WE SHOULD WATCH THIS CAREFULLY

There is a thing going on now about the US ports being operated by a company owned by an Arab country. Without considering the merits or lack of merits of this decision there is one thing that I find disturbing that I haven’t heard anyone address.

George W. Bush, President of the United States seems to feel there is nothing wrong here and doesn’t understand what the fuss is about. He made a statement that shows me something.

"They ought to listen to what I have to say about this. They'll look at the facts and understand the consequences of what they're going to do," he said. "But if they pass a law, I'll deal with it with a veto."

Read that carefully. Does that sound a bit towards the Royal Monarchy approach to government?

“They ought to listen to what I have to say” or else. Didn’t Napoleon say something like that? Or was it Hitler?

We should all watch this carefully.

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
February 22, 2006

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Back in the 1940’s there was a Broadway mucical and a movie called “On The Town”.
It had a catchy song called “New York, New York” that
started out with:

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town!
The Bronx is up and the Battery's down
The people ride in a hole in the ground,
New York, New York, it's a wonderful town!

With apologies to Leonard Bernstein the events of the past week lead me to think:

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town!
The Bronx is up and the snow's coming down ….

New York Central Park Feb, 12, 2006

Of course this is because I read that New York City broke
all records for snowfall the other day.
It happened to be the same day the Pebble Beach Golf Tournament was going on here.

Pebble Beach Golf Course, Feb 12, 2006

I thought the difference was striking.

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town!

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
February 14, 2006

OUR NEW KITTEN

Perhaps some of you recall that Jen-Chi and I are registered in the State of California as Domestic Partners. You might even recall the day she went out to buy some Peanut Butter and Apples.
Well, my Domestic Partner used to have a dog named, GoGo. In Chinese “Go” means “dog” so, in English, she actually had a dog named DogDog. GoGo was very old and passed away. Since then Jen-Chi has wanted a pet. She decided a kitten would be the best choice as they are small and she could train it the way she wanted.
So we went to the animal shelter and adopted a kitten.

Meet Jake!

Okay, so it doesn’t look much like a kitten or even a cat. Jake happens to be a 5-year old, neutered male, Shih Tzu who apparently needed a home and looked enough like a kitten to satisfy Jen-Chi.
Incidentally, if you have always wondered, as I have, how to pronounce Shih Tzu in English it’s like She Dzu with the last part like a fast Duh-sue. Roughly translated I’ve read it means Lion Dog in Mandarin.
Lion Dog?
Of course. Look at the picture.

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
February 11, 2006

I WATCHED THE SUPER BOWL GAME

Well, I have seen forty of them now and, in my opinion, this one was the worst.
I look forward to watching the Super Bowl game each year.  Ordinarily, it’s a good football game dressed up with all kinds of interesting side things and even interesting commercials.  This year a few of the commercial were the only thing that kept me watching.
Almost everything this year was a disappointment. The game itself was poorly played and officiated but that wasn’t all.
It started with a rendition of the National Anthem. That was as bad and probably worse, than any combination of sounds I have ever heard.  Maybe someone thinks that caterwauling is music but my ears do not.
From there it went downhill to half-time when we were allowed to watch an over-the-hill rock star parade his skinny body around while thousands surrounded the stage screaming for him to stop. They even seemed to be shaking their fists at him and still he wouldn’t stop.
Then the networks seemed to think it necessary to insert statistics about everything.  Who honestly cares that some runner having his helmet knocked off 3 times is a new super bowl record with the last one being 2 in Super Bowl VII?
I’m sorry, guys. I’m afraid you lost one of your biggest fans. Maybe I’ll get over it by next year. Or hopefully they will.

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
February 6, 2006

I SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE

If I were forced to actually attend a State of the Union Address, as apparently 80% of Washington, DC is, I would want to go in a Supreme Court Justice costume. Did you notice they get to wear those robes so nobody can see if they have clean clothes on or any clothes at all for that matter? (Ooh, I just had a shudder as I pictured the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsburg naked under her robe.)

Additionally, almost everyone else there seemed to enjoy applauding and standing up every few minutes. To me there seemed to be little correlation between the standing and what was being said. However, I did notice several of the older members of the group seemed to have trouble towards the end. There was one time I thought Vice President Cheney wasn’t going to make it up. But all the Justices just sat there. They didn’t applaud and they didn’t stand. My assumption is that this is due to their appointments being for life. A Supreme Court Justice can’t be fired for any reason so they can just sit there. If I were one, I probably wouldn’t even show up. So what are they going to do? They can’t fire me. Maybe they would mark it against me in my permanent record so it might affect me when I apply for my next job. Ha!

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
February 2, 2006

STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH

A strange thing happened to me yesterday. I sort of wanted to watch the President’s State of the Union Address on TV but I forgot what local time it was supposed to take place. I went to where I always go when I need some information – Google. I searched for “state of the union” (Google ignores upper or lower case – did you know that?). Right away much information on SOTU popped up. It even had the full text including all of the indications of (applause).

I concluded I had missed it. I also concluded I probably would live so I went to the TV and turned on the news channel to possibly get a recap. The first thing I heard was, “The President is now approaching and soon will be entering.”

Wait a minute! The President isn’t even there yet but I went on the Internet and read a word for word version of his speech including all the (applause) insertions!

Now I watch West Wing so I realize the President employs several speechwriters. However, I had no idea the speechwriters wrote in the applause parts. It made me wonder if there might be a big neon sign behind him that flashes “APPLAUSE”. They have those on other TV shows but those shows are all make-believe and intended to fool the viewer. But this is George W. Bush, the President of the United States.

Oh.

The Old Professor
Carmel, CA
February 1, 2006