It was 40 years ago today...

June 1st, 1967, The Beatles told the world “It was 20 years ago today, Sgt. Peppers taught the band to play”. That was 40 years ago June 2nd for the American release and the Band is still playing in the hearts and minds of millions of followers worldwide.

Liverpool’s “The Quarrymen” become Beatles set out to make a truly artistic album and 129 days and $75,000 later; they recorded Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. The year was late 1966-early 1967 and they used a then state-of-the-art 4-track recorder to tediously record an album that stayed on the top of the charts (#1) for 15 straight weeks. The album has sold in excess of 10 million copies and as of today, ten million and one. I went to Wal-Mart and bought the CD…again.

700 hours of recording went into this endeavor which Rolling Stone magazines says is the “most important rock and roll album ever made” and rated it number one out of the top 500 albums ever produced. “A day in the life” is stated as the most complex song on the album, took 5 days to record. 5 days? Its amazing single piano chord at the end was actually done using 3 pianos and 5 people, including a roadie named Mal Evens.

This album set the Beatles on a course far different than the Ed Sullivan version, America had become accustomed to. The Fab Four were all in disguise as a fictitious Sgt. Peppers Band and the album cover was clustered with characters most people recognized. W.C. Fields, Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Mae West, Carl Jung and even a garden gnome graced the crazy cover. Back in the day, virtually all buyers of L.P.’s spent hours gazing at the album art and this one beat anything we’d ever seen.

This particular album was the first to include a complete lyrics list, something we’ve all came to expect in the Internet age and Dolby Noise Reduction, still the standard for excess noise reduction in recorded sound.

This pivotal album, in the late 60’s was as much a part of our lives as was the space race, race riots and the Vietnam War. The 60’s! Wow! What an overload of emotions, trauma and turmoil America was immersed in. Political figures and civil rights leaders were dying right alongside friends and neighbors in the Vietnam War. Drugs, sex and rock & roll at the Woodstock Music Festival were in the news and yes, L.S.D.

Folks think this country is wild in 2007. They compare it to the hippie/Vietnam days. They either didn’t live through the 60’s, or they have forgotten. The 60’s were like a volcano in comparison to today’s bottle rockets. Mystical sounding Indian sitar music floated through the head-shops, filled with incense smoke, lava lamps and black-lights. On the walls were neon glowing posters of the wildest pictures of Kama-Sutra poses and misquoted scripture.

“Peace-Love-Dope!” cried many and to quote keyboardist Ray Manzarek of the band -The Doors “We were right about the peace and love, but we missed it on the dope part”. Back to Sgt. Peppers, the famous song Lucy in the sky with Diamonds no doubt is in reference to LSD, at least we all thought so. “Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile, the girl with kaleidoscope eyes”. Yea, it’s LSD, alright. Trust me…

Joe Cocker was given the song “A little help from my friends” by the Beatles, to help him get on his feet and we all know where that went. “When I’m 64” was about an age so far in the future that many of us haven’t reached it yet, but Paul has and so has Ringo. John Lennon and George Harrison, if they had lived, would both have passed the 64 mark also.

Find someone my age who can’t sing most of “A day in the life” and I’ll be surprised. “Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head – found my way downstairs and drank a cup, and looking up, I noticed I was late…”

Many people expressed alarm with Sgt. Pepper’s and the next album “Magical Mystery Tour”, but my generation saw them as the future and indeed they were, as the early 70’s is still considered the golden age of rock and roll. However, most people forget it was the Beatles who started it all and I predict, when Paul and Ringo finally pass on to the next life, there will be Beatlemania again in America and around the world.

Oh, by the way, the member identified as the one and only Billy Shears in the opening song of Sgt. Pepper’s? It was Ringo Starr…

How to get back at the oil companies!

Let's boycott ______ gas!

Fill in the blank with whatever oil company you own the least amount of company stock in.

I can't imagine how the escalating price of gasoline is catching anyone by surprise. The same people, who opt for a fancy-schmancy largish poor mileage vehicle, when a smaller more economical vehicle would have done the trick, have no one to blame, but themselves, in my not so often humble opinion – okay, it's rarely humble, I know.

At what point does a person wake up and decide a lifestyle change is in order, when it comes to a vehicle CHOICE? I came to Texas in 1970 in a 1968 Shelby GT-350, burning rubber and grabbing gears every chance I got, but I drive a 4-banger compact car now which gets 35mpg and it can't pop a wheelie to save its young life. If I had my druthers, I'd still be driving the Mustang or my lifted Jeep TJ with 33" mud-terrain tires, that got 12 mpg, but the price of gasoline and the gawd-awful waste of revenue, which accompanies it, make it not worth the final cost.

The solution is so obvious; I don't even have to put a pencil to it.

If a person decides to buy one of these giant gas-guzzling/high performance/ low mileage vehicles and gas prices jump straight up till it hurts their wallet, it's there own danged fault. Sorry, but that's the way I see it. Blaming a car company, an oil company or even the government for our gas woes puts the fault/burden on them and not on us, but doesn't change the fact that we empower those people by our stupid addiction to low mileage/high horsepower vehicles. I want a lot of things I don't buy, because I see the liability side to the purchase.

Now granted, a rare breed of people still exist who cannot afford to drive a Tahoe with 20's, or an Escalade (but not many based on personal observation) and to those folks, I apologize. I've been there and not all that long ago. I drove whatever I could get and many times it wasn't all that economical.

One of the Internet myths that pops up every time gas prices head sharply up, is the boycott Exxon-Mobil for one day, or as I wrote above (fill in the blank). It doesn't work folks and you will do yourself and everyone else a favor by letting this myth die a quiet death.

Sure if enough people banded together and quit buying gas from an oil company, it would deal a blow to their profits, but one day's abstinence only means a busy day before and a busy day after for the folks that work there.

If you really, really want to make a difference in how much gas cost YOU - you have to buy less. Absolutely amazing Bert. You're a fricken genius…you know that? Yes, sometimes I think I am, but it's leavened by embarrassing moments of personal stupidity. I do however have this one figured out.

Carpool. Yes, I said the 7-letter curse word. But for every time you ride in someone else's car, you save money (another genius moment right there). Make sure your tires are properly inflated (read the sticker on the inside of the drivers door, not necessarily the side wall of the tire). Don't make unnecessary trips in your car – make a list and get everything done in one trip, if possible. Ride together instead of everyone enjoying the American luxury of independence. Wow! Ka-ching-arino! Money in the bank, baby!

I want to share a philosophy I have attempted to impress on my bride for many years and I not only believe it - I practice it. "It's more fun to make money, than to spend it". Giving less money to the gas station attendant (as far as I know, you have to drive to New Jersey to find a real attendant) is way more satisfying than hocking your golf clubs just to fill up the Hemi M1 Abrams.

Who in their right mind would spend most of their remaining paycheck, just so they could "style" back and forth to work? Nobody cares what we drive, haven't you noticed? We only impress ourselves with all this extravagance. Not too many years ago, the parking lot at work was full of "work trucks". Cash in the titles on those trucks today and you could put New Orleans back on its feet. Most of these guys live 30-80 miles from the Plant and their 4X4, diesel, ¾ or one ton, 4 door pick-em-up trucks or 1800 cc motorcycles eat up a goodly portion of their spendin' money every week.

We're doing it to ourselves folks. I wish we could hurt big oil, but then again, my oil company stock might fall off and I'd take a huge loss.

Have I Lost My Dream?

I was sitting in my heavily congested library/computer room, which I call the Orbiting Command Ship Central (known to my friends and family as the OCSC) one day, talking to a friend of mine. He teaches higher math over at REL High School, something that is a mystery to me and I hold him in high regard. I call him Ike, but his given name is Jared Eikhoff. He looks young to me, but I guess his students call him, Mr. Eikhoff.

Ike is a deep thinker and when I say deep, I’m talking Mariana Trench deep. Mr. Eikhoff treasures knowledge over material accumulation. I can’t help but think he would make a terrific Zen Buddhist monk warrior because of his minimalist philosophies. However, he’s not the warrior type at all as far as I can tell and is always pondering complicated subjects most guys his age haven’t discovered.

“Gazing through the window at the world outside
Wondering will mother earth survive
Hoping that mankind will stop abusing her sometime”

Ike occasionally drops by and graces me with his presence. I always feed him of course, just as I would any other monk, but that’s not why he comes by, I’m sure. He wants to discuss ideas and philosophies and pick my weathered brain and to be sure, he picks it. I’ve watched this fellow since his middle school days and he is one of my favorites. He’s a long time running buddy of my son, Sgt. Nick.

I see so much promise and potential in Ike (and in the young people I know through my children) and call it sanctimonious if you will; I want to impart traditional conventions to him. My usual modus operandi is to challenge their line of reasoning and make them defend it. Ike inhales knowledge at an astounding rate, always has, but as I’ve told him many times, it’s not the acquiring of knowledge that makes a person a great thinker; it’s the sorting and sifting - and resifting of knowledge that determines how well you think.

I worry that Ike dwells too much on things he can’t change. I worry that he ponders stuff better left to old codgers, like myself.

Ike visits me in the OCSC and we usually talk for a few hours before he is satiated. Many young deep thinkers, like Ike, in their search for knowledge, end up turning to the gods of the cosmos (the Beatles), or mind-expanding drugs (Timothy Leary) to further their enlightenment and in the end, they realize conventional wisdom was in front of them all.

“After all there's only just the two of us
And here we are still fighting for our lives
Watching all of history repeat itself
Time after time”

Ike teaches me also; it’s not a one-way exchange.

One evening, the one I mentioned in the first paragraph, Ike posed me a conundrum. I had been busy challenging him to forget about the destruction of the world, rampant consumerism and Capitalism unchecked and to go out and enjoy his young life and he looked me in the eye and said, “Well, what exactly do you do for to rid yourself of your inner demons?” That’s not his exact words, but close enough.

Why…I had an answer; I always have an answer, but the truth was, I didn’t have an answer. I still don’t have an answer.

“I watch the sun go down like everyone of us. I'm hoping that the dawn will bring a sign
A better place for those who will come after us ...This time”

“All you do is work and study. When do you play? Where’s the balance in your life?” he said.

So…the teacher of the student/monk/teacher became the student. It’s the full circle thingy or deja vu all over again, whichever suites you best. Jared Eikhoff gives me hope in the future. My parent’s generation worried about my generation and I’m sure they thought we would fail miserably. It’s time for me to rediscover my dream and see the world through the eyes of a young man again. Life does have a bright future after all.

“Today, I'm just a dreamer, who dreams of better days”

* Dreamer by Ozzy Osbourne

The Empty Tomb

At 54 years old, I’ve never suffered the devastating loss of a loved one. I think I know what suffering is though, as I see and feel it from people who have. The deep wound of lingering pain and loss reoccurs every year on the anniversary date, so it never really heals. Their tragic loss emanates from them and affects everything they do.

I know my time is coming and I know I will handle it poorly. However, this column today is not about me, it is for all those wounded souls who have lost a loved one due to war and the effects of war.

As the dad of a boy, become man, who went off to war and was wounded in action, I have to believe that serving our nation is still an honorable thing. I truly believe in this country, still believe in the message the American flag intended and I am still proud to be an American. I hope that never changes. I love this country.

War is horribly ugly. Even so called honorable and patriotically justifiable wars become ugly after they drag on and on and on. Go back to the early 90’s when our “quick war” Desert Storm ended and American flags lined the neighborhood streets. Returning from the Arabian Gulf, Petty Officer, First Class Claudius Joseph sailed into port, dressed in his Navy whites, to cheering tens of thousands and he told me it was the most wonderful experience of his young life.

Americans were proud of our military might. It was a great day to be an American!

Patriotism was at an all time high in this country and if by chance, Claude would have been killed “over there”, folks would have honored him as a fallen American hero, never doubting for a second, that his sacrifice was honorable and – an acceptable loss and the price of freedom. No one would have dared call his sacrifice a waste. Not openly anyway.

Our country is in a terrible period of confusion – a crossroad. We’ve been at war over four years now and folks are weighing the cost and rightly so. It is our duty to question our leaders. History will tell us if it was worth the cost, but for now I, as a returning Vietnam Veteran can tell you, the G.I. will be the loser in this current state of argument – and the thousands of parents and family who have lost a son, or daughter.

Out in Beach City, PFC. Wesley Riggs’s family and friends will face the dreadful uncertainty that people will regard their son’s loss…as a total waste. It wasn’t. I don’t. I feel for them. I feel their loss. No sacrifice of our children, brothers, sisters, moms, or dads is ever “for nothing” in wartime. It’s war and even though war is awful, its participants are not. May God bless and continue to comfort our fallen and their families.

War is fought by leaders of countries and they all become unpopular – all of them. This war is no different. We as a country are slowly turning our dissatisfaction with the war into a dissatisfaction of the soldier, marine, sailor, coastie or airman. Their sacrifice should not be in vain. If you doubt for a second that this is happening, look around and see how many cars have the yellow ribbon on them, as opposed to even a year ago. Support is waning and that always trickles down to the troops.

War is indeed senseless and stupid and if everyone would just get along, we could do away with conflict altogether. Utopia, yes! What a great place! Its heaven and not this earth and this earth will never suffer world peace, but will stay in conflict till the end of its orbiting days. Our military members, sons and daughters, loved ones and those who fall in wartime should always be put on the pedestal of honor and remembered for their sacrifice. Politics, partisan or otherwise should never dictate whether their loss was honorable. It was and still is honorable for a soldier to defend their country. It’s the politician and the voter’s responsibility to insure our country stays on the right track.

The empty tomb that resides in the hearts of the parents, family and friends will dull with time, but they will continue to lay flowers at its door. Sanctioning the loss of their loved one depends on the support of their countrymen. Fill that void with prayers and your personal support.

Throughout the next year, say a kind word to them and let them know their loss was not in vain.

Computers, Puters and ugh…More Computers!

I have an ongoing love/hate relationship with computers. The majority of the time, I’m somewhere in between. I have a long computer ownership history to draw from and that can amount to a lot of lovin’ and hatin’.

I purchased my first home computer in 1981 from Don Trumps, my church’s secretary/treasurer. Don brought the church’s books into the digital age by purchasing a Tandy TRS-80 (better known later as the Trash-80) and when he upgraded to the next available computer model, sold me the TRS-80.

While in the Air Force, I operated a giant computer console called a “Remote Input Device” and it was hard-wired to the Base main-frame, so when home computers first became available, I just had to have one.

The TRS-80 had no hard drive or RAM and operated off a large floppy disk. The operating system on my particular model wasn’t anything like Windows 95, Vista, XP or Win 98, but something called TRS-DOS. It was all code and when you booted up the computer, all you saw was a blank screen with this: C:/> and it blinked, or something, I can’t really remember.

DOS was an acronym for Disc Operating System and back then everything a computer user did was in DOS. DOS is still handy, believe it or not and recently I had to break out my trusty “DOS for Dummies Quick Reference” book, so I could move around in the Windows Recovery environment. I shook my head and could not for the life of me remember how to back up one level in a directory (which everyone knows is CD..). Sheesh!

Since I’ve owned somewhere around a bazillion computers since my first one, I’ve become quite adept at ridding them of problems, building PC’s from components, upgrades, replacing defective hardware and upgrading software. At any given time I have a couple in the queue awaiting repairs.

Each one is unique in what it needs, but one thing can be applied to 95% of them and it’s a saying we are all familiar with: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. For every computer I work on that has a hardware failure, I have 25 that the only problem they are experiencing is infection. Viruses, malware, spyware, Trojan horses, et al - ad nauseum, are hanging out on every corner, just waiting to grab onto your Internet browsing good time and trash your machine.

To the more worldly customers I ‘splain it like this: “you can’t go downtown and party without protection and expect to walk away uninfected”. It gets the point across right quick.

It’s only been about the last 3-4 years that I ran a firewall or anti-virus protection and the odds are most geeky types didn’t either. We knew where to go and how to get in and out unscathed, but those days are so long gone I now run 3 firewalls and have 17 layers of protection… Some stuff still gets through, but none of it is serious.

Friends, family members, coworkers and referrals drop off their machines and this is where the “I hate computers!!!” (with an exasperated & whining voice) begins to roil out of me. Most infections come in through gaming sites. What? You mean it’s not porn sites??? Nope, it’s my experience they come in through the free and innocuous poker, online games sites.

One time at work, a friend asked me in front of his buddies if I figured out what was wrong with his computer. I had just received it the day before and the truth was, I hadn’t even looked at it yet, but I got a hurt look on my face and proclaimed “Wow! Your PC is ate-up with porn, dude”! He kind of looked down and mumbled “Well, I may have looked at a little”. Ha ha! I then admitted, I hadn’t looked at his computer and we all had a laugh. Maybe I should have been a tough cop.

His computer had lots of icons on the desktop, pointing to the poker Texas Hold Em-type web sites and programs and that is where he had actually became infected. Most PC’s I work on have enough infection that it takes a bit of time to straighten them out, but a few are so badly infected, I should just wipe them clean and start over…but I usually don’t; I just trudge along and clean them up. The record so far is somewhere around 1300 spybots, and viruses.

I usually work for hours pulling peoples computers back from the edge and then undercharge them. Last year I put 14 computers, keyboards, monitors and mice into the hands of folks who otherwise couldn’t afford one and it all came from donations and spare parts. I’ve set up a web site just to help people protect their PC’s and its here: http://baytownbert.us/program.html – that’s the love of computers side of me.

Remember this, if you don’t remember anything else: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Mothers Special Day

A young girl awakens and rushes downstairs to be the first in the house to check on the new baby kittens. Momma cat gently lifts her paw, so the girl may pet the new babies and then licks her fingers. The future mother watches how momma cat nurtures the kittens without realizing she will one day, use the same natural sense of caring on her own babies.

While waiting for the school bus, she hears a little bird cheeping frantically and discovers it hiding under a bush. One of her brothers wants to give it to the cat, but she does everything in her power to return it to its nest. Only when it’s safe, can she allow herself to catch the bus and then, reluctantly. After school, she checks on the baby bird, only to find it gone and she cries all the way home.

She comforts herself with her dolls, attempting to save them from future trouble. She doesn’t know why she feels so strongly; she just knows its real. She’s given eachdoll a name and they are her charge. She develops a profound sense of motherhood towards these “babies”, which her brothers think is “stupid”. She doesn’t care; she does what she must.

As the dolls are slowly replaced by an interest in “boys’, the budding woman takes on new interests and secreting begins the nurturing motions on her boyfriend, who overtime, morphs into her husband. The happy day arrives when her husband and her celebrate a baby of their own and the boy who became man, is just as helpful as he was when he saw the kittens and the baby bird.

Not so our lady, become mother. She spent a lifetime observing and imitating her mother and although she swore she would do things her own way, years later repeats her mother’s words and actions verbatim. She was born to nurture and there is no greater love in this life, than a mother’s love for her own child. Men love their children and they love them deeply, but when a child is hurting or in real need, they want Mom, Momma, Madre, Ma or Mother. Plain and simple – only Mom will do.

Mothers are housekeepers and they are nurses. They are teachers, detectives, inventory management specialists and accountants. Mothers can do more in four hours than the rest of their family can do in eight. Mom cooks delicious and nutritious food and bakes yummy cookies and cakes. If you hurt yourself, mom becomes mommy and she administers the best kind of treatment – the kind with compassion and genuine
concern. Mom kisses your bo-bos and it does make it feel better.

Mom is a disciplinarian when we force her to become one, but she also holds our parole papers in a loose grip. Mom has the power to intercede for us when Dad is ready to lower the hammer and Mom will back down other mothers when we’re falsely (maybe yes or maybe no) accused. Mothers cry when we do things we shouldn’t. My mother cried a lot.

Mothers laugh is a full symphony of wonderful music to our ears. When Mom is happy, everyone else is too. However, when Ma goes on the warpath, it’s time to circle the wagons. Mom comes through better than anyone on birthdays, Christmas, Easter and Halloween! Mom makes sure each of us get more than our share of everything. Mom looks out for us. Moms are great!

Mothers can keep secrets too, so they’re a veritable vault of information and wisdom. And you better listen to her too. She knows. She gardens because it’s the art and passion of raising things and guess what? Her garden is beautiful and full of sweet smelling flowers.

Yes friends, Moms are all right in my book. They are worth their weight in gold and if by chance, just if they are a bit chubby, that’s okay too. Just pay the extra.

Happy Mother’s Day, Moms; you truly are extra special.

Beating a Smoking Dead Horse?

Everything in my psyche (which as everyone knows is: That which is responsible for one's thoughts and feelings; the seat of the faculty of reason and of course: The immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life) tells me to write about what is really on my mind at the time I type this present column. Smoking in restaurants is not what is on my mind.

But…this Saturday’s special vote on the smoking issue is an item which will directly affect the future of Baytown and I feel it is in the best interest of everyone in this blue-collar town, to consider all options before we cast our vote in the local election.

To recap my last article, I voted FOR Proposition One (concerning Smoking in public places) even though I detest cigarette smoke and avoid it when possible. I acknowledge that smoke of any kind is a potential health risk. I recognize smoking in this country kills a lot of people each year, something like four hundred thousand. I realize well-intentioned people with letters behind their names also throw around “facts” like they were indeed facts and use position to force people to vote away inherent American rights.

I also realize the constant bombardment against smokers through litigation and rapidly changing civic restrictions is going to boomerang and cause smoking to revive amongst those who wish to rebel against parents and civic responsibility. Then there is the black market and organized crime which will feed the smokers vice through illegally manufactured cigarettes.

The eagerness of well-intentioned anti-smoking zealots to stop smokers from polluting our atmospheric space is commendable from a health aspect, but not when it concerns reducing our rights as citizens to operate a legal place of business. Smoking is not illegal.

“Smoking IS allowed in this business – Enter at your own risk”.

Now there’s a sign we should adopt instead of forcing all businesses to exclude smoking. In the meantime, educate the masses (especially the age-old activist handle - THE CHILDREN!). God save the children! God save the earth! God save the environment!

I love children (well, I am a cranky old dude and tolerate well-behaved children only). I do believe children should be protected and that is where the signs come in. Parents will tell their children why they don’t eat at this establishment, over another because they allow smoking…or vice versa.

Let’s look at my personal history on smoking the long leaf.

I grew up in mostly a one car family with two smoking parents. We five kids complained constantly when our parents smoked in the car and we always had cigarette smoke wafting around us like fairy dust on a…Hobbit. Most likely because my parents smoked, I grew up a smoker also, starting my tobacco-inhaling career at the ripe age of seven and as I’ve stated many times, by the time I was eleven, I always had a pack of cigarettes on my person.

By the time I was seventeen; I was a one-pack a day serious tobacco herfer and when the smoke finally cleared around the age of twenty, because I quit cold turkey as it was no longer fun, amongst other things. I replaced smoking with another healthier addiction – karate and jogging!

Over the many years since 1972, I jogged hundreds, if not thousands of miles and done about a bazillion sidekicks and secret martial arts mystery stuff in this town. Rolling along the smogged/benzene-laden streets of Baytown, I’ve pedaled my bicycle untold miles, all the while gulping the pollution filled atmosphere with total abandon. Until the last few years, I’ve spent thousands of hours in smoke-filled control rooms inside the chemical plant, where I am employed.

Here are my questions and I throw them out for those that deem Baytown’s environment so hostile to the general public: Why do my pulmonary tests, which I’m required to take each year reveal I have above the national average healthy lung results? If first and second hand smoke and the god-awful filthy pollution-laden Baytown air are silently killing me, why don’t I see it in the tests I have? Here is my answer: It’s because I’ve taken steps to keep my lungs clear through cardiovascular exercise. I’ve educated myself on the adverse effects of pollution and smoke and because of this, I have clear lungs.

Americans do not need more laws to prevent them from doing harm to them; they need education and possibly a strong dose of get off the couch and exercise. Then there are those who just want to smoke and I say, let them smoke. It is America after all.

Should Baytown relight the smoking lamp?

There are few events that can divide a city like voting on controversial subjects. Citizens feel passionate about their preferences and I think the whole democratic process is wonderful. Politics and policies should be heartfelt - heartfelt enough to get folks arguing and ultimately, to voting. The more information a person digests, the better their decision will be.

Well, after much soul searching, I early voted on E. Baker at Remington Park. I voted FOR Proposition One concerning revoking the ban on cigarette smoking inside businesses. I hate smoking, let me make that clear, but I had to vote in favor of Free Enterprise, or as it’s better known - Capitalism.

My daughter questioned me on why I voted for the proposition and intends to vote against it. I laid out the concept of business ownership in America and she suddenly could see it made sense. It will be up to her on how she votes though and after making my argument; I did not attempt to dictate how she should vote.

One person spoke out in defense of the present ban, claiming property owners at one time used free enterprise rights to exclude black people from using their facilities. Allowing a business owner to operate their business within the laws is NOT the same as violating civil rights based on color, creed or sexual preference and the civil rights act of 1964 corrected the bias’ they were referring to.

Let’s take a look at Capitalism and Free Enterprise. What is it exactly and how does it apply to the situation we have in Baytown?

Free Enterprise is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit, and in which investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market where all decisions regarding transfer of money, goods and services are voluntary rather than commanded by government. It is usually considered to involve the right of individuals and groups of individuals acting as "legal persons" or corporations to trade capital goods, labor, land and money.

Free Enterprise is the freedom to operate a business (within the law) without government interference. Our system of sales and barter is set up on this system and it works quite well. Frankly, the less government interference, the better it works.

Smoking is not illegal for Americans of legal age and government(s) should not dictate when a private business owner allows legal smoking. Obviously, marijuana falls into illegal smoking. They can however, dictate a proper ventilation system to protect non-smokers. It should be a no-brainer, but the current obsession with politically correctness, has made smoking (period) controversial. I am against criminalizing smoking/using tobacco, but I am for more education on the subject.

I can't remember the last time I walked into a restaurant and smelled cigarette smoke, but I have had fajita smoke all over me. For the love of god folks, I smelled like fajitas for about an hour after I left the place. In fact...it was second-hand fajita smoke! There was an infant child in that restaurant and I’d be willing to wager, they had smoke on them too! Where is a lawyer when you need one?

See where this could go? To me, the whole subject of banning tobacco could set off a domino block of smell and supposed health concerns in future litigation and business establishment restrictions, rules and ultimately, yes…fines. Here’s another exaggerated scenario:

An entrepreneur opens up a Pakistani restaurant and the pungent odor of curry fills the air. Someone complains and starts a movement to rid the town of curry-laced restaurant air. I have the actual solution and it’s common sense. If curry bothers you (it's not illegal), don't go in there, or appeal to the owner. What if .00014 per cent of the population is allergic to curry? Should the local government get involved and attempt to ban it? Wouldn’t it be better for the business owner to post a sign that plainly states that “curry sniffing” is allowed and in fact, encouraged at the establishment? Savvy sign-reading patrons could then make an educated choice about dining at this particular restaurant.

If the business owner decides to allow cigarette smoking inside their establishment, then THEY should be allowed to do so, even if it means conforming to the Health/Safety regulations at great cost to them and even if it means keeping a certain portion smoke-free. And yes, even if it means alienating every person who cannot abide, even a small amount of second hand smoke and losing their business. On the other hand, a business owner should have the final say on posting NO Smoking signs for their business, without fear of litigation.

It's their problem, not mine, or even the city of Baytown’s. It's free enterprise and said business is competing with other businesses for my business. If I don't like their decisions concerning their smoking policy, I can exercise my option to boycott and take my business elsewhere.

I’ve said from the very beginning of this entire anti-smoking hubbub, that there is more at stake here than just smoking. The responsible thing to do, is become and stay informed - and then vote your conscience.

Let’s Go Green, Even if it Snuffs America!

Who among us is well versed concerning the Kyoto Protocol? If you stopped to buy a burger and Jay Leno stuck a microphone through the window of your car and asked “What is the Kyoto Protocol”? What would you say? Would you get a stupid look on your face and shrugging your shoulders say “Uh, I dunno”, or would you look directly into the camera and inform the late night crowd of the particulars?

Hey! It’s about saving the earth, stupid Americans! Geeze, get with it and join the Europeans!

“The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, assigning mandatory emission limitations for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to the signatory nations”.

It’s been ratified by almost every country on earth, except Australia and…gulp…the United States of America! What? Why?

“The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Countries that ratify this protocol commit to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases”.

Ratification is the process of adopting an international treaty, so even though the USA has signed the agreement, it hasn’t adopted, or put it into practice.

Hey! It’s about saving the earth from arrogant and wasteful Americans! Uh, does that mean me and you?

Gee, I wonder why America isn’t playing ball with the U.N. anymore (not really, I know why). Ratifying the Kyoto Protocol would turn us into a third world country. It would basically make the United Nations our Government and I’m going to be one of the first to stand up and say I, as an American, do not want us playing second fiddle to anyone, let alone a council filled with world leaders who hate America

Everything Bill Clinton compromised to the United Nations was nullified by George W. Bush’s insistence of putting America’s interest first. Can you believe our current President would side against progress, just so we American workers can keep our jobs? What about the staving Ukrainians? How about those little people in Namibia who don’t own an X-Box 360?

If we ratify the Kyoto Protocol, you can kiss your 4X4 Diesel 4-door pick-em-up truck goodbye, right along with your lawn mower, bass boat, ATV, RV, etc., etc…if the United Nations through it’s Kyoto Protocol, says so.

We are a leading industrial nation and we do enjoy our automobiles, even if they are polluters. We need to adjust the way we drive and the kind of vehicles we decide to buy, not the United Nations. We have the right to pursue our own happiness without some yahoo from a foreign country dictating what that freedom is.

If you want to help remove greenhouse gasses, plant a tree or a garden. They breathe carbon dioxide and expel oxygen. We breathe oxygen and expel carbon dioxide. It’s a match made in heaven.

I think it’s time folks became aware of a catch phrase, dedicated effort known as Sustainable Growth or Development. “Sustainable development is the process of balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the Natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future”.

In other words, it is the micromanagement of the Earth by well-intentioned folks, who are doing everything it their power to balance human activity for the long haul, even if it means one world government manipulation of the United States of America by foreign leaders – read the United Nations.

Think back to the 1960’s and Planned Parenthood. This is a perfect example of Sustained Growth. We in high school were warned that the earth was becoming over-populated and it was suggested we responsible young people take action to never have children. I remember it well and even questioned my mother about possibly getting a vasectomy.

She was shocked that I would consider this at such an early age and told me very good advice. She said that this is something my future bride and I should decide and not something I should do because I wanted to help the Earth’s population problem.

Over-populating the Earth was the big thing in the news back then and now, it is hardly mentioned by alarmists. The current scare is the environment. Our Sustainable Development of the Earth (read Environment) is “going to hell in a hand basket” and guess who is the real culprit (in the projected Utopian world of the future)? You got it! The United States of America and George W. Bush in particular, plus Dick Cheney – the evil meanie!

We should be responsible users of our planet, but everything must be done at a pace that keeps America first and that my friends, is the bottom line when it comes to aligning ourselves with the Kyoto Protocol and Sustainable Development.

America’s New “C” Word

America’s New “C” Word
I guess the first time I remember hearing about a word by it’s first letter, was in the 1960’s and it was the infamous “F” word. The next instance became what is commonly referred to as the “N” word, which of course needs no explanation. I’m told a very large no-no is the sexually degrading “C” word, which one fellow told me got him struck on the head with a frying pan, for angrily saying it to his wife. He told me “Do not ever call your wife that word” and I can honestly say, I haven’t.

Now another C word is getting diabolical status and I’m going to call it “the new C word”. This C stands for crime, but not in the sense we are used to. The new “C” word is launched as a call for action by legal authorities anytime someone uses a microphone. It’s ultimately a form of censorship.

What has happened to America? Someone says something on the radio, TV, in a stand-up comedy club, into a hidden microphone somewhere, or even to their own child on a telephone answering machine and someone somewhere wants to have them charged with a crime. Crime? Criminy!

Self-proclaimed civil liberty advocates, Internet Bloggers, Hollywood celebrities and talk show hosts suddenly start using the new “C” word by phrase. “They ought to be charged with a Crime”! Hollywood Superstar and Saturday Night Live darling Alec Baldwin goes into an outrage on a private telephone line and curses his own child and guess what? “He ought to be charged with a crime”!

Alec must have been raised like the majority of us Americans…but to hear it, he is a monster! When I was a kid, talk like that happened fairly often (and I was the one listening) and it always ended with the belt. Geeze, Louise, I grew up fairly normal with no lasting mental scars. To hear Alec’s detractors, he should be horse-whipped and denied visitation rights. Hooey!

Radio personality, political satirist, current events commentator and part time mumbling shock-jock Don Imus blurts out that a tattooed women’s basketball team look like “nappy-headed hos” and by jiminy, he is all but strung up by his nappy head. Never mind that he was joking and if anyone has ever listed to Imus in the Morning, it’s readily evident the man blabs stupid stuff almost from the time the show starts till it finishes.

I guess this part of his bio didn’t really interest all those folks who called for his head: In 1999, Imus and his wife founded the Imus Ranch. The Imus Ranch is a charitable organization for children with cancer, as well as siblings of SIDS victims.

”Imus helped raise over $6 million toward the Center for the Intrepid, a Texas rehabilitation facility for soldiers wounded in the war in Iraq. Considered to be the largest technological center of its kind in the country, it is designed to help treat disabled veterans and help them with their transition back into the community. More recently, Imus took on the cause of the living conditions at the Walter Reed Army
Medical Center”. Quoted from Wikipedia

Rosie O’Donnell can call the President of the United States an “idiot”, which as far as I remember is a level of mental retardation and no one bats an eye. Never mind that thousands of soldiers, Marines, Sailors, airmen, Coasties and millions of civil servants take orders from him. Rosie openly infers George W. Bush is complicit in the 9-11 terrorist attack. Rosie told the whole world a few years ago, “…if you do own a gun, I think you should go to prison”, thereby calling for gun ownership to be a crime. Never mind the US Constitution gives you the right to bear arms. But, of course, Rosie O’Donnell is a comedian, so it’s okay.

Senator John McCain, the maverick Republican and Vietnam War hero, basically says what he wants, when he wants and although he is a straightforward all-American, the ACLU folks are waiting with baited breath to label his remarks as criminal and irresponsible. I’ve taken a real interest in John McCain and read five of his books. He’s as golden as the day is long, but in my opinion, he will not be elected. He’s just not dishonest enough to carefully sanitize his speech. He doesn’t sugarcoat his words, so the Pablum-demanding leftists will kill him on radio, TV, the Blogs and the elections.

Never mind he loves America and endured five years as a POW in the god-forsaken Hanoi Hilton. He will be made to “look the fool”, just like his fellow prisoner Admiral James Stockdale was, when he was Ross Perot’s running partner.

I haven’t even mentioned freedom of speech in this column, because that term has long been distorted and misrepresented and nowadays, folks no longer are sure what it even means. It has become more important to say the right thing, not offending anyone, leaving out all the “letter” words and if, just if, a political candidate, someone with a lot of money, or, shoot-fire, a microphone, says anything that can even remotely offend 3 people out of a million…throw them in jail and charge them with the “C” word!

America, America…where have you gone?

How to Read Big Fat Books

Why do some people devour books like they are made of bacon and others avoid them as they would the Ebola virus? Is it a genetic predisposition that determines a person’s appetite for books? Why do some of us always have one, two or even three books working at the same time, but others never pick up a book, unless it is to dust?

How can anyone find time to read a whole book, let alone at 10 pound hardback tome in this day and age? How can I, the non-book reader, develop enough interest to read a (gasp) whole book?

Regardless of what you’ve heard, reading books is initially a discipline which requires patience and a certain amount of stubborn determination. Most books do not grab your attention on page one, or even page 30. For veteran readers, the discipline part comes in wading 150 pages into a book before it ignites your interest and then wishing it went on another 500. For new readers, the book has to start with a bang.

Few people start off reading something like, oh; The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but The Hobbit would be a good starter book. Start with something easy and work your way into larger volumes.

Most books I read, I read because I want to learn about a certain topic, or event, not because the subject is fun and I discipline myself to go all 600 pages and come out the other end, knowing something more than I did when I started. It's like lifting weights or jogging. The runners high folks talk about doesn’t kick in for the first 5 miles, but after it does, the exercise is almost easy.

Each time I finish a book, another piece of life’s puzzle is solved. I rarely read a book that I don’t benefit from something in its pages and many times, the books I read become marked-up for future reference. This is why I buy books instead of borrowing them and have all but stopped going to the public library.

If you are a adventurous, may I suggest one of the many Louis L’Amour westerns for something easy and guaranteed to hold your interest? I still remember the opening line of the book Utah Blaine by LL, even though I read it about 20 years ago. “He was asleep and then he was awake”! A man on the run and gun-slingers creeping up on his position! LL wrote hundreds of books and I guess I’ve read every one, starting with “Matagorda”, which my brother TJ Bustem loaned me, even after I told him I wasn’t interested in “Westerns”. About a hundred LL books later, I became an expert on slapping gun-leather, riding Broncs, and shooting it out with bad men trying to take my land and cattle.

My son, like so many athletes, was intensely interested in sports, so early on, I paid for subscriptions to Sports Illustrated. It was an investment in his reading future and if you’ve read his Iraq journal, you’ve noticed all that reading has paid off, as he now loves writing.

If you believe you don’t have time to read, you may be right, but I would be willing to wager (if I was a gambler, which I’m not) that you do have time. Trade TV time for book time, keep a book in your glove compartment to devour when stuck in traffic, keep a good book on your nightstand and close your day reading. You will be surprised how quickly the days go by and suddenly – you’ve finished the book!

I can not speak for the ladies, but if your son or hubby likes hunting or fishing, there are thousands of books available which would make excellent gifts. Here’s another fact, men like adventure and military tales. They like sports hero biographies. They can live vicariously through these tales and it is a vacation of the mind which no movie can replicate.

If you don’t read and wish to begin, go to the public library and talk to the good folks who work there. Tell them you want to begin, but don’t know where to start and they will find something that guarantees your success. Start your own personal library by buying your books instead of borrowing them and as you finish them, loan them out to spread your new found wealth. It doesn’t get any better than that folks.

I’ll finish this column with a quote from Louis L’Amour himself: “Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value”.

Barge Terminal on Cedar Bayou

I took two panoramic photos on Cedar Bayou from atop the Spur 55 Bridge and one from the Roseland Park bulkhead. On the right side of the bayou (in photo one and two) is an inlet where a barge terminal is projected to be built. On the left side is Roseland Park. Some folks feel the terminal will destroy the aesthetic beauty of the bayou. I personally think it won't, especially when the opposite bank is viewed from the Park (photo 3).

http://baytownbert.us/images5/

This bayou once had extensive barge traffic on it from the many brick factories on its shores. I would like to see expanded, environmentally stable commerce again, which pumped tax dollars and jobs into the economy. Of course, the ecosystem would have to be closely monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency and watchdog groups to insure bayou safety.

What citizens need to see from the developers of Richardson WaterRail terminal is an aerial view, plus a CGI (computer graphics interface) view of what the terminal will look like from the angles my panoramic views show and the one from Roseland Park. Only then can we make an accurate conclusion and only then can we say for sure if it is acceptable.

Anything short of this is pure assumption that the terminal will spoil the view and pollute the bayou on everyone’s part, especially those who feel so strongly on this subject.

Some concerned citizens are firmly convinced that a terminal will open up the bayou for a giant container lay-down yard and giant barges. I haven’t read anything about a container storage yard or bringing in giant barges the likes of which are on the Houston Ship Channel and the lower San Jacinto River, but if that is the plan, I am against it.

Here is some food for thought about a past commerce/environment battle:

Back in 1969 ARCO discovered the largest reserve of oil in North America at Prudhoe Bay. It would make the USA much less dependant on foreign oil and based on the probability that drilling would be permitted, ARCO and other companies began assembling millions of dollars worth of equipment. They maintained this stalled equipment for many years at great financial loss, while folks bolstered opposition.

At the time a 42 gallon barrel of oil was $3 on the world market. Environmentalists and Native Americans came out against the project, stalling it for years because it would be SO bad for the environment (turned out to have no effect). Prior to this objection, folks welcomed the expanding jobs and the commerce it brought.

When OPEC decided to cut off oil exports to the USA in the 70's (causing the gas shortage), Congress okayed the ARCO pipeline within 2 weeks and the project was eventually completed. All in all, the resistance to the pipeline and over-concern about the environment stalled the whole process about 10 years and made us more dependent on foreign oil than ever before. Oil jumped from $3 a bbl to $11 a bbl and made the Arabs and Hugo Chavez even richer.

Robert O. Anderson, the CEO of ARCO wrote in his memoirs that the majority of objection was strictly politically motivated and had little to do with the environment. If those of us with an economic vision are going to be held as unpatriotic citizens, then we better be sure that hindering commercial progress is as bad as its being made out to be, before we start resisting it and the jobs it will bring to this old oil-blue collar town.

Since this time, EPA guidelines and environmental awareness has limited, excluded, hindered and downright squashed development in so many areas that it is downright impossible for investors to get anything other than apartments and storage building built in this country…and everyone complains about outsourcing and jobs going overseas.

Every navigational waterway in every part of the world is eventually developed by commerce. The key here is balancing aesthetics with function and in my opinion, before everyone gets up in arms about this new development destroying the bayou; let’s see what cards the Design Company is holding.

Attorney Alison Haynes was quoted by Jessica Robertson as saying “For each barge pushed through our barge docks, you’re taking between 58 and 75 trucks off the road. That is significant in diesel emissions. By reducing the tractor trailer traffic from any of the Ports of Houston into Cedar Crossing, you are reducing the citizenry exposure to dangerous levels of carcinogens.” Jessica Robertson also reported “After discussions with city management, design plans have been changed to include a buffer of hearty vegetation around all sides of the property, Haynes said, although an L-shaped buffer was initially proposed”.

We can’t have oil cakes and without eating some of it too, folks.

Survival Guide for Baytown

Survival Guide for Baytown (or any city)

Once sleepy Baytown now has a daytime population of over 125,000 people. We are no longer a small town and it’s time to recognize we, as long time residents, are living in a community that routinely experiences big city type crimes. Our police force is growing and hope is on the way. In the meantime, we can do things to hinder crime.

The city of Baytown has a website located here: http://www.baytown.org/ and each day about 7am, they post the crime report in the police section. The last seven days reports are available and I would like to see this archived, so the general public can be better informed.

Since Baytown is conveniently located off two major highways, it appears criminals come into town to “shop”. Professional criminal men and women prey on our city, so do not assume it is “only some kids” committing crime. I refer to these vermin of society as professional, not because they are experts, but because they steal, rob and commit crime routinely. It’s their job. It’s what they do. They view the good working men and women with total contempt and dismiss us as nothing more than some “thing” to plunder.

Armed robberies, purse snatching, auto burglaries and outright auto theft have become the norm in this city. Counterfeit currency is passed on a regular basis. Dangerous and illegal drugs are rampant and many times the very people who traffic in “dope” are driving our streets and based on the police report, using the very drugs they are selling. In the past week, I’ve had to pull to the far right of the street 4 times to let one of these 2-lane drivers go past. It defies logic that people can be such bad drivers. When I see drivers exhibiting odd behavior, I suspect they are doped, drunk or yakking on their cell phones.

Registered sex offenders abound and live in our neighborhoods. You should know exactly where they live. http://www.familywatchdog.us/

Baytown has a high rate of hit and run car accidents, sometimes four in one 24 hour period. I suspect drivers do not have insurance, so they drive off, but I can’t confirm that. What I can figure out, is the need to carry paper and pencil in your car or truck and the second you experience an auto accident, you immediately attempt to get the license number of the offending vehicle. Do not automatically assume the driver will render insurance and personal information. Use your cell phone to get a picture of the person and the car. If they drive off, call 911 and just pray you are not on a county road, so local police will respond.

I picked the last week at random and gathered this information from the police report: Assaults – 22, Auto-related thefts – 33, Shots fired – 14, Thefts, armed robberies and burglaries – 52, Forgeries – 4 and homicide -1. This is an average report, except for the homicide. I did not include the hit and run accidents and aside from the homicide, the crime that alarms me most is the armed robbery category. Armed robbery is a violent crime and numerous times in the last few months I’ve read where 4 to 6 men have violently beaten and taken money from whole families. They break down the door of your home or apartment and rob you.

I’ve noticed a trend in the report concerning purse-snatching while ladies shop. I hate to stress the obvious, but ladies, do not leave your purse unattended while shopping, or it might disappear along with your credit cards, keys and identity.

When you park your vehicle while shopping or going into your home, lock it and make darn sure you have nothing of value clearly visible. It amazes me how many people leave a lap-top computer in their cars for thieves to steal, purses too. Thieves don’t need an excuse to steal, but there’s no sense making your vehicle irresistible.

Ask a friend to observe you from a criminal’s point of view. Are you unintentionally making yourself into a choice target? Is there a behavior change you can make that will give you more protection? Many criminally minded people are not stupid, just dishonest. They watch for targets of opportunity, and then they go shopping. They can sense vulnerabilities and are drawn to potential targets as easy money. The opposite is true also and if you take precautions to make yourself undesirable as a victim, they can sense this also.

Take a stroll around your place of residence. Are the shrubs hiding the view through the windows? Would a motion sensor or mercury vapor light make your house less desirable to an intruder? Is it pitch-black around your house at night? Do you habitually leave your garage door open or unlocked?

Do you leave your keys in your car while you run into the store to grab a quick something? Do you always lock your car at night or while shopping? Are there desirable items clearly visible in your car, like CD’s, computers, purses, etc.? If we can’t stop them, let’s at least make it difficult…

Color me Mellow Jello!

Mellow: laid-back: unhurried and relaxed; "a mellow conversation".

But isn’t mellowing just another word for over-ripening? I wonder if I am mellowing-out (as we used to say in the 70’s), but of course we were referring to a state of mind, not body AND mind.

In June I’ll reach the decidedly ripened age of fifty-five. What used to be the “speed limit” and just to be real, de facto old age. An old dude, or an old codger - you decide. Hopefully NOT a dirty old man, but still able to spark, if the need arises.

Of course, I’ll be expected to go to bed at 7pm and get up at 3am (which I have been working on for some time) and wander around the grocery store with my bride of 30 years, pushing the cart/walker for her fragile self.

I’ll sharpen my pharmaceutical vocabulary so I can sound informed when us “geezers” discuss our meds. I’ll learn to selectively shop at all the local grocery stores, so my lady and I can stock up on the deals (she won’t join me in Geezerville for another seven years, so I’ll also be guilty of cavorting with a younger woman).

Determining which supplements will give me that extra boost of fiber will be on my priority list and the delightful details when “everything comes out all right” won’t go untold, when my fellow cronies and I hobnob. I’m told this last item is a major topic of interest!

I might start wobbling around like a bowl of Jello, acting like I’m unsure of my footing. I’ll occasionally ask my lady to drive and I’ll ride in the passenger seat. Fifty-five is looking better by the minute!

Mellow: become more relaxed, easygoing, or genial; "With age, he mellowed".

I’ll buy a pair of Hush Puppy shoes! Maybe two pair and black socks to go with my Madras-colored shorts and some Jump Suits! I might take to wearing my old company hard hat while I’m mowing the yard, or fishing, yes, I might take up fishing on “the lake”, the fabled lake that retired and elderly people fish on when they retire. Ah, I can see its bass-laden reflection now…

There’s an upside to all of this to be sure. I can wear socks and sandals out in public, Bermuda shorts in winter, address 40 year old ladies, as young ladies and talk loud at gatherings…all of it beyond criticism and scrutiny.

I think I’ll grow a beard, so I can quit worrying about nose and ear hair. It’ll just grow on out into the main stream and I won’t even care. I might start greasing my hair and combing it straight back AND get me one of those golfing hats, the ones that are flat in the front and have a snap.

Mellow: Used to describe a wine, usually mature, that is soft yet balanced.

I’ll pat little kids on the head when I see them and maybe even let a toddler pull my beard a time or two. I’ll be pleasant to be around, but I might have an odor, due to the extra fiber, who knows? I’ll have to do more research in that area.

I’ll carry small value coins and candy and stuff to give the niece’s and nephew’s kiddos when I see them, more to cause consternation, than reward, as all kiddos these days see coins and candy as a poor substitute for green spending money…especially green spending money with the numbers 50 and 100 on them. It’ll be my little joke.

I’ll develop a loud cough to gain sympathy at family gatherings. It’s a sure winner. I’ll wear suspenders and a belt and “forget” to wear a watch, so I can constantly ask people what time it is and then remark that I’ll have to check my schedule. I’ll carry a large bandana and whip it out so it cracks like a bullwhip and claim I killed another flying insect. I’ll say something like “that’s thirty-four today alone” and then look around shaking my head in secret satisfaction.

Mellow: A soft combination of flavors.

I’ll be mellow all right, with no meanness, or malice. Folks will remark that Ol’ Baytown Bert has finally mellowed and all because he hit the ripened and seasoned age of fifty-five. Life will be good…