Friday, December 31, 2010
To MEN IN BLACK everywhere, HAPPY NEW YEAR
Thursday, December 30, 2010
3 MONTHS AGO, and I can still taste it
The NEW QUEEN of WHITETRASHSYLVANIA
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
CHRISTMAS at the CASA de ORACLE
BECOMING YOUR OWN PARENTS
VELVETEEN RABBIT
Monday, December 27, 2010
WISEGUY
Sunday, December 26, 2010
I DON'T want to turn into my parents
TWITTER? Twittilation?
Saturday, December 25, 2010
ATTRACTIVE BLONDE on her way to SARASOTA
SARASOTA GOES DIGITAL
SIESTA KEY
TORTOISE TERRORISM
Friday, December 24, 2010
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE KITTY
INTERNET COMMON KNOWLEDGE
START ME UP
GOING ON WALKABOUT
Thursday, December 23, 2010
JOINT e-MAIL ADDRESSES
DON'T ASK DON'T LOOK
PUT THE "X" BACK IN CHRISTMAS
It is a common misconception that X-MAS as a substitute for Christmas is somehow a slap in the face to CHRISTIANITY. Actually, the "X" in X-mas is not "X" as in "solve for X the unknown variable" or "X as in X-men" it is "X' as in the symbol pictured here. Two greek letters, Chi (X) and Rho (p) were combined together to make Chi-Rho the symbol for Christ. While there is a certain secularization going on in America with Happy Holidays and Happy Kwanzaa replacing Christmas, and the X-mas form seems to play into that, it is really not secular.
FRIENDS, ROMANS, COUNTRYMEN....
GOOD MOTHERING
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING?
Monday, December 20, 2010
YOUR CHRISTMAS CARD
The THIRD WORLD
Sunday, December 19, 2010
MEDITERRANEO RESTAURANT in SARASOTA
DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL, DON"T TOUCH ME
Well, that does it. The Senate has finally voted (the house previously) to eliminate that pesky military policy that has been the law for 17 years..."Don't ask, don't tell" when it comes to gays serving in the United States military. From now on, once the president signs the new law, openly gay men and women will be able to serve in all the military branches. Mark my words, there will be some changes, changes you can believe in, starting with the before and after uniforms above. Not that the original Marine Corps (corpse to Mr. President) was ever all that butch what with the gold and red and blue but things are going to get even more interesting. I Understand that along with Martin Marietta, Haliburton, and American General (maker of the Humvee, which may take on a whole new meaning) there is a big government contract going out to Hunter-Douglas and Levolor. The Star Spangled Banner will be sung by Barbra Streisand. And the military "blouse (shirt for you civilians)" for women soldiers will be made of flannel.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
FEEDBACK
This Blog began 7 months ago in Nantucket as a way to express myself by writing to an audience. If you only write for yourself, then that is called a journal or a diary. This medium, blogging, is a tremendous leap of faith. If you write a book, you have sales numbers. Go on TV and you have a Nielsen rating. Newspapers have circulation numbers. When you tell a joke at a table, people either laugh or they don't. You get what is known as feedback. Regardless of who you are, feedback is important. A woman at a fashionable event like a black-tie Ball, enjoys positive comments about her dress, hair, shoes, or purse. An athlete enjoys having people line up to get an autograph. Performers live for applause, even when they have more money than Fort Knox.... Mick Jagger, for example.
INSERTIONS (......)
Belonging to a private yacht and tennis club is very nice. Not that I/We play at yachting or tennis but we do eat there a lot. Every month they mail out a bulletin. It is filled with articles about the club that most people would not read...UNLESS...there were something in it for them like a picture of them, a complimentary review of their tennis prowess, or...the best of all...an insertion of the name and membership number of a club member (where's Waldo) into the text of one of the articles. This forces members to read every word in the hope that they will find their name and win a free bottle of wine.
CATWOMAN, aka Aunt MAE
PLASTIC
Osama bin Rudolph
Monday, December 13, 2010
GIRLS CANT BE TRUSTED
I MISS the ICE RINK in NANTUCKET
CHICK FOOD
I WONDER WHY TRAFFIC IS SO SLOW TODAY?
Sunday, December 12, 2010
EMILY POST ....Who?
Emily Post is famous for writing a book of rules about what is right and what is wrong from the standpoint of etiquette. She has dictated to generations of people rules about wedding invitations, thank you notes, bringing a gift when visiting a friend's home, and the like. I am not very conscious of these things but fortunately my wife, The Kitty, and my daughter are up to speed on these things. For my part, I have an almost pathological resistance to rules like these and have frequently told the following joke…”Why do Junior Leaguers dislike Orgies? All those thank-you notes to write.”
I am aware of the reasons behind Emily Post. It was not just about doing the socially correct thing, it was about taking a moment to consider the feelings of others regardless of how busy you are. Emily codified this by implying that you were an uncivilized clod if you did not immediately and forthwith send a thank you note for a gift received, for example, a wedding present. With the casual nature of the internet today where “I” isn’t even capitalized (as if we were all little e.e. cumming clones) and it is considered an imposition to have to open and read a “thank-you” reply and of course Txtng, I mean texting… it won’t be long before we eliminate all niceties from our lives.
Does this mean that we will also be eliminating caring about the feelings of others? Folks who may or may not have spent time picking out your present, in person, with an eye toward what they think you would like rather than something from the first table they reach at Home Goods? Or, more likely, a REGIFT from their “gift closet”? I don’t know. Maybe it’s just the way things are today. I go into the bank and the teller, who looks like a high school junior, calls me not Mister or Doctor but simply... Phil. I spend time selecting a gift for a hypothetical friend who loves Ferraris by not just going to Macy’s for a tie but running by the Ferrari dealership when I am in Miami to get a Red hat or an auto related trinket, whatever. Meanwhile my hypothetical friend might get me a CD of Barbra Streisand’s Greatest Hits. WTF? I know a lot about fashion, and window treatments but I am not really Gay. How am I supposed to react when it is painfully apparent that No thought went into a gift I was given? One of my favorite gifts of all time, other than from my Aunt Mae (future blog) was a pewter Volkswagen Beetle model that my friend gave me for my birthday. It is prominently displayed on my library shelf and I have made provisions for it in my will. Class will tell.
Finally, I write this BLOG. After I write it, I link it to many of my e-mail contacts so that they might read it and perhaps, drop me a short line in an e-mail or text, saying “You can’t write, give it up.” Or, “I loved the one about the frog.” Anything. But, alas, I guess this is a subject that is not covered in Emily Post. Maybe I should quit the blog business and write a book entitled “A Guide to Etiquette in the Internet Age.” I fear that it would not be a great seller, which reminds me of the story about the man who said “I was going to buy the book The Power of Positive Thinking, but then I said to myself, What good would that do?”