The Coolidge Road Madonna
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| All photos by Ray Holt |
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Alcoholic drinks such as rum and whiskey are often referred to as "spirits". In the Middle Ages, some folks thought that evil spirits lived in the alcohol and that they were the reason for weird behavior when they drank. These same people believed that the evil ones hated the sound of bells so in an attempt to neutralize the demons, they'd "clink" glasses together.
Another version dealt with wine, which
was often spiked with poison as the sediment concealed it quite well. If
a host wanted to prove that the wine wasn't poisoned, he would pour
part of the guest's wine into his glass and drink it first. If the guest
trusted his host he would just clink glasses when the host offered his
glass for a sample. Hence the clinking of glasses has become a sign of
trust, honesty and toast to good health.
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An early version of Alexa has a rough beginning with a new client.
-Good morning! This is Alexa speaking.
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-Hello, this is Alexa. Good morning!
-FU
-Is that a request or a statement?
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-What is your name?
-FU
-Did I hear you correctly, sir, that your name is FU?
-FU
-I will take that as an affirmative, sir. Is someone else there?
-FU
-Is that Mrs FU?
-FU
This goes on for a good hour.
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Multiple waterspouts from across the world.
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| Philippines |
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| Louisiana |
Perhaps you have seen or heard of Dr. Bronner's soap products. If the name don't come to mind, their labels might.
It ain't about ingredients or warnings. Nope, Dr. Bronner is on a mission. From Vox:
"Dr. Bronner’s was founded in 1948 by Emanuel Bronner, a German-Jewish third-generation soapmaker. Emanuel wasn’t a businessman (or a doctor, for that matter). He was an activist who, in the wake of his parents’ deaths in the Holocaust, began using his soap’s label as a, well, soapbox for proselytizing his “All-One!” thoughts and ideas. His philosophy, which he eventually named the “Moral ABC,” comprised a grab bag of religion, spirituality, environmentalism, and self-help, and its peculiarity was matched only by its ambition: peace and harmony on “Spaceship Earth.”
People embraced Dr. Bronner’s with cultish fervor. In 1945, when Emanuel was still a roving preacher with a sudsy side business, a Chicago man crucified himself in the name of Emanuel’s “Peace Plan.” (He was injured, but survived.) Two decades later, the soap that Emanuel used to sell from his Southern California garage was a bohemian cultural icon.
For long-haired hippies who embraced all things “green,” who saw “peace and love” not as utopian abstractions but as a way of life, the all-natural, anti-corporate, and transparently pacifist Dr. Bronner’s was their soap. Emanuel became a minor celebrity in environmentalist and countercultural circles. He spoke widely at peace rallies; befriended Eldridge Cleaver, an early leader of the Black Panther Party; and, in 1971, appeared in the trippy hippie documentary Rainbow Bridge alongside Hawaii-based eccentrics and Jimi Hendrix."
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I was washing the dishes and I saw this guy on the kitchen window:
It's Mr. Chinese Praying Mantis!
I wonder at what point, the bassoon became a go-to sound to represent whimsy? The theme for "Rumpole of the Bailey" is a good example.
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Morning on the last day of September
Communication problems:
A new shipping tech for a aircraft parts manufacturer was given instructions by a senior colleague to package some small containers which were oxygen generators. They had been taken off several older jets that had been bought by a discount carrier and were to be shipped to its HQ. The newbie was told that they were "expired" which the newbie interpreted in the paperwork he was to fill out as "oxy containers- "empty". Empty, to him, meant no longer active. Unfortunately, he did not quite know what these containers were used for and it was a rush job. This ignorance had catastrophic consequences.
The oxygen generators (not containers), provide emergency oxygen to both crew and passengers. They work by igniting chemicals which produce O2 via a firing pin so they are considered highly flammable. Protocol said that they should have been shipped as a hazmat substance to a special facility and certainly not aboard a commercial jet. Instead, thinking they were "empty" they were tossed in a box, covered in bubble wrap, many with their firing pins still active. Protocol demanded that a special block be place to prevent the pins from working. However, none could be found despite repeated notifications to supervisors by the senior employee.
Five boxes containing 144 generators were put in a jet's cargo hold on top of some used tires. Evidently at some point during the flight, one or more of the generators were discharged after being shaken or tipped over. An activated generator creates heat exceeding 500°. When installed on a jet, they are safely shrouded in a heat shield. A fire began which was accelerated by the bubblewrap, causing one of the tires to explode starting a fire in the passenger cabin as well as damaging some flight controls. A thick smoke soon incapacitated the flight crew and the jet plunged into the FL everglades with the loss of 110 souls.
Had the generators been properly identified on the shipping paperwork that per regulations are signed off by the flight crew, the jet would have never left the ground. Instead, reading "oxy containers-"empty" it is surmised that they thought they were empty medical oxygen tanks.
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We were watching vintage commercials from the 70's. One crowed that major appliances were so well made that they could be passed down from one generation to the next. This certainly rides the shirttails of the lonely Maytag repairman who had no business because Maytags didn't break down. It was true-you could pass on your washer or stove to your kids when they got their starter home. The good old days.
More vintage TV commercials from the 1970's
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Opici lambrusco was my first wine love. I was well-known and commented on at the Kroger store I worked that I enjoyed my Opici.
This ad is a hoot-a send-up of wine snobbery, leading many to fume: "They're not letting it breathe and adding ice to the glass-Imbéciles!" At least the ad depicts a pretty diverse crowd-an outgrowth from hippie ethos-hell, there are even Eskimos!
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