What is it about nice people that attract total idiots?Nice people are martyrs. Idiots are evangelists.

SOCK IT TO ME BABY!!!

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The A to Z blogging mash-up, part two

Well, today (or tomorrow, as I type) is "Z-day", the end of the month long A to Z blogging challenge.  So here is part two of my mini-version.

O is for Oscar Rafael Say Cumez, the first child we sponsored through Children International.



Oscar dropped out of the program at the age of 15 to help support his family (One of the CI rules is they have to be enrolled in the CI school.)  I often wonder how he is doing and what he is doing.  One thing I do know- he is a fine young man and I wish him the best.

P is for Al Penwasser, who has dropped off the face of Blogger Earth to work on his latest novel.  I still keep up on FB and Words With Friends, but it's not the same as his wonderful sense of blogging humor.  Hopefully he'll get the damn thing writ and come back soon!

Q is for queer, another one of those insensitive words that we're not supposed to use.  You know, like "whitey", "religious zealot", "right wing terrorist", or, as I've seen on gay protest posts, "vagina lover".  I'll admit, my son and I were naming off our least favorite baseball teams and came up with the "queer" Mets, the "lesbian" Phillies, the "gay" Yankees, the "homo" Cardinals, etc.  And when those other terms disappear from the lexicon of those who don't like Caucasian, Christian, Conservative, straight people, I'll worry about my use of the ones I used at home.

R is for racism (Geez, you going for alienating the REST of the audience?).  The recent lifetime ban of LA Clippers owner Don Sterling for telling his bi-racial mistress not to bring blacks to his basketball games is interesting, but to me only from the point of view of money and hypocrisy.  Stealing a bit from fellow blogger LC over at Back In The USSR, I find it funny that a man who had been busted for his racism SEVERAL times was going to get a lifetime achievement award from the NAACP, was cutting checks to several grateful black players and a black head coach, all without a peep until TMZ shoved it in their faces.  NOW he's a hate-mongering imbecile who isn't worthy to work in polite company.  Well guess what?  You've all been more than happy to take money from this same man for all these years- and it was no secret what he was like.  Kinda like the bi-racial mistress who is being sued by his wife for return of some $1.8 million worth of sugar daddy gifts she received.  You might even call her a whore.  If the shoe fits, NAACP, players, and Doc Rivers...


S is for sliding into mediocrity.  A few days back, I heard a convo between our production manager and the corporate big boss which led me to one inescapable conclusion:  Our main customer is so screwed up, that they cannot afford to unscrew without collapsing into a hot steaming pile.  And that to work with them, they require a supplier to be just as screwed up as they are.

A few days later, we had to hot rush some items for a new customer.  Why the rush?  Because someone at corporate had sent the orders to our Missouri plant instead of us.

That day, I announced in the break room, " A few days ago, I told someone that (our main customer) cannot function unless their suppliers are as screwed up as they are.  GUESS WHAT?  WE MADE IT!!!"

T is for tornadoes.  We watched on TWC all last night as town after town in Mississippi were raked not once, but twice, by monster storms.  The nightmare is beginning to happen again as I type, this time seemingly with Alabama and North Carolina as the targets.  Please help us pray for these people.

U is for Ursula, my mom's name.  I never knew how hard it was to spell Mom's name until she died.  We were in the Catholic Church then, and we would watch the bulletin for the days where someone would pay to have a mass said in her name.  In three weeks, I saw her name misspelled three different ways- the last one (and only one I truly remember) was "Urusual". 

Laurie's Mom's name was Laurice.  We have the unusual in common.  And just wait till my grandchildren (long may they wait) ask me why they have a dad named KC or a mom named Shenandoah.   (Answers:  #1- Their grandma is an idiot.  #2- I liked the song from the movie.)


V is for Valetudinarian.  I was looking on Google under "V is for" and quickly learned that unless I got Bobby G. to come over to do a "V For Vendetta" mini-bit, I'd have to just consult a dictionary.  And there I found this word.  This word describes one who likes to discuss "one's poor health or ailments".  How about that, Grandma Girardot was a valetudinarian!  She'd have probably told me, "Now, Christ (small "i", she always added the "t" for some reason), you daresn't (her favorite word) use such language."


W is for Woody, my Dad, Louis Woodrow Martin.  Called Woody all his life since Louis C. Martin was his Dad.  My Dad had a LOT of warts which I have discussed over the years.  But the bottom line is that he did the best he knew for us, especially me, and helped raise 5 semi-well adjusted kids.  It has taken a lot of years- and is still a battle- to see him in a positive light.  But that light is there, especially in my sister's two boys, who think the world of him.


Mom and Dad with niece Raine at her first communion.

X is for the "Unknown Soldier".  Huh?  Well, think about it.  It is the third least used letter in the language (.015 % of words use it) behind q and z.  So it is used in science, math, even entertainment (see X-Factor) as the symbol of that which is unknown.  I think that perhaps when we use the letter, perhaps that would be a good time to remember the Unknown Soldiers in OUR lives as well.


Y is for yet.  Yet is one of the most powerful words in the language.  It shows that beyond politics, beyond the eyes, beyond even the imagination, something exists.  When Galileo was forced to preserve his life against the inquisition by recanting his theory that the earth moves around the sun, he ended the recanting with, "And yet, it moves."  Yet is what holds the spheres in place; yet fills our lungs with air.  We cannot live without yet.


Z is for Moose.  Huh?  Well, that was the first thing that came up on Google.  It was a kids book by Kelly Bingham and Paul Zelinsky, in which a Zebra was trying to match every animal with a letter.  But Moose got mad when M went to Mouse.  Hilarity ensued.  I haven't read it but it sounds pretty good.

 
 
 
And there you have it!  See, why do a post every day of the month when you can accomplish all in two?  (Oh, yeah, the "challenge" thing.)

16 comments:

  1. Oscar is a beautiful boy.

    I was raised Catholic until 8th grade.

    I hope nobody tapes me in my home. We mean well, but we probably don't come across that way sometimes. Language...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At one time or another, I put up a pic of our latest young man, Denilson. I'll have to scan the next one we get.

      Amazing to me that I never cursed till seventh grade. Wish I hadn't then, either.

      Delete
  2. Chris:
    Ah, I was wondering when the REST of the alphabet was going to show up...nicely presented.
    The Racism letter was spelled out nicely.
    (d for double-standard)
    And no one STILL has mentioned marge Schott???

    LMAO - the "V For Vendetta" mini-bit...I can get that for you WHOLESALE.
    (parts of the film seem almost prophetic - not bad for a Bush-era writing)

    Very good post .
    (Z is for moose...LOL)

    Stay safe and erudite up there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Y'know, as a Reds fan, I should have thought about ol' Marge and Schottzie. Colorful lady, she was. But you can see how these things are- it's the flavor of the month. They lick the ice cream and throw away the cones, so to speak.

      And yeah, Z is for Moose busted me up too. I had to use it!

      Delete
  3. The tornado damage is heartbreaking! In comparison, my flooded backyard is peanuts (NOTE: My backyard is not full of peanuts).
    Thanks for the mention. I just put my weekly blog, Just An Observation, on sabbatical too. I hope to get the #$@!*&^ book done by the end of the year. Hope you're all still around then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We'll be around... but after that news, I wonder if all Pennsylvania won't collapse into rioting.

      Delete
  4. CW-

    "Q" made me think of how stupidly politically correct we are.

    There's a quote from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" that I still use all the time. The scene where Sean Penn is being interviewed by Stu Nahan, and he mentions two other surfers, and Penn says, "Those guys are fags!"

    I still laugh at the way he says it, and I say it all the time, usually in a moment of total idiocy, and not intending any insult to men who may be sexually inclined differently than I am.

    In 1980, it was just a silly joke in bad taste. Today, it is technically a hate crime.

    Yet it is the same four-word phrase.

    I still refer to odd things as queer-the phrase "queer as a three-dollar bill" is not a gay slur as far as I know.

    Who is more of a "whitey" than me, and when Elivis Costello sung about another "white nigger," I do not think he was insulting blacks. But if he was, so what-"Oliver's Army" was still a good song.

    Can we grow a little thicker skin, America?

    We have turned into pussies-no disrespect to vagina-Americans or feline-Americans intended.

    LC

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am glad to see you took the Q for what it was intended. I imagined a whole horde of followers beating my door with pitchforks. There are a lot of people out there just looking for something to bitch about, dissecting everyone's every word- and, as Stephen T. would say, distracting us from the stuffs happening right under our noses.

      BTW, on your last line, I saw a meme last night with a cat, his head stuck through a slice of pizza. The legend said, "I was adopted by a lesbian couple and just found out what they ate. I'm a pizza, really!"

      I hadda explain it to Laurie. After all these years, she still keeps her mind out of the gutter.

      Delete
  5. Too bad about Oscar dropping out of the program. Hopefully he is making his way all right.
    What you're saying with "Q", and I don't believe you're a bigot, but because you read a small handful of people use words against your group of people on a message board, you're going to use that entire minority as a pejorative? Perhaps, as you state in your previous reply, that I'm "bitching" about nothing more than a "distraction" but playing the victim so that you can justify calling sports teams gay instead of making the simple linguistic adjustment of coming up with more creative insults seems to stubbornly refuse to acknowledge that passive homophobia does have an impact on that minority. It's not about being a "PC pussy" it's about recognizing that a minority has enough inherent problems that are reinforced by casual bigotry. If it was an insult to say "Christian Astros" or "Honky Rams" and that subconscious discrimination was widespread and accepted, you'd probably feel differently. People think it's okay to use gay as an insult because they don't see how it affects that group as a whole, but it does, it reinforces the idea that they are sub-human and not deserving of respect or consideration. Not the users intent, but that is the end result when echoed with enough voices. You probably wouldn't do it with "Jew" so why do it with gay?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm... how to respond to this without making a thing out of it- which is the farthest thing from my mind.

      Well, point one would be there's a difference between playing a victim and pointing out a hypocrisy. I can't control what others say about me, so why care? On the other hand, I'm not going to let the PC police change what I do and ignore people like, say, Jeremiah Wright.

      Point two, homophobia has got to be the most overused mis-used word in existence. I have no fear of homosexuals. I disagree with their lifestyle choice, just as I disagree with the able bodied "homeless" guy at the corner of Wal Mart and the slugs that game the system to do nothing but swill booze and smoke dope all day and rob people all night. If they keep their choice to themselves, then I'm fine with that. When they go on parade or insist they must teach MY kids their lifestyle, then we have a problem. And like every group, their is a small minority that go out and get "in your face" and ruin things for all involved. If you get in my face, you become a target.

      Point three, I remember a post you had in which you warned Christians that they might not want to continue reading. Twice, in fact. Do you think that that warning absolves you of whatever offense I might have taken IF I had read on (which I didn't, because you were kind enough to warn me)?

      And no, we don't joke about Jews much here, because it's bad luck. But ever since the South Park movie, we've blamed a lot of crap on Canadians...

      Delete
  6. I miss seeing Al's humor too. I need to lurk on him, I mean connect with him on Facebook too.

    I like how you did X - Unknown Soldier. Well done, Chris. This is why I like you, patriotic and optimistic. Just an all around good guy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, ma'am. I wish, though, I felt as optimistic as you perceive me.

      Delete
  7. Where was Part 1? Did I see it?

    I scrolled down a ways but didn't bump into it down there.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "The A to Z mini challenge; or, at least the pooch enjoyed it today ", April 16th- not an exact title match, I guess.

      Delete
  8. I knew you to be a good one, CW, and now I know you're really good. Oscar is clearly a really good one too. And yes, AlPenwasser best be back soon. It's not the same without him.

    xoRobyn

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Denilson is another good one. Like I said, I'll put up his next new picture here soon.

      Delete