Alpo

I used to get a letter. Had a piece of paper in it. On one side of the paper was printed a picture of a piece of cloth. This was a "prayer shawl". I was supposed to write on the back of the piece of paper what my prayer was - what my request was - and return it (along with my love gift) in the postage paid return envelope. And the scam-artist-pretending-to-be-a-preacher would pray for what I asked for, thereby sending my wish directly to God. I would put as much paper - other junk mail, newspaper, anything - in that postage paid return envelope and mail it back. He eventually quit sending them to me.

Context. An Arab terrorist captures an Army lieutenant and holds her prisoner for 9 months. Using physical and psychological torture on her. She is rescued, and he is supposedly killed in a drone strike. Now it is a few years later, and she is sitting at the bar in a restaurant. He comes up behind her and orders a drink. She recognizes his voice from her 9 months of captivity. She calls him by the name he was using when he was her captor. Then she punches him. Then she punches him again. A couple of people from the restaurant jump on her and she elbows one of them in the face and is trying for him again when he turns and runs out the door. Is that enough context? But truly I don't see where context matters. You're standing in a restaurant and someone calls you a name and hits you. Do you retaliate or do you turn around and run for your life? Why they hit you is unimportant. I know why he ran. He's the Arab terrorist and did not want to be caught. But it just puzzled me that nobody seemed to wonder why he ran. It just seemed like either fighting back or yelling at the attacker would be the normal response.

As I mentioned in another thread, I'm reading a Ron Howard biography. It says that while making Happy Days his ambition was to direct movies. He needed money for this. It says he thought about making a commercial to play on Happy Days, asking his fans to send him money. And was annoyed to find out that that was illegal. Why would that be illegal? Televangelists do that all the time. Is that another example of "most of the laws do not apply to churches"?

And yes this question came from a TV show. You're in a restaurant. You're talking to somebody and you turn around and someone else is staring at you. You ask if you know them. They call you a name. Then they jump you and they punch you. Other people leap into the fray to pull them off you. Would you stand there in the restaurant holding your sore jaw and yelling, "what the f*** is your problem you a******??" Or would you turn around and run out of the restaurant like your coattails were on fire? The guy in the TV show ran off. That's what made me wonder, because I would be standing there screaming at the guy that hit me. Or maybe, since 3 or 4 people were holding on to him, I'd go over there and kick him in the huevos, and then scream at him. But I certainly wouldn't beat feet out of there.

Got a target lock on the bogey. CHECK FIRE! CHECK FIRE!

Walter Mitty?

This question sort of reminds me of Tarzan. The book Tarzan, not the movie Tarzan. John Clayton Sr and his wife Alice had expected to raise their child, and had brought many children's books and primary school books to teach a child. So young White Skin - John Clayton Jr - upon finding the cabin and the books taught himself to read. He could not speak human language, but he could read English. Near the end of the first book he meets a Frenchman, and the Frenchman speaks to him but he has no idea what he's saying. And he goes and gets a paper and pencil and comes back and writes, "do you understand this?" The Frenchman, who does read English, proceeds to teach young John Junior had aHOW TO talk. But because he is French, he thought it would be easier to teach Tarzan French. So Tarzan speaks fluent French and reads fluent English. But he thinks in mangani.

"The chalice from the palace has the pestle with the poison. The flagon with the dragon has the brew that is true." I don't know how many movies he made, but I can remember seeing at least a half a dozen. The only one I didn't really like was when he played Red Nichols. That one wasn't funny. It was a serious movie. A biopic. But that man was a hell of a comic. I really like this scene, but I must say Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck did it better.

But first - we SING!

Yeah there's another thing about the software on this site that annoys the living **** out of me. Worse than otto. Worse than the merge. You will be writing something and all of a sudden a pop-up will show telling you that you got a notification. And it does that right in the way of where you're about to click. So when you're about to click on one of otto's screw-ups so you can fix it, you actually click on the pop up and it takes you to a completely different page. I would quote the round headed kid but I've been informed that I do it wrongly.

Danny Thomas show. Mama, Daddy, two kids. When the show finished the boy was 17, and could not get another job. Tried several things, but they were all unsuccessful. "In January 1990, at the age of forty-two, he killed himself with a blast from a .357 magnum shotgun." That "357 Magnum shotgun" threw me. But I wonder if he used a shotgun with a 357 conversion chamber? If that were so, he wouldn't have shot himself with a 357 revolver or even with a 357 rifle. It would have been a 357 shotgun.

I have used a straight razor off and on for 30 or more years. I have a helpful hint. Don't shave when you are mad. We came home from being off somewhere one day and I discovered that somebody had shot out the passenger window of my truck. While waiting for the police, needing something to do to keep me from walking around kicking walls and the dog and the children and trees and stuff, I decided to shave. I did fine on my cheeks and my neck, but when I pulled up my ear to get that little bit of hair that grows between the ear and the face, I almost cut my earlobe off. Don't do it when you're mad.

They get used all the time

I am reading a biography of Ronny Howard. His first professional job was at the age of four. Actually his first job was at the age of one. His father was making this be western, and Mama took the baby to the set. And they needed a crying baby in the scene. So they put him in costume and put him on the set and have the cameras ready and he was playing with a toy, and when the director said action they snatched the toy out of his hand and he responded with WAAAAAAA! Cut, print it. But he didn't count that as his first professional job because he did not get paid. His first job was in a movie taking place in Vienna. And his father rationalized. Boy gets to see a little world, he enjoys playing pretend, and he can earn a little money for college. And once they were back in the States and he continued to get work, Daddy was thinking that this money can go into the college fund and that takes a load off me and Mama. And I read an interview with Mama one time where she says, "We always lived on what Rance made. We never spent the boys' money." That's good. That's a good thing. Back in the early days of movies there was a child actress. I'm almost certain she was a little rascal, and I think it was Darla. But when she was grown she didn't have no money. Because her family lived on it. It was the depression. Why go out and bust your butt all day everyday for $20 a month while your kid is making $500 a week? I think the boy that played Donna Reed's son in the TV show had the same problem. His parents spent most of his pay. There's an online story with these kids have developed a robot. And they sold it to google, and to the army, and to Raytheon. And they've made lots of money. These 11 or 12 year old kids have each got four or five million dollars in the bank. One of the girls' parents is divorced. And mama is in debt. Owes about 80k. Daddy has custody. And when Mama finds out about all this money the daughter has, well hell, get me out of debt! So suppose your kid was on TV. The Bradys, The Cosbys, Tim the toolman Taylor. And there you are with a normal job. Accountant. Cab driver. Hotel clerk. And like a whole lot of normal people, living paycheck to paycheck. And your kid is making several tens of thousands of dollars a week. Transmission on the car takes a dump. It's going to cost $5,000 to fix. And there is all your kid's money just sitting in the bank. That would be awful tempting. You tell yourself it's just one time. Maybe you tell yourself you'll even pay it back. Do you think you could not spend your kid's money? I don't know. I tell myself I wouldn't do it because I'm honest and it's not my money. But paying for the car repair on the credit card, at 23% interest, while there's a half a million dollars in the kid's bank account.