Susan's Scribblings the Blog

- Easter Family Rituals
  
  Posted at 2:00 am by kayewer, on April 20, 2014
  Every year at Easter, it’s time to see The Ten Commandments on ABC. It runs 217 minutes (three hours, thirty-seven minutes), but on television the running time is 4.75 with commercials. This allows plenty of time for sinful snacking and subsequent trips to the restroom.
  
  I’m not one to snack, and normally Saturdays are pizza/taco/Chinese take-out nights anyway, so I tend to associate Charlton Heston with fast food. Funny thing, since food in this movie looks very Paleo and everybody is skinny. No matter, since I’ll brew a hot pot of tea to go with it (nothing like antioxidants to go with the trans fats) and probably top off the meal with some sherbet or ice cream, to be consumed while the Hebrew slaves raid the temple granaries.
  
  There is something about epic cinema events on regular television that improve upon the whole viewing experience. First of all, they are better than most of the current season offerings, proving once again that age and experience trumps 21st century innovation. As far as I know, the technique used to part the Red Sea in Commandments is still used on the Universal Studios tour in Hollywood. When I’m 75 or so, if blogs are still relevant, I’ll come back here and let you know what 2014 programs withstood the years. And I’ll bet Commandments will still run on ABC every Easter.
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  Posted in Commentary, Theatre/Movies/Entertainment | 0 Comments | Tagged ABC, Ten Commandments
- A Clothes Call
  
  Posted at 2:01 am by kayewer, on April 13, 2014
  I found a great top; it was so great, I bought two of its friends. When people rave about your choice of clothes, any woman will scramble for more, and I sure did.
  
  The day after last Christmas, the drive into the office was so smooth and free of traffic that I had the chance to stop at a store on the way in and take advantage of early post-holiday sales. A graphic top practically wrapped its sleeve around me for attention from a rack of picked-over clothing left pining for the joys of being under a decorated, dead spruce. I had always wondered if I would look good in such a top, and this one seemed a good choice. I bought it and finally got a chance to wear it after some (but not all) of the stormy winter weather had let up and we were all in a better mood to bring out our fashion best. The compliments started coming right away, so the next time I was in the same store and spotted a different version of the top, I bought it, too. Then another showed up online.
  
  Yours truly now has three graphic tops. They wear wonderfully, but the washing directions are a bit unlike what I’m used to. I’m used to stuff you just throw in the washer and dryer, but this one has a clear tag reading, “Machine wash cold, inside out and separately, tumble dry low, gentle cycle.” I guess it’s the crystals glued on the fabric. I never threw any kind of embellishment in the washer, so to avoid disappointment, I’ve only worn the top twice (and only after I’ve showered and have no plans to eat spaghetti). This is where the high price of fashion comes into one’s life, so eventually I’ll have to take the plunge and find out if my new go-to top will shrink, fade or lose its sparkle. I’m thinking I’ll throw all three in at once with a little gentle detergent and a lot of prayer.
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  Posted in Commentary | 0 Comments
- Another One for the Other Guys
  
  Posted at 2:38 am by kayewer, on April 6, 2014
  An Open Letter to Amy’s Baking Company:
  
  Back on June 9, 2013, I praised your pastries and clean restaurant in this blog, and made a humble effort to put a positive spin on your misfortune. The infamous episode of “Kitchen Nightmares” in which you and your husband became well-known just ran again on Fox, and I still feel that, though no human being is perfect, you did not get a square deal. I know there will be a follow-up episode on April 11, but until then it may be time to cool down and look at things from another viewpoint. I may have a quick tip or two along the way, if I may be so bold.
  
  It’s tough to live in a world where folks are itching to put you down. Learning to smile on the outside, think about what doofusses some folks can be on the inside and keeping from telling them what they can do with their opinions is stressful. Victims of bullying need more love than they often get, but believe me, the bullies do get what they deserve, even if you don’t witness it happening. Just smile at them and God will love you for it.
  
  Remember that an oven can be set at one temperature and still under- or over-cook food if it really isn’t calibrated right. Your pizza dough may need more time if it absorbs more juices from the toppings to prevent it crisping up. Maybe you can try a personal size pizza or rearrange the toppings to see if it works better. I have heard that chefs on their downtime practice refining their dishes so they work better. I’m just saying.
  
  There is always a hankering for good pastries, and judging from your display case you have a talent for various dessert goodies. However, when a human has two hands to cook with, having a full menu with regular food can be a challenge (heck, a full crew of cooks would be busy, let alone one). I could tell that you want your talent to shine in every dish, but you can only give a hundred percent attention to one or two meals at a time. It’s hard to put a full dinner on the table, and if things slow you down, even the best dessert has no chance to shine.
  
  Have you considered showcasing the pastries while you look over the menu and possibly determine which items can be deleted? If you trim down the menu it doesn’t mean you are less talented, but that your meal experience will highlight selected dishes designed to complement the dessert. Wouldn’t you rather concentrate on ten meals you know will be spot-on, rather than rushing around to make the other 20 try to work on your hectic schedule?
  
  The next time somebody tells you they don’t like the food, don’t substitute the word “food” for the word “you.” If you have ever had a bad apple, you don’t go to the tree and kick it for making a bad apple; you just throw it out and get another one. It’s not you they are picking on. You have a hand in getting the food to where it should be, but it doesn’t always work. If you spill ketchup on the floor, you get a map; if food hasn’t come out right, fix it. It’s all okay. Food, good or bad, is poop tomorrow, and the slings and arrows today should be forgotten tomorrow. Every day is a chance to reflect, repair and start over. You can do it. I hope to see it happen for you.
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  Posted in Commentary, Theatre/Movies/Entertainment | 0 Comments | Tagged amys baking company
- We Interrupt This Program
  
  Posted at 2:18 am by kayewer, on March 30, 2014
  When it comes to television programming, do you like 9:00 programs to start late because of basketball playoffs, or would you prefer the old the “Heidi Game” policy? Let me explain.
  
  On November 17, 1968, NBC broadcast a football game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets which ran longer than the expected time allotted. In those days, programming was run by the clock, so the network promptly cut off the game at 7:00 PM on the east coast to present the scheduled film, “Heidi.” According to the story, viewers were calling their affiliates as early as 6:45 wondering if the movie would be on time and, unfortunately for the football fans watching, it was. Executives at NBC were unable to reach their own people because of the phone inquiries from their viewing audiences, so nobody got the instructions to run the game to its conclusion. Oakland was losing 32-29 and managed to score two touchdowns for a spectacular comeback in the last-minute of the game, but they both happened after 7:00, so many fans didn’t see them.
  
  Today CBS is running college basketball games under the current policy, which was started after the irritable events of 11/17/68: games are aired until they are through, and are often padded out with additional commentary from the booth to round out any floating minutes of time. What we know by rote as “regularly scheduled programming” picks up on the hour or half-hour. Usually. I’ve never used a TiVo or other such automatic recording device, but I wonder how it works if a show starts at 10:24 PM? Does one still get the last 24 minutes of the game? Of course, the scheduled commercials always air.
  
  March Madness serves more than two purposes (determine the best basketball team and revive bars and betting establishments after weeks without football), because series are filmed in 22-episode blocks each year. If we didn’t let basketball and Christmas interrupt the flow, new television programming would be stale by Presidents Day. As it is, once the din of the cheering for the Final Four grows silent, we will have some reruns at their regularly scheduled time until May sweeps roll in. And maybe there will be a broadcast of “Heidi” in there somewhere, too.
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  Posted in Commentary, Theatre/Movies/Entertainment | 0 Comments | Tagged heidi game, march madness
- Time for a Solution
  
  Posted at 1:58 am by kayewer, on March 23, 2014
  My clock radio has been a few minutes fast–and gaining–for a while now. I finally fixed that problem.
  
  I got a new clock radio.
  
  Seems like a drastic or foolish solution when a current gadget does a somewhat decent job of telling the time. However, if you have followed my blog for a while, you recall that I hadn’t replaced a clock radio in about two decades until my old unit’s LED clock face went out (see “The Half-Dead Clock Radio,” 3/21/10) and I braved a heavy rain and power outage to find a new one. I bought a Sony, because I rely on brand reputation. Over the past three years (nearly to the day), the new clock has gained minutes steadily until, upon its recent retirement, it was ten minutes fast. I tried replacing the backup battery and unplugging it, hoping to get it to reset itself, with no results. It’s determined to be fast, though I wonder if, just because we are in one time zone, we are really all supposed to be observing the same time. If each time zone represents an hour forward or backward, wouldn’t the half-way point along the latitude or time zone lines be a half-hour? Maybe that old gadget is smarter than the rest of us.
  
  It doesn’t matter. I could just keep reminding myself that I have ten minutes to snooze in the morning, but my military training won’t let me. I went back to the old standby store, BestBuy, to find a new clock radio. What a culture shock. Most of the units on display were designed to dock I-Phones(R). I don’t own an I-Phone(R). The prices, however, were the same. Many of the boxes had been opened and, therefore, discounted. I decided upon a slim modern version from a company called Insignia, with a blue digital readout and priced about the same as I paid on my last trip. The cashier gushed over my purchase, saying, “You know, a few of my customers today bought this model.” That may have explained why the shelves were emptied out except for one box, mercifully unscathed by curious shoppers who don’t believe the picture on the box is what comes inside it. Also, they obviously didn’t want something that wouldn’t dock an I-Phone(R).
  
  The first night felt rather strange, being bathed in a blue light as if fairies were hovering in my room. Since I was on vacation from work, I didn’t have to use the new alarm yet. What surprise awaits me on Monday morning?
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  Posted in Commentary | 0 Comments | Tagged BestBuy, clock radio, Insignia clock radio, Sony
- Railroaded
  
  Posted at 2:55 am by kayewer, on March 16, 2014
  The PATCO High-Speedline is a rail line like others in America, but after today I wonder if its staff is trying to be a disgrace to the institution of rail travel or just being lax.
  
  Today I pulled into a parking space at one of the suburban stations to board a train for Philadelphia, and was dismayed to find one had just pulled up. The normal schedule didn’t seem to match the time of this train’s arrival, but recently the company responsible for the line’s daily operations tried to limit service on weekends so they could install new track on the Ben Franklin Bridge, the train’s route between New Jersey and Philadelphia (they since discontinued that idea because of complaints about service delays affecting commuters), so I sighed and figured I should have arrived sooner, certain that at that point I could not possibly run fast enough to board before it pulled off.
  
  Normally trains pull off immediately after everybody boards, but in the time it took me to pass through the turnstile, climb two dozen or so stairs and gain the platform, it still had not moved, nor had it signalled that it was preparing to pull off. As I reached the doors, they closed and the train pulled off. If the driver was looking, he should be cursed with socks that bunch at the ankles.
  
  The next train pulled in some twenty minutes later to a crowded platform filled with early St. Patrick’s Day revelers on their way to bar hop like premature Easter bunnies on a binge through the local Irish watering holes in the City of Brotherly Love and liquor. We pulled off in a timely manner, but stopped midway to the next station, accompanied by an announcement that they would be resuming the trip in a couple of minutes. That was a relief, because the wait was going to make me late for a 2:00 show and it was 1:48 already.
  
  At the next stop, the announcement came that the train had a problem and had to be taken out of service. So much for being there for curtain time. So a few hundred passengers were deposited at the station to board another train brought in for the occasion on the opposing track. We were a little more than fifteen minutes late resuming the trip.
  
  PATCO has been having many difficulties with broken escalators, train cars well past their retirement age and lackluster use of whatever funding they do get. The experience of punctuality and quality service were lacking for my trip. I’m sure Londoners would not put up with such poor handling of even a weekend service. Next time I will be tempted to give more than an hour’s time for my trip (which normally takes about 20 minutes) or else take my car and pay way too much to park. You know things are bad when you can’t trust the trains anymore.
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  Posted in Commentary | 0 Comments | Tagged high speedline, Patco
- The Knowledge Pool
  
  Posted at 2:32 am by kayewer, on March 16, 2014
  When contacting a tech support center, you are stuck with the luck of the draw. Sometimes you can be connected to somebody who truly knows something. On the other hand, you can get a person who can’t help you because they don’t know the right thing to do.
  
  This is what happened to me when I had a problem trying to get mobile broadband. For some time I had two devices; a USB version and a MiFi, or free-standing, version. Some devices don’t take USB. The MiFi provider had changed their policies about automatically billing for monthly access, and for three months in a row I was caught short, with no access, because my efforts to pay for my MiFi and set up billing did not work.
  
  When all else fails, Americans don’t wait around. They move on. I figures, why not just get a better broadband and just use one. Heck, it will save me money and I can use all my devices on one unit. So I bought a MiFi from my USB provider and tried to set it up, but it wasn’t helping me get started. I called tech support and got a nice-sounding woman who tried to help by suggesting rebooting the system, moving the unit closer to a window and using a paper clip tip to hit the reset button. She suggested that Windows 8 might not be right for the unit. This after I had already been assured that it would work and the box was mangled beyond return status.
  
  Nothing worked to get the MiFi working, and I was getting upset enough to do what many a computer user has threatened to do: take the entire laptop and all the accessories and unceremoniously drop them from the fifth floor roof.
  
  Instead, I took her advice and later retrieved an old laptop with Windows Vista (old technology), called tech support back and got a fellow who went over what had been done so far, then suggested I press F5 on my Windows 8 machine. Suddenly a choir singing the “Hallelujah Chorus” sounded throughout the land when the Internet sprang to life. The call took ten minutes, while my previous calls took up nearly an hour. It was all because he knew one thing to do that the others could not. Also that I didn’t know to do in a pinch. He explained that the system was locked up, so F5 reset it.
  
  I’ll have to remember that when life itself has me all locked up.
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  Posted in Commentary | 0 Comments | Tagged mifi, tech support
- Put Some Clothes On
  
  Posted at 2:58 am by kayewer, on March 2, 2014
  I just came from Wal-Mart, and on my way in I spotted a woman in a heavy jacket suitable for the cold weather, but with flannel pajama bottoms and furry metallic tinged slippers from the waist down. I would not be caught at the end of the world wearing my bedroom attire with outerwear thrown on top of it as an afterthought, so I wondered what kind of people think it is okay to not at least put some effort into personal pride before stepping out the door, whether it’s Wal-Mart or the Waldorf Astoria.
  
  The appearance of Wal-Mart, with its basic layout and discount merchandise, does not immediately imply that one must appear as if the store has a shopper’s dress code. When one dresses slovenly, they tend also to behave slovenly. I have seen racks and shelves with their contents moved about and not put back, with dented boxes and holes in packages. The parents often scream louder than the children. Some days in Wal-Mart it seems like a parade of what famed author Edward Bulwer-Lytton called “the great unwashed.” To be dressed above or below the mass of humanity in the store is uncomfortable.
  
  In the good old days, no woman with any self-worth would be seen outdoors without gloves on. White gloves. Ask your great-grandmother. Women wore hats, and not just to church. In fact I would like to see an entire church congregation march into Wal-Mart to shop some Sunday after services. It would be like a breath of fresh air. At least they might wear dresses and pant suits, and the men would look a bit dapper.
  
  Speaking of men, what happened to shirts, jackets and ties on occasions other than weddings and funerals? The stores are patronized by, and cater to, the tee and polo shirt crowd. We have dressed down to a style which used to be only designated for farm hands or farriers.
  
  The folks–even the lady with the fuzzy slippers–seemed clean enough, so they must be raiding the bottoms of their dresser drawers to find and wear some of the abominations I’ve seen passed off as public clothing.
  
  For goodness sake, at least wear decent shoes. Don’t make people wonder if you have a pair of underwear between your pudendum and the flannel pajamas, or socks on your feet under the slippers. Make an effort to look good, and even Wal-Mart might thank you for being a better looking patron.
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  Posted in Commentary | 1 Comment | Tagged casual dress
- Academy Aw(kw)ards
  
  Posted at 3:07 am by kayewer, on February 23, 2014
  I can honestly admit that I have not seen a single one of the motion pictures nominated for this year’s Oscars(R). I almost had seen one–Lee Daniels’ The Butler–but, though it was a great film, it didn’t receive any nominations. I can’t imagine that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences would consider one film about slavery enough contention, though it would have been interesting to see both of them duke it out. Think Adepero Aduye versus Oprah Winfrey, in gowns and heels, for the championship.
  
  When you haven’t seen any of the films, you may not have a cause for which to cheer, so the interest in the whole affair goes away. Of course there is Ellen DeGeneres hosting, which would make it worthwhile if she were on camera more than the guest presenters, nominees and winners nervously trying to give acceptance speeches under the timer. Also, it would be nice if the ceremonies came on at a decent hour and were finished by bedtime.
  
  There were years in which I cheered on practically everybody and everything in the program, because I had seen them all. Now, with scriptwriters seemingly pandering to the popcorn market rather than the intellect of the moviegoers, the industry has gone back to releasing the films they tend to nominate all at the same time, close to nomination time. That means summer blockbusters are snubbed, and anything approaching decent entertainment coming out the other ten months of the year have been forgotten. Butler came out late last summer, but was an emotional and well-executed story. It deserved better than it got from the Academy.
  
  The other day I saw another movie which I hope does not fall from memory when the 2015 awards come out. Please don’t laugh: The Lego Movie. Of what I’ve seen of late, that is one of the most original ideas yet. Adults can have real fun watching this computer animated movie that resembles a live action effort as if a crew painstakingly built whole brick sets by hand. There is enough nostalgia and in-jokes to keep us amused. For kids, it’s action-packed, full of laughs and not over-the-top with violence.
  
  On the other hand, I have sat in a perpetual state of ennui through all the trailers of late. Too much improbable battle imagery, too little new insight or real storyline or people wearing actual clothing (as in shirts and pants and skirt, rather than thongs and battle armor). When you’ve seen one epic leap into a yawning computer generated void (like in 300: Rise of an Empire), you’ve seen them all at least twice in other films. OF course, a movie like that won’t get a glance from the Academy, nor will the new Spiderman movie or–probably but regrettably–the last Hobbit movie. They don’t have the in with the nominating crowd. If more of those films were nominated for awards, I wouldn’t tune out after Ellen DeGeneres does her opening monologue.
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  Posted in Theatre/Movies/Entertainment | 2 Comments | Tagged academy awards, oscars
- Car Trouble
  
  Posted at 1:21 am by kayewer, on February 16, 2014
  Put snow with vehicles, and chaos is bound to occur. This past week I and a few people I know have fallen victim to winter related car problems. One of my office managers was traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike when one of the many trucks surrounding him had a bad case of roof dandruff erupt and the resulting accumulated snow landed in his lap after shattering his windshield. Another friend was in an accident as well. The PA Turnpike had a multi-vehicle mishap which snarled traffic for miles as one car or truck after the other slid to stop and could not find enough empty roadway to do so safely.
  
  The problem with today’s drivers is that our speeds are too high, our braking distance too short, and our time shorter (even though we are still on a 24-hour day). Even when a major highway has a low number of vehicles, we tend to speed up to congregate with those ahead of us, and then complain because we have to apply the brakes. If you are complaining because you have to apply brakes, you are too close to the guy in front of you. Slow the heck down.
  
  Truckers do not seem to have access to something with which they can clear their roofs, and I and many a driver on the road with me will fall behind one of these behemoths trailing plumes of light snow or hurling chunks of congealed snow and ice like oversized discus to shatter on the road (or crash into our windshields). What would it take to fix this? Perhaps two tall stationary poles with a large rope strung between them under which a truck could drive and scrape the offensive material off. What about one of those car wash brush attachments hung from the roof of the warehouse or garage? Two guys with hoses on ladders? Come on, folks; it’s snow removal, not rocket science.
  
  So what has been happening to me? In the past three weeks, I have lost two windshield wiper blades to the storm. The first time I pulled into the service station and asked if they had a replacement for my passenger side; they did, but the young fellow (who, I assume, took a job in a service station to learn about cars) could not figure out how to remove the old wiper blade. An older gentlemen from the service bay–and who was apparently born in the days before guys were allowed to attain the age of 18 without knowing how to change a wiper blade–did the job in a minute flat. Two days ago part of the clamp on the driver’s side blade broke, so though my wiper functions well enough, the arm flies off its track with each swipe. I pulled into the same service station last night; the young fellow asked if I could come back in ten minutes so the other (I assume older) man could help him. By that time, I was fixing dinner. On the stove. Without a microwave. My kitchen skills are old school, while it seemed I was in a world where service stations no longer have simple repair skills.
  
  Finding myself short an able-bodied man to fix my wiper blade (and, though I think that, with the motivation, I could do the repair myself), I figured I still have a good blade without the annoyance of the assembly being unsecured, so I pulled a twist tie from the kitchen and tied the assembly together. It took ten seconds, it was free, and required no skills beyond common sense. With any luck, the next week will restore some to all the drivers out there, and there will be no more of the craziness from snow on the brain.
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  Eden on Free Secretary
  Eden on Getting the Message
  Eden on The Unasked Questions
  Eden on And Her Shoes Were #9
  Eden on The Poison Field

	Eden on Free Secretary
	Eden on Getting the Message
	Eden on The Unasked Questions
	Eden on And Her Shoes Were #9
	Eden on The Poison Field

Posted at 2:00 am by kayewer, on April 20, 2014

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