Monday, April 30, 2012

Truro Dune

Today I was up in the town of Truro doing exterior insurance surveys and took this photo of a Truro sand dune and marshland. I rely quite a bit on my Garmin navigator which is a little "sketchy" in Truro as I would put in a few addresses and "No match found" was the response. Some of the routes the Garmin takes me and my car are quite "scenic" as today I ended up on a half mile one lane dirt road through the Truro moors. Kind of an adventure but didn't like the bushes scraping against my car and there was no place to turn around or off this road so I'm glad that no car met me as I would have to have to back up a half mile or make the other car back up that distance.

Joe Biden: Mr Tactful

Biden to donors: 'You all look dull as hell' | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner Recently Joe Biden said to a breakfast fundraiser crowd, "You all look dull as hell". I wish Joe would truly express his feelings, opinions, and observations and not be so tactful all the time. After all, this crowd paid only a minimum of $2500 each to hear the words of wisdom of our distinguished vice-president. Perhaps the crowd was anxious to go back to their jobs and try to earn some money or at least to get busy lobbying the federal government for some sweetheart government loans or contracts. I don't know. Maybe the crowd didn't think this occasion warranted dressing up in flashy multicolored Hawaiian shirts as it is not Summer quite yet.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Duck, Duck, Duck

I went to an estate sale this weekend on Cape Cod and these three ducks there looked like they wanted to follow me home so I let them into my car and now they reside with me. There must have been about 100 ducks inside the antique home. The former resident was an artist that had a studio on the estate property along with an old barn and another workshop. The sale reminded me a little of the "American Pickers" television show as all the buildings were pretty chock full of stuff. One upper level area in the studio building had an old trunk full of these pieces of paper with writing on them, envelopes, one and two cent stamps; I think people used to call them "letters" or something like that. Can you imagine before the rise of computers and "smart" phones people used to use these things called "pens" and send their thoughts to each other? Believe it or not sometimes these letters could take days to reach the person to whom the letter was addressed, not milliseconds as with "e-mail". How quaint!  I took my time and actually perused quite a few of these letters, many of which were written during the 1940's during WWII.

I guess the former owner believed in the philosophy of "waste not want not" as for example there was a box of old electrical fuses in one of the basements even though the electric service was updated to a main circuit panel. Maybe they thought that they better keep the fuses in case they decided to go back to a fuse panel electric service in the future.I don't know.

I think I'm going to like my new pet ducks as they don't seem to need much in the way of upkeep. Being made of wood they don't need any food or water, they don't make any noise, in fact they really don't even move around on their own. These low maintenance ducks will allow me to "Get all my ducks in a row"before the start of another work week. I have named all three of these ducks, their names are Duck, Duck, and Duck similar to boxer George Foreman who names all his sons "George". Now, if in the future I acquire a wooden goose I think I will name the goose "Goose"; then if I need to call these quiet birds I can just say, "Duck,Duck, Duck, Goose".

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

"Presidential Dog Meat"

I was listening today to the "Howie Carr" radio show on WRKO Boston. The topic of the hour was a discussion of the fact that President Obama as a youngster while living in Indonesia ate dog meat for food along with grasshopper and beef. The young Obama thought that dog meat was tastier than beef which he described as "tough". I heard with my own ears President Obama reading from one of his books about his doggone dog eating adventures. I never heard about this until today as I never bothered to read his (or was it Bill Ayers) book about our beneficent transcendental president. I wonder why the "main stream" media never brought this to my attention that President Obama is a dog lover, along with a side dish of grasshoppers and rice. Now, to each his own, I've seen on the "Food Channel" television show the host "Andrew" eat monkey brains, bats, and other things on his "Bizarre Food" show and I really don't care if President Obama enjoyed eating dogs. Maybe, the government can start feeding dogs to the people on food assistance as dog meat probably has less fat content than eating beef so it is probably healthier for you. Maybe, after President Obama loses the next election he has plans to open up a chain of "Barack's Dog Shack" restaurants where you can go and pick out a cute little live puppy from a pen inside the restaurant and then the dog chefs can butcher up this little puppy for you to enjoy along with some corn on the cob, potato, and cole slaw similar to a lobster bake. Yum, yum!(No thanks for me though).

At least President Obama never put a dog up on top of the roof of his car and drove around giving the poor dog plenty of fresh air which dogs seem to enjoy like that cruel Mitt Romney. No, Barack never did that as the thought of doing such a cruel thing might cause him to lose his appetite; and you don't want to lose your appetite especially if you are about to engorge yourself on some tasty dog meat!

"Who Let the Dogs Out?"

Barking man cited for noise violation | Online Athens  Who let  the dogs out? Oops, my bad, He look ........ like........ a.......man; as they used to say on the "Mad TV" show when an oriental lady was asked to describe her description of someone involved in some sort of illegal act while being interviewed by the local police. Apparently, in Athens, Georgia according to this report, a barking man was cited for noise violations for "barking like a dog" too loudly. The 35 year old man said that some people call him "the holy lamb of God". Well, when I was younger I learned that lambs and sheep made noises that sound like "Baaaaaaaaaa.......Baaaaaaaaa. I learned that dogs made "Bowwww Wowww Wowwww or Arrrf Arrrf Arrrfrrrfrrrf or Grrr,Arrfarrf arrfbowwwwowwowwow, ruffffrufrufruf noises. Maybe this man is confused and thought he was a sheep dog even though the University of Georgia mascot is the bulldog. I don't know.

Monday, April 16, 2012

"The Buffet Rule"

I don't understand why President Obama wants to introduce "The Buffet Rule". Is this another case of trying to reduce the number of fat people in the country? I've enjoyed many fine buffets particularly out in Las Vegas and they never had a long term effect on my health or waistline. Is this "buffet rule" tied in with Michelle Obama's  "let's move and give vegetables a chance" cause or as part of the socialized medicine takeover with the unconstitutional Obama health care rationing act?

Why does the federal government have to get involved with more rules about buffets? I would think the private restauranteurs could make up sensible rules with their buffets on their own. I think however, if the federal government has to get involved in buffet meals a few common sense rules should apply such as:  1. No cutting in line, wait your turn.
       2. Please use the provided serving spoons and utensils, not your hands when loading your plate with jello or macaroni and cheese.
       3. Don't waste food, and you can't go through the buffet again until you eat all of the edible food on your plate.
       4. If you don't finish the food on your plate you are required to pay the equivalent cost of the value of the uneaten food and this money will be sent to Bangladesh where people would appreciate some extra food.
        5. No stuffing food in your pockets or purses, except for jello which Bill Cosby says is always a food you can make room for.
        6. Buffet tables should be designed whenever possible so that you can get to the food selections from either side of the serving table to reduce the waiting time before you can shove this yummy food into your face.
         7. No yelling "Shut your pie hole" anywhere near the dessert table as this is discriminatory towards people who prefer cake.

So, There are a few of my ideas for the "buffet rule" if we have to have them. What rules do YOU think would be good for buffets? Do you agree with me that the government should have bigger issues to consider instead of messing around with buffets?

Saturday, April 14, 2012

"Good ole vouchsafe".

I remember learning somewhere in my pre-college school career the definition of the word "vouchsafe". This word as we all know the meaning of without being too presumptuous means "to condescend". I remember that this was one of the questions on the "SAT' (Scholastic Aptitude Test) that we had to take to qualify for college admission, "What is the meaning of the word vouchsafe?"  I have never used this vouchsafe word in a sentence; either through the spoken or written word, and actually rarely use the word condescend either. Maybe we were taught the word "vouchsafe" just to help develop out rote memory skills, or, this word may come in handy if we find ourselves in the presence of English royalty.

I did look up on a "Google search", "using the word vouchsafe (verb) in a sentence" and here is one of the vouchsafe sentence submissions: "But yet vouchsafe to us Tityrus, who is this god of thine."

Maybe, I would see myself using the word "vouchsafe" if I was telling the following story to someone.

Heinrich and Bromhilda Vouch were married for over forty years and operated "Vouch Jewelers" on Main Street in downtown Denton, Texas. They met in a diamond cutting class in Antwerp, married, and moved to Texas as they both shared a love of "American Western movies" and the cowboy lifestyle. They thought that Texas would be a great place to open up a jewelry store with all the wealthy oil men and cattle barons as potential customers. Plus, they found that they liked USA grade prime beef steaks better than the European German Black Forest steaks. So, Texas, it was and they established a comfortable pleasant life for themselves.Broomhilda was often found outside the store sweeping the sidewalk and greeting the "window shoppers".  Everyone was so friendly in Texas and they never considered that anyone would ever try to rob their store so they never installed a burglar alarm for the store, they did have a deadbolt lock on the front door; besides, they brought along their huge safe with them to store all their diamonds, gold, and precious stones.

Little did they know however that a gang of MS-13 youths from El Paso went through Denton one day and decided to make plans to rob the vouchsafe. But that, is another story.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Its good Good To Be King!!

Exclusive: George Clooney to Host Obama Fundraiser | ETonline.com I see George Clooney is hosting a fund raiser for current President Obama. I'm not sure if I'll go, the tickets seem reasonable enough, only $40,000 per person; the May date though I think conflicts with a Red Sox game. Its good to be king I guess as Mel Brooks once said in his movie "The History of the World Part I". I wonder what kind of food you get for only $40,000 per plate? I would hope you would get an ounce or two of truffles, maybe a couple 10 pound lobsters, baked Alaska, some classic wines and champagne, and maybe some Cheetos. It is good to see President Obama hobnobbing with the common Academy Award folk; not the evil rich like the dreaded Republicans.