Hired Help

Fritz Kreisler the famous violinist was once approached by a society matron to play at her upcoming social. His schedule was open and he agreed to perform and said his fee would be $1000. That did not faze her but she said there would be "conditions" - he must arrive on time, use the servants entrance and not mingle with her guests. He replied "Madam, in as much as I will not be required to mingle with your guests then my fee will only be $500."
tjs
(The blogger is in Cape May through the holiday weekend. As Bogart said "I came for the waters." I will resurface afterwards with perhaps a few Golden Oldies in the interim." Wishing you all a safe travel weekend.

Urban Relocation

A small town in Sweden, (pop. 18,000) is moving itself two miles - lock, stock and barrel - even the church will be moved intact. No, not because the North Sea is encroaching on it yet. It seems a local mine owner (the Government) has been extracting iron ore and such efforts have now reached under the town so there is a fear of the entire town collapsing at some future time. On the bright side the mine owner is bearing the entire expense of moving the people into new housing two miles down the road. Can you visualize this occurring elsewhere absent a class action lawsuit? NIMBY!
tjs

Politics and Then Some

A GOP donor refusing to support Donald Trump describes him as follows: "He's an ignorant, amoral, dishonest, and manipulative, misogynistic, philandering, hyper-litigious, isolationist, protectionist blowhard." I wonder how he really feels.

The Chinese government is once again trying to suppress Christianity by removing crosses from the steeples of churches of various denominations. So far they have applied blowtorches or saws to 1200 churches just in one province. This is deja vu as I can recall they held a Maryknoll bishop under house arrest because he refused to leave the country and that was back in 1950 when the agrarian reformers arrived.

And then we have the University of Miami offering an endowed chair for the study of atheism. No further comment.
tjs

Weighing In

High Wycombe, an English town outside London, continues to practice a medieval custom of weighing its elected officials. Each May, the Mayor and other elected officials are seated on brass scales in the middle of the town square. For those who have gained from the previous year the macebearer shouts "and some more" and the crowd shouts and throws rotten fruit. For those who lost weight he shouts "and no more" and the crowd cheers. A widening of the waistline was jeered as a sign that an official had grown fat at the taxpayer's expense. It occurs that we have seen some chubby political candidates this year and instead of shooting off a gun on Fifth Avenue perhaps we should set up scales in Times Square. See the fruit vendor beforehand.
tjs
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/world/what-in-the-world/high-wycombe-england-annual-weigh-in.html?ref=world

Color Coded

The U.K. will be voting in June whether to remain in the European Union and the Prime Minister is considering using Tinder, a dating app, to reach the young voters in support of his position. Just think, meeting your date at the polling place could replace the bar scene. Better to find out early whether he/she is red or blue. Reminds me of that Irish folk song "Me father he was orange and me mother she was green."
tjs

Current Headlines

A prominent jurist of the time when commenting on the first state to secede in 1860 said "It's too small for a Republic and too large for an insane asylum!" (With apologies to my friends in Charleston)

Headline: Iran accuses Kim Kardashian of a covert operation.........the opposite of covert is exposure which is more likely the case.

"Ignorance is not a virtue!" - Barack Obama at Rutgers.

Headline: "The Taj Mahal is under attack by bugs!" No, not the casino, the real thing! Millions of mosquito like insects are swarming over the famous shrine and their residue is turning the white walls green - and the tourists are beginning to notice. The bugs seem to find it a romantic place to mate.
tjs

Running Bear

A black bear was sighted in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, specifically near Valley Green and the Wissahickon Creek. This is an area frequented by hikers, bikers and picnickers. A fisherman saw him in the creek trying his paw at catching a meal. Mentioning bears and picnicking recalled that children's song by Jerry Garcia "The Teddy Bears Picnic":
-If you go down to the woods today -
-You're sure of a big surprise -
-If you go down to the woods today -
-You better go in disguise -
- For every bear that ever there was -
-Will gather there for certain because -
-Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic.
tjs