Happy Halloween Eve!

Heh.

I'd never thought of The Wizard of Oz in quite these terms before, but the premise seems to work!

The Pre- Halloween Power of Twelve

Something just occurred to me that adds up to 2012 being a banner year for Moogie's family.  Something big must be coming.

Consider these addresses with connections to us:

#12 Sandstone Court -- where I lived when I met Pep

1912 Arrowhead Drive -- the address of our first house together

2613 Wentwood Valley -- our next house -- 2 + 6 + 1 + 3 = 12

4503 Moogie Lane -- the current site of Moogie's Mansion -- 4 + 5 + 0 + 3 = 12

1912 Landry -- the address of the New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy where Pep is a new member of the Board of Directors.

ADDITION -- Younger daughter pointed out that her wedding date, 06-04-11, also adds up to 12!  Elder daughter's only misses by 1 -- 04-24-10 = 11.  Curiouser and curiouser!

Or, if you take the more "typical" numerology route, 1 + 2 = 3; 3 stands for "fulfillment, social gathering, achievement," so, unless we plan to host a big, successful party to explore the mysteries of the Mayan calendar, I doubt that The Apocalypse will come into play.  I suppose we need  politely to decline any invitation to attend such a party, too, so please don't invite us to one.

Pretty weird, huh?  What do you think?

Ya Gotta Love a Principal Who Sticks to her Guns. Um, Principles. She Doesn't Carry, I'm Pretty Sure.

I'm sitting here listening to the intercom (yes, they broadcast over their intercom to the entire neighborhood, but we always know what's going on!) at Sophie B. Wright Institute for Academic Excellence (Whew! That's a mouthful, even when you type it!) down the street, and I've just experienced yet another refreshing note of what's happening in that school.

The Principal's irritated voice (yes, I recognize her voice by now) summoned three students by name and directed them to board the bus at once:  "Get on the bus now.  You're holding up the entire bus and the entire route.  Get aboard your bus immediately, and I mean NOW! Do NOT make me go looking for you!"

How cool is that -- a principal who takes no guff and suffers no fools.  Way to walk the walk, Ms. Clark!  Happy Homecoming Week!

Occupy Theater of the Absurd

I don't remember where I stole it, but, Heh.  Such a good fit.

From Today's Inbox

This one's pretty good! 

Montana Bear Tragedy
This is a very sad story about a bear... Everybody should heed the warnings not to feed wildlife because they become dependent and don't forage for themselves any longer. It is such a tragedy to see what has been done to our country's wildlife. The photo below captures a disturbing trend that is beginning to affect U.S. wildlife. (Read below photo)

Animals that formerly were self-sufficient are now showing signs of belonging to the Democrat Party. They have apparently learned to just sit and wait for the government to step in and provide for their care and sustenance. This photo is of a black bear in Montana turned Democrat. He's nicknamed Bearack Obearma. It is believed that he has become a campground organizer.

Now, if we could just get a shot of Bearack with Barack and "Hairy" Reid doing Vegas together . . . .

After This Election Season, Moogie is Soooo Ready for VIDAP!

So, election day has come and gone in the Pelican State.  There are a few runoffs in the making, but nothing that I'm particularly interested in.  All the top elected positions in state government will now be held by Republicans, and that makes me happy even though I'm not a Republican.  I'm a registered Independent, but Republicans seem to lean closer towards smaller government and fiscal conservatism.  At least they tend to talk that talk, even if they don't always walk the walk when they get to Baton Rouge.  But, they're politicians, so if their mouths are moving, they're lying, or at least prevaricating.  We must always keep that notion in mind when opting to place someone in a position of power.

Three of the five proposed Constitutional Amendments passed by fairly narrow margins.  I voted against all of them , even though a few won't do too terribly much harm, because all that nonsense does not belong in a Constitution!!! 

Since it was adopted in 1974, the Louisiana Constitution has been subjected to 214 possible Amendments, and amended 151 of those tries.  Tack on 3 more in a couple of months.  One-hundred fifty-four amendments!!  And all those amendments were proposed by the Legislature because there is no provision for amendment by Initiated act of the electorate!  That's putting an awful lot of trust in those candidates we elect to represent (purportedly) our interests.  Trouble is, there are too many of them who are one-issue do-gooders and look-out-for-number-1ers.  And that's not even counting the ones who are career politicians and/or unethical cronyists. 

One-hundred fifty-four amendments.  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, though -- the body of the Constitution has fourteen substantive articles, twice as many as in the US governing document!  Must be the French influence -- they don't exactly fawn all over a "less is more" concept.

I also voted against re-authorizing the proposed Regional Business Park Tax.  Why?  Because it's a freakin' TAX!!!  A tax to "stimulate industrial and commercial development" in New Orleans East.  And it doesn't specify who administers the tax, or what those administrators actually do.  And this is the first time since its inception in 1982 that the voters have reared up and said No More!

I know.  I know.  Most of the laws enacted in this once free land don't specify much of anything; they leave the devil and the details to bureaucrats. And that's part of the problem.  Ain't much sunshine behind the doors of government bureaucracies, no matter the level.

Back here in Louisiana, Boy Whiz Kid Bobby Jindal amassed some 66% of the vote to remain in the Governor's Mansion, besting his nearest opponent who only garnered 17.80%, and Andy's candidate, the interesting-sounding Greek lady who took 2.12%.  That's all well and good, I suppose, even though lame ducks can go rogue if you don't keep a pretty close eye on them.  Just look at what Congress tried to do after the 2010 elections. 

So, election day is over for another year.  Yep, one year.  That's something that really sucks about living in a state where the statewide elections are held in non-Congressional election years -- someone's always running for something.  Still, there is an upside to the slightest break from hard-hitting election season: the robo calls will stop for a little while!!!

I promise you, if we received one call over the last few weeks, we've received a hundred.  And they all call on each other's behalf down here!  It got to the point that if I didn't recognize the number on caller ID, I'd hit "answer" followed immediately by "end," so if you tried to call Moogie on the landline and you were hung up upon, sorry about that.  No, I'm not sorry at all.  We do what we gotta do to save our sanity.  I told one poor lady, who cold-called yesterday to talk to Pepper about some investment thing or another, that it was election day and we'd gotten about 92 calls and I could guarantee that she didn't want to talk to him under those circumstances.  She agreed.  Smart lady.

All the foregoing is designed to explain the need for a new voter policy.  Today, I'm announcing Moogie's new "Voters' Initiative to Dissuade Annoying Politicians," or VIDAP. It'll work like this:

In the future, every time a robo call for someone running for office hits the phones at Moogie's Mansion, or anywhere else enrolled in the program, the candidate (and any other "public servant" calling on behalf of the candidate) will receive a demerit, to be tabulated by the Enrollee's telephone service provider (the number of demerits filed against "other public servant callers" will be retained through two more election cycles), and once a pre-determined number of demerits has been amassed, that candidate will forfeit all votes in that household.  Each household may set its own number of demerits, and that number may be inscribed on the voter rolls where the candidates acquire the information with which to annoy voters.  So, in effect, the candidates will be rolling the dice whenever they opt to engage the robo.  Ya pays your money, ya takes your chances.

C'mon!  It can work!  Let's start lobbying the service providers today!

Perhaps They Should Bring Back the Colonel . . .

Well, it wasn't exactly the prettiest victory I've ever seen, but it counts.  Razorbacks 29 - Ole Miss Something-or-others 24, in Oxford!

(As noted in the Comments on last year's post about this rivalry, Moogie determined that the Politically Correct version of the University of Mississippi's new mascot is Age-indeterminate Ms. Rebellious Metrosexual African-American Ursas.  Politically Correct is as Politically Correct does, after all.)

Speaking of last year's post, I think a liuttle re-run is warranted by virtue of today's Razorback victory, to-wit:

Farewell to Colonel Reb, Hello Sissy Bear

Poor Ole Miss. It looks as if they have taken leave of their collective senses. I knew it would happen as soon as I learned they were conducting a "study" and an "election" to replace the venerable "Colonel Reb" mascot -- the very embodiment of landed, Southern gentry who were capable both of great gentility and defending their own. Too many people apparently made a strained connection among the Colonel, Segregation, and Slavery.

So, PC finally won, but in the process, it has raised a couple of unintended consequences: Their new mascot, "The Rebel Black Bear," is overtly racist. I mean, really -- why does it have to be a black bear?!?! Why not a brown bear or a grizzly bear or a Polar Bear?!!? There are statues of snowball-throwing Polar Bears all over northern Mississippi! Remember?:

Even if the Rebel Bear isn't actually racist, it definitely has "issues." It's at best a Metrosexual bear -- I mean, how many college mascots do you know that have a Betsy McCall-ish Paper Doll poster with different outfits for different occasions? The ferocity factor of the Rebs just headed south in a steep dive, in my estimation.

What's next? Will the "Hotty Toddy!" cheer devolve into, "Grrr! Grrr! Hotty Tee-Hee?!?!"

They have a Rebel and now a Bear, two things which have no connectivity that I can discern. I've never read about a pack of rebellious black bears tearing around the countryside on motorcycles or protesting en masse at a government building, have you? Ole Miss is now challenging Auburn for the most confused mascot situation in the SEC.

Ferocious Fightin' Razorbacks v. Haute Couture Rebel Bears, October 23rd at 11:30. At least our girl mascot is supposed to look like a girl. Be there.

Tomorrow: Hogs take on the Auburn Indecisive-Mascots (what do Tigers, Plainsmen, and War Eagle have to do with one another anyway?!?) at 2:30 on CBS. Wooo Pig Soooiiieeee!!!!!!!!!! Hogs have no identity crisis -- a Hog is a Hawg!

 

I know!  The Rebellious Ursas must be in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street! 

 

That explains a lot of things.

Who is the Stranger in this Ever-Growing-Stranger Land?

Well, isn't this just exactly how the cow eats the cabbage!

I think that's how the cow ate the cabbage.  I've never really grokked that phrase.  What do cows and cabbage actually have to do with one another? 

Anyway, this cartoon is the Fair Witness's truth!  Would that there were some Fair Witnesses around in the Media today.

And, where is Heinlein when he could do some good?

Maybe Norman Vincent Peale was Right . . . .

The power of positive thinking!!

Stolen from Facebook.

Still No Pumpkins

Just a quick pre-Halloween re-run from 2009 to let everyone know that I'm still among the living.  And we still have a porch with no pumpkins.

A Porch Without Pumpkins

I'm back after another round of goofy fun with the gi doc -- and all is well!

One-third of the dogs and I are loading up the car to do a solo road trip to Arkansas for FUN WEDDING STUFF!!!! So, I may be absent for a few days. Don't panic, I'll be back.

As a parting thought, the above photo pictures what greeted me as I pulled up in front of the house on October 16, 2008. It also explains why there are no pumpkins on Moogie's front porch this year.

Ciao for now!

Well, stupid Blogger won't let me block the quote, so I just italicized it.  Geez, Blogger gets so vindictive when you don't hang around with it all the time!

Geaux Saints!!

The World Does, Indeed, Change

There's something about Pepper's high school reunions that is so fascinating. Several of his classmates, particularly a few of the ladies, never seem to age. I've accused them on more than one occasion of possessing portraits of themselves in their attics that are beginning to resemble withered old crones.

Pepper's is the Class of '66 -- Vietnam era, the Beach Blanket Bingo generation. Mine is the Class of '72 -- second year of high school integration, last year of the Draft lottery.

Every single one of Pepper's classmates is white. Every single one. Most of the men served in the military for at least a few years; few in my class either wore, or respected, the uniform. Pepper's class learned of Kennedy's assassination in their high school classrooms where they could grasp some of the more dire consequences of that loss; I heard it over the intercom in my fourth grade room and wasn't quite sure why we would have no school for the remainder of the week.

I never really thought about the considerable differences in our high school experiences until last night while listening to them reminisce. Some of those differences, especially some of the "more innocent days," made me a little envious.

I guess one never really gets over being star-struck by the big kids.