Stories, Memories, Life Lessons, Anas, Finding Peas
“What’s Up, Doc”
Watched “What’s Up, Doc” last night. Peter Bogdanovich’s homage to screwball comedies. I haven’t laughed that hard since LS was over for dinner. It wasn’t till after the film that I realized the outdoor San Francisco scenes had no homeless tents. The movie was made in 1971. Let me repeat that thought: In 1971, San Francisco had no homeless tents. I always thought that society should IMPROVE over time. What exactly happened?
Is it Climate Change?
California has been having forest fires for as long as I can remember. They even started to name their fires. You have the Delta and Carr Fires in the North. Yosemite National Park was closed for a month as the Ferguson Fire raged. The Mendocino Complex Fire consumed nearly 460,000 acres north of San Francisco. Last year the Mosquito Fire destroyed 78 homes and burned 76,800 acres of forest.
I did some investigating and discovered the average annual burn in the last 5 years consumed 2.3 million acres of forest per year. California has 33 million acres of forest. At this rate, in 15 years, forest fires should no longer be a problem. Thank the Lord, huh?
Tonight Svengoolie’s movie is This Island Earth. Classic Science Fiction, one of the first of the “Hey maybe there are Good Guys too out there amongst the Evil Monsters” genre. Big shout-out to Exeter. Svengoolie will have a ton of trivia to go over. That will be the best part for me. I’ve introduced this film to countless friends over the years and frankly the effects, color and scenery are far superior to the dialogue and characters. So much so that should I watch this alone I will keep the sound off. It’s STILL a good movie.
“The past tempts us, the present confuses us, and the future frightens us. And our lives slip away, moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in-between”. Centauri Emperor Turhan (with a grinning nod to J. Michael Straczynski – my hero)
In 1968, I attended a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) meeting. The meeting was ruled my 2 girls who had that look that said, “I’m in charge here, GoDDamnit!”. I left and always wondered if my attendance would someday come back to haunt me. So far, so good!
I used to think I was a woke person 16 hours a day and asleep the other 8. Then my son explained what WOKE means. I recognized woke people right away – we used to call them “Buttinskis”. Except for Aunt Betty – she calls them assholes. I love Aunt Betty.
Tee Shirt Seen in Beijing: “George Costanza started Covid”.
I’m living an Alan Drury novel !
Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm:
When my brother’s body was sent home in Summer 1966, he was accompanied by PFC Tim from the US Marine Corps. Tim’s job was to stand at attention next to my brother’s closed casket during the wake and funeral procession. The wake was 3 days and Tim duly stood stoic. I ignored him, my brother D played cards with him, my mother adopted him immediately and fed him and made him feel at home as best she could. My father was quiet.
Mom kept up a correspondence with Tim. His last letter was dated August 1967 from Vietnam. He wrote: “Guess what I found out today! There is a guy in my platoon from your town. His name is JB. He is one of our machine gunners. He says he knows your family. He said something about K dating his sister.”
Three weeks later, Tim and JB were killed in the same firefight. For you number people, this happened one year one month and one day after my brother’s death. JB’s sister S became my first lovely wife. While we are no longer married, we are forever Gold Start Siblings. God Bless America.
Easter Thoughts 2023:
When my son was small at Easter we’d not only hide eggs but I’d make a crude map showing approximate locations. Kind of a way to add a level of Orienteering to an otherwise Hide and Seek game. It worked! He’s never gotten lost (and I mean that on several levels).
I have watched Andrea Bocelli sing on YouTube many times. I’ve seen him give interviews; I NEVER knew he was blind. I hope he schedules a concert at the NYC Met. I’d love to see and hear him in that venue. I’ll start saving now.
Random Thoughts 1:
I met a Scottish lass on the motor vehicle line who claims to have stolen hundreds of dollars of cheese from Calfasso’s Fairway Market in Fort Lee but because of the store’s legendary retailer chicanery and skullduggery has only broken even! I gave her three dollars. I loved her accent!
Dennis Miller is incorrect: Trey Gowdy is not TinTin. He’s TinTin’s younger funnier brother Finn Tin
Walter Mitty, Ralph Phillips, George Santos, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, liars all, certainly; but eighth circle or ninth circle? That’s the only question.
A Bit-a Politics 1:
A New York Appellate Judge denied a defamation suit brought by Trump lawyers against MSNBC for fake and slanderous reporting of his high-profile Stormy Daniels affair. The Judge ruled that since there is no evidence the public is watching MSNBC there are no grounds for a defamation suit. MSNBC’s lawyer plans to appeal.
Former Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot is reportedly in the running to be the summer replacement of Svengoolie. Toony was seen to be ill with anticipation.
Are Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk having a Robert Oppenheimer Moment regarding AI?
What is a Robert Oppenheimer Moment?
As he witnessed the first nuclear weapon blast on July 16, 1945, a piece of Hindu scripture ran through the mind of Robert Oppenheimer (the leader of the Manhattan Project) : “ Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds‘”
It seems Steve and Elon think research into AI should be slowed lest we get ahead of ourselves. (cue the wavy lines and time warp effect and Morgan Freeman says:) “In 1812, the first steamboats began plying the mighty Mississippi. In 1852 the first steam boiler pressure gauge was patented. In the 40 years from 1812 to 1852 over 4000 lives were lost in steam boiler explosions along the mighty Mississippi. It would appear (dramatic pause) we’d gotten ahead of ourselves!”
A Life in Five Moves:
In 1967 I boarded a plane to Michigan with one suitcase. In 1971 I returned to New Jersey with all my possessions in a Rambler American. In 1973 I moved to Cliffside Park and it took three trips in my Ford Maverick. In 1976 I moved to Englewood with a 15 foot U-Haul truck. In 1991 I moved to Englewood Cliffs and it took a 36 foot truck, 3 burly men and 7 hours to move me.
Today, like Smaug, I sit atop my hard-fought for possessions wondering how long it will take my son to call the Got Junk number. And then it came to me – kinda like a head-cold: I will “seed the Cloud” with my clutter, oddments and allot of good writtings and journal entries, some going back to the 1960’s. Yes, I know writtings is misspelled but don’t the 2 t’s look cool!
kongoboken 