Category: Commentary

Dream Weaver

Last night I dreamt that I rescued two dogs from an abusive situation. One was a large, light brown mutt who was severely malnourished. The other was a cute little chihuahua who seemed bouncy and healthy.

I took them home and then multiple crises arose: my kids needed help, my job was nuts, there were aliens landing on the front lawn, etc. I forgot about the large dog and found him dead in the backyard. I cried and cried because I knew I was solely responsible for his death.

The little dog was still okay, though. Apparently I’d fed him, and he was still sweet and cute. But having killed the large dog I couldn’t give my heart to the small one. It felt like a huge betrayal, so I gave it away to a family who seemed like they’d cherish it.

I think I know what this dream was trying to tell me. I’m going to change my priorities starting now. 

Thanks for letting me share this. 

Take care, and peace, people.

Looking Hot

looking
hot
for a
woman
like me
who
is not
takes an
exhausting
amount of
energy.
i think
now
might be
a good
time
for a
nap.
zzzzzzzzzzzz

  
Peace, people!

Not So Famous Quotes

What has happened to the “Like” button on our WordPress posts? Has it been abducted by aliens? Has it eloped, soon to be known as “Love”? Or has some more sinister fate befallen the “Like” button?

I miss being liked. I miss being able to like. Seriously! My emotional state is fragile. So, I give you some less well known quotes from history. I’m sure there are more, but I’m quite drained right now due to the lack of likes.

          A Few Not So Famous Quotes

“Give me ‘Likes’ or give me death!”–Patrick Henry’s cousin twice removed

“I regret that I have but no ‘likes’ to give to my fellow bloggers!”–Nathan Hale or someone pretending to be Nathan Hale at an alternative Revolutionary War reenactment.

“You ‘like’ me! You really ‘like’ me!”–Sally Field upon receiving an Oscar.

“Why don’t you come up and ‘like’ me sometime?”–Mae West in a different movie than the one you’re thinking of.

“Go ahead. ‘Like’ my post.”–Dirty Harry’s less macho friend, Clean Barry.

“Han! I ‘like’ you!”–Princess Leia Organa might’ve said this before they arrived on Cloud City.

“I know.”–Han Solo actually said this, and I ‘like’ it.

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one ‘like'”–Lao Tzu never even thought about saying this.

And there you have it. Bring back the “Like” before things get ugly-ish.

“Peace and ‘Likes.’ Peace and ‘Likes!'”–Ringo Starr came really close to saying this.

What’s Not to “Like”?

Dear WordPress,

What has happened to the “like” button on many of our posts? First I noticed that I was unable to “like” the postings from several of my blogging friends, and now I’ve been informed that the function has disappeared from my own posts.

Listen, sometimes the “like” I get on a post is the only positive reinforcement I get all day long. Sure, it might just be a perfunctory “like” without even a thorough reading of my post, but life is short. I’ll take every “like” that comes my way.

And I dislike not being able to “like” the posts of others. It makes me sad to think that they don’t know I liked their poem or essay or cartoon or rant. I can comment on the post, but somehow commenting without leaving a “like” seems passive aggressive and perhaps disingenuous:

“Yes, I READ your post, but I didn’t actually LIKE your post.”

Furthermore, I’m tired of putting quotation marks around the word, “like” considering I’m not even sure it’s the right thing to do. But, “liking” is the right thing to do! Please let us “like” and be “liked!”

Sincerely yours,

The Immensely Likeable Nananoyz

Bad Combination?

I’m sitting outside on this gorgeous north Florida fall morning watching over a friend’s garage sale. The friend, Bachelor Dave, is Studly Doright’s best golf buddy. He’s an all-around good guy, so I offered to take on the garage sale duty so he and Studly could pair up for 18 holes. Great idea!

Bachelor Dave has some pretty cool stuff in the sale: Artwork, lamps, golf clubs, flooring, easels and tripods. His cast offs are nicer than my every day stuff. So far, sales have been steady, and I’m having fun. 

I failed to mention that the garage sale is a community event in the Southwood development where Dave H. resides, so there are sales going on all up and down the streets in this normally laid back Tallahassee neighborhood. Some folks are out walking from sale to sale, but shoppers from outside the neighborhood are driving.

Now, I also failed to mention that another big event is taking place simultaneously in Southwood: A 5k run!

Talk about a bad combination. If you’ve ever witnessed drivers intent on finding a garage sale bargain you’ll understand the problem. Near misses, close calls, and extended middle fingers seem to be the order of the day. This could make Thunderdome seem like a polite tennis match. It’s certainly made for an interesting morning.

 

This beautiful guy visited the sale.
 
None of the runners would hold still for me to snap a photo, but this is representative .
  
Peace, people!

Making Friends

I might’ve found a friend today in the handbag department at Dillard’s. She moved to Tallahassee a year to the day before I did. If that’s not the basis for a good friendship I don’t know what is.

 

We bonded over this Frye bag. Good heavens the woman has good taste!
 
Peace, people.

That Awkward Moment

I don’t call into comment on talk radio programs. Or at least I don’t call in with the expectation of actually getting through to the host. But yesterday I was listening to Pete Dominic’s show, Stand Up with Pete Dominic on Sirius/XM 122 Insight and became horrified by what was being said by a guest on the show. 

He was defending Donald Trump’s false accusations about President Obama. I was furious. I pulled to the side of the road and dialed the number on my radio display, ready to come to the defense of my president, as if the Commander-in-Chief needs a retired teacher in Florida to protect his virtue.

Almost as soon as I hit “send” on my phone I realized that the show’s host was mocking the Donald and his supporters. It was a satirical show. Rather than hang up I waited until my call was answered a few seconds later and explained my mistake to the intern who took my call. 

She said, “I’m going to put you on with Pete. Hold on.”

Well, crap. What was I supposed to do now? Say, “oopsie” and be done with it? When Pete Dominic came on the line I explained my mistake. He laughed and asked if I’d ever listened to his show before. I admitted to being a first time listener, first time caller.

After poking a bit more fun at the Donald I went on my way and enjoyed the remainder of the program. 

Now, kiddies, what did we learn from this experience? If you want to be on a national radio program do not stop to listen to all the facts. No. Make a snap judgement and act on it. That’s what the Donald does. 

FYI, this is the exchange at a town hall meeting hosted by Trump’s campaign that prompted Trump’s comments, thus leading to the satire on Mr. Dominic’s program and my error:

Mr. Trump call on a man in the audience who said:

“We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims. We know our current president is one. We know he’s not even an American. Birth certificate, man!” the man said, alluding to the “birther” movement. “We have training camps growing where they want to kill us. That’s my question: When can we get rid of them?”

Rather than setting the man straight, Mr. Trump said that he would look into that.

Donald Trump has a really tough time speaking the truth. That he is the Republican front runner is disturbing. God help us if he lands the nomination for his party.

Peace, people.

College Mascots

Studly Doright and I have lived in five different states, and have adopted a “bloom where you’re planted” mentality.

When we moved from Texas to North Dakota we learned to enjoy knoefla soup and rivel. In Kansas we learned to pronounce Arkansas incorrectly, and in Florida we learned to value SPF 90. In Illinois we learned the value of a college mascot.

We’re Texans, Studly and I. Having grown up near Lubbock, I was convinced that Texas Tech was the best university in the nation and that Raider Red and the Masked Rider were the absolute best mascots anywhere. They’re still close to the top of my list.

   
 
Studly was more of a University of Texas guy, so I accepted Bevo, as well.

   
 When we moved to North Dakota I attended the University of Mary in Bismarck. So I had a new mascot in my life, the Marauder:

  
From North Dakota we moved to Kansas and fell hard for the University of Kansas Jayhawk mascot. Both of our kids attended KU and Big Jay is a dandy mascot. There’s even a Baby Jay:

  
After Kansas we ended up in Melbourne, Florida, but didn’t form an attachment to any of the Florida college teams during that four year period. But when we moved to Mahomet, IL, just outside of Champaign, we quickly adopted Chief Illiniwek, proud mascot of The University of Illinois.

  
Unfortunately, the Chief’s reign as the Illini mascot ended shortly after we moved to Illinois. I promise we had nothing to do with his demise. Eight years after the end of the Chief the U of I still has no mascot. That makes me sad. I understand that Native American groups found the portrayal of the chief disrespectful, but shouldn’t we have had an alternative in place? 

We currently live near Tallahassee, Florida, the home of two universities: Florida A&M and Florida State.

FAMU’s mascot is a rattlesnake.  

   
Not exactly a cuddly mascot, but I love it! 

Florida State has Chief Osceola and his faithful steed, Renegade.

  
I understand that the Seminole people have an agreement with Florida State University that allows FSU to use the likeness of one of the most famous Chiefs in history as their mascot. It’s sad that the University of Illinois couldn’t have worked out a similar agreement with the Illini.

At any rate, Studly and I are enjoying our new mascots. Soon I want to attend football games at both FAMU and FSU. I need to see what those mascots look like in action. 

Peace, people!

Update on Cooking for Studly, Dammit!

One of the key ingredients for cornbread dressing is, duh, cornbread. Instead of making my cornbread from scratch I bought a mix. It was a new brand and I read over the list of dry ingredients to make sure there was no sugar in the mix. Sweet cornbread does not make a good dressing base. Trust me on this. 

The cornbread baked up beautifully. And sweet. I must’ve missed the sugar listed on the box. Perhaps I was just weakened by the manual labor. Poor, poor me.

Thank goodness I tasted the cornbread before I began putting together all of the other ingredients. Of course now there’s no time to bake another batch of cornbread, but fortunately I had some Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix on hand. I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed and will appreciate it if yours are crossed, too. Unless you’re doing something important, like brain surgery.

Peace, people.