Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Movie Review

I bought this movie because I hoped to learn more about one of Spain’s most revered artists.  Francisco de Goya, (1746-1828) is considered the “Father of Modern Art” and knowing nothing about the movie. I read several reviews, most of them glowing.  In reality, .... (more)

  

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Artists

 “The past is what man should not have been.  The present is what man ought not to be.   The future is what artists are.”
~ Oscar Wilde ~ 

Friday, October 14, 2011

ART...


“There really is no such thing as Art.  There are only  artists."
~E.H. Gombrich, an English art historian~

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

EMAILS ABOUT OLD PEOPLE

 I keep getting all these “cute” emails about old people, describing all the idiotic things they do.  And I get lists of things which define old people such as, “You know you’re old when…..”  I find them semi-amusing.  I try not to personalize.  I do however, occasionally find myself doing things I probably wouldn’t have done 20 years ago.  I have to blame it on my age. Some of the things I now do are just plain dumb. I do question myself as to whether I was always this stupid or is it really the onset of senility that causes the behavior malfunctions going on in my life.  I mean I was NEVER going to be invited to the Mensa picnic, but, my gawd!  I’m getting worried.

For instance, the other day I stopped at a gas station to fill up my car.  I pulled into this very large Phillips 66 station, attached the nozzle to my car’s gas tank, inserted my credit card into the appropriate slot on the pump mechanism.  Now, as you know, getting gasoline is no longer a simple matter.  Before you start pumping, you have to answer a multitude of questions – cash? credit outside? credit inside? debit outside? debit inside? car wash? receipt? and very often your zip code, age, sexual preference, etc.  So, okay, I get through all the BS and the “pump” told me I had to re-insert my card and remove it quickly, which I obediently did.  Same questions.  Then the “pump” told me to “see attendant”.  By this time, I was so annoyed and frustrated, I pocketed my credit card, returned the nozzle to its home and drove away in a huff.  A short time later as I was waiting at a stop sign, I reached into my pocket to return my credit card to my wallet and I was stunned to see…..it was my J.C. Penney card.  Well…..as the epitaph on Alan King’s tombstone in the 1988 film “Memories of Me” said, “Now I Feel Like a Putz.”

There’s more stuff, but I’ll report it later.  Stay tuned.

 (Also, don’t pass this on.  One of my kids might get wind of it and have me put away.)

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS RUN AMOK!

The American Family Association recently reported the following story in their publication:


          Tyson Homosexual was a blur in blue, sprinting 100 meters
          faster than anyone ever has. "It means a lot to me", the 25-year-old
          Homosexual said.


          The runner's name actually was Tyson Gay, but that's how news of
          his race victory was reported by the AFA which has an automatic
          word-replacement program set against the word "gay".


I mean, really?  Haven't we just about reached the limit of the ridiculousness (is that a word?) of political correctness?


We, as a nation, are being treated like a bunch of kindergartners instead of adults.  Remember how we used to spell out words around our children when they were small so they wouldn't know what we were talking about?  Now the PC media watchdogs are doing that to us.  They use euphemisms such as "the n-word" or "the f-word" instead of saying what they really mean.  I don't get it.


I hate the "n-word".  I can hardly bear to say it aloud.  I can hardly bear to write it.  But, when reporting a news story that contains that word, such as the recent story about the rock in front of Governor Perry's fishing cabin with the "n-word" on it, why won't the news readers just go ahead and say it instead of pretending it says something other that what it really says?  Whom are they protecting?  Certainly not their audience.  To be fair, though, if a media person did actually say "nigger" on the air,  that person would be fired so fast they wouldn't be able to get the "er" out of their mouths before being evicted from the premises.  So, of course, they are protecting themselves.


And by the way, why are the only people who are allowed to say the "n-word" are "people of color"?  (Whatever that means.)  Why is it strictly taboo for WASPs to even think the word, much less say it aloud?  Why the hypocrisy?


Then there's the "f-word" or "f-bomb".  Are our psyches so delicate that hearing the actual word would cause us to get the vapors?  Why the pretense?  It's not as if everyone in the world has not heard the word.  If you are a movie goer, you've heard it a million times.


But, maybe I'm just being an "f-word b-word".  Could be.  I've been accused of being an "f-word b-word" a number of times.  (For those of you unfamiliar with PC-speak, "f-word b-word" is actually "fucking bitch".)


The following quote just about sums up the moronic concept of PC:


"Political correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous, mainstream media, which  hold forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Saturday, October 1, 2011

THROWING GRANDMA UNDER THE BUS

All the media wonks are always talking about politicians “trying to scare Grandma” or “throwing Grandma under the bus”.  Sometimes they accuse them of “dropping a dime on Grandma”.  What the hell ever happened to Grandpa?  Why is Grandma the only one being discriminated against?  Is it because Grandma is the only one smart enough to figure out she’s getting fucked over by Obamacare and Big Government?  Surely Grandpa is getting fucked over, too.  Is he not smart enough to grasp the concept?   Or is it more fun to depict old ladies as pathetic symbols of older Americans?  I am the embodiment of the Grandma who is being scared and is being thrown under the bus.  I am 76 years old and I am definitely scared.  My retirement fund has dwindled to almost nothing under the Obama administration.  I haven’t had a “cost of living” increase in my Social Security for 3 years now.  Not that the increase ever amounted to anything.  Usually $7.00 or $8.00 after adjustments for Medicare, etc.  And all the while, gasoline costs more, groceries cost more, utilities cost more, and my monthly income is approximately $800 less that it was 3 years ago.  You bet I’m scared.  I think the “dime” has already dropped on Grandma and I am powerless to do anything about it.  Too old to work, too old to become a hooker, can’t stand the thought of having to put up with some toothless “Grandpa” to supplement my income.  What’s a Grandma to do?  I wish I knew.

Monday, August 29, 2011

George W. Bush

I watched a special broadcast on National Geographic last night in which George W. Bush was interviewed about his feelings of the events as they unfolded before the nation on September 11, 2001.  As I watched this distinguished, intelligent man talk about his what he and the whole country went through after the terrifying events that day and in the following days, I couldn’t help but compare his calm dignity and presence of mind with our present president.  I shudder to think where the United States would be today if Urkel Obama had been president on 9/11.  We’d probably all be under Sharia law, wearing burkas and studying the Qur’an today.

Football anyone?

BLASPHEMY?  No doubt some will think so.

I just can’t get too excited about pro football.  Actually, I eschew ALL pro sports.  Grown up men playing little boy games.  And “grown up” men (and women) watching and getting all hot and bothered about them.  Wow.   I just don’t get it.  The thing is, I don’t believe the outcome of the games is left in the hands of the players.  I find it impossible to believe that with all the money involved in betting, graft, scams, corruption, payoffs, etc. that is controlled by the managers, owners, and bookies that they would put 22 Neanderthals hyped up on steroids and other drugs out on a field, give them a football and let them bash each other into oblivion without some control over the final outcome.   So, let’s see if I have this right---they’re going to let these 22 troglodytes with a collective I.Q. of maybe 150 and not one of them with more than a 15-word vocabulary at the most, (and that’s if you count motherfucker as 2 words) –they’re going to turn that group loose and let them be the deciding factor in who wins and who loses a football game?  I don’t think so. Waaaay too much money involved!   Just ain’t gonna’ happen.  I know I’ll get a lot of flack about this.  But, if anyone with half a brain thought about it for half a second or two, they’d have to agree. 

Statins

My doctor called today to tell me the results of my recent blood test.  My cholesterol is high – a little over 200.  My triglycerides are high.  It’s been that way as long as I can remember.  I was given a cholesterol medication (a statin) once, and a month later I couldn’t walk.  A couple of years after that I had to have knee replacement surgery.  The doctors all claimed the cholesterol medication was not to blame.  I have since refused any and all medications currently on the market for treatment of high cholesterol.  They all have the same disclaimer – inflammation, impaired ability to walk, joint paint, etc.  They want me to take that stuff?  Really?  I don’t think so.  The last time my doctor tried to put me on some pill, I told her I thought the experts were wrong about having a score of 245 being a bad thing.  Every day new research debunks old research and the medical community completely reverses their previous findings.  If we just wait long enough, research will show that having cholesterol at less than 200 is really, really bad for you. 

Cats

I don’t trust people who don’t like cats.  There is always something a little weird about the person who says “I hate cats”.  I have found that when a person doesn’t like cats, they are always a little “off” in their personalities to my way of thinking.  I love cats.  All cats.  I enjoy their personalities, their coats, their voices. I have always had a cat for as long as I remember.  Some I liked better than others.  Some I have loved so intensely that when they died, I mourned them as I would any family member.  One of the cats I now have – a rescue from my vet – has been with me for 13 years.  He’s spoiled beyond any normal way of thinking.  He sleeps with me, of course, and snores all night long.  He sleeps right by my head and if I turn over in bed, he changes sides, too, so that we’re always face to face.  I find this oddly comforting.  He snores whenever he’s asleep.  As I work in my office, he sleeps behind the desk and I always know when he’s there because I can hear him snoring away.  He likes ice water and whenever I have a glass of ice water on the end table next to my easy chair, he drinks from it.    He likes to lick the ice.  However, he has a peculiar way of drinking water.  He dips his paw in the water and licks the water from his paw.  This is how he drinks outside whenever he finds a puddle of water or from his water bowl in the house.  If I keep the glass full, he drinks normally, but if the glass is three-quarters or half full, he uses his paw.  I don’t mind sharing my water with him as long as he doesn’t dip his paw into the glass.  Maybe it’s me that’s weird?  Nah.  Not possible.  I also love dogs.

Less or fewer?

Lots of confusion about these two words.  Most of us learned the basics of grammar in “grammar” school back when we were young and impressionable.  So why do most people misuse these two words?  I can see how a lot of people, ordinary folks, can be confused by them.  But, when I hear a commercial substituting less for fewer it really bugs me.  I won’t buy a product from a company who hires an ad agency who, when writing copy, mis-uses less for fewer.  Or when a news reader on TV uses less when they really mean fewer, it grates on my nerves.  It also bugs me when people use “badly” when they really mean “bad”.  I understand that saying “He/she feels badly” about something, they think it sounds more elegant than saying it properly, i.e. “He/she feels bad.” I guess I’m just a fucking purist. There are fewer and fewer (or less and less) of us around and I feel badly about it.  Poor grammar is commonplace and becoming more and more acceptable.  Just not to me