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.)