MY WALTER WINCHELL IMITATION...(I KNOW, WHO'S HE?)

Unless you are a certain age, you probably never heard of Walter Winchell (1897-1972).

Winchell was a radio and newspaper guy who dealt with gossip stories primarily about people in the entertainment business and politics.  He was immensely popular from the 1920s through the early 1960s.  He had a fast talking style as he blurted out information in short or incomplete sentences while hitting a telegraph key to give an air of urgency.

His standard opening for his radio show was the sound of the telegraph key while he shouted “Good evening Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and all the ships at sea!  Let’s go to press!"

His columns were sometimes called dot, dot, dot, columns because of his use of dots between short story bursts.  Larry King used the same format in later years and I will imitate it today:

Winchell and his telegraph key

I have been writing this blog since 2005 and have found that the most hits I get deal with a blog from 2008 about “kids growing up too fast.”  Second most popular is a piece I did about the dancing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Roger's while a story about  Alfred Hitchcock and “Psycho” is third. . . Are older cars better than those made today?  Not a chance but they have the memories we love to reminisce about.  You’ll never hear kids today talk about going to the drive-in restaurant in a new BMW but we sure like to talk about going there in our ’57 Chevys all those years ago. . . Did you know that a brand new Chevy Corvette in 1953 cost $3,490?  That was the one with the 6 cylinder engine and three single barrel carburetors . . . One of my favorite places to eat in Scottsdale is the Elephant Bar.  They have a nice varied menu, good service, and have been in business for about ten years which is a rarity these days.  Best BBQ?  Try Bryan’s in Cave Creek. . . I hate cigarettes but if I smoked, I would probably buy my smokes on the Indian rez.  You can save a lot on the tax bite there and if the store on McDowell east of the 101 is any indication, they are selling a lot of tobacco.  That guy has a drive-up window that is always busy! . . . What’s the big deal with 3D movies at the theaters?  The old Kachina Theater in Scottsdale showed them 60 years ago.  They were a fad then and will be now.  Hollywood is hurting; not getting near the business they used to get when they made good films instead of the garbage and remakes so prevalent now. . . How times do change!  I moved to Scottsdale in 1987 from the Kansas and Missouri area where Walmart Stores were everywhere.  I asked someone at the time about Walmarts in Phoenix and they gave me a look as if to say, “Who?”  It wasn’t long after that I saw one open at Tatum and Bell.  We all know the rest of that story . . . Winding down for today:  What do Mary Worth, Brenda Starr,  Gasoline Alley, Steve Canyon, and Terry and the Pirates have in common?  Answer:   They are comic strips that have disappeared.

So long until next time!!!

Two good recent cartoons:

It's hard to read but the little mooching girl is Obama's fantasy girlfriend "Julia".

THE GHOST ARMY OF WORLD WAR II

By Jim McAllister


Note:  This article was originally published on April 27, 2005 in the NORTH SCOTTSDALE INDEPENDENT. I was fascinated by the story of the ghost army and the bravery of those guys in World War II.  With Memorial Day arriving in a few days, I feel a tribute to them and our current fighting forces is appropriate with a reprint of that column....JM

I’m sure you are wondering, "What in the world was the ghost army of World War II?" It’s an interesting and fascinating story which is not that well known.


Ever since warfare has existed, armies have relied on some type of deception to gain an advantage on their opponents. Some ancient armies used plaster dummies, others used fake smoke signals and spies, and we all know about the famous Trojan horse. These ancient examples of deception were carried into modern warfare during World War II with the exploits of the ghost army or their actual title which was the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops.


The ghost army was a unique and little known group of American soldiers who played a big part in the Allied victory over Germany through their abilities in the art of deception. Even though information on this unit became available about thirty years ago, not much has been written about them. As World War II faded into history, so did the 23rd Special Troops.


The ghost army was organized by Lieutenant Colonel Merrick Truly. He was the executive officer in charge of these deception experts. Although Truly’s men reported to the American ground commander in Europe, General Omar Bradley, most of the American soldiers did not know of the existence of the Special Troops. They operated at night under strictly special orders and were not even required to give their identity to superior officers.


Former Scottsdale resident Dr Harold 
Laynor, a member of the 23rd Special
Troops. (Laynor Museum)
The ghost army consisted of 82 officers and 1,023 enlisted men. With their eclectic mixture of talents, they were strictly in the deception business. The Special Troops were made up of four units: a sonic deception company, a special radio company, a company of combat engineers, and a battalion of camoufleurs. They served with four armies in five European countries in five major campaigns from D-Day (June 6, 1944) until the end of the war in 1945.


The most unique part of this already unique group was the composition of its members. Many of these men were already famous as artists, sculptors, architects, literary figures, and others from the world of the arts and humanities. Actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was perhaps the most well known for his Hollywood successes, but there was also renowned fashion designer Bill Blass, Olin Dows: a prominent artist, George Diestal: a Hollywood set designer, Art Kane: a fashion photographer, and Harold Laynor, whose artistic works depicting World War II and other subjects, are shown in galleries throughout the country.



The Special Troops used six major methods of deception: camouflaging troops and tanks, placing dummy tanks and artillery, firing pyrotechnics to simulate actual artillery fire, the use of artificial sound effects, using artificial radio communication, and using fake special effects. This created an atmosphere of great danger as they needed to be in close to front line battles.


"Dummy" aircraft used for deception (Laynor Museum)

Although these brave men were involved in at least twenty other confrontations with the enemy, their biggest contribution was probably at the battle between Allied Forces and Germany at the Rhine River on March 23, 1945. Their contributions were essential in weakening the German assault and forcing Germany to surrender two months later in May of 1945.


Although records and information concerning the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops are sketchy, the aforementioned artist Harold Laynor (1922-1991) made a series of fifty paintings covering two years of participating in World War II. His works include paintings of army buddies, aspects of training and, as the series progresses, he relates the brutality and horror of war.


Like the above mentioned celebrities participating in the 23rd, Dr. Laynor was highly distinguished in his field. Although he used primarily watercolors for his World War II work, he was also a pioneer in the use of lacquer as a medium of painting and the use of 3D paintings for the blind.


The Laynor Foundation website (www.laynor.org) has valuable information concerning the ghost army and also features seven galleries of Dr. Laynor’s World War II paintings. They are very interesting and illustrative of that terrible time in our history.


Optical illusions, bluffs, sleight of hand, misinformation, disappearing acts: all part of the ghost army of World War II; a brave and cunning bunch of guys who were instrumental in giving us the lifestyle we enjoy today. 

REMEMBERING THE ROMANCE OF YOUTH ON A GREYHOUND BUS

If you are a certain age and were usually watching your money while enjoying your youth in the military or college, you probably can be counted among the many of us who were frequent customers of either Greyhound or Continental Trailways bus lines.

Continental Trailways was a legitimate competitor to Greyhound until 1987 when they were absorbed into the Greyhound system.  By then, two large bus companies were not really needed since traveling by bus wasn’t as popular as previously.

Looking back, I remember bus travel in a romantic sense.  Maybe it is because it occurred primarily while being on my own in the Air Force between 1961 and 1965.

All aboard for Oklahoma, St. Louis, and points east

There was the trip with my basic training friends from San Antonio to tech school in Amarillo via Trailways.  It was November and cold in Texas as we rolled onto Amarillo Air Force Base.  That bus was warm and cozy and I sure missed it when the driver dropped us off in that cold parking lot.  Ahead of us was eight weeks of hell with Tech Sergeant Green.  We thought basic training was tough but it was a Sunday school picnic compared to Amarillo tech school.

My most memorable bus trip occurred when I left Amarillo in late December of ’61 and headed home to Cincinnati for Christmas leave.  Being a poor GI, I naturally booked passage on a Greyhound bus.  Have you ever ridden a bus from Amarillo, Texas to Cincinnati, Ohio at Christmas time?  Unless you are short on cash I have one word of advice:  DON’T!

However, looking back it is a fond memory as the bus was so full that people were standing in the aisle.  I’m sure that was illegal since when we reached a weigh station in Oklahoma, the driver asked the standers to crouch down and spread their weight around.

    I can certainly identify with these guys 

When we reached St. Louis about sixteen hours later at 7:30 a.m., I found out I missed my connection to Cincy by thirty minutes.  That meant waiting until 3:30 that afternoon for the next bus.

After finally leaving St. Louis and having gotten no sleep for 24 hours, it was on to Cincy where I quickly fell asleep which was a great feeling until I was awaken in Shoals, Indiana  and told that the bus had broken down and we would have to move to another bus.  By then, I figured, “Screw it” and got off in below zero weather with the ground covered with ice and snow.

We finally made it to Cincinnati by 4:00 a.m. and feeling like needing a bit of luxury, I caught a cab home.  When I was dropped off, I just stood in front of my house for a few minutes in the dark breathing in the freezing air while thinking; “What the hell have I done?”   I had three years and nine months to go in the Air Force; was it always going to be a litany of bus rides?

Fortunately, it wasn’t unless you count the Greyhound trip from McGuire AFB in New Jersey to Cincinnati after coming home from Germany in 1963.  However, I’ll save that for another time!  For now, I’ll just say that those experiences made me a better man.

BIDEN'S SHOE AGAIN FIRMLY ENTRENCHED IN MOUTH

Even  left leaning political cartoonist Steve Benson of the AZ Republic is having fun with this.  Start checking the want ads, Joe. 

Even though Obama doesn’t need help in looking foolish, it’s still comforting to know that we always have Joe Biden to step in for the prez when he runs low on material.

Big Joe did it again last week with his support of gay marriage; something that Obama was trying to hold off on until after November for fear of the political backlash it would bring with precious Independent voters and religious groups. It was kind of like he is doing with the Keystone decision.  Heaven forbid he would man up and say yes or no on that now.  First, he has to decide who to piss off the least:  his EPA buddies or the unions.  What a guy!

With Forcing Obama’s hand on gay marriage, it’s almost as if Joe was being slipped a few million by Romney to throw a wrench into the gears of an already troubled administration.   The good news is that Romney doesn’t have to pay the guy; Joe is always happy to put his foot in his mouth for free.

To make matters worse, Biden even referred to Mr. Romney as “President Romney” while referring to Obama as “President Clinton.”   Does the foolishness ever end?  I guess I should save until another day Biden’s making the sign of the cross at a convention of 1,600 Rabbis recently.

I almost feel sorry for press secretary Jay Carney who had to take the grilling over Biden’s gay marriage statement. The poor guy seems to always stutter and stammer anyway but the reporters had him almost crying when they started laughing at his flustered answers to their questions.

Even Liberal leaning columnist Dana Milbank of the Washington Post has written that Biden “inadvertently set off a frenzy on same-sex marriage, not because his position was surprising but because it made Obama’s look all the more absurd.”

Milbank reports that CNN’s Jessica Yellin asked whether Obama was trying to “have it both ways before an election” and whether he should “stop dancing around the issue.”

ABC’s Jake Tapper said that “it seems cynical to hide this prior to the election” and that “I don’t want to hear the same talking points 15 times in a row.”

NBC’s Chuck Todd said with a grin, “So help me out here. He opposes bans on gay marriage, but he doesn’t yet support gay marriage?”

Carney replied that “He, as you know, said that his views on this were evolving.”  To that Tapper replied whether Obama was “still evolving” or whether he’s “just waiting for the proper time to drop it, likely after November.”

“His views,” Carney maintained, “are crystal clear.”

Chris Geidner from Metro Weekly, a gay publication, said it best: “If he’s crystal clear, why is everybody in this room asking you questions?”

Yeah, why?

Hey Hillary, Are you SURE you don’t want to run for Vice President in November? 


More Benson of the AZ Republic.

THE NFL, JUNIOR SEAU, AND MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL

(left)  Junior Seau while playing for the New England Patriots

Junior Seau was one of my favorite players in the NFL for many years.   Recently, he was found dead in his apartment from an apparent suicide.  It seemed unlikely that at age 43, Seau would commit suicide but some feel that concussions received during his playing years could have been a factor since they are thought to induce negative reactions like mood swings.

Former Chicago Bear Dave Duerson is another NFL guy who committed suicide last year at age 51.  He left a note saying he wanted his brain studied to try to find out the relationship of head injuries that may bring on suicide.   Seau’s family has also donated his brain for the same purpose.  Both Duerson and Seau died from gunshot wounds to the chest.

Now, more than 1,000 players are suing the NFL claiming that they were never given enough protection to stave off concussion injuries.

With the NFL cruising in high gear from high TV ratings of their Sunday slate of games in the afternoon and evening, what effect will this action have?  Let’s not forget the NFL Network and the everlasting Monday Night Football on ESPN.  The latter has been a winner since 1970.

Take a moment and think of the latter statement:  Monday Night Football has been on TV since 1970!  Who would think a pro football game being broadcast on Monday in prime time on a major network (ABC) would last 42 years?

A lot of its success was due to some good games and especially to the three man announcing crew of Keith Jackson (replaced after one season by Frank Gifford), former Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback “Dandy Don” Meredith, and the irrepressible Howard Cosell.

It didn’t hurt that the 1970s produced a lot of great football especially from the Miami Dolphins who still are the only NFL team to play a season undefeated (1972), and the Pittsburgh Steelers with Terry Bradshaw and company who dominated the Super Bowl in that era.

Gifford was basically a vanilla referee during the broadcasts of MNF while the constant interaction of country boy former player Meredith and the stuffy, conceited, New Yorker Cosell made for great broadcasting.  On one occasion Cosell droned on about a coach "eschewing the field goal."  It was an attempt to show off his expansive vocabulary as "Howad" was prone to do, so Dandy Don intoned: "S-what Howard?"

In one MNF game in Miami, an obviously inebriated fan ran across the field during a time out prompting Cosell to go on one of his long rants. After five minutes or so, Dandy Don had apparently had enough responding: "Maybe the bathroom lines were too long on his side of the stadium, Howard."  It was great theater and the fans loved it for the four years it ran before changes started happening with the cast. 

That was then and now is now.  The days of Cosell calling a black player a “little monkey” are long gone.  Today, the question is whether the league is in big trouble with lawsuits occurring over injuries, bounties being offered by coaches to players to incur REALLY dangerous injuries, and changes in the game that would soften it and perhaps lose fans who have always enjoyed the hard hitting.

(left to right)  Don Meredith, Howard Cosell, Frank Gifford

Already, kickoffs have been pushed to the 35 yard line to reduce returns.  Now, there is a possibility that kickoffs may be eliminated.  Does that mean that punts will also be eliminated?  Are the players  too big and too fast?  Are they just softer than in the “old days?”  Are their gripes legitimate?

There will be a settlement of some kind but I don’t know how the fans will react.  Meanwhile, I think I will sit back, close my eyes, sip a beer, and remember the good old days of Meredith and Cosell bickering in their mustard colored ABC blazers while Terry Bradshaw threw long bombs to Lynn Swann. 

KEITH OLBERMANN FALLS FROM BOTTOM RUNG OF BROADCASTING

Keith Olbermann, "Buddy, could you spare a dime?"

As you may already know, liberal loudmouth Keith Olbermann has been fired again.  This time he has been dumped from Current TV by none other than fellow liberal Al Gore.  You remember Al; he’s the former vice president who has made millions telling us he is saving the world from global warming.  One would think these two would be peas in the pod but apparently two minuses don’t always equal a plus.

Although already released by ESPN in 1997, Olbermann has since been canned by MSNBC where he managed to reach a million viewers per night; about 1/3 that of rival Bill O’Reilly on Fox.   With those two steps down the ladder, he then tied in with Gore on his Current TV cable network. 

You may not have heard of Current; most people haven’t.  To put it in perspective, a cable network like ESPN draws an average of about 2,680,000 households in prime time and MSNBC draws about 1,500,000.  Current draws about 18,000 which is less than the CW network gets for re-runs of “The King of Queens.”  That’s small potatoes especially for a supposed hot shot who wants to spend his evenings spewing his hate of everything conservative and/or Republican.

What does a guy like Olbermann do now?  Writer John Hudson reports that CBS talked to him in 2005 but had no interest in him for other than sports.  One producer said “He’s not a reporter. I’ve never seen anything that he’s done that was original, in terms of the information."  Oops!  Maybe he could read the ball scores.

Fox News would certainly not be in the equation as he hates their guts and everything they stand for.  I could see O’Reilly punching him out the first day.

ESPN?  They say “No way!” and that when he left there “He didn’t just burn his bridges, he napalmed them!” 

NBC?  Olbermann drove MSNBC executives and his underlings up the wall according to Hudson. The straw that broke the camel's back was thought to be when MSNBC suspended him for donating to Democratic candidates without notifying his bosses.

CNN?  Olbermann worked there for short stints in 1981 and 2002 but at this time they would probably think he is too left of center to re-hire.  Really?  Just remember, Olbermann thinks that the gas companies have conspired to raise gas prices to harm Obama.  Does CNN need that type of silliness?

HBO?  Now, that may be a good fit.  He could team up with obnoxious buddy Bill Maher and spew their liberal name calling together.  We know what Maher called Sarah Palin (the “C: word); that guy wouldn’t know what class is if it slapped him in the face. 

Better still, maybe Al Jazeera is looking for an anchorman in Saudi Arabia. 

Here is a 1:45 clip of “Wall Street Journal” writer Peggy Noonan “schooling” Olbermann about the value of businessmen in creating jobs.  This aired recently on the ABC News’ “This Week” Sunday program.  I’m wondering why Olbermann was even on the show.  With George Will and Peggy Noonan as the other guests, it was quite a comedown to see Olbermann mixing with such high class company.


Quote of the day:  "When a federal agency gets into something, the number of tax paid people at work multiplies itself by five, the number of hours taken to get it done multiplies by ten, and the chances of a successful conclusion must be divided by three."............... Navajo Tribal Police Sergeant Jim Chee in Tony Hillerman's The Wailing Wind  (2002)
                                                                                   

FOOD FADS THROUGH THE YEARS

(left) A beautiful, quivering, tomato aspic from the 50s

I can’t remember a time when there was not some kind of crazy food fad making the rounds.  Whether the fad became popular because the items were supposed to assist in losing weight, or they just caught on because someone popular said they liked them, they were always there.  As one fad would become tiresome another was always in line to take its place.

The 1950s was a decade where there was an inordinate amount of food fads.  It was a time when America was becoming more mobile which meant discovering new food items from other parts of the country.  It also was a time when television was getting a foothold and driving the movie business into deep trouble.

The fad of TV dinners made its debut in the ‘50s as families loved to watch TV so much that they wanted to eat dinner while they watched the tube.  Hence, we had the birth of the TV dinner with families sitting behind flimsy metal trays eating Swanson TV dinners of turkey or Salisbury steak, potatoes, peas and a cherry cobbler (click here for Swanson TV dinner ad from the 50s (1:02).  Those concoctions came from the grocery’s freezer, cost about 89 cents, and were heated in the oven for a half hour or so.  Yum!  Tear off the tinfoil covering and there was that gourmet’s delight ready to be eaten while spending the hour with Ed Sullivan, Uncle Miltie, or whoever else was on.   Personally, I preferred The Lone Ranger.

If that wasn’t bad enough to label the ‘50s as a bad food decade, there was also the popular Jello salad and tomato aspic.  Before you get foolish and assume that “Hey, I love Jello!” or  “That sounds pretty good!”  let me warn you that we are talking about Jello with things like cabbage and carrots suspended in that wonderful  gelatin delight.  I never could eat that stuff.  I was a kid and thought Jello should be topped with whipped cream.  Silly me!

Tomato aspic was sickening.  To me it looked like a big blood clot quivering on a plate.  Other than a lot of tomato juice it was full of gelatin, spices, vinegar and a bunch of other unappetizing stuff.  No thanks!  I’d rather have an Eskimo Pie.

I shouldn’t pick on the 50s too much.  It was a great ten years in my life but if you were like me, your parents made you eat a lot of stuff you hated simply because it was “good for you.”  That was a turn off on a lot of items that later in life I would enjoy.

A food fad that worked for a while in the late 90s was the Atkins’ diet.  It was the era of low carb and no carb.  I would see people, especially women, eating big juicy hamburgers with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles but no bun.   They would lose weight but as soon as they went crazy to have a cinnamon bun and a milkshake, it was over.

The above is the tip of the proverbial iceberg of food fads.  Do you remember deep fried pickles, Mars Bars, and Twinkies?  How about fondue?  Didn’t you love being with friends and spearing a chunk of bread and double dipping it in a pot holding melted chocolate or cheese?  Were you into the Oat bran craze of the ‘80s?  It was supposed to clean the cholesterol out of your blood.  Sorry, it didn’t.

One item that has graduated from fad status is bacon.  Tell me the truth:  Is there ANYONE who doesn’t like bacon?  I think I’ll go make a BLT right now! 

ARE HYBRID CARS WORTH THE TROUBLE?

A new 2010 Ford Escape with gas engine:  $20,515 
The hybrid version stickered for $31,500!

I read an article in either the Arizona Republic or the Phoenix Gazette in the early 1990s about a guy in this area converting his 1980s vintage Ford Escort from being gas powered to solar powered.

I remember he was a middle class guy who had an aptitude for that sort of thing and, although the car was comically ugly to look at, it would go about 100 miles on solar power.  I don’t know any other details other than in the picture it looked like a Rube Goldberg invention with those big panels on the roof.  It was ugly but effective and saved the guy some gas money.

In 1996, the EV-I electric car from General Motors emerged only to disappear after a couple years.  It was leased through Saturn dealerships and was well liked by many customers.  Eventually GM decided to get rid of them in spite of customer protests as they were considered unprofitable.  They called in all the leases and the cars were crushed.  GM obviously doesn’t screw around when they take a car off the market!

Fast forward to 2012 where the best the car companies can come up with in their green mentality are hybrids or electric cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt.  Since the Leaf and Volt are basically jokes, we’ll dispense of them quickly.  If you can get 100 miles range from them you are doing well. 

The cost is too much even with the extravagant rebates the feds offer.  The Volt’s battery weighs about 400 pounds and the car has been known to catch on fire.  At about $40,000 these heaps are grossly overpriced and not practical for Americans.  Strangely, under the Opel badge, the Volt is the car of the year in Europe.  It must be because of the shorter distances driven.

Much more popular for the green freaks are the hybrids but they have their minuses too in spite of what the showroom salesman may tell you.  They will rave about the gas mileage and in many cases, although not all, the hybrid will get better gas mileage than a standard gas powered engine.  However, because of the increased cost of a hybrid, anywhere from $2000 to $10,000, it takes a long time for it to pay off in savings from gas expense.  Repairs are also more expensive especially if the battery needs replacing.  That can cost in the $3,000 range.

An R. L. Polk survey shows that the Lincoln MKZ and the Toyota Prius were the only hybrids that saved owners money over a six year period.  However, that was based on gas costing $8 per gallon.  So, the green enthusiasts might say, “Yeah, but hybrids are good for the environment!”  Not necessarily since there are large batteries involved which can strain the environment if needed to be disposed.  Also, since manufacturing includes making two engines, the environment can be affected by that.  Since most of the work is still being done by the gas engine, the environment is still affected from exhaust although a bit less.

To sum up, I would not buy a hybrid.  I think the technology is too complicated with the two engines and many gas powered cars get as good if not better mileage without driving a contraption.  One test showed a BMW getting better mileage than a Prius.

For now, my gas powered Hyundai is looking pretty good.

OBAMA'S BUFFETT RULE IS "FRENCH PASTRY"

The king of income redistribution is at it again for the umpteenth time.  It’s not like we haven’t heard this “spread the wealth around” pitch from Obama before as he keeps pounding away at those darn rich people who dare to work hard to expand their businesses so we can have job growth through free enterprise and avoid the pitfalls of socialism.

How many times do we have to listen to this guy crab about the Buffett rule where big Warren pays taxes at a lower rate than his secretary?  I think he is out of ammunition and like the television shows, he is heading into his summer reruns.

It looks like his ideas about the economy and taking from the rich aren’t going over so well.  A current Washington Post /ABC News poll shows 44% endorsing Obama’s handling of the economy while 54% disapprove.  On the other hand, the same poll shows that 47% trust Romney with the economy over Obama who has 44%.  Never mind that Romney hasn’t been nominated or seriously campaigned yet.

According to columnist Charles Krauthammer, Obama is using the Buffet rule as a political ploy to gain acceptance by “pitting the 99% against the 1%.”  He is selling the idea of taking from the rich and giving to the poor.  He knows what his audience likes to hear.  “Obama does not know how to govern or is he a good president but he sure knows how to campaign” says Krauthammer.

The second method Obama uses to incite his base is that since the rich pay only a 15% capital gains tax, they are paying far less in taxes than others like the middle class.  Not so, says Charles.  He says that although the capital gains tax is 15%, it has been proven over the last half century that if you raise capital gains taxes the amount of money going into the treasury is actually less than if the tax is lower.

When asked in 2008 by Charles Gibson of ABC News if he would raise capital gains taxes even if it meant less revenue, Obama replied:  “Yes, in the name of fairness.”  Krauthammer says that Obama can’t run on his record and doesn’t have a vision for his second term, so why not run on fairness?”   Why not, indeed?  He isn’t going to balance the budget anyway.

According to Steve Hayes of The Weekly Standard, the Buffet rule would raise about the same amount of money in one year as the federal government accumulates in debt in a single day.  So, what is the big deal about the rich and the 15% capital gains?  The lower the taxes they pay, the more they can put back into their businesses to create jobs and more customers.   However, Obama tells his crowd that lower taxes on the rich mean the poor are being screwed.  Hence, his incorrect “fairness” spiel.

It doesn’t wash and even liberal writers like Dana Milbank of the Washington Post call the Buffett rule a “gimmick.”

As far as the rich not paying their fair share, here are some numbers from the Americans For Tax Reform:  PERCENT OF ALL TAX REVENUE:  Top 1%, $344,000+ income:  income tax, 39.5%, All Federal taxes, 28.1%.  Middle Quintile, $65,000 income:  income tax, 4.6%, All Federal taxes, 9.2%.

AVERAGE TAX RATES:  Top 1%:  19% of income taxes and 29.5% of all Federal taxes.  Middle quintile:  3.3% of income taxes, 14.3% of all Federal taxes.

The Democrats like to reference John Kennedy as one of their great presidents.  John Kennedy lowered the capital gains tax.  I guess he had a different definition of “fairness” that didn’t include redistribution of income and class warfare.

I WISH RITA HAYWORTH WAS STILL HERE

Rita Hayworth

My buddy in New England, Allen, has sent to me a great YouTube clip that I think is worth watching for a couple of reasons:   First, its 4:48 in length which will only tie you up for a few minutes.  Second, it features the Bee Gees doing their great hit of 1977, “Stayin' Alive”, from the most popular film of that time, “Saturday Night Fever”.  Third and most important, someone has taken the song and dance moves from the film and synchronized them with some films from the 1940s and 1950s starring the great Rita Hayworth.

Most of you probably remember Rita but in case you don’t, she was the hottest lady in film during the 1940s and 1950s.  She was a red headed beauty who could really dance and the fascination with this clip is the way the Bee Gees tune fits her dancing style.

I love classic films and to see Rita Hayworth cavorting on the dance floor with people like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire is a great pleasure.   Most of the clips are from the 1940s but there is one from 1957 (“Pal Joey”) with Rita and Frank Sinatra. (If you have a sharp eye you can see Phil Silvers of "Sgt. Bilko" fame dancing with Rita and Gene Kelly in a couple of scenes!)

As talented as Rita Hayworth was, she didn’t have a happy personal life as she was married five times between 1937 and 1961.  Her last film was a stinker called “The Wrath of God” (1972) with Robert Mitchum and in 1987 she was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer’s disease.

Rita Hayworth died in 1987 at age 68 but left behind a lot of great films that we can still enjoy today.

This is great stuff! and it takes me back to those days of youth when my buddies and I salivated over girls like Rita, Marilyn Monroe,  Gina Lollobridgida,and Brigette Bardot.

None of us were old enough to drive so we walked and hitchhiked everywhere.  One friend of mine was really bold.  He would hitch rides and have the nerve to ask the driver to change his radio station!

We would go to double feature films and not worry about whether we got there for the beginning or not.  When the film made its cycle back someone would whisper down the row that "This is where we came in."

Vacations were always taken in non air conditioned cars and we never passed up the opportunity to have a good snowball fight on snowy winter days.  As far as I know, nobody ever had their eye put out!

That was a great era and the time when Rita Hayworth ruled.  I sure miss her.

AL, JESSE, PANTHERS, AND OBAMA: QUITE THE CREW

Columnist Rich Lowry makes some interesting points about the Trayvon Martin case in his column of March 31.

Lowry opines that “….if Martin had been shot by a Black classmate, if he had been caught in random crossfire or if he had looked at a rival gang member the wrong way, his death would have been relegated to the back pages of the local newspaper.  Not a cause, not even a curiosity:  just another dead young Black man.  Nothing to see here.  Please move on.”

Lowry also quotes some interesting numbers:  “According to a 2005 FBI report, Blacks accounted for 13 per cent of the population and 49 percent of all homicide victims.  In 93 per cent of the cases the killer was Black.  Half of the victims were ages 17 to 29.  That works out to 4,000 murders of young Blacks in one year, overwhelmingly at the hands of other Blacks.”

In the case of George Zimmerman, who is half white and half Hispanic and the alleged killer in Florida of Black Trayvon Martin, Black “leaders” like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton figure half white is good enough to turn the country upside down in outrage.   The Black on Black killings don’t seem to faze them, but let a guy with one spoonful of white blood be involved, guilty or not, and they are calling for riots to protest such a great injustice to Blacks whether the proof is there or not.

Jesse and Al like the limelight and love to be seen on TV shouting away in their thousand dollar Armani suits and jewelry.  So do washed up “celebrities” like Spike Lee and Roseanne Barr who feel it is up to them to Twitter people’s addresses to the public even when they are incorrect.  Hey, it got them on the tube, right?

Then there is NBC and MSNBC who took sides in the matter rather than just reporting the news.  NBC supposedly edited a tape to falsely incriminate Zimmerman even more.  Since they were caught, they have fortunately received the discredit they deserve.

How about those Black Panthers parading around in their fatigue uniforms with insignias of rank as though they are really an official organization.  One guy had captain’s bars and another considered himself a lieutenant colonel.  At least they knew enough to make themselves officers.  Those geniuses were offering a million bucks as a bounty on Zimmerman.  That’s laughable; they better go back to doing what they are good at:  intimidating voters at polls.

If that isn’t enough, Obama had to stick his nose into the situation with his famous “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.”  How sweet and sentimental!  Quite a contrast to his reaction after the Ft. Hood massacre when he said, “Let’s not jump to conclusions.”  Thirteen people killed by a Muslim officer on an Army base and that was his reaction?  Draw your own conclusions.

Don’t get me started on the hoodies, the sympathetic photo of Trayvon at 13, and the nationwide marches.

Does this nonsense ever end?  There is a racial problem in the US, otherwise the Black leaders would be more concerned with the ignored deaths of young Blacks in their communities rather than trying to make an issue of something they have no facts on in the white community.   However, when you are dealing with guys like Al and Jesse who love the exposure, the Zimmerman situation is right down their alley.  After all, what network would send cameras to cover the murder of a 16 year old Black girl on a Chicago street by a Black man?  That’s much too boring for them.

WHERE IS JAMES DEAN WHEN WE NEED HIM?

James Dean's ultra cool 1949 Mercury used in his film "Rebel Without a Cause" (1955).  Dean was a great influence to teenagers of his era; especially in their love for cars.

If you grew up in the 40s, 50s, 60s or even later, you can probably remember the love affair between kids and cars.  In small town America, kids would “drag Main” on a Friday night after a football game with their AM radios blasting in hopes of meeting some babes at the local Dog and Suds.  In cities like Phoenix it was a similar existence only on a bigger scale as Central was the street to cruise and KRIZ was the station to blare the current hit tunes.

I wonder how many gallons of Aqua Velva and Hai Karate the kids poured on themselves in those days to match their slicked down Wildroot Cream Oil soaked hair.  Their cars were the coolest too.  I remember the competition between the Chevy and Ford owners.  It didn’t matter which car you had, it better have a set of “duals” with “glass pack” mufflers and be able to “get rubber in second.”

A lot of guys from that era were good mechanics and did all the work on their “heaps” themselves.  I was no expert but I always changed my own oil and oil filters and spark plugs.  You could get Pennzoil for 25 cents a quart and a filter for about $1.50 at K-Mart.  Then, you would park your car over a curb and slide under to drain the oil.  For about $2.75, you had an oil and filter change.  Today, the same job is about $35 at a dealer.

Those were fun days.  Cars were a lot simpler and any kid with a mechanical aptitude could easily work on his own car.  The front seat was a bench so three could easily ride there.  Even more important, when you took your girlfriend out (hopefully to the drive-in theater!), she could sit right next to you.  I had a stick shift Chevy and I would drive with my right arm around her while she shifted gears.  

Those days are apparently gone as I read recently from two different reports that kids don’t really care about cars anymore.   Veteran sportswriter Frank Deford reports that NASCAR has been in trouble because “those old, white guys, who were the bread-and-butter NASCAR constituency, were not being replicated by their sons and grandsons. Frankly, the younger generations don’t care to mess around with cars.”  The love affair with the car is apparently over.

The New York Times reports that “Today, Facebook, Twitter and text messaging allow teenagers and 20-somethings to connect without wheels. High gas prices and environmental concerns don’t help matters.”  They think of a car as “a giant bummer.”

Maybe they should start thinking of what a giant bummer it will be when they realize they can’t spell or write correctly with their dependence on Smartphones, texting, and the other nonsense today that is considered by many to be progress.

As for me, I prefer to remember hanging with my buddies in our heaps with the radio blasting Elvis, The Drifters, or Dion and enjoying our 4/70 air conditioning.

Am I dreaming or is that a room full of 1955, '56, and '57 Chevy convertibles in mint condition?  Some billionaire owns them and a couple more garages full of similar cars.

AMERICAN HISTORY IS IMPORTANT; CHECK IT OUT

Photo from c. 1940 of gas for 20.5 cents a gallon.  Apparently the station owner was receiving flack about his price so he broke it down so customers knew he made only 4 cents a gallon!

I received some photos of the past this week from reader FD in northern Arizona.  They are great relics and illustrate how life used to be in the good old USA.

It begs the question:  “What was life like in the US of the past?"  Unfortunately, a lot of people simply don’t know or care.  However, I’m sure many of them know how to text while driving a car and can recite the last two episodes of “Jersey Shore” or “The Kardashians.”

That’s fine (except for the texting which is stupid) but shouldn’t everyone know something about the history of their country?  I hear that American History is not taught much anymore in some schools.  Maybe that is why, along with the political stances of some teachers, so many kids and young adults don’t know the simplest answers to questions about the past.

Here are some questions Jay Leno has asked students over the years in his “Jaywalking” segment of the “Tonight Show.”  The answers are so ridiculous that they are funny but at the same time are sad because it shows the lack of history being taught today.

1.  Jay shows a kid a picture of Thomas Jefferson and asks him who it is.  His answer?  “Jefferson!”  Very good until the next question:  “What is Jefferson’s first name?”  answer:  “George?”  Oops!

2.  Jay asks:  “When is Independence Day?”  Answer:  “July 4.”  Very good.  Who did we win independence from?  Answer:  “Mexico?”  Whoops!

3.  “In what war was the Battle of Gettysburg?”  Answer:  “World  War II?”  That is, of course, wrong but I’ll give a hooyah to the kid for at least knowing that there was a World War II.

4.  “Who won the Civil War?”  Answer:  “Unfortunately, the South.”  HUH?  Jeez, she had a 50-50- chance and still muffed it!

5.  “What happened at Pearl Harbor during World War II?”  Answer:  “It was bombed?” CORRECT!  "Who bombed it?”  "Uh….Hawaii?”  Ouch!

These are just some mild examples of the things people don’t know about their own country.   History is important; it tells why we did what we did in the past and how it affects us today.  It should be taught as a serious subject in schools.

This photo from World War II shows women (all wearing dresses!) at a meat counter.  The sign on the meat case in the foreground says:  "Save waste fats for explosives."  Meat along with sugar,  butter, and other staples were rationed during wartime and NOTHING was thrown away.

World War II  was a time when Americans banded together saving anything for use in the war effort.  It was also the time when women stepped up to the challenge and worked in war plants by night while running a household during the day often with precious little sleep.

Post World war II America saw women gaining more independence and leaving the pre-war expectations of getting married, having children, and running a household.

Many women who worked in the plants liked getting a paycheck and wanted to continue doing it after the war ended.  It was the beginning of women's lib!

(For more information about WWII on the home front, google "WWII Victory gardens" and "WWII Scrap metal drives.")

YOU WAITED IN LINE 8 HOURS TO BUY AN iPAD?

(Left:  Yes, they are waiting in line to buy an iPad)

I forget who said it and I am too lazy to check but it may have been Jefferson (Thomas, not George) who once claimed:  “The people are a great beast.”  Well…..maybe not a beast in the literal definition but a beast that will congregate for one to eight hours in sleeping bags or drinking mass quantities of black joe just for the privilege of plunking down $500 to $850 for a new 3^rd generation Apple iPad.

It seems kind of sad that people who otherwise have at least an iota of common sense would have to have that item the exact moment it is available.  What’s the hurry?  If it were children waiting for a Christmas present of a new pair of roller skates (Do kids still roller skate?  You know, the kind of skates with a key), I could understand.  But, adults?  Please!

If it is so important to have the latest in iPad technology, you would think that the pseudo intellectuals who allow such technology to control their lives would at lease pre-order the damn things to avoid the long line of those salivating for the delicious moment they can push that “on” button to begin their descent into who knows where.  In Scottsdale the pre order people stood in a line of five people while the disorganized rabble had a line of 60.

So, there they were all over town in front of Apple, Best Buy, and A T & T stores waiting for the big moment when they could get their new iPad with Wi-Fi and 4G wireless data transfer.  Don’t ask me what that means; I just report the news, not live it.  I’m still cruising all the small office supply stores looking for liquid paper, typewriter erasers with the little brushes, and a print ball for my Remington Selectronic.

Somewhere in computer heaven Steve Jobs is laughing himself silly watching these scenes of people waiting in line all night to give a clerk a lot of money for what is basically a toy.  I can imagine him telling Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and the rest of his new buddies how he punched out the iPads for $1.98 and sold them for $500 and up.  Recession?  What recession?

I have often wondered about the timing for these “latest and greatest” versions of any product.  I’m not saying that Apple holds back advances that could all happen at once just to increase sales, but doesn’t it seem a bit odd that there always seems to be a new and improved model ready to sell fairly soon after the latest new and improved item?

The golf equipment business is similar.  If you play golf you probably know that there is always a “latest and greatest” set of clubs on the market that will allow you to hit the “latest and greatest” golf ball farther with a lot less effort.   It’s all about the merchandising and keeping sales figures intact.

As silly as it is with the iPads, at least the customers seem behaved while in line.  It might have something to do with their knowing lots of three and four syllable words and having a college degree or two.  On the other hand, don’t get in line for the latest Michael Jordan shoe unless you have no regard for your life!

CHECKING OUT THE PASSING PARADE

                                                                                         

Probably the most read column I have done since I started this blog in 2005 is the one from November 2008 dealing with “Kids Growing Up too fast.”  Second place would go to “Dancing with Fred and Ginger” from August 2011.  I don’t have actual numbers but those are the two that keep popping up on the meter the most.  Many of the hits even come from overseas.

What is your favorite movie from 2011?  That’s an easy one for me; it was Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.”  It contains good acting and no glorifying of the stars in the credits as Allen lists them small and alphabetically.  Allen has been making great “small” films for years and always on a low budget.   The man is a genius in the business.

Does anyone but me feel that Michelle Wie is basically stealing all the money she is being paid by sponsors to be on the Ladies Golf Tour?  She made something like $19 million last year and didn’t do much on the golf course.  She once said she wanted to compete with guys instead of women.  Big mistake!  She better learn to beat the girls first and quit her whining.

Ron Pinkowski, a fellow Plugged-in writer for the Sunday Arizona Republic,  observed recently that with so many people having total dependency on iPhones, who would know how to survive if all those gadgets suddenly disappeared?  His answer was “seniors.”  Good point, most seniors don’t have and don’t need the latest communication technology.  Somehow they survive the “old fashioned way.”

My favorite recent quote comes from New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie as he was talking about Warren Buffet:   “He should just write a check (for more taxes) and shut up.  Really…..I’m tired of hearing about it.”  Amen!

What is it with luxury car TV ads today?  Cadillac, BMW, Mercedes, and others are trying to sell cars showing them skidding sideways at high speeds.  To me, it looks ridiculous unless they are trying to entice immature drivers.  But then, are they the ones with enough dough to buy those overpriced heaps?  Just wondering!

Are spring training games in the Phoenix area having attendance problems?  It’s still early but some of the crowds have looked pretty dismal, especially since the weather has been nice.  Recent totals show 2,781 showing up at a Kansas City-San Diego game in a stadium that holds 10,714.  Los Angeles drew 7,038 against the Giants in a 13,000 seat stadium and the normally popular Chicago Cubs had 6,415 show up in a 13,100 seat stadium against the Rockies.  To me spring training is OK but I prefer the Fall League.

Last year in Fountain Hills I really had a lucky break.  I ran a stop sign while turning left off Pueblo Boulevard onto Mohave Road on the Yavapai reservation.  No big deal, right?  Well, maybe if the incident would not have taken place in front of a parked Maricopa County Sheriff’s car!  The only way I can figure he didn’t see me is that he was probably doing some paperwork and wasn’t looking.

(Note:  Since I switched to this format after the demise of Plugged-in Scottsdale, I have received 473 hits and 92 comments (21 per blog).  That's a great turnout and I thank everyone who is still tuning in.....  JM)

PHOENIX, GENE AUTRY, AND WATER BAGS ON ROUTE 66

Recently my wife and I decided to stop by a restaurant in north Scottsdale that we have patronized for years.  When the place was built about 15 years ago, it was in a lonely desert setting in the Frank Lloyd Wright and Pima area.  In those days the patio was a nice place to sit and have a drink when the weather was pleasant.  Today, the patio faces an “on” ramp to the 101 and the restaurant has changed names. 

Not much stays the same in the Phoenix area.  I moved to Scottsdale in 1987 and remember when I would turn east on Bell Road off I-17, there was a mileage sign saying “Scottsdale 21 miles”.   That’s not very long ago but there were still Arabian horse farms along Bell Road around 60^th Street.  They are long gone and replaced by strip malls and homes.

Scottsdale Road from Camelback Road to Carefree has heavy traffic, shopping areas, car dealerships, the 101, and four to six lanes all the way north but in the early 1960s, there was one traffic light at Lincoln Boulevard before you reached the Gainey and McCormick cattle ranches.  From there it was clear sailing the rest of the way.  The road was two lanes and paved but north of Bell it was like a roller coaster because of the many washes crossing the road.  It remained that way into the 1990s and from my experience, it was not a road you wanted to drive on when it rained.

1964-1970 was a great era to be young and partying in the Valley of the Sun.  It was the time of the “British Invasion” where The Beatles inspired a new wave of music from the UK tailored for the taste of the fickle younger crowd.  Clubs like JD’s and the Red Dog Saloon in Scottsdale did a brisk business.  For the teens it was the Pacesetter Club and the Fifth Estate.  There were even dances in the lobby entrance to Chris-Town Mall.  During this time Alice Cooper and his group The Spiders became a favorite of partiers as they did cover versions of tunes from The Rolling Stones.  Does anyone remember Phil and the Frantics playing at JD’s in those days?

Popular singing cowboy Gene Autry had strong ties to Phoenix.  While stationed at Luke AFB in 1942, he met future communications magnate Tom Chauncey who was a jeweler in downtown Phoenix at that time.  Gene and Tom saw a bright future for “over the air” media in the Phoenix area.  They pooled their resources and bought radio station KOOL which broadcasted Autry’s show “Melody Ranch”.  After his military discharge in 1945 and with television booming, Gene bought more stations and in 1953 expanded KOOL radio into the TV business with the establishment of KOOL-TV, Channel 10 (currently KSAZ).  He also bought KOPO-TV in Tucson (which became KOLD) and invested in several radio stations around Arizona.  Autry saw the future of TV and it made him a lot of money.

My first contact with Arizona was in August of 1959.  I was a wide eyed 18 year old kid with my buddy driving to Los Angeles from Cincinnati via Route 66 in a ’57 Chevy “six banger”.  I remember an attendant at a Whiting Bros. gas station in New Mexico telling me to get a burlap water bag on my bumper before driving across the desert.  The only time I had seen one of those was in the 1951 Kirk Douglas film “Ace in the Hole” where Kirk had one on his DeSoto.

The Whiting Bros. gas stations were a staple on Route 66 from 1926 until 1985 when 66 was decommissioned in favor of the interstates.  A few years later, they were gone leaving behind a lot of memories.  Bobby Troup summed up the old road in Arizona best in his song from 1948, “Route 66”:  “Flagstaff, Arizona.  Don’t forget Winona; Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.”

In 1940, John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath” was filmed partly along Route 66.  It was a grim story about a family leaving the mid-west dust bowl during the 1930s Depression in search of a better life in California.  If you travel the backroads today you can still see evidence of the old road from that era.

             Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, and Dorris Bowden in "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940)

WELCOME FORMER PLUGGED-IN READERS

I want to thank everyone who has followed me from Plugged-in Scottsdale to my Blogspot blog.  Although this blog is new to many of you, I have been doing it since 2005 when I did a weekly 800 word column for the hard copy North Scottsdale Independent  newspaper.  

The days at the Independent were fun as they let me do my own thing which included a variety of subjects with as little about politics as possible.  During that time I did a couple of concert reviews in Laughlin, Nevada (ZZ Top, Crosby, Stills, and Nash) and covered the McDowell Mountain Music Festival.  That and the other subjects that you see listed in the title of this blog are and were my main items of interest.  I think we have so many political so called “experts” now that you don’t need to be reading another amateur’s opinion on that subject.

Plugged-in Scottsdale was fun for the 5+ years it lasted but it was doomed when the comments on the blogs became too nasty for the Republic to bear.  An attempt to solve that problem by accepting only Facebook comments was a failure.  Hence, the Plugged-in blogs will now join the long list of historical footnotes.

As far as what I am about, you can get a good idea about me from my short bio in the right column of this blog.  To that information I would add that my career was in sales to the grocery and drug store trade.  I spent my career working in the mid-west and living in Johnson County, Kansas which was basically a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri.  I have no children and my wife spent her career as an elementary school teacher.  At this time we have been married 44 years so we get along fine.

This blog has gained something of a following over the years as I have received hits from many countries besides the U.S.  Since I have several topics listed in my title, I think a lot of those hits are people generally researching some of the subjects I have written about.  If I had to guess I would say that the two blogs visited the most are “Kids growing up too fast” from November, 2008 and “Dancing with Fred and Ginger” from August, 2011.   Those are two different subjects for sure but they are consistently numbers one and two in popularity.  It’s not that they get a lot of comments, but the hits are numerous.

That is pretty much the case with all these blogs over the last seven years.  I average over 100 hits a week on them with few comments.  Now that Plugged-in is gone, I should have more local interest and the comment totals should increase to at least close to the 30-40 per week I received at Plugged-in Scottsdale.

Thanks for stopping by and if there is any subject you would like to see discussed, let me know.  I also can add photos if you think you have something you would like published.  Remember, all comments will receive a reply and if you like what you see here, tell your friends.

E-CIGARETTES, SMOKING, AND TOO MUCH SENSITIVITY

I’M GLAD I DON’T SMOKE 

When I was growing up in the 1950s the cars were big, the food was fatty with large portions, Milton Berle and Ed Sullivan ruled TV, and almost everyone who could get their hands on cigarettes, smoked.

It was the era of “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should” and I’d walk a mile for a Camel.”   Midget bellboy Johnny Roventini sold millions of packs of Plilip Morris cigarettes with his popular announcement of “Call for Philip Morrisssseeeese!”

Most of my friends and I were in our early teens and, although my parents didn’t smoke, most of their parents did so they would frequently swipe some from their stash.  I was the lucky one:  Although I tried my best to smoke, cigarettes tasted obnoxious to me so I finally gave up trying. 

When I entered the Air Force in 1961, I found that most of the guys I was stationed with were smokers.  I gave smoking another shot at that time but my reaction was the same.  I have never touched one since.

With the evidence against smoking in recent years, not to mention the high cost of cigarettes, I made the right decision although it wasn’t because of the fear of health problems or the cost; it was all about my hating the taste of the nasty things.

Every now and then, someone will come up with an idea that supposedly gives a person the pleasure of smoking, hopefully without any dangerous side effects.  We’ve all seen the nicotine gum and patches and I have heard of certain pills that claim to break the habit but it seems those ideas are hit and miss if they work at all.

Lately, the panacea for smokers seems to be the e-cigarette.  It looks like a cigarette although it is made of plastic.  According to Wiki,  " It is an electrical device that simulates the act of tobacco smoking by producing an inhaled mist bearing the physical sensation, appearance, and often

the flavor and nicotine content of inhaled tobacco smoke; though without its odor, and intended to omit its health risks. The device uses heat (or in some cases, ultrasonics) to vaporize apropylene glycol- or glycerin-based liquid solution into an aerosol mist, similar to the way a nebulizer or humidifier vaporizes solutions for inhalation."

I’ve seen some people using them and to me they look kind of silly plus I would bet the enjoyment of them is far from what smokers are used to.

If I was a smoker, I doubt if I would use an e-cigarette.  If you see someone smoking one, take a good look.  I think they are another flash in the pan in the battle against smoking.

TOO MUCH SENSITIVITY TODAY

We have become much too sensitive.  St. John’s University dropped their nickname “Redmen” in 1994 because Native Americans thought it was offensive.  Never mind that the 70 year old name had nothing to do with Indians.  The football team wore red uniforms, hence, “Redmen.”  Now, the NCAA is threatening the U. of North Dakota about using its 80 year old “Fighting Sioux” nickname.  These are just two of many examples of the silly political correctness we have to endure.  Will the Whittier College “Poets” and UC Santa Cruz “Banana Slugs” be the next to feel demeaned?  Let’s hope not!

e-cigarette

Little Johnny Roventini selling Christmas cartons of Philip Morris cigarettes.  He started representing them in 1933 and retired in 1974 at age 64.  He died at 88 in 1998.