I haven't been over here in a while, but this past weekend got my brain muttering (yeah, okay, muttering brain syndrome probably shouldn't be discussed publicly, but here in our minuscule forum, confidentiality likely won't be an issue) and mutterings often lead to outbursts, so here we are. Father's Day 2023, it started shaping up on Friday with the arrival of my son Alex, from the Rochester area, his wife Sarah and their team, Violet, Axton and Bea (one day into being six) and my daughter Amada, from Queens, her husband Dan and son Hawk. Their presence instantly drove up the happiness meter in our abode and meant a great weekend was officially enroute. There were birthday gifts to unwrap and as can be expected, watching a six year old tear into gifts is one of life better pleasures. Saturday's weather wouldn't allow pool activity, but a trip to the supermarket with my son and daughter was a nice throwback for me and that night our friends Barb and Steve Tata came over and our roles as overseers ramped up as the four parents went out for dinner in Saratoga somewhere and left the four old-timers in charge of the littles. Pizzas solved most of the dining issues and while working out the seating a surprise guest arrived--our daughter Emily, a Bronx resident. We weren't expecting her because of a work engagement, but she kept us all in the dark about her true plans. The surprise was reprised with the return of the others and the night progressed with just the right feel (all the off-spring under the same old roof, doesn't happen often enough). Father's Day started with Dan hard at the stove making a pile of vegan breakfast dishes and I'm here to say, he's made it before and it's always delicious and I'm eager for the next. So, on Father's Day, the weather allowed outside enjoyment and the Huck Finn Playland was the designated target, it's a midway for tykes, so Alex and Bea, Mandy, Dan and Hawk, Emily and I ventured off. All my kids, man I loved every second, me, a Grampa losing hair and teeth and finding weight herding his troupe through a maze of other celebrants and while trying to see this through the eyes and thoughts of a five and six year old, also seeing other oldsters with the same gleam in their eyes. There was one brief interlude where my past life as a railroad engineer rose out of my memory bank (I try to isolate my life's accumulations by whatever means my muttering brain allows, ergo my railroad time has its own bank while most of the other events try to disassociate with it and thusly these other banks have their own reckonings and often team up to stifle its uprisings, with erratic success) compelling me to chat with the engineer of the train that encircles the park. He and I shared a laugh and later in the Park we met again and he had a few railroad questions, so there you go. We had some drinks, fries and a fry cake and it was great and after a bit back home to round out the day, for me, one of all-time great Father's Day happenings. All departed for home on Monday and as always when our bunch leaves, it's a heart tugging experience.                                                                                                                 Now for the mutterings. After a day or two to decompress and smile a bit with these and past Father's Day memories I expanded my scope backwards. Well let me say first, I've always felt that Father's Day isn't just about Dads, it's also has to include the kids, frankly children are a prerequisite to Fatherhood, no kids, no dad. This being said, my children have been and still are the pivot point of my life, fatherhood changes everything, often said, not always believed. I made a major shift in my life when Alice and I married and our greatest investment is our children and the return is ongoing.  Going backwards however means other memories of other times and these mean my father. These are the mutterings that got me here, I've learned, sometimes the hard way, that I cannot know what others hold inside them, Yeah sometimes you might get close and figure right, but not everyone sees through the same lens so two people sharing the same experience might easily have different  outtakes. Thinking back to my youth, I don't remember going anyplace special for Father's Day and have no way of knowing how he felt or if he wanted a different kind of activity. He never said, if he looked at his kids, there were four, and just relished our presence or wanted something more. My thoughts of my time with my dad are often specific and numerous, but Father's Day slips through. Going to Bison games, (both the baseball and the old hockey team) playing catch, talking baseball, must be how I got my lifelong interest, other times and places. A child's life. I had one and the man that gave it to me, his investment as it were, I'm trying to pay forward. 

    It's been a while since our last get together and I wouldn't be upset if some, many, or even most of you felt I may have deserted the field and there are probably those that wish it were the case, but nay, just a lengthy hibernation that allowed the inner workings of the assembled news staff to relube as it were.              Here we are all wrapped up with the upcoming Presidential election, one many feel will have a lasting impact on the direction our country will travel in the coming years, if not decades. The political parties cannot seem to even discuss any issue without it being steered into the abyss of polarized mismanagement of the public trust, let alone enact legislation. Now the public trust  is also divided, often violently, and it seems a circle of blame would point the cause back to its elected leaders. What to do, what to do? Some say they have answers, I haven't heard one yet that might actually work. Humans are a complex animal and thinking laws and regulations are going to change thought processing is an exercise in futility. There is much that could be said here, but alas, that's not why we are here today.                                                        Both of the political parties have...ohh, let's say issues. The Democrats have been around for about two hundred years and have become a mishmash of ideals and beliefs trying to solve all problems for all people, leading to, shall we say, amounts of disarray and confusion. Still they persevere and sometimes seem to focus on an issue needing improvement and implement a passable solution, often with assistance from across the aisle. Some social programs are now taken for granted, but almost always need a bit of refurbishing to provide the intended benefit. The Republicans, forming up in 1856, always champion the ideas of less government involvement in people's lives and from the late nineteen century onwards pushing for less and less business entanglements. The problems starting arising when, simply stated, greed started running the show and government was forced to step in. See, there's that human complexity thing, regulations aren't needed if everybody plays fair and stays law abiding. So the party has pretty much dissolved into supporting the haves leaving the have nots on the outside. Of course the all encompassing Democrats swept up the refuse forcing the Republicans to alter their appearance and raise issues that appeal to subsets  thus allowing them to stand tall and claim some sort of sentinel standing. Along the way they seemed to have lost their ability to actually govern, mainly just pointing fingers at groups of people laying blame for whatever malady is fashionable at the moment.                                                                              That brings us to our current dilemma, Mr. Trump. He's President until he's not, that's all there is to it and I have to say, I don't see why people get so upset  when he says all his baloney. The GOP brought this on themselves through years of finger pointing and name calling until an actual .....say con man plied his trade and grabbed control. Trump never has had an actual product, he's always just pushed his name out there for whatever it was worth, sometimes it sold, sometimes not, but still he kept his name in the forefront. He knows what groups elected him and he always speaks to them, his base, digging deeper, not wider. He and the party use scare tactics and understand that many people don't vote, so getting the base active and repressing the non-voters is crucial. The thing is, I don't think Trump really, deep down, cares if he wins or loses, he never let go of his business so even if he loses the Trump name will sell, or so he thinks. His business life is under investigation, has been for years, and now with his shenanigans as President as caused renewed interest. Personally, I think he going to lose, hopefully by a landslide, and then he has a good chance of being the first ex-President to become a felon.                                                                                                                                                                     Well, there you are, this was sitting in me for a while or two and more could be said, but when there are things that need to be said I usually talk about the things that don't.

Linking My Thinking

                                                                      Linking My Thinking                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           It's raining here and it called up a memory which activated a previous thought process and it might show how my thought links might seem a trifle...ohhh...errant but relationships do exist and I will endeavor to clarify their linkage and show it led to a slight dilemma.                                                       As many of you know, I have added a daily walk to my lifestyle routine with distances usually exceeding five or six miles and during these forays, since I don't use ear thingies, my mind free bases, usually relating to whatever surroundings I pass. Well, on a previous post rainy day I saw some cookies that had been discarded and happened to be in a small puddle and cookie bits were getting all soggy and saturated. so this brought back a memory of a Sesame Street tape we had years back and one the songs involved Cookie Monster going over to Ernie's for breakfast and when Ernie asked what beverage CM would enjoy, he of course said 'Cookie juice' and Ernie said he had never heard of cookie juice and CM, astonished, said 'What no cookie juice? 'Now the first link here is to the juice. Besides being a drink, juice can also connote data and (linking) a desire for fulfilling a lack with a juicy dose of whatever. The next link involves the cookie part and it brings me to grandchildren. My eldest grandson, Axton, and I have enjoyed a game we invented called 'the cookie game' and the rules are simple and the enjoyment level is considerable(if only for the two of us). He gives me a letter and I try to spell the word cookie beginning with that letter, we have a ritual to this(he explains whether it is a vowel or consonant) and it takes us twenty-six attempts but success finds us and relief ensues. Now thinking of one grandson then throws the brain to my other grandson, Hawk. I have decided that when Hawk is exploring the world(he's eight months) and trying to establish order, his internal voice needs an adult verbalization, which I provide and his mother, my daughter Amanda, says, with some angst, that it sounds like Betelgeuse, or in US speak, Beetlejuice.  Now maybe you can the dilemma shaping up with the last link, if I were to say, three times, as the movie requires, Beatlejuice, whom should I want conjured up, John or George? Then I continue on my walk and fresh thoughts prevail. 

The other blog---I can't hold it anymore

You know I’ve ignored Donald

Trump for almost long enough, buuut now that he has thrust himself center stage into our celebrity infested(actually I think he's been working on this for maybe thirty years) lifestyle, he, his words and his lifestyle just can't be laughed off anymore. Forget, well maybe just put aside, the fact (yes fact, a word many people don't understand) that he's mainly a con man, deadbeat, draft dodger, blowhard, liar and that his political rantings are basically variations of telling whomever's in front of him at the time what they want to hear. Forget that. The true measure of the man becomes more apparent continuously and no end seems in sight. His abject pronouncements about those in military service, those of a different heritage, those with physical disabilities, the LGBT community,  and of course, with this latest release, his basest, or maybe bedrock would be more suited here, feelings about women. I know some people that think he's the answer and should be elected, and their opinions should be allowed the same merit as all others, buuuut, if he is your standard bearer you have to admit to being(or at least admiring a man who is) a bigot, racist, bully, homophobe and a full-blown misogynist. You know, for a further test of your loyalty, if you happen to know anyone from any of these groups, prove your worth by telling them that you agree with whatever your hoped for leader espouses.

If nothing else, it just seems so sad that a country founded on the idea of...'We the people...' and a country that has become basically a two party face-off, would have one of the parties nominate this waste of space(I'm trying to be civil here) to the highest office, and then act like it's an anomaly. The GOP(that's where I'm registered) has been headed this way since the late 60's when Spiro Agnew attacked the 'radi-libs' and started the philosophy of pointing fingers and telling people that those to which we point are the problem, widening their umbrella to include more and more of the disheartened, but never offering solutions.

  Ahhhh, it's all a mess and we will muddle through regardless, buuuut. this Trump stuff, well, it could get really scary. Good luck.

Parseabilty...a word by any other name...

     Ability, now there's something everybody tries to possess, demonstrate or maybe celebrate, if not in yourself, then others. Yup, abilities are handy to have and if one is lucky to have the right ones, they can be quite profitable, or have a profitability. Now this shows what happens when you grab one noun and stick it on the back of another, two nouns for the price of one, yeah yeah yeah like a bogo, but don't tarry here because there may be a point coming up, but then again don't get your hopes up because my points sometimes provoke head scratching. It seems to me that all you have to do is pick a topic...ummm senses, add ability(sometimes it might be ibilty, I can't control this stuff) and bingo you're in ...sensibility, or market...marketability and there are others. Also it seems that its usually used in a positive form, as if adding ility makes it sound.(?) But wait, corrupt would become corruptibility, and you can't have corruption without it, ,man this is getting way too deep for me, and so I must divert, or as is normal in this blog, revert.
     In an earlier facebook posting I quoted from the Robert Burr Spoken English Dictionary, well fear not, that  is still in print, and ever expanding, however; I feel that now would be the right time to cede all rights and authorities to B2BNN for they are better equipped to handle all the finer points of language and its misuse.---note to those who may not know, B2BNN  is the title of this blogs' news division, and if the news director and field manager(me), can get the rest of the staff(me) to agree on what to cover and expound on things might happen. Anyway, it is without trepidation that B2BNN now has a Dictionary division, and that again means new appointments of editors and staff as I am a job creator. So...after going over the above logic dealing with language it seems imperative to the staff of the Dictionary division(me) that a unique melding of word suffixes and possibly prefixes is called for, and the newly titled B2B Spoken Dictionary is the place these words will call home.
     Here's the deal...if something exists that would cause something else to react to it, it then has a value to that other object. Granted this isn't new thought as it applies to just about everything in life(simple example---a stone in a river makes the water flow around it). Let's work on that in our point of view....watching a cat make her way along a counter top,  a counter top that has the usual trappings, trappings adjusted for PEOPLE use, not cats, watching her try to maneuver from one end to the other...oops a stumble and fall and here we go....stumble, the cat couldn't make it  so she showed her stumblility...wasn't that easy. Continuing...this can also apply to saaay....movies, actually movies work doubly well here because....say a movie doesn't cut it, or you might say...stinks, well it now has garbageibility and so then as a rating system one could apply a garbageibilty rating, something like a little trash bag icon with wavy lines over it, say one line for bad but could be worse and five lines for get out the deodorizer. What's that, you want me to use it in a sentence, okay, fair enough...At nighttime leaving objects on the floor increases a persons stumblility level.
      Enough of that, I hope you get the picture, well that picture anyways, because there are others. Again I sense a feeling of apprehension, understandable, but dare I say, needless. This is an old thought of mine, and it goes back to my school days and singularly Latin class. There are some of you that have heard this, but here it is. In Latin the plural form of some words is achieved by replacing the suffix us with an i, that part is easy. Now plural means more than one, more than one in most explanations, but maybe not in the B2B,  in the B2B plural also means deeper or mayhaps more intent. Example? Well my point is the word ridiculous, if something is well beyond what are considered the boundaries of your normal everyday ridiculous, it is the plural of ridiculous, or ridiculi. See, it can work. Isn't it easier to say ridiculi than 'the utter ridiculousness'. Try saying them three times quickly and you'll see how the longer phrase increases the stumblilty of you tongue.
     Sometime back B2BNN  announced the start-up of a new format of reality show. Well the process has been stalled due to the ineffectiveness of the staff to gather up the required cast. It is with confidence that I can now say that improvements have been made and some adjustments in the staging have been decided on. It will simply be referred to as 'The City' and will mainly be a running, rambling of their everyday lives. The issue is, these people think they are going to be on your standard reality show, but we at B2BNN are just going to be following them through some of their normal days, with our special equipment that gets all the inside stuff. So far there's a family that's somewhat wealthy, a widowed mother who has remarried to a former athlete and they have a blended family, mostly hers and mostly daughters. Also a right wing talk show host and a family that hails from the hills. There will others along the way, but basically it will just be daily comings and goings in bursts, starts and stops so to speak. As always it will be unscripted, so...well we'll see.

Other blog--We got through another one

     Well group, its come and gone. We were all forewarned and many of us were able to prepare for the onslaught and, if possible, evacuate to a sounder footing and avoid all the duress, but alas, most of us were unable to escape the rigors that were wrought. I am, of course speaking of the election and its outcome, pleasing to most and much less so to many others. I want to clear up any thoughts of bewilderment that may have arisen concerning coverage of this event by your stalwart news team at B2BNN . Believe me, we had a full team grasping at any available newsworthy event that reared up and  found the task somewhat daunting. Now a short disclaimer- daunting tasks are not in themselves frighting (we at B2BNN relish the daunted), but in this instance the volume became overwhelming, so it was decided to wait until fruition, before plucking at all the juicy fruit out there.
     Now this particular discourse was prompted by an old friend's posting, which cranked up my starter and I felt compelled to reply.  He remarked on the election results and drew many responses, pro and con, so my input was- I've voted since 1968, almost every election has people screaming that the end is near, yet somehow the country perseveres--what an amazing place this America is. Started out as a place that decided that rule by a foreign monarch wasn't desirable, many disagreed, but we the people charted a new course. Fought it out over slavery and then endured an era where those of wealth thought they could simply do, well whatever (does that have a familiar ring?), found ourselves embattled in two World Wars, then stepped up to become the economic leader of the world (even though the marginal tax rate in the fifties was around 85-90%). Well there's more but the USA endured. So....if you feel that the last four years did more damage to our national well-being than the previous eight did, well opinions are what they are and you're certainly entitled to them, but you might want to just step back and take a gander and reflect, and then if you see no hope you are always allowed to abandon ship. See ya.- Now I do  have a tendency to ramble, and since this wasn't my post, I felt brevity was needed, so things like the great depression and Viet Nam were omitted and yadaa yadaa yadaa.
     Well this IS my blog so brevity is nonexistent(as you well know) and rambling is of the first order and points of discussion are at my  discretion. These points of order being now in place we return to B2BNN and its summation of recent events, and once again we venture outside the box.
     Just in case you haven't heard, Barak is back and Mitt is now thrown on the pile of those that sought the Presidency and...well...fell short. As it stands now, the Obama legacy is incomplete, so we traverse elsewhere. Mitt...the walking, talking Etch-a-Sketch, seven or eight months ago he was oh so right, and then add a little more right, time passes, positions change, vague solutions are offered-'details at eleven'-, but through it all one or two things seemed to hang around. He's a REALLY REALLY rich guy trying to convince Joe Everyman that he's really just like him and knows why Joe isn't doing better, but never said if Joe was a part of the 47%, that might have bothered some people. His rantings about his job creativity, some questions there, maybe he meant money counters. Okay...being wealthy is not evil nor is it wrong to develop an idea that brings wealth--kudos. There have been many wealthy politicians, but somehow this time it was bothersome.
     Lets just work on one point, one of the ideas Mitt championed was privatizing certain government programs. Lets play a little game of What If(now you can fetch your game ideas from wherever you wish, I get mine from ...far)... What if Mitt won, and what if Mitt privatizes FEMA(as he proposed)  It wouldn't take long for enough disasters to befall before money ran out and the company or companies involved would be gasping and looking for their own FEMA. So along comes something like Bain Capital, buying on the cheap, borrowing on any assets, granting bonuses for jobs well done, and then selling it off. What if a buyer shows up from ohhh the Far East, a company backed by a certain mainland government. Things look good for a minute or two and then....what if a Frakenstorm shows up and this new owner citing cost is somewhat ineffective in recovery actions and what if enough disruption causes monetary and political ramifications beyond repair...hmmm. Time to stop playing the fun is fleeting.
     Well there you have it B2BNN was indeed on the job, a job that might not needed doing,but the unneeded is part of our job description, and hopefully we continue to improve.

other blog-Science-does it have a future in America?,ahThink back

     Nostalgia, ah don't you remember it. Back before flights to the moon, StarTrek, even before the pill,  it always makes one stop and maybe smile a bit, thinking of those times. Lets call them your own 'good old days'. Yes back to the time when science and medicine seemed to go hand in hand, building a better life for us all, research and advancements increasing knowledge, and we received benefits(and some misfortunes) that only a generation before, were unheard of. Think back to a time when not all cars had power windows and AC, when phones were attached to the wall and to change the volume or channel on a TV you had to get up and walk. Yup, 'good old days'. Science just keeps sciencing, and medicine just keeps medic....wait, enough of all this, I think we pretty much get the idea of attaining knowledge...pretty much, but there does seem to be some, well let's call them doubters, out there.
    Okay now's the time to settle in and let the mind wander a tad, close your eyes(yeah, I know, science hasn't yet figured out how to close your eyes and read simultaneously, but I need some imagination here) and think of some of the various past and present hospital shows on television. ER, House or even back to St. Elsewhere or Marcus Welby, yeah WAY back, Okay think of some more, and try to think of the doctors concentrate, you're getting sleepy and the only thing you hear is a loudspeaker blaring...Dr. HOWARD, Dr, FINE Dr. HOWARD---DR. HOWARD  Dr. FINE  Dr. HOWARD--- yeah THOSE doctors, man all the patients were in good hands when they showed up, just feel the confidence. Nostalgia...feels warm and fuzzy.
    Okay hang on to those memories and fling yourself forward to 2012. The country is immersed in election fever and science and medicine are not the cure, well not in some states anyway.Missouri, Indiana and Georgia all possess citizens that their politicians feel are best qualified for positions of government leadership.Men who show an amazing grasp of science and medicine.
    Imagine yourself in the terrible position of having to need counselling and medical care after a sexual assault. You are in a medical facility and you hear on the loudspeaker   Dr. AKIN  Dr. MORDOCK  Dr. BROUN , they arrive in your room and the treatment goes something like this:
     " We heard what happened and hurried over. You're not pregnant are you, because another doctor told me you could stop it if you needed to. Your body has ways to stop it, I heard that from doctors, they know about these things, and ergo so do I."
    "Well, not to worry, because if you are, its God's plan and that means you're okay. I mean God intended it so there you go."
    "I know, for a fact, that all this science and medical stuff and evolution, all these came from Hell, so your're in good hands with these two, good hands. Not to worry."
    Yup, these are three of the bright lights that are hoping to run your country, makes you wonder, how hard did they look to find these guys.  It couldn't have been easy. That GOP, they load em up and fire away and we just try to stay out of the line of fire.
    Now in all fairness its not just the GOP, yes that's right, the Dems dug one up, well he's already there. Frighteningly he's also from Georgia and already in Congress. Check out the video of Hank Johnson and how he's worried about Guam tipping over from too many troops or sailors or clouds or whatever...amazing. There must be something in the peaches or crackers.
     Nostalgia, sometimes it befuddles the brain, like right now its got me thinking that smartest guys in the room might be Curley, Larry and Moe.