Random Scandal Sheet for Sunday 7/7/13

What Indy is talking about this week:

As I wrap up this holiday getaway weekend in the state capitol of Indiana, I just can't bear to say with Indy-ers are really talking about -- another shooting of a young 'un downtown by the mall (which I frequent when I'm visiting, but only during the day when the children aren't killing each other).  I thought I could vacate from that kind of news by leaving Chicago; but instead, kids without conflict resolution skills are taking each other out everywhere it seems.  This one was about some perceived disrespect -- and I have to tell you, knowing how disrespectful I can sometimes be, were I growing up on these streets today, I fear I'd have more bullet holes in me than Curtis Jackson.  Word.

So I'll stop with that bit of depressing conversation and mention what was the second lead story on the Indy news while I was in town -- also about a kid(ish).  The kid in this picture is leaving to go coach the Celtics.  It must be a sign of me getting old, but he sure looks like he's 12 to me.  (According to the interwebs, he's only a few years older than I am -- but it's amazing how a bit of hair and a baby face will make you look so young!)  As it is, I'm about *this* close to banning any sports news/events from my life, just because everyone suddenly looks to me like they are in high school -- I guess it's a young man's area and I'm becoming an old geezer.

Anyway, congrats on your new job, young one!

WHO KNEW -- HE'S FAMOUS FOR BEING YOUNG (KIND OF):
http://www.filmroomtv.com/the-butler-way-feat-brad-stevens/

WHEN WILL KIDS GO BACK TO FISTICUFFS?:
http://www.indystar.com/article/20130708/NEWS02/307080056/Police-seek-5-persons-interest-July-4-shooting-Downtown

IN CASE YOU HADN'T HEARD OF CURTIS:
http://mediatakeout.com/5870/busted_50_cent_lied_about_being_shot_9_times.html

Random Soapbox for Saturday 7/6/13

I don't mean to go off on a rant here, but ...

... there will always be two spaces after my periods, because I think that's the way that God intended it.  I mean it -- I checked the Bible and it sure looks like two spaces to me.  (While there, I also found some pretty serious rules for you ladies out there and it turns out that you should be quarantining yourself once a month [after all, I was researching spacing around periods].  Also -- spoiler alert -- one of the main characters dies [ish]).

Apparently, the great divide in spacing traces back to those who learned "rules" on a typewriter versus those who learned "rules" on a word processor (and yes, I am proud to have had a typing class in high school, even if that does make me an old fogey).  I get that modern communication puts a premium on characters and the spaces that come between them (with hashtagging taking that concept to the extreme) -- which is why I just can't fully endorse the Twitter experience (when I have *this* much to say, how could I possibly limit it to just a certain number of characters).

So I'm adding this to what I'll tell my grandkids (note:  must soon find store where grandkids are sold) -- "When I was little, I walked to school -- uphill both ways -- and I was free and loose with my spaces after my punctuation.  Because it was the right thing to do."

You kids can't take away my right to space as I see fit!  Old school forever!!

THOSE WHO DISAGREE (I SPIT ON THEM):
http://www.pageplane.com/copywriting/proofreaders_and_copyeditors_o.html

THE SOURCE OF MY IMAGE FOR TODAY'S POST (WITH LOTS OF OTHER FUN STUFF):
http://www.theyuniversity.net/page/10

HIDE YOURSELF FROM ME FOR 7 DAYS WHEN YOUR MONTHLY VISITOR ARRIVES:
http://www.asylum.com/2008/02/22/the-weirdest-and-toughest-laws-in-the-bible/

Random Flashback for Friday 7/5/13

Now this ... this was the life.

Well, the life on vacation twenty years ago in the summer of 1993 (it's the third week of four with  pics from the John H Kerr Dam vacation).

That's Captain Troy on the lake (no sign of Tennille [note:  you must be of a certain age to understand that reference; second note:  I actually did know a Tennille in my early years at LVC, but she knew nothing about love amongst muskrats], being photographed next to a bottle of beer that I more than likely drank -- making this potential evidence if I had had an accident.  Seeing as how I was allowed to "grab the wheel" only in the middle of the water where I could do absolutely no damage, there never was an incident, which means this photo remains in my personal collection and was never marked as an exhibit.

Which was, indeed,  the best outcome for all!

Random Thought for Thursday 7/4/13

Happy Fourth of July on the Fifth of July (although, thanks to the wonders of blog posting, you wouldn't know it since I can adjust the date and time that this appears -  muah-ha-ha [that power might be going to my head]).

Mine this year, 2013, was a nice getaway with family in Indiana for a summer picnic -- made better because military nephew Jac was home on a rare visit on leave from Germany.  And, yes, he had his military issued shaving waiver on him (I support those in the military, but I do have to say I found it amazing that such paperwork has existed for years and years -- I guess a clean-shaven face falls into the "for want of a nail" category regarding potentially losing a kingdom in warfare).

Consistent with my twenty year flashbacks that I do pictorially on Fridays, I also checked in to see how I spent Fourth of July 1993 -- and, according to my records (don't ask why me I have records -- it's just a mild case of the OCDs), I spent it watching the fireworks at the Uniontown Mall with my co-workers at Cherry Tree Cafe (my summer job at the end of my eighteen month theatre internship in western PA before I went back to undergrad that fall).

Here's hoping your holiday was filled with making new memories or reminiscing about old ones!

PROTECT THAT KINGDOM WITH A CLEANLY SHAVEN FACE:
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/for_want_of_a_nail.htm

I JUST LIKE THAT IT IS TITLED "AWESOME DIRTBAG TIPS":
http://forums.militarytimes.com/showthread.php?1588072-Awesome-dirtbag-tips

LOOKS LIKE THEY HAD THEM THIS YEAR ON JULY FIRST:
http://shopuniontownmall.com/calendar/event/14037

Random Wordplay for Wednesday 7/3/13

Tonight, a timely haiku ...

Bye bye Baby Jane.
You lived to nearly eighty*.
Now you've gone to sleep.

[*the calculation of 80 is according to a chart in the vet's office, converting nearly 16 human years to something helpful for owners to understand what a great long life she had]

Baby was always the first in a cardboard box -- and she came running at the sound of a  plastic bag and entertained herself with them -- once taking it too far that time in the house in Harrisburg when she got it wrapped around her head and ran up and down the stairs of three stories trying to "escape" it (we did eventually catch her and remove it from her and calm her down).  She wasn't necessarily the most vocal -- although there were exceptions.  For instance, she was very fond of Demon, and would sit on his windowsill (he had an indoor dog house in the Logan Square apartment) and "talk" to him, saying who knows what.  Plus, on the move from PA to Chicago, she made it known that, despite the tranquilizer that the vet had given her, she would much rather ride on top of the boxes in the van watching the countryside go by so we had to let her out of the carrier.  And toward the end, she also really found her voice, but that was mostly about yelling at whomever was nearby that she was ready to eat (the medicine to increase her appetite no doubt helped with that).

I don't think she ever forgave us for not allowing her to be an only cat, and that may be the reason that she outlived almost every other pet, maybe out of spite (now only Murder remains, with all the others passing before her -- Demon in '08, Mystery in '10 and Mauler just a year ago [btw, can you guess that Baby is the only one I didn't name]).  Besides adjusting to being in a one-pet household for the first time in over twenty years, it will also be hard to not have her in her spot on the couch in the evenings, occasionally watching TV intently like she was as invested in the program as we were.

Oh Baby -- you will be forever missed -- especially when I sing along to songs that have Baby in the title, when you'd always look up at me unsure as to why I was calling out your name -- but we will always have the memories (and these photos pulled off my cell phone tonight).

Random Tune for Tuesday 7/2/13

Thank you Sam W for having your club, for it is there that I picked up the Eagles 6 CD box set "The Studio Albums", one of which was the complete album of "Desperado".

After listening to it, I realized that all of my other CDs and cassettes (yep, I'm old) from this group were not this album and that the songs on it that I knew were just the ones that had made it on to assorted greatest hits/compilation albums.

Which means, some four decades after it was released (come to think of it, the year after I was "released"), I *finally* heard the reprise of Desperado, which completely heightened my appreciation for the tune and reintroduced it to me.  I mean I always loved the main song ("... you only want the ones that you can't get ... your prison is walking through this world all alone ... you better let somebody love you -- before it's too late ..."), but now I see the second act and now I know how the story ends and now the journey is complete.

And for that, I thank Glenn F, Don H, Randy M and Bernie L.

CLICK ON THIS SOON BEFORE DON H TAKES IT OFF THE YOUTUBE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu_VdBjJgpo

Random Memorial for Monday 7/1/13

Gone but not forgotten:  nineteen brave souls who perished in the Arizona fire.

I have to tell you -- I'd much rather post one of my silly statuses -- the ones that include a dose of snark and that stem from the fact that I'm a smart ass at my core.

I'd rather do that because if I'm not doing that (and I'm not doing that today), it means that there is some tragedy that deserves to be mentioned instead.  For instance, the horrific loss of the firemen at Yarnell Hill.

Here's the released picture of the group ... and here's a quote from the firefighter's prayer that speaks to the situation far better than I could:  "And if, according to my fate, I am to lose my life, please bless with your protecting hand my children and my wife" ... and here are the nineteen names and ages (many in their twenties):

Eric Marsh, 43; Andrew Ashcraft, 29; Robert Caldwell, 23; Travis Carter, 31; Dustin Deford, 24; Christopher MacKenzie, 30; Grant McKee, 21; Sean Misner, 26; Scott Norris, 28; Wade Parker, 22, John Percin, 24; Anthony Rose, 23; Jesse Steed, 36; Joe Thurston, 32; Travis Turbyfill, 27; William Warneke, 25; Clayton Whitted, 28; Kevin Woyjeck, 21 and Garret Zuppiger, 27:  you will be missed.

FROM WHENCE THE PHOTO AND LIST OF NAMES CAME:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/us/arizona-firefighter-deaths/index.html

THE FIREFIGHTER'S PRAYER:
http://www.fireprep.com/the_firefighter_s_prayer.html

THE WEATHER BEHIND THE STORM:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2013/07/01/the-weather-that-led-to-the-deadly-yarnell-hill-fire/