nobody asked…

PARIAH…Now here’s a well known word. Little used, and hardly ever in normal conversation, most of us recognize the word when we see it. A few may even remember from time to time what it means.

pariah — n.
1. A social outcast. 2. An untouchable.
(Ref. dictionary.com)

I think I remember him from my 7th grade class. Anyway…according to “The Word Origin Calendar“, Sat/Sun Nov 19/20, 2005, “English occupiers absorbed this word from the Tamil language in India. In that country, rigid systems of caste segregated the society; the paraiyan was one of the lowest castes. Members of this group were forbidden from participating in public functions.” With that rare origin, pariah becomes one of a small handful of English usage words that have roots in an Indian language or dialect.

And yes, I know that the song’s title includes the word “Maria”…with a long I. The haunting melody and lyrics of They Call the Wind Maria have been performed and recorded by a wide variety of artists from Art Blakey to Stan Wilson, from Sam Cooke to 101 Strings, The Browns and Vaughn Monroe.

POP QUIZ: What Lerner and Loewe Broadway Show yielded this enduring hit song, which was then widely popularized by what recording artist?

Being 84 must be a horrible, lonely job.

Yesterday I visited Mom, who lives life to its fullest sitting in her power-recliner in her nice little room in an old folks home. It is a very attractive facility with all the amenities, overlooking a beautiful lake. Officially it is called a “Senior Retirement” property. As more of the residents have aged and developed various health problems, round the clock nursing care has been added for minor emergencies. It is not a nursing home, and they still resist use of the term “assisted living”, though that is really what it is becoming. Old folks home.

The trip is an easy 2 to 3 hour drive (depending on wind vector and bladder capacity) and one that I do not make often enough. Guilty? No… just wishful that I could stop in and see her more often the way my brother does. Of course he lives 15 minutes from her, wind and bladder be damned. As I breezed into her room carrying the joys of leftover Thanksgiving desserts, I realized something was not quite right, but thought it best to wait for her to tell me rather than try to pull it out of her. Her stubborn streak is all that remains of the once strong personality of a proud woman who could stand her ground with anyone. Sure enough, after a few minutes of chit-chat she told me that her best friend, Joanna, had died suddenly and unexpectedly the day before.

Their long friendship grew even closer after their husbands of 50+ years died a few years ago. Talking by phone daily if they could not see each other, they watched in quiet horror and grief over the past few years as their friends dropped, one by one, slowly but surely. Like singing “99 bottles of beer on the wall”, and counting all the way down to 2. And now there is one…

I took her to the funeral home where family and friends had gathered. As she made her way slowly to the casket to pay respects, the small pockets of people in the room quieted and watched knowingly. As Joanna’s son and I talked quietly, he nodded toward Mom leaning on her walker at casket-side. “They were best friends, you know. Closer than sisters.”

The trip home took a couple of hours longer than normal due to a massive multi-vehicle pileup on the interstate, which was completely shutdown and at a dead-stop for a while. That gave me plenty of time to think. Phrases like “the loneliness of age” and “the age of loneliness” kept rolling around in my head. Who does Mom call now? Who can she talk to? Sure, there are others her age at the old folks home, but no one that she is close to. Acquaintances, not friends. Fellow passengers, not bosom buddies. Though she still has family, none of us can replace her last friend. Mom is now alone and lonely. Many give up in this circumstance. I do not know if her stubborn streak is enough to keep her upright or not.

Moral of this story: Do not outlive your friends.

In a recent world tour of blogs that I frequent, my name jumped off the screen and slapped me in the face. It seems one of my Down-Under friends (Note to self: Ask him if Aussies refer to us as Up-Over) named “an-open-mind?” had tagged me for participation in one of those idiotic memes. I have never participated in such and usually walk around with a great amount of disdain for those who spend their lives on such. If you have nothing to say except to fill up a blog with meme drivel, then why bother? Take up the fine art of decoupage … or something.

However, in the interest of not giving Bush a hint of a reason to invade Australia, and because an-open-mind? is generally a decent seeming bloke, I spoke with His Excellency, My Innermost Speaker of Truth and Trivia, and received a one-time dispensation and reprieve to participate in this meme only, this one time, forever and ever, Amen. One of the conditions to which I had to agree and pledge my first-born male child on breach of promise, is that I would not under any circumstances or threat of great bodily harm or even death, pass this along by tagging others. If any reader is inclined to pick it up and run with it of their own initiative, then may their god be with them.

The meme goes like this:

1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same thing.

From my 23rd post, A Healthy Level of Insanity, the 5th sentence is one of a list of things to do to maintain said level of insanity, and reads thus:

Sit in your parked car and point a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.

OK, I did the meme and purged the urge from my system. I feel so cleansed and pure. If only for a moment. And I still have my healthy level of insanity… Got to get started on that damned decoupage project now…

ASIDE: After writing and titling this, I looked up the text of Psalm 23, just for the heck of it. Seems it is most appropriate on this day, Thanksgiving, when we eat copious portions from banquet-sized tables and our cups and glasses most certainly runneth over. I’m not sure about any enemies at the dining table or the oil poured on my head, but here is the fifth sentence from Psalm 23, King James Version:

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Thanksgiving…my favorite holiday. Why, you ask? Let me count the ways.

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is a time for seeing and visiting with friends and family, including some that you may not see but once per year. To balance the one or two that you would just as soon not see at all, there is always that favorite uncle or nutty cousin or old Mrs. What’s-Her-Name from one block over, the one who brings a plate of the most scrumptious fudge you’re ever eaten. This year for the first time, I add a new dimension to that circle of special friends — those who walk with me through the blogosphere. Family and friends…most definitely one of the reasons Thanksgiving is special.

Thanksgiving is a typically American holiday. … The lavish meal is a symbol of the fact that abundant consumption is the result and reward of production. — Ayn Rand

At least according to legend and tradition, the original Thanksgiving was a time for the early settlers to gather at the end of the fall harvest, prior to the onset of the harsh winter to follow, to celebrate a successful growing, hunting, and fishing season with a lavish meal and revelry. Then it was more a community event than the familial gathering to which it later evolved. Yes, on this, Ayn Rand was correct.

On Thanksgiving Day all over America, families sit down to dinner at the same moment — halftime.
— Anon

For a football junkie like moi, Thanksgiving weekend is OD waiting to happen. Making sure you have a firm grip on the remote, put on Macy’s Parade in the morning to appease the kids and the non-gridiron crowd, then settle in for 4 days and nights of wall-to-wall action. During a halftime later in the day you can show how helpful you are by running the turkey carcass out to the trash can.

Perhaps by the time I recycle this piece next year my research will have discovered some thoughtful or humorous quotes appropriate to the following thoughts on why Thanksgiving is special.

+ For most of us, Thanksgiving is the only time of the year that we take a 4-day holiday. That is so much more rejuvenating than a normal weekend or an isolated day off in the middle of the week.

+ No gifts to select, buy, wrap, give, exchange. No pressure. No stress. Good!

+ Thanksgiving does not have the heavy Christian underpinnings of Christmas. As a result, there is little if any controversy by factions of varying faiths and religious affiliations. The fundamentalist bickering that has developed around Christmas has darkened the real message of hope and peace and new beginnings that defined what Christmas was supposed to be about. Thanksgiving brings that peace.

To all who come by here regularly and to those who got lost and ended up here by mistake, I send wishes for a most healthy, safe, and enjoyable Thanksgiving day and weekend…

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
— B.F. Skinner

Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare.
— Harriet Martineau

Never express yourself more clearly than you think.
— Niels Bohr

When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
— Thomas Paine

We are all familiar with the well documented tangle of lies, deceit, and incompetence that is the Bush administration that took us into Iraq and kept us there at the expense of over 2,000 American lives, hundreds of billions of our dollars, and an estimated 30,000 civilian Iraqi casualties. “With the American death toll in Iraq approaching 2,100, skepticism about both about the administration’s case for war and the effectiveness of the war effort has been deepening. Public opinion is now decidedly against the war, an unease that has begun to erode confidence in Bush’s credibility, polls show.” That from Michael A. Fletcher of The Washington Post as reported in The Standard Times.

So much has been written and reported over the last couple of years that it is easy to get lost in the forest of lies, half-truths, and the myriad reports of same. Frank Paynter has posted a link that does a quite credible job of pulling it all together in one easy to swallow dose. Go and read Robert Scheer’s Novemeber 16 column titled The Big LieTechnique from The Nation.

A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway. — Father Jerome Cummings

Occasionally we have the opportunity for a new and unique experience — something we have not done before. Some of those may be welcomed as growth experiences while others may be dreaded because of a real or perceived threat associated with them. And occasionally we can take one of the latter and consciously decide to tame it into something more positive and rewarding. Today I had one like that.

About a month ago I was heading out to a neighboring town to aid a customer in distress. Cruising out on a good 2-lane state highway that runs through the farmlands, I was enjoying the nice sunny day and the drive through the countryside when the peace was broken by the wailing siren and flashing blue lights of one of Franklin’s finest. As is the custom, I pulled to the edge of the pavement and slowed to let him pass and chase down whatever villain he was after. As I watched in my mirrors, he fell in behind me, slowing along with me. Yikes! To paraphrase Pogo, “I have met the villain and he is me.”
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SHAME ON CNN…AGAIN! After a few nights of watching Anderson Cooper’s attempt to replace Aaron Brown, I give up. At that time of the evening I am not interested in 15 second highlights and headlines on a few dozen of the day’s top stories. I need some meat. Pardon me while I channel surf for Aaron…

WHAT’S A HOKIE? Which is the silliest college team mascot: Virginia Tech HOKIES, Oregon DUCKS, or the Texas Christian HORNED FROGS?

JANGLE IN YOUR POCKET Have you noticed that the new coins all look alike? It is so easy to get nickels and quarters confused. Why did the mint do this to us? What was wrong with the old designs?

BABES OF CNN Paula wearing glasses… Erica’s hair color changed… What’s next? Larry loses the suspenders? A clean-shaven Wolf?

WHERE’S THE BEEF…Errr…PORK? Hardee’s has the best sausage biscuits on the planet. Nobody else is even close enough to claim 2nd place.

ESPOONERISM As many times as I have seen and heard him on ESPN, I still can never remember if it is Herb Kirkstreit or Kirk Herbstreit.

SHRINKING VOCABULARY If we eliminate the phrases “you know”, “know what I mean”, and “I mean” from usage, most sports stars and teenagers would be unable to speak at all. Knowwhuddamean?

WINSTON’S LAW, COROLLARY 31 The more often a person says they know nothing about their computer, the less likely they are to listen to someone who does.

PEP REALLY There’s not much better way to warmup for a football game on a crisp Saturday afternoon than with a couple of hot and spicy Bloody Marys.

It takes a special person with extraordinary artistic vision to breathe life into the commonplace and mundane. Andrea is such a person. She’s always doing something different, showing something that makes you go “wow” or “hmmmm…”. In this post she explores the artistic possibilities of your ordinary childhood Etch a Sketch, complete with links “so you can relive — virtually — your creative youth”. Andrea does know how to “Colour Outside the Lines”.

Give it a twist and a shake to see if your inner child can do any better on-line than you did as a real child with the real thing. Scratch that itch with an Etch a Sketch…

Though I was born and raised in Tennessee and have resided in the Nashville area for the last 19 years, I’ve never been a big country music fan. Yeah, I know, heresy… Sorry, but somehow Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Reba and the rest just never quite did it for me like Miles Davis or Brubeck, Charlie Parker or MJQ, Mingus or Ella.

Recently I was scanning around the dial while driving and paused long enough to hear a song by “The Possum” himself, George Jones, who lives a few miles down the road on the other side of Franklin from my home. (Aside: One of the many interesting things about living around here is that all these celebrities are your neighbors, from Dolly her-own-two-selves, to Alan Jackson, Amy Grant and Vince Gill, the old story teller Tom T. Hall, and on and on… And yes, you see them at the grocery, the gas station, high-school football games, and the mall; mostly they are just folks like us, ‘cept they’ve got millions in the bank and live in multi-million dollar estates behind locked gates.)

The lyrics made an impression on me as George warbled them out in his inimitable style. So I made a note to look up the lyrics later. It turns out that this song was written after George tried to stare-down a concrete bridge abuttment at excessive speed just a couple of miles from home back in 1999. Reports have it that he had been having a long meeting that evening with some guys named Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Johnny Walker or whatever, and was damn lucky to have lived to write this one. This also caused him to cancel all future meetings with those gentlemen. You can hear his regrets in the lyrics. Good life lessons here for all of us.

According to The Country Music Hall of Fame “Choices”, a single from the album Cold, Hard Truth on the Asylum label, received a Grammy for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. Chastened by his accident, Jones gave up alcohol and cigarettes and turned to sacred music for the 2003 double CD The Gospel Collection: George Jones Sings the Greatest Stories Ever Told on BNA/Bandit.

Thank you, neighbor, for sharing this with us…

For Mary, who is discovering the wondrous mind of the Engineer:

An Engineer asks “How does it work?”
A Scientist asks “Why does it work?”
A Liberal Arts major asks “Do you want fries with that?” - Anon

I tried to come up with something sage to add about Educators, but I’m not educated enough to do that… Perhaps Mary can suggest something…

Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand. — Putt’s Law

Source: InformationWeek Daily Newsletter, www.informationweek.com, Monday, Nov. 7, 2005

Could this possibly be a clue as to why Windows is so fragile, why VCRs and DVDs are so impossibly difficult to program just to record a show you have to miss, and dashboards are so cluttered we have to pull over to the side of the road, put on our glasses, turn on the interior lights, and get out the manual written in 17 languages including English if we’re lucky - just to change the radio station?

Technology companies resolve the dilemma, of course, by forming committees (the closer to Silicon Valley, the more likely they are called “teams” or “pods” or “nodes” or whatever the buzz du jour might be) of people who don’t understand each other and cannot communicate in any known tongue, dialect, hieroglyphic, or visual signaling code.

Wonder what this little unlabeled button does? Oh, damn…

Since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, there has been a welcome guest in our family room every night at 9 PM, a guest that became a family member after a while, and one that is going to be sorely missed.

Aaron Brown, the host of NewsNight is leaving CNN, according to Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S. Klein stated that Aaron “will be leaving CNN and is very much looking forward to some well-deserved time off with his family. … On a nightly basis, Aaron has provided our audiences with insight into the events of the United States and the world with eloquence and the highest journalist integrity. … Personally, I will miss Aaron and his wicked sense of humor.”

NewsNight with Aaron will be replaced, or at least the time slot will be filled by, Anderson Cooper 360. Any guesses as to who is hosting the show? I like and respect Anderson’s work, but will very much miss the dry wit and wry humor, the sideways darting of the eyes, and the telltale twitches of the corners of the mouth of Aaron Brown.

Thank you and best wishes to you, Aaron! Hope to have you back on-air as soon as you’re rested and ready to have another go at it.