Natty Boh: A Memory

26 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in alcoholism, Baltimore, memoir

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(I do not own the copyright to this image. The folks at Pabst Brewing do. I am not using the image for commercial gain and hope they understand.)

That cartoon image of the one-eyed chap with the handle bar moustache is an image from my childhood. Way back in the 1950’s there was broadcast on local television here in Richmond, a show called Strikes ‘N’ Spares. Its subject was bowling, duckpin bowling. Most of y’all don’t know what duckpin bowling is. The pins are smaller. The ball is smaller, fitting in your hand, about the size of the ball used in bocce. The bowler has three rolls per frame, rather than the two of ten pin.

The show originated from Baltimore, just up Rte 301, I-95. or the railroad tracks, where duckpin was, and still is, popular. The game is loads of fun. It was the first bowling game I played. We played it on Fridays in Freshman Physical Education at Willow Bowl just west of my high school. They came and picked us up on an old school bus, repainted baby blue, from the old school bus yellow. WILLOW BOWL was printed on the side where the old school district legend once was emblazoned.

The sponsor of said show was National Bohemian Beer, known colloquially as Natty Boh. This was a strong, Baltimore-brewed brand, popular in the Richmond market as well as Baltimore. As time ground on, Budweiser, Miller, and, at one point, Schlitz, took away market share from local brands like National Bohemian. The financially weaker local brands disappeared or faded into the background, becoming minor players in the beer market.

To this day, I can sing the National Beer jingle. I’ve pulled the cartoon commercial up on YouTube. Still has that funky naive charm that Fifties commercials possessed. Whether this advertising subtly seduced me into the drinking life, I can’t say. But they did portray beer as an innocent enough beverage.

Back then, we had no admonitions to enjoy beer “responsibly”. In Virginia, the Baptists and Methodists still had enormous cultural sway. They set the tone. Drinking was not cool. There weren’t bars selling hard liquor by the drink till the late 1960’s. A different world it was.

Pain

17 Wednesday Jan 2018

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It is one of those nights where the pain is winning. It isn’t horrible, just persistent. The distractions that help, sleeping on my side with a DVD of Seinfeld episodes playing, aren’t working. My back-up plan, sleeping in the other bed listening to Portuguese Fado music, has been put into action. My beautiful angel Mariza is now working her magic. 

Wish me luck,

A Shift In Perspective

15 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in Amtrak, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Gay/Straight Dichotomy, Gender Identity

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Most of you know that I am, through the miracle and magic of YouTube and the Internet, a trainspotter. I sit in my chair and watch the tracks in Ashland, Virginia, just 15 miles or so North of Richmond on the CSX North/South main line.

Well, this morning, the folks at Virtual Railfan LLC, moved the web camera. At first, it was a little disorienting. It took me a while to comprehend the change. Add to that an occasional shift from a view looking South to a view looking North. The camera can also zoom in.

I had gotten used to the way things were, tbe ancien regime´ of glorious yesterday. We joke about our curmudgeonly resistance to change in Richmond

How many Richmonders does it take to change a light bulb?

Three. One to change the bulb and two to talk about how great the old bulb was.

So what’s the take away from this?  Pespective is critical. Like the movie Rashomon, where the same story is told from different viewpoints, my perception is different from yours. My sons’ autism affects both of them differently and each of us could be seeing the same event completely differently.

I also think about Annette, my deceased butch lesbian cousin. She was loving and lovable, and her take on the world was not my take. At the same time, I could fully appreciate her insights. It is unsettling to see that world views are simultaneously different, distinct and, yet, compatible. At least they can be, if we let them.

The old view.

The new view.

Industry Trade Group Speechmakers

09 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by in Big Business, Politics

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If a Secretary of Agriculture gave a speech to the Iowa Pork Producers Council, touting his Department’s efforts to keep the cost of hog production low and the price of pork high, with exports flowing to a pork hungry world, no one East of Davenport nor West of Des Moines would give a chitlin’.

But when a high visibility industry mogul offers up opinions in Hollywood, California about the state of their industry, an awful lot of people take notice and think that whatever is said is profound. Gimme a break, why don’tcha? Billionaire celebrity/opportunist (and former Obama-shill) Oprah Winfrey makes a speech coming out against sexual harassment. What took you so long, Hollywood celebrities? Just about every female in America with a family to support and or a career to establish has had to deal with sexual harassment and has had to for over a hundred years. This presence of harassment is what gives the outcry resonance. But Hollywood can’t all of a sudden lead the charge against sexual harassment when it more or less perfected the practice. Harvey Weinstein was the benefactor nobody wanted to talk about directly, He made a lot of careers for the people there. Period.

Let’s think of Hollywood and the public relations and advertising industries as the public opinion mongering infrastructure. They are losing their ability to shape public opinion. Oprah Winfrey and her network, magazine, book club and Weight Watchers endorsement make their money by convincing businesses that they can craft opinion. If Oprah likes it, then a bunch of people will buy it, so Oprah, Inc. implies. Yet the internet and communications revolution have delivered, perhaps, a fatal blow. It is analogous to the introduction of the printing press. Five hundred years ago information and opinion suddenly moved beyond the medieval universities and their libraries. Literacy expanded dramatically. The dissemination of new ideas from philosophy to navigation suddenly had much wider audiences.

With every new blog and YouTube post, the old way slips a bit more. And the moguls who think they control things, lose a little bit more. And there will be a day when the world will not only get by without Hollywood or Madison Ave, but also Microsoft and Google and Silicon Valley.

Cooking For Fun

07 Sunday Jan 2018

Posted by in cooking, food, Uncategorized

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What’s the saying, “Why do it if it isn’t fun?”  Let’s be real. Sometimes cooking isn’t fun. Like it’s work and the budget for food is small ’cause there ain’t no money. Then again there are opportunities that cry out for creativity. 

Friday, there was almost an entire half gallon of milk with a “sell by” date of 30 December. It figuratively was imploring me to use it. Add to the ingredient pool two bars of Ghirardelli Baking Chocolate, one 100% Cacao, the other Semi-Sweet. Last night we made real hot chocolate with melted 100% Cacao. Just melt 2 oz of the chocolate, mixing it into a cup of water, Add sugar. Then add three cups of milk. Bring it almost to boiling. There are more steps but that is the gist of it. You will wonder why you ever use that instant hot cocoa mix, especially with the vile desiccated marshmallow marbles.

Today I melted  two ounces of the Semi-Sweet in a double boiler, dissolved that in milk and added it to Cook and Serve Vanilla Pudding as it cooked. I added a shake or two of cinnamon, just because the cinnamon was within easy reach. That received a nod of spousal approval.  Now there was a cup of milk left from the short-dated  half gallon. A cup of Hot Ovaltine finished that off.

I did not let the milk go bad. Mother and Dad would have been proud. The calories consumed is another question.

Happy New Year

01 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in Family, Relationships

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To all my Word Press friends, I am sitting down, watching The Rose Parade, as my house warms from the busy oven. Happy New Year.

If my blogging has taught anything, it’s that people committed to respect and community can get along just fine, no matter what descriptors they choose to characterize themselves.

I love you all. Thank you for reading my blog and being my cyber-neighbors.

Mark Twain Quote 

01 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in American History, Animal Baby Cuteness, Big Business

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“Show me where a man gets his corn pone and I‘ll tell you what his opinions are.”

To those of you with gender issues substitute “person” for “man”. 

Corn pone was a very basic food for people who grew up on the frontier West, as Twain did. Basically it’s corn bread.

Next consider everything said by every, and I mean every, journalist and news talking head in the country, from Wolf Blitzer to Sean Hannity. 

Follow that consideration up by asking why the information technology companies never run afoul of the antitrust laws. Does the money they give to the politicians affect their treatment by the Antitrust Division of the DOJ?

Happy New Year.