IT WAS HORRIBLE!

Blog number 436 ******** 29 October, 2010

We went to see the movie, "You Again" Yesterday. It was horrible! Horrible, I tell you.

Absolutely horrible.

Yukkers.

I LOVE A IRONY

Blog number 435 ******** 26 October, 2010

This entry is in no way a slam on police anywhere. It is merely a journey towards an irony. That the irony involves police is akin to the fact that Western movies can contain good stories. It's the content, not the context.

So.

When we lived on the California coast, I had this very good friend who told me that when he was an ensign in the navy, he was interrogated by Navy Intelligence about an anti Semitic letter found in the locker of a Jew. He told me that they quizzed him in such a way, with facts and suppositions that he got to wondering if he really had done it - if he had blacked out or something, because they gave him what seemed a pretty good case that he was guilty.

Eventually they found the perpetrator, but this experience stuck in his mind. As well it should.

Several years ago four youths each confessed to murdering several Buddhists in a temple here in Arizona and after several months, the real perp's were convicted and the false confessors' convictions were thrown out. Subsequently many cases "solved" by these same interrogators were reinvested and some of these convictions were overthrown because the way confessions were obtained.

Watching "48 Hours" - a reality TV program, the interrogators decided to lie to the two suspects and tell them that the other had confessed. During the interrogation, the interrogator consistently asked, "well, could this have happened?" and the suspect, going along with the hypothetical situation would agree, "Yeah, that could have happened."

The two were arrested for the murder, although I heard nothing that gave me any indication that they really were the murderers. Both consistently said they didn't fight with the man, didn't kill him.

Last night I was watching another reality program and in this one, they had a guy that confessed to strangling a girl, although he gave two different methods of how he strangled her. Come to find out, both her and her boyfriend accidentally drowned when the boy tried to save his dog from a dam undertow, got caught in it himself, and the girl slipped in when she tried to save the boy.

The irony to this is that one of the detectives said he was puzzled by why the innocent person confessed to killing the girl. I guess he never heard the same stories I had.

Two ironies, actually. The dog saved himself.

MOSTLY THIS, MOSTLY THAT

Blog number 434 ******* 24 October 2010

On our way to the movies we stopped and had breakfast at Mimi's. As we walked in the door, I saw the back of the head of what turned out to be a beautiful baby girl of about three years of age and the mom and dad and an older sister - maybe ten or eleven. I put my hand on the top of the three year old's head and she turned around to look at me, and what a sweet smile!

I asked her if she was going to eat mac and cheese, she said she wasn't. She asked me if I knew where she lived, I said, "No."

She said, "Casa Grande. A long way."

"I live in Casa Grande too." This seemed a pleasant surprise to her.

Then she said, "you turn this way," pointing to her left, "then this way," pointing to her left again, "and then you stop."

"Go left, left again and then stop?"

"Yes."

"Ok, I can find that." She seemed pleased with this.

The mother seemed to be finding pleasure with this interchange as much as I was - maybe more, since it was her daughter that was being so cute and "grownup."

I then turned my attention to the older sister, and then to the two boys when they showed up, so as not to show too much favoritism, although the three year old WAS my very favorite. So cute! And so verbal.

After we left Mimi's, we saw the movie,"Hereafter." I liked it. My wife, not so much.

In the hotel room of the character of the lady newsman, there was a most beautiful painting. It appeared twice and this time they were not skimpy with time on screen, like they usually are. I got to look at it very closely.

It seems to me that in past years, paintings shown in movies were almost always abstracts, or as I like to call them, "decorator paintings." In the past few years I have begun to see beautiful paintings in movies and even on TV programs. Goody for whoever is responsible for that.

The painting evoked both loneliness and companionship at the same time. It was simple yet powerful. I loved it! I wish I could do something like that.

All in all, a pretty good day. At least up to now.

P. S. There was also a little dig at cultural conditioning in the movie. Good for them!

LET'S ALL GO TO IMAGINARY LAND

Blog number 433 ******* 21 October 2010

This morning I took my newly washed overalls out and placed them upon an old and unused wooden lattice I had placed against the cement block fence. To dry. A quick movement by a lizard upon the fence caught my eye. I stopped and watched him and he did the same to me.

Seeing this lizard immediately brought to mind my most favorite animal - a mud puppy and this brought to mind that the pet dragon in the movie, "How To Train Your Dragon" had a head shaped like a mud puppy's. I guess I'm not the only person who finds them to be the darlings they are.

The way my thoughts chased after each other this morning reminded me again that this happens constantly, but most often it happens beneath my consciousness. It's like boys and girls chasing each other in the school yard are often unnoticed by anyone else.

Following thoughts is sometimes like trying to remember dreams. Sometimes you can and sometimes you can't. Sometimes I stop and think, "What made me think of that?" And I never find out what it was. Strangely, to me it is the same feeling of frustration I get when I can't remember a dream.

And all this came from hanging out a pair of overalls to dry? Where would my thoughts have gone if I had not seen that lizard? Where would my thoughts have gone if I had stubbed my toe? If I had found a wad of money? If a flying saucer had come down and teleported me aboard and the aliens had given me control of the world? Huh?

I KNOW MY RIGHTS!

Blog number 432 ******* 19 October 2010

In an "On This Day" column in my daily newspaper, I learned that today is the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's arrest and imprisonment for parole violation on a traffic violation charge.

I heard a cop on the reality show, "Cops" say, in reference to a car they were following, "We'll follow him until we see him make a traffic violation, then we'll stop him."

I left work one day to find an MP writing me a ticket. Evidently someone had complained because where I parked my Volkswagen van, the complainant couldn't see around me to safely pull out into traffic.

Now, I was parked legally. The MP told me that he looked all over my vehicle trying to find something illegal. He said he was just giving up when he noticed I didn't have a front license plate, which was not legal in California. This was my ticket. When he told me this, he acted and sounded like he had accomplished a wonderful thing. I even had the strong impression that he thought that I thought he was a pretty great policeman. He wanted me to join in his joy at his accomplishment in giving me a ticket for what was essentially parking in a legal parking zone.

All in all, what all this means to me is that if a cop wants to arrest me, there are enough illegal activities that I might do that all he has to do is wait and watch.

Which brings me to one of my pet peeves, this common acceptance of cultural conditioning - such as the one that says "The Constitution guarantees me this and that."

The United States Constitution actually guarantees nobody anything. The people who own the military interpret for you what the Constitution guarantees you. If they say you can't do this, then you can't. If they say you must do this, then you must. What you think the Constitution says is moot. You can argue, but good luck with that.

We are all slaves to what we think. Ain't THAT weird? And if you think that cultural conditoning is not pervasive in every part of your existence, you are badly mistaken. We are constantly operating under mistaken ideas about what is real and what is true.

Oh well.

SUPERMAN UNMASKED

Blog number 431 **** 15 October 2010

This that I am about to relate - if true, would be news akin to news that the Loch Ness monster had been captured. Really.

I love weird stories about life in this weird already existence. My wife was not impressed at all when I related to story to her, so maybe it's me and maybe nobody else thinks it is even worth talking about. If that's true, well then - phooey.

Tim Gunn has a book out called, "Gunn's Golden Rules. Time Gunn is best known as the co-host of the reality television show called, "Project Runway." He's a fashion consultant.

Tim's father was a special agent for the FBI for 26 years and was also J. Edgar Hoover's ghost writer and speech writer.

J. Edgar's lawn was Astroturf. Tim thinks this was so J. Edgar would not have to hire a gardener because he was so afraid of being spied upon. Remember this.

The rumor that Hoover loved to put on wigs and dresses is now pretty well accepted as very likely true, and herein lies the tale.

Tim and his sister used to take a tour once a year at the FBI compound and one year when Tim was eight years old, their dad asked them if they wanted to meet Vivian Vance - Ethel Mertz of "I Love Lucy" fame, who happened to be visiting Hoover. Tim says he shook her hand and chatted with her a bit before they left.

Years later Tim and his sister was talking about that event when suddenly Tim realized something. He asked his sister, "Does it seem odd to you that when we met Vivian Vance that Hoover wasn't there?

Tim says he has looked at photos of Vivian and Hoover and he says the resemblances are rather eerie. He called several Vivian Vance experts - including Rob Edelman and Audrey Kupferberg, authors of the book, "Meet The Mertzes: The Life Stories of I Love Lucy's Other Couple," none of them knew of any meeting between Vance and Hoover.

Tim declares he is not saying that he definitely met J. Edgar Hoover at his office in the FBI wearing a dress and makeup, only that he "strongly suspects" it - Tim Cann's italics.

It does seem odd that in such a secretive place as the offices of the FBI, and especially in the office of the paranoid anyhow J. Edgar Hoover, that a person whom nobody suspected even knew J. Edgar would be alone, waiting for tourists. What was she doing there?

Against this story, is of course the idea that Hoover would have the time to rehearse for the "I Love Lucy" show, to get made up, etc. Would Hoover have that much spare time? I do think that big wigs in bureaucracies such as the FBI do have a lot of time on their hands, leaving the main work to underlings and just being there to make policy decisions when they come up.

So. Was J. Edgar Hoover one of the stars of "I Love Lucy"? Did Vivian Vance have another part time job? Was J. Edgar really Vivian Vance or was it the other way around? I'd like to think he was. I'd like to think she was. 'cause I really, really love weird happenings.

Addendum to the above;

Thinking about this some more, I now have an alternative theory. Vivian Vance was not there. Instead, it was Hoover, who had disguised himself as Vivian.

I think that's it!

THE OTHER DRUDGE REPORT

Blog number 430 **** 14 October 2010

I changed the air filter on the '99 Dodge Caravan yesterday and when I put everything together, the hose leading from the filter to the top of the engine for emission control, being very brittle, broke.

Went to O' Riley's, nee Checkers, to get a new one, no soap. Went to the Dodge dealers, they didn't have one in stock, so I ordered it. It's coming from Los Angeles, in case you're interested in geographical slash business procedures. If not, just ignore that sentence. You probably won't be the poorer for it, but one never knows, does one?

Now this little rubber hose is 1/4 of an inch thickness, 3/4 inch outside diameter, eight inches long. Any idea what an item like that could cost? Mine costs $16.17. I guess they are on sale this week.

While waiting for the guy to look up my wanted part, I noticed what looked like an interesting letter on his side of the counter. I craned my neck to take a peek at it, and since it looked interesting and the font was pleasing to the eye, I reached over and picked it up. The guy glanced at me, but said nothing. Probably because I was so bold about it and made it looked like I had the right. I WAS a customer, so that helped.

The letter was about people getting the codes to cars and then stealing the cars. It was a stern warning about not anybody in the dealerships ever letting unauthorized persons get that information, warning about the liability if any victim ever found out who let that secret code out into the general public. Evidently it is a real problem, but I don't remember ever hearing or reading about it on the news. So you heard it here first.

I know this is not the news breaking item that is usually found on Blogs that deal in this type of muckraking news, but one has to start somewhere.

Just a little added something or other, "The Daily Show" used to promo their program with, "When news breaks, we fix it." I always thought that so clever.

PICKIN' COTTON

Blog number 429 **** 07 October 2010

I want to get to a dialog that I heard on a movie last night - something that delighted me, but first I want to go through a bit of a labyrinth before I get there. This word journey doesn't have much to do with the dialog that amused me, but there is a connection, however slight. This part is just an excuse to blather a bit.

Around 1950, the movie, "The Third Man" starring Joseph Cotton came out. I had just gotten out of the Air Force from my first hitch and my older brother was visiting. We were in a pool hall (kind of a bar) and I told him about this great new song, "Third Man Theme." He said he wanted to hear it, so we went down to the Maid Rite, sat in a booth, put a nickel in the music box, and we listened to "Third Man Theme."

Maybe twenty years later we were visiting again and he mentioned that he still thought about that song and it was still one of his very favorites. He saw the movie and loved it. I saw the movie twice, but I didn't like it at all, then last night my wife was watching it and she told me how much she liked it, so I thought I would give it another try. I found out that the two times I had watched it before, I hadn't really been watching it. I didn't know, for instance, that it was about diluting penicillin and selling it on the black market, or who or what this "third man" was.

It's a good movie though. Not great. But good.

A few hours later the same night, another movie - this one called, "The Hearse," was on. Again starring Joseph Cotton. And there's the connection. I told you it was slight.

And here's the punch line for this whole Blog entry. Joseph Cotton's character was talking to the heroine and he said to her, "You don't seem surprised at what I'm about to tell you."

Slipped in and out of character, is what Cotten did.

TIME MARCHES ON

Blog number 428 **** 02 October 2010

I ain't got nothing to report or to write about. I just wanted to write. I write, you read. That's the way it goes. I didn't make the rules. I am happy with the circumstances. I just hope you're obedient to them. I don't think that's asking too much, and even if it is, too bad. Suck it up.

Many years ago, when I was young and still very shy, I started going to college again at Compton Junior College in Compton, California - a suburb of Los Angeles. I happened to see this male student wearing really short shorts. A bunch of girls were tagging along with him. I was very envious of his strength of character in dressing that way and seemingly not caring what anyone thought. I wished I had that much confidence. It wasn't until years later that I realized the guy wasn't that confident at all. He was gay.

I keep going back over my past, trying to think of something that happened to me or around me that I could write about, but so far, whatever I come up with, I am pretty sure I have written about it before. It's a shame , but we old people don't have that many stories to tell, so we tend to repeat ourselves. Not our fault at all.

You would think, wouldn't you, that young people would have that problem more that those who have lived a long time and therefore have had more things happen to them? Maybe the young aren't interested in telling stories? Interested instead in the next best thing coming up?

I like my new centrifugal vacuum cleaner. It's heavier to push around and the switch and cord aren't handy, but that thing can vacuum! You can use it like a lawn mower. Back and forth across the carpet, "mowing" one line up, a new one down, presto! Carpet's clean. No back and forth in one place and then stooping to pick up what the vacuum refuses to consider as anything to do with it and its desires. It has one malfunction and I am pretty sure from the forensic evidence that it was returned by another customer probably for the same problem.

The mechanism that raises and lowers the brush from the carpet is not connected to anything. It doesn't work. At first I was going to call and send it back, but I got to thinking that we are never going to have shag rugs, so what the hay. I heard a comedian the other day talking about Americans whining about petty things and I kind of took that to heart. Here I gripe about my new vacuum cleaner and there exists people that don't even have anyplace to put a floor.

We looked at the vacuum cleaners at Walmart's a few days ago and noticed row upon row of centrifugal vacuum cleaners and none of the old kind. If there were any, I didn't see them. I didn't look for them, maybe that's why, but I have a feeling there weren't any. I can well imagine that in a few years the non-centrifugal vacuum cleaners will be completely obsolete and you won't be able to find them anywhere except in Thrift Stores. I don't know who would buy a new one now.

And the weeds in my lawn have won. I give up. I'm going to wait a couple of years to see what happens to it, but it looks like I will have a rock garden in my back yard in the future. Or maybe I'll just mow the weeds and pretend it's grass. I can do that. My eyes ain't all that good anyhow.

Well, I got my wish-to-write out of my system for now, so...bye!

WHAT A SWEET SENTENCE

Blog number 427 **** 01 October 2010

I just read this sentence in a book (The Girl Who Played With Fire) and I want to share it, 'cause it's so delightfully succinct.

"He decided to stop fantasizing about her death and begin planning it."