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Michael McLeod

ok this a catholic website and I do not want it to become an occasion of sin so I'd appreciate it if you guys who want to talk about undergarments and other pornographic matters would take your smutty little conversations about "bare skin" elsewhere or I will be forced to report you to the legion of decency.

Julie Carpenter

No knitting or weaving, Joe--I'm a truck driver! Just kidding! The options your doctor gave you were the same I got from my doctor. But she said that the benefit decreases with each shot, so eventually I opted for the surgery. Can't think of any particular reason why I got trigger finger. Mine was constant--never went away except for a couple months each time I got a shot. Am glad I got the surgery. 

Joseph D. McCarthy

Julie, I apologize if my earlier post seemed "snarky",  or flippant.  I only meant to ask if your doctor gave any indication as to what happened to cause you to incur "trigger fiinger".  My doctor gave me the same initial response, that he uses for most questions, that it wasbrought on, or a result of, my stroke.  When I reminded him that the stroke was a left lobe stroke, effected my right side, he mentioned that he usually saw it with his truck driver patients. So I appreciated your response.

On the other hand, pun intended, I do use my left hand a lot whenever I drive for a long distance,

David Mitchell

Donna,

Thank you so much for that edifying video. I am deeply in your debt. However, I saw no indication that it  helps one distinguish the front from the back. I am therefore still required to read the label on my boxer shorts. 

Life's a bitch.

Mike,

Thanks you for the reminder that this is indeed a Catholic Forum. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Does that mean there will be more alcohol in the future? Or am I to understand that we will simply see less underwear and more on-line Bingo?

Joseph D. McCarthy

Anyone have an update on our classmate in Lewis Cener?

Mark Schweickart

Tim – Very funny post my friend! However, it did raise one question for me, and that was: is "u-trou" a regional expression? I haven't heard that term used since I left Ohio 55 years ago. Then again, it is not as if underwear is often a topic of conversation, if ever, so that might contribute to my having not heard anyone use this more imaginative description of one's underwear.

John Maxwell

Timothy Lavelle

Mark,

Can't talk now...too busy over on Donna's website buying "Spray On Underwear" or seperately viewing her ad for another product...

"Tired of your Fruit of the Looms turning into the Grapes of Wrath?"

"Then try Donna's best Super-Underwear-Glue with the added benefit of never having to see yourself naked again!" Now available at Barcelona Best Buys in tiny tube(waist size 28" or less), bigger bottle (waist size to 36") or the one gallon economy size (waist size "all the rest of us").

Mark, I think Mark Buttress invented the term u-trou. It was only 50 or so years ago... 

Alright...enough LaVelle crap for awhile but someone please answer Joe cause I'm anxious to know who lives in Lewis Center. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Tim, 

Before you go you must 'fess up as to how you really broke your leg a few years ago. Was it truly from rolling your riding mower (a manly type of injury) or did you just fall trying to put on your "u-trou"? 🤔 

Jim 

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Dave, I am really sorry. I tried hard to find a tutorial for your boxer problem but no luck. 

Tim, I really appreciate all the publicity. Now that I have retired from interior design I needed something constructive to fill my free hours. Plus you wouldn't believe how well the sales for the Super-Underwear-Glue are going! Btw payment can be made in Euros or Dollars, but not Pesetas, Sorry, Joe. :-) Your commission check is now in the mail, Tim.

Jack, your tip on money laundering has been duly noted. 

I can't even imagine what new directions this conversation will now take!

Timothy Lavelle

Doc, I just came in from mowing that same section. You would want your slow-mo photography set up if you were filming me mow it now. I always recite "One small mow for old farts, one giant mow for old-fart-kind" as I begin down that hill. 

The three stooges type bathroom dance I described came about as a result of that damned hill. And to think I won a Twist contest once...

....i coulda been a contendah doc...

Donna, I'd like to congratulate you on a lifetime of teaching Spaniards how to use cement blocks and used aple crates and old boards to make bookcases and room dividers. Didn't I see you on the cover of the Spanish design magazine "Who Lives Like This"?

What I don't understand is why, with tapas readily available, you and Julio don't weigh in at 300 plus lbs? Cold beer and free bar food...we should all move there. 

David Barbour

Dear friends,

Toni Cardi is in Lewis Center in a nursing facility.  I don't think we are allowed to visit at this moment.

Mrs. Hog is the best source of info.

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Wrong show, Tim.  Mine was called "Property Hermanas" and we specialized in designs of the finest grade cardboard and plastic.

Re. the effects of the Pandemic Stress Tapas Eating don't look so bad when your bathroom scales are in kilos, not pounds.

Timothy Lavelle

M'donna,

Maybe you forgot that you sent me that unabridged cooy of your autobiography where, on page 53 you relate that you were turned down by the Dominican sisters for being...how did you put it....let me get to that page again.....yeah, yeah, found it..."I was turned down for being too statuesque".

Then you studied Spanish until, again, in your own words, "I forgot how tp speak English" requiring you to move to a country where statuesque and Spanish are both fluent.

Alright....alright...that's all the idiocy I can come up with at this moment. Donna is a favorite friend and if anyone ever thought otherwise they would have to be....you know....McLeod-ish or something as pathetic as that.

A favor. Please look up tonight and on nights to come and point a positive thought out into the universe for a very young someone who needs a universal hug from all of us now and in the near future. It's a real tough time for someone we all love. 

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Your imagination knows no limits, amigo Tim.

Re. the favor--Absolutely.

Michael McLeod

James Hamilton, M. D.

To all of our classmates who chose teaching as a career:

HAPPY TEACHER'S APPRECIATION WEEK!

You accepted a huge responsibility to teach the children well and right!

Jim

David Mitchell

Right on Jim,

I have two daughters and a daughter in law who taught. All in unique circumstances. My youngest taught handicapped children in a Montessory inside the Univesity of Cincinnati medical school. It was both a real Montesorri and a research project for the medical shcool and the school of education. She lovedd it but wages were poor and she got out. 

My oldest daughter taught in an inner-city Los Aangles school in a pretty rough neigbornodd - mostly low incone Hispanic - flanked on two sides by opposing gangs. She swore she would never want to teach. But she took a part time job where she fell in love with the kids and went into it full time for four years. Her kids grades climbed steadily, while her parrallel class grades (taught by a 27 year veteran teacher who hated her job - and resented Sara) grades stayed flat the entire four years as they progressed with their same group of kids. The L.A. School system politics drove her nuts and she quit. Parents cried at the last day oif school - begging her to stay. One mother parked her car behind Sara's car so she couldn't get out of the parking lot.

And my daughter-in-law teaches "special reading" (for deficient and problem readers) in Portland Oregon. She gets some wonderful testimonials from her former studetns. But this year she has had to teach remotely and it has stressed her out. In addition to having an 11 year-old son doing remote school at home, she teaches remotely. And she had to contact each set of parents once a week. She has 7 non-english speaking parents in the class - Russian, Ukranian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Urdu. Swahili, and something I think is called May May (never heard of it). I think she has to use the student to help translate for their parents.

AND I beleive Portland just cut their school budget this spast year.

WHY DO WE VALUE (and pay)  THE EARLY YEAR TEACHERS SO LITTLE?

John Jackson

I haven’t posted in a while but a recent post on the vaccine survey (post #27 out of 29) attempting to justify vaccine skepticism drove me up the wall.  This post lamented, among other things, that “the mRNA therapies were rushed to the public, skipping the stringent clinical trials and animal studies that have historically been demanded of pharmaceutical companies as a safeguard against adverse reactions”… The post also referenced an article https://www.distributednews.com/427233.html.

First of all, both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were each blind-tested initially on more than 40,000 people and judged to be 95% effective (that means they reduce the likelihood of contracting the virus by a factor of 20). They also virtually eliminated the likelihood of getting seriously ill.  Since the initial trials, more than 240 million doses have been administered in the U.S. without significant side effects. 

I also take issue with the article cited as backup, given the fact that another headline on the wacko website hosting the article was “Beware the financial FALLOUT from the vaccine bioweapons death wave... collapse of tax revenues, pensions, real estate values and the dollar all inevitable”.  In addition, the article cited no author so we have no way to judge his/her qualifications to render judgment on such a complex and technical issue relative, say, to the CDC and university vaccinologists and epidemiologists who have devoted their working lives to studying these issues and have overwhelmingly endorsed the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

Jim, as I recall, you’ve gotten both your shots – would you care to give us your informed medical evaluation of this post?

Joseph D. McCarthy

Mr. McLeod since it was my brother Mike who forwarded the following Church Bulletins I thought it only appropriate to obtain your analysis.

  1.  The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

  2. Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled.  Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

  3. The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water".  The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus".

  4.  Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale.  It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house.   Bring your husbands.

  5.  Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

  6.  Miss Charlene Mason sang "I wll not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

  7.  For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

  8.  Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir.  They need all the help they can get.

  9.  Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24th in the church.  So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

10.  A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall.  Music wil follow.....

11.  At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What is Hell?"  Come early and listen to our choir practice.

I'll save the rest till later.

Joe

Michael McLeod

Better than anything I could have written, Joe.

Michael McLeod

So is this Garrison Keillor column about spring:

https://www.garrisonkeillor.com/

And so is this Leonard Cohen lyric that was in my head and gave me a smile when I woke up this morning:

They oughta give my heart a medal

For lettin' go of you

When I turned my back on the devil

Turned my back on the angel, too.

Cohen spent several years in a Buddhist monastery, where he obviously learned how to make peace with life's contradictions.

Oh, and finally, since we're talking teacher appreciation: my fabulous significant other, an angel in her own right, turned the corner this month - May is going to be mostly testing for the first, second and third graders in her charge, so it will be a relatively easy month for her after the arduous, crazy months of trying to keep her students - and their parents - in line and on line as a dedicated Montesorri teacher. She is so dedicated she runs herself ragged even under the best of circumstances, and it was eating away at her, the challenge of having her legs taken out from her - montessori is the ultimate hands-on, face-to-face educational approach and she was constantly wrestling with transmitting the spirit of that on line. My task was to listen and sympathize every evening after her 14-hour days were over. Plus she spent hundreds to turn her house into a teaching studio for which she won't be fully reimbursed, thanks to recent tax changes (yes, by the previous administration).

Hated seeing her so stressed and disrespected. Grateful it's nearly over. 

Finally - and this time I mean really finally - thanks for weighing in on the anti vax misinformation, JJ. Sheesh. What a year.

Daniel Cody

Thanks Joe I needed a good spit coffee out of my nose laugh!

John Jackson

I'll second what Dan just said.

Mark Schweickart

Let me third the motion!