Another Day, Another Dollar
Hello World,
Happy October! I don't know about where you are, but around here, this is when we'd normally be expecting to start enjoying those crisp clear fall days, with the leaves changing color by day, and frost on the pumpkins at night. Obviously, that's not happening, because there are no standards anymore, heaven knows, and we probably haven't had that sort of classic fall weather since the dinosaurs roamed the vast unformed land masses, or at least, that's how I remember it. But whenever I am tempted to complain about the weather in these parts, I am reminded of the poor people who got hit with hurricanes last month, and I remember to be grateful for small favors instead. It's important to realize that no matter how bad things might be, they can always be worse, and that's not just the pumpkins talking, believe me.
Last week, the bookkeeper down the hall was about to set off on her regular trip to the cashier's office in the other building, and as she left her office, she announced to no one in particular, "I'm off to see the wizard." I happened to be in front of her in the hallway as she was leaving, so I said, "Oh, bring me back a brain." She laughed.
While we're on the topic of money, I was making a deposit of what we collected from the flea market at church, and I noticed a very unusual coin in with the loose change. I pulled it out, figuring it would be one of those goofy Sacajawea dollars that they have now, but it wasn't anything of the sort. I looked all over for what denomination it was, and finally found it stuck in a small corner of the back, so I exchanged it for a dollar bill in the deposit, and took the coin home to show Bill. He was also expecting it to be Sacajawea, so when he turned it over and found himself face to face with some ugly mug in a bad wig, he said the same thing I had said, "Who the heck is this guy?" At first I thought it might be a foreign coin, with some other country's Prime Minister or famous military hero on it, so naturally we wouldn't have recognized who it was. Instead, it turned out to be James Monroe, of all people, in what is probably the new Presidential series of Liberty dollar coins, and everyone else may already know about them, but this was the first we heard of the idea, and here I already had one in my hand. When I complained that it didn't tell you anywhere on the front how much the coin was worth, Bill pointed out that it was probably a Liberty coin, so it says $1 on the side with the figure of Liberty, and James Monroe is on what would be considered the back instead, and probably all the rest of the Presidents will be shown on the back, while the Liberty on the front stays the same for all the coins in the series. So there you have it, coin fans, all the news and hot off the presses, and while you still shouldn't take any wooden nickels, at least you won't be surprised if someone gives you a new Liberty dollar coin with a former President on the back, although if it looked like President Bartlett from "The West Wing," you would have reason to be suspicious.
Our local newspaper must figure that anyone can find out what they need to know about professional sports in many other ways, so the front page of the Sports section spotlights teams of the local high schools for the most part, and not their more famous professional counterparts that everyone knows. So I wasn't surprised last week to see one of their top stories featured a picture from a high school cross country event, but I admit that I was taken aback by this arresting caption:
==========================
SHOWING WHAT HE'S MADE OF
Yorktown's Manu Kumar cements himself
as a top runner by taking second in
yesterday's Gressler Invitational.
===========================
I said to Bill, "I hope not!" He's certainly not going to get very far as a runner after he cements himself, that's for sure, and I can tell you that for a fact, even though I don't run. I don't know what kind of athletic advice they're giving out to students in Yorktown, but they can have this tidbit from me for free: "Eat Right. Get Enough Sleep. Don't Cement Yourself." I don't claim to be a fitness guru, but I can't help thinking, that's gotta hurt. In other fitness news, and I use that term guardedly, I couldn't help but notice an interesting item in a recent mail order catalogue, which they described fulsomely as a Motorized Pedal Exerciser. This contraption would set you back $170, so it apparently considers itself a real piece of serious fitness equipment, although I personally do not see how. Their description begins, "Sit in a comfortable chair and enjoy a great workout," which is a contradiction in terms if ever there was one, and don't forget, this is hard on the heels of the runner who cemented himself. The idea seems to be that you strap your feet to the pedals, and then use the remote control to adjust the speed of the revolutions, as the motor spins away, dragging your feet along with it. Honestly, how anyone considers this exercise is a mystery to me. This would be like using an escalator for exercise instead of a stair-climbing machine, where the escalator is doing all the work to carry you up the stairs, but you did get up to the top, so it must count as exercise. They tell me the Motorized Pedal Exerciser weighs 12.5 pounds, and here I'm thinking that you would get more exercise carrying it from one room to another, rather than sitting in your easy chair and letting it pedal your feet around in a circle for you. It seems to me that this is right up there with runners cementing themselves, in terms of sound fitness advice.
In other sports news, once again there really was no joy in Mudville, as the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs earlier in September than had been expected, while across town, the Mets waited until the last game of the season to lose their way out of a possible Wild Card berth. From a fan's standpoint, it was probably a bad time for both teams to renew the contracts of their respective General Managers, who many might figure, were the very people who got them into this mess in the first place, where the teams don't even make the playoffs, much less winning the World Series like they're supposed to. (Well, the Yankees are supposed to, anyway.) That sound you hear, that the owners apparently don't, is the legions of local fans wailing and gnashing their teeth in anguish over yet another in a series of lost seasons of dashed hopes and shattered dreams. Most people would find it impossible to believe that any team with so many famously high paid and talented players could somehow fail to win their division, much less two such teams in the same city, but far from being impossible, the local teams manage to prove how very possible it is, year after year. So the playoffs continue apace, with teams from far and wide, but none from near, and more's the pity, I'm sure.
The sad news doesn't end there, as the world bid a fond farewell to Paul Newman last week, and after decades in the public eye, it would be difficult to imagine life without him. Of course, he made so many legendary films, of all different types, so in many ways, he will always be with us. I'm sure that everyone remembers famous scenes or lines from his classic movies, and I'm no different. One of my favorites was from a movie that I didn't care much for, which was the western, "Hud." The stage coach makes a stop along its route, and everyone climbs off, hot, tired and dusty, most of them heading straight for the saloon. We see Paul Newman's character relaxing in the shade behind a shed, and thinking she's alone, another one of the passengers slips behind the shed to remove some of her voluminous clothing to cool off. Just before she's about to become indecent, she notices that she has an audience, gasps, covers herself up and cries indignantly, "You might have at least cleared your throat!" To which he replies in a perfect laconic drawl, "I couldn't, my heart was in it." Good night, Butch Cassidy, or should I say, adios.
In happier news, last Saturday we were on Long Island to celebrate Mom's birthday, and she's still going strong at 86 years young, and looking like a princess in her pretty pastel stripes from head to toe. Mom didn't join us for lunch at the diner, but we had them make a special meal for her which we brought home, along with a selection of their locally famous pastries, which are always a welcome treat, whether it's a special occasion or not. In fact, they gave us one for free, in honor of Mom's birthday, which we thought was very nice, and I don't mind saying that I'm one of those people who believes that there's no such thing as too much pastry. Since it was such a beautiful day, we also ran some errands while we were there, and then wrapped it all up with presents, which are always a big hit with Mom. Although I have to say that once you give her a box of Mallomars, she does tend to lose interest in everything else after that, but I'm sure she was glad to get other gifts of a more practical nature as well. So it was a lovely day all around, and the birthday girl was all smiles, especially when we brought out the pastries, because time has certainly not dimmed her enthusiasm for pastries, not by a long shot, believe me.
And speaking of special days of interest, we get the following courtesy of Bill from his Excite home page:
===================================
You still have to go through your "Excite Home Page", which was the original "personalizable" page, much like iGoogle. Unfortunately, the new owners are too busy lousing up the e-mail and the home page is dying of neglect. The tides are just blank and the sports scores haven't updated in two weeks. So I've been a bit surprised that the "personal calendar/holidays" reminders section kept going. I looked at it today, to see if there were any events I needed to remember coming up and got the following list:
Today: Sat, Sep 13 2008
Event
Date
Days
Grandparents' Day
Sat, Sep 13
0
Stepfamily Day
Tue, Sep 16
3
Citizenship Day
Wed, Sep 17
4
Fall Equinox
Sat, Sep 20
7
Mom's Birthday
Wed, Sep 24
11
Rosh Hashanah
Mon, Sep 29
16
Yom Kippur
Wed, Oct 08
25
Columbus Day
Mon, Oct 13
30
Sukkot
Mon, Oct 13
30
Thanksgiving Day
Mon, Oct 13
30
Now I realize I'm a fuddy-duddy and, like most curmudgeons, I complain too much about the modern tendency to creep the holiday celebrations forward. But I AM a bit surprised to find they've actually moved Thanksgiving to October. Do you figure it features Christopher Columbus at the end of the parade now? I mean, they could still have Santa as the big finale, only now it would be the Santa MARIA (Ba-DUMP-bump! Thanks, folks -- I'll be here all week.)
===================================
Well, I don't see any way to improve upon that, try as I might, and many thanks to the minions at Excite for that welcome humor, however inadvertent. On the other hand, we do want to remember to be grateful for small favors, so having Thanksgiving more often during the year could not be a bad thing, compared to, say, income tax day, which is already once too often at just once a year, and that's not just a lot of cranberry sauce, by golly. In fact, if they wanted to do away with income tax altogether, so we could all keep more of our hard-earned dollars, I'm sure it would be about the most popular thing to come along since the Founding Fathers first started throwing dollars across the Potomac, and let's face it, they've just been throwing money away ever since and no end in sight. Please feel free to pass along this suggestion to your elected officials with my blessing. Tell them James Monroe sent you.
Happy October! I don't know about where you are, but around here, this is when we'd normally be expecting to start enjoying those crisp clear fall days, with the leaves changing color by day, and frost on the pumpkins at night. Obviously, that's not happening, because there are no standards anymore, heaven knows, and we probably haven't had that sort of classic fall weather since the dinosaurs roamed the vast unformed land masses, or at least, that's how I remember it. But whenever I am tempted to complain about the weather in these parts, I am reminded of the poor people who got hit with hurricanes last month, and I remember to be grateful for small favors instead. It's important to realize that no matter how bad things might be, they can always be worse, and that's not just the pumpkins talking, believe me.
Last week, the bookkeeper down the hall was about to set off on her regular trip to the cashier's office in the other building, and as she left her office, she announced to no one in particular, "I'm off to see the wizard." I happened to be in front of her in the hallway as she was leaving, so I said, "Oh, bring me back a brain." She laughed.
While we're on the topic of money, I was making a deposit of what we collected from the flea market at church, and I noticed a very unusual coin in with the loose change. I pulled it out, figuring it would be one of those goofy Sacajawea dollars that they have now, but it wasn't anything of the sort. I looked all over for what denomination it was, and finally found it stuck in a small corner of the back, so I exchanged it for a dollar bill in the deposit, and took the coin home to show Bill. He was also expecting it to be Sacajawea, so when he turned it over and found himself face to face with some ugly mug in a bad wig, he said the same thing I had said, "Who the heck is this guy?" At first I thought it might be a foreign coin, with some other country's Prime Minister or famous military hero on it, so naturally we wouldn't have recognized who it was. Instead, it turned out to be James Monroe, of all people, in what is probably the new Presidential series of Liberty dollar coins, and everyone else may already know about them, but this was the first we heard of the idea, and here I already had one in my hand. When I complained that it didn't tell you anywhere on the front how much the coin was worth, Bill pointed out that it was probably a Liberty coin, so it says $1 on the side with the figure of Liberty, and James Monroe is on what would be considered the back instead, and probably all the rest of the Presidents will be shown on the back, while the Liberty on the front stays the same for all the coins in the series. So there you have it, coin fans, all the news and hot off the presses, and while you still shouldn't take any wooden nickels, at least you won't be surprised if someone gives you a new Liberty dollar coin with a former President on the back, although if it looked like President Bartlett from "The West Wing," you would have reason to be suspicious.
Our local newspaper must figure that anyone can find out what they need to know about professional sports in many other ways, so the front page of the Sports section spotlights teams of the local high schools for the most part, and not their more famous professional counterparts that everyone knows. So I wasn't surprised last week to see one of their top stories featured a picture from a high school cross country event, but I admit that I was taken aback by this arresting caption:
==========================
SHOWING WHAT HE'S MADE OF
Yorktown's Manu Kumar cements himself
as a top runner by taking second in
yesterday's Gressler Invitational.
===========================
I said to Bill, "I hope not!" He's certainly not going to get very far as a runner after he cements himself, that's for sure, and I can tell you that for a fact, even though I don't run. I don't know what kind of athletic advice they're giving out to students in Yorktown, but they can have this tidbit from me for free: "Eat Right. Get Enough Sleep. Don't Cement Yourself." I don't claim to be a fitness guru, but I can't help thinking, that's gotta hurt. In other fitness news, and I use that term guardedly, I couldn't help but notice an interesting item in a recent mail order catalogue, which they described fulsomely as a Motorized Pedal Exerciser. This contraption would set you back $170, so it apparently considers itself a real piece of serious fitness equipment, although I personally do not see how. Their description begins, "Sit in a comfortable chair and enjoy a great workout," which is a contradiction in terms if ever there was one, and don't forget, this is hard on the heels of the runner who cemented himself. The idea seems to be that you strap your feet to the pedals, and then use the remote control to adjust the speed of the revolutions, as the motor spins away, dragging your feet along with it. Honestly, how anyone considers this exercise is a mystery to me. This would be like using an escalator for exercise instead of a stair-climbing machine, where the escalator is doing all the work to carry you up the stairs, but you did get up to the top, so it must count as exercise. They tell me the Motorized Pedal Exerciser weighs 12.5 pounds, and here I'm thinking that you would get more exercise carrying it from one room to another, rather than sitting in your easy chair and letting it pedal your feet around in a circle for you. It seems to me that this is right up there with runners cementing themselves, in terms of sound fitness advice.
In other sports news, once again there really was no joy in Mudville, as the Yankees were eliminated from the playoffs earlier in September than had been expected, while across town, the Mets waited until the last game of the season to lose their way out of a possible Wild Card berth. From a fan's standpoint, it was probably a bad time for both teams to renew the contracts of their respective General Managers, who many might figure, were the very people who got them into this mess in the first place, where the teams don't even make the playoffs, much less winning the World Series like they're supposed to. (Well, the Yankees are supposed to, anyway.) That sound you hear, that the owners apparently don't, is the legions of local fans wailing and gnashing their teeth in anguish over yet another in a series of lost seasons of dashed hopes and shattered dreams. Most people would find it impossible to believe that any team with so many famously high paid and talented players could somehow fail to win their division, much less two such teams in the same city, but far from being impossible, the local teams manage to prove how very possible it is, year after year. So the playoffs continue apace, with teams from far and wide, but none from near, and more's the pity, I'm sure.
The sad news doesn't end there, as the world bid a fond farewell to Paul Newman last week, and after decades in the public eye, it would be difficult to imagine life without him. Of course, he made so many legendary films, of all different types, so in many ways, he will always be with us. I'm sure that everyone remembers famous scenes or lines from his classic movies, and I'm no different. One of my favorites was from a movie that I didn't care much for, which was the western, "Hud." The stage coach makes a stop along its route, and everyone climbs off, hot, tired and dusty, most of them heading straight for the saloon. We see Paul Newman's character relaxing in the shade behind a shed, and thinking she's alone, another one of the passengers slips behind the shed to remove some of her voluminous clothing to cool off. Just before she's about to become indecent, she notices that she has an audience, gasps, covers herself up and cries indignantly, "You might have at least cleared your throat!" To which he replies in a perfect laconic drawl, "I couldn't, my heart was in it." Good night, Butch Cassidy, or should I say, adios.
In happier news, last Saturday we were on Long Island to celebrate Mom's birthday, and she's still going strong at 86 years young, and looking like a princess in her pretty pastel stripes from head to toe. Mom didn't join us for lunch at the diner, but we had them make a special meal for her which we brought home, along with a selection of their locally famous pastries, which are always a welcome treat, whether it's a special occasion or not. In fact, they gave us one for free, in honor of Mom's birthday, which we thought was very nice, and I don't mind saying that I'm one of those people who believes that there's no such thing as too much pastry. Since it was such a beautiful day, we also ran some errands while we were there, and then wrapped it all up with presents, which are always a big hit with Mom. Although I have to say that once you give her a box of Mallomars, she does tend to lose interest in everything else after that, but I'm sure she was glad to get other gifts of a more practical nature as well. So it was a lovely day all around, and the birthday girl was all smiles, especially when we brought out the pastries, because time has certainly not dimmed her enthusiasm for pastries, not by a long shot, believe me.
And speaking of special days of interest, we get the following courtesy of Bill from his Excite home page:
===================================
You still have to go through your "Excite Home Page", which was the original "personalizable" page, much like iGoogle. Unfortunately, the new owners are too busy lousing up the e-mail and the home page is dying of neglect. The tides are just blank and the sports scores haven't updated in two weeks. So I've been a bit surprised that the "personal calendar/holidays" reminders section kept going. I looked at it today, to see if there were any events I needed to remember coming up and got the following list:
Today: Sat, Sep 13 2008
Event
Date
Days
Grandparents' Day
Sat, Sep 13
0
Stepfamily Day
Tue, Sep 16
3
Citizenship Day
Wed, Sep 17
4
Fall Equinox
Sat, Sep 20
7
Mom's Birthday
Wed, Sep 24
11
Rosh Hashanah
Mon, Sep 29
16
Yom Kippur
Wed, Oct 08
25
Columbus Day
Mon, Oct 13
30
Sukkot
Mon, Oct 13
30
Thanksgiving Day
Mon, Oct 13
30
Now I realize I'm a fuddy-duddy and, like most curmudgeons, I complain too much about the modern tendency to creep the holiday celebrations forward. But I AM a bit surprised to find they've actually moved Thanksgiving to October. Do you figure it features Christopher Columbus at the end of the parade now? I mean, they could still have Santa as the big finale, only now it would be the Santa MARIA (Ba-DUMP-bump! Thanks, folks -- I'll be here all week.)
===================================
Well, I don't see any way to improve upon that, try as I might, and many thanks to the minions at Excite for that welcome humor, however inadvertent. On the other hand, we do want to remember to be grateful for small favors, so having Thanksgiving more often during the year could not be a bad thing, compared to, say, income tax day, which is already once too often at just once a year, and that's not just a lot of cranberry sauce, by golly. In fact, if they wanted to do away with income tax altogether, so we could all keep more of our hard-earned dollars, I'm sure it would be about the most popular thing to come along since the Founding Fathers first started throwing dollars across the Potomac, and let's face it, they've just been throwing money away ever since and no end in sight. Please feel free to pass along this suggestion to your elected officials with my blessing. Tell them James Monroe sent you.
posted by El Tango Fandango @ 7:11 PM
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