curmudgeonmanifesto.blogspot.com
The Curmudgeon Manifesto: November 2005
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Friday, November 25, 2005. Here I come, ready or not! Most of you remember playing Hide and Seek during summer evenings when you were a kid. Or are you from the latest generation of new adults who seldom went outdoors to run and play? Did you too often choose, instead, to sit in front of television screens watching violent programs or playing violent games with your thumbs? That depends. I have heard different calls. Chicago kids used to say, Oley, Oley, Oceans free! My wife, who did not grow up in Chica...
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The Curmudgeon Manifesto: September 2005
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Monday, September 26, 2005. My kid's school rates an "A," your kid's a "B," and their kids' schools are failing! For thirty-seven years, the folks at Phi Delta Kappa magazine and the Gallup Poll people have collaborated on a comprehensive survey of public attitudes toward American schools. Few people outside of the education community are aware of that. One of the most interesting questions to me has long been the one about how the responders grade the nation’s schools, their community schools, and the i...
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The Curmudgeon Manifesto: April 2006
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Monday, April 24, 2006. Let the buyer beware, but pay the full price anyway. Have you ever tried on a pair? And then have you looked at the price? I chose the least expensive frames in the optical store and waited an hour for the lenses to be fittedand perhaps for the manager to check my credit rating and credit card balance. Who knows? The glasses were well over a hundred dollars, as I said. The reading glasses in the drug store cost about ten dollars, depending on which style and case. Ten dollars!
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The Curmudgeon Manifesto: August 2005
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Tuesday, August 30, 2005. You say "potato," I say "potahto.". The tradegy of hurricane Katrina cannot be debated. How awful for everyone. I am not sure there is anything light to say about the facts or the people so devastated by the storm. Americans take possession of their language, and why not? The winter olympics were once held in Albertville, France. The American broadcasters all prounounced the place as "Albert-vil." They interviewed dozens of Europeans each day who all said "Ahl-bare-veal&...Place...
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The Curmudgeon Manifesto: December 2005
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Wednesday, December 28, 2005. Kim Riley wrote: "anyone who discounts the validity of astrology as a direct result of ignorance, misunderstanding, or fear must be stoopid, and that's all there is to it. Case closed! I laughed, for Adolph Hitler, Shirley Temple, Richard Nixon, Jesus Christ, (if you accept his celebrated birthday as actual) and I are all Capricorns. How valid does that make astrology? Posted by Dana at 10:49 PM. Tuesday, December 20, 2005. Nothing went right, but all is right anyway. I woul...
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The Curmudgeon Manifesto: May 2006
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Saturday, May 27, 2006. Guilty of far more than the convictions say. Enron former CEO Jeff Skillings has been found guilty of conspiracy and fraud. Enron founder Ken Lay has also been found guilty of conspiracy and fraud, as well as insider trading and false statements. I think that last one means lying. I cannot imagine anyone is surprised by those verdicts. But the two men are guilty of so much more than the charges. Lest we forget, think back to some of what the leaders of Enron have done. Early in th...
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The Curmudgeon Manifesto: July 2005
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Thursday, July 28, 2005. Toilet Training for Adults. There is a commercial on television for some brand of toilet tissue that has one of the actors mention the female bug-a-boo about males leaving the toilet seat up. I remember both Ann Landers and Dear Abby often gave attention to that complaint in more militant feminist years of the recent past. Not only would that allow those colorful terry cloth toilet lid covers to show, but it would also prevent family dogs from drinking out of the toilet and then ...
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The Curmudgeon Manifesto: October 2005
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Thursday, October 27, 2005. Get the message, Mr. President? Does anyone else think that the recent Harriet Miers brouhaha brings aditional insight into how things are actually run in this administration? And who worked hardest, before any hearings even started, to bring down the unfortunate nomination of Harriet Miers, who seems distinguished most by her lack of distinction? Bush’s ultra right wingnut base. And they did it. We may have been better off with an unqualified Harriet than the person that grou...
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The Curmudgeon Manifesto: January 2006
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Wednesday, January 25, 2006. Why millions are turning off their television sets. I have developed a slight hearing loss, especially when it comes to sounds in the higher register. I have been tested. It is not yet serious. Millions of Americans are in the same category, I was told. Millions. Now before you chalk all this up to the title of my blog and decide I am more curmudgeon than anything else, let me say that I understand every word of nearly every commercial! I also understand every word Charlie Ro...
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The Curmudgeon Manifesto: March 2006
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Wednesday, March 29, 2006. I have a question, Mr. President. If I could somehow smuggle myself into one of those meetings whose invited attendees are friendly to the president, and if I could get called upon to ask Mr. Bush a question, here is my first one. My question, Sir, is: ‘Why did you flip on that position? Posted by Dana at 10:51 PM. Thursday, March 23, 2006. Is the answer a strong third party, or another revolution? I was, therefore, surprised to read the following in Thomas’ column on March 22,...
