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Santa will bring you toys if they are still around

About 20 years ago I was chosen — why I don’t know — to spend time as a mall Santa Claus for a first-person newspaper story. While it was a fun exercise, complete with nice looking babes wanting their pictures made on my lap, I had no idea as to half of what the children wanted Santa to bring them. I was told by the “real” Santa that the Big Man wasn’t supposed to promise what the kids asked for so I’d say something like: “I’ll see what I can do, Slick.” The moral of that story is never tell a mall Santa what you want for Christmas. Always mail your requests, with real envelopes and stamps.

Now there are all sorts of lists out on the Internet these days for the top toys of this, the 2010 holiday season. Toys R Us has a “Fabulous 15” top toy list. Squidoo.com displays a Top 10 list for kids. Gifts.com shows a list which is separated into categories for babies, toddlers, pre-schoolers, grade-schoolers, tweens, and teens. Of course, the more specific the more money is likely to be maken.

A likely top-seller for this year, according to Squidoo is the “Let’s Rock Elmo.” The Sesame Street Muppet character plays an instrument and “he is also able to tell which instrument a little one is playing and plays right along! There are up to six songs that can be sung and he comes with a microphone, tambourine and drums (additional instruments sold separately.)” A likely hit for this year, especially among the pre-school crowd.

For the 6-year-old and up crowd (56 years old??), the Nerf Vortex Vigilon Disc Blaster seems a favorite on all the lists I noticed. The Hasbro toy gun shoots 20 foam discs “in rapid succession” and comes with a scope and pulsating targeting light. It bares a slight resemblance to a Ingram MAC-10 machine pistol, albeit one that is on steroids.

From the “Return of the Weird Teletubbie-looking gadgets” comes the Fijit Friends. Says Toys R US: “Fijit Friends™ are every girl’s best friend – interactive, robotic toys full of personality that talk, dance, laugh and bring a new level of innovation to playtime. Made of soft, tactile skin that enables lifelike movements, girls can poke and squeeze a Fijit Friend™ for fun surprises. With word recognition capability, Fijit Friends™ can understand and respond to more than 30 verbal commands, culling from more than 150 built-in phrases and jokes.”

Everyone knows it's Slinky. More fun than one should ever have with a piece of helical steel.

These Fijits which are in odd purple, green, yellow and pink and have big ears and bug eyes must have something within their cognitive patterns — or pheromones perhaps — which make them attractive to little girls because they seem very androgynous from the outset.

All of this makes one wonder: What happened to the good old toys which were around in my kid days?

“A Spring

A Spring

A marvelous thing

Everyone knows it’s Slinky

It’s Slinky

It’s Slinky

For fun it’s a wonderful toy

It’s fun for a girl or a boy”

Yes, a spring. It’s a wonderful thing. Naval mechanical engineer Richard James was in 1943 seeking a way in which to stabilize and support sensitive instruments on board a ship in rough seas. A star toy was born. Take a helical spring that stretches and can bounce up and down, and you got a child entertained for the rest of his life.

My other favorites as a kid were Play-Doh and the Etch-A-Sketch.

Play-Doh got its start in the 50s as a substance for cleaning wallpaper but it got kids busy using their artistic talents forming the clay into semi-recognizable forms or pretending it was C-4 explosives which would transform a quiet neighborhood into an occupied police setting.

Etch-A-Sketch was and still leaves the sky as a limit as for what artistic mountains one would like to climb. I was always stuck in the foothills, but nonetheless it was a heck of hike. Check out their cool Website and see how far some were able to scale with the little red boxes with gray screens.

Fortunately, all these great toys of my age are still around. It makes me wonder how long the hot toys of this year will still be for sale in the future years?

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Let it snow, let it snow … No, let it rain, let it rain …

This morning’s agenda included catching up on some recently lost sleep.

Still, I woke about 7 a.m. or so, about the usual time to get up for work. But the waking was most likely due to the loud booms of thunder I heard outside, followed by the sound of rain. I immediate clutched my pillow, turned over and went back to sleep.

There is nothing quite like waking up to the sound of thunder and rain. It calms my soul “right quick like.” It’s like something in my brain which registers with an “Oh yeah, that’s just right.”

The rain lasted on and off throughout most of the day until it kind of slacked off this afternoon. The clouds, some of the dark and stormy-looking ones, nonetheless stuck around. A slight chance of rain is forecast for tonight with showers likely for the next couple of days. The days preceding Christmas might bring some showers although Christmas Day itself we’re in store for a bright, cool day.

We are still almost 30 inches below normal rainfall thanks to this long-hovering drought. We need more days like this one. Obviously we have to take what we get.

I love this climate much more than one which is bitter cold and an area left immobile from blizzard. Dreaming of a white Christmas? Why no, I would much rather have a wet Christmas. But I will settle for a bright, mild Christmas Day book-ended by rainy and stormy days that will move us closer to ending this dreaded drought.

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Lampson files with the Texas Democratic Party for Congress

Former U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson has filed for the Texas 14th Congressional District, according to the Texas Democratic Party Web site. Lampson, a former longtime Jefferson County Tax Assessor-Collector and Beaumont native, will run in a district carved up by GOP Texas legislative members which rearranges the counties in a seat currently held by Ron Paul. That district includes Paul’s home Brazoria County along with Galveston and Jefferson counties.

Jefferson County, my home and once a “Yellow Dog” Democrat stronghold in Texas, has been represented in Congress since 2005 by former Houston district judge Ted Poe. He is a great congressman if you like them spending a great deal of their time on Fox News and other right-wing pursuits. I think that this is a positive development, Bubba!

 

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Kim Jong Dead, not Il

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il is dead at age 69 or 70, I’ve seen different ages. That is not something over which to gloat, like say Osama bin Laden’s being taken out by SEALS, although a lot of the world outside the late leader’s inner circle probably isn’t taking his death so very hard. I grew up during a time in which folks were expected to say something good of the dead or not say it. So I’ll say it. Kim Jong Il is dead. That’s good.

One can almost feel sorry for the man. He grew up in the shadow of his father, Kim Il-sung, another self-made larger than life despot. What the next Kim Jong, Kim Jong Un, will be like, one can only imagine. But something I know that will be consistent, at least for awhile, is the Korean Central News Agency, the official news agency of North Korea. It is known far and wide for its clarity, well, I don’t know exactly for what the state news is known. It nonetheless presents its news in a way that only those who write it must truly know.

For instance:

The cause of KJI’s “demise.” — “He suffered an advanced acute myocardial infarction, complicated with a serious heart shock, on train on December 17, Juche 100 (2011) for a great mental and physical strain caused by his uninterrupted field guidance tour for the building of a thriving nation.

This is the late Kim Il Jong on one of his "field guidance" trips. "Please, will you alone leave me so I can guide in field?" -- Korean Central News Agency photo under Fair Use.

 

“Every possible first-aid measure was taken immediately but he passed away at 08:30 on December 17.”

Field guidance must be North Korean Dictator Speak for getting away from the palace and having all the hot babes — DPRK-style — at your beckon and call. I speak of the accompanying photograph. No wonder he had a serious heart shock for a great mental and physical strain.

Funeral plans –-“A farewell-bidding ceremony will be solemnly held in Pyongyang on Dec. 28.

“A national memorial service for Kim  Jong Il will be held on Dec. 29.

“Mourning guns will be boomed in Pyongyang and in provincial seats timed to coincide with the national memorial service in Pyongyang and all the people will observe three minutes’ silence and all locomotives and vessels will blow sirens all at once.”

By God, they don’t just use regular guns to mourn the “Dear Leader,” they have “Mourning Guns.” And forget a moment of silence. You will observe three minutes’ silence or you will face consequences! Respect my authoriti! Dead or alive.

Important Notice to be Released — “Pyongyang, December 19 (KCNA) — An important notice will be released at this noon.”

That’s all it says. Obviously, nothing else that has been released by the news agency is important. But this will be, believe you me.

Will that be orange Juche? — “Kim Jong Il passed away to our sorrow before seeing the victory in the drive for building a thriving nation, his great desire, but we are under respected Kim Jong Un identical to him.

“Kim Jong Un’s leadership provides a sure guarantee for successfully carrying forward the revolutionary cause of Juche through generations, the cause which was started by the President and led by Kim Jong Il to victory.”

Rah rah rah! Sis BOOM Bah goes the dynamite!

“Juche,” according to a Wikipedia entry refers specifically to a political thesis of Kim Il-sung, the Juche Idea, that identifies the Korean masses as the masters of the country’s development. From the 1950s to the 1970s, Kim elaborated the Juche Idea into a set of principles that the government uses to justify its policy decisions. Among these are independence from great powers, a strong military posture, and reliance on Korean national resources. “Juche” has sometimes been translated in North Korean sources as “independent stand” or “spirit of self-reliance”, and has also been interpreted as “always putting Korean things first.” ”

The idea is based on the belief that “Man is the master of everything and decides everything,” according to Kim Il-sung. If that is so, then it seems he is leaving out the part that the “Man” is whomever in the dictator’s family happens to be in charge of the country at the time. That will apparently be, in North Korea’s case, the un-Jong Ill, Kim Jong Un.

We shall see if the saying: “Anything is better than Kim Jong Il is on the mark.”

 

 

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Lampson running for Texas CD14, says Beaumont TV station site

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson will run for Congress in a district with boundaries similar to the one he served, says the Website of Beaumont TV station KFDM Channel 6. The story noted that Lampson will file Monday in Austin although he has not confirmed information from the station’s sources.

Perhaps, finally, a Democrat coming home where he belongs--in Congress

Lampson, 66, was elected Jefferson County Tax Assessor-Collector in 1976 and served in that office for 19 years. He won the 9th congressional district seat in 1996 defeating controversial conservative Steve Stockman in an open primary runoff. The district included his hometown of Beaumont as well as Galveston and a portion of Houston. Lampson was reelected three terms but his district was gerrymandered prior to the 2004 election, moving the part of Houston which included NASA into Tom DeLay’s district and replacing it with heavily Republican areas to the north and east of Houston. Houston district court judge Ted Poe defeated Lampson during that election and that is how, when I moved back to Beaumont in 2005, I wound up with Poe as my congressman. It still stings to say that.

Since that time Poe, whom I think would rather represent Arizona border areas that would keep him on Fox News when he wasn’t “legislating,” has not faced any serious challenges. That has been much to my, and other non-right wingers, despair.

Lampson ran again in 2006. But it was for the 22nd congressional district spot held by much-troubled Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who wisely chose not to seek reelection again. Lampson left his Jefferson County home to run for the seat, moving to Sugar Land in Fort Bend County. He was defeated in the massive incumbent toss in 2008.

The ghost of Mr. Gerry has taken another turn — thanks to a Republican majority in the Texas Lege — albeit so confusing at this point that thinking about it might make my head explode. The gist of it is that Beaumont has been drawn into to Ron Paul’s congressional district. Dr. Paul is not going to run for reelection because he will be president. Yeah. And I think I see a pig’s butt flying over. The new CD 14 will include Paul’s base of Brazoria County, encompass Galveston county including the Bolivar Peninsula as well as Jefferson County and perhaps, or not, a smidgen of Harris County. If by now you do not know that Beaumont, Lampson’s hometown, is Jefferson County seat then either I have confused you well or there is no hope for you.

No Democrats have filed for the CD 14 primary election, so far. Republican candidates who have filed:

  • Bill Sargent, Chief Deputy Clerk of Elections in Galveston County, web developer, retired lieutenant commander, USNR, former congressional staffer. Moved to Galveston in 2004 from Virginia. Obviously not BOI.

I am unsure of any Libertarian or Green party candidates, if any, who have filed. Thursday had been the last day to file for a place on the ballot for the March 6, 2012, primary election. However, a deal developed by the state Democrat and Republican parties to avoid multiple primaries would move the primary to April 3, if a three-judge panel in San Antonio agrees. To find out the latest on filings and elections, go to the VoteTexas.org Website, from the Texas Secretary of State.

The Republicans may just have themselves an interesting primary for CD 14. We shall see what happens on the Dem front.