Thanksgiving, Holidays, and Telephones

Past Thanksgiving with Daughter Natasha and son-in-law Jason

Good Morning Folks!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you out there who recognize this holiday. I am not sure how this one became such a "heavy hitter" as far as holidays go. It is not a religious one per se, although folks who are of that ilk pray their thankfulness at the grand meal of the day. Another interesting fact about this day is that there were no turkeys as the main feasting item at the first of these meals. When did that bird get the dubious recognition of being the guest of honor? In fact, Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be the nations symbolic bird instead of the eagle. Abe Lincoln legally proclaimed this holiday into existence in 1863.

These days Thanksgiving is seen as the prelude to "Black Friday." This follows the gorging of our bodies with food with gorging ourselves with consumer goods under the guise of gift-giving for the next holiday, Christmas. Interestingly enough, this "getting ready for Christmas" use to follow Thanksgiving, hence, "Black Friday" as it has become known. But there is a big "but," that is, Christmas decorations, and even the music, has creeped in before Thanksgiving now. I went to Wal*Mart the day after Halloween and there were Christmas decorations being put up everywhere as well as carols being played on the speaker system throughout the store. When I queried a young man working there about it, he said, "Well it is the day after Halloween." Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Another one of my major curmudgeonly pet peeves that I have meant to discuss in this blog can be transitioned into from the previous discussion, telephones. Remember back (some of you) to those nostalgic times when phones were kind of special thing. You would make that long distance call to family and friends on holidays. I remember calling home from Alaska while stationed there in the Army in 1964. I had to go to a special telephone center where I paid $50 to speak for 10 minutes to my family in southern California. That $50 out of the 78 I was being paid a month at that time. It was a big deal back then.

Your phone was a device for communication and it resided in your home or office.

As with all things change is inevitable. Now we have phones everywhere and people talking on them in their cars, at the gym, in stores and just about everywhere you can think of . . . I am not opposed to the the new availability and modernization of the communication device.

However, I am opposed to where and how they are being used in many cases.

I do not care to listen to your conversations, even if you had anything to say of substance. Why do people on cell phones have to ruin innocent bystanders peace and quiet with their incessant chatter? Have you noticed that most folks on these mobile devices tend to talk louder than normal? I do not want to hear your boisterous telephonic voice while eating in a restaurant, or at the grocery store, or even in the gym. Actually, I do not want to have to listen to them anywhere.

Much like my recent discussion of the lack of courtesy in other areas of life this behavior can be added to the list.

There is another issue with these more mobile forms of communication and that is their dangerous use while driving. I know we all do it. Last year I had to take a driver's safety course. This followed an photo-electronically detected violation I incurred. One of the things I learned was how dangerous driving is while holding cell phone up to your ear. No, not the possible cancer from the radiation, but the use of one hand on the wheel and the lack of full attention to the road.

Many people are being killed and maimed as the result of this behavior. This may be a positive thing from the point of view of population control but I would hate for it to be one of my family or friends. I always use a "blue tooth" device to free up my hands while driving. For most people this is just an inconvenience.

So much for this blog's curmudgeonly rant.

As for films: I would say that this period leading up to the "holiday glut" has not been all that inspiring for me. Recently I went to see J. Edgar starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Naomi Watts and found the acting superb but the film itself rather boring and long. I do not think that I have seen any others since my last blog. Usually there are some movies that come out on Thanksgiving worth seeing but only the children oriented ones have come to Flagstaff. I have looked forward to seeing Descendants, which has had good reviews, but it was only released at one theater in Scottsdale. That was a major disappointment. At any rate, I may go see Hugo, a fantasy (not usually my thing but what can I do) directed by Martin Scorcese (Sp).

For now, I wish you all a safe and happy holiday!

Adios from chilly but not snowy Flagstaff.

Where Did October Go?

Good Morning Folks,

In many respects it is a good morning. Flagstaff got its first snow of the season this morning. That makes me happy but am sure that is not the case for many here. I do not know why those folks live here if they are so disturbed when we get the white stuff.

As you can see by the picture to your right, I missed getting any shots of the fall colors here in Flag. However, I did drive up to the peaks the other day to get a stark view of the Aspens (my favorite tree) in their naked prelude to winter. You can just see Mt. Humphrey (highest peak in AZ) through the trees.

Somehow, with all my activities in that month, I did miss blogging in October. Isn't it funny how these months get away from you. I did get to southern California, i.e., San Diego County, to see most members of my family who still reside there. One reason for going was to see my grandson Zac play freshman football but alas, he was injured while I was in transit so did not get to watch him play. We did go to his team's game and it was interesting to be on a high school campus after several decades of absence from

same. Boy do the kids look younger at that age than I remember.

I did get to see my youngest grandson, Torin, play Pop Warner football, very interesting!

In the ongoing saga of the silent war with my downstairs neighbors, I finally had to call the police as suggested by the property management company. When I saw the age of the policeman who responded I was sure that they would side with the young males below me. Even though the officers looked very young, I could not have been more wrong. In fact, they were very deferential and understanding. Officer Sandoval even went so far as to say that most of their problems, outside of major crimes, are with college age males. He said that he did not want to be misunderstood. He was not indicting all of them only those in these situations. He said that they had no sense of decorum and lacked simple courtesy. Does this sound familiar? They told me to call if there were continuing problems.

I hated to call in the law. I held out for a couple of weeks but felt somewhat vindicated with the result. The neighbors seem to have taken this particular warning to heart to a degree. By degree I mean their music has not been at offending levels but I can now hear their TV a bit louder. For now, I am letting these things pass. But, I do have Officer Sandoval's card and can call if need be. As I told him, I do not want to be "that guy," the one who is always bothering them. His response was that I was not "that guy," and that I had a right to peace in my own home.

Andy Rooney died last night and it bothers me greatly. Daughter Natasha says that all I talk about is death and the "60s." In this case I do have to mention the passing of another of "my time's" icons. He was the "great curmudgeon," not to mention a wonderful writer, journalist, and astute observer of the 20th and 21st (at least the first decade, or so) century. He was WWII veteran and they are going by the wayside rapidly. I loved his essays on important issues and everyday life on 60 Minutes. He retired from that program only 3 weeks ago at the age of 92. He will be missed.

Many times in these "pages" I have written about memory and its foibles. I recently read a very good novella by Julian Barnes that deals with this matter through the eyes of his protagonist, a what he calls middle-aged man (I say he is older than that). The story centers around his memories of incidents of his younger life with friends and a lover. He comes to find out his reinterpretation of it in his mind throughout the years is very skewed. Again, this was another reminder to me that the way we look at our past is severely edited. The book is The Sense of an Ending.

As for films . . . Yesterday I viewed the revisionist historical conspiracy film Anonymous. It is a well acted (Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave) period piece presenting one of the theories that William Shakespeare did not write the plays attributed to him. Although the story is absurd the presentation of the period, the political conspiracies of the time, and the recreation of London in Elizabethan era is excellent. It is a film for those who love that period. The movie In Time was not that good even though it had an interesting premise.

Probably the best movies that I have seen recently were while I was in San Diego. The Way is a journey of discovery while trekking the mountains of Spain by Martin Sheen's character. Blackthorn is the story of Butch Cassidy in his later years had he and the Sundance Kid escaped their reported deaths. He is an elderly horse rancher in Bolivia who decides to go back to America in 1927 but becomes embroiled in the pursuit of a Spaniard who has stolen from mines in that country. I liked it a lot and that was probably because the title role was played by Sam Sheppard. The Big Year was a moderately funny movie about "birders" starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson. Since I have had numerous contacts with these kind of folks in my role as a ranger I found it interesting.

Another very good film is 50-50. Although I am not a big Seth Rogen fan, he does a good job in this film where his character is not the focus. Gordon-Levit (whose first name escapes me) is the

main character who discovers he has back cancer. It is his exploration of this illness and his responses to it that make this film a good one. Of all the movies I mentioned so far, this is the one I recommend you see.

That's it for now. Hope everyone is doing well and is, at least moderately happy.

Adios