Roger O Green

Earliest recollection of tragedy QUESTIONS

I know after the Whitman shootings, I was always looking up at tall buildings for several weeks.

One of the facts about 9/11 is that if you’re young enough, it was a singularly shocking event. But if you’re old enough, you might recall Pearl Harbor, various assassinations, Chernobyl, or the Challenger disaster. I don’t remember Pearl Harbor, but I do recall two Kennedy assassinations and those of Medgar Evers and of ML King, Jr when I was growing up. It was Evers’ death I first recall.

But the event that actually terrorized me more was the University of Texas at Austin tower shootings by Charles Whitman on August 1, 1966. It terrified me because it was so random; his victims, save for his mother and wife, killed earlier, were people not known to him. It was determined at Whitman’s autopsy that he had a brain tumor, which likely triggered his rampage. This was, as far as I can remember THE precursor to mass school shootings in the United States such as Columbine and Virginia Tech.

What was the first public trauma – as opposed to personal trauma, such as a death or divorce in the family – that you recall? How, if at all, did it affect you? I know after the Whitman shootings, I was always looking up at tall buildings for several weeks.

Technorati, this is for you

token 88QTC835RFEX

The rest of you, please ignore.

Constitutional cross purposes

It seems that, in every session of Congress, there are always Constitutional amendments suggested.

It’s Constitution Day again.

I didn’t need the results of a June 2011 Pew poll to know that there is an ideological chasm over the interpretation of the Constitution.

I was reminded of this past summer when some House Democrats recommended that President Barack Obama should invoke a “little-known constitutional provision to prevent the nation from going into default if Congress fails to come up with a plan to raise the debt ceiling.” The 14th Amendment states that the validity of the nation’s public debt “shall not be questioned.” Could you imagine the drama if the President, THIS President, had invoked that clause, for which there was no historic precedent?

Meanwhile, there was talk by some House Republicans calling for a balanced budget amendment. It seems that, in every session of Congress, there are always Constitutional amendments suggested. Most don’t even make it out of committee, and not everyone that passes both Houses of Congress will be ratified by three-fourths of the states.

Now here’s a Constitution amendment I could get behind; it too shall never pass in this political climate.

Anyway, I urge Americans to read their Constitution. It’s not usually filled with pretty words like the Declaration of Independence. In fact, people, including at least one running for President of the United States in 2012, have confused the documents. (Hint: the Constitution is NOT the one with “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”) But, if you’re looking for a shortcut, know that the 18th and 21st Amendments cancel each other out.
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Til the 19th Amendment Struck Down That Restrictive Rule from Schoolhouse Rock.

Stewarts has that full-value thing going

If one goes to the various Stewarts shops in the greater Albany area – there are approximately one billion of them – you cannot but notice that the price of their ice cream, which they make, has been creeping up. You don’t even need to actually BUY the ice cream there, the displays are so prominent. The sale price has crept up from $2.39 in the recent past, then rising, usually in 20-cent increments, until it’s now $3.19. I suspect, from personal experience, that Stewarts has experienced some price resistance as a result.

So Stewarts has gone on the offensive. Signs in the stores in recent weeks have noted that the ice cream might be $3.19, but it’s $3.19 for a FULL half gallon. Other ice cream producers may have held the line on their price, but they have instead shrunk the package size to a quart and a half. Thus, Stewart’s $3.19 is equivalent to their $2.39.

I think it’s an effective strategy because it’s honest. Whereas, the shrinkage of the packaging, not just in ice cream, but in tomato sauce, tuna fish, cereal, and loads of other products, smacks of deceit.

I was in a Stewarts in Canton, NY recently, and there were ongoing videos of Tom Mailey explaining the quality of Stewarts’ products – when did Tom Mailey grow a beard? Also, Flavor the cow was explaining how to play the various lottery games – the cow’s name is Flavor? And it left me satisfied that Stewarts is trying to play fair, while some of the other food makers are not.

Vacation Day 3: Toronto

The thing that bugged me the most was the vending machine; it indicated that beverages were $1 each, a real bargain, but I got only 50 cents back from my Tooney, the $2 coin.

After we left Niagara Falls, NY for the last time, we crossed the Rainbow Bridge, paid our $3.25, then had to deal with Canadian customs. After looking at our passports, the fellow asked:
“Where are you going?” Toronto and Peterborough for a total of six days.
“Business or pleasure?” Pleasure.
“Are you carrying any weapons?” No.
“Do you own any weapons?” No.
And that was pretty much it. We did wonder, though: if we owned weapons, but were not carrying them, what would the outcome have been?

We had directions to Toronto, but the signage was very helpful, and we actually just followed the QEW highway signs until we got to the city.
No problems, either, with the metric stuff, either.

We just multiplied by 0.6 for the kilometers per hour to the miles per hour; 40 kph=24 mph, 100 kph=60 mph. We bought no gasoline/petrol in Canada since the $1.18 to $1.25 per liter meant almost $1 more per gallon than in the U.S.
The temperature quick rule of thumb, at least for positive temperatures Celsius, was to double it and add about 28 to get the Fahrenheit reading. Yeah, I know it’s really multiplying by 9/5 and adding 32, but who wants to multiply by 9/5s, anyway? All I really wanted to know was on a relative scale. 30F is cold, and 30C is hot, as one of the American folks in Peterborough later said.
The one conversion I did find trickier is when I saw in the news that 64 mm of rain fell somewhere; I had to actually calculate that 2.54 cm =1 inch, 25.4 mm=1 inch, so 64 mm is about 2.5 inches.

We got to our hotel, in the heart of Toronto. Here’s a piece of business: parking was some $23 per night extra at the hotel. But the street parking, while about a third less, felt far less secure. One needed a room key to get to the parking under the hotel.

The hotel itself seems to be one of those places that was higher end at one point in its life, but which is now a Best Western. The promise of “luxury” dining was false, with indifferent service, though the waiter was nicer on our second visit to its restaurant; the air conditioning was sufficient to cool the window curtains, but not the room, and there was mildew I cleaned off the showerhead. Oddly, the thing that bugged me the most was the vending machine; it indicated that beverages were $1 each, a real bargain, but I got only 50 cents back from my Tooney, the $2 coin. (The one-dollar coin is the Loonie, named for the bird featured on it.)

The upside is that it was quite convenient for getting around town. In any case, we didn’t go to Toronto to stay in the hotel; we went to see the city.