I’m still mining Sundays from 10 years ago. I thought you might be interested to know that the big Web-page makeover that I’ve talked about recently (and have talked about off and on in the past) might really happen this time. If it doesn’t, I just wasted money on a retainer I paid to some fine young people who’re going to help me put it all together technically. Of course, I learned I’m still going to have to provide the content. Sheesh! It isn’t scheduled to roll out until spring, possibly even late spring, and I have no idea what it will look like, because I’ve yet to come up with a concept and the artwork to support it—that “content” bugaboo I mentioned. However, I will keep you posted as events warrant.
Literary Achievement
By Jimmy Johnson
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442 responses to “Literary Achievement”
I am going to stop right now before I make another wisecrack. The effects of indiscriminate reading (I would read a cereal box if there was nothing else) resulted in a fourteen year old who like Holden Caulfield went to New York City and spent five days on her own, not unlike Holden, hardly doing things fourteen year olds are supposed to do, especially in the 1950’s. At the top of my list was a visit to the Algonquin Hotel’s Rose Room and the site of the famous Round Table. That’s what I wanted to be, a brilliant, brittle and jaded writer and perhaps some day be published in the New Yorker magazine or a suitably prominent newspaper as a journalist or columnist.
Reality often hits hard even today but in the 1950’s that wasn’t likely to happen to Southern girls, a fact I found out when I spent several years writing for and running my first college’s public relations department and being published all over the country. Didn’t matter, the offer from Playboy wasn’t to write, that’s for sure!
But I kept writing in some form or other all these years, knowing I wasn’t going to be the jaded journalist I REALLY wanted to be. But I also kept loving words and what Greenberg says about the loss of words is true, when we lose words they seldom return.
Good night, Gracie! Love, Jackie
Hum. Interesting 2-3-15 cartoon.
No one mentioned “yesterday” was Groundhog Day.
Probably for same reason we share similar views on global warming? Or no one mentioned the Super Bowl and the effects of a disastrous or thrilling game, depending on point of view? I do love the movie, however. Hmmn- that seems appropriate too, given some of our philosophical musings.
Debbe 😉 I’m getting ready to go bed, and you’re just about to get up.
Just thought of that old saying “getting up with the chickens.” What time do chickens get up, anyway? I know the roosters often start crowing at first light, but what about the hens? I’m guessing they basically sleep whenever it’s dark.
on 03 Feb 2015 at 3:53 am #
I’m back.
GOOD FRIENDS ARE LIKE ANGELS, YOU DON’T HAVE TO SEE THEM TO KNOW THEY ARE THERE
Do yous guys know how long it takes to read 3 days worth of posts and links?
I took notes
Clothes – new program LoveLustRun at least these women are trying to better
themselves – some were pretty under all the spackle.
Dumb educators – comment in One Big Happy forum-
Reminds me of that stupid story a couple of months ago about PB&J sandwiches being racist. The reason, according to the school principal is that sandwiches do not exist in all cultures.
–Another
I hadn’t heard about that so I looked it up. Unbelievable! Thankfully my kids were never forced to go to school under Portland school principal Verenice Gutierrez.
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/15414/
One long post got sent to moderation so I am breaking it into smaller segments.
Jackie
Father of a girlfriend I had just out of High School, designed boats that were published in
Popular Mechanics. 55/60 years ago. Looked alot like that Scamp. He had heart attack while scuba diving in Caribbean – I still send Christmas cards to her mother.
We do the best we can with the information we have – If we recriminate we would just suck our thumb and never get out of bed.
Hugs and Talent – the more we give the more we get. They do not add or detract they multiply.
There was a Uke on the Antiques Road Show Monday night – I think they said $2,500
The music stands for the Uke Band made me think of Chris Baldwins new strip
http://www.baldwinpage.com/annagalactic/2015/02/02/013015-annas-solo-01/
In the comments someone said just a foot button to change pages – Chris’ answer is
that music recognition technology NOW would allow the page to change automatically.
One of TRs friends said “Rough Riders” was an “I” book.
As for climate change – It is – Is man doing it? Probably not much, we have not been keeping records long enough to know. Is the Planet in trouble? (even if man has contributed)
No.
The Planet was here long before man and will be here long after man. Humans are just an
irritating hic-up – If the age of the world were 24 hours man has been here less than 15 seconds.
Man is in trouble.
If as Shakespeare said deep sleep is Death’s half-sister I am off tho meet his cousin.
Good Morning Villagers….
I had questioned in yesterday morning’s comments who came up with the idea of Groundhog day, no one bit.
Indy Mindy…anniversaries are hard, but I want you to know that I copied and pasted your “job spec for poultry layer house employee and emailed it to my boss. His sister works the office and is going to make copies for me…..you are good.
Old Bear…like your postings, and yes, man is in trouble…but we are all victims of our own demise.
GR 😉 back to my flashlights….they are Rayz, the bigger one that zooms in and out only holds 9 triple ‘A’ batteries, so I was wrong about the fourteen. I thought it felt lighter after Ian told me it held only 9 batteries 🙂 . I forget how many lumens, but it is bright. I have two smaller Rayz that I can pack in my back pocket. The lights come on in the hen house at 5 am and go off at 10 pm…that’s a lot of laying time. With six feedings per day. Roughtly 8 tons of feed go through those augers during each feeding.
gotta go…..
Miss Charlotte…good to see you back
…and Jerry, you had me worried….let us know when your house is in that magazine. We can probably pull it up. I’m excited for you and your wife.
=^..^=
One thought regarding today’s strip:
“Oh, Rob!”
Glad to see you back, Blinky. And I agree.
I think Rob and Laura Petry were a big influence on our fearless leader. And that is a good thing!
GR6, knew two Louisiana boys, and one each from Hawaii and Virgin Islands, who could convert c-rats into a meal. A lot of that was the local food stock and hot sauces were similar to what they grew up on.
Thank you EVERYONE for your kind and loving support during the past few days. I think that those days were a “sit, think, deal with it” time. Last night I had dinner with Jerry’s two children and reminisced… more coming in today… also today, we are going to decide what to do with items in the house… services tomorrow… It is time to get on with the rest of our lives.
Wiki re: Groundhog Day
The celebration, which began as a Pennsylvania German custom in southeastern and central Pennsylvania in the 18th and 19th centuries, has its origins in ancient European weather lore, wherein a badger or sacred bear is the prognosticator as opposed to a groundhog.[6] It also bears similarities to the Pagan festival of Imbolc (the seasonal turning point of the Celtic calendar, which is celebrated on February 2 and also involves weather prognostication[7]) and to St. Swithun’s Day in July 15.
Being a little more alert this morning after a excursion into the cold wearing only a thin tee shirt (think large) in pursuit of the 10# dog, I googled the Algonquin Round Table this morning and it brought back some really long ago thoughts and even visual memories. More than anything I wanted to be Dorothy Parker, whose mastery of the word led me astray so long ago.
“You can lead a horticulture but you can’t make her think,” Dorothy Parker.
I suspect our noble host and resident talent liked this group too, playing word games, witticisms and subtle “get one past” the censors.
Love, Jackie
Galliglo – “items in the house” it hasn’t been four weeks yet for me and my brain is having to find the right balance between giving things to the women’s shelter charity or Goodwill in the area and stopping before I wipe out all trace of her things. She had lots of stuff that was from people or relatives that were special to her but not me, so that can go. But our together stuff, I keep forever, or very slowly cull, and I’ll never use the sewing machine or certain weird kitchen apparatuses (apparati?) ALSO HOW the heck do you grab the end to start a new saran wrap roll ??
Trucker Ron, thanks for that link.
Jackie, I’m from Arkansas and would like to go back. I don’t think the whole state is a problem. Here’s more detail on the “underwear” issue.
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2013/09/03/little-rock-school-district-adopts-a-staff-dress-codedress-code-some-grumble
Apparently, it was necessary to include underwear as an enumerated point. I can only guess that meant some teachers were NOT wearing foundation garments. At best, that would be very distracting to most juvenile boys.
John in RT: “ALSO HOW the heck do you grab the end to start a new saran wrap roll ??”
Very carefully! LOL
Gal: Love and hugs.
Bear: I suppose all memoirs could be considered “I” books.
I would pat myself on the back for being so “progressive” that I eat only whole wheat bread, but honestly, that’s a dietary decision rather than a political one. Possible topic of discussion: Is that an appropriate use of educational resources when much of the rest of the civilized world is eating us alive educationally? And why that Portland principal would undoubtedly consider me a racist (or something) for using the phrase “civilized world”.
A quiz for Jackie: What six-letter word immediately came to (my) mind when you said “into the cold wearing only a thin tee shirt”? 😉
That’s why I specified large, not the tee shirt. Where DO you find those emoticons?
Guys, I cannot do this today! I have a retired Army helicopter pilot arriving shortly in great anticipation after a long drive. We are going to get into the Boat Palace, the two warehouses and the Boat Palace Annex, searching for materials and parts and pieces and sails for the boat.
We have agreed we will not cry, either one of us, but if we do we will do it together. We both loved and miss him so much. I don’t think guys like this cry easily but you know what? I have cried with a retired Marine, an Air Force Academy instructor and some Navy guys all in the last month.
Real men do cry.
Love, Jackie
When Jerry’s first wife died, they had made no plans for disposition of personal property. He had to do everything, and I think it was pretty traumatic. He wanted to avoid that pressure – and responsibility – for his children as much as possible. So he was not a great accumulator. Some possessions that had sentimental value were listed in his final instructions. As far as he was concerned, other things were just so much flotsam and jetsam.
So… for clearing things out… I will not be staying here but will be going back to Gallipolis (southern Ohio) after things here are taken care of. I am keeping some things that are meaningful to me. But – unfortunately – we did not have a long period of living together. So his things were “his”. It will be up to his children regarding disposal and I will do everything I can do to help them. The residence is an apartment, so everything must be cleared out by the end of the month.
His daughter lives locally and has her own household. His son and family live in Florida. So neither one are in a position to absorb a lot of common-place possessions into their own homes. They will come and “cherry-pick” and we shall decide what organizations and/or friends will get the rest.
Sounds like a full day…
John, Gal, Jackie, et al.
I don’t know what to say, but I can imagine it is hard. My wife’s parents (in their late 70s) are giving away anything they think might have an emotional tie– to that person. They don’t want the kids to have to make those decisions.
I have done the same with a few things. I don’t want to do so in a wholesale fashion, because though it is possible I could go unexpectedly, I do not want to agitate my wife or kids unnecessarily. Because I have a terminal, but at least chronic, disease I know that I will almost certainly die without the full “threescore and 10.” As I’ve said here before, my mother passed at 49, my eldest sister at 51. Both had the same disease and conditions with which I also have been graced. I’m now to the age of 53.
I worry about my wife especially, what she’ll do, how she’ll take my loss. We are coping intellectually. She’s accepted early use of my retirement account, knowing that I’ll be unlikely to reach an age to use it normally. She’s even come to grips with the idea that I continue to pay premiums for life insurance that I bought when I was healthy. It’s my intent that the insurance be use to replace the retirement money we are spending now. Even that is a somewhat emotional issue. There is a country song, “Live like you were dying.” I am and we are, but that still doesn’t mean it is any easier for the ones you are leaving behind. There’s another country song, by Brad Paisley, that catches my sentiment. The video, with Andy Griffith, is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-C-IbkuNWs
IT IS, HAS BEEN, AND WILL BE WORTH THE WAIT.
What I’m trying to say is that the best comfort I can offer you (I am basing my thoughts on my own relationship) is that your loved ones had a full, robust, and forever love for you. They would certainly want you to be happy in your life and to remember the happy, joyful, times that you shared. Keeping things that remind you of that joy is good, but don’t keep things that cause you to have frequent, deep, pain. I cry when I think of losing my wife, and kids, to my disease but never in front of them. Rarely do we ever have the option of making that choice.
John, if you’ve made it this far, the tip of a paring knife is a good substitute for fingernails when starting a roll of Saran wrap.
David, that is not fair. I promised not to cry today to a special friend, and you’ve made me break that promise already. I had quit listening to current C and W pretty much and had not heard that one .
I have never been on time in my life except the day we took Mike off life support. I was early that day so I could just have a little more time.
Love, Jackie
Salvation, my friend is running late( for Army)
and I have time to get bathed and dressed. He said he was going to have to make the trip fast, which I had expected, but he has a grandchild in the hospital abruptly.
Given his druthers, he would just move into my Boat Palace, which he has slept in more than once. It is heated but little else in creature comforts as Mike was always wary of his mom moving in and taking up residence. It as large as some people’s houses but has never been large enough. There is an annex, outdoor annexes and I am thinking of building a second boat garage, just as I have talked of for a long time.
There is a second floor reached by a ship’s ladder with a hoist and line method of loading and unloading stuff up there. I am not even going to think about that one for awhile, I haven’t been able to climb that “hold” for a long time!
Should he need stuff from up there, he’ll have to find it alone!
Totally off subject, I caught up with 9CL and she lives, they are heading back across France and it will take a stake through the heart, which is why she is buried under Bill’s headstone with his helmet. Jimmy could have told the entire story in A and J with so few words, so few drawn panels and with far more meaning!!!!
Love, Jackie