Name the Source

  Favorite quote of the week:   "What we need to be concerned about is extinguishing our sense of youthfulness through the attrition of life." 

IAM SO uncomfortable

First of all, I love dogs, and especially big dogs.  Secondly, I greatly admire members of the armed forces, and particularly women.  I think it's a great idea to film  members of the military reuniting with  the faithful canines they had left behind.  That being said,  the IAMS dogfood commercial where a returning woman soldier is being greeted by her Irish wolfhound is so unsettling  that I have to look away.  Maybe it's just me, but I find it hard to comprehend that with all the care  taken with every camera angle in modern commercials, that the final scene could be completely innocent of innuendo, to put it mildly.  Could it be that  in a society that seems to accept every deviation from the norm, bestiality is the new challenge?   I mean, just look at the final scene-------

So much for that theory....

  Talking about grandchildren, the rite of that formidible passage through age, one of my friends said her grandchildren, 2 preschoolers, were being raised by their parents with as little media exposure as possible.  The theory being followed is that children whose minds are not battered by the sensory explosions of media sights and sounds will develop their own intellects and their IQ's will be greatly enhanced.  I maintain, according to that theory, my brother, sister, and I would be pure geniuses because when we were little the only sound we were exposed to was the sound of my mother's voice, and each others.'  We had no electricity, no neighbors, visitors only rarely, and very few excursions outside our own back yards.  Certainly no noisy mechanical toys, only a cardboard box of blocks and farm animals, and a few little toy  cars that belonged to my brother.  We were certainly free to develop our imaginations without any artificial interference.  Geez, if we hadn't moved into the village when we became schoolage, with electricity no less, the three of us might have become intellectual giants.

Channeling Regis

  Something about the dynamics of the new partnering has turned Kelly Ripa into a caricature of her former self.  She was always somewhat perky, but lately displays such a frantic, antic energy level that she seems like a cartoon character.  An alpha female teamed with an alpha male results in an hour of  ego competition, made even fiercer by their determination to exhibit nothing but love and admiration for each other.  I find it exhausting, and I'm sitting down at home.  I hope Kelly keeps her nutrition level in line with her energy expenditure before she disappears in a cloud of mist. 

St. Agnes' Eve

   "Ah, bitter cold it was"
    January 20, 1966 
    Charles Anthony Madigan       Rest in Peace

    Suddenly, without warning or notice, a parent is gone and your life is changed.  Changed forever, as they are wont to say, but is there any other kind of change but one that forever impacts your life in some manner?  You grow up with two parents and one is abruptly gone.  The family circle is broken,  childhood's illusion of permanence is irrevocably shattered, and you now know anything can happen: to anyone, at any time.
     New Year's Day, 1978   Ma has a heart attack.  She was mashing potatoes for New Year's Dinner for us all, and was stricken with a terrible pain in her chest.  Helen called for help, and we drove Ma to the hospital, leaving the kids with Helen.  Ma survived that attack and lived for another five years, but the grieving for her began on the start of that new year.  Many say, when faced with the impending death of a loved one, that they want to crawl into the coffin with them, but we don't; we live on, we just bury a part of ourselves.

The View---Resolution?

  Whoopi Goldberg should resolve to finally stop smoking.   When she speaks, her wheeze is reminiscent of Starr Jones before she resolved to make herself into a healthier being.  I guess it worked.....

2013 Word List

    When the list of overused words for 2013 is compiled, expect to find on it the word draconian.  The word is gaining popularity  by both liberals and conservatives, as well as those who fall in between, and used to modify  matters both weighty and trivial.  Draco would be amused, or not.