The Eagles Nest

As an aging Philadelphia EAGLES fan who remembers Van Buren and Van Brocklin, I would like to share my frustration with you Bird fans out there.
-Our quarterback is a nice guy but I fear for his physical well being with 300 pounders pounding him.
-We have three running backs but no bruising fullback you need on those fourth and one downs.
-On third and six why do we throw a five yard pass when we need six yards?
-Our beady-eyed mumbling coach has no imagination on play calling. Just once risk a fake punt or similar trick play.
It all comes down to this Saturday which is Boxing Day so better lace up the gloves, boys and don't take a sabbatical which I am doing. See you in the New Year.
tjs

Twelve Days of Christmas

Those of you who are not tired of hearing the repetitive strains of this song might be interested to know that a financial institution keeps track of the aggregate cost of all the gifts mentioned - $34,130. which is basically unchanged from the previous year. On-line purchase will drive up these costs.
1 - Partridge $25. - Pear tree $190.
2 - Turtle doves $290. a/c higher grain cost
3 - French hens - pricing on demand
4 - Calling birds - pricing on demand
5 - Gold rings $750.
6 - Geese laying - pricing on demand
7 - Swans swimming $1875. each
8 - Maids milking $58. no wage increase
9 - Ladies dancing $7553. expensive!
10 -  Lords leaping $5509. slight increase
11 - Pipers piping $2635.
12 - Drummers drumming $2855.
13 - Ear plugs - FREE.
tjs

A Smoggy Day

The air pollution in some Chinese cities is so bad that some restaurants are assessing a "clean air fee" to offset their cost of air purifiers. To exploit the situation two Canadians have taken to bottle air from the Banff area of the Canadian Rockies and have found a demand in China. Their canister can contain 150 one second puffs and they have 4000 bottles on the way. Their idea grew from initial frantic bidding on EBay. The things we take for granted!
tjs

It's an ill wind...

With a rally almost every day Donald Trump seems to have no shortage of "wind" and as he is leading in all the polls he also has the "wind" at his back. But there is one type of wind that he finds "ill".
It is that expected from the wind farm to be constructed in the sea off Aberdeen, Scotland approximately 2.2 miles from Trump's newest International Golf Links. His latest objections have been denied by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. So the next time you play his links course allow for the head winds and play an extra club length.
tjs

It's on the Books

Britain's collective body of laws numbers over 44,000 and they are trying to prune the list some of which predates the Magna Carta. For instance, you cannot ride a horse while drunk - this applies to the rider. And you cannot beat a carpet in the street unless it can be classified as a doormat. But Parliament really put its collective feet down when they banned the wearing of suits of armor in its chambers. And, no Lancelot, they weren't jousting!
tjs

The King & I

Love me, love my dog! Thailand's strict laws make it a crime to insult the monarch. Apparently this law includes the Monarch's pets as some poor fellow found out when he "disparaged" the King's dog with a sarcastic comment on "social" media. The dog is humble and knows protocol as when to sit lower than the king. The subjects should be so intelligent. The Internet poster could receive a possible thirty-seven years in the clink but at a minimum an "attitude adjustment session" perhaps deprived of his password.
tjs

High on the Hog

My building super, age 61, has been driving a Harley Davidson cycle for a very long time. He has all the requisite gear i.e. helmet, boots, jacket, etc. But he was bragging about the heated gloves and vest all wired to the cycle's battery. This is fine for the driver but I thought about the poor female passenger hanging on for dear life. I guess she has to get her warmth by osmosis.
tjs

Never Assume

"You're an inelegant, impolite, arrogant man. That's why you'll never get to the presidency of the Republic." No, no - this was NOT directed at Donald Trump.  It was the comment of the Agriculture Minister of Brasil directed at a prominent senator from Sao Paulo for his perceived sexist remark. She followed her remark by throwing wine in his face. Well, they always said that politics isn't beanbag.
tjs

A Salute to Mariners

Today I salute one of my favorite ship captains - the late Archie Horka of Little Falls, N.J. Captain Horka commanded several U.S. Lines cargo vessels - all in the demanding North Atlantic trade routes. Above photo taken in 1964 when he was Master of the SS AMERICAN CRUSADER. In 1926 as an able bodied seaman he sailed around Cape Horn on a Clipper Ship to Australia. During WWII he was interned by the Japanese and I first met him post war when his vessel called at Philadelphia. After retirement he served as an expert witness in admiralty courts. A great guy happiest when at sea.
tjs

A Year of Mercy

All eyes were on Rome this week as Pope Francis opened the Holy Doors of St. Peter's Basilica declaring "A year of mercy". In doing so he intoned the ceremonial "Open unto me the gates of justice." Our parish pastor said the Pope would have also used the Latin word FIAT which translates to  "let it be done" which he compared to the NIKE motto "Just do it"
I didn't know our Augustinians were so hip!
tjs

Family Tree

Circa 1905 my paternal grandfather operated the Maurice River Ice & Coal Co. with one horse and wagon - an entrepreneur for the time. I never learned why he chose that name as he operated in Kensington, Philadelphia and the Maurice River was a tributary in New Jersey leading to Delaware Bay. My father worked with him until 1910 when Dad joined the Post Office and the younger brothers took over. If grandpop stopped at day's end for some sudsy liquid the horse - named John - knew the way home. My mother later made quilts from the horse blankets to keep us warm. Above photo is current view of the Maurice river (pronounced Morris to natives)
tjs

The Hesitant Penitent

A friend suggested I repeat the tale of the fellow who made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Ste. Anne de Baupre in Quebec. While there he was going up a steep stairs on his knees. Ahead of him was a woman doing the same and the hem of her dress was caught in the heel of her shoe. She asked her fellow pilgrim if he would loosen the entanglement and he replied "Not me, lady! It's for doing THAT that I'm doing THIS.
Mea maxima culpa!
tjs

Funny Punny II

The following submitted by a friend to brighten a gray December day:

The fattest Knight at the Round Table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much Pi.

I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaska island but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

Two silkworms had a race  - it ended in a tie.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger - then it hit me!

The midget fortune teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

A backward poet writes inverse.
tjs

Longevity

I used to read of the peasants in the steppes of Russia subsisting on goat yogurt and living past the century mark. Now there is a research team in Belgium claiming something similar as a side effect of Metformin - a popular drug prescribed for stage 2 diabetes. They estimate such dosage to enable user to live to 120 years. But do I really want to live that long? By the year 2050 we will be dodging those driverless cars, with oceans lapping at the doorstep, Social Security exhausted and Donald Trump's grandson in the White House. No thanks - I'll pass!
tjs

Not So EZPass

A family member rented an auto in Manhattan to drive to the Jersey Shore over Thanksgiving. She requested the vehicle be equipped with an EZ Pass for navigating the several toll booths enroute via Brooklyn-Staten Island - and the GSP. At the first barrier at the Brooklyn tunnel passage was denied as it seemed the EZ pass was in default. Short of cash she had to scramble to find an ATM with the $16.00 Verrazano Bridge toll looming ahead. So the entire holiday weekend was spent in the cash only lanes and the Holland Tunnel was a nightmare. Just one more question to ask the rental agent.
tjs

Primarily Political III

I wrote this four months ago. The premise is valid but the outcome may need to be tweaked.

Like many observers of the political scene I have my own theories of the G.O.P. nominating process. While some States' primaries are winner take all, many of the March 2016 primaries are "proportional" meaning that several candidates will come away with pockets of delegates, no one of which will have enough to put him/her over the top, thereby resulting in an old fashioned "brokered" convention minus the smoke filled rooms. I have two theories on the outcome:
No. 1 - After multiple ballots with no winner the elder statesmen in the back room will wheel out Mitt Romney to unite and save the party.
No. 2 - In a magnanimous gesture Donald Trump will offer his delegates to Ted Cruz which will put him over the top making Trump a kingmaker, a role more to his liking than having the headaches of the Presidency.
I am placing my theories in a mason jar on Funk & Wagnall's porch to be opened on July 18, 2016 when the fireworks begin in Cleveland.
tjs

Another wine war.

Wine experts in Israel are working on a project using DNA testing to identify and perhaps recreate ancient wines drunk by the likes of King David and Jesus Christ. So far they have traced grapes back to A.D. 220. The issue is not free of political friction as new labeling guidelines require mention that such wines are made in the Israeli settlements and the Palestinians have their own ownership claims on these grapes. And so it goes, but Christ didn't need grapes when he performed the miracle at Cana. (See more in NYT 11/30/15)
tjs
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/30/world/middleeast/with-indigenous-grapes-israel-breaks-new-ground-in-wine-industry.html?_r=0

A is for Achronym

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I was among young people some of whom "speak a language that the stranger does not know." I had earlier related about the waitress with the YOLO tatoo who told me "You only live once". But now I have a new acronym to add to my lexicon - FOMO = "fear of missing out". It applies to a young millenial at a party who thinks there may be a better party cross town where his/her friends may be. That anxious individual should heed the waitress' advice and enjoy the moment.
tjs

A Marriage of Convenience

The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has plans to merge with the Irish firm Allergan in an effort to save billions in taxes. This will be a marriage of Viagra and Botox so there is something for everyone and I will leave you, the reader, to create your own caption.
tjs

Something in the Air.

Despite a professed aura of austerity in the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister will be granted his wish for a private airplane to reflect the prestige of his office. His predecessor, Tony Blair, was denied this perk which they were nicknaming "Blairforce One". The RAF is refitting one of their aircraft which supposedly will save the taxpayers a few quid. We can't let Donald Trump own the air lanes.
tjs

The Big Apple

It was a busy Friday afternoon at the Apple store on Fifth Avenue teeming with patrons one of whom began to brandish a Samurai sword shouting "I want an Iphone!" The crowd backed away and the folks at the genius bar were "dumbfounded". The blade wielding warrior exited the store and was subdued by security personnel and hauled off to Bellevue for his safety. It seemed that rather than taking a bite of the apple he wanted to slice it. Just an average day in the Big Apple.
tjs

Potpourri 2015 XII

The Pew Research Center reports that more immigrants from Mexico are leaving the U.S. than coming into the country. Our 2008 recession disillusioned them. Somebody should tell Donald Trump to cancel his plans for the wall.

At an NFL football game in early November a macho linebacker confronted a police dog just before the start of the game. It was reported that the player lifted his shirt, beat his chest and barked at the bomb-sniffing dog. The dog had to be taken out of service after the incident and presumably placed on injured reserve list.
Taunting on the field results in a penalty but taunting a police dog is a third degree felony in Penna. The things we didn't know!
tjs

Rent-a-Pet

I just read of a new app called Bark'N'Borrow a Uber type matchmaking service to rent a pet overnight or for a weekend. The company takes great pains to screen and verify users including a face to jowl meeting. I recalled my friend Mike's experience proudly parading his newly acquired Champion Scottish Terrier newly arrived from Glasgow with all his pedigreed papers. One day he received a phone call from a woman who owned a female of the same breed who was interested in mating her "bitch" to his male. She began aggressively interrogating him on his dog's sexual experience, his stud fee, etc. Mike  - this man of the world - began
to squirm. He said he felt like he was being interviewed for a possible "assignation" and he felt uncomfortable! Anyway, we never did find out what the stud fee was.
tjs
(Excerpted from Eagle Blue No. 4 Feb. 7, 2006)

Christmas Music

With Thanksgiving a week away can Christmas be far behind? As such I am dusting off my Christmas CDs but far be it that I would foist my taste on the reader. In a soft guitar genre I do recommend "The Charlie Byrd Christmas Album" recorded by the master in 1982. Some years ago a friend and I were in Dewey Beach, Delaware and sought directions from a bearded chap who was porch sitting at a beach cottage strumming a guitar. Some minutes later I was introduced to "the" Charlie Byrd and he gave me the softest handshake this side of a plastic surgeon. (Presume those hands were insured.) Charlie Byrd was a fixture at the Maryland Inn in Annapolis, Md. and other venues in the D.C. area.
tjs

Night Life

John Pizzarelli, the guitarist, and his wife are appearing at the Cafe Carlyle thru late November. It's a very intimate supper club where my wife and I once visited to hear Bobby Short. Pizzarelli is the son of Bucky Pizzarelli who was playing at Windows on the World circa 1978 when I entered escorting four attractive ladies. A fellow patron inquired whether we were an airline crew. The view was spectacular and their restrooms resembled Roman baths. But this was long ago before the bad guys knocked the building down.
tjs

On the Midway

Over the years U.S. Lines carried a lot of live animals with the more exotic ones in the Australian trade. But my experience was confined to the stuffed variety. One day I received a phone call from the owners of a Ma & Pa carnival group wanting to send a trailer load of stuffed teddy bears to Hawaii for the State Fair. We negotiated a price of $3000. PREPAID. and they delivered their trailer to our pier on the appointed day which was a Friday. The Ma half of the partnership entered the Chief Clerk's office with a large carpet bag filled with 3000 crumpled dollar bills which she proceeded to dump on his desk.
The waterfront workers in the room were "bugeyed" - the banks closed at 3PM and the petty cash drawer could not accommodate this windfall so the freight cashier had to babysit it at home over the weekend. Talk about money laundering! But there is nothing like "cash on the barrel" or on the Chief Clerk's desk.
tjs
(Excerpted from Eagle Blue No. 12 - March 2, 2006)

Both Sides Now

An interesting sculpture was recently erected beneath the Brooklyn Bridge which reminded me of Judy Collins' song "Both Sides Now". If you look at it from Manhattan it reads YO but from the Brooklyn side it says OY! Both from the New York vernacular. Incidentally, during a speech in South Carolina Donald Trump uttered the words "Oy, oy" but those folks didn't know what he was talking about. As they say "Ya gotta know the territory".
tjs

The Power of Congress

There are 435 members in the House and they come from all walks of life. But a certain amount of power comes with the title. A friend once told me the story of when he was a Light Colonel at the Brooklyn Army Base processing G.I.s on their way to Europe. One such soldier arrived over a weekend with his dog which he placed in a kennel while he frequented every bar in Brooklyn after which arriving at embarkation in a stupor just making it up the gangway. When he arrived in Germany he wrote to his congressman asking help in finding his dog. My friend said a manila envelope arrived on his desk bearing a large stamp M.C. (Member of Congress) reply in 48 hours. He knew you ignored such at your peril so picture three military officers going thru the Brooklyn Yellow Pages and calling every kennel to locate this guy's dog.
tjs
(Reprinted from Eagle Blue Vol. 3 No. 8 February 21, 2007)

Did you Know?

How Samuel Clemens adopted the pen name Mark Twain.... He was a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River and the seamen would hang a weighted line over the side to measure the depth of water. He would call out "mark twain" meaning depth of two fathoms or twelve feet. One of his several homes included what is now the Tappan Hill restaurant in Tarrytown, N.Y. with a breathtaking view of the Hudson River. Try to visit in the winter when there is dancing in the rotunda next to a blazing fireplace.
tjs

Milestones

In Rome they might say MC - no, I am not Emceeing the next debate. It translates to 1100 which is the number of posts to date as reminded by the Googler. As I said before, printing that many would collapse your coffee table. This milestone seems to coincide with LXXXVI which translates to my age - eighty-six today. It seems like only yesterday that I sharpened my pencil - and sometimes my wit - when my son introduced me to blogging in October 2010. Thanks for hanging around and trying to outlast me.
tjs

Potpourri 2015 XI

If you are out hunting for truffles this season, don't use a pig - use a dog as the pigs eat everything.

Quote of the week: "You're not going to sell a Whopper at a McDonald's!" - by the Panthers quarterback when finding a Packers banner hanging in his home field stadium.

There was a bit of excitement in New York this week when a fisherman caught a three eyed catfish in the polluted Gowanus Canal. He says he plans to eat it. Had not heard of this before but I am familiar with one eyed Jacks and I once knew a girl with six toes.
tjs

One Size Fits All

The Tories in the U.K. have their noses out of joint - or as they might say "their knickers twisted" - since the Victoria & Albert museum declined to accept Margaret Thatcher's wardrobe for display. Her supporters have denounced the snub stating that "her dresses embodied her." Christie's quickly jumped in announcing an auction for Dec. 15 in London. Suggest wait for the catalog to learn the discreet sizes. If you intend to bid know that it takes $1.50 to the British pound sterling. Also London can be raw in December. Ta Ta for now!
tjs

That's a Gas!

Huffington Post reported on a Singapore Airlines flight from Adelaide, Australia to Kuala Lumpur carrying 2186 sheep that made an emergency landing at Bali due to exhaust gasses and manure causing the smoke detector to go off. Now that's a lot of creatures - cheek by jowl - on one aircraft. And to think I used to complain about the lack of knee room in coach. A pundit was heard to remark that it was a "very BAAAAD flight." Or perhaps HuffPo was just pulling the wool over our eyes.
tjs

A Bridge Too Far

On an October morning in 1957, Albert Anastasia, a notorious Mafia mobster, left his 25 room estate in Fort Lee, N.J. and headed to Manhattan for his usual shave. He never left the barber's chair. Over the years the estate passed thru several owners including the comedian Buddy Hackett. One of the rooms was completely tiled with a drain. Hackett told his young son it was a room where they slaughtered deer. If you believe that then I have a bridge near Fort Lee that I will sell you if it isn't blocked by Christie's orange cones.
tjs

Cleaning "House".

The new Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, is holding his nose as he takes over John Boehner's smoke infested office that smells like a hotel room that  has been smoked in. The more so as Ryan often sleeps in his office. He expects to use an ozone machine to detoxify the environment. When Nancy Pelosi became Speaker in 2006 during an office renovation she declared that a urinal in the Speaker's bathroom would no longer be necessary. As info there are still two
spittoons on the Senate floor. Rank has its privileges - but this is pretty rank!
tjs

Halloweens Past

In the early 1940s we children had no fear
running the streets in the dark, bags in hand with an occasional stop to bob for apples but the highlight of the evening was always a stop at the Spreckley household at the end of the block. Consumer items such as cigarettes, Kodak film and chewing gum were in short supply as they were headed for the troops. But Bill Spreckley was sales manager for Wrigley's Chewing Gum and a targeted visit. Except you didn't pull that "trick or treat" on him - he and wife turned the tables and we had to perform, sing or recite to receive the swag. I recall saying my prayers in Gaelic as taught by grandma
Some of the things we did for a stick of chewing gum.
tjs

China Boy

China is paying the price for their cultural preference for boys as their current imbalance reflects 117 males born for every 100 female births. By year 2020 it is estimated they will have thirty million bachelors - far too many for a TV show. A Chinese university economics professor suggests a remedy by having several males share the same woman i.e. "polyandry" and the idea has gone viral.
tjs
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/26/china-polyandry-gender-ratio-bachelors/

Woe B Tide

Last night's full moon had seawater running in the streets of South Miami which has become a monthly occurrence much to the chagrin of shop keepers and residents there. The next full moon is set for Wednesday November 25th and any non-believers in climate change can venture down there but don't forget your boots or waders.
tjs

Crowded Skies.

There was a time when a drone was known as a bumble bee or perhaps an idle person. Today the definition is a "quadcopter" or a recreational drone, the type that lands on the White House lawn or disrupts airline operations. But they are also becoming the enemy of wildlife. Last year a red tailed hawk attacked a drone, flipping it in midair.
The FAA estimated that one million drones will be sold in the U.S. this Christmas and
  the government is rushing to try to register these unmanned aerial vehicles. The friendly skies are becoming very crowded.
tjs
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/20/science/animals-spy-a-new-enemy-drones.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=sectionfront

Basso Profundos

The NY Times reports on a study of howler monkeys that found that to gain a mating advantage, species evolved either to make very low-frequency sounds, or have much larger testicles, but none had both. It seems to show a clear trade-off. Can't have it both ways! A researcher acknowledged that taking measurements is not the easiest thing to do. Full article referenced below is obviously TMI!
tjs
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/23/science/howler-monkey-species-deep-voice-testicle-size.html?ref=world

Potpourri 2015 X

Political Campaigns: The Brits do it in six weeks. Canada does it in 78 days. But it takes us a year and a half. Even Will Rogers would say there is something wrong with this.

I have been quoted as saying that if Donald Trump got anywhere near the Oval Office I would be on the next flight to Canada. Ain't Trudeau!

We are celebrating the 100 anniversary of the birth of Frank Sinatra in Hoboken, N.J.
To commemorate same Jack Daniels has bottled a special edition - you might call it Black Label for Old Blue Eyes.
tjs

El Nino

It has been seventy-five years since I last heard the term "yellow-bellied sea snake" which was an epithet hurled by the white-hatted cowboy (good guy) at the black-hatted cowboy (bad guy) in those weekly "oater" serials of my youth. Now as everything that goes around comes around these "critters" are showing up on California beaches thanks to El Nino warming up our coastal waters. Their venom is ten times more toxic than a cobra. If you see one give it a wide berth and call your local zoo.
tjs

The Future is Now!

Today, October 21, 2015, is Back to the Future Day being celebrated around the world by aficionados of this movie. That is the date Marty McFly and Doc Brown hopped into their souped up DeLorean to reach back in 1985. Pepsi Cola is marking the date by issuing a limited supply of Pepsi Perfect for $20. per bottle. That's more than I pay for wine! Expect to read all about it on Facebook and elsewhere today.
1985 wasn't a bad year - Reagan was in office but mortgages were fourteen percent!
tjs

The Boys of Summer

The New York Baseball METS are ahead in their current playoffs but their first baseman is suffering the ignominy of thirteen strikeouts to date. This brings to mind the travails of another first baseman, Gil Hodges, who in the 1952 World Series went 0 for 21 at bats for the Brooklyn Dodgers. The sentiment for him ran so deep that priests in all the Brooklyn parishes were exhorting their flocks to pray for him to break the slump. Later in his career Hodges managed the METS to their 1969 World Series title.
tjs

The "Other" Borough.

Staten Island is known as the "outer" borough aka the "other" borough as strange things can happen there. They even have trouble keeping their congressmen in office. It was recently reported that a three foot tall kangaroo was found running and jumping around having escaped from its owner's yard. The ASPCA said it was illegal to own a marsupial in New York City so we can expect the owner to "roo" the day he left his gate unlatched.
tjs

Funny Punny

A friend sends the following to cheer one at the end of the week:
-How does Moses make tea? Hebrews it.
-Venison for dinner again! Oh, deer!
-French pancakes give me the crepes.
-England doesn't have a kidney bank but they do have a Liverpool.
-A cartoonist was found dead - details are sketchy.
-I used to be a banker - then I lost interest.
Have a great weekend!
tjs

The "ayes" have it!

Avid poker players know the phrase "One eyed jacks are wild." But since I do not subscribe to that declaration I recently underwent successful cataract surgery which explains why I have missed recent posting deadlines. The techniques today are remarkable and a far cry from my mother's sand bags! So as the Big Bad Wolf said to Little Red Riding Hood "The better to see you with, my dear."
tjs

The Cover Up

After sixty plus years Playboy has announced a "cover up" - no more nudity! At its peak in the 1970s it sold seven million copies. Its influence then was such that a judge once ruled that denying blind people a braille version violated their first amendment rights. Its inaugural copy in 1953 was undated as they weren't sure there would be a second edition. Gloria Steinem once went under cover as a "bunny" so as to write an expose later. Avid readers have been assured that "Playboy will continue its tradition of investigative journalism, in-depth interviews, etc...." Well, that's a relief!
tjs

To Market, To Market.

An enterprising group in South Africa has stacked 27 shipping containers and converted them into a Lego style mosaic colored retail center. They call it somewhere between a market and a mall. While there have been known to be multiple uses for used containers the surprising thing about this news item is that a prominent world shipping line has set up a sales team just to sell these "boxes" - not the space on the ship - and to date have disposed of 1200 units at prices rivaling their freight rates. Just the latest news from Legoland.
tjs

Only in New York

The NYTimes writes about the new Chick-fil-A fast food site recently opened in Manhattan. It attracted long lines of patrons plus an assortment of protesters. The latter included animal-rights activists who began warning the press about certain manufacturers of coconut water who were using monkeys to pick coconuts.

There is a senior in Great Neck, N.Y. who retired from the police force thirty years ago now living on a pension that he has calculated has earned him $1.8 million just for breathing. He told his wife "when my time's up, leave me on the ventilator and just let the checks keep coming in."
tjs