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David Mitchell

Good to hear Mike. Wish I could have been there.

If I may, this prompts a trivial question. Besides you, Al, and (I think) Guy DeVictor, (spelling?), who were the other two starters on your St. Andrews 8th grade basketball team? 

Joseph Gentilini

You are welcome, David Barbour.  Glad my writings helped you

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Joe, I would like to address two important issues you brought up in post #12138.  So as to respect all of the sensibilities of our forum readers, I will just direct those interested in understanding the Church's centuries old teachings on SSA on the particular arguments that were presented in your post, to these two links.

https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/why-sterile-heterosexual-acts-and-homosexual-acts-are-not-the-same

https://www.catholic.com/audio/caf/was-sodom-and-gomorrah-really-about-homosexuality

And Joe, I am very miuch interested in your journey and If you are interested in pursuing further dialogue my email address is mmschultheis1966@gmail.com.   

Michael Boulware

Dave Mitchell: The other two starters were Joe McDonough and Tim Wagner.

David Mitchell

Thanks Mike 

I should have remembered Joe, but Tim was not one of the guys I rememberd at all. Those were some fun Saturday mornings - except for the day we played you guys,,,, and I.C.,,,,, and St.Agatha,,,,,, and St Michaels,,,,, and Sacred Heart.

Come to think of it, I can't seem to recall beating any of those teams. But it was still fun trying.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Dave, Mike B. et al,

Basketball stories bring back - sometimed painful - memories.

The last organized team on which I played was Riverside Methodist Hospital (no mascot name). We somehow decided to enter a team in a Columbus industrial league which included such teams like Timken Roller Bearing and other companies. I think some of the teams somehow wound up with players who were ex-college ones who did not make it in the NBA. Those were the teams with fancy warm up suits and expensive shoes. We got the hospital to kick in for our short pants and green jerseys with "RMH" on them. We supplied our own Chuck Taylor Converse All Star low cuts.

I'm not sure we ever won any games. It was difficult to get more than about six of us usually sleep deprived interns and residents who were not on call or recovering from a 36 hour shift to make it to any given game but we did our best.

My wife, who was also our House Staff Secretary, was tasked with the mission of keeping all of our wallets in a bag while sitting in the bleachers of Linden McKinley HS (where these games were played) next to the hired off-duty police officer who supplied security in this somewhat tough area of the city. 

It was fun even though championships were not to be ours.

Jim

Michael McLeod

Call me an old fart but I miss decorum. I mean DON'T!!!! I know somebody will. Probably Dave. 

Joseph D. McCarthy

Dr. Jim,

Were you aware that Great Britain is celebrating the 200th anniversay of Dr. Edward Jenner's death this year.  They are doing it with the release of four coins in his honor.

I'll let you answer why he is significant.

Joe

James Hamilton, M. D.

Joe,

You bet!

Jenner was the man who started it all by developing the world's first vaccine, against smallpox, thus saving countless lives and establishing himself as the "father of immunology". He was actually a zoologist but certainly became one of the most important figures in the history of medicine. 

Mike,

Are you saying that de forum lacks decorum??

Jim

David Mitchell

 Mike,

I am afraid I am not following you????

Or, could it be something that took place last night?

Mark Schweickart

Mike -- I'm with Dave in assuming you were talking about all the heckling Biden was barraged with during his State of the Union address. I especially was struck by the irony of having that paragon of veracity, Jewish-laser beam-MTG, shout out, "LIAR!" Well, at least it wasn't George Santos, so maybe there's hope for us yet. 

Harold Clark

let upon santos==after all he did shoot down the spy baloon

Michael McLeod

Dave:

You guessed right. I was indeed referring to the state of the union address. Dave, you apparently missed it, and were probably better off for doing so. 

It's frankly scary to me as a patriot, above and beyond and regardless of any political leanings I might have, to see governmental gatherings --and even, to a lesser extent, political debates -- when they take on the atmosphere of a mosh pit. We're better than that. At least I used to think so.

Jim: You hit de nail on de head and I'm not de nying it. 

Mark: You are incorrect. There is no hope for us. 

James Hamilton, M. D.

I have been trying to stay out of politics on this Forum but I shall just say this ONE thing:

IMHO nothing that happened Tuesday night can even come close to then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's ripping up her copy of President Trump's speech after his SOTU address for all of the world to see.

Jim

Michael McLeod

Jim:

So maybe her shredder was on the fritz.

It's a tough call but at least, as to the two ladies, you gottta give Pelosi the dress-for-success edge over MTG's  albino-Cruella look. 

And in all seriousness in both cases, it's appalling to see no temporary suspension of overt hostilities when it comes to a great nation representing millions of souls and a public affirmation, if only temporary, of some sort of lets get down to business unity. I think it really does represent a significant civic decline that has been slow enough in devolving that we have come to accept it as normalcy.

I remember a younger day when I saw how the Brits shouted down each other in their political pow-wows and thought it odd and was grateful we here in the colonies were better behaved.

Lately the nation has taken a bitter, looney-tune turn. 

HAVING SAID THAT:

You could look at it another way and say that the issues and personalities and political hand-to-hand combat going on have always been thus and have simply become more transparent. Although I cannot recall a "culture wars" parallel - the feeling that politicians are all up in personal choice matters and doing it just to get attention and clout rather than abiding by the borders of the political arena. 

Just run the damn country and stay outta my bidness. 

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Why not just have the President send his State of the Union address in a letter to Congress? Personally, I can't tolerate the political grandstanding and the partisan applause every few minutes from both sides of the aisle, and so I save myself the aggravation by never watching.. It is all for show and no substance,

I can  know the "state of the union" everytime I put gas in my car, or walk through a Target store with still near empty shelves, or go to the grocery store to buy eggs, beef, bread, milk, etc. I know the "state of the union" when my home equity statement arrives showing the payment has jumped by $300/month, or when I learn of family members who have recently been laid off from their jobs. I know the "state of the union" when there are fewer and fewer homes for sale, and those that are have been sitting on the market for months, or when car dealerships have less to offer and can no longer cut you a deal on a lease. I know the "state of the union" everytime a 2,000 page bill is introduced and voted on and passed before anyone of our "representatives" knows what is in it, and we later find out that our tax dollars are being spent out into infinity and beyond to line the pockets of government officials and their corporate cronies. Such is my disdain for our current "state of the union" and for how far our Constitutional government of "we the people" has become unmoored from its foundation. 

P.S. I guess I was not alone in not watching as the Nielsen ratings show that Joe Biden had the lowest audience for a SOTU in thrity years.

David Mitchell

Yes Mike, 

I was refferring to Tuesday night's speech. Pretty embarrassing watching Kevin McCarthy wince every time at his own party's cat-calling. And as a conservative Republican, I thought Ms. Huckabee's rebuttle was downright embarrasing.

Meanwhile, that sound you heard yesterday was the sound of Senator Jim Comer and his Make Attorneys Get Attornys committeee shooting themselves in the foot over their opening day investigation into Hunter's laptop. Sounds like they were completely unprepared for some testimony that didn't quite go their way. 

Yes, I agree we know - and did way back then - that Hunter is probably gulty of something. Just like we now know that Trump's election committee was in touch with Russians aproximately 140 times!  How did any of this stuff get burried? I guess it was the same way that Bill Barr and John Durham's "investigation" turned up actully finding more damning evidence against Trump instead of Mueller and his witnesses. (answer: we now know they simply burried it)

And Yes Jim, Nancy's theatrics were an appalling low point in this group's history. That and "Let's pass the bill, and we can read what's in it later". But are you then claiming that justifies ignorant little morons like MTG (who has denied that a plane struck the Pentagon on 911), and her buddy Matt Gaez should even be allowed in the building? 

P.s. I loved watching S.C. Conservative Republican Nancy Mace's prickly barbs last night at that press dinner about Stormy Daniels and also Matt Gaetz' and his young ladies. She may just turn out to be an honest and uncorruptable Republican yet. TBC

David Mitchell

MM,

I wonder why your payment has jumped $300 per month?

Was that some government official or the result of some some unscupulous Mortgage Loan Officer talking you into an ARM, (Adjustable Rate Mortgage). I still marvel at why so many people choose an ARM other than when going rates are already very high, anticipating a drop in the rates. If you are going to argue that it was the FED, I would answere that they wer asleep on those all-time low rates too long, and are now having to play catch up on inflation.

As for shortage of cars - - isn't that a direct result of us having near zero capacity to manufacture our own micro chips? Parts of Joe's "Infrastructure Bill" are focused on that very issue.

(added later) As for gas prices - you might have heard a little something in the news about some invasion of Ukraine and its disruption in global oil supplies. My boss has a brother in the drilling buisness and he admits there was a bit of gouging on the part of American suppliers.

Not sure how you can blame any of these three issues on Joe B. - well maybe the FED rates, but that would not affect you unless you had an ARM.

I'm not disagreeing with your overall point about our spending, but highways and bridges need to be repaired, and bills already on the books need to be paid.

As I have stated before on this Forum, my argument is more about how much revenue we refuse to collect. As Joe put it the other night, Why should billionaires and huge corporations pay less taxes than Teachers and Firemen (and I will add Cops, Nurses, etc). Our IRS code is horribly out of whack - completely unjust in my mind. But it is desperate for more manpower to audit the errors and the cheaters - which are great in number - including a former President.

This brings up this new idea being floated by GA Rep Buddy Carter about a new flat 30% sales tax - and the complete closure of the IRS. Hard to get much detail on this yet, but it could be a disaster for working class people.

NOTE: Buddy Carter drives a grey pickup. He parks it in one of our licensed parking spots at the Savannah airport whenever he goes to D.C. (often taking up more than one space) He's got a newer one lately and it still does not have all of his old bumper stickers, one of which read "Walker for US Senate". I wonder if he isn't sort of glad to be rid of that sticker

Michael McLeod

Silly us, talking about the state of the nation. Apparently quite a few others in the country had more important things in mind.

Meanwhile, as you noted, Dave, the line between politicians and performance artists grows thin.

"The audience for the SOTU was impacted by TNT’s NBA coverage, as LeBron James broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA scoring record. According to Nielsen, the game drew an average of almost 3 million viewers." 

James Hamilton, M. D.

Folks,

Alright, without getting into politics, I am not one who is into fashion but apparently MTG's attire caused quite a stir a few nights ago.

Suddenly I found myself thinking about clothing styles over the decades of which we have all lived and I was wondering about how we dressed through those times and what we would or would not wear today as well as what we like or dislike in today's clothing.

My list of the past menswear which should stay there includes bell bottoms, beachcomber pants. Nehru jackets, ultra wide ties, ultra thin ties, white belts,  polyester shirts, "Cuban" heeled shoes, Florsheim boots and "dickies" (those fake turtle neck, ascot things worn under a shirt). I did like double breasted blazers. As for today's menswear I dislike windowpane suits or sportcoats, those "skinny' pants and jeans (how the heck do 75 year olds get them off?) and the so-called buisness casual look. 

I shall leave the womenswear likes and dislikes to the ladies of our class - which may or may not include those school uniforms. 

Any other thoughts?

Jim

Michael McLeod

Jim: Does a windowpane suit mean you're, like, walking around half naked? I seriously don't know what that means but I will guess that it has something to do with the shape of the jacket and rather than look it up I thought I'd make a characteristically juvenile remark.

I like: corderoy shirts - pants not so much - cashmere sweaters (swear to God it doubles the chance a woman will hug you); seersucker suits now that I'm in Fla., one in blue pin stripes that's a go-to another one in red strips that I quit wearing because people mocked me for looking like I was an ice cream vendor or part of a barbershop quartet; anything made by Ted Baker and Facconable and Lucky (for fun)and Brooks Brothers (for reliability) and Robert Graham shirts from back when he wasn't quite so out-there with his designs, and finally, one particular pink-stripe Polo short-sleeve knit that looks great and gets compliments from the layyyydeees quite a bit. I shop at a second hand place down here that benefits gay charities and is cleverly called Out of the Closet - not sure if it's a nationwide affair.   Haven't worn suits other than seersucker on a regular basis for years. For colder weather have a nice black Eddie Bauer sports jacket I somehow was bright enough to buy decades ago when I was writing movie reviews at the Cincinnati Enquirer. Guess it's velour; feels like it anyway. Have a vintage striped brown suit with wide lapels - I'm thinking it's from the 40s -- that I truck out now and then for the fun of it. I really like wearing the jacket of an Armani tux -bought the suit second-hand years ago - with a nice white shirt and jeans now and then. If I had any inclination to dole out fashion tips I'd say: do that: wear a tux jacket, just the jacket, with jeans. All this is hodge-podge and gradually pieced together and only began happening around 20 years ago when friends began poking fun at me. Then I met my girlfriend, who eyed certain shambling outfits with obvious dismay and started buying me nice dress shirts after I was slow to pick up on all the well-couched insults and an ongoing lecturing crusade. That initial purchase of hers - just checked the labels, they're Brooks Brothers, three of them  -- shamed me, as did her generosity and patience. In general I now pay attention to her advice and even look in the mirror now and then, despite the fact that at this age that can be somewhat alarming. 

Michael McLeod

PS In the meantime I am grooming my syllabus for a writing class I teach at the small liberal arts college near my home in winter park, just north of orlando.

but I also have to groom a story I have been asked to write about central florida filmmakers.

so at the moment I am a multi tasking groomer.

at least, so goes the rumor.

Apologize to the class for my lengthy outburst above.

But I do think Jim has introduced an interesting subject so I encourage other folks to join in the conversation. I wanna see a few verbal runway walks outta this crowd. Promise not to hoot. Now that the forces of righteousness have taken out Mickey Mouse, I need something or somebody -- Cubby? Darlene? Annette? -- to cheer me up.  

Mark Schweickart

My best memory of my worst 60's clothing, comes from my first foray into hippiedom and the fashion fallout that ensued. It was the fall of '66 when I hitchhiked to San Francisco and encountered that subculture that had not made it presence known in the Midwest yet. When I hitchhiked back, I came dressed in head band, a Mexican blanket vest, and fringed knee-high moccassins. If you do not recall Mexican blanket vests, they looked like this:

Note about my moccassins – they were made of a soft leather, and since my legs were quite skinny, the moccassins would not stay knee high, and instead slouched into a sad puddle above my ankles – until, that is, I realized I could garter them up into place by adding rubber bands discretely hidden under the fringed flap at the top. I was lookin' good, my man, lookin' good! Or so I thought at the time.

This clothing popped up in a song I wrote about life back then that you have probably already heard here on the forum before, but here it is again for those of you who may have missed it. It is fairly autobiographical, except for the ending. I did not wind up joining the service (as I thought I was going to) and taking my chances in Viet-Nam. I instead opted for the safety of a college student deferment. But the being drafted option seemed a more poignant way to end the song.

Michael McLeod

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejaaZOpXGN4&ab_channel=BrianTylerCohen

yeah I'm picking on her. She deserves it.

John Maxwell