STUFF I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT

O.K.  Brace yourselves.  I'm finally gonna blog but I'm not sure where this is heading.  I may offend some, or all, of you.  But, what the hey, I'm old now so what do I care?

I'm watching the Iron Chef on the Food Channel.  I love this show.  But I think Morimoto might get beat tonight.  Wait.  Let's see.  Well, I'll be darned.  He won it again, in all categories.  But he cut his finger.  So it goes.

Libya.  The rebels (who don't want to be called rebels) apparently are winning a decisive battle in Tripoli tonight.  Two of Gadhafi's sons reportedly are in rebel hands.  Many, many residents have come out praising the turnover.  There is still shooting as I'm writing this and Colonel Gadhafi is still urging his supporters to continue fighting.  There is a BBC report that he is in Algeria but the daffy dude is unpredictable.

MY Arizona Diamondbacks have now lost five games in a row.  The Giants finally won today so they're only 1-1/2 games behind my guys.  We have a few more days out of town before the team returns home, which is usually much more friendly to them.

It is hotter than h--- here but, as I remind myself, it is only the third week of August.  It's Arizona.  It's supposed to be hot.  But we could use some of that monsoon rain that is slipping off to the east.

Speaking of which, another hurricane is heading toward Florida.  It may only be a tropical storm by the time it gets there but it may also gain strength.  No one can really tell, in spite of all the technical skill the weather forecasters now have.

We had a visit from a friend today who worked in television and radio for many years.  She, as she has told us on the last couple of visits, has become totally upset with "our" old t.v. channel in Phoenix.  She complains about their programs but mainly today about the use (or over-use) of the term "you guys" by the t.v. news reporters.  As in . . . reporter pitching back to the anchors "so that's it from here, guys . . ."  Never mind the fact that the anchors are a "guy" and a "gal".  She says everybody overuses that term and she hates it - "Can you imagine Walter Cronkhite ever saying that?"  Well, no, I can't.  But times change and so does language.

I have another friend who has been a lifelong liberal Democrat.  But he is just beside himself with the actions of President Obama in the past nearly three years.  But I say it's a different time and a different scene in Washington.  I think he's doing the best that he can and we need to just give him time to do what's best for the country.  My dad was a lifelong Republican.  But he always watched the presidential speeches on television because "he is our president."  In these times, people seem to forget that we have only one president and he represents all of us.

One other subject to rant about.  Education in the U.S.A.  I was shocked, as I can imagine many of you were, when I heard the news story about the teachers who cheated on their students' tests to pass them on.  One teacher said "what are we going to do when we have a student who comes to begin high school and they are reading at a third grade level."  Too often, students have been passed on and on and on without doing the work or learning ANYTHING.  I fear that we have a generation, perhaps two generations, of young people who are virtually illiterate, who have no job skills, no education.  They've been trained to pass "the test", not to know anything.  I can only wonder where this nation is going with all of these un- or under-educated children "taking over" for we older and dying people.  Where will it all end?  Is it Rome all over again?

O.K.  I think I'm through for now.  I'll get back to you.