Monday Morning Musings

I thought I would try a little different format for my Monday offerings. I've been accused of never wanting to change a thing - not even to move a sofa in my living room - so I am just showing some folks how versatile I can be.

WHAT I'M READING: Several books on tap for reviews. First up will be a humorous look at parenting, Mommy A-Z, which is scheduled for next Sunday. Good read so far. After that will come Silent Partner, a mystery that I am resisting the temptation to start reading. Need to do things in order, right? No link to that book as it will be released September 1.


WHAT I'M LAUGHING AT: The cat races that just started at my house. My cats love to chase each other from one end of the house to the other. If they would slow down, I'd try to get a picture.

WHAT I'M DISMAYED ABOUT: I may get lots of boos for this one, but I am really concerned about the doctor infected with Ebola coming to the U.S. Yes, great precautions have been taken as he was transported to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, but this is a very deadly virus, and according to experts, it is not entirely clear how Ebola is spread. Most commonly it is spread to a human by contact with an infected animal's bodily fluids. Transmission from first human infected can occur  through direct contact with blood or bodily fluids from an infected person. Others can also be infected by contact with contaminated medical equipment, particularly needles and syringes. While direct contact is the most common form of transmission, it is likely that it can also occur through oral exposure and through conjunctiva exposure. That has proven the case with non-human primates.


Dr. Mike Brantly is a 33-year-old father of two young children who works for the North Carolina-based Christian organization Samaritan's Purse. He was in Liberia responding to the worst Ebola outbreak on record when he contracted the disease. Since February, more than 700 people in West Africa have died from Ebola, a hemorrhagic virus with a death rate of up to 90 percent of those infected. The fatality rate in the current epidemic is about 60 percent.


More about Ebola from the World Health Organization. While all of us pledging to remain civil about this, what do you think?

WHAT I'M LUSTING AFTER: BTW, this might not be a regular part of my Monday blog, but I just had to share the picture of this wonderful guitar owned by singer/songwriter, BettySoo. She did a concert this past Saturday at the Winnsboro Center for the Arts, and I fell in love with her guitar. The concert was great, too, but the guitar....

Thanks to the talented Michael Alford for the wonderful picture.

BettySoo said there are only four of these guitars in existence. The possibility of me getting one are so slim, I wish my waistline looked like that. Well, maybe not. I do need some meat between my belly button and my back bone. But am I right about this being a great guitar?
 
AND NOW JUST FOR FUN: This one is from Shoe by Gary Brookins & Susie MacNelly.

Shoe walks into his favorite bar and says to the bartender, "Hi, Fred. What's new?"

"Sigh... Nothing good, Shoe... My divorce from Ethel has been finalized."

"I can sympathze with you. How did the settlement turn out?"

"It became quite the nightmare," Fred says. "Once I realized the decimal point was just a bagel poppyseed."

And this from Mallard Fillmore by Bruce Tinsley.

Mallard is on the news anchor desk and says, "As 'Back-to-School' time nears, we're joined now by our Mediocrity Correspondent, Dylan Custard..."

Custard says, "I'm seeing some really encouraging signes in the mediocrity movememnt. For instance, more school systems are ending the elitist practice of naming a valedictorian!"

Mallard responds, "Woo. You must be excited."

"Guaredely optimistic. But there are still some disturbing statistics like these." He hold up a paper.

"What do they show?"

"Who knows?! They're all fill of numbers! Math-adverse students immediately feel marginalized..."

Sadly, that is not so far removed from what really happens in so many schools across the country.

Friday's Odds and Ends

A five-year-old boy shot a four-year-old boy at a playground in Hillcrest Heights, Md., about 10 miles southeast of Washington, D.C.. Police wondert how a five-year-old had access to a gun.

Good question. Do you suppose it could be the fault of some irresponsible parent?

The judge in the Casey Anthony murder trial called a recess Friday just as prosecutors prepared to rebut testimony by Anthony's mother who claimed she -- not her daughter -- made suspicious Internet searches in the months before her 2-year-old granddaughter disappeared.


I understand a mother's urge to protect her daughter, but is this really believable? This whole story since the case first broke has read like a poorly plotted novel.


The NBA is in lockout, with the teams and the players unable to compromise on terms of new contracts. Owners want to reduce the players' guarantee of 57 percent of basketball revenue and weren't moved by the players' offer to drop it to 54.3 percent -- though players said that would have cut their salaries by $500 million over five years.


This seems to be a trend in professional sports, and I wonder when it became all about the money and not about the games. And, of course, as salaries and other expenses rise, so do ticket prices. So who pays in the end? The sports' fans.
 
Four months after Trent Schmidt was killed in a car accident, thieves broke into the Triumph Church in Greenwood, IN and stole musical instruments - including the bass guitar that Trent played. Trent was an associate pastor with his father, Stephen,  and his parents were devastated when the guitar was stolen. They made a public plea to the thieves to return the guitar, and apparently that worked. This past Wednesday morning Stephen and his wife were driving in the alley behind the church, and saw something that made them stop. The five-string bass guitar that Trent played at services at the church before joining the Army was left on the ground next to the air conditioner.