If Dobie had taken Zelda on a few dates, Rock Hudson would be alive today

From a Facebook posting:

“MyTV shows programs from the ‘50s and ‘60s. A whole bunch of them. Car 54 came on the other night and Priscilla said, “Some theme songs you just remember.” Unfortunately. Stick in the head all day. Ode to Billy Joe. I turn off the radio, but I heard the guitar entry and it’s there alllll day.”

And who can forget this timeless classic:

Here’s a story
About a boy named Dobie
And his beeeessst friend
NamedMaynardGKrebs

I forget the rest.

The thing about Dobie, he wanted what he couldn’t have, or “who” he couldn’t have – Thalia Menninger (“have” in the 1959-63 sense of … well, sort of possessing, but not really, and certainly not “have” in the sexual sense. Nobody had sex then. Not television characters. Mr. and Mrs. Gillis did not have and had not had sex. Never and ever. Maynard’s parents … No, man. Yuuchsville, man.).

Who else never had sex, in the normal sense? Zelda. All those times she was after Dobie, all those school dances and movies, rides in cars or Halloween hayrides on wagons and such … Never happened.

It’s Dobie’s fault.

Zelda “came out” a few years ago. If Dobie had taken Zelda to a few movies, borrowed Dad’s car, gone on a hayride or so, maybe things would have been different and Zelda would not have hung around in the closet all those years.

Why is it a news story when somebody famous “comes out?” If homosexuality is normal, why does it matter when somebody announces he or she is “gay?”

Years ago my wife attended a national meeting of executive directors of an organization. At the first session, each ED introduced herself and told where she was from. The woman running the meeting then introduced members of the national staff. Before introducing one man, she asked him, “Should I tell them?” He replied, “Yes.” The woman said, “He is gay.”

When telling me of the meeting my wife said, “Why would anybody refer to himself as a sex act?”

I thought, Wow. That’s true. When a man says he is gay, he means he has sex with other men. There is no other meaning. When a woman says she is gay, she means she has sex with other women. That’s it.

A contestant on this TV season’s Survivor is a retired New York Police Department detective. During some part of the show, I wasn’t paying that much attention until the man said, “I am gay. That’s who I am.”

What? You spend your adult life as a policeman, much of it as a detective, yet you see yourself as gay, and nothing else? You summarize your entire life with the declaration you have sex with other men. That’s it? There is nothing else?

Pay attention. When a man says he is gay, he says he has sex with other men. That. Is. It. There is no other meaning. None.

I’m supposed to do some wrap-up here, but it isn’t necessary. My point has been made.

Communication

I was all set for fixing breakfast -- thawed a bread loaf overnight, had the recipe for Breakfast Rolls on file and ready to print. Got into the living room at 6:20… and Cylla was eating cereal. I said, “Are you going in early?” She said, “I am. I have an insurance meeting at 9, and I want to make sure I’ve got everything I need.”

So much for my culinary plans. But … The bread was thawed. So charging ahead went I. Printed the recipe. Got everything together – chopped ½ cup walnuts (the recipe said 1/2 cup pecans [optional], but I didn’t have any, so I opted for walnuts); ½ cup melted butter (Hmm. OK, that’s why I have a microwave); ½ cup brown sugar; 3.5 ounce package cook and serve butterscotch pudding (Where’d that come from? I don’t remember reading that before! Checked pantry because, maybe, I had read that before and bought a package … Nope. Well, shoot. I guess I’ll have to wait until … What’s that on the top shelf? Cook and serve vanilla pudding! Hey, pudding is pudding.)

Everything was going now. Oven heated, 9-inch Bundt pan sprayed, bread cut into 16 pieces and rolled, walnut chops sprinkled in Bundt pan, butter melted and brown sugar stirred in. Sixteen rolls placed on top of walnut chops; pudding sprinkled on top of rolls; cinnamon on pudding; butter/brown sugar on cinnamon. We are ready to go. Check recipe one last time for cooking time – 25-30 minutes.

And: Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in refrigerator 6-8 hours.

Oh. That hadn’t been there before. How was that added to the recipe while the recipe sat in a “breakfast recipes” file?

I told Cylla. She said, “Oh, it will be dessert tonight.”

Optimist.

Honesty arrives late in life

“When I was started out as a writer I took credit for draft evasion where I shouldn't have. I washed up in Canada with some vague idea of evading the draft but then I was never drafted so I never had to make the call. I don't know what I would have done if I'd really been drafted. I wasn't a tightly wrapped package at that time. If somebody had drafted me I might have wept and gone. I wouldn't have liked it of course.”
—William Gibson, interview with io9, June 10, 2008.
But when stuff is on the internet …
“ …at age 19 left the United States for Canada in order to avoid the draft for the Vietnam War.”

http://www.voidspace.org.uk/cyberpunk/gibson_bio.shtml

… it becomes fact

“Gibson became part of the counterculture in the mid-1960s, traveling the U.S. and Europe before moving to Toronto, Canada to dodge the Vietnam war draft.”

http://contemporarylit.about.com/cs/authors/p/gibson.htm

(Of course, if one was “part of the counterculture in the mid-1960s,” one must have avoided the draft or fled the US or some such.)

As new manager, the White Sox hired the guy with the bat.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=12745349

The way things work

“Extermination order.” After watching a Buster Keaton silent film this morning, I decided to do a little research on Keaton. Searches led to actress Camille Keaton, said to be a grand-niece of Keaton. The actress was born in Fort Smith, Ark., but went to school in Eudora, Ark., until age 13. Eudora is a small town – 2,850 people by the 2000 census.

The Wikipedia article on Eudora contained an external link to “History of Eudora’s Jewish Community” from the Institute of Southern Jewish Life, www.isjl.com. In 1900, the town had 11 Jewish families and a congregation, Bene Israel. Historians have paid little attention to Jews in the South. ISJL attempts to change that.

From the ISJL site, I looked at four small towns in Texas. The narrative of one town mentioned a man who served with the 16th Texas Cavalry during the Civil War. Search for the 16th mentioned Confederate Gen. Sterling Price, who was in the Mexican War and the Missouri Mormon War. Missouri Mormon War? More searching, which led to the extermination order, accounts of murder and depravity, as well as cases of injustice and unconstitutional seizure of property. The extermination order was rescinded in 1976 by then-Missouri Gov. Kit Bond.

Extermination order

“Headquarters of the Militia, City of Jefferson, Oct. 27, 1838.

“General John B. Clark:

“Sir: Since the order of this morning to you, directing you to cause four hundred mounted men to be raised within your division, I have received by Amos Reese, Esq., of Ray county, and Wiley C. Williams, Esq., one of my aids [sic], information of the most appalling character, which entirely changes the face of things, and places the Mormons in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this state. Your orders are, therefore, to hasten your operation with all possible speed. The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace--their outrages are beyond all description. If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do so to any extent you may consider necessary. I have just issued orders to Maj. Gen. Willock, of Marion county, to raise five hundred men, and to march them to the northern part of Daviess, and there unite with Gen. Doniphan, of Clay, who has been ordered with five hundred men to proceed to the same point for the purpose of intercepting the retreat of the Mormons to the north. They have been directed to communicate with you by express, you can also communicate with them if you find it necessary. Instead therefore of proceeding as at first directed to reinstate the citizens of Daviess in their homes, you will proceed immediately to Richmond and then operate against the Mormons. Brig. Gen. Parks of Ray, has been ordered to have four hundred of his brigade in readiness to join you at Richmond. The whole force will be placed under your command.

“I am very respectfully, your ob't serv't,

“L. W. Boggs, Commander-in-Chief”

Missouri Executive Order 44, issued by Gov. Lilburn Boggs.

On May 6, 1842, “Boggs was shot by an unknown party who fired at him through a window as he read a newspaper in his study. Boggs was hit by large buckshot in four places: two balls were lodged in his skull, another lodged in his neck, and a fourth entered his throat, whereupon Boggs swallowed it. Boggs was severely injured. Several doctors—Boggs' brother among them—pronounced Boggs as good as dead; at least one newspaper ran an obituary. To everyone's great surprise, Boggs not only survived, but gradually improved.” (Wikipedia article on Boggs.)

Mormon gunman Orrin Porter Rockwell was believed to have shot Boggs, but Rockwell stated he “never shot at anybody, if I shoot they get shot!... He's still alive, ain't he?"

Rockwell is also reported to have said, “I never shot anybody who didn’t need shooting.” Really. Honest. Before T.A. Edison even thought about picture shows and The Great Train Robbery.

Al Chet

“Do you think God will ever forgive me of the most horrible sin of all. an abortion I pray and cry out with Al Chet each day and night, and call out to Him, and I know He says, ‘I have forgiven you’ but I feel as if I cant forgive myself so how and why would He. Pray for me. Rachel.”

“Yes, Rachel. He forgave you the first time you prayed for forgiveness. He's a loving G-d and a forgiving G-d. He looks for ‘turning away’ from our sin; He doesn't want nor need us to walk in guilt for the rest of our lives. If He says that He is ‘faithful to forgive us’ and we continue to walk in shame and guilt, it's like we're calling Him a ‘liar’; telling Him that He isn't who He says He is. Remember King David? He committed murder; had to live with the consequences of his actions, but he was forgiven and went on to be blessed in his life. Allow G-d to forgive you...you're holding Him and yourself hostage. Let Him love you and bless you as you move forward. Use your hard lesson to teach others to guard themselves from falling into the same trap that you fell in. Blessings upon you, Rachel. 'May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you His favor and give you His peace.’" Anonymous.

The sins for which we ask forgiveness.

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/JewishNewYear/template_cdo/aid/6577/jewish/Text-of-Al-Chet.htm

(In my belief of my own wisdom, I began a comment. But none is needed.)