Really, Governor?

Do I understand correctly that you think students are under-represented and that they have nowhere to turn for support, that they are deprived of unions, and other support groups? Are you insane? Students have parents who are highly motivated to care for them, they have grandparents, in school they have teachers, guidance counselors, and there are social workers, religious mentors to guide them if they ask for help, and who are mandated to help them if necessary. What about Student Councils in high schoools, student associations in colleges, as well as various other student alliances? Are there not community, government, and private sources of financial grants and scholarships offered to students? Try applying for one of these opportunities as an adult, a much more difficult proposition. I think Mr. Cuomo is pandering here. Remember that 18-year-olds who can vote are also eligible to join unions if they choose to work. Students can stay on their parents' health insurance now until their hair starts to turn gray. Is that just a benefit for poor old Mom and Dad, or if the student should need medical care, would not the student benefit even more? I'm all for seeing that everyone has a voice and the right to be represented, but is there any more over-subsidized group in today's society than today's youth? And that doesn't even take into account their legions of FB friends. (Someone supports that activity too. Poor, unfortunate students: Bah, Humbug!

Lies and misdemeanors

It is a sin to tell a lie, either venial or mortal depending on the circumstance. I learned that lesson from the nuns who used to be assigned to travel to the far outreaches of the land to teach the heathen children wrong from right. The nuns were either very old, at the end of their service years, or very young, just learning their missionary skills. One lesson addressed the topic of gossiping about others, thus harming their reputations. If the person being maligned were just an ordinary person, we were told, it would not be as serious a sin as if the person being maligned were of a more important status, like a doctor or a priest. As quiet and shy, and as fearful of religion as I was, I found this very unsettling, though I never uttered a single syllable of disagreement. There was a girl in my class whose father was a doctor, and I didn't think it fair that her father should have been judged more important than mine. He was a grouchy doctor, and I thought my father was a better man. Years later, many, many years later, it came to me why this message was being taught, though I don't suppose, if my suspicions were true, that the nuns would have been a party to it anyway. I hope there is no such place as Hell, and if there is, I hope I don't have to go there-------Jeffrey Dahmer, Adolph Hitler, the Kardashians.

Impossible, you say?

He with whom I live bears a self-inflicted injury; a fat and bruised lip. How did it happen? It was a dental floss injury. I can't pursue the matter any further.

"S*#t Poor People Say....

" I'm so glad I didn't have the money to book a cruise this winter."
" It's good the property is a money pit; that means I don't have to pay an estate tax."
"I'm happy I have a nine year old car; it's not a target fot theft."

Human Nature

Well, it wasn't as critical as the mad dash for the life jackets and boats on the Concordia, but it did jog my memory. October 4, 1987. The Saturday evening before was David's 17th birthday. I'd had a previously arranged dinner date with Dorothy and Barbara at a new restaurant on Rte 9. I can't remember the name right now, but it has since closed. I don't remember what I or anyone else had to eat, but I do recall I'd worn a blouse and was miserably cold all evening. The others had worn sweaters so they were more comfortable. A cold rain was falling when we left the restaurant, though there were no weather alerts that we were aware of. Dave had gone with Don on a golf outing, to North Carolina, I believe, and Marilyn was away at her freshman college year, so I was home with the 2 boys. Sunday morning was surprisingly snowing, just beginning, as sometime during the night, the temperature had dropped eve more, and we were having an early October weather event. Danny and I went to the early Mass in Valley Falls, 8:00 a.m. then, with David being left at home to go to the later service in Schaghticoke. He didn't like mornings. While we were in church, we heard cracks and snaps, almost like explosions, increasing during the hour we were at Mass. When we left the sheltered environment of Our Lady of Good Counsel, we entered into a winter wonderland. The ice formed during the night had become covered with the falling snow, and the weight was snapping the ice coated branches off like explosions. Limbs were down, and still falling, and my car was covered with a large branch, which had carried the power and/or telephone wires down with it, across the top of my car, a company-owned station wagon as it was. Dave had driven the older car to the airport and left it there. So I'm standing there, helpless, with my 10-year-old son and the church goers are streaming out, toward their vehicles. Tree limbs are still dropping, the weather is cold and nasty and snowing, and as I said, I'm standing there, helpless. "That's my car, under the tree, " I think I said to anyone who would listen, but that would have been no one, at least no one helpful. I heard someone, or probably several, venture to warn me that they wouldn't go near the car if they were me because, since the power company had yet to appear, the wires were probably live. No offers of help, or a ride home with my child----everyone was bent on getting to the safety of their own homes before the weather got even worse. Ironically enough, I suppose, everybody in the church would have known me because I'd been a lector there almost every week since Danny was 4 years old. I'd also trained and scheduled all the other lectors, was a member of the Prayer and Worship Committee, as well as all the parent activities, etc. So Danny and I were the last ones standing; all had left. (Remember, no such thing as cell phones.) Power lines were down all around us, everything was snow covered, we hadn't worn boots. When all help from organized religion was lost, we picked our way to the other Schroder household. The best idea I could manage was to call "The Madigans" for whatever help they could muster. No one wanted to drive through the snow and ice and downed power lines. Rosemary answered the phone and offered to drive us home. In a short time, there she was, having manipulated her car through the maze of hazards. I know how the cruise ship passengers felt when they saw help coming, the moving car a lifesaver. She got us home safely. Our power was out by then and for the next 5 days, but that's another tale, and, though it was a miserable time for the 3 of us (heightened by knowing Dave was having a great vacation on the golf course) that doesn't carry the baggage of the memory of being abandoned by a whole churchful of fellow parishoners. But at least we didn't drown, or even get electrocuted. Hallelujah.

Quote of the Day

George Kagel, former bon vivant, now turned philosopher, on the occasion of his 90th birthday, January, 13, 2012, " What the hell happened to us anyway?"

More superlativer

If Blue Ivy is the most beautifulest baby, then my new grandaughter is the mostest beautifulest. And we don't care if she grows up with poor grammar.