Tough day

An attorney arrived home late, after a very tough day trying to get a stay of execution. His last minute plea for clemency to the governor had failed and he was feeling worn out and depressed.

As soon as he walked through the door at home, his wife started on him about, ‘What time of night to be getting home is this? Where have you been? Dinner is cold and I’m not reheating it.” And on and on and on.

Too shattered to play his usual role in this familiar ritual, he poured himself a shot of whiskey and headed off for a long hot soak in the bathtub, pursued by the predictable sarcastic remarks as he dragged himself up the stairs.

While he was in the bath, the phone rang. The wife answered and was told that her husband’s client, James Wright, had been granted a stay of execution after all. Wright would not be hanged tonight. Finally realizing what a terrible day he must have had, she decided to go upstairs and give him the good news.

As she opened the bathroom door, she was greeted by the sight of her husband, bent over naked, drying his legs and feet.

“They’re not hanging Wright tonight,” she said.

He whirled around and screamed, “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WOMAN, DON’T YOU EVER STOP COMPLAINING?!”

House of Special Purpose

I watched all four or five episodes of the Netflix series The Last Czars yesterday. I give it mixed reviews. Were I to give it a rating I suppose three stars would suffice.  The acting was OK. I am bothered by the criticism in the IMDb reviews over the actor’s accents. My response is that the real personages spoke Russian, French, and more likely, German. What English accent the actors employ is not relevant.

I studied a bit about the days of the end of the Romanov Dynasty and the start of the Revolution back in college*. The senseless and brutal murder of the Royal family depicts the attitude of the Bolsheviks when it came to their ruthless acquisition of power. I was also interested to see the weird relationship with the Mad Monk Rasputin and the Royals explained.

More importantly, we see how an absolute Monarch failed to understand the changing world around him with disastrous consequences for the Twentieth Century.

* Black Night White Snow is a great history of the period. It is long and detailed, but reads like a novel while still presenting a fairly unbiased well-researched history. Sadly it is mostly only available used unless your local library has a copy.

My copy disappeared decades ago. I wouldn’t mind reading it again.

Sunday Pictures

December 2019

Winter sunrise from my backyard.

Fire all your guns at once

We dodged the weather bullet as freezing drizzle turned to a steady rain overnight. Rain continues to fall this morning in what appears to be a weather rerun from last weekend. So no snow so far for 2020.

I made a big pot of potato soup last night and served it up with BLT sandwiches. As usual, we ate way too much bacon. Leftover soup will provide our weekend lunches.

For once I know our plans for Saturday. We are babysitting this evening. I can live with that. I’ll pass the rest of the time with the same old routine: reading, watching old movies, napping. Yes life is boring around here.

Have a great Saturday. Here is a little Saturday cartoon to get your day started. Don’t just eat the marshmallows from your Lucky Charms while watching.

6600

This post marks a milestone. This is post 6,600 — albeit only 6503 published counting this one. Yes, I hear you asking aloud “ How bad must the unpublished work be if some of the other content made the grade?”. Yes.

Six thousand six hundred posts is a lot of words. No wonder my content is a bit suspect. You are as tired of my tales and opinion as my wife. Heck, one of the reasons I started blogging was for a place to vent, tell stories and opine to people who hadn’t heard it all a dozen times before. Now you are stuck getting a daily dose.

Sorry about that.

Learning to Fly

Deep within a forest a little turtle began to climb a tree. After hours of effort he reached the top, jumped into the air waving his front legs and crashed to the ground.

After recovering, he slowly climbed the tree again, jumped, and fell to the ground. The turtle tried again and again while a couple of birds sitting on a branch watched his sad efforts.

Finally, the female bird turned to her mate. “Dear,” she chirped, “I think it’s time to tell him he’s adopted.”

We had the Cold War all wrong

Was Nancy stoned at her press conference on impeachment yesterday? She was stumble mumbling about time and other nonsensical references. She topped off that less-than-erudite rambling with a celebratory signing, passing out souvenir pens to her cronies. I’m sure there were some high fives and stogies behind closed doors. Way to be classy, Democrats.

Boy o boy is the next Democrat President going to hate the new rules.

Unless that President is Bernie. His supporters say The Bern is going full Stalin, putting the Trumpers into Gulags and giving us all a dose of re-education. Don’t worry,  Bernie Bro assures us the Gulags weren’t that bad.

Mind you, this isn’t just tinfoil hat paranoia. This is Bernie’s own field reps calling for re-education camps.

Perhaps The Bern will be the one guy in history that can make Communism actually work. You gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet and if making communism works means imprisoning or killing a few hundred thousand capitalists, Christians, and conservatives, we’re all good.

Hey, maybe now that he is lead prosecutor in the Trump impeachment Schiff can trot out that Russia, Russia, Russia evidence he claims to have backing up the Steele Dossier.

I think now Cocaine Mitch should drag out the proceedings. Wait a week or two to start the Impeachment Trial in the Senate.  Push the trial right into the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire and Nevada Primaries. Put Bernie and the Cherokee Princess into choosing between their Senatorial duties or their political ambitions.

hunpity hump day

My wife's family tree must be a cactus because everybody on it is a prick.

Oh, quit. You’ll repeat it within 24 hours.

Four O’Clock and All is Well

Early. Check. Not a new story around here. Enough about that.

In Britain, the Royal family...nope. Don’t care.

I hope my coffee doesn’t poison me this morning. Apparently there was a pump failure up on the mighty White River and those of us in the North ‘burbs are under a “ boil your water before consuming “ order.  I didn’t boil my coffee water this morning because I forgot and two, I hope the heat of the Keurig kills whatever evil microbes in the water that are trying their utmost to get into my gut and breed. The thought of drinking water direct from the nasty White River gives me the willies. While not as polluted as the burning Cayuga Cuyahoga of Cleveland fame, the White River has plenty of issues.

Say, you want to come over for tea this afternoon?