QUICK QUIPS: TRUMP TRIES TO FLEX WHAT LITTLE IS LEFT OF HIS EXECUTIVE MUSCLE

In retrospect, his tweets tonight about threats to veto all three bills on his desk (Covid relief, government funding and military funding) are entirely predictable in so many ways.   Combined with his new pardons, he is simply continuing to be, and to act, as a spoiled child throwing yet another tantrum.

I like that Pelosi called his bluff and said, “Sure, jack up the payouts to $2000.  We’ll jump right on board with that.”  Not that I agree that is the right thing to do because I do not.  Why on Earth should people like us, who are on Social Security, and therefore not economically impacted by Covid, be given any more stimulus money?

The money should all go to the people who really need it …

• The people and businesses who will ensure that the vaccines are able to be expeditiously distributed … and administered … throughout the United States.
• The people who are out of work and trying to feed their families, and trying to stay in their homes, or to pay their rent. 
• The small businesses that are hanging on by a thread if they haven’t yet already lost their businesses for good.
• State and local governments that are bleeding debt and are in real danger of having to lay off critical personnel like police and firefighters.
• The schools that need the money to make their buildings safe so that schools can reopen safely.

That’s who should get this extra money Trump suddenly says he wants added.  But the reality is that the Republican Senate would never go for it.

Trump has only had to veto eight bills during the past four years, because McConnell virtually never puts a bill up even for a vote if he is not almost absolutely sure Trump will sign it.  In each case, all eight vetoes were sustained – not overridden and made into law.

Just override his damn veto and pass the inadequate bill that is on the table right now.   That is, of course, if Trump has the balls, and the stupidity to actually veto them.

Then let’s see just how much the Republicans fear those 74 million Trump voters.

Quick Quips: Stiff Arm “THAT” !!

This is especially for Green Bay Packer fans.  It would also be more meaningful if you are more familiar with this week’s opponent, the Tennessee Titans.

As most non-rose colored glasses Packer fans will no doubt admit, the Packer defense does not exactly strike fear into the hearts of NFL opponents.  Okay, MAYBE the Jets.

But I can’t help hoping that someone from the Packer’s defense gets a chance this Sunday night and absolutely plants Derrick Henry into the hallowed turf of Lambeau Field.

Then very quietly, so as not to draw a taunting penalty, they tell Derrick Henry …

“Stiff arm THAT, MF.”

Quick Quips: Mitt Has No Clue

Romney says about Trump: “What has gotten into this man?”

What a completely, clueless jerk … and this time I’m not just talking about Trump.

What’s gotten into Trump, Mitt?  You supposedly thought what he did with Ukraine was serious enough to take the unprecedented action to remove him from office.  Now you’re wondering what’s gotten into him?

Where in Hell have you been for the last 5 years, Mitch?  What monumental change in Trump for the worse have you seen that almost every other breathing person hasn’t?

Romney voted to remove Trump during impeachment.  For that, I suppose he should get some credit.  But he also knew his vote would make no difference.  So that was hardly some great profile in courage.

Romney shares in every despicable action … and inaction … that McConnell and the Republican controlled Senate have committed.

Romney gets no pass from me whatsoever.

Once again I say …

“Do the right damn thing, Georgia.  Elect Warnock and Ossoff.“

QUICK QUIPS: Biden’s Cabinet Takes Shape

Who knows how effective these folks who Biden has tapped to lead his administration will be.

But damn, listening to them, I for one cannot help but take a deep sigh of relief that we finally appear be to back in the right hands after four years of almost nonstop, neverending disgust.

Whether or not their goals are achieved, at a minimum the right goals are finally being voiced once again.

Now, just do the right damn thing, Georgia.  Give this administration the legislative capability to act.

ANDERSON ABRUZZO INTERNATIONAL BALLOON MUSEUM REFERENCE DOCUMENT (for docents)

My name is Roger Koehler. One of my volunteer activities during retirement has been to work for the balloon museum.  I am primarily active as a docent, and very much enjoy leading small and large groups on tours of the museum.

In preparation to lead docent tours, I have researched and accumulated quite of a bit of background information which I use as a reference for the tours that I provide.  I am most happy to share this with any other current or potential new docents whom the museum may utilize.

I have included at the end of this post, the URL which will take you to an online PDF version of the Balloon Museum Reference document which I have written.

There is an extensive Table of Contents  at the beginning of the document which will hopefully provide a good overview, and aid in quickly locating specific information for which you may be looking.

Here’s a tip for using that PDF of which you may or may not be aware.

• When you find the item you are looking for in the Table of Contents, simply do a left mouse click on it. You will then be taken directly to that item in the body of the reference document.

Please feel free to utilize any of this information in your own docent led tours, or use it just as a reference.  I will be continuing to update it periodically and you will always be able to access the latest version via the URL at the end of this post.

If you have …

• Any questions about information contained in this document
• Any additions or corrections you would like to recommend
• Any other questions about the Balloon Museum that I might be able to assist you with

Please feel free to contact me anytime via email.

My email is …   rkoehler1952@gmail.com

I hope that you find this document useful.

balloon-museum-reference-document-13Download

Featured Video of the Week: “If my grandmother had wheels …”

PUT THE IMMIGRANT RELOCATION DILEMMA RIGHT BACK IN THE LAPS OF DESANTIS AND ABBOTT (An Editorial)

This is from a morning talk show, ITV’s This Morning, on British television.  The male and female hosts, Holly Willoughby and Phil Schofield are doing a segment with their celebrity chef Gino, who is very Italian, as this clip will attest.  Holly has a suggestion for Gino’s macaroni and cheese dish.  If you check out You Tube, you will also find quite a few more funny segments with Holly and Phil.

Here’s another clip of Holly, Phil and Gino …

Featured Video of the Week: “Hugh Janus”

The weather guy’s name is Henry DiCarlo.  He is part of the KTLA early morning TV team out in Los Angeles and I believe he is still broadcasting.  Check out some of his other You Tube videos.  They are generally hilarious.

Quick Quips: YOU GOTTA ADMIT. TRUMP DOES OCCASIONALLY SPUR CREATIVITY.

Pithy Quotes

From  Cold Cold Bones … A Kathy Reichs’ novel featuring Temperance Brennan (aka Bones)

Tempe is speaking with a medical examiner who is working on the body of a guy who had recently fallen from a zip line.

Tempe asks her what might be the possible cause of death?

           She says, “Acute Numerical Assumption.”

           Tempe looks at her quizzically

           She responds, “His number was up.”

 

 

From  Jack Reacher … A Lee Child novel made into a TV series on Amazon Prime

Reacher is surrounded by toughs in an alley.  When they ask him what he thinks he’s gonna’ do, Reacher tells them that he is going to break the wrists of three guys.

One of them says, “But there are four of us?”

Reacher responds, “One of you has to be able to drive to the hospital.”

 

From  The New Girl … A Gabriel Allon novel by Daniel Silva

An Israeli agent asks a doctor about the condition of a Russian oligarch who was just exposed to radiation used in an assassination attempt.  

“How bad is he?” 

“A little south of Hiroshima … but not much”

 

 

From  Vanished … A  novel by Joseph Finder

Nick Heller after speaking with the corrupt CEO of a private security company …

“Wash DC is to lying what Hershey PA is to chocolate.“

 

From  Killing Season… A  Peter Decker/Rina Lazurus novel by Faye Kellerman

(An old joke)  “The difference between involvement and commitment is like the difference between bacon and eggs.

The chicken is involved.

             The pig is committed.”

From Monday Mourning … A Temperance Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.

          A woman calls a man up at 5 in the morning.

“Did I wake you up?”, she asks.   “Nahh. I had to get up anyway to answer the phone.“

 

 

From Terminal Freeze… A novel by Lincoln Child.

          In the Arctic, the ratio of men to women is said to be 10 to 1.

It is also said that “If a woman is interested, the odds are good … but the goods are odd.“

 

 

From Lethal Agent … A Mitch Rapp CIA thriller by Kyle Mills.

Rapp’s mentor, Stan Hurley:  “It’s not how you play the game, its whether or not your opponent ends up dismembered in some woods..

From The Lost Boys … A Peter Decker/Rina Lazurus novel by Faye Kellerman.

              Fool me once, shame on you.

              Fool me twice, shame on me.

              Fool me a third time, and someone is

                    a moronic dumbass.   (Chris Donatti)

A woman in need of a liver transplant is told by her Russian boyfriend (who happens to be an assassin!) that he offered to donate part of his own liver to her, but was refused.

She told him, “Doesn’t matter.  They say you should never accept a liver from a Russian.”      (From the Mitch Rapp spy novel, Red War, by Kyle Mills.)

He was so dumb … “He couldn’t plan a fart after eating beans.”  (from The Mercedes Coffin by Faye Kellerman)

Police Lieutenant Milo Sturgis gets a call from a murder suspect who says he wants to talk and he asks Milo if they can meet.

Milo looks at his friend, Alex Delaware, and says, “If I respond ‘Hell, yeah’, do you think that would sound too eager?”

“His hometown is so fuckin’ small, the Laundromat uses a clothesline.” (Author John Sandford, paraphrased slightly from his novel Golden Prey)

“Spank me, I’ve been a bad boy.”  (The Donald, 2006, to Stormy Daniels)

After getting roughed up in a fight, Hawk asks Spenser what happened.  “I cut myself shaving.”  To which Hawk replies, “What, you shaving with a weed wacker now?”

Hawk to Spenser talking about two thugs they are tailing:  “If those boys were any dumber, you’d have to water ’em.”

Capt. Marty Quirk to Spenser:  “Shit happens.  You should probably Just put that on your business cards.”

“Your mother was a vending machine and your father was a roto-rooter.”  An annoyed Louise Baltimore speaking to her robot Sherman in the 1983 novel Millennium.

“I solve all my cases.  They’re just not all solved yet.”  Spenser, 1994

“Better here than Philadelphia” on WC Fields’ tombstone

“I’ll have what she’s having” from When Harry Met Sally, 1989

 

From the movie Absence of Malice starring Paul Newman and Sally Field, and with one of the recently passed Wilford Brimley’s best character performances.

 

A dirty, local district attorney tells Brimley, who is an Asst. Attorney General, that recent bad publicity for the justice department was due to a leak.

 

Brimley answers, “A leak? You call that a leak? The last time there was a leak like that, Noah built hisself a boat!”

 

 

 

“Ending Theme” from “Field of Dreams”

As befitting of my all-time favorite movie – 1989’s Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner, there are already two other links here in the My Favorite Music section of this blog to the original soundtrack.

James Horner composed the music for this movie.  Along with John Williams, he is my favorite composer.  Horner went on to compose music for many of our best known films, such as An American Tail, Avatar  and Titanic, to name just a few.  Horner tragically died in June of 2015 at the age of just 61 in a private plane crash.

Near the end of this music section is a link to Horner’s original “A Catch With My Father“. The link I am providing now is to a wonderful, spot-on performance of that same, ending theme of Field of Dreams, which was performed at Fumicité – the Tenerife International Film Music Festival in 2012.

If you are a music nerd like me, please consider listening to “A Catch With My Father” first, and then listen to this link. I have never heard a more perfect rendition, even by the original composer.

This was conducted by Spanish composer Diego Navarro, and is performed by the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra.

Please feel free to add a Comment below if perhaps you too have enjoyed this movie as much as I have over the years, and what you think of this performance. You may also wish to scroll through and listen to some of my other Favorite Music clips. I would like to hear which of them you might also like, and perhaps you can suggest some others to me as well.

Thank you for reading and listening.

Pithy Quotes

From  Cold Cold Bones … A Kathy Reichs’ novel featuring Temperance Brennan (aka Bones)

Tempe is speaking with a medical examiner who is working on the body of a guy who had recently fallen from a zip line.

Tempe asks her what might be the possible cause of death?

           She says, “Acute Numerical Assumption.”

           Tempe looks at her quizzically

           She responds, “His number was up.”

 

 

From  Jack Reacher … A Lee Child novel made into a TV series on Amazon Prime

Reacher is surrounded by toughs in an alley.  When they ask him what he thinks he’s gonna’ do, Reacher tells them that he is going to break the wrists of three guys.

One of them says, “But there are four of us?”

Reacher responds, “One of you has to be able to drive to the hospital.”

 

From  The New Girl … A Gabriel Allon novel by Daniel Silva

An Israeli agent asks a doctor about the condition of a Russian oligarch who was just exposed to radiation used in an assassination attempt.  

“How bad is he?” 

“A little south of Hiroshima … but not much”

 

 

From  Vanished … A  novel by Joseph Finder

Nick Heller after speaking with the corrupt CEO of a private security company …

“Wash DC is to lying what Hershey PA is to chocolate.“

 

From  Killing Season… A  Peter Decker/Rina Lazurus novel by Faye Kellerman

(An old joke)  “The difference between involvement and commitment is like the difference between bacon and eggs.

The chicken is involved.

             The pig is committed.”

From Monday Mourning … A Temperance Brennan novel by Kathy Reichs.

          A woman calls a man up at 5 in the morning.

“Did I wake you up?”, she asks.   “Nahh. I had to get up anyway to answer the phone.“

 

 

From Terminal Freeze… A novel by Lincoln Child.

          In the Arctic, the ratio of men to women is said to be 10 to 1.

It is also said that “If a woman is interested, the odds are good … but the goods are odd.“

 

 

From Lethal Agent … A Mitch Rapp CIA thriller by Kyle Mills.

Rapp’s mentor, Stan Hurley:  “It’s not how you play the game, its whether or not your opponent ends up dismembered in some woods..

From The Lost Boys … A Peter Decker/Rina Lazurus novel by Faye Kellerman.

              Fool me once, shame on you.

              Fool me twice, shame on me.

              Fool me a third time, and someone is

                    a moronic dumbass.   (Chris Donatti)

A woman in need of a liver transplant is told by her Russian boyfriend (who happens to be an assassin!) that he offered to donate part of his own liver to her, but was refused.

She told him, “Doesn’t matter.  They say you should never accept a liver from a Russian.”      (From the Mitch Rapp spy novel, Red War, by Kyle Mills.)

He was so dumb … “He couldn’t plan a fart after eating beans.”  (from The Mercedes Coffin by Faye Kellerman)

Police Lieutenant Milo Sturgis gets a call from a murder suspect who says he wants to talk and he asks Milo if they can meet.

Milo looks at his friend, Alex Delaware, and says, “If I respond ‘Hell, yeah’, do you think that would sound too eager?”

“His hometown is so fuckin’ small, the Laundromat uses a clothesline.” (Author John Sandford, paraphrased slightly from his novel Golden Prey)

“Spank me, I’ve been a bad boy.”  (The Donald, 2006, to Stormy Daniels)

After getting roughed up in a fight, Hawk asks Spenser what happened.  “I cut myself shaving.”  To which Hawk replies, “What, you shaving with a weed wacker now?”

Hawk to Spenser talking about two thugs they are tailing:  “If those boys were any dumber, you’d have to water ’em.”

Capt. Marty Quirk to Spenser:  “Shit happens.  You should probably Just put that on your business cards.”

“Your mother was a vending machine and your father was a roto-rooter.”  An annoyed Louise Baltimore speaking to her robot Sherman in the 1983 novel Millennium.

“I solve all my cases.  They’re just not all solved yet.”  Spenser, 1994

“Better here than Philadelphia” on WC Fields’ tombstone

“I’ll have what she’s having” from When Harry Met Sally, 1989

 

From the movie Absence of Malice starring Paul Newman and Sally Field, and with one of the recently passed Wilford Brimley’s best character performances.

 

A dirty, local district attorney tells Brimley, who is an Asst. Attorney General, that recent bad publicity for the justice department was due to a leak.

 

Brimley answers, “A leak? You call that a leak? The last time there was a leak like that, Noah built hisself a boat!”