Highway System part 1: the first 5 Tens

 In celebration of next year's 100th birthday of our highway system, I would first like to take a look at what I call the 10s, meaning all of the main east to west highways that we have. 

First of all, Bryan, WHAT IN HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? WHAT HIGHWAY SYSTEM?

Oh! Yeah, maybe I should provide some background on this.

Before 1926, we had no real national system of highways. Sure, we had a few highways in varying conditions depending on where you were. 

A perfect example of this is the Lincoln Highway, a generally ragtag connection of roads that was never completed as originally designed. If you look at some modern road maps, you will see an L designating a rough sketch of what the Lincoln Highway was, but the original New York to San Francisco route has long since been paved over, probably 3 or 4 times.

By the mid 1920s, there were enough automobiles on the road that a national and uniform system made sense. The general rule was that for east to west roads, the assigned numbers would be even, with the lowest number (2)being furthest north and the highest number (98)being furthest south. North to south highways were numbered odd, with the lowest number route (1) in the east while the highest number (101) was in the west.

This was an absolutely perfect system, right? Au contraire! Depending on where you were in the country, these highways could have tight and blind curves, as well as very steep mountain grades. Also, many of these roads served as the Main Street of many communities big or small, so the highways also later came to be riddled with stop signs and traffic signals.

Still, this new system was the standard pretty much into the mid 1960s, when the new interstate system of divided highways was showing some legs.

The U.S. highway system utilized a shield that held the route number. The shield design evolved over the years with some variation depending on the state. 

All right, are we straight? How about just a slight warp? Ok, back to where I was, the multiples of 10 in the U.S. Highway System.

Highway 10 had two unique qualities about it. First of all, it did not go from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it actually began in downtown Detroit. It ran up in a north-north-western direction until around Bay City, then cut west to Lake Michigan. From there, a ferry would take people acruss the lake and continue on U.S. 10 in Wisconsin, continuing to Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washingon, terminating in Seattle. 

Much of 10 was easy travel as far as Montana before it crossed the Rockies in western Montana and Idaho. It alos had to cross the Cascade range in western Washington.

As of now, U.S. 10 exists only between West Fargo and Bay City, having been replaced with Interstates 90 and 94.

This road also has a unique quality or two about it. Not only was it extended from its original terminus in Yellowstone National Park to Newport, Oregon, but within Yellowstone itself, it does not exist officially. Therefore, 20 with the exception of its Yellowstone break, goes from Boston to the Oregon coast, traveling across Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, a tiny corner of Montana, then Idaho and finally Oregon. U.S. 20 sees quite a variety of landscape, from the rolling hills of the northeast through the northern Appalachians, farmland, urban areas of Boston, Cleveland, and Boise, and a good amount of desert in Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. It is also the main streen of several smaller towns in many states.

A coast to coast highway like U.S. 20, U.S. 30 does NOT get broken up by a national park. Much of 30 between Pennsylvania and Wyoming is labeled on maps as the Lincoln Highway, though with its many freeway bypasses around towns, particularly in Pennsylvania and Ohio,  30 has long strayed from the Lincoln Highway as it was originally routed.

U.S. 30 begins in Atlantic City, New Jersey (Monopoly, anyone?), and goes across Jersey, the long length of Pennsylvania, 3 miles of West Virginia at its most northern tip, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, the long length of Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon, ending in Astoria. In fact, it takes some extra length between POrtland and Astoria by following the westernmost portion of the Columbia River.

Unlike U.S. 20, 30 has undergone many freeway bypass realignments in order to avoid smaller towns, particularly in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, thereby taking away the rural and small town charm it once had, particularly going through Pennsylvania Dutch Country. Before the arrival of the PA Turnpike, U.S. 30 was considered the safer of two routes (the other being U.S. 22) crossing the Appalachian Mountains. In fact between the western Pittsburgh area and the Philadelphia area, the turnpike and 30 are never more than a half hour apart.

U.S. 30 sees the downtown areas of Boise, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. Like 20, it sees many types of terrain on its course.

U.S. 40 actually shares an origin with U.S. 30, in that it begins in Atlantic City. From there it is a bit more southerly, crossing southern Jersey into skinny Delaware, then Maryland, Pennsylvania, a tiny bit of West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, and ending in Park City, Utah, just 30 miles short of Salt Lake City. U.S. 40 shares a good amount of pavement with Interstate 70 between Baltimore and the Rockies, though it maintains its own identity in that distance in many places. Near Idaho Springs, Colorado, 40 "breaks up" with 70 permanently to cut up into northern Colorado and northeastern Utah.

U.S. 40 has an asset (or disadvantage depending on your point of view) of going through many downtowns, such as Denver, Kansas CIty, St. Louis, Columbus, and Baltimore. It sees a good amount of mountainous terrain in the east and west along with desert, coastal plain, and farmlands of the midwest.

Like U.S. 10, 40 fell victim to the Interstate Highway System, but unlike 10, it lost less than a thousand miles. Interstate 80's completion made 40 obsolete through western Utah, Nevada, and California, where it ended in San Francisco.

And finally, we will tackle the ever so famous...

U.S. 50 is about as classy a highway as they come, quite frankly because it's often the road less traveled...but I'll get to that in a bit!

Like 40 and 10, 50 suffered some truncation, but only about 100 miles or so. Parts of it originally were part of the Lincoln Highway in the west, particularly between San Francisco and Ely, Nevada.

Its truncation happened in Sacramento, so 50 does not see the Pacific Ocean. 

Starting in Ocean City, Maryland, 50 crosses coastal plain to the Chesapeake Bay where it serves Annapolis via freeway and soon after, goes right through Washington,D.C. Actually, D.C. is about as downtown as 50 gets in terms of big cities. From there, it heads through the expensive burbs of Virginia before it gets into rural Virginia, then West Virginia, with a tiny slice of western Maryland, Crossing the Ohio, we get INTO Ohio, cutting through that state's southern rural parts, then into Indiana and Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California.

Aside from D.C. downtown-wise, 50 sees Cincinnati and St. Louis. Apart from that, it sees a LOT of country, but maintains its own identity most of the way, key word is MOST!

Currently, between Grand Junction, Colorado and Salina, Utah, it shares a little over 200 miles of Interstate 70, going through some spectacular desert landscape. Before Interstate 70 was completed in Utah, 50 followed U.S. 6 from Green River to Spanish Fork, headed up to Salt Lake City, cut across with U.S. 40 to Wendover, then cut south to Ely, Nevada. Now, it goes from Salina to Scipio, follws Interstate 15 south to Holden ( a ghost town), then heads west to Delta to share road with U.S. 6 to Ely.

From Ely, Nevada to Fallon, Nevada, U.S. 50 is known as the Loneliest Road because there is not much for almost 300 miles. Most truck travel prefers Interstate 80 to the north, and the towns of Austin and Eureka are not known as travel destinations. It is a fascinating and often scenic combo of desert and mountain...as is most of Nevada in fact. 

West of Carson City, 50 does some climbing and dropping before it enters the Lake Tahoe area, offering many stunning views of the beautiful blue deep lake, then does some more mountain climbing in the Sierra Nevadas before it becomes a freeway to serve the greater Sacramento area and end at Interstate 80 in West Sacramento. In its pre-Interstate days, 50 cut south to Stockton, then went west again through the golden hills of Altamont before entering the vast east bay collection of cities before crossing the San Francisco Bay itself to end in the city.

Cliff Nelson

 And exit Cliff Nelson...a good 5 year run! He started as an aggressive assistant DA,heavily pushing for Winter Austen's guilty verdict. He mellowed out a bit after, liking Deborah Saxon but ended up just amking himself a pest. He was later forced by Logan to prosecute Draper and won, which was a bitter victory. Tiring of the thankless job of prosecuting, he sought a position with Mike Karr to practice civil law.

A golden opportunity came when Logan needed strong counsel to win custody of Jamey from Raven, unknowingly getting the key evidence to win from a nudie mag in Elliot Dorn's office. Ever the loudmouth still, he bragged that he knew who killed Elliot and was soon the victim of a stabbing (Henry Slesar considerd killing him off but changed his mind). After recovering, he was invited to join Draper as a partner in the law firm when Mike became the new D.A., often handling things himself as Draper was helping April piece together who the real father of Emily's baby was.

After Draper left for Europe, he was the lone lawyer in the firm for a short bit before agreeing to share office space with new and idealistic attorney Didi Bannister. . They proved to be a good team, Didi pumping fresh energy into Cliff while Cliff helped her to rein in her idealism when common sense was required. Wanting a date for the opening of the Whitney Theater's dance revue, Cliff impulsively asked ditzy waitress and aspiring actress Mitzi Martin to accompany him. After a rough start, they became quite a cute if silly couple. Mitzi soon found a brand new acting school led by Jim Dedrickson. Cliff joined and got some good acting strategies to hopefully use in court when he defended Gavin Wylie. When real killer Sky Whitney (really Jeff Brown) was proven to be the killer.

Cliff and Mitzi were excited to be part of Jim's theater group when Raven let the group use the Whitney Theater...that is until Raven found out that Gavin was part of it and she kicked them all out. She also had Cliff fired from one of his biggest clients because he wouldn't fake a will to make sure she got all of her husband's millions. Therefore it was not hard for Smiley Wilson to convince him to be part of a practical joke framing Raven for murder. It was all fun until Cliff saw that Smiley wanted to take things too far, and Smiley removed Cliff from the proceedings. Not long after, Jim panicked that some real harm could come to Raven so he spilled all to Mike Karr, putting Cliff as well as Calvin Stoner in legal trouble for their participation. Even after Jim rescued Raven from a crazed and murderous Smiley, things were still up in the air until the real Sky Whitney's identity was proven and Raven was too distracted to proceed with suing her tormentors.

Cliff soon assisted Didi in defending her brother Troy for murdering crooked cop Ted Loomis, though it was in self defense. Troy was acquitted when mobster Eddie Lorimer confessed to the police that Ted Loomis had conspired with mob henchman Joe Bulmer to kill Troy. Cliff was also consoling Mitzi after she was hit by a car driven by crazy and jealous Nora Fulton. Speaking of which, after Nora was killed in the WMON studio, Cliff and Didi represented Nicole Cavanaugh, who would not budge from her confession of murder despite growing evidence she was lying. Cliff also had to contend with Gunther Wagner, who had romantic designs on Mitzi. Cliff thought Gunther might have killed Nora and also in a moment of desperation accused Sky Whitney...but once again Cliff provided a key to solve the case and Sky Whitney had all the key players reenact Nora's murder to show that CEA double agent David Cameron had done it. A drunken Cliff in a celebratory moment proposed to Mitzi but took it back the next day. Mitzi ran away for time and Cliff decided to run her restaurant the Rock Garden, to disastrous results. Mitzi returned and, moved by Cliff's intentions and efforts, reconciled with him.

Bored with their old office, Cliff and Didi found new offices in the newly opened ISIS building. It was a dream at first until Didi started acting paranoid and irrational and violent. Seeing Alf Mayhew's body falling and then witnessing security chief Donald Hext switching suicide notes put Cliff in a dangerous position. After surviving a murder attempt via gas poisoning, Cliff went into hiding and then dared to invade the ISIS building at night, dodging Hext and Louis Van Dine's manhunt until he got himself locked in Van Dine's multimedia torture room. After weeks of losing his mind, a severely mentally wounded Cliff was rescued by Gunther when Gunther, Sky, Miles, and Derek raided the ISIS building and stopped Van Dine.

It took some intense therapy from Dr. Beth Correll, but Cliff finally began to show emotions again, having a breakthrough after laughing uncontrollably at Shellley Franklyn's selfish histrionics. After that, Cliff and Didi took on their paralegal Marty's grandfather's case of stolen burial grounds. It was a tough case as grandfather Standing Elk held many secrets that stymied Cliff and Didi. Sky and Raven pursued the case even after being fired by Standing Elk and found out the secrets on their own, and helping Cliff and Didi to win the case. Cliff had been offered a prestigious position in Capitol City and had been allowed to finish the Standing Elk case. He wanted Mitzi to join him, but she had grown a lot on her own and knew the two had no solid future together.

Cliff began as more or less a bulldog attorney, but soon evolved into a merely pushy and occasional goofball character who provided some comic relief to balance the drama.

Live From New York, It's A Dateless Saturday Night!

    Sometimes when I find a huge (over 500 pages) book, it looks daunting unless it's a dictionary. A few years ago, I read all 1400+ pages of The Count of Monte Cristo, and that was quite the task. 

   In this case, the book at my favorite thrift store was of a topic quite dear to me: Saturday Night Live. It was put together via a wide array of interviews of almost everyone creatively and corporately involved up to 2002.

   Just to lay down a little history, Saturday Night Live was not some all of a sudden brainstorm by creator Lorne Michaels. On the contrary...for those of you who never knew life in the 1900s, there was a late night talk show host named Johnny Carson, and he hosted the Tonight Show from 1962-92. The NBC network was running reruns of his show on the weekends and when Johnny found out in late 1974, he told them to knock it off by the summer of 1975. So NBC had the option of either returning that block of time (11:30pm to 1am) to local channels and lose that commercial profit OR come up with something to replace it.

   Incidentally, Johnny wanted reruns to play on weeknights so he could take more time off...he was getting famous for that already.

   After some creative talks and some really (in my mind) dumb ideas, Canadian Lorne Michaels along with future sports exec Dick Ebersol were put in charge of creating a 90 minute show. Lorne put together some talent from comedy and improvisation clubs, created a basic structure for his idea, and on October 11, 1975, NBC's Saturday Night debuted...and it lived happily ever after!

YEAH SURE!

Its first host was George Carlin, who was apparently quite high that night. He would appear 9 years later with shorter hair and minus the drug use. The show's original cast was Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, and Gilda Radner. While they were featured all through the first several episodes, they were not really highlighted and shown individually in the opening until early 1976.

The breakout star of the show was Chevy Chase with his Weekend Update features where he was playing himself, along with portraying President Gerald Ford and other sketch characters. With his rising publicity, he decided to leave the show in the fall of 1976. Pretty quickly, the new focus was on Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi along with Gilda Radner. Jane Curtin took over Weekend Update, with Dan as co-anchor for a while. In the winter of 1977, Bill Murray joined the cast and after an unremarkable start, began to shine on his own.

This cast stayed pretty stable up to 1979, when Dan and John left to further their movie careers. Bill, Garrett, Jane, Gilda, and Laraine took it on their own the next season, with some help from Harry Shearer.

And then Lorne was ready for a break! So was the rest of the cast. Former producer Don Ebersol after the next disastrous season would rescue the show for 4 fairly good seasons...though some episodes lacked finesse.

I own the first season and have seen other episodes from those first 5 seasons via old-style video rentals, plus Nick at Nite used to air Best of Saturday Night in the late 80s, minus the music acts. 

Comedy Cental aired the 1980-91 years of the show in the early to mid 90s, so I caught most if not all of those years a couple of times. I'll break it down pretty simply...according to my well renowned (?) opinion.

1980-81- These shows are practically unwatchable. They hold almost no humor (a few chuckles at best). Eddie Murphy appears in a few pieces, and he is the definite highlight.

1981-82- More consistent laughs, but still a bit uneven, though I liked the Wild Wild West parody the best. Eddie Murphy is the big star here. I know Joe Piscopo got a lot of publicity, but he was also pretty dependent on Eddie's fame.

1982-84- Eddie and Joe are still the highlight while the other players (including Julia Louis Dreyfus). Pretty watchable 2 seasons.

1984-85-  This was a star-studded season with Martin Short, Billy Crystal, and Christopher Guest. A few holdouts from the previous 2 years were there but not highly featured. Eddie was gone and therefore Piscopo was as well. In my view, Short and Crystal ran away with this one.

And then lo and behold, Lorne Michaels rose out of the burial ground of lesser known works to make SNL magic again...it would not happen right away. Some of his assembled new cast would help make the show glorious again in time: Jon Lovitz, Dennis Miller, and Nora Dunn. Then there was his selected celeb group of Anthony Michael Hall, Randy Quaid, Robert Downey Jr. and Joan Cusack, along with unknowns Danitra Vance, Damon Wayans, and Terry Sweeney. It was a pretty large group and much did not gel. I do remember this season having a few gems, though it was almost canceled.

1986-89: Dunn, Lovitz, and Miller return and are joined by Dana Carvey, Phil Hartman, Jan Hooks, Victoria Jackson, and Kevin Nealon. This was the season we were introduced to the wild impersonations that Cavey and Hartman could do. The show was magic once again, and consistently!

1989-90- The cast is joined by Mike Myers...excellent! Sadly...or not so sadly, Nora Dunn left in protest over Andrew Dice Clay hosting. From what I read, she was not missed. Jon Lovitz also left at the end of the season.

1990-91-The final season for Jan Hooks and Dennis Miller. Six glorious of years of Weekend Update were done.

1991-92- The final season for Victoria Jackson...and in my view, the last truly great year for some time. Adam Sandler, Tim Meadows, David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Chris Farley also came aboard. This season was when I was at college at West Virginia University.

I caught a few episodes of the 1992-93 season, and there were a couple that were good, my favorite being when Harvey Keitel hosted. Other than that, it was mostly stupid...and I was about 20 during this season, still in my dumb comedy phase of life.

In fact, I do not remember watching the show at all until the early 2000s when Will Ferrell was imitating George W Bush so well! During most of the 90s, I was watching a lot of Beavis & Butthead. 

According to the book, the 1994-95 season was pretty abominable, but rose from the ashes pretty fast the following year.

Sadly I did not see much of the Jimmy Fallon-Tina Fey era, or the Amy Poehler era. Sad because I heard a lot of good things. I've caught some of Kenan Thompson, just a naturally funny guy.

Sadly we have lost some of our cast members: John Belushi in 1982, Gilda Radner in 1989, Chris Farley in 1997, Phil Hartman in 1998, Jan Hooks in 2014, Norm MacDonald in 2021, and announcer Don Pardo in 2014.

I truly believe that as long as Lorne Michaels is alive and able, Saturday Night Live will breathe. The book says much about him, both in praise and criticism, but both are what genius brings, sometimes one more than the other, part of doing something and doing it well. I salute him. 

One Scoop WIth All the Networks

    As I sit in front of the television seeing if anything interesting is on (which most days there is not), I am browsing through all these streaming services I subscribe to, a seemingly endless minefield of shows and movies that either I don't find promising or I once liked them and my mind moved on. 

   Does anyone else get this way? Well, let's put it this way: do you find Police Academy just as nonstop laughs as you did in 1984? Wait, I'm sorry, I totally forgot this is intended for people born in the second half of that ancient era called the 20th century...yes those years that begin with a 19! Sorry for the confusion!

   Wait, maybe I'm not so sorry! For what am I here to do besides educate and write complete sentences?

   Yes, young ones, you can always learn.

   Anyhow, back to those former classics...they were made for their time, be it comedy or action or drama. My DVD/BluRay bins are full of movies and TV show box sets that I love or once loved. Yes, I do have some of those Police Academy movies because sometimes I just need a cheap and easy laugh.

   Going back to those two little words in paragragh one...streaming services! Yes, I have gone from surfing TV channels to surfing streaming services. The only difference is that when you surfed TV channels, you were going from playing show to playing show. The streaming services just give you titles and maybe a picture...kind of like going into...check this out...VIDEO STORES! 

   There is so much choice now that you can almost get sick in the glut.

   If you are one of the few that tune in to the networks anymore, what is there? There's some drama for sure, some comedies that are less likely to contain a laugh track anymore (an improvement I admit), some elimination shows, talent shows, and revamps of classic game shows.

   There was actually a time when there was something known as the BIG 3: CBS, NBC, and ABC. These were the major commercial network providers of daily and nightly programming. If you're thinking WHAT ABOUT FOX?, that was a part time network when it started in late 1986 and wasn't a full nightly competitor until the 1990s. Even then, it stuck mainly to nighttime and offered no daytime soaps or game shows.

   You also had what were known as independent stations. These channels were actually favorites of kids as they played cartoons and older off-network series. For example: The Brady Bunch ran on ABC from 1969-74, then was syndicated to the independent stations in 1975, from where it enjoyed a few decades of endless reruns. The same went for many other color and black and white programs. However, those stations were not what people were generally watching at night.

   No, the BIG 3 held the majority of viewers during the "prime time" hours, which were mostly 8pm-11pm, although in the early days it began at 7:30pm.

   Here is a huge question: which network was the best? 

   There might have been network loyalists, but they were few and far between. Our family would certainly watch something on one network, then change channels to another one when a favorite was coming on. I think most of America was like this.

   And what does best mean when it comes to a network? Is it ratings? Quality? Maybe both?

   When it comes to overall quality, my opinion is that CBS held it together more consistently. I say this because not only was it a ratings powerhouse more than once, but the shows that held those ratings were of good quality. Plus, CBS knew something was in the air change-wise in 1971. This was when All in the Family arrived and the idea of social issues in sitcoms was a novelty. By the end of the 1970-71 season, all of CBS's rural-appeal and 60s stay-overs were terminated...and when you think about it, a lot of those shows were old BEFORE 1971. Some examples are Mayberry RFD, Green Acres, Hogan's Heroes, The Beverly Hillbillies, Hee Haw (but that continued in syndication to great Saturday night success), Lassie, and Family Affair. Was CBS perfect? No, they juggled a few good shows too many times around the schedule...WKRP in Cincinnati comes to mind. CBS also was the home to many a hit daytime and nighttime soap opera, and its crown game show jewel The Price is Right has been with us since 1972. They DID cancel The Edge of Night, but luckily another network picked that right up in 1975.

   Let's come to ABC. What I always remember about ABC was that it was trying to be cool in the minds of its viewers, and it catered to lots of whims. Batman was really what put ABC on the map in early 1966...the only problem was that it was its only prime time powerhouse that year and that show burnt out in 3 seasons. Skip forward to 1978 and ABC was a maniac! Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Charlie's Angels, Mork and Mindy, The Love Boat, and Fantasy Island were the talk of the town. The 1980s leveled that field a bit when many of those shows ended...actually many of those shows overstayed the public welcome. That said, ABC knew how to overdo the glitz that was the 80s with Dynasty and Moonlighting.

   And then we come to NBC. Now, I have to be honest, I've come to be a bit jaded with NBC over time, based on what I've read. NBC will always have the famous peacock, even though they dropped their mascot from 1975-79. Some of their programming from the late 70s to early 80s were complete flops, others held on a season or two, and others, like Diff'rent Strokes, overstayed their welcome. They did manage to hold onto The Hollywood Squares for 14 years, a record for any celebrity game show. Plus, their super Thursday nights in the mid to late 1980s made them a draw, and those shows were good quality from 1984-88. Of course we have Days of our Lives, which has lasted since 1965. And then there is the 50 year old Saturday Night Live, which has been through many ups and downs. As long as Lorne Michaels is alive, so will that show. The reason I am a bit jaded toward NBC is in how they treat some of their talent. For example, sometime in the 90s, there was a clause in an SNL performer's contract that they could be pulled out to do a sitcom. Also, some of their owners canceled shows depsite high ratings just because they didn't like the show...Fred Silverman killing Hollywood Squares is a prime example.

   All that said, those 3 networks, no matter the shows' quality and ratings from season to season, were the main game in town from the 1950s to the early 2000s. The only alternatives were leaving the house, listening to music, or playing a family game. To me it is amazing those 3 are still around, and they might just outlast me, who knows?

Age Old Issues

 What amazes me is that whenever I post something on social media that almost certainly critical of Donald Trump (and yes he does give all of us ammunition in any given press conference or Truth Social post or interview)...the first thing some people say in response (to me personally) is something like "Oh, would you rather have Biden in there?" or "It would be worse under Biden!"

I've heard a LOT of that...and the respective answers to both those retorts is "No" and "I agree".

There is a fallacy in thinking on both of those questions, that I was a Biden fan and that I voted for him.

I am proud to say I did not. 

I also did not vote for Trump in 2020, and at that point I was again a registered Republican...not a TRUMP-o-phile, but a simple Republican with some basically conservative views.

I have seen and heard Donald Trump for decades...I did not want him sitting in the White House 9 years ago. So for reasons still unknown to me, I registered as Democrat in late 2015 as opposed to staying independent as I had for most of my voting life. 

I went to a local caucus in early 2016 where the 2 camps were Sanders and Clinton. Wow, were my eyes opened to the Democrats at that point. I was in the Sanders camp, I liked his direct way of speaking. As the year progressed, Hillary was in and the Sanders camp who ate crow but were willing to cast support to Clinton were pretty much shut out in the cold. 

I hated that treatment of a decent group of people who believed in a specific candidate, and the leader of the DNC at that time was not someone I'd have coffee with or say hello to.

As a result, I voted for neither Clinton or Trump in 2016.

Cut to 2019: the Democratic Presidential candidate debates. By this time I had already switched to GOP because of my own principles, not the Trump bandwagon (I know I said this earlier, but it bears repeating). I watched this spectacle that displayed a wide array of talent, lots of YOUNGER talent, who could possibly lead in a positive way. Then it whittled down and down and down...until we were left with Sanders and Biden. I wanted neither, not because they weren't good people, but THEY WERE TOO DAMN OLD!!

If you go back and look at Abraham Lincoln in 1860, he looked pretty damn young and strong at 51. Cut to his last year and he had aged quite a bit due to dealing with the Civil War.

The point is, the Presidency, no matter how prestigious, ages you, even in peacetime, because there are so many issues to contend with regarding the nation.

In early 2020, Joe Biden was 77 and Bernie Sanders was 78...Reagan was considered to be too old in 1981 when he began his regime at 70. Therefore these 2 old farts had no business being in the Oval Office.

It came down to Biden and at that point I began to wonder how the Democratic party operates...to be fair, the GOP is just as corrupt. But I understood later what the likely game plan was, and a buddy of mine and I discussed this back then: Biden was probably seen as to not last even a year, paving the way for his VP Kamala Harris to take over as President, making up for that "travesty" election in 2016.

Biden surprised everyone. I was not a fan, but up until the debate last year, I did hold a respect for him. Liking and respecting can be two separate things. I even respected him after the debate because I saw what 3 1/2 years had done to an already old guy.

From the day Biden got into office, Donald Trump was fully running the GOP and the attacks on Biden by the GOP and Fox News were relentless, all eyes were on Biden's next verbal blunder or trip on a stairway.

Yes, that is the media of today, millions of eyes on you and just waiting for an excuse to pounce, and if there's no excuse, then one will be MANUFACTURED via edited video to create one. The guy had no chance, and I am one who prefers a fair fight.

And then we come to Trump. 

I hear what he says and I have read some of what he has typed on Truth Social. The man makes a ton of verbal gaffes, is often low energy in speeches, has tripped on stairs himself, and goes after others, often reporters,  in quite an uncivilized manner, in my mind making him a poor role model for today's children. 

Yet the mainstream media is afraid of him, particularly due to his attack on "60 Minutes" and CBS...nobody wants to be in his crosshairs except for CNN. The mainstream media have apparently decided that regarding 47, they will stay "nice". That means they compromised themselves in terms of being journalists just to stay in safe harbor...I no longer respect them. They might as well be frying fresh McNuggets for all their impact on the world.

Trump's people just let him roll, and I am familiar with the pattern. It happened with W, it happened with Reagan, and it happened with Nixon (read "All the President's Men" to get an idea). The people standing behind the man go after anyone the man sics them on with a vengeance, and remain loyal until the man is out; then, like weasels, they write books or do interviews to "finally tell the real story".

I now watch independent podcasters with their takes. No, they are not particularly nonpartisan either, but they are not afraid.

The fact is that Donald Trump is also too old to be in there and is showing signs here and there almsot daily the reason why.  The difference between his people and Biden's people is that Trump has the Fox News and MAGA folk working for him to ignore the signs of age and mental deterioration, and help attack those who point the issues out. Biden's people were not as ferocious and did not instill that fear of revenge upon his foes. Quite a disservice in fact.

 

I Need RE-IMAGING...and an Iced Coffee

 In fairly recent history (not the "dark ages" 1900s), I decided to put myself through a fairly grueling exercise and diet regimen that in the end (after 8 months), had me looking pretty goof. Well, apart from doing that shaved head thing, yeah, I looked good. In fact I won the school's biggest loser challenge! A whole $70 that went right into replacing my car's battery. Easy come easy go. 

I managed to keep myself under 200 pounds for about a year. Then some little things began creeping up on me that not only increased my stress but also increased the weight again. In fact, before long I was almost right where I had begun before the weight loss journey.

So the question is, what happened?

Part of the problem, as I see it now, is that I wasn't doing it entirely for myself, I was trying to impress someone. Notice I said entirely, because in late 2019, I looked pretty damn horrible. My cheeks went in a straight line to what was a long time ago a fairly well defined neck, and my gut wasn't looking so hot, either.

However, at some point in my work career, a career worked among many women, I fell into a tortuous trap: I developed feelings for a colleague. How the hell did this happen? I was married, I thought HAPPILY married, and so was she. And despite being an attractive blonde, she was always griping over something. 

A recent conversation with an old friend from that workplace informed me that my feelings were not exactly secret. They probably weren't, for I visited this woman on my prep period often for no educational purpose at all. As my friend relayed, someone had mused aloud if I really thought she would leave her husband, luxury house, and kids for little old me? The answer is a definite NO, I had no expectations. A fantasy or two maybe in the sex department, but fantasies are fantasies.

The fact is, though, that I was doing all that walking in 2020 not only to look better, but also to tell her all that I was doing and how much weight I was losing. A lot of my Facebook posts were posted to get her attention...and wow was I grounded when I got no response. Of course I would text her with an iWatch reading or scale reading and she would just say, "That's awesome!". I was thrilled then, but now I know it was like an automatic response.

This friendship as it was went on as was until mid 2023, when I began to really feel the resentment over what I felt was a one-sided friendship. And to a large extent it was. I did not get what I call unfed attention from her, meaning her checking on me out of the blue just to check on me. And why would I expect that? I expected that out of some blind hope for...what...cheap ego-feeding? Yeah, that's what it was.

I was a mess in the last half of 2023, emotionally and financially. I had been led onto a fragile cliff by a company scamming me for 2 years, plus I was so filled with self loathing that it was hurting my marriage. I was lashing out at my wife in subtle and not so subtle ways. Not only that, my obsession with this person, we'll call her Rose, and the resulting nonreciprocation, had (I now understand) led me to seek attention, however fake it was, from online vehicles like Twitter since mid 2021. And sure I made friends with lots of bots, and it became kind of a game. However, I was hiding my phone even when sitting on the couch with my wife. I wasn't good at it and eventually everything came crashing in late 2023. I had to file bankruptcy for the second time in my life, I was sending messages about Vickie to people and she was seeing them, and I just felt like shit regarding myself..

I went to Starbucks on my 51st birthday and sat at the table drinking my coffee and doing the crossword of the day...and I felt not one ounce of happiness. A fight with my wife later over messages she had seen brought it all to a fork: divorce and sell the house, or try to make things work?

I chose to try. I'm still trying a year and a half later.

The crap online still had not gone away and by April of 2024, it was worse than ever. It was time to get some professional help. Twitter and any social media platform other than Facebook was gone totally by last Christmas. 

As for Rose, I had some kind of dark angel in the new principal that wanted me out of that school. At first I felt low and insulted after 13 years there to be so unceremoniously tossed...definitely angry. Of course I had not started therapy at that point either. However, a start at a new school with new colleagues really brightened up my life. It wasn't perfect, and I had some work to do to make myself a better teacher again, but I was definitely in a better place. 

Rose texted me early that year to gripe that I had not retained or WORKED to retain a student she had gotten from me. After that, not much. A quick Halloween pic exchange, a Christmas wish from me, a birthday wish from me, and a happy Mother's Day wish from me. From her were no birthday or Christmas wish, no Father's Day wish, either. 

The writing was all there...and boy am I happy! One thing therapy has been teaching me is to love me for myself and be happy in my own skin and enjoy my own presence. Another side benefit form this is when my wife and I are having a spat, I am no longer automatically apologizing to maintain some neutral status quo that substitute for happiness.

It's all been a process of re-imaging myself, like updating a computer...damn what people see, it's the image I see that is important. I've been judging myself on how others see me for so long, it's a long process to reverse that. Not a self-dig, just a happy observation. With that, I am trying to learn to eat better so that my insides are happier as well...that and exercise.

All that said...do NOT deny me my iced coffee!

DOGE Ball

 OK OK, I am trying really hard to stay out of the Trump complaint department (so many branches now, no need for me to open another one), but I wanted to talk about DOGE.

No, not the historical term for leaders of Italian city-states, but the recently formed Department of Government Efficiency.

Like many of us, I actually had some high hopes for this, because we all know the Fed is fattier than a bone-in ribeye. That said, the process was fast, furious...and in the end it was a scam to get people to pledge their eternal loyalty to Zod-I mean Trump to keep or regain their jobs.

One of the cuts I've seen is to public television, which at times I agree to a point...meaning I don't know what the viewership numbers are like anymore, and PBS is no longer the home of Sesame Street or any other childhood memories. Back in 1969 when there were maybe 4 or 5 channels on the dial and PBS was one of them, Mr. Fred Rogers himself testified before Congress to urge them to keep funding public television. PBS stations have been known to air educational shows for kids AND adults, expose us to British melodrama and comedy, and offer some locally-themed fare. Funding cuts just might be needed if viewership has significantly waned in the last decade or 2.

Another idea for "putting things to the states" (if you want a smaller central government, yeah, you give more rights and responsibility to the states): cede the national parks to the states and create departments that see to them. California, Utah, and Arizona could drum up some good revenue from that endeavor and as we see more and more people interested in preservation and protection of the land, what an idea!

And finally a huge bone of contention for many is the dissolution of the Department of Education. The contention comes with some of the programs like Title 1 and special education that address the needs of many of our students in a lower socio-economic status or special needs. Go with me on this one, I have been a teacher for quite some time and I think a properly run and funded education department in each state can handle this. Also, if you go back 23 years, that's when the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND bullshit began, which was a FEDERAL effort that sounded good in title, but fell flat and put education even further in the ground. No, education has for most of its U.S. history been a state matter, let it stay that way. If states find they are low in funding, it might be time to look at their bloat like overexpensive leanring materials and expensive standardized tests.

I am sure there are other ways that Washington D.C.'s bureaucratic tumor should be shrunk., but it should be done logically and EFFICIENTLY! Just throwing people out of their asses out of nowhere is not a positive move, and it does not cast us as a nation in a good way.

End of year Rhapsody

    Actually, my school year ended over 3 weeks ago. Opposed to years past, this school year ended well for me stress-wise, making the beginning of the next school year better anticipated.

   My first year at a new school, my 4th school in fact, could have gone either way. I had made a decision to do whatever it took to make the year positive. Were there a few bumps? Sure, but minor ones, and I worked with a grade level team where communal growth was the theme, a more Kumbaya vibe than I have ever felt in 23 years.

   It was also my first year working for a male principal, a male assistant principal and a female assistant principal. Now, I might rub someone the wrong way here, but I'm used to that. I've found that working for 2 males, at least in this case, was more direct and I was observed many times with constructive feedback. It kept me on my game.

   My class size was never above 18, and the 18 was due to an unruly kid placed in my room as babysitting the last two weeks.

   All right, enough of review. Time for a little of my Bob Newhart-style interplay. 

   Have you ever noticed that there is a time at the end of the school year, like a week before summer is due to commence, there is always a student who is not going to make it out. This is generally not an elementary school problem, more of middle and high school. I have seen memes of this scenario where the parent or student is appealing to the teacher to create a quick and miraculous cure to that failing grade at the 11th and a half hour. It likely goes something like this.

Hello? 

Yes, Mrs. Parker, I got your message later on last evening but it was a bit late to call back.

Well, I got it at 10:30p.m. Anyway, I saw that you're concerned about Karr's grade.

Oh yes, I'm concerned, too. Right now he's holding at a 23%.

No, we don't do the 50% minimum F here.

No, Mrs. Parker, and I can guarantee my principal will back me on this. Karr has not completed any of the class assignments and projects I gave. In fact, I might be giving him too much credit to say he did not complete them, he likely did not begin them, either. In fact, the only reason he is holding a grade as high as he has is because he deigned to come to class and attempt to pass a few tests.

Well, sure he got a couple questions right here and there, but those were review questions from last year's material.

Mrs. Parker, I know he is trying out for every sport there is, but our coaches check their grades before the kids even try out. It's school policy.

No, no, I am not trying to deny him greatness on the athletic field, but he has to earn that greatness in the classroom first. A 70% mimimum is required to try out, even for cheerleaders.

Mrs. Parker, I'm not suggesting that your son tries out for the cheerleading team, my point was-

Yes, thank you for understanding.

You want him to pass. Well, I want him to pass, too. This is his second year of basic algebra and he should have been in geometry.

Mrs. Parker, Karr has a 23% as of today and even if he passes his final exam next week, he won't have a passing grade for the year.

That's right, even if he scores a 100%. I have to give it to you, Mrs. Parker, your optimism is inspiring.

Extra credit? Well, Mrs. Parker, I usually assign that to students who are on the cusp of getting a B or an A and they just need a little booster.

Well, of course everyone deserves an opportunity, I don't deny that. The problem is that extra credit involves a project that demonstrates their understanding of what I've been teaching them all year. Karr has not shown that understanding.

(sigh) Look, this is high school, not elementary. I don't give word searches at this stage, and we're talking basic algebra here. 

How basic? Mrs. Parker, I spent the first two weeks reviewing order of operations and several of the kids, Karr included, couldn't even multiply without a times table in front of them.

Mrs. Parker, there were several opportunities for him to get tutoring and attend summer school, none of which were taken advantage of for his whole time in this district, which would be seven years.

I like my summers, too, and I am about to embark on mine. That said, I do offer tutoring during the month of June, as do other teachers trying to make an extra buck or two.

(sigh) Mrs. Parker, I worry about Karr graduating on time, which would be in two years. Now, how is he doing in his other classes, if I may ask?

He's doing about the same? 

Mrs. Parker, I will confess to you that I was held back in kindergarten, back in the days when the system believed in that. 

If you want to say I flunked, fine. My point is, that extra year of skills reinforcement helped me to grasp new concepts later as they came. Otherwise I might have struggled as Karr has obviously been.

No, it's not a bad mark on his record if he's held back. If the system held more kids back when needed instead of pushing them through, we'd have more genuine graduates with genuine diplomas as opposed to 12th grade exit certificates...which don't even buy a free Big Mac..

All right, Mrs. Parker, you can talk to the principal if you like, but he won't give him a fake pass on this class, either. He'll just push him up like the district tells him to.

Same to you, Mrs. Parker. Bye now.

Can anyone relate to the teacher? Maybe the parent?

Dads

    Well, today I celebrate my 15th true Father's Day....16 if you include the one just a month and a half before we were introduced to Natalie. Nobody ever really counts that one, but the excitement was there. I couldn't wait to meet her!

   So what has fatherhood been like?

   Hell? Sure!

   Heaven? Absolutely!

   There are times when it has been both simultaneously.

   The bad times were usually a direct result of how I was doing with myself. I'm not one who fakes it well. If I'm doing badly with myself, I'm not projecting a convinving mirage to others, especially my own family.

   I look at some of the best TV dads (or at least the ones who TV Guide rated as the best)...some I agree with, others not.

   The one I wished I could be like was Ward Cleaver. That guy had it all: stories of when he was a boy, sound advice, and a pretty good temperament even when he was pissed off...which was often with Beaver, not so often with Wally.

   Jim Anderson was kind of up there with Ward, but way too well scripted for any real dad...you could almost see Robert Young's desire for a few drinks behind that gentle smile.

   Mike Brady was kind of another too-well-scripted dad, never really lost his cool.

   To me, Al Bundy was more well rounded. So was Howard Cunningham. 

   Cliff Huxtable, despite his faults, was also just a bit too perfect for me. And the later scandals involving Cosby explained that facade nicely...or darkly.

   If you want to go frontier, there's always Charles Ingalls or John Walton. 

   So what makes a good dad? 

   Quite frankly, it's about being there emotionally and physically, plus and letting things come naturally. I think it's important to have both, because if one is lacking, there will be a missing element. 

   On one of my favorite shows The Edge of Night, the Whitney's manservant Gunther Wagner seemed to just naturally know how to get along with Raven Whitney's recently returned boy. When Raven's husband Sky asked what the secret was, Gunther told him it wasn't what you do, it's how you do it.

   I couldn't agree more. I think back to all the times when Natalie was an infant and we played on the floor, or when she was a bit older and we played horsey...or even when she climbed into my lap and fell asleep. Or all the times we rode in the car to school. Most of our car chats were good, some of them were not so good. But the not so good chats led to better ones later. 

   There was a time a couple of years ago when our relationship wasn't as good as it should have been. It wasn't until some sessions on a shrink's couch and me watching Inside Out 2 that I understood that my bad times were really affecting her, so I made damn sure I was going to do better.

   Sometimes I think of all those baby daddies who never get a chance to meet their kids, either by their fault or mom's fault. As a teacher, I can see usually who has had the benefit of having moms and dads on board with their upbringing. It makes the teaching a ton easier.

   Maybe it's nerdy me, or maybe it's just coming into the marriage/family era of life a bit later (my 30s), but I cannot picture making a child and not wanting to be part of its life in a personal one on one way. I kinow there are a ton of guys out there who are merely seed planters, and I wish they'd plant trees or tomatoes, but not their own seed, because in many cases they have helped spawn unbalanced kids...not always, but in many cases.

   I'm proud to be a dad and I will feel that way right up until my last breath.

   I love you, Natalie!

Fletch Revisited

 Recently, I was rereading one of my favorite novels, the 1974 mystery Fletch...that's right, the one that inspired the 1985 movie with Chevy Chase...although I have long felt the role was miscast. I actually bought this copy at the Weis Market in Wyomissing back in 1985, it even has Chevy Chase on the front with a wallet full of fake IDs.

As with most source material, there are subtle and not so subtle differences with the movie adaptation, such as names and events, though the overall plot is the same.

What many people DON'T know is that there were 9 Fletch novels written, with some sequel books featuring his son published in the 90s. The author Gregory McDonald was an inspiration to me when it came to writing dialogue.

So the question is, who is Irwin Maurice Fletcher, known to most as Fletch...as a character?

Aside from being a regular wiseass...

He fought in the marines and earned a Bronze Star in his younger days...which he refuses to collect, even when threatened with unemployment.

He loves the idea of marriage and is in fact married twice, both ending with divorce through infidelity (wife 1) and throwing a cat out the window (wife 2). He later comments to his son that with a marriage also comes two attorneys and beds aren't made that big. He maintains a civil, even friendly to the exes he owes alimony to (never pays), and his exes still adore him.

As a reporter, he believes in the stories he writes and does a thorough job. However, many of his pieces have made him subject to anger and even possible libel due to the hack editing job done by an incompetent editor who earned her job by sleeping with the boss.

Aside from that, Fletch will do ANYTHING for a story, some things which would make a self-pious soul cringe...for example sleeping with a female teen drug addict who needed a place to shack. When she dies from an overdose, Fletch is horrified and more determined to break his story about drugs on the beach, which he does over the head of the incompetent editor. Earlier in his career he also broke a story about an embezzling IRS head by bedding the man's wife and convincing her to get a divorce so she can be free to testify. She leaves the country to wait for him but Fletch only wants the story.

As I said, a lot of moral ambiguity in Fletch, but no more than elected officials in D.C. In fact, he has a strong sense of honor.

A rich man named Stanwyk sees Fletch on the beach and assumes he is a drifter, and asks Fletch to kill him for $50,000 so that he won't suffer from the pain of bone cancer. After a long subtle investigation of Stanwyk, which involves a one-time affair with Stanwyk's wife, Fletch pieces together that Stanwyk wants out of rich society (though with $3 million embezzled) so that he can be with his childhood sweetheart. This plan involves bleaching his hair to look like Fletch, murder and then burn Fletch's body, and escape to Rio with his true love....Stanwyk's moral reasoning being that he has the right to kill anyone who has agreed to kill him.

Fletch is about to do the right thing and walk away...that is until the chief of police (who Fletch had named as the source of drugs on the beach) kills Stanwyk thinking it is Fletch.

This is where Fletch's second life takes effect.

The following morning, he is due in two courtooms for contempt of court regarding alimony, as well as the Marine commandant's office to pick up his Bronze Star. Instead, he takes the money and goes to Rio, where he spends some time learning just how life should be lived...with quality as opposed to quantity.

He later befriends an Italian retired count and helps him learn who stole his vast art collection...by getting engaged to the count's daughter and faking the count's kidnapping and death to draw out the thief who is the daughter. Along the way, he himself is framed for murder by the daughter's accomplice, works with and against a wily Irish detective to get him off the hook, and even returns to reporting at a Boston newspaper for one night as a favor to an old boss.

Occasionally, Fletch's ego blinds him, and he learns that he is not as clever as he thought.

In one book, Fletch is fired for quoting a dead man as being alive (which is revealed later to be the case).

In investigating Stanwyk, he doesn't know that his wife took his picture to find out who he really was.

When trying to solve the murder for which he is accused, he logically lays out his theory to the Irish detective about his landlord's lesbian ex wife, not knowing the detective already had warrants ready to arrest the count's daughter's accomplice in the art theft.

In casting for the movies, I probably would have chosen someone younger than Chase, but that's me.

Overall, Fletch is one of the most engaging literary characters I have ever had the pleasure of reading and rereading.

An Honest Political Aside

 I had a thought. What if something happens to Trump? I am SURE many have been hoping something would happen, that something would have happened last year in his legal proceedings to prevent him from becoming President again.

It didn't happen. In case you may have forgotten, he was running the GOP actively since early 2021, his face and words plastered across online and on-air outlets to make sure we did not forget his existence.

Let's face it: he was going to get back in no matter what, the machinery had locked it in place whether it was Biden or Harris. Harris tried her damnedest in those 4 months but fell short in a lot of areas. Those courtoom scenes and his Hannibal Lecter tangents actually increased his appeal somewhat. He called those little moments "The Weave" even though most of us with a working brain saw he was doing it BECAUSE HE KNEW HE WAS GOING TO WIN, SO WHY NOT FUCK WITH PEOPLE'S HEADS?

ALL THAT SAID...back to the starting question, the big what if?

I have a confession to make: I really have to hand it to Trump because he has created this power of personality cult in a way that nobody can come close and probably will never come close to creating. Not even the biggest social media influencers will have that charisma. Granted, his charisma has attracted the praise and loyalty of white supremacists and other extreme right-wing pockets of American society, but hey, they do cast their ballots

The power is DIABOLICAL to be sure, but it's there nonetheless, and you can whine about his not using his influence for the good of America and humanity in general...because he doesn't care about any of that, he cares about him...and when he goes, there is no more Trump.

And that's my point: if he goes, it's over. Do you think the weasels that we see stand behind Trump during Oval Office media events will be able to prop up JD Vance? No, he has the image and charisma of a grapefruit rind. There might be a movement to put Donald Jr in (or here's a horrifying thought: ERIC!) but neither "heir to the throne" is their dad and NONE of those possibilities would look good on the world stage, not that we're looking too hot right now.

If you look back 24 years ago, when W came in, he had not a friend in Washington, so in came daddy's war/oil buddies to prop him up. I almost felt bad for him at times...almost. Those same war/oil buddies are the same ilk that did a ton of profiteering off of Reagan and are the EXACT SAME TYPES that stand by Trump in the Oval Office, because they are looking good next to him and are likely lining their own pockets as I write this.

If Trump goes, they'll scramble to tell Vance or other heir apparent to maintain the status quo...and then we'll see likely the biggest crash of country one could imagine.

OK...I do believe in equal time...

On the flip side, The Dems aren't doing so hot, either and despite their complaints and all, I do not see anyone rising successfully out of the 2024 ashes as of now. Lots of protesting for sure, but no solid superman or superwoman or Capra-esque caricature is making grand orations to combat the Trump force. It's still a time of wound-licking, and having been in that place personally before, it's pitiful and nobody wants to be around it.

No American who is worrying about the coming future of higher costs and economic recession/depression wants to hear self-pity either. They want a leader who can take them out of whatever hell they feel they are living in, real or imagined.

The Church Life

 "The church is not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society,"-Martin Luther King, Jr.

   I guess one can take that in the positive or the negative. Personally, I do not think it should be one or the other, for I take church in a way that I suppose does not fit in with many people’s perceptions. When I think of church, I think of a place where I can learn more about God’s word, or rather what people have recorded God’s word to be...and yes I do know there is an ocean of difference when it comes to people's ideas. 

   It’s been a while since I entered a church of my own volition. Recently, my daughter asked if I would be willing to attend a local church with her and I said yes, but inside I had some reservations. This is because in my time in Las Vegas, I have attended a total of 2 churches. One was a large facility called Central Christian (that name alone has always bothered me) that I have attended with my in-laws on special occasions. 

   The other was a Mormon church that I attended for a regular service (with a work friend) and a baptism (again work friend-related). The regular service was interesting only in that it was pretty much like any other Christian church I have been to, except there was no offering. In other words, there was no evidence of the polygamy that the LDS culture has been depicted in the media. I know there are “colonies” where that happens but I don’t care to know any more about that than need be.

   This place where I am finding myself drawn to on a weekly basis now isn’t in what I’d consider to be a traditional church building of brick and stone...more like an office building. But the welcoming of any newcomer is felt, almost an exaggerated exuberance if I did not know better. But the pastor is active, loud, and engaging. No way I could fall asleep in that room with his energy!

   All that said, I still have my doubts. There is a strange history of churches I am quite familiar with that does not resonate well with me and never has. Yes, the church, no matter what church it is, wants more in terms of pew-filling, as well as funds to build or fix something or other, along with community service and outreach. I get both of those factors, people and money. 

   What I do not get or approve of is the social pressure and occasional outcasting. Almost every church I have attended has their resident “church lady”, and if you watched Saturday Night Live during the Dana Carvey era, you know who I mean. It is a judgment that is SUPPOSED to be left to the Man upstairs, but instead is taken upon those who feel they KNOW what is right and wrong all by themselves, from what is worn at church to someone’s gossip about who they saw with someone and where they were, to something so petty as how much pepper was put in the pot on soup night in the fellowship hall.

    Then there is the sense of power some churches get. I know I will likely get flak (if anyone actually reads all this, which is rare) for saying this, but the history of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church is disturbing. When a priest has been discovered to be fooling around with an innocent minor and then threatening said minor to stay quiet, said priest is often merely sent somewhere far away where they can begin their dastardly actions once more. Catch the movie Spotlight sometime, it sheds light on this practice.

   I have some vague memories of going to Sunday school at Hain Church in Wernersville when I was little, but I really did not go regularly to church again until I was 16. I don’t remember what it was, but I felt some urge to get to know God. I was always told we were a Christian family but I didn’t see it except on Christmas and even then the connection was vague. Not sure where to go, I got a lead on a church very close by that many people I knew went to, including a girl I really liked at the time (coincidence? You decide!). So I began attending, and also began attending confirmation class once a week. Later on I also got involved in the youth choir. It was a good two years where I got a better sense of Jesus.

   I also attended a church somewhat regularly when I went to school in West Virginia and also later on at Sonoma State, both leaving me feel more than a bit unfulfilled...but then at that point of life I was feeling unfulfilled in a lot of ways.

   I tried church a couple of times in Las Vegas at Central in my early days here before I met Vickie and then again at the same place when her family began attending. I had nothing against that church in itself, though I sometimes felt I was attending a variety show instead of connecting with God. Later on I got wind of some hierarchical doings and opinions there that once more soured me on the church experience.

   And here I am again, this time on my daughter’s lead, attending church. I went without her today, as she wanted to sleep in. As I said, I like the pastor and his speaking charisma. However, I hear much urging to become a member and immerse myself as a total Christian.

   I am not ready for either.

   The past year and some change has been a time of straightening myself out on several fronts. I’m still straightening myself out and probably will until I’m buried or burned, whichever ends up being cheapest.

   There have been many times when I felt God’s presence in my life and other times I did not. He has a huge world to tend to, I am just one of his black sheep in that world, wanting redemption but not sure how to go about it. Until then I will keep listening, and if this church continues to appear positive, I will listen to Pastor Nathan more and see if I fit in anywhere in that place.

Highway Centennial part 1

 I'll bet none of you can imagine what is turning 100 next year. No, not Abe Vigoda, I think he left us some time ago. I am talking about the original "interstate" highway system in America.

(insert Ogre yelling NERD!!!) Yeah I know, I'm not changing my stripes anytime soon.

That aside, this system of highways is still among us. I can name at least one U.S. highway in pretty much any place I have lived. In Berks County, U.S. 22, 222, and 422; In Detroit metro, U.S. 12 and 24; in Wilmington N.C., U.S. 17, 74, 76, 421, and 117; in Sonoma County,CA, U.S. 101; and in good ol Las Vegas, we have U.S. 93 and 95!

And in that system, we have some classics, most notably U.S. 66. It is not formally with us anymore, but we road enthisiasts know where to find it when we need it and want it.

Now, I have a particular fondness for this old system, which has seen many changes over time, had old numbers (like 66) retired, or certain road stretches renumbered. The system deserves a celebration.

With all that said, I must take a little side trip to the more modern interstate system, the one that is red, white, and blue in its shielding deisgn and created by President Eisenhower in 1956. The original design of that system has also undergone changes and expansions...and it keeps expanding!

I have to wonder why. I can see where cases of congestion on 2-lane highways might demand a freeway bypass in some places, but I am seeing expansions where none are really necessary, North Carolina in particular. That state has been trying to create I 73, an eastern leg of I 74, and a southern leg of I 87 that will never connect to its New York parent. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you view it), I 73 will likely stay in NC due to Virginia having no desire to build it on their turf. Perhaps it will just go to Myrtle Beach if South Carolina gets funding.

That's ok, though, there are eastern and western legs of I 76, 84, and 86. But it does go to show that there are periods where some states go freeway crazy. Illinois has probably the most even though one or two seem unnecessary when you look back. Texas is getting into it now with I 2 and 14.

To me, the dumbest Interstate was 99 in Pennsylvania, an obvious case of freeway building just to leave a personal legacy for better or worse.

The reason I bring up the newer system is that I wonder why it is necessary to expand on that one when the older system still gets freeway upgrades here and there. For instance, U.S. 220 could have been upgraded instead of 99 being created.

At any rate, I will be visiting some of these old classics here and there in the next year and a half...or longer, and see what each one brings to the national culture.

Why Me?

    I caught a small snippet of a scene near the end of The Breakfast Club the other day, a movie that could not possibly work unless kids' phones are confiscated, and that would likely end up with the school being sued for violating some form of snowflake right or other...better kept to the 80s!

   Anyway, there is a scene where Anthony Michael Hall's character is asked to write the paper that all five punks were assigned to write. Now, while his character Brian is a good guy who likely did it because there was a temporary thaw of hostilities between the represented student social classes in the movie's second half, it seems to me that there is always some schmuck in almost every group who is essentially the elected one to carry out a task nobody really wants to do.

   I look back to the 1700s, a time of unrest in the then-English Colonies, when there were open hostilities between British forces and colonists who no longer wanted any part of British rule. After about 10 years of cool to heated war, an intelligent and thoughtful man named Thomas Jefferson was ASKED to write what would essentially become the most famous petition for divorce in history, The Declaration of Independence. While we have assumed for a while that Jefferson did this out of a sense of nobility and bravery, you have to admit those heroic moments are more often than not reluctant and done out of some form of guilt trip. I can imagine the conversation between Jefferson and John Adams, the one who requested him to write it, went something like this...

Hello? Oh, hi, John! What's up?

A great honor has been bestowed on me? (sigh)...what the hell do you want me to do?

Write a declaration? Ok, sounds like something you could do yourself, you're so smart. What kind of declaration?

A declaration of independence...from England.

Yeah yeah yeah, I am fully aware of the crap going on up in Boston with the tea and all a few years ago. As far as I'm concerned, Boston Harbor got the worst of the deal. 

You think I'm a good writer. Well, you're no slouch yourself, I saw the pieces you wrote for the Boston Gazette. I mean, they weren't precisely page turners but you can put words together.

Wait wait wait...I get it! You beat me at darts last month and this is my debt because I couldn't pay up that night, right?

Oh, not that. (sigh). Ok well you need to give me some idea of what you want me to say. I mean I know I can write but I'm not about to write to His Majesty half cocked.

Yeah I KNOW I'm requesting independence. So you want me to say what..."Dear King, we want out"?

See? I need something to get this so-called declaration going, for all the good it's likely to do.

No, I don't think something this serious should start with a joke. It's a document, not a pub improv routine!

Hey, this was YOUR idea to have me write this, so unless you give me something to go on, I'm packing for Paris.

Yes, I KNOW I'm good with words, but give me a break. Give me some talking points, if you will.

All men created equal...yeah that might sound hypocritical given I have some unpaid African domestics in my house, but it's a start. What else?

Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness....well, I guess that beats my brainstorm of seven score and fifteen years ago, but it was a bad idea anyway. Good idea!

A list of grievances against the king? I might not have enough paper for the whole list! How about saying his mom wore redcoat boots?

No, you're right. See, YOU should be writing this, you have the best ideas!

(sigh) Why do I feel I drew a short straw without being there? 

Ok, fine, I think I have an idea of what to write...just to be on the safe side, I think I won't be the first to sign it...maybe second or third. Hey, let's get that clown Hancock to sign it, he signs anything just to say he was there, even though he's a bit of a third wheel.

Deal! Now, one more thing...if we're asking for this divorce if you will, we're obviously going to want to be a new country, right?

I thought so...what should I call our new digs?

The United Colonies of Adams? Very funny! Want to be king, too?

No, I don't think we want any more kings. Tell you what, I think I saw a good name in an aticle in the Virginia Gazette recently, something involving states and not colonies.

Right, I'll get to work on it soon. I'd give me until at least late June if you can, the list of crap the King's done is likely to be long. Oh, and one more thing.

If this independence thing is pulled off, and on the off chance one of us gets asked to lead it, I'll bet double or nothing on our next darts match.

Why double? If I win, I get a double term as leader! Bye!

It Was Me, Most Definitely Me

 A bit of an old and painful topic came up a couple nights ago at a New Year's Eve gathering at a friend's house.

For those who don't know, the 2010-11 school year was the worst year of my (so far) 23 years in the CCSD. I was at a new school after an 8-year stretch at my first school. I was excited about the new adventure, but a few factors led to it being the worst. In fact, it was so bad that I took FML for the final month of the year and went through a tough time afterward before I felt good at being a teacher again. I even went back to this school (but put in a different position) for the first month of the next year before voluntarily transferring after count day.

At this gathering the other night was the mom of one of my kids during that torturous year. I vaguely remembered her daughter, especially after seeing her picture. The mom told me her daughter (and other students in the class) thought I left because "they were so bad".

Folks, that one hit me hard. If there is anyone responsible for a year being bad, it is most certainly me. Granted there were factors in my life outside the classroom along with lingering crap form my first school that helped to shape that year into what it was. That said, the buck definitely stopped with me.

I had another bad year that almost matched that one 20 years ago. Once again, it wasn't the kids, it was me and how I approached things. Funny thing about that year...about 5 years ago I ran into one of the 'bad' kids from that year at a store. I shook his hand and gave him a bear hug and admitted my shortcomings that year. Truly, if I'd been more ready for the year (and had working AC in that portable), I would have had a better time with them as a whole. Same with the 2010-11 year.

Back to the gathering...the mom texted her daughter that I was there and the daughter's reply was that "oh no, he probably never wants to see me again". I asked for the mom's phone and texted that it was me and that the person responsible for that year was me, not her or her classmates. As I recall they were a decent group and if the teacher I am now was with them then, the year would have been a lot better all around.

The mom (who is very friendly and good-humored) also told me that the principal that year put me in that different position in hopes that I would quit and told everybody that.

Well, I did not quit and have held on for quite some time.

I have known other teachers who the boss, especially a new one, did not mesh well with and suffered at work and at home, often quitting just to end the torture they were going through.

There are just some people who should not be put in charge of other adults, at least not long-term. When they scheme with others working for them to isolate and alientate the ones they want to get rid of, that's a power trip, not leadership.

Being a teacher, especially nowadays, is a difficult endeavor when there is not sufficient support from administration and parents. Definitely not like when I went to school. Granted, I grew up in a pretty homogenous group, not nearly as diverse culturally and ethnically as where I teach now, but even those homogenous groups are in a different time in history where electronic devices tend to dominate their social interactions and outlooks, even with adequate parental support.

2024 celebrity losses

 Looking back to last year, we once again had so many celebrity deaths of those we have fond memories of, those 20th century gems who faded from our view for the most part as the 21st century dawned.

I'm not celebrity obsessed, but rather someone who enjoyed seeing certain performers on TV and in the cinema. When these people were on, you had the feeling it was going to be a fun watch...or at least they'd probably be the best thing in what we were watching. If not on TV or in a movie, then they helped to define at least part of the times we have lived through. Here goes.

David Soul - A household name thanks to Starsky and Hutch. He was also the leader of a group of rogue cops in Magnum Force. Like David Hasselhoff and other acotrs, tried (thankfuly a brief try) to be a singer.

Joyce Randolph- best known as Trixie Norton in The Honeymooners.

Carl Weathers- that charismatic actor who brought the character Appollo Creed to life. He was also the cool cop Action Jackson, which I alwas thought was deserving of a sequel. I think Weathers could have even played Lando Calrissian convincingly.

Toby Keith- an awesome country singer. He will always occupy at least one of our playlists in this house.

Richard Lewis- a popular stand up comic of the 1980s who brought meaning to the word 'neurotic'.

Brian Mulroney- a former Canadian prime minister...I remember him being in charge when we studies Canada in 6th grade social studies.

Eric Carmen- a decent singer of the 1970s and 80s;

M. Emmet Walsh- a good character actor of many movies, particularly Fletch, Blade Runner, and The Jerk, among many others.

Louis Gossett Jr.- the famous drill sergeant in An Officer and a Gentleman. He played other cool characters in Iron Eagle and Diggstown.

O.J. Simpson- ok, I know his name was mud for his last 30 years, but at one time he protrayed cool and fun on screen, even if his personal life was nefarious.

Roger Corman- he gave us the original Little Shop of Horrors and other B-movie classics of the 60s and 70s.

Dabney Coleman- a classic actor of the 60s all the way into this century! I will always remember him playing obnoxious and snide characters whenever I saw him. 9 to 5, Tootsie, WarGames, and The Man With One Red Shoe made playing bad look fun.

Morgan Spurlock- the man who revealed what a fast food only diet could do to us by adhering to one himself in a grotesque experiment.

Willie Mays (not Willie Mays Hays)- damn cool baseball player!

Donald Sutherland- father of Kiefer, he was a fun presence in several films spanning from the late 60s into recent history. The original Hawkeye Pierce!

Martin Mull- a popular face on TV and some movies. Often obnoxious roles he had, but he made them memorable.

Shelley Duvall- The silver screen's Olive Oyl as well as the terrorized wife in The Shining, both in 1980.

Dr. Ruth Westheimer- her mainstream sex advice and widespread media appearances were a huge part of the 1980s!

Shannen Doherty- the breakout star of 90210 who became tabloid fodder...like many stars.

Richard Simmons- another 80s icon, who made the idea of aerobic exercise fun and flamboyant...just like life should always be!

James B. Sikking- "Judas H Priest, Frank!" was his TV-toned down exclamation on Hill Street Blues for 7 years. He also played Doogie Howser's dad and the humiliated captain of the USS Excelsior in Star Trek 3...among many roles.

Bob Newhart- along with George Carlin, my favorite comedian. He influenced a few of my blog posts with his one side of the conversation style. He was also a talented actor with his low-key self. He once told a producer who questioned his famous stammer that his stammer built him a home in Beverly Hills.

Wally Amos- cookies, 'nuff said!

Peter Marshall- actor, singer, and somewhat reluctant (at first) game show host who made playing the straight man to 9 wise-cracking panelists on The Hollywood Squares look almost effortless.

Phil Donahue- the man who made talk shows with a huge audience popular way before anyone heard the name Oprah. He tackled the funny, the serious, and the controversial with equal commitment. A class act.

John Amos- known as Kunta Kinte and James Evans Sr. on TV, often playing a force to be reckoned with...even when being defeated by John McClain in Die Hard 2.

James Earl Jones- probably will always be remembered for the cyborg voice of Darth Vader but his talents spanned decades.

John Ashton- probably best known for playing Taggart in the Beverly Hills Cop movies, he also had a minor but recurring role on Dallas in its second season and as rival bounty hunter Marvin in Midnight Run.

Maggie Smith- although being a household image to fantasy lovers in the Harry Potter films as Professor McGonagall, she achieved fame by 1969 in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Kris Kristofferson- he was one of my mom's favorite singers when I was little...every time the 1976 version of A Star is Born was on, she was watching. He also made himself a decent actor.

Pete Rose-a damn great ballplayer, brought down by his own gambling addictions. A personal aside here: other athletes did way worse things than his gambling. I thought the powers-that-be's refusal to let him into the baseball Hall of Fame was too hard-assed.

Teri Garr- I loved seeing this woman on film. She was funny, classy, and damn sexy in whatever role she played, which were many!

Quincy Jones- he composed some of the best TV and film scores of all time!

Chuck Woolery- one of the best game show hosts out there. He never played it wild, but just cool. He got Wheel of Fortune off to a good 6 year start and made blind dates look fun on Love Connection.

Jimmy Carter- I already mentioned him in a previous post, but he proved that being a one term President doesn't define the soul inside. On the contrary, his humanitarian efforts proved what a real man he was.

Linda Lavin- a good actress and singer, immortalizing the TV version of a role created on film.