Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) Minneapolis Airport Bathroom Arrest

I think I took a dump in that john last May. My feet didn't bump anything and there is NO WAY I would be picking up a piece of toilet paper from the floor!

Greetings From the YO

Once upon a time never comes again.

Help Me Out on This...

I think a good argument could be made that the Democratic party is in principle the more supportive party towards gays and gay rights. Conversely, Republican legislators most consistently vote against gay marriage and other gay rights.

So why is it all the closeted gays turn out to be Republicans? Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) being the latest.

Don't play Barney Frank. He never hid his orientation.

It Turns Out Our Group Wasn't the Most Watched Bunch at the El San Juan

On Thursday night Eddie, I and a couple others headed to "The Palm" steak house for a few hundred dollars worth of dead cow. There was this over the top, hot blonde in line behind us. You just couldn't help noticing. In fact I noticed so much it never occurred to me to look at her partner. Finally, after we were seated, someone said, "Hey, that's (rapper cum actor) Ice-T with the blonde."

What show was he on?

Where Do You Fit In?

Check this out.

What did I have? Fifty-six last year?

I'm sitting on number 82 right now for '07. The more I read the more there is. Of course, being retired and spending lots of time in airports, I HAVE the time to read.

This Kind of Thing Happens to Me ALL the Time!

Sometimes I'm jealous of myself. These are a couple of my friends from recruiting in Puerto Rico. My pal, Eddie LaVigne, marked 25 years of recruiting in Puerto Rico last weekend. Several former recruiters flew in to celebrate with him. And it was a pretty, pretty, pretty good time.

More pictures to come as they send them to me.

Such good friends...

More Thoughts on Television Ads

So have you seen these Binder and Binder Law Firm ads? What is the deal with the stupid hat? What is the image they are trying to project? A geek lawyer in a suit wearing some kind of pseudo-cowboy hat. Doesn't make sense.

I don't even think he is a real cowboy.

My Weekend With George

I got a call last week from my friend George's daughter Janet. He and I were great diving buddies back in my salad days of the 70's when I was stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It was his 70th birthday and she wanted to know if I could come down to Fayetteville, NC to help celebrate. We had kind of lost track of each other for about 25 years, only reconnecting a couple years ago. So naturally I went.

Janet cooked up a BS story to get him to the airport and we completely surprised him. It was one of those airport scenes I see all the time and never get to participate in.

So George was once a Marine and like ex-Marines everywhere he never completely let it go. (Not like any paratroopers I could mention.) Thus the decoration on his cake.

While we were there George took me down to the infamous Hay Street. Back in my day the 500 block of Hay Street was a rough neighborhood. One bar, The Town Pump, had stood there since World war II. It was immortalized in the book "The Devils With Baggy Pants" about the famous 504th Airborne Infantry battalion of the 82d Airborne Division.

Now everything is gone. Urban renewal. In the place of the Town Pump stand a medical center.

BUT, across the street stand the new Airborne and Special Operations museum to which we paid a visit.


It was very cool with displays of the history of the paratroop operations.

On the walkway leading to the entrance were these blocks commemorating various folks who had served in the airborne.

Of all the blocks there was actually one of a man I once knew. General Lewis was my Division Artillery commander when I was in the 82d. It was a surprise to know he had passed away. I guess I always see the guys from back then as forever young.

Up in the rafters was an old WW II era C-47 troop transport aircraft.

This guy was "standing in the door!" A position I took 47 times in my career.

Of all the displays, from before WWII, up through Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Afghanistan and Iraq, the display covering my service in the 82d Airborne was the shortest. It basically covered Soviets, but we never did. Does anyone even remember the Soviets?

So anyway, here is George's sweetheart of a daughter Janet:


All in all, it was a wonderful time. Those guys treat me like family.

I Don't Even Know Where to Start With This...

First, I hope I never die. Because every day I am astounded at the stuff that develops. It just gets better and better.

So I've got the TV on, not really watching. There's this commercial on for something called "Mirapex," a treatment for RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome), a dread disease you never heard of ten years ago. I SWORE I heard them say one of the side effects is "an urge to gamble!" I thought I must have heard that wrong. So it comes on again and sure enough,some of the side effects may be an urge to gamble or engage in sexual activity. All this to keep your legs from kicking?

They'll be putting this stuff in the water supply out in Vegas.

Remember AC-DC?

Those guys were geniuses.

Peace Corps Update II

This past week I got started on the medical and dental clearances needed to finish my Peace Corps application. First came a couple visits to Art, my personal physician. He shot me up for Tetanus, a polio booster (Who ever heard of a polio booster?) and measles/mumps/rubella. Three needles in two minutes. Ouch! Actually it wasn't all that bad. I remember being dragged kicking and screaming to Dr. Baldwin's for those original polio vaccinations a lifetime ago.

My eyesight checked out at 20/15 in the left and 20/20 in the right, jet pilot eyes.

Blood pressure: 114/70. Resting heart rate: 48.

Thursday I had the dentist visit for X-rays and cleaning. Turns out the last time I had been to the dentist was 1995! Surprisingly my teeth are in pretty good shape in spite of that.

All in all I'm in pretty good shape.

Once I get all the forms filled out and the appropriate physician signatures I should be complete. It'll be up to the Peace Corps docs to approve and give me final clearance.

Then it's just a matter of waiting for an invitation. No I don't know where I'm going yet. I won't know until the invitation.

Plus I still have to sell this house...

Why Sometimes I LIKE Flying

Commercial air travel these days is largely a pain. Late flights,oversold flights, missed connections, lost luggage, non-existent bad airline food, cramped seats.

But, sometimes you get a cool moment. The other night I was on the Red-Eye from Vancouver to Chicago. The skies were clear all the way to the deck. It was a moonless night and not much light pollution so the stars were in full view. Way off behind us to the northwest was a line of thunderstorms, lightning flashing below our altitude.

That in itself was beautiful to see. But then a meteor flashed overhead. A "Wow" moment!

You don't get that with your feet stuck on the ground.

Back From British Columbia

And it was an awesome trip! I swear someday I'm gonna move up there. Maybe Victoria or Vancouver, BC. Post-Peace Corps of course.

We kayaked for MILES and saw all kind of marine life. Orcas, Minke and Humpback whales, seals, sea lions, a bear, a million bald eagles, loons (my favorite call), ate fresh caught wild salmon, relaxed aboard the 68 foot refitted ship, The Columbia III. Just had the best time.

Have a look at my pix on Picasa.

So you can go there for a look. I'll add more as I get them from my fellow shipmates.

Meanwhile I'm doing the medical clearance thing for the Peace Corps. No prostate exam required, but still a kind of a pain in the ass.

The Parents Respond

This morning's earlier post brought this quick reply via e-mail from my mother:
"...the story is pretty much accurate....the condition of the Lady was more
than just age!!! She was deaf, nearly blind and since her fur was graying,
she blended in with the gravel. Dad has grieved for many years over this
accident and even today says it hurts him....."

Hey, at least they didn't claim "Executive Privilege!"

At Last The Truth Comes Out!

It's a scandal worse than Watergate. Finally my parents (who shall remain anonymous) let the proverbial cat out of the bag yesterday when they acknowledged that on July 9, 1975 Dad accidentally backed the car over "Lady," our long time pet Cocker Spaniel. "Lady" had been a member of the family (even though she was never actually allowed in the house) for many years and in her old age liked to sun herself out on the driveway. At the time I had recently been stationed in South Korea, so a cover-up was undertaken. As always the cover-up is worse than the actual crime itself! The details of "Lady's" last moments are still murky. But, suspicion has it our then neighbor, an Ohio Highway Patrolman, was recruited to apply the coup de grace.

Apparently the parents were leaving for the hospital to celebrate the birth of my niece and their first grandchild Jill.

So Happy Birthday Jill! Many happy returns.

I'm like Mr. Bojangles. "After thirty years he still grieves..."

I'm Pretty Sure I've Seen It All Now...

Was I dreaming or did I see a Paper-Scissors-Rock "Championship" on ESPN last night? They even had a $50,000 grand prize!

I'll just go ahead and die now. There's nothing left.

New Seven Wonders of the World Announced

Something called the New Open World Corporation (NOWC) among a little controversy announced the newest "official" Wonders of the World were announced on July 7th. The list consists of:
1. The Pyramids of Giza (Egypt)
2. The Taj Mahal (India)
3. Machu Picchu (Peru)
4. The Roman Colosseum (Italy)
5. The Great Wall (China)
6. Chichen Itza (Mexico)
7. Christ the Redeemer Statue (Brazil)

The Pyramids were sort of "Grandfathered in" based upon complaints their inclusion should never have been questioned in the first place because it is the only surviving member of the original Seven Wonders. The whole process was a little bogus since it resulted from a combination of free and paid votes and was not available to people who didn't have access to the internet. NOWC even admitted someone could vote multiple times.

But, I would say it's a pretty decent list. I've been to five of the seven. The five I've visited without exception had a huge "Wow" factor.

I would have included Angkor Wat in Cambodia or Stonehenge in the UK over maybe the statue in Brazil. It just seems the stuff built in ancient times are cooler.

PARIS IS FREE!

OUR LONG NATIONAL NIGHTMARE IS OVER!

At 12:15AM Pacific Daylight Time today, amidst hundreds of fans, papparazzi and curious morons and on live nationwide TV, celebrity skank Paris Hilton did the reverse perp walk from some county jail in LA into the waiting arms of mommy and daddy in their black Caddie Escalade. The for-some-unknown-reason-popular Miss Hilton earned her release after, I don't know, two or three weeks of jail time for some kind of driving infraction involving alcohol. Really, who gives a shit?

Meanwhile the number of Americans killed in the Iraq misadventure approaches 4,000, civil war has plunged that poor country into bloody chaos. Tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been slaughtered. Cheney runs the government he was not elected to.

Go back to sleep.

Peace Corps Update

Had my second interview just now with the Peace Corps recruiter. My application process is moving along and my next piece will be a nomination. We went over several opportunities for service. Most are in the field of non-profit group or NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) advising. They also include HIV/AIDS teaching. Almost all Peace Corps postings involve that.

So here were the postings she had available for my time frame:

1. April 2008, sub-Saharan Africa
2. June 2008, Eastern Europe
3. May-Jun 2008, The Caucasus
4. Jun 2008, Caribbean (non-Spanish speaking)
5. June 2008, sub-Saharan Africa
6. March 2008, North Africa (Morocco)
7. June 2008, Central Asia/Asia
8. April 2008, sub-Saharan Africa

My two preferences, in order, are Numbers 1 and 6. She said I have a 50/50 chance of getting one of those two.

Now I have to get my medical and legal clearances. Those could take as long as six month.

Do you hear that? My new future approaches.

So does yours.

Celebrity News

1. Inmate Paris Hilton's mother is kinda hot. More so than Paris. Her Dad looks like a dick though.

2. Keith Olbermann is fantastic as host on MSNBC's Countdown. But, his replacement when he is away, Allison Stewart, is hilarious. She needs her own show.