{"id":18251,"date":"2010-09-23T20:47:57","date_gmt":"2010-09-24T00:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miserybay.usanethosting.com\/wordpress\/?p=18251"},"modified":"2010-09-23T20:47:57","modified_gmt":"2010-09-24T00:47:57","slug":"what-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/what-84\/","title":{"rendered":"What do I think?"},"content":{"rendered":"

thinker.jpgStand up meal, Great idea kids, and Politics
\nby Barry Bauer
\nThere exist eating places that serve nothing but a “stand up” meal. That’s because they have no chairs! It’s generally short order stuff and can be eaten quickly while standing over a counter that is surprisingly enough provided. Oh yeah, you also get all the napkins you need because chances are you’ll make a mess.
\nStanding behind them are other patrons waiting in line to get their chance at eating. It must be pretty good food to have so many loyal customers.
\nWe have our own version of a stand up meal once in a while but it really isn’t intentional. It’s just happens that way.
\nQuite a while ago we fixed some fried Smelt and warmed up a few frozen French fries in the oven. When the first batch of Smelt hit the plate we tried a few just to see how they taste. Then we had a few more because they tasted pretty good. Betty went back in the living room and assumed they’ll be ready and on the table pretty soon. Not so.
\nI kept right on tasting which is what a good chef should do. It’s called “quality control.” Before I knew it, they were gone and the next batch wasn’t even ready yet.
\nThat’s when Betty came back in and saw they were all gone and realized that if she left again, I’d keep on eating the next batch and there wouldn’t be any left for her.
\nSo now we both stand over the stove and counter next to it, grab the fries out of the oven, and just stand there eating until it’s all gone.
\nThe lesson to be learned here is, if I’m fixin’ a Smelt dinner and you’re the invited guest . . . don’t leave the kitchen.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Here’s a scenario I imagined but is based on an actual event. It’s almost unbelievable.
\nThree college grads from Berkeley, two guys and one girl, were standing around one day with nothing to do so they broke into a discussion. They were all bored to death.
\n“We need some excitement,” one says.
\nWhy don’t we go hiking,” another chimed in.
\n“Great idea,” the woman thought out loud.
\n“Where would we go? wondered the first guy, We can’t go around here, it’s just the same old stuff.”
\n“I got it, said one of the guys, why don’t we go to some war-torn country in the Middle East. Even Iraqi Kurdistan sounds good. They’re so busy fighting over there they’ll never even notice us. Now that will be exciting!”
\n“You’re right, they’ve got a lot of rough terrain to explore.”
\nSo off they went where they were arrested for crossing the border into Iran illegally. Two of them still remain under arrest, and the woman was recently released for health reasons.
\nAm I too harsh for calling them “mega-stupid?”
\nI don’t think so, Gram.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

My first experience with politics came in 1952 when our 3rd grade class voted on the presidential elections. The class voted overwhelmingly for Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower versus Adlai Stevenson. I think we saw Ike as a grandfather figure.
\nMy next big experience was in 1960 when Kennedy ran against Nixon. I’m conservative, so I wanted Nixon to win. All the girls in high school went gaga over Kennedy and of course he won a close election.
\nThree years later, Kennedy was dead.
\nI think there are only two Presidents assassinated in our history that really mattered. Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. We haven’t gotten over either one of their deaths.
\nThis fall’s national election promises to be the most exciting one in my lifetime. It’s a matter of wanting to continue to be socialized and globalized or if we want to go back to being a free and independent America.
\nI don’t like the idea of this country being “downsized.”<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

I’m reading my second David Baldacci book called, “The Whole Truth.” It takes a while to get into it. Who am I kidding, it takes a long while. Writers have to spend a little time establishing the characters and sometimes we’re a little impatient about letting them do that.
\nWhen the book takes off it’s like a rocket and this book is also like my last Baldacci book, it’s hard to put down. The book has 100 chapters but don’t panic, they’re short and keep the reader in touch with all the characters without losing a beat.
\nUntil the next time . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stand up meal, Great idea kids, and Politics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18251\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}