I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. It's my epitaph, along with "Yet Another Patron Saint of Mediocrity."
Category: Steve
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Beginning of the End Day—Year 80
"Instead of "Thank you for your service," try, "We're sorry you had to expend your blood, sweat, tears and toil to clean up our monumental failings." Every time you meet one of the dwindling numbers of WWII veterans (and those of all the other magnificent little American wars we've fallen into), keep your mouth shut and your brain focused on peace. These "Greatest Generation" folks answered the bell and won the fight. We might not be as blessed next time."
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Ouch.
Overheard in the classroom: “I play Minecraft!” Kid One. “Of course you do!” Kid Two, rolling his eyes. My, these kindergarteners can be quite vicious, can’t they?
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Whatta Rush
It’s always fun to get a phone call during morning meeting from your oncologist, who you just met yesterday, and who says, “You know last night when we thought a few zaps of radiation of your cancerous lesion would be the way to go? “Well, after more consultations with other oncologists, it’s now the consensus...
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My Cancer Journey Begins
I called Monday morning and the news was what I thought—but with an unexpected twist
I have a malignant carcinoma on my toe…type is Kaposi’s Sarcoma.
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What a Tangled Tweet We Weave When First We Practice to Get Outraged
A "good job" according to whom? May I ask when exactly was the last time you were in an elementary school and sat through an entire school day with first graders? I ask because my mother makes this same argument frequently, yet has not been in an actual elementary school building since 1976. Her grandchildren were taught at home so she, therefore, has no experience either visiting a school or evaluating a public school education since 1976.
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#EmptyThePews
"FRICKIN’ HOLY MARY MOTHER OF GOD! JESUS MARY AND JOSEPH! POPE PAUL VI AND ALL THE SAINTS! AND DEAR GOD WHY ARE ALL THESE WOMEN IN EXPENSIVE ULTRASUEDE DRESSES RUNNING UP AND DOWN THE AISLES SCREAMING THEIR FOOL HEADS OFF???!!!!!"
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It was a Cold and Boring Night
"To me, as a gay boy, hugging another boy was perfectly natural. It always has been, it always will be. I always felt instinctively somehow that people would disapprove and say I was naughty. And I always felt instinctively that I knew what I wanted and I was going to have it and all those disapproving people could just go suck eggs and pound sand. Even at the height of the worst spiritual and sexual repression that Oklahoma and its churches could dole out, my inner belief has always been the same. There's nothing wrong with me. I've known who I am and what I wanted since I was at least five. And everyone else who is not onboard with that can go over Niagra Falls without a barrel."
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Donelson Renovates
Not much can be done about the traffic volume as long as Metro and the State are devoid of ideas or even the hint of wanting to think about possible solutions. Nashville is drowning in traffic, but no one has the will or money to do anything about it.
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Movie Night: A Cry in the Night
"Whatever the novelty of seeing goodie two-shoes Perry Mason as a Peeping Tom/Kidnapper, it's Carol Veazie who is the standout."
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Movie Night: Thieves’ Highway
"Thieves' Highway is a classic Noir tale of truckers and apples and greed and sex and San Francisco and California and highways and death."
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Movie Night: Desk Set
"Not only is it hilarious, it has fabulous midcentury (ugh, that word) interiors, jokes only librarian/book/research nerds understand, an awesome supporting cast including EMERAC and Kate gets to get blotto and talk about the "Mexican Avenue Bus" (the Lexington Avenue Bus, that is)."
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Movie Night: Hot Millions
"There's a lot more than just smiles to recommend this one–ts droll English humor, its glimpse at fashions and designs and trends of 1968, the fantastic acting of everyone, including the performance of Bob Newhart, whose movie outings are often forgotten, the sarcastic wit and the satire–it's a long list and will need a second viewing to get it all."
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Pocket Guide to France, or, Onward to Parisian Mademoiselles
"You are a member of the best dressed, best fed, best equipped liberating Army now on earth. You are going in among the people of a former Ally of your country. They are still your kind of people who happen to speak democracy in a different language."
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Beginning of the End Day
"Instead of "Thank you for your service," try, "We're sorry you had to expend your blood, sweat, tears and toil to clean up our monumental failings." Every time you meet one of the dwindling numbers of WWII veterans (and those of all the other magnificent little American wars we've fallen into), keep your mouth shut and your brain focused on peace. These "Greatest Generation" folks answered the bell and won the fight. We might not be as blessed next time."
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The Wages of Sin, America, is …
"It is impossible to engage in intellectual discourse with National Socialist Philosophy. For if there were such an entity, one would have to try by means of analysis and discussion either to prove its validity or to combat it. ..."
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Another Anniversary
It’s been TWELVE (12)!!! years??! Holy cow. In spite of all the special dogs (Feargal, Fergus, Fred, Roux, Sascha, Bosco, Goose, Tessa and now Charlie) we’ve had since Bayley crossed the Rainbow Bridge, the first dog who enters your life always leaves the most special imprint on your heart. And Bayley was indeed a special...
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New York City Municipal Archives
The city of New York photographed every building in the five boroughs for property tax assessment purposes. The city's photographers took more than 700,000 pics as a result.
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Why Do All New Apartment Buildings Look the Same?
The « bland, boxy apartment boom is a design issue, and a housing policy problem. » | Curbed.
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11:00 | 11-November-1918
100 years ago today, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the guns along the 440-mile line stretching from Switzerland to the North Sea fell silent. The war started 1 August 1914 just as German Chancellor Otto von Bismark once famously predicted around 1884, by "some damned fool thing in the Balkans;" in this case, the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, a city of agony in the 20th century). But on 11 November 1918, it was finally "all quiet on the Western Front."
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World War II After World War II
"There are obviously many websites on WWII weapons, and many on post-war weapons, but I have always been fascinated with WWII weapons being used after the war."
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The Conscience Stirs
I pretty much wish I had remained disconnected from FB while also being innovative enough to stay connected to the real people in my life without Facebook's corrupting middle man kleptocracy. I sense that there is another housecleaning coming; my involvement will need to be further curtailed. I'm thinking of what we can do next ... there are far better possibilities, surely, than this unholy mess of greed and venality.
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Remembering the Past
Remembering Bill Schock on his 100th birthday … and the 52nd anniversary of Braniff 250 in Falls City. Also … feeling old from … time flying and stuff. Since the AM2431 crash in Durango a few days ago appears to be from weather-related causes, never forgetting the lessons of BN250, as well as CO426, OZ809,...
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Warm Summer Night
Is there anything better than a warm summer night playing in – er, rather sitting near the lawn sprinkler under a street light while watching the 21:00 evening arrivals at KBNA? Well, maybe if I was still 10 …
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A Final “Hangin’ Out the Warsh”
«This is Bill’s final column» out of countless ones he wrote over 71 years for the Falls City Journal. With this column, he said farewell; the Journal has been sold and moved to a much smaller space in downtown Falls City which it had occupied until 1950. It’s all extremely symbolic of the state of...
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Oh Frabjous Day!
It’s official!!! Frank opens the door for the first time on the first house he/we have ever owned! “Oh frabjous day!… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, April 23, 2018
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S.T.E.V.E.
Finally, I have an identity. I am a "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement." Strong. Thermal Emission. Velocity… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, March 19, 2018
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Happy 52nd!
“It burns! It burns!” Happy birthday to the better half! (Those candles were throwing off sparks which you can barely… Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, February 27, 2018
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Die weiße Rose
"Seventy-five years ago today, a group of young German idealists, students who had dared to speak out against the Nazis,… Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, February 22, 2018
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Face Mapped
In need of some … lighter moments around here, we checked out the new Google Arts and Culture Face Map app to see what… Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, January 16, 2018
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Bosco is Limping
Bosco started to limp today, indicating a spread of the osteosarcoma to his joint. He also just had a long episode of tremors, so now we’re on our way to NVS to try to get help to get him through the night. And snow is beginning in Nashville. So. You know. Yeah. [And thanks everyone...
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Shuttling Between Failures
The story is sordid and long, but the details were made clear by Matt Viser's excellent Globe piece. To wit: Lorenzo sold the Donald the Eastern Shuttle for an overvalued $365 million (if DT had created a brand-new shuttle from the ground up with brand-new planes, not old worn-out 727s, estimates were that he could have done it for $300 million.) Of course, the money was all borrowed. It was 1989; Eastern (and Continental) were already almost dead from Lorenzo's sledgehammer and the economy was tanking. Pan Am 103 was bombed, the first Gulf War was about to begin. It was incredibly bad judgement to overpay a bunch of other peoples' money for something that was guaranteed to tank.
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Same Here
There's this thing that has been closely guarded for going on 40 years in 2018. It's my secret. So as it hits its 40th birthday in our new year, I decided it's time to tell the world.
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Unhand Me, Foul Knave-Churls!
His Majesty is NOT in a mood to be recorded. Rash is gone, ears are better, but not quite there yet. Annnnddd … we discovered a cyst on the Royal Tuckus, which will be medically treated. If that doesn’t work, lancing and draining will be required and that brings forth a nightmare of epic proportions...
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Dragged Off to Hell
His Majesty is trying to magically blink away this followup vet visit, a la “I Dream of Jeannie” It’s not working. He’s… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, December 27, 2017
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Sascha's Going Into Traction
Two days, two vet visits. Sascha, Queen of Our Hearts, seems to be steadily losing the use of her back legs. Not been a… Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, December 12, 2017 [Update: She’s home resting. Ummmm. Herniated disks and arthritis and a messed up spine and has feeling lower down, but can barely move....
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I Must Protest This Assault Upon Our Person
“I must protest this assault upon Our Imperial and Royal Person! We have been captured and drugged –DRUGGED, We tell… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, December 11, 2017
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Beagle. Anal. Glands. Urk.
Beagle. Anal. Glands. If you have/have had a beagle, you probably understand why we’re over the river and through the… Posted by Steve Pollock on Saturday, November 25, 2017
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American Carnage: 17-Nov-17
The Diddler’s Club What we learned this week: • Al Franken is the latest member of the “People Who Diddled People Who Didn’t Want to be Diddled” Club. This Diddlers Club, of which we’re all so very proud, officially now consists of the nation’s President; at least two former presidents; two or three sitting United...
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The Distribution of the Fries
The distribution of the leftover fries. The Hounds have Unca Frankie surrounded. (Clockwise from top: Fergus, Goose,… Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, October 4, 2016
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Fergus, Post-Surgery
Taking Fergus home after some surgery to remove a couple of skin tags, his teeth thoroughly cleaned and some testing. He… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, August 1, 2016
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Trees, Part Deaux
Trees, Part Deaux (cont'd) … but it fell onto the neighbors' yard, barely missing their porch and stuff. Its carcass… Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, July 1, 2016
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Trees, Part Une
Trees, Part Une: "I think that I shall never see "A nasty devil like a tree. "They always fall over on me, "Leaving a… Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, July 1, 2016
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Ole Yeller
His Imperial Highness, #IAmTheRoux, and His Imperial Clown Prince, #GooseIsLoose, wish it known that They do not exert… Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, June 30, 2016
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Overwhelmed at the Waltz
Goose was overwhelmed by all the hounds at the Basset Waltz and needed lots of lap time and reassurance. But he had a great time and enjoyed meeting everyone! Posted by Steve Pollock on Saturday, June 4, 2016
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AARP … NO!
Oh AARP, no you did NOT just address me as "AARP Grandparent"!! My siblings, my cousins are the grandparents (and proud… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, May 4, 2016
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A Bout of Gout
His Imperial Highness Prince #IAmTheRoux wishes his Loyal Subjects at home and Dear Friends Abroad, that, owing to an… Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, April 14, 2016
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Ancient History
Facebook wants to know what were we doing 15 years ago? Let's see … I remember … besides Frank Lester (middle), San… Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, March 29, 2016
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Piranha Club, Bang On
From longtime favorite strip, "Piranha Club," (still known as "Ernie" in Scandinavia), a 'toon from October 1999 that I… Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, March 3, 2016