Mike,
This is going to be a long message, but it'll give folks something to
read. Plus, as you'll see, I'm in one of my devious, nether moods. This
is why Joe refers to me as "comedy relief"...as the echo would be rather
dead, otherwise. <G>
I haven't seen Ed in quite awhile.
I am worred the virus might have got him. :(
I hope not...but it makes you wonder. I've been lucky and blessed that
while I've had 2 original shots, and 2 boosters 6 months apart, so far,
I haven't had it...and I didn't take "the redneck covid test, either". <G>
For the uninitiated, that's where you pour your favorite wine into a
glass. Take a sniff, and if you can smell it, take a taste, and if you
can taste it, you're negative. Repeat as many times as necessary, per instructions from Doctor Sy Chosis. <G>
I bought a lanyard and a pouch holder, that I keep my Covid-19 shot
papers, and my voter registration info in...and I wear that around my
neck. They were getting dog eared in the wallet. :P
* SLMR 2.1a * Life's essentials: H O C N Ca P Cl K S Na Mg
If you did not you are awful close. You got all the ones I am certain
of.
Curiosity got the best of me...so, I downloaded a table...and I got them
all right!! Not bad for being out of chemistry class for over 40 years. :)
H: Hydrogen
O: Oxygen
N: Nitrogen
(These are the only "gin" all restaurants have -- and I wondered why if
you have nitrogen, if it only works after dark?? <G>).
C: Carbon (A studebaker sandwich?? <G>).
Ca: Calcium (I thought that was what Cal said when he saw Um <G>).
P: Phosphorus (Who said phos was for us?? <G>).
Cl: Chlorine (I thought that was mainly for swimming pools <G>).
K: Potassium (If you're on Lasix, you need to take a supplemental tablet,
but that's your Pee-Rogative <G>).
S: Sulphur (smells like rotten eggs or raw sewage..and that's really
crappy :P ).
Na: Sodium (it has to be stored in kerosene, or it'll ignite/explode
violently when exposed to oxygen). How they can combine it with chlorine
to get NaCl (sodium chloride, better known as table salt), is beyond me.
Yet, if you're a heart patient (as I am now), you need to limit your
sodium intake to 2000 milligrams a day. Yet practically all foods...
especially the processed (microwave) ones, are "drowning in it". But,
I rarely season my food...but the restaurants do so heavily.
Mg: Magnesium (too much of that can cause diarrhea...back to the raw
sewage comment :P ).
There was a blooper about holding a deacon over a flame in a test tube,
but I can't remember it. It's amazing how many of those bloopers didn't
have a good eyed editor or proofreader...let alone reading them to see
how they sounded.
When I was working in silkscreen printing, I did catch several errors,
but there were a few I missed. In some cases, the customer wanted them misspelled, but it made them look like an idiot.
All I could think of was the scene from the movie "End Of The Line",
filmed in the mid 1980's (much of it in central Arkansas, and some of
it in Chicago)...most of the actors from there are dead and gone now... including the 2 lead characters, Wilford Brimley (Will Haney) and
Levon Helm (Leo Pickett).
The screenplay was written by Arkansas native Mary Steenburgen (who
played Rose Pickett, Leo's wife, in the movie). Mary's father was a
long time employee of the former Missouri Pacific Railroad, which was
absorbed by Union Pacific Railroad years ago. Yet, their Downing B.
Jenks shops in North Little Rock (where heavy maintenance on their
locomotives is done), and their classification yard, is the second
busiest on the Union Pacific Railroad, second only to the one in the Omaha/North Platte, Nebraska, area. Union Pacific is the biggest
employer in central Arkansas.
Anyway, in the movie, the decals that said "Chicago Police" that
were on the police cars, and the "big checks" that were held by
Haney and Leo in the movie (in the former pedestrian mall, Metrocentre
Mall, in downtown Little Rock) were printed by my workplace. So, one
could say that I had an indirect part in the movie. :)
The scene had Haney and Leo in the locomotive, going to Chicago,
from the community of Clifford, Arkansas (they used the former Missouri
Pacific Railroad depot at Benton, 20 miles southwest of Little Rock,
which has since been razed).
They were going to try to persuade the president of the board,
Thomas G. Clinton (played by Henderson Forsythe), the original owner,
to re-open the railroad. Clinton had given it to his son-in-law Warren
Gerber (played by Howard Balaban (not sure of his name)), when he
married Clinton's daughter...but Gerber was going to turn it into
an air freight company behind his father-in-law's back, and had shut
the railroad down (more on the outcome in a minute). The movie was
rated PG for some language and violence, but I've known movies far
worse in content. You'd hear the language around the railroad yards,
or most anywhere else, nowadays.
Ironically, the steam engine in the opening scene was the restored
St. Louis-Southwestern Cotton Belt 819 steam locomotive, rebuilt at
the Pine Bluff shops (where it was originally built in the early
1940's), now the Arkansas Railroad Museum. Due to various issues,
it's only being cosmetically restored, and it may never run again,
sad to say...although it did run in years past on trips from Pine
Bluff, Arkansas to Tyler, Texas, on the old Cotton Belt line, for
their rose festival...and from Pine Bluff to St. Louis for the 1990
National Railway Historical Society Convention in St. Louis...to
appear with some other steam locomotives at the former Union Station.
Only 4 tracks remain there...it's now a shopping mall with hotels...
or it was the last time I was there nearly 20 years ago.
Anyway, back to the movie. In the diesel locomotive, the exchange
went like this:
Leo: You know, Haney?? I was taking a shower the other day, and I
was trying to remember the Pledge Of Allegiance. You know, the
American one?? And, hell, I couldn't get it to come to me.
Haney: Well, sir...grade school was a long time ago.
Leo: Yes, sir. That's what kept me out of high school.
Now, if that isn't Arkansas humor, etc., I don't know what is. <G>
Anyway, when Haney and Leo finally get to see Clinton, to tell him
what happened, Clinton can't figure out why things got shut down.
The exchange goes like this:
Clinton: I'm sure Warren had good reason for closing the railroad
down. After all, he's made more money for this company than I ever
did when I was running the show; and he's a d@mn good businessman.
Plus, he's also a member of the family...so, I have to respect his
decisions. But, I would like to help you boys, if I could.
Haney: Mr. Clinton?? That little shop in Clifford, Arkansas means
our lives. It's all we've got, sir. And, we've come up here to get
it back.
Leo: And, we don't know a doggone thing about the air freight business.
<STUNNED SILENCE>
Clinton: What did you say??
Leo: I said we don't know a dadgum thing about the air freight business.
Clinton: (Incredulously) Southland...is going into air freight??
Leo: Yes, sir.
Clinton: (Angrily) That little S.O.B. -- he knows how I feel about
airplanes. I hate the S.O.B.'s...always have. The day the airplanes
went into commercial business, I knew right then, that it was the
disease that would kill the great railroads!! I gave the little
S.O.B. this company when he married my daughter; and now he's going
to throw it right back in my face!!
(I totally agree with him on his statement).
Leo: See there, Haney?? Everybody's got son-in-law problems!! It's
the same all over!!
Clinton: (Furious) He was going to slip this transaction by me...to
show that this is HIS company now!!
Haney: I want to tell you something, Mr. Clinton. I really don't give
a d@mn about your family squabbles. Hell, we all have them. But, YOURS,
cost our jobs. But, we do have a plan if you're interested.
Clinton: (Leans forward) Fellas, I'm d@mn interested!!
To make a long story short, Haney buys the whole thing from Clinton
for $1, and turns it into an independent rail yard. Back at Clifford,
when Gerber tries to get the sheriff to arrest them, Haney turns the
tables on him for trespassing. When Gerber tries to get his father-in-law
to go back with him to Chicago, Clinton tells Gerber "Not on your d@mn airplane, Warren".
When they had the premiere of the movie in Little Rock, the entire
cast, with limos, etc. were there...it was a big spectacle. The United
Artists (UA) Cinema 150 at the busiest intersection in southwest Little
Rock, Asher And University (about 2 miles from me), was packed...and
the Wendy's next door did a land office business. Sadly, that theatre
was razed several years ago.
The Wendy's is still there, and apparently Wendy's is now trying out
for a limited time, a Strawberry flavored Frosty!! They had served
chocolate and vanilla Frosty's for years. Chick-Fil-A has a peach milk
shake, but only during the summer months. Unfortunately, some of my
medications require me to wait 2 hours before or after having any dairy products (ice cream, milk shakes, etc.).
We've got Heat Advisories and Excessive Heat Warnings here now, and
my concern is if the power and internet will stay up, with everyone
running their air conditioning at full tilt.
Daryl
... One doesn't get older, one gets better. And, I'm approaching magnificent! === MultiMail/Win v0.52
--- SBBSecho 3.15-Win32
* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (1:2320/33)