Tuesday Tidbits

Turn Back! This may open close minds, unpucker puckered asses, and widen horizons. You have been warned.

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Reasons for involuntary incarceration at the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum between 1864 and 1889. After checking the boxes for most of the first 13 reasons I stopped in order to keep my sanity.

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It's hard for us to imagine the kind of poverty that existed in the Depression. We are too young. This cardboard covered room infested with flies, many on the face of the lad on the right. Apparently it has reached the point where swatting them aside is no longer effective, so like dumb cows, they simply put up with it. Thank your blessings, guys.

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Shortly after this speech, the Congress succumbed to the Military-Industrial Complex. And we have been at that trough ever since.

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Our latest family tradition is meeting at Twistee, an ice cream joint down the street, for a treat at 5:30 on Sunday afternoon. Last week they had a customer celebration for us (and maybe other customers, too) with face painting, haki sack, horseshoes, balloons, and of course, ice cream.

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I took this guy's picture while letting out Whizzbang last week, to whizz. She got close to the back fence and I saw Mr. Froggy clomp up to the post. Clomp seemed like the best word, since it wasn't graceful but effective. Those suckers on his feet did the trick.

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I don't blame 'ya, Lady.

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Whizzbang, aka, Dumbstruck the Wonder Pup Update

Whizz had surgery last week. She was spayed.

I had surgery, too, on the same day. She was spayed - I was splayed. We will now be bonded by simultaneous same-day sutures.

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Used to be the old saying, "Never buy a car made on Monday or Friday." Now with robotics I wonder what the new mantra is?

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They outlawed begging around here a few years ago, but occasionally one pops up. Either new in town and unaware of the law or not. This guy was plying his trade outside the grocery store on Saturday. Yeah, that's my Saturday night fun these days. Anyway, the cardboard signage presentation is all-important. Most stress the usual come-ons: hard luck vet, disabled, family man who can't catch a break. Most will God Bless You at the bottom.

This guy gets a few extra points for his messaging skills. Or demerits, depending on your inclination. Me? I loved it. He said it all with one sentence. No pleading, no explaining circumstances and no blessing. His sign? Well, it was brilliant in a way. And, while waiting for the light to change I saw a fellow driver give him a handful of change. Brilliant and apparently effective.

"Spread some cheese on this cracker."

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Met's Front Office.

In '62, the Met's first season, as they were headed toward 120 losses, Casey Stengal watched a player and a coach get tossed by the umpires in a game. He stayed planted in the dugout, not going out to defend his guys. When asked about it he said:

"It was a horseshit call. But we're a horseshit team. As long as we're a horseshit team, horseshit things are going to happen."

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