"Snow Angels"

To commemorate the birth of baby Jesus each Christmas these three angels make an appearance in their controlled snow globe environment and slowly spin around while the song "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" filters through the air as the snow globe snow swirls around them. They only know this one song but never seem to tire playing it and these angels will play this song constantly when they get all wound up.

Heublein Tower Revisited

This past Thanksgiving Day I hiked up Talcott Mountain in Bloomfield, Connecticut and revisited Heublein Tower which is located at the top of the mountain and affords a panoramic view of the Farmington River Valley. In the Summer of 1974 I had a Summer job as a park patrolman at this state park. Part of the job was to inform the visitors of the history of this castle like building which was the residence of Gilbert and Louis Heublein. You may recall that Heublein was the purveyor of some famous brands such as Smirnoff Vodka, Black Velvet Whiskey, A1 Steak sauce, and that finger lickin' good fried chicken made with the secret recipe of herbs and spices by that Colonel from Kentucky. Visitors could climb this tower to an observation deck for the spectacular view. My co-workers and I would sometimes climb up even higher in the tower as there is a pull down stairway above the observation deck level so that we could go near the very top of this 165 foot tower. It is said by some that on a clear day from the top of the tower you could see Boston! Of course these same people may also say that the moon surface is made of Parmesan cheese flakes and in both instances these people are wrong; but you can see quite a distance and for sure you can see Hartford. Many people used to hang glide off the nearby cliffs and often we could see hawks soaring with the wind currents found near the cliffs.
Another part of my job that Summer was to patrol the trails through the woods either on foot or on the Honda 90 supercharged motorcycle that was provided to maintain law and order in the park. All and all not the worst place to be for a job and probably not the worst job in the world.

Thirty-five years after my Summer at the tower I noticed a few changes. The hiking trail is a lot wider than it used to be and large portions of the trail up the mountain from the base now have a small crushed stone surface whereas 35 years ago the trail was more "natural" with a bunch of rocks, boulders, and small streams of water running across the hiking trail. Yes, the trail is more "civilized" and perhaps more "wimpified" than the frontier days of the 1970's which I guess is kind of like life in general as over the years too many people probably fell and skinned their knees and thought it would be fun to sue the State for their clumsiness. There are now modern toilets at the base and summit of the trail but the view hasn't changed as far as I could see. Back in the 70's the State police and the FBI had communication antenna's up at the tower but I doubt that they still have these antennas today with the advent of cell phones.

All in all the tower and trail haven't changed too much over the years and Talcott Mountain State Park is still a fun place to take a hike.

"Larry King Tribute, I Like Pie"

As many of you know, Larry King recently finished his last show on the "TV" this past week after 25 years so for now if you watch "Larry King Live" it probably will have to be old shows also known as "Larry King Recorded". I enjoyed sometimes reading some of Larry King's newspaper columns in USA TodayI think it is as he is the master of the nonsequitur. Which reminds me, I don't think I have ever typed the word nonsequitur in my life and sometimes weeks go by between times I say the word nonsequitur.

This nonsequitur topic reminds me of this new internet service called "Twitter". Have you heard of it yet? On "Twitter" you can communicate with the Internet world, your friends, celebrities, politicians, strangers, in short, just about anyone in the world that you want to follow. What you do is express yourself in up to 140 characters (including letters, numbers,punctuation, and spaces) called "Tweets". Now I don't know why these short communications are called "Tweets" and not "Twits". Maybe because some of the people who "Tweet" on Twitter are "Twits" so it would be awkward or confusing if the "Twits" who "Tweet" had their "Tweets" called "Twits".

Back to Larry King, now that Larry isn't on" Larry King Live" will "King" be demoted to "Prince" and will "Prince" be promoted to "King" and replace "King" with a new variety interview show called the "King Prince Show"?

I can't remember, is it OK to look up at a Lunar eclipse or is it the Solar eclipse? I know one is OK and the other may blind you. I "Tweeted" this question today on "Twitter" but so far no one has helped me solve this eclipse dilemma. Maybe only the "Twits" are "Tweeting" at the present time. I like Pie. The Patriots just won this evening when Green Bay was on the field for the final play and ran out of time on 4th down and about 30 seconds to go and down by 4. I rode by "The Drummer Boy Museum" in Brewster this week in my car just as the song "The Little Drummer Boy" started playing on my car radio. Is Al Gore a good dancer? Does Al Gore have rhythm? Algorithm? Remember the Macarena? Do you like the Macarena better than the "Chicken Dance? I went to a "Yankee Swap Party" last night and 2 people I guess took presents without bringing a present so 2 people didn't get a present or even a lump of coal. Pecan pie is my favorite. Shaq was back with the Celtics today as the Celtics won their thirteenth game in a row!! I also like "Key Lime Pie" but don't really like mince pie. Sometimes nonsequiturs don't seem to make much sense. Thanks for the memories Larry King and Bob Hope.

"President BarBill"

It was interesting to see the recent press conference with President Obama and former President Clinton where President Clinton endorsed the compromise tax and unemployment framework between the House Republican leadership and President Obama. The interesting part of this is that during this press conference all of a sudden President Obama looks at his watch and says something like "OOH, Will you look at the time! I'm already thirty minutes late for a Christmas party with Michelle and you don't want to make Michelle mad. I'll leave you all in the good hands of a former president who had experience (not like me)". President Clinton says, "Please Go!", while thinking to himself, (Obama, you are the biggest fraud fairy tale excuse of a president. I still don't know how you hood-winked everybody to vote for you over Hilary.)

So, for a brief moment in time we had a two headed president: Barry and Bill, or BarBill. And everyone knows two heads are better than one. It is refreshing to see a president that has his priorities in the right order. When faced with doing his job and trying to clarify the tax and unemployment situation in America versus going to a Christmas party with his wife; President Obama chose "good times" and Christmas cheer. He must have figured that he would let someone who is older, wiser, and enjoys being the center of attention (President Clinton) take over for him (sort of like in baseball when the manager calls up the bullpen and sends in a relief pitcher). Besides, maybe President Obama needed a cigarette break and this of course would also be another excellent reason to skip out of the press conference.

Yes, "President BarBill", I won't drink to that but it is better than straight Obama. Of course, with all the partying going on in the White House, President Obama doesn't have to pick up the bar bill as the American people are stuck with the tab.

"Nuckin' Futs"

Remember the classic award winning movie "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" where Shakespearean actor David Spade played the lead role of "Dickie" with his famous expression, "This is nuckin' futs"....?

Well this expression comes to my mind when the "loony left" is all in a tizzy over President Obama's decision to compromise with the Republican leadership on a framework to leave the current tax rates as they are for an additional two years and extend unemployment benefits for up to an additional 13 months. I was somewhat surprised that President Obama actually showed some "rational behavior and common sense" in this matter as you don't raise taxes in an economic downturn and expect that the economy will improve. The classic class warfare lame brained liberal loons are outraged over the concept of keeping the taxes as they are and call this a "tax cut for the rich". What the "redistributionist retards" believe apparently is that all income is the rightful property of the almighty "State" who then decides who gets to keep some of the earned wages of the working class after the needs of the "State" are first addressed. Keeping the current tax rates is not a tax cut but rather a rejection of a tax increase. The only proposed tax cut in this "framework proposal" as far as I can see is the reduction in the social security tax by 2 percent.

Extending the unemployment benefits from the current 99 weeks maximum for an additional 13 months will probably result in sustaining the current high unemployment rates as many people will not actively seek employment opportunities if they feel that the available job openings don't pay sufficiently more than the amount of their unemployment check. For example, if you are unemployed and see a job opening that would perhaps provide an income of approximately 60 dollars a week above your current unemployment check you may rationally decide that for the time spent at the job it isn't worth it to accept a job like this as long as the unemployment checks keep coming.

Too many people in this world seem to try to "count other people's money" and feel that if someone has more income, assets, a nicer car or house than them then these people should be compelled to give more and more of their income to the government to redistribute to the people who have less than the successful people. These same "envious" people often don't try to better their own life circumstances through hard work, more education, or learning a productive skill as they feel that "the deck is stacked against them" and that they are "entitled" to the benefits of someone else's efforts. I say they are "nuckin' futs". What say you?