Point Made

This last week, the media was filled with rhetoric of hatred, wildly concocted stories of conspiracy, victimization, and class warfare, in other words, The Republican Convention in Cleveland. In a political campaign, you should expect the loyal opposition to show you that if they were in charge life would be better for you and they would ask for your support. It's fair in this atmosphere to run down the competitions record on the issue, and things can get a little out of hand. The boundary can be vague, but it should be short of wishing your opponent a horrible death. Amidst the shouts calling for Hillary's imprisonment one of the participants stated that Hilary Clinton should be shot. To be fair, it was not without reason. The Hillary well-wisher suggested she should be shot for her treasonous part in the Benghazi killings of American diplomats. This is aside from the fact that congressmen from his party squandered millions of dollars in...

This last few days have been some of the worst I have ever lived through. Remember, my generation watched the Vietnam War every night on the national news. We woke up to learn Bobbie Kennedy was killed in LA before we were able to adjust to the world without his brother Jack and our civil rights hero, Martin Luther King. We saw some benefits from these things as these events energized people to insist on change. We witnessed the success of the civil rights movement and the women's liberation movement. These events put the USA on a slow, bumpy path to recognize our blind stupidity in try to repress people of different nationalities, ethnic origins, sexual preferences and religious beliefs. We now look at things going backward. There are powerful people that would love to roll these gains back. And now we experience mass killings, occurring almost daily in our country. We get hung up on the "It's the guns / it's the mental state o...

It is getting to be more like summer here on the shores of Lake Maria. We are in full bloom season. Whatever can take root in our backyard is doing so with relish. The mosquitos are thick enough to dim the midday sun. There is a story in Wisconsin about Mosquitos. It seems two of the flying pests were cruising about looking for prey. They spot an old man on a porch sitting in his rocking chair. They both swoop down and lift the old man chair and all and began flying to a private spot where they might drain his body of his blood. As they flew, other mosquitos showed interest in their bounty.  To the extent, that one of our winged bloodsuckers,said " I'm worried. Let's take him out in the deep woods." The other winged pest replied, "No, we don't want to do that. The deep woods is where the real big mosquitos are." Nevertheless, we find ourselves in a quandary. Do we plant repellant plants and use other ecologically sound insect control p...

I'm getting more sympathy for people who will not commit to firm acceptance of event invitations. "We will if... (fill in this blank with any lame farfetched excuse that can't be ridiculed face to face). I have to check with my kid's schedule. I think that's the day I have to dust my houseplants. We'll be there if my husband/wife's parents don't show up without calling first. Tim looks a little sickish. Let me see how he feels in a couple of days. It never fails. If you factor in past performance, the believability of their excuse, and the weather you still you don't know if they will show up. The way to assure a high turnout percentage is to settle on a low number and plan your menu for that amount. In this case, everyone you invited will show up, the food and refreshments will evaporate two hours after the first guest arrives and the couple that left everything in the air because the in-laws might show up, they did arrive and they bring ...

Today I'm pushed to write a short blog entry, mainly because we have guests for Linner (Late lunch Early dinner). Also, yours truly needs to pack for my sojourn to Milwaukee for my book club and other meetings. So, I'll make it short. Brexit : It may have been a terrible choice for the Brit's but it might accomplish something that hundreds of years of warfare could not, the freedom and reunification of the Irish people. And that's a good thing. (Almost by accident I watched the Irish defeat the Italians in the European  Soccer Championship. It heightened my pride in the homeland. Sorry to say, they lost the first elimination match to Wales.) As it concerns America only time will tell, except in the minds of some of us, who will naturally blame anything bad that results on Obama and anything good on The Free Market of Ideas. Raod Trip Maria and I travelled to Spring Green on Saturday to visit with our artist friend, Len Nagler and his wife, Helen. They wer...

Back to my roots: Mother Nature outdid herself when she invented the golf course. However for a claim closer reality, if you haven't seen Robin Williams great rift on how the golf course was originally fashioned by a drunken Scotsmen check it out on You Tube . I've had golf clubs in my hands since I've been six years old. Frankly, I don't use them much better than I did when I first played in the yard with my dad's sheathed-in-steel set. In this group of mismatched clubs, he had a niblick, a brassy, a wooden-shafted putter, an assortment of irons and a driver. His "Woods" were fashioned out of wood. The celebrity who endorsed his incomplete set of irons was Gene Sarazen. My early hero was Ben Hogan, replaced later by the swashbuckling Armold Palmer. Needless to say, a lot had changed in the world of golf. More courses. In Wisconsin, along with the collapse of the family farm came the flood of golf course architects. The evolution of the golf cours...

06/11/2016 Yes, it's true, from the shores of Lake Michigan to the shallows of Lake Maria the air temperature is hovering around 90 degrees and, more importantly, the dew point is in the upper sixties. This climate is similar to a day in Mandeville Louisiana. Hot, sweaty, clammy, pick your  adjective. The difference? Tomorrow, in Wisconsin, it will be in the seventies. The dew point will be in the fifties, at worst. In Louisiana, it will be like today, every day until September. I do miss Gordon. Ah the theater, Goodness knows I love the theater. Maria and I went to an Attic Theater performance at the University of Wisconsin, Fox Valley. Attic Theater has been an active group regional players since the 1950's. We used to go to their performances when we lived here before moving to Milwaukee. Their schedule is medium to light. Last night's offering was a comedy "Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike." Three siblings are facing the last part of their ...