Long ago beer story

When I was just a little kid right after WW2 my dad got laid off by the B&O railroad because servicemen were returning to their jobs and the amount of military freight was also down.  (at least that was the story).  Dad got a job as a 3rd shift boiler room attendant at the Old Crown brewery in Ft. Wayne.  The brewery had a policy of giving each worker a case of beer every two weeks.  (no lie).  Dad brought his beer home , put it in a burlap bag, tied a rope around the top of the bag and sunk it in the well pit in the barnyard. (no lie, again).  He always had beer on hand when anyone would drop by.  He seemed to have a lot of friends.  I only learned about the free beer policy a few years ago when I was talking to a friend whose dad also worked at the brewery.  When I was a kid i never knew where all that beer came from.

My brother and I went to work with dad several times when he was on 3rd shift.  He would send us up to the employees tap room to get a quart of beer from the employees tap. (no lie again)  We would then boil a pound of weenies in the beer on a small hotplate.

On the way up to the taproom we had to pass by these huge vats of beer aging in cypress tanks.  Since they were open to the air they always had a lot of foam on the top.  Dad used to claim that the dark brown "bock" beer that was brewed in the spring was a result of scraping the scum off the sides of the vats in a yearly cleaning.  That sounds plausible.  He also claimed that one year they found a "N-word" floating in the bottom of one of the vats.  I always found that a little hard to believe.  I think you will realize that I had an interesting childhood.  

Just another day

I had a pacemaker check this morning, so Connie and I dropped Tammie off at the beach and went on to the hospital.  The pacemaker tech told me I was in disgustingly good shape and sent me on my way.  We had a lot of time to kill before picking Tammie up at the beach, so we went to Coastland mall, an upscale establishment, to walk around and gawk at things.  We went into Macys because there was a live model displaying the latest in swimwear. I can only describe it as “pubic chic”. I guess the latest fad is to allow the nether regions to go natural and let it all hang out.  I think it will be a big hit because there were several guys really interested in her attire.  Connie drug me away and we proceeded to look for other new things.

  The next thing that caught my eye was a display that advertised itself as an “Asian Spa”. It was located out in the middle of the mall aisle.  There was one fellow sitting in a chair getting a foot massage.  Another fellow was draped over a frame of some sort on his stomach.  A therapist was standing at his rear massaging between the fellow’s shoulder blades using his elbows to perform the massage.  At least that is what I think was going on.  It kind of reminded me of the time in 1964 that I was draped over the same sort of “rack” getting examined by a proctologist.

  Moving right along we passed by a truck display.  There was a new jeep being shown.  It was roughly the same size as a travel trailer.  It had tires that came up to my waist and was advertised as “off road”.  I had to grab hold of the rear-view mirror and hoist myself up on a tire to see the sticker price.  It was a bargain at $68,000.  Connie told me I couldn’t have one.

  The pet store is always a big hit.  I really enjoy seeing all the puppies.  Have you ever noticed how most of them seem to be napping and one or two are really frolicking all over the pen.?  I figured out that they have most of them drugged and the perky ones are on speed.  The really big attraction at this store was the big parrot.  He was one of those big red and blue ones.  I think it was a macaw. They must have fed him a lot because there was a newspaper under his roost that was covered with parrot poop.  Maybe they didn't change the paper on a daily basis

  Before we left, I thought I might get a cup of coffee.  I found it hard to believe that a cup of the cheapest coffee at Starbucks was $4.75.  No wonder the guy that started the company is a billionaire and can afford to run for president. I can remember when I was a kid that my dad would not eat in a restaurant that charged more that 5 cents for a cup of coffee.  We ate in a lot of cheap places.  More later

Bias in the news

Bias ?

The Feb 28^th issue of the Naples Daily News has two articles lifted directly from USA Today.  Both articles show the political bias of the News.  The first article, above the fold, is about the Cohen testimony.  It is an over half page, 84 sq. inch article, that contains a 28 sq. inch picture of Cohen.  The Cohen front page article contains such words as ‘explosive testimony’ and ‘loaded with lurid details’.  The Cohen article is continued on page 4 and features a half page spread with a 37 sq. inch picture and 12 column inches of print.  The complete article contained not one positive word directed at Trump.  The article made no mention of the racial slur directed at a republican congressman by a democrat colleague.

In contrast the front page article about Trump and the nuclear disarmament talks was 19 sq. inches in size, contained 2 ¼ column inches of print, and a 3 ½ sq. inch picture of Trump and Kim.  The headline contained the word ‘progress’ as a “quote within a quote” which I am sure was meant to be sarcastic.  The remainder of the article on page 5 did devote a half page to the talks.  The article did contain two paragraphs that were slightly complementary to the progress made but both contained the word, “but” which indicated the hoped-for result might not happen.

Another indicator of the importance shown by the Naples Daily News of any progress made on the nuclear summit talks was the fact that there was 8 ½ inches of column space that were allotted on the front page to an article about climate change. This was three times more than allotted to the Korean summit talks.  Your readers deserve better.  Dal Wolf, Naples

Donald Trump - 2019

There seems to be two types of political letters to the editor in the Naples Daily News.  One is full of insulting, abusive or highly critical language aimed towards the President of the United States, Donald Trump.  The other type attempts to point out the positive things that have been accomplished during the two years the president has been in office.  Most of the anti-Trump letters say that “he has had control of both houses of congress”.  I would suggest that those writers review civics 101 and re-learn that it takes 51 votes to pass a bill in the senate but the majority is thin and not all REPUBLICANS follow the party line.  The president lacks those 50 "guaranteed" votes.

Let’s face it, our president is nothing like we have ever seen before.  He is brash, profane, driven, sometimes coarse, and is not afraid to battle sacred cows on both sides of the aisle.  We can certainly stand another two years of his presidency.  The republic can withstand that amount of time to see what develops.

Lastly, I would remind everyone that We, the people elected Donald Trump in 2016.  We can just as easily toss him out in 2020.  That is the American way.  Stay tuned.