Movies

I don’t go to movies anymore.

They were the best source of my entertainment.

I went to very few plays.

Many scenes are still fresh in my memory, unforgettable ones such as the scene from “Phantom of the Opera” when the Phantom takes off his mask and the chandelier comes down.

People in the audience screamed and a woman fainted.

It was the scariest movie I ever saw.

The “Phantom” was one of the largest running plays on Broadway, a money maker.

Today, at the age of 107, before going to bed, I watch CNN (if I can keep my eyes open).

Morrie

(September 19, 2021)

Hunky-Dory

Betsy Doll, I know you can’t hear me.

You’re too high up.

For 80 years, I was a lucky guy. I made the right choice (50% of married couples didn’t). 

I miss you. I love you.

I’m just “checking in” to let you know everything with me and our family is “hunky-dory.”

(August 12, 2021)

Thoughts – Sculptures

Lying on my comfortable couch in my living room atrium, my mind as usual is filled with thought.

In front of me are some of my sculptures.

Staring at them, I am impressed.

It’s hard for me to believe I made them.

Made from scraps of metal I had in my shop, some copper tubing and sheet metal, they are excellent in detail.

I only exhibited them once.

The gallery owner told me that had my sculptures been for sale, she could have sold them at a “good price.”

I don’t need the money, but it was heartwarming.

(August 16, 2021)

Children Cry For Castoria

I learned early in life the power of advertising.

On almost every blank wall of buildings was painted, in the largest possible letters, “Children Cry For Castoria.”

The signs were ubiquitous. A traveler couldn’t miss them.

And why did children “Cry For Castoria”? 

They had to. They were drug addicts.

Castoria had alcohol in it.

In 1920, the government passed the Volstead Act outlawing liquor, wine and beer.

It ushered into being bootleggers and gang wars.

Speakeasies sprang up.

Every drug store sold “Virginia Dare Tonic” prescribed by doctors.

It was 28% alcohol.

My neighborhood pharmacy made lots of money filling “prescriptions.”

(August 16, 2021)

What a Mess

What a mess.

No one in our government seems to know what to do in Afghanistan.

Like quicksand, we were sucked into it the moment we put one foot into it.

Biden is right – we’ve got to get out.

At great expenditure of men and money, our efforts failed.

Twenty years of trying is enough.

Like it or not, we must go.

Get out…now.

It’s frightening to think of what will happen to the Afghan people who supported us.

They will be targeted by the Taliban.

It is our responsibility to get them and their families out of harm’s way.

While not in the best bargaining position, we have to make a deal with the Taliban.

We are holding some good cards – our air force, which they knowingly can’t fight.

We have “taken out” their leaders and we will, if necessary, again.

They know this.

In one sense, they are as helpless as we are.

Kabul airport is jammed with people trying to leave. It is a chaotic situation. Planes are leaving with people hanging on to them.

Pathetic.

Sad.

It “boggles” my mind to think about it.

We don’t win every battle.

For sure, we must recognize the loss of Afghanistan.

It will become a “dark age” country with “dark age laws.”

Gone will be the gains it has made.

Women will lose all the rights they have gained. 

President Biden says they will have to help themselves, we want “out.”

The Taliban are cruel, heartless rulers. Afghanistan will have medieval laws.

Our country will no longer help them. They are on their own.

My view is that our total withdrawal is a cop out, an abandonment of Afghanistan, giving the Taliban a free hand.

We cannot, as Biden is doing, wash our hands of the problem. It’s not doing what’s right. Where is the United Nations in all of this?

They, too, must put pressure on the Taliban.

Difficult, dangerous situations in the past have been solved.

This one must be, too.

Many innocent lives are at stake.

What the outcome will be, no one knows.

We can only hope for the best.

(August 19, 2021)