Posted on February 8, 2008
No this isn’t about politics. It’s about one of radio’s most well-known commentators.
Today, February 8, Paul Harvey started one of his radio segments by saying it “isn’t funny, but it is memorable.” He then proceeded to tell of a Realtor® in England who was showing a home, and the prospective buyer asked if there was ample closet space. The Realtor® assured him there was and proceeded to prove the point. But when the Realtor® opened one of the closets, the homeowner was found . . . hanging.
While no specific family names were used, Mr. Harvey was in the wrong to broadcast this vignette. Not only do the owners of the property have to deal with their grief, they must also cope with the possible difficulty of achieving the appropriate dollar value for their home. In the United States real estate world, there are restrictions on passing on this kind of information, because the house is considered to be devalued by prospective buyers, although it didn’t do anything wrong.
Perhaps Mr. Harvey or his staff will say, “Yes, but the papers reported it.” Nevertheless, Mr. Harvey’s broadcast gave broader attention. Perhaps someone will accuse me of the same thing. I accept that criticism. My only defense is that, as a licensed (although not practicing) Realtor® I went to www.paulharvey.com, found the Contact Us screen, and expressed my concerns. Maybe someone else out there wants to do the same.
See more 10 Minutes in category Things to Ponder
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Posted on February 7, 2008
Mitt Romney has quit the race; in doing so, he changes the entire game. Now the Republicans will begin getting in line behind their presumed presidential nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, while the Democrats continue to jockey for delegates. Not that McCain won’t do any jockeying himself, but it looks as if the Republicans will try to get their house in order for the big campaign in the fall, while the Democrats are still deciding who the architect of their house will be.
I’ve heard three reasons given for Romney’s withdrawal. First, there was the delegate count. Even if he won every upcoming primary or caucus, it would not be enough to override McCain’s lead. Second, dropping out now means there will be less energy spent on determining who the Republican candidate will be and more energy spent on railing against the Democratic opposition even before their presidential candidate is chosen. It’s a closing the ranks sort of thing. Finally, Romney is young enough to want to try another run. It would help if he is remembered not as the person who didn’t do well this time around but rather as the person who stepped aside after spending millions of his own dollars.
Given his experience in the business world, I think the truth is Romney knows when to cut his losses. It leaves the really conservative talking heads without a candidate too.
See more 10 Minutes in category 2008 Election
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Posted on February 6, 2008
I normally don’t let the outside world into my bedroom early in the morning, but today was an exception. I didn’t stay up last night to see every state’s results in the massive primary event, and I was interested in the final tally.
So I watched about ten minutes this morning and learned that Super Tuesday wasn’t the defining moment for any candidate, left or right, donkey or elephant, red or blue. And I’m glad. I’m tired of all the campaigning already, especially with about nine months go. However, as long as we subject ourselves to this timetable for presidential elections, I’m glad to see the process take its course and not have any frontrunner locking in one or the other’s party’s nomination.
From Tim Russert and Pat Buchanan to Meredith Viera and Diane Sawyer, television’s commentators were out in full force too. They were dissecting and opining with missionary fervor.
I wonder where newscasters in the mold of Tom Brokaw have gone. His interview technique was about getting the interviewee to talk. It wasn’t about telling the interviewee what he thought. This current batch of “reporters” seems bent of making the most salient observation, the most analytical comment, the smartest quip so that they are the ones remembered instead of the interviewee or the person under scrutiny in absentia.
Meredith Viera, who I thought was the host of a game show, interviewed Hillary Clinton and asked if she was disappointed that she didn’t have the race sewn up. Granted, the senator gave an answer that avoided her real opinion, but that isn’t new. What struck me was that Ms. Viera interrupted Ms. Clinton and said, “This sounds like you are making lemonade out of lemons.”
I would have much preferred to form my own opinion about Ms. Clinton’s response, rather than have some talk show host, try to do it for me.
See more 10 Minutes in category 2008 Election
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Posted on February 1, 2008
Super Tuesday is moving in, and my world will become political again. But for now, I’m basking in little things. Like studying snowflakes and savoring the taste of vodka and truly hearing the sound of silence (Not the song, the actual sound of the lack of sound). Which brings me to a sheet of postage stamps I found earlier today in the back of a desk drawer.
It was ages ago (well, maybe not), when first class stamps were a mere thirty-seven cents. That was when Jim Henson’s Muppet creations graced our postage, and I purchased several sheets of them for their humor value alone. I saved one sheet, just in case it becomes a collector’s item.
I love these stamps. Each has a little quote from the character printed on the stamp itself. For Kermit, the quote is: “I’ve gone from the swamp to a stamp — one sticky situation after another. Time to get out your lily pad and write a letter. Amphibiously yours, Kermit.”
Miss Piggy says: “Moi is thrilled . . . for all those lucky peoplel who will get your letter with moi’s gorgeous face on the envelope. Don’t even think of canceling moi, sweetie. Kissy, kissy, Miss Piggy.”
And so it goes: Fozzie Bear, Sam the Eagle, the Swedish Chef, Beaker, Rowlf and others are all represented.
Which, come to think of it, is rather like the current presidential scene. Everyone wants his or her say, and nobody wants to get canceled. One of the candidates might just become a collector’s item too.
See more 10 Minutes in category Politics
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Posted on January 31, 2008
In the past couple days, Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat John Edwards have dropped from the race for president. Giuliani now endorses John McCain, while — as of this writing — Edwards has not declared his preference between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. If I were he, I wouldn’t reveal my hand yet either.
In the midst of these political maneuverings comes an announcement that really makes me wonder about the future of America. Or at least the future of my interest in baseball.
Yesterday — between the Giuliani and Edwards announcements — came the news that the ceremonial baseball game that is a tradition in Cooperstown, New York, as part of the annual Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremonies will be played this summer for the very last time. After sixty years, the tradition will fade. For me, there is no satisfaction in knowing that one of my favorite teams, the Chicago Cubs, is playing in this year’s contest.
The official word is that “it’s too difficult to schedule this exhibition game because of the complexities of the major league schedule . . .” I find this hard to believe since I imagine those who schedule the season’s games can easily accommodate Baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Personally, I think it’s about money. There is no big wallet for a game where the stadium, Doubleday Field located on Cooperstown’s Main Street, holds less than ten thousand fans. There is no money involved when the game isn’t televised and doesn’t attract major advertising sponsors. So, if my theory is correct, there is no reason to continue the tradition.
I’ve endured Pete Rose’s scandals with gambling. I’ve tolerated unconscionable salaries for atheletes who don’t perform to their potential. I’ve even been patient with the current doping situation. But I don’t think I can stomach giving up an American tradition of the Baseball Hall of Fame Game because it’s “too difficult to schedule.”
Posted on January 30, 2008
This has been a challenging couple weeks in terms of my web site, our home’s security system, our sump pumps, and snow. The old adage about when it rains it pours can be more succinctly put as: “When one thing goes wrong, there’s a snowball effect.”
My web site was the victim of hackers a couple weeks, so while the presidential candidates were slugging it out, I was out of the loop. Then the siren in our house went off and the central office for our security system called regularly to say there was a problem. Believe me, we knew there was a problem. While the technician who came believed it was because the security system and the water softener were on the same circuit, the truth was that the security system was tripped because our sump pump went out. Don’t ask me how this all relates; I’m only repeating what I was told.
Then twelve inches of snow appeared overnight, making me wonder if it was a good idea to leave for Florida for a long weekend. I mean if gremlins are going to make your life difficult, shouldn’t you stay to deal with them?
However, Earl was determined to get to the airport and out of Dodge City as fast as possible. Of all the things that went wrong, he probably hates the snow most. So last weekend we flew to Ft. Myers, Florida for a few days in spite of the homeland gremlins.
And the truth is that my web site is now up and running hacker free, the security system no longer screams at us, and we have gone and returned from our mini-vacation. The snow, however, is still with us. So it’s Earl and Anne 3, gremlins 1.
See more 10 Minutes in category Annoyances, Technology
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Posted on January 19, 2008
Today’s is Nevada’s turn in the caucus spotlight. It’s three in the afternoon, and I can’t take it any more. I’ve watched Fox and CNN for the past hour, and most of what I’m hearing falls into two categories. First, the networks have already declared the winner in the Republican caucuses; second, the commentators are droning on and on about the entrance polls and the exit polls they conducted.
Wait a minute. Wasn’t McCain’s winning in New Hampshire a surprise to almost everyone? And weren’t those darn polls wrong?
I think it’s grossly inappropriate for the networks to declare a winner before most of the ballots are counted. I understand the laws of probability say that a good enough sampling of a population can represent the whole of that population. But come on! This isn’t statistics; it’s politics. In addition, declaring winners before all votes are cast and tallied can influence the outcome.
As for those polls, I got the feeling the networks were trying to justify why they bother with them. Something about how important they are in determining who voted for whom. Well here is my opinion on why they bother. They kill time. When they’re right, it makes the network look credible. This is not the same is actually being credible, however. Somewhere in the delivery of “news” they became part of the process. But let’s not be overwhelmed by their importance whether they’re accurate or inaccurate. Finally, there seems to be an intense desire for every network to be the first to call a winner.
It’s only January 19, and there are 290 days of this to go. I told myself I would be an informed voter this time around, but what I think I’m ending up being is a curmudgeon.
See more 10 Minutes in category 2008 Election, Politics
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Posted on January 17, 2008
The next primaries aren’t until this Saturday, January 19, so I’ve entertained myself with watching the premier of the new season of “American Idol.” A couple moments even brought soft tears to my eyes, which is more than I can say for the political rhetoric.
But “American Idol” isn’t something that consumes one hundred percent of my attention. (Neither do the current political campaigns.) While I watched I started a project that has been waiting in the wings for years; that being culling the thousands of photographs that have ended up in boxes in our guest bedroom. It is my hope to discard the odious out-of-focus ones, organize those that make the cut, and then continue going forward in a planned manner.
Today, many people keep their photos on their computers, the better to manipulate them. I was even succumbing to this idea. That is, until I spent last night sorting through the real blood and bone type of photo, the kind you used to wait a few days to view. I have photos that cover the entire twentieth century, starting with tintypes, moving through Brownie cameras into Polaroids and Kodak moments and then into one-hour finishing. They are all sizes and shapes and color quality.
And each yields a certain moment in time. Sure, digital photos do the same thing, but who ever sees them when they’re stored on one’s personal computer. My photos have physical substance, and I believe they are a better aid to memory.
I found the photo of my eighth grade friends the day we all went to the Highlands for a swim party in 1957. How young we were. Then there was the photo of my Mother and her second husband on their wedding day in 1968. And photos of my children as infants. Photos of family members long deceased and other family members certainly alive. Certainly older too.
This isn’t a project I can finish in a week or even two. But then “American Idol” is going to be around until spring. So I’ve decided that each week I’ll revisit my photo project during “American Idol” and eliminate the unworthy in the spirit of the show.
See more 10 Minutes in category Me/Family, Nostalgia
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Posted on January 15, 2008
Today is the Michigan State Primary, but from what I can see it’s a non-event. The Democratic National Committee put the state committee on notice that it will not recognize any Democratic delegates from Michigan at the summer convention in Denver because the state committee pushed its primary ahead of other states and scheduled it for today.
The result is that two of the front running Democratic candidates not only haven’t visited Michigan, they have also removed their names from the primary ballots. The other candidates are on the ballot, but haven’t made much of an appearance. This is understandable when the votes aren’t going to count anyway.
So Michigan’s Democrats have two choices: either declare themselves as Democrats and vote in a primary that’s a moot point or cross over and declare themselves as Republicans to skew that party’s vote.
I’ve driven by my local polling place twice today and haven’t seen a car in the parking lot either time. Which makes me think voters, regardless of party affiliation, are opting for a third choice: staying home.
This turn of events makes me wonder about the practicality of having ALL states conduct their caucuses or primaries on the same day. In essence that’s what Super Tuesday, February 5, is about as approximately twenty-two states will vote for their candidate of choice on that day. In 2004, only ten states voted on Super Tuesday, so perhaps it’s fair to say others support this point of view.
I see disadvantages: The candidates would likely spend their time and money in the states with the most delegate votes, and states like Iowa and New Hampshire would have to give up their fifteen minutes of quadrennial fame.
But I see advantages: The whole process could be over more quickly. If Super Tuesday were pushed back into May or June, it would be closer in time to the national conventions. Maybe people would become more excited if they didn’t have to endure such lengthy campaigns. And maybe more people would come out to the polls.
It’s all conjecture at this point, but I think it’s worth pursuing.
See more 10 Minutes in category 2008 Election, Politics
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Posted on January 11, 2008
Our road is still pretty much under water; in fact, the local authorities have put a sign up that the road is closed except for local traffic.
But that hasn’t stopped the gawkers from driving by. I know they’re gawkers because I’m familiar with most of the families who live on our road and I recognize most of their automobiles. In addition, most of us who live here have been smart enough the past two days not to venture forth, what with water covering the road, logs lodged in precarious places along it, and no ability to see where the road ends and the ditches on both sides start.
Gawkers, on the other hand, drive by in their pick-up trucks and stare out their windows. (Pick-up trucks have been the only vehicles high enough to navigate the watery road without concern.) Some of them point at various lawns or houses. They go to the end of the road, turn around and drive back out. I feel as if my personal problems are on public display.
Most likely the novelty of a river overrunning its bank will wear off for these gawkers in a couple more days, as the waters recede and only the debris remains. In their place, we should see the mail delivery person and the local newspaper delivery person once again. I for one can’t wait.
