Monthly Archives: June 2014

Strangers in Good Company – Octagenarian chick flick

Posted on June 30, 2014 by | 4 comments

http://youtu.be/hxrDtnB4VnU

Hi readers.  One hell of a fine movie streaming on Netflix.

Strangers in Good Company 1990PG 100 minutes, Eight elderly women are left stranded in the wilderness with only their wits, their memories and eventually some roasted frogs’ legs to sustain them. More Info, Starring: Alice Diabo, Constance Garneau, Director: Cynthia Scott
 
A nun, a lesbian, a grandmother or three, artist, birdwatcher, farm girl.  They talk about life, death, love, fear, war and death again as they struggle to catch fish, frogs, find sustenance in the wilderness long enough to survive.
 
*****, Five Stars is how I rate this movie, how tickled I am to have overcome my male prejudices against chick flicks and watched it.
 
Jack

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Posted in 2014, Adventure

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WWI was NOT an unmitigated blessing

Posted on June 30, 2014 by | Leave a comment
Museum and Memorial Museum and Memorial Built By Kansas Citians, Embraced By the Nation Soon after World War I ended, Kansas City leaders formed the Liberty Memorial Association (LMA) to create a lasting monument to the men and women who had served in the war. In 1919, the LMA and citizens of Kansas City raised more than $2.5 million in just 10 days. The equivalent of roughly $34 million today, this staggering accomplishment reflected the passion of public sentiment for the Great War that had dramatically changed the world. “The National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial inspires thought, dialogue, and learning to make the experiences of the World War I era meaningful and relevant for present and future generations.” - Mission Statement, National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial http://theworldwar.org/explore/museum-and-memorial

Museum and MemorialBuilt By Kansas Citians, Embraced By the Nation
Soon after World War I ended, Kansas City leaders formed the Liberty Memorial Association (LMA) to create a lasting monument to the men and women who had served in the war. In 1919, the LMA and citizens of Kansas City raised more than $2.5 million in just 10 days. The equivalent of roughly $34 million today, this staggering accomplishment reflected the passion of public sentiment for the Great War that had dramatically changed the world.
“The National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial inspires thought, dialogue, and learning to make the experiences of the World War I era meaningful and relevant for present and future generations.”
– Mission Statement, National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial
http://theworldwar.org/explore/museum-and-memorial      

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.   Janne, her son Michael, and I are going over to that WWI National Museum and Memorial on Wednesday.  Wednesdays, instead of it costing $16 to see it, a person can fork out $7 and still experience the full value of it.

Even though the coincidence of the 100th Anniversary of WWI beginning and the 4th of July, 2014, might leave a person thinking otherwise, WWI did have a downside.  The end of Russian rule by the Romanovs, for instance was mitigated somewhat by the rise of Communism, in the opinions of some scholars. 

And there was the 1918 Influenza epidemic, which arguably mightn’t have happened without WWI.  Sure, WWI gave us tanks, warplanes, better artillery and machine guns.  And we’d have had one hell of a time having WWII without having WWI first.

But it can still be argued that a lot of things about WWI could have been better.  Could have made WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, Grenada, the Cold War, and the various Gulf Wars and Afghanistan adventures better.

The simple truth is nobody.  NOBODY won WWI.  Damned thing might as well not have been fought at all for all the good it did.  But acclimated everyone to the concept of fighting the bloodiest wars in human history, conceding the illusion of victory, and walking away losers. 

The USSR was briefly the big winner of WWII, along with West Germany and Japan.  The losers?  Britain, France and the US.  If you don’t believe it, take a look at the US economy, GNP and industry.  Then let your eyes gaze on a world map so’s you can examine the French and British empires today.  Compare that  to Germany, Japan, Korea, any AXIS power except Italy.

So while you’re celebrating the 4th of July and the beginning of WWI this week, do some thinking.  How can you do it better this time around?  How can you keep the losers from winning it?  Resign yourself you will repeat history.  And next time, try using your heads.

Old Jules

 

 

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Curtain Raiser

Posted on June 30, 2014 by | 3 comments

A lot more needs to be thought and said about WWI than is being thought and said, generally. Wesley’s taken it upon himself to think and say some of it: J

CollTales

The Myth of an Endless War, Colltalers

There was a common denominator in most stories about the 100th anniversary this past Saturday of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, by a Serbian teenager, which sparked the beginning of World War I a month later, on July 28th, 1914: few can point exactly why it happened.
The war that’s only identified as the first now because it was followed shortly after by the second, turned Europe into cinder, killing over 8 million and wounding another 20 million, and changed forever the continent’s inner borders, while erasing entire empires from its map.
As it was not restricted to Europe, it’s ironic that such grim milestone happens just as pressure for a third military intervention in one of those countries it indirectly ‘bred,’ Iraq, is being rehashed by Pentagon and congressional hawks as the only response to recent events on the ground.
More of Iraq…

View original post 1,180 more words

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Posted in Adventure

I’ll call your walking machine and raise you a bicycle

Posted on June 30, 2014 by | 5 comments

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

I’m sure those nurses down at physical therapy intend the best.  I’ve no doubt when they hector me about the settings on those machines they only have my best interest at heart.  But I still try to cheat and occasionally succeed, steal a few MPH, or a couple of minutes than they said was okay.  But my time’s running out with them anyway.

I’ve got to find some other exercize, might buy a membership at the new community center here, though it’s a tight squeeze in the dollars department.  And yesterday Jeanne’s son, Mike, was over, said he had a Raleigh mountain bike sitting over there not being used. 

So I briefly borrowed the one he was riding, took it up the block to the blind school, or deaf school, whatever, and back.  Just a block, and I was breathing hard, but not too hard when I returned.  Defibrillator didn’t kick me in the chest.  And I didn’t fall off the damned thing.

So I’m going to borrow that bike from him if he’ll loan it to me.  Begin riding it around Olathe, Georgia, Kansas, whereever this place is, dodging automobiles, shaking my fist at drivers who want to share a piece of the road.  Shouting threats and curses.

There are plenty of places I might be able to go to in this town that I was reluctant to try to walk because I run out of steam after a block or two.  But a bicycle!  A hotdiggedydamn Raleigh bicycle with about 90 gears on it, that’s a different herd of sheep entirely.

Gonna be a man about town.  A man to be reckoned with. 

Old Jules

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Posted in 2014, America

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US Strong Man Warns Europe He’ll Bomb Them Back to the Stone Age

Posted on June 29, 2014 by | 7 comments
alfred e obama2

Washington (AFP) – US President Barack Obama warned that “battle-hardened” Europeans who embrace jihad in Syria and Iraq threaten the United States because their passports mean they can enter the country without a visa.

Hi readers.  This guy up there now isn’t worried because 800 Frenchmen, 200 Belgians and 400 Englishmen are battle-hardened freedom fighters having done a little Jihading in Syria.  No worries.

Seems they can now come to the US when they get weary of all that Jihading, without a VISA.  Presumably they’ll have cash enough to cover the costs.  The US strong man says we’ll just have to beef up security nationwide and quintuple the sniper squads of green berets and police swat teams to be ready for them.  No problem.

Fact is he’s been looking for an excuse to bomb those lousy Europeans back to the stone age anyway.  Especially the French, which needs no explanation for anyone who’s non-French. 

But the US Strong man has an ulterior motive for the British.  He plans to plant the heels of the combat boots of the US Eighth Army on London long enough to uproot the British Museum, box it up, and haul it to the United States.

Show those limey bastards they need to keep their freedom fighters at home.

Remember where you heard it first.

Old Jules

 

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Posted in 2014, America

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Russian strong man thumbs nose at US strong man

Posted on June 29, 2014 by | 2 comments
russian fighter

Military experts from Russia detailing Russian aircraft. Civilian on right would like to take it around the patch for a few touch-and-gos, but wonders if they’d mind cleaning the missiles off the pitot tube on the nose beforehand.

http://news.yahoo.com/thumbing-nose-u-russia-sends-military-experts-iraq-155100726.html

Hi readers.  You figure it out.  The Russian strong man, according to Yahoo News, thumbed his nose at the US strong man and he’s sending high tech support to Russian supported freedom fighters instead of US supported freedom fighters.

I’m figuring that aircraft in the picture is one of their freedom fighters.  About what you’d expect from the country with that particular guy for a strong man.  If those Rooskies want to get serious supporting freedom fighters they need to talk some big bucks.  Trillions, or they don’t have a prayer.

But hell, they call soccer football.  What the hell do you expect?

Old Jules

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Posted in 2014

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Onion ice cubes, jalapeno ice cubes

Posted on June 29, 2014 by | 16 comments

onion ice cube jalapeno ice cube

Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.  This is an idea of mine that worked out really well.  Hell, it wasn’t my idea.  It was Jeanne’s.  But I’m the one put that whole bag of onions in the blender, liquified them, and poured them into ice cube trays.  Jeanne just thought of it because the onions go bad so quickly these days.

Anyway, even before the low sodium fanaticism and the sexual experimentation with various foods that followed, counting sodium mgs the way other people count calories, even before that I used a LOT of onions, a lot of jalapeno [and other peppers].

But Jeanne’s ice cube idea throws the entire thing into a new realm.  A new threshold, new horizon of culinary potential.  And you don’t have to chop them every damned time you get hungry and start searching for something to cook.

The onions turn into tiny onion chips when thawed, and a lot of onion juice.  They make an onion broth quicker than I can type it.  And the jalapeno ice cube are great anywhere.  Shove a popsicle stick into them and you have a jalapeno popsicle.  Otherwise just use them the way you’d normally use a jalapeno shaped like an ice cube.

Remember where you heard it first.  It was here.  Not Jeanne’s Library blog.  But if I could think of a way to keep them from melting I’d send some postcard style to her Johnson County Library Postcard Art project.  Because damn me, these are art.  Tastiest damned art I’ve ever eaten.

Old Jules

 

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Posted in 2014, America

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Amazingly toothsome no-sodium/low sodium salad

Posted on June 29, 2014 by | 2 comments

great salad

Hi readers.  Jeanne suggested I take a picture of this and post it.  I’m not certain why.  I just got sort of carried away making that salad and as always, it turned out toothsome.

Spinach, bean sprouts, frozen grapes, frozen cranberries, sesame seeds, chopped celery, celery seed, chopped carrots and sweet peppers, raw peanuts and snow peas [chopped].  Dressing is rice vinegar and olive oil with a dose of minced garlic and some ginger.

Takes a lot to fill the void, but the sour from the cranberries discourages over indulging.  Not unpleasantly, but insistently.  This one made two meals, second one as appealing as the first.

Old Jules

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Posted in 2013, America

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Where’s the Over The Hill Gang these days?

Posted on June 29, 2014 by | 15 comments

Hi readers.  Here’s an old guy made the front page of the KC Star today.  73 years old, affluent [660,000 in the bank and a paid-for $300,000 home], and some health problems.  Messy kinda guy, house full of wiring the county workers couldn’t figure out, Physicist from way back.

Gets himself some health problems, takes a fall or two, and Whoo0pee!  This old bastard has money!  The County decides he needs a full time guarded environment, someone with county government to handle his finances.  Hold him captive and the MO Supreme Court refuses to hear his appeals.  The County uses his own finances to fight him in court, sell off his house and all his belongings.

 The Saga of John Flentie
Kansas City Star ^| June 28, 2014 | Eric Adler

Posted on Saturday, June 28, 2014 4:08:06 PM by yldstrk

Sunken into the plaid couch of his cinder-block room, John Flentie spends nearly every waking hour obsessed with obtaining his freedom.

“I merely want to go home,” he says.

At 73, the once-affluent Parkville resident is not a criminal inmate, nor is he an enemy combatant. John Flentie, 73, has been under the guardianship and conservatorship of the Office of the Platte County Public Administrator since April 2012.. He has been committed to various nursing homes, including Cedars of Liberty, where he currently resides in a small, cluttered room. Frustrated by the loss of his freedom, Flentie spends his time listening to music, watching movies and trying to undo his guardianship.

John Flentie, 73, has been under the guardianship and conservatorship of the Office of the Platte County Public Administrator since April 2012.. He has been committed to various nursing homes, including Cedars of Liberty, where he currently resides in a small, cluttered room. Frustrated by the loss of his freedom, Flentie spends his time listening to music, watching movies and trying to undo his guardianship.

Instead — to the extreme frustration of Flentie, his lawyer and a cadre of former high school classmates who for two years have been advocating for the release of a friend they insist is as capable and highly intelligent as always — Flentie is a ward of the state of Missouri.

Since April 2012, he has been committed to various nursing homes under the guardianship and conservatorship of the office of the Platte County public administrator, which claims in court proceedings that taking charge of Flentie, his estate and his possessions was and continues to be for his own health and well-being.

(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com …

Seems to me we oldsters who are still free ought to be doing some thinking about this.  Hell, I hate this guy.  He was a CIA man or contractor for them for 30 years.  But the fact is, he’s 73 years old and what’s happening to him is merely a demonstration of what can probably happen to any of us.

Probably those of us who still own firearms need to go over there and shoot up the county offices the way Kansans and Missourians used to do back when they didn’t have as much to get pissed off about.

I don’t know what a person ought to do in a case such as this.  Probably he made a bad mistake thinking back when he first got involved with them that nothing of that nature could happen to him.  Same as I am prone to think about my ownself.  And other oldsters probably think about their ownselves.

Well, hells bells, it can happen.  And the legal system isn’t there to give them any relief, reassurance, or justice.  So do we sit still and wait for the jackboots to kick down the door, or do we raid the Platte County Courthouse and teach the bastards some manners and respect?

Even if the SOB they did it to was a CIA crapwad.

Old Jules

 Afterthought:  I responded to a comment with this anecdote, but I think it belongs in the main post:  I read a few years ago about an old guy somewhere who’d gotten caught up in the beginnings of something of this sort, went on the run in his car with police chasing him until they ran him off the road and he came out of the car shooting. They had to kill him for his own good. J

I’m probably more suspicious about these affairs than most.  Back when I was a lot younger my mom and all her brothers and sisters got together and had my Granddad hauled off to the State insane asylum where he spent the remainder of his life.  I used to get pleading letters from him to come break him out of there.  Cogent letters, though desparate.  I was young and early married, destitute.  Couldn’t afford to take care of him, or take him in myself.  But afterward I often thought I should have anyway.  He was the only one of the bunch worth shooting.

My uncle, Ursey, went out to his farm, “Hey Dad, let’s go to town.  Get a motel room.  Do some shopping for groceries, go to the auction.”  He left him napping in that motel room, went and got the Sheriff.  Came back and they hauled my granddad off to jail until they could get the county judge to involuntarily send him off to the State Hospital.

I hope each of those bastards – I trust they’re all dead by now, died of something lingering and dreadfully painful.  If not, maybe their next lifetimes can be something akin to his during those last few years.

J

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Posted in 2014, America

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Oooeee baby! Won’t you let me take you on a sea cruise

Posted on June 27, 2014 by | 2 comments

 

Considered 'not too bad' compared to the worst.

USNS Sultan – Considered ‘not too bad’ compared to the worst.

USNS Breckinridge - one to be avoided. Take an extension if you have to so's to get a different troopship. No shuttleboard on this one.

USNS Breckinridge – one to be avoided. Take an extension if you have to so’s to get a different troopship. No shuttleboard on this one.

 Hi readers.  Thanks for coming by for a read.

 Back in the day GIs made it their business to find out about the troopship scheduling, which ship they would be going aboard, and how to jimmy the travel schedule to avoid the worst ones.  The two above were my homes for roughly 60 days enroute to Korea and coming home.

Vietnam or Korea – Flip a Coin

 Neither of these was a picnic, considering each carried between 1500 and 2500 seasick GIs.  Sometimes those lower decks were enough to make a person vomit just from the odor.  Or huddled on deck with several hundred other guys, top of a swell a guy at the rail hurls and as the ship falls with the wave his puke hangs above his head an hour  or so before a thousand horrified eyes.

And 500 more GIs try to reach the rail in time for the next swell.

Below decks every corner held dice games, every stairwell a 24/7 penny-per-point gin game, or rummy 500 game.  And occasional poker.  No shuffleboard, no whiskey, no female companionship.  But there were some nice stops at Honolulu, Sasebo, Yokuska.

If there’s any motivation to cut down on the number of wars this country gets itself into, one way to do it would be to start hauling the GIs around in troopships again.  Cut down on the frivolous volunteerism.

Old Jules

 

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Posted in 2014, America, History

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