The Pharmacist

 

 

In prohibition days he was the go to guy for spirits. Growing up in pre-WWII we called him a druggist. He sold us penny candy and accepted our empty bottles for a bit of change. I never knew how he could decipher the handwriting of the local doctors' Rxes.

During WWII I worked after school at a local pharmacy. I was a combination soda jerk, gofer and dishwasher. Scooping hard ice cream developed my wrist muscle but did nothing for my tennis game. The bright spot was I had to eat my mistakes.

My boss, the "Doc", owned a 1938 Buick and with gas rationing he had to stretch things. I recall he patched a gas tank leak using soft Fels naphtha soap. August 15, 1945 was V J Day - the end of the war in Asia. Doc refused to close up so we watched the neighbors parading banging their pots and pans.

Later in life I patronized a pharmacist in Jacksonville, Fl. He ran a small shop and competed with such as Walgreens. To help stay alive he opened a Post Office window. He once told me that when his VISA card was stolen, he did NOT report it as the thief was spending less that his wife.

All hail the friendly pharmacist who will soon be on the front line administering Covid vaccine to the populace!       tjs

Take a letter.

 

 

It is customary for the departing President to leave a letter for the incoming successor. Donald Trump confirmed that Obama left him a gracious note four years ago. This custom will not occur this year as apparently Trump's sharpie is out of ink.

I thought about baseball lore in the last century. Bobby Bragan and Birdie Tebbetts were playing musical chairs as baseball managers on short leashes. Mgr. #1 said when he first arrived he found two envelopes in his desk drawer. Letter #1 read "when things get tough and the heat is on "blame the press" - this will get you some breathing space." A few months later with the team in a deep losing streak with the management on his back it was time to open envelope #2 the contents of which read "It's time to prepare two new envelopes."

It does not appear that Joe Biden will find any envelopes in his desk drawer. tjs

Latin, the dead language

 

Margalit Fox does it again. Today's NYT carries her obituary writeup on a Carmelite monk who was the official Latinist for the Vatican.

She writes that he dreamed in Latin, cursed in Latin, banked in Latin and ultimately Tweeted in Latin. He was LXXXI. She has other jewels in her half page story which try to catch.

tjs(NYT)

TexMex

 

Golfing fans of an era will remember Lee Trevino who played with the big boys in the 1960s and won several OPENS. He was a blue collar kind of guy from West Texas. One hot summer day he was out mowing his lawn in a tee shirt and perspiring profusely when a late model auto stopped at his curb. The lady occupant rolled down her window and called to him.

"Sir, how much do you charge for landscaping?" He answered thusly: "I have an arrangement with the lady of the house - I mow the lawn and she let's me sleep with her." The auto quickly drove away.

On another occasion a fan asked him "What do you do if you are out on the course when lightning strikes? He answered "I reach for my ONE iron as not even God can hit a ONE." tjs

Friendly Golf

In an earlier time, USL Sales Manager in Tokyo, invited three top clients for a "friendly" golf game. You know how serious the Japanese take their golf, with double deck ranges, etc. After a "friendly" luncheon the foursome collected at the first tee to discuss match-ups. Suddenly, one of our guests went over to our man's bag and counted his clubs. There would be no "friendly" match today! But our business arrangement was preserved. Sometimes there is no reason to play "customer golf". tjs

Keep Calm and Carry On

 Yes, I do read the obits. NYT 11/24 Lady Elizabeth Anson, was a cousin to the current Queen Elizabeth II. She had a talent for planning "parties" including the Queen's 80th & 90th and later formed a company where she planned one for the Rolling Stones which attracted the police. 

But it was the following that caught my attention: "In 1993, when Ivana Trump, newly divorced from Donald J. Trump, hired Lady Elizabeth to organize a 50th birthday party for Ms. Trump's fiance at the time, Riccardo Mazzucchelli, and then doubled the guest list. Ms. Trump refused to pay the difference. The two spent years in court fighting over $9000." Does this sound familiar? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

tjs

Greetings of the Season

 For wine lovers, the new crop of Beaujolais Nouveau was to market on the third Thursday of November - Nov. 19th. It is famous for races by distributors to get the first bottles to different markets around the globe.

Folklore has it that one enterprising distributor planned to parachute a case to beat a competitor to market. He didn't plan on it ending up "bubbly".

Sign in a local State Store: For all you BYOS suggest fine wine and good spirits.

 A late election comment: "The only way Trump will get to 270 if he would lose fifty pounds." -Michael Steele             

tjs