Category: Observations – Political and Otherwise

Sporting Propositions

Sporting Propositions

GONE FISHIN’

Farmersville fishing team send two teams to state

Actual headline and sub-headline from the local newspaper a couple of weeks ago. Farmersville High School has “Fishing” as a school sport.

At first it seems weird, but come to think of it, there’s a pretty fair-sized lake between my little corner of the DFW Metromess and Farmersville. On any good fishing day, at least a good half dozen cars are parked in the median of the causeway going over the lake, their owners out with poles and tackle boxes in pursuit of what I will assume to be some really good fishing.

I never really took to fishing, myself. When I was a kid, we were in bicycling distance of a small lake in suburban Cleveland Ohio where we would go fishing in the summer. We never caught anything we couldn’t throw back. The only “catch” we had was when Mickey T. somehow got a fishhook stuck in his nose.

But a school fishing team. Not that I’m knocking it, but, who’d a thunk?

For that matter, who’d a thunk of some of the other sports being offered at the high school level these days? Time was when there was a cycle of sports throughout the school year. Football in the fall, basketball in the winter, tennis, softball and baseball in the spring. Regular as clockwork. Then there was wrestling. Not WWE style, but Greco/Roman style. Cross Country, track, all of them.

In the later seventies, onward, a few other sports started to creep into prominence. Volleyball, for instance. We played it as one of the winter sports when I was in high school. Somehow or another, it became a big thing, likely because it was another sport which women could play and go on to college on a volleyball scholarship. A niece of mine went to college on a volleyball scholarship.

Times change.

I mentioned golf in my last little tirade. Yeah, we had a golf team, I think, when I went to high school. Then there’s bowling. One of the first impressions I had of high school sports after moving to Texas was the brag that the Allen High School BOWLING team had won the state tournament! Most of the bowling I’ve done was as an adult. We included a “beer frame”. I don’t imagine that high school bowlers would have a “beer frame” – probably why they tended to have higher average scores than I’ve ever rolled.

Another school sport I’ve come to find out is lacrosse (the Native American game, not a Buick or the nickname Canadians give to “self-satisfaction”). I had no idea the game was even being played until one morning when checking out of a hotel, my then almost three-year-old son was flirting with a girl’s lacross team in the hotel lobby. One of the residences I’ve lived in here in the Dallas area was just around the corner from a field where people were out practicing their lacrosse skills.

Oh, and ice hockey. But that was a club sport when I was in college. No scholarships, just two groups of people skating around and beating at each other with sticks. One of the club members was part of a group I hung with… there would be tales of some of the guys going to Byrd Arena to watch Harvey A. play, or to get drunk. Take yer pick!

But fishing! Good luck to ’em. I may not understand or I may get a chuckle from it, but… it’s whatever floats your boat, I reckon!

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Jerry

Jerry

Wrapping up a few odds and ends on a Sunday afternoon and my thoughts turned to Jerry – a former co-worker of mine when I was selling stuff at one of the “Big Box” stores in my area.

While I was making lunch, I thought that the world could use a few more Jerrys.

Jerry sold grills and lawn equipment. He was good at it, too. He had oodles of advice, most of it I carry with me nearly ten years later. He was customer friendly… maybe a bit too friendly in a good way. He could have sold more mowers if it hadn’t been for the stories he told and the advice he’d give people.

He also tended not to suffer fools gladly. He was advising a customer one afternoon when someone else tried to butt-in to the conversation, demanding Jerry’s attention RIGHT NOW! Jerry told the customer that he would be with him in a minute and continued the conversation he had been having. The other customer pushed back a second, and then a third time. Finally, Jerry told the person trying to interrupt to “I’m with a customer, Buffalo Breath, I’ll help you when I’ve finished.”

The customer didn’t take to being called “Buffalo Breath” – He called Corporate to report him. Corporate called and talked with Jerry. “Is it true that you called a customer Buffalo Breath?” Jerry didn’t deny it. He told us that he was able to tell that he was on speaker phone when he heard the laughter of everyone listening in at corporate.

Now, that wasn’t the first time, nor was it the last time that corporate called to check up on Jerry. He had a disarming sense of humor which was appreciated by the people in North Carolina, but not necessarily by some of his customers here in Texas.

Of Jerry’s co-workers, I cannot say that there was anyone of them who didn’t like him. Even those of us on the other end of the political spectrum (I like to think that Jerry thought that Ronald Reagan was way too liberal for his tastes) respected Jerry. He was one of a kind.

Toward the end of my tenure at the store where we worked, Jerry was in the habit of inviting one or another of his co-workers to lunch at “On the Border.” He had a favorite table and a favorite server. I had the honor of having lunch with him a few days after I left the store. The man was generous to a fault.

A year, maybe two or three after my lunch with Jerry, I learned that he passed while having an operation for some minor little detail. Every one of his former co-workers felt the same way I did about his passing. It was one of those sad days when memories of someone who was truly one of the good guys.

We need more Jerrys in this world.

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When Will Enough Be Enough?

When Will Enough Be Enough?

A year or so ago, my son told me of an experience he had working as a volunteer first-responder. It seems he was riding an ambulance with a young woman who had overdosed. During that ride, the woman died. Boom! Just like that. It affected him to the point that he had counseling. She was about his age.

First responders face death on a daily basis. It can affect them in many ways, to the point where it can rub off on their families and friends. Add the trauma which falls on the living and you can see where this is going. Trauma isn’t linear, it’s exponential.

It’s bad enough for someone to be riding in an ambulance and having someone your own age die as you are watching. Now, imagine the nightmare of arriving at a school and finding not just one, but eighteen young, vibrant children shot dead by a teenaged gunman.

I cannot help but to think of how any one of the first responders will react to the situation they found in Uvalde on the afternoon of the 24th of May.

As of the time I began writing this blog, there were eighteen children and two adults dead. God knows how many others were wounded, and God knows how many people will be affected by the act of a lone gunman in the last week of school.

Not linear. Exponential.

And what’s worse were some of the comments made on the bulletin board where I got the news, attempting to place the blame on “Open Borders,” “Obama,” “Democrats,” and “Joe Biden.” I quit reading those comments before someone would blame “Mexicans” or “The Jews.”

I believe I’ve mentioned before my dislike of people trying to fix the blame instead of fixing a problem. And I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more blame fixing when the NRA meets in Houston this coming weekend. The usual politicians who, today, are fervently pleading for “Thoughts and Prayers,” will be speaking at that convention.

So, the question becomes – “When will we reach the point where we say enough is enough?”

Unfortunately, more blood of the innocent will be spilled before the question is asked again. And again. And again.

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Bait Sandwiches and RV Parks

Bait Sandwiches and RV Parks

I finally took the time to stop at the Lucas Foods to take a photograph of the large sign on top of the building. Local legend is that the juxtaposition of the words “Bait” and “Sandwiches” was not noticed by the owner until after the sign was completed. Instead of insisting that the sign be changed, the owner decided to keep it as-is for the novelty value. In a story I have been working on, the owner of a similar store in another Texas town took the same attitude – even offering Shrimp Po Boys to anyone who came in and remarked in a negative way on the sign.

Don’t know if the fellow owning the Lucas Foods has done the same thing. Maybe he should. Might make him a small fortune.

Lucas is another of the numerous well-to-do little towns here in this little corner of the DFW Metromess. Less than a mile south of this sign is a neighborhood called Seis Lagos. It’s gated. You can’t go there unless you have business there and can prove it. To the east about two miles away, is Brockdale Estates – a collection of McMansions costing well north of half a million dollars when it was being built a few years back. Going east, there are more than a few homes with plenty of acreage, most of them with a horse barn with real horses in them.

And then there are the RV parks.

We’re not talking about nice little resorts where people will go and temporarily park their Winnebagos for a month or two. We’re talking about a place where people live. Full time. All year round.

When on my way from Lucas to my little corner of the DFW Metromess, a distance of around 5 miles, I counted at least a half-dozen of these little camps tucked away off the main road. And that’s just in a five-mile drive. While driving by myself and with the other half, I have noted that there is an explosion of these little RV encampments within, say, a twenty-mile radius of where we live. Not trailer parks. A trailer park would be a step up from these RV encampments.

On the other hand, the other half pointed out that at least the people living in the RV parks aren’t living out in the street somewhere. Lord knows that we have enough people living in the streets already.

Someone on one of my social media feeds pointed out that for less than half the money being spent to help arm Ukraine, the homeless problem could be solved. Chump change for the likes of Jeff Bezos. Maybe he could help out just a little bit.

Elon Musk reportedly once challenged the UN – Give him a budget and he would be willing to end world hunger. A budget of $5billion was submitted, but he didn’t pony up. Instead, he made headlines in the past few weeks by buying Twitter for an outrageous sum of money. Somewhere in the vicinity of $150billion. But he didn’t have the money to invest in ending world hunger. (Wasn’t he manning a soup kitchen in an episode of The Big Bang Theory?)

I can’t help but to think that if these high-falutin’ billionaires would put their heads together and work on real problems instead of seeing how much money they can stuff into their bank accounts, the world would be a much better place for everyone.

The solutions are out there. We just need to change a few attitudes.

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Friends

Friends

I spend a fair amount of time on social media applications keeping up with and exploring friendships from around the country and a couple from other parts of the world. Recently I have been conversing with a woman living in one of the New England states who started to follow me out of the blue. What prompted me to follow her back had less to do with her appearance as it did with what she had previously posted.

About once a week, I get unsolicited requests from young women who appear to be just starting out. They usually have very few posts and in those posts, they are wearing very few clothes. The word provocative comes to mind. It’s as if they are inviting me to indulge in… shall we say, less than a “family” friendly behavior. This newest friend posted some really nice photos – post card quality – of places I have not been but would like to.

Nice woman, so far. Let’s see where this goes.

I wrote an Email using my Google Email account this afternoon. It drove the editorial feature batty. By the end of the process, the editor said that I had made several major mistakes. What the editor didn’t take into consideration is that I write a lot like I talk. Way to go, Google editor. I may just bypass Google the next time I do an Email. For the most part, I use Yahoo, sometimes the former Hotmail. Neither of them care much about how I post.

With the addition of the woman living in New England, I’m finding I have lots of friends I am in contact with all over the country. One of my friends, someone I knew from high school, pointed out that many of our friends are “Bookmark” friends. There are long periods when we have no contact, but when something comes up, we’re on the phone or on the internet jabbering away as if our last meeting was yesterday.

Sometimes those are the best friends to have.

Then, too, there are those friends you find by accident. While I was working with a couple a few years ago, the woman remarked that I have a radio voice. She asked if I had worked in radio locally. I told her that I worked mostly in southern Ohio, She almost immediately told me that she listened to me on a station I had worked for. Seems that her younger brother and I were running buddies back in the day. We get together on a semi-regular basis, although with COVID, we haven’t seen or heard from each other as often. I know that I will hear from her husband, though, almost as soon as I post this on the internet.

No matter how a friend comes into your life, a friend is nice to have around… and sometimes the least likely people are the best friends. What makes a friendship is having common interests and/or common goals. I’m finding that to be true, especially now that I’m in the final third of my life.

Here’s to more friends!

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Slap me silly – But I already am!

Slap me silly – But I already am!

Earlier today, I read on another channel about an incident where some kids walking down the street somewhere in my little corner of the DFW Metromess shot at someone’s dogs. Seems that the dogs were in their owner’s front yard roaming free at the time. Shooting at the dogs was definitely out of bounds, so to speak – but it should be noted that the dogs were not tethered or restrained as required by the city’s leash law. Both the dog owner and the shooter were culpable in that situation. Neither one was justified in their actions.

Last night, there was an incident at the Oscars involving a pair of well-known celebrities. You saw it, or at the least, heard about it. Much the same situation as happened here in my little corner of the DFW Metromess. Both are at fault. Just because the “joke” was uncalled for did not excuse the slap (or the foul language) dealt by the other celebrity.

A couple of millennia ago, an itinerate preacher roaming a small section of the Middle East suggested turning the other cheek when dealt a blow by someone else. The shooter and the slapper should have followed that preacher’s advice instead of attempting to take the law into their own hands. Somehow, I believe that the same sort of scenario happens much more frequently than it should. We seem to have forgotten a valuable lesson from the past.

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Rainy Day Fun Day

Rainy Day Fun Day

We’ve been getting a little bit of rain here in our little corner of the DFW Metromess, so, some of the bets are off. Won’t be going out much, what with a tornado watch on until sometime after ten tonight, so, I decided to see what was going on in the wide world of Facebook.

Two of my correspondents were busily working both ends of the political crazy train.

On the left is someone I’ve known for some time, posting what amount to rationalizations for Russia to invade Ukraine while killing innocents and destroying buildings. The claim is that the current leadership of Ukraine was installed by the CIA (plausible) and has targeted Russian nationals in one of the provinces for elimination (also plausible). There’s bad blood between Moscow and Kiev. It happens. But these days, if there’s a problem, we have the United Nations to turn to. Make a case. Deal with it in a civil manner. If our CIA is really involved and their involvement can be proven, shame on us for whatever part we played in this fiasco. Going into another country and killing people is nothing more than a land grab. At the same time, it sure knocks the credibility of the invading country.

Side note – Kremlin. Sounds evil, doesn’t it?

On the right is a fellow who has a good education and should know better. This morning he was kvetching about all of the investigations going on around the former President, and how those investigations have hampered Congress from doing its job. The next thing I hear from him is a blurb from a “conservative” mouthpiece on the latest attempt to pin something on Hunter Biden. From what I gather, it’s okay to investigate someone from the other party, leave our party alone. Witness the almost endless examinations by conservatives into an incident happening on the watch of the other party’s Secretary of State.

I consider myself to be in the middle. I take the position that the CIA can be a bunch of schmucks – and that both political parties are culpable when it comes to examining what the other party is doing. As far as both are concerned, the arguments need to be played out in a courtroom. Not on the battlefield and not in “hit” pieces written by “journalists” with less than stellar credentials.

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Cleaning up the Mess

Cleaning up the Mess

Several years ago, I leased a house with a ticking time bomb in the form of a large tree in the front yard. The good news was that it cut my summer cooling bills by a considerable margin. The bad news was that the tree was still growing underground.

The lease on the house had a stipulation that the landlord would not be responsible for any drainage problems that I had. “Fair enough,” I thought, knowing that I have heard complaints from landlords about items flushed down toilets causing problems, like tampons and other miscellaneous items not made to be put down a drain.

About three years into our seven-year adventure at the leased house, the stepson noted that the toilet he was using needed additional help each time he sat down instead of standing up at his toilet. We put up with it for about six months before calling out a plumber to see if there was a problem. A few hundred dollars later, we were told that the tree in the front lawn had grown into the toilet’s drain. It was blocking solid matter which otherwise would have flushed from flushing.

“You are responsible for any drainage issues,” the landlord reminded us when we told her of the problem. “It’s in the lease.” That was the end of that discussion for a while at least.

At the end of our stay, cut short by the landlord’s wanting to put the house on the market, it wasn’t just one toilet with the problem. Most of the other drains in the house wouldn’t. When we got our notice 15 days into the standard 30 day notice period, we were more than happy to leave the place for someplace better.

It wasn’t until six to eight months later that a loophole was brought to my attention. While a landlord can impose certain restrictions, those restrictions are by the wayside when the health and safety of the occupants is at risk. Not being able to flush a toilet due to an invasion of the sewer line by a large, friendly tree falls into that loophole. The landlord in our case dodged her responsibility. Had I known sooner, I might have had a lawyer press for the needed repair.

Live and learn, I suppose.

The point of this story is that sometimes one walks into a situation which may or may not have been deliberately sabotaged by a landlord or a previous resident.

Or the previous President, in the case of the White House.

For the past thirteen or so months, the fellow we had elected President has been fighting the mess left by the previous occupant of the Oval Office. Every time he seems to have handled one problem; another crops up. And it’s always the fault of the current occupant. The former guy and his supporters are quick to fix the blame instead of fixing a problem.

It would seem that the former guy deliberately set up certain roadblocks to hamper his successor. For instance, it was noted that during his tenure, the former guy deliberately withheld aid from Ukraine (wanting the powers there to come up with evidence to smear his opponent in the 2020 election) and was a frequent basher of NATO. Just like he effectively surrendered to the Taliban, releasing thousands of Taliban fighters, leaving the execution of the drawdown of U.S. troops smack dab in his successor’s lap. And then there’s the Covid thing which was nothing more than a “hoax,” until it was too late to contain the disease. Deliberate actions. Revenge, perhaps, for losing the election?

I can forgive my former landlord for putting in a clause excusing herself from the responsibility of maintaining the drainage system of the house she owned. She had no idea – nor did I have the idea that a tree could interfere with the drain line. When people’s lives are at stake because of the actions or inactions of a “leader,” that’s the proverbial horse of a different color. What looks like deliberate sabotage needs to be addressed for what it is – and an apology at least to the people of Ukraine is in order.

We could use that apology as well.

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From My Old Facebook Posts File

From My Old Facebook Posts File

Bruce Harrell

February 20, 2021  · 

Shared with Public

A bunch of solar panels, having nothing to do with the post below

I had been out of the business for over 25 years. In the last couple of years working in radio, I had the dubious honor to sit and listen to the late Mr. Limbaugh to insert local commercials at the proper time. I developed a deep dislike of the man, not because of my being forced to listen to him, but because of his bellicose tone. I have said before and I will say again that I respect the ideals of conservatism as it was. Due to the efforts of Mr. Limbaugh, conservatism has morphed into something quite different than it was a mere quarter of a century ago.

The comments below eloquently lay out the case against the man behind the “Golden EIB Microphone” and those who have followed. Al Mayo is a working journalist. We have almost crossed paths, working for the same people at different locations at different times.

One other word. Despite my dislike for Rush Limbaugh, I do not wish for him or anyone else to have to die as he did.

Al Mayo

February 20, 2021  · 

I’ve been asked to reflect on the life of Rush Limbaugh, although I’m not sure why exactly. Instead of an immediate knee-jerk reaction, I opted to step back and take my time.

He was a man who eagerly, selfishly and self righteously used hate, vitriol and belittlement in the pursuit of his goals, often synonymous with personal greed and the desire for notoriety and mass adulation.

There are many other true conservatives who have spoken for their beliefs with persistence and quiet intelligence; among them, Bill Kristol, David Brooks, George Will, Gerald Seib. Even more maverick, outspoken branding irons like Bill Buckley, Russell Kirk, John McCain, Jack Kilpatrick, Robert Novak and more marshaled facts and ideas to support their arguments, usually according respect to those in opposition.

Limbaugh had no respect for those with whom he “disagreed.” Simply an overpaid rabble rouser, like Father Coughlan in the thirties. Not a voice of reason, respect or intelligence. This was, after all a man who played party sounds and noisemakers when celebrating the death of LGBTQ Citizens from AIDS.

Limbaugh was, however, a trailblazing broadcaster alright, leading the way for the unholy bunch to follow; O’Reilly, Hanity, Glen Beck, Dobbs, Pirro, Bartiromo, and others. Virtually if not all of these on the Fox dime.

None among this latter group has ever allowed an alternative viewpoint, let alone a provable fact to interfere with their blind support for the former president, even when he knowingly lied (as with the election results) and and they knew it!

Morally bankrupt all.

*****

On the way home from church Sunday morning, I noted that someone had parked his camper at the corner of US 380 and one of the side roads. The camper was emblazoned with the legend, “Lets Go Brandon,” a phrase being used by Trump supporters as a substitute for the phrase, “F*** Joe Biden.” Of course, you already knew that. The phrase is all over the place.

After settling into my Sunday routine, I noted a post, and a response to that post made last year at the occasion of Rush Limbaugh. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Limbaugh and the rest of the right-wing rabble have made hatred a key element in their political musings. An unfortunate legacy to say the least.

I’m just going to leave these comments here, allowing you, the reader, to draw your own conclusions.

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