Category: Orphans

It is somewhat difficult to write something with a modicum of thought when the writer is in a pissy mood. What put me in a pissy mood is irrelevant. Even I don’t fully know why my disposition is foul. It is a combination of factors.

But aren’t you always pissed off, you might ask? And your point is … ?

That isn’t to say I can’t write when I am of ill humor. I don’t know how many words I have written while pissed off over the 17 years I worked full time for newspapers. If a way existed to determine that number of words typed while ticked I am sure it would be a number or a percentage of such sheer size that it would depress me.

A great difference may be found in writing for work, especially under a tight deadline, and writing for the pure pleasure. Yes, I write this blog for pleasure. It’s a hobby and one which helps me to keep in touch with the thought processes I must summon when I have, what has become, the occasional writing job these days.

Interestingly enough, once I became good at deadline writing I found I enjoyed it albeit in palatable doses. I did “rewrite” during certain breaking stories. It wasn’t so much that I handled that task because of my skill, it was more like I just happened to be on top of the event and ran with it. For non-newspaper people, when I say rewrite, I refer to taking calls from reporters in the field and writing them into an ever-developing story. The only monetary prize I received in my career as a full-time journalism — my half of a $1,000 company-wide award shared with another reporter — was during a breaking story in which I did the rewrite. I have to say that I miss the adrenalin buzz from breaking news, but not enough to quit what I am doing and going back to work for a newspaper.

I seemed to veer off the original subject a bit even though that is okay. The point I wanted to make is that although at times I am might possess a bad mood I can still write and sometimes just the action of putting together words — perhaps cleverly every once in a while — can lighten my mood.

I like to control my writing. I like to herd my wording like an old-time cowboy pushing those “little doggies” up the trail. I don’t always succeed either. But I also exercise more control when my mood is sufficiently stable and free from a sudden “damnittohell.” So, I’ll just kick back today and not attempt to write anything requiring much thought and I will hibernate thus lessening the chance of compounding my “tickedoffedness.” Is tickedoffedness a word? It should be.

 

In a grocery store earlier today I saw a sight that caused my jaw to nearly drop. The store folks were changing out prices in their cigarette case and they were putting up a sign for a carton — Marlboros I believe — priced at $60. That is Sixty Dollars a carton!

Over the past 10 years I have felt better and better about having quit smoking for health reasons as well as when prices go up, and they have steadily risen over time. But Holy Sprio Agnew! I never would have imagined seeing a carton of cigarettes selling for so much.

For those who are either so addicted or so rich they can still smoke, I am sure the reason for some of these increases will really tick you off. The best that I can call them are “pre-emptive tax hikes.”

This story in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch explains:

“Just last Saturday, cigarette makers Philip Morris and Lorillard hiked the cost of cigarettes by $10 a carton. On Monday, R. J. Reynolds will follow suit. And that’s before the federal tax hike kicks in next month that’ll tack on an extra $6 or so for each carton.”

The rationale is the anticipated federal tax hikes hit carton sales the most because people buy cartons when the taxes increase. But cigarette manufacturers make less money that way thus the price increase.

All of this makes me wonder if eventually government will tax themselves out of a source of revenue by making cigarettes too expensive for anyone to purchase? Of course, you can still can get a pack of Bugler tobacco with which to roll your own for pretty cheap. I guess once cigarettes are no longer a source of tax revenue then they’ll go after rolling tobacco. Oh well, it’s no longer my worry. Thank goodness.

Has your head hurt more lately than normal? If that is the case one reason may be hot air.

A study published in the Neurology medical journal has concluded higher temperatures as well as low air pressure play some part in headaches. As one who suffers migraine-like headaches due to degenerative arthritis of the cervical spine, the latter part of that isn’t much of a surprise.

Periods of intense low barometric pressure such as from hurricanes and from certain types of winter storm systems often leave me feeling I was dragged through Hell hanging on to a sack of manure and the sack broke apart. I have read a good deal about the relationship or supposed relationship between low air pressure and arthritis but I don’t think any type of definitive link has ever been established. My friends sometime think I am stuck in the 19th century when I speak of my weather-related aches and pains.

But the higher temperature related to headaches is interesting. I have had headaches during times in which I was hot, including a few bouts of heat exhaustion. Also, I have seen people use a cool, wet rag on their head as a remedy for headache.

Given such news as this link between heat and low air pressure, it immediately gives me pause as to whether superheated air might be unhealthy such as that coming from our politicians. Of course, I don’t know whether all that hot air from places such as Washington and my state capital of Austin would produce high or low air pressure but either way I am sure if one is around it enough they are sure to get a headache.

But I also worry what might happen if all that hot air is not given a means to vent. Could you imagine? Why one day we could have a cataclysmic explosion (or implosion) from all that unvented hot air. So it seems we might have to choose. Do you want a headache, or do you want the Big Bang II?

Much ado about Barbie turning the big Five-O. I have to admit, the old gal still looks pretty good although it helps when you’re skin is plastic.

To celebrate five decades of America’s doll, Barbie is getting fabulous digs in Malibu as well as tattooed, whether that is as in “screwed, blued and tattooed” one can only guess. Ken is probably off somewhere searching for his Viagra.

Just what kind of scandal may result after Barbie finishes partying with the Hollyweird crowd remains to be seen. Of course, controversy and a hard-partying lifestyle has never been far from Barbie.

Barbie, born Barbie Jo MacAlister, grew up the daughter of a single mother who waited tables in a diner outside Cut and Shoot, Texas. The mother-daughter duo lived in a series of mobile home parks until being discovered by Mattel company officials.

With America in what some perceived as a more innocent age during the time of Barbie’s discovery, Mattel executives originally sought to mass market the Barbie as a very inexpensive doll whom young, impoverished girls could emulate. However, a focus group quickly steered the toy company away from the idea thus scrapping the idea for “Trailer Park Barbie Jo.”

The life of Barbie is the life of America over the past 50 years. If ever a trend surfaced, Barbie rode the crest of that trend. There was Beatlemania Barbie, Acid-Head Barbie, Patty Hearst Barbie, Punk Barbie, Saturday Night Fever Barbie, Urban Cowgirl Barbie, Flashdance Barbie, Wall Street Barbie, Coke smuggler Barbie, Federal Inmate No. 687743 Barbie, White House Intern Barbie, Pregnant Barbie, Conservative Blonde Talk Show Barbie and most recently AARP Barbie.

While some have expressed worries about the exposure from the 50th celebration of Barbie, they can rest assured that the Plastic One has kicked up her heels enough that she is in all likelihood too pooped to have a mid-life crisis.

Here is to another 50 years, Ensure Barbie and whatever the future holds.

Many comparisons are being made between the current economic funk and the recession of the 1980s. That said, it is a connection that I really have difficulty remembering.

During the first four years of the 80s I was a full-time college student drawing the fruits of the GI Bill — where a veteran would get a flat amount each month that was not a match of funds — as well as working full-time as a municipal firefighter. Just prior to graduating I was making about $17,000 a year in 1983, adjusted for inflation, that would have the buying power of more than $36,000 today.*** If I recall correctly, the rent of my first real apartment in those days was about $75 per month. I paid bills for a landline phone, all one had back then, electricity and after a year of working for the FD and just prior to starting college I bought my second new Corolla which set me back a little on the car note and insurance.

***Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Inflation Calculator

If one was around back then and perhaps you were going to college you may have had it easier than me financially or perhaps more difficulty making ends meet. I never really worried about paying bills, or eating or where my next cold beer was coming from. No, working as a firefighter and attending college I had more serious things to worry about, such as whether that brunette wanted to go out and if not how easily could I score an alternative.

I didn’t keep up nearly extensively with the news then as I do today, one reason of course is that you are inundated with news choices these days. Plus, besides being active with work, school work, extra-curricular activities and fun extra-curricular activities, I didn’t pay much attention to what was happening with the economy.

With that long-winded preface I must say that I didn’t notice if there were as many workers taking pay cuts back then as it seems there are these days. Maybe there were and I just didn’t notice it.

I have heard of workers whose pay was cut through the years but it was usually in very dire circumstances such as when union members were forced to agree to pay cuts during bargaining with companies that would otherwise give up the ghost. But I don’t know whether it was this widespread in years past as now that people are having pay cuts forced on them. I don’t know how it is for most folks, but for a lot of people such as myself a sudden cut in pay could be or would be catastrophic. Just a very quick Google turned up these recent cuts in pay for workers:

–A group of Microsoft contract workers met on a street corner after work Monday night to organize a protest of a 10 percent cut in pay.
–Declining revenues are compelling employees of E.W. Scripps media company to cut employees’ salaries by 3-to-5 percent.
—This California police department with 126 officers is cutting salaries by 10 percent rather than lose 17 positions.
—Owners of small businesses themselves face pay cuts rather than cut or possibly lose workers.

These are real people with real families feeling real pain from this very real recession or mini-depression or whatever the hell one wants to call it. That’s why I have difficulty shedding tears for conservative leaders who predict the end of the world as we know it unless all taxes known to man are eliminated. The great GOP answer to all ills is “tax cuts.” Things have got to change and change for the better. But will they and will it happen soon enough to prevent perhaps hundreds of thousands of people ending up homeless and on the street? It is something to think about this weekend.