Change We CAN Believe In

Until his final hours in office, George W. Bush couldn't think of a single mistake he made in office. That shouldn't have been a hard task. But today, after a rough day with his nominees' tax issues, President Barack Obama said, "I screwed up". Wow! A man willing to admit his mistakes and take responsibility for them. This is the kind of ethical change we needed in Washington!

From an MSNBC story HERE:

“Today was an embarrassment for us,” Obama said. He said he was “angry,” “disappointed” and “frustrated with myself” over the Daschle episode.

But the president claimed credit for appointing hundreds of “top notch” executive branch officials who have no tax problems.

The president continued:

Obama added, “I’ve got to own up to my mistake. Ultimately, it’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes.”

Some of President Obama's detractors have accused his supporters of idealizing him into some kind of "messiah". Yet here we see an honest, ethical man with the ability to admit to his mistakes. That is something we haven't seen in the White House since perhaps Jimmy Carter or Gerald Ford.

Separated at Birth?

This afternoon while watching the Superbowl on television, something about Steelers coach Mike Tomlin was strikingly familiar. It seemed like I had seen him before. I mentioned it to the lovely spouse, who said she thought the same thing. Then it came to her. Tomlin is almost a dead ringer for Omar Epps, co-star of the television series House. Epps portrays Doctor Eric Foreman on the Fox Network's hit series about a team of physicians who are half detective, half healer.

Indeed, that was it. Tomlin could be Epps' long lost twin. The resemblance is so strong that it seemed I was more familiar with Tomlin than I really was. But once we figured it out, it was obvious to us what caused the impression.

I am sure we are not the first to recognize the resemblance, but it is indeed there.

Polydactyl Baby

Most people think that their babies are pretty special, but a Daly City, California couple have one really special infant. Their newborn boy was born with a condition known as polydactyly, a condition where a person has extra digits. This little boy came factory equipped with twelve fingers and twelve toes. While polydactyly is not an extremely rare condition, the usual incidence is not fully-formed, fully-functional superfluous digits.

The baby's parents are wrestling with whether or not to have "corrective" surgery on the baby's hands and feet. It is a difficult decision, because the child is not having any malfunctions from it, but it would be to have the child conform to the expected norm. It reminds me of the episode of The Twilight Zone titled The Eye of the Beholder, where a young woman (played by Donna "Elly Mae Clampett" Douglas) was undergoing surgery to repair her "ugly" face. As it turns out, the surgery didn't take, and she was sent of to a colony to live with others who shared her condition. The twist was that she was beautiful when our standards are used, but the norm was that everyone else had misshapen, pig-snouted visages. What is normal can differ depending on expectations.

In this case, the decision needs to be made soon. The removal of extra fingers and toes yields the best results if done early, plus it would spare the child the trauma of being different in school. Still, I would be hard pressed to have such a thing done on perfectly fine digits.

Now there would be pluses and minuses to having at least an extra couple of fingers. Imagine how one could play the piano or perform typing with two extra fingers. However, buying gloves would be a bitch. I guess it would be mittens for sure.

The most interesting ponderable about this however, at least to me, is this...what if 12 fingers had been the standard, rather than ten? Would humans have established a duodecimal number system as the everyday base of mathematics rather than our current base-10 decimal system? When we use written notation for duodecimal numbers, it is customary to use the letter "A" for the nuber we call ten, and the letter "B" for our eleven. OF course, the notation "10" in duodecimal represents our "12?. But if we had naturally used a base-12 system, we would have established digits that uniquely represent those quantities. What would the extra two numeric representations have looked like?

More Chicken Fried Goodness

Last July, I posted an entry about a place in Texas that makes Chicken Fried Bacon, a heart attack waiting to happen. But I admit a great fondness for Chicken Fried Steak smothered in white gravy and topped by a few dashes of Frank's Hot Sauce or Tabasco. Now, I know full well that it isn't very good for me, so I don't have it very often. In fact, that was the feature in our cafeteria at work today, but instead I ate the shrimp cocktail I brought from home.

But tonight while surfing around the web, I found a site dedicated to the chicken fried foods of Texas. Chicken Fried Texas is a fairly new blog by a guy who is a fan of Chicken Fried Steak, and writes about his visits to the establishments that serve this dish. So far, he has reviewed restaurants in the greater Houston and Dallas areas. Some of these, I have been to myself (e.g. Black-Eyed Pea, Cracker Barrel, Grandy's). Another he mentions, the Saltgrass Steak House is based in Houston, but has a location right here in Parker. I have tasted their CFS, and let me tell you, it is freakin' huge! If you go, it is best to plan on sharing it.

When I lived in Houston there was a place that to this day made what I considered to be the very best Chicken Fried Steak ever. It was called Dirty's, and apparently it burned to the ground at some point. Too bad.

Also here in Douglas County, Colorado in the county seat of Castle Rock is the Castle Cafe. This place not only has some wonderful CFS, but also boasts Chicken Fried Chicken, as well as the best pan fried chicken you'll find anywhere.

But as much as I love these, after seeing my dad go through an emergency triple bypass last year, I am ever the more aware of limiting these kinds of meals. Why does everything good have to be bad for you?

If U Seek Not-So-Hidden Meanings

Every once in a while, a musician comes out with a song that causes trouble getting airplay on the radio because of questionable taste in lyrics. The Kingsmen song, Louie Louie, was one such song, even thought he published lyrics were quite innocent. As sung, they were a bit unintelligible, so many people thought they were risque, and many stations refused to play the record.

But it goes back further than that. Benny Bell, a Jewish-American comedian recorded songs with double entendre back in the 1940s, and had somewhat of a revival in the 1970s when Dr. Demento featured Bell's Shaving Cream on his show. The song took off, and was a hit all over again.

There was no hidden meanings in a few other I recall from my days in radio. Back when Elton John came out with the song, The Bitch is Back, Elton is belting out "I'm a bitch, I'm a bitch, oh the bitch is back", but the management at WCUM would not allow us DJs to announce the title of the song. If we wanted to, we could say "The Witch is Back".

Then there was the Pink Floyd song Money, which became a huge hit, but contained the words "bull shit". The record company issued a sanitized version for airplay that stretched out the syllable "bull" to fill the entire phrase. Of course, it no longer rhymed with the previous line "Money, it's a hit".

The most blatant song I recall was Star Star by The Rolling Stones from the album Goat's Head Soup. The song was about a groupie who, shall we say, was quite affectionate with the stars. The song repeated a version of the big, bad "f" word over and over in the chorus.

So now, we come to sweet, innocent Britney Spears (ha ha). Her album, Circus, has a song titled If U Seek Amy. Clear Channel Communications, one of the largest radio ownership groups, is playing a sanitized version of this song. What is wrong with it? Well, just say the lyrics out loud. The chorus has the line, "All of the boys, and all of the girls, are begging to if you seek Amy." Cute, huh?

This all is reminiscent of the false stories about Soupy Sales working dirty jokes into his children's television program in the 1960s.

Take Two

After Chief Justice John Roberts' high visibility flub of the Presidential Oath of Office at the Inaugural, President Obama summoned him to the White House last night to re-administer the oath. While not necessary, I guess the President wanted to silence any critics who would say he is not the legal president. Imagine that! After the nutty lawsuits alleging he was not born in Hawaii, I guess he wanted to be 100% accurate.

In actuality, while spelled out in the Constitution of the United States, the oath is a mere formality. The Twentieth Amendment means that Barack Obama became President of these United States at exactly noon on January 20th, oath or no oath.

Of course, there are now rightie blogs criticizing the President for not using a Bible in the retake. But the Bible is not a Constitutional requirement, nor is the phrase "So help me God". Nevermind that the Bible itself forbids swearing, stating that one should let their "yes be yes and their no be no".

I also briefly saw the swearing in of the White House staff by Vice President Biden yesterday. When they were supposed to "swear or affirm", rather than choosing one, they all said, "swear or affirm". It reminded me of the movie Animal House, where the pledges swore allegiance to the frat, and repeated verbatim, "I, state your name".

Anyone up for a Toga Party?

Change Has Come to America!

Congratulations President Obama and Vice President Biden!

Hot & Refreshing

I have never been one to drink alcoholic beverages, not because of any moral aversion, but merely because I never cultivated a taste for them. One thing I do like though, is a plain, spicy Bloody Mary mix, sans booze. The problem is that the mix contains the evil high-fructose corn syrup that is making us all fat. There is no need to have that ingredient, and I don't know why they put it in. So here is what I do.

Take a tall glass and drop in a few ice cubes. Then take a bottle of Frank's Red Hot cayenne pepper sauce (preferably the XTRA HOT variety) and give about 6-to-8 shakes into the glass. Then pour in the V-8 vegetable juice and stir. If you like, give a couple of shakes of salt and add a the juice of a lemon slice. That is some good refreshment that gives your taste buds a real tingle as well. Plus, it is very healthy and good for you.

I love it! As you can see from the photos, I have already partaken from these containers, both of which were opened brand new just last night. MMMMmmmmm!!

Linux Broadcasts

As a big proponent of the GNU/Linux operating system, I thought I would recommend a few broadcasts you can listen to on the Internet that deal with this great alternative to Microsoft Windows. This is a good way to listen and learn about how to use Linux and the benefits you can derive from it.

The Gutsy Geeks (originally PC Chat) airs on KXAM, AM 1310 in Phoenix, and worldwide via the Internet. You can listen live, or listen to the podcast of the show on demand. The other show, Going Linux, is strictly a podcast. It includes show notes available for each program on their website, and covers a wide variety of topics related to Linux. Then there's the Linux Basement, which currently has 34 installments under its belt.

There's also a new one that I intend to check out, Linux Geekdom. They are just getting started, so I will be downloading and listening soon.

With all the issues with Windows Vista, Linux is a valuable (and free) upgrade for your PC. My Gateway MT-3705 laptop was slow as molasses in Alaska when Vista was installed. By replacing it with Linux, it boots quickly, responds quickly, and does everything I need it to do with speed and finesse. I also have found that the Gnome desktop environment is much faster than KDE. While I like both, I am finding that Gnome is much more responsive. I am still using the PCLinuxOS distribution and find that it is meeting my needs very well.

The R&R and A Giant Shiny Moose

This morning, the lovely spouse and I decided to make a quick run down to Black Forest, Colorado to have breakfast and coffee at the R&R Coffee Cafe, owned by my good online buddy, Ryan, a fellow road geek who has a terrific blog dedicated to this fascinating hobby. Ryan's new bride, known as "The Ring" on his blog was there, along with other family members who all work at the coffee shop.

First, let me just say that the food was delicious. I had a wonderful burrito with eggs, potatoes, ham, and other yummy ingredients, and had some of their great sausage gravy on top. The LS had basted eggs and potatoes. And of course, the hand crafted care of their home-roasted coffee was evident in the flavor. I highly recommend a stop at the R&R for some great food and conversation. Even Ryan's little 6-year old sister-in-law was there, and she seemed to be enjoying all the folks enjoying the food, coffee, and live classic guitarist. She pulled up a chair and sat with us, engaging us in some interesting stories. Ryan has a great family, a terrific business, and I wish him all the best of success. It appears he is well on his way.

The trip down took us through the scenic pine forest surrounding the Black Forest community. Using Colorado 83 is not only more aesthetically pleasing than the longer route of going down Interstate 25, but it is also much less stressful. Beautiful vistas of Pikes Peak greet the southbound motorist along the way.

On the trip back, I saw something I had missed on the way down. In the community of Franktown, at the crossroads of Colorado 83 and Colorado 86, there was a shiny silver moose of gigantic proportions. It was at a business that sells those chain-saw carvings. I knew I had to take its picture, particularly since my oldest sister and I have had this thing about calling each other "Moose" since the early 1970s. I knew I had to take a picture of it. As always, click on the photo for a larger version.

A WHAT-Cologist?

This is just a short entry, but I found it quite funny. The lovely spouse told me about a man that works at her office, for whom English is a second language. One of his female employees had an appointment with her gynecologist, and while I don't know why, this came up in conversation, it apparently did. This man said in all seriousness, that his employee had to go see her "vaginacologist". WHAT???!!?

Now that may be a descriptive part of the job, but I don't think I have ever heard a doctor who deals with the female reproductive system called by that term. But in a weird sort of way, it seems quite appropriate. :-)

Whooooo's There?

One attribute I have developed over time is the sensitivity to things that are largely unnoticed by people rushing though life. Without this, you miss so much of the richness of life, the joy of little things. Last night is a case in point.

I was walking across the parking lot at work toward the garage where I had parked my car. It was fairly quiet, as most people had left, and the new fallen snow was muting the sounds in the air. Then I hear it...a gentle "whooo whooo whooo", repeating every little bit. It was a deeper voice than a dove, so I knew it must be an owl.

As I got closer to the garage, the sound got progressively louder. "Whooo whooo whooo". I start looking for where this is coming from, and I spied it. A large owl sitting on one of the parking lights on the top level of the garage. I walk up the stairs to the top tier and try to get a photo, with my small digital camera, but it is too dark and the parking light too bright to get a decent shot. I walked right up under the light pole with trepidation that the owl may not like my intrusion and decide to attack. But it didn't happen. I looked at the owl, he looked back down at me, but did not make any other moves. It was then I decided not to risk provoking him by staying to admire him too long. So I went down one level to my car.

As yesterday was the completion of my 56th journey around the sun, I was happy to receive this little birthday gift of an owl encounter from Mother Nature. So keep your eyes and ears open. You just never know what you will see next.