Saturday, March 27, 2010

Blog # 133: Eddy's Computer Russian Roulette

– ☯ –



Peace in the Valley?



Silicon Valley's two most powerful CEO's, Steve Jobs of Apple and Eric E. Schmidt of Google, meet very publicly for coffee. Is the feud over?


– ☯ –

Just Who’s Waterloo, Senator DaMint?


Well, after Sunday’s vote on Health Care Reform there’s one thing you can say for Republicans. They speak, and vote, with a single voice, and a completely closed mind. You know, we might have actually believed their sincerity until Senator Jim DaMint of North Carolina spilled the proverbial beans. “If we could just stand together,” he said, “health care could be Barack Obama’s Waterloo.”


Republicans appeared frequently on the balcony overlooking Tea Party protesters Sunday, flashing them messages of encouragement and shamelessly leading them on. Meanwhile Tea Partying losers were cursing, calling out racial invectives, and even spitting on those Members of Congress who weren’t planning to vote the way they wished.


Is this is the kind of decorum that the Republican Party wishes for America? Really? This is the kind of lawlessness that Hitler used to get himself into power in Germany in the 1930’s.


And the weird thing is that Republicans seem to honestly think they are speaking for the majority, and expect to be rewarded at the polls this fall for what is the most hostile behavior towards a President and a piece of legislation, in the history of American politics. And they boastfully claim this coming fall they will take down each and every Democrat who voted for the bill.


Polling showing the public’s falling opinion of the bill happened because the Republicans’ used their favorite tactic, spreading groundless, mindless fear, including lies and misstatements about the bill. This was possible because it was a 1800 page bill, one few had read, a bill filled with unknowns.


However what the GOP seems to have overlooked is that once the bill has become law, and current insurance holders discover that they are not going to be dropped by the insurance companies if they happen to get sick, and people will not be refused coverage because of pre-existing conditions.


Not to mention those tax credits for small businesses to enable them to cover more of their employees, well the Republican claim of continued condemnation by voters certainly becomes a far-fetched notion. As we write polling against the bill is dropping noticeably, and the public’s approval is now running ahead of disapproval.


Boehner/McConnell shrieked their Chicken Little line, “pass health care reform and the sky is going to fall” incessantly in their highest pitched, most grating voices. Now that health care reform is no longer a scary unknown but rather the law of the land, striking fear of the unknown will no longer work. And at 11:15 a.m. March 23, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the health care reform bill into law and guess what? The sky didn’t fall.


Boehner/McConnell were wrong, whistling Dixie the entire time, serving the GOP interests in trying to make Obama fail, rather than serving the interests of the people back home that they were elected to serve. And the interesting question to me is, how broad a spectrum of the American voter will recognize this obvious fact, and rather than vilifying the Democratic signers, instead reward them next fall with their votes.


The smiles in that room spoke volumes. Mostly it showed how much better it is to be on the winning side, rather than the losing side. Republicans seem to be taking what leadership they are going to allow from the likes of those talk show loonies, Limbaugh/Beck, and the far right. A sorry situation, to be sure, unless of course you are a Democrat. Then its full sails ahead with a strong wind blowing at your back.


And Senator DaMint, a belated thanks to you for coming clean about this Republican tactic. You committed a real service with your Waterloo remark, for it unmasked the Republican strategy for what it was. Why, if not for you, we might have thought the Republican Minority was speaking with one voice on principle, instead of opposing Obama in the fond hope of bringing him down. §


– ☯ –




After several weeks of seeing President Barack Obama tense in the pursuit of health care reform, and incidentally, in getting something concrete done during his first term as president, we thought it a nice contrast to see him relaxing with his family.


People say that 4chan.org publishes only sexy photos and racist comments, but in addition to the usual inflammatory ones of the President occasionally they publish one portraying his humanity. This one, which must have been taken during his vacation last year, is a wonderful example of his humanity. Speaking of family values, how about this valuation of his family.




Disturbing News from Across the Pond

From across the pond comes news from a public health expert that in sections where Facebook registration is highest have seen an increase in cases of syphilis among young women,. Telegraph.co.uk reports:


Facebook has contributed to a resurgence in the sexually-transmitted disease syphilis, a health expert has claimed. Cases have increased fourfold in Sunderland, Durham and Teesside, the areas of Britain where Facebook is most popular.


Professor Peter Kelly, director of public health in Teesside, claimed staff had found a link between social networking sites and the spread of the bacteria, especially among young women. He said: “Syphilis is a devastating disease. Anyone who has unprotected sex with casual partners is at high risk.


"There has been a fourfold increase in the number of syphilis cases detected with more young women being affected. I don't get the names of people affected, just figures, and I saw that several of the people had met sexual partners through these sites. Social networking sites are making it easier for people to meet up for casual sex."


Perhaps it is time to begin enrolling English young ladies with a starter kit of condoms and failing that a full course of penicillin.


– ☯ –

Breath Holding on the Part of Techies

Much of the tech world is holding its breath as we await the April 3rd date when Apple’s iPad computer will go on sale. Will the Slate-like computers really reshape the personal computer. You can bet that Apple is not going to be alone in the field of selling this new and radical type of computer. Several other companies, most notably Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Asus, among others, have announced that they will have Slate computers running Windows 7 on the market.


Techies will always prefer computers with keyboards and mice that you can use to communicate with the machine. But we predict that most people, who neither know nor care about a computer’s inner workings, will take to this new type of machine like a fish to water, providing the machine can access it’s applications and the web as speedily as does the iPhone, and all indications so far point to the iPad being even speedier than the iPhone.


The iPad will have bluetooth wireless connectivity to optional keyboards and mice, for those who just have to have such connectivity. But to the bulk of its users, who will be using it as an e-reader of books or magazines, or using it as a game machine, or using it to watch movies and tv shows, the finger signals, plus occasionally accessing the virtual keyboard, should be enough.§


– ☯ –

How Apple Care Let Me Down


My involvement with Apple Computers dates back to December 1990 when I got my first Macintosh Classic, a black & white computer with all of 4 megabytes of Ram. I have had Apple computers ever since, through Apple’s days of eminent collapse and sale, right up to the return of Steve Jobs and the subsequent righting of the Good Ship Apple. It was one Macintosh after another during the nineties, until finally the fruits of Steve Jobs return gave us the very first iMac. And from then on it has been one small i branded product after another, and it brought on Apple’s subsequent rise as no longer just a computer company, but as an electronics company with its iPod, iPhones, and soon to be released, iPads.


I suffered through countless hours of Windows types complaining about how overpriced Apple’s products were compared to those slovenly marvels which ran Windows. Then one day, about two years ago, the Mac OS suddenly roared past Windows, and many of those same nerds suddenly found that part for part, the Macintosh was every bit as well priced as its Windows counterpart, but more importantly, having the hardware made by the same company which designed its software, now that was electronics you could believe in. And on top of this, modern Macs can boot into Windows, and run Windows software even better than Windows machines do.


I agree with Fortune Magazine that Steve Jobs is the CEO of the decade. No other CEO has come anywhere near creating the intuitive products that he has, and then dreaming up the completely unique line of stores in which to sell his products.


However, I do have a bone to pick with Apple. My local (Memorial City) Apple Store genius done me wrong. I hope you’ll forgive me taking up your time in telling you about it. Why am I devoting time on my blog to tell my story? I have the fond hope that one of you who read it will send a link to my tale to: sjobs@apple.com. Preposterous, perhaps. But Jobs does read, and occasionally answers emails. And it would be nice if he or someone at Apple read my story, for I was cheated out of my Apple Care because of roaches in my computer. The facts follow:


On January 10, 2007 I bought an iMac computer. This was a far cry from the iMac I had bought at the end of the 90’s, but it was an example of evolution at its finest. Immediately before the iMac my computer had been an Apple Cube, the final step in the line of power pc computers.


My iMac came with OS 10.4 Tiger, and it runs on it to this day. However, in December of 2009 suddenly, although I leave it on in sleep mode 24/7, on this one day it turned itself off. I reported it to Apple Care, which was still in effect but was due to expire on Jan. 10, 2010. I was given an Apple Care case # 144222663. However, I thought I had found the trouble, a space heater which was plugged in on the same circuit as my computer equipment. I moved the space heater, and the problem didn’t return for awhile.


Then one day, a week before my Apple Care was due to run out, the computer did it again. I phoned Apple Care and they made an appointment for me at the closest Apple Store, in Memorial City Mall. I brought the machine into the store at the appointed time, and it was duly written up, and I left.


I got a call two days later to come pick up the computer. It seems it has roaches. Fellas, I hate to disillusion you but most every piece of electronic equipment in Houston has roaches. It’s a damn shame, but if roaches somehow negatively affected people, all of Houston, Texas would have been long ago been dead.


Here’s what the young Apple Store Genius told me. I should open up the iMac computer with a credit card, spray the insides with liquid air to get rid of the roaches, then bring the machine back in and they would replace the power supply, which had been diagnosed as the problem. He gave me a 10 page book with complete instructions on opening up an iMac.


Look, my friend. I was 83 years old, and have never opened up a computer in my life. I would sooner open up one of my children, yeah right! There are two young men in my household who would have the nerve to open it, but neither reads Spanish much less English, leaving me little confidence in their skills.

I made two attempts to reach out to professionals for help. I called a nearby computer store called the Floppy Wizard, asking if they would open up the machine for me, letting me spray the roaches out, after which they would close it up for me. The young man asked the store’s owner, who declined, saying “I wouldn’t touch an Apple Computer with a ten foot pole.” Gee, now there is a man who can truly assess quality, NOT!


I made one more call, to MicroCenter in Houston, which is an authorized Apple dealer. I made the same proposition, that they open up the computer, I would spray the insides, then they close it once again. The lady I talked to told me she had to ask her supervisor, who came in at noon, and she would get back to me. Unfortunately, she didn’t get back to me. I gave up and let the January 10 date go by without doing anything.


One day last week the machine turned itself off once again. This time I unplugged it from the device it was plugged into and ran it directly to the wall’s 3point plug. That has worked until Tuesday of this week when I awoke to find the machine had turned itself off again. Plugging and unplugging it several times finally saw it start up again. But obviously it needs that new power supply the Apple Care technician had recommended.


And that, my friends, is my predicament. My blessed computer seriously needs a new power supply. One of these days it is going to be off, and not turn on as I plug and unplug it. I would buy a new iMac in a minute if I had the money, but alas what little money I have left will no way pay for a new machine. I’m not sure I can afford a new power supply even, but I will have no choice there for I spend six to eight hours a day at my computer, reading the Houston Chronicle, the Washington Post, the N.Y. Times, and the Daily Beast, among other websites. And of course for four or five hours a day I write my little blog. My iMac is for all practical purposes my window into the world.


What do you think? Should I do nothing and when it finally dies just throw in the towel? Should I take my computer to Micro Center, and hope they have lived in Houston long enough to accept roaches as a fact of life here. Or should I go into my very limited resources and buy a new iMac? Would some kind soul email Steve Jobs and give him a link to this blog: http://www.littlleeddy.blogspot.com/, and ask him what he would do? And include my email: eddybad@gmail.com so that if by some miracle he wanted to, he could get back to me.


Well, Little Eddy get real. No reader is going to care enough to email your url to Steve Jobs, and even if someone did, no way would he take the time to read it. Although, I do think that if he did somehow read the story, he would come up with some solution to make it right. That’s just the way Apple operates these days. And so, after reading my little story you will know that if suddenly my blog stays in one place week after week, you will know what happened. My little iMac that could for so many years, suddenly couldn’t.


– ☯ –

Teen Camp’s First Trip, Tumbledown


In this week’s camp memories I would like to tell you about one of my favorite Blueberry Cove trips, the trip to Tumbledown Mountain. Tumbledown was a regularly scheduled trip for the children’s camp, and when I began to plan the Teen Camp’s trips, I made a trip there the first trip, the warm up trip for the teen camp’s summer of trips.


There was a field for camping near the mountain, complete with a fast running mountain brook with a small pool perfect for washing up after a hot, sweaty day’s climb. The climb itself was just about right for an introductory trip for teen campers. The first part of the walk was through woods, which was usually cool and shaded.


The trip usually lasted three days. The first day we would set up camp in the camp grounds, and explore the brook. And I would usually move rocks around so that the pool became deep enough for waist deep standing.


The second day was the day for the climb. The truck would take us around to where the climb would begin. Lunch was packed in day packs, and would be eaten at the top of the mountain. The trail led through the woods, and the shade of the trees kept the climb cool and comfortable.


Every now and then we would pass an opening which would give us a good view of the surrounding countryside. It was at such natural viewing spots where we would take our breaks and enjoy the view. And when you got beyond the trees the trail led to a short rocky dried up stream, which gave you the feel of rock climbing but which was easily within everyone’s skill level.


Once on the top of the mountain a short walk brought you around to a large sized pond lying quite near the summit. Usually the top of the mountain was deserted which made a skinny dip the perfect conclusion of a sweaty climb, and getting one’s self comfortable again for lunch atop the mountain, followed by the climb back down.


For the down journey there were two ways you could go. Climbing aficionados went back down the way we came up, which was a tad scary, but not really dangerous. The second way went down what was mostly along a road, not really a very exciting trip down, but it did have nice views of the countryside and it passed a brook with a swimmable pool at one point, and those who chose that exit were able to get in a separate skinnydip to wash off any remaining dirt and sweat. Being an unfailing fan of skinnydipping I usually chose the road for my descent. And there were usually campers who preferred the easier way down to make up a nice group.


One of my favorite memories of Tumbledown featured a little drama between two eleven year old girls who happened to be bunkmates and who were very competitive with one another. I have told this story before, but it is such a dominant part of my memories of Tumbledown that I can’t resist telling it once again.


When our little group of ne'er-do-wells reached the spot where we left the road for the stream, as usual I was the first one in. Setting an example and all that. There were three girls and two boys along in our group. And it began to look like I was going to be the only one going in.


Elizabeth was 12 and she was a no show in the swim department on this day, as were the two boys. However it soon became clear that Gretchen, one of the 11 year olds had a real itch for the cold water on that hot day. The only thing was, she didn’t want to be the only girl to go swimming naked. And so she took off her jeans, but went into the water dressed in teeshirt and panties.


Her bunkmate, Crystal, it turned out had a bathing suit hidden in a waist belt, the kind of waist belt you usually carry money in. Smugly Crystal went behind some trees to change into her suit, and was back in no time and swimming freely.


Gretchen, who was the more rounded of the two, had nothing to swim in other than her panties and her tee-shirt. And no matter how hard she tried swimming in them the two garments just would not let her move freely. They caught water and ballooned out, slowing her pace to a standstill. The three other kids, two boys and Elizabeth, were sitting on rocks fully dressed, taking in the show that the three of us were putting on.

Gretchen was determined to get a chance to swim, but she was equally determined to not to be the only girl to swim naked. And so she began her campaign by first trying to talk Crystal out of her top. This wouldn’t seem on the surface to be that much of a deal, for Crystal had not yet begun to develop, and her nipples were virtually indistinguishable from those of a boy. Gretchen herself was much further along, sporting ripening nipples sitting on noticeable mounds of flesh.


Even so Crystal did not give in easily, but made Gretchen go on for close to ten minutes about why she should take her top off so they both could swim freely. It was a fascinating display of one person trying to persuade another, with Gretchen having an answer for every Crystal objection until finally Crystal gave in, and turning her back, removed her top, throwing it up on the shore. Of course when she turned back around she could have been a boy for all the development her chest showed, although perhaps that might have been the source of her reticence.


Gretchen then removed her own baggy tee-shirt, and she tried a few strokes but her swimming was still frustrated because the water got into her panties and they ballooned, attempting to pull themselves off her with each stroke, which made swimming progress still impossible. By this time all of us not involved were thoroughly into the game. Would Gretchen be able to talk Crystal out of her bottoms? Inquiring minds wanted to know!


After one more try, Gretchen gave up trying to swim and turned to watch Crystal knife through the water. When she returned from a lazy paddle across the 9 feet Gretchen began again. “I can’t swim worth beans,” she muttered, as if to no one in particular, but we all knew it was directed to Crystal. Crystal shrugged, and said she should’ve brought one in a suit-belt like she had. “But I didn’t,” Gretchen whined, “and it’s too late now.” Crystal nodded just as though she was feeling her pain.


“Of course,” Gretchen went on, “there’s one way I could get a good swim out of this.”


“Yeah, how?” asked Crystal, pretending not to have the faintest idea.


“If you would just take your bottoms off, I could take my panties off too, then I wouldn’t be the only one naked.”


Crystal made a gesture towards me, “You wouldn’t be the only one naked anyway. Ed’s naked.”


“Ed doesn’t count,” said Gretchen, “he’s a boy.”


“He’s a man,” corrected Crystal.


“Duh! Whatever?” said Gretchen. “I’d still be the only girl.”


Crystal looked at Gretchen for a long moment, you could almost hear the wheels turning in her head. All four of us were hanging onto their every word. Not that it really mattered, we all knew how both sexes were gendered. And after all, the showers back in camp were outdoors, so at one time or other everybody was treated to the sight of the other sex naked.


But there was a real honest-to-god human drama unfolding before our ears and eyes, and every one of us was waiting breathlessly to see what the outcome would be. The two continued to eye one another unblinkingly.


Finally, after what must have been at least a three minute wait, Crystal nodded slightly, smiled, and said, “OKay.” And this time she didn’t bother to turn around, but slid her bottoms down while facing us. Gretchen slipped her baggy panties off right along with her. They both stood for a moment, as if each was studying the other’s feminine attributes.


Then in a bound they were off, swimming the length of that pool and back, again and yet again. They were like two golden seals barreling through that mountain stream, diving over and under the surface as they flashed by, leaving streams of bubbles trailing in their wake.


Earlier in this drama I had climbed a large rock covered with moss down which water was streaming into the pool. I had been trying to inspire the others to go in, and it had been a fun slide, but at the time no others had been inspired to follow suit.


However, to our eternal surprise, at one point Crystal abandoned her streaking with Gretchen long enough to climb to the top of that moss-covered rock, and then seating herself on the moss, she opened her legs and took off, proceeding to slide down the rock and into the pool below with a splash. Once down she tried to talk Gretchen into doing likewise, but though it obviously had been fun for Crystal, for whatever reason Gretchen would not give it a try.


A few minutes more of zipping through that mountain stream, and the two girls suddenly seemed to run out of steam, stopping all forward motion, and a minute later they were seated in the bright sunlight drying off, in full sight and in deep conversation with the three non swimmers. All three of the non swimmers seemed to have a continuing interest in the two bare 11 year olds. In fact they had a longer conversation with those non swimmers than they had probably had the entire summer, and both had been dry for well over 10 minutes when at almost the same moment they seemed to suddenly take note of their lack of dress, shrugged, and got up to find their clothes and once again get themselves dressed. Shortly thereafter when we finished our climb down the mountain, there were three of us who were refreshed. §

– ☯ –

And so we come to the end of yet another Little Eddy Blog. This edition turns out to be a meaningful one, for if we fail to appear with a new edition next week, now you’ll know why. My iMac fell asleep and failed to wake up. Hopefully that won’t happen for awhile, though, so let’s all keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.


We would like to leave you this week with a link to Paul Krugman's latest N.Y. Times blog which can be found here! He remarks how In the short run, Republican extremism may be good for Democrats, to the extent that it prompts a voter backlash. But in the long run, it’s a very bad thing for America. We need to have two reasonable, rational parties in this country. And right now we don’t.


A thought for this week. Loons are a majestic sight when seen in the wild, swimming in circles on a moonlit lake. Only their wild cry gives their mental state away. On the radio loons lack the majesty, but manage to retain their looniness.


Join us again anytime next week, my iMac willing, for yet another edition of Little Eddy’s Blog. We post on Saturday mornings at around 8 am CDT. And we stay in place until the following Saturday. Meantime have a good week. And we’ll see you next week.


The Real Little Eddy § eddybad@gmail.com





Saturday, March 20, 2010

Blog # 132: The Planets Line Up

– ☯ –




Ballooning It!



– ☯ –

Republication Opposition Arrogant


Don’t you just love the unmitigated arrogance of Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner and their unswerving opposition to the president’s health care reform bill. I mean their continually referring to the bill as a government takeover of one sixth of the economy, where it is really has the government serving as a policeman of health care providers, making sure that insurers provide the service their customers have paid for rather than arbitrarily dropping them when they get sick.


And selling coverage to all regardless of pre-existing conditions. I mean, all other insurance companies are regulated by states, which force them to make good on services they promised. Why shouldn’t health care insurance companies have some kind of regulation? There’s a lot that isn’t in the bill that should be, but it is a start, and over time it does reduce the deficit.


There’s a lot more to the plan too, but what it is not is what the Republican leaders claim it is. The measure actually provides over a billion dollars in debt reduction over ten years, a fact which Republicans choose to ignore. Will the legislation prove the Waterloo to its Democratic supporters as they run for reelection next fall? Or will the voting public realize once it becomes law that it is not the draconian disaster hapless Republicans holding hands as they encircled their wagons in the halls of Congress, have been portraying it.


And for the Republican Party, whose arrogance in running up more unpaid debt spending than all previous administrations combined (two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, seniors prescription drug relief, plus Katrina cleanup, all on unpaid credit) for them to claim that Obama and the Democrats are tax and spend, that does ring a bit hollow, and takes arrogance and fantasy to entirely new heights.


Good luck in your vote counting Democrats. Use your voter given majority in the service of people for a change, not of the special interests. Prove once and for all that you can govern. Once again Good luck Democrats. This is your weekend to Do Good!§


– ☯ –

Live, from New York, it’s . . .


well, you know what it is


You know that Saturday Night Live has reached a brand new pinnacle of success when a comedian of the stature of Jerry Seinfeld will appear on the program unannounced. Seinfeld appeared on last Saturday’s SNL to join regular Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers in a roasting of former congressman Eric Massa in a skit which they entitled, “Really? In case you missed it, here it is.







Saturday Night Live has quietly become the longest running comedy and variety show on television. It was born October 10, 1975 and in October of this year it will be thirty-five years old. The first episode was hosted by George Carlin with musical guests Janis Ian and Billy Preston, and comedy by Andy Kaufman. How do I know this? I have DVD’s of its first three years.


SNL and I go a long ways back together. I moved back to Houston the year it began, and I used to have my sons on weekends as they were growing up, and on Saturday nights guess what we never failed to watch. Channel two in Houston had SNL at 1030, and followed that at midnight with Monty Python’s Flying Circus. We in Houston were truly blessed.


The second SNL was hosted by Paul Simon, it was the year of “Still Crazy After All These Years” and “40 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” and the program became a mini concert as among his guests was Art Garfunkel and together they had a Simon and Garfinkel reunion, in addition to musical guests Randy Newman and Phoebe Snow.


By it’s third week SNL began to get into shape. The show opened with Chevy Chase taking a fall, capping it with his trademarked, “Live, from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” Rob Reiner was the host, and he was joined by his wife Penny Marshall. And the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players (Ackroyd, Belushi, Chase, Curtin, Morris, Newman, and Radnor) finally got a chance to let their talent show through. Plus on hand again was Andy Kaufman, and my personal favorites, Jim Henson’s only slightly twisted Muppets, with that delightful Great FaVah, built in the image of Nelson Rockefeller.


However it took until its third season before the show could actually call itself Saturday Night Live. ABC had used the title for a variety show, modeled after the historic Ed Sullivan Show, and hosted by another sports personality, Howard Cossell. That show debuted the same year, but ahead of SNL. It lacked originality, however, and only lasted two years, after which SNL was able to claim its true title.


The first five years of SNL are available on DVD as listed in Amazon.com, and if you’re into comedy in our opinion there isn’t a better use for your DVD dollars. Used DVD’s range from $11 to around $20, depending on the year.

Featured early on was the comedy team of Al Franken and Tom Davis. They were both listed as SNL writers, and they did recurring bits in the early years. Al Franken, now Senator Al Franken, was caught recently doing a YouTube video trying to interest Google in bringing high speed internet to his home state.


Last week as we were perusing Techmeme and getting our technology fix Sunday morning, we ran across a video which we just couldn’t help but want to include in our last week’s blog. It is a YouTube video featuring Senator Al Franken, who used to do bits on SNL as, among other things, the Duluth Answer Man. He tells of how when Google came along it did the job so much better, it freed him up to run for the U. S. Senate. He made the YouTube as a plug for the twin cities to get some of Google’s fiber optic high speed internet. We attempted to add it to last week’s blog, but we failed. And so now, a week later, we finally get to present it in our blog.§







– ☯ –

We searched far and wide for a photograph that would actually terrify you uncontrollably, send you screaming through nightmare after nightmare. Thanks to 4chan.org we happily present the following:

Our SCARE of the Week





– ☯ –

Continuing Our Recall of Teen Camp


In last week’s blog I began for the first time really to write about what I consider my most substantial contribution to children’s camping in my 22 years of working in camps. Blueberry Cove set their children adrift at age 11, just as they were entering puberty. A lot of Blueberry Covers went on to Camp Killooleet in Hancock, Vt. which was where I first heard of Blueberry Cove. I remember that ex Blueberry Covers got a special look about them as the recalled their time there. And so I came over to BBC in 1963, delighted to learn that Henry and Bessie were okay with trips, and groups had up to three in a summer.


When Ann Goldsmith, Bob Hellerson, and I took over the running of the camp after the Haskells retired, I began thinking in terms of establishing a program for teenagers. For more information on my proposal I refer you to last week’s post. This week I would like to continue delving into some of my memories of teen camp.


Average enrollment was15 boys and girls, with 4 counselors, including me. On the first day campers were introduced to our storage building, which we nicknamed the “Moxie,” after that New England soft drink which had a medicinal taste about it and which our builders had drunk incessantly during its construction. It was a well built building which had no facilities for people, it was for the storage of our food, with a freezer, a refrigerator, and shelves for dried food, and a water heater to heat the two outdoor shower heads which were out back.


Putting First Things First

First off we showed the campers the wood stored under the building, which was there for their use to build their living quarters for the summer. Hammers and nails and saws and an ordinary level device pretty much completed our construction needs.


Campers chose their tree or trees, pulled out their lumber and trudged off to begin construction of what would be their summer home. Most of the campers picked a partner and worked in teams of two. A few of the boys stayed independent, however, and these usually built their treehouse high up in the trees, hammering extra boards to serve as access ladders.


We were careful to make sure that platforms over four feet from the ground had side boards to prevent rolling out during sleep. The counselors pitched in helping the campers as requested. Several days before the campers arrival the counselors had picked out their tree and built their own quarters for the summer. The more secure campers picked locations as far from the counselors as possible. Those less secure picked out a site near one of the counselors.


When lunchtime rolled around we had sandwich makings for that first meal. However, we assembled down where the fire pit was so that campers could be introduced to the place where our meals would be prepared and served. During lunch we gave out assignments for menu planning, kitchen duty, and meal cleanup. We worked out lists for this which we posted on a nearby tree. Since there was hot water available at an outdoor sink near the showers the cleanup crew would carry the kitchen utensils there for cleanup. On trips the cleanup would have to be in fresh water streams, but there was no need to rough it here in camp.


Many of the platforms were completed by lunchtime, and those that weren’t found others pitching in to help finish them off following lunch. You would think that there would be a sameness about the platforms, but that was not the case. A great deal of individuality went into the campers’ shelters. We didn’t do anything to encourage this, there were no awards for most ingenious platform, or anything like that. But it just happened naturally. Some platforms had wooden roofs, some merely had tarps for a roof.





We pause our Teen Camp memories long enough to honor one of the most remarkable scientists of the 20th Century, Linus Pauling, whose work in chemistry and physics, and whose work with scientists opposing the use of atomic weapons, won him two Nobel Prizes, including the Nobel Peace Prize. We celebrate Dr. Pauling as we follow his prescription of massive amounts of vitamin C in the treatment of a cold and sore throat. The inventor of the Linux kernal, Linus Torvalds, was named for Dr. Pauling.§


After Platforms Finished It was Meeting Time

When the platforms were complete we had a meeting down by the harbor where we discussed the activities we would have. We had our own teen camp boat, a large fishing skiff, which we could use for rowing and fishing activities. There was paper and drawing materials stored in the Moxie. Exploratory trips along the peninsular would be popular, although there wasn’t time that first day. We could have a swim anytime the tide was in, providing the young kids camp wasn’t having their swim period. It would also be possible to take short trips in our converted school bus to nearby locations on occasions.


We had hotdogs cooked on the open fire for dinner that first night, follow by Smores, which were toasted marshmallows and a chocolate bar sandwiched on Graham crackers. Afterwards as it got dark we had a skinnydip followed by a sing and storytelling around the campfire, and some of the nervier among the campers introduced themselves and told us a thing or two about them. We counselors did the same. By its end everyone was pretty tired from that first day out, and we retired for the night.


The first week’s menu was planned, and the food stocked by two counselors, but immediately we began to involve the campers in the second week’s menu planning. Campers would also be involved in planning the menu for trips. Menu planning was voluntary, we didn’t think forcing someone into it would produce very good results. However, a counselor worked with the menu planners for the entire summer. And after a few days of planning, planners would get fresh ideas of what campers wanted to eat by querying other campers.


Trying to Isolate Campers My Biggest Mistake

Most of our campers had come through the young children’s camp, and I feel my biggest mistake in conceiving Teen Camp was trying to artificially separate Teen Camp from the young children’s camp. For instance I blazed a trail through the woods to the parking lot, where our School Bus sat with the other camp cars, rather than have campers cut through the camp in a more direct path.


The idea was to get the campers used to following a marked trail, as well as keeping them out of the children’s camp. In hindsight though it gave campers practice in following a blazed trail, it was probably impractical. Of course campers who had come through the children’s camp wanted to have contact with the children’s camp. Why wouldn’t they? Their childhood was branded by their experiences in the camp.


Of course more than one of them might want to lord it over the younger kids rubbing their new status in their faces. But that was natural and to be expected. I should have worked with A.G. and other counselors at the young children’s camp to have a few events we could share with them. We did do a sing with them as I remember, but there could have been much more we could have done. And so much for pretending the children’s camp wasn’t there by forcing teen campers to take the woods trail to the parking lot.


Our First Morning’s Activities

Our first full morning of activities occurred on day two. Several campers elected to go boating and fishing. A smaller group wanted to take drawing pads and draw the campsite for their friends and parents. Two of the campers wanted to sit with me and plan the summer’s activities. All in all, it was a busy and productive morning.


The day was broken up like this. Morning activities lasted from the end of breakfast cleanup, until around noon when it was time for the kitchen group to begin to prepare lunch. We held a counsel after breakfast cleanup to assign the morning’s activities.


Lunch usually happened on or around 12:30. After lunch it was decreed that there would be time for reflection in our respective living quarters. We didn’t call it rest hour, although that was what it was. After rest and depending on the tide we had swimming at the camps dock area if it wasn’t being used by the camp, and if it was we swam at our own part of the harbor, with a counselor watching over the proceedings in the boat. After swim there was a period of free time.


˜ † ˜

Laying Out Usage of My Sound System

Music has always been very much an important part of my life. And right up at the top among my possessions was my sound system and lp record collection. I spent fall, winter, and spring in those days living in Brooklyn. Because there was no one in the city to look out for my interests during my summer in camp, I was forced to bring up my sound system and record collection to camp, or else lose it to thieves. Knowing how teenagers love music it seemed criminal not to allow campers access to the system. I decided to hook it up the system to one of the electrical outlets in the Moxie.


One of my earliest occupations had been as a disc jockey at 2 FM stations in Houston. However, no one, least of all me, wanted to simply turn over use of the equipment without restriction, having it blare music indiscrimately. So I made a few rules for it. Music would only be allowed at the free time period in late afternoon, and then only two or three times a week.


And only one person at a time would have access to the equipment, and they were directed to work out well thought out programs using the music. They would get acquainted with the music playing it in low volume with the door closed. After they were familiar with the music they would play the music through the large speakers outside of the building. In other words they weren’t to play the music haphazardly, but instead put together well thought out programs. Records I had at the time included the Beatles, Elton John. James Taylor, Pink Floyd, and others of what in those days were considered serious contemporary music, the kind Rock FM stations of the day were playing. Needless to say, each year we did the program the Beatles ended up being the most popular and most played artists.


˜ † ˜

Unexpected Consequences of Outdoor Living

There are completely unexpected problems which can come up when suddenly you begin living completely out of doors. We were faced with a minimum of protection against the outdoor’s number one predator, mosquitoes. One of our first problems during one summer was a twelve year old girl whose body seemed to be especially attractive to mosquitoes, and whose torso had become replete with bites. She had scratched the bites absently and with frequency, which was allowing infection to creep in. By the time she brought it to our attention her condition was rated serious.


Upon noticing her situation we sent her straight to the camp nurse, and the nurse in turn sent the camp’s buyer, a long time counselor named Cuz, into town to find something with which to relieve the girl’s bites. Cuz came back from the local feed store proudly holding a product called Bovine Teat Balm. It seems that cows get covered with insect bites on their mammary glands, probably because drops of milk splash there and that part of a cow’s body is not protected by fur. This balm was supposed to have both healing and antiseptic powers, which sounded perfect for our mosquito ravaged camper.


The balm arrived in the nick of time. We gave her the balm at her shower period. The girl did seem to have bites in the most intimate of places, and many of them she had scratched just to the edge of infection. Her bunkmate was encouraged to apply the balm to those places where she couldn’t see the bites herself.


And hats off to Cuz, the balm seemed to have worked wonders. After only a few days her sores had healed completely. She was a high spirited girl who didn’t let her excessive bites get her down at their height, and once they were cured she was quick to be one of our more stable campers.


And so after that in spite of its intrusive odor the girl learned the inherent sensibility of using an insect repellant. And fortunately none of the other campers were so ravaged by mosquitoes, and so after praising its qualities on high we passed the remaining BTB back to the camp nurse for use as needed in the young children’s camp.


Next week I’ll tell you more about Teen Camp, especially focusing like a laser on those trips which fleshed out our summer of adventure.


– ☯ –

And so we reach the end of yet another Little Eddy Blog. It’s not many weeks where we can sound of about health care, Saturday Night Live, and Teen Camp all in one big blog. But this week the planets were aligned perfectly, and we were able to double and triple dip, as it were.


We’re here each week with our rants and raves, and with part of our memory focussed on the New England Children’s Camps where we spent the most engaging 22 years of our life. We hope you can join us again, anytime next week, for the next episode of our blog. Meantime, hang in there and keep smiling, no matter how lousy a hand you’re drawn. Bye, bye.


The Real Little Eddy § eddybad@gmail.com
Blog # 132:
– ☯ –




Ballooning It!



– ☯ –

Republication Opposition Arrogant


Don’t you just love the unmitigated arrogance of Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner and their unswerving opposition to the president’s health care reform bill. I mean their continually referring to the bill as a government takeover of one sixth of the economy, where it is really has the government serving as a policeman of health care providers, making sure that insurers provide the service their customers have paid for rather than arbitrarily dropping them when they get sick.


And selling coverage to all regardless of pre-existing conditions. I mean, all other insurance companies are regulated by states, which force them to make good on services they promised. Why shouldn’t health care insurance companies have some kind of regulation? There’s a lot that isn’t in the bill that should be, but it is a start, and over time it does reduce the deficit.


There’s a lot more to the plan too, but what it is not is what the Republican leaders claim it is. The measure actually provides over a billion dollars in debt reduction over ten years, a fact which Republicans choose to ignore. Will the legislation prove the Waterloo to its Democratic supporters as they run for reelection next fall? Or will the voting public realize once it becomes law that it is not the draconian disaster hapless Republicans holding hands as they encircled their wagons in the halls of Congress, have been portraying it.


And for the Republican Party, whose arrogance in running up more unpaid debt spending than all previous administrations combined (two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, seniors prescription drug relief, plus Katrina cleanup, all on unpaid credit) for them to claim that Obama and the Democrats are tax and spend, that does ring a bit hollow, and takes arrogance and fantasy to entirely new heights.


Good luck in your vote counting Democrats. Use your voter given majority in the service of people for a change, not of the special interests. Prove once and for all that you can govern. Once again Good luck Democrats. This is your weekend to Do Good!§


– ☯ –

Live, from New York, it’s . . .


well, you know what it is


You know that Saturday Night Live has reached a brand new pinnacle of success when a comedian of the stature of Jerry Seinfeld will appear on the program unannounced. Seinfeld appeared on last Saturday’s SNL to join regular Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers in a roasting of former congressman Eric Massa in a skit which they entitled, “Really? In case you missed it, here it is.







Saturday Night Live has quietly become the longest running comedy and variety show on television. It was born October 10, 1975 and in October of this year it will be thirty-five years old. The first episode was hosted by George Carlin with musical guests Janis Ian and Billy Preston, and comedy by Andy Kaufman. How do I know this? I have DVD’s of its first three years.


SNL and I go a long ways back together. I moved back to Houston the year it began, and I used to have my sons on weekends as they were growing up, and on Saturday nights guess what we never failed to watch. Channel two in Houston had SNL at 1030, and followed that at midnight with Monty Python’s Flying Circus. We in Houston were truly blessed.


The second SNL was hosted by Paul Simon, it was the year of “Still Crazy After All These Years” and “40 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” and the program became a mini concert as among his guests was Art Garfunkel and together they had a Simon and Garfinkel reunion, in addition to musical guests Randy Newman and Phoebe Snow.


By it’s third week SNL began to get into shape. The show opened with Chevy Chase taking a fall, capping it with his trademarked, “Live, from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” Rob Reiner was the host, and he was joined by his wife Penny Marshall. And the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players (Ackroyd, Belushi, Chase, Curtin, Morris, Newman, and Radnor) finally got a chance to let their talent show through. Plus on hand again was Andy Kaufman, and my personal favorites, Jim Henson’s only slightly twisted Muppets, with that delightful Great FaVah, built in the image of Nelson Rockefeller.


However it took until its third season before the show could actually call itself Saturday Night Live. ABC had used the title for a variety show, modeled after the historic Ed Sullivan Show, and hosted by another sports personality, Howard Cossell. That show debuted the same year, but ahead of SNL. It lacked originality, however, and only lasted two years, after which SNL was able to claim its true title.


The first five years of SNL are available on DVD as listed in Amazon.com, and if you’re into comedy in our opinion there isn’t a better use for your DVD dollars. Used DVD’s range from $11 to around $20, depending on the year.

Featured early on was the comedy team of Al Franken and Tom Davis. They were both listed as SNL writers, and they did recurring bits in the early years. Al Franken, now Senator Al Franken, was caught recently doing a YouTube video trying to interest Google in bringing high speed internet to his home state.


Last week as we were perusing Techmeme and getting our technology fix Sunday morning, we ran across a video which we just couldn’t help but want to include in our last week’s blog. It is a YouTube video featuring Senator Al Franken, who used to do bits on SNL as, among other things, the Duluth Answer Man. He tells of how when Google came along it did the job so much better, it freed him up to run for the U. S. Senate. He made the YouTube as a plug for the twin cities to get some of Google’s fiber optic high speed internet. We attempted to add it to last week’s blog, but we failed. And so now, a week later, we finally get to present it in our blog.§







– ☯ –

We searched far and wide for a photograph that would actually terrify you uncontrollably, send you screaming through nightmare after nightmare. Thanks to 4chan.org we happily present the following:

Our SCARE of the Week





– ☯ –

Continuing Our Recall of Teen Camp


In last week’s blog I began for the first time really to write about what I consider my most substantial contribution to children’s camping in my 22 years of working in camps. Blueberry Cove set their children adrift at age 11, just as they were entering puberty. A lot of Blueberry Covers went on to Camp Killooleet in Hancock, Vt. which was where I first heard of Blueberry Cove. I remember that ex Blueberry Covers got a special look about them as the recalled their time there. And so I came over to BBC in 1963, delighted to learn that Henry and Bessie were okay with trips, and groups had up to three in a summer.


When Ann Goldsmith, Bob Hellerson, and I took over the running of the camp after the Haskells retired, I began thinking in terms of establishing a program for teenagers. For more information on my proposal I refer you to last week’s post. This week I would like to continue delving into some of my memories of teen camp.


Average enrollment was15 boys and girls, with 4 counselors, including me. On the first day campers were introduced to our storage building, which we nicknamed the “Moxie,” after that New England soft drink which had a medicinal taste about it and which our builders had drunk incessantly during its construction. It was a well built building which had no facilities for people, it was for the storage of our food, with a freezer, a refrigerator, and shelves for dried food, and a water heater to heat the two outdoor shower heads which were out back.


Putting First Things First

First off we showed the campers the wood stored under the building, which was there for their use to build their living quarters for the summer. Hammers and nails and saws and an ordinary level device pretty much completed our construction needs.


Campers chose their tree or trees, pulled out their lumber and trudged off to begin construction of what would be their summer home. Most of the campers picked a partner and worked in teams of two. A few of the boys stayed independent, however, and these usually built their treehouse high up in the trees, hammering extra boards to serve as access ladders.


We were careful to make sure that platforms over four feet from the ground had side boards to prevent rolling out during sleep. The counselors pitched in helping the campers as requested. Several days before the campers arrival the counselors had picked out their tree and built their own quarters for the summer. The more secure campers picked locations as far from the counselors as possible. Those less secure picked out a site near one of the counselors.


When lunchtime rolled around we had sandwich makings for that first meal. However, we assembled down where the fire pit was so that campers could be introduced to the place where our meals would be prepared and served. During lunch we gave out assignments for menu planning, kitchen duty, and meal cleanup. We worked out lists for this which we posted on a nearby tree. Since there was hot water available at an outdoor sink near the showers the cleanup crew would carry the kitchen utensils there for cleanup. On trips the cleanup would have to be in fresh water streams, but there was no need to rough it here in camp.


Many of the platforms were completed by lunchtime, and those that weren’t found others pitching in to help finish them off following lunch. You would think that there would be a sameness about the platforms, but that was not the case. A great deal of individuality went into the campers’ shelters. We didn’t do anything to encourage this, there were no awards for most ingenious platform, or anything like that. But it just happened naturally. Some platforms had wooden roofs, some merely had tarps for a roof.





We pause our Teen Camp memories long enough to honor one of the most remarkable scientists of the 20th Century, Linus Pauling, whose work in chemistry and physics, and whose work with scientists opposing the use of atomic weapons, won him two Nobel Prizes, including the Nobel Peace Prize. We celebrate Dr. Pauling as we follow his prescription of massive amounts of vitamin C in the treatment of a cold and sore throat. The inventor of the Linux kernal, Linus Torvalds, was named for Dr. Pauling.§


After Platforms Finished It was Meeting Time

When the platforms were complete we had a meeting down by the harbor where we discussed the activities we would have. We had our own teen camp boat, a large fishing skiff, which we could use for rowing and fishing activities. There was paper and drawing materials stored in the Moxie. Exploratory trips along the peninsular would be popular, although there wasn’t time that first day. We could have a swim anytime the tide was in, providing the young kids camp wasn’t having their swim period. It would also be possible to take short trips in our converted school bus to nearby locations on occasions.


We had hotdogs cooked on the open fire for dinner that first night, follow by Smores, which were toasted marshmallows and a chocolate bar sandwiched on Graham crackers. Afterwards as it got dark we had a skinnydip followed by a sing and storytelling around the campfire, and some of the nervier among the campers introduced themselves and told us a thing or two about them. We counselors did the same. By its end everyone was pretty tired from that first day out, and we retired for the night.


The first week’s menu was planned, and the food stocked by two counselors, but immediately we began to involve the campers in the second week’s menu planning. Campers would also be involved in planning the menu for trips. Menu planning was voluntary, we didn’t think forcing someone into it would produce very good results. However, a counselor worked with the menu planners for the entire summer. And after a few days of planning, planners would get fresh ideas of what campers wanted to eat by querying other campers.


Trying to Isolate Campers My Biggest Mistake

Most of our campers had come through the young children’s camp, and I feel my biggest mistake in conceiving Teen Camp was trying to artificially separate Teen Camp from the young children’s camp. For instance I blazed a trail through the woods to the parking lot, where our School Bus sat with the other camp cars, rather than have campers cut through the camp in a more direct path.


The idea was to get the campers used to following a marked trail, as well as keeping them out of the children’s camp. In hindsight though it gave campers practice in following a blazed trail, it was probably impractical. Of course campers who had come through the children’s camp wanted to have contact with the children’s camp. Why wouldn’t they? Their childhood was branded by their experiences in the camp.


Of course more than one of them might want to lord it over the younger kids rubbing their new status in their faces. But that was natural and to be expected. I should have worked with A.G. and other counselors at the young children’s camp to have a few events we could share with them. We did do a sing with them as I remember, but there could have been much more we could have done. And so much for pretending the children’s camp wasn’t there by forcing teen campers to take the woods trail to the parking lot.


Our First Morning’s Activities

Our first full morning of activities occurred on day two. Several campers elected to go boating and fishing. A smaller group wanted to take drawing pads and draw the campsite for their friends and parents. Two of the campers wanted to sit with me and plan the summer’s activities. All in all, it was a busy and productive morning.


The day was broken up like this. Morning activities lasted from the end of breakfast cleanup, until around noon when it was time for the kitchen group to begin to prepare lunch. We held a counsel after breakfast cleanup to assign the morning’s activities.


Lunch usually happened on or around 12:30. After lunch it was decreed that there would be time for reflection in our respective living quarters. We didn’t call it rest hour, although that was what it was. After rest and depending on the tide we had swimming at the camps dock area if it wasn’t being used by the camp, and if it was we swam at our own part of the harbor, with a counselor watching over the proceedings in the boat. After swim there was a period of free time.


˜ † ˜

Laying Out Usage of My Sound System

Music has always been very much an important part of my life. And right up at the top among my possessions was my sound system and lp record collection. I spent fall, winter, and spring in those days living in Brooklyn. Because there was no one in the city to look out for my interests during my summer in camp, I was forced to bring up my sound system and record collection to camp, or else lose it to thieves. Knowing how teenagers love music it seemed criminal not to allow campers access to the system. I decided to hook it up the system to one of the electrical outlets in the Moxie.


One of my earliest occupations had been as a disc jockey at 2 FM stations in Houston. However, no one, least of all me, wanted to simply turn over use of the equipment without restriction, having it blare music indiscrimately. So I made a few rules for it. Music would only be allowed at the free time period in late afternoon, and then only two or three times a week.


And only one person at a time would have access to the equipment, and they were directed to work out well thought out programs using the music. They would get acquainted with the music playing it in low volume with the door closed. After they were familiar with the music they would play the music through the large speakers outside of the building. In other words they weren’t to play the music haphazardly, but instead put together well thought out programs. Records I had at the time included the Beatles, Elton John. James Taylor, Pink Floyd, and others of what in those days were considered serious contemporary music, the kind Rock FM stations of the day were playing. Needless to say, each year we did the program the Beatles ended up being the most popular and most played artists.


˜ † ˜

Unexpected Consequences of Outdoor Living

There are completely unexpected problems which can come up when suddenly you begin living completely out of doors. We were faced with a minimum of protection against the outdoor’s number one predator, mosquitoes. One of our first problems during one summer was a twelve year old girl whose body seemed to be especially attractive to mosquitoes, and whose torso had become replete with bites. She had scratched the bites absently and with frequency, which was allowing infection to creep in. By the time she brought it to our attention her condition was rated serious.


Upon noticing her situation we sent her straight to the camp nurse, and the nurse in turn sent the camp’s buyer, a long time counselor named Cuz, into town to find something with which to relieve the girl’s bites. Cuz came back from the local feed store proudly holding a product called Bovine Teat Balm. It seems that cows get covered with insect bites on their mammary glands, probably because drops of milk splash there and that part of a cow’s body is not protected by fur. This balm was supposed to have both healing and antiseptic powers, which sounded perfect for our mosquito ravaged camper.


The balm arrived in the nick of time. We gave her the balm at her shower period. The girl did seem to have bites in the most intimate of places, and many of them she had scratched just to the edge of infection. Her bunkmate was encouraged to apply the balm to those places where she couldn’t see the bites herself.


And hats off to Cuz, the balm seemed to have worked wonders. After only a few days her sores had healed completely. She was a high spirited girl who didn’t let her excessive bites get her down at their height, and once they were cured she was quick to be one of our more stable campers.


And so after that in spite of its intrusive odor the girl learned the inherent sensibility of using an insect repellant. And fortunately none of the other campers were so ravaged by mosquitoes, and so after praising its qualities on high we passed
Blog # 132:

– ☯ –




Ballooning It!



– ☯ –

Republication Opposition Arrogant


Don’t you just love the unmitigated arrogance of Republican leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner and their unswerving opposition to the president’s health care reform bill. I mean their continually referring to the bill as a government takeover of one sixth of the economy, where it is really has the government serving as a policeman of health care providers, making sure that insurers provide the service their customers have paid for rather than arbitrarily dropping them when they get sick.


And selling coverage to all regardless of pre-existing conditions. I mean, all other insurance companies are regulated by states, which force them to make good on services they promised. Why shouldn’t health care insurance companies have some kind of regulation? There’s a lot that isn’t in the bill that should be, but it is a start, and over time it does reduce the deficit.


There’s a lot more to the plan too, but what it is not is what the Republican leaders claim it is. The measure actually provides over a billion dollars in debt reduction over ten years, a fact which Republicans choose to ignore. Will the legislation prove the Waterloo to its Democratic supporters as they run for reelection next fall? Or will the voting public realize once it becomes law that it is not the draconian disaster hapless Republicans holding hands as they encircled their wagons in the halls of Congress, have been portraying it.


And for the Republican Party, whose arrogance in running up more unpaid debt spending than all previous administrations combined (two wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, seniors prescription drug relief, plus Katrina cleanup, all on unpaid credit) for them to claim that Obama and the Democrats are tax and spend, that does ring a bit hollow, and takes arrogance and fantasy to entirely new heights.


Good luck in your vote counting Democrats. Use your voter given majority in the service of people for a change, not of the special interests. Prove once and for all that you can govern. Once again Good luck Democrats. This is your weekend to Do Good!§


– ☯ –

Live, from New York, it’s . . .


well, you know what it is


You know that Saturday Night Live has reached a brand new pinnacle of success when a comedian of the stature of Jerry Seinfeld will appear on the program unannounced. Seinfeld appeared on last Saturday’s SNL to join regular Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers in a roasting of former congressman Eric Massa in a skit which they entitled, “Really? In case you missed it, here it is.







Saturday Night Live has quietly become the longest running comedy and variety show on television. It was born October 10, 1975 and in October of this year it will be thirty-five years old. The first episode was hosted by George Carlin with musical guests Janis Ian and Billy Preston, and comedy by Andy Kaufman. How do I know this? I have DVD’s of its first three years.


SNL and I go a long ways back together. I moved back to Houston the year it began, and I used to have my sons on weekends as they were growing up, and on Saturday nights guess what we never failed to watch. Channel two in Houston had SNL at 1030, and followed that at midnight with Monty Python’s Flying Circus. We in Houston were truly blessed.


The second SNL was hosted by Paul Simon, it was the year of “Still Crazy After All These Years” and “40 Ways to Leave Your Lover,” and the program became a mini concert as among his guests was Art Garfunkel and together they had a Simon and Garfinkel reunion, in addition to musical guests Randy Newman and Phoebe Snow.


By it’s third week SNL began to get into shape. The show opened with Chevy Chase taking a fall, capping it with his trademarked, “Live, from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” Rob Reiner was the host, and he was joined by his wife Penny Marshall. And the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players (Ackroyd, Belushi, Chase, Curtin, Morris, Newman, and Radnor) finally got a chance to let their talent show through. Plus on hand again was Andy Kaufman, and my personal favorites, Jim Henson’s only slightly twisted Muppets, with that delightful Great FaVah, built in the image of Nelson Rockefeller.


However it took until its third season before the show could actually call itself Saturday Night Live. ABC had used the title for a variety show, modeled after the historic Ed Sullivan Show, and hosted by another sports personality, Howard Cossell. That show debuted the same year, but ahead of SNL. It lacked originality, however, and only lasted two years, after which SNL was able to claim its true title.


The first five years of SNL are available on DVD as listed in Amazon.com, and if you’re into comedy in our opinion there isn’t a better use for your DVD dollars. Used DVD’s range from $11 to around $20, depending on the year.

Featured early on was the comedy team of Al Franken and Tom Davis. They were both listed as SNL writers, and they did recurring bits in the early years. Al Franken, now Senator Al Franken, was caught recently doing a YouTube video trying to interest Google in bringing high speed internet to his home state.


Last week as we were perusing Techmeme and getting our technology fix Sunday morning, we ran across a video which we just couldn’t help but want to include in our last week’s blog. It is a YouTube video featuring Senator Al Franken, who used to do bits on SNL as, among other things, the Duluth Answer Man. He tells of how when Google came along it did the job so much better, it freed him up to run for the U. S. Senate. He made the YouTube as a plug for the twin cities to get some of Google’s fiber optic high speed internet. We attempted to add it to last week’s blog, but we failed. And so now, a week later, we finally get to present it in our blog.§







– ☯ –

We searched far and wide for a photograph that would actually terrify you uncontrollably, send you screaming through nightmare after nightmare. Thanks to 4chan.org we happily present the following:

Our SCARE of the Week





– ☯ –

Continuing Our Recall of Teen Camp


In last week’s blog I began for the first time really to write about what I consider my most substantial contribution to children’s camping in my 22 years of working in camps. Blueberry Cove set their children adrift at age 11, just as they were entering puberty. A lot of Blueberry Covers went on to Camp Killooleet in Hancock, Vt. which was where I first heard of Blueberry Cove. I remember that ex Blueberry Covers got a special look about them as the recalled their time there. And so I came over to BBC in 1963, delighted to learn that Henry and Bessie were okay with trips, and groups had up to three in a summer.


When Ann Goldsmith, Bob Hellerson, and I took over the running of the camp after the Haskells retired, I began thinking in terms of establishing a program for teenagers. For more information on my proposal I refer you to last week’s post. This week I would like to continue delving into some of my memories of teen camp.


Average enrollment was15 boys and girls, with 4 counselors, including me. On the first day campers were introduced to our storage building, which we nicknamed the “Moxie,” after that New England soft drink which had a medicinal taste about it and which our builders had drunk incessantly during its construction. It was a well built building which had no facilities for people, it was for the storage of our food, with a freezer, a refrigerator, and shelves for dried food, and a water heater to heat the two outdoor shower heads which were out back.


Putting First Things First

First off we showed the campers the wood stored under the building, which was there for their use to build their living quarters for the summer. Hammers and nails and saws and an ordinary level device pretty much completed our construction needs.


Campers chose their tree or trees, pulled out their lumber and trudged off to begin construction of what would be their summer home. Most of the campers picked a partner and worked in teams of two. A few of the boys stayed independent, however, and these usually built their treehouse high up in the trees, hammering extra boards to serve as access ladders.


We were careful to make sure that platforms over four feet from the ground had side boards to prevent rolling out during sleep. The counselors pitched in helping the campers as requested. Several days before the campers arrival the counselors had picked out their tree and built their own quarters for the summer. The more secure campers picked locations as far from the counselors as possible. Those less secure picked out a site near one of the counselors.


When lunchtime rolled around we had sandwich makings for that first meal. However, we assembled down where the fire pit was so that campers could be introduced to the place where our meals would be prepared and served. During lunch we gave out assignments for menu planning, kitchen duty, and meal cleanup. We worked out lists for this which we posted on a nearby tree. Since there was hot water available at an outdoor sink near the showers the cleanup crew would carry the kitchen utensils there for cleanup. On trips the cleanup would have to be in fresh water streams, but there was no need to rough it here in camp.


Many of the platforms were completed by lunchtime, and those that weren’t found others pitching in to help finish them off following lunch. You would think that there would be a sameness about the platforms, but that was not the case. A great deal of individuality went into the campers’ shelters. We didn’t do anything to encourage this, there were no awards for most ingenious platform, or anything like that. But it just happened naturally. Some platforms had wooden roofs, some merely had tarps for a roof.





We pause our Teen Camp memories long enough to honor one of the most remarkable scientists of the 20th Century, Linus Pauling, whose work in chemistry and physics, and whose work with scientists opposing the use of atomic weapons, won him two Nobel Prizes, including the Nobel Peace Prize. We celebrate Dr. Pauling as we follow his prescription of massive amounts of vitamin C in the treatment of a cold and sore throat. The inventor of the Linux kernal, Linus Torvalds, was named for Dr. Pauling.§


After Platforms Finished It was Meeting Time

When the platforms were complete we had a meeting down by the harbor where we discussed the activities we would have. We had our own teen camp boat, a large fishing skiff, which we could use for rowing and fishing activities. There was paper and drawing materials stored in the Moxie. Exploratory trips along the peninsular would be popular, although there wasn’t time that first day. We could have a swim anytime the tide was in, providing the young kids camp wasn’t having their swim period. It would also be possible to take short trips in our converted school bus to nearby locations on occasions.


We had hotdogs cooked on the open fire for dinner that first night, follow by Smores, which were toasted marshmallows and a chocolate bar sandwiched on Graham crackers. Afterwards as it got dark we had a skinnydip followed by a sing and storytelling around the campfire, and some of the nervier among the campers introduced themselves and told us a thing or two about them. We counselors did the same. By its end everyone was pretty tired from that first day out, and we retired for the night.


The first week’s menu was planned, and the food stocked by two counselors, but immediately we began to involve the campers in the second week’s menu planning. Campers would also be involved in planning the menu for trips. Menu planning was voluntary, we didn’t think forcing someone into it would produce very good results. However, a counselor worked with the menu planners for the entire summer. And after a few days of planning, planners would get fresh ideas of what campers wanted to eat by querying other campers.


Trying to Isolate Campers My Biggest Mistake

Most of our campers had come through the young children’s camp, and I feel my biggest mistake in conceiving Teen Camp was trying to artificially separate Teen Camp from the young children’s camp. For instance I blazed a trail through the woods to the parking lot, where our School Bus sat with the other camp cars, rather than have campers cut through the camp in a more direct path.


The idea was to get the campers used to following a marked trail, as well as keeping them out of the children’s camp. In hindsight though it gave campers practice in following a blazed trail, it was probably impractical. Of course campers who had come through the children’s camp wanted to have contact with the children’s camp. Why wouldn’t they? Their childhood was branded by their experiences in the camp.


Of course more than one of them might want to lord it over the younger kids rubbing their new status in their faces. But that was natural and to be expected. I should have worked with A.G. and other counselors at the young children’s camp to have a few events we could share with them. We did do a sing with them as I remember, but there could have been much more we could have done. And so much for pretending the children’s camp wasn’t there by forcing teen campers to take the woods trail to the parking lot.


Our First Morning’s Activities

Our first full morning of activities occurred on day two. Several campers elected to go boating and fishing. A smaller group wanted to take drawing pads and draw the campsite for their friends and parents. Two of the campers wanted to sit with me and plan the summer’s activities. All in all, it was a busy and productive morning.


The day was broken up like this. Morning activities lasted from the end of breakfast cleanup, until around noon when it was time for the kitchen group to begin to prepare lunch. We held a counsel after breakfast cleanup to assign the morning’s activities.


Lunch usually happened on or around 12:30. After lunch it was decreed that there would be time for reflection in our respective living quarters. We didn’t call it rest hour, although that was what it was. After rest and depending on the tide we had swimming at the camps dock area if it wasn’t being used by the camp, and if it was we swam at our own part of the harbor, with a counselor watching over the proceedings in the boat. After swim there was a period of free time.


˜ † ˜

Laying Out Usage of My Sound System

Music has always been very much an important part of my life. And right up at the top among my possessions was my sound system and lp record collection. I spent fall, winter, and spring in those days living in Brooklyn. Because there was no one in the city to look out for my interests during my summer in camp, I was forced to bring up my sound system and record collection to camp, or else lose it to thieves. Knowing how teenagers love music it seemed criminal not to allow campers access to the system. I decided to hook it up the system to one of the electrical outlets in the Moxie.


One of my earliest occupations had been as a disc jockey at 2 FM stations in Houston. However, no one, least of all me, wanted to simply turn over use of the equipment without restriction, having it blare music indiscrimately. So I made a few rules for it. Music would only be allowed at the free time period in late afternoon, and then only two or three times a week.


And only one person at a time would have access to the equipment, and they were directed to work out well thought out programs using the music. They would get acquainted with the music playing it in low volume with the door closed. After they were familiar with the music they would play the music through the large speakers outside of the building. In other words they weren’t to play the music haphazardly, but instead put together well thought out programs. Records I had at the time included the Beatles, Elton John. James Taylor, Pink Floyd, and others of what in those days were considered serious contemporary music, the kind Rock FM stations of the day were playing. Needless to say, each year we did the program the Beatles ended up being the most popular and most played artists.


˜ † ˜

Unexpected Consequences of Outdoor Living

There are completely unexpected problems which can come up when suddenly you begin living completely out of doors. We were faced with a minimum of protection against the outdoor’s number one predator, mosquitoes. One of our first problems during one summer was a twelve year old girl whose body seemed to be especially attractive to mosquitoes, and whose torso had become replete with bites. She had scratched the bites absently and with frequency, which was allowing infection to creep in. By the time she brought it to our attention her condition was rated serious.


Upon noticing her situation we sent her straight to the camp nurse, and the nurse in turn sent the camp’s buyer, a long time counselor named Cuz, into town to find something with which to relieve the girl’s bites. Cuz came back from the local feed store proudly holding a product called Bovine Teat Balm. It seems that cows get covered with insect bites on their mammary glands, probably because drops of milk splash there and that part of a cow’s body is not protected by fur. This balm was supposed to have both healing and antiseptic powers, which sounded perfect for our mosquito ravaged camper.


The balm arrived in the nick of time. We gave her the balm at her shower period. The girl did seem to have bites in the most intimate of places, and many of them she had scratched just to the edge of infection. Her bunkmate was encouraged to apply the balm to those places where she couldn’t see the bites herself.


And hats off to Cuz, the balm seemed to have worked wonders. After only a few days her sores had healed completely. She was a high spirited girl who didn’t let her excessive bites get her down at their height, and once they were cured she was quick to be one of our more stable campers.


And so after that in spite of its intrusive odor the girl learned the inherent sensibility of using an insect repellant. And fortunately none of the other campers were so ravaged by mosquitoes, and so after praising its qualities on high we passed the remaining BTB back to the camp nurse for use as needed in the young children’s camp.


Next week I’ll tell you more about Teen Camp, especially focusing like a laser on those trips which fleshed out our summer of adventure.


– ☯ –

And so we reach the end of yet another Little Eddy Blog. It’s not many weeks where we can sound of about health care, Saturday Night Live, and Teen Camp all in one big blog. But this week the planets were aligned perfectly, and we were able to double and triple dip, as it were.


We’re here each week with our rants and raves, and with part of our memory focussed on the New England Children’s Camps where we spent the most engaging 22 years of our life. We hope you can join us again, anytime next week, for the next episode of our blog. Meantime, hang in there and keep smiling, no matter how lousy a hand you’re drawn. Bye, bye.


The Real Little Eddy § eddybad@gmail.com the remaining BTB back to the camp nurse for use as needed in the young children’s camp.


Next week I’ll tell you more about Teen Camp, especially focusing like a laser on those trips which fleshed out our summer of adventure.


– ☯ –

And so we reach the end of yet another Little Eddy Blog. It’s not many weeks where we can sound of about health care, Saturday Night Live, and Teen Camp all in one big blog. But this week the planets were aligned perfectly, and we were able to double and triple dip, as it were.


OMG.


I almost forgot. Today's the first day of Spring. Which means it's my birthday. 84 Jesus, where did it all go?


We’re here each week with our rants and raves, and with part of our memory focussed on the New England Children’s Camps where we spent the most engaging 22 years of our life. We hope you can join us again, anytime next week, for the next episode of our blog. Meantime, hang in there and keep smiling, no matter how lousy a hand you’re drawn. Bye, bye.


The Real Little Eddy § eddybad@gmail.com