Sherlock Holmes’ Cocaine Habit

I found this great posting on Holmes and Cocaine.

Visitors from Winnipeg.

    I met Marcel on the phone through my job.  He has commented on this blog before, but Monday night, I finally got to meet him and his wife Rita.  They were on vacation here in Tucson, laughing at me because I thought it was cold.

I got to do in person what I do with people on Palin’s Travels all the time.  Exchange notes about our countries.

I have never been West of Toronto, in Canada.  I got to learn something about the Canadian Prairies.

We were talking about taking the train up to Churchill, Manitoba to see the Polar Bears.  Now that would be unique.

It was a blast and we would have talked all night if it were not for something called work the next day.

Poor Yerbie is Denied.

    Company came over on Monday.  Yerbie likes company.  We kept him from dipping his nose in the cheese and crackers though.  He went off and sulked for the night.  My friend was being silly & said, “maybe he understands more English than we realize.  Our guests are Canadian, he heard about pronounced aboot and thought a boot?!  No, I will be kicked!

Yesterday, he tried to jump up to the clock and got frustrated when he missed.  He has learned how to make the computer printer work and turn on the kitchen light.

He has tinkering in his blood.  He is asleep at the moment though.  All that trying things out makes him tired.

The Real Yerbie

    Yerbie had to be named after someone.  Click on Yerbolat to see the “real” Yerbie.

It is an old photo, but he is still here in Tucson.

Patriots 21-Chargers 12.

    Well, the Super Bowl is set.  I guess my bet with my young friend from Palin’s Travels is off, seeing as the Packers lost to the Giants.

I grew up in New York, but my team was the Jets and Joe Namath.  I almost ended up living and working in Washington, so I had a soft spot for the Redskins.  Now, my tied to New England have me rooting for the Pats.  I have been involved on and off with Boston since 1976, so it is a long standing relationship.  No fair weather fan I.  I have been to Patriots games in the bad old days.

The front page from the End Zone Militia site is going up in my cubicle at work.

Dueling Choirs.

    Last night was the concert with the Arizona Boys Chorus and Isker, a choir from Kazakhstan.

It was great to see these kids perform.  Now they are going up to Flagstaff, with a side trip to the Grand Canyon.

I normally do not attend such things, but it was well worth it.

It is going to be a busy year.  The Kazakh Ambassador to the United States is supposed to come to visit.    So much for Borat.

How Rooting for the Patriots Can be a Conversation Stopper.

    I was in Fry’s (A local supermarket) yesterday.  A ten year old kid on line in front of me asked who I was for.  I said Patriots.  Dead silence on the line.

Many people outside New England see the Pats fans as obnoxious.  Being a Patriots fan in Tucson is a conversation stopper.  Many think you are just on the Pats bandwagon.  I play up certain words with a Boston accent and sound loud.

I have been watching them for three decades.  Awful lot of misery.  I am enjoying it now.

Celebrity Apprentice

    Growing up in New York City, I certainly know who Donald Trump is.  I’ve been watching Celebrity Apprentice and paying attention to how projects are performed.

As a Sopranos fan, I am rooting for Vincent Pastore.  The women are gorgeous though. Living in Arizona, I have a soft spot for Jennie Finch.  I really want to see how tough Omarosa is, LOL!  It is my Thursday night fix.  So far, Hydra, the mens’ team is doing quite well.

Let us see what happens next week.

Why You Should NOT Complain about Jury Duty.

    How do most of us feel when we receive a summons to jury duty?  Don’t people make jokes about it or bemoan the interruption in our lives?

I served on a jury in Pima County and we came to a verdict in January, 2008.  Before you write me off as strange, hear me out.  Please allow me to ask some questions.

What do you see as your rights as an American citizen?  List those for me.  Now list what you see as your responsibilities.

Many of us do not use our rights and duties as citizens such as voting or being involved in jury duty.

Why is this such a problem?  If it is just one person, who cares?  What happens if one person turns into millions?  Then we stand a good chance of watching our rights sail away and we are judged by the few who are interested.  What if they do not have your best interests at heart?  I have known too many people from places where they did not have our rights therefore, I have never taken them for granted.

On this case, I took great care to pay attention and listen to everything and take notes.  What if that had been me?  I would want someone else to show the same fairness and not blow it off with “let’s get it over with.”

If you have the rights, you have to contribute.  So as corny as it sounds, do not make jokes about jury duty and do it with the care it deserves.  Or you may be judged by someone who you do not want judging you.

The New England Patriots as the New York Yankees of Football?

    This weeks, Time Magazine had an article called Patriots Act:  The Team Everyone Loves to Hate.

How did this happen?  How do you go from being a four decade long doormat to being a decade dynasty?  Did the New England Popeye finally eat his spinach?

I have been following the Patriots for 25 years.  They are my third team.  I grew up as a Jets fan (I am old enough to remember Joe Namath).  Where I grew up, the Jets were cool, the Giants were losers.

After college I followed the Washington Redskins because of some good friends I worked with and almost working there.  (The friends were female too).  I flirted with the Dallas Cowboys for the same reason.

Then I moved to Boston.  The rest as they say is history.  If these had been the Patriots at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill, we would have remained a part of the British Empire.

Who could have imagined the present success?  Give Bill Belichick a Downeast Maine accent, and he would be perfect.

“Are we gonna win Sunday?”  Yup.  Nuff said.

People do not like the Patriots because there are no sound bytes and they wonder, where did these guys come from?  Calling the Pats the Yankees of football is the ultimate insult to a New Englander.  I dare you to say that in a South Boston bar on a Saturday night.

No, they are not exciting, but they do the job.