Overcast, but not too cold. I went to the Social Security Alumni board meeting at the Double T Diner near Woodlawn. Nice to see my old friends again. Bonnie Ciborowski is now the President and she is doing a good job.
Today is the "Ides of March".. watch out, Julius! I tried to figure out what the Ides of March were all about. According to the Internet, the Roman calendar had three spots in each month that were important:
Nones: the 5th or 7th of the month
Ides: the 13th or 15th of the month (depending on the length of the month)
Kalends: the 1st of the following month
"On the earliest calendar, the Ides of March would have occurred on the first full month of the new year".... this was when March was considered the first month of the year.
Also, some God had to be worshipped on the Ides.. by the sacrifice of the Ides sheep... whatever that all means... if you are interested, look it up, but be careful where you look, and be ready to be confused.
The Week magazine for March 18, 2016 had some items that I thought were very interesting.
Getting Stretched
Astronaut Scott Kelly grew 2 inches during his year in orbit. Wow! Can I go up? As I am constantly complaining... I have lost 4 inches in height since I was a teen-ager. My arthritis professionals say that is fairly common.. as one's vertebrae scrunch with age.
When I worked at the New Bedford YMCA, I helped a few guys get taller. They wanted to join the police department, but they were too short to meet the 5 foot 8 inches requirement. Some of these guys were just a quarter to a half inch shorter than the requirement, and a lot of hanging by the knees and heels, and stretching on the "horse" and rings got them close... or so they said. I just think that the height requirement was met by passing a visual test. Who is going to turn away a muscular weightlifter because he is just a quarter inch too short?
Visual examination is vital to a lot of jobs. "Close enough!" is ok sometime... like when I had my first job. I was a Diesel Fitter at a lady's underwear factory. That's right. My job was to hold each "bloomer" up to the light for examination, and if it looked ok, I would yell out: "Dies'll fit 'er!"
Sorry about that.. but I love that joke.
The End Times are here
We know that because millions of beetles are invading a Buenos Aires beach, turning miles of nice yellowish sand into a black carpet of writhing creatures. Some think that this is an omen.
Some enterprising guy has been scooping them up and selling them for food... good source of protein.
Lunch in Baltimore
Speaking of beetles... I once drove my family to a diner where my late wife and I ate our meals when we first came to Baltimore. I loved the place because I could get a real cold glass of beer to complement my burger. The diner looked a little rundown and there were guys whispering in some of the booths. On the counter were old-fashioned record selecting machines, with the selections written on cardboard strips that revolved so you could pick your favorite.
We got out hotdogs and burgers and just before we began eating, my son, Chris, said, "Hey, look. beetles!" Thinking it was the Fav guys, we took a look to see what the selection was... but it wasn't the singing group that we saw in the glass enclosure, but a family of nice fat cockroaches. We grabbed our food and hurried outside, tossing all of our hotdogs and burgers into a dumpster.
Montreal here we come
The magazine mentions that Google searches for "Move to Canada" have soared, thanks to Mr. Trump's successful candidacy. (As bad as people think Mr Trump is, I can't imagine that he would be as bad as double-u. I could be wrong on that.)
I once got stopped in Canada by a guy bumming for cigarettes or money. When I didn't give him either, he swore at me in terms that made me believe he was an American ExPat. But he did talk to me a bit. He told me that he and lots of his friends moved to Canada to avoid the VietNam draft. So, I gave him a Canadian quarter.
Hood Ornaments
I read a nice article while waiting for my RAV4 to be serviced. It was either in the Elks magazine or the American Legion magazine. It was all about hood ornaments and how they evolved. Extremely interesting, I was tempted to tear it out.
Meanwhile, I'm sure you have heard about the lady who was driving around with a 15-foot tree stuck in her car's front grill. What a scene! And apparently she was so drunk that she didn't remember how it got there. Yes, that would be a great hood ornament.
More Texas Education
A retired school teacher who is running for the Texas Board of Education has some ideas about the world today. Here are a few:
She says that President Obama worked as a gay prostitute.
She also says that school shootings are the result of teaching evolution.
She advocates a ban on Islam in America.
Imagine the ideas that this former school teacher planted in her students' minds, and now, she wants to do it State-wide. Does Cruz agree with her?
......................................................................................................................................
No comments:
Post a Comment