Sunday, September 28, 2008

Sunday morning

It's early. I've been up for an hour or so, filing papers and checking out my "Favorites", making notes and comments, etc. Thought I'd start this before Charles Osgood comes on in another hour or so and then add to it later.

I imagine he'll be doing an extended feature on Paul Newman, whom we lost this past week. I'm looking forward to what all else he might want to include this morning. I hope he doesn't talk about the 'great debate' on Friday night -- or, if he does, I hope it's something interesting. I really don't like discussing politics.



Chuck, in his post of 9/26, talks about various things that Ellen and he are doing while in Fayetteville, AR.


Scroll down just a tad until you come to the second picture, which shows Ellen 'rescuing' a small turtle. I love stories like these!

I rescued a turtle once. It was while driving a taxicab. A Sunday morning. No traffic. I was in the Galleria area, driving down Post Oak Boulevard, when I noticed a fairly large object in the road ahead.

I stopped the car, set the brake, and put my flashers on before getting out of the car to see what it was. It was a humongous turtle, very much alive and unhurt, inching its way towards the busy freeway and away from the man-made ponds behind him. What could he have been thinking?!? What an idiot!!

I gingerly picked him by the sides of his shell -- he must have been 18" across -- and carried him over to near the edge of one of the ponds, where I set him down, pointed in the right direction. Last I saw, he was inching his way towards the pond.

Now that I look back on it, however, he may have been wanting to commit suicide. Well, mightn't he? What was I thinking?!? What an idiot!!

You know, turtles live for a long long time. I wonder if they have memories to equal their longevity. He might still be mad at me!


The next picture shows an armadillo that she was too late to rescue. So sad.

My father was quite intrigued by the armadillo. You do know that the armadillo is our state bird, don't you?

One Christmas I received a brass "Armadillo Crossing" sign on a little easel that currently sits in front of my fireplace alongside a stuffed armadillo that has seen much better days, same donor.



(Later, after Charles Osgood and a nap)


Well, he had quite a bit to say about Paul Newman, actually. Very nice. Two different segments ... one a commentary, with a quote that I'll include in a post down the road that I've been thinking of doing.

What's your favorite Paul Newman film? My all time favorite is The Sting. Good through and through. From Exodus, I love the part where he's asking Peter Lawford, who hates Jews -- "You can even smell them", to look closely into his eye to see what might possibly have lodged there.

And who could ever forget the "What we have here is a failure to communicate" line from Cool Hand Luke? Gorgeous hunk of a man! Sexy lips. (Down, Goldenrod, down!)



Let's get the politics over with right now, so I can end with something pleasant. How's that sound?


It seems like those poor weary congressmen had to stay up until the very wee hours this morning to finally reach a tentative agreement (not in writing yet, so we'll see) in re the $700 billion bailout.

The Republicans got their wish by including a clause that would force banks and other such institutions to buy insurance (from the gov't, natch!) against future defaults, and the Democrats theirs by limiting executive packages.

Actually, I like both stipulations. (Something's wrong here, self!)


I did not realize when I wrote my banking post yesterday that the federal government had first seized Washington Mutual and then sold it to JP Morgan Chase. Must not have been listening the first time around.



I don't recall ever hearing about Dewey, the cat who lived in a library in Spencer, Iowa. Had you?

He first appeared in the dead of winter. Somehow or another, he managed to climb up and then get into the book drop, where he was found the next morning, shivering and shaking. When people started oohing and aahing over him, this loud purr emerged. That did it!

Anyway, it seems that over the years Dewey (so-called as the result of a contest), inspired the "Library Cat Membership Society", and developed quite a following in the community and over the internet.

When he died on November 29, 2006, at the ripe old age of 19, lots and lots of obituaries -- 270 in all -- were written on various websites ... 89,400 'hits'. Rrvit!


I have no idea why Charles chose to include that segment in this morning's telecast, but I'm so glad he did.

4 comments:

Tammy said...

Cool Hand Luke.....my fave.

I'm pleased with the *tentative bailout agreement.
$700 billion.....mind boggling, absolutely mind boggling.....

I'm going out on a limb here, but perhaps if half of that $ would have been used SOMEHOW in the past year/years to offset all the rising costs of everything for the average Joe, maybe so much $ would not be needed now and many many people would still be paying their mortgages and living in their homes.

Goldenrod said...

Tammy, I've been thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking ever since reading your comment about how to respond.

My first reaction was to call and ask you what you meant. Then I thought better of it. You know, there are ALways people out there reading posts and comments who never acknowledge their presence ... and so, dear unacknowledging and uncommenting readers, this response is for YOU, not just Tammy.


And yes, Tammy, you DID go 'out on a limb', but bless you for doing so! Too many people just tippytoe around, careful not to scuff their ballet shoes or hurt someone's feelings or show how they really feel and thus leave themselves open to attack. GOOD FOR YOU!!


Now, what exactly did you mean by "if half of those $$ would have been used in the past year/years to offset all the rising costs of everything for the average Joe" ... boy oh boy, would I ever like to have half of those $$ (I'll take just $25,000 and live comfortably for four or five more years, thank you very much) ... BUT, did you mean that the gov't should have come in to subsidize the average Joe, or did you mean that successful Joe should subsidize the average Joe ... or what DID you mean, exactly?

I'm in HUGE disfavor of women who keep having illegitimate children just so they can get more gov't subsidies, for example. Personal opinion? I think they should be sterilized. (Gasp!)

I think that ALL personnel at Washington Mutual (and any other institution -- Fannie May, Freddie Mac, I don't care who it is!) should be investigated, from the bottom to the very top and those guilty of 'malpractice' fined and jailed! (DEfinitely in favor of the fines being distributed among the general public.) I nominate myself (and I'm sure you would nominate yourself, Tammy!) to be one of the investigators.

We ALL feel outrage over this. How could we possibly not?


A little further down, you say, "maybe so many $$ would not be needed now" ... well, never mind, I think I already addressed that. Let's move on.


"Many many people would still be paying their mortgages and living in their homes."

I might not be understanding this problem correctly, Tammy, but I think that one of the main reasons we're in this jam is because the lenders initially made risky loans to people who were overextending themselves financially, further complicating the problem by 'selling' some of these loans --disguised as a small part of an attractive portfolio -- to other lenders.


I'm pretty sure that I do not fully understand the bailout as I've heard it described, but it 'sounds to me' as tho we (the gov't/you/me) might actually profit from this action. Not today, not tomorrow, but sometime in the not too far distant future. For certain, however, action needs to be taken, and it needs to be taken toDAY!


As one (moi) who has been guilty in the past of over-extending herself, I am of very mixed feelings about this.


Thank you, as always, Tammy, for your thoughtful comment.

Tammy said...

Armchair quarterback is such an easy position to play, isn’t it? Lol!

I’m just frustrated with it all, lenders making risky loans included. However, most of my friends took out home loans way before this recent mess started and they were once able to make their house payments with a fair amount of ease (as they thought they would be able to continue to do). Now it seems like most everyone I know struggles to make their house payments. The cost of everything going up (groceries, gas, power and electricity, etc) has made everything so very difficult. How does one choose between food for children or a roof over their heads? People are beginning to bail out of their loans not feeling any other option....there's only so long institutions will accept late payments and juggling bills can only go so long before they begin to fall.

I certainly don't know any answers, but I am feeling the crunch like most Americans. Filling our car with gas is killing us. Paying 15%-50% more on grocery items is killing us.

One thing that frustrates me is the atrocious amounts of money being spent on insane things....was it 3 billion or 13 billion spent on cow research in Montana? (Neither Katie nor I could remember what the quote was) Absolutely awful (my opinion).

I watched the debates Friday night and was horrified to see BOTH parties tossing numbers around like 3/4 trillion, 13 billion, 30 billion, etc like petty cash.

I just wonder (and I have NO IDEA how or if something like this would have worked, just me babbling) if perhaps the government could have stepped in some way and made gas and groceries more affordable so that families didn't have to choose between those and a home. Not luxuries, but necessities. It seems like those are the 2 things that are breaking me and the people I know. I know there are loans failing from people who were overextended even before getting a home loan, but I am willing to bet most are just average-joe families that were able to pay their mortgages a while (and years) back. Sometimes the cushion just gets used up and something has to give....and it seems like it's homes that are being given up.

I'm not really sure what I meant by my last sentence, except that surely there must have been something that could have been done to keep some costs down a tish so that so many people wouldn't be losing their homes and the end result being $700 billion from the government being spent.

I'm not completely pleased with the bailout agreement, but it seems to be serving both sides fairly well, and an agreement was come with surprising (to me) quickness. I hope it will do what is intended without lining too many people's pockets while doing so.

And heaven help us....it doesn't matter WHO wins the election, he has an ENORMOUS job ahead of him. May God guide him in putting our country back on track, whoever it ends up being.

*sorry for being so long winded and not making my point well. lol. You know me Goldenrod, and I hope you understand what I'm trying to spit out. lol

As always, your posts leave me with such great food for thought. :)

Goldenrod said...

Good morning, good morning! Have slept, published my latest, and taken another nap. NOW, I'm going to try and respond to your second comment. Will take it piece by piece. Ready? Here we go ... ...


"most of my friends took out home loans way before this recent mess started"

They were in no way meant to be included, Tammy. In retrospect, however, I'm sorry that I didn't mention their plight.


"filling our car with gas ... grocery items -- paying 15%-50% more ... killing us"

I have spoken about this in great detail in previous posts. I do not know how cab drivers are making it! Taxicab rates have increased NOT ONE PENNY in Houston since I 'retired' from the business just over a year ago.

Much of our economy is directly related to the transportation industry, grocery prices included.


"the atrocious amounts of money being spent on insane things"

Couldn't agree more with that statement. See my post of 9/06 (linked in today's post). We probably disagree on where the $$ SHOULD be spent, however.


Your paragraph beginning with, "I just wonder" and continuing onward ... next paragraph, including "surely there must have been something that could have been done"

This might be where we would continue to disagree, Tammy.

I wonder if you read and assimilated the 3rd paragraph from the bottom of my first response? (In particular, the first sentence in that paragraph.)


"May God guide him in putting our country back on track"

Amen. Amen. Amen.


"As always, your posts leave me with such great food for thought."

I wish I weren't that hungry! YOUR comment left me searching searching for (something).

Don't know that I found it, but I did do the search!


Yet once again, dear one, I thank you for stretching and awakening what was a somewhat tired brain.