The Coffee Bourgeois Blues

Happy Saturday morning. So, our town fielded a crazy week. No big rant from this end, just that over the last number of years this great town has been like a rudderless ship. It’s what happens when a single party, especially one embracing every and all woke & DEI ideas, gains and maintains absolute control.

Let it just be said that our ‘silver tongued’ Mayor, Aftab Pureval, is so far in over his head it’s ridiculous. Aftab “quack quack’ Pureval (as in ‘pure-evil’) felt it more prudent to let a nationally seen and discussed ‘beat down’ not by taking the helm, but by spending personal time in British Columbia.

Ok, I’ll stop before this turns into a rant.

Remember: “Cincinnati doesn’t have time for National or International news; we’re too busy pi**ing with local issues.” ‘Willie’ Cunningham, WLW700 radio

Now for a solid mug of dark coffee. Here is where the Coffee Bourgeois Blues come in. While reading sit back and enjoy a bit of Jake Speed and the Freddies skewer Starbucks while promoting water used from the ‘Big Muddy’ (Ohio River) as the proper way to make coffee. Now here: Coffee Bourgeois Blues

Last evening I wandered the Ohio riverbank as Paddlefest 2025 started (noted as the Nation’s largest ‘Paddlefest’ at well over 2,000 kayaks, paddleboards, and canoes on an almost 10-mile paddle), listened to Jake and his gang, enjoyed some truck food, and enjoyed a craft beer from Mad Tree. Most importantly, I talked with a number of people representing a myriad of non-profit environmental groups. One that stuck out was called the “Ohio River Way” which promotes hiking trails and paddling along a 3 -State (Ohio, Kentucky, & Indiana) 550-mile charted way.

No more Shopping for Dirk – or so says Marcia, as with pounding heart she fearfully peers out of the front window any time I come home and open the car’s trunk. Last evening, coming back from my evening at the Paddlefest 2025 event I had done it again. I managed to snag, at well below half price, a new but “out of the box” blow up DAMA Stand-Up Paddle Board”. It’s a perfect addition to the water activities at our Northern Comfort. Add to my find that this weekend it’s “Back to School Sales Tax forgiveness” weekend and my purchase qualified. How good does it get?

Mentioning Northern Comfort – I completed my quick journey north without any hiccup. Border crossings were as smooth as I’d ever experienced. The cabin was fully intact and solid. The new neighbors were what anyone would hope for. And all wildlife has once again been put on notice as to who exactly is in charge. ‘All’ that is except for the a flock of Canadian Geese who stopped by the day before my arrival and left the waterfront area loaded up with their ‘Tootsie Rolls’.

My journey back to the ‘Nati did have a slight detour as I visited with Paul and Dia for an evening. It was a perfect finish to my solo week out. Thanks guys!

One minor addition – About a half hour from home I got caught in some very severe rains. These were to the point where other traffic ground to a halt in the middle of I-74. This was NUTS! By morning I heard on the news that I’d driven through what was now labeled as a F-1 Tornado. Ignorance surely is bliss!

For my Car-Lovers readers – At the Paddlefest weekend festivities I spotted this gorgeous Lucid. This was the first Lucid I’d seen. A quick check has these details: a full EV, some models can go 500 miles on a single charge and do 0-to-60 in under two seconds. Price ranges from $100.000 to $200,000. This is a serious set of wheels.

Lupe Ongolea – Tevita’s mother, Lupe, passed away and Tevita, Adrianne, Vai, and Vili all traveled to Tonga for the services (left for the airport Sunday at 4:45AM and arrived in Tonga Tuesday morning). In Tonga the passing of a person, their death and the celebration of their life, is a family and community affair managed without a professional ‘funeral’ class.

Having attended the ‘Green’ funeral of my friend, Jeff a couple of years ago and now seeing photos of Lupe’s passing in Tonga has given me a sense of just how this becomes a family event; thus, more appreciative of the pain in the immediate, and joy in remembering what has been. For both Vili and Vai being an intimate part of Lupe’s journey is truly a life-altering experience.

Rest in Peace Lupe – be proud of the family you have nurtured and raised; you’ve done well!

Cincinnati Open – the Cincinnati Open 2025 Tennis Tournament is starting this week. Bright and early last Saturday I had my training and credential time which started with an outdoor breakfast prior to the temperature climbing to about a 100. My first shift is from 6 to 11 PM this coming Thursday. I took the picture below from the vantage point I experience on my shift.

A Factoid: commentator on Fox News, Katie Pavlich: Your regular reminder that when Israel completely disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005, including digging up Jewish graves, they left thousands of productive green houses to the Palestinians – nearly a billion dollar produce industry. All this infrastructure was immediately destroyed by the new ‘occupants’.

Now that France, the UK, and Canada are talking ‘Statehood for Palestinians’, it might be good to reflect on Pavlich’s quotation above.

Pan Rocks the music of Rush, 2025 – Earlier this past Spring Vai with her school band played her steel drums at a major concert held at the Miami University’s Millet Hall Arena. Just released this week was the professionally assembled song “Fly by Night”. The reason I am posting it is that starting at the 1:17 mark and on towards the conclusion there are some great shots of Vai doing her ‘stuff’ – (she played at the end of a row and thus look for her on the right side of the screen). It’s a great piece of listening – ENJOY!.

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Which stall should you use in a Public Bathroom? Which is the cleanest stall in a public bathroom? Science has finally figured it out.

1) “closest to the entrance”
2) “go to what’s furthest away”
3) “the middle stall”
4) “any end stall”

Want the details? Click here

time moves along

Happy Saturday morning. And a very happy 80th to my brother Pieter – make it a classic, guy!

Remember: “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

I’ve finally isolated a week to make it possible to run up north to Northern Comfort. This coming week it’ll be a solo run with me planning to return Sunday a week. Without anyone else coming up it’ll be yard work, cleaning the interior, making certain all the batteries are fully charged, meeting our new neighbors, a bit of Kayaking, some rest in the hammock, reading and some more reading (my Kindle is fully charged). Then, it’s a quiet cigar to top it off!

Not forgetting, saying hello to Marlene and Donn.

After all of that, whew, I’m worn out!

A Change – All of this will demand that for the NEXT TWO WEEKS, my Ramblings will be on HIATUS!

Quote – “If you think you are smarter than the previous generation……50 years ago the owner’s manual of a car shows you how to adjust the valves. Today it warns you not to drink the contents of the battery.”
– anonymous (from on-line)

An old corner, the corner of Chaos and Mayhem – There is that old saying about a tree falling in a middle of the forest, does it make……..

Well, here is what happens when a tree falls across the roadway leading to the corner of Chaos & Mayhem – it shuts the place down! And that is exactly what happened early this past week. Of course, it had to happen at the start of the afternoon rush hour.

But that’s not all.

Yesterday at 1AM I woke up due to the racket made by a Fire truck. This was quickly followed by 5 more trucks. A dozen houses down the street was an empty (it was under reconstruction) house which had caught on fire.

Once again, a cruiser was dispatched to block what? Yup, you guessed right, the old Corner of Chaos and Mayem was locked down again. The news reported that they had 50 firefighters at the scene.

I woke up at 3-AM and the cruiser was still casting red and blue colors on the ceiling.

More Volunteering – and Marcia is still shaking her head in disbelief. I did it again, I volunteered, and my volunteering offer was accepted. Mid-August I will be a volunteer on the Committee for Suite Hospitality at the……drumroll here please……the Cincinnati Open 2025 Tennis Tournament!

This major tournament will be going for 14 days. This is to account for the men’s and women’s singles fields growing from 56 to 96 players. This year the campus will also open to display a brand new $260million transformation on its 40-acre campus, and in a couple of weeks I’ll get to view the awesome new look.

Our prestigious tournament’s early beginning go back to 1899 and it has grown ever since. This year, the top 65 players in the world, from the women’s and men’s tennis tours, are set to compete.

For 2025, the Cincinnati Open ranks number 12 on a list of the 20 best tournaments – worldwide!  It’s the lead up to the New York Open.

I am truly excited about the opportunity! It should be awesome.

My early years had me playing tennis a fair bit – at church Family Camp in Germantown when our kids were babes there tennis got pretty serious (me using my old-school wooden racket). Then, as life got busier, it morphed into indoor hand and paddle ball.

So, to be involved in this event, at my current ‘reflective’ age is huuuge!

Ripley, Ohio – the little town of 1,800 stuck on the banks of the mighty Ohio and a ways east of the ‘Nati. Last week’s Ramblings detailed the lead-up to an occurrence at this town, so, here is the conclusion. Wednesday evening, they drew cards until they had a winner ($1.6-million) for their Queen of Hearts drawing. And the winner had to declare the winning ticket within 10 minutes.

Wednesday they indeed had a winner, and the winner was a local (thousands had driven in from the “Nati and places out of State), he was 67 years of age and had purchased $3,000 worth of tickets.

Got Gassed – yesterday I stopped by the Sam’s Club gasoline island. After staring for way too long at the pump I realized I had no idea on how to make the thing work. It would appear that a newer technology had passed me by.

Luckily, a cop pulled up behind me and he heard my pleas. I had no physical card, so the transaction was all electronic. A QR code was on screen. First, I had to allow my mobile’s camera read the code. That activated the Sam’s Club App. Then everything became simple and the pump sprang into action. Whew!

The good news was that my receipt was placed on my mobile phone – only missing was that it didn’t auto log my mileage.

All the above showing to be a far cry from the time, while driving across the Province of Saskatchewan, when I needed to stop for gas. The small town where I stopped had just experienced a power outage. Not to worry though. The gas pump had a handle to manually pump gas, and in short order I was ready to head on out – full tank and all.

Tell me, which technology do you think is better?

Time doesn’t stop – as time rolls on and as we observe how time transforms, I referred to two such phenomena. One I didn’t mention is our Vaioleti. Born as a micro-preemie who needed to be rubbed on her back to ‘kick-start’ her breathing every time the incubator’s alarm would set off.

This fall she’s going to start her senior school year. Now a young smart and self-assured delightful young woman, she’s just begun her very first summer job – working at the Cincinnati Zoo. She’s ready to help you select that perfect gift as you scour the main gift shop. So cool!

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Which of these ‘myths’ are actually true?

1) “The Great Wall of China is visible from space”
2) “Bats are blind”
3) “you swallow spiders in your sleep”
4) “Einstein failed math”
5) “Goldfish have a 3-second memory”
6) “Lightning never strikes the same place twice”

Independence Day

Quote – “I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration.”
– John Adams, July 3, 1776

Happy Saturday morning. Happy day after Independence Day.

4th of July – I sure hope that all my readers had a wonderful day, whether a cookout, parade, movie, or just sitting in the yard with your feet in a kiddy pool.

Then, here wishing that all dogs have recovered from any nearby nighttime fireworks noise. A couple of homes on either side of our place seem not to be satisfied until they’ve emptied a store shelf from a nearby Fireworks store.

Now, I’m pouring another coffee as the best way to spring back to normal.

Not quite normal – I just received notification to reserve the date for the 2026 Flying Pig. Early this week I received a shirt imprinted with Top Pig 5K; I believe I achieved some top spot in my age category – cool. The very next day I cut through a back lot at Xavier University on a walk, there, parked, was this car, marked “Rig of the Pig”. Now I’m wondering, am I being subjected to a full court signup press?

Northside Parade – Northside’s slogan; “Keep Northside Weird” fulfilled its wish. With its traditions going back to 1854 this year’s 4th of July Parade, aside from being the region’s largest, somehow managed to (sort of) keep a balance between being traditional and ‘edgy’. Adrianne offered me a slot and walk with the Peace Corps contingency. My excuse being that since Marcia couldn’t participate, I’d fill her role (mid-sixties, Venezuela). It really was a fun time, albeit somewhat hot.

I spotted this late 1950s Chrysler Imperial, aside from being gorgeous it also is representative of the traditional portion of the parade.

Flashback; when these ‘beasts’ were new, my uncle Harry came to visit us and guess what he was driving? If you guessed that it was an Imperial you’d be 100% correct – a shiny black one no less. I remember thinking I’d never seen a more beautiful car, that thing was gorgeous!

Open the (above) photo and try to spot the character in the back corner behind me. He represents the more ‘edgy’ side of Weird Northside.

Manhattan Eruv – Over the years my brother Pieter has performed the role of a Sabbath Goy for observant Jewish acquaintances. Exploring this whole Sabbath Goy thing a bit further I eventually came upon an Eruv. Without which, for observant Jews, life on the Sabbath would really become a royal pain.

Now, I’d heard of an Eruv but never understood how perfectly it allows life to proceed seamlessly. Then I came across this short YouTube – it explains it all perfectly, especially the oversized Eruv around Manhattan. So, enjoy!

Ripley, Ohio – is a little town of 1,800 stuck on the banks of the Mighty Ohio a ways east of the ‘Nati. A couple of years ago Marcia and I, on our way home from a B&B stay in West Virginia, had a lovely lunch in the place. But now it’s getting HUGE notice for something else as thousands of folks keep flooding the place – specifically, flooding Brookie’s bar.

See, they’re looking for raffle tickets, specifically it’s for a single raffle ticket which will earn them $$$, i.e. that’s 1 million dollars at the Brookie’s Queen of Hearts drawing this coming Wednesday.

Heat – Two weeks of mid-nineties plus temperatures, a feels-like index hovering around 100 and after a slight reprieve right back to it. It’s on the hot side, but not unlike anything we haven’t had before – hottest actual temperature (without considering humidity) ever recorded in Ohio was 113 degrees near Gallipolis Ohio, on July 21, 1934. So, the real question is, how do we cope?

How do we keep a constant 98.6 °F (37 °C)? How come that other than sweating we really are unaware of us actively working to stay on temperature? We’re mammals, i.e. warm-blooded animals, and we have to keep our temperature constant whether to cold or too hot or we’re done for.

That question was enough to get me to do a bit of reading (and remembering bits and pieces from way back school days). So, luckily, we have a little bundle of cells tucked in our brain, the hypothalamus. This little ‘item’ transmitting through our labyrinth of nerves, dealing with stuff such as shivering, perspiration, the blood flowing near the skin, sugar level, breathing, and metabolism. Our amazing nervous system relaying details almost instantly. All this is working seamlessly in the background to keep us going in our ‘normal’ temperature range. OK, all except for clothing, protection, and heating/cooling – all this regulation is managed in the background, seamlessly and effortlessly!

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Who was the forgotten Founding Father who authored the Constitution?

1) “James Rivington”
2) “Baron von Steuben”
3) “Robert Hunter Morris”
4) “Committee of Detail”
5) “Gouverneur Morris”
6) “John Jay”

No Funk Here?

Happy Saturday morning. After some seriously slouching off on my walks and exercises the last couple of weeks I am turning a new leaf. Sure, there are excuses galore, but these are all excuses. All except for the crazy high temperatures – we’re not expected to drop below the 90-degree mark with most days in the high 90s. Change supposedly coming this coming Wednesday that is. Arggh, with the infamous ‘feels-like’ it’s been a steady 100+.

Notwithstanding the chronically heat complaining, this morning I am enjoying a hot mug of morning coffee. Does that signify a caffeine addiction?

Last week – I happened to mention that I’d be running out early to help with the pre-game ceremonies of that day’s tournament game between the Mamelodi Sundowns FC (Pretoria – South Africa) vs Borussia Dortmund (Dortmund – Germany) game. It was a really good game, and I declared a winner. Yes, I know that Germany won the actual game. But the tournament winner in the (totally unrecognized) uniform category must be the – drum roll please – the Mamelodi Sundowns from Pretoria. Best uniform I’ve ever seen.

Helen Keller Quote –

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”

As we age many bits and pieces of our lives change, ease up, even begin to slow down, or as Helen Keller would put it; “one [or each] door closes”. These past few weeks I had the good fortune to be pointed to a ‘door’ which had just opened – soccer’s FIFA Club World Cup 2025 was coming. Not only that but our stadium was to be one of 11 to be used across the nation. It was to be the new door that had just opened up.

They needed volunteers and I made an application the day our Adrianne alerted me to this opportunity. All told the event had many thousands of applications, selection was a weeding out process; I got the invite!

Now that it’s all over and that door has closed, what I received was one of those life events to be remembered and remembered. It was epic!

As my daughter Kirstin wrote; “my dad living his best life”.

It really was a proud moment when after the final game (attended by our VP JD Vance) Gianni Infantino, FIFA President visited with our Ceremonies team and asked me forward as the tournament MVV Volunteer by handing me the Official Match Ball of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 tournament which he signed for me. Being given this token is beyond special.

Afterwards nearly 50 of my compatriots asked to have their photo taken with the ball. What a day!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gianni Infantino – FIFA President (@gianni_infantino)

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The Dayton area – has an active Polynesian community. With that there is a regularly structured group teaching Hawaiian, Samoan, Fijian, as well as Tongan dances. Vai is totally involved and works hard to learn Tongan specific dances.

Anyway, last weekend Marcia and I went to a performance by members of the Ohana Outreach program for a fundraiser. Since all these dances have meanings derived from their traditional island way of life, the meaning of the various dances was explained; dances such as the Luau and Haka war dances.

Plus, as a bonus Vai did a beautiful Tongan dance by herself. Really a lot of fun.

Cheddar Chips – Yesterday Marcia and I went to Good Sam hospital for her semi-annual infusion shot (which has become an excuse to have lunch at the hospital’s cafeteria). It’s really a Seinfeld scene just how my wife loves that cafeteria. Favorite? The Deli section serves hand assembled smoked meat sandwiches with Boar’s Head meats.

Anyway, Marcia added a little bag of Quaker Cheddar Chips – which tasted amazingly good. Reading the ingredients it appears that HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.’s push for healthier ingredients is well underway. The listing on the rear has whole grain, no artificial ingredients, etc., in other words it’s much healthier.

Amazing – is what the recent successful military effort to ‘silence’ a rogue nation’s effort to make the world dramatically more dangerous. It was a Mr. Ostrovsky who afterwards wished all a very special Shabat.

Another Game? – Now that my total immersion in soccer – for weeks on end – is over, I realized that I’d stumbled into a bit of a funk. Then, yesterday it was Cathy who called. Seems someone at the radio station her show runs on had a pair of extra tickets – could she use them? She advised she couldn’t, but she knew someone who could. So here is what transpired.

I received a pair of tickets for a game at TQL Stadium for tomorrow afternoon. It’s the final contest of a two-match series by the U.S. Womens National Soccer Team (USWNT) against Ireland. It’s a wonderful opportunity to see Cincinnati raised Rose Lavelle (midfielder #16) play. Rose has played on our US Olympic Team and has been nominated as Player of the Year. She’s good, very very good.

What a way to ease out of a funk.

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk
BONUS POINTS:

When was the last cigarette commercial aired on TV?

1) “1968”
2) “1966”
3) “1971”
4) “1977”
5) “1973”
6) “1984”
7) “1980”
8) “1999”
9) “2010”

Where is Starman?

Happy Friday Eve. Posting a little early since tomorrow morning at 6:15AM I’ll be enjoying my coffee in the car while driving to our TQL Stadium. In a short while I’ll be doing my volunteer part on the Pre-Game Ceremonies. Today’s (Saturday) FIFA Club World Cup 2025 game will feature the Mamelodi Sundowns FC (Pretoria – South Africa) vs Borussia Dortmund (Dortmund – Germany) game.

Afterwards Marcia and I will head for Centerville (near Dayton) to watch Vaioleti performing as a dance member for the Ohana Outreach Fundraiser, in their annual Luau! There Vai’ll promote dances from Tonga.

Now does the why for this Friday posting make sense? Thought you’d agree.

Cicada Time – Those pesky every 17 years beasties are back. No, I am not reposting the audio track of our local eatery’, “Snappy Tomato Pizza” notorious 1987 faux advertising jingle: “Snappy Cicada Pizza”. But just how strange an event it is, is clear when viewing this year’s emergence.

Here by our home, we’ve not heard or seen a single lonely one of those ‘red eyed’ bugs. However, drive exactly 9.2 miles away from our home, in Madeira and Milford the ground has become a living, writhing, carpet.

Early on the early emerging Cicadas were viewed a desert snack by other animals. Now, there are so many of the screeching beasties that it’s to a point where even the birds and the dogs are sick of them.

Think I’m kidding? Ha!

A Game / A Storm – Wednesday with temp hovering just over 90 and humidity as high as anyone would want my team and I did our pre-game banner routine. Even with the heat our performance came off flawlessly. Then, armed with lodge seat complimentary game tickets we were truly treated to a world-class game. Playing were CF Pachuca (Mexico) vs RB Salzburg (Austria). ‘Treated’ until shortly after the 2nd half started when Stadium announcers stopped the game and moved everyone under cover. And, yes, it was quite a thunderstorm which blew through.

Safely under cover away from the weather it was the Mexican fans who began to sing and party. I called Marcia to let her know all was OK and see if she was OK on the home front. Let me explain that with all the singing and chanting we couldn’t make out a word either one of us said or heard over the “Pachuca, Pachuca” chants, i.e. fun, fun times!

The Team – I’ve been asked what all this FIFA ‘volunteering’ is about. It’s a bunch of work performed for free. Actually, it’s work without renumeration, but with tons of fulfilling and gratifying good times. Here are a few pictures of the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff and one of ‘Moi’ and my team.

The Pitch

The Team

Rush – Earlier this year Vai and her school band, plus similar bands from 6 other high schools joined forces at Miami University to combine their Steel Drums for a concert of the band Rush’s music.

This, Rush’s “2112 Overture”, was just posted and is a much more professional video than my posting of their “Tom Sawyer” piece. This video of the 2112 Overture is too good to pass up, go full screen or TV and up the sound – ENJOY!

People ask – Dirk, over the years you write constantly about your walks and 5Ks, what gives? Maybe, these words spoken by Dr. Wendy Suzuki provide the best answer:

“We know that as little as 10 minutes of walking can improve your mood, that is getting (your brain) that bubble bath with the dopamine, serotonin, endorphins going, anybody can do that.”
Dr. Wendy Suzuki, neuroscientist, professor at the New York University Center for Neural Science

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk
BONUS POINTS:

Which of the following have served as a form of currency?

1) “Beads”
2) “Stones”
3) “Tulips”
4) “Eels”
5) “Shells”
6) “Salt”
7) “Animal Skins”
8) “Parmigiano cheese”
9) “Whale teeth”

And so, we start a weekend!

Happy Saturday. Earlier this week it was a seriously past due time for the haircut. With dueling cowlicks topside it’s always a bit of a challenge for the person manning the scissors. Having said that, the job got done and Marcia even gave a nod of approval,

Today, after a massively active week, it’s a fine time to just jot a bit for The Ramblings and at the same time savor my mug of coffee, a moment more than usual.

It’s Game Time – Aside of the start of the Club World Cup 2025 matches tomorrow [here in the ‘Naty it’ll be Bayern Munich {Germany} vs Auckland City {New Zealand} streaming at noon on DAZN and other services].

Next, for two Sold Out weekend performances our Great American Ballpark will host the Savannah Bananas. They are the wildly popular, barnstorming, baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters.

Then, this town also finds it necessary to pay homage to its German heritage for the 159th year (1866) by celebrating Schützenfest annually by the catholic Kolping Society.

Schützenfest’s origins date back to medieval times. “The event commemorates a legendary marksman who saved a child from an eagle attack. Each year, the festival honors this story with a hand-carved eagle perched atop a pole, which marksmen aim to shoot. The marksman who shoots the eagle is crowned the “Schützen König,” or Shooting King, for the year.” Of course, there will be a “Wein & Bier Stube”, and an outdoor Biergarten with a slew of activities beyond just drinking.

Practice – Yesterday I spent 4-hours on the Pitch at TQL Stadium, where the grass is treated as hallowed ground. Although the stadium was empty of screaming fans it was magical. Music from the likes of Queen, and Van Halen and more thumped on the sound system. Hundreds of folks were scurrying around; media, medics, audio & video types, along with security to name but some.

At some point heated cabinets were rolled into our gathering room and a great lunch of Indian food was made available. This was the first time I’d seen these cabinets complete with Sterno canned heat. Lots of chatter in many languages, a little more white-board detailing, and then it was back at it again. The work that must go into these, for international consumption, productions is beyond belief.

PS. see if you can find a hidden — well known to these readers — name on the whiteboard 🙂

what the banners look like spread out on the pitch

My Special Day – Last Thursday, the one that had me on a liquid diet for two days, went better than I’d hoped. I expected I’d be ‘foggy’ till near eleven o’clock. Instead, I was on the way for some breakfast by 8:30. Adrianne and I stopped by a nearby Bagel shop. For Marcia and her it was a breakfast Bagel, I got a still warm one with cream cheese and cold-smoked salmon – my absolute favorite.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I actually gave the doctor (or maybe it was the anesthesiologist) a cheery well wish and that I’d see them on my next visit – 10 years hence.

The results were all good news.

A bit ago, at 6:30AM, an Amazon Prime delivery came to the front door and dropped a package was dropped off. Before I looked back at my morning Ramblings I noticed a Kroger grocery delivering truck driving by. We really have become an active 24-hour a day society, haven’t we?

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

What is a ‘blob’ of toothpaste called?

1) “lump”
2) “nurdle”
3) “pellet”
4) “dash”
5) “daub”
6) “smear”
7) “ball”

Prepping for H2O days!

Happy Saturday. And I hope yesterday was your year’s best since it was National Donuts Day. I skipped the celebrations, but that’s probably for the best. At Dunkin’ it’s coffee and donuts as a snack, I went the solo coffee route.

Mentioning yesterday, I learned that if one has the thermostat set on ‘heat’ in June it’s in error. I was on my Zoom exercise cluster when I first noticed that I was dripping sweat on my Yoga mat as if a faucet had turned on. It turned out that exercise coupled with an inside humid temperature of 79 is not a happy combination. Early afternoon all was good (by then I’d also downed over 20oz of water).

Bet you didn’t Know – Now what would that be compadre? Ever heard of Stricker’s Grove? No? It’s an amusement park located outside of Hamilton, OH about 25 miles from our little abode. Started by Henry Stricker in 1924 on 55 acres of property. Henry worked at Procter and Gamble where he allowed his fellow employees over as a picnic spot on weekends.

Stricker’s Grove is a family friendly amusement park where I’ve never been. The reason is simple, it’s only open to the public 4-days a year. It’s still family owned, now starting year 101.

You ask, “How do they stay alive”, simple, it’s a destination place for events, company outings, weddings, and so forth. A quick factoid, years ago it was Ralph Stricker himself who built the Tornado, a full-scale wooden roller coaster as well as a smaller kiddie one..

“Are the rides safe?”— might also be something you wonder about, but don’t worry, the place is checked out by the State. Also, somewhat different, in Ohio it’s the Department of Agriculture which inspects amusement parks. It makes perfect sense. If you understand how a cornstalk snaps, the principle of Coaster snapping applies.

CWC 2025 – Some of you have probably had enough of me babbling on and on about the Club-World-Cup 2025 soccer event which starts this coming week. But it is nothing like what I spotted on BBC Sport: “Men ‘hid in toilet for 27 hours’ to watch Champions League final for free”. This happened in Munich; Click here to read just how they survived their escapade.

But for me, tomorrow I get fitted for my uniform gear and pick up my accreditation pass. Tuesday I am on the University of Cincinnati practice field to perfect the 15-minutes of ‘Rah-Rah’ officially labeled as the “Pre—Match Ceremonies Team” – I must be a slow learner because they have blocked 4-hours for me to learn the 15 minutes of glory.

Included for our team will be the display of the Tournament Brand Banner & Team Crests, then Music & some chorography, Team player walk on, match info, Player announcements, and breakdown of everything on the pitch. Whew! All done in 15 minutes.

A Very Special Visit/Day – Then on Thursday it really kicks in, I have a hospital visit at 7:00AM (my exact procedure requires that I drink an inordinate amount of clear liquid, sans solids).

Then at 5:00PM I’ll be back on the UC practice field to perfect the ‘Rah-Rah’ routine. Thursday should be fun and will certainly be the highlight of the week! Marcia is chortling. Adrianne is driving me around and will probably wonder why she volunteered for that chore. Me? I am a little more sober about the start of the day.

Corner dogs – The corner of Chaos & Mayhem was mostly quiet this week, except for one incident. A lady residing nearby has two dogs and one crazy habit. See, she puts her ‘pets’ on their leash (most times) and then drops the end she should be holding on the ground. Basically, she free-ranges her dogs which roam in about a 40’ or so radius. Mostly it all seems works – except for her picking up any ‘deposits’, which she doesn’t.

This week her lazy habit didn’t fare so well. Another neighbor’s daughter happened to set out to walk another neighbor’s two dogs – hers were properly on leash. The dogs caught sight of one another. Let’s just say that by the time the ruckus died down the daughter was in tears. That very next day the daughter reappeared, now with her upper arm all bandaged up (Ace). Sometime later that same day a city truck marked “Warden” rolled up and the driver went to the lazy dog owner’s home. And so, it goes.

Maybe that lazy woman would be better off heading for the Chinese online shopping site, TEMU where they’d sell her an electronic, peeing, attack dog.

Dayton – Vai and her Olohana’s Polynesian Dance were invited on Dayton’s GoodDay ABC Channel 22 this week. They performed a couple of dance numbers for the live show where Vai represented Tonga. Guess who was all smiles? Vai herself, her mom and dad, and Marcia and me.

Groceries – by now regular readers know that Marcia LOVES on-line grocery shopping. Yesterday morning, at 9:00, the Kroger truck rolled up and the groceries were brought to our front door. That evening Marcia commented that, including our delivery, she had counted 14 Kroger trucks roll by.

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Yesterday was the 81st year of the invasion of Normandy (June 6, 1944). During WWII the allied factories (primarily the USA, UK, & Canada) produced a lot of aircraft – 630,000. Do the math, how much time between each new airplane to be completed and roll off the assembly line.

1) “12-minutes”
2) “1-hour, 12-minutes”
3) “47-minutes”
4) “2-hours”
5) “5-minutes”
6) “1-hour, 47-minutes”
7) “18-minutes”

Schlemiel! Schlimazel!

Happy Saturday. Coffee for a sensation and a disaster:

The disaster: This past weekend, “Cannes is in a total slowdown, meltdown, there’s no coffee anywhere, and I think the town has run out of croissants, so this is like crisis territory,” Australian producer Darren Vukasinovic told Reuters news agency reflecting on the Cannes power outage at the Film Festival.

The Sensation: At this place enjoying a coffee is an almost holy event. Crowned the most beautiful café in the world with its breathtaking feature of eclectic architecture is the 130 year old New York Café in Budapest, Hungary.

Ai – Here is an adaptation of Ai: “Scientists at Caltech, for example, used an AI fluid simulation model to automatically design a better catheter that prevents bacteria from swimming upstream and causing infections”.…..”rather than progress through a long line of progressively better designs”.

what will happen in the near future, years rather than decades, as Ai capability speeds up incrementally? What will happen as Ai begins to think and starts communicating with its own kind in its own language independent of human ‘coders’? Already, just this past month Ai was asked to perform a few simplistic math problems after which it was to stop and shut down. The system easily solved the math, but, then would not quit. Eventually the human engineers had to pull the plug.

Now think of tens of thousands of Ai systems talking with each other, can every plug be pulled?

Former Google CEO, Dr. Eric Schmidt, provides insight into the future – ‘future’, think the next five years. I’ve been following his insights for some time.

Here are two interviews. The first is short and was for a Congressional hearing. The second is with Noema – a magazine published by the Berggruen Institute. Should yo want more, the second interview is fascinating, more detailed and lengthier (about 20-minutes).

Congressional Hearing (short)

Noema Magazine interview (detailed)

Already a number of the large national companies, think Google, Apple, Meta, or Oracle are moving forward fast and furiously. Then, a myriad of start-ups are also joining the fray. Ai is in our future, like it or not we have little choice.

“Today, Oracle has 162 cloud data centers, live and under construction throughout the world. The largest of these data centers is 800 megawatts, and it will contain acres of Nvidia GPU clusters able to train the world’s largest AI models”
Larry Ellison, founder & CEO of Oracle

Dinah’s party – Monday was a glorious time at Cathy and Jason’s home celebrating Dinah’s high school graduation. Cathy’s side of the family (who we don’t often see) were all gathered, Marin was there, as were schoolmates, and a table full of fellow rowers.

Adrianne and Tevita, in Tongan and Polynesian tradition treated Dinah as the “fahu” (leader) and hence Dinah walked around with many necklaces of candy placed on her – later these were then given out to friends by Dinah (at least to many of them). It’s a lovely tradition.

Glorious weather. Great conversation. Bagels with Lox (my favorite), and the thought that I could do one of these each and every week.

Pennies – Having traveled back and forth to Canada for years I’ve watched them operate from before and after they removed the penny from their currency. Seamless! Think, no torn pockets due to the weight of jangling coins. Actually, in Canada’ it’s still torn pocets since they use a ‘Looney’ and ‘Tooney’ coin for their $1 & $2 equivalents, they still have pockets full.

So now it’s our turn, the penny is on the way out. The mint has already stopped making pennies (cost about 5 cents for every penny made). You’re a collector? You better hoard!

Oh, that Highway – Half the time in The Ramblings you’re expecting some incident to have occurred here at The Corner of Chaos & Mayhem, often car related. Not this week.

A few days ago I drove Vai and Vili to near Dayton for practice. About even with Middletown on I-75 all traffic stopped. It was an accident on the south-bound lanes. No idea on the ‘how’ or ‘why’. All I saw was a red minivan laying on its ROOF, balanced dab-smack ON top of the concrete divider. I asked Vai next to me to grab her mobile and take a picture. By the time we got organized the tow truck had cabled the thing off the concrete and there it was, laying on its side. I hope that the occupants came out OK, the vehicle did not.

Aging Specs – Stats can be a wild thing. Even more so when reflecting back over the years – for me, now mostly time-squeezed. Remember back the years? The sweats just asking a girl out for your first date? The time you were allowed to climb behind the wheel and how your foot shook working the (now no longer) third pedal? Sitting in class and opening that empty ‘Blue book’ as finals kicked in? Burying a parent and the extreme sense of loss and the knowledge of how time was slipping?

Yet, at the same time, aging is something magical. Now for us, Baby-Boomers’ or even those close to. Here is what all we’ve experienced:

We were raised during the 1960s, Vietnam and the Summer of Love, all at once. Musically it’s been Jazz, Blues, Crooners, Pop, Rock, and Rap – but the Classical kept us focused.
We’ve shuffled and bungled through eight decades.
Touched two centuries, two millenniums, and one of them reaching back to times earlier than the Civil War, the other stretching into Space and Infinity and Ai.

You’ve got to admit that it’s a special time in our history. As I’ve stated, Life is Amazing!

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Sister Marizele of Brazil got rave reviews on their Catholic TV station playing which instrument?

1) “1/32 size violin”
2) “contrabass saxophone”
3) “Moog synthesizer”
4) “beatbox”
5) “Celtic harp”
6) “Buck dancer clogging shoes”
7) “Melodica”

Will I, Won’t I – Don’t I, Do I

Happy Saturday. And a happy Memorial Day weekend.

Spring is quickly passing into summer. This week summer vacation started for our local school kids. And I experienced my first summer special of the year. At last weekend’s Regatta at East Fork Lake park, I wanted a mid-day pick me up. Asking if anyone else wanted a coffee I was asked to bring an iced coffee. Asking the window person at the Food Truck – if they had cold coffee; and they did. Yes, that one item solidified it, summer has sprung.

The Ceremony – Thursday afternoon I attended Dinah’s graduation ceremony. 400-strong was her class of 2025. With that size the ceremony was held at the University of Cincinnati’s Bearcats basketball arena.

Aside from her athletic scholarship she was also the recipient of a financial grant – proud parents to be sure.

Years ago, two of our kids graduated from Dinah’s school, plus her brother Marin and mother Cathy. It was announced that their school, Walnut Hills High School, this past year was ranked #1 out of the 864 High Schools in the State. Even though a public school an entry exam is required. Each student must take Latin for 3 years.

The net result is that each one of my gang is substantially smarter than me.

Climbing Around – After all of that ceremony stuff, when heading home I couldn’t find my car. OK, has the laughter died down yet? I do know that this was a ‘geezer’ move. The UC campus is TOTALLY different from anything I remember. Several new and expanded buildings have been ‘shoe-horned’ into what is already a tight campus. Add that everything is a series of staircases, both up and down, and a multitude of ramps.

I knew I left the car in one of the 11 multi-level garages on campus. The problem was that we were escorted out of the basketball arena from a different exit than how I entered. Once outside it’s impossible to just turn a corner to retrace your steps in. The sun had set, making it difficult to pick a direction. Ultimately the ‘coup de grâce’ was that when I finally discovered the garage, I was not aware that it was actually two buildings which initially only appeared to be one.

Yes, I know, I know that on my mobile phone a GPS location pin can be placed as an aid. But this is easily not thought of when preoccupied with other matters – such as meeting up with the rest of the family.

After all of this, when I finally got home Marcia was sound asleep.

Old Radio – Driving earlier this week I tuned in to one of our local ‘oldies’ stations. It wasn’t that long ago that it was exclusively “Big Band” sounds and radio comedy or drama from the 1930s ‘40s, and 50s. Now music from the 1960s and ‘70s has entered the “oldies” lineup.

Day dreaming (while driving in traffic is not a good idea) nevertheless, it’s what I was doing. And so, I remembered that back in June of 1985 (I had to look that up later) almost every local radio station ran a series of ads daily. The ads were for an under-construction underground mall – Plummet Mall!

Secretive, coy, hints galore, perfect shopping temperatures, and escalators directly into any store is what the ads promised. In fact, the Chamber of Commerce was upset that they hadn’t been informed of a new mall. The then Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. pointed out construction couldn’t start because no one had applied for service. Listen to what I enjoyed back in 1985, 2 of the ad spots plus the final one:

You should know that the brainchild of the Plummet Mall spoof was a guy named Jerry Galvin who then had a NPR radio show called Talk Back. Jerry lived nearby in our neighborhood and he and Marcia played sandlot Volleyball together. Fun times!

The Square – Our first home was in the Hyde Park neighborhood of the ‘Nati. Our kids, then little tykes, were all pushed around the place in strollers. One of the ‘go-to’ areas was Hyde Park Square. The quiet, live able, ambiance of the area is what has stuck over the years – till now.

Times are a ‘changing. Out of State developers, big ideas, lots of money, little sense of community other than their version of growth, big-ness, and similarity. All couched in an ’improved’ Connected Cities boondoggle of an idea to increase population density. All coupled with something which magically then begins to look like an every other town designed with similarly planned cheap facades. Bye, bye ambiance.

Currently our city is a one party ‘progressive’ government. No opposition voice to force second looks. In a “follow the money” move the city government ram-rodded the developer’s concept without an ear for the Hyde Park neighborhood counsel’s ear and quick railroaded an approval for the Square redevelopment scheme.

Ah, but there are elections. To get the opposition to the proposal on the November ballot 12,000 signatures were needed. The neighborhood activists wanted 15,000 signatures to allow for ones tossed. Yesterday, the last day to load City Hall with the petitions, they were inundated with 18,340 petitions.

Somewhere in one of those boxes lies a petition which contains my signature.

Oh, that Corner – Don’t forget that we live on the Corner of Chaos & Mayhem. Mid-week, mid-day, we heard a massive Bang. I calmly told Marcia that a truck tire must have blown, explaining that to her at the very moment a second ‘tire’ blew. This convinced me that it was something else.

Looking out the front/side window Police had blocked off the street. Out back five or so houses away I saw the Swat team armored truck and police with their big guns running into a yard. I went outside and talked with the cops blocking traffic. Turns out they were serving a search warrant. Non-compliance required a couple of Flash grenades. Two characters ran and were quickly collared and put in a cruiser. In 15 minutes, Swat left, and all was quiet once again. Once more the Corner was ready for its next adventure.

FIFA – (FIFA, world governing body of association football was founded this past week on May 21st in 1904)

But I digress, the start of the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 soccer tournament is only a few weeks away. As I’ve ‘crowed’ for weeks, I am a volunteer for some of the activities. All instructions and subsequent quizzes have been completed successfully. Tomorrow I’ll join a virtual final role specific training course. In the meantime, I’ve I locked in the games I’ll be working at.

Here is the exciting news. I will a role at the first tournament game held at our TQL stadium in what for me will be a truly massive event. Two of the world’s pre-eminent soccer teams; Fußball-Club Bayern München (Germany) against Auckland City FC (New Zealand). This is too cool!

Understand that last summer a few of my favorite days were in Munich right as soccer fever was raging there. Then, for years, I represented a company headquartered in Auckland. Can you now see why being at TQL stadium with these two teams on the pitch is special to me?

Marcia’s probably Thought – “You can likely judge a person’s character by just how quickly they can break down a cardboard box.”
Did I mention that we had recycling collection this week?

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

What term for a broken car was used in a 1960 Volkswagen ad?:

1) “lemon”
2) “rustbucket”
3) “squished bug”
4) “junker”
5) “hooptie”
6) “clunker”
7) “beater”

Lies Told

Happy Saturday. Actually, Happy Friday evening. My rationale is two-fold. Saturday morning I’ll be heading out for Harsha Lake, East Fork State Park outside of Bethel, OH. It’s the Midwest Junior Rowing Championship and it’ll be the final regatta for Dinah on the team. Next on her list will be Syracuse University – which is a little distant to just ‘mosey’ on over for some cheering.

Then, in a couple of hours we’re being promised heavy weather – thundershowers, Hail, possible Tornadoes, and wind gusts of 75mph is the potential. I didn’t want to wake up early in the morning ‘sans’ electricity (while my generator is tucked away at the cabin). Hence, this Friday evening epistle works better – so enjoy.

Now hope that by morning power is still on and my coffee at the ready:

Hillside Initiative – It’s a fairly well-known fact that 19% of the ‘Nati’s corporate area consists of hillsides. Eons (think billions) years old residual pieces of ancient mountains.

What we have we affectionally called ourselves the City of Seven Hills, and it’s for a reason. Cincinnati and its bedrock is unique and world-famous. What ended up here is a trough for escaping ice melt – the Ohio River. Then as “those ancient mountains eroded over time and sank beneath a series of shallow seas teeming with marine life, some as familiar as coral and some extinct like the trilobites. The time period when our Upper Ordovician rocks and fossils were deposited, about 450 million years ago, has been named the Cincinnatian Epoch.” (https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/top-to-bottom-2021/cincinnatis-geological-bedrock-is-famous/)

When our kids were in grade school, I took them to a construction site atop our highest hillside (Twin-Towers for local readers) where we collected enough fossils of ancient water creatures for each of their classrooms – about a shoe box full.

All of this means that it doesn’t take much of an untoward weather situation and it’s “let the slip sliding begin”. Keeping roads from being unusable with a blanket of mud. Or houses and patios wanting to skid.

Bottom line, as time marches on the increase in regulations and work on the properties built prior to those regulations are still ‘works in progress’ – The Hillside Initiative.

Lies Told – Remember when Trump (45) unleashed “Operation Warp Speed”? It was then assumed that the Covid vaccines were an updated modification of traditional vaccines – wrong! These were a new experimental mRNA biotechnology.

Tuesday evening I joined an EmpowerU class for an evening and listened to Dr. Robert Malone, the originator of mRNA vaccine biotechnology. He discussed exactly how mRNA vaccines differ from traditional vaccines, and what made the COVID vaccines risky. He discussed how early on he voiced his concerns which resulted in him leaving his laboratory ‘baby’.

It was the ‘Fast Track’ which allowed a decade old experimental track fraught with failing to gain traction, especially by Moderna. Being tested for a variety of ailments including Cancer, those still totally untested on humans vaccines gained approval under an Emergency Use Authorization.

Initially assumed that the mRNA would be localized at the injection site, instead it spread, and no one had knowledge exactly where the injection was spreading to and how long the mNRA would last. Remember that testing during the early animal testing phase at Moderna was halted because these were found to be far too dangerous for future testing on humans.

As the rollout took shape hundreds of Docters and scientists such as Dr. Malone who voiced opposition were quickly shut down and their Social Media discussions and their reports erased. A smiling ‘silver tongued’ new ‘god’ had emerged, the nation’s definitive Covid media director; one Dr. Anthony Fauci. He of popularizing a “Trust the Science” lip service. The media swiftly jumped on the adoration bandwagon.

It was a fascinating hour and a half, and at the same time brutal.

FIFA – Last weekend I spent a chunk of the weekend afternoon on an “e-course” — all part of my role during the FIFA Club World Cup journey. Areas such as “Safeguarding”, FIFA’s efforts to turn ‘waste’ into a re-useable, and on ‘disabilities. The latter on how to turn the game experience for people with special needs into a positive experience.

Next on my volunteering platter is a part-specific virtual learning session for my role; “pre-match ceremonies”.

Marcia just shakes her head and is somewhat non-plussed with my obscene(?) level of enthusiasm.

I just smile.

Thought for this week – “If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.“

Katharine Hepburn (1907 – 2003)

WRONG! Cabin Pressure means the worry trying to find a timely ‘window’ to head north to the cabin. I’ve been searching for the right time to head north; trust me, I’ll keep you posted.

Life is AMAZING!

Dirk

BONUS POINTS:

Your tongue is covered in four types of small bumps known as papillae. Five of these detect taste. Which of the following do not a detect taste:

1) “smokiness”
2) “sweet”
3) “salty”
4) “bitter”
5) “umami”
6) “sour”
7) “texture”