Huh? What's Up With That?

still more oddities, observations, & ?'s...                                                                    I easily passed Mrs. Bryant's English test on pronouns in eighth grade at Eastwood Junior High (now Eastwood Middle) in Indianapolis, Indiana.  English was my deal.    As for Mrs. Bryant , she was outspoken and often shared with her charges her thoughts about cultural events and the state of the world in general.     She didn't tolerate laziness, a negative attitude, or failure to do homework.  Those choices were not on the table and were never an option in her class.  Not one of us wanted to incur her dressing down by not turning in required work.     The word was out in seventh grade, Don't get Mrs. Bryant for English next year .     When it came to...

 don't worry, be happy ...#1                         b.mcferrin, 1988                       Alfred E Neuman was  the  fictitious mascot  and cover boy of the American humor magazine, Mad .  His motto was the incurious, What, me worry? (The motto was changed for one issue only to Yes, me worry  after the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 ).   I was a huge fan of the magazine in my adolescent and early teen years.  Some issues from that time period are worth hundreds, and, in a few cases, thousands of dollars.  However, if one failed to retain any issue, their current value falls under the category of,    HUH ?   What's up with that ?  ?   According to Dictionary.com , the definition of worry is:  to torment oneself with or suffer from disturbing thoughts;  fret .   The same sourc...

job$ somebody's gotta do...                                                                    I can't think of many jobs that shouldn't exist, but there is at least one assignment that falls into that category.     Huh ? What’s up with that ?   It's heartbreaking that our society needs these kinds of services , Eric Culver said.   When I was in school, we had tornado and fire drills. Today, kids have active shooter drills.    Eric, Dale Massey, and Tammy Brown are the working partners of a company called Active Aggressor .    Just this afternoon  (December 13, 2022) we had an active shooter in a mall here in Louisville (Kentucky), he added.   I feel bad about that, but, I also feel good that Dale, Tammy and I are helping people by training them how to react to an ...

 Rx approved...                        An area of interest to some people after retirement is volunteer work.  It is a passion for some who choose to give of themselves instead of pursuing an Encore Performance that includes a paycheck .     Volunteering, regardless of the beneficiary, can be more demanding of oneself because of the personal interest in the ongoing crusade that most times doesn't have an end.     HUH ?   What's up with that ?     There isn't any rule in the Encore Performance handbook that disqualifies volunteer work as an official Encore Performance in itself.  I have talked to a few people who have disclosed their charitable side, but, very few have said they devoted themselves full-time to such a pursuit post retirement.     However, one of the exceptions is Bill Harned of Mt. Washington, Kentucky.   I read an article in the newspaper back i...

even more oddities,observations,and ?'s...                                                      This is the third post in a series about   oddities, observations and omgs .  Plus, there are a few questions posed, some of which seem to have obscure answers.   The week I started writing this post, various events and milestones occurred that are disturbing, historical, or, memorable.     Nancy Pelosi's 82 year old husband was attacked by a hammer wielding nutcase.   The World Series was tied at one game apiece.  Game three was scheduled for the night following Halloween night.     Russia wanted to suspend the U.N. brokered grain deal.    Midterm elections were just a week and a couple days away.    Here in Kentucky, the FBI announced it had resumed the search for Crystal Rogers, a mother of fi...

this shoe can't possibly   fit...                 The four George Brothers decided to have a pre-Thanksgiving get together on Monday, three days before the actual holiday last month.     All of us going to one house for a big dinner on the day America collectively gives thanks has been difficult to pull off for many years because of each of our family obligations.     So, we were all seated around a table for six at Daddy Jack's on the north side of Indianapolis on a cloudy, but, warm afternoon, and that worked fine.     The last time the siblings broke bread (see August 5, 2022, HUH? What's up with that ? blog, nothing from nothing ...), our oldest brother, David, wasn't present.  On that occasion, we were seated around Ken's dining room table consuming a platter of stuffed cabbage rolls.     During that near historic evening, The Boys , as our dad referred to us, talked about very little of any v...

  encore performances #11...                                                                 Part of the exhilaration of being retired is you don't have to call it quits entirely unless you want to do so.  There are lots of opportunities to be a star on a new path.      In the Encore Performance series, I have talked with many part-time and full-time workers.  There is one commonality shared by lots of these great people:  each one retired from decades of employment, then for one reason or another, chose to rejoin the work force in some capacity.   HUH ?   What's up with that ?     Some Encore Performances allow skilled workers to be an even bigger star than he or she was before claiming their monthly check from the Flying Eagle .      A 30 year veteran po...