Chesterfield Bears in Action - September 26, 2010

Chesterfield Bears - Photos by Melissa E.

My First Movie Star Crush

Tony Curtis

June 3, 1925 - September 29, 2010

When I was a young teenager I had the biggest crush on Tony Curtis, back in the day when he made movies like The Prince Who Was A Thief and Son of Ali Baba. I can still see his tanned and toned body swimming in this long indoor pool up to the woman he loved - ME. Tony may have been my one and only true crush.

There was the Jack Ryan/Harrison Ford thing but it was short lived. And then Johnny Depp, well "crush" doesn't even come close to describing it - true love is more like it. Maybe John Wayne, way back in his cowboy roles when he was long and lean and very young, yes that was a movie star crush as well. But for me it will always be Tony Curtis who captured my teenage heart.

We would collect movie magazines but not save them, instead we made it very personal by making or buying albums and cutting out all our favorite pictures and pasting them in the book like they were long loved family members. Sadly the albums left me long before Tony did. Rest in peace, Tony and don't drip any paint on Heaven's floor.

Just a Tiny Speck

'Big Baby'  - Spitzer & Hubble Telescope - NASA

When I was a kid one of my favorite summertime activities was to to look up at the night sky and imagine myself out there in space - just being one of those tiny specks in the universe. I thought that was so totally cool. And sometimes I thought there was someone looking at me and I was just this tiny, tiny speck. It's all relative as someone once said. I didn't mind being a speck then.

In our earthly environment we don't think of ourselves as specks though we are all basically within a few feet  the same size; the biggest probably some NBA players and the smallest being, well you know the 'little' people. But not specks like dust particles that inhabit our tabletops.

I get frustrated from time to time with politics, politicians and yes, our political system. Good, bad or indifferent I think you have to admit things are spinning out of control. That good old document that begins... We the people... has lost some meaning. Yes, we the people vote and elect our representatives but we don't influence much control over them. The $5 or even the $500 we may contribute to a candidate doesn't buy us much power, the letters we write to our congressmen doesn't really mean too much. You need to look at where the money comes from to see who is running the show really.Click this link to see where the money comes from it's kind of interesting to see who really has the influence over OUR elected representative.

The next time there is an oil spill or legislation on health-care or anything really, check how your Congressman or Senator voted then check out who contributes the big bucks to his/her campaign. It might surprise you or maybe it won't. It's really has little to do with the political party and more to do with the dollar$. I don't really have an answer, but I bet if all of us little specks stuck together and made a BIG OLD BALL OF DUST someone would take notice when we rolled into Washington before those rascals could grab their dust busters.

Don't tune out and don't let the big corporations keep running the show. Keep yourself informed - we live in an age where we don't have to wait for the Town Crier to run through the streets to tell us the "British Are Coming". I think we could take our country back if we really wanted to.

Little Miss Shirley Temple

This snapshot was taken in Newport Beach as Little Shirley Temple enjoyed a summer at the beach. My sister-in-law is pictured in the background in the sailor hat. This would have been a few months before the December 1934 release of Shirley's movie Bright Eyes and the debut of her signature song On the Good Ship Lollipop .  Just click on the link to see and hear  Little Shirley sing. Such sweet innocence.

Dark Shadows

 

Halloween 2009

As a U.S. Taxpayer I'm Pissed

As a U.S. Taxpayer I'm pissed that my tax dollars are being spent so Stephen Colbert can do his comedy routine on Capitol Hill before a House hearing. Less mad at Colbert himself as I am mad at the Democrats that thought this would be a good idea. I say they all should be thrown out and we should start over again. This country has SERIOUS problems that needs SERIOUS consideration by ADULTS. The November elections are just a little more than a month away, this might be a good time to vote NO to the jerks that are currently running the show and bring in some new blood, hopefully circulating through a grown up body with a brain attached.

If you are a California Taxpayer in a state that is under going serious financial concerns, you should be pissed that your tax dollars are being spent to keep L. L. off the streets. She's a spoiled brat with a serious drug problem, but she is also a wealthy brat that can afford her own treatment. If she is a threat to society, take her driver's license away and impound her car. Short of keeping her off the public streets that's about all you can do. She's hell bent on self destruction, sometimes the only thing you can do is step back and get out of the way.

Maybe all these tidal waves, earthquakes and hurricanes are being stirred up by our forefathers spinning wildly in their graves.

Where in the World is Waldo?

Waldo's been on a walkabout in the USA. Any guess where he is?

Food for Thought, Are We a Fast Food Nation?

Are Far Right Women Right for America

by Linda Rallo 

The popular appeal of far right candidates suggests that when it comes to picking public servants, American appetites hunger for ready-made meals rather than cultivated cuisine.

Today's menu features a Senate contender whose experience makes Sarah Palin look like Susan B. Anthony. Last night we met Christine O'Donnell, the newest Tea Party candidate to capture national attention. So over coffee and headlines, I took a closer look at this grizzly-esque momma. Seems she's famous not for her "illustrious" career as a public relations consultant but more for her condemnation of masturbation (maybe she won a contest or something) and affirmation of abstinence (that worked well for Bristol eh?).

So that's where we are girls. The best women for national leadership need not work their way through the legislative hierarchy nor possess advanced degrees. Even public servants who wish to reach the upper pay grades are required to attend graduate school.

No, now we just have attractive ladies who can take a banal approach to public policy, slap on a couple of layers of lipstick, call for less government, mention something about the constitution and there you have it, a Tea Party candidate and potentially the newest member to one of the most elite clubs in the world, the U.S. Senate.

This may be fast-food politics, but are we really getting the full-meal deal? Who do I blame for this could-be snack wrap senator? I blame the scores of moderate women in America, women who daily confess to me that they are "fiscally conservative and socially liberal".

But when I try to drum up some momentum for a moderate movement, the response is mediocre at best. Perhaps real women are too busy doing real work to waste their resources in a government that has long operated blissfully from a position of status quo.

Mounting debt, two unfunded wars, record unemployment and hope buried somewhere in the abyss of forgotten campaign speeches, and we have the new adventures of unknown Christine as the next national train wreck to tragically entertain us.

Ok America, we are hurting, I understand that. We need something different, right. But even when the hunger pangs are so completely unbearable, do you really want the aftermath of a bad burrito when you could have a nice, light salad with protein, good carbs and no trans fats?

Please don't promote these tea party girls as the fresh faces of feminine leadership. They are simply pawns in a game of partisan tug-of-war. Ignorantly at the back of the rope, this time they may have pulled popular opinion far to the right, but just like at family picnics, the ones who win end up on their rears while the losers stand tall.

So to the modern moderate woman unmotivated to serve, we need you at the table, we need you preparing the meals, because come November when our country sits down to feast on its new found conservative fortitude, you may think these candidates have what you crave, but by morning, you'll be sick.

Linda Rallo is a public policy graduate student in St. Louis and a member of the Republican Party.

History Lesson Ohio Style

While rummaging through the books on my bookshelves yesterday I came across this little book. It's a bit of a mystery as to why this Ohio Edition would end up with my family whose strong roots were planted in California way before 1927. If you are interested the complete non-Ohio edition can be read on Goggle books at this Google Book Link.  All illustrations can be enlarged for easier viewing and reading by clicking on the image.

I love the first line of the PREFACE which reads: "The pedagogical value of the story has  always been recognized but is now being utilized more fully, perhaps, than ever before." To be honest I had to look up pedagogical; educational, academic, instructional, so who says blogging is a waste of time. Blogging can actually have a pedagogical value to both the author and the reader.

While the book is intended to serve as a guide for teachers in their oral presentations it was also noted that the book may also be read in due time by the child. The word censorship is not used rather it is noted: "A studious effort has been made to simplify and unify these stories by leaving out those details and circumstances that would only distract the child, and to make them vital and vivid by enlarging such details as serve the main purpose."

Here are a couple of illustrations from the book. They are quite nice and very detailed. Imagine all the work that went into getting these produced.

At the back of book in the Ohio Edition is the supplement for this edition. I especially like the note in the PREFACE that read, "It is also strongly urged that a map of Ohio be used in connection with these stories."

There is a story in the supplement entitled The Runaways which tells about the underground railroad that enabled tens of thousands of black slaves to slip through Ohio to Canada and freedom.

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that in 1927 we teach in our schools the trials of the black man and his quest for freedom from slavery and in 2010 some of our schools banned the first black president of the United States from speaking to the students?

Skeezix and Uncle Walt

Frank King worked for the Chicago Tribune, on the Sunday page, The Rectangle, staff artists would contribute one-shot panels, this is where Gasoline Alley began. Four guys, Walt, Doc, Avery and Bill would have weekly conversations about cars. In 1919 it would become a daily strip in the New York Daily News.

Gasoline Alley would be the first comic strip to have it characters age normally, unlike Little Orphan Annie who stayed a girl forever. In order to generate greater appeal to women it was decided to add a baby to the comic strip. There was one problem though, Walt Wallet was a confirmed bachelor. The problem was solved with Uncle Walt discovering an abandoned baby, Skeezix, on his doorstep. This book Skeezix and Uncle Walt tells that story.

Skeezix would grow up, fight in World War II, and marry his sweetheart Nina Clock and have children of their own, all before the eyes of adoring readers of Gasoline Alley.

Casey: Please note the port-hole opening in the side of this baby carriage. Remind you of anything?

My Mother's Doll

Chuckie, is that you?

My mother was born March 10, 1896 in Black Earth, Wisconsin. I'm not sure how old she was when she got this doll, my guess would be around five years old. So that would make the doll about 109 years old. She's in pretty good shape for an old gal who was played with by 

two generations of girls.

I think her scotch tape 'nip and tuck' was added during my years of playing with her. I remember her kid body giving way to slight sawdust leaks when I played with her. She has a chipped little finger but my recollection is that the little chip was always there during her time with me as my doll, so I will chalk that mar up to one of my mother's indiscretions. I have noticed now that there is a little chip by her eye, which I think is fairly new.

Her human hair wig has grown thin and frail over the years. I clearly remember putting her hair up in pin curls when I would play with her and remembering she had a much thicker head of hair then. She has not been played with in years and spends her days and nights wrapped up carefully in tissue paper and packed away in her box.

She has been bequeathed to my namesake granddaughter but not handed over yet. I am letting her experiment with her real life baby before deeming her ready to assume care for this doll.

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered

Men are not the new sensation,

   I've done pretty well, I think.

Photo by Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images

Thank God I can't be over-sexed again.

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

[ Are We ]

Take Three

Greece - Early 1980's

Enjoy Three Minutes of Judy Garland  (click on link)

Look into my Eyes... Part I

You never know how you look through other people's eyes.

- Author Unknown   

 

  My Son Mark

  Casey Shain

  

My Daughter-in-law Julie

 

  Don Nelson

 

 Haleighana

 Oliver

 

 Vivienne O'Donnell

A Non-Google Reminder

I just got a very nice Happy Grandparent's Day from "O" who attending the 49ers- Seahawks game today. Looks like he is game ready. Thanks for remembering it was Grandparent's Day.

I Missed a Milestone - 300 Plus

This is post #307 - dang, how did I miss 300? Sometimes I feel like this chicken, running around with my head on screaming, "Have you read my blog yet?" But after 307 posts, I do know that at least sometimes some people have read my blog. Now, whether they find me an interesting person is a totally different question. One I am not asking.