Fridays Odds and Ends

One couple in Fort Worth, Texas are missing the home that belonged to the husband's grandmother. It was demolished by the city when a demolition crew went to the wrong address. The house next to it was the one that was supposed to be razed after being condemned. The owners were not there at the time, but a neighbor tried to intervene and get the demolition crew on the right track, but those attempts failed. According to an editorial in the Dallas Morning News, the owner is not in the kind of snit many of us would be. He is requesting that the city pay him the fair market value for the house that was demolished, and could the city please remove the concrete slab. "It's not much good anymore."

Not the actual slab, but imagine driving up to your house and seeing this.

 In an interesting take on the whole debate about Snowden and whether he is a traitor or a hero, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said that one good thing to come from the mess is that now a public debate about NASA's domestic snooping is now unavoidable.

I agree that the discussion needs to happen. Ever since 9/11 the average citizen has been negatively impacted by anti-terrorism efforts in too many ways. More thought has to be put into how we protect against terrorism without infringing on the rights and privacy of American citizens, lest we live under the control of Big Brother as fictionalized in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
 

The original cover of the 1949 British Edition

In a real feel good story, I read about a boy of four who is raising money to replace the neighborhood park that was destroyed in the plant explosion in West, Texas. Apparently, this was the park that the boy liked to play in near his grandparents' home and he lost it, along with the home and his father who was a volunteer firefighter. The boy, Parker, is following in his father's legacy of raising money for charitable works, and he held a hot dog sale on a recent Saturday to start raising money to rebuild the park. His grandparents, while still grieving the loss of their son and Parker's father, joined in the effort, along with other residents who added a bake sale and a silent auction to the event. According to the grandmother, the amount of money raised was not enough to even get started on rebuilding the park, but she thought it was important to work with Parker and let him make this effort.

Kudos to Parker and to his grandparents.

Now for some fun from the funny papers. This one is from One Big Happy. Rose, Ruthie's grandmother, is sitting at a desk with a laptop open, her husband, Nick, stands behind her, looking over her shoulder.

Rose says, "Wasn't that cat video adorable."

Nick says, "Below it is the comment 'ROFL'"

Rose translates, "Rolling on the floor laughing."

To which Nick says, "Oh, I thought it meant 'Reaching out to fellow losers.'"

And from Pickles: Earl is sitting on the edge of the bed and Opal asks, "Why are you just sitting there staring into space, Earl?"

"I'm having one of those mornings where I can't decide whether to comb my hair or put on my socks."

"What, you can't do both?"

In the last panel, Opal has walked out and Earl calls after her. "Hey, we're not all overachievers like you you know."

The dog that is on the bed next to Earl adds an "Amen."

Did anything in the news recently strike you as particularly interesting or absurd? What is your favorite comic strip?

Friday's Odds and Ends

Eugene Robinson was courageous in speaking out against the death penalty for Lawrence Russell Brewer, who, along with two other men, committed a heinous hate crime in Jasper Texas some years ago. The three white supremacists murdered James Byrd Jr. after offering him a ride. They killed him by dragging him behind their pickup truck. Robinson said in a recent article that if anyone deserved a needle in the arm it would be Byrd, but Robinson is against the death penalty, period. He considers the death penalty to be a "barbaric anachronism, a crude instrument not of justice but of revenge." He points out that most other countries have stopped using capital punishment, and urges the U.S. to do the same.

I would have to agree.

In a recent letter to the editor in The Dallas Morning News Allen Barseth wrote, "As a conservative, I would gladly be more compassionate in giving to others if they used my tax dollars as a safety net rather than a hammock."

I thought that was a telling statement about the legacy of relying on welfare that seems to be passed from generation to generation in some families. Welfare, food stamps, unemployment payments and other government help should be limited to encourage people to find a way out of the need. Members of my family have, at times, relied on that kind of assistance, but that was a temporary situation that we worked through. Granted, some people have no way out, but others have come to accept assistance as a way of life.

 "Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened." I ran across this quote by Anatole France this morning and it struck a chord with me. We are still missing our little dog, and in talking to other animal lovers we have shared how our pets become such an integral part of our lives it leaves a significant hole when they are gone. Some people wonder how one can grieve the loss of a pet with a similar intensity as the grief over losing a loved one. Pet lovers never wonder.

On a lighter note -  We opened "Arsenic and Old Lace" last night at the Main Street Theatre in Sulphur Springs last night and the audience loved the show. One nice thing about live theatre is the interaction between the audience and the players, and we all had a lot of fun. I am playing Martha Brewster, one of the Aunts who "help lonely gentlemen to a better place," and I have really enjoyed working with a terrific cast. Anyone in the East Texas area who would like to see the show, we have performances tonight and tomorrow night at 7, and Sunday at 2. Next week we have performances on Thurs, Fri, and Sat at 7pm. No Sunday matinee.

Pictured here is Martha Brewster and Elaine.