Today shall go down in my personal history and a very strange day. We have just ended a full moon, the weather is weird (sunny and raining at the same time, it seems), and drivers are insanely unpredictable. An elderly gentleman rammed the rear end of the parked car in front of him, trying to get out of his parking space on the street, hard enough to mangle her left fender and pop the trunk open with more mangle. Horns were heard honking frequently for no apparent reason. People just seemed angry and inconsiderate.
A woman inserted her car front end between the car in which I was a passenger when there was no room for the driver to do anything but move in the direction she seemed bound to occupy. Since we would have been hit by another car if he allowed her in, he honked. She stayed in position moving slightly enough than he didn't get hit, honked his horn and the lady stared straight ahead, not even acknowledging him.
Obama won the Nobel Peace prize. The comments on the Internet ranged from respectful to fully disparaging. I, for one, thought he spoke masterfully with the sensitivity and articulateness he has always displayed, the model for our country and citizens that so many Americans do not let him be for their children...to their own loss since that choice obviously marks them as poor models for their children by the judgment they display.
Even the moon wasn't cooperating today. Billions of dollars spent on equipment that kind of fizzled out in the attempt to make a blaze of color and spectacular showers of whatever was supposed to be in the crater. One commentator commented on it not being conducive to selling the public on additional attempts to convince Americans that there is potential to colonize the moon when we may soon need it.
A friend opened as accompanist to a local singer in a suburban restaurant. Coincidentally, a group of alumni from 1964 chose the restaurant for their reunion. Their rudeness to the performers was monumental. While there was a great deal of space in the back of the restaurant for them to talk and visit, they ignored all other patrons there to hear the music and shouted to one another to be heard, standing as though they were in a hall rather than a restaurant where people wanted to hear the singer and accompanist. Management was clearly more shy than I since they said nothing. At one point when a couple talked loudly between the music and me, I stood up and suggested that, since it was clear they were not listening to the music, perhaps they could move themselves to a more open space in the back of the restaurant for their conversation. Embarrassed and shocked, they quickly moved to tables with apologies. I remained appalled at the rudeness displayed in this very 'high class, rich' town. Should I have been? Why do my expectations for more considerate behavior stay high for people with money? Haven't I learned about entitlement in my many decades of life? I guess not. It is true you can't cure stupid. It is also true you can't cure rude, either.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
A HEALTHY DIET
Kathy Freston (Alternet 10/08/09)has been researching health odds regarding diabetes. "One out of every two of us will get cancer or heart disease, and one out of every three children born after the year 2000 will be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. These are devastating diseases, certainly to those who are burdened by them, but also to a health care system that is struggling to keep up."
Strategies for healthy living are often written and posted everywhere, which I find quite amusing. Some speak the way my mother taught cooking. "Add flour until it feels right." Naturally, the novice would have no idea what it is supposed to feel like when it is right. Actually, she might have said (which I would have understood), "Add flour and keep kneading until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and no longer sticks to your fingers." An experienced cook with realize when the dough begins to elasticize.
Under a bold caption for 'Big Picture Strategies for Healthy Living, it starts with, at least, an equally meaningless sentence. "Eat enough calories but not too many." My body believes the emails that tell me chocolate is a vegetable and that there are no calories in alcohol. It knows no boundaries, having been brought up in the clean plate club.
Another dilemma is believing, "Eat a wide variety of food" A few years ago I did just that. For dinner I ate every brand of potato chip on the supermarket shelves. All that did was raise my cholesterol. Joke #3 on the list was "Keep portions moderate." I think only true Yankees can do that and keep their L L Bean look. We Mediterraneans believe that moderate can only be determined if there are left overs on the table at the end of a meal and everyone waddles away from the table.
Joke #4: Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. To shop and store this in your own home requires turning your whole house into a huge kitchen with more than one refrigerator and freezer...even if you live alone. Silly #5 presumes to know something I have never even told my body. "Drink more water" I prefer the rule of 'drink as much water as keeps my thirst quenched and doesn't wake me up in the middle of the night for a pit stop'. Another ridiculous edict (#6) is: Limit sugary foods, salt, and refined-grain products. Of course no one ever indicates limit to what point? If I drink lots of water as said in #5, will it wash away the excess of calories I've ingested of sugar, salt and refined grain?
Another tells me to: "Listen to your body" That can be quite embarrassing because my body, like my personality is noisy, never shy, and non-secretive. It holds nothing back. When hungry my stomach is as vocal as a Gospel service on Sunday. My flatulence is not a description of being lithe but goes off into the area of swamp gas zephyrs.
At last, here's one tailored just for me. "Eat early, eat often" This is easy and I have actually improved on it. I just don't eat often...I've upped it to one continuous meal. No one can say I don't work at being healthy!
Strategies for healthy living are often written and posted everywhere, which I find quite amusing. Some speak the way my mother taught cooking. "Add flour until it feels right." Naturally, the novice would have no idea what it is supposed to feel like when it is right. Actually, she might have said (which I would have understood), "Add flour and keep kneading until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and no longer sticks to your fingers." An experienced cook with realize when the dough begins to elasticize.
Under a bold caption for 'Big Picture Strategies for Healthy Living, it starts with, at least, an equally meaningless sentence. "Eat enough calories but not too many." My body believes the emails that tell me chocolate is a vegetable and that there are no calories in alcohol. It knows no boundaries, having been brought up in the clean plate club.
Another dilemma is believing, "Eat a wide variety of food" A few years ago I did just that. For dinner I ate every brand of potato chip on the supermarket shelves. All that did was raise my cholesterol. Joke #3 on the list was "Keep portions moderate." I think only true Yankees can do that and keep their L L Bean look. We Mediterraneans believe that moderate can only be determined if there are left overs on the table at the end of a meal and everyone waddles away from the table.
Joke #4: Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes. To shop and store this in your own home requires turning your whole house into a huge kitchen with more than one refrigerator and freezer...even if you live alone. Silly #5 presumes to know something I have never even told my body. "Drink more water" I prefer the rule of 'drink as much water as keeps my thirst quenched and doesn't wake me up in the middle of the night for a pit stop'. Another ridiculous edict (#6) is: Limit sugary foods, salt, and refined-grain products. Of course no one ever indicates limit to what point? If I drink lots of water as said in #5, will it wash away the excess of calories I've ingested of sugar, salt and refined grain?
Another tells me to: "Listen to your body" That can be quite embarrassing because my body, like my personality is noisy, never shy, and non-secretive. It holds nothing back. When hungry my stomach is as vocal as a Gospel service on Sunday. My flatulence is not a description of being lithe but goes off into the area of swamp gas zephyrs.
At last, here's one tailored just for me. "Eat early, eat often" This is easy and I have actually improved on it. I just don't eat often...I've upped it to one continuous meal. No one can say I don't work at being healthy!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
MORE ON HOW AND WHY WOMEN HAVE ORGASMS
It has only been since the 60s that researchers have cared to try to understand women's sexual response. The feminist movement spurred an interest in women learning to pleasure themselves since so few men, at the time, understood the physiological differences. There were many jokes about ethnic foreplay...an example being Italian foreplay: "Hi, honey, I'm home."
It takes women an average of 12 minutes to climax...as compared to 2 to 3 minutes for a male. A sensitive man will try to please his wife, not just himself. However, men sensitive to the issue are not universally available. Men have much ignorance about women and many women do themselves. That is why purveyors of sexual toys make so many sales. Then women found they needed a man only to make children. Absent that wish, they could make their own orgasms. To read more of an explanation of the female orgasm, read here.
The world is no longer without instruction
since sex education is not longer a taboo...certainly not to adults. To have the orgasm explained by a doctor, (French, with English subtitles), click here.
There is activity on college campuses in sex columns reminiscent of the 70s. Click here. It will undoubtedly give the far Right something else to fight against.
It takes women an average of 12 minutes to climax...as compared to 2 to 3 minutes for a male. A sensitive man will try to please his wife, not just himself. However, men sensitive to the issue are not universally available. Men have much ignorance about women and many women do themselves. That is why purveyors of sexual toys make so many sales. Then women found they needed a man only to make children. Absent that wish, they could make their own orgasms. To read more of an explanation of the female orgasm, read here.
The world is no longer without instruction
since sex education is not longer a taboo...certainly not to adults. To have the orgasm explained by a doctor, (French, with English subtitles), click here. There is activity on college campuses in sex columns reminiscent of the 70s. Click here. It will undoubtedly give the far Right something else to fight against.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY
This documentary is not for rigid Americans who have their view and want no one to change it. As one man said, "There is rebellion between the people that's got it all and the people that's got nothing." The audience is treated to a comparison between the elements that brought the collapse of the Roman Empire and the United States of today...devastatingly similar.
One segment, clearly demonstrates the heartlessness of those he calls 'bottom feeders'. There is premise that banks and Wall Street have conspired to bilk the poor with the help of politicians previously and currently serving in the House and Senate. Our economy is being run by the fox in the hen house. It is all about taking now, and taking advantage of the misfortune of others. The philosophy is, 'If you have things, you can get more things'. If any one has played Monopoly, you know that the dice will throw no higher than a 12. Thus, if you own 12 properties and utilities in a row, you've won the game. Your opponent may survive for a bit but eventually will run out of money.
Moore points out that it is easy to be #1 when you have no competition, but the world will never let that happen again. We have lost out place and can never gain that position again. Time is money. Capitalism is a sin in all religions. Wall St is an insane casino. Moore states at the end, "I refuse to live in a country like this and I'm not leaving", urging people to make their wishes and voices heard to force their legislators to make decisions in favor of the people rather than just the rich who contribute to their campaigns. Read more from his own web site. Click here. I would recommend it as a must-to-see if you want your views challenged and your data base filled in.
Monday, October 5, 2009
BEER PONG, LOUD MUSIC, AND PARTY TALK
Recently I was invited to a party where I was the oldest guest amongst mostly young marrieds (or nearly so)under thirty, happy people who were relaxing on a weekend to celebrate Autumn with friends. It has been a long time since I have been to a party with so many under thirty who shared so much of life in common and relaxed; in a way foreign, somewhat, than those which I might have known 50 or so years ago.
Enthusiasm for life and friends was similar, but the methods of interacting for a whole evening were different. The music could have been from another planet, played with such volume one equated it with being in a club with no rugs, drapes or anything to absorb sound. I recalled seeing Aquarius (when speakers were first placed all around the theater, blasting and to torturing ear drums) and high volume still makes my head shut down. The host and hostess had clearly researched a pleasing, appropriate array of food. Sauerkraut meatballs, sauerkraut, salad, sausages grilled, tenderloin grilled, soft pretzels with an amazing cheese-based sauce/dip, were just a few of the gastronomic goodies. I'll not tease with a description of the many wonderful desserts. In addition to a huge keg of beer packed in ice, there were cartons of almost every beer imaginable...at least to me, a Scotch drinker. Wine, Margaritas, and hot cider also showed up on the drink menus posted in several sites. Having been there in my youth, I anticipated (with empathic pain)next days hangovers.
I'd never seen Beer Pong played and was thrilled at the kindness shown to me by this group of about 15 couples who let me play.
My partner, acknowledging that I was drinking Scotch, drank the beer for our losses. Happily, I scored one on my first, (also probably last game ever played). Cheers went up as though this old lady had won the baseball pennant single handedly. It was clear they had expected me to refuse their offer to play...little did they know my rather active past!
Conversations, which I could hardly help but overhear bits and pieces of, haven't changed much; a wedding planned for later this month, jobs, living arrangements, house buying, do-it-yourself house repairs, hockey, catching up with people not seen for a while, exactly what I might have remembered as age appropriate. Compared to my age group which focuses on their latest trip to the doctor, the medications they are taking, their next scheduled surgery, and which retirement community they will go to when they sell their house.
I advise, when you age past sixty, it is time to start making younger friends if you haven't been doing that all along.
Enthusiasm for life and friends was similar, but the methods of interacting for a whole evening were different. The music could have been from another planet, played with such volume one equated it with being in a club with no rugs, drapes or anything to absorb sound. I recalled seeing Aquarius (when speakers were first placed all around the theater, blasting and to torturing ear drums) and high volume still makes my head shut down. The host and hostess had clearly researched a pleasing, appropriate array of food. Sauerkraut meatballs, sauerkraut, salad, sausages grilled, tenderloin grilled, soft pretzels with an amazing cheese-based sauce/dip, were just a few of the gastronomic goodies. I'll not tease with a description of the many wonderful desserts. In addition to a huge keg of beer packed in ice, there were cartons of almost every beer imaginable...at least to me, a Scotch drinker. Wine, Margaritas, and hot cider also showed up on the drink menus posted in several sites. Having been there in my youth, I anticipated (with empathic pain)next days hangovers.
I'd never seen Beer Pong played and was thrilled at the kindness shown to me by this group of about 15 couples who let me play.
My partner, acknowledging that I was drinking Scotch, drank the beer for our losses. Happily, I scored one on my first, (also probably last game ever played). Cheers went up as though this old lady had won the baseball pennant single handedly. It was clear they had expected me to refuse their offer to play...little did they know my rather active past! Conversations, which I could hardly help but overhear bits and pieces of, haven't changed much; a wedding planned for later this month, jobs, living arrangements, house buying, do-it-yourself house repairs, hockey, catching up with people not seen for a while, exactly what I might have remembered as age appropriate. Compared to my age group which focuses on their latest trip to the doctor, the medications they are taking, their next scheduled surgery, and which retirement community they will go to when they sell their house.
I advise, when you age past sixty, it is time to start making younger friends if you haven't been doing that all along.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
WHATEVER CAN THE REPUBLICANS BE THINKING?
The Republicans are now whining that they are being left out of the HealthCare plans. With all the ridiculous misrepresentations of the devout Republicans and the 'fringe' whackos, the lies that have been given credence to by the brilliant Fox News staff and many others, especially radio talk shows, is rather remarkable. Intelligent people would have to ask the question "Why would we want more ideas from people who can't listen, quote accurately, and clearly want to 'deep six' the whole plan for Health Care for all citizens.
At last, the Democrats have had enough and are now, rather than constantly trying to defend their plan, asking where is the Republican plan. Those Senators who don't believe there is a problem for the average American remain unwilling to share their Legislative perks with the rest of us. Each should be noted, as they are self-serving in their office and have forgotten those whom they are representing.
Meanwhile the Republicans insist that the Democrats are ignoring the needs of the public. Amusing since the Republicans have demonstrated they are totally unaware of their constituents needs.
At last, the Democrats have had enough and are now, rather than constantly trying to defend their plan, asking where is the Republican plan. Those Senators who don't believe there is a problem for the average American remain unwilling to share their Legislative perks with the rest of us. Each should be noted, as they are self-serving in their office and have forgotten those whom they are representing.
Meanwhile the Republicans insist that the Democrats are ignoring the needs of the public. Amusing since the Republicans have demonstrated they are totally unaware of their constituents needs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)