A Snapshot

Happy Saturday morning, and since I just opened a new bag of beans, this morning’s coffee is wonderfully fresh and tasty.

Helene-the-Hag Hurricane rode her broom straight north from Florida and since yesterday has pummeled us with rain and wind. But not near as nastily as was predicted. It’s now reset as Helene-the-Hag Tropical Storm.

This week Marcia and I remembered that our anniversary was sneaking on up. Typically, I probably would have remembered the event in a week or two – she was much more on top of her game. A  fun challenge; her picture has our Anniversary year in code.

It was Marcia’s choice as to where to have dinner out. I could have called ahead for reservation by guessing where she’d want to go – and be correct – Gordo’s Pub & Grill, in nearby Norwood. As always, we were NOT disappointed!

Oktoberfest – Last week I bored you with some of the details of our Oktoberfest Zincinnati. I went and thoroughly enjoyed myself, people, music, food, sights – it was all great. And yes, I skipped the Chicken Dance as well as the Running of the Weiners (dog race).

In the food department I had a couple of items Marcia refuses to allow into our abode. Out of the 100+ or so various vendor stands and trucks I pre-selected two. I had an amazing Limburger Cheese on Rye (with some thin-sliced raw onion). Too good to describe.

Earlier in the summer, while in Germany, I got introduced to Curry Wurst. Would you believe it? Right here in River City at our Oktoberfest! Yup, at Mick Noll’s Covington Haus they had a Curry Wurst – as good as it was in the old country. Perfection! So good in fact, that I skipped their famous Goetta Balls for the Curry Wurst.

I ended up eating my wurst at the Weihenstephan Beer Garden – claims to be the world’s oldest Bavarian brewer – 1060. (MLX for any Romans who first helped open up the brewery). Prost!

Quotation – “’Security’ is the new shut up”, Laura Rosen Cohen; Uppity Jew. Mom, special needs parent. Writer.

Rally key tossed – Our Secret Service is beginning to look worse and worse. Even more so when it comes to protecting our former President. Remember reading that people were yelling about a guy on the roof at the Butler, PA rally and even though walkie-talkies stayed neatly wrapped up on a desk, the Secret Service managed to hold fast to the old axiom; “when seconds count the police are minutes away.”

But it’s a new day. Trump’s team arranged to hold an outdoor rally in the swing state of Wisconsin. Now here’s a new twist. The Trump team was informed late in the planning that the rally could not be held there because (hold on, are you ready for this) the Secret Service would not have enough manpower to secure the event. A bunch of unelected bureaucrats now control whether or not a candidate can hold a rally a month out of an election.

As the Saturday Night Live Church Lady (Dana Carvey) would say, in ‘her’ nasally catchphrase; “Well, isn’t that special? How con-VEEN-ient!”.

I suspect that with all the shenanigans we’re witnessing, we’re well underway towards a one-party state.

We can’t have disinformation now can we? Redux – How about if it isn’t disinformation when we hear about the problems in Springfield, Ohio? All the garbage spewed on national ‘news’ is not disinformation? How about 4-pages of mumbo-jumbo written by our, Republican, Governor Mike DeWine? A letter rubbing soft salve (lauding) on the 20,000 Haitians and yet where there is not a single mention on the subsequent difficulties experienced by the citizens of Springfield as their lives have been put into turmoil; that isn’t also ‘disinformation’? (And yes, I’ve already made my feelings known to our Governor.)

Here is a short video of this week’s Springfield Council meeting and shows what the citizens of that town experience, see, and deal with — unfiltered or skewed by media moguls.

Best Poll ever – Here in town, Busken Bakery’s cookie poll has been accurate about every Presidential election except one since 1984. Each Presidential election they bake cookies and this year “Donald Trump’s presidential win is baked in” (New York Post). It’s the least scientific, most accurate poll in the nation.

Trump cookies 54 percent of the time (2,953 cookies) compared to Vice President Kamala Harris’ 39 percent (2,134 cookies). The Independent candidate got 7% (397 cookies). The Poll remains open till November 5. “We like to joke and say [customers] can stuff the ballot box,” bakery president and CEO Dan Busken told The Post.

A quick factoid – Busken’s was Tevita’s first employer when he arrived in the ‘Nati.

A Snapshot – A site such as The Ramblings relies a fair bit on the visual, image and video (plus some sound tossed in for luck). Hence the end to this week’s effort on a ‘light’ and picturesque note. Enjoy!

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Here is this week’s ‘learn a little Dutch’ event. The typical Dutch home will place a ‘verjaardagskalendar’ most often where? All are possibilities, but only one answer would be correct more than 90% of the time. PS. We have one, but we’re in that odd, other 10%, group.

1) “Keuken”
2) “slaapkamer””
3) “gang”
4) “zolder”
5) “WC”
6) “badkamer”
7) “voordeur”
8) “bibliotheek”

A Full Page

Happy Saturday morning, hey, now here with you and a great morning coffee. It was just yesterday that I read that the guy who shot up cars on I-75 near London Kentucky was found. How do you ask? It was because people spotted Turkey Vultures circling over a specific wooded area off the road. And yes, when they checked, they did find a body.

I mention this because last Saturday I participated in the Raptor 5K in Milford (did fine thank you), but to mention that this year’s theme bird was (guess anyone?) the TURKEY VULTURE!

Since I seem to be dealing with birds, this weekend it’s Octoberfest Zincinnati. It’s the second oldest Octoberfest next to the one in (“Home of the Monks”) München, Germany our ‘sister-city’. However, our annual Chicken Dance will beat out all others (size-wise).

Wanna learn how to do it? The video below has the University of Cincinnati dance team show you how. (Seniors, watch the gals on the wall for a ‘more leisurely paced’ rendition).

News Dies – and in almost every case it does so very quickly. Think of some major event and reflect on just how long it’s been since you either saw or read coverage of it? Today’s most favorite person to disappear quickly from a front page (unless it’s of benefit to push an agenda) is former President Trump. Just how much time did it take before the assassination attempt on his life disappeared – totally.

A guy by the name of Jon Kahn also took note, so he wrote a song; “Fighter”. Apparently, he wrote well. Forbes mentioned that it’s playing at the TOP of the iTunes chart. Enjoy!

With my own eyes – I’ve come to grips with the fact that things have changed over the last four years. Four decades ago we got slammed between the eyes with a similar situation. The year was 1980. Another election year. The contestants were the Republican challenger and the Democrat incumbent. Contesting Jimmy Carter’s record as his final ‘home run’, Ronald Reagan asked: “Are you better off than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago?”

Well, I keep hearing that we’re in that same boat. Problem being, except for gasoline, I really hadn’t noticed it all that much. Thursday that all changed!

Marcia and I, every couple of evenings, will enjoy as an evening snack and treat ourselves with a couple of Mini Cream Puffs from Aldi’s. We bought some and I brought all the stuff in and helped Marcia put it away. That’s when I noticed just how much the ‘identically alike’ the ‘new’ container had shrunk. Reading the fine print, the almost similar (same old price) container had dropped from 22oz to 17.64oz. It lends credence to this being another “Thank You Joe” moment.

Whole Milk and real Cheese – hallelujah! Beginning my teen years I’ve been made to feel guilty drinking whole milk (chocolate was even worse) and by avoiding the yellow bricked-shaped stuff melted on burgers and the like by pretending it was ‘cheese’. See all that REAL stuff was wrong since it was loaded with the ‘bad’ fat.

But it’s good to always question and so and set out on my own path. I’ve enjoyed REAL whipped cream. Raved over aged , whole and or raw milk, cheese which has always topped my list of the very best. Later on, I refused the killer mRNA or AstraZeneca Covid jab, and tried to avoid the craziness of walking around with a face diaper breathing my own stuff, and so it goes.

Now finally (according to) an article in the Sept. 6 Barron’s with the headline: Doctors and Health Experts Are Changing Their Minds About Whole Milk and Cheese. And the line that warmed my heart; “Consuming full-fat milk products could help stave off diseases seniors are more prone to, including heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.”

We can’t have disinformation now can we? –

How about if it isn’t disinformation, what if it’s just good old SARCASM? Just don’t tell the California Governor since he’s been busily signing new a law; that’ll put a ‘quick’ halt to that sort of stuff.

Sarcastic Quotation – “I’m not saying I hate you, what I am saying is that you are literally the Monday reader of my Saturday blog.” – Unknown

This morning the front of our condo building will have a more open appearance. Yesterday one of the two large front trees which had died was removed. A Latin work crew, amazingly efficient and superb cleanup. Thanks B&G Tree Service.

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Thomas Jefferson was probably one our most learned and ‘bookish’ Presidents. But he valued physical health probably more. What was his favorite physical pastime?

1) “had a pool installed”
2) “played; “bull-in-the-ring””
3) “Boxed”
4) “rode a mechanical horse”
5) “rode horseback”
6) “held a vigorous 2-mile walk every morning at 5am”
7) “popularized golf”

Ain’t it just ducky?

Happy Saturday morning, just a short coffee this am since I’ll be participating in the Raptor 5K in nearby Milford Ohio in a bit and it’ll require plain H2O and not coffee. For this year the 5K theme bird is the Turkey Vulture. The sponsoring agency rehabilitates damaged birds and is actively talking about raptors and their place in nature by going and presenting in schools.

Mentioning a ‘short’ coffee reminds me of this. Years ago, I bought an Espresso coffee machine. Marcia doesn’t drink Espresso and soon I took it to Canada to share a ‘short’ coffee with visitors – didn’t happen much, if at all.

This spring I spent a week with my first cousin Guillaume from France – a double Espresso (or Cuban) each afternoon became the drill. A while later I was in Canada to open-up the cabin. Spotting the machine in a cupboard, I decided to drag it home. Let it be said, I am now hooked. “Hooked I say” (as Foghorn Leghorn would stutter).

Quotation – “It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” – Mark Twain

Duck à l’Orange – When Marcia and I were dating it reached a point where I invited her and her folks over for dinner (I was still in college). The meal, Duck à l’Orange (which I had NEVER attempted before) was a success, and the bird was roasted to perfection! Not certain if they ‘raved’ as much as me but I think they should have.

Fast forward to this past week where all over the news were images of ‘ducks’ and the ‘orange’ guy. What was a certainty is that amid all the hullabaloo there was a roasting. Trump, I have seen better, Kamela was well coached, probably by someone high up in acting school. However, it was the fact that Trump was on the short end of a three-on-one fracas which became noticeably irritating. Kamala getting 1 fact-check, Trump getting 33. It got so bad that when Trump responded to something he had said a long while back as being ‘sarcasm’, Muir-the-inquisitor responded with: “I didn’t see it that way”.

It was the serious face of Muir, the eye rolls and giggles from Kamela as being ‘serious’ and accepting as proper news since it came from a press release from the City Manager of voodoo-town i.e. Springfield, OH. No fact-checker had visited the town. However, weeks prior to all this stuff breaking loose citizens (note it’s plural) did speak up at Springfield Council hearings and there does exist record of 911 activity. But the ABC managers of the ‘debate’ made it clear – shut up, nothing to see here. And, by all means stay away from any mention of today’s serious national failings.

Yes, the Biden/Kamela crew opened the border entry points. However, this also happened while our ‘republican’ state overseers just stood by and watched.

Both parties are to blame as they try to shovel under the rug the fact that in short order one in four Springfield citizens are now ‘migrants’ in a very small town; without vetting, with minimal support, no cultural acclimation, no language prep. Housing has become untenable, car wrecks and litter increase, schools at the breaking point, as with hospitals and policing. In the meantime it’s, maybe just teach them to bake American Apple Pie and forget Duck à l’Orange.

Not long ago 50 Migrants were shipped from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard to spread the ‘open border’ impact around: a mere 50. On day two after the arrival of the migrants the Vineyard citizens had the Guard move them out – in two a mere days. And Springfield? Nah!

This is a Rules committee address made by Kentucky US Representative Thomas Massie – if I could jump across the river to vote I’d do so.

The Cloward-Piven Strategy – “a political theory outlined in 1966 by sociologists and political activists Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. The strategy proposes to create chaos (a political crisis) in the welfare system in order to overwhelm it, thus forcing the government to take action to fundamentally transform society.” – Substack
With the Biden/Harris open border tactic is that what we’re currently experiencing?

A Festival of Icons – Wednesday afternoon Marcia and I set out for our Riverbend Music Center. We had great seating at that evening’s “Outlaw Music Festival: Southern Avenue, John Mellencamp, Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson. Wow!

Three icons each a national treasure. Each playing almost one hour. Both Dylan and Willie are older than me. Their voices are still strong and clear. The crowd was a healthy mix of old and young. Three couples sitting next to us were maybe in their early 30s and were having a blast.

Old favorites combined with a bunch of new. It’s hard to describe how good this event was. Maybe letting you know that we left the condo shortly after 3 and came home exactly at midnight – all without a SINGLE complaint from Marcia.

Willie closed out the show and near the end had us listen to his new song; “The Last Leaf on the Tree”. When he finished the crowd jumped to their feet and Marcia would have had she been able.

Duckly? – This must have been the week of the duck. It was announced that after a couple of decades the USPS has selected a brand new design specifically for their postal deliveries truck. It’s already being test driven somewhere. Anyway, is the nose modeled after a ‘duck’ or is it just me?

During the 1950s The Netherlands had a wealth of al fresco (outdoor) school classrooms – is this maybe where kids could spot an occasional duck?

Finally is this; ‘isn’t this just ducky?– “The Perpetual Penny Paradox” (Caity Weaver, NY Times) deals with the fact that Penny’s are dumped into jars and not circulated. This causes banks and businesses to run short. They order more pennies from the mint which are shipped all around only to be hoarded. Add to this the cost of shipping them from Maine to Alaska. Add to this the fact that it costs more to produce a penny than it’s worth. And they can’t stop minting them (unless we call a halt to the madness – which we won’t).

How big a $$ issue is all this craziness? As Weaver’s research says, “A conservative estimate holds that there are 240 billion pennies lying around the United States — about 724 ($7.24) for every man, woman and child there residing, and enough to hand two pennies to every bewildered human born since the dawn of man.”

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

The mat used to roll Sushi is made from which material?

1) “slatted Wood”
2) “Kobi leather”
3) “Bamboo”
4) “rolled Copper”
5) “Limestone”
6) “Plastic”
7) “Banana leaf”

It happened at Harvard

Happy Saturday morning, I wonder how astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are enjoying their morning coffee on the Space Station while they watched their space capsule headed (limped) home empty. I hope that the thrill of being in space stays with them as they wait till February before the next ‘train’ comes to the station.

I’ll raise my mug of coffee to Boeing, a company which for years was both ‘Sunny’ and ‘Butch’. Hard to envision that for a single decade starting in the mid-sixties Boeing launched work on the space shuttle, the Lunar Roving Vehicle, and the first “Queen of the Skies”, the Boeing 747, was put into service. This is a serious question, what has happened to Boeing?

Herdenking – (Remembrance in English) This coming week it’ll be the start of the 80-years celebrations since The Netherlands regained their freedom from the NAZI occupation. A celebration to move beyond those occupation years and all the horror it brought. The little guy in the kid’s wagon and waving a Dutch flag, was me with my dad celebrating. We were by our home.

We housed a Canadian flyer for a little over a week. He’d been shot down and the fighting between our place and the Allies line made it best for him to stay put. Once the troops broke through, he reported back for duty and brought my parents gifts, nylons for my mom, toothbrushes for us, a Jerry can of gas and battery for my dad’s car (a whole story how he managed to hang on to it), soap, and some fruit (maybe some from Operation Market Garden?).

A World Split Apart – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn‘s 1978 Harvard commencement address was controversial (it was scorned) and now in 2024 we (all of the ‘enlightened’ western world) better pay some serious attention for Solzhenitsyn was spot on. Here are five quotations from that speech:

1) “Socialism of any type and shade leads to a total destruction of the human spirit and to a leveling of mankind into death. “

2) “Liberalism was inevitably displaced by radicalism; radicalism had to surrender to socialism; and socialism could never resist communism.”

2) “In our Eastern countries, communism has suffered a complete ideological defeat; it is zero and less than zero. But Western intellectuals still look at it with interest and with empathy.”

4) “Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.”

5) “All the glorified technological achievements of Progress, including the conquest of outer space, do not redeem the 20th century’s moral poverty which no one could imagine even as late as in the 19th Century.”

Harvard laughed, mocked and ridiculed his speech. As if they knew better than Solzhenitsyn.

So Dirk, you ask; “why dig up this ancient trope today? What import does any of it contain for this day and age?”

Here are 4-reasons I picked from many, each from a different part of today’s ‘enlightened’ and ‘free’ world:

1) France – Pavel Durov, the billionaire CEO of Telegram (much like a secure Twitter or ‘X’), was arrested last Saturday evening at Le Bourget Airport near Paris and his private jet held. Reason? Failing to moderate illegal content – i.e. allowing dissenting speech on the Telegram platform (the first thing the NAZI’s did in the 1930s was to stifle dissenting speech). Saturday August 31, 2024

2) Northern Ireland – August 2024, Enoch Burke (a former teacher of the year) was jailed for refusing to kowtow to the current transgender movement by continuing to teach that all mammals, humans included, only carry male and female DNA. i.e. Shutting of both Free Speech and religious belief is that not what we accuse China of? Think of the 12 million enslaved Uyghurs rounded up in Xinjiang province.

Brazil – September 2, 2024 Brazil’s Superior Court upheld a ban on Elon Musk’s social media platform X – effectively shutting out more than 200 million people from using the app. Musk is also being fined $$millions. Additionally, Brazilians will receive a daily fine of almost $10,000 for using any out of country VPN to continue to be able to access apps as ‘X’ and Rumble. Musk’s Starlink has also been banned. The reason is to silence that new government’s push into Socialism and Communism i.e. North Korea ring any bells?

3) USA – August 2024 Former Congresswoman, presidential candidate, and Lieutenant Colonel in the National Guard, Tulsi Gabbard discovered she is on a super-secret dark TSA Terror Watch List labeled “Quiet Skies”. Her crime? As a lifelong Democrat she spoke out to the very undemocratic (no vote was cast) selection of candidate Harris, and opposition to involvement in ongoing wars. This eventually ended up with her switching party affiliation. Is this not the kind of stuff we accuse Russia of doing?

Now go back to that Harvard Graduation speech of 1978 by Solzhenitsyn and see how we have ‘progressed’ in these 4 short decades. Pretty sobering, isn’t it?

Is the downward slope towards the abyss getting steeper by the day?

Pedestrian Safety – Has become a city talking point. Especially since a large city bus killed an 87-year-old lady crossing while with the light and in a crosswalk. So, here we go again, quick fix the problem in a manner that doesn’t begin to address the root cause.

Face it, we are an auto-centric nation, and our city is no different. Whatever ‘fix’ is implemented cannot in any way, form, or shape impede automobile traffic. The latest here is we’re spending hundreds of thousands installing ‘speed-cushions’ on various roadways.

Meanwhile, as a walker, I walk along sidewalks which on occasion will just end – willie-nilly. But I do have options, I can walk through people’s yards, or optionally, continue walking on a city street (pssst, that’s where I can compete with automobiles for space)

Lastly – This week’s Ramblings will have some confirm that, yes, Dirk is a curmudgeon. Maybe so, but veridically, when I hear stuff put forth in the media, often by politicians, senior sycophants, or paid off scientists (i.e. Fauci), I stop to just have a hearty laugh (OK, maybe more than one laugh). Hence, could it be that I am actually an optimist, a dreamer?

This week I had the privilege of manning the phone lines as part of WMKV 89.3fm radio fund drive (thanks Cathy ) and had a great time.

Offer prayers for Thelma’s family as they deal with her passing. Her journey here, 99 years, was a blessing to all .

Also, George was busily at work this week trying to catch up to me – age wise.

Life is AMAZING!

May Peace prevail! Shalom.

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

After 9-11 we couldn’t allow security at airports to be managed by, and accountable to. each airport authority – NO – we needed a new all-inclusive federally managed agency, the TSA. Which is the ONE correct name for TSA in the following list.

1) “Too Stupid for Arby’s”
2) “Tear Suitcase Apart”
3) “Take Scissors Away”
4) “Thousands Standing Around”
5) “Transportation Security Agency”
6) “They Steal Anything”
7) “Total Sexual Assault”
8) “Three Stooges Audition”
9) “Tactics to Suppress Accountability”