Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Happy T-Day

You say you're eating me? Hah!
Whether 'T' in your world is "Thanksgiving" or "Turkey" or "Tofurky" ... a veggie turkey-equivalent which we cooked one year and found very tasty but a great deal of trouble to prepare; also, the name of the company that manufactures the veggie turkey as well as many other meat substitutes much easier to prepare and including Polish sausage, Italian sausage, various sandwich-style lunch "meats," and so on... I hope your T-Day is a joyous one, celebrated with friends and family, given over to excess in eating (and drinking if you're not driving somewhere), and focused on the notion that we actually have much good in our world to celebrate, notwithstanding the utter stupidity of evil people who do their best to spoil the celebration. I raise my glass to you all!

Stella and I and our decades-long friend Catherine, none of us being interested in cooking this year, are taking advantage of another culture's indifference to the uniquely American holiday (i.e., they're willing to open their restaurant and make money off of us) by dining at India's, one of our favorite Indian restaurants... indeed, none better in Houston, though a few are as good. None of us has family in Houston or easily accessible, and over the years a personal tradition has emerged: gathering a few long-time friends to serve as family (the tradition is old enough to extend back to including, one year, my father and Catherine's mother, who bravely undertook their first sampling of Indian cuisine) and voicing our gratitude that life has, at least some of the time, been very good to us. I raise my glass also to the late Mr. Bates and the late Mrs. Fairchild, and to other willing "family" who were not biologically family, who gathered with us over the years.

Finally, I heft yet another glass (and begin to grow a bit woozy!) to all of you who blog for the progressive or Democratic or other liberal cause. Hang in there. I can't promise things will improve, but I know we will keep trying, as have so many before us, to better the lives of those less fortunate or downright unfortunate. Surely that is why we are really here. Surely it is any such betterment for which we give thanks. Put aside fear for a day; give your best and receive our best. For all of you I give my thanks; to all of you I raise my glass!

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Kitty Esther's Most Recent Transit Through The Pearly Gates (Cartoon)

Thanks to one of Stella's brothers for the ref. Stella promptly reminded me of the frequent diner card we take to Dimassi's Mediterranean Buffet, which is, in its own right, a kind of paradise...

Thursday, July 30, 2015

The Guardian US Employees Vote... Unanimously... To Unionize

Some people just know how to do it right!


OT, Stella is leaving today for a three-day visit with her brothers and their spouses. This will be the first encounter either of us has had with commercial air travel since, well, since before 9/11/2001, if I recall correctly. [CORRECTION: I remembered at least one other flight Stella made, about the time we moved to Our House.] I don't envy her that encounter, but at least I'm not going along, and Stella, unlike me, is diplomatic enough not to make any sarcastic remarks to the official pokers/prodders, which might be beyond my personal restraint. Meanwhile, the kitties and I are going to find the house mighty quiet until Stella returns...

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Mother's Day: Irma Hurley Bates

Before Mom lost everything to Alzheimer's disease, she was an excellent mother, a respectable singer and a damned fine English teacher. Anything I know about grammar and spelling, I owe to her. Anything I misspell or botch grammatically, the errors are most certainly my own; Mom would have known the proper spelling or grammatical construct.

Mom (1922-1990) grew up on a family farm in the red clay part of East Texas. Her entire family put the lie to the stereotype of farmers lacking in education or erudition. Some of them even had Master's degrees; Mom had "only" a Bachelor's, but used it to good effect, teaching English in parts of Texas in which Spanish was frequently the language spoken at home by her students. Of course she spoke Spanish.

Oh, yes, Mom was a Democrat for many of the same reasons I am today; she lived in an era in which "Democrat" was more or less synonymous with "liberal." I was a very lucky child.

(Much of this post is excerpted from a post on my original blog in 2007. The picture is a snapshot of a studio photo which I have only on paper, and I don't have a working scanner at the moment. Yes, Mom really was that strikingly beautiful... it's easy to see how as a college student she attracted the attention of the football star who later became her husband and my father!)


Saturday, January 19, 2013

NRA: Any Lie Will Do, If It Serves A Political Purpose

Most sane people would assume that President Obama's daughters' school, Sidwell Friends School, does not have armed guards in its employ. Sidwell, affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends (i.e., Quakers), is about as committed a nonviolent institution as exists anywhere in the United States. And they actively deny that their school guards are packing... at all.

Yet the N.R.A. (forget about my publishing a link; find it yourself), in a TV ad, called the president an "elitist hypocrite" for sending his daughters to a school that has armed guards while opposing such guards at other schools.

So... what gives? what's really going on?

Simple, really... the N.R.A., in its ad, is a bunch of goddamned outright liars.

Yes, apparently it is that simple. Believe Quakers, or believe self-serving liars? I know who I believe.

And their Middle School just took its second First Place debate trophy in the DC Urban Debate League. I'm not sure it's wise for anyone to face down young people packin' words that big...

Static Pages (About, Quotes, etc.)

No Police Like H•lmes



(removed)