29Aug11

We have everything on the menu today sir, the waitress said.
So I see, the customer said, How about a clean one?


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1915, Ingrid Bergman is born

1949, Richard Gere is born

1958, Michael Jackson is born

1967, George Rockwell American nazi party leader, murdered

1975, Eamon de Valera Irish independence fighter, dies at 92

1982, Ingrid Bergman dies.

1983, Simon Oakland actor (Toma, Kolchak, Baa Baa Black Sheep), dies at 61

1985, Evelyn Ankers actress, dies at 67

1985, Patrick Barr actor, dies at 77

1987, Lee Marvin dies in Tucson, Ariz at 63

1990, Saddam Hussein declares America can't beat Iraq

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The Irene storm is still on the news even though it has more or less dissapated into Canada and the Atlantic as a tropical storm, but the news is all about the damage on the eastern seaboard the flooding and the electricity being off and people playing board games and listening to battery radios.
Which reminds me of a joke about a lady who phoned her TV serviceman and complained that something was wrong with her set. The serviceman asked her if there were any visible symptoms.
“The newscaster is on right now,” said the lady,” and he has a very long face.”
“Madam,” replied the serviceman, “if you had to report what’s happening these days you’d have a long face too.”
Of course nowadays they don’t have television repairmen as they used to in the old days. Now you send it off to a repair center or buy a new one. What a waste progress can bestow on all of us. Not to mention the loss of jobs that it entails.
According to the weather forecasters it is supposed to be another 100 plus degree day today~I am looking forward to Autumn in earnest.
Have a nice day and stay cool!!

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Here is another story about Abraham Lincoln past President of the United States.

From discussing the physical peculiarities of Douglas, who was a
very small man, a group of Lincoln's friends turned to the question
of how long a man's legs should be. Upon Lincoln's joining the group,
he was asked the question.
"Well," he said, "I should think a man's legs ought to be long enough
to reach from his body to the ground."

28Aug11

A man in his carefree bachelor days, had been very fond of a Washington restaurant which specialized in waffles with honey. Year after year he had journey to to the place to get the delectable viand; so, when he finally married, he decided to take his wife there, in order to share the pleasure with her. He did not tell her what was coming; merely ordering an excellent meal, with two orders of waffles.
The meal came, the waffles came; but there were two small pitchers of near-maple syrup, and no honey.
He called the waitress over, and whispered, loud enough for his wife to hear: “Where’s my honey?”
The waitress beamed intelligently, “She’s on her vacation now, sir,” was her answer.


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1949, Soviets detonate their first atom bomb.

1963, Martin Luther King reads his famous speech I Have A Dream.

1972, Mark Spitz-US Swimmer, 1st athlete to win 7 Olympic gold medals.

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Just enduring this hot summer~~It’s been a hundred degrees here for so long I wonder what it’s gonna feel like when autumn finally does get here, other than hot!!
Well school has started again down here. Whatever happened to the school year that started on Sept the first??
The hurricane Irene slammed into the eastern seaboard of the United States and that’s all there is in the news nowadays.
What did Charles D. Warner say? “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
But then I got my own ideas about weathermen and their lot! There is an old saying:
FIRST FARMER: “Don’t think much of that weather prophet the government’s got on the radio.”
SECOND FARMER: “Well, let’s don’t do any complainin’ about it. Just think how bad it would be if the government started regulatin’ the weather instead of predictin’ it!”
Another line of thought!!
Just watch what happens after Irene goes away= Just watch the gas prices go up!! For what reason?? Who knows but the oil companies will find an excuse to jack it up at the pump no matter what. Wait and see.
Today is another Sunday gone into history~~Enjoy your week!!

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Here is another story about Abraham Lincoln past President of the United States


Lincoln's innate democracy was humorously expressed in this mark
about his ancestry: "I don't know who my grandfather was, and
I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be."

13Aug11

“Now, girls,” said the restaurant manager, “I want you all to look your best to-day. Add a little dab of powder to your cheeks and take a bit more care with your hair.”
“Somethin special on?” asked the head waitress.
“No,” informed the manager. “The beef’s tough.”


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1899, Alfred Hitchcock is born.

1926, Renowned Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro is born/

1961, Building of the Berlin Wall

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On this day in 1981, at his California home Rancho del Cielo, Ronald Reagan signs the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA), a historic package of tax and budget reductions that set the tone for his administration's overall economic policy.

During his campaign for the White House in 1980, Reagan argued on behalf of "supply-side economics," the theory of using tax cuts as incentives for individuals and businesses to work and produce goods (supply) rather than as an incentive for consumers to buy goods (demand). In Congress, Representative Jack Kemp, Republican of New York, and Senator Bill Roth, Republican of Delaware, had long supported the supply-side principles behind the ERTA, which would also be known as the Kemp-Roth act. The bill, which received broad bipartisan support in Congress, represented a significant change in the course of federal income tax policy, which until then was believed by most people to work best when used to affect demand during times of recession.

The ERTA included a 25 percent reduction in marginal tax rates for individuals, phased in over three years, and indexed for inflation from that point on. The marginal tax rate, or the tax rate on the last dollar earned, was considered more important to economic activity than the average tax rate (total tax paid as a percentage of income earned), as it affected income earned through "extra" activities such as education, entrepreneurship or investment. Reducing marginal tax rates, the theory went, would help the economy grow faster through such extra efforts by individuals and businesses. The 1981 act, combined with another major tax reform act in 1986, cut marginal tax rates on high-income taxpayers from 70 percent to around 30 percent, and would be the defining economic legacy of Reagan's presidency.

Reagan's tax cuts were designed to put maximum emphasis on encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship and creating incentives for the development of venture capital and greater investment in human capital through training and education. The cuts particularly benefited "idea" industries such as software or financial services; fittingly, Reagan's first term saw the advent of the information revolution, including IBM's introduction of its first personal computer (PC) and the rise or launch of such tech companies as Intel, Microsoft, Dell, Sun Microsystems, Compaq and Cisco Systems.

Economists have argued to what degree Reagan's economic policy drove the boom of the 1990s, but his tax program undoubtedly set in motion powerful forces of change that would result in both short- and long-term economic gains. On the other hand, critics of so-called "Reaganomics" argued that his tax cuts and the effects of steady economic growth disproportionately benefitted the wealthy, and increased the gap between the nation's rich and poor.

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Here is another story about Abraham Lincoln past President of the United States

Lincoln once dreamed that he was in a great assembly where the
people made a lane for him to pass through. "He is a common-looking
fellow," said one of them, "Friend," replied Lincoln in his dream,
"the Lord prefers common-looking people--that is why He made so many
of them."

10aug11

Patron---“Do you serve fish here?”
Waiter---“Certainly, we cater to everyone.”


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1938, Air France offers a flight route between Marseille and Hong Kong. The voyage lasts 5 days.

1959, Rosanna Arquette is born.

1960, Antonio Banderas is born.

1953, In Canada, liberal Louis Stephen Saint-Laurent is re-elected for a second time as Prime Minister.

1980, Allen, the most powerful hurricane in Caribbean hits Brownsville, Tx

1988, UN estimates Asia's population hit 3 billion


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Today is Wednesday~~Another hot day they say. Which brings this thought to mind. Man, in his anxiety to refute evidence that he is a monkey, manages to further to the belief that he is an ass.

Nothing going on today except that heat wave~~When summer is gone I will probably be wishing that it would come back haha. It always amazes me to wish for something that is gone but gripe and complain about it when it is handy and in the foremost part of the mind. I reckon that is a part of human nature. I don’t think I am alone in this observation. There is this book that I have been reading by Ed Morrow called “599 Things you should Never do.” Some of the things in this book are hiliarious. The first thing in this book is named ‘ Academia.’ With this quote by Paul Samuelson. Referring to a former Harvard treasurer. “Never consult the economics department….never consult the business school.”
First off I don’t know who Mr Samuelson is and what is the quote about?? When I was going through college in my younger years. Economics was not my choice of a subject matter to spend my money on but it was a required subject for my major so like all the rest of the courses which everyone called core courses, you know the course had to taken to get the degree in that field of endeavor. Courses that you didn’t pass that were required usually ended up with you sitting in the hot seat of a counselor who would try to get you to switch your major to something that you would be able to pass the core courses in and the major itself. I remember this one kid who was with me had switched his major twice and he was still there when I graduated with my bachelors degree~~he not like me working to make ends meet in college his parents were well off and he didn’t apply himself to the subject matter at hand. But of course I have wondered what ever happened to him. As with most of his kind when I was going through he probably ended up in the family business which he probably knew inside and out anyway so his future was secured for the rest of his life.
The only thing I personally get out of this quote that if you are a treasurer and you get into trouble don’t consult those departments. Any treasurer worth his salt is going to have his hands full just keeping his department in line much less worry about outside intelligence that may be able to help him if he needs it.
Anyway why the book?? A bunch of quotes that begin with Never! Anybody could do that~There are dictionaries on quotes which if it is worth it’s salt you can find in the index typically all the quotes in the book alphabetized so that you could see every quote in that book beginning with whatever letter you wish so that you can look up a quote you may have heard but don’t know who said it.
I will lay my choice of who the culprit was for this book at the doorstep of the publisher who was in search of something to make money with. And of course who should come along but me the sucker of the lifetime to give my hard earned cash for this pot boiler. He either saw the hook in the title to grab a certain psyche ~~I bought this book in haste apparently because after sitting down and going through it and seeing the contents my better judgment tells me that I should have never bought it. So I kick myself for that every time I see this book. There are some things in here that are fun to read though in spite of the bad choice to purchase it. For example” A quote by ‘American Adage” this writer just pulls any non verifiable quote out of nowhere “Never choose between two good things, take both.” That’s a great quote unless both things are terribly expensive then you can either choose one or none depending on what you have in mind. So with further ado I am going to lay this to rest. One day in the future I may return to this book and talk about some of the quotes in there.

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Here is another story about Abraham Lincoln past President of the United States


The Northern armies had been inactive for some time, when a telegram
came to Lincoln from Cumberland Gap saying that firing had been
heard toward Knoxville, where General Burnside was in much peril.
Lincoln calmly remarked that he was glad of it. Some one expressing
surprise at his remark, Lincoln said:
"You see, it reminds me of Mistress Sallie Wared, a neighbor of mine,
who had a very large family. Occasionally one of her numerous progeny
would be heard crying in some ou-of-the-way place, upon which Mrs.
Ward would exclaim, "There's one of my children not dead yet.'"

09Aug11

A well known, but shy, actor, dropped into a Broadway restaurant very early the other morning.
He sat at a table and waited--- and waited. Three waiters, at a table in the rear were earnestly playing pinochle. Finally, after long minutes, the proprietor sauntered through and caught the situation at a glance.
“That’s how it is!” he roared. “I got three waiters and they can’t even wait on one lousy customer!”


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1962, Marilyn Monroe dies.

1936, Jesse Owens wins fourth gold medal at Summer Olympics in Berlin.

1945, The United States drop the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

1957, Melanie Griffith is born.

1963, Whitney Houston is born.

1969, Sharon Tate actress, killed by Charles Manson's gang

1974, Richard Nixon resigns presidency, VP Gerald Ford becomes 38th president.

1988, Alan Napier (Alfred the Butler on Batman), dies at 85

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Tuesday and it’s gonna be another scorcher outside. Another 100 degree plus day. Who can change the weather nowadays??

IT WAS SO HOT, the cows were giving evaporated milk.

Here is another Vernon Howard story:

Edward Arlington Robinson sums up the desperate predicament of man in his classic poem, Richard Cory.
Everyone in town admired Richard Cory’s princely manners. They envied his apparently exalted station in life. He seemed the very ideal of the successful individual. But it was all a stage performance. No one knew it better than Richard Cory. In his despair, he finally fled the stage in the only way he knew, in self-destruction.
Genuinely happy people are much rarer than one supposes. People wear a variety of masks: smiling masks, wise-appearing ones, excited ones, masks of worldly success, all in a frantic attempt to convince themselves and others that the act is real. But, sooner or later, the play must come to its end, leaving the actor alone and afraid on his little stage.
What does every man want? He only senses what he wants. He wants to be free. From what? From his heartache and suffering, from his compulsive desires, from his fear of what other people can do to him, from secret shames and guilts carried over from past folly.
He wants self-liberty. But he doesn’t know what it is, or where to find it. Still, he anxiously seeks, and almost always in the wrong places. In despair over finding the right needle in the haystack, he doesn’t even see he is searching in the wrong haystack.
He hopefully comforts himself, “Well, tomorrow will be different.” But it won’t. And he knows he will look back and find himself in the same old despair. The only change will be in a few exterior surroundings. But it’s still the same old haunted house.
The famous prisoners-in-the-cave allegory of Socrates, as told by Plato, explains man’s condition: A number of men are chained in a dark cavern. A fire blazes around them, producing fearful shadows. Falsely assuming that the shadows are real, they cringe in terror and hostility.
But one prisoner gets tired of it all. Taking courage, he decides to risk all in an attempt to escape. Fighting his way through the darkness, he emerges into the sunlight of the real world. He finds himself a free man.
And what happens if he goes back to tell others of his wonderful discovery? What if he explains that their agonies result from their illusions, that an entirely new world exists on the outside? Will they welcome his message? They will not. What!-and give up their smug assumptions that they already know what is real? And disturb their ego-centered ways? No! They will scorn and resent him, call him a deluded fool-and remain in their secret despair.


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Here is another story about Abraham Lincoln past President of the United States

When practicing law in Illinois, Lincoln wrote upon a subscription
paper passed to him in behalf of the worn-out trouser-seat of
his opponent:
"I refuse to subscribe to the end in view."



.

8Aug11

Waiter—“Would you mind settling your bill, sir? We’re closing now.”
Irate Patron---“But, hang it all, I haven’t been served yet.”
“Well, in that case, there’ll only be the cover charge.”


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1919, Dino De Laurentiis is born.

1922, Jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, part of the great exodus of Blacks from the southern to the northern US, leaves New Orleans to play jazz in Chicago with mentor King Oliver.

1925, An estimated 40,000 Ku Klux Klan members march through Washington, D.C. as part of the organization’s national congress.

1937, Dustin Hoffman is born.

1974, Nixon announces he will resign the Presidency.

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Monday, Monday!! The heat wave here in Texas is still over 100 degrees daily and it will be the same today they say.
For the lack of something to write about I think I will put some of Vernon Howard’s ideas on here starting with the one below. I really enjoyed his books because to me he tried to put complicated ideas into stories that I could remember. Of course everyone is so sophisticated nowadays these quaint ideas seem really old but I still enjoy them. I hope you do to.

You may have heard the story about the tourist visiting a beautiful tropical isle of the South Seas. As he strolled along the white sands he came across a native resting comfortably in the shade of a palm tree. Alongside him was his grass-skirted girl friend. The tourist asked the native:
“How come you don’t work?”
“Why?” replied the native.
“To earn some money.”
“Why?”
“So you can retire peacefully.”
“Peaceful already.”
That amusing story contains a curious truth, which is: comfort and peace of mind can be yours now.




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Here is another story about Abraham Lincoln past President of the United States

Lincoln and a judge were having a friendly contest of wits on the
subject of horses, when Lincoln said:
"Well, look here, Judge! I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll make a
horse trade with you, only it must be upon these stipulations:
Neither party shall see the other's horse until it is produced
here in the courtyard of the hotel and both parties must trade
horses. If either party backs out of the agreement, he does so
under a forfeiture of twenty-five dollars."
It was agreed, and Lincoln and the judge each left to find
a horse for the joking trade, while a crowd collected to
watch the fun. When the judge reappeared there was a great
laugh at the incredibly skinny, dejected-looking animal, blind
in both eyes, that he led. But the uproar came when Lincoln strode
upon the scene eith a carpenter's saw-horse on his shoulder.
Relieving himself of his burden, Lincoln with a disgusted air
scrutinized the the judge's animal.
"Well, Judge," he said, "this is the first time I ever
got the worst of it in a horse trade."

05aug11

Customer—“What does this mean? There’s a fly in the bottom of my tea-cup?”
Waitress---“How do I know? I’m a waitress, not a fortune teller.


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In 1906, John Huston is born

1962, Nelson Mandela, South African freedom fighter, imprisoned. He was not released until 1990.

1966, Beginning of the Cultural Revolution in China with the publication of Mao’s Little Red Book.

1984, Death of Richard Burton.

2002, Divers recover USS Moniter turret.

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Nothing in the news today except the crazy heat wave summer that we are having. Somebody in Fort Worth died because someone stole the outside air-conditioner. They said on the news that thieves steal them because of the copper in them is scrapped for money.

If you ask around the story is that the police station had been quiet most of the wee. Things were so slow the detectives were playing cards to pass the time. “What a life,” grumbled one of the officers, “No fights, no thefts, no riots, no murders, no nothin’.”
“Rest easy, Mike,” said the captain, “Things’ll break soon. You just gotta have faith in human nature.”

Seems like everything is in meltdown. The financial markets, the power grid is close to have another set of running blackouts and all the rest of the stuff this summer. I think that the most obvious thing is wrong is what congress did about the job market~~You got that right no jobs were created but they sure can worry about their own stuff. They don’t give a damn about the American people all they care about is the rich people who send all the money they make over seas to their little factories and so they protect them so they can have funds to run for re-election There ought to be a time limit some of these senators because they rob the people blind with their little programs to help the rich and help themselves. They stay in office forever doing nothing but helping their cronies or the old boy network. The whole crap with the debt ceiling was just that~crap! So what if the government stops~it needs to stop. Maybe if they didn’t work for themselves and instead work for the country this land wouldn’t be in the mess that it’s in.
The country needs to set time limits that a senator can stay in office just like the president. That way there can be different mind sets and ideas to keep this country on track. Because there would be ideas that were more current with the ideas of the present population instead of some old fart who has been up there for a hundred years doing the same old stuff for his buddies like Sen. Robert C.Byrd of Virginia. Who robbed the taxpayers blind in support of his programs for his state. He was a US Senator from 1948 until 2010
How much money do you think he had funneled to his old buddies in Virginia from the taxpayers??
But the big problem in this country now is jobs!! Everybody knows that the jobs are going overseas because of the tax benefits that multinational companies get for having factories overseas. They not only get tax breaks but they also get cheap labor to boot! What a win win situation. And who catches the brunt of it? You guessed it Your neighbor and mine whose place of employment all of a sudden just ended up in India, China or Mexico. And what does congress do about this? Nothing! They need to nationalize foreign companies who have factories in this country that way the money stays in this country instead of going overseas to their parent companies. And they need to set up a taxing program for goods coming into this country from foreign entities because these products are so cheap that everyone buys them but if the taxes bring their cost up to the same thing that we produce then the choice would be about quality instead of quantity.

Well I have rambled on too much about government and their shortcomings. Here is a parting shot about congress.

The toastmaster was seated between two distinguished United States senators at a big New York dinner. He rose, and in complimentary language declared: “Ladies and gentlemen, it is my very high privilege to present to you an old friend; a man who is a staunch supporter of the Constitution. He is regarded in Washington as a friend of the veteran, a friend of business and of labor, a brilliant lawmaker. May I present to you at this time, the Honorable…the Honorable…”
Here the toastmaster became bewildered. Then, turning quickly from one senator to the other, he sputtered, whith a broad flush:
“By the way, which one of you fellows wants to speak first?”

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Here is another story about Abraham Lincoln past President of the United States

When complaints were made to Lincoln of the strenuous dictatorial
methods of Secretary of War Stanton, Lincoln made this comparison:
"We may have to treat Stanton as they are sometimes obliged to
treat a Methodist minister I know out West. He gets wrought up
to so high a pitch of excitement in his prayers and exhortations
that they put bricks in his pocket to keep him down. But I guess
we'll let him jump awhile first."

01Aug11

Restaurant Patron (crossly)- “Waiter, what are those black specks in my milk?”
Waiter-“I dunno, suh—unlessen dey’s some ob dem vitamins dey’s talkin’ so much about,”


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1920, Mahatma Gandhi begins national campaign to rally the population of India to use passive resistance and disobedience against the occupying British colonialist government. He embarks on a trip to urge disobedience with courts, schools, government, and military service, and advocates boycotting of foreign goods. The action is prompted by an earlier massacre of Indians and is also a protest against strict British laws clamping down on political activities. During Sept, 4-9, the nationalist Indian Congress, inspired by Gandhi’s popular actions, commits itself to fighting for home rule.

1966, Charles Whitman takes a stockpile of guns and ammunition to the observatory platform atop a 300-foot tower at the University of Texas and proceeds to shoot 46 people, killing 14 people and wounding 31. A fifteenth died in 2001 because of his injuries. Whitman, who had killed both his wife and mother the night before, was eventually shot to death after courageous Austin police officers, including Ramiro Martinez, charged up the stairs of the tower to subdue the attacker.

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Ah Monday, and everybody is still waiting to see what Congress is going to do about the debt ceiling!!
What a joke.
The taxpayer no longer fears that Congress will let him down; he just hopes it will let him up.

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Here is another story about Abraham Lincoln past President of the United States

Douglas once thought to score off Lincoln by relating how,
when he first knew him, Lincoln was a "grocery-keeper," selling
among other things whiskey and cigars. "Mr. L.," said Douglas, "was
a very good bartender!" But the laugh was on the other side when
Lincoln made the following reply:
"What Mr. Douglas has said, gentlemen, is true enough;
I did keep a grocery, and I did sell cotton, candles and cigars,
and sometimes whiskey; but I remember in those days that
Mr. Douglas was one of my best customers. Many a time have
I stood on one side of the counter and sold whiskey to
Mr. Douglas on the other side, but the difference between
us now is this: I have left my side of the counter, but
Mr. Douglas still sticks to his as tenaciously as ever."