SMOKE GETS IN YOUR... WALLET!?

"A pipe gives a wise man time to think and a fool something to stick in his mouth." Trischmann's Paradox.

My one (and probably last) guilty pleasure is sitting in front of my laptop at my desk smoking my pipe. Smoking a pipe is nothing new for me. During my basic training in the mid-60s, one of my ammo pouches carried a package of tobacco, a pipe, pipe cleaners, a reamer, and matches (the other carried a book).

I know; I know. I fully understand smoking my pipe is not good for me, but it is a risk I am willing to take. While not good for me, I believe it is still better than cigarettes. I never tried cigarettes - I was so against cigarettes that a few 'friends' once jumped me after school, got me on the ground, held me down, stuck a cigarette in my mouth, and tried to make me smoke it. I didn't.

I did try cigars on occasion, but that was short lived. A pipe has been my nearly constant companion.

Through the years, I have tried a lot of different pipe tobaccos and enjoyed many of them, but one called Middleton's Cherry Blend is the one that emerged as my go-to. Back around 1970, pipe maker and tobacconist David P. Ehrlich offered a blend called Cake Box, a close second, but when the manufacturer stopped making it and sold the recipe, it was never the same.

Middleton's Cherry Blend, however, disappeared suddenly a few years ago. I have searched and searched for it and just found three 1.5-ounce packs in Vermont, but apparently Vermont has tacked on a 92% tax, making each package just about $10. Nope, not worth it - there is a limit. (Along the way, I also found that NH had tacked on a 65.03% tax). My current blends are getting my by okay.

“The fact is, Squire, the moment a man takes to a pipe, he becomes a philosopher. It’s the poor man’s friend; it calms the mind, soothes the temper, and makes a man patient under difficulties. It has made more good men, good husbands, kind masters, indulgent fathers, than any other blessed thing on this universal earth.” ”Sam Slick, The Clockmaker”

IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!

Stop the search parties; call off the dogs; take my picture down from telephone poles across the nation and the side of milk cartons! I am still here. I would love to scream, "Don't pay the ransom - I escaped!"

But, the truth is: time has become distorted. It's Monday. I blink and it's Thursday. And I blink again, and it's the next Thursday. Or no matter how many times I blink, it's still Tuesday - the same Tuesday.

Anyhow, it has been over a month since my last visit here (no applause, please), and I figure I should say something!

"Something!"

There!

One problem is that without regular change, everything stays the same. Most thoughts I have are stuck in an apparently endless loop. There are two things that dominate my life now (and for the past eight months or so). They are the same things that I have written about earlier.

First is the tRump pandemic. Just under half of America still sees absolutely no problem there. In an earlier post, I mused whether 145,923 is a large number. That was back in May, sometime after their lord and savior assured his minions it would disappear after 15 deaths or so, and kept saying it would just disappear, and here we are today with half a million fellow citizens dead! It will continue to get much worse before it gets better. (Yes, there is a vaccine on the horizon, which eventually should make a difference! [Now, if science worked as hard to find a cure for cancer....])

The other issue is the ongoing worship of lack of character, morals, decency, intelligence, etc., etc. by the same just under half of America. That is another whole thing, but for now, that's it.

Stay safe and stay well!

(p.s. If there is a topic you would like to see, please just ask!)

BUSY DAY!

This morning we went in to get absentee ballots and found out we could do everything today, which we did. WE VOTED!

Then we donated blood. Again, the person there told me I have to pee sitting down - she said not to lift anything heavy.

Finally, a Lions Club meeting tonight.

Some days are like that, you know.

THE WAY IT WAS! (1975)

A friend just posted some pages from the 1975 Plymouth AREA High School yearbook. Besides my being quite the fashion plate (picture below if I can figure out how to import it [try not to swoon]), the book brought back some memories, which probably wouldn't fly today.

First was the annual Miss Halloween contest. If I remember correctly, there were three competitive categories in the contest: swimsuit, evening gown, and talent. The one twist is all the contestants were guys including football players, etc. 

The other annual event was a class fundraiser - the Senior Slave Auction. Students would "buy" a senior for the day to do things like carry their books to class, clean their lockers, get and serve their lunch, etc. An all-school assembly would convene and the highest bidder(s) would get the services of their senior for the day (but sadly not everyone played along). 

Sadly, many (most) did. While it may not have been the event that ended the continuation, I do remember one year the students who bought their senior had him push a peanut up the ramps between floors... with his nose. The good sport did so. When he was discovered, his nose was raw and his face bloodied.

When given freedom, many (most) people won't 'play the game' and do the right thing.

Sounds like today.

SEEING STARS!

Every time I finish a book on my Kindle (not as many or as often as I used to), I am asked to rate the book. I struggle with this. I have the option of one to five stars. It takes a couple of weeks to finish a book as virtually the only time I read is in bed before I try to sleep. I do remember one weekend way back in the day when I read five books in a weekend.

These days, I read for entertainment and escape - thrillers, mysteries, police procedurals, and courtroom dramas (with an occasional horror novel tossed in [or political expose]). I rarely read non-fiction any more. Most main characters are retired whatevers (military, CIA, etc.) and virtually always come out on top (think Jack Reacher, John Milton, or ). The bad guys are the worst of the worst - someone created them, which makes me wonder about the authors.

Anyhow, I digress. Most of my ratings are three, four, or five stars. The problem is discerning what a five-star book really is. When I was teaching, I dealt with true five-star creations (Dickens, Bradbury, Lee, Golding, etc).

Today, I love earlier Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Lescroart, Lee Child, Patricia Cornwell, etc. Most of their offerings are legitimately four and five star books, but what makes them so?

I love detailed description, realistic dialogue, fleshed out characters, and a strong story (something that keeps me turning pages to see what happens next or how the protagonist gets out of whatever seemingly impossible situation s/he got into).

So, if I give a Kindle read five stars, is it really? 

Usually not, but in the Kindle context, maybe... if you know what I mean.

As long as ratings are relative, I can live with it.

WHICH AMERICA?

I have been doing a lot of thinking about this thing called 'America.'

Growing up, I thought I knew America. Over the past few years, I am not so sure anymore. 

In my early days, I was taught to see America as the proverbial melting pot - a stew of sorts contained in the borders of a pot in which there were many different ingredients, each with a separate identity but contributing to a whole, something that was far greater than the sum of the parts.

Today, we still have those who remember, adhere to and fight for the old vision but we also have those who, whether they can admit it or not, want a straight, white, Christian, male-dominated, armed country. Anything short of that is not America. There is little in-between. America started off with the former and is struggling today with the latter.

People don't want America - they want their version of America.

When I arrived in rural New Hampshire, it struck me as Mayberry-ish. I came from a place where debutants had balls (not that kind), females had nose jobs, and lots of material goods. None of that up in rural NH. You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know.... 

I suspect the section of NH where I ended up was and is tribal. Attitudes of locals was passed down by their parents who learned them from their parents, etc., etc. When I got here, New Hampshire was 99 percent white. Some forty years, it hasn't changed much - I believe latest census estimate (last year) put her at 93.1 percent white. 

The true locals resented outsiders, especially when they brought 'their ways.' I adapted pretty well, but the loud, pushy tourists ruined it. 

I am going to stop here because this is sounding familiar (I am sure I posted something recently that reflects these thoughts). 

Next time will be something totally different.

Thanks for understanding. 

ACCEPTABLE LOSSES REVISITED!

In case you missed it, this first part is a repeat of a blog entry from February 23, 2020, called "Acceptable Losses." 

Original Post 

(Full disclosure: I am a gun owner, and I support the Second Amendment)     

There is an old military saying that states: ‘No plan survives after the first contact with the enemy.’

When the military and other groups consider and develop a plan, there is something built in called ‘Acceptable Losses.’ What that means is if all goes as planned (which it rarely does), it will result in a certain percentage of life or materiel loss that is deemed worth losing (acceptable) to attain the objective of the mission.

Keeping that in mind, while many are calling for tweaking the current laws, doing something, there is an unyielding refusal of others to consider anything to make a positive difference in our gun culture.

Six people dying with vaping is unacceptable (now up to 59), so action is taken.

Thirty-six thousand people killed each year by guns is apparently acceptable. In mass shootings, as shocked as people profess to be, we have become numbed to the regular increase of incidents. To help, they say we should keep sending thoughts and prayers (yawn) but do nothing else.

Sandy Hook (29 killed) should have been when action was taken, but that was apparently acceptable. Las Vegas (58), Pulse (49), Virginia Tech (32), El Paso (22), etc., etc., should also have brought about action, but apparently, some still see those as acceptable losses. Any suggestion of changing any laws result in, ‘They’re coming to take our guns.’ To them, keeping the status quo is worth the piling-up bodies.

Until such killings become unacceptable to all, they will remain acceptable.

Addition and Update

So, here we are in mid-September some seven months after the above was written. 

On February 24th, tRump tweeted: "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!"

And then on March 9th, he added: "So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!"

And today, if he says it, they believe it. September 15th, almost 200,000 U.S. citizens are dead! Bolstered by their Great Leader, probably forty percent of Americans still see that as okay - fully acceptable! They will tell you tRump has done everything perfectly, and the results couldn't be better. To say anything else might reveal some intelligence, which they don't have.

For two months, tRump lied and denied, and here we are, and there is no end in sight.

200,000 dead and climbing.

Acceptable losses.

Sad.

#trumppandemic