This old A&J from January, 1993, depicts Gene with one of his many different haircuts. It also features the strange elongated head that marked his appearance in that period. And “Super Mario” was big. We take for granted how much life has changed in 20 years. I was watching a movie on TV the other day, and everything seemed normal. The clothing appeared contemporary. The automobiles weren’t an obvious tip-off. Then, a detective walks up to a person working at a computer console and asks, “Hey, can you look stuff up on that thing?” The operator replies, “I think so.” Immediately, I wondered, “When was this thing made?” About 15 years ago, it turned out.
First-World Dictator
By Jimmy Johnson
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65 responses to “First-World Dictator”
In the future, old movie buffs will be able to tell when a film was made by who lights up & how often
No, Jackie, I am not the Man from U.N.C.L.E. But I always wanted to be. 🙂
Daughter is now expecting her second child, to add to the terrible two’s son, and just survived the flu and 19 visiting relatives. So, she and husband left on a pre-Christmas vacation they take each year to go meet with the Waterford crystal carver that they need a signature from. Crazy as that sounds, they became collectors of crystal at a young age and have a “crystal room” to display their pieces and they seek out special crystal masters.
I will bet money they are the only serious collectors in their age group!!
So, Jackie is doing it all right now, plus I have to take my 93 year old mother along, as it is not safe to leave her. She just can’t function alone at all and while I can find day sitters, nights are impossible.
Last trip I forgot important stuff, ditto this trip. My computer for one, so I am going to make a “must take” list and put together stuff in a “take off” supply for van so we can survive in some civilized fashion. I have decided that eating decent, civilized meals with seriously ill family isn’t happening! Mom and I were eating a late, late lunch at P.F. Changs having dropped Mike at motel and I had gotten about three tablespoons of my kale Waldorf Salad down when I got an emergency call that I had to have him in the infusion lab in less than 30 minutes. I was across the street from hospital and he was in motel no where close.
That may have been our best meal? No wait, the seafood restaurant was good but Mike got sick and we gave up and I ate the rest of his oysters (fried).
Giving up and going to bed early, Love, Jackie
Mindy who cut off all her hair, when I moved to Oklahoma from Houston 20 years ago, my hair dresser alleged no one up here was able to cut hair. So she gave me a hair cut that looked kind of like a buzz cut with some tufts sticking out.
I met Mike up at the Dallas market at our showroom. Think I was wearing some kind of masculine looking outfit and everyone thought I was coming out! Mike said I should have just put a rainbow ribbon on my lapel to go with hair.
And my mama went around telling everyone she could find that I was dying of liver disease or something like AIDS. Mama has early stage dementia and has for a LONG time and loves to talk about people dying. I had/have a lot of friends who have died of course and it is tragic. But I have autoimmune diseases that are rarely fatal. My mama is a great drama queen and loves to whisper “secrets” so before the market ended I had dozens of people coming up to find out if I were truly dying and was I coming out before I did?
So, cutting all your hair off can have traumatic/dramatic endings.
Love, Jackie
Welcome back Jackie. And no, I don’t think it strange that you were thinking of others while dealing with Mike’s problems. You come across here as the type of person who would do that, and that it would be a sign of something very wrong if you stopped.
And relative to the movie buff being able to tell when a movie was made by how often people lighted up, I noticed another tell-tale sign while watching some Donald Duck cartoons today. In the 1930’s versions, the houses in the background had chimneys and maybe weathervanes. In the 1950’s era they started sprouting tv antennas.
I was watching something from the past that Mike had on and that was first thing I said, “There is NO ONE” on screen who is not smoking.” It was downright smoky from all the exhaling!
And it’s not only in movies. I have been reading a lot of turn of the 20th century detective fiction lately and you can tell whether the character is going to be bad guy or not by what he smokes. The heroes are mostly smoking pipes and cigars, while the sneaky types are into cigarettes. And the ideas as to what’s most modern in science and technology. Automobiles, airplanes and x-rays. One story even featured dialysis in the pre-WWI days. I didn’t know they were trying it out then.
We old-timers find lots of things were better in the”good old days” but smoking cigarettes is a shining example of a wonderful improvement. Or I should say NOT smoking them now. I smoked for years and am so happy that I was able to give them up. I can hardly believe this even now, but when I spent some time in the hospital in 1983 it was perfectly acceptable for patients to smoke cigarettes in their hospital beds — and I did! Now all that smoking has gone away, thanks to many activists who lobbied to get rid of them, and made it “un-cool” to smoke.
Charlotte, when Mike became engaged to me I was a heavy smoker. He said I never exhaled, just somehow kept smoke in!
He didn’t smoke and hated it, so he gave me the ultimatum to stop smoking and become a Christian.
I quit cold turkey and have never lit another one. I became a rabble rouser against smokers every chance I got. When he got lung cancer it was simply so unexpected, had it been me I would say it was the cigarettes and all the spray paint I inhaled as a designer for the floral spray paint manufacturers.
Hope everyone will someday quit, for their own sakes and for those who inhale it accidently/second hand.
Love, Jackie
I agree, ‘burns, that the NCIS tech is somewhat more realistic than, say, CSI‘s. I especially like the new NCIS New Orleans.
Mark, I doubt that the book you read was actually written before The Great War. The first working dialysis machine was built by a Dutch physician in 1943, while the Germans were occupying the Netherlands, and the first practical on was built in late 1946. Clearly, somebody didn’t do their homework.
Things you wouldn’t know if you didn’t come here: At 1:00 AM CDT, there are currently 10 FedEx cargo planes inbound to Memphis.
I hope your Christmas present is on one of them.
Had a busy week after all the family left last Sunday – worked six days this week and they were long days. I am a little overwhelmed that I have not started Christmas shopping yet, so I am still reading, just not finding time to post! Glad to see everyone is still here and doing okay. Your comment about Man from U.N.C.L.E. brought back memories, GR. I believe I was in fourth grade when I started a club of the same name, and we played out various scenarios at recess. I loved the show, though I can’t remember a single episode – I think I was just enamored by David McCallum. I still enjoy him on NCIS!
Charlotte in NH:
As I used to tell my students, I’m glad that the “good ol’ days” are gone, even though we live in increasingly tumultuous times.
Two things, however, were indeed better in the “good ol’ days” of the Sixties and Early Seventies: school lunches and album covers.
My high school cafeteria actually offered lasagna, meatloaf, pork chops, grilled fish, and on and on. Even better, a full-time baker made the world’s best pies, cakes, and other desserts.
The art on album covers: I need say nothing more.
To the community:
“Immediately, I wondered, ‘When was this thing made?’ About 15 years ago, it turned out.”
Anyone else think of Alvin Toffler’s “Future Shock” when reading Jimmy’s observation?
It seems that his work was remarkably prescient.
Good morning Villagers…
First of all, I identify with the retro strip. When Ian was 4, he had a spiral break in his thigh, was in traction for 19 days. The pediatric ward had video games….and that started it all. When I got him home, he had a body cast on, and was given his own game player complete with the first Mario game….I use to play with him on those games….he was good, I too could never get past the first level 🙂
Granny Carol…I too watched faithfully “Man from Uncle”…there was something about David McCallum that got all the young girls then excited….think it was his accent 🙂
Indy Mindy…saw and absolutely loved TSO in Indy about 5 years ago….it was the most visual and energetic concert I felt. I never seen the children sing the Carol, something wrong with my cut and paste….but I’m sure you’ve seen the two women sing it.
JJ…..was that a Harrison Ford movie that line “Hey, can you look stuff up on that thing?” came from….I recall him saying that in a movie in which he was looking for his kidnapped wife.
later……………………..
GR 😉
AND Jackie, it is good to see you posting again. And you are right, you never know how much worse the individual has it in the cubicle next to you. We have big drama going on with one of my husband’s nephews, who is staying with us….again. I am glad we can give him a roof and support…..he lost everything when his work truck caught on fire….and only had liability.
Ahhh…Rick, album covers and school lunches….both were grand then. Favorite album cover, sorry to be boring, but Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’
When I saw TSO in Indy……this young lady sprinted all over the stage…the energy, the love of her violin….just awesome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd9Vr9GzJ80
Symply going off track, isn’t that where I live?!? Was at Best Buy to purchase a camera, knew which one we wanted after fiddling around with a few of them on display to try them out…..waiting 30 minutes for a clerk to get one unlocked, no one around…..finally left, went home and ordered it online, took 2 minutes, with Amazon Prime will be here tomorrow. Fargone hate dealing with the wait sometimes….needed a vending machine at BB, I would have bought it there….soon that will be the future.
Thanks all for the vent!
Checking the NFL schedule on TV just now, I saw an ad for (I guess) a gastric distress relief remedy in which a woman walking down the street was attacked by what appeared to be a gigantic Reuben sandwich.
Some people have all the luck.
“In general, life is better than it ever has been, and if you think that, in the past, there was some golden age of pleasure and plenty to which you would, if you were able, transport yourself, let me say one single word: ‘dentistry.’” – PJ O’Rourke, All the Trouble in the World
Debbe 😉 Being it’s the weekend, and I see you are not up to your you-know-what in you-know-what, I’ll make my playlist post early. This is another song from the movie “Christmas Vacation”. I love the old photos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfLmpKTqugM
One of the interesting things about NCIS is that Pauley Perrette, the actress who plays lab person extraordinaire Abby Sciuto, has a college degree in criminal science. She really does know about the stuff Abby does!
The computers I love on tv are the ones where the person brings something up on a screen, then seemingly “tosses” it up into the air and moves various screens around as they hang there. Those are fun.
Indy Mindy, my older daughter loves TSR, and tries to make it to their Christmas show if they are playing anywhere near Atlanta. That ticket has become one of my gifts to her every year. She also loves Marty Deeks. Maybe the two of you should meet? 🙂
Rich from Shermantown, I don’t know where you went to high school, but it was nowhere I ever was, and sounds better than my college cafeteria, too!
I watched Man From UNCLE when it was originally on tv, and loved Illya! Napoleon was a great guy, but there was just something about Illya… Last year I bought the dvd set in the neat spy attache case, and we have had a lot of fun rewatching the show. It’s a lot campier than I remember, but still worth watching.
I just caught the typo in my post: that should have been TSO, not TSR. (grumblegrumblestupid computer)
Jackie, glad to hear that you, Mike, and your mom are still ok.
Ghost sweetie, I hope you and your mom have a very good Christmas this year.
For some reason, what I remember best about the Man From U.N.C.L.E. was the worker bees walking around at HQ in their white blouses and dark tight skirts, with their pistols carried in small-of-back holsters.
What can I say? I was an early bloomer.