Truly important

Someone left a message on Facebook that she is really enjoying Downton Abbey.  Really and truly?   This is confirmation that the Internet rots the brain.  And yet I recently subscribed to tumblr, so that intimate friends can inform me over facebook, twitter (which scares me, it's too difficult), google + and my e-mail that they have a hangnail.  I can't read my favorite bloggers, because they have stopped posting to their blogs and use twitter mostly, which @#I don't understand, mainly because I don't feel like wasting my time trying to master it.

Blogger is starting to be frustrating to me too.  I used to think I had it mastered, but they have improved it to the point that I can't do anything with it, like post photos.  Ah, the dear old days!

I only know how to do three things on the computer:  1) backup and restore; 2)control, alt, delete 3) answer e-mail.  That exhausts my little bag of tricks.

Reading biography

I ran out of mysteries to read, so decided to improve my mind by reading one of Mr Charm's biographies, a book about the Duke of Wellington by Christopher Hibbert and well worth reading.  He was an authentic hero, who defeated Napoleon and cared not  a rap what anyone thought of him.  He had a chest full of medals and was beloved by the ladies.

Like Ulysses Grant, who had been a quartermaster, Wellington understood the importance of supplying his armies, above all with food.  Send enough bullocks and sheep, and your army will be assured of victory. It sounds very quotidian, but it worked for him.

The citizenry loves military heroes, especially handsome ones. He went from triumph to triumph, including serving as Prime Minister.

The only unsatisfactory thing in his life was his marriage.  He had proposed to a woman when he was a young man and unable to provide for a family, and she refused him.  When he achieved success, he felt honor bound to renew his proposal, though he no longer cared for her, and she, who also had doubts, felt honor bound to accept.  So, despite the misgivings of both, they were married and lived together uneasily ever after.  He avoided her company whenever possible, and she was obsequious and timid, which made him him more impatient with her.

They were totally unsuited to each other.  He was the first man ever to say, for the record, that his wife did not understand him, although doubtless not the first to feel that way.  But as she lay dying, he was at her side.

Fighting climate change

My local newspaper features almost daily articles on the front page about climate change or global warming, with a generous side helping of beach erosion.  So, in order to limit my personal contribution to these  momentous issues, I have decided to cut back my carbon footprint by canceling my subscription.

Goodbye Facebook, Goodbye Twitter

I haven't posted anything on Facebook for months and am unlikely to.  My life, while it interests me, is both stressful and boring. s for Twitter, I can't even figure out where to start.  What are all those symbols and what do they mean?  Suppose I did it wrong?  I would feel like an un-with-it klutz, which I am, but why flaunt it?  I will still blog when I feel the urge, if I ever climb out of the ditch I'm in.

But the real reason I want to steer clear of these activities is that they are a terrible time-suck.  I can almost hear the remaining hours of my life circling the drain, while I ponder the mot juste.  So until someone figures out how to stretch 24 hours into 28 or 30, I think I'll abstain from social media.

Apology to Tim Geithner

I totally take back all the mean things I said about your tax problems with TurboTax.  I used a different online tax program & it was horrible.  I had to print out the forms and  fill them in  manually to figure out what went where.  I'm still not sure I got it right.  They are still sending me "Pay or Die" letters about my 2010 return, which I filed two years ago.

There's nothing more to say except I'm sorry.

How are the taxes in the Cayman Islands?

scammed!

So I received a phone call from someone with a heavy almost undecipherable Indian accent about my internet problems.  Calling herself Cindy, she said she was something to do with Windows, or Microsoft.  Whatever she said was unintelligible but sounded important.  The accent lent plausibility to her claim.  What phony would try to swindle someone without being intelligible?

It was a scam, but luckily my daughter arrived and got on the phone and scared them off.  So no harm was done, except to my faith in human nature.  Dishonest people with Indian accents--who knew?  I thought all people with heavy Indian accents were IT specialists, or at the very least, doctors.

Tough times at the U of Texas

The University of Texas is facing steep budget cuts.  To hear the administration tell it, if the university gets one penny less than they received last year, essential research will be sacrificed and the University will lose its first class status.  Important projects vital to the welfare of the nation will be lost,  catastrophe will no doubt follow and the research necessary to invent radar will not take place and we will probably lose World War II and the cold war--oh wait, we already won those didn't we?  Well, anyway, something disastrous will happen.

The more likely scenario is that one or two assistant associate deans of diversity won't receive cost of living raises and the official who plans and coordinates University Sex Week will have his/her travel budget cut.  Administrators now out-number faculty in most colleges; the tail is busily wagging the dog.

I remember when Mr Charm worked for the State of New York budget cuts were in the offing.  Our whole way of life was threatened.  Heads would roll, people would lose their jobs, the staff would not be able to purchase paper clips and its vital functions would be endangered.  A black cloud hung over the people of the State of New York.

In the event, two part-time charwomen were laid off and everybody lived happily ever after.  Except for the two charwomen, of course.

That ornery Arctic ice cap

We got the latest issue of Columbia's alumni magazine, which I call the Smug Report, because it is.  The last page tells about the visit of our beloved President to Queens or someplace like that.  I'm surprised they found this lowly place, which is even lowlier now that Sandy has wreaked havoc upon it.  Must have used GPS.

Obama mentioned the Arctic ice cap, which, according to him,  had been melting at a rapid rate.  I am so damn sick of this ice cap and all its brother and sister ice caps around the world.  Obama seems to think it is melting, but others whom I respect deny it.

Isn't it possible to go and measure the damn thing?  Like with an airplane?  and settle this controversy once and for all.  If it is not melting, the media ought to make that a page one news story.  If it is, tell us.

And then let's never hear about ice caps again.  Ever.  They are so twentieth century.

Should I forget about blogging?

I'm considering what to do with my blog, which I think 3 or 4 people actually read.  I have signed up for all the social media stuff, but I don't know what to do with that either.  Shall I discuss my visit to Whole Foods?  My skull x-rays?  Who cares?  As for Twitter, most of the bloggers I enjoy are posting there, but I can't even begin to figure out how it works.  It seems to have enlisted all the characters on the keyboard which were formerly used only in comic strips when one of the characters inadvertently hits his thumb with a hammer and said something like:  "@#*^$$$!"

Also, politics isn't fun any more.  I can't believe the people we have in positions of authority are the best we can find.  What a dreary lot!  What happened to the quality of citizens?  There are 300 million people in this country, but the voters are offered a candidate who believes a woman's body will reject a fetus that results from rape.  Whether he also believes that the stars are God's daisy chain was not revealed.

I am reading Shelby Foote's enormous tome on the Civil War, which is teeming with interesting and distinguished people, so much so that you have to keep a list to remember which side some of them are on, very much as I had to do with War and Peace.  I am still reading about 1861 and have four more years to go.  What a cast of characters!

Funny how now that we have a Democratic president the media are not banging on about how many American lives have been lost in Iraq or Afghanistan.    The total casualties in the Civil War are estimated at 600,000.  No one knows for sure.  Don't hear much about no blood for oil either.

How I spent my Christmas vacation

I have been sidelined with flu, and it was bad.  You don't need to have all the details but I reached the apogee when I fell in the lobby of the Kimmel Center--right on my nose. It hurt like hell.

I was immediately surrounded by six or eight people.  Someone helped me up and someone else got a chair for me.  Among the crowd was one nurse and one nursing assistant.  They sent for an ambulance, which came double quick.  The paramedics checked my blood pressure, etc. and I refused transportation to the hospital.  I never want to see a hospital again, at least as a customer.

On Christmas, I was at a hospital in Harford County, MD.  The people you encounter in Harford County are almost pathologically nice.  I thought the nicest people I had ever met were in Ireland, but Harford County makes the Irish look like pikers.  If there were an Olympic event for niceness, Harford County would win going away.

By the way, I did have a flu shot, but got the flu anyway.

Too good to check

According to the New York Post,college coeds are seeking older men to finance their college expenses. That's how hard up the poor dears are. The article is short on statistics and long on unicorn poop, quoting various here today and gone tomorrow websites that match up these young ladies with wealthy oldsters. I expect to see these headlines on trashy newspapers at the supermarket checkout line, along with UFO sightings and the latest sex scandals. How many of these relationships really pan out? I'm sure there are girls who wouldn't mind taking a rich person's money for no quid pro quo. It's the other end of the equation that I find dubious. I can't believe rich prosperous older guys are gullible enough to finance some chick's education for practically no return on their investment.

Ulysses S Grant

I've been doing a lot of reading about the Civil War and have gotten tremendously interested in General, later President, Grant. Opinions on his administration vary, but everyone acknowledges he was an honorable man through and through. The public knew how to venerate the man, which is greatly to their credit. Not too many honorable men have served as President in my lifetime. Example: Clinton, a scoundrel through and through. Also on the dishonorable list: Nixon, Johnson, and the current incumbent. George H W Bush was an honorable man, and so was his son. Eisenhower was an officer and a gentleman. Gerald Ford--maybe. I can't think of many others. can you?

Teddy bears for the dead

I am amazed at the outpouring of grief for the victims of the school shooting. It was an appalling disaster. But folks, it is not your tragedy. Stop it with the hysteria. In particular, don't make piles of flowers, notes, and toys. These shrines for murder victims are creepy. What good do teddy bears do for the deceased? These children are beyond the need for toys. If you want to help someone, try a living child. The Salvation Army is a good choice. So is Toys for Tots. Or just give money to the charity of your choice.

obscenity

I happened to be watching CNN on tv today at the gym, a thing I avoid like the plague. The creepy politicians are licking their chops about this Connecticut tragedy.Their crocodile tears are sickening. Especially nauseating is Senator Blumenthal, hamming it up like a bad actor.

Capsule movie review

I went to see the movie Pitch Perfect. If you think projectile vomiting is hilarious, by all means see it. If not, don't.

Happy Chanukah

Susan Rice identified

I am sorry to confess that though I have been half-heartedly tracking the troubles of Susan Rice, I did not notice that she was a black woman. I caught on to the woman aspect immediately--I am nothing if not observant--but I didn't notice the earth-shattering information that she was black. If I thought anything about her ethnicity, I figured she was a Nice Jewish Girl. Like me.

Since it is obvious that race is the over-riding characteristic of anyone in American politics, I think it should be mandatory that the media identify everyone's race every time that person is in the news. Specify A (African-American), H (Hispanic), and so on. It can be done discreetly.

That way, everyone will know whether he, she or they should detect discrimination in that person's treatment and feel aggrieved and resentful at the proper time.

Strategy

The recent election results remind me of my experience playing Scrabble with an old friend.

Howie was really smart, but I was smart too, and had a much bigger vocabulary. Mr Charm claimed that Howie had a vocabulary of maybe eight words. So I should have won more often that not, right?

Wrong.

I thought Scrabble was a word game and enjoyed coming up with esoteric words, especially words employing the high point tiles. Howie, on the other hand, believed the objective of the game was to win. It was frustrating and maddening to have Howie use words like "ape" or "was" to block me and my terrific vocabulary.

I played Scrabble as a word game. Howie played to win.

Now a winning strategy is to play the game, any game, by denying your opponent any points. Figure out what he wants to do and prevent it from happening.

What does this have to do with the election which we so elegantly lost? We took the high road, the opposition played to win. We praised our candidate to the skies and proved that he was a fine fellow. Moreover, he had a nice family. Everyone showed up at his rallies and cheered him loudly. Then we stayed home from the polls in droves.

T

he Obama campaign, on the other hand, gave Romney the full Alinsky. They would not let Romney win a point. They made a boogieman out of him. They mocked his ideas and demonized the Tea Party as a bunch of right wing extremists. Meanwhile, none of our team refuted the slanders. Ah, the high road! Lonely as it is, it is a morally superior road to the top. Except when it doesn't lead anywhere.

Events tended to favor the president, of course. Hurricane Sandy ought to have been called Hurricane Obama. All he had to do was put on his little presidential suit and show up among the suffering. Alleviating their suffering was not needed.

I guess it's better to be lucky than smart.

Election day

Thank God it will all be over tomorrow. I hope whoever wins wins by a landslide--no hanging chads or recounts or Supreme Court decisions. In New York and Chicago, of course, there will be accusations--no doubt warranted, but no-one cares. It's hardly worth the Democrats' time digging up all the recently deceased, rounding up the undocumented and the felons, because they will win anyway. Are we honestly going to keep in office the only citizen in these 57 states who desires a new cabinet level agency, a Department of Business, despite the fact that we have a Department of Commerce, which is surely the same thing? Or isn't it? Or wants high speed rail system that will shoot people across this vast continent in 48 hours, despite the existence of the airline industry which can move passengers from coast to coast in 5 hours. I don't think Obama is the smartest person in the room any more, unless the room is his clothes closet. Upon closer acquaintance he has turned out to be a dunderhead and a bore.

No more pink, please

Yesterday at the drugstore I was asked whether I would like to make a donation to the Komen foundation to fight breast cancer. I most assuredly would not. They are just going to have to struggle on with the millions and millions they have already collected from the millions and millions of concerned citizens.

I am getting sick and tired of breast cancer. You can't get mad at them because it is a worthy cause, and worthy causes are really, well, worthy, aren't they? But I am tired of them, and of buying everything pink from coffee to socks to cars, and from seeing their blasted pink ribbons all over anything and everything.

You reach a point where you've had enough. I totally understand why the citizens of Athens voted to banish Aristides because they were tired of hearing him called Aristides the Just.