Weekly Wrapup

 

Try to catch Mark Shields' obit in Sunday's NYT. He gave up drinking at age 37. He said it took him that long to find out that God made whiskey so the Irish and the Indians wouldn't run the world. (Apologies to the Indians)

There is a photo of a Bitcoin ATM at the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.  Not sure what it dispenses.  But the ferry ride is free!

There is an army of contestants running for Congress in New York. Former mayor DeBlasio is in the hunt as is Elizabeth Holtzman -age 80 - but wait - she was in Congress during Watergate - such ambition !

tjs

Strange News Day

 

-You've heard of Brandon in the news - he has been replaced by Bernie and has been trolling around.

-Mercedes Benz, that premium German car maker, is recalling a million autos.

- Wells Fargo is accused of faking hiring interviews.

-Mets star pitcher bitten in the hand by his dog. Sort of biting the hand that feeds you.

-And Ozzie Myers, that star of the Abscam Scandal of forty years ago, is back in the limelight accused of messing with election votes in South Philly. And he comes from a lovely family.

All this bumps Elon Musk to the back pages. And it's only Tuesday.

tjs

The Eagle Blue Chronicles: Summertime

The Eagle Blue Chronicles: Summertime: It feels like summer is arriving early in Northeast Florida and we are still three weeks away from the Summer solstice. The current heat wav...

Woof - woof!

 Today's NYT Real Estate section discusses issue of barking dogs in apartment buildings. Our own building accepts pets and we have also experienced the nuisance. Which reminds me of a story: Tenant A worked days and worried about the lack of exercise for his dog.  But he noticed that when his phone (land line) rang it motivated his pet to run thru the apartment. So every day at noon he phoned his apartment - let it ring a dozen times - knowing that Fido would be exercising. But tenant B next door worked nights and slept days and this routine disturbed his rest. So one day shortly before noon, with the Super on break, he stole into his neighbor's quarters and on cue the phone rang. After about ten rings he picked up the receiver and breathed heavily into it before returning receiver to its cradle. I don't have a sequel to this story but perhaps next Sunday's NYT can give us the answer.

tjs 2/27/22

Football Trivia

 Latin scholars remind us that in a few weeks they will be playing Super Bowl LVI - but thankfully in Southern California and not in Green Bay for who wants to be in Northern Wisconsin in Mid-February.                                   The Packers were ambushed on their own frozen turf this past weekend and were eliminated from further consideration, which will give their QB time to get VAXXED.      As further insult we have one of Donald Trump's henchmen describing their coup attempts as including the "Green Bay Sweep" while oldtimers will recall the real "SWEEP" was Jim Taylor leading Paul Hornung on an end run but certainly not political.

In Kiss Me Kate, Cole Porter admonished us to "Brush up your Shakespeare" - which I did and found a Bill Shakespeare played football for Notre Dame mid-1930s. While he did place kicking, he was not a punter, which we know has a taint of gambling in the United Kingdom. tjs

 

                                                                                  

Roman Holiday

 

Joe Biden visited with the Pope this week which prompts me to repeat the following post: A fellow was in the barber chair and told the barber he was planning a trip to Rome. there then ensued the following exchange:

B - Where do you plan to stay?

C - We are booked into the Excelsior Hotel.

B - It's overpriced and over rated - you won't like it. what else are you doing?

C - We plan to have dinner at Alfredo's famous restaurant.  B - That place is a tourist trap - you won't enjoy it.               C - And we have arranged to have an audience with the Pope.                                                                                   

B - You will be behind the ropes, you won't get near him.

Fast forward one month and C is back in the chair.

B - How was your trip?

C - Great - the Excelsior had flowers in our room and the concierge couldn't have been nicer. Alfredo himself greeted us and we had a private audience with the Pope.

B - I'm very impressed. What did the Holy Father say to you?

C - He asked me where did I get the lousy haircut. tjs

Climate change

 

 President Biden will be heading to Glasgow, Scotland in a few days for the U.N. Climate Conference. Whoever selected the time and place? Perhaps they wanted to observe the melting ice flows floating down from Greenland... ....Scotland in November? Joe will need his muffler, hat and gloves - and mask. (Mask rhymes with flask) which he might also carry in his hip pocket.

I was last in Glasgow in October 1964 compliments of USLines visiting the distillers and sampling their wares. That was when I switched from Canadian to Scotch. That's  when the barmaid asked "Want any ice, Yank?"

There was an old Scotsman entertainer, Sir Harry Lauder, who sang something like this: "I belong to Glasgow, dear old Glasgow Toon, but there's something the matter with Glasgow, for it's going round and round -- Now I'm just a poor old working man as anyone here can see - but when I get a couple of drinks on a Saturday, GLASGOW BELONGS TO ME! Bon Voyage, Joe Biden. tjs