Oct 29

How Democracies Die

We’re counting down to the election. Less than a week away now.

I think there is a palpable dread in the air.

My take is: even if Trump is flushed from the White House, the damage that he and his toadies have done to this country may be a fatal wound. – It will certainly leave scars and damage that will take a long time to recover.

The Supreme Court (and a now a huge percentage of the federal bench) is in the clutches of the far right. That fact alone will continue to bleed the country of justice for a long time to come. In that way, Trump (and more credit worthy), Moscow Mitch McConnell, have already won.

And if Trump loses, a huge percentage of the populace won’t accept it. That will includes reinvigorated right-wring militia and white nationalist types.

Our best hope to pull out of this nose-dive isn’t just a Biden / Harris landslide, it’s also if the corrupt GOP loses control of the Senate.

But even so, I fully expect Trump will never accept his loss and will gather his sycophants around to poison the body of our democracy.

Trump is a mean little coward, a bully and a troll.
Trump is a mean little coward, a bully and a troll.

A trump loss doesn’t mean we’re healed, it just means, at best, that we’ve stopped the most aggressive stabs to the American body. We will still be in jeopardy of bleeding out. We will still be at risk of a poisonous infection.

“This is how elected autocrats subvert democracy—packing and ‘weaponizing’ the courts and other neutral agencies, buying off the media and the private sector (or bullying them into silence), and rewriting the rules of politics to tilt the playing field against opponents. The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of democracy—gradually, subtly, and even legally—to kill it.” 

~ Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die

Oct 27

September 2020 – Quote of the Month

“The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.”

~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
‘My Own Words’

Sep 18

I Hope I’m Wrong

I’m writing this, having just learned that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died. Vladimir Putin’s puppet, Trump and Moscow Mitch will steal another position on the Supreme Court.

Last weekend, I had an occasion to drive across Pennsylvania. I saw Trump signs out number Biden signs at a ratio of about 100 to 1. And so many of the signs weren’t just run of the mill, small signs. Many were extra large, banners and home made billboards. I can’t vouch for the rest of the swing states, but I think Trump is going to win Pennsylvania. Perhaps not the popular vote, but I think he’s going to get the electoral votes.

I saw this in a parking lot today. This is the level of enthusiasm Trumpkins have for the lying, racist, sexual assaulting, thieving, draft dodging, russian colluding, environment crushing, corrupt, charity stealing, vaguely human shaped piece of orange shit.

Trumpkin Van
Another fine example of the thoughts of a Trump follower, writ large.

America has been hacked. The will of the majority does not count: The United States has a president who received nearly 3 million fewer votes than his Democratic opponent.

I'm not saying Trump is a Nazi but the Nazis think he is.
I’m not saying Trump is a Nazi. But the Nazis think he is.

I write this, not in despair, but in anger and in the hope that my voice moves the search engine needle even 0.000000000000001% against Trump, Mitch McConnell and the Trump party formally known as the GOP. I’m off now to make another donation to support the Biden / Harris campaign.

Biden Harris Donation Thank You.
A Bidden / Harris Thank You from my first donation.

I might not like our odds, but hell if I’m not going down swinging against the oligarchs.

P.S. Read and Act: How to help protect Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Supreme Court seat until the election.

P.P.S. VOTE!

Sep 18

August 2020 – Quote of the Month

“The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.”

~ Francis Bacon

Aug 30

Vacation Mirage

End of the month; actually a lot happened; more than I have time to write about; yada yada yada…

So, instead, in commemoration of the vacation I’m not taking this summer because of the plague: here is a hot summer breeze blast from the past photo memory. Lake Powell: September 3rd, 2017. Oh, how I miss you.

Desert Moon Rising over the waters and buttes of Lake Powell.
Desert Moon Rising over the beach waters and buttes of Lake Powell.

Aug 04

July 2020 – Quote of the Month

“We should always be asking ourselves: ‘Is this something that is, or is not, in my control?’”

~ Epictetus, Enchiridion

Jul 29

Five Feet Nine Inches

My better half and I know, or at least highly suspect that among most of our friends, we’re the considered the crazy germaphobes.

Visiting Home Depot tonight, we saw a woman pushing her cart around without a mask. (In spite of the BIG sign on the store front that says masks are mandatory.)

We grumbled to ourselves about this disrespectful infraction, with many a surly glare towards the massless woman.

Checking out through the open air garden center, wearing our masks, we were still fuming over the woman, when a masked man in front turns to us, looks down at the marking on the ground and says, ‘6 feet’.

We were about 3 inches short of the 6 feet social distance marker painted on the cement floor.

Proving once again that: crazy is relative.

Jul 22

June 2020 – Quote of the Month

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

Jun 30

Faith, Hand-washing, Compost Trespassing and Milk Drinking

Some more sights from a neighborhood walk I did in mid April.

Again: I wonder at people’s thought processes. This is a decently maintained property. (Although the garage looks a bit nicer than the house, interestingly enough.)

There is an interesting combination of earnestness and humor.

Angel and Sign
I’m guessing that the angel is a repurposed nativity angel that in this instance, was propped up to cheer fellow citizens in the time of Covid crisis.
Angle and Keep the Faith and Wash Your Hands sign.
Keep the fait! And wash your hands. (‘Warsh’)
Garage and Posted Sign
Further down the yard, we see a ‘posted sign’.
Posted Sign Close Up
The owner (who has even gone to the trouble fo signing and addressing the sign) seems to care a lot about trespassing. The property is probably not more than a half an acre, I’d guess. – And it’s a typical yard: not the kind of place where one has trouble with hunters, trappers or lawn fishing.
Trespassers Will Be Composted
Another hand painted, off-kilter sign nailed to a large tree in the front yard. This sign is a permanent fixture.
Drink More Milk, Less Pop and Beer Sign
Beneath the sign though is a reminder that one needs to ‘Drink More Milk, Less Pop and Beer’.

Jun 28

May 2020 – Quote of the Month

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” 

~Pablo Neruda

May 31

Yard Adornments

In pursuit of some level of exercise, I have occasion to walk local neighborhoods. There are little, implied stories in the neighborhood yards.

I’m rather found of yard kitsch. There is a story here, if only we can read it.

Here is one such story:

Yard kitsch.
Yard kitsch close-up.

This is the front yard of a house. The lawn is unmowed and unkempt. And yet, there is a small, roughly rectangular patch of dirt, about 2 foot by 4 foot.

The patch of dirt is decorated with a selection of flowers: both real and artificial, attended to by scarf wearing ceramic rabbits and two faux-butterflies. Laying on its side is a black and yellow, watering can invoking the image of a large, grounded bumblebee.

So, is this someone’s idea of yard beautification? Is the watering can part of the tableau or just abandoned after a recent flower watering? Did the designer buy the plants and ornaments specifically for the scene or is this cobbled together from treasures already on hand? After the flowers were watered, did the creator stand back, hands on hips, nodding in self-approval. ‘There! THAT is what the yard needed!’

Or is this all tongue-in-cheek? Created with a wink and a knowing smile: some private joke, laid out for the neighbors to see and ponder.

Or is it a sad monument to a fallen pet? If so, it’s kind of large and peculiar with its front-yard location. If it’s a pet cemetery, one must know that it will someday be lost to the yard. And yet, how sweet? – An homage to a loved companion.

Perhaps it is more sinister: a grave of a minced murder victim. – All suspicion covered in kitsch.

“There are eight million stories in the naked city suburb. This has been one of them.”

May 31

April 2020 – Quote of the Month

“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.” 

~Yoko Ono

Apr 26

Exposed Exposé

Watching news on YouTube yesterday, I was amused by a little detail I noticed in the background of a video of Alex Ward, a VOX staff writer, as he was giving a report to CBS News.

In the video, Mr. Ward is well besuited as he outlines the latest speculation on Jong-un’s health from his bedroom… Wait what am I seeing? Computer: zoom in. Enhance lower left corner of screen…

Note to self: clean up your bedroom a bit before going onto national news.

Apr 26

March 2020 – Quote of the Month

“Yet do not cast all hope away. Tomorrow is unkown. Rede oft is found at the rising of the Sun.”

~Legolas
The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings
JRR Tolkien

Mar 30

Wondering Where the Lions Are

COVID 19 is the mainspring of the day. It’s hard not to make note of it this month.

Here, at the end of March, we’ve watched as the virus has risen from footnote to a driving force of the world in about a month’s time. Remarkable.

Even now, there is a struggle with the concept and implications. How bad is it? How is it worse than the flu? What will it do it the world economy? How will the world be changed?

Interestingly, so many people are confident of the precautions that they, themselves, are taking. – From those who are most cautions to those who are taking it lightly and the gradients in-between, most people seem self-assured that they’ve got it right and everyone else is a little off their rocker.

I can’t help but think of parallels between this situation and global warming. We as a species haven’t done a really great job of preparing for a pandemic. – Fortunately, in so many ways, COVID 19 isn’t nearly a bad as it could be. It could be a little more virulent or a little more deadly and then we’d really see the world crashing around us. Hopefully this will be a bit of a wake-up call.

But in this pandemic, I see a dark foreshadowing of global warming. Global warming is more destructive but subtlier. And the degree to which it is acknowledged, it is aided by a sense of creeping normality. The changes are slow and diffused and the cause and effect are less obvious from an average human scale and perspective.

Some are hopeful that the Coronavirus pandemic will be a reawakening to the value of expertise and the ‘elite‘. With our current leadership trends, I’m less optimistic these days. I hope I’m wrong.

The song, ‘Wondering Where the Lions Are‘, usually strikes me as hopeful. Today, it strikes me as a warning.

Sun’s up, mm-hmm, looks okay
The world survives into another day
And I’m thinking ’bout eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me

I had another dream about lions at the door
They weren’t half as frightening as they were before
But I’m thinking ’bout eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me

Walls, windows, trees, waves coming through
You be in me and I’ll be in you
Together in eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me

Up among the firs where it smells so sweet
Or down in the valley where the river used to be
I got my mind on eternity
Some kinda ecstasy got a hold on me

And I’m wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are)
I’m wondering where the lions are (wondering where the lions are)
I’m wondering where the lions are, uh-huh…

Bruce Cockburn

Mar 28

February 2020 – Quote of the Month

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” 

~Calvin Coolidge

Feb 29

In Gear Against the Gloom

Ah! February 29th: the rarest of blog days. Kind of makes me wish I was born on February 29th, then I’d be four times as young.

Since September of last year (2019), I’ve been getting out, doing a lot of walking and hiking. And this last weekend, we did an overnight backpack trip. (I’ve done my share of backpacking, but it’s been a while and I was rusty and inefficient.)

Each month, I have had a workout goal measured in hours. I started slowly, in September with only a 10 hour goal. And each month since then, I’ve increased the goal by 5 hours. So, February’s goal was 30 hours. – March’s will be 35, April 40 and then it’s 40 for the foreseeable future. (Turtles all the way down.)

Since September, I’ve walked or hiked 266 miles. (That is to say: concerted, exercise, not incidental, boring old, everyday walking.)

What’s more: I’ve started a little resistance workout again.

All of this is a positive development and has helped me weather the gloom of late fall and winter.

As an aside: thinking about weathering the weather makes me think of this:

Who knows whether the wether will weather the weather.

Feb 24

January 2020 – Quote of the Month

“We’re only immortal for a limited time.”

~Neil Peart

Jan 28

Single Rubber Glove

I started to write an entry on the state of news and the world of politics but I felt the life force draining from my body, so I’ve shelved that. Let’s just say: it’s bad and we’re all doomed and leave it at that for now.

However, in a matter that somehow feels vaguely like a visual metaphor for the politics of our time, I share with you another type of rubbish.

– Filling my vehicle with gas one evening, I spotted this single, rubber glove draped over a trash can. This was simultaneously creepy and amusing to me. I wonder how much you’d have to pay the average person to pick up that glove with their bare hands…

“Oh, single rubber glove, discarded without care, what is thy story?’

Rubber glove draped over trash can.
Close up rubber glove draped over trash can.

Somehow, the single glove conjures even darker thoughts about what is in the tied plastic bag beneath it. Darkness and evil lies therein, surely…

And now, I’ve done my duty by sharing this meaningless piece of debris with the world. You’re welcome. Stay tuned for more exciting posts in the year to come! – What an auspicious way to kick-off a new decade!

Jan 26

December 2019 – Quote of the Month

“Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit ever answered to, in the strongest conjuration.” 

~Charles Dickens

Dec 30

Winter Solstice and Summer Dreams

I’m not a winter person. But this year, (so far) I’ve done better than many winters before. (I count anything after Halloween as proverbial, if not literal, ‘winter’.) My mood has been helped in large part because I’ve gotten out regularly to hike and imbibe nature in spite of the seasonal gloom.

Still, I’m finishing the year with a some kind of cold or contagion and with the winter solstice now behind us and the days getting ever so slightly longer again, I find myself dreaming of summer.

With that thought in mind, I leave the year with a blast from a summer past.

Fair food stands at night, 2012. Photo by Glen Green.
Fair, 2012.

Dec 30

November 2019 – Quote of the Month

“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?”

~Epictetus

Nov 30

Catalog

I have 104,403 photos in my photo library catalog. That is the majority, but it isn’t all of them. Invariably, there are a few thousand floating in folders that have not yet been imported.

Catalog All Photographs 104403

I often ask myself, what good do all of these photographs do? What will become of all of my efforts to organize, back-up, meta tags and color correct them when I’m gone? Who will care?

So, as happens as more often than not, I find myself at the end of the month trying to fulfill my self-inflicted mandate to post at least once to each section of this website. It also usually happens that on countless nights, as I struggle to sleep, my mind will race with endless musings and prospective blog posts. Invariably, these ideas either fail to come to me as I sit to write or they feel outdated or two unwieldy and time consuming to commit to pixels.

Writing a journal / blog, is a bit like always answering the question a friend or acquaintance might ask you, “What’s new?” … (MIND BLANKS)… “Ummmmmmm… Nothiiiiiing…What’s new with you?”

My frequent fallback position is to dig through my photos for inspiration or at least a nice image that I can quickly post. Today was one of those days.

But for my public facing portion of this site, (“WorldView”), I have a lot of ‘rules’ that I have made up for myself: chiefly around privacy. That means that I generally won’t post photos of myself, people in my life, or details about where I live. That eliminate a LOT of interesting photos as possible sources of posts.

However, as I scrolled through my photos, feeling that I didn’t have much to say, I was once again surprised by all of the pictures on my phone alone. In just the last few months since I last cleared it, there were so many little moments of life captured: vacations, animals, work, meals, landscapes, activities… So many incidental instances that are so easily lost in the fog of living and yet, which comprise the best of life itself.

And that’s just on my phone… Scrolling through my photo library leaves me with a deep feeling that I have lived a lot.

So, I suppose, that at least, is reason enough for the photos and a good enough post for another month.

Nov 30

October 2019 – Quote of the Month

“There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch.”

~Robert Brault

Oct 30

Above a Dark Tor

Taken on a recent vacation while staying at the lovely Arenal Kioro Suites & Spa.

Arenal Volcano at Night, photo by Glen Green. Taken at Arenal Kioro Suites & Spa, September 3, 2019.

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.“

~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

Oct 17

September 2019 – Quote of the Month

“Change. How do you change yourself?… It’s easy to lose yourself or never find yourself. The older you get, the heavier that baggage becomes that you haven’t sorted through, so you run. I’ve done a lot of that kind of running. 


I’ve spent 35 years trying learn how to let go of the destructive parts of my character. And I still have days when I struggle with it. 


We all have our broken pieces. Emotionally, spiritually in this life, nobody gets away unhurt. 
We’re always trying to find somebody whose broken pieces fit with our broken pieces and something whole emerges. 


A certain kind of magic took place. The music began to take on a life of its own. Life’s mysteries remain and deepen, its answers unresolved. So you walk on, through the dark because that’s where the next morning is.”

~Bruce Springsteen

Sep 30

Fire Photon Elevators

As I’m want to do, I was watching an old episode of The Mary Tyler Moore Show late one evening. The episode was, “Christmas and the Hard-Luck Kid II“. In it, Mary is alone in the news room late on Christmas Eve. Someone has entered the building and she’s frightened, jamming the door with a chair. She stands back and then hears an elevator start up. I heard the sound and was immediately amused by the recognizable sound. Watch the video: judge for yourself. (Sound required, of course.)

Some related trivia:

Sep 27

August 2019 – Quote of the Month

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

~Isaac Asimov

Aug 23

Stoned

In February of this year, I visited the local Science Center and was amused by this dispenser, set out-side of the gift shop.

Rock dispenser, outside of the Pittsburgh Science Center.

Above the dispenser was a sign that these were ‘gems from around the world‘.

Gems from around the world.

Clearly, something had happened because the original signage for the dispenser was supplemented after it had gone to market with a warning that these are, ‘Real Stones – Do not Eat’.

(Side note: I can also guess that the author of the sign did not know how to make a ‘¢’ sign, because writing, ‘$0.50′ is an atypical way to indicate, ’50 cents’ unless you’re working in a spreadsheet.)

Real stones, do not eat. $0.50.

It’s an odd world we live in. Unlike the vast majority of what our ancestors experienced over the millenniums, it is becoming common that the ‘nature’ we experience in our lives is simulated and that we must be warned when we are encountering the real thing, lest we eat stones from machines.

Aug 20

July 2019 – Quote of the Month

“Here is one way to conceptualize NASA’s heroic era: in 1961, Kennedy gave his “moon speech” to Congress, charging them to put an American on the moon “before the decade is out.” In the eight years that unspooled between Kennedy’s speech and Neil Armstrong’s first historic bootprint, NASA, a newborn government agency, established sites and campuses in Texas, Florida, Alabama, California, Ohio, Maryland, Mississippi, Virginia, and the District of Columbia; awarded multi-million-dollar contracts and hired four hundred thousand workers; built a fully functioning moon port in a formerly uninhabited swamp; designed and constructed a moonfaring rocket, spacecraft, lunar lander, and space suits; sent astronauts repeatedly into orbit, where they ventured out of their spacecraft on umbilical tethers and practiced rendezvous techniques; sent astronauts to orbit the moon, where they mapped out the best landing sites; all culminating in the final, triumphant moment when they sent Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to step out of their lunar module and bounce about on the moon, perfectly safe within their space suits. All of this, start to finish, was accomplished in those eight years.”

~Margaret Lazarus Dean,
Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight

Jul 30

Michael Myers Meets Columbo

As part of my evening ritual to mentally wind down before sleep, I watch old TV shows.

Watching an episode of Columbo, “By Dawn’s Early Light” (first airing Oct. 27, 1974), my attention was caught by this visual:

The courtyard of the fictional "Haynes Military Academy".
The courtyard of the fictional “Haynes Military Academy”.
Columbo has 'one more question' for Col. Lyle C. Rumford in the episode, "By Dawn's Early Light", filmed in South Carolina's 'The Citadel'. Lt. Columbo: Oh, I thought this was a vacant dormitory. Col. Lyle C. Rumford: It is. Lt. Columbo: I see. Col. Lyle C. Rumford: But it will change. Maybe not this year. Maybe not next. But it's going to change, mister. You can put your money on it. No more reluctant mama's boys, no more 4F's, no more Section Eights. This country is going to have the best damn army in the world. And Haynes Military Academy will be a part of it.
Columbo has ‘one more question’ for Col. Lyle C. Rumford in the episode, “By Dawn’s Early Light”, filmed in South Carolina’s ‘The Citadel’.

This location made me think of this fellow:

Michael Myers - Halloween 1978
Michael Myers – Halloween 1978

The reason for the connection is due to the rather (horrifying [for all the wrong reasons]) 2018 Halloween sequel which featured the Michael, aka the boogeyman at the (fictional), ‘Smith’s Grove Sanitarium’:

2018 Halloween movie's fictional 'Smith's Grove Sanitarium' - home to Michael Myers.
Inmates chained to stations in the courtyard of ‘Smith’s Grove Sanitarium’.

Even though the courtyard’s buildings were obviously different, I thought the tiles and institutional nature of the buildings to be so similar that they were probably shot at the same location. I just didn’t know if the buildings were actually updated, or digitally replaced between the 1974 Columbo and the 2018 Halloween.

A quick search revealed that the Columbo episode was filmed in South Carolina at ‘The Citadel’ while Halloween 2018 was filmed 4.8 miles away at the at Military Magnet Academy – Courtyard in Charleston.

Satellite view of courtyards at The Citadel.
Satellite view of courtyards at The Citadel.
The courtyard of the Military Magnet Academy.
The courtyard of the Military Magnet Academy.

As it turns out, the Citadel was established in 1842, whereas the Military Magnet Academy was opened in August 1997.

So why do they look the same? Because of this:

“Much of the reason Military Magnet and The Citadel have maintained such a longstanding community partnership is their shared emphasis on academic excellence in a disciplined military environment. The Citadel has greatly influenced Military Magnet Academy, according to Principal Anderson Townsend. In 2009, the Charleston County School District redesigned Military Magnet to look like a miniature replica of The Citadel that includes a red and white checkerboard in its center quadrangle similar to those found in the barracks at the military college.“

So, there you have it: an obscure, odd little bit of TV / Movie trivia, also known as, ‘how I spent three hours of my mortal allotment researching, writing and screen grabbing because of an idle moment of curiosity.‘

Jul 21

June 2019 – Quote of the Month

“Had enough of heartbreak and pain
I had a little sweet spot for the rain
For the rain and skies of grey
Hello sunshine, won’t you stay?” 

~ Bruce Springsteen

Jun 28

Tautologies Subject to Tautology

Searching for humidifiers on Amazon one day, I came across this very philosphical description of size.

Remarks: Due to manual measurement and different measuring instruments, the actual size shall be subject to the actual size.

Jun 21

May 2019 – Quote of the Month

“I’ve got a bad case of the 3:00 am guilts – you know, when you lie in bed awake and replay all those things you didn’t do right? Because, as we all know, nothing solves insomnia like a nice warm glass of regret, depression and self-loathing.”

~ D.D. Barant, Dying Bites

May 30

Cat Supplies

As suggested by my Amazon.com recommendations:

Bunny Rabbit as cat supplies, recommended by Amazon.

May 22

Happy 18th Birthday

GlenGreen.com launched this day, in 2001. Happy birthday website. Now you can vote.

May 17

April 2019 – Quote of the Month

“I am in that temper that if I were under water I would scarcely kick to come to the top.”

~ John Keats

Apr 30

Safety is No Accident

Spotted on the streets of Pittsburgh. I have no words.

Apr 10

March 2019 – Quote of the Month

“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.”

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Mar 31

The Hit and Run Breakfast

The humor in today’s video, speaks, I think, for itself. (But then again: I have a robust, dark sense of humor: so your mileages may vary.)

This snippet is from Dragnet, The Hit-and-Run Driver which first aired April 6, 1967. In this snippet, Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and his partner Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) meet a reporter over breakfast to discuss an article he is writing on traffic accidents.

Spoiler alert: Joe goes on to make the reporter rush off to puke.

Here is the are a couple excerpts (variations) that can be used for a ringtone:

MP3: The Hit and Run Breakfast (entire snippet)
MP#: Snap at the Knee Joint
MP3: Striking You From Behind
MP3: You Aren’t Around to Experience
MP3: Your Dead

Mar 31

February 2019 – Quote of the Month

“The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.”

~Elbert Hubbard

Feb 26

Did Peter Make a Peter Joke?

Continuing my observations of watching late night reruns, today I bring you a shocking Brady Bunch double entendre. In this scene, Peter storms in, thinking his brother Greg has taken the girl he wants to date. At first, he only calls Greg a, ‘rat’. After confronting Greg, Peter basically calls his brother a big putz directly to to the faces of their parents. – But he does it in a classy way, because this was the 70s and a family show, after all.

(Premiered October 20,1972 “Cyrano de Brady“.)

“Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me.”

~ Herman Melville

Feb 25

January 2019 – Quote of the Month

“How do I confront aging? With a wonder and a terror. Yeah, I’ll say that. Wonder and terror.”

~Keanu Reeves


Jan 31

Mike Brady’s AT-AT

In my efforts to ease my mind into sleep at night, I like to watch older TV shows. I find little easter eggs in them. Some quasi-historical, most TV trivial, and some musings of my imagination. And it is from the latter, that I bring you an episode (#17) of the Brady Bunch, “Coming Out Party“. The episode first aired January 29, 1971 and in it, Mike’s boss, Mr. Phillips enter’s Mike’s office and invites the Bradys to spend a day on his boat.

Mr. Phillips enter's Mike's office and invites the Bradys to spend a day on his boat.

What caught my eye was the artwork in the wall. Computer, ‘enhance’…

Clearly, this is very early concept are for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. – All Terrain Armored Transport / AT-AT walkers.

All Terrain Armored Transport, or AT-AT walker, planet Hoth.

Jan 29

December 2018 – Quote of the Month

“If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

~Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
J.K. Rowling


Dec 31

Iceland Seascape

The world doesn’t need another Iceland landscape photo. At least: not another unexceptional Iceland landscape photo. But I need a blog post and am out of time and out of sorts to do more than slap up one of the photos I took this year. Ergo: I give you: “Generic, but Lovely Seascape Captured in Pixels.” (My titles need help.)

There isn’t much of a story to it, other than to say that the photo was taken as part of our Ring Road trip this summer. The picture was taken on the shore the charming Lonkot Rural Resort in the North West of Iceland. We walked the lonely, stony, cloud crowned beaches and enjoyed a chilly, moody summer day.

Shoreline of Lonkot Rural Resort. September 10, 2018, photo by Glen Green.

Dec 22

November 2018 – Quote of the Month

“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.” 

~ Faramir
The Window on the West
The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings
J.R.R. Tolkien


Nov 30

Iceland’s Steinahellir Cave Signs

Along the road, In the south of Iceland, near the Bay of Holtsós is a small cave.

Steinahellir cave sign Iceland

The cave is not very deep: little more than an alcove. It is so shallow, in fact that it gets enough light that the entirety of the cave is overgrown with ferns and moss. The small grotto is gated, with a man-door, no doubt: to prevent people from driving their vehicles into the cave.

SSteinahellir cave, Iceland, interior, moss and gate

On the exterior of the gate are two signs.

One sign is a hand written, haphazardly cut white sign that reads, in fading ink, “NO CAMPING!’

Beside it, is a professionally illustrated, multilingual graphic sign that illustrates and reads, “NO HUMAN WASTE”.

I’ve never been one for scatalogical humor, but the dichotomy and priority of investment between these two signs, posted on a natural formation, amuses me and was the highlight of the visit to the cave.

SSteinahellir cave sign Iceland, no camping , no human waste

Nov 01

October 2018 – Quote of the Month

“Listen to them — the children of the night. What music they make.”

~ Bram Stoker

Dracula

Oct 30

Penny-ante

I shop a lot with Amazon. A lot. – With few exceptions, I go to Amazon for 95% of my non-perishable purchases.

But for some things, I still like to have an in-person experience. These things include: TVs and monitors (for first hand viewing of image quality), audio gear (hearing is believing), furniture  and vehicles (for a sense of mass and aesthetic details that aren’t easily translated in photos), home maintenance like lumber and yard care (due to bulk)  and shoes and clothes (for fit).

It is for the last of these: clothes – specifically: some jeans, that I found myself at J. C. Penney.

Now, people who care about fashion, most likely snort and turn up their nose at Penneys; but I’ve never been one to care very much about clothes nor branding. (A fact, I’m sure, is probably all too obvious for those who see me.) Penneys have always been a simple, affordable option. Unfortunately, increasingly, too many local brick and mortar shops have been failing in their value and Penneys has been on the same downward spiral.

This makes me sad, because I can appreciate the loss of local retail, even big-box retail to Amazon, but my shopping experience for jeans is surely an example of why  brick and mortar stores are getting their asses kicked.

The fundamental disappointment I encountered with Penneys was the lack of service. – Caused, by the store being short staffed. There was no one in sight in the mens’ section, and I was left to find it by myself, and comb through the jeans for style and fit without an offer of help. Next: the dressing room was dingy and unkempt. The pincushion on the wall looked liked it hadn’t been cleared for who knows how long. Other pins were littered on the floor.

J. C. Penney's dressing room pincushion

Finally, at checkout, the line was about four people deep, with a single clerk working to resolve a customer’s problems, leaving me to wait for about 20 minutes to get rung out. And when they did tally my sale, the sales promotion didn’t ring up correctly and I had to have it redone. (An error that I noticed: not the clerk.)

Now, I list these ‘grievances’, fully aware that they fall into the category of ‘first-world-problems.’ But that isn’t my point. My point isn’t that this isn’t any kind of real suffering but rather: to highlight why I think stores like these are failing.

With Amazon, I could have saved myself a 30 minute drive to the mall.  (x 2 for return trip home.) – I could have shopped from my phone anywhere I was. With Amazon, I could have filtered and sorted my choices within seconds. With Amazon, I could have just as easily shopped for a Gummy Bear anatomy puzzle or a vinyl wall decal of an Asian businessperson. With Amazon, I could have checked-out with a click of a button.

Yes, with Amazon I would be waiting two days for them to arrive but 99.9% of the time: I can wait. So, the only real remaining shortcoming with Amazon is the hassle if I have to return a product.

But consistently, where Penneys should have shined: they failed – customer service.

I can’t help but think that some CEO made a short-term decision to cut staff at Penneys to ‘help the bottom line.’ And I well imagine that having shown some operational savings, the CEO pulled their golden parachute and drifted away on a cloud of bonus money, leaving the company that much less prepared with a competitive advantage.

Amazon, on the other hand, has sacrificed short term profitability in order to master the world of retail.  This is why they will win.

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