I have been listening to NPR again....

This is a picture of Caster Semenya.  She is identified as intersex and has participated in Track and Field and recently set a world record of 1.54 in the 800 meter race.  

The world track and field people recently changed testosterone testing and she is objecting legally.  Apparently this body want her to take testosterone to slow her down because she had an unfair advantage.  

Caster is physically identified as having XY chromosome, internal testes and does indeed perform at higher level. According to Wikipedia there are 46 combinations of an intersex person, which I find mind boggling.  The ratio is about 1 in every 3000 people is intersex.  As an aside that means GBTPQ+ just added at least one new category to the rainbow.  

Wikipedia also says that the following records are the current record holders excluding Ms. Semenya.

800 metres

Athletics 800 metres
World	David Rudisha 1:40.91 (2012)
Olympic	David Rudisha 1:40.91 (2012)
Women's records
World	Jarmila Kratochvílová 1:53.28 (1983)

There is an awful lot of hoo hoo over this. Why not HANDICAP her?

There is some sports handicapping for croquet, golf, horse racing etc.  Lemme see is there is anything for Track and Field?  Oh, they actually handicap by age and weight.  Huh!

May I suggest a serious study to expand handicapping of Track and Field.  For instance  Get the world records for male javelin, hammer throws.  For instance assign the intersex javelin competitor  will have so many yards removed on the best throw.  Or the hammer throw person has a similar distance handicap.  Who ever has thrown the farthest as current male world record holder will be used to measure the handicap for the intersex athlete.

Therefore Caster Semenya's results should be compared with David Rudisha's 1.40 800m to her 1.54 and add 14 seconds to her time with an asterisk.  Problem solved.  Get ready! Get set! Go!!

DEATH SENTENCE

It has been a while since the kerfluffle over the use of the three drug protocol for administering the death sentence.  One of the drugs suddenly became highly unavailable.  And there has been arguments in favor of the drug shortage.

Those folk who are against the death penalty were cheered and were critical that these drugs administered incorrectly was cruel and unusual punishment.

The drugs used consist of sodium thiopental (anesthetic), pancuronium bromide (paralyzing substance) and potassium chloride (stops cardiac activity).  

I don't have much of an opinion either way on the question.  I think part of the consideration in sentencing is for the judge to consider if that person is too dangerous to live. 

I believe that many people sentenced to murder killed due to the circumstances or opportunity and those crimes are certainly unforgiveable.  Some of those folk may even rehabilitate.  However life isn't "Shawshank Redemption".

I have wondered why the officials involved do not consider a simpler cheaper method of administering the sentence.

I wonder if they have thought of an insulin over dose?  It certainly wouldn't take much depending on the normal blood sugar of the prisoner and death itself would consist of going to sleep due to extremely low blood sugar.  There would be no pain.

Also, it would be illegal to take advantage of the opioid epidemic but a prisoner could overdose and go out on a somewhat happy note.  Again no pain.  Of course the relatives of the victim who appear as witnesses might want a bit of suffering to ensue. 

I can see tons of lawyers lining up on each side of this argument but the advantage would be the ready availability of any of the above drugs for the dénouement. 

I am thankful that I am not required to be judge, jury or executioner. I tend to come down on the let 'em do eternal time in prison school of thought.

MEMORIAL DAY

Today is for remembering those who have fallen.  I am lucky none of my family have had to make the ultimate sacrifice for which I am truly thankful.

I have documented Army tales of my father when he went on Vaca whilst traveling from Camp A to Camp B somewhere in Washington during the early 40's.  He spent about a month at home before his father asked him how much longer he would be staying and then he said his leave was almost over.  He left and slipped a buddy some money for shouting "Present!" whenever his name was called.

My Uncle Carl was in the Air Force, I do not think he served in combat  but he was a pilot and I am not sure, he never talked about his war service and Dad didn't talk about it either.

My Uncle Paul served in the Army, I think, for a hitch very shortly after the war.

The most colorful service was my Uncle Tater Horn.  (Mom's Big brother).  He was in the army and served in the Europe theater.  I have seen the telegram that Little Grandma received when he was wounded.  I am not sure how severe the wound was but he received a Purple Heart for that.  

He was wounded in Germany,  I have seen pictures he took of the destroyed buildings of Berlin.  It was very grim.  He helped liberate a death camp.  He never talked about that and it was probably as horrible as you may imagine. 

He recovered from his wounds in England.  The only thing he ever said about that was that he hated the food.  Gee, for a boy raised on potatoes, bacon and such the food must have been pretty awful.  The British were on fairly close rations and unless he was convalescing at a posh place, he probably ate the equivalent of gruel.  

Tater was a very colorful uncle. He was a true cowboy.  He rode horses and I remember watching him work on a horse changing a horseshoe.  That was very impressing.  I was afraid that the horse would feel the nails going through the hooves but nope.  So I can recognize the tools when I see them.

I wonder what he would have thought of the very modern plastic clip on horseshoes now available.  I watched a You Tube video that showed what all had to be done to get them to fit the horses hoof  Very impressive.  No blacksmith needed and that is kind of sad actually.  

THEM!!!

Remember that quite wonderful 1954 sci-fi classic "Them" ?  The cast is extensive starring James Arness as the investigator, Joan Weldon as the beautiful assistant, Edmund Gwen as her scientist father, James Whitmore as the police sergeant, Fess Parker was a hospital patient,  Leonard Nimoy was an Army Sargent, Dub Taylor was a railroad watchman and Dick York was a teen at a police station.  Now I have to rewatch the thing just to try to see all the characters I have missed previously.

The plot was fairly decent, strange things going on in the desert. The police sergeant investigates a store that has been broken into and all of the sugar is missing and there is a big hole in the wall.  A little girl is picked up walking down a dusty road and all she can say is "Them".  Spooky stuff and well crafted.

However, once the shaggy puppeteer giant ants show up shrieking and shaking their giant mandibles, all credibility goes out the window.  Mainly because of the inverse square law.  Basically a critter that big cannot support its own weight and should not be able to move.  Science, ain't it wunnerful.  

I believe the scientist on board concluded that the original colony of regular sized ants grew that big because of atomic testing.  Ok.

Eventually the queen popped up and the whole swarm took off and flew to Los Angeles where they hid in the Los Angeles river cement culverts and such.  Spectacular fireworks ensued and eventually the bugs were toast.  The stink of formic acid was mentioned.  James Arness and Joan Weldon kiss, I think.  The End.

We too have a THEM! problem.  Only of the much smaller variety. Sugar ants.  They certainly do enjoy sugar and a good ant trap takes care of them.  

Most of the time they are satisfied to stay outside in the ground.  But during the rainy season, (And it has been real rainy) the little buggers come a visiting.  By the thousands.  

See one, scrub, scrub, scrub, kill, kill, kill.  THEY come back, again and again.

Yesterday I scrubbed down the cupboard with first  a thorough layer of rubbing alcohol, dried that off. Next layer was 409.  So far they are discouraged.  

I have found then popping up on the screen of my Kindle and that is a problem because inside my eyeballs I see little ant like thingies all ready, can't stab my eyes, so smash ants! Kill! Kill! Kill!

It is a matter of attrition.  I have everything  and I mean Everything inside either large plastic containers or resealable plastic bags.  Not much discourages the little bastids.  If I thought there were delicious I would eat 'em. But that is a lot of work for a tiny snack.

I am hoping for some sunny days soon to lure the darned things down into the ground.  The ants go marching down, down, down etc.  No sunshine yet.  

If you see an ant crawling on me, catch it!! Puleeze.  Thanky.

CRAB, HAIRCUT AND A TATOO

Yesterday I went shopping for salad ingredients, Napa cabbage, tomatoes, green onions etc.  At home I had tucked away in the freezer my favorite fake crab leg obtained at Safeway.   I also had a tray of real crab that I had frozen a while back.  I busily assembled the ingredients and started chopping.  Everything went well until I got to the frozen real crab. I was completely dismayed to discover that the crab had turned into a sort of rubber crab with zero test.  I was very disappointed.  I was reminded of my college biology professor who advised freezing fish in normal saline, it keeps things perfectly.   Too bad I remembered that at this point.  Next time I guess.  I finished the salad with a dressing of mayo, apple cider vinegar, horse radish, pepper and a couple packets of Splenda.  I then tossed on some sunflower seeds.  Unfortunately the sunflower seeds tasted metallic to me.  I am losing my sense of taste.  Salt and sugar taste half salty, half sweet.  No idea what the heck taste buds bloom on sunflower seeds.

I decided to get one of my regular severe haircuts and while I was there the lady had time and suggested a color.  Sure, how about either bright blue or bright red?  I chose red.  It doesn't show up well on the picture but it looks brighter in person.

I also wanted a tattoo but the parlor was closed early for Memorial Day Weekend.  I want her to put my initials in the back of my skull, Black letters with gold accents.  Smallish.  (evil smirk)

EATING OUT LOCAL

Coquille is a smallish town, population under 5000.  The Spotted Owl is the local enemy to this logging community.   The four lumber mills gradually went out of business and there is only one left operating.  So sort of a save the trees going on.  But remember Oregon has a very vigorous replanting law that erases the clear cut logged off areas.  Those trees come back, thank God.

Coquille has a few places to go get breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Just off the highway is The Coquille Broiler.  Mighty fine burgers.  We have eaten dinner there, they severe a decent chicken fried steak.

Just around the corner on Second street is Frasier's Bakery.  It is also a restaurant.  They close by 5 but I really like their breakfast specialls and their bakery puts out a nice variety of donuts, cakes etc.  You can also get a bag of cut bread for dressing.  The stores do not carry the commercial brands of bread dressing except for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Strange.  

The Chinese place recently reopened.  Nice young couple and the lady looked started when I asked if they had char siu bao and she came back with a  package of frozen steamed pork buns. Yummy!!

There is a Mexican place on the highway and their Chicken Mole is to die for.  

Another Mexica place is the Colonial just past the Highschool.  Their daily specials run about 6 dollars.  My favorite is the chile relleno and taco combination.  Husband likes the enchilada dishes.

I was out running around yesterday; pick up a scrip at the pharmacy, shop for some healthy veggies at McCays, and lunch at the Colonial.  It was 2 pm by the time I got there and they were still busy!  That's nice, means they will stay in business.  I ordered the chile relleno and a beef taco.  I was wonderful.

As I was munching away enjoying the day and the meal.  I heard the proprietor on the phone in the background.  It gradually dawned on me that he was ordering lunch, "One sweet and sour."

Hah!  Well a person might get sick of a steady diet of really excellent Mexican food.  

Now I'm hungry, dammit!

JEOPARY! I can't do the upside down exclamation point in front...

I have always enjoyed Jeopardy, it is a fun contest originally started as a "cure" for the game show scandals of the late 50's where contestants were given the answers.  Solution?  Post the answers on a board and have the contestants ask the correct question.  Very clever and has been so for several decades now.

My favorite senior citizen, Alex Trebek is currently battling stage four pancreatic cancer.  I was afraid to watch the interview but he was magnificent.  I did not realize that he had been undergoing chemo a few days into the current winner James Holzhauer.

This morning I was listening to CBC This Morning and he came up as a subject of conversation. Apparently there is some on line complaints that he is cold etc.  

Jeez, people. the man is (repeat after me) a PROFESSIONAL sports gambler in Las Vegas.  You do not develop tells in the gambling world and he stays in practice in a game that does not involve bluffing until the jaws snap shut.  Sure, it ain't Celebrity Poker.  And do pay attention, he cracks a joke or two, has snappy repartee with Alex and so on.

The on line hater is obviously jealous.  Me too, my favorite secret super power would be a perfect memory.  I would love to be able to learn a fact, tuck it away and pull it out when I needed it.   My favorite thing to do with my brain would be re-read a book in my head.  Advantages are this, no light needed.  I'd be all cuddled up and warm and I have read thousands of books.

Now back to James, currently at 23 days he has racked 1.7 million, if he goes another 50 days and ties with Ken Jennings he will rack up close to 6 million dollars and some change.

 This is going to take up a bit of time, as there are several more tournaments coming up and there is summer vacation.  He may have to get back to Las Vegas and do some of that professional gambling.

It has been ten years since Ken Jennings made his historic run and racked up 2.6 millions or so over a period 73 or 74 days, I forget exactly.  

It would dearly love to see a match between the two men.  I also wonder if there isn't a woman genius out there who needs some spare cash, and wants to take time to qualify and then clean up on Jeopardy!  Just like those two only bettah...Yeah..

VACATIONS, SUNDAY PUZZLE AND HERTZ

I look forward to the family reunion in Boise.  However, I have no idea where, it's in a park somewhere in Boise.  I hope SOMEone fills me in or volunteers to drag me along.  Husband is still debating if he even wants to leave the motel room, being all hermit like etc.  So......

I booked a rental with Hertz and we get to pick up and drop off  despite the offer of free delivery.  The girl at the desk is by herself and cannot perform that service.  I gotcha.  We are getting the car a day early so husband can play with all the gadgets.  Because I will hold a pea shooter on him if he plays with gadgets while driving distracted.  It comes with GPS and WiFi and lord only know what that big red button does.

Am waiting to book a room at the no tell motel in Emmett.  Hope they ain't booked up for what ever summer delights are available in my home town.  Cherry Festival is a biggish deal.  I look forward to getting a Scotch and Soda at the RoeAnne Drive in.  Ahhhh.

I also want to go visit with Ollie, she will be 97 or so soon?  Holy cupcakes!!

Lastly, I slept through the Sunday Puzzle by Will Shortz. He is the New York Times puzzlemaster.  I had to look it up on line.

The challenge for next Sunday is this.  Name a country with 5 letters.  Name a 13 letter profession associated with that country.  The country name will appear in the 13 letter word from left to right, but not sequentially.

Jeez, there are 25 countries that have five letters!!!

13 letter professions?
Accountancies  um nuthin

My brain just shriveled right up.  I need a nap...and I need to go watch Sunday Morning on CBS.  

See, there are other things to worry about besides the last episode of Game of Thrones.  If HBO likes dragons they should consider the Anne McCaffrey books of Pern.  

RATHER COLORFUL DREAM

I had a very colorful dream last night.  I was traveling as I often do and I found myself driving up a very difficult mountainous road.  I was showing someone where to go and I dropped that person off.  Then I proceeded to drive into a city.  When I got there the streets were very familiar.  

I have visited this dreamscape before.  I am sure it is located in my dream version of San Francisco.  I was looking for a mall that was very fancy.  I found the street entrance and went inside but they were moving heavy furniture around so I went back outside and found another entrance.  It was not as busy as usual but not so crowded that I couldn't find my way around.

It has always reminded me of the old City of Paris located in the real San Francisco.  In my younger day I and a girl friend would go exploring and we found the City of Paris fascinating. The rotunda went up about  seven stories. The very top floor was furniture strangely enough, very expensive furniture.  The rotunda held a huge Christmas tree that was decorated fabulously.

I was strictly a lookie loo customer.  Because at my the wages of $1.65 per hour I could afford the gas to drive across the bridge but not to shop.  

The place was always lit up beautifully during the season over the years.  Then it closed in 1980 and was demolished and Neiman Marcus remodeled the place in 1981 retaining the rotunda and sky light.   Haven't been back since.  

I am probably still a lookie loo customer what with time and inflation. I have seen the Neiman Marcus catalogs which alone would raise my blood pressure into stratospherically fatal levels.  

ENTIRELY NEW BREED OF CAT AND SOME LATIN and a geogaphy lesson

Yesterday I was watching Animal Planet and the program that was playing was "Too Cute".  They showed a cat named the Australian Mist.  A lady living in OZ wanted a cat that would not become feral and eat up all the small native fauna.  This was in the 1930's or so. She began with the sphynx and a stripy kitty and eventually she bred a docile, family friendly INSIDE kitty.  They are happiest lounging around the house and playing with the kids etc.  They have beautiful eyes and fur.  When they are born the coat is mostly very light, the striped bits come in at about age two.  There only about ten breeders in the UK and there are ZERO Australian Mist cats in the US.  I can't believe some pet snob doesn't have one snaffled up.  Matching pair of course.

 

And now for some Latin this morning.  I purchased a book called "Riding The Elephant" by Craig Ferguson, a Scottish Comedian who sobered up and has written several books.  Mr. Ferguson was being interviewed on NPR. 

The book came and  husband has been reading a chapter here, a chapter there.  He does not read voraciously.  But he does skip around a bit.  

This morning after the customary morning salutations, he was trying to remember the name of the chapter, it had the word decorum in it and the word est.  

I got on Google and by the time he came back with the title I was ready.  The title as best he could remember was "Dulce et decorum est".  Hmm I knew that dulce means sweet and decorum mean proper behavior I think, but you never know with Latin there are many cognates that look like words we are used to but the actual translation is way off yonder.

I Googled it and found references to a poem printed in the 1920's based on Horace's Odes and that Latin phrase is as follows:

Dulce et decorum est patria pro mori.  That much longer and more impressive phrase translates as "It is sweet to die for your country". I wasn't even CLOSE.   I had come up with "it is sweet to destroy behavior".  No gold star for me.

I just flunked Latin.  There was a single Latin teacher in Parkview Junior Highschool when I attended.  The language choices were Spanish and Latin.  The way things are going I think Mandarin would be a good language to learn.

On and on a completely different point.  I want to point out that it is to forget the sheer size of Africa.  Just look at a world map, it is a large continent, lots of countries.  

To give it some perspective, the Sahara dessert is as big as America. Canada would take up another Sahara sized chunk and that is still the bottom half to fill up with the Western hemisphere.  

That's a lot of sand box.  And the Austrian Misties would love it except it is all out doors.

Have a nice day everyone, enjoy that little chunk of instant classical education you just consumed.  

Here is a suggestion

I was listening to NPR this morning. They were discussing the case of an Idaho prisoner who has requested gender reassignment surgery because of gender dysphoria.  

The State of Idaho, of course, does not want to spend money on the case.  Despite the fact that the patient, who calls herself Edna, has tried castration twice.  

There have been hearings and the Governor, Brad Little, is slow walking this case because basically the prisoner gets out of prison in 2021.  

There are several methods available to reduce the production of Testosterone , medical, surgical and violent.  Years ago I wrote of a native man flown in from a village. He had a shot gun wound.  In an alcohol related incident he decided to give himself a circumsision with a rifle.  It didn't kill him and he felt no pain at the time.

Now, this is just a suggestion but occasionally I grow little soft papillomas.  They aren't very big.  The correct thing to do is ask your local doctor to snip or freeze off with Nitrogen etc.  I exerimented once with an underarm papilloma.  I used a piece of black thread and tied a knot around the base of the skin tag.  I then forgot about it.  Couple days later it had turned black, looked like a nasty tick and it fell off.  

Hmmm, that worked so well, I have since tried it a couple more times.  One time I decided to just cut it off with a sharp scissors dipped in rubbing alcohol.  I got about half way through, didn't cut fast enough and had to go have my doc finish cutting the damn thing off.  

Along these lines I did a little research looking for ligature procedures for testicles and there doesn't seem to be anything like that being done.  

The closest I got was testicular torsion which happens naturally sometimes and if not fixed can cause the blood supply to be interrupted enough to cause the testicles to shrink, 

Hmm, so if I were a male person, stuck in an Idaho prison wishing to have gender reassignment surgery, I would attempt a testicular ligation.  (Any male readers avert your eyes)

Get some dental floss, MELT OFF THE WAX on the dental floss or you will not get a tight enough knot in the thread.   

Wrap the dental floss around the base of the testicle and tighten to the point of discomfort. This may take several times to get the testicle to atrophy and fall off.  When you have successfully accomplished this, try it on testicle number two.  

I am not sure if the Idaho prisoner will be housed in women's quarters, wouldn't count on it, but it may take him/her the next two years to become emasculated.  I also recommend getting in touch with the local LGPTQ community, they may be available via toilet phone.  

I watched some thing about girls in juvenile detention learning how to talk to people in other cells by way of the in cell toilets.  

The first thing to do is scoop out the water from the toilet into the sink, Once it is empty, bang on the metal toilet.  Someone will answer you.  They also used toilet  paper paper cups to make ear pieces.  This may have been covered in "Orange Is The New Black" but I have never watched that show.  Carry on.

Modern Art

I was listening to NPR the other morning and it was a piece on David Hockney. He is famous for his painting of a man standing next to a pool and there is someone swimming underwater to his end.  This painting recently sold for over 90 MILLION dollars.  It first sold for 18 thousand dollars.  The picture included here is Spring in Yorkshire and I like it because it is a bit representational.  

I don't mind the wilder modern art at all.  But I do rather object to the pieces that are nothing but a canvas covered completely in white paint.  My genuine question is this, given that someone may possess the taste for and truly appreciate the effort and artistic effort it took to paint the white picture, how many counterfeits exist and how would one prove it and would an art insurance agency touch it with a ten foot pole. ??

THINGS THAT COME IN THE MAIL ETC

I am sure that a porch robber would be frustrated and understandably mystified by some of the things that are purchased for this household.

Husband discovered Amazon, Drug Store.Com, Walmart and a few other select entities and as a result of that we have not shopped at Freddy's in about three years.  

My purchases go through Amazon only.  And as with all items, some of them are mysterious.  My most recent purchase is a mouth shaped toothbrush. It vibrates and massages the gum and teeth. And there is an ultraviolet light to kill off the germs, the direction clearly state in English translated Chinese; 1) To engage device speak into base unit.  2) Give command "Drakaris".  3) Good for fire peppers. 4) Rinse in cool water.  5)Dry with cloth.

(cough)

I had also been idly looking for a more comfortable bra.  I wanted something like a big old bandage.  So I saw something that was described as compression for use after surgery, for support etc.  So I purchased it.   It is a cloth lined elastic thing that is a about three foot long and a foot wide and closes with very sturdy Velcro closure.  It was a struggle because my right arm is not very strong, but I managed to get the bottom to meet and then worked by reclosing and retucking my way up to the top.  Well, it certainly contains all of the contents and is very strong.  Unfortunately the closure makes for bulk in the front.  And I can only stand to wear it for about eight hours.  So, I will go back on the market to see what is available.  I have sports bras but they give me an uncomfortable  uniboob and becomes problematic after a while.  I do have the most comfortable option, go without a bra, however the girls have just a bit too much freedom.  I mean the assault charges alone....

I purchased an antifungal for a black spot on my toenail.  Jeez, even that was a problem figuring out how to make  the thing work.  Comes in two tubes, brush end is covered with a removable end and the other end of the barrel twists and send the medication to the brush.....eventually.  Then you put on three layers one a time and do this three times a day until the meds run out.  Yep, its a time investment.  Ugh.  Yeah and bending over to reach the toes which have gotten farther and farther way from my fingers.

I rarely order physical books now, most of my books are digital and occasionally I indulge in the audible.  That part is tricky, if I don't like the sample of the narrator, I don't order it.  The last physical book I ordered was the Annotated Little Women.  Unfortunately the print is so small I was reduced to using a magnifying glass.  I look like a demented Watson doing research for Sherlock Holmes.  So I will eventually order the digital version and will refer to the book for illustrations.  sigh....

Husband on the other hand mostly orders items for the house, the cat and some personal items.  

If a burglar stole those boxes looking for goodies to sell, there would be vast disapointment involved unless you were in the market for tarps, paper towels, cat liter, cat food, socks, undies etc.  No easily pawned goodies.

Oh, and the ONLY reason I know about the mouth toothbrush thingie is because of Facebook marketing.  I saw a video about it on one of my Facebook feeds and was intrigued enough to check it out.  So far I am impressed.  And probably brainwashed.  

HAPPY DAY AFTER MOTHER'S DAY !!!!

Spent a very peaceful and non-eventful Mum's Day.

It wasn't until this morning watching TV that one of the morning ladies was enthusing about the newest Royal Baby, Archie. Mum and Dad posted a picture of little toeses.  (Moses supposes his toees are roses but Moses supposes erroneously... never mind).

I wondered if the parents received a print of the Royal little feet.  My mother had an entire collection of Berglund foot prints that were prepared for each baby as they came along.  Occasionally they would get brought out for general perusal and admiration. Ellen's were the tiniest footies. 

I have worked in other facilities where they did not make any kind of certificate other than a little certificate saying the so and so was born on such and such a date. etc.  Very unmemorable.

One day I was working away deep in the bowels of WKMH when a woman came into the department.  She wanted to turn in the foot print certificate of her daughter.  She didn't want to destroy the thing but she was going through a nasty divorce and she was determined to eliminate any references to the man.  I was dumb founded and took the document and told her I would file it in the baby's chart.  I was a little sad that this was a lost little memento of her baby's first day of life.  

I worked at WKMH for about nine years.  I was confident that those records were sacred and would stay forever.  Unfortunately, a few years after I left, the hospital ran out of room for record storage.  

As I understand it the then maintenance manager Mr. G. burned everything just to make room based on the fact that the records were so old.  That makes me a little sad as well.  So that Mom can never retrieve that memory for her or her daughter. (sniff)

Paper is so ephemeral, some bits of paper that has no bearing what so ever hangs around like death and taxes. Speaking of which I'm pretty sure I can safely throw out my old tax returns, I have about 20 years worth sitting stacked neatly on top of my roll top. I also have old boxes of blank paper checks from accounts that NO LONGER EXIST.  Um, could burn 'em I suppose. Do need to shred at some point.

The point I'm try to make is that the elusive bits that may belatedly come to mean something to you are often irreplaceable.  God Bless the Moms who keep track of our Birth certificates, our immunization records, our naughtiest report cards etc.  

Happy Mother's Day. A day late. 

A comment or two regarding GOT and the future

Firstly, I read the book decades ago.  The ONLY character I remember at all is Tyrion Lannister.  He was charming and scheming and that is about all.  

The HBO series I did not watch, despite mounting hysteria and aclaim. 

However what I HAVE watched courtesy of Facebook feeds are the clips about the more memorable  bits  posted by various fans.  I learned off hand that Jason Mamoa was in the thing and that is the reason that I ordered episode one of season one.  OMG, he is the typical horse lord who has probably adopted the personal mantra of Conan the Barbarian when asked what was his favorite thing about war.  Conan listed several grizzly things and ended with "Undt da lamendashun uv da vimen".  (cough)  

I learned that Dany is one tough woman.  I persuaded myself to purchase the entire first season.  I am not quite up the part where The Hand is executed.  It's kind of like watching the PSB story of Ken Burn's Civil War.  When they were filming the assassination of Lincoln, one of the people in the room asked that the filming be halted for a bit, to let him live a little longer. I wept at this.  So Let the Hand of the King live a little longer.  

As time has gone by more fans have posted enough on Facebook that I have the gist. Just enough to know that there have been soe deviation from the book.  Also someone will post the last two episodes putting us all out of our collective misery.

The question remains, what will HBO do to top this epic tale?

May I suggest a more prolific author, one who has written ten nice juicy adventurous books. The first three books are "Dies The Fire", "The Protectors War" and "A Meeting at Corvallis".  These have been written by S.M. Stirling.  This is an alternate history universe that first started March 1998, there was some event and the part of physics that make gunpowder burn etc collapsed completley. No electricity.  Massive die off as planes crashed, cities burned, millions starved.  The story concentrates on three groups. The Bear Killer outfit, the McKenzies the The Lord Protector and how they survived.  The remaining books are about the second genaration and their further adventures.  I highly recommend that HBO negotiation with Mr. Stirling to produce these stories.  There is enough work in the second book for the entire crew of Game of Thrones (really).  Lots of work for lots of folks.  

If I were blindingly rich I would get it done. I have a terrific imagination but I do not want to invite the world inside my head, so get busy out there.  You people are missing a wonderful opportunity.

PS: These books have plenty of bad guys to kill off and good guys to mourn.  

BERTHA JONES

I found a sad posting on Facebook the other morning. My sister, Ellen posted that they had lost the matriarch of the Jones family, Bertha.She was 94.  

I didn't get to know Bertha very well. But what little I know, I liked very much.  Every once in a while during one of my visits home with Mom, we ould schedule an adventure. By adventure it began with a caution from me stating that we were going to have an adventure and it might not actually be fun.

One time Mom and I drove over to visit with Bertha and it was decided that we would all go out to lunch at one of Bertha's favorite bars located in Garden City it was one of the older establishments. And the bar food, we  were assured was wonderful, especially the prawns. So off we went. We parked and strolled into a very dark bar.  We managed to find a table and eventually the wait person found us and brought menus.  It was so dark that I dug around in my purse and found a tiny flashslight and turned it on so I could actually read the menu.  Ultimately we all ordered the bar prawns and had ice tea, I think.  It was hilarious. And the prawns were tasty.  Having survived that we returned Betha to her home, chatted a bit and went home.

Mom would call Bertha every once in a while and chat about this and that. One summer it was determined that Bertha wanted to drive to Coos Bay to visit with her sister, Esther for the express purpose of canning fresh tuna.  And Mom was invited.  

I kind of got ready for a Mom visit. I took some frozen blackberries out of the freezer and prepared a blackberry cobbler.  The cobbler was almost done when they arrived. They had driven to Coos Bay to pick up Esther and then brought Mom to Coquille.

I invited the ladies in to have some blackberry cobbler and discovered to my horror that the cobbler was not cooked enough.  However the ladies gamely chewed on it thoughtfully.

The plan was that Mom would stay here and meet up in Coos Bay at Esther's house.  They were going to track down a fresh tuna. There were signs all over the water front advertsing fresh tuna.  

In the mean time Mom wanted to purchase a canner at By-Mart. Got that item tracked down. I don't think I have been back to the place since.

I think the next day was totally devoted to canning the tuna.  Mom had purchased some dainty little jars that held about one tuna fish sandwich worth of meat.  They were very cute. 

Bertha took charge of the timing and cooking routine and it was  long day before we bore off our batch of canned tuna.  

We had some left over fresh tuna and fixed that for dinner that evening. It was very tasty.  

This was a trip where Charlie decided to drive over to take Mom back to Emmett. They may have still had some items stored here I don't quite remember.

The whole experience was quite fun and I would do it again except I would actually cook the blackberry cobbler a good twenty minutes longer. 

God Bless, Bertha Jones, age 94.