Today is Sunday, October 19.  There are only 39 days until the start of the Christmas Music Season.  Today we remember the birthdays of John McLoughlin, Gunnar Nordahl and Jennifer Holiday.  On this day in 615 St. Deusdedrit I began his reign as Catholic Pope, in 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the US to receive a medical degree and in 1988 the Senate passed a bill curbing ads during children’s TV shows.  It is Independence Day in Mauritania, Yorktown Day in Virginia and tomorrow is Alaska Day in Alaska (as if you hadn’t already worked that out).

I thought the bit about curbing ads on children’s TV was interesting.  Because of my grandsons, I have watched a fair amount of children’s TV and never noticed much of a curb on ads.  I decided to look into this and see what the story was.

The bill would have limited advertising during children's programming to 10.5 minutes an hour on weekends, and 12 minutes an hour on weekdays.  Such limitations had existed under longstanding Federal Communications Commission rules until 1984, when the commission removed them.  The House of Representatives passed the measure, 328 to 78, on June 8, and the Senate gave its approval Oct. 19 by unrecorded voice vote that could have been blocked if only one Senator had opposed it.

President Reagan, who exercised a pocket veto late Saturday, said he disapproved of the bill because it was an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of expression. Supporters of the measure called the veto a disservice to children and said the legislation would be reintroduced the following year.

''This bill simply cannot be reconciled with the freedom of expression secured by our Constitution,'' the president said in announcing that he had used the pocket veto to kill the legislation.

Peggy Charren, president of Action for Children's Television, said that the assertion that the bill was unconstitutional was ''a double-speak excuse.'' The legislation, she said, simply furthered the mandate of the Communications Act that every station serve the public interest. Current children's television, she said, does not do that.

There is a lot more information available and if you are interested you can Google “1988 Bill Improving Children’s TV.”  I will not go into my feelings on this except to say that based on some of what I have seen disguised as children’s TV, I would rather watch the commercials.

I would like to take another swipe at a group of people I have talked about before – pedestrians.  I really think that something needs to be done about these people.  You know the ones I’m talking about, the people who are walking along the sidewalk and decide that they want to cross the street.  Rather than walk the extra 10 feet to the traffic light and crosswalk, they just come out between two cars and start to cross.  They don’t even look to see if cars are coming, they just go.  Why?  Because they believe that they have the right of way and can cross whenever and wherever they wish.

Another type of idiot, I mean pedestrian, is the one who is walking down the street and decides to cross, but instead of going straight across the street, takes a diagonal path, putting him or her in the street, and in your way, even longer.  I know I have said this before, but I am going to repeat it.  You may have the right of way because you are a pedestrian, but when you are lying in the hospital with broken bones and damaged organs, the right of way is not going to make you better.  Of course, I always feel that these people have the word lawsuit floating around in the back of their mind, just in case the right of way doesn’t work for them.

The worst ones are the people who walk in parking lots.  These people are in a space filled with cars.  They have just driven through the lot to find a place to park.  What makes them suddenly think that it is okay to walk along four abreast?  Doesn’t it occur to them that other people are driving around doing the same thing they just did?  Are people really that oblivious?  Yes, they are!  OMG!  Yes they are!!

Recently, the lovely Elaine and I were at a mall.  We had completed the tasks we had set for ourselves and were preparing to leave.  I was backing out of the parking space, when all of a sudden, the alarm that lets me know something is behind me when I am backing up, starts to beep.  I look and two people have decided that they could not wait the 10 to 15 seconds it would have taken for me to back out of the space, so they decided to walk around me.  Of course they might not have seen me.  I was only driving a black SUV, it was light out, my back-up lights were lit and my car was moving (insert your own annoying buzzer sound here).  Wrong!  They saw me, but they were in a hurry and they had the right of way, after all.  Having just come out of the mall, I could not think of a store that was running a sale so spectacular that it was worth risking being run over to get to.

I watch this kind of behavior all the time and I am constantly amazed at how dumb people can be.  One more quick discussion about people in parking lots.  I watch them make five or six attempts at backing into a parking space.  When I pull into a lot I go in head first.  When I leave, I back out, usually in one move and leave.  I once asked a person why he backed into the space and he said it was because he didn’t like backing up.  This way he could just pull out.  I just looked at him. It didn’t even occur to him that backing up was how he got in the space in the first place.  I could not come up with a response.  This guy and the others all suffer from an affliction I call “anal-cranial inversion” (think about it).

This week our fact tells us that conception occurs most in the month of December.  Guys, it would be easier and cheaper, in the long run, to just get her a pair of earrings or a bracelet for Christmas.

It is Sunday, October 12 and there are only 74 days until Christmas.  Get those cookie trays and recipes ready, we’ll be baking before you know it.  Today we remember the birthdays of Elmer Sperry, Ralph Vaughn Williams and Luciano Pavarotti.  On this day in 1492 Columbus arrived in the Bahamas, in 1918 the iron lung was first used, at Boston’s Children Hospital and in 1977 psychic Romark attempted to drive blindfolded and smashed into a police van.  In Spain it is National Day, in Western Samoa it is White Sunday and in the US it is the official Columbus Day.

I know I have discussed this holiday in the past.  I have talked about how we honor a man who went off on a journey, did not end up where he was headed, did not bring back what he was supposed to, then went back to the wrong place and still did not come back with what he was looking for.  I have disparaged Columbus for not getting directions and for not achieving the goals he set out to do.  The bottom line is that he at least did something.  He went off on a trip that was dangerous – hey he could have sailed off the end of the earth!  Maybe he didn’t discover the Indies and bring back spices and other treasures, but he did find the Bahamas and North America.

So my question is why are we taking his holiday away?  Several cities have decided that they are changing the holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day.  The Portland, Oregon school board member who sponsored the bill there said that Portland Public Schools’ new Indigenous Peoples Day isn’t meant to replace Columbus Day, but to supplement it.  I guess that is why they changed the name and no longer recognize Columbus as part of the holiday.  If they really want to honor indigenous people, why not create a whole new holiday for them?  The other thing I find interesting is that nowhere does anyone actually say who the indigenous people are.  This seems to me to be a nebulous term used to include anybody who feels they are being ignored.  By the way, was any thought given to the insult to Italian people by dumping their holiday?

I understand wanting to create more awareness for people who have not been well-represented in the past.  I also understand the need to give them recognition.  What I do not understand is how taking someone else’s holiday will give them that recognition.  It seems like we are saying that we are simply changing the name of a holiday because we don’t want to go out of our way to create something meaningful.  I have a feeling that all it will really create is animosity.

Now that I have vented on that issue, let me mention a few other things that have come up recently.  I am not sure if I have talked about this before, so I will mention it, maybe again.  Recently we were out on the parkway and I saw a sign that said – “No Litter $200 Fine.”  If you wanted to be technical, this sign tells me that there is a fine if I do not litter.  Tell me “$200 fine for Littering” or simply “No Littering” but that first sign invites misinterpretation by people like me.

Recently, the lovely Elaine saw a sign that said “Huge Children Sale” posted on a road we were travelling.  The question then became were they selling obese kids or did they have a lot of kids to sell?  I really think that some thought should be given when signs like this are being created.  What happens when some poor couple who can’t start a family sees that sign?  “Hell, Ethel, I don’t care if the kid is fat.  We should at least go take a look.”  Or, “They must have a ton of kids there Jubal.  We should go take a look.  I’m sure we can find one we like.”  Again, signs like this are just asking to be misinterpreted.

Moving on, I was recently looking at airfares for a trip we are planning.  Just for fun, I looked at the first class cost and the economy cost.  The first class cost was $367 more than economy.  I have a hard time figuring out what they could possibly be offering in first class that is worth $367.  Maybe they get food, but based on what I have seen; airline food is not worth $3.67, let alone over $300.  Maybe the seats are a little wider, but when the person in front of you decides to recline their seat, it is just a wider seat back that is in your lap.  The other thing to consider is you will be paying $367 to be the first people to hit the ground if the plane crashes.  Makes you wonder if it’s worth it.  We have decided it is not.

This week our fact tells us that CBS’s “60 Minutes” is the only TV show without a theme song.  I thought about that and feel that they should have a theme song.  I have tried to come up with something.  The tune would be to the “Love Boat” theme since they are not using it.

News, exciting and new, in-depth and interesting too.                                                  

Stories that will create thought, about battles that are being fought.

60 Minutes.  We are on Sunday night.  You should watch so you get the news right.

They cover all sorts of stuff, ISIS, cyber crime, China and if that’s not enough –

They also talk about cancer drug cost and they ask if Obama is lost.

60 Minutes.  We are on Sunday night. You should watch so you get the news right.

60 Minutes, 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes!

Today is Sunday, October 5 – I know, October already.  It seems like only last week that we were exclaiming surprise that it was September.  There are only 53 days until the Christmas music season starts.  The lovely Elaine does allow Christmas music on my birthday, but only for that day.  The official season starts 16 days after my birthday this year.  Speaking of birthdays, today we remember Chester A. Arthur, Allen Ludden and Ken Noda.  On this day in 1582 the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Italy and other Catholic countries, in 1877 Chief Joseph surrendered, ending the Nez Perce War and in 1990 a Cincinnati jury acquitted the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center of obscenity charges for displaying Robert Mapplethorpe’s The Perfect Moment exhibition.  It is Independence Day in Bulgaria, Sports Day in Lesotho and Grandparents Day in Massachusetts.  I thought they celebrated that day earlier this year, but maybe they just forgot they had.

We attended a wedding this past week and I have to say that things have changed since the lovely Elaine and I got married.  She did her own makeup and hair and nails and she was at home when she did it.  The bridesmaids got dressed and then came to her house to be picked up by the limo.  Nowadays, everything has been raised to a much higher level.  All the women involved in the wedding meet in a hotel room where a makeup person comes and does the makeup, a hair person comes to make sure the hair is done properly and the nails are done by a specialist.

Weddings are so obviously about the women.  The men show up, get dressed and go to the church.  No specialists come in to make sure that the men have clean underwear, have “dressed” in the proper direction and have zipped their trousers.  I am guessing that no one has checked to be sure their hair was done or that they had put on socks.  It is just assumed that they know how to do this stuff, they do it and they show up for the ceremony.  Apparently, they don’t become stupid until after the wedding.

Where the show really starts is at the reception.  We showed up at the catering hall early.  The route we would normally have taken was blocked because of road work.  We ended up having to take a rather round-about route that required taking several side streets that were unfamiliar.  This was a cause for major distress for some of the other drivers.  They came to the road they wanted and were confronted by signs saying they could not go where they wanted to.  They were given the option of going in certain directions, but not the one they intended to use.  So, instead of going one of the other ways, they sat there and stared as if by doing so the barricade would magically disappear and they could continue on their way.  By the way, it didn’t … but I digress.

Because of the convoluted route, we allowed for extra time.  As it turned out we did not need it and, as I said, we arrived early.  Fortunately, we were not alone.  We walked into the cavernous lobby and were greeted by a person handing out champagne.  Not wanting to appear impolite, we accepted a glass.  As we looked around, we met up with several people we knew and stood around chatting with them.  I thought it interesting that they provided beverages for everyone, but not a single place to sit.  I guess they didn’t want you to get comfortable and end up missing the cocktail hour.

The cocktail hour was interesting.  They provided tables and chairs for everyone and the food stations were located throughout the room.  The group at our table went in various directions, doing recon on what was located where.  We loaded up our plates and came back to report our findings to the group.  This was a great way to handle it because it saved time looking for the stuff you liked and avoiding the stuff you didn’t want – like the various mushroom dishes(right Pat?).  We ate, drank and chatted until it was time to travel to the big room for the evening’s festivities and food.

Let me just say that when you have a room as big as this one was, you need to have some kind of material hanging on the walls to absorb some of the sound.  You also need to explain to the band that this is not their concert, it is a wedding reception and they need to remember that the focus should be on the bridal couple.  As an example, the maitre’ d had the band stop playing when it was time to cut the cake.  The band stopped briefly and then launched into music again while the ceremony was going on.  If you are going to provide music during this, it should be quiet, background music allowing everyone to focus on the bride and groom.  You do not have to sing the “Bride Cuts the Cake”, but somehow “Luck Be A Lady Tonight” just did not seem to fit with what was going on.

As I said before, the room was not great as far as the sound was concerned.  The band was so loud that it was difficult to talk.  One of the people at our table suggested we would be better off texting each other.  When the band played, if you recognized the song, you could sort of make out the words.  There were songs I did not know and what I heard was – “Nnnh gwen mog to jask ohh.  Boshk in plek to berg ves bren I know!”  All this done with music so loud that it could probably be heard out on the road.

I know you are probably thinking that I am complaining simply because I am old.  My son always says that if it is too loud, you are too old.  In this case – NO!  I should not have trouble hearing when I am talking to myself.  There were people much younger than I with their fingers in their ears.  Sitting next to me was a young lady who is in her twenties and she was complaining , too.  Keep in mind that this is a person in the National Guard, who flies helicopters, so she knows what loud noise is.

Don’t get me wrong.  Overall it was a great wedding, the food was good, the people at our table were great and we had a good time.  The wedding was for the daughter of very good friends of ours and we were pleased to be included. 

This week our fact tells us that chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.  Just don’t get caught doing it in Singapore where chewing gum is outlawed.

Just one more quick request – I continue to notice that there are people accessing this blog in other countries.  I would really love to know how you happened to come across the blog.  Please go into the comment section and let me know.  Thank you.

It is Sunday September 28 and there are only 61 days until Black Friday.  By now you should be plotting your route to the various stores and staking out your spot at the most important one.  Today we recognize the birthdays of Confucius, Caravaggio and Brigitte Bardot.  On this day in 1542 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered California, at San Diego Bay, in 1924 US Army planes ended their around-the-world flight, Seattle to Seattle, making 57 stops along the way and in 1968 the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” single went to #1 and stayed there for 9 weeks.  In Guinea it is Referendum Day, yesterday was Kiwanis Kids’ Day and today is Good Neighbor Day in the US.

Last week we had the opportunity to travel to Long Island for a birthday party.  What made this different is that the party was for a 95 year old woman that we have not seen in well over 35 years.  She is the mother of two very good friends of ours that we also haven’t seen in some time.  Henrietta and her family used to live just down the street from where the lovely Elaine lived with her parents.  Doug and I were great friends through high school, but as with many people, we went our separate ways and lost contact over the years.  His younger brother Kenny and his wife became great friends with Elaine and I later on.  We went out together all the time and I am surprised at the number of times we were not thrown out of restaurants and theaters.  We tended to not behave in an adult way.

Unfortunately, we lost track of each other when Kenny moved out of the area.  It was too bad because we all had a lot of fun together … but I digress.  We went to the party and had a great time.  It was great to see Doug and Kenny and to relive old times.  It was especially good because it was at a celebration and not a wake.  Henrietta looks great.  It was so nice to see her.  She was always one of the favorite mothers in our crowd of kids.  She has a hearing problem and did not always track what was going on (sounds a lot like me, but don’t call me Henrietta), but she was sharp and great to talk to and reminisce with.  The lovely Elaine and I were very happy to have been included in the celebration and glad that we were able to make it.

I would like to take a few minutes to discuss to ride there and back.  It was a convoluted route that involved several different highways, a couple bridges and some terrible roads.  We had to take the turnpike, I 95, the George Washington Bridge, the Cross Bronx Expressway, the Throgs Neck Bridge, the Cross Island Parkway and the Long Island Expressway.  We had to make the drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic, both ways, much of the time and drive with the maniac drivers of New York.  The roads are in terrible condition and there was some construction work that slowed things down even more. 

It is interesting to watch the New York drivers in action.  They poke along in the crawling traffic, but are always on the lookout for a space to swerve into that will get them a half a car length ahead of where they are.  Once they are in their new lane, they are looking for the next opportunity to switch.  I saw several cars jump into a lane that appeared to be moving faster and then jump back into the lane they were just in because it had started to move.  I was exhausted just watching others drive.  Add to that frustration the tolls – the GWB was $13.00 and the Throgs Neck was $7.50 each way – and it is no wonder New York drivers are crazy.  At least now I understand why they drive like maniacs when they come into New Jersey.  By comparison to what we experienced, our roads are wide open.  While our tolls have increased over the years, they are nothing like NY.  Take the trip to Long Island some time and you will realize that driving in NJ is not so bad.

Here is something else that has puzzled me for some time.  Why does the rear view mirror on the passenger side tell us that objects are closer than they appear?  Why is that done?  Do we really need to be confused when we are driving?  The mirror on the driver side is a standard mirror that shows us what is where and does not alter our view.  Why couldn’t they just use the same type of mirror on the passenger side? 

I don’t know about you, but when I am driving along at 65 mph and want to change lanes to the right, I really do not have time to look in the mirror and then try to determine how close the car behind me is.  Even more confusing is that the mirror in the car shows me that the car is close, but when I look outside, the mirror shows that it is farther away.  Now I have to take a moment to read the notice on the bottom of the right side mirror, realize the inside mirror is more accurate and then hope that the car does not get so close that I can’t use the inside mirror anymore.  Just my opinion, but I think this needs to be corrected.  Of course, we have become so used to it that if it is corrected, drivers may not read the notice that objects are as close as they appear and we could have other problems.  So, in the words of Emily Latella – “Never mind.”

This week our fact tells us that Charlie Brown’s father was a barber.  With that in mind, you’d think that he could have done something better with Charlie’s hair.  Oh well.  See you next week.