Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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]
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
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]
Monday, January 29, 2007
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]
Sunday, January 28, 2007
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]
Saturday, January 27, 2007
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]
Friday, January 26, 2007
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]
Thursday, January 25, 2007
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]
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
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]
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
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]
Monday, January 22, 2007
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]
Sunday, January 21, 2007
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]
Saturday, January 20, 2007
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]
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
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]
Monday, January 15, 2007
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]
Saturday, January 13, 2007
T HE 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
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Friday, January 12, 2007
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]
Thursday, January 11, 2007
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]
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
"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]
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
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]
Monday, January 08, 2007
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]
Sunday, January 07, 2007
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]
Saturday, January 06, 2007
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]
Thursday, January 04, 2007
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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