerning where these unfortunate people stood in the social structured of Old India in Ghandi's time. He suggested that the first step should be a change of that name. He urged the use of a single word: "Harijans" which means "God's People." It is only in his speech for that day, and comments upon his views, that we have ever seen or heard the term used again in that context.

In the rest of the 1930's era, Ghandi's ideas were set forth and praised lauding hims as being the predecessor of the,then popularity of growing "progressive" learning here in the United States. Listen to some of the Mahatma's suggestions which I wrote down in a notebook in l934to be remembered, I suppose, to be remembered remembered at times such as this. We have, generally, paid very little attention to experts in the educational field when advised changes were in order.

"I should use" Ghandi said,"no books probably for the whole of the first year. I should talk with them about things with which they are familiar and, so correct their pronunciation and grammar and teach them new words. I should note all the new words they learn from day to day as to enable me to use them frequently till the have them fixed in their minds regularly."

Ghandi saw teaching methods changing radically.

"The teacher will not give discourses but adopt the conversational method. Through conversations he will give his pupils progressive instruction in history,geography and arithmetic. History will begin with our own times, then, too,of events and person nearest us, and geography will begin with that of the neighborhood nearest the school."

The teacher will be concerned with his students entire life.

"It is criminal to stunt the mental growth of a child by letting him know only as much as he can get through a book he can incoherently read in a year. We do not realize that if a child was cut off from the home life and merely doomed to the school, he would be a perfect dunce for several years. He picks up information and language unconsciously through his home but not in the school room.
Hence do we experience the immense difference between pupils belonging to cultured homes and those belonging to uncouth homes, which are no homes in reality."

End of quotes...thank goodness!

It seems plain that the near worship accorded such false figures of fame has been and will continue be one of Mankind's greatest cares. Think of the many people who say they model their lives on the "peaceful" patterns set by Ghandi!

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 1-27-07 [c502wds]

 
OLD WORD RE-USED

We usually try to avoid unpleasant events as much as possible, so when I first heard the sentence accorded Saddam Huisen was to be "hanged by the neck until dead",I more or less, backed away from the entire concept.

I recall thinking: "Certainly that will not be shown on TV!"

I wondered,I will admit,how I could arrange to be busy at something and be unable to see it when it did happen. I realized I was,in the view of some people, being more chicken than they, but I have never wanted to witness an execution. I have known enough of death; seen more than my share, I suppose. The Iranian judge in this particular trial added a codicil which called for punishment to be
history within thirty days or less.

Not being used to such a "let's get on with this" attitude, I was watching TV to learn of any progress being made when it all took
place! I don't know what I expected and the series of quick un-professional pictures washed across the small screen again and again for some time. It is reported to have been the handiwork of one of the guards using a cell phone with picture taking capabilities.

I that initial moment of realizing what I had witnessed, I may well have said aloud:"There we have the raw makings of some the martyr propaganda literature our enemies have been seeking" The view of the condemned man's unmasked face and bodily stance as the trap was sprung has become, by this time, a widely distributed piece of hate literature. We would all have been better off had the film not been made.

I did not meet with much objection the filming until a few days later when "official" (I suppose) photographs - a more general of view of the site became available.

The next two hangings of Saddam's half-brother and an associate proved to be exceptionally; flawed by extreme conditions such as total beheading of the half brother. A newly released photograph showed Saddam's neck had been badly torn, too, in his fall.

The media picked up an old word from Pennsylvania Dutch dialect which I had not heard used for many years. They said the hangings had been "botched". The press, TV,and radio have all been "botching" away ever since.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@comcast.net 1-25-07 [c409wds]

 
RECALL

We have all done it.

We have called our public servants "politicians" until the very moment of their death when they became "statesmen." The timing of that event calls for additional terms: such as "late","former,"greatly missed","one-time", even "beloved" on occasion. As a rule, however, it happens rather gradually -this change of life which comes with death.

It can be embarrassing,too. Perhaps you, too felt; a bit edgy recently when bundles of praise unloosened in the media concerning former President Gerald Ford. I always though him to be a pretty regular guy -a bit slanted to sports - but likable and friendly did not care for the media tendency to make him appear to be a stumbling muscle-bound misfit in politics. He was pictured as a clumsy playground participant. He was said to bump his head getting in and out of aircraft, he fell from platforms, and a once-President of the United States said Jerry Ford must have played "a few too many football games without a helmet." I cringed when I heard that one for the first of many times.

Last week it became "all sweetness and light." Jerry Ford was widely praised as a truly honest and upfront man. About time, too.

There is an "underground" set of words used only by those among
us who are charged with keeping track of everything president or other political official might do or sag which can be "read" as a indicator of that which they may be thinking.

So much of my memory of political campaigns over the years seems to be colored by things I'd rather not remember. I disliked the insult and injury he nation inflicted on another honest,upright man- Herbert Hoover - who served our needs well man ways. We have been been reading just recently long accounts of how this man same much of Europe from starvation and complete ruin.

We hurt in petty,little ways,too. "Boulder Dam -truly a remarkable engineering feat - was renamed in his honor "Hoover Dam" but the name faded away unused. Have you noticed, too, that the Florida Cape which was re-named in honor of Jack Kennedy is, once again, called "Cape Canaveral?"

We are entering another national election campaign era which always brings up this petty manifestation of meanness one to the other. It need not be.
Think back over our leaders and from a long list you will have
difficulty finding three or four who seem to have escaped such vilification when in office. Such a list of shortcomings now runs the gamut,too.

Isn't there some way wherein we might elect "statesmen" who, when they die, become "politicians?"

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net 1-24-07 [c459wds]

 

CHINA


The nation named "China" on our maps of planet Earth's varied classifications of different types of peoples seems marked. China has become more evidently that it may, before too many years pass by, be a nation which is among those few which we might well have studied seriously in the past.

The "past",remember,was also our future. That which we are doing now become "news" to far-flung north-east-west-south. I remember when young "journalists" were taught that was the derivation of the term itself. Just as the designation" journalist" has now expanded - endlessly it seems to old-timers - Journalism College grads in particular, to include any person who passes along a news item in whatever form might be available to them. There are now more radio and television "journalists" than newspaper men and women...photographers of every level,- even "pap-a-raht-esses" and other such over-eager subspecies. Internet's bloggers, plus research and tech writers in every known occupational field. Anyone who has even a vague association with passing a news items or comment opinion, may now be called a "journalist."

That's my long-winded way of getting around to a renaming of China as a nation among us. The nation has been doing very well with new ideas for decades now and the China you heard about as a child no longer exists.

Emphasis has long been placed on the population figures for China. If, for instance, you arranged for the population of China to walk past you in single file,the line would never end because of the birth rate in China. China, today, also has more English-speaking persons than the United States. You share your birthday date , we are told, with at least nine million people in the world. How many Chinese share our birthday?

Mr. and Mrs. American have not yet become acquainted with Trade and Production or Manufacturing deficits we are incurring. There is an article of special interest in the magazine section of one of our local papers. It was written by Luanne Austin, a feature writer for the "Daily News-Record," Harrisonburg, Va. Bring up "dnr on line.com."...down near the end of a fine daily page click under SKYLINE. Read it and be ready when you,too, discover that your favorite apple juice is made with an apple concentrate from China - 40-60% savings for the local manufacturer. More articles such as this one will irk homemakers to an awareness of just how far this drift of our economic and social treasures has gone.

It will become a thing for political focus,in time but by the time the "barn doors" are locked the horses,cows,lambs - and apple juices will be long gone. Journalist Luanne Austin,in her column "Rural Pen", specializes in articles concerning country life and this juice story is certainly about the life of a country - ours.

Andrew McCaskey amccsr@comcast.net 1-23-07 [c496wds]

 
UNDER A METRIC MOON

Perhaps it will take a bit of Time before most of us realize that the Moon has changed somewhat in recent months.

Perhaps two groups would lead the discovery of such changes. The people who write lyrics for romantic love songs would lead the way; quickly joined by eager boy-girl combinations the world over who are , after all, the leading practitioners of the fine art of moon glow romance. Another group - an occupational one - would see such a change as a welcome boon for the betterment of all. Astronauts - those of such concerns in centuries as well as he men and women of today who see new meanings for all of us in the stars - and in the unseen realms called "space."

The change is a matter of measurement.

To many it may seem silly but to those persons whose very lives depend on the precise exactness of such measurements it can be everything else but funny. It has now been agreed that, henceforth, the moon will be subject to measurement by Metric System rules only. In making the announcement before the fourteen members of the international association, Jeff Vollosin, of NASA, noted there was a "a little cheer" from the foreign reps. There was irony in that small celebration because it has long been accused the United States of being the major stumbling blocking going to a inform measurement system.

There have been incidents in the past in which materials supplied by the United States were found to be incompatible. NASA has insisted on Metric measurement in their own work, but suppliers and contractors are not bound by such rules. In 1999 the loss of a Mars Climate Orbiter, a robotic probe, occurred because a contractor provided thruster firing data in English numbers while NASA was using metric.

This decision is a major victory for the metric system, and that has "bugged me" ever since grammar school days when we did debate as a classroom "sports activity". When "Resolved that we should the adopt the Metric System" I always hoped we would be assigned the negative side because usually won. The English system was American but French system was foreign. It may be that this NASA note will encourage some brave soul to stand up at their next School Board meeting and demand that "our disadvantaged Youth" be schooled in the Metric System.

If we continue to think in in terms of pounds and miles instead of kilograms and kilograms we are holding fast to our tiny spot in a minority. The nations of the world accept and use the Metric System. We are one of just three nations not using it. Our friends and associates are: Liberia and Burma.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net 1-22-07 [c468wds]

 
SNOW DAY MENU

On a January Day such as today has turned out to be the natural tendency leads toward a need for hot drink ready to be "saucered-and-blowed" down to that semi-searing stage so many older folks can can handle without a lip cookery. most sure, of course, like it has something to do with the fact that we wear false teeth and cauterize our mouths daily with a selected anti-codifiers and antiseptic solutions until a taste is set a-tingle like a sleight bell's tickled tinkle when a potent potent passes within twenty feet.

It's true, as we get older, I don't mind admitting that pour is one gets old - like, maybe, ninety years of age or so - one judgment concerning food and drink may wander a bit. here comes a time when there is no longer any such things as a "small" one. The terms such as "little","tiny", "small" and "light" concerning quantities of food and drink begin to mean less and less sound but not in fulfillment. Just "one for the road" means a six-lane express freeway and not a country lane where the horse knows the way home.

I'm much more concerned with foods myself. Hot coffee, tea and that sort of thing can be a welcomed page protector sequestering the setting the scene for the next act of drama of dining abundantly.

Right now, while - from my window - I can see the neighborhoods boys and girls dragging their sleds, boxes, carts, garbage can lids and colorful plastic replicas of that sort of motion holders. They are busy dragged their vehicles up and down the road waiting for the snow to deepen on the nearby hillside the moment the are happy enough racing, throwing snow at each other, falling far more than necessary showing off - boys for girls and girls for boys. Within another hour they ought to have some nice hillside sliding if the snow continues to fall.

Right now, remembering reading just the other day in a bulletin from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, suggesting that we should be eating more fruits and vegetables - even to the extent of meeting their recommended suggestion of from five to nine servings per day. I have decided what I would like to have for this snowy evening, although the members of our kitchen staff - both of them - have already prepared the meal we are actually going to enjoy. I have decided I would like to have would be liver and onions.

The need was inspired by reading that U. S. D. A bulletin.

It claimed that, as an average American, ate twenty-one pounds of onions past year. How did you rate on that estimate? Those dinky little plastic bags couldn't hold more than half a dozen decent-sized onions! A smattering of onions chips fussed with with mustard may be enough for hot dogs, but when we have Liver with Onion liver - with being an equal serving of gently sauterned onion slices.

For dessert, or breakfast the next morning overn biscuits or toast, - I like any frying pan leavings which remained wrapped around flour, milk and seasoning with one generous wooden spoon at hand!

Andrew McCaskey amccsr@comcast.net 1-21-07 [c545wds]

 
DECISIONS

So, with a semi-official act duly performed, Hillary Rodham Clinton is seriously running in a political race to determine if she can, indeed, become the next President of he United States. She has, in fact, been running - even campaigning - for the office for some time including her recent ventures overseas so it comes as a surprise to very few people. For her to have turned and gone the other way would have made more people wonder.
Making an announcement of intent, an "ism" customary in our system," a "ritual", perhaps, with some older members of Congressional members of both major parties would have been irked. The by-play of an "announcement" or the naming of a "committee" to explore that which is already an established idea in the minds of those who hear it being said. It is an "established custom".

Hillary Clinton chose a different way do to do it

She told all who wished to hear of her decision to run for the
office and set forth a deliberate agenda in which she intends to engage in conversational union with all of us. She, as an active, aggressive candidate, plans to talk more with a emphasis on exchange, discussion and mutual self-assurances of steady improvement. The nation is promised more "Fireside Chat"
encounters as in problem-packed days of F.D.R. Today, the Internet Web Page holds much of intimacy as did then old-
-fashioned fireplace did in days one by.

In using the Web page to make her bid official, Hillary Clinton sounded a death knell for government-by-printed handout.
The candidate talks to and with the nation's voters rather than passing cold, information sheets to reporters so they can spell out for you what they, or their bosses, think was said or done.

The Clinton-H drive faces special problems.

This is for the Democratic party nomination. The complexity of the problem is that if the nominating body can bring itself to nominate either a woman or a black, there is nothing sure about the actual electorate out here in sprawling America will obediently, follow an order or instruction which can also be seen as a suggestion or guideline. Old fashioned "or else" provisos are stillborn.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@comcast.net 1-20-07 [c385wds]

 
HIGHWAY ROBBERY

I have seen situations when entire sections of newly constructed highway disappearsed overnight.

It has happened in areas were has tried to build a road across really swampy land. When I was six or so, we were riding across the south side of Virginia in our Model T Ford, I remember being filled with some doubts about continuing to travel along that road - new though it was - just north of the massive, dark and mysterious Great Dismal Swamp. A local citizen warned my father to drive with special care because the road had been known to disappear overnight. We were on our way to see our Grandmothers in Norfolk and South Norfolk, Va. - now called Chesapeake.

I had seen enough swamp water along the edge of the road to know it appeared to just stand there shades of gray folded among layers of deepest black down, down, down to such depths as onlya six year old boy can imagine. All Ford cars were painted black then you may recall, and I could easily imagine a sudden swerve to the right as I awakened. My mother and sister would be screaming;Dad would be manfully twisting the big, black steering wheel; my brothers would be operating the hand powered windshield wiper and tooting the "ah-oo-gah" horn we all loved so much! "
'
Bout then I'd sorta wake up and they would all tease me. I would "wake up" only no one knew I hadn't been asleep at all.

Andrew McCaskey amccsr@comcast.net 1-16-07 [cGHT264wds]

 
BLAME PLACEMENT

We seem to more time and money trying to place blame for some of our least admirable decisions rather than to find solutions to some of the problems themselves.

We couldn't even throw a decent "Boston Tea Party" today or write a Volstead Act to force all of the nation to go dry without
deciding just who we might blame if either plan went wrong. We'd spend weeks in determining which Indian tribes we could pretend to be upset in future court room procedures by setting precedents. We would feel obligated to say we did whatever it was we were going
to do as a surprise.

Maybe you saw the item in the news just a day or two saying the price of Mexican tortillas has skyrocketed in recent weeks. The price was said to have risen by seven or nine per cent causing untold suffering millions of tortilla lovers to face starvation.
Blame for disaster has been on the United States of America.

It has come about as a direct result, you may wish to know, of our sudden use of millions of bushel of good, green ears of corm being mashed and boiled to become ethanol to keep our stretch limos, semis, RV's and our ever-growing numbers of large, gas-hog cars on the road. I have not been aware of any glut of excess supplies of any fuel my local filling station, have you? I know that many bands of gasoline already contain small amounts of ethanol and a score of small plants eye refining more as needed.

Environmentalists of some sort are speaking out against such alternate fuels,too, because "as long as we have hunger in this world we have no right to use for foods for fuel."

They blame us. We blame them.

There must be some middle road we can travel together.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 1-14-07 [c324wds]

 
THE NOUN; SHEHAN

Take care there, lady!

I hate to see any one fall flat on their face - especially in public view. Unless Mrs. Cindy Shehan, considered by some to be among the first American mothers to lose a son in war time, I fear she will find the first part of her name - the friendly, folksy diminutive cut-down of a standard name she didn't like and protested it out of her life long ago.

Protesters, in general, have to be careful concerning how their audience is going to view them. It's so easy and enjoyable to be the clown, but that's specialized field wisely avoided by all those not talented to be the Court Jester. Other types might in include bodily fisticuff encounters of court room brain banging battles - both too formal and too usual and patterned by precedent. Simply, direct and often know to achieve desired results: be a pest.

The distraught Mother set about buying five acres of land in big, old Texas with insurance funds received as a result of her loss. just down the road few miles to President George Bush's oft televised ranch. She and friends erected signs who pointed the way and talked with ,to, at and over increasing groups and TV cameras offering the nation and the world of watchers stood by flat screens everywhere to see what then do-res where doing.

They were bugging Bush, of course.

Keep that picture of Cindy Shehan, if you remember, but shift with me to photographs front-paged in the world's leading newspapers or looming out unbelievably harsh and Baghdad-looking TV sequences crawling along barbed wire enclosures and sturdy masonry barricades showing Shehan standing before GITMO in Fidel Castro's Cuba begging President Bush to "STOP THE TORTURE!" She stand there echoing the words printed on large posters being paraded before the cameras rather than the prison almost as if they were intended to be used as "idiot cards" in sequences showing the harsh, inhumane, barbarous,bestial oh-so bad conditions knowingly condoned by Bush-Chaney.

Remember the changed image of Shehan - an improved hairdo, touch of make-up and large, silverly piece of jewelry dangling on a long, linked chain of like metal chain the camera pusher made you examine. The emblem was that of the cross with broken arms. I do not recall being informed here the necklace came from. We also have not being not told where the money comes from to ferry Shehan around the widening selection sites must feel need protection.

Cindy is gone. Probably working the five acre ranch down Texas way. More and more we see a Shehan.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@adelphia.net 1-13-07
[c454wds]

 

IN THE DOLDRUMS

It seems proper for us to borrow the use of a term from the vocabulary of the able sea men of the days when sailing vessels depended on the volatile Trade Winds to send them on their profitable pathways. Now and again, often during the harsh greyness of lowering winter times, such blessed winds were no available -and even the largest and best-equipped ships sat silent and still - unprofitable, too - on the confused tides. The beloved Trade Winds were not available to rescue the statuesque stillness. Disaster faced any with insufficient supplies aboard and without stalwart, determined and loyal personnel.

It is not unusual for our Ship of State to edge in to, such a time went the guiding force of the new crew is being put in place. It takes a bit of doing and time, too. Not until the topmost crow's nest has qualified men to question the waters ahead and around them. Officers must bring their charts, maps and methods of management aboard. Cooks must boss lifters and luggers to stock the holds with food and drink sufficient to meet unpredictable needs.

People who find themselves in such predicament often react in curious ways.

There are a few ego-smitten person who will step forth at once to restate their wishes and find some way to ridicule even insult others who have been trying to do then same job previously. There will be changes in personnel, of course, and most of these will take the move seriously and take sufficient time in which to do it well.

The social world experiments a great deal. They insist on importing used TV formats from England, for example, mainly because one or two proved to be profitable which is their standard word for "successful". They ignore the fact that scores of TV favorites from the '50's and 60" are the life blood of scores of non-network channels.

Real comedians are rare. Farcical feuds such as the current Donald Trump - chubby what's-her-name who finished off "The View" - are sad commentary on the dire downward direction so much network TV seems to be intent on making their "swan" song. That's unfair to swans! Could we make it Dinosaur dirge, perhaps?

Maybe some new Trade Winds will be whipped up in the entertainment area. I look forward to a far-off day when our entertainment Trade Press becomes more journalistically aggressive and speaks out strongly against us continuing our SOT side instead of encouraging creativity.

SOT translates: "Same Old Thing!"

Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 1-12-07 [c439wds]

 
FOUR HUNDRED YEARS

Travel can be educational and the legislative bodies of the Commonwealth of Virginia took a short trip down the James River to convened their latest session at the place where they first gathered four hundred years ago.

The Senators and members of the House of Delegates pretty well filled the Visitors Center at Jamestown to hear the Governor of the State Timothy M. Kaine (D) deliver his State of the Commonwealth address. He did so with dignity and a firmly stated opinion that the time has come for passage of pending transportation and other legislation. He used skillful references to historic unity in the past when their predecessors pledged unity and fulfilled their obligations to the people of the area which brought historic criteria of past sessions marking their strong leanings toward agreement. "There is just too much agreement here for us to walks away from the issue for a second year in a row." Governor Kaine repeatedly cited instances in the past when legislative creativity led the people of The Old Dominion - far from being aged, but eager and venturesome enough to set individual and sectional differences aside to work for mutual advancement into realms which have been the basis for so many sterling benefits we enjoy today.

For many Virginians this speech by the Governor was their first real opportunity to see him "in action" speaking to an historic theme on circumstances in existence long ago - four hundred years, mind you! - when circumstances demanded much of all leaders of the people yet, at the same time, focusing formative light on problems, needs and shortcomings of our own time.

His comments on such issues as those facing us today were brief, factual and stated with marked simplicity. His treatment of the historical background was skillfully handled. Modern minds often think of history as being dull, dusty and date-dotted to extremes.

Not so - when Virginia's Governor Timothy M. Kaine, speaks his mind.

We Virginians had been most fortunate in having had exceptional leaders...four hundreds years of it!

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@adelphia.net 1-11-07 [c357wds]

 

"WITTLE BOYS...."

It may well be that the Founding Fathers of our nation missed a few fine features concerning the basic ideas about precisely how political leaders should act concerning each other.

To many of our present day official seem to think they are some special, sort of gang leaders blustering their way to the top of every major or minor confrontation and taking a stubborn, oppositional view of any situation which might arise.

I find it particularly objectionable when political persons oppose the sitting President of our nation who also happens to be Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces in matters involving the safety of our nation and, more immediately, the very lives of our men and women now serving overseas.

For a Congressman, even ahead of any request for additional funds by our Commander-in-Chief, to announce his adamant refusal to authorize any such funds regardless of how urgent the need may be. Some citizens might well see this delaying act as being on the very edge of treason. A member of the Senate or of the House should see himself more as being a stalwart, dependable, trustworthy man interested in the well-being of our nation rather than see, always, the preservation of petty political positions and death-dealing potions to end forever any hope of cooperative endeavors.

When a Senator or Congressman speaks , he does so with a certain responsibility which goes with the office they hold. This is no little, old lady standing on a street corner haranguing a motley throng of unconcerned passers-by with her loud denunciations of her supposed wrongdoers. These men and these women who speak out are part of an historic and worthy governmental area which we want to continue to speak of with pride rather than with shame.

This is not a new things. It has happened before in other administrations and no one know if, or how much it may have harmed our nation - if at all. It is, however, a things we can change, if we wish to do so.

To start: Let's expect adult conduct from those Congress persons we elect. This week's dialog has seemed like the babble of little boys over some insignificant non-thing they tried to make important. Far to often, statements made are based on resentment held over from election time, which is as the Old Folk use to say is: "like drinking poison and waiting around for someone else to die."

Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 1-10-07 [c428wds]

 
RE-RUN?


Here we go! It's back to Mogadishu!

We have to get used to spelling and pronounce East African place and people names all over again. Several weeks ago it became apparent that Somalia was being put back on the being put back on the big, front burner again when the news mentioned that a flight of bombers from Ethiopia had hit targets in Mogadishu, Somalia.

You may recall we were un-welcomed visitors there during the days of "War Lord"rule of that troubled land. Sixteen American soldiers were killed there during our short stay. This week flights of helicopter gunships have been flying in from Ethiopia which does not possess such bombers or helicopter gunships. The assumption has been made that they are United States aircraft - one and all.

The confusion is just beginning.

It may be that the United States is "tracking Islamic extremists" as some Somalia officials say, or looking for bombers from 1998 - a bit late. It, of course, could be that the United States was helping Ethiopia prevent an extremist take-over their neighboring country there in the rich Horn of Africa Or, it may prove to be as Ethiopia report that they solved the problem by means of a successful land operation on December 24, 2006. That move saved the Somali government. They currently concerned about capturing the radical extremists seeking to escape from the country.

Wait for some really confusion when the members of our Congress - now under new leadership - see this as a wonderful opportunity to beat the "Bush" a bit more before getting to work on projected legislation to guide and guard us in the future.

What should we do about Mogadishu?'

All we can do, I feel, is to wait, watch and wonder.

Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 1-9-07 [c-309wds]

 

MUCH-NEEDED BOOK


The present Winter 2006 edition of "The University of Virginia Magazine" tells of a book which is now in a preparative
phase. It will be available during this year of 2007 and I will, most certainly, be among those who want to keep one handy.

It is going to be the book we have needed so long which will define "evil " - name such wrongdoing for what it, most truly, is and show us how to apply such a revelation to ameliorate as few of the festering features of problems present among us in our puzzling world-day peace actions.

Not knowing what we are talking about when we speak of specific evils we face, can result in some dangerous piecemeal suggestions for adjusting such gross misinformation to better conform to common sense standards of Truth and Decency.

The book, to be titled: "The Rhetorics of Evil" will study those people who talk about evil ,both those who commit it and those who suffers as a result of it. Jennifer Geddes, who is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies as well as Co-program Director of the Institute For Advanced Studies in Cultures" at the University,is currently involved in related studies at the "U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

The University Magazine quotes Jennifer Geddes as saying:"I'm interested in how people talk about evil, either those who have committed it or suffered it." She is now examining Holocaust testimonials and memoirs in detail making use of the museum's large collections of authentic documents of that nature. She has delved into many of such horror stories or that . She "has been struck by" an essential difference between the reasons each decided to tell their tales."The perpetrators depict themselves as victims and try to elicit sympathy, whereas in victim's testimonies they are more interested in telling what happened and giving an account rather than seeking out sympathy."

How often did we hear the line: "They were just following orders!" in attempts to excuse individuals in charges of such conducts. We have, just recently, seen and heard the same method still being used as a reasons to excuse persons for miss-deeds today.

A serious study of "evil" is long overdue and I hope the Geddes book will meet such a need. We all have a moral imperative urging us to do something which redefines "evil" for what it is - wrong! That's the situation we face...together... right now.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@adelphia.net 1-8-07 [c417wds]

 
CHANGES

There is one complaint which seems to be very common with most of us. So often so many of us feel we are "in a rut" - socially, work-wise and in every aspect or being that which we are.

Everything strays the same, we moan in our misery and long for something different and exciting in our lives when such changes occur, we are often not in the least, prepared to accept them as they are. We, all to often, fail to accept changes which do come our way. We seem to prefer the security afford by remaining as we have been and refuse anything new.

It reminds me of a small child who refuses to eat a specific food because "it doesn't taste good!" without ever having tasted it to find out.

Our physical selves are in a constant state of change. Few people are concerned with the fact that every cell in their alimentary canal will die and be replaced over the next twenty-three days. Such drastic changes are constantly taking place; cells are being replaced by the millions according to the negative values we provide through the nutritional values we supply by the foods we ingest or the exercises we do not do.

In recent years new language terms describe one of my favorite breakfast foods - oatmeal - in strange terms discussing antioxidants, beta-glucan in particular, cytokines, phytochemicals, and a large number of flavonoids which keep the cell protected from oxidation and plaque formation. Our life styles have changed and are still changing whenever such discoveries or developments are made. Our living changes in like manner as well. You may ignore it, but you can't escape its benefits at some point in your constantly altering way of living.

Wise up. Go with such changes.

Andrew McCaskey Sr amccsr@adelphia.net 1-8-07 [c318wds]

 
AFTER THE FACT

Now that Saddam Husein has been executed according to directives of an Iranian Court of Law, I, suddenly, find more people speaking out in opposition to the continued use of hanging in punishing criminals, of using the threat of it in prevention of potentially criminal pathways being chosen and as one means of maintaining a semblance of peace in certain areas of our, at times rather troubled Earth.
Have your feelings concerning hanging changed in any way recently?

In think the recent sneaking of the Heusen execution was unfortunate. I did not like the fact that it was so blatantly displayed on TV, the Internet and in printed materials as well. The real damage may yet be in the making as "experts"- self-styled as such - take existing materials and re-fashion them to suit their own highly divergent ideas. I do not know what the official records might show how often official photos have been made to encouraging serious studies of cases and to study the reaction of participants in that phase of the event, how they may be used to defer or pr prevent future crimes of a like nature, and to warn way curiosity seekers - opportunists such as guards carrying forbidden hidden cameras. Certainly the courts can determine just how far they can go in allowing journalists an and "fringe" associates access.

This was all brought to home for me this morning when I heard a ten-year old school girl declare unbidden: "Yes, we watched the man getting hanged on TV!" She knotted both hands to the side of her throat; stared into nothingness for a second, before falling semi-limp and gasping for breath.
Revived, she stood and declared. "My Daddy says and I say, watch out for anybody who goes around hanging other people. Oh, we felt so sorry for the the tired old man they killed...."

In wonder how many children and adults saw the execution in that manner.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@adelphia.net 1-6-07 [c344wds]

 
THE DAY...

It is not at all unusual for many of us to be prophets on the last day of the year known as 2006. It has been unusual in many ways. It will be one which will be remembered. Unpleasantly,too, for far too many people. The over shadowing of the war has been at the base of much of our doubts and uncertainties concerning survival. TV coverage of war in Iraq, and elsewhere, has done a great deal to show many people the horrors of war. Many people are meeting with this for the first time in their lives. They have never known a war which involve them so personal and so close. The destruction of the World Trade Towers in New York City opened many minds to the fact that wars can be almost anywhere at any time - including here. The bombing of trains, cars and planes as a daily routine have convinced many people that war is possible here at home.

The war is wider that we admit it to be.

I find otherwise knowledgeable people who are totally unaware of Ethiopia has been bombing Somalia in the oil-rich African "horn"area. They also have an invading army there and have taken and lost the capital within the last few days.
The Ethiospian forces are there are there to prevent a total take over of the Somalian government by a radical Muslim faction. Doesn't that sound like the situation in Lebanon a few, months ago.

The "battlefield" is in a multitude of varied locations and difficult to pin down.
The hanging of Saddam went rather quietly at first. There were several protest displays but none seemed to have had any real support. That will come as diplomats feel each other out and decide what actions may be possible.
On the whole, the outlook for the New Year called 2007 appears to be a rather gloomy one. We will have to wait, for one thing - for our at-home comedians to finish there up on their current line of gags about it being a "007" year with James Bond adventures ahead. That, in itself is a good omen. It is a fine thing that we can, as a nation, face up to what could be a very serious decade for all with a good sense of humor.
Andrew McCaskey amccsr@adelphia.net 12-31-06(A) [c406wds]

 
IF I WERE....

If I were were writing a regular diary I would have writing a note marking the fact that former President Jerry Ford had died on the day after Christmas 2006. He, being one of those people who always always seemed do appear to be younger than than their actual span of years. Ford was ninety-three at the time of his death. He holds a special place among our Presidents.

Knowing the person of quality he was; seeing the good he did and observing the influence he had on other people set some higher marks for those who might aspire to a place in The Oval Office in years and decades ahead. His steady leadership gave us a pattern of the way public life might best be lived and viewed the people. You are probably among those who, along the way, more than once had at times when that Ford factor of honesty worked to your advantage.

Critics, unable to find many actual flaws, sought, and often found element of humor his actions. He was, one might say, athletically clumsy or awkward. He was photographed bumping his head on low aircraft doors; falling down steps and from platforms, as well, plus slips and slides on slick surfaces. Specialists in politically-oriented slurry love to point out that President Jerry Ford,whom, you may recall served as Vice-President of our nation when Spiro Agnew resigned, was never elected as either Vice-President or as President!

You can't claim you voted for Jerry Ford for either of those two high offices. I wonder, at times, how many voters do so.

Andrew McCaskey Sr. amccsr@adelphia.net 12-29-06 [c285wds]

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11/12/2006 - 11/19/2006
11/19/2006 - 11/26/2006
11/26/2006 - 12/03/2006
12/03/2006 - 12/10/2006
12/10/2006 - 12/17/2006
12/17/2006 - 12/24/2006
12/24/2006 - 12/31/2006
12/31/2006 - 01/07/2007
01/07/2007 - 01/14/2007
01/14/2007 - 01/21/2007
01/21/2007 - 01/28/2007
01/28/2007 - 02/04/2007
02/04/2007 - 02/11/2007
02/11/2007 - 02/18/2007
02/18/2007 - 02/25/2007
03/25/2007 - 04/01/2007
04/01/2007 - 04/08/2007
08/05/2007 - 08/12/2007
08/26/2007 - 09/02/2007
11/18/2007 - 11/25/2007
12/09/2007 - 12/16/2007
12/21/2008 - 12/28/2008
01/04/2009 - 01/11/2009
07/26/2009 - 08/02/2009